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A SONG, CALL'D MOLLY BAWN I'll tell you a story And a story of late Concerning my jewel Her fortune was great, She went out in an evening And the rain it came on, She went under the bushes Herself for to screne. Her love being out fowling He shot in the dark And to his misfortune he did not miss his mark; With her apron being about her, he took her for a swan. But Oh! and alas! It was sweet Molly Bawn. When he came to her And found she was dead A well full of tears On his love he did shed, Crying oh! my dear jewel My joy and delight I durst not presume For to make her my bride. He went home to his father With the gun in his hand, Crying father, dear father I've shot Molly bawn For her apron being about her, And I took her for a swan But ah, and alas It was sweet Molly Bawn. Oh, woe to the tobby (thee, Toby) For the lend of thy arms, For unfortunate Wrangle has done this great harm Shot the glory of the North And the flower of Kiln-wan, and what shall we do For the loss of Molly Bawn. Then up bespoke his Father With his head growing grey, Saying Johnny, dear Johnny Don't run away. For here in this country, Your trial shall go on, By the laws of our Nation, You won't be condemn'd. Two or three nights thereafter To her uncle she did appear, saying uncle, dear uncle, Johnny Wrangle set clear. For my apron being about me, And he took me for a swan, But its ah! and alas It was me Molly Bawn. Managed to get into the BL while down in London, but in the excitement of copying the Buchan Harvard mss at the VWML, and here's what I found:- The Molly Bawn version is in a book of 90-odd garlands bought by John Bell in 1848. On the back of Garland 5 called 'Bold Kelley's Garland(Not Kelly the Pirate) is the following in John Bell's hand. 'The old garlands in these volumes are printed by J White who died in 1769 and by T Saint who died in 1788. the ballad of The Northern Lord in vol 2 was printed by White. (Letter of J Bell) Bought these two volumes of Lilly, October 1848 for £5. 5. 0.TUNE FILE: guineas) CLICK TO PLAY White and Saint both printed in Newcastle. Saint worked for White until White died in 1769 at age 80 and Saint took over the business. The garland we are interested in 'The Bottle and Frien'ds Garland' has no imprint. The garland before it in the book is printed by W Scott at Greenock but some of the following garlands ,also without imprint, are obviously by one printer by type style and layout. These I presume are White/Saint garlands. However going by the style and content I would say they are more likely Saint and only date from about 1780. The cover has a large square woodcut of 2 lovers in a pleasure garden, cupid with aimed bow and arrow in top rt corner. The version is obviously derived from oral tradition and is much further away from the original than the Belfast garland version. 'Wrangle' is interesting being obviously derived from 'Randall' which as far as I know only features on the American broadsides. I'd say the incident/original was probably 1750 or earlier. Surely someone could ascertain whether there were Lowry and Randall/Reynolds in the Lurgan area during this period. DT #308 Laws O36 filename[ POLLVON4 SG Feb07 |
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