Lord Lovel

Last updated

Lord Lovel (Roud 49, Child 75) is an English-language folk ballad that exists in several variants. [1] This ballad is originally from England, originating in the Late Middle Ages, with the oldest known versions being found in the regions of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Wiltshire. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

A lord tells the lady he loves that he is going in a journey that will take several years. After a time, he longs to see her. He returns whereupon he hears of her death, and dies of grief.

The journey that Lord Lovel undertakes is possibly a pilgrimage, a quest to a holy shrine, though in some versions he is going "Foreign countries for to see, see, see". [3] and in the version in Horace Walpole's letters he is going "To dwell in fair Scotland". [4]

Early versions

One known version was included in a letter written in 1765 by Horace Walpole to Thomas Percy, the compiler of "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" (1765), a source for many of Child's ballads. Walpole writes "I enclose an old ballad, which I write down from memory, and perhaps very incorrectly, for it is above five and twenty years since I learned it". In Walpole's version the lady's name is Lady Hounsibelle. [4] The song originated in the Late Middle Ages, with the oldest known versions being found in the regions of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Wiltshire. [2]

Broadsides and early printed versions

There are a number of broadside versions dating back as far as 1833. [5] The song was included in Dixon, Ancient Poems Ballads & Songs (1846).

Versions collected from traditional singers

The Roud Folk Song Index lists 31 versions from England, mainly from southern counties; 18 from Scotland, (some Aberdeenshire singers knew the song as "Lord Lovat", and two Edinburgh singers knew it as "Lord Revel"); and 3 versions from Ireland, two under the title "Lord Levett" and one under the title "Lord Duneagle". There are 4 versions from Canada and 153 from the USA. One Kentucky version was titled "Lord Lovely". [6]

Field recordings

There is a fine version sung by Norfolk singer Walter Pardon in 1974 in the Reg Hall collection in the British Library Sound Archive, [7] and another sung by a Mrs. Teale of Winchcombe in 1908 to Percy Grainger. [8] Jeannie Robertson was recorded singing "Lord Lovat" in Aberdeen in 1953, which can also be heard online. [9]

Variants

Forms of this ballad are very common in Scandinavia and Germany. [10]

The ballads, Lord Thomas and Fair Annet and Fair Margaret and Sweet William contain some similar themes, but in those ballads, the hero is actively fickle, seeking another bride. [11]

A closer equivalent to this ballad is Lady Alice , Child ballad 85. [12]

Child complained that "Lord Lovel" is prone to parody: "Therefore a gross taste has taken pleasure in parodying it". [10] A version in Roy Palmer's "A Book of British Ballads" contains this verse, describing Lord Lovel's death:

Then he flung himself down by the side of the corpse,
With a shivering gulp and a guggle,
Gave two hops, three kicks, heav'd a sigh, blew his nose.
Sung a song and then died in the struggle, the struggle,
Sung a song and then died in the struggle., [3]

A parody collected in Virginia starts;

Abe Lincoln stood at the White House Gate
Combing his milk-white steed,
When along came Lady Lizzie Tod,
Wishing her lover good speed, speed, speed,
Wishing her lover good speed. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Allen (song)</span> Traditional ballad

"Barbara Allen" is a traditional folk song that is popular throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. It tells of how the eponymous character denies a dying man's love, then dies of grief soon after his untimely death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matty Groves</span> Traditional English ballad

"Matty Groves", also known as "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" or "Little Musgrave", is a ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a young man and a noblewoman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. It is listed as Child ballad number 81 and number 52 in the Roud Folk Song Index. This song exists in many textual variants and has several variant names. The song dates to at least 1613, and under the title Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard is one of the Child ballads collected by 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Raggle Taggle Gypsy</span> Traditional folk song

"The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" (Roud 1, Child 200), is a traditional folk song that originated as a Scottish border ballad, and has been popular throughout Britain, Ireland and North America. It concerns a rich lady who runs off to join the gypsies (or one gypsy). Common alternative names are "Gypsy Davy", "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies O", "The Gypsy Laddie(s)", "Black Jack David" (or "Davy") and "Seven Yellow Gypsies".

Willie O Winsbury is a traditional English-language folk ballad. The song, of which there are many variants, is a traditional Scottish ballad that dates from at least 1775, and is known under several other names, including "Johnnie Barbour" and "Lord Thomas of Winesberry".

"Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" is the English common name representative of a very large class of European ballads.

"Geordie" is an English language folk song concerning the trial of the eponymous hero whose lover pleads for his life. It is listed as Child ballad 209 and Number 90 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad was traditionally sung across the English speaking world, particularly in England, Scotland and North America, and was performed with many different melodies and lyrics. In recent times, popular versions have been performed and recorded by numerous artists and groups in different languages, mostly inspired by Joan Baez's 1962 recording based on a traditional version from Somerset, England.

"Young Beichan", also known as "Lord Bateman", "Lord Bakeman", "Lord Baker", "Young Bicham" and "Young Bekie", is a traditional folk ballad categorised as Child ballad 53 and Roud 40. The earliest versions date from the late 18th century, but it is probably older, with clear parallels in ballads and folktales across Europe. The song was popular as a broadside ballad in the nineteenth century, and survived well into the twentieth century in the oral tradition in rural areas of most English speaking parts of the world, particularly in England, Scotland and Appalachia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord Thomas and Fair Annet</span> Traditional song

"Lord Thomas and Fair Annet", also known as "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor", is an English folk ballad.

"The Twa Magicians", "The Two Magicians", "The Lady and the Blacksmith", or "The Coal Black Smith" is a British folk song. It first appears in print in 1828 in two sources, Peter Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland and John Wilson's Noctes Ambrosianae #40. It was later published as number 44 of Francis James Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads. During the 20th century, versions of it have been recorded by a number of folk and popular musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Margaret and Sweet William</span> Traditional song

"Fair Margaret and Sweet William" is a traditional English ballad which tells of two lovers, one or both of whom die from heartbreak. Thomas Percy included it in his 1765 Reliques and said that it was quoted as early as 1611 in the Knight of the Burning Pestle. In the United States, variations of Fair Margaret were regarded as folk song as early as 1823.

"Sheath and Knife" is a folk ballad.

Lady Alice is Child ballad 85. It may be a fragment of a longer ballad that has not been preserved.

"Gil Brenton" is an English-language folk song, existing in several variants.

"The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter" is an English ballad, collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad 110 and listed as number 67 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

"Earl Brand" is a pseudo-historical English ballad.

"Edward" is a traditional murder ballad existing in several variants, categorised by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 13 and listed as number 200 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad, which is at least 250 years old, has been documented and recorded numerous times across the English speaking world into the twentieth century.

"King Henry" is an English-language folk song. It is a version of the tale of the loathly lady. This form of the tale appears in Hrólfr Kraki's saga and also in the Scottish tale "The Daughter Of King Under-Waves". A similar bride is found in "The Marriage of Sir Gawain".

Sweet William's Ghost is an English ballad and folk song which exists in many lyrical variations and musical arrangements. Early known printings of the song include Allan Ramsay's The Tea-Table Miscellany in 1740 and Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in 1765. Percy believed that the last two stanzas of the version he published were later additions, but that the details of the story they recounted were original.

Clerk Saunders is an English-language folk song, likely originating somewhere in England or Scotland. It exists in several variants.

"Bonnie Annie" is a folk ballad recorded from the Scottish and English traditions. Scottish texts are often called Bonnie Annie or The Green Banks of Yarrow, English texts are most often called The Banks of Green Willow. Other titles include The Undutiful Daughter, The High Banks O Yarrow, The Watery Grave, Green Willow, There Was a Rich Merchant that Lived in Strathdinah and The Merchant's Daughter.

References

  1. ↑ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "Lord Lovel"
  2. 1 2 Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 5, p 790, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  3. 1 2 Palmer, Roy; A Book of English Ballads; Lampeter, 1980.
  4. 1 2 "Yale edition of Walpole's correspondence". images.library.yale.edu. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  5. ↑ http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/05000/03104.gif [ bare URL image file ]
  6. ↑ "Search". vwml.org. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  7. ↑ "Lord Lovell - Reg Hall English, Irish and Scottish Folk Music and Customs Collection - World and traditional music - British Library - Sounds". sounds.bl.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  8. ↑ "Lord Lovell - Percy Grainger ethnographic wax cylinders - World and traditional music | British Library - Sounds". sounds.bl.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  9. ↑ "Lord Lovat". tobarandualchais.co.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  10. 1 2 Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 204-6, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  11. ↑ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 204, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  12. ↑ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 279, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  13. ↑ Spiegel, Max. "ABE LINCOLN STOOD AT THE WHITE HOUSE GATE". mudcat.org. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.