Lovely Willie [Laws M35]

DESCRIPTION: A girl with many rich suitors is in love with Willie. The speaks of running away with him. Her father overhears and stabs Willie to death. At Willie's burial the girl openly rejects her father, vowing to spend the rest of her life in exile or die for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homicide courting father elopement
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws M35, "Lovely Willie"
Randolph 113, "Lovely William" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 92-93, "Lovely William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 50, "Lovely William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 30, "Lovely Willie's Sweetheart" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H587, p. 433, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 138, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 55, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 456-457, "Green Grow the Laurels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 66, "The Father in Ambush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 19, "Lovely Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 107, "Lovely Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 71, "Green Grow the Rushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 436, LOVLYWLL LOVJAMIE
Roud #1913
RECORDINGS:
George Carew, "Lovely Jimmie" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kitty Cassidy, "Lovely Willie" (on IRCassidyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "Lovely Willie" (on IRPTunney02)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "Green Grow the Laurels" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low" [Laws M34] (plot)
cf. "The Green Brier Shore (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Lover's Curse (Kellswater)" (themes)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lovely Jamie
Willy
NOTES [94 words]: The last verse of Peacock starts "Oh green grow the laurels and the tops of them small But love is a phantom will conquer us all," which is the form that resembles the beginning of the last verse of "Nancy from London"; that ends the similarity. - BS
This fragment also ends the Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi version (and gives it its title); evidently that was a Canadian adaption.
There is at least one documented instance of this happening in Ireland: In 1798, just before the Rebellion, Lord Kingston was on trial for the murder of his daughter's seducer. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LM35

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