The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #67011   Message #1116626
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
15-Feb-04 - 08:12 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Betsy the Serving Maid
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Betsy the Serving Maid
It's in the DT as The Grazier's Daughter, but that's a poor transcription made by ear -or memory- from a June Tabor record, full of mis-hearings, and with the traditional source unacknowledged. There is a proper transcription from tradition at  http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/displaysong.asp?SongID=225

Number 156 in the Roud Folk Song Index, and classified by Laws as Laws M20. Found in oral currency in America, Canada, Scotland and England.

It appeared on 19th century broadsides as The betrayed maiden; copies can be seen at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

The betrayed maiden

Roy Palmer Book of British Ballads, Llanerch 1998, 98-91) traces it to a 17th century broadside ballad in the Pepys collection, Love Overthrown. The Young Man's Misery; and the Maids Ruine; Being a true Relation, How a beautiful Herefordshire Damsel ... was, by her Mistress, sold to Virginia; and of the great Lamentation her Disconsolate Lover makes for Her. A transcription can be seen at the late Bruce Olson's website:

Love Overthrown. The Young Man's Misery.