The Silver Dagger- Miss Roberts (WV) 1917 Cox B
[From: John Harrington Cox's "Folk-Songs of the South" #108A; 1925. His notes follow. Both Belden and Cox have separate categories for Drowsy Sleeper and Silver Dagger.
R. Matteson 2016]
108 THE DROWSY SLEEPER
Two variants of this song have been recovered in West Virginia, one having the title, "The Silver Dagger," probably because the last two stanzas of it belong to that song (see p. 350, below).
"The Drowsy Sleeper" an interesting variant of a song known, in a Nithsdale version, to Allan Cunningham, and given in part in a note to "0, my hive's like a red, red rose" in his edition of Burns, 1834, iv, 285 (Kittredge, Journal, xx,
260).
For American texts see Journal, xx, 260 (Kentucky), xxix, 200 (Georgia); xxx, 338 (Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska or Utah); xxxv, 356 (Ohio) ; Belden, Herrig's Archiv, cxrx, 430 (Missouri, Arkansas): Campbell and Sharp, No. 47 (North Carolina); Sturgis and Hughes, Songs from the Hills of Vermont, p. 30; Pound, No. 21 (A, Nebraska; B, the same as Journal, xxx, 342); Sharp, Folk-Songs of English Origin Collected in the Appalachian Mountains, 2d Series, p. 48; Minish MS., 11, 63 (North Carolina); broadside, H. J. Wehman (New York), No. 518 (mixed with "The Silver Dagger").
For English and Scottish references see Journal, xx, 260; xxx, 338; xxxv, 356; Campbell and Sharp, p. 330. See also the Hudson MS. of Irish airs, Volume 1, No. 181 (Boston Public Library).
There is an extremely interesting paper on " English Songs on the Night Visit," by Baskervill, in the Publications of the Modern Language Association, xxxvi, 565-614 (see p. 585 for the present piece).
B. "The Silver Dagger." Communicated by Miss Maud I. Jefferson, West Liberty, Ohio County, 1917; obtained from Miss Roberts.
1 "O Mary, go and ask your mother
If you my wedded bride may be;
And if she says no, pray come and tell me,
And I'll no longer trouble thee."
2 "I dare not go and ask my mother,
For she said she would part us;
Then, Willie, go and ask another,"
She gently whispered in his ear.
3 "Then, Mary, go and ask your father
If you my wedded bride may be;
And if he says no, pray come and tell me,
And I'll no longer trouble thee."
4 "I dare not go and ask my father,
For at night he lies at rest,
Close to his side there lies a dagger,
To pierce the heart that I love best."
5 Then William drew a silver dagger,
And pierced it to his aching heart,
Saying, "Here's farewell, my own true lover,"
Saying, "Here's farewell, for we must part."
6 Then Mary drew that bloody dagger,
And pierced it in her snow-white breast,
Saying, "Here's farewell to father and mother;
Farewell to all that I love best."