The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #145512   Message #3366996
Posted By: Richie
23-Jun-12 - 08:11 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Child Ballads: US Versions Part 3
Subject: RE: Origins: Child Ballads: US Versions Part 3
It seems odd that Child did not include Halliwell's version from 1843, which is one of the variants found in the US:

GILES COLLINS- From The Nursery Rhymes of England: Obtained Principally from Oral Tradition- James Orchard Halliwell 1843


CXXV.

Giles Collins he said to his old mother,   
Mother, come bind up my head;
And send to the parson of our parish,   
For to-morrow I shall be dead, dead,   
For to-morrow I shall be dead.

His mother she made him some water-gruel,
And stirred it round with a spoon;
Giles Collins he ate up his water-gruel,
And died before 'twas noon, [noon,]
And died before 'twas noon.

Lady Anna was sitting at her window,
Mending her night-robe and coif;
She saw the very prettiest corpse,
She'd seen in all her life, life,   
She'd seen in all her life.

What bear ye there, ye six strong men,
Upon your shoulders so high?
We bear the body of Giles Collins,
Who for love of you did die, die,   
Who for love of you did die.

Set him down! set him down! Lady Anna, she cry'd,
On the grass that grows so green;
To-morrow before the clock strikes ten,
My body shall lie by his'n, his'n,   
My body shall lie by his'n.

Lady Anna was buried in the East   
Giles Collins was buried in the west;
There grew a lily from Giles Collins,
That touch'd Lady Anna's breast, breast,   
That touch'd Lady Anna's breast.

There blew a cold north-easterly wind,   
And cut this lily in twain;
Which never there was seen before,   
And it never will again, again,   
And it never will again.