Norman Kuusik
Form and meaning in variants of "A Week Before Easter" from the 17th to the 20th century
The subject of this essay is the English traditional folk song The Week Before Easter (Roud index 154) and its variants among the broadsides of two distinct time periods and in oral recordings found in the Take Six database of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The methodology applied is a stanza for stanza comparison of the two broadsides to oral variants. The latter are a collection of 11 texts, mostly dating to early 20th century (1906/7), the latest (reference number COL/2/33) being from 1942. Geografically, a larger portion of texts originate from Sussex (AGG/8/22, AGG/8/72, GB/7d/12), others include also Oxfordshire (JHB/1A/2), Hampshire (GG/1/12/716), Gloucestershire (HAM/3/13/15), Dorset (HAM/5/35/14), and no definitive location can be found for SBG/1/7/102, COL/5/57B, COL/5/57C and COL/2/33.
The broadsides of this song fall into two categories both content- and period-wise: those after the first iteration of the ballad from late 17th century (Douce Ballads 1(83a) & 3(32a), Pepys 3.103; the version used in here is Douce’s 3(32a)), and those printed by W. Pratt in 1850ties (the version used here is (Harding B 11(634)). The difference between two versions is considerable as the length of the song drops from 16 stanzas to 8. Both in their length and structure, the oral variants clearly lean towards the more recent Pratt’s, varying from two to eight stanzas. It can also be said that it is the middle part of the song that has survived (Douce’s V, VII, VIII, X and XII, in oral variants also I and II are the stanzas which are featured) where the central narrative lies. Additionally, two new stanzas surface from Pratt’s (III and V) which are regularly present also among oral versions, and two stanzas unique to a single version (SBG/1/7/102: V and COL/2/33: III). In the following section , on the left are stanzas from Douce’s 3(32a) and on the right, a version of Pratt’s.[1]
I
A Week before Easter, The days long and clear,
So bright was the Sun, and so cool was the Air,
I went to the Forest, Some Flowers to find there,
And the Forest would yield me no Posies:
II
The wheat and the Rye, That do grow so green
The Hedges and Trees, in their Several Coats
The small Brids do sing, In their changeable Notes,
But their grows no Strawberries or Roses.
The results of these two initial stanzas are divided in the sense that, while in Pratt’s version four first stanzas have been dropped altogether, most oral recordings (eight of the total eleven) do retain this stanza, and the second one has been kept in three additional cases. Save perhaps for the very ending stanza, this is perhaps the most generic part of the song and the changes that have taken place are miscellaneous. A common variation, which occurs in three cases (AGG/8/72, COL/2/33, GB/7d/12), is the replacement of “posies” with “roses”. This usually coincides with a change word order of the previous line change (AGG/8/72: “I went to the forest to gather wild flowers”, others to follow this construction are HAM/5/35/14, COL/5/57B and COL/5/57C). In two cases (HAM/3/13/15 and HAM/5/35/14) considerable changes occur to the first line (“Three weeks before Easter” and “‘Twas in the month of April”) which also reveals direct correlation between first line (or the first half of the first line) and the title of the song and the two odd versions have been titled respectively. Interestingly enough, this correlation stands only for versions that include that first generic stanza (Douce's I), and no such exist for other cases (The false hearted lover, The forlorn lover, etc...) or when the first stanza has been omitted.
As far as the second stanza is concerned, there is a uniform change of the first line to “The roses are red (and) the leaves they are green”, and it is notable that this occurs only alongside the shift from “posies” to “roses” in the previous stanza so that, in all likely-hood, the survival of this stanza is interlinked with that shift. This hypothesis is further strengthened by the fact that all three versions vary greatly in the subsequent three lines.
As the next two stanzas have in all cases been omitted, the next verse we shall look is the fifth.
V I
I love her dear, And I’d wed her well I courted a bonny lass many a day
I hated those People, That of her spoke ill I hated all people who against her did say
Many a one told me, What she once did say But now she’s rewarded me well for my pains
Yet I would then hardly believe them She has gone to be tied to another
This is the initial stanza in all cases when Douce’s I has been lost. In addition, it follows as the second or third stanza in three cases, making the verse’s total occurrence to six times (AGG/8/22, HAM/3/13/15, SBG/1/7/102, COL/5/57B, COL/2/33 and GB/7d/12). The change of the first line to a more concrete “I (once) courted/loved...” is universal and most likely a result of its role as the first line for the song (even though the verse may be preceded by Douce’s I and II). The second and third lines are perhaps of most interest, featuring considerable variations in the narrator’s reasoning; if the general notion of these lines (as also seen in Pratt’s version) is an active protection of his ‘false lover’, the sense has transformed to a form of 'justice served' on the narrator for being a generally bad person in AGG/8/22 (“I hated all people and wished them ill/ And ain’t I rewarded fo’ what I have done”), and unwillingness to believe slanderous rumour in SBG/1/7/102 (“Unheeding what people against her did say/ I thought her as constant and true as the day”). The ending line has also been generalised and will repeat itself in one way or another throughout the rest of the song. The only exception again is version SBG/1/7/102 (“But now she is going to be married.”) where the ending lines continue their unique logic throughout the song.
VII II
But when I did see, My Love to the Church go, Then I saw my love to the church go,
With all her Bride-Maidens, They made such a show With the bride and the bridegroom they cut a fine show,
I laugh’d in Conceit, Though my heart was full low, Then I followed after with a heart full of woe,
To see how much she was regarded. To see my love tied to another.
The frequency of this stanza seven times (GG/1/12/716, AGG/8/22, AGG/8/72, HAM/3/13/15, HAM/5/35/14, SBG/1/7/102, GB/7d/12) and several obvious tendencies occur in the variations. One of the more interesting points is the continuation of the narration in the beginning first line; the broadsides’ construction is followed only by HAM/3/13/15, HAM/5/35/14 and - with certain reservations - SBG/1/7/102 (“O when to the church...”) and all other versions apply a construction “The next/ first time I saw...” which - if present the first time - repeats itself throughout the song. Additionally, if the numerical value is used the first time, there is a chance of it continuing (in AGG/8/22 this goes as up as “the third time” by verse IV although most versions start using “the next time” after the initial use) and also the construction “last time” has been used for the penultimate stanza (GG/1/12/716). The only exception to this consistency are Pratt’s III (and the respective oral variants of this stanza) and the two stanzas unique to particular versions which would hint back at the singularity of these verses. Another fascinating aspect is the ending line which in most cases reflect back to the 17th century version as either “For to see my false lover regarded” (AGG/8/72) or the more frequent “To see how my false love was guarded” (GG/1/12/716, AGG/8/22, HAM/3/13/15, GB/7d/12). SBG/1/7/102 again uses a construction unique only to it (“To see how my suit had miscarried”) and only HAM/5/35/14 stays to true to Pratt’s version.
III
The parson that married them aloud he did cry,
All that you forbid it I’d have you draw nigh,
I thought to myself I’d a good reason why,
Though i had not the heart to forbid it.
Pratt’s III is the first stanza not to exist in the 17th century version. As such it occurs only three times in among oral recordings GG/1/12/716, HAM/5/35/14, GB/7d/12), and remains relatively the same in all versions. The largest divergence takes place in the narrator’s reasoning of the ultimate line; in GG/1/12/716 it is the same as Pratt’s, HAM/5/35/14 essentially asserts the previous line (“A good reason have I to forbid it”) and GB/7d/12 it is has become a generic “And now she is gone to some other”. As for the existence of this stanza itself, it possible it had emerged from the back end of the 17th century version and the narrator’s plaintive reasoning, the closest common ground being Douce's XV (“Two Husbands she hath, By this wild Miscarriage/ The one by a contract, The other by Marriage/ She doth her whole Family, Grosly disparage/ But I will not plot to misuse her”).
VIII IV
But when I saw my Love, within the Church stand, When I saw my love in the church stand,
Gold Ring on her Finger, Well sealed with a Hand; With a ring on her finger and glove in her hand
He had so endu’d her, With both House and Land, I might have enjoyed her with houses and land
That nothing but Death could them sever. But now she is tied to another.
Occurring eight times (AGG/8/22, AGG/8/72, HAM/3/13/15, HAM/5/35/14, SBG/1/7/102, COL/5/57B, COL/5/57C, GB/7d/12), the first two lines remain relatively the same throughout (a notable exception being the change of construction in HAM/5/35/14 “Then when I saw my love in the church stand/ With the glove pulling off and the ring putting on”). The latter two, however, feature an array of semantic changes; only AGG/8/22 stays true to broadsides in the narrator offering economic stability (“She might have been mistress of houses and land/ But now she’s the bride of another”) whereas in a majority of cases (AGG/8/72, HAM/5/35/14, COL/5/57B, COL/5/57C, GB/7d/12) a more generic sentiment of regret is expressed (AGG/8/72: “Thinks I to myself, I might have been that man/ But I never once mentioned to ever”). SBG/1/7/102 follows a similar sentiment to the lot but in a more confident tone (“I thought that for certain ‘twas not the right man, / Although ‘twas the man she was taking”), and the most fascinating exception to all this is HAM/3/13/15 which does follow the original construction found in the broadsides but wholly reversed, placing the narrator into a position of economic uncertainty (“Thinks to myself, “You have houses and land, And I that am here have got neither””).
V
When I saw my love sit down to meat,
I sat myself by her but nothing could eat;
I thought her sweet company better than meat
Although she was tied to another.
The second stanza not found in the 17th century broadside is somewhat more frequent (GG/1/12/716, AGG/8/22, AGG/8/72, SBG/1/7/102, COL/2/33, GB/7d/12) and that is also perhaps the reason why the initial construction (“The /---/ time”), which had been omitted from Pratt’s III, is prominently featured in most cases (the exception being SBG/1/7/102 which follows a different structure as already discussed). The first two lines are again more uniform after Pratt’s mode, the most notable variation being “I took my sweet cider but nothing could eat” in GB/7d/12 In the latter two lines, the main variation is the substitution of “meat” with “wine” which occurs in three cases (AGG/8/22, AGG/8/72, GB/7d/12) and another noteworthy variation is the connotation arising from “sweet” to “sad” in “I loved her sad company better than meat” (GG/1/12/716). In two cases however (AGG/8/22, COL/2/33) the entire stanza has undergone radical changes and the otherwise relatively stable structure of four lines per stanza itself is altered.
The third time I saw my love, in the house we did meet, Last time that I saw her, she was sitting
I sat down beside her and nothing did eat down to dine
I picked up the bottle, and poured out the wine: I poured out a glass o’ the very best wine
“Here’s good health to the young girl that ought t’ a’ been Drank health to the lassie that should
mine - have been mine
Here’s adieu to the false hearted lover.” Altho’ she’s got wed to another.
X VI
When she was laid in Bed, And dress’d all in White But when I saw my love all dressed in white,
My Eyes gush’d with Water, That drowned my Sight; The ring on her finger it dazzled my sight,
I put off my Hat, And bid them good Night, I picked up my hat and wished them good night
And adieu my fair Sweetheart for ever. Here’s adieu to all false hearted lovers
XI VII
Oh! dig me a Grave, That’s wide large and deep, Then dig my grave, long, wide and deep,
With a Turf at my Head, And another at my Feet; And strew it all over with flowers so sweet,
And there will I lie, And take a long sleep, That I may lay down and take a long sleep,
And bid the World adieu for ever And that’s the best way to forget her.
The penultimate stanza in Pratt’s broadside occurs three times in oral recordings (GG/1/12/716, AGG/8/72, GB/7d/12). GG/1/12/716 is the uniquest of these as the position of the stanza has shifted from fifth to second. This in return has induced the addition of a whole new line (“As I was coming back all late in the night”) in the beginning and has dissolved the one that would otherwise be the second. In both AGG/8/72 and GB/7d/12, the transformation from the previous verse has been accomplished with the usual “The /---/ time” construction. In the second line, both versions also reflect back to the older 17th century broadside and its image of crying (“My eyes ran of water quite dazzled my sight” and “The tears in my eyes quite dazzled my sight” respectively).
The final verse is the most generic of the entire song, found in every version except for HAM/3/13/15. In Douce’s version, five additional five verses to follow but in later versions, this stanza is exclusively the last one. The most considerable variation here occurs in the ultimate line which for most part agrees with Pratt’s, but in two cases (HAM/5/35/14, COL/5/57B), it is rather “(And) Adieu to false(-hearted) lovers for ever.” This has possibly to do with the disappearance of the previous (Pratt’s VI) stanza where this line would usually be.
In two cases, a completely original stanza has cropped up in oral recordings. These are, from SBG/1/7/10
V
O woe be the day that I courted the maid,
That ever I trusted a word that she said,
That with her I wander’d along the green glade
Accurs’d be the day that I met her.
and from COL/2/33.
III
Haud your tongue, haud your tongue/ And I’ll tell you a guise
I’ve lain wi’ your bonny bride/ oftener than thrice
In thi bed where she lay/ And she dare na deny
She’s but my old shoon when you’ve got her
In both cases, the position of the new stanza is penultimate. SBG/1/7/10 in itself is relatively unusual throughout, both in adding completely original lines as well as having its own variants of generic constructs (The “O when...” in the beginning of first lines for example). If for most part the verses’ ultimate line are accidental, in SBG/1/7/10 they have obviously organized to pairs in terms of rhyming (I: “But now she is going to be married”, II: “To see how my suit had miscarried”). These things in mind, this version has clearly undergone deliberate artistic revision.
The same could not be said about version COL/2/33; with only four stanzas in total (barring generic the first and last, this makes it two verses of importance), a significant portion of the song has been lost. This is well illustrated by the fact that the previous verse (II) is parallel to Pratt’s V and begins with the construction “[The] Last time...” and III itself is an expansion of that scene. There is also some confusion from the transcriber’s part on how the song be noted structurally, and thus II has been put down in five lines, III in six (much like it is seen in Douce’s version) although it is still possible to depict the stanzas as rhyming triplets with a final line.
Both in SBG/1/7/10 and COL/2/33 the contents of the new stanza, as well as from other changes in the larger body, considerably changes original sense and emotion of the song. If generally one of the essential aspects of the song has always been the narrator’s continued empathy towards her (an example in Pratt’s III: “Though I had not the heart to forbid it”), the tone approached in these cases is far less understanding. Essentially COL/2/33’s III expresses sentiments of the direct opposite.
Tristam P. Coffins mentions three stages in a ballad’s life-cycle: a stage 1 when “a poem, created by an individual, enters or is retained in oral tradition, /---/ has three major parts: an emotional core, details of action, frills of a poetic style that are too “sophisticated” for the folk /---/ [and] is frequently not for singing and may well be closer to literature than musical expression”; a stage 2 when “the frills of subliterary style have been worn away by oral tradition [and] some of the action details have been lost”; and a stage 3 when “either unessential details drop off until lyrics emerges, or essential details drop off until only a meaningless jumble, centered about a dramatic core, is left.” (1957: 248-249)
Clearly, Douce’s 3(32a) and its variations belong to Stage 1 and the fundamental changes that have happened by the Pratt’s broadside correspond to Stage 2. Would however a further transformation exist among oral recordings to stage 3? The process of forgetting usually takes place in whole stanzas and among versions which have lost the most, only fractions of the original song remain (in the most extreme case, JHB/1A/2, comprising of only the first and the last stanza, the song has essentially been forgotten altogether). Yet it is almost always possible to connect the stanza with a 17th century counterpart, and the stanzaic and syntactic constructions present in Pratt’s are followed rather faithfully. With that in mind, AGG/8/22: IV and COL/2/33: II & III are probably furthest away from literary influence.
As for the relation of the song’s plot with Coffins concept of emotional core, the definitive change again lies in the shift from one broadside to the other; Douce’s stanzas lost in Pratt’s involve (in III and IV) concrete details about the narrator’s discovery of his ‘false lover’s’ marriage and (in the later XII-XVI) and the moral implications of her (implied) adulterous betrayal. All this is lost among oral recordings and the variations there are rather contradictions to the initial storyline itself (most fascinating examples here would be AGG/8/22: I, HAM/3/13/15:IV).
List of references:
Primary Sources:
Baring-Gould, Sabine [Collector]. The False lover. n.d. Available at Take Six [Reference no. SBG/1/7/102]
Blunt, Janet Heatley [Collector]. The Week A'fore Easter. 15 Apr 1916. Available at Take Six [Reference no. JHB/1A/2]
Butterworth, George [Collector]. Week Before Easter. 1907 – 1911. Available at Take Six [Reference no. GB/4/40]
Collinson, Francis M. [Collector]. A Week Before Easter. n.d. Available at Take Six [Reference no. COL/5/57B]
Collinson, Francis M. [Collector]. A Week Before Easter. n.d. Available at Take Six [Reference no. COL/5/57C]
Collinson, Francis M. [Collector]. I Once Had a Lass. August 1942. Available at Take Six [Reference no. COL/2/33]
Gardiner, George B. [Collector]. Oh! The Week Before Easter. June 1907. Available at Take Six [Reference no. GG/1/12/716]
Gilchrist, Anne Geddes [Collector]. The False-Hearted Lover. n.d. Available at Take Six [Reference no. AGG/8/22]
Gilchrist, Anne Geddes [Collector]. The Week Before Easter. n.d. Available at Take Six [Reference no. AGG/8/72]
Hammond, Henry Edward Denison [Collector]. The False Bride. n.d. Available at Take Six [Reference no. HAM/3/13/15]
Hammond, Henry Edward Denison [Collector]. The False Bride. September 1907(?). Available at Take Six [Reference no. HAM/5/35/14]
Pratt, W. The false hearted lover. c.1850 . Available at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads [Harding B 11(634)]
The Forlorn Lover. n.d. Available at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads [Douce Ballads 1(83a)]
Secondary Sources:
Tristram P. Coffin. The Journal of American Folklore. 1957. "Mary Hamilton" and the Anglo-American Ballad as an Art Form. Vol. 70: No. 277 (Jul. - Sep.,), pp. 208-214
In addition a full transcript.
In addition a full transcript.
[1] Note that there is a difference on how the two versions are position in the original manuscripts; whereas Pratt’s follows the same four line system applied here, older versions have the first three lines split in two, so that the total amount of lines per stanza is seven. As most oral versions have also been put down in four lines (a few exceptions do exist), I have, for clarity’s sake, adopted Douce’s 3(32a) to a similar manner.
[2] In COL/2/33 “she was sitting down to dine” is written as a separate line, but based on the rhyming scheme it is still possible to depict the verse with four lines. AGG/8/22 has been left unaltered.
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