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Clark Saunders
Clerk Saunders
[
Roud 3855
; Child 69
; Ballad Index C069
; Mudcat 168376
; trad.]
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border The Seeds of Love The Oxford Book of Ballads
Jean Redpath sang Clerk Saunders in 1962 on her Folk-Legacy album Scottish Ballad Book. She noted:
It has often been noted that the supernatural element in the Anglo-Scottish ballads is omitted or rationalised in transmission to the American tradition. Perhaps this trend away from all things other-worldly (which is noticeable in Britain too, after the Industrial Revolution) is responsible for the fact that no version of this tale of violence, tenderness, and return from the dead has been reported in America. Neither has Clerk Saunders survived in oral tradition in England, no versions having been collected since the mid-19th century. Hamish Henderson, collector and folklorist with the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, first introduced me to this “uncommonly wild and beautiful” tale, and mention of the title alone serves to send the haunting air—in itself portending tragedy and sorrow—echoing elusively through my mind.
Roy Bailey found this grisly ballad of jealousy in Stephen Sedley's book The Seeds of Love (London: Essex Music, 1967). He sang it on his 1971 eponymous album on the Trailer label, Roy Bailey.
June Tabor sang Clerk Saunders unaccompanied in 1977 on her Topic album Ashes and Diamonds.
Rod Paterson sang Clarke Saunders in 1980 on Jock Tamson's Bairns' eponymous Temple album Jock Tamson's Bairns. They noted:
Two fuller versions in Herd's MSS provide a more complex way for May Margaret to ‘keep her oath clear’ (verse 4), as well as a weird and beautiful coda in which Saunders returns from the grave and restates his love. The air is from Motherwell's Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern.
Tony Rose sang Clerk Saunders unaccompanied in 1982 on his Dingle's album Poor Fellows. He noted:
One of the classic “big” ballads based of family honour or jealousy. I've collated the text from several sources. Of all songs, the ballads are the most challenging, and therefore the most rewarding to sing.
Janet Russell and Christine Kydd sang Clerk Saunders on their 1994 Greentrax CD Dancin' Chantin'.
Eliza Carthy sang Clark Saunders on her 1996 Topic CD Heat Light & Sound. She noted:
This beautiful song tells its own story, and also contains some good advice on how to talk yourself out of a hole; the only problem arising if you don't get a chance to because both you and the evidence are fast asleep. The Child Collection has all of the different versions.
Terry Yarnell sang Clerk Saunders in 2001 on his Tradition Bearers CD A Bonny Bunch. He noted:
I recall having a strong desire to ‘have’ this ballad many years ago, but not having a tune available at the time, I had to write one. I have stuck to this tune since. The pictures and scenes that flash through the mind at various stages of the story never fail to give me a sense of horror, even when I know what’s coming next! The story, or similar and related ones have been known since the time of Boccaccio and some of the Norwegian and Icelandic versions are quite horrific with the girl’s father (King, husband) killing the “Fair Knight” and presenting her with the pieces.
Alison McMorland sang Clerk Saunders in 2003 on her and Geordie McIntyre's Tradition Bearers CD Ballad Tree. Geordie noted:
In most of the tragic ballads the heroine chooses suicide however in this case she chooses rigorous mourning. Alison draws on Child's A & D texts. It is set to the handsome tune in Motherwell's Appendix (No 16)—see Bronson. She was inspired to create her way of it from the fine singing of Rod Paterson.
Malinky recorded Clerk Saunders in January 2005 at Gilmore Place Studios, Edinburgh, for their demo EP of their then new line-up, The Gilmore Sessions. This version was included in 2019 on the bonus CD of their 20th anniversary album Handsel. They officially recorded Clerk Saunders in 2005 on their Greentrax CD The Unseen Hours where they noted:
Clerk Saunders fell victim to brotherly jealousy, a common ballad motif. This tale ends in abject tragedy when one of the brothers takes his sword to Clerk Saunders and his lover is left grief stricken. Fiona [Hunter] learned this from the singing of Alison McMorland. The ballad was also in the repertoire of Mrs Arrott of ‘Aberbrothick’ (Steve [Byrne]'s home town of Arbroath); she is still a relatively unknown informant who contributed many ballads to the late 18th century collector Robert Jamieson.
Martin Simpson sang Clerk Saunders on his 2005 Topic CD Kind Letters. He noted:
There are four of the so-called. Child Ballads here, that is ballads recorded and numbered by the American scholar, Francis James Child in his work The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn a great deal in the process of teaching. Being someone who tends to plough through life on feeling and instinct, it is instructive to be asked to examine one’s work and explain it. While living in California I had a student, Rose McLeod, who would simply bring me songs and ask me to interpret them for her. Rose brought me a recording of Polly Bolton singing Clerk Sanders. I was very familiar with June Tabor’s version of the song and was delighted to work on this different and beautiful form of the ballad. The song never left me alone over ten years and I would play it and sing scraps of the story. Eventually I used Roy Bailey’s performance, which is based on the text of the song collection [The Seeds of Love], and called June Tabor to remind me of the verses she had sung to conclude her text. This is yet another of the great ballads where class difference is the excuse for brutal violence, although it is not always clear in the lyric. Ironically, in some versions, May Margaret explains, whilst cursing her brothers, that the late Clerk was in fact the heir to an Earldom.
Emily Smith sang Clerk Saunders in 2014 both on her EP A Winter's Night and on her CD Echoes.
Lyrics
June Tabor sings Clerk Saunders | Tony Rose sings Clerk Saunders |
---|---|
Oh it was a sad and a rainy night |
So sad and rainy was the night |
“Oh a bed, a bed,” Clerk Saunders cried, |
“Oh a bed, a bed,” Clerk Saunders cried, |
For it's I have seven brothers bold |
For I have seven brothers bold |
“Oh, I'll take the sword out from my scabbard |
“Love, then take the napkin in your hand, |
Then take me up all in your arms |
And you'll take me up in your two arms, |
So he's taken the sword out from his scabbard |
So she's taken the napkin in her hand, |
Then she's taken him up in her two arms |
And she's taken him up in her two arms, |
And then it's in and came her brothers bold |
Then in and came those brothers bold |
And then it's up and spoke the first o' them, |
Then up and spoke the foremost man, |
And then it's up and spoke the third o' them, |
And up and spoke the third of them, |
And then it's up and spoke the fifth o' them, |
And up and spoke the fifth of them, |
And then it's up and spoke the seventh brother, |
But up and spoke the seventh man, |
And then he's taken out his nut brown sword |
And he's drawn out that nut brown sword, |
And they have lain all night in each other's arms |
They've lain there in each other's arms |
Oh you are the sleepiest young man |
Oh you are the sleepiest young man,” she said, |
And then she's drawn the blankets to the foot |
Then she's turned the blanket to the foot |
And it's, “Cursed be my bloody brothers! |
And it's in and came her father dear, “Oh comfort well your seven sons, |
And it's I will do for my love's sake |
And I will do for my love's sake |
And there's never a shirt goes on my back |
There'll ne'er a shirt go on my back |
Jock Tamson's Bairns sings Clarke Saunders | |
Clarke Saunders and May Margaret “A bed, a bed,” Clarke Saunders said, “For in will come my seven brothers, “Oh, ye'll tak me up intae your arms They were na' lang intae the room Then up and spake the first brother, Then up and spake the neist o' them, But up and spake the fifth brother, He's taken oot a bright long brand Saunders he started and Margaret she lapt She lay still and sleeped sound “There'll ne'er a coat gae on my back, | |
Eliza Carthy sings Clark Saunders | Malinky sing Clerk Saunders |
Clark Saunders and May Margaret |
Clerk Saunders and May Margaret |
“A bed, a bed,” Clark Saunders said, |
“A bed, a bed,” Clerk Saunders said, |
“For in would come my five brothers |
“For in will come my seven brithers, |
“But you take a kerchief in your hands | |
“And take the sword from out my scabbard, |
“You'll tak the sword frae my scabbard, |
“And take me up all in your arms, |
“You'll tak me in your airms twa, |
But in an' come her five brothers |
They werenae lang untae the room, |
Out 'n spoke the first o' them, |
Oot then spak the first brither, |
And out 'n spoke the third o' them, |
Oot then spak the third brither, |
But up 'n spoke the fifth of them, |
Oot then spak the fifth brither, |
And so out he's taken a bright long sword, |
He's taen oot his lang lang sword |
And they lay still and she slept sound |
“Awake awake, Clerk Saunders,” she says |
Aye she waukened this dead man, | |
“I'll do as much for ye Clerk Saunders, | |
“There'll ne'er be a sark upon my back, | |
“This night”, she said, “the sleepiest man | |
For she thought it had been a loathsome sweat | |
“Last night I dreamed a dream,” she said, | |
“And I have dreamed another dream, | |
“Well hold your tongue, my daughter dear, | |
“But you comfort well your five sons, |
Acknowledgements
Transcribed from the singing of Eliza Carthy by Kira White.