The Lily White Hand (aka The Distressed Maid) (trad; Roud 564) Week 166, 25 May 2024

Continuing and probably concluding the theme of 'May' for this month...
Spring in general, and May in particular, are associated with courting in folk songs. "The Lily White Hand"* is one of a cluster of (probably related) songs** in which a pretty maid meets a young man down by a riverside and is (or feels that she has been) deserted and/or betrayed by her lover.
(* aka "The Distressed Maid", "Down by a Riverside", "The Squire and the Fair Maid", "Abroad As I Was Walking", "Camden Town" etc)
** including "Blackwater Side", "The Shannon Side", "The Month of May"
In this song, the betrayal is real and he is a very nasty piece of the work: she is very young, but he seduces her, promising marriage, then in the morning tells her he can't marry a girl so easily led astray (by him!!). She is distraught and contemplates suicide, but he pushes her in before she can jump, and decides to leave the country and find a new girl there. (In some versions of the song she is deserted but not murdered.)
When Lisa Knapp sang a slightly different version of this song (the Brazil family's, but she seems to have used some lyrics from other versions too) on her album "Till April Is Dead" she commented:
"The desperate situation of the tricked young lady and the chilling sensibility of ‘kind Sir’ along with the romantic imagery of the clear running stream, the big house, ‘the moon adorned’ and the golden hills betray this simple tune’s grisly ending."
Elements of this particular song are pretty old - Mike Yates says that
"“He took her by the lily white hand, and he laid her upon a bed” are lines in Chapman’s May Day of 1602, and part of the song’s theme appears in the early blackletter broadside of The Western Knight." According to Steve Gardham, a black-letter ballad printed c.1670 called "The Forsaken Damosel: Or, The Deluded Maid" seems to be the earliest known form of the song, and a modified form was printed in the early 19th century as "The Distressed Maid" - in both of these the story ends with desertion not murder. Oral versions draw on both the 19th century and the earlier c.1670 texts. A modified form with the murder ending was collected several times in the second half of the 20th century. (Link to Steve Gardham's article on the song below.)
I was hoping there'd be a version in which the man gets his just desserts, but there doesn't seem to be one. For that you have to look at other songs - "The Dreadful Ghost" (Roud 568 rather than 564) and "Polly's Love" (aka "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter") have similar plots in their first half, but then there is revenge (supernatural, the best sort!), or "William Taylor" is one I've described before as for all those who want to see a false young man get his comeuppance....
I learned this song from the songbook "Traveller's Joy", which includes the 11 verse version collected by Mike Yates from Mary Ann Haynes of Brighton, Sussex in 1973 or 1974. I have used that melody but collated the text there with the version sung by the Brazil family. As well as Lisa Knapp, other modern folk artists who have recorded versions of this song include Jim Causley (on his album "Fruits of the Earth") and Craig Morgan Robson (on "Stranded" and (with the Askew Sisters) "The Axford Five").
For more notes and lyrics see:
mainlynorfolk....
For Steve Gardham's article on the song see:
www.mustrad.or...
For "The Dreadful Ghost" see:
• The Dreadful Ghost (ak...
For Polly's Love (aka The Cruel Ship's Carpenter) see:
• Polly's Love (aka The ...
For "William Taylor " see:
• William Taylor (trad, ...
For other songs I have sung celebrating May Day and/or May generally, see the songs in my 'May songs' playlist:
• May songs