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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,Kevin W. Origins: James Madison Carpenter- Child Ballads 3 (135* d) RE: Origins: James Madison Carpenter- Child Ballads 3 12 Jul 18

I agree, Brian, John Clare's version of The Cruel Brother is beautiful.
(And you just reminded me that I could use a scanner as well, silly me, I typed it all by hand with the book next to my PC and now my hand hurts).

One thing that's a bit unusual about John Clare's text is that the knight replies that he has asked her brother John as well (was the knight lying to her?):

8 O I have asked your brother John
Likewise your sisters every one

In many versions this verse is not in first person, it often runs something like this:

He did ask her sister Anne
But he forgot her brother John.

Which is actually the reason why the brother feels betrayed and stabs her.

The same "mistake" (I'm really not sure if it is one) also shows up in Edith Ballinger Price's Massachusetts text from about 1914:

"Oh, I have asked your father the king
And I have asked your mother the queen.

"And I have asked your sister Anne
And I have asked your brother John."


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