Annotation:Green Linnet (2) (The)

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GREEN LINNET [2], THE. AKA and see "Song of Sorrow (The)" (Ulachan dubh-O). Irish, Air (4/4 time). D Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Joyce (1909) writes: "Bonaparte, during his career, was a favourite in Ireland; and many peasant songs were composed about him, a few of which--either wholly or in part--are given in this book. The following, which was written after his death, I learned in my boyhood; for it was known all over Munster. I have copies printed on ballad-sheets by Haly of Cork sixty or seventy years ago. Beyond these it has not been published before now, with the exception of two verses, which Mr. John Fitz-Gerald of Cork, in an interesting 'Account of the Old Street Ballads of Cork', printed in 1892 in the Hournal of the Cork Archaeological Society. In this song 'Boney' is figuratively represented--after a common Irish fashion--as a Green Linnet. The air is given here exactly as I remember it; and it has not been hitherto published. It was universally known all through the South: and Forde has several settings all very little different from mine. In parts of Ulster also the air was well known, and regarded as vey old. I got a setting of it, in 1873, almost the same as my own, from Mr. MacGowan of Newtownards. It will be perceived that this air is a version of 'Ulachan dubh-O', or 'The Song of Sorrow', to which Moore has written his song 'Weep on, weep on, your hour is past': or both are versions of an original melody." Although it survived in oral tradition in Ireland, the ballad was printed on a broadsheet by the most important London ballad printer of the first half of the 19th century, James Catnach of Seven Dials. It is even recorded in the logbook of the whaling ship Cortes in 1847 as having been sung aboard ship. Gale Huntington has called it 'another true lament for the loss of the great hope the Irish had in Napoleon.' Cowdery (1990) identifies the melody as belonging to the "Ballylee" family of song tunes. See also the air "Bold Trainer O" and the songs "Faithche Bhreagh Aerach an Cheoil" and "Bán Chnoic Éireann Ó."

Curiosity led a young native of Erin,
To view the gay banks of the Rhine,
Where an Empress he saw and the gold that she was wearing
All over with diamonds did shine.
No goddess in splendour was ever yet seen,
To equal this fair maid so mild and serene,
In soft accents she cried, O my linnet so green,
Sweet Boney, will I e'er see you more?

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Song), 1909; No. 372, pp. 175-176.

Recorded sources: Island ILPS9432, The Chieftains - "Bonaparte's Retreat."

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