Lyr Add: The Boy and the Mantle (alt. version)

Subject: Lyr Add: Alt Lyric: The Boy and the Mantle
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 04:55 AM

Continuing my folklore research, as noted in the previous thread BS: Fine Art Resources, I encountered a painting, The Magic Mantle by artist Isobel Lilian Gloag that was accompanied by notes that included what might be someone's version of a traditional folk song.

As the art site "went down for maintenance" a few minutes ago, it seemed appropriate to come back home to mudcat while waiting to continue my "research." Note that the above link to the painting probably won't work until the site is back on line, but is expected to be good when they return.

The painting is described as:

The Magic Mantle,
Also known as The Enchanted Cloak.
Artist: Isobel Lilian Gloag
Painting Date: 1898
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 153 x 200 cm
Location: Unknown

The notes refer to a traditional ballad from Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry 1765. A DT/Forum search for "Mantle" shows that the "BOY AND THE MANTLE" as given by Percy has been entered in the DT, and is much longer (and considerably less comprehensible) than the short verses given with the painting.

Perhaps someone would be interested in the simpler lyric here as an "alternate" to the "Olde Englyshe" version.

Notes accompanying the painting, reformatted but otherwise verbatim:


A little boy came to the court of King Arthur with a magic mantle, which no wife could wear who was not true to her lord

The subject is taken not from the Morte d'Arthur but from 'The Boy and the Mantle', a traditional ballad published in Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). This describes how 'a strange and cunning boy' appeared at King Arthur's court of Camelot at Carlisle (other contenders for the location of Camelot are Tintagel, Caerleon and Cadbury Hill) one Christmas with a mantle 'of wondrous shape and hew'. No woman, he claimed, who had been unfaithful to her husband could wear it without it shrivelling and leaved her naked. Queen Guinevere was the first to don it, with predictable consequences:

And first came Lady Guenever, The mantle she must trye,
This dame, she was new-fangled, And of a roving eye.

When she had tane the mantle, And all was with it cladde,
From top to toe it shiver'd down, As tho' with sheers beshradde.

One while it was too long, Another while too short,
And wrinkled on her shoulders In most unseemly sort.

Now green, now red it seemed, Then all of sable hue,
'Beshrew me,' quoth King Arthur, 'I think thou beest not true,'

Down she threw the mantle, Ne longer would not stay;
But, storming like a fury, To her chamber flung away.

She curst the whoreson weaver, That had the mantle wrought;
And doubly curst the froward impe, Who thither had it brought.


John

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Alt Lyric: The Boy and the Mantle
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 01:22 PM

The text you quote is also from Percy's Reliques, introduced as "revised and altered by a modern hand". F. J. Child (English and Scottish Popular Ballads, vol.I p.271) commented:

"The Boy and the Mantle was printed "verbatim" from his manuscript by Percy in the Reliques, III, p.3, ed. 1765. The copy at p.314 is of course the same "revised and altered" by Percy, but has sometimes been mistaken for an independent one."

Subject: ADD Version: The Boy and the Mantle (Child_#29)
From: Susan of DT
Date: 29 Jun 20 - 07:38 PM

Joe asked me for the words to the version of Boy and the Mantle (Child #29) that I sang. The one in the Digital Tradition is the long version from Percy. I played with it quite a bit to get a singable version, most of the word editing was from Allan Taylor. I did not like his tune, so I asked Dick Greenhaus to give some tunes it would sing to and selected one. Here is my version:

BOY AND THE MANTLE

IN the third month of the year, to Carlisle did come
A gentle and a courteous child, that knew much wisdom
God speed thee, King Arthur, sitting at thy meat
And the goodly Queen Guenever, I cannot her forget.

I have with me a mantle no lady can resist
But it shall ne’er become that wife that once has done amiss
But if she be unfaithful, in tatters it shall fall
And if she be honest, she will brighten any hall

And first there came Queen Guenever, for she should lead the way
But if she was surely in great doubt, she did not say
And then she took the mantle as if she had been a maid:
Suddenly from the top to the toe it loosely fell in shreds.

And then it colored brightest red, and then it colored green
And then it colored darkest black, so ill did her beseem
And then upspoke King Arthur, and angrier he grew
By all the knights in this court, I think thou be not true

She threw down the mantle, for all the court to see;
And blushed as red as roses, and to her room did flee.
Sir Kay called forth his lady, and bade her to come near;
And said, if thou be guilty, I pray thee hold thee there

So forth came his lady so bold she did appear
And likewise was embarrassed and cried for all to hear
And likewise all the gentle knights who thought their wives most true
Commanded them to try it on and bitterly did rue

Then there came a faded knight, Sir Craddock was his name
And all the knights of Arthur’s court, of him had sport and game
Win this mantle, lady, and it shall all be thine,
If thou ever did amiss, the shame it shall be mine.

When his lady took the mantle his lady cast it her about,
Bow down, good mantle, and shame me not for nought.
For once I did but one amiss, I’ll tell you certainly,
For once I lay in Craddock’s bed before he married me.

When she had made confession, and all her sins she had told;
The mantle stood about her in bright array she stood
So seemly of color, and glittering like gold:
Then all the knights about this court her beauty did behold.
So Craddock stood in glory, his lady proven true
All the knights in Arthur’s court have surely got their due

Printed in Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol III
version sung by Allan Taylor to a different tune than I use
Child #29
SOF