Silvery Moon, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl lamenting in the moonlight. Her lover was true and brave, "but now he is dead, the youth once so gay... And he silently sleeps while I'm left here to weep By the sweet silver light of the moon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 19)
KEYWORDS: love death separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "BY THY SWEET SILVER LIGHT, BONNY MOON"
Randolph 800, "The Silvery Moon" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 154-155, "Roll On, Silver Moon" (1 text) (pp. 132-133 in the 1919 edition)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 128, "By Thy Sweet, Silver Light, Bonny Moon" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 41)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 233-234, "Silvery Moon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 94, "Sweet Silver Light of the Moon" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 123, "Roll On Silvery Moon" (3 texts)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2023, p. 136, "Roll On Silver Moon" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 23 and #5/64, p. 20, "Roll on Silver Moon" (1 text)
Roud #906
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 19 [words barely legible], "The Sweet Silver Moon" ("As I went to my cot, at the close of the day"), J. Catnach (London), 1825; also Johnson Ballads fol. 16, "The Sweet Silver Moon"; Firth b.26(337), Johnson Ballads 1016, Harding B 11(3819), Firth b.25(408), Harding B 17(306a), Firth b.28(39) View 2 of 2, Harding B 16(288b), Firth c.26(37), Harding B 26(636), 2806 c.8(275), "[Thy | The] Sweet Silver Light Bonny Moon"; 2806 c.17(391), "Silver Moon"; Johnson Ballads 1351, Johnson Ballads 12 View 1 of 2 [some words illegible], Johnson Ballads 2987, Firth b.27(396), Firth b.25(306), "[The] Bonny Moon"
NLScotland, RB.m.168(065) , "Bonny Moon" ("As I went to my cot, at the close of the day"), T. Birt (London), c.1840
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Roll On, Silver Moon
NOTES [87 words]: Broadsides Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 19 and Johnson Ballads fol. 16: "Altered from a song entitled 'come down, bonny Moon.'"
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(636) has five verses; the other broadsides have only three. The first added verse, verse 2, has Edwin show Jane the ring and pick the wedding date on the banks of the Shannon; the other added verse, verse 4, has Jane dream of holding Edwin but now, she says, "the willow I'll wear, I shall mark my despair Bewailing my lover's sad doom; But welcome cold death." - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: R800

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