Sir Hugh
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Sir Hugh is a traditional British folk song, Child ballad # 155, Roud # 73.
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[edit] Synopsis
Some boys are playing with a ball, in Lincoln. They accidentally throw it over the wall of a Jew's house (or castle). The daughter of the Jew comes out, dressed in green, and beckons to a boy to come in to fetch it. He replies that can't do this without his playmates. She entices him in with fruit and a gold ring. Once he has sat down on a throne, she stabs him in the heart "like a sheep". There is much blood. When the boy fails to come home, his mother concludes that he is skylarking. She sets out to find him, with a rod to beat him. From beyond the grave, the boy asks his mother to prepare a funeral winding sheet, and that he is "asleep". In some versions the boy's corpse shines "like gold". In some versions the Jew's daughter catches the blood in a basin and puts a prayerbook at his head and a bible at his feet. Several Scottish versions have the boys playing with a ball in Scotland. and are suddenly (and inexplicably) transferred to Lincoln later in the song.
[edit] Commentary
The incidental details about the sheep, the basin and the bible at his feet all suggest that there is some kind of ritual killing taking place. In medieval times such frightful anti-Semitic tales were common. Jews had been expelled from England in 1290, and did not return until 1658. It seems unlikely that crude propaganda would be deliberately concocted and spread in the late 17th century, since Britain had became a refuge for persecuted religious minories. The artist and poet Matthew Paris (fl c1217 - 1259) has a Latin fragment of this ballad in his "Chronicle". There is a tale that in 1255 a boy was kidnapped by Jews, and crucified. His body was found in a well, and many Jews were convicted and hanged for the crime. This ghastly story appears in "Annals of Waverley". The "Jewish Virtual Library" gives a version of the story here. In those unenlightened times foreigners were persecuted all across Europe, on flimsy evidence or mere rumour.
The song has been found in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the USA. It was still "popular" in the early nineteenth century. The title "Sir Hugh" for a boy is unusual. Possibly there was some confusion because of Saint Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln. See Hugh of Lincoln.
[edit] Historical Background
Folksongs are snapshots of social relationships at a point in history. Because of the historical context in which folk songs are usually presented, singing this song is no more an indicator that the singer is anti-semitic than singing "The Cooper O' Fife" is a sign that the singer approves of wife-beating. Reading the novels of Patrick O'Brian doesn't mean that the reader hates the French. One of the earliest professional recordings of the song was by A. L. Lloyd on "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol 2" in 1956. The editor and producer was Kenneth Goldstein, himself a Jew. MacColl described it as "the barbaric functioning of medieval thinking". Early collectors were so surprised to find evidence of medieval ways of thinking that they wrote entire books on the subject. James Orchard Halliwell wrote "Ballads and Poems Respecting Hugh of Lincoln" in 1849. In the same year, and unknown to Halliwell, Irishman Abraham Hume wrote the book "Sir Hugh of Lincoln, or, an Examination of a Curious Tradition respecting the Jews, with a notice of the Popular Poetry connected with it". None of the ballad versions mention any punishment for the killing.
[edit] Standard References
Child cites this as being one of the oldest ballads, because it appears to belong to the middle ageas, perhaps as old as the thirteenth century. The Columbia State University Website [[1]] discusses it. On Mudcat the words are given [[2]] and the controversy is discussed [[3]].
[edit] Broadsides
Percy's "Reliques" has a version from Scotland. David Herd (1776) had a version, and so did Robert Jameison (1806).
[edit] Textual Variants
As well the proposterous Scottish versions which magically relocate from Scotland to Lincoln, there is a version from Northamptonshire which says the boy was killed "like a pig" - something which makes no sense in the context of Jews. This probably indicates that the singer is unfamiliar with Jewish customs. A version from Northumberland sets the events at Easter.
[edit] Non-English variants
There is an Anglo-Norman version (medieval French) and a fragment in Latin (Matthew Paris's "Chronicles").
[edit] Songs that refer to Sir Hugh
None
[edit] Motifs
The idea of a corpse speaking (sending thoughts) to the living occurs in the ballad "The Murder of Maria Marten", "The Cruel Mother" (Child 20) and in "The Unquiet Grave". Gruesome killings are quite common in Child ballads.
[edit] Literature
Ever since the Enlightenment anti-semitism has been a no-go area in literature. Geoffrey Chaucer mentions the legend (not the ballad) in "The Prioress's Tale". Martin Luther wrote the book "On The Jews and Their Lies". Shakespeare's Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" demands a pound of flesh, and this play is sometimes claimed as being an anti-semitic play. In 1905 "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" appeared, but even they do not suggest that Jews are involved in the ritual killing of children. It is simply not a credible motive for a crime.
[edit] Art
None known.
[edit] Television and Movie References
None.
[edit] Music
There was no printed tune for the ballad until Edward Francis Rimbault's "Musical Illustrations of Bishob Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" (1850).
[edit] Recordings
| Album/Single | Performer | Year | Variant | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The English and Scottish Popular Ballads vol 3 | A. L. Lloyd | 1956 | Sir Hugh | The earliest known professional recording. |
| Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland | Cecilia Costello | 1961 | The Jew's Garden | . |
| The Long Harvest Vol 5 | Ewan MacColl | 1967 | Sir Hugh | . |
| The Cock Doth Craw | Ian Campbell | 1968 | Little Sir Hugh | . |
| Commoner's Crown | Steeleye Span | 1975 | Little Sir Hugh | . |
| Shreds and Patches | John Kirkpatrick and sue Harris | 1977 | Little Sir William | . |
| Lost Lady Found | Vikki Clayton | 1997 | Sir Hugh of Lincoln | . |
| Heading for Home | Peggy Seeger | 2003 | Fatal Flower Garden | . |
| The Harry Smith Project | Gavin Friday | 2006 | Fatal Flower Garden | . |
[edit] Musical variants
None.
[edit] Other songs with the same tune
None.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
A school in Woodhall Spa Lincolnshire is named St Hughs' School after this story. The school badge is a picture of the ball going over the wall in white on a red background
[edit] Further reading
- "The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms 1350-1500" by Anthony Bale
