The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #143842   Message #3330247
Posted By: Steve Gardham
28-Mar-12 - 03:23 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Child Ballads in 18th c. America?
Subject: RE: Origins: Child Ballads in 18th c. America?
295 The Brown Girl needs to be split into the 2 types 295A only exists in garlands and on slips and I've only ever seen 3 versions. 295B is a concoction made up by Baring Gould using 295A which Baring Gould had found in the BL, and The Sailor from Dover/Sally and her true love Billy, which did appear in the late 18th century but was widely printed in the nineteenth. All of the oral versions are simply derived from this second broadside. As Child says 295A itself is a concoction of bits and pieces from other ballads. A genuine Child Ballad? You'll have to make up your own mind about that. None of these are likely to be any older than about 1775. To help you, you might like to read my paper in 'Folk Song, tradition, Revival and Re-creation edited by Russell and Atkinson.

More on the others when I can check them, but I'm sure some of them have stall copy versions.