Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update

Subject: Lyr Add: MURDER OF MARIA MARTEN^^
From: IanC
Date: 17 Mar 00 - 10:47 AM

I've been looking at the DT entry (click) for MURDER OF MARIA MARTIN (sic). This is transcribed rather roughly from Shirley Collins' version from "No Roses". I thought it might be worthwhile providing the version published by James Catnach of Seven Dials in 1828, as this is quite clearly the version (more or less word-for word) that Shirley used.

MURDER OF MARIA MARTEN
A ballad about William Corder
originally published in Catnach Press Ballads (1828, 1968 ed.)

"Come all you thoughtless young men, a warning take by me,
And think upon my unhappy fate to be hanged upon a tree;
My name is William Corder, to you I do declare,
I courted Maria Marten, most beautiful and fair.

I promised I would marry her upon a certain day,
Instead of that I was resolved to take her life away.
I went into her father's house the 18th day of May,
Saying, "My dear Maria, we will fix the wedding day.

If you will meet me at the Red Barn, as sure as I have life,
I will take you to Ipswich town, and there make you my wife."
I then went home and fetched my gun, my pick-axe and my spade,
I went into the Red Barn, and there I dug her grave.

With heart so light, she thought no harm to meet me she did go,
I murdered her all in the Barn and laid her body low;
After the horrid deed was done, she lay weltering in her gore,
Her bleeding, mangled body I buried under the Red Barn floor.

Now all things being silent, her spirit could not rest,
She appeared unto her mother, who suckled her at her breast;
For many a long month or more, her mind being sore oppress'd,
Neither night nor day she could not take any rest.

Her mother's mind, being so disturbed, she dreamt three nights o'er,
Her daughter she lay murdered beneath the Red Barn floor;
She sent the father to the barn when he the ground did thrust,
And there he found his daughter mingling with the dust.

My trial is hard, I could not stand, most woeful was the sight,
When her jaw-bone was brought to prove which pierced my heart quite;
Her aged father standing by, likewise his loving wife,
And in her grief her hair she tore, she scarcely could keep life.

Adieu, adieu, my loving friends, my glass is almost run,
On Monday next will be my last, when I am to be hang'd;
So you young men who do pass by, with pity look on me,
For murdering Maria Marten I was hanged upon the tree."


Some further notes might be useful. Firstly, though the oral version mentioned was a 3-verse fragment, it has occurred in the oral tradition elsewhere. Secondly (as can be seen here), Shirley Collins did indeed swap the order of the verses - I think to give the overall performance a particular dramatic event. Finally, the tune used in the recorded version is quite definitely Dives and Lazarus. The "Star of the County Down" tune is the same tune, though it is usually played in a different rhythm.

Line Breaks <br> added.
-Joe Offer-

^^

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 17 Mar 00 - 11:31 AM

The tune is "Gilderoy". See COMBCOD2.TXT on my website for versions of the oldest to those of Lazarus and Maria Martin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: fox4zero
Date: 17 Mar 00 - 01:57 PM

Seems to fit perfectly the tune used in MY NAME IS CHARLES GUITAU (asassination of President Garfield) as sung by Kelly Harrell (Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folksongs Vol 1 Smithsonian)

Regards, Larry Parish

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 17 Mar 00 - 02:03 PM

There was more than one ballad about Wm. Corder's murder of Maria Marten/Martin. See the Bodley Ballads website for copies, including the one above (Search on 'Corder').

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Mar 00 - 07:08 PM

This was reproduced also in Robert Collison's 'Story of Street Literature' Dent and Sons 1973. He noted that it was probably the biggest moneymaker of all the crimes with Catnach selling well over a million copies of the broadsheet that included the above verses.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Mar 00 - 08:19 PM

Say, Bruce - where are the Bodley Ballads? In searching, I came across the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, which is problably what you're talking about. Dick Holdstock was talking about the Bodleian Library just the other day. He was doing some research while he was in England, and had to use some sort of ruse to get himself in the door of the library - although I've found his stories can sometimes be much more dramatic that his actual experiences might have been. The guy reminds me of Greenhaus....
For those who don't know, Bruce's excellent Website is http://www.erols.com/olsonw/ (click).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 17 Mar 00 - 09:02 PM

You can click onto the Bodley Ballads website from Mudcat's Links or my homepage.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: Abby Sale
Date: 18 Mar 00 - 12:11 PM

Joe,

Dick Holdstock was talking about the Bodleian Library ... and had to use some sort of ruse to get himself in the door of the library - although I've found his stories can sometimes be much more dramatic that his actual experiences might have been. The guy reminds me of Greenhaus...

I can't believe either would go so far as to exaggerate when it comes to folk music stories! No!

Here the proof-by-analogy. In truth I discovered the wonderful LP folk library at Harvard's Lamont(?) Library (something) Poetry Room. (It don't matter since it's now been moved to another building.) Four or five state-of-the-art players & headsets for a bunch of people to listen together. What excitement - hundreds of records. (Penn, still with no actual Folklore dept. still only had 78s. Good ones but still.)

This here was glory but it was reserved strictly for Harvard affiliates & I was a gas pump jockey. With all the deviousness & rusation & spy stuff I could muster I wound up there day after day until I heard the entire collection. And in my green gas station uniform to boot. After you first get in it's always easy. The standard trick is to chat friendily with the guard on the way out a couple of times. That way he knows you and just waves you in next time. This works at the library, the CIA or anywhere. It's the first times in that you need to be creative about. I was even able to sign in guests after a while.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: IanC
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 11:56 AM

Thanks, Bruce, for your pointer to the Bodleian Library collection of Broadsides. I loaded down all 9 of the Red Barn Murder/Maria Marten/William Corder onto my PC.

Unfortunately, only one was scanned with enough resolution to print so that you could decipher the words. This was the one numbered 22278. Most of the others were copies of the Catnach version (you could just see from the shapes of the words in the top line).

The 22278 version is, unfortunately, really bad doggerel (you can see why it didn't sell over 1 million copies).

Did you know that the red barn and the Maria Marten story are still hot topics in Essex even after 170 years. Here's a website with some interesting stuff.

http://www.stedmunds.co.uk/lifestyle/moyses/loc1.html

By the way, has anyone ever heard a different version of this being sung?

Thanks IanC

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 01:51 PM

Ian, there are two sizes for the GIFs on the Bodley Ballads website. To get the enlarged and readable ones click on the magnifier at the upper left of the display.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder of Maria Marten - update
From: IanC
Date: 24 Mar 00 - 08:08 AM

Thanks Bruce. I've now downloaded all the broadsides again in the higher resolution. Haven't had time to look at them in detail yet, but I've already noticed there are subtle variations in what I'll call the "Catnach" version.

If there are any other variants/versions worthwhile, I'll transcribe them for DT when I have time.