US & Canada Versions: 217. Broom of the Cowdenknowes
[There are two different music types with the same title: The Broom of the Cowdenknowes (the Child ballad) and Broom of the Cowdenknowes (a "composed" love song of unknown origin). Barry gives a stanza of the love song:
1. How blythe was I each morn to see,
My swain come o'er the hill!
He leap'd the burn, and flew to me,
I met him with good will.
CHORUS: O, the broom, the bonny bonny broom,
The broom of the Cowdenknowes!
I wish I were with my dear swain,
With his pipe and my ewes.
Barry BBM (1929): "There is a song of the same name as the ballad, which may be found in Maine and mistaken for a fragment of the ballad itself. A good version in six stanzas was printed in 1805 at Augusta, by Peter Edes, the pioneer printer, in a little songbook called The Warbler, published by Ezekiel Goodale of Holloway." [British ballads from Maine: Phillips Barry, Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, Mary Winslow Smyth - 1929]
This related love song with the chorus of the ballad (printed in its entirety below) will be titled The Broom of the Cowdenknowes II, to keep it seperated from the ballad. It will be included as an appendix.
The issue I have with Barry's informant, a Mrs. James McGill, is that she was given Childs texts to read to help her remember the ballads she once knew (this one over 16 years ago). Whether she used Child's text when she sent in her own version is unknown. As it stands her version is very close to Child A with some minor changes and a new first verse. Some of the text has been Scottized and some of it hasn't, it not consistant- that way someone would sing it. Using Child's text to recreate her version, or a version she heard at one time is not much different than Aunt Molly Jackson's recreations of the Robin Hood ballads.
R. Matteson 2013]
CONTENTS: (Text and notes below)
The Broom of the Cowden-Knowes- Mrs. James McGill (Camcook, New Brunswick) pre1911 Barry; Learned in Scotland pre-1911.
1. Bonny Maisry's to the yowe buchts gane,
To milk her daddy's yowes.
And aye as she sang, her bonny voice it rang,
Oot o'er the taps o' the knowes.
CHORUS: O, the broom, the broom, the bonny, bonny broom,
The broom of the Cowden-knowes,
Oh fain would I be in my ain counterie,
Milking my daddy's yowes.
2 There was a troop of merry gentlemen
Was riding atween twa knowes,
And they heard the voice of a bonny lass,
In a bucht milking her yowes.
3 There's ane o' them lichted off his steed,
And has tyed him to a tree,
And he's gane to yon yowe-bucht,
To hear what it might be.
4 'O pity me, fair maid,' he said,
'Take pity upon me;
O pity me, and my milk-white steed
That's trembling at yon tree.'
5 He's ta'en her by the waist sae small,
And by the green gown-sleeve,
And he's led her into the yowe-bught,
O' her freens he's spared no leave.
6 He has put his hand in his pocket,
And given her guineas three:
'If I dinna come back in half a year,
Then luke nae mair for me."
7 "Now show to me the king's hie street,
Now show to me the way;
Now show to me the king's hie street,
And the fair water of Tay."
8 When she came home, her feyther said:
"Come, tell to me richt plain;
I doot you've met some [one] in the way,
You ha'e na been your lain."
9. "The night it is baith mist and mirk,
You may gang out and see;
The night is mirk and misty tae,
There's naebody been wi' me."
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APPENDIX: THE BROOM OF COWDENKNOWES II- The Warbler (Peter Edes, printer), Augusta, Me., 1805.
1. How blythe was I each morn to see,
My swain come o'er the hill!
He leap'd the burn, and flew to me,
I met him with good will.
CHORUS: O, the broom, the bonny bonny broom,
The broom of the Cowdenknowes!
I wish I were with my dear swain,
With his pipe and my ewes.
2. I neither wanted ewe nor lamb,
While his flocks near me lay;
He gathered in my sheep at night,
And cheered me all the day.
O, the broom, &c.
3. He tuned his pipe and reed sae sweet,
The birds stood listening by;
Even the dull cattle stood and gazed,
Charmed with his melody.
O, the broom, &c.
4. While thus we spent our time by turns,
Betwixt our flocks and play,
I envied not the fairest dame,
Though e'er so rich and gay.
O, the broom, &c.
Hard fate! that I should banish'd be,
Gang heavily, and mourn,
Because I lov'd the kindest swain
That ever yet was born.
O, the broom, &c.
He did oblige me ev'ry hour;
Could I but faithfull be?
He staw my heart; could I refuse
Whatever he asked of me?
O, the broom, &c.
My doggie, and my little kit,
That held my wee soup whey,
My plaidie, broach, and crooked stick,
Maun now lie useless by.
O, the broom, &c.
Adieu, ye Cowdenknowes, adieu!
Farewell all pleasures there!
Ye gods, restore me to my swain,
It's all I crave or care.
O, the broom, &c.
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Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
217. THE BROOM OF COWDENKNOWES
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 293.
Local Titles: None given.
Story Types: A: A group of gentlemen ride past a milkmaid, and one of them stops to seduce her. He gives her three guineas when he is through and says if he is not back in half a year that she must look no more for him. She shows him the highway by Tay and he departs. Her father suspects her when she returns home, but she denies anyone has been with her.
Examples: Barry.
Discussion: The Maine fragment ends upon the denial by the girl that anyone has been with her. The Child A text, close to the Maine song, rounds out the story as known to one Maine Irishwoman in her youth. See Barry, Brit Bids Me, 295. A few months later, the girl is out with the sheep when another group of riders comes by. One, to her shame, asks her who got her
with child. This man subsequently reveals himself to be the lover and turns out to be a very rich one at that.
There is a popular song, not traditional however, of similar name and story structure also known in Maine. See Child, IV, 192 and 208. Consult also The Warbler (Peter Edes, printer), Augusta, Me., 1805.