Kitchie-Boy, The [Child 252]

DESCRIPTION: A lady reveals her love to a kitchen boy. He begs her not to make it known; her father would kill him. She sends him over the sea; he rebuffs a lady's advances. He returns home in disguise and convinces the father to let him marry his daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love separation nobility servant disguise marriage reunion return
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (5 texts)
Bronson 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 version: #2)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 112-115, "The Kitchen Boy/The Kitchie Boy" (2 texts)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 231-234, "Bonny Foot-Boy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1048, "The Kitchie Boy" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 616-621, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 25, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 13-16, "Earl Richard's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #105
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
cf. "Richie Story" [Child 232] (plot)
cf. "The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II)" [Laws N18] (plot)
cf. "Hind Horn" [Child 17] (lyrics)
NOTES [92 words]: Child views this as a "modern 'adaption' of 'King Horn'" (i.e. "Hind Horn," Child 17), from which it derives some stanzas. The plot, however, is by no means identical, sharing elements with a number of other ballads. David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 324, regards it as Anna Gordon Brown's rewrite of "Young Beichan" [Child 53]. - RBW
Greig/Duncan5 1048C has a connection with "King Horn" not in any of Child's texts: the hero reveals himself by dropping the ring in the lady's wine cup. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C252

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