4_The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 5 (of 5)

‘Fatt nead I my apron wash,

Or hang upon yon dor?

For side an wid is my petecot,

An eaen doun afore.

‘Bat I will laice my stays agean,

My middel jump an smaa;

I ull gaa a’ my days a meaden,

Awaa, Earell, awaa!’

It fell ance upon a day Lord Earell

Went to hunt him lean,

. . . . . . . .

He was na a mill fra the toun,

Nor yett sae far awaa,

Till his lady is on to Edinbrugh,

To tray him att the laa.

Littel did Lord Earell think,

Fan he satt doun to dine,

That his lady was one to Edinbrugh,

Nor fatt was in her mind.

Till his best servant came

For to latt him kenn,

. . . . . .

She was na in att the toun-end,

Nor yett sa far awa,

Till Earell he was att her back,

His goudy lokes to sha.

She was na in att the toun-head,

Nor just att the eand,

Till Earell he was att her back,

Her earent for to ken.

‘As lang as they caa ye Kett Carnegë,

An me Sir Gilbert Hay,

I us gar yer father sell Kinnerd,

Yer tougher for to pay.’

‘For to gar my father sell Kennerd,

It wad be a sin,

To gee’t to ony naughty knight

That a toucher canna wine.’

Out spak the first lord,

The best among them a’;

‘I never seed a lady come to Edinbrugh

We sick matters to the laue.’

Out spak the nixt lord,

The best of the toun;

‘Ye gett fiften weell-fared maids,

An pitt them in a roun,

An Earl in the midst of them,

An latt him chouss out ane.’

They ha gotten fiften well-fared maids,

An pat them in a roun,

An Earel in the mids of them,

An bad him chuse out ane.

He voued them a’ intell a rau,

Even up an doun,

An he has chossen a well-fared may,

An Meggie was her name.

He touk her by the hand,

Afore the nobles a’,

An tuenty times he kissed her moue,

An lead her throu the haa.

‘Louk up, Meggie, luke up, Meggie,

An thinkne sham[e];

As lang as ye see my goudy loks,

Lady Earel’s be yer name.’

Thir was fifteen nobelmen,

An as mony ladys gay,

To see Earel proven a man

. . . . . .

‘Ye tak this well-fared may,

An keep her three roun reaths of a year,

An even att the three raiths’ end

I ull draue near.’

They ha tane that well-fared may,

An kepeed her three roun reaths of a year,

An even att the three raiths’ end

Earel’s son she bare.

The gentelmen they ga a shout,

The ladys gaa a caa,

Fair mat faa him Errel,

But vou to his lady!

He was na in at the toun-head,

Nor just att the end,

Till the letters they wer metting him

That Errol had a son.

‘Luke up, Megie, luk up, Meggie,

An think na shame;

As lang as ye see my bra blak hat,

Lady Earrol’s be yer name.

‘I will gie my Meggie a mill,

Bat an a pice of land,

. . . . . .

To foster my young son.

‘Fare is a’ my merry men a’,

That I pay meat an gair,

For to convë my Meggie hame,

.. .. .?’

. . . . . . .

Even in Lord Earrel’s coach

They conved the lassie hame.

‘Tak hame yer dother, Lord Kennard,

An take her to the glen,

For Earell canno pleas her,

Earell nor a’ his men.’

‘Had I ben lady of Earrol,

Of sick a boony place,

I wadne gain to Edinbrugh

My husband to disgrace.’

* * * * *

_Refrain. Given only at the end._

15^4, 16^2. roum.

20^2. gay ladys.

24^4. that that.

288. =E= is also in the small MS. volume of C. K. Sharpe’s, “Songs,” p.

17. The reading in 3^4 is “toss,” “top” being a mis-copy.

289. Findlay MSS, I, 135; ‘Airlie,’ from Miss Butchart, Arbroath.

Lord Airlie’s courted mony a lady,

He’s courted mony a ane, O

An he’s awa to bonny Kinnaird,

Lady Katrine’s love to win. O

An when he cam to bonny Kinnaird,

An on the bowlin-green,

There he saw his ain Katrine,

Was walking there alane.

‘O will ye go to bonnie Airlie,

Alang wi me to dine?

Or will ye go to bonny Airlie,

To be my lady fine?’

‘I winna go to bonny Airlie

Alang wi you to dine,

But I will go to bonny Airlie

To be your lady fine.’

* * * * * * *

He would not hae the lady gay,

That rustled in her silk,

But he would hae the country-girl,

Goin to sell her milk.

He took his Peggie by the hand

An led her through the ha,

An twenty times he kissëd her,

Before the nobles a’.

He took his Peggie by the hand

An led her through the trance,

An twenty times he kissëd her

Before he bade her dance.

Findlay MSS, I, 153, from Bell Harris, Muirside of Kinnell,

Forfarshire, “once a servant of the family of Carnegie, and now upwards

of eighty years of age (1868).”

They hae made a marriage o’t,

An they hae made it sune, O

An they hae made a marrige o’t,

It stood at Earlstoon. O

When een was come, an bells were rung,

An a’ men boond for bed,

The earl and his gay ladie

In ae chamber were laid.

It’s up i the mornin the earl rose,

Went to anither room;

Up she rose an away she goes,

An to Kinnaird she came.

They socht her up, they socht her doon,

They socht her through a’ the toon,

An she was seen walkin her lane,

An her bed-goon it was on.

He wissd his horse had broken’s neck

When first he to Kinnaird did come.

There was na ane bade him come in

But John Lindsay him lane.

When he was at bonny Kinnaird,

An on the bowlin-green,

His hair was like the threeds o gold,

An his eyes like diamonds sheen;

He micht’ll ae served the best Carnegie,

That ever bore the name.

He said, Tho ye be Kate Carnegie,

I am Sir Gilbert Hay;

I’ll gar your father sell Kinnaird,

Your tocher-gude he maun pay.

‘To gar my father sell his land

I think it were a sin,

For ony silly brat like you;

Ye couldna tocher win.

‘I may wash my apron

An hing it on the tower,

An I may kilt my petticoats,

They’re even doon afore.’

But the earl he’s awa to Edinbro,

To prove himself a man;

The lady she fast followd him,

To swear that he was none.

An when they cam to Edinbro,

And into the ha,

There she saw her ain gude lord,

Amang the nobles a’.

He took the tapster-lass

An led her through the room,

An twenty times he kissed her mou,

Afore his lady’s een.

She took the cocks all frae her head

An dashed them at the wa;

‘Awa! awa, Lord Earl!’ she says,

‘Awa, Lord Earl, awa!’

But the earl he hae gotten leave

To choise a maid unto himsel,

An he hae choised a country-lass,

Cam butter an eggs to sell.

He took the lassie by the hand

An led her through the room:

‘I’d gie thee three times three hundred pound,

If you’d bear to me a son.’

‘Haud aff your hands, Lord Earl,’ she said,

‘Haud aff your hands frae me;

For I wad think it a great disgrate

For a’ my kin an me.’

But he has called for a private room,

An there he laid her doun,

An there he took his will o her,

Upon a bed o down.

She was three quarters of a year

Confined to a room,

And bonny was the babe she bore,

Sir John Hay was his name.

‘Wae be to you, Peggie Stuart,

That ae sister o mine!

Ye’ve pairted me an my gude lord,

We’ll never meet again.’

Up spak her sister, Lady Jean,

. . . . . .

An I could gain sick an estate,

I wad gien my husband up to disdain.

* * * * *

6^2. John Lindsay _is explained to be_ the gardener.

11^3. They lady.

13^4. _Followed by_ Wi twenty lookin on, _perhaps an alternative

verse_.

14^1. She _is explained as the tapster-lass_.

20^1. _Query by Mr Findlay_: Lady Jean?

290. =D b.= Now collated with a MS. of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe,

and with another copy of the same pieces in “North Country Ballads,”

Miscellanea Curiosa, Abbotsford Library.

Sharpe, p. 15. _Burden_ ^{1,3}. of it.

_Burden_ ^3. you call: of it.

^4. lies alone O.

1^3. at it grows.

2^2. upon a.

2^4. He’s not.

4^1. It’s sure.

6^3. good witness.

7^3. Said, Had I been the lady of Errol.

7^4. of such.

8^3. And he gave her an.

10^1. lien down.

10^2. And a.

12^1. Take home.

12^2. take.

12^3. cannot please her.

Scott.

7^4. O come.

12^4. No can.

232. Richie Story.

P. 292 b, 2d paragraph, first line. Say: L. F., a daughter of John,

third Earl.

3d paragraph. Say: Lord John Fleming was created Earl of Wigton, Lord

Fleming of Biggar and Cumbernauld, by letters patent dated 19th March,

1606. Hunter (2d ed.), p. 547.

293. =B=, as it stands in “The Old Lady’s Collection,” No 21.

Comarnad it is a very bonny place,

An ther is ladys three, madam,

Bat the farest an rarest of them a’

Has marred Richerd Storry.

‘O hear is a letter to ye, madam,

Hear is a letter to ye, madam;

The Earl of Hume, that galant knight,

Is fain in love we you, madam.

‘Ther is a letter to you, madam,

[Ther is a letter to you, madam;]

The Eearl of Hume, that galant knight,

Disers to be yer servant trou, madam.’

‘I ill haa nan of his letters, Richerd,

I ill hae nane of his letters, [Richerd,]

I have voued, an I ill keep it trou,

I ill marry nane bat ye, Richie.’

‘Say na saa to me, lady,

Sai na saie to me, lady,

For I ha nether lands nor rents

For to manten ye on, lady.’

‘Hunten Tour an Tillebarn,

The house of Athell is mine, Richë,

An ye sall haa them a’,

Fan ever ye inclen, Richë.

‘For we will gaa to sea, Richë,

I ill sitt on the deak, Richë,

I ill be yer servant air an lait,

Att any houre ye laek, [Richë.]’

‘O manie ye be sad, sister,

An mennie ye be sorry, Nelly,

To live the has of bony Comernid,

An follou Richert Storry?’

‘O fatt neads I be sad, sister,

Or fou cane I be sorry, Anna?

A bony lad is my delit,

An my lot has been laid afore me.’

As she wen[t] up the Parliment Closs,

We her lassed shene so fine,

Monny an bad the lady good day,

But fue thought she was Richert’s lady.

As she went up the Parliment Closs,

We her laised shon so fine,

Monny an halled that gay lady,

But fue halled Richerd Storry.

* * * * *

_The first, second, and fourth verse, perhaps, certainly the second and

fourth, should have the trochaic ending which we find in stanzas 2, 5.

It may have been supplied ad libitum._

296. =F a.= Preserved in a small MS. volume with the title “Songs” on

the cover, entirely in Sharpe’s handwriting, p. 27.

297. =I.= A stanza from the authority of Nannie Blake, an old servant

at Peebles: Robert Chambers, in Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1880, p. 131.

‘Fair Rosewoodie is a’ my ain,

My father left it to me so lately;

Gin ye’ll consent to be my ain,

I’ll gie ye’t a’, my Ritchie Storie.’

235. The Earl of Aboyne.

P. 314. =C.= Here given as it stands in “The Old Lady’s Collection,” No

The Earl of Aboyn he’s carrlis an kind,

An he is nou come frae Lonon;

He sent his man him befor,

To tell of his hame-coming.

First she called on her chambermad,

Sayn on Jeanie, her gentelwoman:

‘Bring me a glass of the best claret wine,

To drink my good lord’s well-hame-coming.

‘My sarvants all, be ready att a call,

. . . . . . . .

For the Lord of Aboy[n] is coming.

‘My cooks all, be ready at a [c]all,

. . . . . . . .

We the very best of meatt,

For the Lord of Aboyn is coming.

‘My maids all, be ready at a call,

. . . . . . . .

The rooms we the best all to be drest,

For the Lord of Aboyn is coming.’

She did her to the closs to take him from his hors,

An she welcomed him fra London:

. . . . . . . . .

‘Yer welcome, my gued lord, fra London!’

‘An I be saie welcom,’ he says,

‘Ye’ll kiss me for my coming,

For the morn sud ha ben my weding-day

Gif I had stayed att London.’

She turned her about we a disdanfull look,

O dear, she was a pritty woman!

‘Gin the morn sud ha ben yer weding-day,

Ye may kiss yer houers at London.’

. . . . . . . . .

‘So I shall, madam, an ye’s ha na mare to say,

For I ill dine we the markes of Huntly.’

She did her to his servant-man,

I wat they caed him Peater Gordon:

‘Ye will ask my good lord if he will late me

We him a singel mille to ride [to London].’

‘You ned not, madam,. .. .

I haae asked him already;

He will not lett you a singel mille ride,

For he is to dine we the markes of Huntly.’

She called on her chamber-maid,

Sine on Jean, her gentelwoman:

‘Ye make my bed an tay up my head,

Vou’s me for his hear coming!’

She lived a year an day, we mucell grife an wae,

The docters were we her dealing;

Withen a crak, her heart it brack,

An the letters they went to London.

He gae the table we his foot,

An caped it we his knee,

Gared silver cup an easer dish

In flinders flie.

. . . . . . . .

‘I rader I had lost a’ the lans of Aboyne

Or I had lost bonny Margrat Irven.’

He called on his best servang-man,

I wat they [caed] him Piter Gordon:

‘Ye gett our hosses sadled we speed,

Vou’s me for our hear coming!

‘.. .. .. ..

. . . . . . . .

For we’ll a’ be in black, fra the hose to the hat,

Vou’s me for bonny Margrat Irvicen!

‘We must to the North, to burry her corps,

Aless for our hear coming!

I rather I had lost a’ the lands of Aboyn

Or I had lost bonny Marg[ra]t Irvien!’

* * * * *

1^1. carliss: _perhaps_ courtis.

8^2. pritty: _doubtful_.

318-20. Copies of =G=, =I=, =J=, were sent by Motherwell to C. K.

Sharpe, in a letter dated December 6, 1824. In all the transcripts

there are some slight changes of the MS. text, such as Motherwell

was quite in the way of making. To =I= he added the following lines,

which are found substantially in =J=. They may have been subsequently

recollected by the reciter of =I=.

She has called her servant-maid,

And Jean, her gentlewoman:

‘Go make me a bed and lay me down,

I’m as sick as any woman.’

Word has to new London gane,

To the tavern where he was dining;

He gave such a rap on the table where he sat

Made all the house to wonder.

. . . . . . . .

‘I would rather hae lost a’ the lands o Aboyne

Or I’d lost my Peggy Irvine!’

* * * * *

11^1. _Motherwell suggests_: Word has now to.

321. Findlay MSS, I, 120. ‘The Yerle o Aboyne,’ from Mrs Main,

Inchmarlo, Kincardineshire.

The Yerle o Aboyne’s to London gane,

He met in wi a temptin woman;

For she sat an sang an birld at the wine,

An she wadna lat him hame fae Lunon.

* * * * * * *

‘My cook-maids a’, be well in ca,

Had pots an pans a boilin,

Wi the roast an the boil,

To attend my guid lord’s comin.’

She steppit sae neatly oot the way,

She gaed, she went an met him:

‘Ye’re welcome home, my ain guid lord,

You’r thrice weelcome fae Lunon.’

‘An I be welcome home,’ he says,

‘Ye’ll kiss me for my comin,

For this very day I’d been wedded to a maid

Gin I’d staid langer in Lunon.’

She turnd her about wi a sorrowfu look,

Such a sorry an angry woman!

‘An the letters be true I receivd last frae you,

Gae kiss your whores in Lunon.’

Haem she gaed frae. .. .

. . . . . . .

But wi a crack her heart did brak,

. . . . . . .

Fifty letters seald wi black,

An they are on to Lunon,

An when he lookd the letters upon

He says, O wae’s me for my pairtin!

* * * * * * *

When he cam to bonny Aboyne

He thocht that she was sleepin,

But when he drew the sma curtain by

Then he fell oot a weepin.

‘O dear! is she dead? and a wow! is she dead?

Ah, woe’s me for our pairtin!

I rather had lost a’ the lands o Aboyne

Or I’d pairted wi Peggie Irvine.

* * * * * * *

‘A’ my friends did me disdain

For marryin the name o Irvine.’

The first stanza is also given thus (p. 121):

The Earl of Aboyne he’s courtous an kin,

He’s kin to every woman;

He’s kind when he comes, an he’s kind when he gangs,

But he never brings his lady to London.

From Miss Butchart, Arbroath, p. 146.

The Earl o Aboyne’s to London gane,

An taen Duke Huntly wi him,

* * * * * * *

She called on Jack, her gentleman,

An Jean, her gentlewoman:

‘Gae dress my fair body in some finer dress,

For the Earl o Aboyne is comin.’

* * * * * * *

She’s gaen doun by yon burnside,

An there she saw him comin:

‘Ye’re welcome, welcome, Earl o Aboyne,

Ye’re welcome hame frae Lunon.

* * * * * * *

‘Gae back, gae back then, Earl o Aboyne,

Nae thanks to you for comin;

Gin tomorrow wad hae been your fair weddin-day

Gae kiss your dames in Lunon.’

236. The Laird o Drum.

P. 324. =B=, as it stands in “The Old Lady’s Collection,” No 16, ‘The

Lard of Drum.’

Ther was a knigh[t],

An a gillan knight was he,

An he’s faein in love we his shiperd’s daughter,

. . . . . . .

He could nether gang nor ride;

He fell so deap in her fancy

Till his nose began to blead.

‘Bonny may, an bra may,

Canno ye on me rue?

By a’ the meads I ever saa,

Ther is nane I lou by you.

‘Ye’r a shepherd’s ae dother,

An I am a barron’s son,

An gratt is the pleasur I wad haa

To see you gaa out an in, may.’

‘I am a shiperd’s ae dother,

An ye’r a barron’s son,

An ther is ne pleasur I could ha

To see you gae out nor in.

‘. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

For I widne gee the fancey of my bonny love

For ne love nor favour of you, sir.’

‘Bonny may, an bra may,

Canna ye on me rue?

By a’ the maids I ever saa,

Ther is nane I loie but you.’

‘Lay not your love on me,’ she says,

‘Lay not your love on me,

For I am our lake to be yer bride,

An you[r] quen I ell never be.

‘For I will wear nane of your silks,

Nor nean of yer scarlet clase;

For the hue of the eue sall be my goun,

An I will goo as I pleas.’

‘. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

Ye’r na our lake to be my bride,

An my quien ye’s never be.

‘Bonney may, an bra may,

Winnë ye on me rue?

By a’ the may[s] I see,

Ther is nane I loe but you, may.’

‘If ye ha faen sae deap in my fancy

Ye cane nether gang nor rid,

Ye take me to the middel of the ring,

An bear me guid comp[a]ny.’

He has tane her by the milk-whit hand

An led her thro hase an bours:

‘Ye’r the jule of my heart,

An a’ I have is yours.’

He tuke her by the milk-whit hand

An led her out an in:

‘Ye’r the jule of my heart,

My d[ea]r, ye’r welcom in.’

Out spak his brother John,

‘Brother, ye haa don grate wrong;

Ye ha marred a wife this night

Discredet to all yer kin.’

‘Hold yer toung, my brother John,

For I hae don ne wrang,

For I ha marred a wife to wine,

An ye ha ane to spend.’

* * * * *

May, 4^4, 11^4, sir, 6^4, _are added for singing as_ O _is in

other copies, and either one of these, or_ O, _would naturally be

appended in the other stanzas_.

8^1. Lay not fancyour love on me. _The next line shows that fane was

written by mistake._

325. Findlay’s MS., p. 13, has five stanzas of the ballad, from the

recitation of a woman in Kincardineshire. The five stanzas are very

nearly the same as =D= 1, 2, 4, 5, 6^{1,2}, with the matter-of-fact

conclusion, 6^{3,4},

An a’body seemed to be content,

And she was at his will.

A stanza from another version is given at the same place which

resembles =E= 8:

She canna wash your china cups,

Nor dress you a dish o tea, O

But weel can she milk baith cow and ewe,

Wi her cogie at her knee. O

I have received nearly the same from Mr Walker of Aberdeen as sung by

John Walker, crofter, Portlethen, 1893.

Yer china cups I canna wash,

Nor cook a cup o tea, O

But weel can I milk the cowes and the ewes,

Wi the cogie on my knee. O

237. The Duke of Gordon’s Daughter.

P. 332. There is a copy in a collection of folio sheet ballads, British

Museum, 1346. m. 8, with the date September 8th, 1775, at the end;

earlier, therefore, than any of those I had before me excepting a, and

worth collating.

1^4. they _wanting_.

2^4, 3^4. she did.

3^2. the _wanting_.

3^3. Jean’s fallen in.

4^4. mony.

5^3. with _wanting_.

5^4. Jeanny.

6^4. she’s no.

7^3. Lady Jean’s fallen in love with.

7^4. she would.

8^2. upon yon.

8^3. he did.

8^4. a training of.

9^1. O woe be.

9^2. And _wanting_: death shall you.

9^4. shalt thou.

10^1. Duke of.

10^4. he did such a thing.

11^3. him put off his gold lace.

11^4. the _wanting_.

13^4. will I.

14^2. a yer but only three.

14^3. babe on.

15^1. O I’m weary with.

16 _comes before_ 15.

16^1. O I am weary wandering.

16^2. think it lang.

17^3. sheen: all _wanting_.

17^4. she could.

18, 19, _wanting._

20^1. I was: glen of Foudland.

20^4. either house or sheen.

21^1. When they: to bonny C. G.

21^3. out _wanting_.

22^1. O _wanting_: dear Jeannie G.

22^2. welcome dear.

22^4. Captain _wanting_.

23^1. over the.

23^2. As _wanting_.

24^1. ye.

25^1. what means this.

25^3. are all dead.

26^2. drink, be jovial.

27^3. out with _wanting_.

28^1. pretty _wanting_.

28^3. can enter my.

30-32 _wanting._

33^2. you’re welcome dear to me.

33^3. You’re welcome, bonny Jeanny Gordon.

33^4. With my young family.

238. Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie.

P. 346. =I b.= A copy of this version has been found at Abbotsford, in

a portfolio labelled ‘The Rever’s Wedding and other important papers.’

There are a few differences of reading.

_In the stanza after 1, line 3_, be richer, _line 4_, maun hae.

2^1. Oh whare.

2^{2,4}. gang: again soon.

3^1. he cam: gae.

3^2. gae.

3^3. my maister’s.

3^4. stop till.

5^1. Gae: gar.

5^3. lang or ere.

5^4. O _wanting_.

6^3. quo she.

7^2. But _wanting_.

239. Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie.

P. 349. =A b.= Now collated with a MS. of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s

and another copy of the same pieces in “North Country Ballads,”

Miscellanea Curiosa, Abbotsford Library. Stanzas mostly of four lines.

Sharpe, p. 10.

1^1. stepping on.

1^2. ye’re.

2^1. caren.

2^2. Achanachie (_and always_).

3^1. not take; it _wanting_.

3^2. and he’s thrawn.

4^1. I’m bown: you.

4^2. not.

5^2. out _wanting_: and they cutit.

7^1. came.

8^1. fleed.

8^2. Jeanie is.

350. =B c.= From “The Old Lady’s Collection,” No 29. We have here

Gordon of Auchanachie, though the scene is in Buchan.

Buchan is bonny an ther lays my love,

My fancë is fixed on him, it winnë remove;

[It winnë remove] for a’ I cane dee,

Achanacë Gordon is my love an sall be.

Ben came her father, steps on the floor,

Says, Jeanie, ye’r acting the part of a hour;

Ye’r leaking ane that cares na for ye;

Wed Salton, an latt Achenecy be.

‘Achainace Gordon is a pritty man,

Bat Acchanace Gordon has na free land;

For his land is laying wast, an his castell faaen doun,

So ye man take Salton, latt Achennecy be.’

‘My friends may case me we Salton to wed,

Bat my friends sall na case me we him to bed;

I ill never bear to him dother nor sin till the day I sall deei,

For Achannace Gordon is my love an sall be.’

Her friends they have cassed her we Salton to wed,

Bat they never got her we him to bed;

She never bare dother nor sin till the day that she dead deei,

For Achainace Gordon was her love and sud be.

‘Ye that are her madins, ye take aff her goun,

An I will infeft her in five thousand pound;

She sall werr silk till her heel and goud till her kneee,

An she man forget him young Achanice.’

‘Ye that are my madins sanna take aff my goon,

Nor will I be infefted in five thousand pound;

I winnë wer goud on my head nor silk to my knee,

Nor will I forsake young Achanice.’

‘Ye that are her madins bring her to my bed,

The bed is made ready an the shits doun spread;

She sall lay in her bed till tuall in the day,

An sin forget him young Achanace.’

‘Ye that are my madins sanna ha me to his bed,

Tho the bed be made ready an the shits doun spread;

Nor will I lay in his bed till tuall of the day,

Nor forsake him young Achanicy.

‘For rather then have wedded Salton to wear goud to my knee,

I rather wedded Achanicy tralled fait fish fraa the sea;

Or I had weded Salton an wore robes of read,

I rader wead Achanace, we him begg my b[r]ead.’

Achanicy Gordon came fra the sea,

We a gallant regment an brave companie;

He sought out his Jeanie we doll an we care,

An Achanice Gordon is leak to dispear.

Doun came her handmaid, wringen her hands:

‘Alass for your staying sa lang in strang lands!

For Jeanie is marred, an nou she is dead.

Alass for your staying sae lang on the flood!’

. . . . . . . . . .

‘Take me to the room far my love lays in;’

He has kessed her comly lips, they wer paill an wan,

An he dyed for his Jeanie that very same night.

* * * * *

1^3. came.

5^3. she deaded.

12^2. strying.

12^4. on _doubtful_.

240. The Rantin Laddie.

P. 352. =B= as it stands in “The Old Lady’s Collection,” No 3, ‘The

Rantan Laddy.’

‘Aft have I played att the cards an the dice,

They wer so very entisen,

But this is a sad an a sorofull seat,

To see my apron riseng.

‘Aft ha I plad att the cards an the dice,

For love of my laddy,

Bat nou I man sitt in my father’s kittchë-nouk,

An roke my baby.

‘Bat gin I had an of my father’s servens,

For he has so mony,

That wad gaa to the woods of Glentaner

We a letter to the ranten laddy!’

‘Hear am I, an of your father’s servants,

For he has so many,

That will gaa to the woods of Glentaner

We a letter to the ranten laddy.’

‘Fan ye gee to Aboyn,

To the woods of Glentaner sie bonny,

We yer hat in yer hand, gee a bou to the grond,

In the presenc[e] of the ranten laddy.’

Fan he gad to Aboyn,

To the woods of Glentaner saae bonny,

We his hat in his han, he gied a bou to the grond,

In the preasence of the ranten laddy.

Fan he looked the letter on,

Saa loud as he was laughing;

Bat or he read it to an end

The tears they came doun raping.

‘O faa is this, or faa is that,

Has ben so ill to my Meggie?

. . . . . . .

‘Bat ye gett four-an-tuinty milk-whit steads,

We an E an O an O me!

An as monny gay ladys to ride them on,

To gaa an bring hame my Meggie.

‘Ye gett four-an-tuinty berrie-broun steeds,

We an E an O an O me!

An as mony knights to ride them one,

To gaa an bring hame my Meggie.’

Ye lasses a’, war ever ye be,

An ye match we ony of our Deesid ladds,

Ye’ll happy be, ye’ll happy be,

For they ar frank an kin.

The’r frank an kin

The’r free,

An ye match we ony of our Deesid ladds,

Ye’ll happy be.

* * * * *

9^2, 10^2. ome.

9^3. laddys.

In Findlay’s MSS, =I=, 84 is this stanza,===B= 5, =C= 12, =D= 4:

‘When ye come to Aboyne’s yetts,

Aboyne’s yetts they shine clearly,

Ye’ll tak aff your hat, gie a bow wi your knee,

Gie the letter to my rantin laddie.’

241. The Baron o Leys.

P. 355. Findlay’s MSS, I, 85, gives the first stanza thus (from Mrs

Main, Inchmarlo, Kincardineshire).

The baron o Leys is to London gane,

All in a mornin early;

He’s shod his horse wi siller sheen,

An shown them a’ his folly.

245. Young Allan.

376 =b=, last paragraph. Talking Ships. See Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde,

p. 365 f., apropos of Árnason’s Skipamál, Þþjoðsögur, II, 8. Árnason

notes two talking ships in Flóamanna Saga, c. 36, and Liebrecht the

Argo.

377. =A.= The original, altered in places by Skeat, stands as follows

in “The Old Lady’s Collection,” where it is No 4.

Aa the skippers of merry Lothen,

As they sat att the wine,

Ther fell a rosin them among,

An it was in an unhappy time.

Some of them roused ther haks,

An some of them ther hounds,

An some of them ther gay ladys,

Trood neat on the plain:

Young Allan he roused his comely coug,

That lay upon the strand.

‘I haa as good a ship this day

As ever sailled our seas,

Except it be the Burges Black,

Bat an the Small Cordvine,

The comly coug of Dornisdall;

We sall lay that three bay in time.’

Out spak a littel boy,

Just att Young Allan’s knee,

‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye Young Allan,

Sae loud as I hear ye lie.

‘For my master has a littel boat

Will sail thris as well as thin;

For she’ll come in att your formast

An gee out att yer forlee,

An nine times in a winter night

She’ll take the wine fra the.

‘O fatt will ye wade, ye Young Allan,

Or fatt will ye wad we me?’

‘I ill wad my head agenst yer land,

Till I gett more monie.’

They hed na sailed a legg, [a legg,]

A legg bat bairly three,

Till throug an throu ther bonny ship

They saa the green wall sea.

They had na sailled a leag, [a leag,]

A leag bat barly fave,

Till through en throu ther bonny ship

They saa the green wall wave.

He gied up to the tapmast,

To see fat he coud see,

An ther he saa the Burges Black,

Bat an the Small Cordvine,

The comly coug of Dornasdell;

The three was rent in nine.

Young Allan he grat, an he wrang his hans,

An he kent na fat till dee:

‘The win is loud, an the waves is prood,

An we will a’ sink in the sea.

‘Bat gin I cod gett a bonny boy

To tak my healm in han,

. . . . that wad bring

My bonny ship safe to lan,

‘He sud gett the tua part of my goud,

An the therd part of my lan,

An gin me wine safe to shor

He sud gett my daughter Ann.’

‘Hear am I, a bonny boy

That will take yer helm in han,

. . . . an will bring

Your bonny ship safe to land.

‘Ye take four-an-twenty fether-beds,

An ye lay the bonny ship roun,

An as much of the good cannis

As make her hell an soun.’

They took four-an-twenty fether-beds,

An laid the bonny ship roun,

An as much of the good canies

As made her hell an soun.

‘Spring up, my bony ship,

An goud sall be yer hair!’

Fan the bonny ship hard of that,

Att goud sud be her hire,

She sprang as fast fra the sate water

As the spark dis frae the fire.

‘Spring up, my bonny ship,

An goud sall be yer fee!’

An fan the bonny ship hard of that,

Goud was to be her fee,

She sprang as fast fra the sat water

As the life dos fra the tree.

The salors stans on the shore-sid,

We ther ill-bukled shen:

‘Thanks to God an our gued master

That ever we came to land!’

‘Far is the bonny boy

That took my healm in hand?

.. .. that brought

My bonny ship safe to land?

‘He’s gett the twa part of my goud,

The therd part of my lan,

An since we ha wone safe to shore

He’s gett my doughter Ann.’

‘Hear am I, the bonny boy

That took yer healm in han,

That brought yer bonny ship,

An brought her safe to lan.

‘I winnë ha the tua part of yer goud,

Nor the therd part of yer lan,

Bat since we ha wine safe to shor

I will wed yer daugter Ann.’

Fortey ships went to the sea,

Forty ships an five,

An ther came never on back

Bat Young Allan alive.

* * * * *

9^5. comly cord.

12^4, 20^4, 22^4. Anna.

17^{2,4}. hire _for_ fee (_caught from_ 16).

23^2. ane _changed to_ Five.

_Written without division into stanzas or verses._

246. Redesdale and Wise William.

P. 383. There is a copy in C. K. Sharpe’s “second collection” which is

substantially the same as =A=. The variations here follow:

=A b.=

1^2. Was.

1^3. There was a praising.

1^4. In an unhappy.

2^1. For some ones they did praise.

2^4. And _wanting_.

3^1. That out did speak.

3^3. Says, I saw never a.

3^5. But what I would her favour gain.

3^6. With one blink of.

3^6, 4^6. eye.

4^1. out did speak.

4^2. spoke.

4^5. Whose favour you would never gain.

5^1. you.

_After_ 5:

‘That is too good a wager, William,

Upon a woman’s mind,

It is to[o] good a wager Wil[lia]m,

I’m very sure you’l tyne.’

6^1. So.

6^3. he could neither go.

6^4. Nor no.

7^1. has wrote a broad.

7^3. his only.

8^1. read the letter over.

8^2. She lookëd.

8^4. enough.

9^3. she saw.

9^4. riding throw.

10^1. Says _wanting_: Come hitherward.

10^3. here does come.

10^4. For injury to me.

11^1. Come down, come down, said Reedesdale.

11^2. One sight of you I’ll see.

11^3. my gate.

12, 13, _wanting_.

‘Come down, come down, O lady fair,

One sight of you I’ll see,

And bony is the rings of gold

That I will give to thee.’

‘If you have boney rings of gold,

O mine is bony tee;

Go from my gate now, Reedesdale,

For me you will not see.’

‘Come down, come down, O lady fair,

One sight of you I’ll see,

And boney is the bowers and halls

That I will give to the.’

‘If you have boney bowers and halls,

I have bowers and halls the same;

Go from my gate now, Reedesdale,

For down I will not come.’

18-21 _wanting_.

22^1. O lady.

22^3. Or then.

22^4. Since.

23^1. So he has set that bower.

23^2. the house it took.

24 _wanting_.

‘Come hitherward,’ the lady cried,

‘My maidens all, to me;

For throw the smoak and throw the heat,

All throw it we must be.’

26^1. their mantles.

26^3. And throw the smoak and throw the heat.

26^4. They throw it all did win.

27^1. had all got safely out.

27^2. able for.

27^3. Sent some of them to.

28^2. Have not I gaind.

The Danish ballad ‘Væddemaalet,’ Grundtvig, No 224, spoken of under

‘The Twa Knights,’ ought to have been noticed here also.

252. The Kitchie Boy.

P. 401. =A= as it stands in “The Old Lady’s Collection,” No 20.

Ther was a lady fair an rear,

A lady of birth an fame,

She loyed her father’s kittchen-boy,

The greater was her shame.

She coud never her love revell,

Nor to him take,

Bat in the forests weed an brade,

Far they wer wont to wake.

It fell ance apon a day

Her father went fra home,

An she sent for the kitchë-boy

Into her room.

‘Canna ye fancë me, Willie?

Cannie ye fancë me?

By a’ the lords I ever seed,

Ther is nane I cane loie bat ye.’

‘O latt ne this be kent, lady,

O lat ne this be knouen,

For in yer father got word of this,

I vou he wad gare me die.’

‘Yer life sall na be tane, Willie,

Yer life sall na be tean;

I rader loss my ain heart-blead

Or thy body gat wrang.’

We her mery fair spiches

She made the boy bold,

Till he began to kiss an clap,

An on his love lay hold.

They hadne kissed an love-claped,

As lovers fan they meatt,

. . . . . . .

‘The master-cook he will on me call,

An ansured he man be;

In it war kent I war in bour we the,

I fear they woud gar me diei.’

‘The master-cook may on ye call,

But ansured he will never be,

For I haa thrie coffers fue of goud,

Yer eyen did never see.

‘An I will buld a bony ship for my love,

An sett her to the seea,

An saill she east, or saill she west,

The ship sall be fair to see.’

She has buld a bonny ship,

An sett her to the sea;

The top-masts was of the read goud,

The saill of taffety.

She gaie him a gay gold ring,

. . . . . .

To mind him on a gay lady

That ance bair love to him.

The day was fair, the ship was rair,

Fan that suan sett to sea;

Fan that day tuall-month came an gade,

Att London landed he.

A lady louked our castell-wa,

Beheld the day gaa doun,

An she beheld that bonny ship,

Came halling to the toun.

‘Come hear, come hear, my mairës a’,

Ye see na fat I see;

The bonnest ship is coming to land

Yer eyen did ever see.

‘Ye busk ye, busk ye, my marrës a’,

Ye busk ye unco fine,

Till I gaa doun to yon shore-side

To invite yon squar to dine.

‘O ye come up, ye gay young squar,

An take we me a dine;

Ye sall eatt of the gued white lofe,

An drink the claret wine.’

‘I thank ye for yer bread,

I thank ye for yer wine,

I thank ye for yer courticë,

Bat indeed I hanna time.’

‘Canna ye fancë me?’ she says,

‘Cannie ye fancë me?

Bay a’ the lords an lairds I see,

Ther is nane I fancë bat ye.’

‘They are farr awa fra me,’ he says,

‘The’r farr ayont the sea,

That has my heart an hand,

An my love ay sall be.’

‘Hear is a gued gould ring,

. . . . . .

It will mind ye on a gay lady

That ance bare love to ye.’

‘I haa a ring on my finger

I lee thrice as well as thine,

Tho yours war of the gued read goud,

An mine bat simpell tin.’

The day was fair, the ship was rair,

Fan that squar sett to sea;

Fan that day tuall-month came an gaid,

Att hame again landed he.

The lady’s father louked over castell-wa,

Beheld the day gaa doun,

An he beheld that bonny ship

Come halling to the toun.

‘Come hear, my a dother,

Ye see na fat I see;

The bonnest ship is coming to land

My eyen did ever see.

‘Ye busk ye, my dother,

Ye busk ye unco fine,

An I ill gai doun to yon shore-side

An invite yon squer to dine:

I wad gie a’ my reants

To haa ye marrëd to him.’

‘They ar farr awa fra me,’ she says,

‘The’r far ayont the sea,

That has my heart an hand,

An my love ay sall be.’

‘O will ye come, ye gay hine squar,

An take we me a dine?

Ye sall eat of the gued fait bread

An drink the claret wine.’

‘I thank ye for yer bread,

I thank ye for your wine,

I thank ye for your courtisy,

For indeed I haa na grait time.’

‘O cannie ye fancë me?’ [he says,

‘Cannie ye fancë me?]

By a’ the ladys I ever did see,

Ther is nain I lue bat ye.’

‘They are farr awa fra me,’ she says,

They are farr ayont the sea,

That has my heart an han,

An my love ay sall be.’

‘Hear it is, a gay goud ring,

. . . . . . .

It will mind ye on a gay hin chill

That ance bare love to ye.’

‘O gatt ye that ring on the sea saling?

Or gat ye it on the sand?

Or gat ye it on the shore laying,

On a drouned man’s hand?’

‘I got na it on the sea saling,

I got na it on the sand,

Bat I gat it on the shore laying,

On a drouned man’s hand.

‘O bonny was his chike,

And lovely was his face!’

‘Alass,’ says she, ‘it is my true-love Willie,

. . . . . . . .’

He turned him rond about,

An suitly could he smill;

She turned her round, says, My love Willie,

Hou could ye me biggeall?

‘A prist, a prist,’ the old man crayed,

‘Latt this tua marrëd be:’

Bat lettel did the old man keen

It was his ain kittchen-boy.

4^4. I came.

7^4. her love.

28^2. seas.

35^3. laiying.

257. Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick.

P. 418 b, 3d paragraph. Say: =A= 7 (nearly) occurs in No 91, =B= 7, II,

313, and something similar in other places (as No 91, =A= 5, 6, =D= 7,

No 92, =B= 17).

422. =C.= There is another copy of this version in C. K. Sharpe’s

“second collection,” with the following variations.

=b.=

1^1. Take warning, all ye maidens fair.

2^2. father’s heir.

2^4. she did rue full sair.

3^1. Says, We.

3^2. Which.

3^3. Go ye.

4^1. He hied him to the.

4^2. As fast as he could gang.

4^3. And he brought.

4^4. sign with.

And long before the sun went down

Bird Isabeal bore his son,

And she has called him Patrick,

As it was his father’s name.

6^2, 7^2. Right far.

6^3. parents was.

6^4. Had little gear.

7^4. And dowrey.

Now it fell out up on a time

His wedding day was come,

And all his friends invited were,

His bride to welcome home.

While every one engaged was

That all should ready be,

He hied him to his great-grand aunt,

She was a lady free.

9^1. Says, Go for me this.

9^2. O do go it for me.

9^4. I’ll do as much.

10^1. Go bring to.

10^2. Dress him in silk.

10^3. For if he lives and bruiks his life.

10^4. He is to heir my.

11^1. hailing through the closs.

12^1. I am come.

12^2. Dress him in silk.

12^3. lives.

13^1, 14^1. O was.

13^3. that bairn from my foot.

14^2. Altho in station high.

14^3. Durst take that bairn from.

15^{1,2}.

Now she got frowning throw the closs,

And frowning on the floor.

15^4. And he.

16^{1,2}.

O this was the worst errand, Patrick,

That ever I went for the.

16^3. Bird Isabeal.

17^{1,2}.

He looked right surprised like,

Amazed like looked he.

17^4. She was never.

18^1. And he went hailing throw the closs.

20^1, 21^1. I say.

20^3. Dare take that bairn from my foot.

21^2. Altho in station high.

21^3. Dare take that.

22^4. You wont get.

259. Lord Thomas Stuart.

P. 425. Found in a MS. of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and in “North

Country Ballads,” Miscellanea Curiosa, Abbotsford Library, which is

another copy of the same pieces.

Sharpe, p. 5. 1^1. Thomas Steuart he.

1^2, mukle mean (_an erasure before_ mean).

1^3, the coat.

3^1. wemen’s wits is.

4^1. steeds was.

5^3. so sick.

6^1. no leech.

7^1. leeches is come and leeches is gone.

7^2. I am.

9^3. lands and.

10^8. got all my lands.

11^1. in their.

11^2. could not.

11^3. leesh.

13^3. And as.

14^3. I fear it may be mony unco lord.

14^4. from the.

15^3. I fear it is mony unco lord.

_With variations of spelling not noted._

Scott (_as above, except_) 1^2, mickle land: land _was perhaps the

word which is blotted out in Sharpe_.

3^1. women’s.

263. The New-Slain Knight.

P. 434 b. Translated also by Gerhard, p. 168.

FOOTNOTES:

[120] This reference is to the article by Julius Krohn mentioned at IV,

482 a.

[121] R. H. Stodart, Scottish Arms, 1881, II, 277, 276. What is there

said of Elliot of Braidley was mostly communicated by Mr. R. B.

Armstrong.

[122] Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1880-81,

p. 93. At several places above I have used a letter from Mr. Armstrong

to Mr. Macmath.

VOL. V.

266. John Thomson and the Turk.

P. 3 b. There may be added another Little-Russian story communicated

to me in translation by Professor Wollner: Ethnographic Survey, etc.

(Etnografičeskoe Obozrěnie, etc.) Moscow, 1893, V, 104.

A tsar and a tsarina, when dying, charged their son Soliman not to

marry a woman older than himself. This, however, he did, and his

wife hated him, and one day, when he was hunting, went off to her

brother, ordering the servants to say that she had died. This report

the servants duly made, but Soliman knew that his wife had gone to

her brother, and he felt the loss so much that he could not keep away

from her. Meeting a boy in tattered clothes, he changed with him,

gave the boy everything he had on except his ring, and put on rags,

to play the beggar. He proceeded to the brother’s house, and seeing

his wife sitting at a window, held out his hand, on which his ring was

sparkling, and asked an alms. His wife knew him at once by the ring,

and bade him come in. ‘Who are you?’ she asked. ‘Once I was a tsar,’

he said, ‘but my wife died, and I became a beggar.’ At this point the

brother arrived on the scene. The woman told Soliman to lie down on

the threshold; he did so, and she sat down on him. When her brother

came in she said, ‘Guess what I am sitting on.’ He answered, ‘On the

threshold.’ ‘Wrong,’ said she; ‘on Tsar Soliman.’ ‘If it is he,’ said

her brother, ‘I will cut his head off.’ But here Soliman suggested that

if the brother should take his head off on the spot, nobody would know

that he had killed a tsar; whereas if he would build a three-story

gallows and hang Soliman on it, all the world would see that he had

been the death of a tsar and not of a beggar. So a three-story gallows

was built, and as they were taking Soliman up to the first stage, he

said, Give me a horn, to cheer my heart for the last time. They gave

him a horn and he began to blow, Quick, quick, dear soldiers, for

my death and end is nigh. A black regiment set out for the place.

Bystanders said, Tsar Soliman, you are up high and see far: what is the

black thing coming along the hill? ‘My death, which gleams black in

the distance.’ Soliman mounted to the second stage and blew his horn

again: Quick, quick, dear soldiers, my death and end is nigh. He saw

a white regiment coming. The people said, Tsar Soliman, you are high

up and see far: what is that white thing which is coming? My death,

which gleams white in the distance. Then Soliman mounted to the third

stage and blew Quick, quick, dear soldiers, my death and end is nigh,

and he saw a red regiment coming. The people asked, what red thing was

coming. My death, which gleams red in the distance.[123] Then the black

regiment came up, after it the white, and finally the red; they slew

Soliman’s wife and her brother, took Soliman down from the gallows, and

rode home.

8. =Danish.= Through the friendly help of Dr. Axel Olrik I am now in a

position to say that there is one fundamental text =A=, in MSS of 1600

and 1615, from which all the others are derived. In the seventeenth

century =A= was expanded from forty to eighty-two couplets. =B=, the

original of the expanded copy, is found in a MS. of 1635; from =B= come

the other five later MS. texts, the flying-sheet of 1719, Kristensen’s

fragment, and some recent copies.

=A.= King David, after betrothing the incomparable Suol-far, has to go

on a cruise. He proposes that the lady stay with his mother while he is

away, but Suol-far does not like this arrangement. Then, says the king,

I shall bind your finger with gold, so that I can find you wherever you

may be. Hardly is King David gone, when King Adell rides up. Suol-far

is out of doors, brushing her hair; Adell asks if he may put a gold

crown on it. If God grants King David to come home with honor, she will

soon have a gold crown to wear, she says. Adell wishes to hear no more

of David, and asks Suol-far to plight herself to him; she will not, she

has given her troth to King David. Adell gives her sleeping potions

five, sleeping potions nine; she swoons, is taken to be dead, and is

buried in the church. Late in the evening Adell goes to the tomb; the

effect of the potions having passed off, Suol-far rises. Adell asks her

to go off with him, and after some tears Suol-far permits him to take

her away. It had been supposed that there was no witness, but a little

page was listening, and when King David came home the page gave him the

bad tidings that King Adell had carried Suol-far out of the country.

David goes in quest, disguised as a pilgrim. He finds the pair sitting

on a stone, resting their weary legs, and asks an alms. Adell gives

something, and Suol-far is at least about so to do, for David asks, Is

it not the way in this country to give money with bare hand? whereupon

she pulls off her glove and gives. David (seeing of course the token

on her finger) draws his sword and kills Adell. He then asks Suol-far

how she came to break her troth. Adell gave her nine drinks, which made

her fall dead to the earth, but, thank God, she had been kept from sin.

David loves her so dearly that he is easily satisfied; he orders his

wedding, and their troubles are over.

The flying-sheet of 1719 (in seventy-three couplets) exhibits some

differences. King David marries Sølfehr before he goes on his

expedition, and gives the land into Adel’s care during his absence.

After the queen has fallen aswoon in consequence of the nine drinks,

King Adel sends word to King David that she is dead. After the

interment, Adel remains in the church and digs up Sølfehr. He addresses

her as his dearest; she refuses to be so called. Adel tells her that

David is dead, and asks her if she will follow him out of the land.

She will follow him very willingly if she may hear of no grief to King

David (whatever that may mean), and Adel wraps her in a cloak and lifts

her on his gray. There had been watchmen in the church, and they tell

David that Adel is off with Sølfehr. David has pilgrim’s clothes made

for himself and many of his men. While asking alms, David gives the

queen to understand that he is her husband; then turning to Adel says,

I entrusted my kingdom to you, and did not look to be deceived. Upon

this he orders his troop to spare none of Adel’s men, and himself hews

Adel in pieces. The queen falls at his feet and begs forgiveness. The

easy king says, I know the fault was not thine, lifts her on his horse,

and goes home.

The two =Swedish= copies in Stephen’s collection are fragments of eight

and of fifteen stanzas. In the first (from Sødermanland), King David

having dug up the coffin and found it empty, disguises himself as a

pilgrim, and when asking an alms of Solfager says,

Travelled have I by water and land,

But never took alms from a gloved hand.

‘Who are you for a vagabond, that never took alms from a gloved hand?’

says Solfager. ‘Never was I a vagabond, but often have I kissed

Solfager’s hand,’ he replies. Solfager jumps into his arms, exclaiming,

I never can believe you are my former true-love.

In the other (from Småland), after the abduction of Solfager, David

takes staff in hand and goes to a strange land. He presents himself

where the pair are sitting at table, and asks an alms. Solfager gives

him alms once and twice, but the beggar is not satisfied. Needy

vagrant, she says, take alms where you can; insatiable vagrant, take

alms where you get most. I was no vagrant, he answers, when I put gold

rings on Solfager’s arm; I was no vagrant when I slept by Solfager. Her

tears come; she can never believe that he is David, her true-love. She

takes David in her arms. Praise to God, he cries, that I am still her

husband!

271. The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward.

P. 45. Other Russian popular tales in which the characteristic traits

of the group spoken of are well preserved: Afanasief, V, 178, No 37,

ed. 1861, I, 239, No 67 b, ed. 1873, ‘Tsarevitch i yevo Sluga;’

‘Korolevitch i yevo Djadka,’ the same, VIII, 170, No 18, ed. 1863,

I, 233, No 67 a, ed. 1873; Khudyakof, II, 33, No 44, ‘Udivitelny

Muzhitchek;’ the same, III, 143, No 115, ‘Muzhitchenko s Kulatchenko.’

A tsar’s son delivers a prisoner; is condemned to leave the country

with a servant (tutor, warden); having been let down into a well to

drink, is forced to change positions and clothes with his attendant;

serves as herdsman, horseboy, cook, the attendant aspiring to marry a

king’s daughter; destroys three dragons (a seven-headed monster in the

second, the fourth defective here); marries the princess, the servant

or tutor being put to death (baited with dogs in the third, set to work

in the stable in the fourth).[124]

Afanasief, IV, 72, ed. 1873, refers to other Russian versions, and

gives, p. 73 f., the Russian form of ‘The Goose-Girl.’

46 b. Add: (=F.=) Ivan Tsarevitch i Martha-Tsarevna, Afanasief, I,

227, No 21, 1863, I, 246, No 68, 1873. (=G.=) ‘Masenzhni Dzjadok,’

the same, V, 185, No 38, 1861, I, 254, No 69, 1873. (=H.=) ‘Kiósut,’

Sbornik of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, III, II, 222. (=I.=)

‘Der Königssohn und der Bartlose,’ Hahn, Griechische u. Albanesische

Märchen, I, 233, No 37. (1.) The son of a king liberates a prisoner

(man of iron and copper, bird with human voice), =F=, =G= (stealing the

key from his mother, =G=). (2.) The prince is under the necessity of

leaving the country, =F-I= (is attended by a beardless man, =H=, =I=).

(3.) To get out of a well has to consent to change clothes and position

(with the beardless man, whom he had allowed to join him, or who had

been hired as horse-driver), =H=, =I=. (4.) King’s daughter (fair maid

with golden locks, =I=) aspired to by a low fellow, =F=, =H=, =I=. (5.)

Prince figures as stable-boy or scullion, =F=, =G=, =I=, kills three

dragons, =F=, defeats an army, =G=, accomplishes three tasks, =H=, =I=.

(6.) Prince marries princess, =F=, =G=, =H= (marries Golden Locks,

=I=), treacherous competitor banished, =F=, hanged, =H=, thrown into

boiling oil, =I=.[125]

274. Our Goodman.

P. 89 f. =French.= Add: La Tradition, VII, 145, Le Quercy.

275. Get up and bar the Door.

P. 95. Add two other Eastern stories: ‘The Farmer, his Wife and the

Open Door,’ in Swynnerton’s Indian Nights Entertainment, 1892, p. 14,

No 11; ‘The Beggar and the Five Muffins’ (of the second set), Folklore

in Southern India by Pandet Natêsá Sástrî, p. 277, No 22, and Tales of

the Sun, by Mrs Howard Kingscote and the same, p. 280, No 25. (Both

cited by Mr Clouston, in The Athenæum, March 18, 1893.)

To be Corrected in the Print.

I, 62, 68. =A.= The Jamieson-Brown MS. should be cited by pages, not by

folios. This correction applies also to Nos 6 =b=, 10 =B=, =a=, 32 =a=,

34 =B=, =a=, 35, 53, =A=, =C=, =a=, 62 =E=, 63 =B=, =a=, 65 =A=, 76

=D=, 82, 96 =A=, 97 =A=, =a=, 98 =A=, 99 =A=, 101 =A=, 103 =A=.

69 b, 61^1. _Read_ rauked.

138 a, =B c=, 11^2. I’ll. b, 26^1, 27^1, 28^1. _MS._ tune

(_copy wrong_).

305 b, notes, 10^1. tauchty, etc. _Drop._

342, 39^1. _Read_ what.

482 a, =D=. _Insert_ 13^2. bone.

II,

32 b, 6th line from below. _For_ =H= _read_ =J=.

101 b, 5th line of last paragraph. _Read_ II, 246.

101 b, last line but four. _Read_ II, 245.

128 b, 2d line of 2d paragraph. _Read_ =B= 18.

169 a, last line but two. _Supply_ =A= _before_ 2^4.

234 a, 5th line. larf _is dropped in Herd II_.

316 a, notes, 6^2. _Read_ bowers.

367 a, =C= 34^6. _The MS. reading is_ dead syne.

373 b, 21^2. _Read_ grey.

429 a, last line but three of text. _Read 80 for 83._

477 a, =D=. _All the variations except 11^1, 14^4, apply to_ =C=,

_not to_ =D=.

III,

11 b, last line but two. _Supply_ =C= _before 4^3_.

49 a, 12th line. _Read_ alcaldes.

51 b, last two lines. _Read_ (extracted from Histoire Litt. de la

France, XXX), p. 49.

122 b, 6th line. _Read_ No 135.

146 a, 14^3. _Read_ delt _for_ felt (felt, _all copies_).

179 b, 5^2. _Read_ clutt _for_ cliitt.

183 a, notes, =A= 5^2. _Add_: clutt was no doubt intended.

230, 59^3. _Read_ kickle.

230, 70^2. _Read_ For which.

232, 108^1. _Read_ unpossible.

232, 116^3. _Read_ leave out.

477 a, line 6. _Read_ Laird’s.

516 a, 95, line 7. _Read_ Birkbeck.

517 b, last paragraph of 96, last line but one. _Read_ des.

518 b. The notes to III, 44 belong under No 117.

IV,

33 a, last line but one. _Read_ 10^3.

44 b, 9^2. _Read_ as he.

254 b, notes. _For_ =J= _read_ =K=.

275 a, =B b=, 6^1. _Read_ white-milk.

281 a, 2^2. _Read_ and bane.

282 a, 3^2. _Read_ behind my.

288 a, =E=, 3^4. _Read_ toss. =F= is in the handwriting of John Hill

Burton.

290 b, line 6. _Read_ 7^3.

291 b, notes, =E=, 3^4. _Drop._

331 b, 8^1. _Read_ out _for_ not.

339 b, lines 5, 6. _Read_ Belhelvie, the name of an Aberdeenshire

parish.

387 b, last line but one of note. _Read_ owes its.

392, 21^1. _Read_ you _for_ yon.

408 a, notes, =A=, 2d line. _Read_ 22^4, 33^4. _Cf._ 13^4.

437 b, 25^1. _Read_ Well fells.

440 b, 4, 3d paragraph, line 3. _Read_ Coussemaker.

447 b, note to 5, after st. 17. _Read_ in =a=.

455 a, 3^4. _Read_ wi gowd.

470 a, 20^2, 21^2. _Read_ A’.

471 a, 37^2, 38^4. _Read_ A’.

481 a, =I=, 1^1. _Read_ your hand.

499 b, line 8 from below. _Insert the title_, ‘The Battle of

Otterburn.’

513 b, =AA=, line 4. _Read_ my heir.

514 b, 18^1. _Read_ Out then.

516 a, =B b=, 4^2. _Read_ that _for_ thus.

524 a, 3d line. _Read_ George Mitchell.

525 a, IV, 34 b, =B=. _Omit the second sentence._

Trivial Corrections of Spelling.

138 a, =B c=, 5^2. _Read_ brest.

II,

129 b, 21^2. _Read_ saft.

191 a, 18^3. _Read_ of.

191 a, 19^1. _Read_ on.

191 a, 25^3. _Read_ our.

314 a, =D= 1^2. _Read_ wi.

315 a, =D= 8^4. _Read_ mak.

372 b, notes, 7^{5,6}, lines 1, 3, 4. _Read_ her.

373 a, 14^1. _Read_ spak.

373 b, 16^{3,4}, 1st line. _Read_ her.

III,

183 a, =A= 5^2. _Read_ cliitt.

IV,

260 a, 7^3. _Read_ Hielands.

275 a, =B b=, 6^2. _Read_ over: over.

275 a, =B b=, 7^4. _Read_ son, were.

297 a, 11^1. _Read_ ladie.

312 b, 9^1. _Read_ o gold.

312 b, 10^{1,2}. _Read_ steppet, walket.

371 a, 7^3. _Read_ hale.

372 b, 17^2. _Read_ hame.

387 a, 1^1. _Read_ brent is.

444 b, 1^3. _Read_ bringin.

454 a, line 8. _Read_ ravns.

456 a, 8^2. _Read_ bleam.

461 b, 22^1. _Read_ But.

464 a, 6^1. _Read_ when.

468 b, 5^3. _Read_ yow.

470 a, 20^1. _Read_ four-a-twontie.

470 a, 21^1. _Read_ four-an-twontie.

473 b, 42^1. _Read_ cri’d.

479, 7^2. _Read_ we.

493, 17^4, 20^3. _Read_ weddet, mintet.

516 a, =B=, between 5^2 and 5^3. _Read_ yow took, Yow promisd.

* * * * *

Supplementary.

303, =D= 5, taipy-tapples. The MS. has saipy-sapples.

18 a. _For_ =C= _read_ =c=.

79 b, 2d st. _Read_ 26.

81 b, 11. _Read_ play thee, great.

151 a. _Insert_ =F= before the last version.

FOOTNOTES:

[123] In the original, apparently by exchange of like sounding words,

My death which is cut short; that is, I suppose, prevented or postponed.

[124] I have to thank Professor Wollner for giving me in translation

the two tales from Afanasief and a Bulgarian tale presently to be

mentioned.

[125] In the Greek tale, =I=, the prince confides his trouble to an old

lame horse. The coincidence here with the ballad does not go very far,

and may be an accident, but may be more than that.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS[126]

VOL. I.

1. Riddles Wisely Expounded.

P. 1. Rawlinson MS. D. 328, fol. 174 b., Bodleian Library.

I was unaware of the existence of this very important copy until it was

pointed out to me by my friend Professor Theodor Vetter, of Zürich,

to whom I have been in other ways greatly indebted. It is from a book

acquired by Walter Pollard, of Plymouth, in the 23d year of Henry VI,

1444-5, and the handwriting is thought to authorize the conclusion that

the verses were copied into the book not long after. The parties are

the fiend and a maid, as in =C=, =D=, which are hereby evinced to be

earlier than =A=, =B=. The “good ending” of =A=, =B=, is manifestly

a modern perversion, and the reply to the last question in =A=, =D=,

‘The Devil is worse than eer woman was,’ gains greatly in point when we

understand who the so-called knight really is. We observe that in the

fifteenth century version, 12, the fiend threatens rather than promises

that the maid shall be his: and so in =E=, V, 205.

Int_er_ diabolus et virgo.

Wol ȝe her_e_ a wonder thyng_e_

Betwyxt a mayd _and_ þe fovle fende?

Thys spake þe fend to þe mayd:

‘Beleue on me, mayd, to day.

‘Mayd, mote y thi leman be,

Wyssedom y woll_e_ teche the:

‘All þe wyssedom off the world,

Hyf þ_o_u wolt be true _and_ forward holde.

‘What ys hyer þan ys [þe] tre?

What ys dypper þan ys the see?

‘What ys scharpper þan ys þe þorne?

What ys loder þan ys þe horne?

‘What [ys] longger þan ys þe way?

What is rader þan ys þe day?

‘What [ys] bether than is þe bred?

What ys scharpper than ys þe dede?

‘What ys grenn_er_ þan ys þe wode?

What ys swett_er_ þan ys þe note?

‘What ys swift_er_ þan ys the wynd?

What ys rech_er_ þan ys þe kyng_e_?

‘What ys ȝelu_er_ þan ys þe wex?

What [ys] soft_er_ þan ys þe flex?

‘But þ_o_u now answery me,

Thu schalt for soþe my leman be.’

‘Ih_es_u, for þy myld myȝth,

As thu art kyng_e_ and knyȝt,

‘Lene me wisdome to answere her_e_ ryȝth,

And schylde me fram the fovle wyȝth!

‘Hewen_e_ ys heyer than ys the tre,

Helle ys dypper þan ys the see.

‘Hongyr ys scharpp_er_ than [ys] þe thorne,

Þonder ys lodder than ys þe horne.

‘Loukyng_e_ ys long_er_ than ys þe way,

Syn ys rader þan ys the day.

‘Godys flesse ys bet_ur_ þan ys the brede,

Payne ys streng_er_ þan ys þe dede.

‘Gras ys grenn_er_ þan ys þe wode.

Loue ys swett_er_ þan ys the notte.

‘Þowt ys swift_er_ þan ys the wynde,

Ih_esus_ ys recher þan ys the kyng_e_.

‘Safer is ȝelu_er_ than ys the wexs,

Selke ys soft_er_ þan ys the flex.

‘Now, thu fende, _st_yl thu be;

Nell_e_ ich speke no mor_e_ w_i_t_h_ the!

2^2. Be leue.

3^1. the leman.

3^2. theche.

13^2. k_n_yȝt _seems to be altered to_ knyt.

14^2. fold: cf. 1^2.

19^2. lowe.

Pollarde _is written in the left margin of 22^1. and_ WALTERVS

POLLARD _below the last line of the piece_.

[‘Inter Diabolus et Virgo’ is printed by Dr Furnivall in Englische

Studien, XXIII, 444, 445, March, 1897.]

P. 2 f., 484 a, II, 495 a, IV, 439 a. Slavic riddle-ballads. Add:

Romanov, I, 420, No 163 (White Russian).

2. The Elfin Knight.

P. 7. Of the custom of a maid’s making a shirt for her betrothed, see

L. Pineau in Revue des Traditions Populaires, XI, 68. A man’s asking

a maid to sew him a shirt is equivalent to asking for her love, and

her consent to sew the shirt to an acceptance of the suitor. See, for

examples, Grundtvig, III, 918. When the Elf in ‘Elveskud,’ =D= 9,

Grundtvig, II, 116, offers to give Ole a shirt of silk, it is meant as

a love-token; Ole replies that his true love had already given him one.

The shirt demanded by the Elfin Knight may be fairly understood to have

this significance, as Grundtvig has suggested. So, possibly, in ‘Clerk

Colvill,’ No 42, =A= 5, I, 387, considering the relation of ‘Clerk

Colvill’ and ‘Elveskud.’ We have silken sarks sewn by a lady’s hand in

several other ballads which pass as simple credentials; as in ‘Johnie

Scot,’ No 99, =A= 12, 13, =D= 6, =E= 2, =H= 4, 5, II, 379, 385, 389;

etc. Here they may have been given originally in troth-plight: but not

in ‘Child Maurice,’ No 83, =D= 7, =F= 9, II, 269, 272.

7, 8, 484 a, II, 495 a, III, 496 a, IV, 439 a, V, 205 b. Add: ‘Les

Conditions impossibles,’ Beauquier, Chansons p. recueillies en

Franche-Comté, p. 133.

=White Russian.= Šejn, Materialy, I, I, 494, No 608 (shirt, etc.).

=Croatian=, Marjanović, ‘Dar i uzdarje,’ p. 200, No 46.

8 ff. Questions and tasks offset by other questions and requisitions in

the Babylonian Talmud. See Singer, Sagengeschichtliche Parallelen aus

dem babylonischen Talmud, Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, II,

296.

11, note *, 12. The story of the two mares is No 48 of R. Schmidt’s

translation of the Çukasaptati, p. 68 ff.; that of the staff of which

the two ends were to be distinguished, No 49, p. 70 f. The Clever

Wench (daughter of a minister) appears in No 52, p. 73 ff., with some

diversities from the tale noted at p. 12 b, 2d paragraph. More as to

the Clever Wench in R. Köhler’s notes to L. Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische

Märchen, now published by J. Bolte in Zeitschrift des Vereins für

Volkskunde, VI, 59. [See also Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der

nördlichen türkischen Stämme, VI, 191-202.]

17 f., 484 f., II, 495 f., IV, 439 f., V, 206. The Journal of American

Folk-Lore, VII, 228 f., gives the following version, contributed by

Miss Gertrude Decrow of Boston, in whose family the song has been

traditional.

As I walked out in yonder dell,

Let ev’ry rose grow merry in time

I met a fair damsel, her name it was Nell,

I said, ‘Will you be a true lover of mine?

‘I want you to make me a cambric shirt

Without any seam or needlework,

And then you shall be, etc.

‘I want you to wash it on yonder hill,

Where dew never was nor rain never fell.

‘I want you to dry it on yonder thorn,

Where tree never blossomed since Adam was born.’

‘And since you have asked three questions of me,

Let ev’ry rose grow merry in time

Now and I will ask as many of thee,

And then I will be a true lover of thine.

‘I want you to buy me an acre of land

Between the salt sea and the sea-sand,

And then, etc.

‘I want you to plough it with an ox’s horn,

And plant it all over with one kernel of corn.

‘I want you to hoe it with a peacock’s feather,

And thrash it all out with the sting of an adder,

And then,’ etc.

19 =J.= At p. 229 of the same are these stanzas from a version

contributed by Mrs. Sarah Bridge Farmer, as learned from an elderly

lady born in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Can’t you show me the way to Cape Ann?

Parsley and sage, rosemary and thyme

Remember me to a young woman that’s there,

In token she’s been a true lover of mine.

(“The requirements which follow are identical with those of the

previous version. There is an additional stanza:”--)

And when he has done, and finished his work,

If he’ll come unto me, he shall have his shirt,

And then he shall be, etc.

The copy in The Denham Tracts, II, 358, from D. D. Dixon’s tractate on

The Vale of Whittingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1887, has been given from

elsewhere at II, 495.

4. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight.

P. 25, =B=. Een Liedeken van den Heere van Haelewyn, with trifling

verbal differences from Hoffmann’s text, in Oude Liedekens in Bladeren,

L. van Paemel, No 25. The copy in Nederlandsch Liederboek, Gent, 1892,

II, 1, No 44, ‘Van Heer Halewijn,’ is Willems’s.

27 a, 32 a, 37 b, 487 b. Lausen des Kopfes durch das Mädchen: notes by

R. Köhler to L. Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Märchen, now published by J.

Bolte, Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, VI, 62. [Cf. Georgeakis

et Pineau, Folk-lore de Lesbos, p. 257.]

29-37, 486 a, III, 497 a, IV, 441 a, V, 206 f. =GG=, =HH=,’Der Ritter

im Walde,’ Herrmann u. Pogatschnigg, Deutsche V.-L. aus Kärnten,

Salon-Ausgabe, p. 33; ‘Es ritt ein Räuber wohl über den Rhein,’

Wolfram, Nassauische Volkslieder, p. 61, No 33, resemble =N-R=:

Liedlein von dreierlei Stimmen; eleven (two) warning doves, three

cries, to father, mother, brother; huntsman-brother rescues sister and

disposes of the knight or robber.

Böhme, in his edition of Erk’s Deutscher Liederhort, I, 118-146, 1893,

prints twenty German versions under numbers 41, 42. Of these 41^i,

42^k, 42^i are of oral derivation, and 42^h is from Erk’s papers.

Böhme notes two other copies taken down from singing, and one in MS.,

which he does not give. Judging by what has been given, what has been

withheld must be of trifling value.

486 a, V, 207 a, =DD=. So ‘Als die wunderschöne Anna auf dem

Brautstuhle sass,’ Wolfram, p. 66 f., No 39 a; and No 39 b, which

is even worse preserved. Again, ‘Die wunderschöne Anna auf dem

Rheinsteine,’ K. Becker, Rheinischer Volksliederborn, p. 20, No 17.

37 f., =A=. Add: ‘Der Reiter u. die Kaiserstochter,’ =K=. Becker,

Rheinischer Volksliederborn, p. 15, No 12.

41-44, III, 497 b, V, 207 a. Pair (or one of a pair) riding a long way

without speaking. Add: ‘Los dos hermanos,’ Milá, Romancerillo catalan,

2d ed., p. 234, No 250: “Siete leguas caminaron, palabra no se decian.”

Add also: Afzelius (1880), I, 21, st. 22.

42 a, 488 a. Six =Ruthenian= copies (in two of which the girl is a

Jewess), Kolberg, Pokucie, II, 20-25, Nos 21-26. =White Russian=

versions of the ballad of the Jewess in Šejn, I, I, 490 f., Nos 604,

605; Romanov, I, II, 199, No 46.

P. 50, note ‖; IV, 441 b. Leprosy cured by (children’s) blood. See

G. Rua, Novelle del “Mambriano,” pp. 84, 88 ff. The story about

Constantine’s leprosy (Reali di Francia, lib. 1, c. 1) occurs also in

Higden’s Polychronicon, Lumby, V, 122 ff., and in Gower, Confessio

Amantis, bk. II, Pauli, I, 266 ff. See also Ben Jonson, Discoveries,

ed. Schelling, p. 35 (G. L. K. and W. P. Few). [See Prym u. Socin,

Kurdische Sammlungen, pp. 35, 36. H. von Wlislocki, M. u. S. der

Bukowinaer u. Siebenbürger Armenier, pp. 60, 61. The latter gives a

number of references for the story about Constantine. Cf. also Dames,

Balochi Tales, No 2, in Folk-Lore, III, 518.]

IV, 441 b, 3d paragraph. Another ballad (White Russian) in which the

girl is burned, Šejn, Materialy, I, I, 492, No 606.

57. =D a= was derived “from the housekeeper at Methven.” Sharpe’s

Ballad Book, ed. 1880, p. 130.

IV, 442 a, 1st paragraph. Both hands are of the 18th century.

5. Gil Brenton.

P. 67. What is said of the _bilwiz_ must be understood of the original

conception. Grimm notes that this sprite, and others, lose their

friendly character in later days and come to be regarded as purely

malicious. See also E. Mogk in Paul’s Grundriss der germ. Philologie,

I, 1019.

72. Splendid ships. See also Richard Coer de Lion, 60-72, Weber’s

Metrical Romances, II, 5 f.; Mélusine, II, 438 f.

Some of the French ships prepared for the invasion of England in 1386

had the masts from foot to cap covered with leaves of fine gold:

Froissart, ed. Buchon, X, 169. King Henry the Eighth in 1544 passed the

seas in a ship with sails of cloth of gold: Lord Herbert of Cherbury,

Life and Raigne of King Henry the Eighth, 1649, p. 513. When Thomas

Cavendish went up the Thames in 1589, his seamen and soldiers were

clothed in silk, his sails were of damask, “his top-masts cloth of

gold.” Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Q. Elizabeth, 1754, I, 57.

6. Willie’s Lady.

P. 82 ff. Hindering childbirth. Notes by R. Köhler to Laura

Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Märchen, now published by J. Bolte,

Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, VI, 63.

7. Earl Brand.

[P. 95 f, 489 b, III, 498 a, IV, 443 a. Death-naming, etc. See also W.

R. Paton, Holy Names of the Eleusinian Priests, International Folk-lore

Congress, 1891, Papers and Transactions, p. 202 ff.]

96 f., 489 f, II, 498, III, 498, IV, 443, V, 207.

=Swedish.= Cf. Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, XI, 293.

=Romaic.= See Ζωγραρεῖος Ἀγών, p. 170, No 321. [Georgeakis et Pineau,

Folk-lore de Lesbos, pp. 208, 221.]

=Italo-Albanian.= De Grazia, Canti pop. albanesi, p. 102, No 11.

[=Turkish.= Sora Chenim went down into the grave of Täji Pascha,

which opened to receive her. The “black heathen” ordered one of his

slaves to slay him and bury him between the two. “Da wuchs Täji Pascha

als eine Pappel aus dem Boden hervor, Sora Chenim wuchs als ein

Rosenstrauch hervor. Zwischen diesen Beiden wuchs der schwarze Heide

als ein Dornbusch hervor,” etc. Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der

nördlichen türkischen Stämme, VI, 246.]

100. Looking over the left shoulder. I, 100 f., =A= 21, =B= 4; 103, =E=

1; 464, 21; 490, 14 (left collar-bane); 492, 3; III, 259, 20; 263, 20;

264, 24; 339, 7; 368, 11; 369, 13; 413, 37; 465, 35; 488, 32; 13, 13;

15, 18; 17, 8; 18, 4; 20, 6; 52, 5; 135, 24; 445, 11; 518, 9; 519, 10;

520, 9. [In IV, 11, 21, it is the right shoulder.]

At I, 464, III, 259, 263 f., 339, 368 f, 413, IV, 135, the person

looking over the left shoulder is angry, vexed, or grieved; in the

other cases, no particular state of feeling is to be remarked.

Undoubtedly the look over the left shoulder had originally more

significance, since, under certain conditions, it gave the power

of seeing spectres, or future events (but looking over the right

shoulder had much the same effect). See A. Kuhn, Sagen, u. s. w., aus

Westfalen, I, 187, No 206, and his references; and especially Bolte, in

Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, VI, 205-07 (using R. Köhler’s

notes). After sowing hemp-seed in the Hallowe’en rite, you look over

your left shoulder to see your destined lass or lad. See note to

Burns’s Hallowe’en, st. 16.

10. The Twa Sisters.

P. 124 a, 4th paragraph. The ballad in Schlegel’s Reisen is simply a

threnody in Esthonian marriage ceremonies over the carrying away of the

bride to her husband’s house, and is not to the point.

125, 493 b, II, 498 b, III, 499 a, IV, 447 b, V, 208 b. ‘L’os qui

chante:’ M. Eugène Monseur has continued his study of this tale in

Bulletin de Folklore, I, 39-51, 89-149, II, 219-41, 245-51. See also

Bugiel in Wisła, VII, 339-61, 557-80, 665-85.

[See also ‘Die Geschichte von zwei Freunden,’ Socin u. Stumme, Dialekt

der Ho͜uwāra des Wād Sūs in Marokko, pp. 53, 115, Abhandlungen der

Phil.-hist. Classe der K. Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, XV.]

[On disclosure by musical instruments see Revue Celtique, II, 199;

Hartland, Legend of Perseus, I, 193. F. N. Robinson.]

126 a. [For a parallel to the South African tale see Jacottet, Contes

pop. des Bassoutos, p. 52.]

126 b. =C= is also translated by H. Schubart in Arnim’s Tröst

Einsamkeit, 1808, p. 146.

11. The Cruel Brother.

P. 144 a. For ‘Frau von Weissenburg,’ ‘Frau von der Löwenburg,’ ‘Junker

Hans Steutlinger,’ see Erk, ed. Böhme, Nos. 102, 103, I, 360 ff.

144 b, 2d paragraph, V, 208 b. Add: ‘Le Testament du Chien,’ Bédier,

Les Fabliaux, 2d ed., p. 473; ‘Testament de la vieille Jument,’

‘de la vieille Truie,’ ‘de la Chèvre,’ Luzel, Chansons pop. de la

Basse-Bretagne, II, 88-97. ‘The Robin’s Last Will,’ Miss M. H. Mason’s

Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs, p. 41.

12. Lord Randal.

P. 153 a. =German.= Two other copies in Böhme’s Erk, No 190 b, I, 582.

[154 a; IV, 449 b. =Danish.= ‘Den forgivne Datter,’ Grundtvig-Olrik,

No 341, Ridderviser, I, 146 ff., two versions: =A==Kristensen, Jyske

Folkeminder, No 92, X, 358; =B=, that communicated to Professor Child

by Professor Grundtvig and mentioned in I, 154. Olrik mentions 7

=Swedish= copies, 5 of them unprinted.]

156 a, III, 499 b, V, 208 b. ‘Donna Lombarda.’ See Archivio, X,

380. [See also ‘Utro Fæstemø vil forgive sin Fæstemand,’ in the

Grundtvig-Olrik collection, No 345, Ridderviser I, 165 ff., 3 versions

=A-C= (=A=, =B=, from MS. sources going back in part to the 16th

century; =C=, from oral tradition, printed by Kristensen, Jyske

Folkeminder, No 19, I, 49, No 56, X, 234). Olrik, in an elaborate

introduction, studies the relations of the Danish ballad (which is

found also in Norse, Bugge’s MS. collections, No. 221) to ‘Donna

Lombarda’ and to the history of the sixth century Lombard queen

Rosemunda. He opposes the views of Gaston Paris, Journal des Savants,

1889, pp. 616 ff., and holds that ‘Donna Lombarda,’ ‘Utro Fæstemø,’

(his No 345), ‘Giftblandersken’ (his No 344), ‘Fru Gundela’ (see above

I, 156 b), and the Slavic ballads of the sister who poisons her brother

at the instigation of her lover, are all derived from the _saga_ of

Rosemunda. He even regards ‘Old Robin of Portingale,’ No 80, II, 240,

as related to the ‘Utro Fæstemø.’ See below, p. 295.]

156 b, 499 a, II, 499 a, III, 499. The ballad of the maid who

poisons her brother and is rejected by the man she expects to win

in Lithuanian, Bartsch, Dainu Balsai, I, 172 ff., No 123 a, b. More

ballads of poisoning, sister poisoning brother at the instance of

her lover, girl poisoning her lover, and at col. 306 one resembling

Lord Randal, Herrmann, Ethnologische Mitteilungen aus Ungarn, I, cols

292-308 (with an extensive bibliography). Herrmann’s collections upon

this theme are continued from cols 89-95, 203-11. [Cf. the Danish

ballad ‘Tule Slet, Ove Knar og Fru Magnild,’ Grundtvig-Olrik, No. 350,

Ridderviser, I, 186, where, however, the murderess uses a knife.]

157. Compare, for dialogue and repetition, the Catalan ballad ‘El Conde

Arnau,’ Milá, Romancerillo, No 78, p. 67; where, however, the first

half of the third line is also regularly repeated in the fourth.

‘¿Tota sola feu la vetlla, muller lleyal?

¿Tota sola feu la vetlla, viudeta igual?’

‘No la faig yo tota sola, Comte l’Arnau,

No la faig yo tota sola, valga ’m Deu, val!’

157 b. =A= is translated by Professor Emilio Teza. ‘L’Avvelenatrice,

Canzone Boema,’ Padova, 1891, p. 12. [Atti e Memorie della R. Accademia

di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Padova, Nuova Serie, VII, 234.]

13. Edward.

P. 167, 501 b, III, 499 b, V, 209 b. ‘Svend i Rosensgaard’ is No 340

in the Grundtvig-Olrik collection of Danish ballads, Ridderviser, I,

142. Danish versions are limited to three, of which the second is a

fragment and the third a copy from Norway in all but pure Danish. Of

Swedish versions eleven are enumerated, besides a half-comic copy from

a manuscript of 1640, or older, which is spun out to 33 stanzas. As

before remarked, a palpable tendency to parody is visible in some of

the Scandinavian specimens.

14. Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie.

P. 170, 501 b, II, 499 a, III, 499 f., IV, 450 a, V, 209 b. ‘Hr.

Truelses Døtre’ is No 338 of the Danish ballads in the continuation of

Grundtvig’s collection by Dr. Axel Olrik, Danske Ridderviser, 1895, I,

114, where the ballad is subjected to a minute study. The existence of

a ballad is mentioned in 1624, and indicated as early as 1598. There

are Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic versions of the 17th century, and

numerous later copies, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Färöe: Danish,

in all, 10, one of the 17th century; Swedish 12, 4 of the 17th century;

Norwegian 6; Färöe 4. Five of the Norwegian copies take the direction

of the Icelandic and Färöe in the treatment of the story. Two varieties

of the ballad may be specially distinguished: one in which we have

the miracle of a light burning or a fountain (fountains) springing

over the place where the maids were murdered (called by Olrik the

legendary form), the other in which the career and fate of the sons are

made prominent. The “legendary” versions are the older. In these the

maids are regarded as martyrs, and popular religious observances in

connection with the miraculous fountains and in commemoration of the

murdered maids have been kept up into the present century. The story

is localized in not less than thirteen Danish accounts and others in

Sweden.

II, 499 a, III, 500, V, 209 b. Add to the French ballads a copy, which

has lost still more of the characteristic traits, obtained by M.

Couraye du Parc in Basse-Normandie: Études romanes dédiées à Gaston

Paris, 1891, p. 47, No 10.

II, 499 a. A Ruthenian story like that of the Great Russian ballad in

Kolberg, Pokucie, II, 30, No 33.

15. Leesome Brand.

Pp. 181, 502 a. =German.= Add: Böhme, Erk’s Liederhort, I, 592 f., ‘Der

Reiter und seine Geliebte,’ No 194 b, from Erk’s papers, c, from oral

tradition (fragments). Böckel, ‘Das Begräbniss im Walde,’ p. 33, No 47.

‘Es gingen zwei Liebchen durch einen grünen Wald,’ Wolfram, p. 89, No

63.

17. Hind Horn.

[P. 188 b. ‘Horn Child.’ See the edition by J. Caro, in Englische

Studien, XII, 323 ff.]

190 a. Hereward will not drink unless the princess presents the cup:

very like Horn here. Michel, Chroniques Anglo-Normandes, II, 18 f.

191, note *. Blonde of Oxford (Jehan et Blonde). See Suchier’s edition,

Œuvres poétiques de Philippe de Remi, Sire de Beaumanoir, II, 89, 99,

103.

193 a. That Horn Child, though much more modern in its present form

than the Gest, “would seem to have been formed on a still older model”

was suggested by T. Wright in 1835, and was the opinion of J. Grimm and

of Ferdinand Wolf. Wolf maintains that Horn Child was the work of a

popular jongleur, or vagrant minstrel, and that for this reason Chaucer

put it among the “romances of prys,” which are mentioned in Sir Thopas.

Anyway, this must have been the form of the story which was known to

Chaucer. Wolf, Ueber die Lais, p. 217 f.

195 a (3). Oude Liedekens in Bladeren, L. van Paemel, No 28==Hoffmann,

No 2.

199 a. Albanian. De Grazie, Canti p. albanesi, p. 118.

199 a, note *. Ring in betrothal. So in Twelfth Night, IV, 3, as Prior

remarks, II, 277, _apropos_ of ‘Axel and Walborg’, st. 44.

201, note. These talismans also in India: Tawney’s Kathá-Sarit-Ságara,

II, 161.

502 b, 5th paragraph, III, 501 b, IV, 450 b. Add: Kolberg, Lud, IV,

23, No 146; VI, 166 f., No 332; XII, 115-118, Nos 221-224 (jumps seven

tables and touches the eighth); XVI, 271, No 438; XVI, 272, No 440;

Valjavec, p. 300, No 17; Kolberg, Mazowsze, II, 109, No 251. A soldier

comes back after seven years’ absence to his “widow;” drops ring into

cup, and is recognized as her husband. Lud, XXI, 61, No 123.

20. The Cruel Mother.

P. 219 b, 504 a, II, 500 a, IV, 451 a, V, 212 a. Add: =T=, Wolfram, p.

90, No 64, ‘Es hütet ein Schäfer an jenem Rain,’ ‘Die Rabenmutter;’

Böhme’s edition of Erk’s Liederhort, I, 636, No 212 e; and to the

literature several items at p. 637.

219 b, III, 502 b. Similar Slavic ballads: Polish, Kolberg, Lud, IV,

52, No 220; XII, 308 f., Nos 611, 612; XVII, 9, No 17; XVIII, 188, No

346; XXI, 85, No 179; XXII, 160, No 284; Kolberg, Mazowsze, II, 160,

No 352; IV, 366, No 436.

P. 220. =C=, sts 9, 10, 11 are in Motherwell’s MS., p. 183, written in

pencil.

21. The Maid and the Palmer.

P. 228 b, 2d paragraph. The Finnish ballad was first printed by C. A.

Gottlund, Otava, 1832, II, 9 (Rolland, Chansons Populaires, VI, 47-50,

with a translation).

230 f., III, 502 b, IV, 451 b. White Russian versions, Šejn, II, 607

ff., Nos 12-16, ‘Pesn’ o grěšnoj děvě, Song of the sinful girl,’ five

copies, the third imperfect. Jesus sends the girl to church, in the

first the earth comes up seven cubits, the lights go out, etc.; she

shrives herself, and things are as before. In the other copies she

crumbles to dust. Polish (with variations), Kolberg, Lud; XII, 309,

No 613; XIX, 187, No 658; XX, 101, No 37; XXI, 86, No 180; XXII, 161

f., Nos 285, 286; Kolberg, Mazowsze, I, 142, No 46; IV, 367, No 437;

Siarkowski, in Zbiór wiadomości, IV, 94, No 18.

231 a. Legend of the Magdalen unmixed. =Italian=, Archivio, XIV, 211

f., ‘Maria Maddalena,’ two copies, fragmentary. In the second, Maria

asks the master of a vessel to take her in; a tempest arises; the dona

pecatrice, lest the vessel should founder on her account, with many

people aboard, throws herself into the sea, is swallowed by a whale,

and not disgorged for three-and-thirty years.

22. St. Stephen and Herod.

P. 236 a, last paragraph. Here, and in other places in volumes I, II,

Catalan is treated as if it were a dialect of Spanish. The corrections

required are as follows: I, 236 a, last paragraph, 384 a, 2d par., 505

a, 2d par.; II, 174 a, 2d par., 347 a, 2d par., 512 a, No 72, read

_Catalan_ for _Spanish_, and I, 384 a, 2d par., drop =K=. I, 462 a, 3d

par., read _Catalan_ for =C=. II, 69 a, 7th line, 113 b, 11th line,

158, 2d par., read _Spanish and Catalan_, and at the last place insert

_Catalan_ before the 3d and 4th citations and transfer them to the end.

237, III, 502 b. The Breton story with the miraculous sustentation

of the maid (but without the marvel of the capon): Böhme’s Erk, I,

637 ff., No 213 a, ‘Die Weismutter,’ b, ‘Die unschuldig gehangene

und gerettete Dienstmagd,’ and note to b; Wolfram, p. 38, No 10, ‘Zu

Frankfurt steht ein Wirtshaus.’

240 f., 505 f., II, 501 b, IV, 451 f. Joie des Bestes. Add: Marin,

Cantos Populares, I, 61, No 124; Iglesia, El Idioma Gallego (‘a

maldicion d’a ovella’), cf. II, 8, note †, III, 174, both cited by

Munthe.

240, 241, 505 b, II, 501 b, III, 502 b, IV, 452 a, V, 212 a. A roast

pheasant gets feathers and flies away in attestation of a tale: M.

Wardrop, Georgian Folk-tales, p. 10 f., No 2. G. L. K.

Fish flying out of the pan. See Wesselofsky, Archiv f. slavische

Philologie, VI, 574.

241 b. Herod’s questions. Compare Bergström and Nordlander, 98, 3;

Pidal, p. 128.

23. Judas.

[P. 243 b. Trinity College MS. B, 14, 39, has been recovered, and

Professor Skeat has had the kindness to furnish a copy of the ballad.

Wright’s text proves to be in all essentials accurate; but, on account

of the age and great interest of the poem, Professor Skeat’s copy is

here reproduced. The ballad has no title in the MS.

Hit wes upon a scereþorsday þat vre louerd aros.

ful milde were þe wordes he spec to iudas.

iudas þou most to iurselem oure mete for to bugge.

þritti platen of selu_er_ þou bere up oþi rugge.

þou comest fer iþe brode stret fer iþe brode strete. 5

su_m_me of þine tunesmen þer þou meist i mete.

imette wid is soster þe swikele wimon.

iudas þou were wrþe me stende the wid ston. .íí.

for the false prophete þat tou bileuest upon.

Be stille leue soster þin herte þe to breke. 10

wiste min louerd c_ri_st ful wel he wolde be wreke.

Iudas go þou on þe roc heie up on þe ston.

lei þin heued i my barm slep þou þe anon.

Sone so iudas of slepe was awake.

þritti platen of selu_er_ from hym weren itake. 15

He drou hym selue bi þe cop þat al it lauede ablode.

þe iewes out of iurselem awenden he were wode.

Foret hym com þe riche ieu þat heiste pilatus.

wolte sulle þi louerd þat hette iesus.

I nul sulle my louerd for nones cunnes eiste. 20

bote hit be for þe þritti platen. þat he me bi taiste.

Wolte sulle þi lord c_ri_st for enes cu_n_nes golde.

Nay bote hit be for þe platen. þat he habben wolde.

In him com ur lord * gon as is postles seten at mete.

Wou sitte y_e_ postles a_n_t wi nule ye ete. .íí. 25

ic am iboust a_n_t isold to day for oure mete.

Vp stod him iudas lord am i þat

I nas neu_er_ oþe stude þer me þe euel spec.

Vp him stod peter a_n_t spec wid al is miste.

þau pilatus him come wid ten hu_n_dred cnistes. .íí. 30

y_e_t ic wolde louerd for þi loue fiste.

Still þou be peter. wel i þe i cnowe.

þou wolt fur sake me þrien. ar þe coc him crowe. 33

V. 24, *. The word _c’st_ has here been erased, and should _not_ be

inserted. Skeat.

V. 27. Blank space. Read ‘frek’(=man). Skeat.

The MS. has íí at end of ll. 8, 25, 30. This means that there are here

_two_ second lines, i. e., that three lines rime together. Skeat. The

long f’s of the MS. are printed s.]

25. Willie’s Lyke-Wake.

P. 250, 506 a, II, 502 a, III, 503 a. Add the Croatian ballad, ‘Ive

umira za Marom,’ Hrvatske Narodne Pjesme iz “Naše Sloge,” II. Diel, 15,

No 11.

29. The Boy and the Mantle.

[P. 261 f. On the Gaelic ballad in the Dean of Lismore’s Book see the

elaborate article by Professor Ludw. Chr. Stern, Die gälische Ballade

vom Mantel in Macgregors Liederbuche, Zeitschrift für celtische

Philologie, I, 294 ff. The text is given according to the edition of

Alexander Cameron, Reliquiae Celticae, I, 76, with another copy from

a 1628 MS. in the Franciscan Convent at Dublin. Stern’s translation

clears up some points, and brings out one striking similarity between

the Gaelic and the English ballad. When MacReith’s wife tried on the

mantle, “er passte ihr, beides an Fuss und Hand, bis auf die Gabel

ihrer kleinen Finger und Zehen.” She explains this failure of the

mantel to cover her completely: “‘Einen Kuss bekam ich verstohlen von

O’Duibhnes Sohne Diarmaid; der Mantel würde bis auf den Boden reichen,

wenn es nicht der allein wäre.’” Compare sts 28-30 of ‘The Boy and the

Mantle.’ This similarity, in a feature unknown to other versions of the

story, coupled with the form ‘Craddocke’ in the English ballad (a form

which “nur aus dem welschen Caradawc entstanden sein kann”) convinces

Stern that ‘The Boy and the Mantle,’ and probably also the Gaelic

ballad, are derived directly from Welsh tradition, independently of the

Old French versions, which, however, he thinks also go back ultimately

to Wales (p. 310). I am indebted to Dr F. N. Robinson for calling my

attention to Stern’s article. G. L. K.]

268 ff., 507 a, II, 502 a, III, 503, IV, 454 a, V, 212 f. Tests of

chastity. “The jacinth stone will not be worne on the finger of an

adulterer, nor the olive grow if planted by one that leadeth his life

in unlawful lusts.” Greene, Never too late, Pt. II, 1590, Works, ed.

Grosart, VIII, 141. A note on the general subject in G. Rua, Novelle

del “Mambriano,” pp. 66 f., 73-83. G. L. K. [See also Zupitza, Herrig’s

Archiv f. das Studium der neueren Sprachen, LXXXII, 201; Nyrop,

Dania, I, 13, n. 2; Feilberg, Dania, I, 154; ‘La Mensuration du Cou,’

Perdrizet and Gaidoz, Mélusine, VI, 225 ff.]

270 a, 1st paragraph. The Shukasaptati story at p. 29 f. of R.

Schmidt’s translation.

30. King Arthur and King Cornwall.

P. 284. Sts 17, 18. Compare Carle of Carlile, vv. 143 ff., Percy MS.,

Hales and Furnivall, III, 282.

31. The Marriage of Sir Gawain.

P. 288 ff., II, 289 b, III, 454 a. Mr. Whitley Stokes has pointed out

that the incident of a hag turning into a beautiful woman after a man

has bedded with her occurs in the Book of Ballymote, an Irish MS. of

about 1400, and elsewhere and earlier in Irish story, as in the Book

of Leinster, a MS. of the middle of the twelfth century. The Academy,

XLI, 399 (1892). It is singular that the sovereignty in the first tale

is the sovereignty of Erin, with which the disenchanted hag rewards

her deliverer, and not the sovereignty over woman’s will which is the

solution of the riddle in the ballad. See also the remarks of Mr.

Alfred Nutt in the same volume, p. 425 (and, again, Academy, October

19, 1889, p. 255), who, while denying the necessity for any continental

derivation of the hideous woman, suggests that Rosette in Gautier’s

Conte du Graal, vv. 25380-744, furnishes a more likely origin for her

than Chrétien’s damoisele, since it does not appear that the latter is

under spells, and spells which are loosed by the action of a hero. [See

also O’Grady, Silva Gadelica, p. 328 ff.; translation, p. 370 ff. F. N.

Robinson.]

289 b. Gromere Gromorson (Grummore Gummursum) and Gromore somyr Ioure,

in Malory’s Morte Darthur, ed. Sommer, 256, 258, 799.

32. King Henry.

P. 290, note †, IV, 454 a. “La nuit si jolie fille, le jour si jolie

biche:” Pineau, Le Folk-lore du Poitou, p. 391. [A raven by day, a

woman by night: von Wlislocki, M. u. S. der Bukowinaer u. Siebenbürger

Armenier, p. 75. On transformations of all kinds, see S. Prato,

Bulletin de Folklore, 1892, p. 316 ff.]

298, II, 502 b, IV, 454 a. A man marries a snake. At midnight it

becomes a woman, and it keeps that form thereafter: J. Krainz, Mythen

u. Sagen aus dem steirischen Hochlande. No. 147, p. 194. A snake

(enchanted man) marries a girl, and is thereby freed: Brüder Zingerle,

Tirols Volksdichtungen, II, 173 ff.; cf. II, 317. G. L. K.

33. Kempy Kay.

P. 300. I have serious doubts whether this offensive ballad has not

been made too important; whether, notwithstanding the points noted at

p. 301, it is anything more than a variety of ‘The Queen of all Sluts.’

305 b. =A= 10^1. _lauchty_ in Sharpe with a line drawn in ink through

l (probably by the editor, as this is a presentation copy).

V, 213 a. Since we have Pitcairn’s copy only in Sharpe’s handwriting,

we cannot determine which of the two made the changes.

34. Kemp Owyne.

P. 307 f, II, 502 b, III, 504 a. Disenchantment; kissing a serpent. A

remarkable case alleged to have occurred at Cesena in 1464: [Angelo de

Tummulillis, Notabilia Temporum, ed. Corvisieri, 1890, p. 124 ff.;]

Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, XVII, 161. G. L. K. On

the whole subject see R. Köhler’s notes in Mennung, Der Bel Inconnu,

p. 20; S. Prato’s notes, Bulletin de Folklore, 1892, p. 333 f. [W. H.

Schofield, Studies on the Libeaus Desconus, in Studies and Notes in

Philology and Literature published under the direction of the Modern

Language Departments of Harvard University, IV, 199 ff.]

36. The Laily Worm and the Mackrel of the Sea.

P. 316 a. Näktergalsvisan, Bohlin, in Nyare Bidrag till Kännedom om de

Svenska Landsmålen, II, 10, Folk-toner från Jämtland, pp. 5, 6.

37. Thomas Rymer.

P. 319, note ‡. Dr. W. H. Schofield has furnished me with an abstract

of the Visions d’Oger le Dannoys au royaulme de Fairie (which book

after all is in the Paris library). There is nothing in the Visions

which throws further light on the relation of the stories of Thomas

Rhymer and of Ogier.

320, note ‡. Bells. See R. Köhler, Zeitschr. des Vereins f. Volkskunde,

VI, 60.

321, note ‡. The duration of paradisiac bliss exceeds three hundred

years in some accounts. Three hundred years seem but three days in

the Italian legend of three monks, Graf, Miti, Leggende, etc., 1892,

I, 87 f., and in that of the young prince who invites an angel to his

wedding, Graf, 90 ff., after the Latin text published by Schwarzer,

Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, XIII, 338-51, 1881. (R. Köhler

pointed out in the same journal, XIV, 96 ff., that an abstract of the

story had been given in Vulpius’s Curiositäten, I, 179 ff., as early as

1811.) In the lai of Guingamor, printed by M. Gaston Paris in Romania,

VIII, 50 ff., 1879, three hundred years pass as three days. In both

the last, the eating of earthly food brings an immediate decrepitude,

followed by speedy death in the case of the prince. [See also W. Hertz,

Spielmannsbuch, p. 318 f.]

39. Tam Lin.

[P. 339 b, II, 505 b, III, 505 b. Fairy salve. Kirk’s Invisible

Commonwealth, ed. Lang, pp. 13, 34; Denham Tracts, II, 138 f.]

340 a, II, 505 b, III, 505 b, IV, 455 b. Sleeping under trees: ympe

tree. Bugge, Arkiv för nordisk Filologi, VII, 104, refers to Liebrecht,

Gervasius von Tilbury, p. 117, and to W. Hertz, Spielmannsbuch, p. 322.

40. The Queen of Elfan’s Nourice.

P. 358 b, II, 505 f., III, 505 f., IV, 459 a, V, 215 b. Mortal midwives

for fairies, etc.: Wucke, Sagen der mittleren Werra, II, 25; Gebhart,

Oesterreichisches Sagenbuch, p. 208; Baader, Neugesammelte Volkssagen,

No 95, p. 68. G. L. K.

[Kirk’s Secret Commonwealth, ed. Lang, p. 13; Denham Tracts, II, 138.]

42. Clerk Colville.

[P. 372 b. Der Ritter von Staufenberg. See the edition by Edward

Schröder: Zwei altdeutsche Rittermären, Moriz von Craon, Peter von

Staufenberg. Berlin, 1894. Schröder dates the composition of the poem

about 1310 (p. LI). He shows that Schott’s edition, which Culemann

followed, was a reprint of one printed by Prüss in 1483 at the

earliest, but thinks that it followed that of Prüss at no long interval

(p. XXXIV). Cf. also Schorbach, Zeitschr. f. deutsches Altertum, XL,

123 ff.]

374-78. The mother’s attempt to conceal the death of her son from

his wife occurs also in ‘Ebbe Tygesøns Dødsridt’ and ‘Hr. Magnuses

Dødsridt,’ Olrik, Danske Ridderviser, Nos 320, 321, and Swedish copies

of the former; borrowed no doubt from ‘Elveskud.’

380, II, 506 a, III, 506 a, IV, 459 a, V, 216 a. Add: =XX=, ‘La Mort de

Jean Renaud,’ Beauquier, Chansons p. recueillies en Franche-comté, p.

152.

43. The Broomfield Hill.

[P. 393 a, III, 506 b, IV, 459 b. With the Italian ballad cf. ‘Quarante

ans j’ai travaillé,’ Georgeakis et Pineau, Folk-lore de Lesbos, p. 246.]

393 f., 506. Jäger-Romanze in Böhme, Altdeutsches Liederbuch, No 437,

from Melchior Franck, Fasciculus Quodlibeticus, Nürnberg, 1611, No 6:

slightly different, no disposition to kill the maid. Three copies of

this all but inevitable ballad in Blätter für Pommersche Volkskunde,

II. Jahrgang, p. 77 f., ‘Jägerslied;’ and more might be added.

44. The Twa Magicians.

[P. 400. =Greek.= Cf. ‘Les Transformations,’ Georgeakis et Pineau,

Folk-lore de Lesbos, p. 210 ff. (no mention of the Turk’s transforming

himself).]

401. =Polish.= Add: Kolberg, Lud, XXI, 27, No 50; XXII, 102, No 157;

Kolberg, Mazowsze, II, 54 f., Nos 131, 132; III, 247, 321; IV, 274, No

240.

401 b, II, 506 b, III, 506 f., IV, 459 b, V, 216 a. Transformations

during flight. Add R. Köhler’s notes to L. Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische

Märchen, now published by J. Bolte, Zeitschrift des Vereins für

Volkskunde, VI, 65.

The incidents of the flight of the girl and her lover, the pursuit

and the transformations, and of the Devil outwitted by his pupil are

discussed by G. Rua, Novelle del “Mambriano” del Cicco da Ferrara, p.

95. See also M. Wardrop, Georgian Tales, p. 4, No. 1. G. L. K.

45. King John and the Bishop.

[P. 405 ff., II, 506 f., IV, 459 b, V, 216 a. A Christian ascetic has

taken up his abode in a hogshead, on which he has written, “If thou

art wise, live as I live!” The sultan puts three questions to him:

How far is it to heaven? At how much do you value me? Which is the

best religion? The penalty for failure to solve them is to be dragged

at the tail of the sultan’s horse. The answers are: A day’s journey;

twenty-nine silver pieces; neither of the two religions is the better,

for the two are God’s eyes, one of which is as dear to him as the

other. Von Wlislocki, M. u. S. der Bukowinaer u. Siebenbürger Armenier,

‘Der weise Mann,’ No 30, p. 83 ff.]

46. Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship.

[P. 417 a, II, 507 b, III, 507 a, IV, 459 b, V, 216 a. Heads on stakes.

See W. H. Schofield, in the (Harvard) Studies and Notes in Philology

and Literature, IV, 175 ff.]

418 a, II, 507 b. See Stiefel, Ueber die Quelle der Turandot-Dichtung

Heinz des Kellners, in Zeitschr. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte,

N. F., VIII, 257 ff.

47. Proud Lady Margaret.

P. 426. Add: ‘La fille damnée,’ Daymard, p. 178; ‘La sposa morta,’

Archivio, VIII, 274; the “romance” in Ballesteros, Cancionero popular

gallego, III, 256; see also the “romance” ‘Bernal Francez’ from Algarve

in Encyclopedia Republicana, Lisbon, 1882, p. 156.

49. The Twa Brothers.

P. 435, V, 217. Communicated by Mr J. K. Hudson of Manchester. Sung

after a St George play regularly acted on All Souls’ Day at a village

a few miles from Chester, and written down for Mr Hudson by one of the

performers, a lad of sixteen. The play was introduced by a song called

Souling (similar to a Stephening, see I, 234), and followed by two

songs, of which this is the last, the whole dramatic company singing.

‘And it’s where hast thou been all this night long, my son?

Come tell it unto me.’

‘I have been lying on yonder bull-rushes,

Which lies beneath yond tree.’

‘And it’s what are the spots on this thy coat, my son?

Come tell it unto me.’

‘They are the spots of my poor brother’s blood,

Which lies beneath yonder tree.’

‘And it’s what didst thou kill thy poor brother for, my son?

Come tell it unto me.’

‘Because he killed two pretty little birds,

Which flew from tree to tree.’

‘And it’s what will the father say when he comes, my son?

Come tell it unto me.’

‘I will dress me up in sailor’s clothes,

And my face he will never see.’

‘And it’s what wilt thou do with thy pretty little wife, my son?

Come tell it unto me.’

‘I will dress her up in lad[d]ie’s clothes,

And she will sail along with me.’

‘And it’s what wilt thou do with thy children three, my son?

Come tell it unto me.’

‘I will leave them to my poor grandfather to rear,

And comfort [to] him [to be].’

‘And it’s when shall we see thy face again, my son?

Come tell it unto me.’

‘When the sun and moon shines both at once,

And that shall never be.’

53. Young Beichan.

P. 459 a. For a late German ballad on the Moringer story (‘von dem

Markgrafen Backenweil’) see Bolte, Zeitschrift des Vereins für

Volkskunde, III, 65-7, and for notes of dramas upon the theme, pp.

62-4. I do not observe that I have anywhere referred to the admirably

comprehensive treatment of the subject by von Tettau, Ueber einige bis

jetzt unbekannte Erfurter Drucke des 15. Jahrhunderts, Ritter Morgeners

Wallfahrt, pp. 75-123. The book did not come into my hands till two

years after my preface was written.

FOOTNOTES:

[126] All the ballads in Scott’s Minstrelsy, excepting a few pieces,

of which only ‘Cospatrick’ and ‘The Bonny Hind’ require mention, were

translated in Historische und romantische Balladen der Schottischen

Grenzlande, Zwickau, 1826-7, 7 small vols, by Elise von Hohenhausen,

Willibald Alexis, and Wilhelm von Lüdemann, a work now rare, which has

just come to hand. Registering these translations here, in 53 entries,

would require an unwarrantable space.

VOL. II.

56. Dives and Lazarus.

P. 10 b, III, 507 b, 508 a, IV, 462 b, V, 220 a. Add: =Ruthenian=

ballad, Kolberg, Pokucie, II, 280, No 505. Legends not in stanzas,

=White Russian=, ‘Lazar,’ Šejn, II, 578-90, 3 copies; Romanov, Part

V, pp. 341-56, Nos 22-26, 5 copies and variants; =Great Russian=,

Jakuškin, p. 44, No 13, 2 copies. Lazarus and the rich man are brothers.

‘Il ricco Epulone,’ the Madonna begging, Archivio, XIV, 209 f.

57. Brown Robyn’s Confession.

P. 13, 510 a, IV, 463 a, V, 220 a. A serpent stops a ship and demands

a passenger: Larminie, West-Irish Folk-Tales, p. 131. On the detention

of ships by submarine folk, see Whitley Stokes, Revue Celtique, XV,

294 f. G. L. K. (The article attributed to R. Köhler, II, 510 a, is

by L. Laistner.) [Add Jātaka, Bk. I, No 41, Cowell, I, 110. A ship

mysteriously detained because the owner has neglected a promise: Yacoub

Artin Pacha, Contes pop. de la vallée du Nil, p. 74.]

59. Sir Aldingar.

[P. 33, 511 b, III, 508 a, IV, 462 a. For parallels, including the

child champion, see R. Köhler’s account of the Breton mystery of Sainte

Tryphine, Revue Celtique, I, 222 ff. F. N. Robinson.]

64. Fair Janet.

P. 102 f. (Breton ballad), III (497 b, No 5), 508 b, IV, 464 a, V,

222 a. Add to the French ballads a copy from Basse-Normandie obtained

by M. Couraye du Parc, Études romanes dédiées à Gaston Paris, 1891,

p. 49; ‘L’infidèle punie,’ Beauquier, Chansons p. recueillies en

Franche-Comté, p. 254. [On the similarity of the beginning of ‘La

Fidanzata Infedele’ to that of the Danish ballad ‘Hyrde og Ridderfrue,’

see Olrik, Ridderviser, I, 181, No 349.]

P. 109. Something similar to what is narrated in =F= 7-10 is, I am

assured by high authorities, familiar to practising physicians. An

eminent professor in the Harvard Medical School informs me that in the

case of two families under his care the husband has been regularly

troubled with “morning sickness” during the first three or four

months of the wife’s pregnancy (the husband in neither case being of

a nervous or hysterical disposition). Mr. E. E. Griffith, late of

Harvard College, tells me that a respectable and intelligent man of

his acquaintance in Indiana maintained that he always shared the pains

of his wife during parturition, and that his labors were as intense

in degree and as long in time as hers. A distinguished physician

of Indiana, while testifying to the frequency of cases of the like

sympathy, insists that such experiences occur only to husbands who have

witnessed the pains in question, or who have learned about them by

reading or conversation on the matter, and that “suggestion” affords an

explanation of the phenomenon.

65. Lady Maisry.

P. 112 f. In a Polish ballad a girl who has had a child irregularly

is burned by her two brothers. Her paramour comes by when she is

half burned, and she begs him to save her. (How can I? he says; your

brothers are here. The brothers say, we have done wrong to burn her; we

have left her child an orphan.) Kolberg, Lud, XVI, 291, No 476.

P. 114, st. 17.

O whare is a’ my merry young men,

Whom I gi meat and fee?

With this common-place compare:

Hvor ere nu de Kæmper, min Fader giver Brød (Løn), Grundtvig, D. g. F.,

No 184, G, 8, 9.

Aquí, aquí, los mis doscientos,

Los que comeis el mi pan.

Wolf and Hofmann, Primavera, I, 39, 41 f., and Conde Claros, the same,

II, 374.

66. Lord Ingram and Child Wyet.

Pp. 127, 511, III, 509 a. Naked sword as emblem of chastity. More notes

by R. Köhler to Laura Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Märchen, Nos 39, 40,

now published by J. Bolte in Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde,

VI, 76.

[Mame Ala, in the Kurdish story ‘Mâm and Sîn,’ lays a dagger

(_Dolchmesser_) between himself and Sine, “so dass der Griff desselben

gegen ihre, die Spitze gegen seine eigene Brust gerichtet war.” Prym u.

Socin, Kurdische Sammlungen, Petersburg Academy, translation, p. 101.]

127, note *, III, 509 a. Italian ballad (sword reduced to a straw).

Bernoni, Trad. pop. veneziane, p. 36; Ferraro, Canti pop. di Ferrara,

pp. 56, 103; Villario, in Archivio, XI, 35; Menghini, Canzoni pop.

romane, in Sabatini, Il Volgo di Roma, I, 75 ff.

[127 f., 511 b, III, 509 a. Table-jumping.

Et chil Robert d’Artois n’i fist arestement,

La table tressali tost et apertement;

Au conte Salebrin ala premierement.

The Vows of the Heron (about 1340), Wright, Political Poems, I, 9 f.]

[128. ‘Ebbe Skammelsøn’ is now No 354 in the Grundtvig-Olrik

collection of Danish ballads, Ridderviser, I, 197 ff. 8 Danish versions

are printed (some of which go back to MSS of the 17th century), with a

very elaborate introduction and critical apparatus. Dr. Olrik regards

the extant Norwegian texts as derived from print. He enumerates 8

Swedish versions.]

67. Glasgerion.

P. 137, II, 511 f. Soporific effect of harping: cf. Revue celtique,

XII, 81, 109, XV, 438. G. L. K.

69. Clerk Saunders.

P. 166. Stanzas 30-37 are inserted in Buchan’s first MS. on a separate

slip of paper, and at 29, where the ballad originally ended, there is

this note: “See the additional stanzas on the annexed leaf.” W. Walker.

72. The Clerk’s Twa Sons o Owsenford.

P. 174, note *. ‘Dass Schloss in Oesterreich,’ etc.: see Böhme’s

Erk, No 61^{a-g}; Frischbier u. Sembrzychi, Hundert Ostpreussiche

Volkslieder, No 16, p. 26; Becker, Rheinischer Volksliederborn,

No 2, a, b, c, p. 2 ff.; Wolfram, No 44, p. 71; Kristensen, Jyske

Folkeminder, XI, 218, No 81.

73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet.

P. 181, III, 510 b, IV, 469 a, V, 223 b. Add to the Southern ballads

‘Le mariage tragique,’ Beauquier, Chansons p. recueillies en

Franche-comté, p. 81; ‘Las bodas,’ Milá, Romancerillo Catalan, p. 257,

No 262. (In this last, ‘vert marca esperansa.’)

74. Fair Margaret and Sweet William.

P. 199. Communicated by Miss Mary E. Burleigh, of Worcester,

Massachusetts, and derived, through a relative, from her

great-grandmother, who had heard the ballad sung at gatherings of young

people in Webster, Massachusetts, not long after 1820.

There was such a man as King William, there was,

And he courted a lady fair,

He courted such a lady as Lady Margaret,

For a whole long twelve-month year.

Said he, ‘I’m not the man for you,

Nor you the maid for me,

But before many, many long months

My wedding you shall see.’

Said she, ‘If I’m not the maid for you,

Nor you the man for me,

Before many, many long days

My funeral you shall see.’

Lady Margaret sat in a green shady bower,

A combing her yellow, yellow hair,

When who should she see but King William and his bride,

And to church they did repair.

She threw all down her ivory comb,

Threw back her yellow hair,

And to the long chamber she did go,

And for dying she did prepare.

King William had a dream that night,

Such dreams as scarce prove true:

He dreamed that Lady Margaret was dead,

And her ghost appeared to view.

‘How do you like your bed?’ said she,

‘And how do you like your sheets?

And how do you like the fair lady

That’s in your arms and sleeps?’

‘Well do I like my bed,’ said he,

‘And well do I like my sheets,

But better do I like the fair lady

That’s in my arms and sleeps.’

King William rose early the next morn,

Before the break of day,

Saying, ‘Lady Margaret I will go see,

Without any more delay.’

He rode till he came to Lady Margaret’s hall,

And rapped long and loud on the ring,

But there was no one there but Lady Margaret’s brother

To let King William in.

‘Where, O where is Lady Margaret?

Pray tell me how does she do.’

‘Lady Margaret is dead in the long chamber,

She died for the love of you.’

‘Fold back, fold back that winding sheet,

That I may look on the dead,

That I may kiss those clay-cold lips

That once were the cherry-red.’

Lady Margaret died in the middle of the night,

King William died on the morrow,

Lady Margaret died of pure true love,

King William died of sorrow.

Lady Margaret was buried in King William’s church-yard,

All by his own desire,

And out of her grave grew a double red rose

And out of hisn a briar.

They grew so high, they grew so tall,

That they could grow no higher;

They tied themselves in a true-lover’s knot,

And both fell down together.

Now all ye young that pass this way,

And see these two lovers asleep,

’Tis enough to break the hardest heart,

And bring them here to weep.

199 f. Mallet and ‘Sweet William.’ Full particulars in W. L. Phelps,

The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, 1893, p. 177 ff.

75. Lord Lovel.

P. 204 f., note †, 512 b, IV, 471 a, V, 225 a. Add: Wolfram, p. 87, No

61, ‘Es spielte ein Ritter mit einer Madam.’

205 b, note *. The Swedish ballad (p. 71 f. of the publication

mentioned) is defective at the end, and altogether amounts to very

little.

[206. =Romaic.= Add: ‘La belle Augiranouda,’ Georgeakis et Pineau,

Folk-lore de Lesbos, p. 223 f.]

206 a, and note *. Add: Wolfram, No 28, p. 55, ‘Es war ein Jäger

wohlgemut,’ and ‘Jungfer Dörtchen,’ Blätter für Pommersche Volkskunde,

II. Jahrgang, p. 12.

211, =H.= I have received a copy recited by a lady in Cambridge,

Massachusetts, which was evidently derived from print, and differs but

slightly from a, omitting 8^{3, 4}, 9^{1, 2}.

76. The Lass of Roch Royal.

P. 215. ‘Germaine’: see Daymard, p. 170; Revue des Traditions

populaires, III, 364; Beauquier, Chansons pop. recueillies en

Franche-Comté, p. 259.

77. Sweet William’s Ghost.

P. 228 f., 233, 239, III, 514, IV, 474. Of the succession of three

cocks, white, red, black (reduced to two in English ballads), see R.

Köhler, Der weisse, der rothe und der schwarze Hahn, Germania, XI,

85-92. [So in the tale ‘L’Andromède et les Démons,’ Georgeakis et

Pineau, Folk-lore de Lesbos, p. 82 f.]

228, note †. Two or three additions in Böhme’s Erk, I, 598 ff., No 197,

c, d, g.

78. The Unquiet Grave.

P. 235 a, last paragraph. Servian ballad in which a child’s shirt is

wet with its mother’s tears, Rajković, p. 143, No 186, ‘Dete Lovzar i

majka mu’ (‘The child and his mother’).

[235. Tears burning the dead. Professor Lanman furnishes the following

interesting parallel from the Mahābhārata, XI, 43 ff.: Dhṛtarāṣṭra is

lamenting for his fallen sons. His charioteer says;--The face that thou

wearest, covered with falling tears, is not approved by the sacred

books; nor do wise men praise it. For they [the tears], like sparks,

’tis said, do burn those men (for whom they’re shed).]

79. The Wife of Usher’s Well.

[P. 238, III, 513. Communicated, 1896, by Miss Emma M. Backus, of North

Carolina, who notes that it has long been sung by the “poor whites” in

the mountains of Polk County in that State. It has the mother’s prayer

for the return of her children, as in =C=, III, 513, but is in other

respects much nearer to =A=. In the last stanza we should doubtless

read “They wet our winding sheet,” or the like. In 4^3 the MS. has

_louely_ or _lonely_, perhaps meant for _lovely_.

There was a lady fair and gay,

And children she had three:

She sent them away to some northern land,

For to learn their grammeree.

They hadn’t been gone but a very short time,

About three months to a day,

When sickness came to that land

And swept those babes away.

There is a king in the heavens above

That wears a golden crown:

She prayed that he would send her babies home

To-night or in the morning soon.

It was about one Christmas time,

When the nights was long and cool,

She dreamed of her three little lonely babes

Come running in their mother’s room.

The table was fixed and the cloth was spread,

And on it put bread and wine:

‘Come sit you down, my three little babes,

And eat and drink of mine.’

‘We will neither eat your bread, dear mother,

Nor we’ll neither drink your wine;

For to our Saviour we must return

To-night or in the morning soon.’

The bed was fixed in the back room;

On it was some clean white sheet,

And on the top was a golden cloth,

To make those little babies sleep.

‘Wake up! wake up!’ says the oldest one,

‘Wake up! it’s almost day.

And to our Saviour we must return

To-night or in the morning soon.’

‘Green grass grows at our head, dear mother,

Green moss grows at our feet;

The tears that you shed for us three babes

Won’t wet our winding sheet.’]

80. Old Robin of Portingale.

[P. 240. Dr. Axel Olrik thinks that this ballad is related to the

Danish ballad ‘Utro Fæstemø vil forgive sin Fæstemand,’ No 345 in the

Grundtvig-Olrik collection (Ridderviser, I, 167, note *), which he

refers for its origin to the story of the Lombard queen Rosemunda (see

note on ‘Lord Randal,’ No 12, p. 286, above). The drink promised to Old

Robin by his wife Dr Olrik thinks may indicate that the English ballad

was once more similar to the Danish than it is in the version which we

possess.]

87. Prince Robert.

P. 284. A mother prepares wholesome drink for her son, poison for his

wife; both son and wife are poisoned. They are buried separately, one

in the church, one in the graveyard. Trees from their graves join

their tops. White Russian, Šejn, I, I, 444, No 544, 447-51, Nos 546-9;

Hiltebrandt, p. 64, No 65; Kupčanko, ‘Vdova otravljaet nevěstu,’ p.

255, No 300. Ruthenian, Kolberg, Pokucie, II, 41, No 48.

90. Jellon Grame.

P. 303 b, 513 b, III, 515 b, IV, 479 b, V, 226 a.

Vol’ga, Volch, of the Russian _bylinas_, must have a high place among

the precocious heroes. When he was an hour and a half old his voice was

like thunder, and at five years of age he made the earth tremble under

his tread. At seven he had learned all cunning and wisdom, and all the

languages. Dobrynya is also to be mentioned. See Wollner, Volksepik der

Grossrussen, pp. 47 f., 91.

Simon the Foundling in the fine Servian heroic song of that name,

Karadžić, II, 63, No 14, Talvj, I, 71, when he is a year old is like

other children of three; when he is twelve like others of twenty, and

wonderfully learned, with no occasion to be afraid of any scholar, not

even the abbot. (Cf. ‘The Lord of Lorne,’ V, 54, 9, 10.)

Other cases, Revue Celtique, XII, 63; Wardrop, Georgian Folk Tales, No

6, p. 26. G. L. K. [Lady Guest’s Mabinogion, III, 32, 65; 201, 232;

Firdusi, Livre des Rois, Mohl, 1838, I, 353 ff. A. and A. Schott,

Walachische Märchen, p. 265 (cf. A. Wirth, Danae in christlichen

Legenden, p. 34). F. N. Robinson. See also von Wlislocki, M. u. S. der

Bukowinaer u. Siebenbürger Armenier, No 24, p. 65; Jacottet, Contes

pop. des Bassoutos, p. 196 f.; Georgeakis et Pineau, Folk-lore de

Lesbos, p. 168.]

93. Lamkin.

Pp. 320-42, III, 515, IV, 480 f., V, 229 f.

Denham, Tracts, II, 190, refers to a Northumbrian version of the ballad

which associated Long Lonkin with Nafferton Castle in the parish of

Ovingham. He also gives a story, obtained from an old man in Newcastle,

according to which Long Lonkin is no mason but a gentleman, who kills

the lady and her one child because the lord of Nafferton had been

preferred to him. The husband, abandoning his journey to London on

account of a misgiving that all was not right at home, after finding

his wife and child dead, hunts down the murderer, who drops from a

tree in which he had concealed himself into a pool, thence called Long

Lonkin’s pool, and is drowned.

Communicated by Mr. W. W. Newell, with the superscription (by the

original transcriber, Miss Emma M. Backus) “as sung in Newbern, North

Carolina, seventy-five years ago” (1895).

John Lankin was a good mason

As ever laid a stone;

He built Lord Arnold’s castle

And the lord he paid him none.

John Lankin then swore,

If the lord did not pay him,

He would break into his castle

And murder all his kinsmen.

Lord Arnold soon did hear

Of John Lankin’s threat so dour;

He did guard all his castle

With soldiers every hour.

He said to his lady,

‘I am going away from home,

And what should you do

If John Lankin should come?’

‘I care not for John Lankin,

Or any of his kin;

I will bar all my doors

And I’ll pin my windows in.’

The doors were all barrd

And the windows pinned in,

And out of the kitchen-window

The nurse she let him in.

He killed the good lady

With a cowardly cruel blow,

And threw her pretty baby

To the dank moat below.

John Lankin was hung

On the gallows so high,

And the nurse she was chained

In a dungeon to die.

95. The Maid freed from the Gallows.

P. 346 f., III, 516 a, IV, 481 a, V, 231 a. Michele Barbi, Poesia

popolare pistoiese, p. 9, found a fragment of Scibilia Nobili at Plan

dagli Ontani under the name of Violina, and Giannini’s ‘Prigioniera’

(III, 516 a), otherwise ‘Mosettina,’ under the name Violina,’

‘Brunetta,’ etc.

The following copy was communicated by Mr W. W. Newell, as derived from

Miss Emma M. Backus, North Carolina, who says: “This is an old English

song, in the Yorkshire dialect, which was brought over to Virginia

before the Revolution. It has not been written for generations, for

none of the family have been able to read or write.” Miss Backus

adds that the pronunciation indicated is by no means that which is

ordinarily used by the people who sing this ballad. It will, however,

be noted that the Yorkshire dialect is not well preserved.

THE HANGMAN’S TREE.

‘Hangman, hangman, howd yo hand,

O howd it wide and far!

For theer I see my feyther coomin,

Riding through the air.

‘Feyther, feyther, ha yo brot me goold?

Ha yo paid my fee?

Or ha yo coom to see me hung,

Beneath tha hangman’s tree?’

‘I ha naw brot yo goold,

I ha naw paid yo fee,

But I ha coom to see yo hung

Beneath tha hangman’s tree.’

4, 5, } meyther }

7, 8, } _as in_ 1, 2, _substituting_ sister } _for_ feyther

10, 11 } sweetheart}

6, 9, _as in_ 3.

‘Oh I ha brot yo goold,

And I ha paid yo fee,

And I ha coom to take yo froom

Beneath tha hangman’s tree.’

3^4. hangmens.

4^3. mither.

5^2. Or ha.

5^3. hang.

5^4, 8^4, 11^4. gallows tree.

12^3. An.

12^4. the.

348 b. =German.= Böhme, in his edition of Erk’s Liederhort, I, 277,

adds a copy, from singing, dated 1878, ‘Die Losgekaufte,’ No 78 e.

349 f., 514 a, III, 516 b. A young man in prison bought out by his

sweetheart, father, mother, etc., refusing help: Little Russian,

Romanov, I, 63, No 2; Croatian, Valjavec, p. 303, No 19, ‘Junak vu

Madjarski vuzi;’ Great Russian, Jakuškin, p. 147 f.; Ruthenian,

Kolberg, Pokucie, II, 226 f., Nos 418, 420. Woman rescued by lover

from Tatar who was about to kill her, the blood-relations declining:

Romanov, I, 53, No 105.

514 a. In Nesselmann’s Littauische Volkslieder, No 119, p. 96,

and Bartsch’s Dainu Balsai, I, 147, No 107, II, 202, No 321 (from

Bezzenberger, Litauische Forschungen, p. 17, No 27), we have a ballad

of a youth who does not get release from confinement though his blood

relations lay down handsomely for him, but in the end is freed by his

sweetheart with a trifle of a ring or a garland. In Bartsch, I, 63, No

53, a girl who has been shut up nine years is let alone by her father

and her brother, but liberated by her lover; II, 296, Ulmann, Lettische

Volkslieder, p. 168, relations make an attempt to buy off a conscript,

without success, but his sweetheart effects his release by selling her

garland. Silly stories all.

96. The Gay Goshawk.