Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Additions and Corrections

219. The Gardener

P. 212. Rev. S. Baring-Gould has pointed me to a printed copy of this ballad, considerably corrupted, to be sure, but also considerably older than the traditional versions. It is blended at the beginning with a "Thyme" song, which itself is apt to be mixed up with 'I sowed the seeds of love.' The second stanza is from the "Thyme" song; the third is a traditional variation of a stanza in 'I sowed the seeds of love.' (See the piece which follows this.) The ballad begins with the fourth stanza, and the fifth is corrupted by being transferred from the gardener to the maid. Mr. Baring-Gould has lately taken down copies of the "Thyme" song in the west of England. See one in Songs and Ballads of the West, No 7, and the note thereto in the preface to Part IV of that work, p. xv; also Campbell's Albyn's Anthology, I, 40, Bruce and Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy, p. 90, and Chappell's Popular Music, p. 521 f. Rev. S. Baring-Gould has given me two copies, one from recitation, the other from "a broadside published by Bebbington, Manchester, Brit. Mus., 1876. d., A Collection of Songs and Broadsides, I, 264."

Five Excellent New Songs. Edinburgh. Printed and sold by William Forrest, at the head of the Cowgate, 1766. British Museum, 11621. b. 6 (8).

1   The wakeing all the winter night,
And the tippling at the wine,
And the courting of a bonny lass,
Will break this heart of mine.
  Brave sailing here, my dear,
And better sailing there,
Brave sailing in my love's arms,
O give I were there!
2   I had a bed of thyme,
And it flourishd night and day,
There came by a squire's son
That stole my heart away.
  Brave sailing here, my dear,
And better sailing there,
Brave sailing in my love's arms,
O give I were there!
3   Then up comes the gardener-lad,
And he gave me prefers free,
He gave to me the jully-flowers,
To clothe my gay bodie.
4   The gardener stood in his garden,
And the prim-rose in his hand,
And there he spi'd his own true love,
As tight's a willy wand.
5   'If he'll be a lover true,' she said,
'A lover true indeed,
And buy all the flowers of my garden,
I'll shape to thee a weed.'
  Brave sailing here, my dear,
And better sailing there,
Brave sailing in my love's arms,
O give I were there!
6   'The prim-rose shall be on thy head,
And the red rose on thy breast,
And the white-rose shall be for a smock,
To cover thy body next.
  Brave sailing here, my dear,
And better sailing there,
Brave sailing in my love's arms,
O give I were there!
7   'Thy glove shall be the jully-flower,
Comes lockren to thy hand,
. . .
. . .
8   Thy stockings shall be of the thyme,
Fair maid, it is a pleasant view;
Put on, fair maid, whenever you please,
And your shoes shall be of the rue.'
  Brave sailing here, my dear,
And better sailing there,
And brave sailing in my love's arms,
O if I were there!
9   'You shape to me, young man,' she says,
'A weed amongst the flowers,
But I will shape to you, young man,
A weed amongst the flowers.
10   The hail-stones shall be on thy head,
And the snow upon thy breast,
And the east-wind shall be for a shirt,
To cover thy body next.
11   'Thy boots shall be of the tangle,
That nothing can betide,
Thy steed shall be of the wan water,
Loup on, young man, and ride.'
  Brave sailing there, my dear,
And better sailing here,
And 't is brave sailing twixt my love's arms,
O if I were there!

Five Excellent New Songs. II. The New Lover's Garland. III. The Young Maid's Answer.

   51 should read, If thou 'lt l.. he said.
52 should read nearly as in B 83, Among all.
64, 104. next should be neist.
71. grove.
71,2, 81,2, make a stanza.
After 8: The Young Maid's Answer, printed as No 3 of the Jive songs.
91. to be a.
93,4 could be easily corrected from A 75,6, B 153,4.
111. stangle.
112 should read to the effect, That's brought in by the tide.

The piece which follows is little more than a variation of 'I sow'd the seeds of love' (one of "three of the most popular songs among the servant-maids of the present generation," says Mr. Chappell: see a traditional version of the song, which was originally composed by Mrs. Habergham towards the end of the seventeenth century, in Popular Music, p. 522 f.). But the choosing of a weed for a maid from garden-flowers is here, and is not in the song. It will be observed that the maid chooses no weed for the gardener, but dies of a thorn-prick, a trait which is found in neither the song nor the ballad.

Taken down by Rev. S. Baring-Gould from the singing of Joseph Paddon, Holcombe Burnell. Printed, with changes, in Baring-Gould and Sheppard's Songs and Ballads of the West, No 107, Part IV, p. 50, 1891 here as sung.

Dead Maid's Land

1   A garden was planted around
With flowers of every kind,
I chose of the best to wear in my breast,
The flowers best pleased my mind.
2   A gardener standing by
I asked to choose for me;
He chose me the lily, the violet, the pink,
But I liked none of the three.
3   A violet I don't like,
A lily it fades so soon,
But as for the pink I cared not a flink,
I said I would stop till June.
4   'The lily it shall be thy smock,
The jonquil shoe thy feet,
Thy gown shall be of the ten-week stock,
Thy gloves the violet sweet.
5   'The gilly shall deck thy head,
Thy way with herbs I'll strew,
Thy stockings shall be the marigold,
Thy gloves the violet blue.'
6   'I like not the gilly-flower,
Nor herbs my way to strew,
Nor stockings of the marigold,
Nor gloves of violet blue.
7   'I will not have the ten-week stock,
Nor jonquils to my shoon,
But I will have the red, red rose
That flowereth in June.'
8   'The rose it doth bear a thorn
That pricketh to the bone;'
'I little heed what thou dost say,
I will have that or none.'
9   'The rose it doth bear a thorn
That pricketh to the heart;'
'O but I will have the red, red rose,
For I little heed its smart.'
10   She stooped to the ground
To pluck the rose so red,
The thorn it pierced her to the heart,
And this fair maid was dead.
11   A gardener stood at the gate,
With cypress in his hand,
And he did say, Let no fair may
Come into Dead Maid's Land.

A fragment in Motherwell's Manuscript, obtained from Widow Nicol, 'It's braw sailing here,' p. 110, has something of both pieces without any suggestion of the flower-dress.

1   It's braw sailing here,
And it's braw sailing there,
And it's braw sailing on the seas
When wind and tide are fair.
2   It's braw drinking beer,
And it's braw drinking wine,
And it's braw courting a bonnie lass
When she is in her prime.
3   O the gardener sent me word,
He that pued the rose for me,
The willow, primrose, the red rose,
But I denied all three.
4   The willow I'll deny,
The primrose it buds soon,
But I'll chuse for me the red rose,
And I vow it'll stand till June.
5   In June my red rose sprung,
It was not a rose for me,
So I'll pull the top of my red rose,
And I'll plant the willow-tree.
6   For the willow I must wear,
With sorrows mixed amang,
And all the neighbours far and near
Say I luved a false luve lang.
   22. braw altered to better.

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