Category: Song

The Baffled Knight

From James Beale

Collected by Cecil Sharp, Warehorne, 23rd September 1908

Cecil Sharp MSS, Folk Words CJS2/9/1783, Folk Tunes CJS2/10/1927

Roud 11, Child 112

CJS2-10-1927 Baffled KnightDownload

Cecil Sharp gave this song the title ‘The Baffled Knight’, the generic name used by F.J. Child and other folk song scholars. It is extremely unlikely that James Beale would have recognised this name, particularly as, in common with other versions collected from oral tradition, the male protagonist is not a knight, but a shepherd’s son. He more likely called the song ‘Stroll away the morning dew’.

In her collection The Crystal Spring, Maud Karpeles called the song ‘Blow away the morning dew’, having replaced “Stroll away…” in the chorus with the more usual “Blow away…”. She also omitted James Beale’s final verse, replacing it with the somewhat less problematic

My father’s got a flower,
It’s called Marigold;
And if you will not when you can
You shall not when you would.

Seven Joys Of Mary

Mrs Alice Harding i.e. Alice Harden

Collected by Cecil Sharp, Ham Street, 11th October 1911

Cecil Sharp MSS, Folk Tunes CJS2/10/2706B

Roud 278

CJS2-10-2706B Seven Joys Of MaryDownload

This was presumably one of the songs which the Beale family would sing when they went out carolling.

Sharp did not note any words, which suggests that Mrs Harden’s text followed a standard pattern – see, for example, the verses printed in the Oxford Book of Carols, available at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.546842/page/151/mode/1up

The Thresher Man

From Mr Barling

Collected by Francis Collinson, South Willesborough, 3rd December 1942

Francis Collinson Manuscript Collection COL/1/15

Roud 19

COL-1-15 The Thresher ManDownload

This is very similar to the version of the song collected by Cecil Sharp from Clarke Lonkhurst at Hamstreet in 1908.

In Collinson’s MS the last two lines of verse 5 are highlighted and these alternative lines provided at the foot of the page (although with the note “don’t copy this”):

With my frail [sic] upon my shoulder and a bottle of strong beer
I’m as happy as those with ten thousand a year

The White Rose in the Broom

Abram Cooper

Collected by John Brune, August 1962

English Dance & Song 35:2 (1973) p.59

Roud 3184

EDS-35-2-59 The White Rose in the BroomDownload

It seems unlikely that these words were collected from a travelling singer – they look suspiciously like the work of a modern songwriter attempting to write a romantic ballad. John Brune certainly collected songs from travellers, but he also wrote songs, and seems to have had a reputation for “improving” some of the songs he collected. There is no other entry in the Roud Index for number 3184, which tends to confirm these suspicions.

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