Many scholars, including Tristram Coffin, A L Lloyd and Bertrand Bronson, agree that when Professor Francis James Child was working on his monumental work The English and Scottish Popular Ballads he included two ballads, Clerk Colvill (Child 42) and Lady Alice (Child 85), which were actually two parts of the same story. The bulk of the story may be found in Clerk Colvill, who, ignoring his mother's or sweetheart's advice, goes to the water's edge where he is seduced by a mermaid (or possibly some form of water-spirit). Clerk Colvill complains that his head is aching and he is told that this is an omen of his impending death. In Lady Alice, a much shorter ballad, we find that Clerk Colvill here called Giles Collins, has died and Lady Alice is mourning for her loss, thus rounding off the story. According to A L Lloyd, 'Either these are two separate songs which have been combined to form George Collins or (which seems more likely) or they are two fragments of the complete ballad.' Versions of Clerk Colvill have been found scattered throughout Western Europe, the earliest known one being dated to a German manuscript poem of c.1310, whereas versions of Lady Alice appear much later in printed form. A version printed by David Herd in his Ancient and Modern Songs, Heroic Ballads, &c. can be dated to 1769, for example.
What I want to do now is to consider the second ballad, Lady Alice, on its own, because it is this ballad which has entered oral tradition in North America and where several versions were recorded commercially in the 1920s and '30s. Why, I wonder, did this ballad become so popular and what exactly was it that made it so popular in the first place? I will also be using the title George Collins for these versions of Lady Alice. I hope that this will not be too confusing, but most, if not all, the American singers mentioned here used the title of George Collins rather than Lady Alice and so I am following their example.
But firstly, though, let us consider Professor Child's three texts to Lady Alice. Version 'A' comes from Robert Bell's Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of England (1857). Version 'B' is from the 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland, while Version 'C' comes from Miss M H Mason's Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs, printed in 1877. Gammer Gurton's Garland is subtitled 'The Nursery Parnassus: A Choice Collection of Pretty Songs and Verses for the amusement of all Little Good Children who can neither read nor run' and I find it of interest to see that both Child's 'B' and 'C' texts come from publications which contain songs from, or suitable for, children, especially when we consider that today this ballad would hardly be considered to be a story that was suitable for young children.
According to Bell 'This old ballad is regularly published by the stall printers. The termination resembles that of Lord Lovel and other ballads.' Today, we might say 'broadside printers', rather than 'stall printers'. Child also notes that a version of Bell's text was 'heard sung forty years before 1856 (in) Philadelphia', in other words sometime c.1816. Bell's text is as follows:
**Mention of 'a garland of marjoram, and of lemon-thyme, and rue' is interesting, in that such listings of herbs occur as a refrain in other ballads, such as versions of The Elfin Knight (Child 2), which have a supernatural element. The idea was that by singing the names of herbs which had magical qualities, the singer was protecting himself or herself from the Devil or some other form of evil. Is this, therefore, a lingering echo of the mermaid/water spirit who seduces Clerk Colvill in the earlier part of the ballad?
Professor Child's 'B' and 'C' texts contain a number of stanzas which occur in these two versions, but which do not occur in his 'A' text. For example, in both texts there is mention of Giles Collin's mother making 'water-gruel' for her son. In the 'C' text we also find Lady Alice's mother making 'plum-gruel' for her daughter. In fact, this verse does sound slightly odd to my ears:
Let us now return to Version 'A' - Bell's text. If we remove the final two stanzas we are left with just four stanzas. In stanza one Lady Alice is sitting in her 'bower-window' mending, presumably by sewing, her quoif. She sees a corpse being carried past the window. The body is identified as Giles Collins in stanza two. In stanza three Lady Alice orders that the body be laid upon the grass and says that she will also be dead 'when the sun goes down'. Then, in stanza four, Lady Alice asks to be buried 'all for my love so true' and requests that a garland be made of marjoram, lemon-thyme and rue, three herbs which had magical qualities. If we compare this text with the versions which were commercially recorded in America in the 1920s and '30s, then we find that only two stanzas, stanzas one and two, correspond with stanzas found in the recorded texts. And we may also say that only parts of versions 'B' and 'C' occur in the recorded versions. So it would seem that the recorded versions are not directly descended from these three British texts. But, we do know that at least one version of George Collins was being sung in America c.1816 and I would suggest that it is possible that texts were by then being printed on American broadsides and chapbooks.
I will now consider the American recordings.
I am not going to examine just why these American recordings were made because I have already done so in two previous Musical Traditions articles - When Cecil Left the Mountains and When Cecil Left the Mountains Part 2
1 - and readers wanting to know more on this subject should consult these articles. I would, however, simply say that the recordings were made by singers who could possibly have learnt some of their repertoire from oral sources and so I will also be later considering versions of the ballad which had been collected from Appalachian singers prior to when these recordings were made.
In the case of George Collins, the title most often used on the recordings, we know that at least twelve different versions of the ballad were recorded prior to the Second World War, though four of these versions were never issued. One singer, Henry Whitter, had two different recording issued, so that means that we have eight recordings, from seven performers, available to study. The recordings which I wish to consider are:
| Singer | Title | Recording date | Label | |
|
Kelly Harrell Henry Whitter Henry Whitter Henry Whitter Roy Harvey & North Carolina Ramblers Dillard Smith Dick Justice Jack Hicks & Charlie Dykes Emry Arthur & Della Hatfield Jess Johnston Riley Puckett Dixon Brothers |
Dying Hobo George Collins George Collins George Collins George Collins George Collins One Cold December Day George Collins George Collins George Collins George Collins The Story of George Collins |
June 9th 1926 c. August 1926 September 7th 1926 October 18th 1926 February 16th 1928 May 3rd 1929 May 20th 1929 November 8th 1929 c. Oct/Nov 1929 November 14th 1931 March 29th 1934 September 25th 1938 |
Vi 20527. Bwy 8024, Her 75536. OK unissued. OK 45081. Br 250 Ge rejected. Br 367. Ge rejected. Pm 3222. Ge unissued. BB B-5818. MW M-4551. MW M-7580. | |
| BB = Bluebird. Br = Brunswick. Bwy = Broadway. Ge = Gennett. MW = Montgomery Ward. OK = Okeh. Pm = Paramount. Vi = Victor. | ||||
It seems clear that, with so many recordings, George Collins was once a popular song. Recently, on an on-line web-page issued by an American record collector, we find this comment, 'George Collins was a common tune from the area where Henry (Whitter) lived. George Collins may have been a person from that area.' I mention this, not to criticize the record collector's lack of knowledge about the origins of the ballad, but rather to show how someone could assume that the ballad was based on a real person who may have lived in the Appalachian region, where Henry Whitter lived. And, if a person listening to one of the George Collins recordings could think this way, then is it possible that Appalachian singers also considered George Collins to have been a local man, one of their own? I presume that the collector's comment, that it was a 'common tune', came from the fact that it had been recorded by so many performers. And this is an interesting point. Why should so many recordings have been made? George Collins is not the best-known ballad in Professor Child's collection, when compared with, say, Barbara Allen (Child 84). At the time that the above recordings of George Collins were being made we know that fourteen recordings were made of versions of Barbara Allen. However, on closer examination, we find that one performer, the prolific Vernon Dalhart, recorded the song on six different occasions for different record companies, and that two performers, Frank Luther and Bradley Kincaid, each made two recordings for different companies. So, to be accurate, we may say that only seven performers actually recorded Barbara Allen. In other words, there were fewer versions of Barbara Allen recorded than there were of George Collins.
If we begin with the earliest recording, by Kelly Harrell - a Virginian singer who came from Fieldale, a musically rich area of the State close to the small towns of Galax, Hillsville, Fries, Independence and Mt Airy - we find the following text:
'Twas at a western water tank
One cold December day
And in an empty boxcar
A dying hobo lay
You see his girl in yonders hall
A-sewing her silk so fine
But when she heard poor George was dead
She laid her silks aside
She followed him up, she followed him down
She followed him to his grave
She fell upon her bending knees
She weeped, she mourned, she cried
'Oh daughter, o daughter what makes you weep so,
There's more young men than George'
'O mother, o mother, he's won of my heart
And now he's dead and gone'
Then take off his coffin lid
Lay back his linen so fine
And let me kiss his pale sweet lips
For I know he'll never kiss mine
You see that dove in yonders grove
It's flying from pine to pine
It's mourning for its own true love
Why can't I mourn for mine?
2 We might consider this 'rogue' opening stanza something of an oddity, were it not for the fact that another recorded version, this time by Dick Justice, a West Virginian, also includes a similar opening stanza.3
Down by a western water tank
One cold December day
In the bottom of an empty car
A dying hobo lay
He had a girl in yonder town
She dressed of silk so fine
When she heard that poor old George was dead
She laid her silks aside
Oh mother, oh mother let his coffin (laid?) back
And a-lay his panel aside
So that I can kiss his sweet pale lips
Well I know he'll never kiss mine
The longest train I ever saw
Was on the Georgee line
The engine passed at six fifteen
The cab rolled by at nine
Look up, look down this lonesome road
Hang down your head and cry
I see a dove in yonder dell
She flies from pine to pine
She(s) mourning for her own truelove
And why cain't I mourn for mine?
Repeat v. 4
Repeat v. 5
We can, however, suggest that another singer, Ollie Gilbert from Mountain View in Arkansas, learnt her version of George Collins directly, or indirectly, from a recording.
A way out west on a water tank
One cold December day
An' in th empty car box
A dying hobo laid
Me n' that girl in yonders grave
She dressed in silk, so fine
But when she heerd poor George was dead
She laid her silk aside
She follered him up, she follered him down
She follered him to his grave
An' there she knelt down on her knees
She wept, she mourned, she prayed
O daughter, O daughter, what makes you weep
There's more men than George
O Mother, O Mother, he's all of my heart
But now he's dead an' gone
See that dove in yonders grove
It's flyin' from vine to vine
It's mourning for its own true love
Just like I mourn for mine
O, open back th coffin lid
Lay back th lening so fine
An' let me kiss his cold sweet lips
For I'm sure he'll never kiss mine
(transcription by Max Hunter)
George Collins drove home one cold winter night
George Collins drove home so fine
George Collins drove home one cold winter night
Was taken sick and died
His little sweet Nell in yonders (town?)
Sat sewing her silk so fine
But when she heard that George was dead
She laid her silk aside
Set down the corpse, take off the lid
Lay back the linen so fine
And let me kiss his cold pale cheeks
For I know he'll never kiss mine
Oh daughter, oh daughter, why do you weep
There's more young men than one
Oh mother, oh mother, George has my heart
His day on earth is done
Look up and down that lonesome road
Hang down your head and cry
The best of friends is bound to part
And why not you and I?
Don't you see that lonesome dove
That's flying from pine to pine?
He's mourning for his own truelove
Just like I mourn for mine
4 If, as looks possible, Arthur is copying the Harvey recording of The Bluefield Murder then there is a possibility that he had heard the Harvey recording. An analysis, (see below), of both the Harvey and Arthur recordings of George Collins also suggests that both versions are related. They may not be identical in every word, but there are certainly sufficient similarities to suggest a relationship.
George Collins rode out on a winter night
He rode through the snow so wide
And when George Collins returned back home
He was taken sick and died
His little Mamie was in her room
Sewing on her wedding gown
But when she heard that George was dead
She threw all her sewing down
She sobbed and sighed, she mourned and cried
As she entered in the chambry of death
Oh George, oh George you're all my heart
Now I have nothing left
Open up his coffin, push back the lid
Undo those sheets so fine
And let me kiss his cold, cold lips
For I'm sure they'll never kiss mine
She lingered there near his body all night
Then she parted to the grave
And when those cold, cold clods was heard
Oh how little Mamie did rave
Oh Mamie, oh Mamie, don't weep, don't mourn
There's other young men as kind
Yes, mother, I know there's other young men
But no one can never be mine
Now don't you see that little dove
He's flying from pine to pine
He's mourning for his own true love
So please let me mourn for mine
The golden sun sinking in the west
Just at the close of day
And there in his last place of rest
They laid her George away
| Dying hobo | Rode home | Sewing | Wept/mourned | Why weep? | Open Coffin | |
| Kelly Harrell | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Dick Justice | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| Henry Whitter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | |
| Roy Harvey | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | ||
| Emry Arthur | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | |
| Riley Puckett | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Dixon Brothers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
| Stay with body all night | Lonesome Dove | Lonesome Train | Lonesome Road | Golden sun sinking in the West | |
| Kelly Harrell | 6 | ||||
| Dick Justice | 6 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Henry Whitter | 6 | ||||
| Roy Harvey | 6 | 5 | |||
| Emry Arthur | 7 | 6 | |||
| Riley Puckett | 5 | ||||
| Dixon Brothers | 5 | 7 | 8 |
We can see that the opening Dying Hobo stanza occurs in two versions (Kelly Harrell and Dick Justice) and that this element replaces the opening stanza - where George Collins rode home - which occurs in all of the other versions. Three other elements also occur in all of the recorded versions. These are where (Lady Alice - actually his girl, a girl, this maid, sweet Nell (x2), Mary and Mamie) is sewing, where she orders the Coffin to be Opened so that she may Kiss the Body, and the floating verse about the Lonesome Dove. Assuming that the Lonesome Dove stanza is indeed a floating verse, one that possibly became attached to the ballad once it was in America, then we may indeed confirm that the recorded versions of the ballad only share two stanzas with the three versions printed by Professor Child. Two other elements - Why weep?, which occurs in five of the recordings, and Stay with the body all night also seem to belong to early versions of George Collins, whereas the other elements, Lonesome train, Lonesome Road and Golden sun sinking in the west, are probably other American floating verses. If, as I suggest, the Why weep? and the Stay with the body all night elements are from other (Old World?) versions of George Collins then these must be versions that were unknown to Professor Child.
It will be seen that all of the recorded versions are quite short, each one containing only a few stanzas from the actual ballad, together with one or more 'floating' verses. Field recordings from England show that the ballad could actually be much longer. For example, a version collected in Hampshire contains ten stanzas, while a set collected in Gloucestershire contains eleven stanzas.5 It may be felt that the recorded versions of the ballad are of similar length because of the limited time available on a 78rpm disc - namely about 3 minutes - and that these versions had been shortened to fit the recording times. But, if we look at a selection of collected versions of the ballad we find that many of these versions are of a similar length. This set is from the singer Frank Proffitt (1913 - 1965). Proffitt, who was from Watauga County, NC, said that he had known the ballad since he was a little boy and that his mother, and his mother's sisters, used to sing it to him. Frank's mother was Rebecca Alice Proffitt, née Creed, and she had been born on November 11th, 1878, in Surry County, NC. If, as Frank Proffitt says, he heard the song 'since he was a little boy', then we may assume that his mother, and her sisters, learnt it possibly before 1920 - 25, in other words before it had been commercially recorded.
George Collins rode home one cold winter night
George Collins rode home so fine
George Collins rode home one cold winter night
He took sick and died
Now Mary was seated in yonder fair town
A-sewing her silk so fine
But when she heard that George was dead
She laid her fine silk aside
She followed him up, she followed him down
She followed him to his grave
And there upon her bended knee
She cried and screamed and prayed
Oh daughter, dear daughter, why do you weep so
There's more young men than one
Oh no, oh no, George has my heart
And now he's dead and gone
Oh don't you hear that turtle dove
Way off in yonder lone pine
A-mourning for his own truelove
Just like I mourn for mine
6 Three versions are printed with full text, while the two remaining sets only show the tune and the first stanza.
| Rode home | Sewing | Wept/mourned | Why weep? | Open Coffin | |
| Frank Proffit | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| Mrs Dora Shelton | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6/7 |
| Mrs Hester House | 1 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 | 5/6 |
| Miss Mary McKinney | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4/5 | 6 |
| Stay with body all night | Lonesome Dove | Lonesome Train | Lonesome Road | Golden sun sinking | |
| Frank Proffit | 5 | ||||
| Mrs Dora Shelton | 5 | ||||
| Mrs Hester House | 4 | ||||
| Miss Mary McKinney | 7 |
Again, in these for texts we see that the core of the ballad is to be found in the Rode home/Sewing/Wept or mourned/ Why weep? motifs, which occur in all four versions. The open coffin motif occurs in all three of Sharp's version, though not in the Frank Proffit version, while the Lonesome Dove motif again occurs in all four versions. In other words, the similarities found in these four texts suggest that, at one time or other, they may have been derived from a common source.
The ballad of George Collins was clearly once popular in parts of the Appalachian Mountains of North America. Collectors, such as Cecil Sharp, found many versions in the early part of the 20th century and several singers recorded the ballad in the 1920s and '30s. We know that at least one version of the ballad was being sung in Philadelphia c.1816 and that it must have travelled with settlers into the Mountains. But why should this ballad have survived on the lips of so many singers? Many of the versions collected before the ballad began to be recorded commercially show a number of similarities, which indicates that they may all stem from a common source either priinted or oral. And the same may be said for most of the commercially recorded versions. Most of these versions are clearly related to the versions which were collected by people like Cecil Sharp prior to the commercially recorded versions being made. There are anomalies, of course, such as the opening stanzas recorded by both Kelly Harrell and Dick Justice (the stanza about the dying hobo) which would seem to have crept in from another song and, once recorded by Kelly Harrell, may have been heard by Dick Justice who based his recording on that by Harrell. And the 1938 Dixon Brothers recording ends with a unique stanza, one which may have been learnt in South Carolina, before the brothers moved to North Carolina in search of work. If this is the case, then their version would have been learnt some good distance from where the other singers lived. I sometimes wonder if we assume too much when it comes to songs found in specific areas.
Cecil Sharp covered a huge area of the Appalachians in some six States - and I can imagine people thinking that there would be an almost unlimited number of songs being sung there. But, after about 50 weeks spent collecting during the period 1916 - 1918, Sharp came to realise that he was no longer finding 'new' songs. He was actually hearing versions of songs and ballads which he had previously collected there and that is why he ended his Appalachian journey. He agreed that there could still be some songs that he had not heard, but he definitely believed that he had the bulk of the material down in his notebooks.
If we examine Sharp's Appalachian collection we do find that many songs and ballads were sung to similar tunes, as is the case with recordings of George Collins. Why should this be? I believe that if singers and singing communities are isolated from other singers and communities, then there is every likelihood that tunes and texts will develop separately and become distinct. We might expect this to have happened in Appalachia, where communities were once separated by deeply wooded valleys and mountain chains. But singers were singing similar songs and ballads, and this suggests that there must have been considerable movement between the early settlers, who were possibly not as isolated as we tend to imagine. Many singers around Beech Mountain NC have recalled that they learnt songs from a wandering minstrel called 'Lie-hue', who would travel among the communities - turning up once every seven years, while other mountaineers mention similar song-carriers passing through their regions. The ballad of George Collins was one piece that minstrels such as 'Lie-hue' may have carried with then. Cecil Sharp also confirmed that he was told of singers who had moved away from their singing communities. When he later went to visit these singers he discovered that they had often taken their songs with them.
I previously mentioned another well-known ballad, Barbara Allen, and perhaps there is a parallel between George Collins and the ballad Barbara Allen. Professor Child clearly saw a connection, because he placed them next to one another in his collection. Barbara Allen was given number 84 in his collection, and Lady Alice number 85. Both ballads carry the same, simple story, namely the death of two lovers, one dying upon hearing the news of the death of the other. It is a Romeo and Juliet story in miniature. And then there is the rose and briar ending. When the Appalachian singer Dan Tate gave me his version of Barbara Allen he added that 'those last two verses just cain't be beat'. There is a strange beauty in the symbolism of the two plants intertwining from the two graves, a beauty that has lasted for generations Perhaps we will never fully know just why the folk chose to sing George Collins, rather than some of the other ballads which occur in Child's collection. But honesty, truth and beauty, must surely feature somewhere in that riddle.
2. The 'lonesome dove' floating verse occurs in numerous other songs, including this 1927 recording made by the Carter Family of the song The Storms are on the Ocean.
3. The Dying Hobo has been collected from traditional American singers on a number of occasions. There are also a number of early recordings. The following text was collected by Vance Randolph in 1940 from Mrs. Lillian Short of Cabool, Mo. It is song number 837 in volume 4 of Randolph's Ozark Folksongs.
| The Bluefield Murder - Roy Harvey | The Bluefield Murder - Emry Arthur | |
| February 16th, 1928. Br 250. Reissued on Document CD DOCD-8051. | c. October/November, 1929. Reissued on JSP Box Set JSP7774. | |
|
I was born in Bluefield A city you all know well Brought up by good old parents This story to you I'll tell My name is Walter Summers The name I'll never deny I'm now behind the prison walls To stay until I die My mother used to plead with me My dear old father too To quit this wild and reckless life And bad things not to do But alas that fatal evening I roamed out in our town To the house of Ethel Sullivan I shot that poor girl down The policeman came and caught me And locked me in their gaol My friends they'd all done turned me down I could not get no bail The jury found me guilty I heard the old judge say I'll give this young man ninety-nine years In the State's penitentiary So now I'm sad and lonely How can nobody know The only song that cheers my heart Is 'The Convict and the Rose' |
I was born in Bluefield
A city you all know well Brought up by good old parents The story to you I'll tell My name is Walter Summers The name I'll never deny I'm now behind these prison walls To stay until I die My mother used to plead with me My dear old father too To quit this wild and reckless life And bad things (hard?) to do Alas that fatal evening I roamed out in a town To the house of Ethel Sullivan I shot that poor girl down The policeman came and (caught/got) me They took me to their gaol My friends they'd all done turned me down I could not get no bail The jury found me guilty I heard the old judge say I'll give this young man ninety-nine years In the State's penitentiary So now I'm sad and lonely How can nobody know The only song that cheers my heart Is 'The Convict and the Rose' |
6.Cecil Sharp. English Folk songs from the Southern Appalachians, various editions.
Mike Yates - 20.3.17
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