US & Canada Versions: 79. The Wife of Usher's Well (Lady Gay; A Lady Gay; The Lady Gay; Three Little Babes)
[This ballad, which had all but disappeared in the British Isles at the time of Child's ESPB (1880s-1900), was very popular in the Southern Appalachians and remained so until the mid-1900s. Traditional versions of it were collected as late as the 1997 in West Virginia (Spence Moore- Davies; although it was collected from Moore earlier as well). Because of the similar subject matter (a mother, babies dying) and titles (Three Babes), one version (Fusion- KY) was classified as Child 20, The Cruel Mother. Virginia, the likely initial repository of the ballad in the United States, is well represented as are North Carolina, West Virginia and southern states westward (KY, TN, to MO, AR, OK, TX) and southward (GA-AL-FL). Very few versions have been found in the New England (Flanders gives two- both are questionable as traditional versions) and Canada (Fowke gives one).
Of the 124 versions in my collection most (36 versions) were collected Sharp in the Southern Appalachians between 1916-1918. Davis and the Virginia Folklore Society collected nearly 30 versions. The Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore gathered around 20 more. Bronson gave 58 melodies mostly with text in TTCB, 1962 and all but a few are from the southern US.
There are three titles that use Child A, "Wife of Usher's Well" in my collection. In my opinion, all three are from print and not traditional (Fish's is a ballad recreation; Ritchie's an arrangement and Burditt's was memorized from print). The three versions by Niles are suspect as is the version by Gainer and the one by the Smiths (Brown Collection/Davis). There are two versions that may be arrangements (Raines 1923 and Chase 1956). Most of the rest seem to be traditional.
Child gave one version from the US in Additions and Correction, Volume X, 1998. Kittredge has assigned it version D (see 1904 edition) so on his authority we now have Version D. This has been ignored by Belden, Davis (1929) and other collectors/authors who talk only of versions A-C.
"The Wife of Usher's Well" is not a local title and is found only in Child A. Some popular local titles include "Three Little Babes" (the same or similar to titles of Child 20: The Cruel Mother), and "Lady Gay/ The Lady Gay." The 1904 title, "The Ladie Bright," by Miles in Harper's Monthly Magazine appears to be a corruption and could be "The Lady Bride." Since "bright" and "bride" appear interchangeably in several versions, there is no correct word although "bride" makes more sense here. The use of "The" is almost always incorrect here (unless it's 'The three Little Babes" and it should be "A" as in "A Lady Bright" or "A Knight and a Lady." Curiously it's nearly always "babes" and not "children" or "babies." Titles can be tricky; instead of "Fire on the Mountain" we have "Far on the Mountain" and so it goes. In my opinion there additionally needs to be a local title based on the text of the song-- having Sharp's 36 versions all titled, "The Wife of Usher's Well" is ridiculous, especially since the "Usher's Well" text is not sung here- at least in legitimate traditional versions.
The ballad was recorded twice by early "country" musicians: in 1928 Buell Kazee with his banjo recorded "Lady Gay" for Brunswick and in 1929 Mr. and Mrs. I. G. Greer recorded, "The Three Babes" which was not issued probably because of the Great Depression. The Greers were recorded again in 1941 and collected several versions (see Greer Collection).
Some of the unique characteristics of the ballad in the US were given by Belden (Ballads and Songs; 1940):
All of these American texts seem to belong to one version, distinguished from Child A B C by the following particulars:
1. The revenants are children (most often 'babes') not the 'stalwart sons' of Child A.
2. There is no cursing of the waters; but the mother often prays for the return of her babes.
3. The children decline earthly food and drink because 'yonder stands our Savior dear, to him we must resign.' And commonly, too, the splendor of the golden spread. the mother lays upon their bed is rebuked as evidence of worldly pride.
4. The children are sent away at the beginning to 'learn their grammaree', a feature not found in Child A B C.
5. The recall of ghosts by cock-crow is either changed to the crowing of 'chickens' (except in BBM B, which is Irish)-- this looks like a case of American bowdlerizing-- or is omitted altogether, the children refusing the fine bed their mother has prepared for them or simply making one another at the proper time.
6. Use of the folk-belief that tears shed for the dead disturb their rest in the grave by wetting their winding-sheet. This is a not unfailing but a very common feature of the American texts and does not appear in Child A, B, C.
Not mentioned by Belden-- the word "pride" is found in a number of versions. The word, "pride," is defined as "a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, or conduct (Dictionary.com). According to Coffin, "However, when she prepares a feast and a fine bed for them, they refuse her efforts to please them saying that such things are worldly pride and that the Saviour forbids such indulgence." The use of the word "pride" extends to the overall moral compass of the ballad which is beyond the attribution given by Coffin. The use and meaning are somewhat clear in Davis A: "For it's nothing but the pride of life," but in other versions, it's not clear. In Sharp A and B it's "poor pride heart." Consider Davis E,
For pride has been the cause of your three little babes
Now lying in cold clay.
which make's "pride" the murderer. Sending them off to school "to learn their grammaree" may be construed as a prideful act. Is this the "nothing but the best for my children" mentality or is it simply a desire to educate the children? At least sending them off is an act few mothers would embrace, even for the education of "three small children." It's a form of separation from the mother, whether "pride" is involved or not. It's interesting that in this ballad the father, in some cases "a knight" plays no role in this ballad and is completely absent from the family. He, if present, is only mentioned in the opening. Now consider another use of "pride" from Belden B, c. 1864:
It hain't been long since pride began,
Here stands my Savior word.
Now look at Davis I, from 1915:
5 "Rise you up, rise you up," said the oldest one,
"The chickens are crowing for day.
For woe unto ye in this wide, wicked world
Since pride has been in view.
and also Cambiaire:
"For woe unto this wide wicked world
Since pride has been with me." [Nichols; Tennessee 1934]
Here are some bible verses about pride:
In his pride the wicked does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God (Psalm 10:4) or:
Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 11:2)
Pride is viewed as a sin in the bible. Why pride is the contributor to the death of the three babes is unclear. Pride appears in over a dozen versions and it seems to be the deeper reason for the babes death. The reason the babes die is clear-- most versions simply say that "death swept over the land/ and took the babes away" or,
When there came a sickness o'er the land
And swept those babes away.
In one version from North Carolina (Helms), it was a flood that swept over the land that drowned the babes. Another important difference between Child A and B and the US versions is the babes come back on Christmas or Old Christmas. According to Raine (1923 book with Sharp): "On Old Christmas, January 6, the spirits communicate with friends." In Raine's version it is "Old Christmas" and many versions it is simply Christmas. In Child A the time the babes come back is "Martinmas" which is Nov. 11. Martinmas (St. Martin's Day) has been associated with autumn feast and also with Halloween. Old Christmas is also found in another pseudo-religious ballad, "The Cherry Tree Carol." Whether "Old Christmas" has been attached to Child 79 from Child 54 is unknown but the celebration of Old Christmas is an old tradition in the Appalachians dating back to 1700s when the early settlers made their way into the mountains. This points to an early arrival of Child 79 in Virginia.
The opening line is quite varied and US versions in some regions may be identified by the opening. The standard opening is: 'There was a lady, a lady gay," (There was a lady gay) to "There was a lady, a lady bride" and "There was a woman and a lady bright." "Bride and Bright are used interchangeably. There are variants such as "There was a knight and a lady bright" (OK, KY) and "There was a lady, she was bright." Sometimes the lady is "fair" which replaces "gay" or both are used: "There was a lady fair and gay" (Brown L). Also we find in NC, "There once was a lady of beauty bright." Some of these openings are ballad commonplaces, which makes the ballad hard to identify by the first line.
In another large set, "woman" or "widow" or "maid" replaces "lady." So this becomes, in the Brown's Cove area of Virginia, "There was a woman lived near the North" (see Wilkinson). There are many variants of this line such as "There was a widow and she lived abroad" (Sharp MS from KY) or "There was a lady in our town." She also lived "in Spain" or "near by" and other locations.
In North Carolina (Burnsville, Allegheny) we find "She/They hadn't been married but a very short time" (Sharp A, B, D and MS) or the like, as an opening. The second line is "When she had her three little babes" or the like.
* * * *
Davis' notes in More TBVa, 1960 help- summarize the ballad in the the US:
A mother sends her children away to school. They die before their return home. The mother grieves and prays that they may come back to her. They return at Christmas, of course as ghosts, though the mother seems unaware of this. They refuse to eat or drink. They depart at daybreak, sometimes warning their mother against worldiness and suggesting that her excessive grief for them may disturb their repose.
The Virginia texts share with Child C (from Shropshire) as well as with Child D the strongly religious coloring: the presence of the Saviour and the sinfulness of pride, and perhaps the suggestion that the return is made in answer to the mother's prayer. But there are pagan elements also: the belief that spirits return in order to calm the persistent lamentations of the bereaved, the vanishing of the ghosts at cock-crow, and the folk-belief that tears for the dead disturb their rest by wetting their winding-sheet.
* * * *
The age of the ballad in the US should be considered pre-Revolutionary War (1776) or earlier. Supporting documentation comes in a letter to Kittredge (JAF) by Professor Hart who writes, concerning this and other ballads (Dec. 10, 1915):
"They were sung to her by the mother of a family in the mountains of western North Carolina, whose name, Ellen Crowder. . . It appears that the ancestors of these people were in the mountains of North Carolina before the Revolution, and that they have been illiterate up to the present generation. Even now it is a matter of pride that one or two members of the family are good 'scribes.' "
As we have seen with other ballads brought to the mountains about the time of the Revolutionary War-- the ballads came first to early Virginia colonies along the James River (Jamestown, for example, where the House of Burgess was established in 1619) and spread westward (see: Hicks family, who moved from Tuckahoe Creek in Goochland VA c. 1760s to central NC and into the Beech Mountain area c. 1770. Nora Hicks version of the ballad was recorded by Abrams c. 1940).
R. Matteson 2015]
CONTENTS: (Individual texts may be accessed by clicking on the highlighted blue title below or on the titles on the left-hand column attached to this page)
1) The Three Babes- Morris (GA) c1863 Morris C -- From Folksongs of Florida; Morris, 1950. Communicated in 1937 by his grandmother, Mrs. S. E. Morris, who was 83 years old when she gave me the song, and too feeble to sing the tune. She had learned the song as a girl in Banks County, Georgia.
2) Beautiful Bride- Bess (MO) c1864 Belden B -- My date, my title replacing "Song Ballad." From Belden: Ballads and Songs- 1940, taken from the Civil War diary of Jacob Bess of Bollinger County, lent to Belden by his Bess's grandson, Professor Charles Bess of Flat River Junior College.
3) Three Little Babes- Swallow (IN) c1865 Brewster -- My title. From Brewster: Ballads and Songs of Indiana, 1940. Communicated by Mr. Willis Swallow, of Oakland City, Indiana. Gibson County. Mr. Swallow, who is nearly eighty, learned this ballad almost seventy years ago from the singing of his mother, Mrs. Patsy Swallow. November 30, 1935.
4) Three Babes- Griffin (GA-FL) pre1887 Morris A -- My adjusted title. From Folksongs of Florida; Morris, 1950. G.A. Griffin was one Morris's best informants. She learned her ballads from her father in Georgia when she was young.
5) West Countrie- High (MO-AR) c.1888 Wolf/Hunter -- Also titled, The Lady that Lived in the West Countrie. From Wolf Folk Song Collection, 1959; recording. Also collected by Irene Carlisle (Ozark Folksong Collection- 3 versions by High) and transcribed by Mary C. Parler Fred High of High, Arkansas March 20, 1951 Reel 106, Item 2. Also Max Hunter Cat. #0030 (MFH #672) - As sung by Fred High, High, Arkansas on February 12, 1958. High was aware of the May Kennedy McCord version (Randolph B). Fred High of Berryville, Arkansas collected songs and in 1951 published Old, Old Folk Songs "in my 73rd year" so he was born in 1878. He learned this when he was a little boy (eight years old) in St. Louis. According to his book, it was sung, "by his papa."
6) The Three Little Babes- Tuggle (OK) 1895 Moores A
There Was a Lady Fair and Gay- (NC) 1896 Backus
Three Babes- Hill (AL) c1898 Arnold
A Woman Lived in the Far Country- McCord(MO) 1900
Three Little Babes- Dryden (TX-TN) c1901 Owens
The Three Little Babes- Pierce (TN) 1901 Belden
The Ladie Bright- two young girls (TN) 1904 Miles
The Lone Widow- Stebbins (MO) c1909 Belden A
Three Little Babes- Quivey (Utah) Pound 1914
The Lady Gay- Mays (VA) 1914 Smith/ Davis K
The Lady and the Children Three- (NC) 1914 Brown B
The Three Little Babes- Fletcher (NC) 1914 Brown C
Three Little Babes- Smith (NC) 1914 Brown D
Lady Gay- (KY) c. 1914 McGill
Children's Song- Crowder (NC) 1915 JOAFL
Once There was an Old Woman- Atkeson (WV) 1915
The Lady Gay- Wright (VA) 1915 Fauntleroy/ Davis C
Three Little Babies- Colbird (VA) 1915 Davis G
Three Little Babies- Kegley (VA) 1915 Davis I
Three Little Babes- Sprouse (VA) 1915 Davis J
The Three Little Babes- Rawn (NC) 1915 Brown A
Three Little Babes- Greer (NC) 1915 Brown E
A Moravian Song- Loy (WV) 1916 Cox A
Lady Gay- Copley (WV) 1916 Cox B
Lady Gay- Adkins (WV) 1916 Cox C
Three Little Babes- Toney (WV) 1916 Cox D
The Lady Gay- Wyman (KY) 1916 JOAFL
Lady Gains- (VA) 1916 Martha Davis/ Davis D
Lady Gay- (VA) 1916 Martha Davis/ Davis L
Three Little Babes- Shelton (NC) 1916 Sharp A
Three Little Babes- Landers (NC) 1916 Sharp B
A Lady Gay- Stockton (TN) 1916 Sharp C
Three Little Babes- D. Shelton (NC) 1916 Sharp D
Two Little Babes- Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp E
Three Little Babes- Rice (NC) 1916 Sharp F
Lady Lived in York- Sawyer (NC) 1916 Sharp H
A Lady Gay- Flannery (KY) 1917 Sharp I
Lady Gay- Pope (KY) 1917 Sharp J
A Lady Gay- Thompson (KY) 1917 Sharp K
A Lady Gay- Gibson (KY) 1917 Sharp L
Lady Bright- King (TN) 1917 Sharp R
Lady Bright- Broughton (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Knight and Lady Bright- Patrick (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Lady Gay- Powell (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Lady Gay- Pace (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Lady Gay- Pratt (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Lady Gay- Creech (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Lady Gay- Dunaway (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Three Little Babes- Kinnard (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
A Lady Gay- Reynolds (VA) 1918 Sharp N
Lady Gay- Fitzgerald (VA) 1918 Sharp M
The Romish Lady- Mitchell (NC) 1918 Sharp O
Three Little Babes- Penland (NC) 1918 Sharp P
Her Babes- Rathbone (NC) 1918 Sharp Q
Lady Gay- C. Fitzgerald (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
Three Little Babes- J. Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Three Little Babes- S. Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Lady Gay- P. Fitzgerald (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
Old Widow- Blankenshipp (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Three Babes- Ayres (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Little Loney- Godfrey (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Three Pore Little Children- Woodie(NC) 1920 Brown
Nancy Bride- Hart (VA) 1921 Stone/ Davis A
The Lady Gay- Allison (VA) 1921 Stone/ Davis B
A Lady Fair- Doss (VA) 1921 Stone/ Davis E
The Beautiful Bride- Farris(VA) 1921 Stone/Davis F
The Lady Gay- Fields (VA) 1921 Stone/ Davis H
Moravian Song- Granny (NC) 1921 Sutton/ Brown G
Lady Gay- (KY) 1923 Raine/Sharp "Ballad Book"
The Three Little Babes- Long (MS) 1926 Hudson A
Three Little Babes- Moore (TN-VA) c1927 Davies
Lady Gay- Kazee (KY) 1928 Recording
There Was a Woman- Tucker (GA) 1929 Henry
Three Little Babies- Stephens (MO) 1929 Randolph A
The Three Babes- Greer (NC) 1929, 1941 Recording
The Three Little Babes-Wilson (NC) 1929 Brown 4A
Three Little Babes- Jones (MS) pre1930 Hudson
Two Little Babes- Mrs. Oliver (TN) 1930 Henry C
Three Little Babes- Oliver (TN- MA) 1931 Henry B
The Three Little Babes- Starke (VA) 1931 Davis CC
A Lady Gay- Moses (KY) 1931 Fuson
The Three Little Babes- Yeatts (VA) 1932 Davis AA
Three Babes- Grubb (VA) 1932 Davis BB
Three Little Babes- Williamson (VA) 1932 Davis DD
The Wife of the Free- Geer (NC) 1933 Niles B
Three Babes- Nichols (TN) 1933 Cambiaire
Three Babies- Tucker/Harmon(GA-TN) 1933 Henry A
The Lone Widow- Peterson (NC) pre1933 Brown H
Three Little Babes- N. Morris(VA) 1935 Wilkinson A
Three Sweet Babes- Mace (VA) 1935 Wilkinson B
Lady Gay- P. Morris (VA) 1936 Wilkinson C
Three Little Babes- Swetnam (MS) 1936 Hudson B
There was a Lady- O'Quinn (VA) 1936 Scarborough
The Little Dead Boys- Ledford (NC) 1936 Niles A
Three Little Babes- Robertson (OH-MO) 1939 Eddy
Three Little Babes- (NC) c1940 Brown 4C1 REC
Three Little Babes- Church (NC) c1940 Brown 4C
Three Little Babes- Hicks (NC) c1940 Brown J REC
There was a Knight- Gladden (VA) 1941 Lomax REC
Wife at Usher's Well- Fish (NH) 1943 Flanders B
The Cartin Wife- Pother (NC) 1943 Niles C
Three Little Babes- Frye (NC) 1945 Abrams REC
Lady Gay- Carrigan (TN) 1949 Boswell
Three Little Babes- Riley (FL) pre1950 Morris B
Wife of Usher's Well- Burditt (VT) 1951 Flanders A
Mary Hebrew- Hartsell (NC) 1951 Lumpkin
Lady Gay- James (AR) 1953 Wolf Collection
Lady Gay- (VA-NC) pre1956 Richard Chase
Lady From the North Country- Parker(AR)1958 Hunter
Little Lady Gay- Riddle (AR) 1959 Wolf/Hunter
The Wife of Usher's Well- Ritchie (NC) 1960 REC
Three Little Babes- Grandma (AR) 1963 Wolf REC
Knight and Lady Bride- McDanel (OK) 1964 Moore B
Three Little Babes- Perdue (VA-GA) 1965 West REC
Three Little Babes- Gilbert (AR) 1969 Max Hunter
Three Little Babes- Pritt (WV) 1975 Gainer
Lady Gay- Sturgill (KY) 1976 REC
Lady Bride and Three Babes- (NC) 1982 Helms
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Folk Songs From East Kentucky, Collected by Folk Song Project of the Federal Music Project in Kentucky
Part of Kentucky Works Progress Administration Publications; 1935, page 11
Three Little Babes
1. Three was a lady, a lady gay
Of children she had three,
She sent them away to the north collegy
To learn their grammery.
[more]
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[Belden Notes: Ballads and Songs; 1940]
The Wife of Usher's Well
(Child 79)
This ballad has persisted better in America than in the old country. Child's C is from Shropshire, 'taken down 24th March, 1883, from the recitation of an elderly fisherman at Bridgworth;' I have found no later record of it in the British Isles. Nor has it been reported from Canada or Newfoundland. In the United States many texts have been taken down in recent years, nearly all of them from the South. In Maine Barry found one person who recognized nearly all of Cox's West Virginia text A and another who knew several stanzas of Cox's B and D; it has not otherwise been recorded from New England. Texts have been printed from Virginia (TBV 278-88, SharpK I 157-9, SCSM 168-9), 'West Virginia (FSS 88-93), Kentucky (JAFL XXX 808, FSKM 4, BKH 59-60, SharpK I 155-7), Tennessee (ETWVMB 121-2, SharpK I 152-3, 160, FSSH 71-2), North Carolina (Child V 294-5, JAFL XXX 306-7 (by way of California), SharpK I 150-2, 153-4, 159-60), Georgia (JAFL XLIV 69-4, FSSH 70-1), Mississippi (FSM 93-5), Nebraska (ABS 20-1), the Ozarks (OASPS 180-1), and Missouri.
All of these American texts seem to belong to one version, distinguished from Child A B C by the following particulars:
1. The revenants are children (most often 'babes') not the 'stalwart sons' of Child A.
2. There is no cursing of the waters; but the mother often prays for the return of her babes.
3. The children decline earthly food and drink because 'yonder stands our Savior dear, to him we must resign.' And commonly, too, the splendor of the golden spread. the mother lays upon their bed is rebuked as evidence of worldly pride.
4. The children are sent away at the beginning to 'learn their grammaree', a feature not found in Child A B C.
5. The recall of ghosts by cock-crow is either changed to the crowing of 'chickens' (except in BBM B, which is Irish)-- this looks like a case of American bowdlerizing-- or is omitted altogether, the children refusing the fine bed their mother has prepared for them or simply making one another at the proper time.
6. Use of the folk-belief that tears shed for the dead disturb their rest in the grave by wetting their winding-sheet. This is a not unfailing but a very common feature of the American texts and does not appear in Child A, B, C.
The Shropshire version has in common with these American texts a strongly religious coloring, but has little resemblance to them in detail. One suspects some printed source as the explanation of the likeness in the American texts, but I find no mention of such. I have in my file (it was printed in JAFI, XXX 308-9) a text from Tennessee and also one printed in the Grapurchat, school paper of the East Radford (Va.) State Teachers College and sent to me by Professor Jean Taylor. The former was communicated to me by Professor A. R. Hohlfeld of the University of Wisconsin, who had it from Miss Mary Pierce of Nashville, In answer to a query of mine as to the provenience of the text Miss Pierce wrote to me: I remember that the woman who gave me "The Wife of Usher's Well" said that it was from a (ballad) book.' Neither of these texts is from Missouri and they are
therefore not given here.
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[Davis Notes; 1929]
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, Y, 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.
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[Notes from Cecil Sharp; English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; Sharp/Campbell I, 1917; also Sharp/Karpeles I; 1932. The 1932 Edition notes follow.]
No. 22. The Wife of Usher's Well.
Texts without tunes:—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 79. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiii. 119; xxiii. 429; xxx. 305; xxxix. 96. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 88.
Texts with tunes:—E. M. Leather's Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, p. 198. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 278 and 576.
See also The Cruel Mother (No. 10), Tune B. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 5. Texts A and B are remarkable in that the children cite the mother's 'proud heart' as the reason that has caused them to 'lie in the cold clay', a motive which is absent from other English and Scottish versions.
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[Lady Gay; as recorded by Buell Kazee on Brunswick.Vocal with banjo. New York City, January 16, 1928. ]
An earlier name for this ancient British ballad is "The Wife of Usher's Well." "Old Christmas" is another name for January 6, the date when the infant Christ was visited by the Three Wise Men. Buell Kazee was an educated Kentuckian with mountain roots who performed folk songs learned both from his childhood environment and literary texts.
There was a lady and a lady gay
Of children she had three
She sent them away to the north country
For to learn their grammar-y
They had not been there very long
Scarcely six months and a day
'Till death, cold death, came hasting along
And stole those babes away
It was just about Old Christmas time
The nights being cold and clear
She looked and she saw her three little babes
Come running home to her
She set a table both long and wide
And on it she put bread and wine
"Come eat, come drink, my three little babes
Come eat, come drink of mine!"
"We want none of your bread, Mother
Neither do we want your wine
For yonder stands our Savior dear
And to Him we must resign
"Green grass grows over our heads, Mother
Cold clay is under our feet
And every tear you shed for us
It wets our winding sheet"
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[Flanders: Ancient Ballads Notes by Coffin]
The Wife of Usher's Well
(Child 79)
The tradition of "The wife of usher's Well" is much confused, although most of the American texts are rather consistent in their similarity to child D, from North Carolina. The British versions, now pretty much extinct, are generally incomplete or garbled. child A and B give no motive for the return of the three sons nor do they describe the actions of the sons at home. C is nearly impossible to follow, although the return comes as a result or prayer as it does in D. Belden, 55-56, and Jane Zielonko, "Some American Variants of Child Ballads" (Master's thesis, Columbia university, 1945), 104 f., both discuss the manner in which the Child D tradition varies from the child A-c texts. Belden seems certain the child D tradition goes back to print, but he can offer no references. However, there is strong circumstantial evidence to back his feeling as the song is rare in Britain, widespread and relatively unvarying in this country. In the light of these facts, the Flanders texts are immensely interesting. Flanders A is a close reproduction of Child A in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802), II, III, and thus quite unusual for America. This brings up the possibility that it was learned directly from Sir Walter Scott's volume or from Child by someone in Mrs. Burditt's family. Flanders B, which does not seem to be a ghost story at all, rather a sentimental love tale spiced with maternal devotion, is a remarkable find. Obviously it is near print; the trite language and the maudlin plot are proof enough of that. Originally, it may be related to the tradition of the garbled Child C from Shropshire where the boys are named Joe, Peter, and John, although names Malcolm, Jock, and Don seem Scottish or at least Scotch-Irish. It is actually a completely new song, not Child 79 at all, and no closer to its "progenitor" than many of the so-called secondary ballads.
L. C. Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Chicago, 1928), 226, discusses the themes of revenants, moralistic punishment, and transformation that are interwoven into the American texts. Coffin, 83-84, gives an American bibliography and summary. Dean-Smith does not list the song, although it appears in E. M. Leather's The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire (London, 1912), 198.
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[H. Fuson, Ballads of the Kentucky Highlands; Note the classification]
THE CRUEL MOTHER (OR THREE CHILDREN)
Copy furnished by Prof. Leon Denny Moses)
There was a lady, a lady gay
And children she had three
She sent them away to a northern school,
To learn them grammaree.
They hadn't been gone but a little while,
Scarcely three months to a day,
Till cold death came hastening on,
And took those babes away.'
It was getting near the Christmas time,
The night was long and cold
She looked out and saw her three little babes
Come running to their home.
The table being ready set,
And on it cake and wine.
"Come in, come in, my three little babes,
Come eat and drink of mine!"
"We want none of your bread, dear mother,
Neither none of your wine;
Yonder stands our Saviour dear,
To Him we must resign."
She fixed them a bed in the very back room,
And on it put white sheets,
And over the top put a golden spread
To make those babies sleep.
"Take it off, take it off," said the oldest one
"The chickens will soon crow;
Yonder stands our Saviour dear,
To him we must all go.
"Put marble stones at our heads, dear mother,
And cold clay at our feet,
For the tears you shed for us last night
Would wet our winding sheet."
___________________________________
[More TBVa; Davis notes; 1960]
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
(Child, No. 79)
A mother sends her children away to school. They die before their return home. The mother grieves and prays that they may come back to her. They return at Christmas, of course as ghosts, though the mother seems unaware of this. They refuse to eat or drink. They depart at daybreak, sometimes warning their mother against worldiness and suggesting that her excessive grief for them may disturb their repose.
Child prints only four texts of the ballad, three from Britain and one from America (North Carolina). No additional texts have appeared in English collections since Child's time, according to Miss Dean-Smith, nor have recent texts been found in Scotland or in British America. But the United States is richly supplied with versions or variants, and a great many have been collected, chiefly in the Southern states. For example, Sharp-Karpeles (I, 150-60) present eighteen tunes with texts or partial texts from the Southern Appalachians. The Brown Collection (II, 95-101, and IV, 48-53) reports nine texts, not all of them printed, and seven tunes. TBVa prints twelve texts of thirteen available, with two tunes. In contrast, Barry presents no traces from Maine or the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Belden's Missouri collection (pp. 55-57) presents only two texts, and the Ozark collection (I, tzz-24) only two texts with tunes. More recent Virginia collecting has produced ten additional items of the ballad, of which only five are here presented, four of them with tunes.
Most, if not all, of the American texts, including the Virginia texts, are more closely related to Child D (V, 294) than to any other Child text, perhaps naturally since Child D comes from North Carolina. Belden (pp. 55-56) has listed the six particulars in which the American texts are to be distinguished from Child A, B, and C. He even suspects some printed source as the explanation of the likeness of the American texts, but he (and others) have been unable to find one. Belden seems to overestimate likeness and to ignore significant variations in the American texts. Perhaps Gerould (p. 172) is on sounder ground when he remarks: "Unquestionably the song has been created anew, as it has been transmitted from singer to singer and has travelled from Scotland to Virginia."
The Virginia texts share with Child C (from Shropshire) as well as with Child D the strongly religious coloring: the presence of the Saviour and the sinfulness of pride, and perhaps the suggestion that the return is made in answer to the mother's prayer. But there are pagan elements also: the belief that spirits return in order to calm the persistent lamentations of the bereaved, the vanishing of the ghosts at cock-crow, and the folk-belief that tears for the dead disturb their rest by wetting their winding-sheet- the note on which all the full texts that follow end.
If Child A from Scott's Minstrelsry is the best known and perhaps the most poetic version of the ballad, other versions, including the American, have their poetic claims as well. The essential poetic appeal, shared by all the versions, is the tragic pathos of the mother's failure to understand or unwillingness to believe that her sons are mere ghosts and must depart so soon. It is Child who says (II, 78), "Nothing that we have is more profoundly affecting." At least three of the four tunes that follow, all three of them transcribed from records, are both musically interesting and fitting musical vehicles for the poetry of the ballad. See the individual headnotes.
________________________________
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
79. THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 449 (trace) / Belden, Mo J?-S, 55 / Brown Coll / Cambiaire, Ea Tenn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 121 / Child, V, 294 / Cox, F-S South, 88 / Cox, W. Va, School Journal and Educator, XLIV, 388; XLV, 1 1 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 279 / Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, 58 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 46 / Fuson, Bids Ky Hghlds, 59 / Grapurchat, East Radford (Va.) State Teachers College, 8 -25, 1932 / Harper's Mgz (June 1904), 121 / Haun, Cocke Cnty, 104 / Henry, F-S So Hghlds, 71 / Hudson, F-S Miss, 93 / Hudson, F- T Miss, 17 / Hudson S/wJIfwJF-iM/Hmni 96; XLIV, 63 / McDonald, Slctd Mo F-S, 25 / McGill, F-S Ky Mts, 5 / Minish Mss. / Morris, F-S Fla, 421 / Niles, Anglo-Am Bid Stdy Bk, 14 / Niles, Bids Crls Tgc Lgds, 4 / Pound, Am Bids Sgs, 1 8 / Pound, Nebr Syllabus, 10/ Randolph, OzF-S, I, 122 / Randolph, The Ozarks, 1 80 / Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 167 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns, 119 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 150 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 9 / SFLQ, VIII, 152 / Smith and Rufty, Am Anth Old Wrld Bids, 23 / Va FLS Bull, rfcs 3-5, 9 / Wheeler, Ky Mt F-S, 14 / Wyman Mss. # 1
Local Titles: A Moravian Song, A Woman Lived in a Far Country, Children's Song, Cruel Mother, The Beautiful Bride, The Ladie Bright, The Lady and the Children Three, The Lady Gains, The (A) Lady Gay, The Lone Widow, The Three Babies, (The) Three (Little) Babes.
Story Types: A: A mother sends her three children away to school in the north. They die there. Usually she grieves and prays for their return. At Christmas time they do come back. However, when she prepares a feast and a fine bed for them, they refuse her efforts to please them saying that such things are worldly pride and that the Saviour forbids such indulgence. At
dawn or on the summons of the Saviour they leave, telling the mother her tears but wet their winding sheets.
Examples: Cox (A), Davis (E), McGill.
B: The story is identical to that of Type A, but the inference is made by the children that it was the mother's "proud heart" that caused their deaths. Examples : SharpK (A, B).
Discussion: Zielonko, Some American Variants of Child Ballads , 104 ff. and Belden, Mo F-S, 55 6 discuss the American variations of this song in some detail. The latter lists six points in which the most common American texts differ from the Child A, B, C series: I. The revenants are children, often girls, and not grown boys ; 2. there is no cursing of the waters, but the mother usually prays for the children's return; 3. the ghosts refuse earthly pleasures in some cases because the Saviour stands yonder; 4. the recall of the ghosts at the crowing of the cocks is omitted or occurs when the "chickens" crow, except in Irish texts; 5. the children leave home to learn their gramarye; 6. the folk idea that tears for the dead wet the winding sheets and disturb the peace is present. In addition, the fact that the ghostly nature of the children is frequently assumed in America without being definitely stated (see Davis, Trd Bid Fa, A) is an interesting proof of the belief in the "flesh and blood" reality of spirits. See Wimberly, Folklore in English and. Scottish Popular Ballads, 226. Zielonko, op. cit., 109 notes in connection with these points that there are three narrative elements interwoven into the American texts: the Unquiet Grave theme of the corpse disturbed by the mourning of the living; the moralistic punishment of pride theme from Child C; and the theme of the transformation of one dead man into three children.
The Type B texts seem to represent a confusion of the story, so that the new end contradicts the opening stanza in a way somewhat similar to the Edward-Twa Brothers fusion noted under Child 13 and 49. Other American variations worth note can be found in Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 9 where the children are sent to America and die on shipboard; in George P.
Jackson's Spiritual Folk Songs of Early America, 28, where it is pointed out that The Romish Lady has had an influence on the SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, version; in the incremental Haun, Co eke Cnty, 104 text; in Cox, F-S South, A text where the children return at New Year's time rather than Christmas time; and in the Minish Mss. where the children tell the mother
her tears will not wet their winding-sheets.
Belden, op. cit., 56 suspects a printed source for the American texts because of their marked similarities.
Missing versions:
LADY GAY
Source June Appal 001 ('Passing Thru the Garden')
Performer Workman, Nimrod
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Chatteroy
LADY GAY, THE
Source Fowke & Johnston, Folk Songs of Canada 2 (1967) pp.24-25
Performer Anderson, Mrs. Cecil
Place collected Canada : Manitoba : Winnipeg
Collector Fowke, Edith
LADY GAY, THE
Source Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 86)
Performer Anderson, Mrs. Cecil (Katherine)
Place collected Canada : Manitoba : Winnipeg
Collector Fowke, Edith
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, THE
Source Bush, Folk Songs of Central West Virginia 5 pp.92-93
Performer Hammons, Sherman
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Pocahontas County
Collector Bush, Michael E.
BABES WHO WERE STOLEN AWAY, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version n)
Performer Robbins, Mrs. Cordelia Ann
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hylton, James M.
I WISH YOU WAS MINE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version h)
Performer Stapleton, Mrs. Alice
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
LADY FAIR
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version b)
Performer Ison, Mrs. Sarah
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
LADY GAY
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version c)
Performer Adams, Finley
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
LADY GAY
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version d)
Performer Banks, Joseph
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
LADY GAY
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version e)
Performer Wagoner, Mrs. Alice
Place collected USA : Virginia : Endicott
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
LADY GAY
Source McDonald, Study of Selected Folk-Songs of S. Missouri (1939) pp.25-26
Performer Cresson, Mrs. John
Place collected USA : Missouri : Springfield
Collector McDonald, Grant
LADY'S DREAM, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version a)
Performer Ferguson, Mrs. Augusta
Place collected USA : Virginia : Ferrum
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
THERE WAS A LADY AND A LADY GAY
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version l)
Performer Johnson, Mrs. Polly
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
THERE WAS A LADY AND A LADY SHE WOULD BE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version j)
Performer Moles, Mrs. Susie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Esserville
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
THERE WAS A LADY AND A LADY WAS SHE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version k)
Performer Robbins, Mrs. Neely
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L
THREE LITTLE BABES
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version i)
Performer Wagoner, Mrs. Alice
Place collected USA : Virginia : Endicott
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
THREE LITTLE BABES, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version f)
Performer Blevins, Rev. G.W.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Adams, John Taylor
THREE LITTLE BABES, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version g)
Performer Wells, Mrs. Alice
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1544 (version m)
Performer
Place collected USA : Virginia : Antioch
Collector Morton, Susan R.
Roud number 196 | Roud number search
THREE LITTLE BABES
Source Library of Congress recording 3065 A & B1
Performer Walker, Mrs. Carrie
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Magee
Collector Halpert, Herbert
THREE LITTLE BABES, THE
Source Library of Congress recording 1787 B2
Performer Lunsford, Bascom Lamar
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Asheville (New York)
Collector Hibbitt, George W. / William Cabell Greet
THREE LITTLE BABES, THE
Source Library of Congress recording 2792 A2 & B
Performer Adams, Finley
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Dunham
Collector Halpert, Herbert
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, THE
Source Library of Congress recording 1734 A
Performer Swallow, Wesley
Place collected USA : Indiana : Oakland City
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, THE
Source Library of Congress recording 3637 B2
Performer McCoy, Sande / Bernard Steffen
Place collected USA : New York
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 196 | Roud number search
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, THE
Source Library of Congress recording 853 A1
Performer Grogan, Mrs. Julia
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Silverstone
Collector Lomax, John A.
Roud number 196 | Roud
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, THE
Source Library of Congress recording 2906 B1
Performer Harmon, Mrs. Edith
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Maryville
Collector Halpert, Herbert
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, THE
Source Library of Congress recording 838 A2
Performer Burkett, Mrs. C.A.
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Mabel
Collector Lomax, John A.
THREE LITTLE BABES
Source West Virginia Folklore 2:2 (Jan 1952) p.10
Performer Jackson, Mrs. W.R.
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Grafton
Collector Musick, Ruth
THREE BABES
Source West Virginia Folklore 3:4 (Fall 1953) pp.61-62
Performer Gerwig, Mrs. Viola D.
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Braxton County
LADY GAY [This is a mistake]
Source Song Ballads & Other Songs of the Pine Mountain Settlement School (1923) pp.125-126
Performer
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Pine Mountain
Collector
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, THE
Source Haun, Cocke County Ballads & Songs (1937) p.104
Performer Haun, Mrs. Maggie
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Cocke County
Collector
WIFE OF USHER'S WELL, THE [This is a mistake]
Source Crabtree, Songs & Ballads Sung in Overton County, Tennessee (1936) p.58
Performer Hughes, Mrs. Exona
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Flat Top
Collector
THREE LITTLE BABES
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.56-60 (version b)
Performer Aslinger, Mrs. Ollie
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Sale Creek
THREE LITTLE BABES
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.56-60 (version a)
Performer Hughes, Mrs. Exona
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Flat Top
Collector Duncan, Ruby
LADY GAY
Source Raine & Sharp, Mountain Ballads for Social Singing (1923) pp.26-27
Performer
Place collected USA
THREE LITTLE BABES
Source Jean Thomas Coll. (Dwight Anderson Music Lib, Univ. of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky) Box 4A folder 190
Performer
Place collected USA : Kentucky?
Collector Thomas, Jean
LADY GAY
Am I Born to Die: An Appalachian Songbook
Mason Brown (Performer), Chipper Thompson (Performer)