Jeri posted a profoundly succinct summary of this song in another thread, and I think it deserves to be posted again:Thread #63318 Message #1027348
Posted By: Jeri
01-Oct-03 - 12:53 PM
Thread Name: Child Ballads help
Subject: RE: Child Ballads help
Child 89: Fause Foodrage
The queen gets the four and twenty valiant knights guarding her plotzed, then squeezes her pregnant self out a narrow window.
And here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:Fause Foodrage [Child 89]
DESCRIPTION: A lady courted by three kings weds one who is then slain (by one of the rivals/a rebel). Her not-yet-born child will be spared if female. She bears a boy, switches him with a baby girl. When grown the boy is told his heritage and avenges his father.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: royalty death murder children trick revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 89, "Fause Foodrage" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Bronson 89, "Fause Foodrage" (3 versions)
OBB 70, "Fause Foodrage" (1 text)
DBuchan 14, "Fause Foodrage" (1 text)
DT 89, KINGLUVE
Roud #57
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jellon Grame" [Child 90] (theme)
Notes: Some texts of this ballad share a verse with Elizabeth Halket Wardlaw's "Hardeknute" (for which see Volume II of Percy's Reliques; at that time, the authorship of Wardlaw (1677-1727) had not been established). This caused Scott to wonder about the authenticity of the piece, but Child thought the informant might have taken the verse from the "tiresome and affected Hardyknute, so much esteemed in her day." - RBW
File: C089Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index InstructionsThe Ballad Index Copyright 2004 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
Here's an excerpt of a message from Malcolm Douglas on the Child #89 entry in the Digital Tradition:Thread #42222 Message #700404
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
29-Apr-02 - 11:09 AM
Thread Name: Tune Add: Missing tunes: WANTED - part EIGHT
1957) KING O' LUVE Child #89 (Fause Foodrage): this is Child's example C, and came from the Harris MS, "Derived from Jannie Scott, an old Perthshire Nurse, c.1790". Child and Bronson both refer to it as Eastmuir King; perhaps Hermes Nye, who is mentioned in the DT file as having recorded the song , thought King o' Luve sounded nicer. The tune, given in Child as well as in Bronson, is the one that Andy Irvine mistakenly used for Willy of Winsbury (and changed a bit), and which everybody and his or her dog now seems to use as well.