Captain Ward and the Rainbow

Captain Ward and the Rainbow, or Ward the Pirate (Roud 224, Child 287) is an English-language folk song. It recounts a tale of the pirate Captain Ward, likely Jack Ward.

Synopsis

The king sends a ship, the Rainbow, after Captain Ward. In one variant, the ship carries 500 seamen, in another it carries 1,300. Ward defeats the Rainbow and sends taunts back to the king, "If he reign king of all the land, I will reign king at sea." In many variants, Ward claims to have never harmed an English ship.

Lyrics

See also

• List of the Child Ballads
• Scottish mythology
• English folklore

Musical adaptations

• The song was set for four-part chorus (TTBB) by Ralph Vaughan Williams in Folk Songs from the Eastern Counties (1912). Williams had previously (1906) made use of the melody in his Norfolk Rhapsodies.
• Being a well-documented song and publicised by English Folk Dance and Song Society, The Broadside Ballads Project, and Mainly Norfolk, the song was recorded by Jon Boden and Oli Steadman for inclusion in their respective lists of daily folk songs "A Folk Song A Day" and "365 Days Of Folk".

References

External links

• Captain Ward and the Rainbow