‘Le Testament du Garcon Empoisonne’: A French ‘Lord Randal’ in Acadie

Abstract

FRANCIS James Child mentions a Veronese broadside of 1629 as textual evidence of the existence of 'Lord (No.12) in Italy as early as the 17th century.2 The ballad, he says, is also found in several other European countries, among which France is not mentioned. And yet, on the eastern coast of Canada, formerly called Acadie, a French 'Lord Randal', classed as 'Le testament du garqon empoisonnd' in Conrad Laforte's Catalogue3 and at the National Museum of Man in Ottawa, has been repeatedly collected. A comparative study of versions of those two ballads will shed light on the nature and extent of contacts between the francophone and the anglophone communities in Eastern Canada, as well as on the role of translation in the formation of the traditional repertoire. Child publishes fifteen versions of 'Lord Randal,' which he identifies with letters A to O. These versions come from manuscript or printed transcriptions, and were collected in Scotland, in Ireland, in Suffolk, England, and in New England in the United States. Because of variations in the narrative structure, only four of Child's versions concern us here: versions A, B, C, and D, all from Scotland. According to Child, they are 19th century texts, transcribed either at the beginning or in the middle of the last century. Child selects 'Lord Randal' as a critical title even though the hero bears various other names, because, he says, 'that name occurs in one of the better versions, and because it has become famous through Scott's Minstrelsy.'4 'Lord Randal' is widely known in North America, where many versions were collected, in particular in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and in New England.5 Helen Creighton publishes two versions and a fragmentary text from Nova Scotia.6 Phillips Barry prints fifteen versions in his British Ballads from Maine. One of his texts, version H entitled 'Lord Ronald my Son,' was sent to him from New Brunswick by a lady who had learnt this song from her mother in Scotland. The informant of Barry's L version quitted New Brunswick and settled in Maine before 1870. Version G was collected from an old lady who learned it in her youth in Ireland. Helen Hartness Flanders also publishes nineteen versions or fragments of 'Lord Randal' collected in New England.8 Some of her versions proceed from Ireland and Scotland, while one informant acknowledges having learnt her version (B) from her mother, born in Abercorn, Quebec, in 1853. French versions of 'Lord Randal' were collected on the Atlantic coast of Canada, despite the fact that this song is unknown in France. In French, the