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"Lord Randall" (Roud 10, Child 12) is an Anglo-Scottish border ballad,[1] a traditional ballad consisting of dialogue.[2] The different versions follow the same general lines, the primary character (in this case Randall, but varying by location) is poisoned, usually by his sweetheart; this is revealed through a conversation where he reports on the events and the poisoner.[3] Variants of this ballads are found in German, Swedish, Magyar, Danish, and Wendish.[4]
Similar ballads exist across Europe. There are, for example different Italian versions, usually titled "L'avvelenato" ('The Poisoned Man') or "Il testamento dell'avvelenato" ('The Poisoned Man's Will'). One of them was published for the first time in 1629 by Camillo il Bianchino, in Verona.[5]
Cultural uses
The English fiction writer Dorothy L. Sayers used a phrase from some variants for the title Strong Poison, a murder mystery about a man apparently murdered by his lover. In the early 1960s Bob Dylan uses the song's form as an allusion in "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". Dylan's ballad, however, utilizes the answer to spell out an apocalyptic fall of hard rain.
The nursery rhyme "Billy Boy" borrows the verse structure and the narrative format about a suitor visiting his lover, with a happier ending.
The poem is a repeated allusion in the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" by J D Salinger.
References
- ^ Border Ballads By William Beattie, Compiled by William Beattie, Published by Penguin Books, 1952, Page 17
- ^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "Lord Randall"
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 153, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 153-5, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Alessandro D'Ancona, La poesia popolare italiana, Livorno, 1878, Cf. "L'avvelenato"
External links
- http://www.contemplator.com/child/rendal.html
- A painting of the poisoning of Jimmy Randall appears on Kentucky artist and ballad singer Daniel Dutton's web site, "Ballads of the Barefoot Mind"
- Italian version "L'avvelenato"
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