US & Canada Versions: 162. Hunting of Cheviot/ Chevy Chase
[I have all three "complete" US traditional texts in my collection. Missing from my collection is a traditional two-stanza fragment which was collected in Canon County, Tennessee by Mason. If you read the American Antiquarian Society notes below, it shows the ballad was known in the US as early as 1738. According to Barry (BBM, 1929) the Coverly broadside (see image below) printed in 1811 in Boston, Ma., "was traditional and not in very good form."
I'm including the Coverly broadside which is similar to Child B, the English broadsides of 68 stanzas. Some significant differences: Earl Percy is spelled Earl Piercy throughout and stanzas 30-32 are missing. Read the American Antiquarian Society notes for more details about the broadside.
According to G. L. Kittredge in the The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369, the Harvard College Library has a broadside (apparently American) of "Chevy Chace" (25242.53 1312) dating from the eighteenth century.
Davis and Barry's extensive notes are found with the individual versions.
R. Matteson 2015]
Coverly Broadside, October 1811, Boston
CONTENTS: (To access versions below click on blue-highlighted title)
1) The Battle of Shiver Chase- Clark (ME-MA) c.1808 Barry
2) Chevy Chase- (Boston, MA) 1811 Coverly broadside
3) The Battle of Chevy Chase- M. Davis (CA-VA) 1914 Davis
4) Chevy Chase- Galloway (OK-AL-SC) pre1931 Moores
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The following is from the American Antiquarian Society:
Chevy Chase
“Chevy Chase” is both a folk song and the oldest of our topical songs because it tells of real people who once lived, although we are not exactly sure who they were (Child, English and Scottish #162). According to the version that Coverly selected, during the reign of a King James of Scotland and a King Henry of England, Earl of Northumberland Percy (Piercy) decided to go hunting across the border in Scotland in “Chevy Chase,” poaching in territory that belonged to Earl Douglas. He took 1,500 bowmen and his greyhounds to run down the prey. When Douglas appeared to challenge him, a duel was proposed. But before the two earls could engage, the English archers shot down “threescore Scots” and soon a fierce battle engaged. As the two leaders fought to a standstill, Douglas called for Percy’s submission. He refused and an English arrow then felled Douglas. Enraged, Sir Hugh Montgomery rode up and thrust a spear through Percy. Montgomery was felled by an English arrow and the slaughter continued until only a few more than fifty from each side remained. When the news reached the two kings, Henry and James both vowed to take vengeance for the loss of their brave subjects. The text ends with a futile prayer that such “foul debate ’twix noblemen may cease.”
According to James Maidment, the two kings were James I of Scotland and Henry IV of England, putting the event in the early 1400s (1:69-80). Other sources identify the original conflict as the Battle of Otterburn in 1388, the topic of another early ballad (Child, English and Scottish #161). The text is first mentioned in the Complaynte of Scotland (1549), shortly after the reigns of Henry VIII of England and James V of Scotland.
Coverly’s version shows little signs of updating. Once the early text was modernized from its mid-sixteenth-century language, the old song was supported by endless issues of remarkable stability on broadsides and in songbooks. Beginning in the early eighteenth century it appeared in “antiquarian” collections of old ballads and a continuing stream of parodies and sequels were written (Fox 1-6). In 1738, when recent Irish immigrant John Ray sent money back to his peddler friend in Colraine to ship goods to him in New York, he asked his friend to “buy six quire of ballads, aw ald yens,” and specified that the version of “Chevy Chase” should have as its last line: “The English fleed. . . .” (Virginia Gazette, November 17-24, 1738). In 1765, Benjamin Franklin wrote to his brother about the importance of using an old song as a model for didactic verses.
Had you fitted [your song] to an old one, well known, it must have spread much faster. . . I think, too, that if you had given it to some country girl in the heart of Massachusetts, who has never heard any other than psalm tunes or Chevy Chase, the Children in the Woods, the Spanish Lady, and such old, simple ditties. . . she might more probably have made a pleasing popular tune for you than any of the masters here [in London]. (Lambert 2:772)
By the eighteenth century this basic broadside version of “Chevy Chase” had become common property; a classic in its own right. In discussing the importance of balladry in education, Carl Bridenbaugh quotes a Virginia clergyman who recalled that in his carefree youth, “he once could recite over a hundred verses of ‘Chevy Chase’ and other ‘paltry songs’” (“Life of the Reverend”). By then, too, the text had lost reverence as historical narrative, for many comic, topical, and satirical songs were modeled on its verses and set to its tune. But the old song still sold. On Coverly’s broadside, it is presented straight. He printed both “Chevy Chase” and “Children in the Wood” (also, “The Children in the Wood”) on several broadsides, finding the old songs continued to sell well (Simpson 96-101; Roud; R. Keller; Corry; Stephens, Catalogue 3: #2487, #3677; 4: #3915, #4011, #4029; George 6: #6849; Election).
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Notes from Moores; Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, 1864
34. The Hunting of the Cheviot
"'THE Hunting of the Cheviot' [Child, No. 162] was an old and popular song at the middle of the sixteenth century," writes Child in III, 303. The ballad describes the Battle of Otterburn, which was fought by the English and the Scots on August 19, 1388, under the leadership of Henry Percy, Duke of Northumberland, and william Douglas, Earl of Angus. Although outnumbered three to one, the Scots won the day and celebrated the victory with song, first in the balla d The Battle of Otterburn (Child, No. 161), then in the superior ballad The Hunting of the Cheviot. For references, see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, 243-49;
Davis, 4t6-18; Journal, vol. XVIII, 294 (Barry), vol. XXX, 323; and Percy, I, 19-35.
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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
162. THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT OR CHEVY CHASE
'Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 243 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 416 / Ford, Broadsides, Bids, etc. Mass, #s 301113 / Harvard University Library Broadside #25242.53 (312) / Mason, Cannon Cnty, 15.
Local titles: The Battle of Chevy Chase. The Battle of Shiver Chase.
Story Types: A: Percy kills some deer in Scotland, and Douglas, objecting, says he will prevent future foraging. Subsequently, after a feast on slain deer, Percy and his men are attacked by Douglas and his clan. The two leaders are going to fight, but a squire steps forth and announces that he will not stand by while his earl fights. Eventually, however, Douglas and
Percy do battle alone. Percy weakens, and Douglas asks him to surrender. When the Englishman refuses he is slain. An arrow from an English bow then kills Douglas, and a general fight follows. Individual deeds and men are described and named.
Examples: Barry, Davis.
B: A fragment tells in two stanzas of a brutal fight between two earls.
Examples: Mason.
Discussion: The Virginia and Maine texts, both incomplete, follow Child B rather than Child A. However, the fighting has been abbreviated in Virginia, and the order of the deaths changed. See Davis, Trd Bid Fa, 416 and Barry, Brit Bid Me, 247 for summaries and stanza comparisons.
The Chevy Chase tune was popular in the Revolution (see The Cow Chase). For a Revolutionary War anecdote concerning the song, see Barry, op. tit., 248 quoted from William Gordon, History of the Rise. . . of the Independence of the United States of America, London, 1788, I, 481.