The Gypsy Laddie- mountain woman (VA) 1914 Davis C
[From Davis; Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. His notes follow. This is a rare US version where the gypsy's name is "Gypsy Laddie."
R. Matteson 2015]
THE GYPSY LADDIE
(Child, No. 200)
The eight texts and three tunes of this ballad found in Virginia differ notably from one another, and all are included here. "The Gipsy Laddie" and "Gypsy Davy" are the usual titles.
The ballad story of the ballad is recounted by Child for his A version as follows: "Gypsies sing so sweetly at our lord's gate as to entice his lady to come down; as soon as she shows herself, they cast the glamour on her. She gives herself over to the chief gypsy, Johny Faa by name, without reserve of any description. Her lord, upon returning and finding her gone, sets out to recover her, and captures and hangs fifteen gypsies." Of the historical prominence of Johnny Faa, Child cites numerous facts, among them that Johnny Faw's right and title as lord and earl of Little Egypt were recognized by James V, in 1540. But in the next year Egyptians were ordered to quit the realm within thirty days on pain of death. The gypsies were expelled from Scotland by act of Parliament in 1609. Soon after this date there are several records of the execution of Johnny, or Willie, Faa, and of other Egyptians. The execution of the notorious Johnny Faa seems to have made a considerable impression on the popular mind, as the ballad testifies. Later eighteenth century copies of the ballad seek to identify the lady as the wife of the Earl of Cassilis. But neither Johnny Faa nor the Earl of Cassilis is mentioned in any Virginia variant.
The Virginia variants pass very lightly over the first part of the story, the coming of the gypsies and the charming of the lady, and they also suppress the catastrophe of the hanging of the gypsies. The ballad ends with the lady's evidently final refusal to return with her husband. Only one text, Virginia B, has a spurious ending of two stanzas, in which the wife tires of the Gypsy,
asks her husband to let her return, and is refused -- a puritanical appendage in the interest of morals. The Virginia texts are most like the Child sequence H, I, J.
For American texts, see Barry, No. 9; Belden, No. 10 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos.3, 5, 8, 9, 11; Campbell and Sharp, No. 27: (Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia; cf. Sharp, Songs, 11, No. 2); Child, v: (Massachusetts, New York, Maine); Cox, No. 21, and p. 524 (four texts, melody); Hudson, No. 18 (Mississippi); Journal, xvlii, 191 (Barry, Nova
Scotia, text and melody, Massachusetts, four texts and two melodies, Rhode Island, fragment and melody); xix, 294 (Belden, Missouri); xxii, 80 (Barry, Massachusetts, melody only); xxiv, 346 (Barry, Pennsylvania, Maine); xxv, 173 (Belden, Missouri, Ohio); xxvi,353 (Pound, Nebraska, fragment); xxx, 323 (Kittredge, Massachusetts, text and melody); McGill, p. 15; Pound,
Nebraska, fragment); xxx,323 (Kittredge, Massachusetts, text and melody); xxvi, p. 353; Pound, Syllabus, p. 10 (fragment). For additional references, see Cox, p. 130; Journal, xxx, 323.
C. "The Gypsy Laddie." Collected by Miss Martha M. Davis. Sung by a mountain woman. Greene County. March 9, 1914. Miss Davis notes: "Stanzas 8 and 2 (below- as footnote 1) were given to me by a mountain woman in January. She thought she could find the rest of the ballad among her friends, and so she sent this version from a woman who learned it in Greene County."
1 "Are there any gypsies in the North?
Are there any in the country O?
They have taken from me my sweet little maid
Who has left her lands and money O.
2 "Saddle up, saddle up my milk-white steed,
Saddle up, saddle up in a hurry O.
I'll ride all night until broad daylight
To overtake my lady O."
3 He rode to the east, he rode to the west
Until he came to sweet Bozey O,
And there he spied his sweet little maid
Along with the gypsy laddie O.
4 "Come back, come back, my sweet little maid,
Come back, come back, my honey O;
I'll lock you up in a chamber so high
That the gypsy can't come nigh, O."
5 "I shan't come and I won't come back,
I shan't come back, my honey O;
I wouldn't give a kiss from the gypsy's lips
For all your land and money O."
6 "How can you forsake your house and land?
How can you forsake your money O?
How can you forsake your sweet little babe
To go with the gypsy laddie O?"
7 "O, I can forsake my house and lands,
O, I can forsake my money O,
O, I can forsake my sweet little babe
To go with the gypsy laddie O."
8 She was used to a feather bed
And servants all around her,
And now she has come to a bed of hay
With gypsies all around her.
1 original stanza 2:
2 "Saddle up, saddle up my milk-white steed,
Saddle up, saddle up in a hurry
I'll ride my saddle to the base of a tree
Till I find the gypsy laddie."