Hawthorn Green, The

DESCRIPTION: The ballad explains that while a hawthorn's freshness returns even when cut almost to the root a maiden's beauty, once lost, is not refreshed.
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Ritson); the Cotton manuscript is from no later than the early seventeenth century
LONG DESCRIPTION: A maid marvels that a hawthorn remains so green and asks the tree its secret. The hawthorn explains that the dew renews it year after year even if its flowers and branches are taken. On the other hand a maid "when your beauty once does go Then it will never more be seen." The maid had "thought herself so fair and clean, Her beauty still would ever grow green" but now fears that her already lost virginity will be obvious to anyone who sees her. The next year the maid does not return to talk to the hawthorn again.
KEYWORDS: vanity virginity questions beauty dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 4, "The Hawthorn Green" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 15, "The Hawthorn Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 279, "Dargason" (1 partial text, 1 tune, said to be the source for this; see Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 63-64, "Oft Have I Ridden Upon my Grey Nag"/"Dargason"/"A Mery Ballet of the Hawthorne Tre" (2 partial texts, 2 tunes, linked to this by Wells [see above])
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 230, "Dargison" (1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 146-148, "A Mery Ballet of the Hawthorne Tre" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter J. Seng, _Tudor Songs and Ballads from MS Cotton Vespasian A-25_, Harvard University Press, 1978, #38, pp. 82-83, "A mery Ballet of the Hatorne tre" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian A.xxv (67), folio 154
ST LyCr104 (Partial)
Roud #1072
NOTES [641 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, p. x: "MS ... which includes a song version like 4 "The Hawthorn Green" ..., should have been assigned to the sixteenth, not the fifteenth, century." This corrects a statement at Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, p. xxxv. Ritson puts his text in class IV, "comprehending the Reigns of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth [1547-1603]."
Except for differences in dialect, there is no substantial difference between the Chappell and Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 texts; both omit three verses in which it becomes clear that the girl is not a virgin. - BS
Hamer's version has been shortened even more; there is very little left except the description of the hawthorn which renews itself each year.
The British Museum manuscript has an attribution at the end to "G. Peele" (so Seng; others have read it differently), but this was not written by the original scribe and may not be an actual assertion of authorship.
The manuscript involved, British Library Cotton Vespasian A.xxv, is described by David C. Fowler on p. 1778 of Volume 6 of J. Burke Severs and Albert Hartung, editors, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, in ten volumes with continuous page numbering; Volume 6 (edited by Hartung), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1980 as follows:
"A miscellany of Renaissance carols, 'ballets,' and songs, some with tunes indicated and at least one with musical notations appended (folio 173). The manuscript was copied in the late sixteenth century.... There are various prose pieces in Latin and English, along with prophecies, miracles, and sermons. The songs reflect various moods, from religious piety to secular exuberance. One in particular, 'a mery Ballet of the Hathorne tre, to be sung after Donken Dargeson, is signed 'G[eorge]. Peele' (transcribed by Böddecker as 'G. Poete'), but it is not in the original hand of the manuscript, which is too early to have included anything by Peele."
The DIMEV lists only six pieces from the book, not including this one; it has two carols, Richard de Caistre's hymn, a "Dance Macabre" piece, the Rule of St. Benedict, and a version of "Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon" [Child 178]. The DIMEV being what it is, this list of six is only the items they consider to be roughly pre-1500. Seng lists the materials that precede the section on songs; I have tried to make his list a little clearer:
1. (Penitential) Psalms. It appears these came from a printed copy which has been removed (if I understand Seng, p. xii)
2. Exhortation to Thomas Cranmer from the Pope's Commission (from Cranmer's trial in the reign of Mary I, based on Seng, pp. xiv-xv)
3. About "a peculiar thing" that happened in the time of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Seng, p. xv, calls it "brief notes" on the events of that time.
4. Prophecies by a French hermit
5. A prophecy by a Frenchman concerning May 5, 1573
6. A sermon a man directed at "several Theeves" who robbed him in Hampshire
7. Points of Religion that priests should know
8. St. Benedict's Rule
9. The method of ordaining a nun
10. The songs and carols
These pieces are of very different dates. They aren't even the same size page! Multiple scribes were involved, and Seng thinks it has been misbound. Seng, p. xiv, says that it "shows considerable evidence... of the recusant origins of much of its material" (that is, these items came from Catholics in Britain who avoided giving up their faith after the Reformation). Even if you aren't a folk song scholar, I'd say the only interesting part is #10! (If by some chance you want to know more, see Seng, although I found his descriptions very unclear).
Other pieces in the Index from the Cotton MS. are:
-- Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178]
-- When Griping Griefs the Heart Doth Wound
-- The Honeymoon (By West of Late As I Did Walk) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LyCr104

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography