Lord Lovel is number 75 of the ballads anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century, (Roud 49) and exists in several variants.[1] This ballad is originally from England, originating in the Late Middle Ages, with the oldest known versions being found in the regions of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Wiltshire.[2]
A lord tells the lady he loves that he is going in a journey that will take several years. After a time, he longs to see her. He returns whereupon he hears of her death, and dies of grief.
The journey that Lord Lovel undertakes is possibly a pilgrimage, a quest to a holy shrine, though in some versions he is going "Foreign countries for to see, see, see".[3] and in the version in Horace Walpole's letters he is going "To dwell in fair Scotland".[4]
One known version was included in a letter written in 1765 by Horace Walpole to Thomas Percy, the compiler of "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" (1765), a source for many of Child's ballads. Walpole writes "I enclose an oldballad, which I write down from memory, and perhaps very incorrectly, for it is above five and twenty years since I learned it". In Walpole's version the lady's name is Lady Hounsibelle.[4] The song originated in the Late Middle Ages, with the oldest known versions being found in the regions of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Wiltshire.[2]
There are a number of broadside versions dating back as far as 1833.[5] The song was included in Dixon, Ancient Poems Ballads & Songs (1846).
The Roud Folk Song Index lists 31 versions from England, mainly from southern counties; 18 from Scotland, (some Aberdeenshire singers knew the song as "Lord Lovat", and two Edinburgh singers knew it as "Lord Revel"); and 3 versions from Ireland, two under the title "Lord Levett" and one under the title "Lord Duneagle". There are 4 versions from Canada and 153 from the USA. One Kentucky version was titled "Lord Lovely".[6]
There is a fine version sung by Norfolk singer Walter Pardon in 1974 in the Reg Hall collection in the British Library Sound Archive,[7] and another sung by a Mrs. Teale of Winchcombe in 1908 to Percy Grainger.[8] Jeannie Robertson was recorded singing "Lord Lovat" in Aberdeen in 1953, which can also be heard online.[9]
Forms of this ballad are very common in Scandinavia and Germany.[10]
The ballads, Lord Thomas and Fair Annet and Fair Margaret and Sweet William contain some similar themes, but in those ballads, the hero is actively fickle, seeking another bride.[11]
A closer equivalent to this ballad is Lady Alice, Child ballad 85.[12]
Child complained that "Lord Lovel" is prone to parody: "Therefore a gross taste has taken pleasure in parodying it".[10] A version in Roy Palmer's "A Book of British Ballads" contains this verse, describing Lord Lovel's death:
Then he flung himself down by the side of the corpse,
With a shivering gulp and a guggle,
Gave two hops, three kicks, heav'd a sigh, blew his nose.
Sung a song and then died in the struggle, the struggle,
Sung a song and then died in the struggle.,
A parody collected in Virginia starts;
Abe Lincoln stood at the White House Gate
Combing his milk-white steed,
When along came Lady Lizzie Tod,
Wishing her lover good speed, speed, speed,
Wishing her lover good speed.[13]
