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Old Robin Of Portingale
Old Robin of Portingale is a Child balladFrancis James Child Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of ..., ''English and Scottish Popular Ballads''"Old Robin of Portingale"/ref> only found in the Percy Folio. Synopsis It opens with a warning against old men marrying young women. Old Robin of Portingale marries the daughter of the mayor of Linn. She soon goes to Sir Gyles and asks his help in murdering her husband. They make plans to attack him with twenty-four knights. His foot page overhears and weeps in the garden. When Robin asks what it is wrong, the page tells him. He promises to make him his heir if he tells the truth, and kill him if he lies. He tells his lady that he is sick and lies down in bed in full armor. The twenty-four knights attack, and Sir Robin kills them ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Child Ballad
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads''. The tunes of most of the ballads were collected and published by Bertrand Harris Bronson in and around the 1960s. History Age and source of the ballads The ballads vary in age; for instance, the manuscript of " Judas" dates to the thirteenth century and a version of "A Gest of Robyn Hode" was printed in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The majority of the ballads, however, date to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although some are claimed to have very ancient influences, only a handful can be definitively traced to before 1600. Moreover, few of the tunes collected are as old as the words. Nevertheless, Child's collection was far more comprehensive than any previous col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis James Child
Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry. In 1876 he was named Harvard's first Professor of English, a position which allowed him to focus on academic research. It was during this time that he began work on the Child Ballads. The Child Ballads were published in five volumes between 1882 and 1898. While Child was primarily a literary scholar with little interest in the music of the ballads, his work became a major contribution to the study of English-language folk music. Biography Francis James Child was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His lifelong friend, scholar and social reformer Charles Eliot Norton, described Child's father, a sailmaker, as "one of that class of intelligent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bonny Birdy
The Bonny Birdy is Child ballad 82 (Roud 3972). Synopsis A knight is riding when a bird asks him why he is about so late and tells him his wife is with her lover. It had been a wild bird until the lover caught it and gave it to his love. She did not feed it well, so it is telling her story. It flew with the knight to her bower, and sang of how the lover should be away. The lady asks what reason there is for him to leave, and the bird sings that a man in bed with another man's wife should always leave quickly. The knight enters the bower and kills the lover. Sources and recordings The ballad was written only once, in 1783 (or shortly before), from Anna Brown, by her nephew, Robert Eden Scott, and in the same year was sent by her father, prof. Thomas Gordon, to William Tytler with other 14 recorded songs (so-called ''Tytler-Brown MS''). At least one author points out that the song "is not represented in England" and considers it as a "Scottish version" of the well-known E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Musgrave And Lady Barnard
"Matty Groves", also known as "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" or "Little Musgrave", is a ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a young man and a noblewoman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. It is listed as Child ballad number 81 and number 52 in the Roud Folk Song Index. This song exists in many textual variants and has several variant names. The song dates to at least 1613, and under the title ''Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard'' is one of the Child ballads collected by 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child. Synopsis Little Musgrave (or Matty Groves, Little Matthew Grew and other variations) goes to church on a holy day either "the holy word to hear" or "to see fair ladies there". He sees Lord Barnard's wife, the fairest lady there, and realises that she is attracted to him. She invites him to spend the night with her, and he agrees when she tells him her husband is away from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
