Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green, The [Laws N27]

DESCRIPTION: Pretty Betsy, the blind beggar's daughter, seeks a husband. Many court her for her looks, but when she reveals that her father is a beggar, all but one change their minds. This one is surprised when her father proves able to give a large dowry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1624
KEYWORDS: begging courting marriage dowry
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Laws N27, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green"
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "BLIND BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER OF BETHNAL GREEN, THE"
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 279-289, "Bessie off Bednall" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 171-185, "The Beggar's Daughter of Bednall-Green" (1 text plus variant stanzas from the folio manuscript)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #3, pp. 60-71, "The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 271-279, "The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 255-256, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 434)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 6-7, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnall Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #60, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 1061, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 26, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 107-109, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 32, "The Blind Beggar" (1 text)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 57, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (1 text, 4 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 46, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 694-695, "The Blind Beggar of Bednall (Bethnal) Green" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 163, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall-Green" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 32, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnell Green" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 158-160, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 16-17, "The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green" (1 tune, partial text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 11, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 129-130, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1515, "It was a blind begger that long lost his sight"
DT, BLINDBEG* SIMONTFD
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 276
Roud #132
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "The Blind Beggar" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Paddy Reilly, "The Blind Beggar" (on IRTravellers01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 3(62), "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 3(61), Harding B 3(63), Harding B 28(269), "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal-Green"; Harding B 11(322), Firth c.21(11), Harding B 11(1438), Johnson Ballads 1393, Firth c.21(13), Harding B 11(323), Harding B 11(321), Harding B 25(214)[parts illegible], "[The] Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green"; Harding B 25(212), "The Blind Beggar"; Douce Ballads 3(4b), "The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green"; Vet. A3 b.43(3)[parts faded to illegibility], Harding B 5(18), "The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green"; Firth c.21(12), "Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnall Green"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Ambree" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Mary Ambree (File: OBB165)
Of a stout Cripple that kept the high way/..Stout Cripple of Cornwall (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2079)
The devil has left his puritanical dress/..Licentiousness of the Times (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN777)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Bessie
NOTES [443 words]: This is "The Child Ballad that Wasn't." Printed in Child's preliminary edition, he later withdrew the piece on the grounds that it was not popular (even though it has been found regularly in tradition).
Most traditional versions are short, but the earliest text, from Percy, is extremely long (67 four-line stanzas!). In the second part of this version it appears that the blind beggar is none other than Simon de Montfort, who nearly overthrew England's King Henry III (reigned 1216-1272).
When King John died in 1216, his son Henry was only seven years old. Henry, naturally, never amounted to much. By 1254, Parliament was rebelling against him. In 1258 the nobles drafted the "Provisions of Oxford," which put the king under the control of a group of barons. Even stronger measures were passed in 1259, leaving Henry in a position he considered intolerable.
Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and Henry's brother-in-law, was a leader of the rebels. Forced into exile in 1261, he returned to England in 1263 to start an organized rebellion. In 1264 his armies met those of the king. De Montfort won a smashing victory, despite inferior numbers, at the battle of Lewes. (The latter, incidentally, commemorated in The Song of Lewes, one of the "Harley Lyrics" found in British Museum Harley 2253; it's a bit surprising that Child did not include this in his canon, since it looks as popular as several of his other political pieces.)
Simon was now in control of England, and tried to strengthen his grip by a series of liberal reforms. But Henry's party had one great asset: the crown prince Edward (later Edward I). Edward gathered another army, and defeated and killed Simon at Evesham in 1265.
The author of this ballad apparently believed that, instead of being killed, de Montfort went into hiding as a beggar (but also reports that Simon lost his eyes fighting in France).
The title "The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green" was used for a play by Henry Chettle and J. Day. This presumably was written by 1607, the best guess for the year Chettle died, according to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 104. The play was apparently published in 1659, and a modern edition by W. Bang came out in 1902, according to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 105.
There is also a Stationer's Register entry for this song. Rollins, #211, p. 26, reads "blind beggar of Bednall Green, The rarest ballad that ever was seene, of the (M[ar]ch 1, 1675, ii, 498). [ Beg.'It was a blind Beggar that long lost his sight,' R[oxburghe] B[allads] I,37; P[ercy] F[olio] II.279]."
According to Alexander, p. 26, a pub named "The Blind Beggar," named for this song, long stood on London's Whitechapel Road. - RBW
Bibliography

Alexander: Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002
Kunitz/Haycraft: Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Editors, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson, 1952 (I use the fourth printing of 1965)
Rollins: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard)

Last updated in version 6.8
File: LN27

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography