Hi,

I apologize for this rather long post of US headnotes of my study of "Young Ladies." Several versions in this thread are analyzed. It may be viewed on my website which eventually will have extant versions: http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/us--canada-versions-7ua-young-ladies-.aspx If my site's not around hopefully Mudcat will be. So here it is (as they say) for all posterior :) Footnotes are found at the end too.

Richie

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[The American versions differ from their British counterparts. "Swallow" in most cases has become "sparrow." Although the two core stanzas[1] (the identifying stanza, "Come all ye fair" and the "swallow/sparrow" stanza) are the same, the secondary stanzas are different: in North America some of the secondary stanzas are borrowed from the Wheel of Fortune broadside, other British broadsides and the traditional Love is Teasing and Died for Love songs. Other secondary stanzas are homemade adaptations of the "maid abandoned by a false lover" type which resemble their British counterparts but are different. The US "sparrow" stanzas, instead of the once British "swallow" stanzas, feature a dialogue: the first sparrow stanza begins: "If I were a little sparrow" while the second stanza answers, "But I'm not a little sparrow." This dialogue is not found in the second sparrow stanza of the British antecedent[2] which begins:

Whene'er he talk'd then I would flutter,
All on his Breast with my tender Wings,

This British love song had almost completely disappeared from the UK by the 1900s with only two traditional variants found in Scotland by Gavin Grieg about 1908. Since it was very popular in Appalachia at that time[3] it may be assumed that in the 1700s and early 1800s it was brought over to the Virginia Colony[4] and disseminated westward into the Southern Mountains from Virginia by the early English, Irish and Scottish settlers.

The primary British antecedent is "The Lady's Address to the Fair Maidens" a broadside printed in Newcastle, London and probably Scotland[5] in the later part of the 1700s. The earliest record is c. 1760 where it is found in "The Marybone concert: Being a choice collection of songs" which was "Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane, London." Here are the core stanzas from "The Lady's Address":

1. Come hither, all you pretty maidens,
Take Warning how you love a Man,
Like a bright star in a Summer's Morning
When day appears they are gone.

7. I wish I was a pretty swallow,
That nimbly in the Air could fly,
Then my false-hearted love I'd follow,
Whene'er he talk'd I would lie by.

Stanza 1 is the identifying stanza or "warning" stanza- the maiden who has been abandoned by a false love is warning other maidens about the capricious nature of men. In some versions only the swallow/sparrow stanzas are given and stanza 7 is the second identifying stanza. The whole broadside is given below in the Appendix, Item 1. Besides the two core stanzas are these two secondary stanzas:

2. They'll talk and tell you pretty stories,
They'll vow and swear they love you true,
But it is all to blast your Glory
That's all the love they have for you.

8. Whene'er he talk'd then I would flutter,
All on his Breast with my tender Wings,
And ask him who it was that flatter'd,
And told so many deluding Things.

Stanzas two is fairly common (reworded) and eight is occasionally found but also reworded. Other US stanzas come from the second antecedent, The Wheel of Fortune a British broadside dating c. 1830 but probably much older.

Here are the relevant stanzas from "Wheel" sometimes found in "Young Ladies"-- the entire text is found in Appendix, Item 2.

3. I did not think he was going to leave me,
Till the next morning when he came in;
Then he sat down and began a-talking,
Then all my sorrows did begin.

6 But turn you round, you wheel of fortune,
It's turn you round and smile on me;
For young men's words they are quite uncertain,
Which sad experience teaches me.

7. If I had known before I had courted,
That love had been so ill to win,
I wad locked my heart in a chest of gold,
And pon'd it with a silver pin.

10. But time will soon put an end to all things,
And love will soon put an end to me;
But surely there is a place of torment,
To punish my lover for slighting me.

Several American versions of Young Ladies have as many as two stanzas borrowed from "Wheel of Fortune." Mellinger Henry collected a version of "Young Ladies," his E version, that clearly shows "Wheel" as the secondary antecedent. Here's the text:

"Come, Roll 'round the Wheel of Fortune." The song was recorded near Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, by Glada Gully, a student in Lincoln Memorial University.
   
1. Come, roll 'round your wheel of fortune,
Come, roll around once more for me;
A young man's love is quite uncertain,
My own experience teaches me.

2. Once I had a gay, young lover,
He was my joy; he was my pride;
But now he's going with another,
He's sitting by another's side.

3. 1 must confess I dearly love him;
I kept the secret in my breast;
I never knew an ill about him
Until I learned to love him best.

4. I never knew he was going to leave me
Until one night when he came in;
He sat down by me and told me,
'Twas when my trouble first began.

5. Had I the wings of a little sparrow,
I wouldn't pine nor would I die,
But I would follow my false-hearted lover
And tell him where he told a lie.

6. Had I the wings of a little swallow,
Or had I the wings of a turtle dove,
I'd fly away from this world of sorrow
Into some land of light and love.

7. Now, all you girls, take warning;
Be careful how you love young men,
For they are like the stars of morning,
As soon as daylight they are gone

Henry's version begins with the "Wheel" identifying stanza, rarely found in tradition. Henry's stanza 4 is also directly from "Wheel" showing it is the secondary antecedent of "Young Ladies. The core stanzas 5 and 8 are from the main antecedent, ""The Lady's Address." Henry's second "sparrow" stanza (which curiously is "swallow") is the secondary swallow stanza found in the British broadside The Silver Pin[6]:

I wish I was a little swallow;
And my true love a turtle dove;
Then I would fly from this land of sorrow;
And rest upon some land of love.

These two baffling lines were collected by Mrs. Sutton from an informant in the NC mountains, appearing at the end of the Brown Collection's version C:

6 Of all the herbs that grow in the garden
Be sure to get the rue and thyme. . . .

The Brown editor suggested the lines were from the "Seeds of Love[7]" when they were. . . just part of stanza 9 of Wheel of Fortune:

9. Of all the flowers that grow in the garden,
Be sure you pull the rose and thyme,

This demonstrates the nature of 'Young Ladies," a love song assembled with floating stanzas from various British broadsides and floating traditional song stanzas from the related "Love is Teasing" (the Waly, Waly family[8]) also with the warning stanza and from the Died for Love songs with the theme of the "maid of sorrow abandoned by her false lover."

A second example that uses two stanzas of "Wheel" was sung by traditional singer Morgan Sexton who was born in 1911 on Long Branch Hollow near Linefork, in southeastern Kentucky and died there on January 30th, 1992. His version of "Little Sparrow," from his June Appal recording "Morgan Sexton- Shady Grove (JA00661)" is as follows[9]:

Little Sparrow

1. I wish I was a little sparrow
And I had wings and I could fly
I would fly away to a false-hearted lover
And there I'd stay until I died.

2. O if I was some little sparrow
And I had no wings and could not fly
I would set down in some grieving sorrow
Where you would laugh and I would cry.

3. There is a day a day a comin',
We shall not part or I shall see
I hope there is a place in the middle of torment
For that man is deceiving me.

4. If I knew him before I courted him
There is love hard to win
I would lock my heart in a box of golden
I would pin it down there with a silver pin.

Stanzas 1 and 2 are the "sparrow" stanzas (stanza 2 is corrupt) while Sexton's last two stanzas are 7 and 10 of Wheel of Fortune. In both of these examples two stanzas came from Wheel of Fortune. The last stanza is also found in the broadside "Silver Pin."

Since swallow is used in the British antecedent, versions in the US that have "swallow" instead of being changed to "sparrow," are older and more archaic. One such version, Sharp A, was sung Mrs. Rosie Hensley, Carmen, N.C., on August 8, 1916:

I wish I were a little swallow
And I had wings and I could fly;
Straight after my true love I would follow,
When they'd be talking I'd be by.

Stanza two of the c.1760 antecedent "The Lady's Address" is also common in the Appalachian version as stanza 2, Here's Sharp F sung by Mrs. Effie Mitchell of Burnsville, N.C.:

2. They'll tell to you some loving story
And make you think they love you true;
Straightway they'll go and court some other,
That is the love they have for you.

Now here's stanza 2 of "The Lady's Address":

2. They'll talk and tell you pretty stories,
They'll vow and swear they love you true,
But it is all to blast your Glory
That's all the love they have for you.

Invariably in the US versions the third line is changed, which is a good thing, since the broadside line three is weak and poorly written. Some of the inexplicable lines and words found in US versions can be traced back to the "Lady's Address" broadside. The version collected by Sharp in Tennessee from Liddie Blankenship in 1916 has these lines:

I'd light on his breast and flutter,
And tell him of deceiving me.

while the broadside has:

Whene'er he talk'd then I would flutter,
All on his Breast with my tender Wings,

Not identical but after two hundred years some interpolation can be expected. Or, consider this line from Jean Ritchie who insists this is the proper ending stanza which has this last line[10]: "Turn into a dark and deludinous day." Now let's compare that to the broadside's ending: "And told so many deluding Things." Not much of a match but there's a good chance we know from whence "deludinous" came. And, "deludinous" has my vote for the folk lyric adjective of the year!

The Died for Love stanzas are not common, although some some US stanzas seem to be re-written from Died for Love stanzas. The difference between the first "Alehouse" stanza of c.1775 and Stanza 2 of "Young Ladies" is largely one of semantics: her false-lover has taken another lover and that's "a grief to me"/"all that he cares for me." Here's one Died for Love example from Some Songs Traditional in the United States, an article by Tolman published in a 1916 JAF. He comments: "Why a faithless lover should be called a "true love," and why the devoted maiden should wish to fly away to him, are not made clear."

I. I wish I was a little sparrow;
   I'd fly away from grief and sorrow;
   I'd fly away like a turtle dove;
   I'd fly away to my own true love.

2. 'Twas but last night he said to me:
   "I'll take you o'er the dark blue sea."
   But now he's gone, and left me alone,
   A single maid without a home.

3. Oh grief, oh grief! I'll tell you why:
   Because she has more gold than I;
   He takes that other girl on his knee,
   And tells her what he don't tell me.

4. I wish, I wish, but all in vain,
   That my true love would come back again.
   But then I know that will never be,
   Till the green, green grass grows over me.

The first stanza can be recognized as found in the "swallow" variant "The Silver Pin." The second floating stanza is found in "Must I Go Bound?" from Newfoundland:
    Last night my lover promised me
    That he would take me across the deep blue sea.
    But now he's gone an' left me alone,
    I'm an orphan girl without any home.
The last two stanzas are from Died For Love and are rarely found in their original form in the US as they were presented by Tolman. Only one version collected in the 1930s by Amos Abrams in NC resembles this version[11]. A different traditional English stanza found in 'Young Ladies" is the ancient "Love is Teasing" stanza[12]. This example is from Cox A, collected in West Virginia about 1916:

8 Love is handsome, love is charming,
Love is beauty while it's new;
Love grows older, love grows colder,
Fades away like morning dew[13].

In addition to theses many sources that make up "Young Ladies" are:

1. stanzas from US versions of Awake Awake (Drowsy Sleeper, Brown D has the "sparrow" stanzas)
2. stanzas from a different song titled The False Young Man (The False True Lover), Roud 419.

In the first case here's one of several similar Madison County, NC versions:

LITTLE SPARROW[14]- as sung by Dellie Norton at her home in Sodom Laurel, Madison County, NC. in 1980

It's I wish I were some little sparrow,
I had wings and I could fly.
I'd fly away to my own true lover
And when she courted I'd be by.

But I ain't no little sparrow.
I have no wings nor I cain't fly.
So set right here in grief and sorrow,
I'll set right here until I die.

I'll go down to yonders river,
I'll spend my months, my weeks, my years.
I'd eat nothing but green willow
And I'd drink nothing but my tears.

The last stanza is taken from US versions of "Awake Awake." The Brown Collection's version D of Drowsy Sleeper has the two "sparrow" stanzas at the end[15]. In the second case involving stanzas of the False Young Man (Roud 419) is a version recorded by Pete Seeger on his Topic EP Pete and Five Strings, 1958:

COME ALL YE FAIR AND TENDER LADIES

Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court young men
They're like the stars of a summer's morning
First they appear, and then they're gone

If I had known before I courted
I never would have courted none
I'd'a locked my heart in a box of golden
And fastened it up with a silver pin

I wish I was a little swallow
And I had wings and I could fly
I'd fly away to my false true lover
And when he'd speak, I would deny

But I am not a little swallow
I have no wings, neither can I fly
So I'll sit down and weep in sorrow
And try to pass my troubles by

O don't you remember our days of courtin'
When your head lay upon my breast,
You could make me believe by the fallin' of your arm
That the sun rose in the west.

The last stanza is from False Young Man, Roud 419, a song I learned indirectly[16] from Lily Mae Ledford with a different title called, "White Oak Mountain."

These are some of the variable stanzas found in 'Young Ladies," one of the most endearing British love songs of the Appalachians. It is a complex song made up of floating stanzas from two main British antecedent broadsides, several related broadsides, the traditional "Love is Teasing" and "Died for Love" ballads as well as stanzas from other floating love songs and ballads.

R. Matteson 2017]

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Footnotes:

1. In this case the core stanzas and identifying stanza are the same. The "sparrow" stanza is the secondary identifying stanza.
2. The primary British antecedent is "The Lady's Address to the Fair Maidens" a broadside printed in Newcastle and London.
3. I haven't counted the number of versions Sharp collected in Appalachia between 1916 and 1918 but it look like there are over 30 versions published and in his MSS.
4. Although the Virginia Colony refers to pre-Revolutionary War Virginia (before 1776), the same area of the James River basin continued to be an area of British immigration after the War.
5. Since two traditional versions were collected in Scotland around 1907 a Scottish print of "The Lady's Address" is likely.
6. "The Silver Pin or the False-Hearted Young Girl" printed by Pitts, London is dated circa 1820, a different ballad with variation on "sparrow (swallow)" stanza. Has secondary variation of identifying stanza and has "silver pin" stanza.
7. I'm not implying that this text is not related to "Seeds of Love," in fact the whole stanza is. I'm implying that the source is Wheel of Fortune stanza 9:
    Of all the flowers that grow in the garden,
    Be sure you pull the rose and thyme,
    For all others are quite out of fashion,
    A false young man he has stole my thyme.
8. Although Waly, Waly dates back to c. 1726, the Love is Teasing stanza is older. The modified "Love is Teasing" stanza found in Waly, Waly is the connection with "Young Ladies" that Cox mentioned in 1925. It's found in Cox A, stanza 8.
9. The text was posted on Mudcat forum and I've not checked it- I assume it's correct.
10. Ritchie writes on Mudcat Forum in November 2002: I find it interesting that none of the variants given here contain what to me is the last verse, sort of a summing-up stanza:
    Young man, ne'er cast your eye on beauty,
    For beauty is a thing that will decay-
    I've seen many a fair and bright sunny morning
    Turn into a dark and deludinous day.
11. From Brown Collection, version F. 'A Wish.' From W. Amos Abrams of Boone.
12. Child dated this pre-1620 but there is evidence that it dates back to the first half of the 1500s.
13. Stanza 8 is from "Young Ladies," communicated by Mr. J. H. Shaffer, Newburg, Preston County, who obtained it from Mrs. A. R. Fike, Terra Alta-- Version A from Cox, "Folk Songs of the South" 1925.
14. Collected by Mike Yates and it appears on his Far in the Mountains CDs.
15. It ends with two stanzas from 'Little Sparrow':
    'I wish I was a little sparrow,
    One of them that could fly so high.
    I'd fly and sit on my true love's dwelling,
    And when she talked I'd be close by.

   'Neither am I a little sparrow
    And neither do I have wings to fly;
    So I'll sit down and weep in sorrow,
    I'll sing and pass my troubles by.'
16. As I recall I learned it from Cari Norris who was Lily Mae's granddaughter. It's possible it came from a recording- I still remember the song- or some of it :)