This is the original of the Cockney _Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman_,
illustrated by Cruikshank, and by Thackeray. There is a vast number of
variants, evidence to the antiquity of the story. The earliest known
trace is in the familiar legend of the Saracen lady, who sought and found
her lover, Gilbert Becket, father of Thomas à Becket, in London (see
preface to _Life of Becket_, or Beket), Percy Society, 1845. The date
may be _circ._ 1300. The kind of story, the loving daughter of the cruel
captor, is as old as Medea and Jason, and her search for her lover comes
in such _Märchen_ as “The Black Bull o’ Norraway.” No story is more
widely diffused (see _A Far Travelled Tale_, in the Editor’s _Custom and
Myth_). The appearance of the “True Love,” just at her lover’s wedding,
is common in the _Märchen_ of the world, and occurs in a Romaic ballad,
as well as in many from Northern Europe. The “local colour”—the Moor or
Saracen—is derived from Crusading times, perhaps. Motherwell found the
ballad recited with intervals of prose narrative, as in _Aucassin and
Nicolette_. The notes to Cruikshank’s _Loving Ballad_ are, obviously, by
Thackeray.