I came upon this thread only today while looking for something else. The version upthread someone mentions from Pete Seeger was indeed on his record _The Bitter and the Sweet_. The liner notes said it was "a version" of Child 4.

Someone has posted a recording of himself playing it on YouTube, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifFmCWMXDTw. He calls it "Well-Bred Youth." The tune he sings is not the one I learned from the recording, but it's not dissimilar. Also, the words as he gives them are not exactly what learned either. But I'm relying on my memory as he is on his, I suppose: I no longer have the record or even a phonograph on which to play it. I never learned to play banjo and always did this on my guitar. I remember playing it in Ottawa at one of the open mics at Rasputin's when I was an undergraduate, but I played it a lot when I was in high school.

On the Seeger recording I had, it was called "The False Knight Upon the Road", which I later figured was just a conflation with a different ballad.

Here's how I learned it:

There was a youth and a well-bred youth,
He bein' a squire's son,
And he did court an Inn-keeper's daughter
Belonging to North Cumberland.

Go fetch me some of your father's gold,
Part of your mother's fee,
And we will away to some foreign country,
and married we will be.

They went down to her father's stable,
There stood horses thirty-three,
And she picked out a milk-white steed
And he a fast-travelling grey.

She mounted on the milk-white steed,
He the fast-travelling grey,
And they rode until they came to a riverside
Three hours before it was day.

"Alight, alight my pretty, fair maid!"
"Alight, alight!" cried he.
"It's six pretty maidens have I drownded here,
And you the seventh shall be.

Take off, take off that silken gown,
And hand it over to me.
For I do think that your clothing is too good
For to rot in the salt, salt sea."

"If I do take off my silken gown,
And hand it over to you,
Why I do think it a very great wrong
A naked woman to view.

"I'll take off my silken gown.
I'll place it on the green.
But before that I do, you false young man,
You must turn your back on me."

And when he'd turned his back around,
And faced yon willow tree,
With all of the strength that this poor maiden had,
She shoved him into the sea.

And as he rose, and as he sank,
And as he rose, cried he,
"Oh give me your hand, my pretty pretty Polly,
And forever my bride you'll be."

"Lie there, lie there, you false young man,
Lie there instead of me.
It's six pretty maidens that you've drownded here.
Go keep them good company."

She mounted on the milk-white steed.
She led the fast-travelling grey,
And she rode until she came to her father's house,
One hour before it was day.

Now the parrot was hung in the window so high.
"Where have you been?" cried he.
"I've been away to Scotland Bridge.
Young Henry, he lies under the sea.

"Don't prittle, don't prattle, my pretty pretty Polly.
Don't tell no tales on me,
And you shall have a cage of the very finest gold,
And be hung in an ivory tree."