The House Carpenter- Shriver (IN) 1936 Brewster I
[From Brewster: Ballads and Songs of Indiana; 1940. His notes follow,
R. Matteson 2013]
21. JAMES HARRIS (Child, No. 243)
Nine variants and two melodies of this ballad have been recovered, all nine of the variants being closely related to Child B, though with occasional touches of other versions. As usual, the lover has lost all traces of his demoniac character, and, too, many details of the original version have disÂappeared. The story as told in the Indiana texts is briefly this: A sailor returns to find his old sweetheart happily married to a house carpenter, and the mother of a child (or two) by him. By specious promises the former lover persuades the wife to desert husband and baby and go with him. She soon discovers her mistake, however, and begins to weep for the child left behind. The ship springs a leak and sinks to the bottom of the sea, bearing her with it. Some variants contain a stanza in which she voices a curse upon deceiving sailormen, or a warning to other wives. The "hills of heaven and hell" stanzas do not appear in Indiana versions.
For American texts, see Barry, No. 11; Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, p. 304; Belden, No. 11 (fragment); Brown, p. 9; Campbell and Sharp, No. 29; Cox, p. 139; Davis, p. 439; Hudson, No. 19; Hudson, Folksongs, p. 119; Journal, XIX, 295; XX, 257; XXV, 274; XXX, 325; XXXV, 346; XXXVI, 360; XLII, 275; XLIX, 209; Pound, Ballads, p. 34; Sandburg, p. 66; ScarÂborough, Song Catcher, p. 151; Shearin, p. 3; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Smith, p. 151; Thomas, p. 172; Wyman and Brockway, Songs, p. 54; PTFLS, X, 159; Smith and Rufty, American Anthology, p. 46; Henry, Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians, p. 59; Henry, Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands, p. 113; Cox, Traditional Ballads, pp. 38, 41, 43, 45; BFSSNE, VII, 11; Randolph, Ozark Mountain Folks, p. 201.
I. "The House Carpenter." Contributed by Mrs. Mary J. Shriver, of East St. Louis, Illinois. January 24, 1936.
1. She picked up her dear little babe
And gave it kisses three;
"Stay at home for your father's company
While I do sail on the sea."
2. They had not sailed more than two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
Until this damsel began to weep,
And she wept most bitterly.
3. "Cheer up, cheer up, my own true love;
Cheer up, cheer up," said he;
"We will soon be where the grass grows green,
On the banks of the sweet Revolee.
4. "Is it for my gold that you weep,
Or is it for my store,
Or is it for that house carpenter
You will never see any more?"
5. "It is not for your gold that I weep,
Neither is it for your store;
It's all for the love of my dear little babe
That I left on Italy's shore."