The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157721   Message #3724182
Posted By: Richie
16-Jul-15 - 08:06 PM
Thread Name: Origins: The Golden Ball
Subject: RE: Origins: The Golden Ball
So is this version "The Golden Key" covered by Child?

From Notes and Queries, 1882:

A Lancashire Ballad (6th vi. 269).—-I think the title of this ballad is The Golden Key. I only remember parts of it. The substance of it is that a woman has lost a gold key, and is about to be hung, when she exclaims:—

"Hangman, hangman, stop a minute;
I think I see my father coming."

Then follows: —

"Father, father, have you found the key,
And have you come to set me free,
Or have you come to see me hanged
Upon this gallows tree?"

Father, mother, brother, sister, all in turn come up and have not found the lost key. At last the "sweetheart" appears, who exclaims triumphantly:

      "I have not come to see you hanged
       Upon the gallows tree,
       For I have found the golden key."

I write this from memory, I never saw it in print.

H. Fishwick.