ROUD 57: Fause Foodrage
AKA: False Foodrage, False Foudrage, Fause Footrage, King O'Luve, The Eastmuir King
Another very rarely performed ballad today, as demonstrated by the paucity (in number, definitely not in quality as you will see below) of recorded versions available, but obviously popular in earlier times as it frequently appears in a number of 19th and early 20th century ballad books. We’ll have a look in those later. A reasonable summary of the expansive plot (featuring a rare happy ending) can be found on the ballad’s Wikipedia page.
Music
A fairly limited Youtube playlist, with a mere four entries, but spanning possibly the widest genre gap, including as it does the fragmentary Child “C” version set to simple acoustic guitar accompaniment by Hermes Nye in 1957, all the way to an incredibly modern and compelling spoken word version from Aris Halkias.
There’s also this one on Bandcamp from Brian Peters, in which he collates a great story from the fragmentary traditional versions, and sets it to one of the tunes for Lord Gregory, with great effect.
There are a couple more versions that are not so easy to find. Firstly Katherine Campbell recorded it under the title East Muir King for her excellent 2004 album “The Songs of Amelia and Jane Harris”.
You can buy that here, and if you are at all interested in Scottish balladry, I would highly recommend it.
Finally Chris Coe (normally found in the recorded era with her husband Pete) recorded an a capella version on her 2001 CD “A Wiser Fool”. This only seems to be available in very limited numbers second hand so I’ll give you a clip below:
Hermes Nye
One of the very few recorded versions available is the short Child “C” fragmentary version set in to the old Perthshire tune from about 1790 by Texan lawyer, author and folk song collector Hermes Nye in the 1950s. He recorded it under the title “King O’Luve”.
I don't know much about him, but he did say this, on the subject of traditional folk songs: "Love to sing them, love to hear other people sing them, love to learn new ones. That's about all." - so he can't have been all bad. He said in his sleeve notes to the album on which his version of Roud 57 appears: “I have a sneaking fondness for the English things from Percy and Child, especially when I can find Texas versions.” His albums are available on Folkways recordings, including the one from which King O’Luve is taken. And because Folkways do things properly, you can download the scans of the original sleevenotes from their website.
He also wrote several books and articles. In 1965, taking advantage of the burgeoning folk revival, he published this one, snappily titled "How to be a folksinger; How to sing and present folksongs; or, The folksinger’s guide; or, Eggs I have laid."
It consists of "23 folk songs complete with words, melody lines, guitar chords, more than 50 photos. Includes information on selection of an instrument, vocal training (yes or no), where to perform, how much to charge, publicity tips, programming, use of sound systems etc."
I’d love to read it, if only to see where the eggs come in (or rather, out). Initially I could only find one copy, in the US, with frankly astronomical postage fees. But at the time of writing I am happy to announce I have found a much more affordably dispatched one on eBay. I’ll post a review of it, if and when it arrives.
Mrs Brown, Fause Foodrage and the “fake” ballad of Hardyknute
In the early 18th century Lady Wardlaw, a member of Fife’s minor aristocracy and self-styled poet, presented a ballad she had found as a number of fragmentary verses "wrapped round the bottoms of clues" called Hardyknute, an heroic ballad supposedly telling the tale of the 1263 Battle of Largs. It was later surmised that in fact the ballad was a literary concoction by Wardlaw, to which she more or less admitted, while insisting there were some ancient fragments in there. But we shall never know the full extent of Wardlaw’s poetic embellishment.
Some years later, Anna Gordon, the young daughter of a professor of philosophy from Aberdeen, spent some time in the care of her aunt, a ageing ex-shepherdess called Mrs Farquhar. In this time, Mrs Farquhar taught her young charge a number of ballads she had committed to memory from the old nurses and countrywomen she had encountered in her rural upbringing around Braemar. The young girl also had a prodigious memory by all accounts and many years later, Anna Brown (she had married the Revd Dr Andrew Brown and moved to Falkland - she is often cited among ballad scholars as “Mrs Brown of Falkland”) could recount 37 of the ballads, of which remain a written record of 33. One of which was the 35-verse version of False Foodrage recorded by Child as version “A”. (As was customary, Scottish ballad collector Walter Scott who wrote the ballad down did a bit of polishing on the way - in his words, the ballad “was 'chiefly' from Mrs Brown's MS; in fact, with not quite forty petty alterations”.) This version contains the line:
The boy stared wild like a gray gose-hawke,
This aroused the suspicions of the Walter Scott, well known for his forthright pronouncements on the subject of ballad provenance, as the now discredited literary ballad-poem of Hardyknute contains the line:
Norss' een like gray gosehawk's stair'd wyld
…suggesting that Brown’s version of False Foodrage may also be a literary construct from the same source. There was a brief debate, ultimately Scott satisfied himself and others that this was either just coincidence or probably just a bit of false memory or poetic license from Brown, as in fact most of False Foodrage withstands considerably more scrutiny as an ancient text. Another one of Scott’s high society friends, Lady Douglas, confirmed this to be the case, as she herself could remember some of the verses of this old song.
You can read more about Mrs Brown and her received repertoire in this comprehensive JSTOR article from 1913.
Ballad illustrations
It’s said by multiple sources that False Foodrage was a popular ballad in the 19th century. This is borne out by the number of illustrations given to it in some of the more luxurious ballad books. For example, at the top of this page, the depiction of the richly moustachioed Foodrage immediately following his murderous act is illustrated by H.D. Chadwick in George Barnett Smith’s “Illustrated British ballads, old and new” from 1881. There are two more given with the ballad, the following depicting the dramatic moment that the babies are swapped:
and this, which shows Wise William and the now-grown son, at the point that the son is told the truth about Foodrage and the full circumstances of his birth.
Smith’s is not the only book that chose to present artist’s renderings of the ballad’s main points. The following shows the seven illustrations from the even more extravagantly illustrated tome “The book of British ballads”, by S. C. Hall from 1842.
The final page shows what is for balladry a rare happy ending for this rollercoaster of a story.
Draft pages and audio guide
There’s so much more I could say about this. Most of my information page in the book as you will see below is given over to the substantial plot summary. I did manage to squeeze in some baseless speculation as to the name “Foodrage” though.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Sing Yonder: A Practical Guide to Traditional Song to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.