Hi,

I've completed the preliminary headnotes (6 or 7 pages with 22 footnotes) for the "English version" and have 17 traditional version which may be close to the extant number. It can be viewed here:
http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/british--other-versions-3-bramble-briar.aspx At the end I pose these questions. Anyone?

A number of questions remain about the ballad in British Isles and specifically England since the ballad has not be traced to Scotland or Ireland. If the ballad was created by a stall printer based on a translation of Boccaccio's "Isabella and the Pot of Basil" why has not print version surfaced? Why then is the end of Boccaccio's story not found in the ballad? Or is Boccacio's work just an Italian analogue of an older archetype? Except for the the fragment captured by Parley in the early 1800s, why has there been no other trace of the ballad in England until 1904? Why are some of the early American versions longer and fuller than the English ones?

Richie