Rose Connoley [Laws F6]

DESCRIPTION: The singer kills Rose by drugging her (with "burglar's wine"), stabbing her, and throwing her in the river. He commits the crime on his father's assurance that "money would set [him] free," but the assurance was false; he is to be hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: homicide drugs river execution wine
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws F6, "Rose Connoley"
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 110, "Rose Connally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 249, "Rose Connally" (1 text plus excerpts from 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 67, "Rose Connally" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 38-39, "Down in the Willow Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 83, "Down in the Willow Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 137, "Rose Connelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 91, "Rose Connoley" (2 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 63-65, "Rose Conoley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 48-49, "Down in the Willow Garden" (1 text, 1 tune, which he suspects derives from a recorded version)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #56, "Rose Connoley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #19, "Willow Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 202-203, "Willow Garden" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 223, "Down In The Willow Garden" (1 text)
DT (311), WLLWGRDN*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 237, "My Father Has Often Told Me" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Maud Jacobs and Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #446
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden with Hobart Smith, "Down in the Willow Garden" (Disc 6081, 1940s; on USTGladden01)
Shirley Glenn, "Down in the Willow Garden" (Piotr-Archive #9, recorded 07/14/2020)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Rose Conley" (Victor 21625, 1927; on GraysonWhitter01)
Charlie Higgins, Wade Ward & Dave Poe, "Willow Garden" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris], "Down in the Willow" (Bluebird B-7298/Montgomery Ward M-7307, 1937)
Charlie Monroe & His Kentucky Pardners, "Down in the Willow Garden" (Victor 20-2416, 1947)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Down in the Willow Garden" (on NLCR16)
Osborne Brothers & Red Allen, "Down in the Willow Garden" (MGM 12420, 1957)
NOTES [258 words]: Almost every version of this song contains a crux: Just *what* did the killer cause Rose to drink? Burglar's wine? Burgundy wine? Something else (Texas Gladden sung either "virgin" or "Persian"; one of Cox's informants had something like "merkley").
Burgundy, although it's a common reading, frankly makes no sense. The usual tune (as sung, e.g., by Grayson and Gladden) calls for two syllables, not three and burgundy isn't going to knock a girl out, either.
Problem is, the other main possibility is "burglar's wine," and no one knows what "burglar's wine" is. But that, of course, invites correction, perhaps to "burgundy." It makes no sense to assume that "burgundy" is original and corrected to "burglar's"; this produces a paradox. If "burglar's wine" is meaningless, a listener is not likely to hear the song as to make nonsense (it might happen once, but not several times, and Cox and Grayson show "burglar's wine" to be widespread). So if "burglar's wine" does exist, then it could be an original reading, but it is unlikely to be a derived reading.
Thus I do not doubt that "burglar's wine" is the earliest extant reading in the tradition. It may even be original; I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was a drugged wine. But I can't find the reference.
Lyle Lofgren, who has studied the piece, proposed an emendation which makes reasonable sense: "[Russell Bartlett's 'Dictionary of Americanisms'] gave me a candidate: 'burgaloo,' a popular pear variety at the time, identified in the dictionary as a variant of 'virgelieu.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF06

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