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"Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" is an old Scottish ballad dating from 1785 or earlier. It is
Child Ballad The Child Ballads are List of the Child Ballads, 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 ...
#46,
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 Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...
36. It is known by a number of titles, including "Lord Roslin's Daughter" and "The Laird of Rosslyn's Daughter". The song was collected in the United States, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia. The first known publication, probably, dates from 1780s (''The New British Songster'').Se
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Synopsis

Versions differ, but generally a captain meets a lady walking in the woods or through an estate. Sometimes he takes her to where he is staying. In all variants, she says she will not marry or sleep with him without his answering riddles. She asks them. He answers them all, and they are married and/or he takes her to bed.


Motifs

The ingenious suitor who can answer every riddle, or nonplus the heroine, is not as common as the clever maid, but occurs quite frequently in folklore.


Recordings

* In 1954, Thomas Moran from
Mohill Mohill (, meaning "soft ground") is a town in County Leitrim, Ireland. The town of Carrick-on-Shannon is approximately 16 km (10 miles) away. History The Justinian plague of Mohill devastated the local population in the 6th centur ...
, Co. Leitrim,
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
was recorded . * In 1964, Canadian Folk duo
Ian and Sylvia Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson. They began performing together in 1959 (full-time in 1961), married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975. History Early ...
recorded this ballad as "Captain Woodstock's Courtship"; their version is from a Nova Scotia collection by Folklorist Helen Creighton. * Tim Hart and
Maddy Prior Madeleine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk rock singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the p ...
recorded the ballad in 1968 on ''Folk Songs of Old England Vol. 2''. * The
Great Big Sea Great Big Sea was a Canadian folk rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year Irish, Scott ...
song "Captain Wedderburn" on their ''
Turn To turn is to rotate, either continuously like a wheel turns on its axle, or in a finite motion changing an object's orientation. Turn may also refer to: Sports and games * Turn (game), a segment of a game * Turn (poker), the fourth of five co ...
'' album is based on this ballad. * In 1988 The Voice of the People Vol 1 ''Come Let Us Buy the Licence - Songs of Courtship & Marriage'' included the ballad as ''The Song of the Riddles'' sung by Willie Clancy * In 2007 Cara Luft recorded the song "Lord Roslyn's daughter" on the album ''The Light Fantastic''. *
Bellowhead Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical sty ...
recorded a version on their 2010 album ''
Hedonism Hedonism is a family of Philosophy, philosophical views that prioritize pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the theory that all human behavior is Motivation, motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. As a form of Psycholo ...
''. * In 2012 The Voice of the People Second Series ''Good People, Take Warning : Ballads by British and Irish Traditional Singers'' included ''Captain Wedderburn'' sung by Séamus Ennis. * Being a well-documented song publicised by Mudcat, and Mainly Norfolk, the song was recorded by
Jon Boden Jon Boden (born 17 March 1977) is a singer, composer and musician, best known as lead singer and main arranger of Bellowhead. His first instrument is the fiddle and he is a proponent of "English traditional fiddle style" and also of "fiddle si ...
and Oli Steadman for inclusion in their respective lists of daily folk songs " A Folk Song A Day" and "365 Days Of Folk".


Lyrics

:The Laird of Rosslyn's daughter :Walked through the wood her lane. :And by came Captain Wedderburn, :A soldier of the king. :He said unto his serving man, :Were't not against the law, :I would take her to my own bed :And lay her next the wall. :I'm walking here my lane, says she, :Among my father's trees, :And you may let me walk my lane, :Kind sir, now, if you please. :The supper bell it will be rung :And I'll be missed awa', :So I'll not lie in your bed :At neither stock nor wall. :Then said the pretty lady, :I pray tell me your name. :My name is Captain Wedderburn, :A soldier of the king. :Though your father and all his men were here, :I would take you from them all, :I would take you to my own bed :And lay you next the wall. :O hold away from me, :Kind sir, I pray you let me be, :For I'll not lie in your bed :Till I get dishes three. :Three dishes for my supper, :Though I eat none at all, :Before I lie in your bed :At either stock or wall. :I must have to my supper :A chicken without a bone, :And I must have to my supper :A cherry without stone, :And I must have to my supper :A bird without a gall, :Before I lie in your bed :At either stock or wall. :The chicken when it's in the shell :I'm sure it has no bone, :And when the cherry's in the bloom :I wat it has no stone. :The dove she is a gentle bird, :She flies without a gall, :And we'll both lie in one bed :And you'll lie next the wall. :O hold away from me, kind sir, :And do not me perplex, :For I'll not lie in your bed :Till you answer questions six. :Six questions you must answer me, :And that is four and twa, :Before I lie in your bed :At either stock or wall. :O what is greener than the grass, :What's higher than the trees, :O what is worse than a woman's wish, :What's deeper than the seas, :What bird crows first, what tree buds first, :What first on them does fall, :Before I lie in your bed :At either stock or wall. :Death is greener than the grass, :Heaven's higher than the trees, :The devil's worse than woman's wish, :Hell's deeper than the seas, :The cock crows first, the cedar buds first, :Dew first on them does fall, :And we'll both lie in one bed, :And you'll lie next the wall. :Little did this lady think, :That morning when she raise, :It was to be the very last :Of all her maiden days, :For now she's Captain Wedderburn's wife, :A man she never saw, :And now they lie in one bed, :And she lies next the wall.


See also

*
List of the Child Ballads is the colloquial name given to a collection of 305 ballads collected in the 19th century by Francis James Child and originally published in ten volumes between 1882 and 1898 under the title ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.'' The ba ...


References


External links

*Quoted text
Captain Wedderburn's Courtship
{{Authority control Child Ballads Scottish songs 18th-century ballads