Gallant Hussar, The (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty)

DESCRIPTION: The beautiful damsel waits at her father's gate for the hussars to pass by. At last she sees her lover. She reports that her parents kept her confined for a whole year, but she is all the more determined to follow and marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1866 (see Note)
KEYWORDS: elopement love separation soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro) Ireland Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "GALLANT HUSSAR, THE"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 254-256, "The Gallant Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #150, p. 1, "The Gallant Hussar" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 982, "The Gallant Hussar" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 135, "Gallant Hussar" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 42-43, "The Galland Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H243a, pp. 473-474, "Young Edward the Gallant Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 27, "The Gallant Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 16, "The Gallant Husars" [sic] (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 147, "A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #70, "The Gallant Hussars" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 89-91, "Young Edward the Gallant Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #703, p. 46, "The Gallant Hussar" (2 references)
ST E147 (Full)
Roud #1146
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(100b), "Gallant hussar" ("A damsel, possess'd of great beauty "), Swindells (Manchester), 1706-1853; also Harding B 18(633), "The galland hussar,' De Marsan (New York), c. 1750; 2806 c.13(257) (unknown, n.d.)
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(84b), "The Gallant Hussar," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Soldier (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier)" (plot)
cf. "Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon)"
cf. "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
SAME TUNE:
Answer to the Galland Hussar (Bodleian, Harding B 11(4391), "It is of a nobleman's daughter")
NOTES [185 words]: Regarding the date: Kun Davis writes, "I came across your website when I was transcribing a diary written by my great great grandfather. He kept a journal during his civil war service, mostly a collection of songs that he wrote and some that he probably didn't. One of those songs is called "The Gallant Huzzar" in his journal, and I found the lyrics on your website, which match almost identically.... The reason I am writing is because in the notes at the beginning you indicate that the earliest date for the song is 1904. The journal was written between 1863 and 1865 based on the dates in the journal itself. It does not look like it was jotted down later, and in any case my gg grandfather died in 1903. I believe that it must have been a song contemporaneous to the civil war, and wanted to pass that information along." - RBW
Broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:031, "Answer to Young Jane and her Gallant Hussar," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C obviously claims to be an "answer" to this, but it's more of a sideline and continuation, in which Jane rejects another suitor and eventually goes off with the hussar. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: E147

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