Polly Vaughn


"Polly Vaughn" is an Irish folk-song. Known in many variations of its title it has been printed in broadsides, adapted to plays and stories, and recorded in various versions.

Lyrical plot

A man, sometimes called Johnny Randle, goes out hunting for birds. During the hunt, he sees something white in the bushes. Thinking this is a swan, he shoots. To his horror, he discovers he has killed his true love, Polly Vaughn, sheltering from the rain. Returning home, he reports his mistake to his uncle and is advised not to run away. He should stay and tell the court that it was an honest mistake. The night before Polly's funeral, her ghost appears to confirm his version of the events.
The narrator imagines all the women of the county standing in a line, with Polly shining out among them as a "fountain of snow". Since the fairest girl in the county died, the girls are said to be glad of her death. In some versions, there is no scene of a guilty confession and no ghost.

Commentary on song

Polly wears a white apron, and has a name which usually sounds like "Mailí Bhán". In Irish Gaelic, this translates as "Fair Mary".
Baring-Gould commented that there is some similarity to Celtic legends about "The Swan Maidens". Anne Gilchrist in the Journal of the Folksong Society points to many tales about women turning into swans. There is a fairy tale called "An Cailin". A version of this story was recorded as "Cailín na Gruaige Báine" on the album Aoife by Moya Brennan. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the Aeolian prince Cephalus accidentally kills his wife Procris with a javelin while hunting. Roy Palmer compares this story to that of Polly Vaughn. This interpretation might be called the "Romantic Celtic" version, and has been embraced by Shirley Collins.
There are no versions known before 1806.
Hugh Shields suggested that the story might be based on a real event in Kilwarlin, co. Down.
The song is discussed in "EDS" Autumn 2006 edition.

Historical background

There are versions of this song called "This Shooting of his Dear", in which the protagonist similarly mistakes Polly for a swan, but "never shall be hung for the shooting of his dear."

Cultural relationships

There is a slight tendency for the name "Molly" to be used more frequently in the Irish versions of the song, and for "Polly" to be used in the English versions.

Standard references

Most traditional songs involving death are included among the Child ballads. The absence of this song from that list has puzzled several commentators, since Francis Child should have known about the song.
It was published in Robert Jamieson's 'Popular Ballads and Songs from tradition, manuscripts and scarce editions', 1806. Jamieson writes about this song, "This is indeed a silly ditty, one of the very lowest description of vulgar English ballads which are sung about the streets in country towns and sold four or five for a halfpenny".
Jamieson says that it also goes by the name "Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour". This seems like a misinterpretation, since there is a Child Ballad called "Lord Thomas and Fair Elleanor" which involves a man killing a woman.
  • Roud 166
  • Laws O36
  • The website "irishtune" categorises this as tune number 590 "Molly Bán"
  • In Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill's "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" it is tune number 1474
  • In Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill's "The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems" it is number 703.

    Broadsides

Broadside printings of this song are known from:
  • Pitts
  • Disley
  • Kendrew
  • Kenedy 1884
  • Pearson
  • Haly
  • J. F. Nugent & Co

    Textual variants

The song exists under the titles:
  • "Polly Vaughan"
  • "Polly Vaughn"
  • "Molly Bawn"
  • "Molly Ban"
  • "Molly Bender"
  • "Molly Bond"
  • "Molly Vaughan"
  • "Molly Van"
  • "Polly Von"
  • "The Shooting of His Dear"
  • "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting"
  • "The Fowler"
  • "An Cailin Bán"
  • "Fair Haired Molly"

    Non-English variants

The Irish tune "An Cailín Bán" appears to have evolved separately from the English tune, and appears to be earlier.

Songs that refer to "Polly Vaughn"

  • "Polly Von" by Peter, Paul and Mary
  • "One Starry Night" by Black 47
  • A cover version of "Polly Von" by Peter, Paul and Mary is included on Chris de Burgh's 2008 album Footsteps, a collection of covers of some of his favourite songs.
And Polly Vaughn arranged by Rodney Dillard and recorded by The Dillards on Elektra Records 1962.
Tia Blake’s Album „Folksongs & Ballads“ from 1972 includes an song called „Polly Vaughn“

Motifs

According to "The Fiddlers companion" website, the title "Molly Bawn" is an Anglicised corruption of the Gaelic "Mailí Bhán," or Fair Mary. The symbol of a bird to represent a departing spirit from a dead body is common in art, particularly in scenes of the death of Christ.
The idea that a woman might transform herself into a swan is widely known from Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake".
The word bán in Irish means "white", "pale", or "fair"; bawn is an Anglicized version.

Literature

The Colleen Bawn is a melodramatic play by Dion Boucicault. Molly Bawn: A comedy drama in four acts is by Marie Doran.
There is also a song by Samuel Lover in the one-act opera Il Paddy Whack in Italia called "Molly Bawm". Margaret Wolfe Hungerford wrote a novel called Molly Bawn. These stories are unrelated.
The story is adapted and illustrated by Barry Moser in 1992 as the children's book, Polly Vaughn: A Traditional British Ballad, which is set in the Southern United States, and again as part of the 1998 children's book, Great Ghost Stories, complete with an afterword by Peter Glassman.
Samuel Lover wrote tunes as well as novels and dramas. Ciaran Tourish recorded "Molly Bawn's Reel" but it is not connected with the song. The website suggests that Samuel Lover composed the tune.
In Canada, there is a company doing Whale and Puffin tours, called "Molly Bawn". There is a poem called "Polly Vaughn" in Les Barker's book Alexander Greyhound Bell. It is presumably a parody of the song.

Music

The earliest known version of the tune for the Irish version of the song, is earlier than the earliest printing of the words. Edward Bunting's "General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland" appeared in 1796. He printed the Irish tune three times in his manuscripts, each time noting it was traditionally the first to by learned by beginning harpers.
Under the Irish title "An Cailín Bán" it was first mentioned in 1839 as a tune rather than a song. The tune appears in "The Concertina and How to Play It" by Paul de Ville, implying it is for beginners. This would suggest that the words were not with the Irish tune until sometime between 1840 and 1905.
The English tune is known from around 1890.
In Atlantic Canada, particularly Newfoundland, a variation of the original song, titled "Molly Bawn", depicts a man, reminiscing in despair, over the loss of his young bride many years ago. However, nowhere in the song is the manner of the girl's death mentioned.

Recordings

Section 1 – Performed as a folk song
Section 2 – Performed as a classical music arrangement
Benjamin Britten wrote many arrangements of folksongs. "Folksong Arrangements – volume 6" contains "The Shooting of His Dear". Ernest John Moeran composed "Six Folk Songs from Norfolk" in 1923. The 5th song is "The Shooting of his Dear". According to Barry Marsh, the song became a basis for Moeran's Symphony in G minor.
Section 3 – Performed as an instrumental

Musical variants

Edward Madden wrote the words, and M. J. Fred Helf wrote the music to a song called "Colleen Bawn" in 1906. The second verse is as follows:
The song is about a soldier who longs to return to his Irish sweetheart.
In Canada a song called "Molly Bawn" has been captured by song-collector MacEdward Leach. It has the line:

Other songs with the same tune

The air "Molly ban so Fair", is probably unrelated.
According to "The Fiddlers companion" website, there is a variant similar to O’Carolan's composition "Fairhaired Mary".