The Golden Vanity (Child 286)
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Francis Child indexed the song as “The Sweet Trinity,” which was the name of one of Sir Walter Raleigh’s vessels. Whether the events in the song have any real relation to Raleigh is a mystery. In contrast to “In the Pines,” which Shaleane recently discussed, we have a coherent story, although details among the versions differ. Like “In the Pines,” though, we have no idea what events the song refers to, if any at all.
Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552-1618)
Raleigh died about 17 years before the first known appearance of the song, and long before the broadside version above. While the songwriter may originally have meant to vilify him as part of the political and religious conflicts that led to Raleigh’s execution, I have yet to find any historical reference to such an episode or, for that matter, any evidence that Sir Walter Raleigh had daughters. Fresno State’s Folklore Index entry for the song identifies some potential historical precedents for it, but concedes that we cannot tie it definitively to any known event. Raleigh simply may have served for a time as the (un)worthy, and conveniently deceased, placeholder for the nobility, his name passing out of the song when it no longer carried that weight.
“A sailor who got ahead of himself”
Whether we can find the “true” story in history is now beside the point, in light of the song’s compelling, compressed drama of heroism, social class, high-seas adventure, betrayal, and perhaps romance. That various versions hone the narrative over time affirms that the song is a far worthier vessel for conveying themes important to singers and listeners than it is for conveying anything about Raleigh.
Within the logic of the song, the captain’s betrayal is less significant for killing the cabin boy than it is for keeping him in his place socially. Whether or not the cabin boy dies, whether or not the captain agrees only to the financial reward he promised, the cabin boy never gets the girl in any version. Child 286 can be thought of as “murder ballad by association,” certainly fitting within our broad definition, but only because killing the cabin boy sharpens the song’s critique of the captain’s dishonorable actions in backing out on the promised betrothal.
This theme of social place, or “rising above one’s station” most intrigued me about this song once I really heard it. What was at stake for singers and listeners in the tragic reversal of the cabin boy’s ambitious bargain? In a live performance of the song a few years ago, actor John C. Reilly, described “Golden Vanity” as being about “a sailor who got ahead of himself.” Reilly’s duet performance is musically quite sweet, but I was still hung up on his introductory gloss. Framing it that way makes it less about the captain’s going back on his word and more about the cabin boy’s setting his sights unrealistically high.
In this reading, the song gives voice to our attachment to unrealizable hopes, perhaps affording consolation that they are not reached. Child 286 goes under many aliases. That “vanity” appears in the title of many versions and as the name of the ship in still more suggests that this word has salience. Though we might celebrate the cabin boy’s aspirations or condemn the captain’s excessive pride, perhaps the song echoes Ecclesiastes’ “vanity, vanity; all is vanity,” and implicitly indicts the foolhardiness of all human wishes.
In Stecher’s version, though, I sympathized with the cabin boy and the unfairness of it all. That was the point of resonance for me; hopelessly romantic, perhaps, but decidedly not resigned to fate. Sure, he didn’t undertake his dangerous mission completely altruistically. He only did so after the bargain was struck, but he gets some sympathy by being the unlikeliest of heroes. As we’ll hear in some of the other versions we’ll listen to in this post, the tone used to tell this story of betrayal can be mournful sadness or a defiant “Up yours!” to the injustice of the outcome. The latter is Stecher’s take, I think, and I prefer it.
Illustration for “The Golden Vanity”
by Pamela Colman Smith
Stecher celebrates the hero more than he mourns his loss. He writes in the liner notes for Going Up On the Mountain “I first heard ‘The Golden Vanity’ when I was very young. I remember thinking about it for a long time, imagining myself to be the drowning cabin boy, but sometimes swimming to safety. This ballad didn’t do much for instilling in me a trust of uniformed authority.”
The cabin boy’s actions demonstrate his greater inner nobility despite his lesser worldly status. Some versions emphasize this nobility by having the cabin boy declare that while he could sink “The Golden Vanity” just as he had sunk the enemy galley, he will not do so for the love of the crew (and, in a couple versions, for the captain’s daughter herself). When he dies, he has earned the sympathy of the crew, who bury him at sea with honor. By contrast, the captain’s betrayal is implicitly condemned, but unpunished, at least in most versions. In a few versions, the sea takes its revenge on the captain.