Jamie Douglas [Child 204]

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that her happy marriage to Lord James Douglas has been ruined by accusations made by (Blackwood). She tries to convince her husband that she is true. He will not be convinced, and sends her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: marriage separation lie infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 204, "Jamie Douglas" (17 texts)
Bronson 204, "Jamie Douglas" (8 versions including "Waly, Waly")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 204, "Jamie Douglas" (2 versions: #1, #5, although #1 is "Waly, Waly")
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 133-140, "The Marchioness of Douglas" (1 text, extremely composite, partly this but with "Waly, Waly" verses and probably a good deal else)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 50, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 113, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 136-138, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 469-474, "Jamie Douglas" (notes and scattered stanzas, plus a text of "Waly Waly" and a part of Child A)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 546-551, "Jamie Douglas (3 texts, but the third is "Waly Waly")
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 101, "Jamie Douglas" (2 texts, but the second is "Waly Waly")
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 87, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William Motherwell, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern (Glasgow, 1827 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Appendix pp. v-ix, #III "Lord Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Roud #87
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (lyrics)
cf. "Arthur's Seat" (lyrics: one verse)
NOTES [195 words]: Although based on actual events, the stress of this song seems rather different from the history outlined by Child. That this song is akin to "Waly, Waly" is beyond doubt; too many of the lyrics of the former show up in the latter. "Waly, Waly" has, however, achieved a life of its own (despite the near-compete loss of plot), and so is listed separately.
Most scholars think this the older song, but there are those who hold out for the influence passing the other way -- i.e. that verses from "Waly Waly" have entered "Jamie Douglas." David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 274, suggest that "it is tempting to suppse that the 'fragment' of 'Jamie Douglas' (204M) is an effort to construct a 'heroic ballad' out of the folksong 'Waly, Waly,' which had been published earlier in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany." - RBW
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1's ending is like Child 204N: Jamie Douglas takes the children and goes to the singer's father's house after he had "hanged the Blakemoor The verey place where he told the lie." For the complete text behind Child 204N see the Motherwell reference above. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C204

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