The Merry Golden Tree- Case (MO) 1916 Belden C; Kittredge JOAFL
From: Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369 and also in Ballads and Songs by Belden 1940.
THE SWEET TRINITY (THE GOLDEN VANITY) (Child, No. 286).
To Child's version B belongs the Vermont text ("The Little Cabin Boy") printed in JAFL 18: 125-127 (cf. 18: 127). To Child's version C belong Belden, No. 78 (JAFL 23:429-430); "Focus," 4: 158-159; Wyman and Brockway, "Lonesome Tunes," I : 72-75; McGill, "Folk-Songs from the Kentucky Mountains," pp. 96-102. See also Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 3, P-. 5; No. 4, P. 8; F. C. Brown, p. 9; Cox, 45:I 16 (JAFL 29:400); Shearin and Coombs [sic], p. 9 (Shearin, "Modern Language Review," 6: 514); " Berea Quarterly," October, 1915 (18 : I8); Reed Smith (JAFL 28 : 200-202). Dr. B. L. Jones has found the ballad in Michigan.
The ballad is common in modern English broadsides, usually under the title of "The Golden Vanity; or, The Lowlands Low." See Harvard collection: 25242.11.5, fol. 107 (Such; same in 25242.17, xi, 31, and among the Child Broadsides); 25242.17, iii, 46 (J. Easton, York); same, iii, 150 (Forth, Pocklington); IV, 124 (J. Gilbert, Newcastle-upon-Tyne); v, 68 (J. Cadman, Manchester); x, 207(J. Bebbington, Manchester). These broadsides are all alike, corresponding to Child's version Ca (Pitts). Closely similar are copies from recent singing in England, a number of which are noted by Child, (5: 137-138); see also Broadwood and Fuller Maitland, "English County Songs," pp. 182-183; Baring-Gould and Sheppard, "Songs of the West," No. 64, 3:24-25 [1] "Journal of Folk-Song Society," I : 10o4-10o5; 2 : 244; Sharp, "One Hundred English Folksongs," No. 14, pp. xxiii, 36-37.[2] Greig's variant, however, in "Folk-Song of the North-East," CXVI, belongs under Child's B. Ashton's copy, in "Real Sailor Songs," No. 75, is Child's A.
The Merry Golden Tree - Communicated by Professor Belden, 1916. From Mrs. Eva Warner Case, from memory, with the assistance of her mother and grandmother, as sung in Harrison County, Missouri.[3] This copy is noteworthy because of the poetical justice offered in the concluding stanza, which distinguishes it from all versions heretofore recorded.[4]
The text belongs in general to version C, but it has a special touch of its own:
Down went the vessel and down went the crew,
And down to join the cabin-boy went the captain too!
Finis coronat opus!
1. "O captain, dear captain, what will you give to me,
If I'll sink for you that ship called the Merry Golden Tree,
As she sails in the Lowlands lonesome low,
As she sails in the Lowlands low?"
2. "It's I will give you money and I will give you fee;
I have a lovely daughter I will marry unto thee,
If you'll sink her in the Lowlands lonesome low,
If you'll sink her in the Lowlands low."
3. He bent upon his breast and out swam he;
He swam until he came to the Merry Golden Tree,
As she sailed in the Lowlands lonesome low,
As she sailed in the Lowlands low.
4. He took with him an auger well fitted for the use,
And he bored nine holes in the bottom of the sloop,
As she sailed in the Lowlands lonesome low,
As she sailed in the Lowlands low.
1 Reprinted sumptuously, New York, 1899 ("The Golden Vanity and The Green Bed"), with colored illustrations.
2 Compare Masefield, A Sailor's Garland, pp. 149-152.
3 See p. 322.
4 Compare Child's remarks on his versions B and C as distinguished from version A (5: I36).