Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3]

DESCRIPTION: The singer and a girl are in love. When her parents learn of it, they lock her away from him. At last he goes away and serves in the army for seven years, hoping to forget. When he returns home, he learns that she has died for love; he goes mad or nearly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(154))
KEYWORDS: love separation family father mother death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws M3, "Charming Beauty Bright"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 346, "Once I Courted a Fair Beauty Bright" (1 text)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 35, "Once I Courted a Damsel" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 17, "Once I Courted a Damsel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 94, "My Own Father Forced Me" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 110, "The Lover's Lament" (3 texts plus 5 excerpts or fragments, 8 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #40, "Once I Did Court (Don't You Remember)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 30-33, "The Soldier's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 164-165, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text)
Randolph 86, "The Beauty, Beauty Bride" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 81-83, "The Beauty, Beauty Bride" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 86A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, "Fair Lady Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 36, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 208, "Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 11, "The Charming Buty Bright" [sic] (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 88, "Charming Beauty Bright" (3 texts plus 1 excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 88, "Charming Beauty Bright" (6 excerpts, 6 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 73, "The Lover's Lament" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #184, "Charming Beauty Bright" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 89, "The Fair Young Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 86-88, "Fair Beauty Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 51-52, "Once I Courted a Fair Beauty Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 311-312, "The Lover's Lament" (1 text, with local title "A Soldier's Sweetheart"; 1 tune on p. 439)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 33, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 76, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 136, "The Fair Beauty Bride" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 65-66, "A Lover's Lament"; pp. 79-81, "The Charming Little Girl" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 70-71, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 98, "A Fair Beauty Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 103, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 112-113, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 575, CHRMBRT BEAUTBRT
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 239-240, "Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jabobs)

Roud #405
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright (Lover's Lament)" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
Ollie Gilbert, "Once I Courted a Lady Beauty Bright" (on LomaxCD1707)
Lisha Shelton, "Don't You Remember" (onOldLove, DarkHoll)

BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(154), "The Beauty Bright" ("One time I courted a fair beauty bright"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
File: LM03

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