Hi,

This is from Frank Purslow (1968,The Wanton Seed, EFDS Publications, London), who wrote:

    [The tune from Gardiner H 1193 - Henry Blake, Bartley, Hants. The text is a collation of five versions of the same text all noted by Dr Gardiner in the Southampton/Lyndhurst area. Reference should be made to Professor Child's "English and Scottish Popular Ballads" Nos 42 Clerk Colville and 85 Lady Alice (or Giles Collins). Child treats these as two quite separate ballads but, as Barbara Cra'ster pointed out in the "Journal of the Folk Song Society" in 1910, it is possible to see in George Collins a traditional remnant (propagated by the broadside presses) of a ballad which was in all probability the original of both the Child Ballads. Certain elements are missing (mostly the supernatural one as usually happens in modern versions of old ballads), but it is possible to piece together the story as it might have been several centuries ago. Giles, or George, Collins is warned, either by his wife or more probably by his mistress, not to visit a certain locality if he values his life. He disregards the advice and meets with a fair maiden washing a silken shirt by the waterside. She is, unknown to him, a water-sprite - or a mermaid in some versions. He "sins with her fair body" - perhaps "And sinned with her fair body" was the original last line of verse three where the rhyme has been lost. He is on the point of leaving her when his head begins to ache violently. The water-sprite tells him to cut a piece from the shirt she is washing and bind it round his head. He does so and the pain becomes worse. He manages to reach home but dies. On hearing of his death his mistress dies of grief, as do five other young ladies who are presumably George Collins' paramours. It is interesting to note that it is the seventh victim of George Collins' evil attentions who is his undoing, just as, in The Outlandish Knight, "six pretty maidens thou hast drownded here, but the seventh has drownded thee." A Manx version of the story, quoted by Waldron in his "History of the Isle of Man" rationalises the cause of the headache by explaining that the mermaid's lover, suspecting that she is trying to drag him into the water, forces himself away from her embraces which so annoys her that she throws a pebble after him as he runs away. Although the pebble is too small to hurt, nevertheless he is afflicted with a headache which eventually causes his death.

    Dr Gardiner noted six versions of the George Collins ballad, all from singers in a small area. The texts are so similar that they were all probably learned from a common source; all the singers could not complete the fourth verse, so I have supplied a couple of lines from an 18th century version of the story. The tune is one of the standard English ballad tune.]

Purslow states: "Giles, or George, Collins is warned, either by his wife or more probably by his mistress, not to visit a certain locality if he values his life" which seems to wrong, the namme certainly should be from Child 42, an example would be Clerk Covill.

I thought Waldron's work was "Description of the Isle of Man" and I assume this is the quote:

A very beautiful mermaid, say they, became so much enamour'd of a young man who used to tend his sheep on these rocks, that she would frequently come and sit down by him, bring him pieces of coral, fine pearls, and what were yet greater curiosities, and of infinitely more value, had they fallen into the hands of a person who knew their worth, shells of various forms and figures, and so glorious in their colour and shine that they even dazzled the eye that looked upon them. Her presents were accompanied with smiles, Battings on the cheek, and all the harks of a most sincere and tender passion; but one day throwing her arms more than ordinarily eager about him, he began to be frighted that she had a design to draw him into the sea, and struggled till he disengaged himself, and then ran a good many paces from her; which behaviour she resented so highly, it seems, that she took up a stone, and after throwing it at him, glided into her more proper element, and was never seen on land again. But the poor youth, tho' but slightly hit with the stone, felt from that moment so excessive a pain in his bowels, that the cry was never out of his mouth for seven days, at the end of which he died.

Also where does he get "Water-sprite"- it seems to be mermaid in every instance (see Child 42)?

The five ladies dying? His paramours? Does this really have anything to do with the story?

Comments?

Richie