The Dying Lovers- Lizzie Weaver (NC) 1838 Brown B2
[Fragment from: The Brown Collection Volume 2, 1952; music from Volume 4 is at the bottom of this page. Their notes follow. This is a version of the composed ballad, a traditional version was published in 1849 in NY in Spirit of the Times as sung by "Sal Jenkins." The original has not been found but it would have been printed around 1810. The B version in the Brown Collection is dated 1838.
R. Matteson 2016]
72. The Silver Dagger
Something of a favorite in the South and West, this ballad seems not to be found in New England tradition. See BSM 123, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 57-9), Florida (SFLQ VIII 185-6), Missouri (OFS 11 52-8), Ohio (BSO 92-4, in combination with 'The Drowsy Sleeper'), Indiana (BSI 21 1-4), Illinois (JAFL lx 218-9), and Michigan (BSSM 89-90). Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. Since the texts, though less or more complete, all tell the same simple story, only one, the fullest, is given complete here.
B. 'The Dying Lovers.' Collected by Miss Jane Elizabeth Newton from Miss Lizzie Lee Weaver of Piney Creek, Alleghany county, about 1915. The manuscript bears the notation "Written 1838," which probably means that this text was written down in that year. Does not differ much from A, though it reverses the economic status of the two lovers; here it is the man, not the woman, who is poor and therefore unacceptable as a son-in-law to the woman's parents.
Come sit by me and give attention
To these few lines I'm about to write.
A handsome youth as you might mention,
She is both [a] fair and [a] beauty bride.
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B. 'The Dying Lovers.' Sung by Miss Lizzie Lee Weaver. Recorded as ms score at Piney Creek, Alleghany county, about 1915.
[upcoming]
Scale: Mode I. Tonal Center: e-flat. Structure: abab1 (2,2,2,2) = aa1 (4,4).