M.Roth: “Johnny Randall” is a common
enough name that any reference to the ballad would seem tenuous were it not for
the following, taken from Louise Strong’s essay on “Oral Literature,” which
appeared in several different publications in the first half of the 20th
century, including The Cambridge History of American Literature (1921): Lord
Randal . . . appears as Johnny Randall in Colorado, Jimmy Randall in Illinois,
Jimmy Ransing in Indiana, Johnny Ramble in Ohio, and Jimmy Randolph in North
Carolina. Given this information, we can now understand the pseudonym to mean
“Johnny Randall, [or] Ramble [in] Ohio.” We can also understand the
reference as mirroring the way Quilty’s identity changes as he moves from state
to state. He is the same, but his name alters, a la Johnny
Randall."
JM: Fabulous detective work and a great find
(the changing names, the text of the ballad...).
Did the poisoned boy want to hang his mother, is she
his "true love"? ["What will you will your mother, my own pretty boy, /What
will you will your mother, my heart's loving joy?"/"A twisted hemp rope, for to
hang her up high; /Mother, make my bed easy till I lie down and die."]
You wondered about HH and food-poisoning, but
did you check in the VN-E.Wlson Letters for the date when VN himself suffered
from a serious digestive disorder (minutely detailed in an epistle to
Bunny),in relation to the chronology of "Lolita"'s composition?
Congratulations, again!