Baffled Knight, The [Child 112]

DESCRIPTION: A (knight/shepherd) sees a lady (bathing), and wishes to lie with her. She convinces him not to touch her until they reach her father's gate. She jumps in, locks him out, and scolds him for his base thoughts and/or his lack of assertiveness.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: seduction escape trick knight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Child 112, "The Baffled Knight" (6 texts)
Bronson 112, "The Baffled Knight" (40 versions+3 in addenda) -- but #26-33 (his Appendix A) are "The New-Mown Hay," which may be separate, and #34-#39 (his Appendix B) are "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] which is certainly separate
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 112, "The Baffled Knight" (4 versions: #1, #4, #6, #16)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 336-342, "The Baffled Knight, or Lady's Policy" (1 text; tune in Chappell)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXXIX, p. 61, "The Baffled Knight, or Lady's Policy" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #16, pp. 123-125, "Blow the Winds, Heigh Ho!" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 302-304, "Blow the WInds, I-Ho!" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 195-196, "The Too Courteous Knight" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 301, "The Shepherd's Son" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #9, B=#8}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 30, "The Shepherd's Son" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 112-113, "Blow the Winds I-Ho!" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #83, "The Dew is on the Grass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #57, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 454-456, "The Baffled Knight" (notes plus a modified version from Ravenscroft=Child A, also a claimed link to "Katey Morey")
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 89-99, "The Baffled Knight" (5 texts, but the "A" text is from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition and "B-I" through "B-IV" are "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] rather than "The Baffled Knight")
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 31, "Man and a Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 63-65, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Peacock, pp. 272-275, "The Foolish Shepherd" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 16, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 320-321, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 154, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 35, "Blow the Winds, I-Ho" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 19, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 28, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 14A,14C, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (2 texts)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 62-63, "Yonder Comes a Courteous Knight" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}; pp. 519-520, "The Baffled Knight" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, with the reader referred to Percy for the text) {Bronson's #2}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 136, "Yonder Comes a Courteous Knight" (1 tune, partial text) {Bronson's #1}; Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 69-70, "The Baffled Knight" (1 tune, partial text; full text is in Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry) {Bronson's #2}
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 190, "Blow Away The Morning Dew" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2505, "There was a Knight was drunk with Wine"; cf. ZN2506, "There was a knight was wine-drunke"
DT 112, MORNDEW* MORNDEW2
ADDITIONAL: [Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III, (London, 1725), #31, pp. 178-186, "The Baffled Knight, or the Lady's Policy"
Roud #11
RECORDINGS:
Emily Bishop, "The Baffled Knight (Clear Away the Morning Dew" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2)
Sam Larner, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (on SLarner02)
George Samms, "The Foolish Shepherd" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 739 [mostly illegible], "Blow the Wind, I, O", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 13(224), Harding B 11(337), Harding B 15(21b), Firth b.27(27), "Blow the Winds I[.] O"; Harding B 5(5), Douce Ballads 3(52b), "The Baffled Knight" or "The Lady's Policy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] (plot)
cf. "The New-Mown Hay" (plot)
cf. "The Lovely Banks of Mourne" (plot)
cf. "Jock Sheep" (plot)
cf. "Es wolte ein Jaejerlein jaje (A Young Hunter Went A-Hunting)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Blow Ye Winds High-O
Clear Away the Morning Dew
The Shepherd Laddie
NOTES [405 words]: Child relegates the Percy text, and a similar one in the Roxburghe collection, to an appendix to this piece. I really don't see why. The result is long and complex, and may well have been retouched, but it's certainly a variant of this song.
It is noteworthy that Bronson classifies most versions of this song into a large tune group -- but that none of the early printed texts (e.g. Ravenscroft's and D'Urfey's) fit this form.
A handful of versions of this end with the rather ornate couplet
If you would not when you might
You shall not when you would.
This appears to be older; according to Richard GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging and Edmund Gosse, English Literature: An Illustrated Record four volumes, MacMillan, 1903-1904 (I used the 1935 edition published in two volumes), volume I, p. 296, the couplet
The man that will nocht whan he may,
Sall have nocht quhen he wald
is found in the so-called "lyrical pastoral" "Robin and Makyne" of Robert Henryson (fl. 1462), which has a vaguely similar plot: Makyne loves Robin, who is not interested. Makyne renounces him, which spurs him to affection, which she rejects.
The bit about a maid within and a fool without also has some literary parallels. J. L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503, Oxford, 2004 (I use the 2005 paperback edition), pp. 135-136, tells a tale of the time of Edward IV. Edward's physician reportedly forecast that this wife's first pregnancy would produce a son. He hung around hoping his prediction would be confirmed. And was promptly told, "whatsoever the queen's grace hath here within, sure it is that a fool standeth there without."
The song "Jock Sheep" is clearly a rewrite of this, with an anti-feminist ending, and as such was lumped with Child 112 in earlier versions of this index. But it is distinct enough, and survives widely enough on its own, that we now split the two. As does Roud. (Thanks to Ben Schwartz for doing the research to split them.) - RBW
re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the Google Books copy is, according to Google Books, the editor. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips."
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 14A is a composite of three texts. Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople p. 42: "no extraneous words or lines are interpolated." He gives three versions of the chorus on p. 42. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: C112

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