“Charming Beauty Bright”

Description

The singer and a girl are in love. When her parents learn of it, they lock her away from him. At last he goes away and serves in the army for seven years, hoping to forget. When he returns home, he learns that she has died for love; he goes mad or nearly

Recordings

  • Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright (Lover's Lament)" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
  • Ollie Gilbert, "Once I Courted a Lady Beauty Bright" (on LomaxCD1707)
  • Lisha Shelton, "Don't You Remember" (on OldLove)

References

  1. Laws G21, "The Silver Dagger"
  2. Creighton-SNewBrunswick 57, "Come All Good People" (1 text, 1 tune)
  3. Belden, pp. 123-126, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus 1 excerpt and references to 5 more, 1 tune)
  4. Randolph 139, "The Silver Dagger" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
  5. Randolph/Cohen, pp. 161-163, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 139A)
  6. Eddy 102, "The Green Fields and Meadows" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
  7. Gardner/Chickering 23, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
  8. BrownII 72, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
  9. Hudson 64, pp. 188-189, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
  10. Brewster 38, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more, 1 tune)
  11. Leach, pp. 730-731, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
  12. LPound-ABS, 52, pp. 121-122, "Silver Dagger"; pp. 123-124, "Silver Dagger" (2 texts)
  13. JHCox 109, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
  14. Fuson, pp. 71-72, "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, with the "Fair and Tender Ladies" first line but otherwise clearly this song)
  15. SharpAp 165, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, but the "A" text being "The Silver Dagger (I)" [Laws G21] but the "B" fragment probably belonging here)
  16. Scarborough-SongCatcher, p. 42, "(The Bloody Dagger)" (1 short text, omitting the suicides)
  17. Darling-NAS, pp. 221-222, "Young Men and Maids" (1 text)
  18. DT 639, SILVDAG2*
  19. ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 202-203, "(The Young Lovers)" (1 text)
  20. Roud #405
  21. BI, LM03

About

Author: unknown
Earliest date: 1915 (Brown); +1907 (JAFL20)
Found in: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England)