Sir Hugh

For other uses, see Sir Hugh (disambiguation).

Sir Hugh is a traditional British folk song, Child ballad # 155, Roud # 73.

Synopsis

Some boys are playing with a ball, in Lincoln. They accidentally throw it over the wall of a Jew's house (or castle). The daughter of the Jew comes out, dressed in green, and beckons to a boy to come in to fetch it. He replies that can't do this without his playmates. She entices him in with fruit and a gold ring. Once he has sat down on a throne, she stabs him in the heart "like a sheep". There is much blood.

When the boy fails to come home, his mother concludes that he is skylarking. She sets out to find him, with a rod to beat him. From beyond the grave, the boy asks his mother to prepare a funeral winding sheet, and that he is "asleep". In some versions he asks that if his father calls for him, the father is to be told that he is "dead." In some versions the boy's corpse shines "like gold". In some versions the Jew's daughter catches the blood in a basin and puts a prayerbook at his head and a bible at his feet.

Commentary

The song has been found in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the USA. It was still "popular" in the early nineteenth century. The title "Sir Hugh" for a boy is unusual. Possibly there was some confusion because of Saint Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln. The incidental details about the sheep, the basin and the bible at his feet all suggest that there is some kind of ritual killing taking place. Though, none of the ballad versions mention any punishment for the killing.^{[citation needed]}

In medieval times such frightful anti-Semitic tales were common. Jews had been expelled from England in 1290, and did not return until 1658. It seems unlikely that crude propaganda would be deliberately concocted and spread in the late 17th century, since Britain had become a refuge for persecuted religious minorities. There is a tale that in 1255 a boy was kidnapped by Jews, and crucified. His body was found in a well, and many Jews were convicted and hanged for the crime. This ghastly story appears in Annals of Waverley.

The artist and poet Matthew Paris (fl. c 1217 - 1259) has a Latin fragment of this ballad in his Chronicle. Thomas Percy's Reliques (1783) has a version from Scotland. David Herd (1776) had a version, and so did Robert Jameison (1806).

The idea of a corpse speaking (sending thoughts) to the living occurs in the ballad The Murder of Maria Marten, The Cruel Mother (Child 20) and in The Unquiet Grave (Child 78). Gruesome killings are quite common in Child ballads.

Textual Variants

Several Scottish versions have the boys playing with a ball in Scotland. and are suddenly (and inexplicably) transferred to Lincoln later in the song.^{[citation needed]} A version from Northamptonshire which says the boy was killed "like a swine".^{[citation needed]} A version from Northumberland sets the events at Easter.^{[citation needed]} An American version of the early 20th century, by Nelstone's Hawaiians, collected on Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music", replaces the Jewish villainess with "a Gypsy lady, all dressed in yellow and green."

There is an Anglo-Norman version (medieval French)^{[citation needed]} and a fragment in Latin (Matthew Paris's "Chronicles").

Controversy

Early collectors were so surprised to find evidence of a ballad featuring a blood libel that they wrote entire books on the subject. James Orchard Halliwell wrote Ballads and Poems Respecting Hugh of Lincoln in 1849. In the same year, and unknown to Halliwell, Irishman Abraham Hume wrote the book Sir Hugh of Lincoln, or, an Examination of a Curious Tradition respecting the Jews, with a notice of the Popular Poetry connected with it.

Also, one should note that the singing of this song is not an indicator of the singer's anti-semitism. For instance, one of the earliest professional recordings of the song was by A. L. Lloyd on "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol 2" in 1956, produced by Kenneth Goldstein, himself a Jew. Another interpret of the song, Ewan MacColl, described the ballad as "the barbaric functioning of medieval thinking"^{[citation needed]}.

Music

There was no printed tune for the ballad until Edward Francis Rimbault's "Musical Illustrations of Bishob Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" (1850).^{[citation needed]}

Recordings

Album/Single	Performer	Year	Variant	Notes
Fatal Flower Garden (Victor Records, 78 rpm)	Nelstone's Hawaiians	1930	Fatal Flower Garden	The earliest known professional recording; re-issued in 1952 on the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music.
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads vol 3	A. L. Lloyd	1956	Sir Hugh	.
The Max Hunter Folksong Collection	Mrs. Allie Long Parker	1958	The Jew's Garden	.
Southern Journey, Vol. 7: Ozark Frontier	Ollie Gilbert	1959	It Rained a Mist	.
The Max Hunter Folksong Collection	Fran Majors	1959	The Jew's Garden	.
Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland	Cecilia Costello	1961	The Jew's Garden	.
The Long Harvest Vol 5	Ewan MacColl	1967	Sir Hugh	The album features 4 variants of the ballad: an English one (Sir Hugh) and 3 American ones (The Fatal Flower Garden, Little Saloo, It Rained a Mist)
The Cock Doth Craw	Ian Campbell	1968	Little Sir Hugh	.
Commoner's Crown	Steeleye Span	1975	Little Sir Hugh	.
Shreds and Patches	John Kirkpatrick and sue Harris	1977	Little Sir William	.
Lost Lady Found	Vikki Clayton	1997	Sir Hugh of Lincoln	.
The Swimming Hour	Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire	2001	Fatal Flower Garden	.
Heading for Home	Peggy Seeger	2003	Fatal Flower Garden	.
BRITTEN: Folk Song Arrangements	Philip Langridge, Tenor, with Graham Johnson, Piano.	2005	Little Sir William	.
The Harry Smith Project	Gavin Friday	2006	Fatal Flower Garden	Essentially a cover of the 1930 version by Nelstone's Hawaiians, as re-issued on the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music.
The Elixir That'll Fix 'Er	The Black Strap Molasses Family	2008	Fatal Flower Garden	.
Deus Ignotus	Andrew King	2011	Sir Hugh	.

See also

Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln

External links

• The Columbia State University Website [1] discusses it.
• On Mudcat:
  • the words are given [2] and,
  • the controversy is discussed [3].