If I Went Up To a Hill-Top

DESCRIPTION: "If I went up to a hill-top I will go down to Barbaree, Den madame, madame, come an' hol' dat dog I am gwine down to Barbaree." "If you fight me a golden sword I will fight you a silver one, Den madame ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Beckwith-Ballad)
KEYWORDS: fight violence travel dog
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #4, pp. 457, 474-475, "If I Went Up To a Hill-Top" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [96 words]: The tune of the first two lines -- If I went up to a hill top/ I will go down to Barbay -- which are repeated as the third and fourth lines, is close to "High Barbaree." On p. 457 Beckwith has the line as "I will go down to Barbaree." In the second verse, the gold/silver line is repeated swapping silver and gold. Beckwith has this as "a popular song based on ballad fragments, sung ... by Maroons ..."
As for "hol' dat dog," see the Bahamas song indexed as "The Faithless Widow (II)."
Neither Beckwith, nor the collector Helen Roberts, say what ballad they think this is. - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: MWBJa474

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