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The Two Brothers / Two Pretty Boys

[ Roud 38 ; Child 49 ; Ballad Index C049 ; trad.]

Peter Bellamy sang Two Pretty Boys unaccompanied on his third solo LP, The Fox Jumps Over the Parson's Gate. A.L. Lloyd commented in the liner notes:

Francis James Child called this ballad The Two Brothers, and it's No. 49 in his great compilation. As is often the case, there is more to this ballad than meets the ear. The songs has its relatives not only in Britain but on the continent too, and tracing its sundry versions we find that it concerns not merely a violent bit of schoolboy horseplay but a murderous quarrel over a patch of land, and beyond that, in the oldest versions of all, we find that the root of the dispute is in incestuous jealousy, with both brothers enamoured of their sister.

Peter Bellamy learnt the song from a recording by Lucy Stewart of Fetterangus, Aberdeenshire (see: The Child Ballads 1 (The Folk Songs of Britain Vol. 4, Caedmon 1961, Topic 1968).

Belle Stewart sang The Twa Brothers too (in a recording made by Fred Kent in Blairgowrie, Perthshire in May 1976) on her album Queen Among the Heather and on the anthology O'er His Grave the Grass Grew Green (The Voice of the People Series Vol. 3, 1998).

Nic Jones recorded this ballad with its customary title, The Two Brothers, and with somewhat different lyrics for his eponymous second album, Nic Jones. He commented in the album notes:

The motive for the murder is not given in this ballad but other versions include the possibility of jealousy on the elder brother's part. Superstition and the supernatural rear their ugly head in the last verses of the song as the buried man explains that he cannot sleep peacefully in his grave while his love weeps and mourns. It seems to me to be highly predictable that supernatural elements should appear in folk songs, for superstition has obviously played a massive role in the mental attitudes of the imaginative, but largely uneducated mass of people. It is only when education and reason begin breaking through, that the old superstitions begin to die out until some social upheaval again plunges people in insecurity and a world of primeval phantoms and witches. Perhaps we shall never be quite rid of it, at least, not as long as folk songs are still sung!

Former Witch of Elswick, Fay Hield learnt Two Brothers from Peter Bellamy's recording and sang it in 2010 on her first solo CD, Looking Glass.

Jon Boden sang Two Pretty Boys as the August 10, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Other Two Brothers songs

Mike Waterson sang a burlesque song with the same title, The Two Brothers, on his eponymous LP, Mike Waterson. A.L. Lloyd commented in the sleeve notes:

This burlesque of a traditional song was a music hall success of the 1850s. It came to the surface again as a college boys' song in America in the 1880s, with the brothers re-named as Bohunkus and Josephus. Frank Crumit gave it new life in the early 1930s. And here it is again, just to prove you can't keep a damnfool song down. This is another one that Mike got from Paul Graney.

Isla Cameron's Two Brothers on the album Songs from ABC Television's “Hallelujah” is still another song with just the same title.

Lyrics

Peter Bellamy sings Two Pretty Boys	Nic Jones sings The Two Brothers
Two pretty boys was going to school, All in the evening coming home, Said the biggest boy to the littlest boy, 𝄆 “Oh, can you throw a stone?” 𝄇	Well it's of two brothers a-going to school, A-going to the very same school. And one of them to the other said, “Can you take a wrestle and fall?”
“Well, I can either throw a stone And a little can I play at the ball, But if you come down to yon green wood 𝄆 I will try you a wrestling fall.” 𝄇
So they're away to the merry greenwood For to try a wrestling fall, But big brother John stuck his little penknife And stabbed William to the ground, He stabbed William to the ground.	And the very first fall the eldest gave, He fell into the ground. And he's taken out his little penknife And he's given him a deadly wound.
“Oh, you'll pull off my white linen shirt And tear it from gore to gore, And wrap it all around my wound 𝄆 That the blood may flow no more.” 𝄇	“Take me up, take me up all in your arms And carry me to yonder church ground. And dig a grave both wide and deep And gently lay me down.”
So he's pulled off his white linen shirt And he tore it from gore to gore, And wrapped it round his brother's wound 𝄆 But the blood came ten times more. 𝄇	O he's took him up all in his arms And he's carried him to yonder church ground. And he's dug a grave both wide and deep And gently laid him down.
“Oh what will your dear father think Tonight when I come home?” “Just tell him I'm away to the London school, 𝄆 And a good boy I'll return.” 𝄇	“And what shall I tell my mother dear This night when I go home?” “Just tell her I'm running in yonder green wood, A-bringing my school books home.”
“But what will your dear step-mother think Tonight when I come home?” “Just tell her that I've breath(?) it right for me, 𝄆 Was that I might never return.” 𝄇	“And what shall I tell your Suzie dear This night when I go home?” “Just tell her I'm down in yonder churchyard, A-buried beneath the ground.”
	But she's wept and she's cried so bitterly, She's wept from door to door. And she's wept him away from his own gravestone For rest he could find no more.
	“And why do you weep my Suzie dear, And why do you weep for me?” “It's just one kiss from your clay lips That's all I ask of thee.”
	“Then go home, go home, my Suzie dear, Go home and leave me be. And don't stay here to weep and mourn For my body you'll never more see.”
	Well it's of two brothers a-going to school, A-going to the very same school. And one of them to the other said, “Can you take a wrestle and fall?”

Mike Waterson sings his The Two Brothers

There was a farmer had two sons
And both these sons was brothers
And the one son's name it were Adolphus John
And John Adolphus was the other

Now these two brothers had an hoss
And it were very thin
So they taken it to the River Went
And pushed the bugger in

Now these two brothers died they did
From eating fish and jelly
And Adolphus John he died on his back
And John Adolphus died on his belly

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Greer Gilman for the transcription of Mike Waterson's singing.