Rose the Red and White Lily [Child 103]

DESCRIPTION: Rose and Lily are each loved by a son of their cruel stepmother, who attempts to part them. The girls disguise themselves as boys and go into service with their erstwhile loves. After much adventure they are revealed and reunited, each couple marrying.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love stepmother separation disguise cross-dressing reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 103, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (3 texts)
Bronson 103, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (2 versions)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 76-89, "Rose the Red & White Lily" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 262)
Greig/Duncan1 162, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 55, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 21, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 127-130, "Rose the Red and White Lilly"; pp. 130-133, "Rose the Red and White Lillie"; pp. 133-134, "The Wedding of Robin Hood and Little John" (3 texts)
Roud #3335
NOTES [93 words]: David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 303-304, regards this as a Robin Hood ballad, a reworking of "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" [Child 150]. He doesn't have much company in that assessment, although it is true that Anna Gordon Brown's version was not taken down until after Ritson published his book on Robin Hood, making "Maid Marian" (a very minor Robin Hood ballad featuring a character not found elsewhere and not known to have been found in tradition prior to Ritson's publication) widely known. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C103

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