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92 Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series
13
THE LASS OF ROCH ROYAL (Child, No. 76)
Nothing even approaching a complete text of this ballad has been recovered. The two "shoe my foot" stanzas have occasionally appeared, either as fragments contributed or in combination with other songs. In one Indiana variant of "Lord Lovel" (B 5) occurs the following stanza from "The Lass of Roch Royal":
"Go catch me up my milk-white horse; Go saddle me the brown; Go saddle me up the swiftest horse That ever set foot on ground."
These three stanzas are all that can be said to belong definitely to this ballad.
For American texts, see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, p. 149 (fragments); Belden, No. 91 (fragment); Brown, p. 9; Combs, p. 134; Cox, No. 13; Davis, p. 260; Journal, XXII, 240 (fragment) ; XXX, 305 (references); Hudson, Folksongs, p. 41; Sandburg, p. 98; Scarborough, Song Catcher, p. 123 (fragments); Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Henry, Folk-Songs front the Southern Highlands, p. 66; Henry, Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians, p. 175; Cambiaire, East Tennessee and Western Virginia Mountain Ballads, pp. 72-73.
The usual titles of this ballad in Indiana are "My Lady's Slipper" and "Who Will Shoe My Pretty Little Foot?"
A
No title given. Contributed by Dr. Claude Lomax, of Dale, Indiana. Spencer County. From a MS in his possession. June 19, 1935.
1. "So fare you well, my own true-love,
So fare you well for a while; For if I go, I'll come again
If I go ten thousand mile/'
2. "O who will shoe my feet, my dear?
O who will glove my hand? And who will kiss my red rosy cheeks Whilst you in the foreign land?" |
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