The Gypsy Laddie- Ryan (VA) c1871 Stone/Davis E
[From Davis; Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. His notes follow.
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.
E. "The Gypsy Laddie." Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mrs. Victoria Ryan, of Wytheville, Va. Wythe County. November 8, 1921. "She learned it when she was a little girl fifty years ago" (Mr. Stone).
1 There was Indians lived in the North
And they was bound for Barley O.
Sing a song of a-ru-sa-ma-lam,[1]
And charm the heart of the lady[2].
2 "Go saddle my bridal my milk-white horse,
Go saddle and bridle my pony, too;
I will ride both day and night
Till I overtake my honey."
3 The squire rode both east and west
Until he come to Barley;
And the Indians said: "She is not here;
She is gone with the gypsy laddie."
4 "Turn back, turn back, my dearest dear,
Turn back, turn back, my honey;
For I'll lock you up in a room so high
That the gypsies shan't come nigh you."
5 "I can't turn back, my dearest dear,
I can't turn back, my honey O;
For I'd rather have a kiss from the gypsy's lips
Than you and all your money." [repeat last two lines] [3]
6 "How can you leave your house and home?
How can you leave your husband, too?
It's how can you leave your sweet little babe
And go along with the gypsies?"
7 "I can leave my house and home,
I can leave my husband, too,
And I can leave my sweet little babe
And go along with the gypsies."
8 Then she sold all her fine things,
Likewise her velvet stockings, too,
Her gold rings off her fingers, too,
And her breast-pin off of her bosom. [Repeat, last two lines]
9 Saying, "Once I had a house and home
And servants to wait upon me, too;
But now I've come to a bed of straw
And the gypsies all around me." [Repeat last two lines]
1. originally "laddie".
2. Jerusalem is recognizable.
3. The repetitions seem to be irregular. They are indicated for the fifth, eighth, and ninth stanzas only.