“The Suffolk Miracle”

Description

A squire's daughter loves a lowborn man. The squire sends her away. In time her love comes to bear her home. His head hurts; she binds it with her kerchief. She arrives home. Her father says her love is dead. She finds his dead body wearing her kerchief

Notes

Child complains of this song, "This piece should not be admitted here on its own merits.... It is not even a good specimen of its kind. Ghosts should have a fair reason for walking, and a quite particular reason for riding...." Child prints the song for the sake of its foreign analogs.

All I can say is, the plot may be somewhat defective, but the full forms of the ballad itself are quite beautiful and pathetic. It does corrupt easily, though, as the Flanders texts show.

More interesting is the way the story is expressed. Legends of ghosts are of course common, and legends of the fate of spirit and body affecting each other not rare (e.g. if a living person slashes at a ghost, the ghost may appear to be intact but the corpse will bear a scar, perhaps healed). In this song, the ghost actually comes to bear an artifact. That is not often encountered.

The "Holland Handkerchief" of certain versions is not a cloth woven in the Netherlands; rather, the adjective refers to the pattern of the weave. - RBW

Same tune

• My Bleeding Heart (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(207b), Wood E 25(83) and Douce Ballads 3(88a))

Cross references

• cf. "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (theme)

Broadsides

• Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(207b), "The Suffolk Miracle" or "A Relation of a Young Man Who a Month After His Death Appeared to his Sweetheart," F. Coles (London), 1678-1680; also Wood E 25(83) [some lines illegible; "MS annotation following imprint: 1689"], Douce Ballads 3(88a)[many illegible lines], "The Suffolk Miracle" or "A Relation of a Young Man Who a Month After His Death Appeared to his Sweet[-]heart,"

Recordings

• Packie Manus Byrne, "The Holland Handkerchief" (on Voice03)
• Dol [Adolphus G.] Small, "There Was an Old and Wealthy Man" (AFS, 1950; on LC58) {Bronson's #1b}

References

1. Child 272, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
2. Bronson 272, The Suffolk Miracle" (13 versions)
3. SharpAp 37, "The Suffolk Miracle" (4 texts plus 1 fragment ("C") that might be almost anything, 5 tunes) {Bronson's #4, #2, #3, #1a, #8}
4. BarryEckstormSmyth p. 314, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 fragment)
5. Randolph 32, "Lady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
6. Flanders/Olney, pp. 145-147, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
7. Flanders-Ancient4, pp. 50-62, "The Suffolk Miracle" (3 texts, 2 tune, all weeming somewhat mixed -- e.g. "A" has the rose-and-briar ending) {Bronson's A=Bronson's #10, B=#7}
8. JHCox 27, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
9. BrownII 41, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
10. Davis-Ballads 42, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts plus a scrap which could be anything, 2 tunes, one of them for the unidentifiable fragment) {Bronson's #8, #5}
11. Creighton/Senior, pp. 88-90, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
12. Peacock, pp. 407-408, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text, 1 tune)
13. Leach, pp. 645-649, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts)
14. OBB 175, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
15. Niles 56, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
16. SHenry H217, pp. 432-433, "The Lover's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
17. McBride 40, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
18. Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 12, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
19. BBI, ZN2961, "A wonder stranger ne'r was known"
20. DT 272, SUFFMRCL* SUFFMRC2 SUFFMRC3*
21. Roud #246
22. BI, C272