US & Canada Versions: 3A. Constant Farmer's Son
[The ballad has been attributed to London broadside writer George Brown around 1832 (but before 1837) when he wrote broadsides for William Taylor. It was taken from London broadsides such as Taylor's and published in the United States in The Humming Bird Songster: New York; P.J. Cozans (Cozzens) Publisher, 107 Nassau St., NY, 1858 as "The Merchant's Daughter"; also in Henry De Marsan's New Comic and Sentimental Singer's Journal, Issue 25, (no date but before 1871) as "The Merchant's Daughter" and as a H. J. Wehman broadside (no. 768, 1890) as “The Constant Farmer's Son.”
This ballad has had some circulation in the northeast US and Canada. Lomax recorded an Irish variant in Michigan in 1938 and another Irish version was published in the NYFQ in 1949. Both of these version do not have new last stanza found in Ireland around 1920. Irish singer Louis Killen recorded an Irish version (Maine, circa 1933) from the Flanders Collection in 2003. This also does not have the new last stanza which leads me to believe it is a modern addition from the 1920s and copied thereafter.
Since the broadside text was published at least three times in NY, it's no surprise several traditional versions have been collected there. The ballad is known in Canada (Edith Fowke- Ontario) as well as Maritime Canada (Creighton-NS and Mackenzie- NL) and has had some recent circulation in Newfoundland (Lehr and Best) where it's been collected as late as 1979.
R. Matteson 2016]
CONTENTS: (To access individual texts/music click on highlighted blue title below or on the title attached to this page on left hand column- see green border)
1) Merchant's Daughter- Hummingbird Songster (NY) 1858
2) Constant Farmer's Son- L.C. Wimberly (NE) 1916 Pound
3) Constant Farmer's Son- J. Adamson (NS) 1919 Mackenzie
4) Constant Farmer's Son- Annie Syphers (ME) 1933 Flanders
5) Constant Farmer's Son- John Green (MI) 1938 Lomax
6) Constant Farmer's Son- George Edwards (NY) 1948 Cazden
7) The Constant Farmer's Son- (NY) 1949 NYFQ 5
8) Constant Farmer's Son- Walter Roast (NS) 1950 Creighton A
9) The Constant Farmer's Son- (NY) 1951 NYFQ 7
10) Constant Farmer's Son- Jack Turple (NS) 1952 Creighton B
11) Constant Farmer's Son- Irene Sargent (AR) 1963
12) Constant Farmer's Son- Johnny Pearson (NL) 1979
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The Quest of the Ballad
By William Roy Mackenzie; 1919.
In the former class we have such ballads as "The Constant Farmer's Son," which was sung to me by old John Adamson in his little garden one bright summer morning when it seemed quite incredible that murders and murder revealing dreams could ever find a place in a world so peaceful. Nevertheless, John assured me that the song was strictly true, and if he had been, like his companion, a pedant and not a jolly old ballad-singer, he could have called upon Boccaccio and John Keats to corroborate his statement. For "The Constant Farmer's Son" is a popular version of a tale which was told nearly six hundred years ago in the Decameron, and which was expanded by Keats into the beautiful poetic narrative of "Isabella." It is the tale of the fair young woman of gentle birth who falls in love with a young man who is employed on her father's estate, and who starts up in bed one night from the dreadful and prophetic vision of her murdered lover:
As Mary on her pillow lay she dreamt a shocking dream.
She dreamt she saw her own true love down by a purling stream.
So Mary rose, put on her clothes, to meet her love did run,
In yonder vale lies cold and pale her constant farmer's son.
After spending a night and a day watching over her lover's body she returns home and accuses her two brothers.
Those villains confessed the murder, and for the same did die.
Young Mary she did fade away but never ceased to cry.
Her parents they did fade away. The glass of life had run.
Poor Mary sighed, and then she died for her constant farmer's son.
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Missing Versions:
The Constant Farmer's Son
Roud Folksong Index (S141273)
First Line: Rich merchant's daughter in London town did dwell, A
Source: Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 73)
Performer: Lewis, Nelson
Date: 1964 (Oct)
Place: Canada : Ontario : Harcourt
Collector: Fowke, Edith
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The Constant Farmer's Son
Roud Folksong Index (S201959)
First Line: There was a pretty fair maid, in London she did dwell
Source: Grover, Heritage of Songs pp.56-57
Performer: Grover, Mrs. Carrie
Date:
Place: USA : Maine
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The Constant Farmer's Son
Roud Folksong Index (S141271)
First Line: It's of a wealthy merchant in Glenwood he did dwell
Source: Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 19)
Performer: Fraser, Mrs. Arlington
Date: 1961 (Aug)
Place: Canada : Ontario : Lancaster
Collector: Fowke, Edith
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Helen Flanders: Annie Syphers of Monticello, Maine