THE WEE WEE MAN. Mainly after Herd. Given also by Motherwell, Buchan,
and Kinloch, and in Caw's "Poetical Museum." _Shathmont_, a six inch
measure. _Lap_, leaped. _Jimp_, neat.
TAMLANE. Mainly after Aytoun's collated version. Stanzas 16-19,
obtained by Scott "from a gentleman residing near Langholm," are too
modern in diction to harmonize well with the rest, but are retained
here because of their fidelity to the ancient beliefs of the country
folk about fairies. Widely varying versions are given in Johnson's
"Museum," communicated by Burns, under title of _Tam Lin_; in the
Glenriddell MS. under title of _Young Tom Line_; by Herd, under title
of _Kertonha_, corruption of Carterhaugh; by Motherwell, under titles
of _Young Tamlin_ and _Tomaline_; by Buchan, under titles of
_Tam-a-line_ and _Tam a-Lin_; and in the Campbell MS. under title of
_Young Tam Lane_. There are humorous Scottish songs, too, of _Tam o
Lin_, _Tam o the Linn_, _Tom a Lin_, and _Tommy Linn_. The ballad is
of respectable antiquity, the _Tayl of the Yong Tamlene_ and the dance
of _Thom of Lyn_ being noticed in a work as old as the "Complaynt of
Scotland" (1548); yet it seems to have no Continental cousins, but to
be strictly of Scottish origin. It belongs to Selkirkshire, whose
peasants still point out upon the plain of Carterhaugh, about a mile
above Selkirk, the fairy rings in the grass. _Preen'd_, decked.
_Gars_, makes. _Bree_, brow, _Sained_, baptized, _Snell_, keen.
_Teind_, tithe. _Borrow_, ransom. _Cast a compass_, draw a circle.
_Elrish_, elvish. _Gin_, if. _Maik_, mate. _Aske_, lizard. _Bale_,
fire. _But and_, and also. _Tree_, wood. _Coft_, bought.
TRUE THOMAS. Mainly after Scott. This is one of the ballads written
down from the recital of the "good Mrs. Brown," to whose admirable
memory ballad-lovers are so deeply indebted. It is given in the Brown
MS. as _Thomas Rymer and Queen of Elfland_; in the Campbell MS. as
_Thomas the Rhymer_. Scott obtained his excellent version from "a lady
residing not far from Ercildoune." This Thomas the Rhymer, or True
Thomas, or Thomas of Ercildoune, was a veritable personage, who dwelt
in the village of Ercildoune situate by "Leader's silver tide" some
two miles above its junction with the Tweed. Tradition has it that
his date was the thirteenth century and his full name Thomas Learmont.
He was celebrated as poet and prophet, the rustics believing that his
gift of soothsaying was imparted by the Fairy Queen, who kept him with
her in Elfland for seven years, permitting him then to return to the
upper world for a season and utter his oracles, but presently
recalling him to her mysterious court. A fragmentary old poem, showing
probable traces, as Jamieson suggests, of the Rhymer's own authorship,
tells this famous adventure in language whose antiquated form cannot
disguise its sweetness. The melancholy likelihood seems to be that
True Thomas was a fibbing Thomas, after all, and invented this story
of his sojourn in Elfland to gain credit for his poetical prophecies,
which claim to have first proceeded from the mouth of the Fairy Queen,
when
"Scho broghte hym agayne to Eldone tree,
Vndir nethe that grenewode spraye;
In Huntlee bannkes es mery to bee,
Whare fowles synges bothe nyght and daye."
_Ferlie_, wonder. _Ilka tett_, each lock (of hair). _Louted_, bowed.
_Harp and carp_, play and talk. _Leven_, lawn. _Stern-light_,
star-light. _Dought_, could.
THE ELFIN KNIGHT. After Aytoun's version framed by collation from
copies given by Motherwell, Kinloch, and Buchan. These were in the
main recovered by recitation, although there is a broadside copy of
the ballad in the Pepysian collection at Cambridge. Fragments of the
story have been handed down in tavern-songs and nursery-rhymes, and it
is to be found, more or less disguised, in the literatures of many
countries, European and Asiatic. It is only in our own versions,
however, that the outwitted knight is a supernatural being, usually an
elf, though sometimes degenerating into "the Deil." Nowhere out of
canny Scotland does his ungallantry debar him from the human ranks.
_Sark_, shirt. _Gin_, if. _Tyne_, prong. _Shear_, reap. _Bigg_,
build. _Loof_, hollow of the hand. _But_ (candle, etc.), without
(candle, etc.)
LADY ISOBEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT. Mainly after Buchan's version entitled
_The Water o' Wearie's Well_, although it is in another version given
by Buchan, under title of _The Gowans sae Gay_, that the name of the
lady is disclosed, and the elfin nature of the eccentric lover
revealed. In that ballad Lady Isobel falls in love with the elf-knight
on hearing him
"blawing his horn,
The first morning in May,"
and this more tuneful version retains in the first two stanzas a
fading trace of the fairy element and the magic music, the bird, whose
song may be supposed to have caused the lady's heartache, being
possibly the harper in elfin disguise. In most of the versions,
however, the knight is merely a human knave, usually designated as
Fause Sir John, and the lady is frequently introduced as May Colven or
Colvin or Collin or Collean, though also as Pretty Polly. The story is
widely circulated, appearing in the folk-songs of nearly all the
nations of northern and southern Europe. It has been suggested that
the popular legend may be "a wild shoot from the story of Judith and
Holofernes." _Dowie_, doleful.
TOM THUMBE. After Ritson, with omissions. Ritson prints from a
manuscript dated 1630, the oldest copy known to be extant, but the
story itself can be traced much further back and was evidently a prime
favorite with the English rustics. The plain, often doggerel verse,
and the rough, often coarse humor of this ballad make it appear at
striking disadvantage among the Scottish folk-songs, essentially
poetic as even the rudest of them are. Tom Thumbe, it must be
confessed, is but a clumsy sort of elf, and the ballad as a whole can
hardly be said to have a fairy atmosphere. Yet it is of value as
adding to the data for a comparison between the English and the
Scottish peasantry, as throwing light on the fun-loving spirit, the
sports and practical joking of Merrie England, as showing the tenacity
of the Arthurian tradition, together with the confusion of chivalric
memories, as displaying the ignorant credulity of the popular mind
toward science no less than toward history, and as illustrating, by
giving us in all this bald, sing-song run of verses, here and there a
sweet or dainty fancy and at least one stanza of exquisite tenderness
and grace, the significant fact that in the genuine old English
ballads beauty is not the rule, but the surprise. _Counters_,
coin-shaped pieces of metal, ivory, or wood, used in reckoning.
_Points_, here probably the bits of tin plate used to tag the strands
of cotton yarn with which, in lieu of buttons, the common folk
fastened their garments. The points worn by the nobles were laces or
silken strands ornamented with aiglets of gold or silver.
KEMPION. After Allingham's version collated from copies given by
Scott, Buchan, and Motherwell, with a touch or two from the kindred
ballad _The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heugh._ Buchan and Motherwell
make the name of the hero Kemp Owyne. Similar ballads are known in
Iceland and Denmark, and the main features of the story appear in both
the classic and romantic literatures. _Weird_, destiny. _Dree_,
suffer. _Borrowed_, ransomed. _Arblast bow_, cross-bow. _Stythe_,
place. _Louted_, bowed.
ALISON GROSS. After Jamieson's version taken from the recitation of
Mrs. Brown. Child claims that this tale is a variety of _Beauty and
the Beast. Lemman_, lover. _Gar_, make. _Toddle_, twine. _Seely
Court_, Happy Court or Fairy Court. See English Dictionary for changes
of meaning in _silly_.
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL. After Scott, with a stanza or two from
Chambers, both versions being recovered by recitation. Although this
is scarcely more than a fragment, it is well-nigh unsurpassed for
genuine ballad beauty, the mere touches of narrative suggesting far
deeper things than they actually relate. _Martinmas_, the eleventh of
November. _Carline wife_, old peasant-woman. _Fashes_, troubles.
_Birk_, birch. _Syke_, marsh. _Sheugh_, trench. _Channerin'_,
fretting. _Gin_, if. _Byre_, cow-house.
A LYKE-WAKE DIRGE. After Scott. This dirge belongs to the north of
England and is said to have been chanted, in Yorkshire, over the dead,
down to about 1624. _Lyke-Wake_, dead-watch. _Sleete_, salt, it being
the old peasant custom to place a quantity of this on the breast of
the dead. _Whinny-muir_, Furze-moor. A manuscript found by Ritson in
the Cotton Library states: "When any dieth, certaine women sing a song
to the dead bodie, recyting the journey that the partye deceased must
goe; and they are of beliefe (such is their fondnesse) that once in
their lives, it is good to give a pair of new shoes to a poor man, for
as much as, after this life, they are to pass barefoote through a
great launde, full of thornes and furzen, except by the meryte of the
almes aforesaid they have redemed the forfeyte; for, at the edge of
the launde, an oulde man shall meet them with the same shoes that were
given by the partie when he was lyving; and, after he hath shodde
them, dismisseth them to go through thick and thin, without scratch or
scalle." _Brigg o' Dread_, Bridge of Dread. Descriptions of this
Bridge of Dread are found in various Scottish poems, the most minute
being given in the legend of _Sir Owain_. Compare the belief of the
Mahometan that in his approach to the judgment-seat, he must traverse
a bar of red-hot iron, stretched across a bottomless abyss, true
believers being upheld by their good works, while the wicked fall
headlong into the gulf.
PROUD LADY MARGARET. After Aytoun. The original versions of this
ballad, as given by Scott, Buchan, Dixon, and Laing, differ widely. It
is known under various titles, _The Courteous Knight_, _The Jolly Hind
Squire_, _The Knicht o Archerdale_, _Fair Margret_, and _Jolly
Janet_. Similar ballads are rife in France, although in these it is
more frequently the ghost of a dead lady who admonishes her living
lover. _Wale_, choose. _Ill-washen feet_, etc., in allusion to the
custom of washing and dressing the dead for burial. _Feckless_,
worthless. _Pirie's chair_ remains an unsolved riddle of the ballad,
editors and commentators not being as good at guessing as the ghost.
THE TWA SISTERS O' BINNORIE. Mainly after Aytoun. There are many
versions of this ballad in Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland,
varying widely in titles, refrains, and indeed in everything save the
main events of the story. A broadside copy appeared as early as
1656. Ballads on the same subject are very popular among the
Scandinavian peoples, and traces of the story are found as far away as
China and South Africa. _Twined_, parted. _Make_, mate. _Gar'd_,
made. Although Lockhart would have the burden pronounced
Binnŏrie, a more musical effect is secured by following
Jamieson and pronouncing Binnōrie.
THE DEMON LOVER. After Scott. Buchan has a version under title of
_James Herries_, the demon being here transformed into a lover who has
died abroad and comes in spirit guise to punish his "Jeanie Douglas"
for her broken vows. Motherwell gives a graphic fragment. _Ilka_,
every, _Drumly_, dark. _Won_, dwell.
RIDDLES WISELY EXPOUNDED. Mainly after Motherwell. There are several
broadsides, differing slightly, of this ballad. Riddling folk-songs
similar to this in general features have been found among the Germans
and Russians and in Gaelic literature. _Speird_, asked. Unco, uncanny.
Gin, if. Pies, magpies. Clootie, see Burus's Address to the Deil.
"O thou! whatever title suit thee,
Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie," etc.