1
In England in 1904 Frank Kidson noted a full version from a Mrs Thomson, published in JFSS as Young Riley the Fisherman2, and added that:
'This is a cold and stormy night,' these words she then did say,
'My love is on the raging seas, bound for America.
Of course, one has to lay aside any idea of what might be perceived as being a slightly more logical layout in musical terms and accept what is there to be enjoyed. The piece is resolved musically in the conventional way on its root note. This may be borne in mind when other similar tunes are discussed below. But the imagined form here also has faint resemblances to the actual form and music found in some other versions and might just be adduced in support of any thesis concerning a favoured tune amongst singers, just as a number of versions of Erin's lovely Home make up a collective feature.
The narrative as found on broadsides also appears more or less whole in this sung version as it moves through the contrast between the father and his riches and the poverty of Riley and the father's objection to any connection between his daughter and Riley; the mother's warning and offer of 'a thousand pound' for Riley to go to America and purchase land; the subsequent meeting between Riley and his sweetheart and the breaking of the ring as token; Riley's departure and the girl's search for him 'twelve months after' that turns to tragedy:
Oddly - there are no explanatory notes - Kidson gives an alternative reading to one line: 'he lives down by the quay' by including, in brackets, the line 'lives near the town of Bray' which, of course, reminds us of the reference to 'Rea' occurring in Lindsay's broadside as noted in the previous piece in this series; and this may even suggest that Kidson had come across the naming process somewhere - certainly not in London printings though Kidson had mentioned Such, whilst Forth, the 'other' printer that Kidson referred to in connection with Mrs Thompson's version, has 'Hull' as location.
There is, too, a puzzle surrounding Kidson's reference to 'Forth'. In his later notes to the published version, after mentioning Such, he refers to one from 'W. Forth of Hull' and he also gives the information that the text was entitled 'John O'Reilly' and dated 1859. In neither detail was this correct, Forth (as noted in the previous article in this series) commencing printing around 1870 and his piece being entitled Young Riley the Fisherman, just as Kidson had it as title for his sung version from Mrs Thompson.3
Finally, as a point of a different order, in the two places where it is mentioned in this version there is no sign that 'America' is pronounced as 'Amerikay' even if common-sense in the textual context of rhyme might dictate that it was so used just as it must surely be the case in other versions.
The rather strange progress of Mrs Thompson's version continued in Frank Kidson's A Garland … , issued two decades later, where the form of the same tune that Mrs Thompson apparently used (AB) is retained but appears as a repeated measure - AB, AB - and where the key is changed from A minor to D minor.4
The repeat of the two-strain tune is occasioned by Kidson employing four-line stanzas. There must have been another editorial decision on the music however the second text came to Kidson; and it is not at all clear otherwise why he changed the two-line couplets to four lines or, indeed, used a four-strain musical form unless, perhaps, by then, he had come across other versions with four-line stanzas. 'America', incidentally, remains as 'America' - unless, once again, one assumes a common-sense position for pronunciation.
But, in any case, the whole text has been changed since the first published version of the song appeared in JFSS. In A Garland … (published as far on as 1926) the opening is:
There is, incidentally, no alternative line in this version that mentions Bray.
Two stanzas (full stanzas, that is, familiar in broadside printings as including all the known elements of the narrative) are condensed:
Kidson, in a note to his version in A Garland … , added that 'The beautiful old tune must be an excuse for the doggerel of the verses'.5 If this is meant to be critical of broadsides it can hardly have validity in the face of Kidson's approval of sung text from Mrs Thompson which has a clear closeness of expression to that of broadsides. And, in any case, the piece has now been manipulated - perhaps even for a more dramatic ending as indicated in the abrupt last line given above - so, in a way, Kidson has only himself to blame for the 'doggerel'.
Ralph Vaughan Williams collected a version of John Reilly (note the spelling), words as well as tune, from a Mr and Mrs Truell in 1904.6 The narrative sequence is as might now be expected. Otherwise, in terms of phraseology, there are small individual touches. The mother, when speaking, 'these very words did say … '. And Vaughan Williams did include an alternative possibility in the middle of the line reading 'If you are fond of Reilly you (he?) must leave this counterie … '. The last word here, 'counterie', also shows Vaughan Williams paying attention to pronunciation. This modification of the word can be found in other versions. Further, during the exchange between mother and daughter, the daughter, in this versions says 'O mother dear Don't be severe, O where I've let my love (?) … ' (this is to follow the way that the line appears on manuscript): and Vaughan Williams did not seem to be sure quite what was meant. Further still, when the mother advises the daughter to send Reilly away, it is to 'Ameriky'; and when the daughter encounters Reilly and gives him her mother's money the reference is again to 'Ameriky'. At the end of the narrative the name appears in the warning not to let a 'lady's love' go to 'Amerikay'. We can accept all these details as part and parcel of the process of notation and the last example may begin to confirm a regular pronunciation (that common-sense, in any case, might dictate).
But the odd thing about the version is that Vaughan Williams had taken down a perfectly acceptable set of words although without quite the full complement of elements since there are lines missing that in most versions concern the breaking of the ring in two and, likewise, more lines missing that might have described the shipwreck and where Reilly was found. However, when he came to publish the piece in the Journal in 1906, rather than add lines from elsewhere to fill the gaps, he only included his first stanza in the musical example and 'For the rest of the words and a version of the second half of the tune … ' referred to an earlier Journal set that turns out to be Frank Kidson's version from Mrs Thompson as described above. 'Elsewhere' in this context could even have meant Vaughan Williams taking some lines from the Kidson version to add to his own - this would appear to have been the only version that he had become acquainted with so far.
Vaughan Williams' next recorded field acquaintance with the song, when James Anderson sang it to him in King's Lynn (see more below), did not come until 1905; after his encounter with Mr and Mrs Truell and after Frank Kidson's Thompson version appeared in the Journal, both in 1904. How long it might normally have taken for a particular version to have been sent to the Journal and monitored before publication is not clear. But there was a gap of two years between Vaughan Williams' acquisition of the song from the Truells and its appearance in the Journal (in 1906). In this context, he may not have been confident of his own findings in respect of a full set of words and, therefore, relied on Frank Kidson's findings.
The Truell tune is strong and attractive, in ABBA form. Only in its penultimate bar is there a clear change in note value, there being four quavers to coincide with wording. One should note bar seven where the same sort of musical phrase that occurred in the Thompson version can be found.
Other than this full version, and bearing in mind his then current focus whilst collecting, Vaughan Williams also noted four more tunes. These came from Mr Anderson in King's Lynn in 1905; from a Mr Pamplin in Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire, in 1906; and from Mr Christopher Jay and from an un-named singer at the Bridge Inn, Acle in 1908.7
Mr Anderson's tune appears more than once in the manuscripts and on one copy, at least, (none of the manuscript tunes are 'catalogued' - by number, for instance - in any way) the tune is clearly set out, basically in ABBA form though the final A part differs in one or two notes as compared to those in its first appearance: perfectly understandable as being part of the process of adjustment during notation - when, say, a singer sang a song more than once and changed detail.
All four tunes are scribbled in Vaughan Williams' usual fashion and the Pamplin tune, in particular, looks as if it was one the musical phrases of which Vaughan Williams tried to hold in his head since there is no clear, consecutive rendering in manuscript form (and it then disappears from view without benefit of adjustment as described above). The manuscript outline leaves us guessing as to whether or not the form is ABBA and it would not be appropriate to try to re-construct Vaughan Williams' notation with its several possibilities except to set out the first measure which is clear enough on manuscript and allows some sort of comparison with other tunes:
Mr Jay's tune begins rather in the way that the Kidson version from Mrs Thompson did - that is, as if the B part had supplanted an A part. These are also the only two musical phrases given. In bar three the echo of the Thompson and the Truell tunes is marked.
The unattributed tune, likewise, has but two elements although the sequence, in contrast to that in the Thompson and Jay tunes, is (so to speak) logical enough musically …
No precise date is given for this latter version on manuscript but, according to Michael Kennedy's biography of Vaughan Williams, in a list of all items that Vaughan Williams noted, this one was sung and noted on the same occasion as was the tune from Mr Jay in 1908.8
Clearly, whilst each Vaughan Williams tune, including that from Mr and Mrs Truell, has a character of some dignity, none of them really accord even where the one bar is echoed. The two Acle ones are quite different in phrasing. We may certainly value them for their individuality but, at the same time, when taking them together with examples from elsewhere we are made aware that, overall, singers had not attached one tune - or variants of it - to the text but were looking at convenient alternatives. Kidson's version from Mrs Thompson thus takes on the mantle of individuality and the speculation made above becomes somewhat redundant in the face of evidence if not of possibilities.
In addition to the Truell tune and text and the four tunes without text, Vaughan Williams, together with George Butterworth, noted a tune in Norfolk in 1911.9 By this time it must have been that Vaughan Williams knew very well what song he had come across. In fact, though, the notations from the two collectors do not quite match. For a start, Vaughan Williams chose to set the piece out in two-four time (though he did not actually give a time-signature - his bar-lines and use of quavers, on the other hand, make clear the time). Butterworth, on the other hand, chose to use four-four time although, unusually for Butterworth, there is no indication at all and it is the notes themselves as written that confirm the time measure. Such anomalies may reflect each collector's apprehension of the speed at which the piece was sung to them or even how they noted a different rendering. We know that singers repeated their songs to collectors - and adjustments in notation were, therefore, needed. Then again, though, Vaughan Williams used the key signature of D minor.
There is one slight addition to the music given above where, at the beginning of the second full bar there is an alternative of two quavers on F. Vaughan Williams does also give a third alternative to the same bar, this time at the end of the notation - a crochet followed by two quavers on F. He designates this as 'C'!
In Butterworth's case, remembering that he does not provide us with a key signature nor a time signature we can see how the tune keeps resolving itself on a G but there is not an F sharp to confirm a straight G tune (nor are there two flats that might indicate a G minor tune).
Butterworth indicates that the B strain here is repeated, giving us an ABBA form. That much was already clear in the Vaughan Williams notation - though in the third bar from the end, where the repeat of the A strain occurs, Vaughan Williams uses dotted notes; and Butterworth keeps to quavers.
This all suggests a measure of disagreement. Further, note values are different even if we accept that Butterworth's notation could indicate a slowing - a doubling - of notes within an over-riding structure or that that from Vaughan Williams represents a faster idea of how a tune might run. We are left with an apparent dichotomy in terms of what each collector claims to have heard.
We need not load this down with great significance but should bear in mind that, as pointed out at the beginning of this article, editors, as well as singers, swayed this way and that in their rendering of particular songs.
We turn next to George Gardiner and in his case it is noteworthy that all his manuscript versions - and these include the contributions in musical form from Guyer and Gamblin - are mirrored in fresh copy made for the Folk Song Society and, as far as can be seen, offer exactly what can be found in Gardiner's field notebooks (unfortunately, one vital notebook, number ten, is missing, as will be seen below in discussion, and that notebook contained versions of the John Reilly story … but a reasonable assumption can be made that Gardiner followed the practice he had established in all his other manuscript notebooks). Gardiner, it seems, did not make the kinds of editorial adjustments discussed elsewhere in this article.
He noted several versions of the John Reilly song including one from Job Read (1906) that begins with 'Young Reilly is my true love's name' (not 'As I walked out one morning … ' found in several broadside versions) and has then the familiar storyline set out in short four-line stanzas with small changes in detail10. And, within this framework of short lines, we find the mother indicating to her daughter that:
Later she offers 'one thousand pounds' for Reilly to go to 'America' (sic) in order to purchase ground. Reilly, before he puts his foot on board, breaks a ring in two: 'You have my heart and half this ring … '. In twelve months 'She was walking by the sea' expecting Reilly to come back and take her away and encounters the ship - note that it is the girl who does this - wrecked, all hands lost: we can put it down to oral change. Her father 'grieved full sore' on finding his daughter in Reilly's arms 'Lying drownded (sic) on the shore'. The piece ends as follows:
Gardiner's second version, from George Lovett (it was noted by Charles Gamblin in August 1906), has no text but the tune, basically in E minor, was published, subsequently, in Sharp's English County Folk Songs as a full version with text.11 Exactly how this came about we do not know although there are clues to be found on Gardiner's other versions (below) but the key of the tune had been changed to D minor and, obviously, editorial interference is made manifest as it was in the case of Kidson's exposure of the Thompson version. This would appear to have been the result of Sharp's involvement … At least Gardiner's title in both manuscript and published version is given as Young Reilly. The added text has the familiar storyline, beginning with 'Young Reilly is my true love's name, he lives down by the quay' … but there are details not found elsewhere. For example, Reilly is 'the fairest sailor lad that ever my eyes did see' and, after the familiar exchange between mother and daughter (my italics), Reilly takes 'this gold in hand'. Then, 'ere he set his foot on board' he produces the token and says, ' … come, break it fair in two' before, when 'homeward bound to take his Love away', he is found 'drowned' upon the shore (this is clear enough and contrasts vividly with Job Read's 'drownded'). There is no finding of a letter or warning in this version. Truly, the editors were taking liberties.
This particular history of publication is somewhat convoluted but there is no denying the grandeur of George Lovett's tune (he was possessed of several such … ) nor of the fullness of the added text bar the lack of the usual final stanza. One notes the echo of the Thompson, Truell and Jay tunes in bar three.
Gardiner's other versions are four in number. The first comes from Henry Day and consists of a tune and a first stanza beginning 'As I roved out one morning' - but no date is given … though, judging on other items from Henry Day, this piece is likely to have been noted in the autumn of 1906 when Gardiner was visiting David Marlow and Alfred Porter in and around Basingstoke where Henry Day also lived.12 The final line includes the phrase 'Bound for America'. Gardiner is elsewhere very careful to note pronunciation of the name of the country so it is difficult to know quite what to make of this case except that we are now used to application of common-sense. In this case, 'America' looks as if it was, indeed, meant to be rhymed with ' … These words to me did say'.
The tune is very distinctive … nothing like it in any of the other tunes surveyed … more or less set out as ABBC although there are shared phrases in the first and fourth strains. 'Spot the tune' is a good game - and here there are faint echoes of certain other tunes associated with songs such as Down by the tanyard side … but nothing to make pinpointing easy. The generic use of four-square tunes can, nevertheless, be marked out as characteristic of the particular song.
The second Gardiner version comes from Benjamin Arnold (1906), with a fragment on manuscript beginning 'As I walked out one morning' but without a tune.13
The third is from a Mr Giles, aged 74, noted in Portsmouth Workhouse in 1907, with a tune and a first stanza beginning 'As I walked out one evening clear'. The tune was noted by Guyer.14 Interestingly, the final line of the textual fragment is 'My love is on the raging seas bound for Americay' - more proof, if it were needed, of a common-sense appreciation of pronunciation, albeit here not left to the imagination.
Gardiner, in notes on his manuscript, mentioned other versions that he had collected, as was often his practice (he sometimes included a note on differences), and this included reference to a tune in Petrie (see further below). He also added that a text could be found in Ashton's Modern Street Ballads. This interest in and setting-out of details of other versions reveals not just an apparent wish for completeness but the excitement attendant on discovery - sadly for later commentators, neither the Hammonds, say, nor Vaughan Williams (except in notes in the Journal) display quite the same emotion and persistence.
The tune itself is singular and attractive:
Bar four bears scrutiny since the same phrase occurs here as it did in the Thompson, Truell, Jay and George Lovett tunes.
There are other points to note, principally to do with Gardiner's estimation of the quality of the tune in a note that he sent to Lucy Broadwood, then editor of JFDSS:
Then, however, there is a slightly uneasy appeal:
Fourth in the assembly of incomplete songs in Gardiner's manuscripts, there is a tune and first stanza from Thomas Jones, aged 73, in the Portsmouth Workhouse (noted by Guyer on July 31st 1907), 15 where Frank Purslow, in editing the Gardiner manuscripts, points out that there was no text available, the Portsmouth notebooks having gone missing. We note, almost by the by but, nonetheless, underlining a feature of the song as found, that 'My love is on the raging seas bound for Amerikay' (sic). Guyer, who made the notation, entitled his copy Young Reilly but Frank Purslow during later editing altered this to John Reilly. What convenience this led to is not clear. The tune, not really related in musical phrasing to others surveyed so far, indicates a choice by the singer of a suitable vehicle for text or a relatively close-at-hand example rather than a historical inheritance.
In each of the cases cited above Gardiner, as indicated, made a note of previously collected tunes (and texts) in 1906; yet, apart from the full-ish version from Job Read, these Gardiner contributions can probably best be seen as confirming the popularity of the song as found during the periods of collecting in Hampshire during 1906 and 1907. The preservation of George Lovett's tune in the form that we now have it, on the other hand - through Sharp, it seems - suggests that, in publication, Gardiner was persuaded by Sharp of a more outstanding worth in this particular finding. The Sharp publication dates from 1909.
In his own right, Cecil Sharp collected three versions of John Reilly - from Captain Vickery and Benjamin Warren in 1907 and from Mrs P. Wiggett in 1909.16 Captain Vickery's version consists of four stanzas that contain a fair proportion of the known text as seen on broadside but looks as if it has been collated with or confused with lines from Charming Mary Neill. There are no introductory lines such as 'As I roved out one morning … ' or 'John Reilly is my true love's name'. Instead we move straight to:
Reilly does go away, with the money, but only 'in about some 3 years after' …
A final stanza records the finding of the note in the girl's bosom, 'wrote in blood'; and offers the familiar warning:
The tune, which, because of its association with text from Charming Mary Neill, may be thought to be irrelevant, is nevertheless again useful in underlining how the John Reilly song seemed to attract numbers of four-square tunes from the repertoires of singers. In this case, it is not maybe the most exciting …
Benjamin Warren's version plunges right into the debate between daughter and mother:
Reilly, when he 'got his foot on board', breaks a ring in two; and returns 'in 12 months after' but, unfortunately, subject to shipwreck. Thus it was that:
As regards the tune, we find yet another strong-striding one and the liberty is taken here to introduce the third measure in order to indicate the variation that confirms the tune's character (and also demonstrates Sharp's attention to such detail).
However, neither Sharp version discussed here provides a full narrative. Nor does Mrs Wigget's version help, consisting only of a tune with a fragment of text. There is one outstanding feature … The available stanza from her singing begins 'John Reilly is my true love's name and he comes from the town called Lee', thus echoing Frank Kidson's version from Mrs Thompson ('Rea') and the Lindsay and Birmingham broadsides ('Bray') - less so, in rhyming terms, with Forth's 'Hull' but clearly reflecting an important element. 'Bray' as a name for the town, we note, is also found in the O'Lochlainn version discussed below and 'Lee' as a town name crops up in versions from Gavin Greig as late as 1914 (and on); a wonderfully mysterious set of coincidences that, in the end, defies putting together in a single explanation although its existence certainly confirms a development in text since the broadside influx. Otherwise we are left with the unpredictability - one might almost say charm - of the processes of dissemination and perhaps even a hidden history of how the song changed.
Mrs Wiggett's tune is given here with its third strain - again, to demonstrate the slight swaying in musical measure that characterises so many tunes and thus raising it from the mundane - though, like the Vickery tune above, it is, perhaps, not greatly stimulating.
After Sharp's 1909 encounter with the song, it was in 1911 that a very full version of the song was got by Clive Carey from Frank Albery.17 The text begins in much the same fashion as did English broadside versions:
There is no naming of location in this version except that John Reilly is said to live 'down by the quay'.
The tune is quite a grand, dramatic one … There are one or two variant bars given on manuscript but the progress is stately and inevitable.
Carey published the song in the Journal in 1915 first as John Riley (or Reilly); or As I Roved out One Morning, and where in stanzas four, five and eight the name 'America' is, in fact, written as 'Americay'. Similarly, 'country' as found in the manuscript, becomes 'countery'.18 However, in a clever editorial manipulation (it seems), we find:
The essential narrative remains, all known elements included.
When the song (as above) was published in the Journal several exploratory notes were added - by Clive Carey himself, by Lucy Broadwood, by Cecil Sharp and by Frank Kidson. This, in a way, represents the then current state of collecting in respect of the particular song. Carey, for instance, seems intent on 'proving' a particular mode - Aeolian rather than Dorian - but gives no background information on singer or song. His is the emphasis on tune material that we have come to associate with 'Revival' collectors although even here one should hesitate to imply that this is a blanket process. At any rate, Lucy Broadwood's note reveals the presence of other versions - for instance, in Greig (discussed below) and in the Journal (from Vaughan Williams) - and does cite broadsides. Sharp merely refers to his notations. Frank Kidson wrote
I have two broadsides which, though essentially the same in story, differ verbally. One is entitled "Riley the Fisherman," the other "Young Riley the Fisherman." For the latter, noted by me in Yorkshire twenty years ago, see Journal, Vol. I, p. 256. My tune is a variant of the one given above.
After twenty years one might have hoped for a slightly more expansive comment. We might also remind ourselves that Riley the Fisherman is the name under which broadsides from Hodges and Ryle were printed. Such had Riley Fisherman. Bebbington had the piece as Riley's Farewell. Ross had John Reilly … as did Lindsay. Irish copy went under the name of The True Lover's Lamentation. The title of Young Riley the Fisherman as appended to Kidson's collected version from Mrs Thompson appears only in Forth copy. The very different ballad entitled Young Riley - who wandered through the County Cavan - printed by Catnach, Pitts and Pratt, for example, has already been mentioned; and there is yet another different ballad with the title of George Riley.19
In another published version of the same song from Frank Albery, as John Riley in Carey's Ten English Folk Songs20, yet one more change is incorporated in addition to those mentioned immediately above: 'wash'd upon the shore' where Mr Albery had 'washed up on the shore'. This represents a change in pronunciation in the word 'upon'; and where the 'ed' and the apostrophised version have no difference to pronunciation. There is no sign that the 'ed' in the word 'washed' is being emphasised so we must take this as another example of editorial practice as discussed above in connection with Frank Kidson's version of the song got from Mrs Thompson.
The ending includes the finding of a letter and a warning as did broadside versions.
In addition to Mr Albery's version, Carey also noted two more, one from a Mr E Lawrence (1912) which appears, in manuscript, in fragmented form, useful, mostly, for confirmation of the extent of the song's popularity but also with a distinct tune; and a final Carey version, from Robert Beadle, with the same usefulness, consisting of only a tune21.
There is one somewhat puzzling point to make. Considering the fourteen sung versions available in collected form by the date of publication given above in connection with Frank Albery's version of the song (1912), nowhere in commentary is the widespread popularity of the song emphasised. This again throws Frank Kidson's remarks above concerning titles into relief. The state of comprehension of pedigree and dissemination still seems limited.
Gavin Greig includes quite a mixed bag in his collection.22 His first version, from a Mr Lyall, entitled John Rally and thus implying a degree of mishearing or misreading, localises the piece to an extent:
Then, the familiar tale unfolds but there are details that change. So, for example, we find:
The mother offers only 'one hundred pounds' - though in gold - but with no injunction to purchase land (in America). 'Rally' departs after breaking a ring in two and returns 'about twelve months after' to shipwreck and the father's discovery of the pair - 'Rally in her arms drownèd upon the shore'. Greig is the only collector to insist on this pronunciation through such a printing device. Finally, the letter is found and a warning given.
Mr Lyall's tune is in six-eight time and contrasts in this with all tunes so far surveyed. It is practically in ABBA form although the final strain has one or two notes arranged differently that add piquancy. One should draw attention to bar three where the musical emphasis is changed by the quaver before a crochet ending of the bar. This form is repeated right at the end and helps to suggest a slightly jaunty rhythm to the tune.
Greig's second version, entitled John Riley, is but a fragment of text from a Mrs Mathieson, but with a tune … Her final few lines are
In contrast, a third version (without a tune), from Mary Bella Jenkins, entitled John Riley, is full and familiar. We should note that 'John Riley they do call him he belongs to the town of Ree'; that stanza three - 'My mother took me by the hand … ' has only three lines suggesting that Riley leave the country and that the father is out 'to have his life'; and that, similarly, stanza six indicates that Riley got the money and that before he 'got one foot on board' he spoke to the girl … but that there is no mention of breaking the ring before they take one half of the ring each - all this again in three lines only. The mother, be it said, offers 'one thousand pound' for the purchase of ground. It was 'six months' before 'Riley' came back again and the father finds the couple 'drowned' (sic) on the shore. In the end, the warning is:
Miss Annie Shirer's version (again, without a tune), entitled John Rylie is a fairly full one where known elements apply, beginning:
Similarly, the next stanza is compressed. The mother declares that she is not severe and 'here is five thousand pound' and Rhylie (the spelling in this version varies throughout) must 'sail far away'; and, in the same stanza, 'As soon as she got the money to Rhylie she did run … '. Strangely, the final line of this stanza (girl to boy) is 'To take your life this very night my father's charged a vow'.
The girl, at any rate, offers the money to the boy, telling him 'Sail ye off to America, and I'll soon follow thee'. This is done in a two-line stanza. It is six months before Rylie comes back again and tragedy ensues but it is worth marking the point that 'her parents grieved full sore', not just the father. A final stanza reads:
There is no tune.
The final version (another without a tune), entitled Reilly (an editorial decision?) but with the protagonist always referred to as 'Rawly', from a George Shearer, consists of but four stanzas in which the outline of the story is visible but where most of the individual lines - indeed, words - do not correspond with those in any other version. It opens
Greig's collection as a whole takes us amongst relatively full versions as found on broadside through various stages of change and even fragmentation. The two Irish versions discussed below have the same sort of effect …
O'Lochlainn's version23, entitled Reilly the Fisherman, follows the familiar narrative line; has John Reilly aged eighteen and Bray as his town of birth. It does, however, begin rather unusually - in comparison with what we have already seen ' with 'As I roved out one evening late'; and O'Lochlainn's second stanza, after introducing Reilly, moves straight on to the mother taking her daughter by the hand and warning her of her father's intentions. The girls replies and is offered 'one thousand pound' to 'send Reilly to America to buy a piece of ground'.
There is then a unique development in naming - 'When Ellen got the money to Reilly she did run'. That, though, is that! 'Ellen' re-appears nowhere else in sung repertoire.
The rest of the version parallels known narrative, though we should mention 'twelve months to a day' as the time when Reilly returned 'to take his love away' - the melodramatic element is marked. The two principals were found 'drowned (sic) upon the shore'. Further, ' … on her breast a letter was got' and 'all fair maids so gay' are enjoined 'To never let the lads they love go to America'.
The slight adjustments, especially the naming of the girl, are always worth noting as the narrative swims this way and that down through time.
The first and third strains of the tune are given here … The form is AABC, unique in all versions considered, though there is an echo of the A strain in the last one.
Sam Henry noted a version of the song which has the usual storyline and which has echoes of tunes discussed above.24. It should be noted that here, as the girl is introduced, it is also 'unto me'- as witness - that she spoke of John Reilly, the Sailor Lad' (as Sam Henry's title has it); and, further:
The mother offers a thousand pounds in order for Reilly to purchase some ground in America and when the girl runs to Reilly, she indicates that it is gold. 'So be off now to America and I will follow you". The ring is broken between them and then 'It was scarcely three years after' that Reilly returned to take his love away and the ship was wrecked and the father grieved 'To see John Reilly in her arms all drown-ed on the shore' (note the emphasis on pronunciation). Then the letter is found and a warning given to:
The tune is in ABBA form and it can be seen that some of its musical phrasing is similar to those in other versions, beginning with that particular bar (sequence) from Mrs Thompson, moving on through the version from Mr and Mrs Truell and inclusive of the versions from George Lovett, Christoper Jay, Robert Giles and Mrs Mathieson. One wonders again if the particular phrase may even indicate something of a one-time connection amongst tunes that the present discussion has literally unravelled. In view of a similar binding in a number of tunes associated with Erin's Lovely Home, this would not be entirely surprising.
As for possible links to tunes used in Ireland, there is one in the Petrie collection, entitled John O'Reilly, which could certainly be adapted in order to set the text as known.
There is another entitled Rise up young William Reilly - though whilst the tune could be used for the text of John Reilly, the given title seems much more likely to have been associated with the song Trial of Willie Reilly.25
There are several sung versions sprinkling the twentieth century. Two, as being the most easily accessible, are described here; and others as far as their appearance goes trace the progress of the song right up to the end of the twentieth century, a remarkable history.26
Harry Cox sings a powerful yet plangent version, entitled John Reilly, on the cassette Jack on the rocks put out by Peter Kennedy from recordings made in 1953.27 Harry Cox begins with the encounter between the un-named narrator and a maid who is crying because her love is on the raging seas, bound for 'Ay-merikee' (my italics … and see below). The song continues: 'John Reilly is my true love's name … ' but no location is given for birth or domicile bar the 'quay'. The version, generally, parallels all others with the full range of narrative elements. There are, of course, small changes - it is the parents, not just the father, who have 'riches great'; and the mother offers but five hundred pounds to her daughter to send Reilly to America 'to purchase there some ground', for instance; but perhaps the more striking aspect is that it is the girl who breaks the ring in two and when the warning is issued it is to 'fair maids like me'. It is worth remarking, too, that pronunciation, as referred to now and again in the discussion above, is very much that of the singer. The 'e' is some words is long as it might be in 'we' … So, for instance, John Reilly lived down by 'thee' quay; and 'the 'a' in words is consistently long as in 'say' or 'may' - to whit 'Ay-gain' and 'Ay-merikee' - with a double exposure of pronunciation offered in the second word. 'Quay', in contrast, is pronounced as 'key'. The emphasis elsewhere is on 'boo-som'. And then there are the usual slight puzzles - the word describing the parents' attitude to the girl sounds like 'ay-dure', not 'endure' (my rendering for all the words in italics here) and, of a different order, the letter was written in 'parents' blood'.
The song had continued to exercise its pull and in the form first encountered here in broadsides. The tune that Harry Cox uses, four-square and in ABBA form, is very much like that used for The Amphitrite28 - another example of spotting the tune that can be found right through the assemblage given here.
George Dunn's text is a truncated one compared with versions previously encountered.29 It begins with what is familiar as a second stanza:
The narrative proceeds with the daughter pleading with her mother who declares that she is not 'severe' and gives 'a thousand pound in gold' for Riley to purchase ground in America. The girl takes the money to Riley with that injunction:
The tune is described by the collector, Roy Palmer, as belonging to The Manchester Angel family. The change in time signature at bar four brings us into this nexus. The structure is that of ABBA given slightly different emphases in each pair of musical strains. And the rising figure of the second strain can be found in one form or another scattered throughout the tunes considered here - another suggestion of unconscious connection, perhaps. It is also worth noting the first semi-quaver and quaver phrase in bar three, reminiscent of the Lyall tune given above. But none of this allows us to match the tune exactly with others. The rising figure can be countered, as it were, by another form distributed throughout the assemblage, a descending figure that begins the tune found, for example, in the tunes from Robert Giles, Mr and Mrs Truell, Frank Albery and Sam Henry. So individuality in the case of George Dunn is still kept up.
This is enough to show how the form of the narrative progressed during the twentieth century and how popular the song has continued to be. However, nowhere in the notes from collectors and editors as referred to above in regard to this song is there an attempt at correlation or synthesis. George Gardiner's addition of references to other versions of the John Reilly story on manuscript is the nearest thing. There is a need to repeat that we are faced with the true pioneer status of collecting at the prominent time of the setting-up of the Folk Song Society, when the majority of the versions discussed here were located.
What we can also add is that, without an obvious historical foundation, the song offers glimpses of the protagonist as something of an archetype, of a not unfamiliar theme and of a surge of melodrama near the end that would seem to be wholly that of the imagination, testimony to the power of the song. In this last regard it is worth remembering that the warning to all fair maids is to do with the absence of a love in America but that it somehow contrives to leave out the notion of the initial relationship that offends social and economic standing: not quite, then, a matter of cause and effect.30 One might argue, too, that the search for a suitable musical vehicle adds to the status of the song since singers were clearly reluctant to let the text disappear. Those texts served by only two musical strains could be said to underline the unsettled nature of each version even as they - all five of them - begin to assume a collective shape in themselves. Where we find echoes of the same phrase occurring, it may well be that singers used it - ascending and descending phrases - as a sort of building-block in a rather similar way that broadside printings used textual phrases: 'As I walked out … ' and so forth (of course, the suggestion apropos music is vague enough to need painstaking scrutiny before any firm comment can be made!).
The geographical distribution of the song at the time of the English 'Revival' is the next thing to notice. Sharp's three versions take us the furthest west in England. There is nothing from the Hammonds (in Dorset) nor yet had there been - nearly two decades earlier - from Baring-Gould in Devon. In fact, Gardiner's and Vaughan Williams' findings are the most prominent evidence of the song's existence in England. Further, Greig's five versions are not from widespread sources in Scotland. And there is a peculiar absence of the song in Ireland despite certain 'Irish' connections. This is not to deny its possible distribution in Ireland - but to indicate a paucity of collecting and, therefore, an unknown quantity - or an absence.
It is plainly difficult to draw conclusions about the song's distribution except that its rather scattered nature seems to reflect an accident of collecting.
Nor does broadside printing really help in the matter. We can discount Irish printings as coming at the heel of the hunt and confined to one name only. But neither is there a widespread taking up of the text amongst the bulk of printers in England. We are focused on London and, more thinly, in the north of England and in Scotland and are really left with unpredictability … perhaps also a degree of initiative and innovation as in the case of Harkness.
And so we may not be not much further forward in the business of correlation and synthesis - admittedly an after-the-event process fit for the study. A few points, though, might be useful for those whose curiosity is piqued, more to do with the whole set of elopement songs considered. Firstly, the very few such songs that exist in repertoire may attest to something of a passing phase in importance in historical terms when social habits changed. We might look for comparison at the progress of wife-selling songs. One or two survived well into the twentieth century (in the repertoire of Eddie Butcher, for instance31) just as the few elopement songs did. Compare, further, the fate of poaching songs throughout the latter part of the nineteenth century and then their swift decline in the twentieth.
Secondly, it is noticeable that none of the elopement songs considered in this series deal with the violence that certainly did attend events - where abduction was a major factor as opposed to elopement against parental wishes. In many ways the songs harbour a remembrance rather than a contemporary comment.
Thirdly, it is interesting, especially in respect of the void in Ireland, that the flavour of the songs is 'Irish'. Sally Munro32, Charming Mary Neill and Erin's Lovely Home all make reference to Irish names and locations. There are no such songs that have a definite 'English' background yet we know that elopement as it is noticed in the songs did take place in England. In the case of John Reilly, we take on board Forth's reference to 'Hull' (and a similar reference to the Clyde in one of Grieg's versions).
The Willie Reilly story, as a recounted previously on this site, is an exception in being - as far as can be gauged - more clearly Irish in origin. What is more, it appears to be the first such song that has been found and one wonders if it set some sort of precedent
This makes the survival of such songs an even more intriguing feature and we can surely say that it was the imaginative appeal of the stories that gained attention long after any historical connection and the presence of such songs as we have found it in English sung traditions seems to eliminate any possible, lingering, romantic idea of the exotic as it may have sprung from Ireland. One bears in mind the way that printers sometimes used Irish locations for such an exotic effect, if not for plain rhyme - 'Gortein' (Gurteen) and 'Ardee', for example - and The Irish Girl as a printing is testimony to the same practice, failing at all times to exploit the connection.
Fourthly, that element of opposition in the John Reilly songs between rags and riches is a feature of many traditional songs (see Mike Yates' recent article on MT that considers The Farmer's Boy) and the desperate measure of emigration an imaginative response. The denouement in each song, with its melodramatic flavour, piles up the appeal that takes a singer - or 'reader' - out of the mundane. The very fact that melodrama as a textual feature in songs continued to attract reinforces this - in, for example, the retention in the imagination of songs that observed the processes of murder and hanging well into the twentieth century. We cannot deny the prime element of story-telling.
How much, then, a song like John Reilly is little more than a variation of the theme of love set against parental objection is an aspect capable of much teasing out if only in order to resist glib assumptions. The example of Johnny Doyle, already noted, provides at least a link with a general theme. And such a proposition would suggest an economy of means, one aspect of life's encounters superimposed on another that is often and not surprisingly pre-existent in nineteenth and twentieth century song form, taking on new clothes within the processes of composition.
Roly Brown - 26.5.10
Oradour sur Vayres, France
2. See JFSS, I, V, 1904, pp.256-257 where the song is headed Young Riley, the Fisherman. Kidson added that Mrs Thompson learned the song at Knaresborough, Yorkshire. For more possible light on broadside versions, see his comments in JFSS on other versions as set out also below.
3. Frank Kidson added this note to those accompanying Vaughan Williams' published version of the song from Mr and Mrs Truell in JFSS, Volume 2, 1906, pp.214-5.
4. See A Garland of English Folk Song, n.d., pps. 12-13 (I regret that I have not got the name of the publisher of the particular edition - my copy was made many years ago - but think that the relevant volume was the first edition, issued by Ascherberg in 1926). The arrangement, including piano accompaniment, another customary editorial liberty, was by Alfred Moffat.
5. Kidson's remarks come at the end of the published version, op cit.
6. This was noted at Perry Street, Gravesend, Kent, 21st December, 1904. Vaughan Williams' notation of the tune is scribbled and hard to estimate though, in a slightly more clear second copy, there do not seem to have been any alterations except in the interests of visual clarity. By the same token, two sets of words were made up, both somewhat hard to read but not, seemingly, contradictory.
7. These notations are as follows: from James Anderson at Kings Lynn, Norfolk, 9th January 1905; from a Mr Pamplin at Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire, 27th August, 1906, headed 'John Riley'; from Mr Christopher Jay at Acle, Norfolk, 18th April, 1908; and from Acle again, in an unattributed version, apparently on the same day. It should be added that Vaughan Williams chose, frequently, to place his note-tails on the left-hand side of each note but that here a more conventional style is used. In the case of Mr Anderson's tune, bar seven adds up to five quavers unless one assumes that the first two are semi-quavers which, given the way that the rest of the tune runs, seems unlikely. Mr Pamplin's tune involves a certain amount of guesswork here.
8. See Michael Kennedy: The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (Oxford, Clarendon Press - I used a 1992 paperback edition), p.271.
9. An article assessing this Norfolk trip is in preparation.
10. The song was noted at Southampton, Hampshire on 30th June 1906 (H364 - this is Frank Purslow's editorial number, made for convenience … though, on manuscript, there are several other numbers, some crossed out … Mr Purslow's number remains as a useful reference.) Mr Read's age is given as 73. J F Guyer did the musical notation.
11. Noted at Winchester, Hampshire in August 1906 (H408 is Frank Purslow's numbering) and headed, first, Young Reilly with a strong superimposition of John Reilly. Charles Gamblin did the musical notation. Mr Lovett's age is given as 67. The published version is in Sharp's English County Songs (this first appeared in London, Novello, 1909 with piano accompaniment 'by Gustav von Holst'). The County Songs were reprinted in one volume in 1961 and this version appears there on pp.107-109 (the copy used in discussion here). The only clue to text in the case of the George Lovett version is that, on manuscript, Gardiner has added a note: 'Text in B. M. No. 3 G ' and K 9'. This would seem likely to refer to broadsides. What Sharp's later input was is an open question but Gardiner's notation of a version from Robert Giles, described in text below, offers a strong idea of outcome in respect of Sharp's interest.
12. Frank Purslow's identifying number is given as H517 and the piece is entitled Young Reilly. No details are given but we know that Henry Day was from Basingstoke since on the manuscript versions of several more of his songs the same location is given and, knowing that Gardiner visited Messrs. Marlow and Porter at the same time, during the early autumn of 1906, that ought to be confirmation enough. There is a similar situation as regards the tunes. For those Henry Day songs where notation is attributed it is always to Charles Gamblin - in the case of Young Reilly no name is given … but to refer to Gamblin would seem to be a reasonable assumption.
13. Mr Arnold's version was noted at Easton, Winchester, Hampshire, November, 1906 (Frank Purslow's identifying number is given as H640) and entitled Young Riley. Mr Arnold's age is given as 78. What we have here is a typed version and this must have come within editorial jurisdiction but we must not overlook two stanzas from Mr Arnold that Gardiner attached to his manuscript copy of Job Read's version. The two stanzas are each set out in four lines that make up the four full lines on the Arnold typed reference.
14. See the Gardiner manuscripts - as edited by Frank Purslow and acquiring the number H905. Robert Giles was also described as 'a Yeovil man' on Guyer's notation and a date for the encounter given of August 15th 1907. Incidentally, Frank Purslow wrote that no full text existed for Mr Giles' version and referred to Ashton, thus rounding off the history of the piece as collected.
15. Noted in Portsmouth Workhouse, July 1907 (H820) by J F Guyer and entitled Young Reilly. Mr Jones' age is given as 'aet 73'. Frank Purslow added that there was no 'copied text' and that the notebook 'containing the Portsmouth texts is missing'. Another note, in Gardiner's hand, refers to a text in Ashton's Modern Street Ballads.
16. Sharp's notation of Captain Vickery's song was made at Minehead, Somerset, 21st August 1907 (Te1326; Tu1433) with a first title, Mary Nell (sic), crossed out and a second, Reilly, substituted; to which was later added sent to America. On the manuscript of the tune, the song begins with the word 'O'. The pronunciation of 'Amerikay', as discussed in text above, should be noted. Sharp's second version came from Benjamin Warren (73) at Taunton Union, Somerset, 29th August 1907 (FT1451 - Sharp also wrote 1325 on the copy - FW1317), and again entitled Reilly Sent to America. Sharp's third version, from Mrs Wiggett, was noted at Ford, Somerset, 9th April 1909 (FT2161). Mrs Wiggett's age is given as 69.
17. Frank Albery's version was noted in February 1911 at Borden Wood, Sussex. Mr Albery's profession is given as 'Gardener'. No age is given.
18. See JFSS, V, 1915, pps. 147-148.
19. The bulk of broadside references were given in the course of the previous article in this series. One might just add here that George Riley, as printed by Pitts, can be found in the Madden collection, Reel 75, Number 274. There are, too, other 'Reilly' songs in broadside form …
20. See Clive Carey's Ten English Folk Songs (London, Curwen, 1915), pp.6-7.
21. Robert Beadle's tune, with the title John Riley, was noted at Stoup Brow, Fylinghall, Yorkshire, September, 1911. The Carey reference - actually Frank Purslow's - is YN110. Mr Purslow added that there was no text. The third Carey version, from a Mr E Lawrence of Midhurst, Sussex, was noted in January of 1912 (the Carey - or Purslow - reference is Sx.193).
22. For Greig see The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, Volume 1, edited by Patrick Shuldham-Shaw and Emily Lyle (Aberdeen University Press for the University of Aberdeen in association with the School of Scottish Studies University of Edinburgh, 1981, pp.49-52.
23. See More Irish Street Ballads, (Dublin, The Three Candles, 1968), pp.14-15 and, for notes, p.204. O'Lochlainn claims that it was known throughout Ireland and added that the tune was 'a variant of 'The Lowlands of Holland' with a different strain in the third line'. He wrote that he had learned the song in 1938 directly from a girl named Maírín in Roscrea but whose surname he had forgotten.
24. See John Reilly the Sailor Lad in Songs of the People … ed. Gale Huntingdon (University of Georgia Press, Athens and London, p/b edn., 1990), pp.441-442. The song was got from two sources - Gortoorbries, Limavady and Moneycannon, Ballymoney but there is no date and it is an open question as to how much Henry may have taken from the respective versions. He gives a host of alternative titles, some of which have been prefigured in discussion above but not plain John Reilly nor Riley the Fisherman so we may well discount broadside intervention or support … There is also an extensive set of references to other versions in the notes (p.451).
25. I regret that I have no publishing details for the Petrie tune: merely a number, 351. For the second tune, see Petrie as 510.
26. I have not been able to access these songs and so go by references - for example, to Sarah Makem (BBC recording 18411, 11th July 1952, from Peter Kennedy); to Walter Pardon (a recording made by Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie on 22nd March 1987); to Pat McDaid in My Parents Reared Me Tenderly (eds. J McFarland and J McBride, Buncrana, Donegal, 1985), pp.10-11 … It has not been my prime intention, in any case, to try to keep up to date in issue - this is for people better able to pursue; and comment and expansion is welcome.
27. See Harry Cox: Jack on the Rocks (Folktracks recordings FSA 033, Dartington, n.d.). We must assume that the spelling of 'Reilly' is that of Peter Kennedy.
28. This is to offer an easily found example such as was published in the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs … Selected and edited by Ralph Vaughan Williams and A L Lloyd (my edition was published in 1969), p.90 where it goes under the title of Rounding the Horn.
29. See Roy Palmer (ed.): Songs of the Midlands (EP Publishing Limited, 1972), pp.95-96.
30. Such are the twists and turns in song histories that it is pertinent here to mention that Johnny Doyle, a song that embraces elopement against parental wishes but that takes yet another path as compared to the elopement songs so far considered. The song will be considered in due course.
31. For Eddie Butcher's song, see the LP Shamrock, Rose & Thistle (Leader LED 2070, 1976) and the late Hugh Shield's book with the same name (Belfast, Blackstaff Press, 1981), pp.137-139 and notes on p.173. The song goes under the title of The Ship Carpenter's Wife.
32. I'm afraid that I must here offer a disclaimer. I did not, as the editor suggested, prove that Sally Munro was a Scottish song. Indeed, in the face of the 'Irish' evidence under discussion, it might be that that particular song simply followed precedent; and it, too, refers to Irish locations.
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