Three Little Babes- Sprouse (VA) 1915 Davis J
[From Traditional Ballads of Virginia; Kyle Davis Jr., 1929. Davis' notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
TRADITIONAL BALLADS OF VIRGINIA
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
(Child, No. 79)
The Child title is unknown in Virginia, where the ballad is called "The Lady Gay," "The Three Little Babes," "The Beautiful Bride," or (once) "Lady Gains." The Virginia variants all belong to the same version, which is neither Child A, B, nor C. The religious cast of the Virginia version seems to relate it to Child C, but in other respects it is nearer to Child A. It is practically identical with the American text printed in Child, V, 294, except that the mother's prayer for the return of the children is not usual in the Virginia texts; indeed, appears only once. The motive for the children's return - to forbid the mother's obstinate grief - is found in most of the Virginia variants, as in other American texts, but not in Child A. In practically all Virginia texts the ghosts disappear for two reasons: the crowing of the cock and the summons of the Saviour. In this respect they are like West Virginia B. The Virginia texts do not add much except minor variations to the texts already published from America.
The story of the composite Virginia text runs as follows: - A lady gay sends her three children to school in the north country, where, after a time, they die. (The mother grieves for her children and prays for their return.) About Christmas time they appear to her. She prepares a feast for them, but they refuse to eat, because the Saviour forbids. She spreads a bed with rich covering for them, but they bid her take it off, as it represents mere worldly pride. With the approach of dawn and by appointment with their Saviour, they depart, warning the mother that her tears but wet their winding sheet. The Virginia and other American texts are more sternly puritanical and have less human warmth than Child A. Another interesting feature of the Virginia texts concerns the sex of the babies. In old-country texts the children are always sons. In Virginia the sex is normally unspecified; they are simply "children" or " babes." But occasionally they actually become girls. See F 6, line 2, and G 5, line 4. Perhaps the same change of sex is indicated by the " normal school " variant of C 1, line 3.
For American texts, see Belden, No. 77; Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 3-5, 9; Campbell and Sharp, No. 19 (North Carolina, Tennessee); Child, X, 194 (North Carolina); Cox, No. 14; Hudson, No. 12 (and Journal, XXXIX, 96; Mississippi); Journal, XIII, 119 (Newell, North Carolina); XXIII, 429 (Belden, Missouri); XXX, 305 (Kittredge; California, Nebraska, Kentucky, Tennessee); XXXII, 503 (Richardson, West Virginia); McGill, p. 5; Pound, Syllabus, p. 10 (fragment); Pound, Ballads, No. 7; Shearin and Combs, p. 9. For additional references, see Journal, xxx, 305.
J. "The Three Little Babes." collected by Miss Juliet Fauntleroy. Sung by Mrs. James Sprouse, of Lawyers, Va. March 20, 1915; with music. "Mrs. Sprouse said there were other verses to this, but she could not recall them" (Miss Fauntleroy).
1 There was a lady, lady gay,
Who had babies one, two, three;
she sent those babes to the north countrie
To learn their grammaree.
2 They hadn't been there but a month and a day
Before swift death came on,
Before swift death came on
And taken those babes away.
3 "There is a King who lives in Heaven
Who used to wear a crown;
Pray send me back those three little babes
Tonight or in the morning soon."
4 "Come in, come in, my three little babes,
And eat this bread and wine."
"O mother, I cannot eat your bread,
I cannot drink your wine."