Turkish Lady- (AP-KY) 1924 Raines
[From: The Land of Saddle-bags: A Study of the Mountain People of Appalachia by James Watt Raine; 1924, where it's titled "Turkish Lady." No source or informant is given in the book. (Sharp MS, collected 1917 in Berea, KY) This is patterned after Child L, the popular version titled "The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman" 1838. It was published in the US by the 1850s.
This text is the same, word for word, as found in My Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old-Time Songs by Bradley Kincaid, 1928. As sung on WLS, Chicago in the late 1920s. Kincaid recorded the ballad in 1928 but it was never released.
This is also Bronson 93, taken from Sharp's MS. Raine apparently arranged to have Sharp visit Berea College, KY in 1917 where Raine taught English. Sharp collected this version from four Berea students and Kincaid may have got it from a similar source but since it's identical, he surely got it from Raine himself.
Raine helped Sharp collect ballads on at least two occasions in Kentucky and they collaborated on a book: Mountain Ballads for Social Singing. James Watt Raine & Cecil J. Sharp. Berea [Kentucky] College Press, 1923.
R. Matteson 2014]
Originally published in 1924 [Land of the Saddle Bags], it was advertised as a “racy book, full of the thrill of mountain adventure and the delicious humor of vigorously human people.” James Watt Raine, professor of English literature and later head of the English and drama departments at Berea College from 1906 until his retirement in 1939, provides eyewitness accounts of mountain speech and folksinging, education, religion, community, politics, and farming. In a conscious effort to dispel the negative stereotype of the drunken, slothful, gun-toting hillbilly prone to violence, Raine presents positive examples from his own experiences among the region's native inhabitants.
THE TURKISH LADY
Lord Bateman was a noble lord,
He held himself of high degree.
He would not rest nor be contented,
Until he had voyaged across the sea.
He sailed east and he sailed westward,
Until he reached the Turkish shore.
And there he was taken and put in prison;
He lived in hopes of freedom no more.
The Turkish had one only daughter,
The fairest creature eye ever did see.
She stole the keys to her father's prison,
Saying, Lord Bateman I will set free.
Have you got houses? Have you got lands, sir?
Or do you live at a high degree.
What will you give to the fair young lady
That out of prison will set you free?
I've got houses and I've got lands, love,
Half of Northumberland belongs to me,
And I'll give it all to the Turkish lady
That out of prison will set me free.
Seven long years I'll make a vow, sir,
Seven more by thirty-three.
And if you'll marry no other lady,
No other man shall be married to me.
She-took him to her father's harbor,
And gave to him a ship of fame.
Farewell, farewell, to thee, Lord Bateman,
I fear I ne'er shall see you again.
For seven long years, she kept her vow, sir,
And seven more by thirty-three.
She gathered all her gay fine clothing,
Saying, Lord Bateman, I'll go and see.
She sailed east and she sailed westward,
Until she reached the English shore.
And when she came to Lord Bateman's castle,
She lighted down before the door.
Are these Lord Bateman's gay, fine houses,
And is his Lordship here within?
Oh, yes, oh, yes, cried the proud young porter,
He has just taken his young bride.
What news, what news, my proud young porter,
What news, what news, have you brought to me?
Oh, there is the fairest of all young ladies
That ever my two eyes did set.
She's got rings on every finger
And on one of them she has got three,
And she's as much gold around her middle,
As would buy Northumberland from thee.
She tells you to send her a slice of cake,
And draw her a glass of the strongest wine,
And not to forget the fair young lady,
That did release you when close confined.
Lord Bateman rose from where he was sitting,
His face did look as white a snow,
Saying, if she is the Turkish lady;
With her, love, I am bound to go.
Oh, then, he spoke to the young bride's mother.
She's none the better nor worse for me,
She came to me on a horse and saddle,
And she shall go back in a carriage and three.
Your daughter came here on a horse and saddle,
And she shall go back in a chariot free.[1]
And I'll go marry the Turkish lady,
That crossed the roaring sea for me.
1. in "carriage three"-- not much time to change a carriage into a chariot.