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The Blind Beggar’s Daughter of Bethnal Green

[ Roud 132 / Song Subject MAS92 ; Master title: The Blind Beggar’s Daughter of Bethnal Green ; Laws N27 ; G/D 5:1061 ; Ballad Index LN27 ; Bodleian Roud 132 ; Wiltshire 769 ; DT BLINDBEG ; Mudcat 128529 ; trad.]

Maud Karpeles: Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs Frank Purslow: The Constant Lovers Steve Roud, Julia Bishop: The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs

Thomas Moran of Drumrahool, near Mohill, Co. Leitrim, sang The Blind Beggar’s Daughter in December 1954 to Séamus Ennis. This recording was included in 2012 on the Topic anthology of ballads sung by British and Irish traditional singers, Good People, Take Warning (The Voice of the People Volume 23). Steve Roud noted:

Collected frequently on both sides of the Atlantic, the story of the Blind Beggar obviously struck a chord with traditional singers, and the song was also printed on many broadsides in the 19^th century. But this is an excellent example of an old song which has probably survived solely because it was rewritten, and drastically shortened, probably by or for a printer, around 1800. The earliest extant broadsides of the original ballad, which was at least four times as long as the rewrite, only date from the latter half of the 17^th century. But a ballad of The Blind Beggar was licensed by the Company of Stationers in London in 1624, and a play entitled The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green was acted in 1600. On the strength of the latter, it is usually assumed that the song dates from the time of Elizabeth I. Bishop Percy published a version taken from his famous manuscript, dating from about 1650, in his landmark publication, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), but he unfortunately indulged in the kind of cavalier editorial activity which gave the early ballad editors such a bad name, which has misled ballad scholars ever since. In part II of the ballad, the early broadsides explain that the disguised beggar’s real name is Monford and that he lost his sight fighting for the King in France. Percy, however, inserted verses of his own composition, which claimed that the beggar was Simon De Montfort, wounded at the Battle of Evesham (1265), and this claim gave the ballad a spurious historicity which is still regularly repeated.

Ewan MacColl sang The Blind Beggar’s Daughter of Bethnal Green in 1957 on the Riverside anthology Great British Ballads Not Included in the Child Collection. Kenneth S. Goldstein noted in the album’s booklet:

The earliest known version of this ballad appeared in Percy’s manuscript. Percy, however, thought little enough of it in itself, for he combined it with parts of another ballad to make the lengthy and exceedingly boring ballad which he included in his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. The original manuscript version may be seen in Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript, edited by J.W. Hales and F.W. Furnivall, London, 1867-1868.

The ballad appeared in several early collections and was very popular in England; it has been found there rather frequently in oral tradition and is still widely sung. It has been reported several times in North America from widely separated areas. Most versions in the New World appear to have been learned from printed sources—most likely from 19^th century songsters such as the Nafis and Cornish Forget-Me-Not Songster (1830-1850).

The version MacColl sings was learned in fragmentary form from James Stewart, street singer from Dundee, and collated with stanzas from various printed texts.

Jim O’Connor sang The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green in 1966 on the Critics Group’s Argo anthology of London songs, A Merry Progress to London. He noted:

This was a very popular ballad of Elizabethan London. The original manuscript version may be seen in Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript edited by J.W. Hales and F.J. Furnwall, London 1861-68. This version suffered alterations and improvements by the Bishop and resulted in the inferior collation that appears in his Reliques of Ancient Poetry.

The present tune and text is from the English Folk Song Journal. In the “Collection of Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament” in the King’s Pamphlets at the British Museum there are many songs to the tune of The Blind Beggar that was sometimes called Pretty Bessie. A ballad to be sung to the tune of that name is contained in The Roxburghe Collection.

Paddy Reilly of Tipperary sang The Blind Beggar to Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie in between 1973 and 1983. This recording was included in 1986 on the VWML cassette Early in the Month of Spring and in 2003 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs of Irish travellers in England, From Puck to Appleby. Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie noted:

The Rarest Ballad that Ever was Seen of the Blind Beggar of Bednall Green appeared as a broadside in 1672, was entered in the Stationers’ Register of London three years later and was still being sold as a street ballad in Ireland in the 1950s. Mikeen McCarthy named it as one of the songs he sold around the fairs and markets of Kerry up to that time.

According to Bishop Percy and the estimable John Timbs, this ballad was written during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). In the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Percy gives it in two parts, 67 verses in all, the story contained in the above coming at the end of part one. Timbs quotes 16 verses, most of them from Percy’s second part, which relates the uprising of the barons against Henry III and the death of their leader, Sir Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester in the battle of Evesham (1265). His son Henry “Was felled by a blow he received in the fight, A blow that forever deprived him of sight”; and lay on the battlefield among the dead until found by “a baron’s faire daughter”. She carried him from the field, nursed him, married him and became the mother of “lovely Bessie”.

This explains the wealth of Bessie’s father, who adopted the disguise of a beggar to avoid discovery by his enemies.

The BBC recorded it in Co Leitrim in the 1950s and more recently it turned up in Inishowen, Co Donegal. It was popular among the Travellers we recorded; we heard it from four singers. We also got it from Martin Howley of Fanore, Co Clare.

When Mikeen McCarthy sang it for us he was camped just off Whitechapel Road, East London, within walking distance of The Blind Beggar public house, once notorious for its connections with the gangsters, Ronnie and Reggie Kray.

Ref: Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Thomas Percy, 1765; Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales, John Timbs, Frank Warne & Co (undated).

Lizzy Hardingham sang Blind Beggar’s Daughter on her 2018 EP Long Story Short.

Stick in the Wheel sang Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green on their 2018 CD Follow Them True.

Eliza Carthy sang The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green on her 2023 album Conversations We’ve Had Before. She noted:

We have David [Delarre] to thank for this one. “I wrote an album in lockdown,” he says, “Like everyone. But I wanted to research well-known songs from Essex and London and do them in ways no-one had done before. When I found this I went to Martin Carthy. He told me he knew it but had never heard this tune before. Bingo! It’s hard to find one he hasn’t done yet…”

Lyrics

Thomas Moran sings The Blind Beggar’s Daughter

Now there was a blind beggar for a long time was blind.
He had only one daughter; she was comely and fair,
And great lords of honour came to court this young maid.

And first came to court her was a squire so bright.
He courted young Betsy by day and by night.
“My houses and freelands I’ll resign unto thee,
If you tell me your father, my bonny Betty.”

And the next came to court her was a merchant so bright.
He courted young Betsy by day and by night.
“My houses and freelands I’ll resign unto thee,
If you tell me your father, my bonny Betty.”

And the next came to court her was a sailor so bright.
He courted young Betsy by day and by night.
“My ships on the ocean I’ll resign unto thee,
If you tell me your father, my bonny Betty.”

“Well, my father is a beggar. You know him right well.
He is led by a dog, by a chain and a bell.
My father is a beggar of good charity,
And indeed he’s my father,” said bonny Betty.

“O no, no,” says the squire, “You will not be me.”
“No, no,” says the merchant, “Nor neither will me.”
“Hold on,” said the sailor, “Let beggars agree.
Come into my arms, my bonny Betty.”

As Betsy’s old father stood at his own door,
And says, “Don’t slight my daughter because she is poor.
She’s not dressed in her silks or her silken apparel.
It’s on her I’ll [bespangle?]; she’s my bonny brown girl.”
And when that he left down the last of his store,
“Hold on,” says the beggar, “Here’s ten thousand more.“

Ewan MacColl sings The Blind Beggar’s Daughter of Bethnal Green

It’s of an old beggar who long lost his sight,
And had a fair daughter, most peasant and bright;
To seek out her fortune, whate’er it may be,
This suit it was to pretty Bessie.

This maid she was handsome, of beauty most bright,
And clad in grey russet and late in the night
From father and mother alone parted she,
Who sighed and lamented for pretty Bessie.

She travelled till she come to Stratford-at-Bow,
Then she knew not wither or which way to go;
At at the King’s Arms entertained was she,
So fair and well favoured was pretty Bessie.

The young men of Stratford in her had her joy;
She showed herself courteous but never too coy,
And at their commandment still she would be,
So fair and so comely way pretty Bessie.

Then one of heir suitors, a gallant young knight,
And he come unto her disguised in the night;
The second, a gentleman of high degree,
Who wooed for the favours of pretty Bessie.

A merchant of London, whose wealth was not small,
Was then the third suitor, and proper withal;
Her master’s own son, the fourth man he must be,
Who swore he would die for pretty Bessie.

Then Bessie addressed them and thus she did say,
“My father and mother I mean to obey;
First get their goodwill and be faithful to me,
And you shall enjoy your pretty Bessie.”

“My father,” she told them, “is easily seen;
The silly blind beggar of Bethnal Green,
That daily sits begging for charity;
He is the kind father of pretty Bessie.”

“Nay, nay,” quoth the merchant, “thou art not for me.”
“So,” quoth the innholder, “my wife she’ll not be.”
“I loathe,” said the gentleman, “a beggar’s degree,
Therefore, now farewell, my dear pretty Bessie.”

“Why then,” said the knight, “for better or worse,
I weigh not my true love by the weight of her purse,
And beauty is beauty in every degree;
Then welcome to me, my pretty Bessie.”

Then up spoke the beggar, “Although I be poor,
My Bessie is welcome to come at my door,
Though she not be decked in velvet and pearl,
Yet I will drop angels with thee for my girl.”

With that, an angel he dropped on the ground,
And dropped, in angels, full three thousand pounds;
And oftentimes it did prove most plain,
For the gentleman’s one the beggar dropped twain.

Thus was the fair Bessie matched to a knight,
And made a great lady in other’s despight;
A fairer lady there never was seen
Than the blind beggar’s daughter of Bethnal Green.

Paddy Reilly sings The Blind Beggar

Oh, there once been an old man who a long time was blind,
He reared one only daughter of a low degree.

And the first came to court her was a captain from sea,
He courted lovely Betsy by night and by day,
“For my life, gold or silver, I would give it all to thee,
If you tell me your father, my bonny Betsy.”

Oh, the next came for to court her was a captain so grand,
He courted lovely Betsy by night and by day,
“For my life, gold or silver, wouldn’t I give it all to thee,
If you tell me your father, my bonny Betsy.”

Oh, the next came for to court her was a squire so grand,
For he courted lovely Betsy by night and by day,
“For my life, gold or silver, wouldn’t I give it all to thee,
If you tell me your father, my bonny Betsy.”

“For my father is an old man who a long time was blind,
His marks and his tokens to you I will give,
He was led by a dog, a chain and a bell.”

“For roll on,” says th’ould captain, “it is her I won’t take.”
“Roll on,” says th’ould merchant, “it is her I will forsake.”
“Oh, roll on,” says the squire, “and let all beggars agree,
Will you roll in my arms, my bonny Betsy?”

Oh, the squire he left down his ten thousand pound,
’Til he came to his farm, his tillage and his ground,
For the poor old blind beggar left down his ten thousand more.

Eliza Carthy sings The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green

There was an old beggar who longtime was blind,
He had but one daughter, so pretty and fine;
“Well, I’ll go seek my fortune, dear father,” said she,
The favour was granted to pretty Betsy.

They set out from London the very next day,
And landed in Romford the very same way.
And when that they came to the lordship’s house
Invited to enter was pretty Betsy.

Now the first came to court her was a captain from sea,
“Your ship shall be loaded with jewels,” said he,
“All my gold or silver, I’ll give it to thee
If you tell me your father, my darling Betsy.”

Then the next came to court her was a dashing young knight,
He offered her riches and jewels shining bright.
“For my life, gold or silver, I’ll give it to thee
If you tell me your father, my darling Betsy.”

But a young squire of Essex whose wealth was not small,
He was the third suitor and proper withall.
“For my life, gold or silver, I’ll give it to thee
Just tell me your father, my darling Betsy.”

“My father,” she told them, “he’s easily seen,
He is a blind beggar with Bethnal Green
That daily sits begging for your charity
For he’s a good father to his darling Betsy.”

“Roll on,” says the captain, “for her I won’t take.”
“Roll on,” says the knight, “now it’s you I’ll forsake.”
“Hold on,” says the squire, “go let us agree,
Will you come to our home now, my darling Betsy?”

“Why then,” says the squire, “for better or worse,
I weigh not my love by the weight of her purse.
Her beauty is beauty in every degree,
Will you come to my arms now, my darling Betsy?”