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Willie o Douglas Dale

[ Roud 65 ; Child 101 ; G/D 5:1010 ; Ballad Index C101 ; DT WILDOUG ; trad.]

Alexander Keith: Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs

Helen Lindley sang Willie o Douglas Dale on her 2023 EP of rare Child ballads, Aweakening the Lady. She noted:

Willie o Douglas Dale (Child 101, Roud 65) is another of those songs in traditional folk music which is rarely—if ever—sung, because it’s long and ‘wordy’ and also because the tunes which are suggested in Bronson’s The Singing Tradition of Child’s Popular Ballads aren’t a particularly good match for the song.

So this is another of those songs that Karl Sinfield, of Sing Yonder Publications, asked me to compose a tune for and condense into a usable, much shorter, song for people of all levels of singing ability.

The very abbreviated story is that Willie o Douglas Dale goes to England to serve at court, sees the King’s daughter, Oliphant, and likes her. She fancies him but tries to avoid him, isn’t successful and they succumb to baser pleasures with inevitable results. Willie asks her to run away to Scotland with him. She says yes and gives him money. She gives birth in the woods, they persuade a shepherdess to join them and the four of them (Willie, Oliphant, baby, shepherdess) run away to Scotland where Willie and Oliphant become the Lord and Lady of Douglas Dale. There’s no record of the King’s reaction to all of this!

Historically it would seem the song uses character names from across the mid 1300-1600s as the Oliphants and the Douglases (Douglas Dale passes near Douglas Castle) were linked and there was a bit of controversy over the inheritance of titles with an Oliphant/Douglas connection. No suggestion of course that the ballad is based on any story, but it was popular to write songs about love and elopement using historical character names.

Lyrics

Helen Lindley sings Willie o Douglas Dale

O Willie was as brave a lord as ever sailed the sea.
And he has gone to the English court to serve for meat and fee.
He had not been at the King’s court a twelvemonth and a day,
Till he longed for a sight of the King’s daughter, but her he could never see.

One day she’s gone to the green wood, Willie followed by moonlight.
He bowed so low as by her he did go. She said, “What’s your will, Sir Knight?”
“O I am not a Knight, Madam, nor ever think to be;
For I am Willie o Douglas Dale, and I serve for meat and fee.”

She says, “I’ll gang to my bower and I’ll pray both night and day,
To keep me from your tempting looks and from your great beauty.”
But in a little after that he kept Dame Oliphant’s bower,
As the love that passed between these two was like paramour.

“O Willie, narrow is my gown, that used to be so wide.
And gone is my fair colour, and low laid is my pride.
But when my father gets word of this, he’ll never drink again,
And when my brothers get word of this, I fear, Willie, you’ll be slain.”

“O will you leave your father’s court and go along with me?
I’ll carry you unto fair Scotland and make you a lady free.”
She put her hand in her pocket and gave him five hundred pounds:
“And take you that now, Squire Willie, ‘til away we do run.”

When day was gone and night was come she leapt the castle wall.
But Willie caught his gay Lady, he was loath to let her fall.
He’s made a fire for his love and bed to lay her down.
He’s picked roses that grew beside and fetched water in his horn.

He came back to his Lady and a son to him she bore.
And he’s taken his son and his Lady gay, wrapped them to keep them warm.
He met a maid a-feeding sheep and said, “Will you come with me?
And will you serve my Lady fair? We’ll give both meat and fee.”

She came before the Lady fair and said, “You’re a Dame, I see.”
“Yes, I’m Oliphant, the King’s daughter, will you come to Scotland with me?”
So the maid she held the bonny boy and Willie led his Lady.
He’s made her lady of Douglas Dale and the Lord of the Dale was he.