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?