https://folkopedia.info/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Steve+Gardham&feedformat=atomFolkopedia - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T22:02:43ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.35.1https://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=209:_Geordie&diff=5309209: Geordie2009-03-21T23:11:08Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Maiden’s Lamentation for her Georgy 1 As I rode over London bridge, ‘Twas in the morning early, There did I spy a maiden fair, Lamenting for her Georgy. 2 Georgy never stole ox or cow...</p>
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<div>Maiden’s Lamentation for her Georgy<br />
1 <br />
As I rode over London bridge,<br />
‘Twas in the morning early,<br />
There did I spy a maiden fair,<br />
Lamenting for her Georgy.<br />
2<br />
Georgy never stole ox or cow,<br />
Nor calves he never stole any,<br />
Six of the King’s white deer he stole,<br />
And sold them at Broad Hembury.<br />
3<br />
Come saddle me my milk white steed,<br />
Come saddle it so ready,<br />
Then I will ride to my good Lord Judge<br />
To beg for the life of my Georgy.<br />
4<br />
And when she came into the hall,<br />
There was Lords and Ladies plenty,<br />
And down on her bended knees did fall,<br />
Spare me the life of my Georgy.<br />
5<br />
I have got sheep, I have got cows,<br />
Oxen I have plenty,<br />
And you shall them all your own,(sic)<br />
Spare me the life of my Georgy.<br />
6<br />
The Judge he look’d over his left shoulder<br />
Saying, Lady pray now be easy,<br />
George hath confess’d, & die he must,<br />
The Lord have mercy on my Georgy.<br />
7<br />
Georgy shall be hanged in a chain of gold<br />
Such as you never saw many,<br />
For George’s one of the British blood,<br />
And he courted a virtuous Lady.<br />
8<br />
Who for him hath wept both night & day<br />
And could not drive her sorrow away,<br />
But she hoped to see that happy day,<br />
To be blest once more with her Georgy.<br />
9<br />
Was I at the top of Prockter’s hill,<br />
Where times I have been many,<br />
With my pistol cock’d all in my hand,<br />
I’d fight for the life of my Georgy.<br />
<br />
The above version printed by T Birt of London is almost identical to those printed by Hook of Brighton, Pitts, and Catnach, and their followers in the trade, Hodges, Disley and Fortey, all of London. Broad Hembury is in Devon between Honiton and Cullompton, and there were lots of farmers of the name Prockter in the district in the early nineteenth century.<br />
<br />
The Maid’s Lamentation for the Loss of Her Georgy<br />
1<br />
As I rode over London bridge,<br />
It was in the morning early,<br />
There I heard a maiden sigh and complain,<br />
Lamenting for her Georgy.<br />
2<br />
Come saddle me my milk white steed,<br />
Come saddle it so ready.<br />
And I will go to my good lord Judge,<br />
And beg for the life of my Georgy<br />
3<br />
And when she came to my good lord Judge,<br />
She was both wet and weary,<br />
And on her bended knees did fall,<br />
To beg the life of her Georgy.<br />
4<br />
She travelled till she got into the hall,<br />
Where were lords and ladies plenty,<br />
And on her bended knees did fall,<br />
Saying spare me the life of my Georgy.<br />
5<br />
The judge looked over his left shoulder,<br />
Saying lady I pray you be easy,<br />
Your Georgy is condemned and die he must,<br />
Then the Lord have mercy on my Georgy.<br />
6<br />
My Georgy never robb’d any man,<br />
Never plundered any,<br />
For stealing six of the King’s white deer,<br />
And sold them at Bohemia.<br />
7<br />
My Georgy shall be hanged in silken ropes,<br />
Such as ne’er hanged any,<br />
For he was one of the British blued,<br />
And courted a virtuous lady.<br />
8<br />
Who for him hath wept both night and day,<br />
And nothing can drive her sorrows away,<br />
For she hoped to have seen the happy day,<br />
To have been blessed once more with her Georgy.<br />
9<br />
I wish I was on yonder hill,<br />
Where times I have been many,<br />
With a sword and pistol in my hand,<br />
I’d fight for the life of my Georgy.<br />
10<br />
Take me home and let me mourn,<br />
And I will mourn so rarely,<br />
I’ll mourn a twelvemonth and a day,<br />
All for the life of my Georgy.<br />
<br />
The above version printed by Jennings of London c1809-1815, was also printed later in the century by Such of London. The last stanza is no doubt influenced by a stanza in Child 78, ‘The Unquiet Grave’.<br />
<br />
The Life of Georgey<br />
1<br />
As I was walking over London bridge,<br />
It was one morning early,<br />
There I espied a gay lady,<br />
Lamenting for her Georgey.<br />
2<br />
Come fetch me some little boy,<br />
That can run an errand swiftly,<br />
That can go ten miles in one hour,<br />
With a little for a lady. (letter)<br />
3<br />
Come saddle me my milk white steed,<br />
Come saddle it so neatly,<br />
That I may go down unto Newcastle gaol,<br />
Begging for the life of Georgey.<br />
4<br />
But when she came unto Newcastle gaol,<br />
She bowed her head so slowly,<br />
Three times on her bended knees did fall,<br />
Saying spare me the life of Georgey<br />
5<br />
The Judge looked over his left shoulder,<br />
And he seemed very hard hearted,<br />
He said, my dear you must begone,<br />
For there is no pardon granted.<br />
6<br />
It is no murder Georgey’s done,<br />
Nor has he killed any,<br />
But he stole sixteen of the king’s best steeds,<br />
And he sold them in Bohemia.<br />
7<br />
It’s six pretty babies I have got,<br />
And the seventh lies in my body,<br />
I’d freely part with them every one,<br />
If you’d spare me the life of Georgey.<br />
8<br />
The Judge looked over his left shoulder,<br />
And he seemed very sorry,<br />
He said, my dear you are too late,<br />
Georgey’s condemn’d already.<br />
9<br />
My George shall be hung in chains of gold,<br />
Of such there are not many,<br />
Because he’s become of noble breed,<br />
And was lov’d by a virtuous lady.<br />
10<br />
I wish I was on yonder hill,<br />
Where times I have been many,<br />
With sword and pistol by my side,<br />
I’d fight for the life of Georgey.<br />
<br />
The above version printed by B Walker of Bradford is almost identical to those printed by Ward of Ledbury and Joseph Smyth of Belfast, all c1840.<br />
<br />
Charley’s Escape<br />
1<br />
As I walk’d over London bridge, twas on one morning early,<br />
‘Twas there I spied a gay lady lamenting for her Charley;<br />
Come saddle to me my milk white steed, come bridle to me so early,<br />
That I may go down to my good lord Judge, and plead for the life of Charley.<br />
2<br />
She met the Judge then at his door, she look’d exceeding sorry,<br />
Saying good lord Judge grant me my request, it’s but spare me the life of Charley.<br />
The Judge look’d over his right shoulder, he look’d exceeding sorry,<br />
Saying pretty maid you have come too late, for he’s condemned already.<br />
3<br />
The Judge look’d over his left shoulder, he look’d exceeding straightly, <br />
Saying young man you must die to-day, and the Lord have mercy on ye;<br />
As Charley walk’d through the hall taking his leave of many,<br />
But when he come to his own true love, oh! it grieved him worse than any.<br />
4<br />
Charley never rob’d the king’s highway, nor yet hath he kill’d any,<br />
But he stole sixteen of the king’s fair dears and sold them at Bohema.<br />
I wish I was on yonder hill, where kisses I’ve had many,<br />
With a good broadsword all drawn in my hand, I’d fight for the life of Charley.<br />
5<br />
When Charley sat on the gallows high, with the silken cord about him,<br />
This fair maid said that she must die for she could not live without him.<br />
The Judge took her by the lilly white hand and led her to the parlour,<br />
Saying pretty maid he is pardon’d, now go, you’re welcome to your Charley.<br />
<br />
From ‘The Green Mountain Songster’ published in Vermont in 1823.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=Child_209_Comment&diff=5308Child 209 Comment2009-03-21T23:06:50Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: On the early history of this ballad we can add very little of great significance to what was known in Child’s time. That there were at least three separate but related ballads seemingly ...</p>
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<div>On the early history of this ballad we can add very little of great significance to what was known in Child’s time. That there were at least three separate but related ballads seemingly prior to 1700 is widely accepted, and all three of them appear to be based on real events. If these claims are correct the earliest would appear to be the Scots ballad which is said to relate to events that happened in 1554 to George Gordon, Fourth Earl of Huntly.<br />
<br />
The other two ballads, both English and found on seventeenth century broadsides, Child understandably relegated to an appendix, but he was unaware of the many English and American, broadside and oral, hybrid versions extant in his own time, which have elements from all three of the earlier ballads. <br />
<br />
The earlier of the two English ballads, ‘A Lamentable New Ditty made upon the Death of a Worthy Gentleman named George Stoole….at Newcastle….to a delicate Scottish tune’, has been dated at 1610. It was certainly printed in London at about that time.<br />
<br />
The second, ‘The Life and Death of George of Oxford, to a Pleasant tune called Poor Georgy’, was printed in London towards the end of that century.<br />
<br />
Both ballads share the common confessional stanza:-<br />
<br />
‘I never stole no ox nor cow,<br />
Nor never murdered any,<br />
But I stole sixteen of the king’s white steeds,<br />
And I sold them in Bohemia.’<br />
<br />
This stanza has crept into some of the later versions of the Scots ballad. In all three ballads Geordie is condemned to die and reprieve is attempted successfully or unsuccessfully by his lover; but they have little text in common other than what would be considered commonplace or coincidence. The ‘many/any’ rhyme occurs in all three, and there is similarity in the lover offering money/gold/lands to deliver her lover from execution. The writing of a letter common to the Scots ballad and ‘George Stoole’ is a mere commonplace as is the ‘Go saddle me a milk-white steed’ stanza, common to ‘George of Oxford’ and the Scots ballad.<br />
<br />
That all three ballads continued in oral tradition into the eighteenth century is a strong possibility. Whereas it is likely that the later of the three ballads ‘George of Oxford’ was influenced to some degree by the other two at the composition stage, it is also very likely that the Scots version has picked up elements from ‘George of Oxford’ in later oral tradition.<br />
<br />
The study of the ballad is further confused by the obvious interference of literary hands in the Scots versions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Having looked very closely at all extant Scots versions of this period and compared stanza by stanza, those versions which seem to have had the least interference in this way are Child’s A, C, D, F and G versions. Of the fragments it is impossible to say, but B, H , I and J should be treated with great suspicion; not only because of their unique extra elements, but because their collectors are well-known for having interfered heavily with most of their material.<br />
<br />
There are some points of note that arise from close comparison of the earliest Scots versions, i.e., those published by Child, with the addition of a contemporary version in the Crawfurd Collection (Volume 2, p152). First of all the two versions that seem to be fullest, and carry almost the complete stock of reliable stanzas between them, are Child’s A and D versions, Burns’ version sent to the Scots Musical Museum, and the version taken down from Janet Scott which is in the material for Scott’s Border Minstrelsy. Whilst these two versions only have seven stanzas in common they have between them twenty-three of the most common and reliable stanzas found in all of the Scots versions. <br />
<br />
It would appear that nearly all of the Scots versions of this period have a range of later additional stanzas tagged on the end which vary considerably from one version to another. The best example of this is Child F, Agnes Lyle’s version, which has half a dozen of these, all other versions having no more than two of them. I am here excluding Child’s B version, sent to Scott from the recitation of Mr. Bartram, which concludes with a jumble of material not found elsewhere.<br />
<br />
Having stated that Child A, the Burns/Johnson version is very likely reliable, I feel the need here to repeat the conclusions of contemporary scholars like Aytoun that the last stanza is one of Burns’ own compositions; however, this stanza does have an equivalent in the penultimate stanza of Agnes Lyle’s version which comes from an area not too far away from Burns country. We need to be careful with anything sent by Burns to the Musical Museum as there is always the strong likelihood that Burns placed his own stamp upon it. By the same token all of the Scots material printed by Child at some point passed through the hands of antiquarian poets and it is now impossible to declare with any complete conviction that any given version of a ballad had not been retouched by one or more of these antiquarian poets. Moreover it is also impossible to say to what extent these interferences affected any particular version; but this should not deter us from dealing in possibilities and probabilities, based on close study of all known manuscript versions. A simple example occurs where a single version differs markedly from all other versions, then the greatest probability is that this version has been remade by one individual and has not passed through the minds of very many people. For instance Child’s B version of thirty stanzas from Mr Bartram via Scott has eighteen stanzas that are found in other versions, but has twelve that are fresh and occur in no other version extant then or now. It could be argued that there may have been at some time many other similar versions that have just not come down to us, but I tend to deal with the evidence I can see in front of me and the likelihood is that this is a single rewrite with fresh additions possibly by Mr Bartram himself. Sir Walter was the tip of a rather large iceberg.<br />
<br />
The next stage in the development of the ballad is arguably the most interesting, i.e., the emergence of three closely related but distinct English broadside versions, c1800 and later, that contain elements from all three earlier ballads. Taken together they contain thirteen separate stanzas including two new stanzas shown below:<br />
<br />
‘Who for him hath wept both night and day,<br />
And nothing can drive her sorrows away,<br />
For she hoped to have seen the happy day,<br />
To have been blessed once more with her Georgy.’<br />
<br />
This occurs as the eighth of nine stanzas in the earliest version printed by Birt, Catnach and Pitts of London and their successors, and the eighth of ten stanzas in the version printed by Jennings of London and followers.<br />
<br />
‘Take me home and let me mourn,<br />
And I will mourn so rarely,<br />
I’ll mourn a twelvemonth and a day,<br />
All for the life of my Georgy.’<br />
<br />
This is the final stanza in the Jennings version which doesn’t occur in the other two versions. Line three is very likely taken from the equivalent stanza in Child 78 ‘The Unquiet Grave’.<br />
<br />
Of the thirteen stanzas used here one stanza comes solely from the ‘George Stoole’ ballad but the rest are evenly divided between deriving from the Scots ballad and ‘George of Oxford’. For it to have evolved in this form in oral tradition is asking a lot, therefore it presents us with the probability of some clever broadside hack with access to all 3 earlier ballads. We know that many well-known poets cut their teeth on broadside offerings as struggling young versifiers and this may be how this hybrid version came about some time in the late eighteenth century.<br />
<br />
However they originated the three versions were extremely influential in England in that all but one of the many English oral versions can be traced back to one or other of these broadside versions. Out of all the English oral versions only Harry Cox’s Norfolk version has material not directly from these broadsides. His version has at stanza 4:<br />
<br />
‘So when she got to the castle door<br />
The prisoners stood many<br />
They all stood round with their caps in their hands<br />
Excepting her bonny bonny Georgie.’<br />
<br />
This stanza is present in most of the Scots versions but occurs in no other English version. The only explanation that immediately springs to mind is that in Harry’s long association with folksong collectors and having a foot in both oral tradition and both revivals, he must have come into contact with many Scots singers. All of the source singers of his generation who came into contact with the outside world quite naturally augmented their repertoires with material picked up along the way and why not?<br />
<br />
A similar process to the English situation also occurred in North America where broadside versions similar to the English ones were printed in songsters in the early nineteenth century. Some of the oral versions will have been taken over to America by English emigrants but no doubt just as many oral versions found there derive from the American songster copies. As with other British ballads in North America, Geordie has acquired some new stock alongside the old, and a few extra fragments of the Scots ballad have also quite naturally crept in. However, I have seen no American versions that can be said to be solely based on the Scots ballad, and that includes from regions heavily settled by the Scots, such as Nova Scotia. Plenty of versions have been found in Nova Scotia but they all relate back to the later English broadside versions.<br />
<br />
This leads us finally to the survival of the ballad in Scotland, where it had almost disappeared until the folk revival of the 1950s. The Greig-Duncan Collection presents eleven versions and Ord’s ‘Bothy Ballads’ has two from the same region, the North East.<br />
Greig-Duncan’s version E and Ord’s second version (p456) are simply direct copies of Kinloch’s collated published version. All of the others are very close to each other and can only have come from a single recent source, which must have been either an Aberdeen stall copy written, printed and sold by Peter Buchan or one of his contemporaries, or one of the many published collated copies of the mid nineteenth century. The minor variations between these versions are typical of a ballad that has only been in oral circulation for a relatively short period, say twenty to thirty years. This is certainly a ballad or family of ballads that would reward further in-depth study. Tracing all of the oral versions back to their closest broadside with an eye on geographical distribution might turn up some interesting facts. Also with further research into and greater availability of eighteenth century stall copies this might turn up some interim versions.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=Child_8_Comment&diff=5105Child 8 Comment2009-02-07T00:06:11Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: The sources of Child’s A version of ‘Erlinton’ from Scott’s Minstrelsy are given in full in the additions and corrections in Volume 4. Although Scott claims to have collated the t...</p>
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<div><br />
The sources of Child’s A version of ‘Erlinton’ from Scott’s Minstrelsy are given in full in the additions and corrections in Volume 4. Although Scott claims to have collated the two copies they are almost identical, and Child conjectures they are so close as to have been versions taken down at different times from the same person, Nelly Laidlaw. Even without these two versions it is easy to identify Scott’s poetic touches in the Minstrelsy version. However, he has added nothing to the story on this occasion and only the last two lines of stanzas 5, 12 and 13, and bits of 14, 16 and 18 are Scott’s ‘improvements’.<br />
<br />
Child’s B version ‘True Tammas’ derives from James Telfer, 1800-1862, who was a Northumbrian who became interested in the works of Scott and Hogg at an early stage in his life. (See Dave Harker’s ‘The John Bell Song Collection’, introduction pxxvii) Indeed it was Telfer’s version of Earl Brand (7A) that was sent to Child by Robert White the Newcastle antiquary and Telfer’s close friend. The watermark on the manuscript for this is dated 1819, presumably an indication that Telfer took an interest in the ballads and was already collecting at the age of nineteen.<br />
<br />
However, according to Harker, he did not start collecting ballads in earnest until about 1835 and his notes in John Bell’s manuscripts start around 1839. The earliest actual dated piece from Telfer in the Bell Collection is for 1841. This is plenty of time for versions based on the Minstrelsy version of 1803 to have entered oral tradition, but Telfer’s version is obviously related to the Laidlaw version, containing as it does, none of Scott’s embellishments. The differences in text between the two versions of Laidlaw and Telfer would suggest that the ballad had had at least a little currency in oral tradition.<br />
<br />
Of Child’s C version, Child writes in additions and corrections in Volume 3, p499, this version is ‘found in a manuscript pretended to be of about 1650, but are written in a forged hand of this century. (nineteenth) I do not feel certain that the ballads themselves, bad as they are, are forgeries,….’ It is obviously a late imitation of a Robin Hood ballad infused with the commonplace ‘elopement, pursuit, battle’ familiar to all from its being much used in broadside ballads. Erlinton was one of the first ballads Child published at the beginning of Volume 1 and he had not yet used the option of placing dubious material in an appendix, which, had this C version been published in a later volume, would certainly have been its fate. Even at that time J Payne Collier was considered a noted ballad forger, and this opinion still holds good today.<br />
<br />
To summarise, this leaves us with effectively two, possibly three, close variants of yet another ballad on the ‘elopement, pursuit, battle’ theme. Child points out that Erlinton differs from the others in that it possibly harks back to a motif in some Danish versions whereby the ballad commences with the girl’s father setting up a guard on his daughter. There is no evidence that the ballad existed prior to the late eighteenth century, and like ‘Lord Douglas’s Tragedy’ (See notes to 7) it could easily have been an eighteenth century stall ballad or the product of some border poet of the period.<br />
<br />
Having no surviving tune there is no entry in Bronson.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=Child_7_Comment&diff=5104Child 7 Comment2009-02-06T23:51:11Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Although Child understandably put together ‘Earl Brand’ (EB) and ‘Lord Douglas’s Tragedy’ (LDT) under one number the two ballads have very little text in common, and though they...</p>
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<div><br />
Although Child understandably put together ‘Earl Brand’ (EB) and ‘Lord Douglas’s Tragedy’ (LDT) under one number the two ballads have very little text in common, and though they are clearly versions of the same story, they tell that story in quite different ways. I think we would nowadays be more inclined to treat them as two separate ballads, much in the same way as we treat the two broadside ballads ‘Bruton Town’ (Laws M32, Roud 18) and ‘The Constant Farmer’s Son’ (Laws M33, Roud 675) as separate, though they tell the same story.<br />
<br />
Child and others before him clearly demonstrate that EB is the same ballad almost exactly as the Scandinavian ballad ‘Ribolt og Guldborg’ although the latter tells a much fuller story. Whilst the Scandinavian ballad survives in many widespread and varied versions dating back to the seventeenth century, we only have evidence that the Scottish ballad existed in manuscripts and oral tradition in a relatively brief half-century period at the beginning of the nineteenth century.<br />
<br />
That EB is older than LDT, the modern stall ballad, is almost unquestionable. LDT has lost some of the essential elements of the story, and in terms of form, whilst LDT is in straightforward quatrains, EB has the older form of couplets interspersed with unrelated refrain. Using comparisons with other ballads of the type I am tempted to suggest that EB could even be a seventeenth century broadside ballad, but as no such broadside has come to light this is pure conjecture.<br />
<br />
In the case of the more modern ballad LDT I would guess at mid to late eighteenth century when this stall ballad was cobbled together from bits of Percy’s poem, ‘The Child of Elle’ ,a little of EB and with a smattering from the Scandinavian story. Some of it, of course, is made up of commonplaces found in a number of other ballads. It survives in several stall copies, at least one dated 1792, of varying quality. Sadly it swiftly replaced the earlier ballad in oral tradition, and although both ballads are fairly scarce in Scotland LDT went on to blossom in North America. Bronson gives thirty-three American versions and no doubt this number has increased much since he published his ‘Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads’ in 1959. Undoubtedly all versions of LDT derive ultimately from the Scottish stall copies, which vary only by the usual printing errors, except rather strangely in the additional final commonplace stanzas concerning the deaths and burials of the two lovers which throw up some interesting combinations of the three stanzas.<br />
<br />
Child gives references to and describes numerous Scandinavian ballad versions under a wide variety of names (collectively referred to hereon as ‘Ribolt og Guldborg’). Interestingly one of the heroes' names which crops up is Lillebrand, very close to the hero’s name in the Scottish ballad.<br />
Prior in his ‘Ancient Danish Ballads’ Volume 2, pp396-422 translated six versions and relates the story to an early Icelandic romance, and also mentions its similarity to an early German romance. Taken together the plots of the Scandinavian ballad versions cover a range of different scenes, each described in some detail; the King sets a guard around his daughter, Guldborg; one of the guards, a king of England’s son, Ribolt, persuades her to elope with him; on their journey they meet an old man who recognizes her despite her disguise, and attempts at bribery failing he rides off to warn her parents; her father and brothers set off in pursuit and then comes the climactic fight in which he kills all but one, her youngest brother who fatally wounds Ribolt. The story then diverges into two quite different conclusions, one in which, as in the Scottish ballad, they both reach his mother’s house and all three then die; and the other in which he dies soon after the battle, she is dragged off by her youngest brother, locked in a tower and eventually sold. A further dimension added to this type of the story is that she finishes up in working in his mother’s palace and tells her story to his mother before both of them die of shame and grief respectively. Indeed in some versions the story commences with the girl already at his mother’s house/palace where she then becomes the narrator telling the whole story to his mother. The fact that there are so many scenes to the story and so many widely varying versions of it would lend strength to the possibility that the ballad descended into ballad form from the romance, probably the Icelandic one.<br />
<br />
Prior states, ‘Grundtvig (The Danish compiler of many of these ballads) observes that these ballads may be in some measure a medieval echo of the Icelandic romance of ‘Helge Hundingsbane’, in which the hero fights for Sigrun and kills her father, but is himself slain by her youngest brother whose life he has spared.’…’All these ballads (the twenty-four published by Grundtvig) ….appear to be fragments of some very ancient and much longer romance.’<br />
<br />
Returning to the Scottish stall copy ‘Lord Douglas’s Tragedy’, here follows a probable list of sources stanza by stanza used in its composition.<br />
<br />
Rather abruptly and mysteriously, perhaps to give the effect of a fragment, the stall copy commences with two almost identical stanzas which are a warning and call to arms that the couple have eloped. This warning is given by some unnamed female who occurs in no other British traditional version. However in Thomas Percy’s poem, ‘The Child of Elle’, this same warning is given by the eloping girl’s ‘own damselle’ (her waiting maid) in stanzas 27 and 28. This at the very least gives us a hint that partially the stall copy is probably based on Percy’s poem. As far as we know Percy based his poem solely on a fragment of eleven stanzas of a ballad of the same name in his Folio Manuscript (Child’s F version), and this has no mention of the ‘damselle’. The third stanza of LDT is a ballad commonplace that has equivalents both in EB and Percy’s poem. The reference to her seven brethren has no mention in Percy’s poem but it does occur in the Folio Manuscript version. However I would guess that the writer’s source for this would have been a Scandinavian translation as he would not have had access to the then unpublished Folio Manuscript. Stanza 4, however is almost word for word stanza 33 of Percy’s poem, with the seven brethren displacing Percy’s ‘discourteous knight’. Stanzas 5-6 and 8 appear to be from some translation of Ribolt og Guldborg, although I have not yet identified any translations of the Danish ballad as early as the mid eighteenth century and would welcome any knowledge of this. Jamieson’s translation published in 1814 is the earliest I have yet come across. Stanza 7 is rather garbled and has no equivalent elsewhere, presumably a product of the writer’s own imagination. Stanza 8 is once again taken straight from Percy’s poem, stanza 25, although it is found as a commonplace in other ballads. In this LDT’s ‘blue gilded horn’ is obviously a corruption of Percy’s ‘bugle’. Stanzas 9-13 are paraphrases of the equivalent stanzas in EB, stanza 12 being just a verbatim repeat of stanza 8, and these do not occur in Percy’s poem which hereon continues in a totally different vein. The ‘mother, make my bed’ stanza 14 is a commonplace found in several ballads as are the last three stanzas found in many ballads in many languages.<br />
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So, to me at least, LDT is a stall ballad composed of pieces of Percy’s poem, EB and commonplaces, with a little input from translations of a Scandinavian version; and like several of Sir Walter Scott’s and Peter Buchan’s concoctions has been localized to arouse local interest, there being a local tradition involving a similar elopement by a Lord Douglas which is well documented in most of the Scottish collections in which it has been published. However I am not suggesting for one moment that in this case there has been some attempt by the writer to deceive. Performers, even today, are happy to take a traditional ballad and alter it to suit their own locality or set of circumstances, and why not?<br />
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We now come to the late eighteenth century stall ballad ‘The Bold Dragoon’ (Laws M27, Roud 321) as this has understandably been associated with Child 7 on occasions, particularly in America. Whilst there is an overlap of material between this short piece and what we perhaps should refer to as the Child 7/8 family, that overlap, as we shall shortly demonstrate, is made up of seventeenth century commonplaces. The earliest version of ‘The Bold Dragoon’ I have seen, ‘The Valiant Dragoon, A New Song’ was printed by T Wise of London c1790. Wise actually wrote some of his printed stall ballads, but, whilst he may have rewritten this one in a different rhyming pattern, it had been printed on at least two very similar seventeenth century broadsides, both to the designated traditional tune of ‘A Week before Easter’, in quatrains with the first three lines rhyming together and the fourth shorter line unrhymed. The earlier of the two ‘The Seaman’s Renown in Winning his Fair Lady’ (Roxburghe Ballads, Volume 7, p559) has twenty stanzas and was printed c1666-78; and the other ‘The Master-piece of Love Songs’ (Roxburghe Ballads, Volume 6, p230) of sixteen stanzas was printed in the 1690s. The hero of the latter is ‘a bold keeper’ and although their texts are pretty close it would appear the latter was the model for ‘The Bold Dragoon’. Of course there were quite likely interim versions which haven’t surfaced yet or survived. Although the story of these two seventeenth century ballads is similar to the Ribolt og Guldborg theme and may be based upon what must have been a familiar plot, it is possible the similarities are merely coincidental. The outcome of the climactic battle and the girl’s reaction to it are very different in both stories. In the Child ballad EB kills all of his assailants bar one who fatally wounds him, whereas in the stall ballad her father offers the hero money to put up his sword and the girl encourages him to continue fighting as the portion is too small, her father finally agreeing to all their demands, and for the lovers a happy ending.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=154:_A_True_Tale_of_Robin_Hood&diff=5069154: A True Tale of Robin Hood2009-01-23T10:44:20Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: This, the last of Child’s RH ballads, was written by that well-known prolific ballad writer, Martin Parker, and the Stationers’ Register entry for printer Francis Grove is in 1632. A ...</p>
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This, the last of Child’s RH ballads, was written by that well-known prolific ballad writer, Martin Parker, and the Stationers’ Register entry for printer Francis Grove is in 1632. A copy can be seen in the British Library.<br />
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Not known in oral tradition and Bronson has no entry.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=153:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Valiant_Knight&diff=5068153: Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight2009-01-23T10:42:51Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Here we have a sequel to 152. It is from the mid-eighteenth century garlands and was likely composed for that medium as filler. Child’s comment is appropriate here, ‘Written, perhaps,...</p>
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Here we have a sequel to 152. It is from the mid-eighteenth century garlands and was likely composed for that medium as filler. Child’s comment is appropriate here, ‘Written, perhaps, because it was thought that authority should in the end be vindicated against outlaws, which may explain why this piece surpasses in platitude everything that goes before.’<br />
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Bronson gives no versions and a brief mention of its tune relationship with 139 and 147. Not found in oral tradition.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=152:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Golden_Arrow&diff=5067152: Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow2009-01-23T10:41:10Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Like 151 this ballad appeared in Garlands in the mid-eighteenth century and like 151 was probably composed to fill out a garland. As Child states, ‘The first twenty-three stanzas are ba...</p>
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Like 151 this ballad appeared in Garlands in the mid-eighteenth century and like 151 was probably composed to fill out a garland. As Child states, ‘The first twenty-three stanzas are based upon ‘The Gest’ (117), stanzas 282-95.’ It appears to be a prequel to the following ballad 152.<br />
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Bronson makes no reference to it and there are no oral versions. See notes to 151 for Child’s condemnation of it.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=151:_The_King%27s_Disguise,_and_Friendship_with_Robin_Hood&diff=5066151: The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood2009-01-23T10:38:47Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: No versions of this ballad have been found that are older than the mid-eighteenth century when it appeared in garlands and on broadsides. Ritson’s very plausible pronouncement backed by...</p>
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No versions of this ballad have been found that are older than the mid-eighteenth century when it appeared in garlands and on broadsides. Ritson’s very plausible pronouncement backed by Child is, ‘seems to have been written by some miserable retainer to the press, merely to eke out the book; being, in fact, a most contemptible performance:’ Child also applies this to 152 and 153. Child states, ‘The story is a loose paraphrase, with omissions, of the seventh and eighth fits of the Gest (117).<br />
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Not known in oral tradition and Bronson treats it with the contempt it deserves by making no mention.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=150:_Robin_Hood_and_Maid_Marian&diff=5065150: Robin Hood and Maid Marian2009-01-23T10:37:05Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: This ballad only existed on one broadside with no imprint, to be found in the Wood Collection. Its author is one SS hitherto unidentified. Child describes it as ‘this foolish ditty’ ...</p>
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This ballad only existed on one broadside with no imprint, to be found in the Wood Collection. Its author is one SS hitherto unidentified. Child describes it as ‘this foolish ditty’ and it is the only ballad in which Robin Hood and Maid Marian actually both feature together strongly. It may even have been the spark that led later writers of RH fictions to feature Marion in their stories.<br />
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Bronson includes a brief note to suggest it is yet another of the family that has designated the 125/126 tune.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=149:_Robin_Hood%27s_Birth,_Breeding,_Valor_and_Marriage&diff=5064149: Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor and Marriage2009-01-23T10:34:49Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: This ballad only appeared on broadsides in the latter half of the seventeenth century and it is unlikely that it is older than that. It incorporates characters and bits and pieces from ea...</p>
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This ballad only appeared on broadsides in the latter half of the seventeenth century and it is unlikely that it is older than that. It incorporates characters and bits and pieces from earlier ballads and is almost a pastiche written by a modern hand. Some of the stanzas look like pieces from the eighteenth century pleasure gardens; we even have Clorinda the queen of the shepherds getting in on the action. Copies can be found in the Pepys and Roxburghe Collections. As Child states, ‘It is certainly far from anything found in oral tradition.’<br />
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Bronson doesn’t even give it the honour of an entry.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=148:_The_Noble_Fisherman_or_Robin_Hood%27s_Preferment&diff=5063148: The Noble Fisherman or Robin Hood's Preferment2009-01-23T10:32:33Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: This ballad was entered in the Stationers’ Register for 1631. Plenty of versions survive on seventeenth century broadsides in all the major collections and it appeared in the 1663 and 1...</p>
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This ballad was entered in the Stationers’ Register for 1631. Plenty of versions survive on seventeenth century broadsides in all the major collections and it appeared in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands It continued to be printed as stall copies in the eighteenth century at Aldermary Churchyard and by L How of London. After describing the plot Child wrote, ‘All this may strike us as infantile but the ballad was evidently in great favour 200 years ago.’ (i.e. c1690). Personally I think this story fits together well and has more of the folk song feel to it than many of the other RH ballads.<br />
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Bronson discusses possible tunes for those RH ballads that begin with ‘In summer time when leaves grow green’ as this one does. He arrives at the conclusion that this tune has not yet been identified. We might gain a clue here by looking at other than RH ballads that employ this phrase. He gives no versions and none have been found in oral tradition.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=147:_Robin_Hood%27s_Golden_Prize&diff=5062147: Robin Hood's Golden Prize2009-01-23T10:28:59Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: The earliest version of this ballad was printed by Francis Grove c1620-55 (Wood Collection) but its entry in the Stationers’ Register is for 1656. This broadside has the initials of the...</p>
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The earliest version of this ballad was printed by Francis Grove c1620-55 (Wood Collection) but its entry in the Stationers’ Register is for 1656. This broadside has the initials of the author Lawrence Price appended. It also appears in the Garlands of 1663 and 1670 and later seventeenth century broadsides are in the Pepys and Roxburghe collections. Child states, ‘The kernel of the story is an old tale we find represented in Pauli’s Schimpf und Ernst, 1533.’ An upmarket illustrated version was printed in the eighteenth century by L How in London and copies of this can be found at Harvard University Library and in the Douce Collection.<br />
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Not known in oral tradition and Bronson gives no versions. He presents a good case for the tune being that of 139 ‘RH’s Progress to Nottingham’.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=146:_Robin_Hood%27s_Chase&diff=5061146: Robin Hood's Chase2009-01-23T10:26:53Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Beginning with a summary of 145 ‘RH and Queen Katherine’, Child described it as a sequel to 145. It appeared in the Garlands 0f 1663 and 1670 and seventeenth century broadsides of it ...</p>
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Beginning with a summary of 145 ‘RH and Queen Katherine’, Child described it as a sequel to 145. It appeared in the Garlands 0f 1663 and 1670 and seventeenth century broadsides of it are in the Wood, Pepys and Roxburghe Collections. A twenty-two stanza eighteenth century upmarket broadside with illustration was printed by L How of London and a copy of this can be seen in the Harvard, VWML, Madden and Douce Collections. It is as typical a relatively modern broadside as one can find, with even a ‘Come-all-ye’ opening.<br />
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In all copies the tune designated is ‘RH and the Beggar’ and Bronson identifies its pattern as that of 133 rather than 134, the other ‘RH and the Beggar’. In this case yet again tracing the tune back leads us to 125/126. Bronson deals very briefly with this ballad as there are no oral versions.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=145:_Robin_Hood_and_Queen_Katherine&diff=5060145: Robin Hood and Queen Katherine2009-01-23T10:24:59Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: The earliest version of this ballad is in Percy’s Folio Manuscript and it appears on seventeenth century broadsides in the Wood, Pepys and Roxburghe Collections, and in the 1663 and 167...</p>
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The earliest version of this ballad is in Percy’s Folio Manuscript and it appears on seventeenth century broadsides in the Wood, Pepys and Roxburghe Collections, and in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands. This version was reprinted in eighteenth century garlands. Child also gives a more recent remake of the story found in the 1663 Garland.<br />
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Bronson gives a lengthy discussion of tune possibilities, mainly dismissing Rimbault’s and Child’s suggestions of other ballad tunes. He also includes useful discussion on the general designation of tunes to other RH ballads.<br />
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Not found in oral tradition.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=143:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Bishop&diff=5059143: Robin Hood and the Bishop2009-01-23T10:22:17Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Apart from its appearance in later collections the only printings of this ballad were on sheets of the seventeenth century, the earliest being printed by Francis Grove c1620-55 (Wood Coll...</p>
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Apart from its appearance in later collections the only printings of this ballad were on sheets of the seventeenth century, the earliest being printed by Francis Grove c1620-55 (Wood Collection). It appears in the Garlands of 1663 and 1670 and later copies can be found in the Pepys and Roxburghe Collections. Child proposed the idea that both this ballad and 144 ‘RH and the Bishop of Hereford’ were influenced by the plot of ‘RH and the Monk’ in ‘The Gest’ (117). He relates three of the events included in it to other ballads and stories.<br />
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Bronson has little to say on this ballad except that the tune is designated as ‘RH and the Stranger’, which makes it yet another use of the 125/126 tune. <br />
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There are no definite versions found in oral tradition unless we allow the single line ‘And as he walked the forest through’ from Vermont, (Journal of American Folklore, LXIV, 131) but I’m sure a careful search through other ballads would turn up several places where this line occurs.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=144:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Bishop_of_Hereford&diff=5058144: Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford2009-01-23T10:19:07Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Child mentions a stall copy of this ballad in Robin Hood’s Garland of 1749, and a version of the stall ballad somewhat rewritten occurs in Elizabeth Cotton’s Manuscript Song Book whic...</p>
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Child mentions a stall copy of this ballad in Robin Hood’s Garland of 1749, and a version of the stall ballad somewhat rewritten occurs in Elizabeth Cotton’s Manuscript Song Book which has been dated as c1730. It was printed in garlands in the mid eighteenth century and an upmarket broadside with large engraving was printed by Sheppard of London in 1791, no doubt intended for a more affluent market than the streets.<br />
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Bronson gives three tunes with texts, one a twenty-one stanza broadside text with tune printed by Daniel Wright on a broadside of the early eighteenth century, and another five stanza text with tune from a half-sheet engraved 1780 by Thomas Straight. The only oral version, of fourteen stanzas, was found in Wareham, Dorset by Hammond.<br />
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Texts posted by request.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=142:_Little_John_a_Begging&diff=5057142: Little John a Begging2009-01-23T10:16:00Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: The oldest version is in the Percy Folio Manuscript. A Gilbertson printed broadside c1640-63 is in the Wood Collection. It also appears in the garlands of 1663 and 1670 and similar versio...</p>
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The oldest version is in the Percy Folio Manuscript. A Gilbertson printed broadside c1640-63 is in the Wood Collection. It also appears in the garlands of 1663 and 1670 and similar versions can be found in the Roxburghe and Pepys Collections. Child notices similarities of the broadside version, in the exchange of clothing with the beggar, with some versions of Hind Horn (17). The Percy copy has no text in common with the broadsides and should really be considered a separate ballad, although the stories are obviously related. It is a pity that some of the Percy text is lost to us, only eleven stanzas surviving. It is tempting to conjecture that the broadside is a remake of the earlier text.<br />
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The broadside continued to be printed into the eighteenth century, but I have seen no nineteenth century stall copies, neither has it been found in oral tradition. Through the process of linking from one RH ballad to another in designated tunes Bronson arrives at the conclusion that the broadside version’s intended tune is again the most common occurring, that of Child125/126.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=141:_Robin_Hood_Rescuing_Will_Stutly&diff=5056141: Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly2009-01-23T10:13:15Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: This ballad is to be found in all of the well-known collections of seventeenth century broadsides and it is found in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands. It continued to be printed in the eighteen...</p>
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This ballad is to be found in all of the well-known collections of seventeenth century broadsides and it is found in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands. It continued to be printed in the eighteenth century. Child states, ‘This is a ballad made for print, with little of the traditional in the matter and nothing in the style. It may be considered as an imitation of 140.’ Child gives a version ‘RH and the Sheriff’ in an appendix, from Kinloch’s Mss in Kinloch’s own handwriting.<br />
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Bronson supplies some conjecture on the original tune which contains contradictory evidence. He gives the only known oral version, of twenty-one stanzas, from the singing of Martha Davis of Virginia of Scottish/Irish ancestry who sang versions of several scarce RH ballads. Copy posted on request.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=140:_Robin_Hood_Rescuing_Three_Squires&diff=5055140: Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires2009-01-23T10:10:10Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: The earliest version of this ballad is found in the Percy Folio Manuscript of the seventeenth century, but it doesn’t appear in print until the following century when it appears widely ...</p>
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The earliest version of this ballad is found in the Percy Folio Manuscript of the seventeenth century, but it doesn’t appear in print until the following century when it appears widely printed on many garlands and continued so into the nineteenth century. It has stanzas and themes from earlier RH ballads. Child quotes several early literary sources and other ballads, like Hind Horn (17), for some of the events in the ballad. Under that popular but confusing title of ‘Bold Robin Hood’ it continued to be widely printed on broadsides in versions of eighteen or twenty stanzas in the nineteenth century.<br />
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Not surprisingly it has turned up in oral tradition on both sides of the Atlantic. Bronson splits the extant tunes into two groups. In Britain it has been recorded in Hampshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire, and the ubiquitous Bell Robertson supplied a twenty-three stanza version to Gavin Greig. Versions have been collected in Maine and North Carolina.<br />
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Texts posted by request.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=139:_Robin_Hood%27s_Progress_to_Nottingham&diff=5054139: Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham2009-01-23T10:07:34Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: In both the 1663 and the 1670 Garlands and on various seventeenth century broadsides in the Wood, Douce, Roxburghe and Pepys Collections, the earliest printing being by Francis Grove in L...</p>
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In both the 1663 and the 1670 Garlands and on various seventeenth century broadsides in the Wood, Douce, Roxburghe and Pepys Collections, the earliest printing being by Francis Grove in London c1620-55. Child states, ‘This is evidently a comparatively late ballad, but has not come down to us in its oldest form.’ The story occurs in earlier forms, for example, in the Sloane MS of the end of the sixteenth century.<br />
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Evans of London printed an upmarket illustrated version in 1811 under the title ‘RH and the Fifteen Foresters’ (Madden Collection, Cambridge University Library). <br />
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Though there are no known early tunes given, Bronson discusses possibilities at length. He also gives both of the only oral versions, which come from Nova Scotia, one a single stanza and the other of three stanzas, both with tune.<br />
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Copies posted on request.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=138:_Robin_Hood_and_Allen_a_Dale&diff=5053138: Robin Hood and Allen a Dale2009-01-23T10:04:22Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Though not in the 1663/1670 Garlands it was printed on broadsides in the seventeenth century and copies can be found in the Douce, Roxburghe and Pepys Collections, and continued to be pri...</p>
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Though not in the 1663/1670 Garlands it was printed on broadsides in the seventeenth century and copies can be found in the Douce, Roxburghe and Pepys Collections, and continued to be printed in the eighteenth century in collections and garlands. Pitts of London also printed it in the early nineteenth century. Child mentions a Scoticised version in Kinloch’s Collection derived from a stall copy. <br />
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It is based on the same story, but told of Scarlock rather than Allan-A-Dale, in the Sloane MS of the end of the sixteenth century, which is summarized by Child in his introductory notes to this ballad.<br />
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Bronson gives no versions from oral tradition, but comments on Rimbault’s assigned tune and an unlikely suggestion of using the tune of ‘Bonny Sweet Robin’.<br />
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The ubiquitous Bell Robertson recited a nineteen stanza version to Gavin Greig which is published in Volume 2 of the Greig-Duncan Collection. It appears to have been sung to her because it has a repeat of the fourth line of each stanza which would perhaps be pointless in reciting it.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=137:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Pedlars&diff=5052137: Robin Hood and the Pedlars2009-01-23T10:01:37Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: I have no other copies of this ballad in any other collections (although Gutch published it). This is not surprising as it comes via J. Payne Collier, a noted forger. Child’s first para...</p>
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I have no other copies of this ballad in any other collections (although Gutch published it). This is not surprising as it comes via J. Payne Collier, a noted forger. Child’s first paragraph on it sums it up pretty well. ‘The manuscript in which this ballad occurs contains a variety of matters, and as the best authority (E M Thompson, Keeper of Mss at the BL) has declared, may in part have been written as early as 1650, but all the ballads are in a nineteenth century hand and some of them are maintained to be forgeries. I see no sufficient reason for regarding this particular piece as spurious, and therefore, though I should be glad to be rid of it, accept it for the present as perhaps a copy of a broadside, or a copy of a copy.’ No such broadside has come to light since Child’s time, and therefore, I would deal with it as Bronson has done and ignore it completely.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=136:_Robin_Hood%27s_Delight&diff=5051136: Robin Hood's Delight2009-01-23T09:58:22Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: This ballad was printed in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands and is on broadsides in the Wood (1660) and Pepys (1689) Collections. It was reprinted by Sheppard and by Evans, both of London, in t...</p>
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This ballad was printed in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands and is on broadsides in the Wood (1660) and Pepys (1689) Collections. It was reprinted by Sheppard and by Evans, both of London, in the late eighteenth century. The Sheppard sheet (dated 1792) is an upmarket one with a large engraving.<br />
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Bronson gives no versions but comments on the designated tunes of 135 ‘RH and the Shepherd’ and 145 ‘RH and Queen Katherine’ which appear to be the same tune. He also refutes Ritson’s suggestion of a Scottish fiddle tune of the same name being used for this ballad on the grounds it is ‘unsingable’ and ‘it does not in the least match the stanza-form of the ballad.’<br />
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No oral versions found.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=135:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Shepherd&diff=5050135: Robin Hood and the Shepherd2009-01-23T09:54:01Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: This ballad was printed in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands and is on broadsides in the Wood (1660) and Pepys (1689) Collections. A version somewhat later was printed by L How of London and a c...</p>
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This ballad was printed in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands and is on broadsides in the Wood (1660) and Pepys (1689) Collections. A version somewhat later was printed by L How of London and a copy of this can be found in the Madden and Douce Collections. The designated tune is that of 145 ‘RH and Queen Katherine’.<br />
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Bronson gives no versions but comments on Rimbault’s ascription of the ‘Three Ravens’ tune based on flimsy evidence. No oral versions.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=134:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Beggar,_II&diff=5049134: Robin Hood and the Beggar, II2009-01-23T09:49:21Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Child’s published version is a collation of a modern (eighteenth century) printed Newcastle version republished by Ritson in 1795 in his famous ‘Robin Hood’ collection of ballads, a...</p>
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Child’s published version is a collation of a modern (eighteenth century) printed Newcastle version republished by Ritson in 1795 in his famous ‘Robin Hood’ collection of ballads, and an Aberdeen stall copy printed by Alexander Keith c1810-1835. Motherwell in his ‘Ancient Minstrelsy’ claims to have seen ‘pretty early stall copies…at Aberdeen and Glasgow’ but I doubt this as the language in the two extant versions is very modern, mid-eighteenth century at the earliest. Ritson states ‘This poem, a north country (or,perhaps, Scotish) composition of some antiquity, is given from a modern copy printed at Newcastle, where the editor accidentally picked it up: no other having, to his knowledge, been ever seen or heard of. –The original title is, “A pretty dialogue betwixt Robin Hood and a beggar”.’ The story may be ancient but I very much doubt the ballad is.<br />
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Child had a high opinion of it, backing up Ritson’s statement and adding, ‘This is by far the best of the RH ballads of the secondary, so to speak cyclic, period’. Calling it part of the ‘’secondary cyclic period’ would seem to contradict the ‘ancient’ description. One would perhaps expect a professor of literature to prefer this ballad to some of the more basic ones, but it is its very polished nature that suggests to me a quite recent composition by a literary hand, perhaps an acquaintance of Alexander Keith, or even Ritson himself? Other factors which have formed my opinion on this ballad are the precise stress and metre, the attention to alliteration and the over-complex plot.<br />
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Bronson prints the Blaikie tune with this title, from the Paisley region, and surmises it ought to be applied to 134, as 133 already has the 125/126 tune. He gives no other versions and it is not known in oral tradition.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=131:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Ranger&diff=5020131: Robin Hood and the Ranger2009-01-17T00:18:54Z<p>Steve Gardham: </p>
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<div>A stall version is found on eighteenth century garlands by the likes of Dicey which are in the Bodleian Library. It is a typical street ballad and the language is decidedly modern.<br />
Sheppard of London printed an upmarket version c1800 and Pitts printed a broadside with the much-used title of 'Bold Robin Hood'<br />
<br />
Bronson gives a tune from Gutch and Rimbault with no text, and a twenty-two stanza text collected in Huddersfield by Frank Kidson, derived from broadsides.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=Francis_J_Child&diff=5019Francis J Child2009-01-17T00:16:33Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Introduction to the Robin Hood Ballads */</p>
<hr />
<div>== The Child Ballads ==<br />
<br />
<br />
The main thrust of this section of Folkopedia is to engender long overdue dialogue on what for the last century and more have come to be known as Child Ballads, i.e, the compilation, analysis and publication of ‘The English and Scottish Popular Ballads’ by Professor F J Child between the years 1882 and 1898. I am convinced in publishing this work he intended it to be a guide for students, and to open a debate on the ballads. Unfortunately what followed was that it rapidly became revered and was given biblical status amongst scholars, particularly in the United States, almost as if it was set in stone, despite the fact that Child himself had serious misgivings about the veracity of many of the ballads. In Britain where most of the ballads originated they continued to be treated like any other ballads, i.e., British collectors post Child published these ballads randomly amongst the many broadside ballads they were finding without giving them any special status. However when Cecil Sharp started collecting songs in America the results were published in 1917 with the Child ballads given prominence at the beginning of the collection and for the next half century this set the standard for most American ballad anthologies, the eventual format which evolved being in 3 sections, Child ballads, British broadside ballads and native American ballads.<br />
<br />
<br />
Child was well aware that a large slice of what he published had at best been interfered with by literary hands, and at worst some, he had suspicions, were blatant forgeries. He strove to minimize this by, where possible, going back to manuscripts rather than published versions, but even then he was aware that even some of the manuscripts were also suspect, some of them being little more than prepared proofs prior to publication.<br />
<br />
<br />
Therefore what we propose here is a separate online discussion document on each ballad where scarce, early and seminal versions can be posted, where interested parties can enter into dialogue giving fact and opinion on the veracity of individual ballads and indeed individual versions. Obviously much information unavailable to or missed by Child has come to light in the last century and new discoveries are being made even today. For instance Child never got to see the Peter Buchan manuscripts now housed at Harvard which arrived there shortly after his death. Had he seen them it would have probably hardened his views against these versions as all the extensive manuscripts consist of is the hand-written proof ready for publication plus those ballads and songs deemed unsuitable for final publication in Ancient Ballads of the North. In fact nothing resembling any field collection notes of any sort, if they ever existed, have survived from Buchan’s prestigious output.<br />
<br />
<br />
Apart from separate pages for each ballad we propose to include sections where debate can take place on the interference of the collectors/antiquarians and other issues as they arise on the ballads in general. For instance there have often been other ballads suggested, such as ‘Craigieston’ (The Trees They Do Grow High) that Child might have included had he been aware of them, and these can be debated here.<br />
<br />
<br />
It has also been proposed that we include space to examine more modern interpretations of the ballads. During what is known in Britain as the Second Revival (1950s onwards) there have been many interesting attempts to re-interpret and adapt the Child Ballads, notably by Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd. I here suggest separate pages for these discussions as the two issues of literary intervention and modern interpretation are separate issues and it could be confusing to debate these at the same time.<br />
<br />
<br />
To get things off the ground, and with so many ballads to go at, I am suggesting we look at a number of ballads with which there are more obvious interesting and contentious issues such as 20 The Cruel Mother, 264 The White Fisher, 293 John of Hazelgreen and 295 The Brown Girl. A useful starting point for debate on many of the ballads is Child’s own comments and at the earliest opportunity I will enter these.<br />
<br />
<br />
Steve Gardham<br />
<br />
<br />
===Volume I: 1-53===<br />
<br />
* 1: Riddles Wisely Expounded<br />
* 2: The Elfin Knight<br />
* 3: The Fause Knight on the Road<br />
* 4: Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight<br />
* 5: Gil Brenton<br />
* 6: Willie's Lady<br />
* 7: Earl Brand<br />
* 8: Erlinton<br />
* 9: The Fair Flower of Northumberland<br />
* 10: The Twa Sisters<br />
* 11: The Cruel Brother<br />
* 12: Lord Rendal<br />
* 13: Edward<br />
* 14: Babylon or The Bonnie Banks o Fordie<br />
* 15: [[Leesom Brand]] ** [[Child 15/16 Comment|Editorial]]<br />
* 16: [[Sheath and Knife]] ** [[Child 15/16 Comment|Editorial]]<br />
* 17: Hind Horn<br />
* 18: Sir Lionel<br />
* 19: King Orfeo<br />
* 20: [[Cruel Mother,The|The Cruel Mother]] ** [[Child 20 Comment|Editorial]]<br />
* 21: The Maid and the Palmer<br />
* 22: St. Stephen and Herod<br />
* 23: Judas<br />
* 24: Bonnie Annie<br />
* 25: Willie's Lyke-Wake<br />
* 26: The Three Ravens<br />
* 27: The Whummil Bore<br />
* 28: Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane<br />
* 29: The Boy and the Mantle<br />
* 30: King Arthur and King Cornwall<br />
* 31: The Marriage of Sir Gawain<br />
* 32: King Henry<br />
* 33: Kempy Kay<br />
* 34: Kemp Owyne<br />
* 35: Allison Gross<br />
* 36: The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea<br />
* 37: Thomas Rymer<br />
* 39: Tam Lin<br />
* 40: The Queen of Elfan's Nourice<br />
* 41: Hind Etin<br />
* 42: Clerk Colvill<br />
* 43: The Broomfield Hill<br />
* 44: The Two Magicians<br />
* 45: King John and the Bishop<br />
* 46: Captain Wedderburn's Courtship<br />
* 47: Proud Lady Margaret<br />
* 48: Young Andrew<br />
* 49: The Twa Brothers<br />
* 50: The Bonny Hind<br />
* 51: Lizie Wan<br />
* 52: The King's Dochter Lady Jean<br />
* 53: Young Beichan<br />
<br />
===Volume II: 54-113===<br />
* 54: The Cherry-Tree Carol<br />
* 55: The Carnal and the Crane<br />
* 56: Dives and Lazarus<br />
* 57: Brown Robyn's Confession<br />
* 58: Sir Patrick Spens<br />
* 59: Sir Aldingar<br />
* 60: King Estmere<br />
* 61: Sir Cawline<br />
* 62: Fair Annie<br />
* 63: Child Waters<br />
* 64: Fair Janet<br />
* 65: Lady Maisry<br />
* 66: Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet<br />
* 67: Glasgerion<br />
* 68: Young Hunting<br />
* 69: Clerk Sanders<br />
* 70: Willie and Lady Maisry<br />
* 71: The Bent Sae Brown<br />
* 72: The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owensford<br />
* 73: Lord Thomas and Annet<br />
* 74: Fair Margaret and Sweet William<br />
* 75: Lord Lovel<br />
* 76: The Lass of Roch Royal<br />
* 77: Sweet William's Ghost<br />
* 78: The Unquiet Grave<br />
* 79: The Wife of Usher's Well<br />
* 80: Old Robin of Portingale<br />
* 81: Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard<br />
* 82: The Bonny Birdy<br />
* 83: Child Maurice<br />
* 84: Bonny Barbara Allen<br />
* 85: Lady Alice<br />
* 86: Young Benjie<br />
* 87: Prince Robert<br />
* 88: Young Johnstone<br />
* 89: Fause Foodrage<br />
* 90: Jellon Grame<br />
* 91: Fair Mary of Wallington<br />
* 92: Bonny Bee Hom<br />
* 93: Lamkin<br />
* 94: Young Waters<br />
* 95: The Maid Freed From the Gallows<br />
* 96: The Gay Goshawk<br />
* 97: Brown Robin<br />
* 98: Brown Adam<br />
* 99: Johnie Scott<br />
* 100: Willie o Winesberry <br />
* 101: Willie o Couglas Dale<br />
* 102: Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter<br />
* 103: Rose the Red and White LIly<br />
* 104: Prince Heathen<br />
* 105: The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington<br />
* 106: The Famous Flower of Serving Men<br />
* 107: Will Steward and John<br />
* 108: Christopher White<br />
* 109: Tom Potts<br />
* 110: The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter<br />
* 111: Crow and Pie<br />
* 112: Blow Away the Morning Dew<br />
* 113: The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry<br />
<br />
<br />
===Volume III: 114-188===<br />
* 114: Johnie Cock<br />
* 115: Robyn and Gandeleyn<br />
* 116: Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough and William of Cloudesly<br />
==[[Introduction to the Robin Hood Ballads]]==<br />
* [[117: A Gest of Robyn Hode]]<br />
* [[118: Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne]]<br />
* [[119: Robin Hood and the Monk]]<br />
* [[120: Robin Hood's Death]]<br />
* [[121: Robin Hood and the Potter]]<br />
* [[122: Robin Hood and the Butcher]]<br />
* [[123: Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar]]<br />
* [[124: The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield]]<br />
* [[125: Robin Hood and Little John]]<br />
* [[126: Robin Hood and the Tanner]]<br />
* [[127: Robin Hood and the Tinker]]<br />
* [[128: Robin Hood Newly Revived]]<br />
* [[129: Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon]]<br />
* [[130: Robin Hood and the Scotchman]]<br />
* [[131: Robin Hood and the Ranger]]<br />
* [[132: The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood]]<br />
* [[133: Robin Hood and the Beggar, I]]<br />
* [[134: Robin Hood and the Beggar, II]]<br />
* [[135: Robin Hood and the Shepherd]]<br />
* [[136: Robin Hood's Delight]]<br />
* [[137: Robin Hood and the Pedlars]]<br />
* [[138: Robin Hood and Allen a Dale]]<br />
* [[139: Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham]]<br />
* [[140: Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires]]<br />
* [[141: Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly]]<br />
* [[142: Little John a Begging]]<br />
* [[143: Robin Hood and the Bishop]]<br />
* [[144: Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford]]<br />
* [[145: Robin Hood and Queen Katherine]]<br />
* [[146: Robin Hood's Chase]]<br />
* [[147: Robin Hood's Golden Prize]]<br />
* [[148: The Noble Fisherman or Robin Hood's Preferment]]<br />
* [[149: Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor and Marriage]]<br />
* [[150: Robin Hood and Maid Marian]]<br />
* [[151: The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood]]<br />
* [[152: Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow]]<br />
* [[153: Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight]]<br />
* [[154: A True Tale of Robin Hood]]<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
* 155: Sir Hugh, or the Jew's Daughter<br />
* 156: Queen Eleanor's Confession<br />
* 157: Gude Wallace<br />
* 158: High Spencer's Feats in France<br />
* 159: Durham Field<br />
* 160: The Knight of Liddesdale<br />
* 161: The Battle of Otterburn<br />
* 162: The Hunting of the Cheviot<br />
* 163: The Battle of Harlaw<br />
* 164: King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France<br />
* 165: Sir John Butler<br />
* 166: The Rose of England<br />
* 167: Andrew Bartin<br />
* 168: Flodden Field<br />
* 169: Johnie Armstrong<br />
* 170: The Death of Queen Jane<br />
* 171: Thomas Cromwell<br />
* 172: Musselburgh Field<br />
* 173: Mary Hamilton<br />
* 174: Earl Bothwell<br />
* 175: The Rising in the North<br />
* 176: Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas<br />
* 177: The Earl of Westmoreland<br />
* 178: Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon<br />
* 179: Rookhope Ryde<br />
* 180: King James and Brown<br />
* 181: The Bonnie Earl o' Moray<br />
* 182: The Laird o Logie<br />
* 183: Willie Macintosh<br />
* 184: The Lads of Wamphray<br />
* 185: Dick o the Cow<br />
* 186: Kinmont Willie<br />
* 187: Jock o the Side<br />
* 188: Archie o Cawfield<br />
<br />
===Volume IV: 189-265===<br />
* 189: Hobie Noble<br />
* 190: Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead<br />
* 191: Hughie Graham<br />
* 192: The Lochmaben Harper<br />
* 193: The Death of Parcy Reed<br />
* 194: The Laird of Wariston<br />
* 195: Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight<br />
* 196: The Fire of Frendraught<br />
* 197: James Grant<br />
* 198: Bonny John Seton<br />
* 199: Bonnie House o' Airlie<br />
* 200: The Gypsy Laddie<br />
* 201: Bessy Bell and Mary Gray<br />
* 202: The Battle of Philiphaugh<br />
* 203: The Baron of Brackley<br />
* 204: Jamie Douglas<br />
* 205: Loudon Hill, or Dromclog<br />
* 206: Bothwell Bridge<br />
* 207: Lord Delamere<br />
* 208: Lord Dernwentwater<br />
* 209: Geordie<br />
* 210: Bonnie James Campbell<br />
* 211: Bewick and Graham<br />
* 212: The Duke of Athole's Nurse<br />
* 213: Sir James the Rose<br />
* 214: The Braes o Yarrow<br />
* 215: Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie<br />
* 216: The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water<br />
* 217: The Broom of Cowdenknows<br />
* 218: The False Lover Won Back<br />
* 219: The Gardener<br />
* 220: The Bonny Lass of Anglesey<br />
* 221: Katherine Jafray<br />
* 222: Bonny Baby Livingston<br />
* 223: Epie Morrie<br />
* 224: The Lady of Arngosk<br />
* 225: Rob Roy<br />
* 226: Lizie Lindsay<br />
* 227: Bonny Lizie Baillie<br />
* 228: Glasgow Peggie<br />
* 229: Earl Crawford<br />
* 230: The Slaughter of the Laird of Mellerstain<br />
* 231: The Earl of Errol<br />
* 232: Richie Story<br />
* 233: Andrew Lammie<br />
* 234: Charlie MacPherson<br />
* 235: The Earl of Aboyne<br />
* 236: The Laird o Drum<br />
* 237: The Duke of Gordon's Daughter<br />
* 238: Glenlogie or Jean o Bethalnie<br />
* 239: Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie<br />
* 240: The Rantin Laddie<br />
* 241: The Baron o Leys<br />
* 242: The Coble o Cargin<br />
* 243: James Harris, (The Daemon Lover)<br />
* 244: James Hatley<br />
* 245: Young Allan<br />
* 246: Redesdale and Wise William<br />
* 247: Lady Elspat<br />
* 248: The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father<br />
* 249: Auld Matrons<br />
* 250: Henry Martyn<br />
* 251: Lang Johnny More<br />
* 252: The Kitchie-Boy<br />
* 253: Thomas o Yonderdale<br />
* 254: Lord William, or Lord Lundy<br />
* 255: Willie's Fatal Visit<br />
* 256: Alison and Willie<br />
* 257: Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick<br />
* 258: Broughty Wa's<br />
* 259: Lord Thomas Stuart<br />
* 260: Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret<br />
* 261: Lady Isabel<br />
* 262: Lord Livingston<br />
* 263: The New-Slain Knight<br />
* 264: The White Fisher<br />
* 265: The Knight's Ghost<br />
<br />
<br />
===Volume V: 266-305===<br />
* 266: John Thomson and the Turk<br />
* 267: The Heir of Linne<br />
* 268: The Twa Knights<br />
* 269: Lady Diamond<br />
* 270: The Earl of Mar's Daughter<br />
* 271: The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward<br />
* 272: The Suffolk Miracle<br />
* 273: King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth<br />
* 274: Our Goodman<br />
* 275: Get Up and Bar the Door<br />
* 276: TheFriar in the Well<br />
* 277: The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin<br />
* 278: The Farmer's Curst Wife<br />
* 279: The Jolly Beggar<br />
* 280: The Beggar-Laddie<br />
* 281: The Keach I the Creel<br />
* 282: Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant<br />
* 283: The Crafty Farmer<br />
* 284: John Dory<br />
* 285: The George Aloe and the Sweepstake<br />
* 286: The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)<br />
* 287: Captain Ward and the Rainbow<br />
* 288: The Young Earl of Essex's Victory Over the Emperor of Germany<br />
* 289: The Mermaid<br />
* 290: The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie<br />
* 291: Child Owlet<br />
* 292: The West-Country Damosel's Complaint<br />
* 293: [[John of Hazelgreen]]**[[Child 293 Comment|Editorial]]<br />
* 294: Dugal Quin<br />
* 295: [[The Brown Girl]]**[[Child 295 Comment|Editorial]]<br />
* 296: Walter Lesly<br />
* 297: Earl Rothes<br />
* 298: Young Peggy<br />
* 299: Trooper and Maid<br />
* 300: Blancheflour and Jellyflorice<br />
* 301: The Queen of Scotland<br />
* 302: Young Bearwell<br />
* 303: The Holy Nunnery<br />
* 304: Young Ronald<br />
* 305: The Outlaw Murray</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=127:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Tinker&diff=5018127: Robin Hood and the Tinker2009-01-17T00:15:03Z<p>Steve Gardham: </p>
<hr />
<div>Seventeenth century broadside versions appear in Wood, Pepys and Douce Collections but it is not given in either the 1663 or 1670 Garlands. Child states of it 'The fewest words will best befit this contemptible imitation of imitations.'<br />
<br />
Bronson states 'The broadside designated tune will not fit the text.' Not found in oral tradition.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=133:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Beggar,_I&diff=5017133: Robin Hood and the Beggar, I2009-01-17T00:12:34Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: This ballad appeared in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands and the same version in the Wood, Pepys and Roxburghe broadside collections. We can do no better than quote Child himself here: 'The co...</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
This ballad appeared in the 1663 and 1670 Garlands and the same version in the Wood, Pepys and Roxburghe broadside collections.<br />
<br />
We can do no better than quote Child himself here: 'The copy in the Wood and in the Roxburghe collections is signed T. R., like RH and the Butcher, B, and, like the latter ballad, this is a ''refacimento'', with middle rhyme in the third line. It is perhaps made up from two distinct stories; the Second Part, beginning at stanza 20, from RH rescuing Three Squires, and what precedes from a ballad resembling RH and the Beggar, II.<br />
'But no seventeenth-century version of RH and the Beggar, II, is known, and it is more likely that we owe the fight between RH and the Beggar to the folly and bad taste of T. R.' <br />
<br />
Child goes on to relate some of its lines to lines in other RH ballads.<br />
<br />
Bronson reports no versions and just mentions the usual designated tune of 125/126.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=132:_The_Bold_Pedlar_and_Robin_Hood&diff=5016132: The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood2009-01-16T23:53:58Z<p>Steve Gardham: </p>
<hr />
<div>The first appearance of this popular ballad is in 'Captain Delaney's Garland' of 1775 [BL 1346.m.7(9)] where it is titled 'Robin Hood and the Proud Pedlar'. Child gives this and an oral version from Dixon's 'Ancient Poems and Ballads' where Dixon refers to having seen stall copies. Though not widely printed in the nineteenth century, Catnach, Pitts and some of their contemporaries printed it early in that century and it was still being printed on broadsides as late as Sanderson of Edinburgh who was still printing well into the twentieth century. All of the full versions, stall copies and oral, have the same fifteen stanzas.<br />
<br />
Child saw it as a traditional variation Of 'Robin Hood Newly Revived' No. 128. It appears to be a rewrite of that ballad, possibly by a broadside hack. The garland version has Robin Hood's cousin named 'Gamwell' which is the same as in 128, whereas Dixon and the nineteenth century broadsides all have 'Gamble Gold'.<br />
<br />
The ballad has been found in oral tradition in Sussex (four pretty full versions), Surrey, Essex and London, and in Scotland. In America it has turned up in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Again some of the American versions obviously derive from the garland version, having 'Gamwell' as the cousin or some similar name. The 'Gamble Gold' version also appears in 'The American Songster', Cozzens, New York, c1850.<br />
<br />
Bronson gives fourteen versions placed into three tune groups and six subgroups.<br />
<br />
Texts will be posted here on request.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=132:_The_Bold_Pedlar_and_Robin_Hood&diff=5015132: The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood2009-01-16T23:51:56Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: The first appearance of this popular ballad is in 'Captain Delaney's Garland' of 1775 [BL 1346.m.7(9)] where it is titled 'Robin Hood and the Proud Pedlar'. Child gives this and an oral v...</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
The first appearance of this popular ballad is in 'Captain Delaney's Garland' of 1775 [BL 1346.m.7(9)] where it is titled 'Robin Hood and the Proud Pedlar'. Child gives this and an oral version from Dixon's 'Ancient Poems and Ballads' where Dixon refers to having seen stall copies. Though not widely printed in the nineteenth century, Catnach, Pitts and some of their contemporaries printed it early in that century and it was still being printed on broadsides as late as Sanderson of Edinburgh who was still printing well into the twentieth century. All of the full versions, stall copies and oral, have the same fifteen stanzas.<br />
<br />
Child saw it as a traditional variation Of 'Robin Hood Newly Revived' No. 128. It appears to be a rewrite of that ballad, possibly by a broadside hack. The garland version has Robin Hood's cousin named 'Gamwell' which is the same as in 128, whereas Dixon and the nineteenth century broadsides all have 'Gamble Gold'.<br />
<br />
The ballad has been found in oral tradition in Sussex (four pretty full versions), Surrey, Essex and London, and in Scotland. In America it has turned up in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Again some of the American versions obviously derive from the garland version, having 'Gamwell' as the cousin or some similar name. The 'Gamble Gold' version also appears in 'The American Songster', Cozzens, New York, c1850.<br />
<br />
Texts will be posted here on request.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=131:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Ranger&diff=5005131: Robin Hood and the Ranger2009-01-15T22:33:58Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: A stall version is found on eighteenth century garlands by the likes of Dicey which are in the Bodleian Library. It is a typical street ballad and the language is decidedly modern. Sheppa...</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
A stall version is found on eighteenth century garlands by the likes of Dicey which are in the Bodleian Library. It is a typical street ballad and the language is decidedly modern.<br />
Sheppard of london printed an upmarket version c1800 and Pitts printed a broadside with the much-used title of 'Bold Robin Hood'<br />
<br />
Bronson gives a tune from Gutch and Rimbault with no text, and a twenty-two stanza text collected in Huddersfield by Frank Kidson, derived from broadsides.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=130:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Scotchman&diff=5004130: Robin Hood and the Scotchman2009-01-15T22:26:00Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: In the Garland of 1663 and the Wood and Roxburghe Collections. It was originally an appended conclusion to 128. It appeared in an expanded form on an Irish garland of 1796. Bronson gives...</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
In the Garland of 1663 and the Wood and Roxburghe Collections. It was originally an appended conclusion to 128. It appeared in an expanded form on an Irish garland of 1796.<br />
<br />
Bronson gives some tune possibilities but there are no other versions.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=129:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Prince_of_Aragon&diff=5003129: Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon2009-01-15T22:21:23Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Broadsides of the seventeenth century are located in the Pepys and Roxburghe Collections with the title 'Robin Hood, Will Scadlock and Little John'. Child states 'This is only a pseudo-ch...</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
Broadsides of the seventeenth century are located in the Pepys and Roxburghe Collections with the title 'Robin Hood, Will Scadlock and Little John'. Child states 'This is only a pseudo-chivalrous romance, tagged to Robin Hood newly Revived as a Second Part, with eight introductory stanzas. both parts are as vapid as possible, and no piquancy is communicated by the matter of the two being as alien as oil and water.' The title Child used appears in Thackeray's list of printed ballads and was used on mid-eighteenth century garlands.<br />
<br />
Bronson gives one version from oral tradition printed in Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth and collected by George Herzog in New Brunswick. Bronson's description is sufficient 'forty-six rather deplorable stanzas of it! The tune was recorded by the scupulous hand and ear of George Herzog. It doesn't sound very convincing as a ballad tune; it has two strains and modulates.'</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=128:_Robin_Hood_Newly_Revived&diff=5002128: Robin Hood Newly Revived2009-01-15T22:03:41Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: In the Garland of 1663 and the Wood, Pepys and Douce Collections of seventeenth century broadsides. Bronson gives notes that the tune is that of 125/126. Not found in oral tradition.</p>
<hr />
<div>In the Garland of 1663 and the Wood, Pepys and Douce Collections of seventeenth century broadsides. Bronson gives notes that the tune is that of 125/126. Not found in oral tradition.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=127:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Tinker&diff=5001127: Robin Hood and the Tinker2009-01-15T22:00:00Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: Seventeenth century broadside versions appear in Wood, Pepys and Douce Collections but it is not given in either the 1660 or 1670 Garlands. Child states of it 'The fewest words will best ...</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
Seventeenth century broadside versions appear in Wood, Pepys and Douce Collections but it is not given in either the 1660 or 1670 Garlands. Child states of it 'The fewest words will best befit this contemptible imitation of imitations.'<br />
<br />
Bronson states 'The broadside designated tune will not fit the text.' Not found in oral tradition.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=126:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Tanner&diff=5000126: Robin Hood and the Tanner2009-01-15T21:54:29Z<p>Steve Gardham: </p>
<hr />
<div>First appeared in the Garland of 1663 and there are seventeenth century broadside printings of this version in the Wood and Pepys Collections. Sheppard of London printed an upmarket broadside version 'Robin Hood and Arthur-A-Bland' c1800. Scarce in oral tradition despite Frank Purslow's curious statement in 'The Wanton Seed' that it is 'probably the best known of the RH ballads'. He prints the twelve stanza version collected in Hampshire to a tune variant of 'George Collins'. Sharp collected a seven stanza version in Somerset which mysteriously became extended to eleven stanzas when published. The only version to be collected in America (twenty-four stanzas) comes again from Martha Davis of Virginia and this version appears in Sharp's Appalachian collection and A K Davis's collection.<br />
<br />
Bronson gives the Child text along with a tune 'Arthur a Bland' from 'The Jovial Crew' opera of 1731, and the two versions from the Sharp manuscripts.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=126:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Tanner&diff=4999126: Robin Hood and the Tanner2009-01-15T21:51:55Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: First appeared in the Garland of 1663 and there are seventeenth century broadside printings of this version in the Wood and Pepys Collections. Sheppard printed an upmarket broadside versi...</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
First appeared in the Garland of 1663 and there are seventeenth century broadside printings of this version in the Wood and Pepys Collections. Sheppard printed an upmarket broadside version 'Robin Hood and Arthur-A-Bland' c1800. Scarce in oral tradition despite Frank Purslow's curious statement in The Wanton Seed that it is 'probably the best known of the RH ballads. He prints the twelve stanza version collected in Hampshire to a tune variant of 'George Collins'. Sharp collected a seven stanza version in Somerset which mysteriously became extended to eleven stanzas when published. The only version to be collected in America (twenty-four stanzas)comes again from Martha Davis of Virginia and this version appears in Sharp's Appalachian collection and A K Davis's collection.<br />
<br />
Bronson gives the Child text along with a tune 'Arthur a Bland' from 'The Jovial Crew' opera of 1731 and the two versions from the Sharp manuscripts.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=125:_Robin_Hood_and_Little_John&diff=4998125: Robin Hood and Little John2009-01-14T23:02:13Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
<hr />
<div>This first appears in the book 'A Collection of Old Ballads' published in 1723. Then on broadsides by the likes of Dicey and Marshall c1750. It is not in the older garlands but Child gives a reference to 1689 and there is no reason to believe it is any older than that. Child states the surviving copy 'is in a rank seventeenth century style.' There are earlier ballads mentioned in the Stationers Register but these can not be positively identified as this ballad.<br />
It has a more or less continuous printing tradition since 1723 and therefore we are not surprised to find it has survived reasonably well in oral tradition. Under the well used title of 'Bold Robin Hood' it was printed on a slip by Evans of London in the late eighteenth century and by Pearson of Manchester in the middle of the nineteenth century.<br />
<br />
It is very rare in oral tradition in Britain. The only English oral version I have seen is the two stanza fragment found by Alfred Williams in Gloucestershire, although Hammond mentioned having heard of it being sung in Dorset, and there is a three stanza version from North-East Scotland sung by John Strachan of Aberdeenshire.<br />
<br />
Rare as it is in Britain, like many earlier broadside ballads, it turns up more frequently and in fuller versions in North America. A twenty-nine stanza version was found in Kentucky, a twenty stanza version in Virginia, a sixteen stanza version in Ohio, and two versions in Tennessee, one of ten stanzas and the other longer. In Nova Scotia was found a thirteen-and-a-half stanza version and a two-line fragment.<br />
<br />
References and/or texts posted on request.<br />
<br />
Bronson says, 'it doubtless derives from early materials'. He gives the Scottish three stanza version and the Ohio version and mentions its use of the tune of Child 126/127.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=124:_The_Jolly_Pinder_of_Wakefield&diff=4997124: The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield2009-01-14T22:48:04Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
<hr />
<div>Mentioned in the Stationers Register in 1557 but this version has not survived. It is in Percy's Folio Manuscript, the garland of 1663 and broadsides in the Roxburgh, Bagford and Pepys Collections. Not found in oral tradition. Bronson gives Rimbault's setting of Child A to a tune from a lute MS, and the tune and single verse of 'Wakefield on a green' from Chappell's 'Popular Music', but no oral versions.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=123:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Curtal_Friar&diff=4996123: Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar2009-01-14T22:41:35Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
<hr />
<div>In Percy's Folio Manuscript, the 1663 garland and broadsides in the Pepys and Douce Collections amongst others. William Chappell gives a tune in Popular Music of the Olden Time. Not found in oral tradition. Bronson has a note on Rimbault's application of the tune 'In Summer Time' and includes Child's B text set to this tune.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=122:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Butcher&diff=4995122: Robin Hood and the Butcher2009-01-14T22:37:40Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
<hr />
<div>In Percy's Folio Manuscript, the 1663 garlands and broadsides in the Douce and Roxburgh collections. Not found in oral tradition. Bronson discusses the relationship of the tune used for Child 125/126 but no versions given.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=120:_Robin_Hood%27s_Death&diff=4994120: Robin Hood's Death2009-01-14T22:34:43Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
<hr />
<div>In Percy's Folio Manuscript and also printed on seventeenth century broadsides. The story is also told in 'Gest', Child 117. I have only been able to identify one reliable version from oral tradition and that is from the Scotch-Irish family of Miss Martha M Davis of Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Virginia, from her great-grandmother down. Miss Davis had two other rare RH ballads. Her forebears had come from Maryland and then Pennsylvania. Bronson has a note on the lack of an early tune and gives the Davis version as his sole version.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=119:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Monk&diff=4993119: Robin Hood and the Monk2009-01-14T22:32:23Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
<hr />
<div>From a manuscript in Cambridge University Library c1450. Sole version.<br />
Child praises the descriptive elements of the first two stanzas, but to some of us this is simply evidence of the work of a poet of some merit and also that it is unlikely to have passed through the hands of ordinary people. Child relates it to a story of an earlier outlaw, Fulk Fitz Warine. Bronson has a note on the lack of a tune, but no versions.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=118:_Robin_Hood_and_Guy_of_Gisborne&diff=4992118: Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne2009-01-14T22:30:50Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
<hr />
<div>Sole copy in Percy's Folio Manuscript. A fragment of a dramatic piece exists dated 1475 which is obviously closely related to the ballad. No evidence of oral tradition. Bronson has a note on the lack of a tune but no added versions.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=117:_A_Gest_of_Robyn_Hode&diff=4991117: A Gest of Robyn Hode2009-01-14T22:29:31Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
<hr />
<div>There has been much conjecture on the origins of this, one of the earliest of the RH ballads. Child documents several copies in print, the earliest c1500. As Child states, it is a compilation of several ballads four of which exist separately in the canon. He summarises his findings thus at Vol 3, p49, 'The Gest is a popular epic, composed from several ballads by a poet of a thoroughly congenial spirit. No one of the ballads from which it was made up is extant in a separate shape and some portions of the story may have been of the compiler's own invention.' I would suggest that this last proposal is highly likely. The ballad does not even survive in fragments out of print, although as Child states some of its component plots are found in other RH ballads. No added versions in Bronson.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=121:_Robin_Hood_and_the_Potter&diff=4990121: Robin Hood and the Potter2009-01-14T22:28:09Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Headline text */</p>
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<div>Sole copy from a Cambridge University Library manuscript, c1500. The plot also exists in play form c1634. No reliable examples found in oral tradition. No entry in Bronson.</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=Introduction_to_the_Robin_Hood_Ballads&diff=4989Introduction to the Robin Hood Ballads2009-01-14T22:25:15Z<p>Steve Gardham: /* Bronson and the Tunes */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Robin Hood Ballads. Child 117-154, A Summary by Steve Gardham.==<br />
<br />
Here we present a general summary of the Robin Hood ballads, the majority of which can be dealt with en bloc as there is little or no evidence that they were ever part of oral tradition as we know it. Most of them first appeared on garlands as a collection in the seventeenth century. Whilst they were obviously intended to be sung, having designated tunes, this does not mean they were being sung on the streets like their equivalents of the nineteenth century. Many of the earlier Robin Hood ballads of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were written to be part of the romantic May-Day pageants that took place at court and at the homes of the nobility. Many of the others were written specifically for the garland market, for those who could afford them and in fact read them.<br />
<br />
<br />
Whilst there is scant evidence of these individual ballads being sung in oral tradition, prior to the sixteenth century there are plenty of general references to the influence of Robin Hood stories and ballads, but there is no evidence to suggest that these were the same ballads as were being printed in the garlands. In fact the use of the term ‘rude rhymes’ would perhaps suggest shorter pieces.<br />
<br />
<br />
The handful of RH ballads found in manuscripts prior to the garland printings again do not necessarily stand as evidence of oral tradition. All these tell us is that these few ballads existed then and were written down by a literate scribe. These earlier ballads are mostly based upon earlier outlaw legends such as those of Fulk Fitzwarren. The Gest (Child 117) is generally accepted by RH scholars as a compilation of several separate ballads, and the content surely bears this out.<br />
<br />
<br />
Whilst there is a lack of evidence of oral tradition prior to the nineteenth century the ballads have a tradition all of their own, but this is predominantly a print tradition. They mostly have a recognized style of their own; many of their plots are similar; they employ the same opening stanza, and they often share a designated tune. However this apart they do have much in common with other ballads of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.<br />
<br />
<br />
Despite all of the above it is difficult to see how Child could have left them out of his canon, and therefore for the sake of completeness and his inclusive policy he decided to include all of them. He must have wrestled with this decision, however, because of his great distaste of the broadside ballad in general. Their inclusion could perhaps be justified by their relationships with other ballads of the period and the fact that some of them are closely related to folk tales. However this relationship could quite easily be the folk tales having been generated by the ballad plots in most cases.<br />
<br />
<br />
A number of RH ballads have been found in oral tradition in the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century, but it would appear all of these can be traced to nineteenth century broadside printings. Surely this alone would not qualify them for inclusion in an ‘exclusive’ version of the Child canon. If so it would put them on a par with numerous other ballads from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that Child did not include.<br />
<br />
<br />
There are plenty of excellent publications in print today that deal with the RH stories and these often include the likely origins and evolution of the individual ballads.<br />
A useful and cheap introduction is ‘Rymes of Robin Hood, An Introduction to the English Outlaw’ R B Dobson & J Taylor, Alan Sutton 1989 ISBN 0-86299-610-4 pbk.<br />
A more detailed look at individual ballads is ‘Robin Hood, The Forresters Manuscript’ Stephen Knight, D S Brewer 1998, ISBN 0 85991 436 4<br />
An excellent study of the Robin Hood legends is ‘Robin Hood, People’s Hero or Lawless Marauder’ J C Holt, Thames and Hudson 1984, ISBN 0-500-27308-1 pbk.<br />
<br />
<br />
Much time and energy has been expended in trying to identify RH as an individual character who actually existed. Several theories have been explored with no real conclusions arrived at. Modern scholarship has clearly demonstrated that the legendary character was a romantic production. Child himself states ‘RH is absolutely a creation of the ballad-muse. The earliest mention we have of him is as the subject of ballads.’ (ESPB Vol 3, p42). There have probably been many ‘robbing hoods’ particularly along the Great North Road where it passes through heavily forested areas, but the philanthropic dispossessed nobleman described in the stories is a product of romantic wishful thinking aimed at the early novella market that was the seventeenth century broadside. The reality, as with most outlaw legends where the character actually existed, is that these robbing hoods were desperate cut-throats with no saving graces whatever. Three facts point to the RH legends being based on several characters:-<br />
* 1) Some of the stories are based on earlier legends of other outlaws.<br />
* 2) The period during which RH is supposed to have lived spans at least a couple of centuries.<br />
* 3) His exploits take place over a wide geographical area, the two main ones being around Wentbridge in Barnesdale near Barnsley in Yorkshire, and Sherwood Forest near Nottingham, some fifty miles distant from each other, not much by modern standards but on foot in the thirteenth century a considerable journey.<br />
<br />
<br />
Whilst there are many references in literature and manuscripts to RH stories and rhymes, Child in his introduction to The Gest (117), ESPB Vol 3, p41, gives the first evidence of the widespread vogue of RH ballads amongst the lower orders as the middle of the fifteenth century. A book printed in 1521 states that by then the RH ballads were in vogue over all Britain. Again though, none of this can be used as evidence for specific ballads in oral tradition.<br />
<br />
<br />
In conclusion here I present two useful quotes from Child: ‘A considerable part of the RH poetry looks like char-work done for the petty press and should be judged as such’. ‘The earliest of these ballads, on the other hand, are among the best of all ballads. Perhaps none in English please so many and please so long.’ Still we must remember that this opinion was expressed by a hater of the ‘petty press’ and a professor of literature. However, having read many of the books on the origin and evolution of the RH ballads as brilliant as they are, I can still recommend Child’s introduction to the Gest (117) ESPB Vol 3, pp39-56, as a good clear introduction to the subject.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Bronson and the Tunes ==<br />
Some useful quotes from 'The Traditional Tunes of the Child ballads' Volume 3,<br />
Bertrand H Bronson, Princeton University Press, 1966.<br />
<br />
'The record of the tunes for the Robin Hood ballads is disappointingly meagre and uncertain. Rimbault's appendix of musical illustrations in Gutch's ''Robin Hood'', 1847, contains fifteen tunes, of which five are unconnected by him with any ballad. Research has, so far as I know, been unable to supplement his collection of early tunes by more than one; but later collectors have been able to add nearly a dozen and a half to the total, mostly from twentieth century traditional sources. About half of these were recovered on the western side of the Atlantic, from Nova Scotia, New England, and the Appalachian region. Scotland, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Sussex, Hampshire, and Somerset have contributed the rest.<br />
'Rimbault's attributions will be discussed in connection with particular ballads; it is enough to say here that several are open to question.'<br />
<br />
He then goes on to describe the tentative histories of the earliest alleged tunes. In short there are plenty of early tunes relating in some way to RH, but their relationship to ballads is most unlikely. In fact Bronson demonstrates that the earliest RH balad tunes start to appear in the seventeenth century and even then only sparsely. He concludes, 'It cannot be claimed that in the aggregate any very rich musical inheritance has survived in this province. Perhaps that was hardly to be expected, in view of the fact that the muse of Robin Hood was so thoroughly involved with print in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nevertheless, the broadside press probably kept the outlaw alive--though fallen and changed--a good deal longer than he could have survived without its inky transfusions. It is lamentable that we have no hint of what his proper music was like when he was in his prime.'</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=Introduction_to_the_Robin_Hood_Ballads&diff=4988Introduction to the Robin Hood Ballads2009-01-14T22:24:09Z<p>Steve Gardham: </p>
<hr />
<div>==Robin Hood Ballads. Child 117-154, A Summary by Steve Gardham.==<br />
<br />
Here we present a general summary of the Robin Hood ballads, the majority of which can be dealt with en bloc as there is little or no evidence that they were ever part of oral tradition as we know it. Most of them first appeared on garlands as a collection in the seventeenth century. Whilst they were obviously intended to be sung, having designated tunes, this does not mean they were being sung on the streets like their equivalents of the nineteenth century. Many of the earlier Robin Hood ballads of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were written to be part of the romantic May-Day pageants that took place at court and at the homes of the nobility. Many of the others were written specifically for the garland market, for those who could afford them and in fact read them.<br />
<br />
<br />
Whilst there is scant evidence of these individual ballads being sung in oral tradition, prior to the sixteenth century there are plenty of general references to the influence of Robin Hood stories and ballads, but there is no evidence to suggest that these were the same ballads as were being printed in the garlands. In fact the use of the term ‘rude rhymes’ would perhaps suggest shorter pieces.<br />
<br />
<br />
The handful of RH ballads found in manuscripts prior to the garland printings again do not necessarily stand as evidence of oral tradition. All these tell us is that these few ballads existed then and were written down by a literate scribe. These earlier ballads are mostly based upon earlier outlaw legends such as those of Fulk Fitzwarren. The Gest (Child 117) is generally accepted by RH scholars as a compilation of several separate ballads, and the content surely bears this out.<br />
<br />
<br />
Whilst there is a lack of evidence of oral tradition prior to the nineteenth century the ballads have a tradition all of their own, but this is predominantly a print tradition. They mostly have a recognized style of their own; many of their plots are similar; they employ the same opening stanza, and they often share a designated tune. However this apart they do have much in common with other ballads of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.<br />
<br />
<br />
Despite all of the above it is difficult to see how Child could have left them out of his canon, and therefore for the sake of completeness and his inclusive policy he decided to include all of them. He must have wrestled with this decision, however, because of his great distaste of the broadside ballad in general. Their inclusion could perhaps be justified by their relationships with other ballads of the period and the fact that some of them are closely related to folk tales. However this relationship could quite easily be the folk tales having been generated by the ballad plots in most cases.<br />
<br />
<br />
A number of RH ballads have been found in oral tradition in the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century, but it would appear all of these can be traced to nineteenth century broadside printings. Surely this alone would not qualify them for inclusion in an ‘exclusive’ version of the Child canon. If so it would put them on a par with numerous other ballads from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that Child did not include.<br />
<br />
<br />
There are plenty of excellent publications in print today that deal with the RH stories and these often include the likely origins and evolution of the individual ballads.<br />
A useful and cheap introduction is ‘Rymes of Robin Hood, An Introduction to the English Outlaw’ R B Dobson & J Taylor, Alan Sutton 1989 ISBN 0-86299-610-4 pbk.<br />
A more detailed look at individual ballads is ‘Robin Hood, The Forresters Manuscript’ Stephen Knight, D S Brewer 1998, ISBN 0 85991 436 4<br />
An excellent study of the Robin Hood legends is ‘Robin Hood, People’s Hero or Lawless Marauder’ J C Holt, Thames and Hudson 1984, ISBN 0-500-27308-1 pbk.<br />
<br />
<br />
Much time and energy has been expended in trying to identify RH as an individual character who actually existed. Several theories have been explored with no real conclusions arrived at. Modern scholarship has clearly demonstrated that the legendary character was a romantic production. Child himself states ‘RH is absolutely a creation of the ballad-muse. The earliest mention we have of him is as the subject of ballads.’ (ESPB Vol 3, p42). There have probably been many ‘robbing hoods’ particularly along the Great North Road where it passes through heavily forested areas, but the philanthropic dispossessed nobleman described in the stories is a product of romantic wishful thinking aimed at the early novella market that was the seventeenth century broadside. The reality, as with most outlaw legends where the character actually existed, is that these robbing hoods were desperate cut-throats with no saving graces whatever. Three facts point to the RH legends being based on several characters:-<br />
* 1) Some of the stories are based on earlier legends of other outlaws.<br />
* 2) The period during which RH is supposed to have lived spans at least a couple of centuries.<br />
* 3) His exploits take place over a wide geographical area, the two main ones being around Wentbridge in Barnesdale near Barnsley in Yorkshire, and Sherwood Forest near Nottingham, some fifty miles distant from each other, not much by modern standards but on foot in the thirteenth century a considerable journey.<br />
<br />
<br />
Whilst there are many references in literature and manuscripts to RH stories and rhymes, Child in his introduction to The Gest (117), ESPB Vol 3, p41, gives the first evidence of the widespread vogue of RH ballads amongst the lower orders as the middle of the fifteenth century. A book printed in 1521 states that by then the RH ballads were in vogue over all Britain. Again though, none of this can be used as evidence for specific ballads in oral tradition.<br />
<br />
<br />
In conclusion here I present two useful quotes from Child: ‘A considerable part of the RH poetry looks like char-work done for the petty press and should be judged as such’. ‘The earliest of these ballads, on the other hand, are among the best of all ballads. Perhaps none in English please so many and please so long.’ Still we must remember that this opinion was expressed by a hater of the ‘petty press’ and a professor of literature. However, having read many of the books on the origin and evolution of the RH ballads as brilliant as they are, I can still recommend Child’s introduction to the Gest (117) ESPB Vol 3, pp39-56, as a good clear introduction to the subject.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Bronson and the Tunes ==<br />
Some useful quotes from 'The Traditional Tunes of the Child ballads' Volume 3, Bertrand H Bronson, Princeton University Press, 1966.<br />
<br />
'The record of the tunes for the Robin Hood ballads is disappointingly meagre and uncertain. Rimbault's appendix of musical illustrations in Gutch's ''Robin Hood'', 1847, contains fifteen tunes, of which five are unconnected by him with any ballad. Research has, so far as I know, been unable to supplement his collection of early tunes by more than one; but later collectors have been able to add nearly a dozen and a half to the total, mostly from twentieth century traditional sources. About half of these were recovered on the western side of the Atlantic, from Nova Scotia, New England, and the Appalachian region. Scotland, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Sussex, Hampshire, and Somerset have contributed the rest.<br />
'Rimbault's attributions will be discussed in connection with particular ballads; it is enough to say here that several are open to question.'<br />
<br />
He then goes on to describe the tentative histories of the earliest alleged tunes. In short there are plenty of early tunes relating in some way to RH, but their relationship to ballads is most unlikely. In fact Bronson demonstrates that the earliest RH balad tunes start to appear in the seventeenth century and even then only sparsely. He concludes, 'It cannot be claimed that in the aggregate any very rich musical inheritance has survived in this province. Perhaps that was hardly to be expected, in view of the fact that the muse of Robin Hood was so thoroughly involved with print in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nevertheless, the broadside press probably kept the outlaw alive--though fallen and changed--a good deal longer than he could have survived without its inky transfusions. It is lamentable that we have no hint of what his proper music was like when he was in his prime.'</div>Steve Gardhamhttps://folkopedia.info/index.php?title=125:_Robin_Hood_and_Little_John&diff=4987125: Robin Hood and Little John2009-01-13T23:17:04Z<p>Steve Gardham: New page: == Headline text == Child 125. Robin Hood and Little John This first appears in the book 'A Collection of Old Ballads' published in 1723. Then on broadsides by the likes of Dicey and Mar...</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
== Headline text ==<br />
Child 125. Robin Hood and Little John<br />
<br />
This first appears in the book 'A Collection of Old Ballads' published in 1723. Then on broadsides by the likes of Dicey and Marshall c1750. It is not in the older garlands but Child gives a reference to 1689 and there is no reason to believe it is any older than that. Child states the surviving copy 'is in a rank seventeenth century style.' There are earlier ballads mentioned in the Stationers Register but these can not be positively identified as this ballad.<br />
It has a more or less continuous printing tradition since 1723 and therefore we are not surprised to find it has survived reasonably well in oral tradition. Under the well used title of 'Bold Robin Hood' it was printed on a slip by Evans of London in the late eighteenth century and by Pearson of Manchester in the middle of the nineteenth century.<br />
<br />
It is very rare in oral tradition in Britain. The only English oral version I have seen is the two stanza fragment found by Alfred Williams in Gloucestershire, although Hammond mentioned having heard of it being sung in Dorset, and there is a three stanza fragment in the Greig-Duncan Collection from North-East Scotland.<br />
<br />
Rare as it is in Britain, like many earlier broadside ballads, it turns up more frequently and in fuller versions in North America. A twenty-nine stanza version was found in Kentucky, a twenty stanza version in Virginia, and two versions in Tennessee, one of ten stanzas and the other longer. In Nova Scotia was found a thirteen-and-a-half stanza version and a two-line fragment.<br />
<br />
References and/or texts posted on request.</div>Steve Gardham