"The King's Dochter Lady Jean" is
Child ballad
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...
No. 52.
Synopsis
The King's youngest Daughter, Jane, is sitting in her bower one day when she is overcome with the urge to gather nuts from the King's forest. She goes to the forest to do so when a forester appears, and commands her not to pick nuts in the forest without his permission. Jane asserts that she does not need his permission, at which point the forester rapes her. Jane says that he will pay dearly for raping the king's daughter, at which point the forester reveals that he is the king's son. He had been at sea for many years and so did not recognize Jane as his sister. Jane wished that they had never met and she ends the tale by hoping that she dies after giving birth to the baby they have conceived. In some variants, he kills her; in most, she goes home, and is tasked by her family for why she ails, and she and her brother both die when they meet there.
Variants
Other ballads on this theme include "
Sheath and Knife
"Sheath and Knife" (Roud 3960, Child 16) is a folk ballad.
Synopsis
A woman is pregnant with her brother's child. He takes her to the greenwood to have her child, but she dies (or he kills her at her request). He buries her and laments her deat ...
", "
The Bonny Hind
"The Bonny Hind" is Child ballad number 50 (Roud
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve ...
", and "
Lizie Wan
"Lizie Wan" is Child ballad 51 and a murder ballad. It is also known as "Fair Lizzie".
Synopsis
The heroine (called variously Lizie, Rosie or Lucy) is pregnant with her brother's child. Her brother murders her. He tries to pass off the blood as ...
".
The opening section parallels that of "
Hind Etin
"Hind Etin" (Roudbr>33 Child 41) is a folk ballad existing in several variants.
Synopsis
Lady Margaret goes to the woods, and her breaking a branch is questioned by Hind Etin, who takes her with him into the forest. She bears him seven sons, but ...
" and "
Tam Lin
Tam (or Tamas) Lin (also called Tamlane, Tamlin, Tambling, Tomlin, Tam Lien, Tam-a-Line, Tam Lyn, or Tam Lane) is a character in a legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. It is also associated with a reel of the same name, also ...
".
[Francis James Child, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 1, p 450, Dover Publications, New York 1965]
See also
*
The Bonnie Banks o Fordie
"Babylon" or "The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" is Child ballad 14, Roud Folk Song Index, Roud 27.
Synopsis
An outlaw comes upon three sisters in the woods. He threatens each one in turn to make her marry him. The first two refuse and are killed. Th ...
*
List of the Child Ballads
The Child Ballads is the colloquial name given to a collection of 305 ballads collected in the 19th century by Francis James Child
Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, ...
References
Child Ballads
Incest in fiction
Rape in fiction
Sororicide in fiction
Year of song unknown
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