Bateman's Tragedy (Young Baithman)

DESCRIPTION: A beautiful girl has many suitors but eventually settles on Baithman. But she changes her mind to marry a rich man she does not love. Baithman hangs himself. She regrets her decision. She lives until her child is born, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Glenbuchat Ballads)
KEYWORDS: love courting money betrayal death suicide pregnancy ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 231-235, "Bateman's Tragedy" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 55-59, "Young Baithman" (1 text)
Roud #22132
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 6(46), "Batelman's Tragedy" ("You gallant dames so finely framed"), J. Jennnings (London), 1790-1840; also Harding B 6(47)=Johnson Ballads 720, "Bateman's Tragedy," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 6(45)=Harding B 23(23), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter)" [Child 243] (theme)
NOTES [78 words]: An extensive study of the history of this piece (which is very common in broadsides although I don't find much evidence that it went into tradition) is found in David Atkinson's essay "The Popular Ballad and the Book Trade: 'Bateman's Tragedy' versus 'The Demon Lover,'" chapter 10 of David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014. - RBW
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File: GlBa055

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