Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Additions and Corrections

73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet

P. 1 79 f. D. The Roxburghe copy of 'Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor,' III, 554, is printed by Mr. J.W. Ebsworth in the Ballad Society's edition of the Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 647. (Mr. Ebsworth notes that the broadside occurs in the Bagford Ballads, II, 127; Douce, I, 120 v., Ill, 58 v., IV, 36; Ouvry, II, 38; Jersey, III, 88.) 'The Unfortunate Forrester,' Roxburghe, II, 553, is printed at p. 645 of the same volume. A copy from singing is given (with omissions) in Miss Burne's Shropshire Folk-Lore, 1883-86, p. 545; another, originally from recitation, in Mr. G.R. Tomson's Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888, p. 82. Both came, traditionally, from print. Still another, from the singing of a Virginian nurse-maid (helped out by her mother), was communicated by Mr. W.H. Babcock to the Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 33, 1889, and may be repeated here, both because it is American and also because of its amusing perversions.

The Brown Girl

1   'O mother, O mother, come read this to me,
And regulate all as one,
Whether I shall wed fair Ellinter or no,
Or fetch you the brown girl home.'
2   'Fair Ellinter she has houses and wealth,
The brown girl she has none;
But before I am charged with that blessing,
Go fetch me the brown girl home.'
3   He dressed himself in skylight green,
His groomsmen all in red;
And every town as he rode through
They took him to be some king.
4   He rode and he rode until he came to fair Ellinter's door;
He knocked so loud at the ring;
There was none so ready as fair Ellinter herself
To rise and let him in.
5   'O what is the news, Lord Thomas?' she said,
'O what is the news to thee?'
'I 've come to invite you to my wedding,
And that is bad news to thee.'
6   'God forbid, Lord Thomas,' she said,
'That any such thing should be!
For I should have been the bride myself,
And you should the bridegroom be.
7   'O mother, O mother, come read this to me,
And regulate all as one,
Whether I shall go to Lord Thomas' wed,
Or stay with you at home.'
8   'Here you have one thousand friends,
Where there you would but one;
So I will invite you, with my blessing,
To stay with me at home.'
9   But she dressed herself in skylight red,
Her waiting-maids all in green,
And every town as she rode through
They took her to be some queen.
10   She rode and she rode till she came to Lord Thomas's door;
She knocked so loud at the ring;
There was none so ready as Lord Thomas himself
To rise and let her in.
11   He took her by her lily-white hand,
He led her across the hall;
Sing, 'Here are five and twenty gay maids,
She is the flower of you all.'
12   He took her by her lily-white hand,
He led her across the hall,
He sat her down in a big arm-chair,
And kissed her before them all.
13   The wedding was gotten, the table was set,
. . .
The first to sit down was Lord Thomas himself,
His bride, fair Ellinter, by his side.
14   'Is this your bride, Lord Thomas?' she said;
'If this is your bride, Lord Thomas, she looks most wonderfully dark,
When you could have gotten a fairer
As ever the sun shone on.'
15   'O don't you despise her,' Lord Thomas said he,
'O don't you despise her to me;
Yes, I like the end of your little finger
Better than her whole body.'
16   The brown girl, having a little penknife,
And being both keen and sharp,
Right between the long and short ribs,
She pierced poor Ellinter's heart.
17   'O what is the matter, fair Ellinter,' said he,
'That you look so very dark,
When your cheeks used to have been so red and rosy
As ever the sun shined on?'
18   'Are you blind, or don't you see,
My heart-blood come trickling down to my knee?'
   31,2. green and red should be interchanged: cf. 9.
13, 14. Rearranged.
151. said she.

181. Add to the French ballads, 'La Délaissée,' V. Smith, Romania, VII, 82; Legrand, Romania, X, 386, No 32; 'La triste Noce,' Thiriat, Mélusine, I, 189; and to the Italian ballad, Nigra, No 20, p. 139, 'Danze e Funerali.'

To be Corrected in the Print.

179 b, note to B 72. Drop.

192 a, 74. Read maun. 82. Read Ye'r seer. 92. Drop the brackets.

193 a, 204. Read ye never gat.
222. Drop the brackets.
252. Read dreams.

193 b, 281. Read Ge (= Gae) for Ye.

The following are mostly trivial variations from the spelling of the text.

192 a, 54. Read An. 73. Read askin.

193b, 261. Read hour.

This page most recently updated on 18-Apr-2011, 17:02:17.
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