Josiah Henry Combs

“ In the winter the lover woos his fair, but is rejected. In the spring, her mind changing, she writes him of her love for him. He replies that meanwhile his heart has changed in turn and that he is already married to another. [Pg 26]
Loving Hanner, 3abcb, 9: The lover sings his devotion to her, but in the face of her coolness and her parents' opposition, vows to go on a long voyage to try to forget her—but in vain.
My Bonnie Little Girl, 4a3b4c3b, 4: Courting her too slow, the singer finds his sweetheart has fled with another man. ”

“ It has, naturally, been difficult at times to decide whether certain stanzas should be counted as couplets, or as quatrains half as long. In such cases, the air, or tune, and other data, often rather subtle, have been employed in making decisions. The quatrain form has in uncertain instances been given the benefit of the doubt. Even thus, certain minor inconsistencies will perhaps be noted. It is hardly necessary to add that assonance freely occurs in the place of rime, and as such it is considered throughout. ”

“ She is murdered on the bank of a river, by her lover, who, intoxicated with Burgundy wine, is persuaded by his father's promise of money, to slay her.
Note.—Amid the flotsam and jetsam of popular parlor-songs everywhere current the following have come to hand. They are hardly worth preserving, even by title, save for the fact that in spite of their pseudo-literary tang they are fellow travelers by oral tradition with the true folk-songs and song-ballads.
The list is: The Old, Old Love is Growing Still; There's a Spark of Love Still Burning ”

“ At the marriage feast each guest is asked for a song. The bride's former lover sings his unchanging affection for her. She swoons and spends the night in her mother's bed, where she is found dead the next morning.
The Young Man's Love, 2aa, 9: The singer one evening overhears a young man lamenting the faithlessness of his sweetheart, who scorns him for his poverty. ”

“ An [English] sailor, bound for America to serve his King, is forgotten by his sweetheart. Returning to her father's hall, he finds her married, and vows to return to Charlestown, where cannon-balls are flying.
The Silk Merchant's Daughter, 2aa, 17: A London lad and his sweetheart set sail for America. The ship springs a leak, the passengers drift in a long-boat. Lot falls to the girl to be slain, her lover takes her place. A passing ship carries them back to London, and they are married. ”

“ I'll Love Thee Always; Jack and Mary; Willie and Kate; Won't You Ever Come Again?; Fond Affection; Will You Love Me When I'm Old?; Nell and I had Quarrels; Tell Me Why You've Grown so Cold?; I Want to be Somebody's Darling; By the Gate; The Broken Engagement; Say You'll be Mine in a Year; I Cannot be Your Sweetheart; Kiss Me Again; Just Going Down to the Gate; Darling, We have Long been Parted; Our Hands are Clasped; Only Flirting; I Loved You Better than You Knew; Mollie Darling; The Jealous Girl; The Independent Girl; Willie, Come Back; Free Again; The Hawthorn Tree; The Sailor Lad ”

“ A maiden's song of longing for her absent lover: she asks the birds to bear her message of devotion to him and to bring him back secure in his affection for her.
[Constant Johnny] , 4aa, 14: A maiden sings her devotion to her absent sailor lover. He returns and they are married.
Lorla, 4aabb, 2: A lover's elegy over the grave of Lorla beneath the elm, as he recalls the golden willow under which they once sat on violet banks.
Lonesome Dove, 4a3b4c3b, 5: A constant husband sings his resolve to return like a lonesome dove to his wife and children in "Californy." ”

“ Many are hardly "popular" in the strict sense: though current among the folk, they differ from the true folk-song, or "song-ballet." On the other hand, many bear a striking resemblance to certain of those listed in I and II, above.
1. Songs of Constant Love.
Avonia (Red River Valley) , ii, 4a3b4c3b and 4a3b4c3b, 4: A constant lover's song of farewell to Helen, as she leaves the vale of Avonia.
Barney and Kate, 4abab, 6: Barney, maudlin with drink, comes one winter's night to Kate's window and im [Pg 22] plores her to admit him. She sends him packing. ”

“ Songs of Love Thwarted.
Lovely Julia, iv, 4abcb, 9ca: Crossed in love by her parents, she leaves the city, goes upon a mountain, and plunges a dagger into her breast. Her lover finds her and in like manner dies with her.
Johnny Doyle, 2aa, 14ca: A maiden, who loves Johnny, is forced by her parents to prepare to marry Samuel Moore. Just as the priest enters, her earrings fall to the floor and her stay-laces burst. She is carried home fatally ill. The mother now proposes to send for Johnny Doyle, but it is too late—she is dead. ”

“ I'm Scorned for being Poor (Vain Girl) , 3abcb, 8: A lover's farewell to his sweetheart, who has forsaken him to be married to a wealthy stranger from New England.
Little Nellie, 4a3b4c3b, 8: She forsakes her lover, the singer, to marry wicked, wealthy Mr. Brown, who is a drunkard—and dies of a broken heart.
The Squire, 2abcb, 10: The wealthy young squire, being rejected in love by pretty Sally, vows to dance on her grave when she dies.
Little Sparrow (A Regret) , ii, 4abcb, 5ca: A complaint of a love-lorn maiden warning her kind against the faithlessness of all men. ”

“ This collection, then, is by no means complete: means have not been available for a systematic and scientific search for these folk-songs, which have been gathered very casually during the past five years through occasional travel, acquaintanceship, and correspondence in only the twenty-one following counties: Fayette, Madison, Rowan, Elliott, Carter, Boyd, Lawrence, Morgan, Johnson, Pike, Knott, Breathitt, Clay, Laurel, Rockcastle, Garrard, Boyle, Anderson, Shelby, Henry, and Owen—all lying in Central and Eastern Kentucky. ”

“ The poet overhears a lady and her father's apprentice a-courting in "Cubeck's Garden." The angry parent banishes the lad, who goes to sea, is promoted, draws forty thousand pounds in a lottery, returns and marries his fair love.
William Hall, ii, 4abcb, 11ca: He is a young farmer [Pg 12] of "Domesse-town" and loves a "gay young lady" of "Pershelvy-town" against her parents' wishes. Banished by them to sea, he returns, finds by a ruse that the lady is yet faithful, and marries her.
Rosanna, 4aabb, 6ca (fragmentary) : Silimentary, the lover, bids Rosanna farewell, and is later lost at sea ”

“ We're marching down to Old Quebec,
Where the fifes and drums are beating;
America has gained the day
And the British are retreating.
[Sister Frankie] , 3abcb and 3abcb, 3: The refrain is:
Twice one is two
And one and two is three;
Dance around the maypole
Just like me.
[Pg 38]
Buffalo, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 2: It begins:
Come along, my dearest dear,
Present to me your hand;
We are roaming in succession
To some far and distant land.
Bouquet Patch (Pawpaw Patch) , ii: An endless, rimeless improvisation, beginning:
Where, oh where, is pretty little Mary? ”

“ A dying maiden bids her sister bring them from their rosewood casket to read them to her again, and asks that at her death they be buried with her. [Pg 23]
Jack and Mamie, 6aabb and 4aaa3a, 4: Jack plunges into the water to recover the hat of his girl sweetheart, Mamie. Jack, the man, leaves her for a long voyage, and his ship never returned.
Sweet Summer Evening, 4abcb, 7: The poet one summer evening overhears a mother chide her daughter for her devotion to her roving sailor lover, who soon appears and bids her an affectionate farewell. ”

“ An orphan lad, he obtains employment from the farmer, later to marry his daughter and inherit thus the farm.
Old Gray, 6aabb, 5: Song of a teamster, who, lured by the still-house, hauls four loads of coal per day, instead of six; becoming drunk, he rides Old Gray off to a country frolic one night, whither his father follows him, and brings him back to his duty in the morning.
The Waggoner's Lad, ii, 2abcb (or 4aa) , 15: A complaint, arranged as a debat, of a lorn and loving lass against the teamster lad, as he departs from her. ”

“ Songs of the Murderous Lover. (Cf. I for similar Ballads.)
Florella (Floella, Fair Ella, Jealous Lover) , iv, 3abcb, 11ca: Her lover comes one moonlit night to her cottage window and persuades her to wander with him "through meadows dark and gay." She reluctantly follows, and is murdered by him, forgiving him with her dying breath.
Little Omy Wise (Little Anna) , iii, 4aa, 13: John Lewis seduces her with promises, lures her to Adam's Spring, murders her, and throws her body into the stream. She is "missen," the body is found, the murderer views it and confesses the crime. ”

“ I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree, ii, 4a3b4a3b4c3d4c3d, 3: A lover voices his resolve to forsake the charms of his fickle mistress to court a warrior's fate at the Saracen's hand on the field of Palestine.
There was a Rich Old Farmer, ii, 3abcb, 9ca: The [Pg 24] singer recites his farewell to father and sweetheart to seek his fortune, and his faith in her—until a letter arrives telling of her marriage to another man.
Jack and Joe, 4a3b4b3c and 4a3b4b3c, 3ca: Both are sailors, away from home. Jack, returning first, is commissioned by Joe to kiss his sweetheart Nellie for him. ”

“ The Apprentice Boy, iii, 4abcb, 12ca: Like Keats's Isabella, the daughter of a merchant in a post-town loves her father's apprentice. He is slain by her brothers and his body hidden in a valley. His ghost reveals the murderers, who, striving to flee, are lost at sea. (Identified by Belden with an English version, The Constant Farmer's Son, in The Sewanee Review, April, 1911, p. 222.)
II.
The songs in this group are apparently of British origin. Material has not been at hand to justify an attempt to establish their identity. ”

“ He swaps his wife for a duck-egg, and this for other commodities in turn, which rime with each preceding line, until he has lost all. (Spoken.)
[I Bought Me a Horse] , 4aa and cumulative refrain of animal cries: In each couplet a new purchase of some common animal or fowl is made, while each succeeding refrain gathers up cumulative-fashion the cries made by each succeeding addition to the collection. ”

“ Her lover dreams of her and goes to her uncle's house to visit her. Upon being told that she is absent, he fights his way in with drawn sword and takes her away with him.
Greenbriar Shore, 4aa, 10: An amorous youth recites his love for Nancy on Greenbriar Shore. Her father chases him away with an "army of a thousand or more." The sad lot of womankind deplored. ”

“ It includes 333 items, exclusive of 114 variants, and embraces all popular songs that have so far come to hand as having been "learned by ear instead of by eye," as existing through oral transmission—song-ballads, love-songs, number-songs, dance-songs, play-songs, child-songs, counting-out rimes, lullabies, jigs, nonsense rimes, ditties, etc.
There is every reason to believe that many more such await the collector ”

“ A youth murders his sweetheart and throws her into a stream. He tells his mother, who sees the blood on his clothes, that his nose has been bleeding. He is haunted by the ghost of the dead girl. (Cf. Lizzie Wan, Child, No. 51, and Miller-boy, page 28.)
Patty on the Canal, 3abcb and 3abcb, 9: Pat lands in "Sweet Philadelphy" and soon "makes himself handy" on the canal, likewise among the girls, whose mothers become anxious. He is a "Jackson man up to the handle."
Molly, 6aabb, 4: An Irish lad comes to America, courts Molly, but against her parents' will. ”

“ I Won't Marry at All, 4aab3b and 4aab3b, 3: I won't marry a rich man because he will drink and fall in the ditch; a poor man, for he will go begging; a fat man, for he will do nothing but "nurse" the cat. ”

“ Songs of Love Inconstant.
[She was Happy till She Met You] , 4aa5b4cc5b4dd5e4ff5e and 4ababcc5b, 2: A husband forsakes his wife; later, becoming repentant, he returns to seek her at the house of her mother, who forbids him access to her.
[Bedroom Window] , 4abcb, 5: The lover by night calls his sweetheart to awake. She warns him away, saying that her father is armed to repulse his presence. He vows to have her for his own. ”

“ The Pretty Mohee (Maumee) , iii, 4aabb, 7: An Indian maid falls in love with a young adventurer and wooes him. He tells her he must return to his love across the sea. This he does, but dissatisfied returns to the "pretty Mohee." [Pg 13]
Sweet Jane. 4a3b4c3b, 12: Her lover sails for America "to dig the golden ore," "loads up" his trunk with it, and after many trials reaches home, across the main, and reclaims his bride.
IV.
The songs of this group find their common bond in their reference to Ireland, where some of them undoubtedly had their origin.
Irish Molly O, 6aabb and 6aabb (?) ”

“ A variant of the Old World ballad of the same name, Child, No. 105.
The Jew's Daughter, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 12ca: Variants of Sir Hugh, Child, No. 155. One of the Kentucky versions makes the murdered boy's mother go seeking him switch in hand, to punish him for not returning home before nightfall. (Communicated by Dr. Katherine Jackson.)
The House Carpenter, iii, 4a3b4c3b, 13ca: Variants of The Demon Lover, Child, No. 243.
Dandoo: A fragmentary variant of The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin, Child, No. 277, as follows:
He put the sheepskin to his wife's back, Dandoo ”

“ The above adapted to a recital of Emily's love for the mail-driver boy and of his untimely murder.
Pretty Peggy O, metre as below, 6: A fine lilting lyric of the Captain's love for his lass; his farewell; and his death. It begins:
As we marched down to Fernario,
As we marched down to Fernario,
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove,
And they called her by name Pretty Peggy, O.
(Cf. Child, No. 299, Trooper and Maid. Published by Shearin, Sewanee Review, July, 1911, p. 326.)
Lady Gay, 4a3b4c3b, 9: An English woman sends her three children to America. ”

“ He leaves a last letter of farewell to his family.
The Guerrilla Man, 3a3b4c3b, 5: A Southern soldier goes to Shelby County, Ky., and falls in love with a "Rebel girl," who loves him in spite of the opposition of her mother, and determines to follow him.
Murfreesboro, 4a3b4c3b, 7: A Union soldier lies dying on the battlefield. He sends to his mother and sweetheart a message recounting his bravery. ”