The Sweet Trinity

The Text is taken from a broadside in the Pepys collection (iv. 196), which can be dated between 1682 and 1685, and is entitled Sir Walter Raleigh sailing in the Low-lands. Three other copies of the same edition of the broadside are known.

The Story of the Sweet Trinity has become confused with that of the Golden Vanity (Golden Victorie, Golden Trinitie, Gold Pinnatree are variants), which is probably a corrupted form of it; indeed the weak ending of the broadside challenges any singer to improve upon it. But again there are two distinct variations of the Golden Vanity ballad. In the first class, the boy, having sunk the French galley, calls to the Golden Vanity to throw him a rope, and when it is refused, threatens to sink her too; whereupon they take him aboard and carry out all their promises of reward (which vary considerably in the different versions). In the second class, the boy dies after he is taken up from the water; in one version he sinks from exhaustion before he can be saved.

The Sweet Trinity, however, has been taken by a ship of unspecified nationality ('false' might easily become corrupted into 'French'); and thus this ballad deals with three ships, while the Golden Vanity versions mention but two. The latter are still current in folk-song.

THE SWEET TRINITY

1.
Sir Walter Raleigh has built a ship,
In the Netherlands;
Sir Walter Raleigh has built a ship,
In the Netherlands;
And it is called the Sweet Trinity,
And was taken by the false gallaly.
Sailing in the Lowlands.

2.
'Is there never a Seaman bold
In the Netherlands;
Is there never a Seaman bold
In the Netherlands;
That will go take this false gallaly,
And to redeem the Sweet Trinity?
Sailing in the Lowlands.

3.
Then spoke the little Ship-boy,
In the Netherlands;
Then spoke the little Ship-boy,
In the Netherlands;
'Master, master, what will you give me,
And I will take this false gallaly,
And release the Sweet Trinity?
Sailing in the Lowlands.

4.
'I'll give thee gold, and I'll give thee fee,
In the Netherlands;
I'll give thee gold, and I'll give thee fee,
In the Netherlands;
And my eldest daughter, thy wife shall be.
Sailing in the Lowlands.'

5.
He set his breast, and away he did swim,
Until he came to the false gallaly.

6.
He had an augur fit for the nonce,
The which will bore fifteen good holes at once.

7.
Some were at cards, and some at dice,
Until the salt water flashed in their eyes.

8.
Some cut their hats, and some cut their caps,
For to stop the salt water gaps.

9.
He set his breast, and away did swim,
Until he came to his own ship again.

10.
'I have done the work I promised to do,
I have sunk the false gallaly,
And released the Sweet Trinity.

11.
'You promised me gold, and you promised me fee,
Your eldest daughter my wife she must be.'

12.
'You shall have gold, and you shall have fee,
But my eldest daughter your wife shall never be.'

13.
'Then fare you well, you cozening Lord,
Seeing you are not so good as your word.'

14.
And thus I shall conclude my song,
Of the sailing in the Lowlands,
Wishing all happiness to all seamen both old and young,
In their sailing in the Lowlands.

Frank Sidgwick

Frank Sidgwick was an English writer, publisher, and scholarly editor. He was instrumental in popularizing ballad and folklore studies in the early 20th century. Sidgwick co-founded the publishing company Sidgwick & Jackson, which became known for its contributions to literature and scholarship. Though not primarily known as a poet, his editorial and publishing efforts significantly impacted the literary culture of his time, emphasizing the academic study of traditional songs and verses.

Frank Sidgwick

Johnie Armstrong

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

The Child Of Ell

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Earl Bothwell

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The Queen Of Elfan's Nourice

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

English

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Henry Martyn

The Text is from a copy taken down from North Devon tradition by the Rev. S. Baring Gould, and printed by Child; since when other versions have been found still in circulation in England. A Sussex version, though perhaps derived from a Catnach broadside, is given in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. i. 162.


The Story.--This ballad is undoubtedly a degenerate version of the preceding, Sir Andrew Barton, of which name, as Child says, Henry Martyn would be no extraordinary corruption. It is given here as an instance of the fate which awaits a popular ballad in the process of being sung to pieces.


HENRY MARTYN

    1.
    In merry Scotland, in merry Scotland
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The Twa Sisters O' Binnorie

Texts.--The version here given is compounded from two different sources, almost of necessity. Stanzas 1-19 were given by Scott, compounded from W. Tytler's Brown MS. and the recitation of an old woman. But at stanza 20 Scott's version becomes eccentric, and he prints such verses as:--

    'A famous harper passing by
    The sweet pale face he chanced to spy ...

    The strings he framed of her yellow hair,
    Whose notes made sad the listening air.'

Stanzas 20-25, therefore, have been supplied from the Jamieson-Brown MS., which after this point does not descend from the high level of ballad-poetry.

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The Cruel Brother

The Text is that obtained in 1800 by Alexander Fraser Tytler from Mrs. Brown of Falkland, and by him committed to writing. The first ten and the last two stanzas show corruption, but the rest of the ballad is in the best style.

The Story emphasises the necessity of asking the consent of a brother to the marriage of his sister, and therefore the title The Cruel Brother is a misnomer. In ballad-times, the brother would have been well within his rights; it was rather a fatal oversight of the bridegroom that caused the tragedy.

Danish and German ballads echo the story, though in the commonest German ballad, Graf Friedrich, the bride receives an accidental wound, and that from the bridegroom's own hand.

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The Gay Goshawk

The Text is from the Jamieson-Brown MS., on which version Scott drew partly for his ballad in the Minstrelsy. Mrs. Brown recited the ballad again to William Tytler in 1783, but the result is now lost, with most of the other Tytler-Brown versions.

The Story.--One point, the maid's feint of death to escape from her father to her lover, is the subject of a ballad very popular in France; a version entitled Belle Isambourg is printed in a collection called Airs de Cour, 1607. Feigning death to escape various threats is a common feature in many European ballads.

It is perhaps needless to remark that no goshawk sings sweetly, much less talks. In Buchan's version (of forty-nine stanzas) the goshawk is exchanged for a parrot.


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The Dæmon Lover

The Text is from Kinloch's MSS., 'from the recitation of T. Kinnear, Stonehaven.' Child remarks of it that 'probably by the fortunate accident of being a fragment' it 'leaves us to put our own construction upon the weird seaman; and, though it retains the homely ship-carpenter, is on the whole the most satisfactory of all the versions.'


The Story is told more elaborately in a broadside, and resembles Enoch Arden in a certain degree. James Harris, a seaman, plighted to Jane Reynolds, was captured by a press-gang, taken overseas, and, after three years, reported dead and buried in a foreign land. After a respectable interval, a ship-carpenter came to Jane Reynolds, and eventually wedded her, and the loving couple had three pretty children. One night, however, the ship-carpenter being on a three days' journey, a spiri...

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John, Samuel, & Richard.

(Time, Evening.)


JOHN.

'Tis a calm pleasant evening, the light fades away,
And the Sun going down has done watch for the day.
To my mind we live wonderous well when transported,
It is but to work and we must be supported.
Fill the cann, Dick! success here to Botany Bay!


RICHARD.

Success if you will,--but God send me away.


JOHN.

Ah! you lubberly landsmen don't know when you're well;
Hadst thou known half the hardships of which I can tell!
The sailor has no place of safety in store--
From the tempest at sea, to the press-gang on shore!
When Roguery rules all the rest of the earth,
God be thanked in this corner I've got a good birth.
Talk of hardships! what these are the sailor don't know!
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