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The Lover’s Ghost

[ Roud 179 ; Child 248 ; Ballad Index C248 ; Mudcat 1659 ; trad.]

The Lover’s Ghost is a variant of the night-visiting ballad The Grey Cock.

Patrick Weston Joyce printed The Lover’s Ghost in his 1909 book Old Irish Folk Music and Songs. He noted:

I learned both air and words at home when I was a boy. The subject is the visit of a young woman’s ghost at night to her living lover: but she has to depart at cockcrow. The words are well suited to the sad air: words and air are now published for the first time. For Mr. A.P. Graves’s adaptation see his Irish Song Book, p. 21. The air given there, however, is quite different from mine.

A.L. Lloyd sang The Lover’s Ghost unaccompanied on his 1966 album First Person, and this version was reissued in 1994 on his compilation CD Classic A.L. Lloyd. Lloyd noted on the original album:

One of the most persistent of the great ballads is the piece often called The Grey Cock, although, curiously enough Francis J. Child, in his enormous collection, never found a full set of it. Several good versions have turned up since Child’s time—the best one was recorded in Birmingham in 1951—in the old form as the tale of the ghostly lover returning to stay with his sweetheart till cock-crow, or in the modern form of a single night-visit, as in the well-known I’m a Rover and Seldom Sober. The suggestion of the bird with its golden beak and silver wings that decorates the best versions of the ballad is a borrowing (via Ireland?) of an oriental motif of the jewelled bird of Paradise who crows on the frontier of the other world. The same creature is described in some detail in Rimsky Korsakov’s Chanson Hindoue. Our version, more formally lyrical than usual, and presenting the woman as the ghostly revenant, is one that the great Irish collector Patrick W. Joyce learnt as boy in the 1830’s in his native village of Glenosheen, Co. Limerick.

Lloyd recorded the song a second time in the same year for his record The Best of A.L. Lloyd. This album’s sleeve notes commented:

The situation in which two lovers are disturbed by the over-early crowing of the cock is one that fascinates folk singers. Many lyrical songs treat of it, and a whole group of ballads which scholars usually classify under the title of: The Grey Cock. The notion of a bird having silver wings and a golden comb recalls the jewelled birds of Oriental mythology. Indeed, the Indian tàble of Rati and Kamadiva is closely related to the ballad-narrative. Our version, which seems to be halfway between ballad and lyrical song, is one remembered from his boyhood by P.W. Joyce, and published in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs.

A.L. Lloyd also sang The Lover’s Ghost live at the Top Lock Folk Club, Runcorn, Borough of Halton, on 5 November 1972. A recording of this concert was released in 2010 on the Fellside CD An Evening With A.L. Lloyd.

John Goodluck sang The Lover’s Ghost in 1974 on his Traditional Sound album The Suffolk Miracle. Brian Horsfall noted:

The words of this one were [printed] by P.W. Joyce, in [1909], but it has a theme which is quite familiar in traditional songs. As in the title track, the departed lover returns for a brief visit. Somehow we can’t help being reminded of The Unquiet Grave.

Vin Garbutt sang The Lover’s Ghost on his 1975 live album on the Trailer label, The Young Tin Whistle Pest.

Nick Dow sang The Lover’s Ghost in 1978 on his Dingle’s album Burd Margaret. He tersely noted:

My interpretation of a well-known ballad.

Niamh Parsons sang The Lover’s Ghost in 1992 on her Greentrax album Loosely Connected.

Frankie Armstrong sang The Lover’s Ghost in 1996 on her ballad album Till the Grass O’ergrew the Corn. The sleeve notes commented:

A glorious tune and a stately text, this song recounts the ultimate nightmare for any lover and does so with a kind of unflinching tenderness. Frankie first heard it sung many years ago by Bert Lloyd, on of her most important influences. The version is that learned by P.W. Joyce as a child in Glenosheen, County Limerick and published in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909). The ballad is close to many non-ghostly night visiting songs, such as Here’s a Health to All True Lovers, The Light of the Moon and the admirable, but sorely mistreated I’m a Rover.

Kathryn Roberts sang Golden Bird in 2003 on Equation’s CD Return to Me. Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman recorded it again for their 2020 album On Reflection.

Alison McMorland & Kirsty Potts sang The Lover’s Ghost (“Johnny he promised to marry me,…”) at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2004. This recording was published a year later on the festival anthology Here’s a Health to the Company (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Volume 1). The liner notes commented:

A rather beautiful version of a ballad better known as The Grey Cock (Child 248) and in related forms as the Night Visiting Song. The ballad was first published in Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum (1787), but Alison and Kirsty’s derives from versions collected by Maud Karpeles in Newfoundland in 1929 and published in her Folk Songs From Newfoundland (1971) (Bronson 248.5).

Peter and Barbara Snape sang The Lover’s Ghost on their 2008 CD Take to the Green Fields. Barbara Snape noted:

This is an Irish version of a night visiting song from County Antrim and from the singing of Len Graham.

Alasdair Roberts and Emily Portman sang The Lover’s Ghost in 2010 on Roberts’ CD Too Long in This Condition. He noted:

This is a revenant ballad from Newfoundland. It was collected by Maud Karpeles in 1929 and published in her Folk Songs From Newfoundland (1971). This version is from the singing of Alison McMorland and Kirsty Potts, recorded at the Fife Traditional Singing Weekend, May 2004. In Volume 2 of Tim Neat’s recently published Hamish Henderson: A Biography, Alison recalls being given, by Henderson, a recording of the song as sung by an unknown singer from Salford, near Manchester, England.

Fay Hield learned The Lover’s Ghost from the singing of A.L. Lloyd and sang it in 2012 on her CD with the Hurricane Party, Orfeo. Apparently of a ghoulish nature, she is “particularly attached to the lyric ‘and the worms and creeping things…’ ” This video shows the Fay Hield Trio performing The Lover’s Ghost at Cecil Sharp House on 23 June 2011:

Karina Knight sang The Lover’s Ghost on her 2020 album of songs learned from her parents, From the Knee.

Jon Wilks sang The Lover’s Ghost on his 2021 album Up the Cut. He noted:

This is one I learnt from recordings of Cecilia Costello, specifically an album called Recordings from the Sound Archives of the BBC (Leader Records, 1975). My introduction to Cecilia, one of Birmingham’s most formidable source singers, came via a conversation with the singer Emily Portman, who was visiting me to perform in a folk club I help to run. Her performance of The Cruel Mother thoroughly gripped me, and I duly went off to order some dusty old vinyl releases from Discogs.

The melody for this song is something else. A wild, haunting lament that really challenges the singer, leaping from the lowest to the highest notes in the register. Recorded on 30 November 1951, by Marie Slocombe and Patrick Shuldham-Shaw, the original BBC sleeve notes claim that, “the ballad was circulating in England as early as the seventeenth century, but no version as fine as Mrs Costello’s has been collected”. I’ve read theories elsewhere that suggest that the historical content of that sentence may be incorrect, but I’m willing to lay money on the latter part being entirely accurate. It’s extraordinary.

Tony Rose’s song The Yarmouth Tragedy on his 1982 album Poor Fellows is a different song that has a similar revenant theme.

Lyrics

The Lover’s Ghost in P.W. Jocye: Old Irish Folk Music and Songs

“Oh, you’re welcome home again,” said the young man to his love,
“I’ve been waiting for you many a night and day.
You are tired, you are pale,” said the young man to his dear,
“You shall never again go away.”
“I must go away,” she said, “when the little cock will crow,
For here they will not let me stay.
But if I had my wish, oh, my darling,” she said,
“This night should be never, never day.”

“Oh my pretty pretty cock, oh my handsome little cock,
I pray you will not crow before day;
And your comb shall be made of the very beaten gold,
And your wings of the silver so grey!”
But oh, this pretty cock, this handsome little cock,
He crew loufd a full hour too soon:
“Oh, my true love,” she said, “It is time for me to part,
It is now the going down of the moon!”

“And where is your bed, my dearest dear?” he said,
“And where are your white holland sheets?
And where are the maidens, my dearest love,” he said,
“That wait on you while you are asleep?”
“The clay is my bed, my dearest dear,” she said,
“The shroud is my white holland sheet;
The worms and the creeping things are my waiting maids,
To wait on me whilst I am asleep.”

A.L. Lloyd sings The Lover’s Ghost

“You’re welcome home again,” said the young man to his love,
“I’ve been waiting for you many a night and day.
You’re tired and you’re pale,” said the young man to his dear,
“You shall never again go away.”

“I must go away,” she said, “when the little cock do crow
For here they will not let me stay.
Oh but if I had my wish, oh my dearest dear,” she said,
“This night should be never, never day.”

“Oh pretty little cock, oh you handsome little cock,
I pray you do not crow before day.
And your wings shall be made of the very beaten gold
And your beak of the silver so grey.“

But oh this little cock, this handsome little cock,
It crew out a full hour too soon.
“It’s time I should depart, oh my dearest dear,“ she said,
“For it’s now the going down of the moon.“

“And where is your bed, my dearest love,“ he said,
“And where are your white Holland sheets?
And where are the maids, oh my darling dear,” he said,
“That wait upon you whilst you are asleep?”

“The clay it is my bed, my dearest dear,” she said,
“The shroud is my white Holland sheet.
And the worms and creeping things are my servants, dear,” she said,
“That wait upon me whilst I am asleep.”

Niamh Parsons sings The Lover’s Ghost

“Oh you’re welcome home again,” said the young man to his love,
“I have waited for many a night and day.
You are tired, you are cold,” said the young man to his love,
“You will never again go away.”
“I must go away,” she said, “when the little cock does crow,
For here they will not let me stgy.
But if I had my will, my darling,” she said,
“this night would be ever ever day.”

“Oh my pretty, pretty cock, oh my handsome little cock,
I pray you do not crow before the day;
And your comb shall be made of the very beaten gold,
And your wings of the silver so gay!”
But oh, this little cock, so handsome as he was,
He crew shrill a full hour too soon;
And he sent my love away, not by the break of day,
It being only the light of the moon.

“And where is your bed, my dearest dear?” he said,
“And where is your white holland sheet?
And where are your waiting maids, my dearest dear,” he said,
“Who wait on you while you are asleep?”
“The clay it is my bed, my dearest dear,” she said,
“The shroud is my white holland sheet;
The worms and the creeping things are my waiting maids,
Who wait on me while I am asleep.”

Alasdair Roberts and Emily Portman sing The Lover’s Ghost

Johnny he promised to marry me,
But I fear he’s with some fair one gone.
There’s something bewails him and I don’t know what it is,
And I’m weary of lying alone.

Johnny come here at the appointed hour,
And he’s knocked on her window so low.
This fair maid arose and she’s hurried on her clothes
And she’s welcomed her true lover home.

She took him by the hand and she laid him down,
She felt he was cold as the clay.
“My dearest dear, if I only had one wish
This long night would never turn to day.

“Crow up, crow up you little bird
And don’t you crow before the break of day,
And you’ll keep shielding made of the glittering gold
And that doors of the silvery gray.”

“And where is your soft bed of down, my love?
And where is your white Holland sheet?
And where is the fair girl who watches over you
As you taking your long, sightless sleep?”

“The sand is my soft bed of down, my love,
The sea is my white Holland sheet.
And the long, hungry worms will feed off of me
As I lie every night in the deep.“

“Oh, when will I see you again, my love?”
“Oh, when will I see you again?”
“When the little fishes fly and the seas they do run dry
And the hard rocks they melt in the sun.”

Fay Hield sings The Lover’s Ghost

“You’re welcome home, my dear,” said the young man to his love,
“I’ve been waiting for you many’s the night and day.
You’re tired and you’re pale, my dearest dear,” he said,
“You shall never more be going so far away.”

“I must go away, my dear, when the little cock do crow
For here they’ll not let me stay.
Oh but if I had my wish, my darling dear,” she said,
“This night should be never, never day.”

It’s, “Oh my little cock, oh my handsome little cock,
I pray you do not crow before the day.
Your wings shall be made of the very beaten gold
And your comb of a silver shining grey.“

But oh this little cock, this handsome little cock,
He crew out a full hour too soon.
“It’s time for me to part, oh my dearest dear,“ she said,
“For now it is the going of the moon.“

It’s, “Where is your bed, my darling dear,“ he said,
“And where are your white Holland sheets?
And where are the maidens, my darling dear,” he said,
“That will wait upon you while you are asleep?”

“Oh, the clay it is my bed, my dearest dear,” she said,
“This shroud is my white Holland sheet.
And the worms and creeping things are my servants, dear,” she said,
“That will wait upon me while I am asleep.”