Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Love Henry (#68, Hedy West)
From:
Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 03:21 PM
I don't know what Hedy West or June Tabor sang, but the source of this particular version was Mrs Orilla Keeton, Mount Fair, Virginia. Sharp noted the song from her on 26 September 1916 (English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, 104-5 and Bronson II, 71-2, with more detail).
Mrs Keeton sang the first verse but spoke the rest. This made getting the 'regular' tune a little difficult, and Sharp noted two variant forms, noting that the second was probably the usual form. Verse 2 presented some problems, and it appears in Sharp's MS, as quoted by Bronson, as follows:
O light, O light, love Henery
And stay all night with me
And you shall have the cheers (or chairs) of the cheer (or cheery) cold (or gold) girl
The best I can give you
In Karpeles' edition, it appeared thus:
O light, O light, love Henery
And stay all night with me
And you shall have the cheers of the cheer (or cheery) cold girl
The best I can give you
The removal of two alternative readings was presumably an editorial decision made by Dr Karpeles; she printed both tune variants, indicating (misleadingly, it would appear) that the second belonged to verses subsequent to the first.
We don't know, then, exactly what Mrs Keeton said, or whether it had any particular meaning from her point of view. Perhaps she or whoever she learned it from had just misheard it. Anybody singing her version must make their own decision about how to deal with it. There is an equivalent passage in a few other versions:
Will you alight, will you alight fair lord? she said
And stay with me this night?
I'll give you bed, I'll give you board,
Charcoal and candle light, light
Charcoal and candle light
(Mrs Edward Gallagher, Chebucto Head, Nova Scotia, n.d. Bronson II, 63-4).
Abide, abide, true love, she said
And beg and stay all night
You shall have your pleasure in my room
With a coal and candle light, light
With a coal and candle light
(Thomas Edward Nelson, Union Mills, New Brunswick, 18 February 1919, 'learned from his mother who was born in Ireland'. Bronson II, 78).
Back in Scotland, Kinloch's 'Young Redin' (Miss E Beattie, 'a native of Mearns-shire, in Edinburgh. Bronson II, 61) has
Ye're welcome here, my young Redin
For coal and candle licht
('coal an cannel-licht' in Mrs Harris' version).
Elsewhere, the passage has mutated quite radically; becoming
There's a cheer for you and a cheer for me
And a candle burnin' free
(Mrs Judy Whittaker, Anderson, Mo., 12 May 1928. Bronson, II, 70)
I have gold chairs and the finest I have
I'll apply them all to thee.
(Lena Hill, Lexington, Ala., Sung 1946, text 'written when a girl'. Bronson II, 70).
See also threads indicated above, in particular jimmie tarlton's lowe bonnie (child #68) which goes into the related 'white chocolate tea' question.
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sj
