The Banks of Brandywine
One morning very early in the merry month of May,
As I walked forth to take the air, all nature being gay,
The moon had not yet veiled her face but through the trees did shine,
As I wandered for amusement on the banks of Brandywine.
At such an early hour I was surprised to see,
A lovely maid with downcast eyes upon those banks so gay,
I modestly saluted her, she knew not my design,
And requested her sweet company, on the banks of Brandywine.
“O leave me sir do leave me my company forsake
For it is my real opinion you’re nothing but a rake,
My love’s a valiant sailor and he’s out on the brine,
While comfortless I wander on the banks of Brandywine.”
“My dear, why do you thus give up to melancholy cries?
I pray leave off your weeping, and dry those lovely eyes,
For sailors in each port, my dear, they do a mistress find,
He will leave you still to wander on the banks of Brandywine.”
“O leave me, sir, do leave me, why do you me torment?
My Henry won’t deceive me, therefore I am content,
Why do you thus torment me, and cruelly combine,
To fill my heart with horror on the banks of Brandywine?”
“I wish not to affect your mind but rather for to ease,
Such dreadful apprehensions that soon your mind will see,
Your love, my dear, in wedlock bands, another one has joined.”
She swooned into my arms on the banks of Brandywine.
O the lofty hills and craggy rocks re-echoed back her strain,
And the pleasant groves and rural shades gave witness to her pain,
“How often has he promised me in Hymen’s chains to join,
Now I’m a maid forsaken on the banks of Brandywine.”
“O no, my dear, that ne’er shall be, behold your Henry now,
I clasp you to my bosom, love, I have not forgot my vow,
It’s now I know you’re true, my dear, in Hymen’s chains we’ll join
And hail the happy morn we met on the banks of Brandywine.”
We return to the deep well of beautiful songs recorded by collector Helen Creighton in the Canadian Maritimes this month. While browsing around the recently accessible audio collection at the Nova Scotia Archives site I came across this one from singer Berton Young of West Petpeswick, Nova Scotia. Creighton recorded him in 1945.
This song appears in Creighton’s book Folk Songs of Nova Scotia in a slightly different form but I made my own transcription of Young’s singing here. He has trouble remember the words so the recording jumps around a bit but he is another singer from that region who exhibits a fantastic light, ornamented style full of interesting twists and turns. The story is a classic example of a “Riley Ballad” where the returned lover disguises himself and tests the woman’s faithfulness before revealing his identity.
The Brandywine River (creek) referenced is most likely the one in Pennsylvania/Delaware that was the site of an important battle in the American Revolutionary War. That place name points to a North American origin for the song but it does turn up in Ireland as well. Irish song authority John Moulden guesses that it came back with someone who returned to Ireland after working over here.