----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Seymour" <[log in to unmask]>
<<B) Have they ever come across a ballad in which an
unmarried pregnant heroine is NOT ashamed of her
condition in spite of being abandoned by the child's
father?>>
"Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron)"
Here's the information from the Traditional Ballad Index:
NAME: Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron)
DESCRIPTION: Girl gathers rushes and bears a child, wrapping it in her
apron. The baby
cries; her father asks who the father was and where it was conceived, vowing
to burn the
place. The father was a sailor; she conceived "by yonder spring, where the
small birds
sing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937
KEYWORDS: pride sex accusation questions childbirth pregnancy baby father
lover sailor
clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, UNDRAPRN*
Roud #899
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Gathering Rushes in the Month of May" (on BirdBush1,
Birdbush2,
Briggs3)
Jack Elliott, "Was It In the Kitchen?" (on Elliotts01)
NOTES: The Elliott version has the young man as a miner, not a sailor; it is
mixed with
"Never Let a Sailor Get an Inch Above Your Knee"; see "Rosemary Lane" for
discussion
of *that* mess. - PJS
The Jack Elliott referred to is a source singer, a member of the Elliotts of
Birtley, *not* the revival performer from the USA.
The 1937 date was when the song was collected in Suffolk, according to A. L.
Lloyd's liner notes from the Briggs recording.
Peace,
Paul
|