Broadside ballad entitled 'Lord Beigham'

Commentary

Verse 1: 'Young Beigham was a noble Lord, / A noble lord of high degree, / he got himself on board a ship, / some foreign countries for to see. / He sailed east he sailed west, / till he came to Turkey, / Till he was taken and put in prison, / Till of his life he grew quite weary.'

'Lord Beigham' tells the story of a seafaring nobleman who makes a vow of marriage to a Turkish woman who saves his life, then almost forgets his promise. Ballads which combined romance with travel and adventure were always popular, and 'Lord Beigham' was undoubtedly reprinted on several occasions. Another version is held in Glasgow University Library as part of the Murray Collection, a collection of several hundred nineteenth-century broadside ballads amassed by a Glasgow solicitor, David Murray.

Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.

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