Date: 21 Mar 22 - 02:53 AM

OK, a bit more detail from the McCabe work - to avoid having to trawl through it (the information is a bit scattered therein)...

McCabe calls The Percy version A (=Child 21A), the Walter Scott fragment B (=Child 21B), the Glenbuchat version a.k.a. the Maid of Coldingham C, the John Reilly version(s) D, then Willie Reilly is E, Martin Reilly is F, and Liam Weldon (ex Mary Duke) is G.

G is available on youtube via a link given above, as are 2 variants of D. Unfortunately no transcriptions are given for E and F, although their content is briefly described as follows, using a "shorthand notation" to indicated which verses are present (for the full explanation you will need to read the thesis:

[D: The John Reilly (now well known) version/s]

E: Reilly (Willie), 3 May 1972, Near Clones, Co. Monaghan, Eire. Recorded by Tom Munnelly from the singing of Willie A. Reilly, a traveller, aged 35, camped on the Rosslea Road, outside Clones. Mr. Munnelly sent me a copy of the tape (50/a/5) on 12 April 1978.
7 stanzas, probably bowdlerised since the version was sung reluctantly; b, c-D-E-F-M l - R - p2, p3 (with internal refrain).

F: Reilly (Martin), 11 December 1973, Sligo, Co. Sligo, Eire. Recorded by Tom Munnelly from the singing of Martin Reilly, a traveller, aged 73, of Rathbroughan, Sligo; the informant had not sung the song for some years and needed some prompting; Mr. Munnelly sent me a copy of the tape (275/2) on 12 April 1978; in a letter dated 4/5/1978, Mr. Munnelly writes that the singers of M.P. [Maid and Palmer] texts D, E, and F may be related, but only distantly.
12 stanzas, b, c - D - E - G - H - j3 , j 4 - K L4 - nl , p3 - Q3 - Q3* - T (with internal refrain).

G: Liam Weldon / Mary Duke, collection date / place not given. Sung by Liam Weldon, as learned from the singing of Mary Duke (a traveller?).
7 stanzas, confused , A - B - C - D* - N l - P8 - r * (with internal refrain) .

There are a few stanzas quoted in passing from E and F, the "missing" ones in this context, as per the following snippets:

{quotes}
Recently another version of the Magdalen ballad, known as The Well below the Valley, has been recovered from the singing of Irish itinerants. These variants (D - G), whilst related to the Glenbuchat version, C, are more closely related in words and refrain to those versions of The Cruel Mother (Child 20) which end with seven-year penances. Textual study makes it plain that the Irish songs are variants of the same ballad version; moreover, the tunes of variants E - G are very similar ... It is probable, therefore, that the Irish version, recovered from the counties of Roscommon, Monaghan and Sligo, crossed from Scotland by way of Ulster. John Reilley's family travelled extensively in Ulster during his childhood ...

The Irish variants E - G have an interlaced refrain at the second and fourth lines of each stanza:
Green grows the lily-0 ...
In the well below the valley-0 .

Some additional lines are given as follows:
'My cup it is an overflow
And if I do stoop I may fall in. ' D.b. stanza 2 and cf . F stanza 2.
'For if my cup was flow an' flow ,
I would give him a drink if he was dry. ' E stanza 2

The conditional form of the last quoted stanza has been misunderstood in G, where the woman replies (sta . 4.1) ,
"Come in, Sir , and drink your fill. "

Although version D alone contain s Christ' s revelation of the Magdalen's incestuous unions , the older versions , like Irish variants E - G, may have suppressed the incest stanzas.

The burial places in Martin Reilly's version (F sta . 8) are by the kitchen door and the stable door: this has led to the confusion in F, stanza 6; whereby the fathers of the children are the kitchen boy and the stable boy.

In Irish version E, which is , however, a confused version reluctantly given, Christ Himself discloses His true identity :
'Oh, for I am the Lord that rules on high; '
Green grows the lily-0 ;
'Oh, I am the Lord that rules on high; '
In the well below the valley-0 .
E sta . 5

also:
'Oh for if you're the Lord that rules on high ...
Oh the Lord may save my soul from Hell.'
E sta . 6.