The Lady Gay- Wyman (KY) 1916 JOAFL
[From: Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL (Child, No. 79).
Since Miss Backus's North Carolina version of the ballad ("There was a lady fair and gay") was printed in Child, 5: 294, [2] many variants have been collected in this country, belonging to that same general version. Belden publishes a text (from Missouri) in JAFL 23:429; Emma Bell Miles, one in "Harper's Magazine" for June, 1904 (109: 121-122); Cox (44:388 and 45: 11-12) publishes a fragment and a complete copy, both from West Virginia, and reports other variants (cf. 45: 160; JAFL 29: 400) [3] Miss McGill gives words and tune in her "Folk-Songs from the Kentucky Mountains," pp. 4-8. See also Shearin and Combs, p. 9 ("Lady Gay," closely resembles Miss Backus's text); F. C. Brown, p. 9; Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 4, P. 7; No. 5, P. 7; JAFL 27 : 59-62; 28 : 199-202, A peculiar version in Mrs. Leather's "Folk-Lore of Herefordshire " (1912, pp. 198-I99) contains a stanza adapted from "The Carnal and the Crane" (Child, No. 55): [4] -
Then Christ did call for the roasted cock,
That was feathered with his only hands;
He crowed three times all in the dish
In the place where he did stand.
III. The Lady Gay. Communicated by Miss Loraine Wyman, as sung by Jasper Day at Pine Mountain, Ky., May 4, 1916.
I. There was a lady, there was a lady gay,
Had handsome children three,
And sent them away to some northern countree
To learn those grammaree.
2. They hadn't been gone so mighty long,
Scarcely three months to a day,
Death came hastling along
And stole those babes away.
3. It was near Old Christmas time
When she prayed for her little babes;
It was near Old Christmas time
When her three little babes were sent home.
4. The table was ready set,
And on it she placed bread and wine:
Says, "You three little babes,
Come and eat, come and drink of mine."
5. "I don't want your bread,
I don't want your wine.
Yonder stands our Saviour dear;
To him we must resign."
Footnotes:
2. Reprinted in JAFL 13: 119-120.
3. Cox (44: 388) also prints two stanzas of a version corresponding to Child's A, which appears to have been brought to West Virginia from Ireland.
4 Compare Broadwood, English Traditional Songs and Carols, pp. 74-75, 122; Sharp, English Folk-Carols, No. I, pp. 2-4; Journal of Folk-Song Society, I : 183; 4: 22-25; a broadside of about 1780, Worcester [England], J. Grundy (Harvard College Library, 25242.5.5 R49, No. i3]); Notes and Queries, 3d series, 3: 94.