a ballad called 'Chanson du brave Altizar' is mentioned as a variant of
'Dion et la Fille du Roi,' and, fol. 321 of the same volume, a version
from Mortain, Basse Normandie, is said to have been communicated,
which, however, I have not found. These may both belong with the French
ballads at II, 356.
43 a. #E#. Another copy in Guillon, Chansons pop. de l'Ain, p. 85.
Add #I#: 'Monsieur de Savigna,' Decombe, Chansons pop.
d'Ille-et-Vilaine, p. 264, No 92. The ballad begins like #A#, #B#, but
the conclusion is inverted. The fair one is thrown into a pond; M.
Savigna cuts away with his sword the plant she seizes when she comes
up from the bottom the fourth time; she asks, If you ever go back,
where will you say you left me? and he answers, In the big wood full of
robbers.
59. #F.# In the catalogue of the British Museum, "London? 1710?"
60.
G
British Museum, MS. Addit. 20094. 'The Knight and the
Chief's Daughter,' communicated to Mr T. Crofton Croker
in 1829, as remembered by Mr W. Pigott Rogers, and
believed by Mr Rogers to have been learned by him from an
Irish nursery-maid.
1
'Now steal me some of your father's gold,
And some of your mother's fee,
And steal the best steed in your father's stable,
Where there lie thirty three.'
2
She stole him some of her father's gold,
And some of her mother's fee,
And she stole the best steed from her father's stable,
Where there lay thirty three.
3
And she rode on the milk-white steed,
And he on the barb so grey,
Until they came to the green, green wood,
Three hours before it was day.
4
'Alight, alight, my pretty colleen,
Alight immediately,
For six knight's daughters I drowned here,
And thou the seventh shall be.'
5
'Oh hold your tongue, you false knight villain,
Oh hold your tongue,' said she;
''T was you that promised to marry me,
For some of my father's fee.'
6
'Strip off, strip off your jewels so rare,
And give them all to me;
I think them too rich and too costly by far
To rot in the sand with thee.'
7
'Oh turn away, thou false knight villain,
Oh turn away from me;
Oh turn away, with your back to the cliff,
And your face to the willow-tree.'
8
He turned about, with his back to the cliff,
And his face to the willow-tree;
So sudden she took him up in her arms,
And threw him into the sea.
9
'Lie there, lie there, thou false knight villain,
Lie there instead of me;
'T was you that promised to marry me,
For some of my father's fee.'
10
'Oh take me by the arm, my dear,
And hold me by the hand,
And you shall be my gay lady,
And the queen of all Scotland.'
11
'I'll not take you by the arm, my dear,
Nor hold you by the hand;
And I won't be your gay lady,
And the queen of all Scotland.'
12
And she rode on the milk-white steed,
And led the barb so grey,
Until she came back to her father's castle,
One hour before it was day.
13
And out then spoke her parrot so green,
From the cage wherein she lay:
Where have you now been, my pretty colleen,
This long, long summer's day?
14
'Oh hold your tongue, my favourite bird,
And tell no tales on me;
Your cage I will make of the beaten gold,
And hang in the willow-tree.'
15
Out then spoke her father dear,
From the chamber where he lay:
Oh what hath befallen my favourite bird,
That she calls so loud for day?
16
'T is nothing at all, good lord,' she said,
''T is nothing at all indeed;
It was only the cat came to my cage-door,
And I called my pretty colleen.'
5. Gil Brenton.
P. 67 a, line 14. Add the Icelandic versions of 'Torkild Trundesøn'
recently printed: Íslenzk fornkvæði, II, 281, No 62, #A# 42 f, #B# 42,
#C# 29.
6. Willie's Lady.
P. 85 b, the third paragraph. "Bei der Entbindung... muss man alle
Schlösser im Hause an Thüren und Kisten aufmachen: so gebiert die Frau
leichter." Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube, p. 355, No 574, ed.
1869. G. L. K.
7. Earl Brand.
P. 96 b, line 1. In England the north side of the burial-ground
is appropriated to unbaptized children, suicides, etc. Brand's
Antiquities, ed. Hazlitt, II, 214-218.
97 b. Add: #Portuguese.# Roméro, Cantos pop. do Brazil, No 4, 'D.
Duarte e Donzilha,' I, 9: sicupira and collar.
#Romaic.# Chasiotis, p. 169, No 5, lemon and cypress; Aravandinos, p.
284 f, Nos 471, 472, cypress and reed.
97 b, and 489 b. #Russian.# Bezsonof, Kalyeki Perekhozhie, I, 697-700,
Nos 167, 168 (Ruibnikof): Vasily is laid on the right, Sophia on the
left; golden willow and cypress. The hostile mother pulls up, breaks
down, the willow; cuts down, pulls up, the cypress.
Trudy, V, 711, No 309, #A#, man buried under church, wife under belfry;
green maple and white birch. #B-J#, other copies with variations. V,
1208, No 50, a Cossack blossoms into a thorn, a maid into an elder; his
mother goes to pull up the thorn, hers to pluck up the elder. "Lo, this
is no thorn! it is my son!" "Lo, this is no elder! it is my daughter!"
489 b, eighth line from below, read, for laburnum, silver willow, and
golden willow in the next line but one; and also for No 285.
98 a. #Magyar.# In Ungarische Revue, 1883, pp. 756-59, these three and
one more.
#Chinese.# Hanpang has a young and pretty wife named Ho, whom he
tenderly loves. The king, becoming enamored of her, puts her husband in
prison, where he kills himself. Ho throws herself from a high place,
leaving a letter to the king, in which she begs that she may be buried
in the same tomb as her husband; but the king orders them to be put in
separate graves. In the night cedars spring up from their tombs, which
thrive so extraordinarily that in ten days their branches and their
roots are interlocked. A. de Gubernatis, La Mythologie des Plantes, II,
53, from Schlegel, Uranographie chinoise, p. 679. (Already cited by
Braga.)
9. The Fair Flower of Northumberland.
P. 116 a, #C# 5^1. Bed-head should certainly be bed-stock: cf. #B# 3^1.
10. The Twa Sisters.
P. 119 b. Färöe versions. Seven are now known, and one is printed, from
the manuscript collection of Färöe ballads made by Svend Grundtvig and
Jørgen Bloch, in Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, No 7, p. 23, 'Harpu
rima.'
124 b. Waldau, Böhmische Granaten, II, 97. R. Köhler. (I have never
been able to get the second volume.)
125 a.
'Siffle, berger, de mon haleine!
Mon frère m'a tué sous les bois d'Altumène,
Pour la rose de ma mère, que j'avais trouvée,' etc.
Poésies pop. de la France, MS., VI, 193 _bis_; popular in Champagne:
Mélusine, I, col. 424.
125 b, second paragraph. (7), also in Rochholz, Schweizersagen aus dem
Aargau, II, 126, No 353. Add to stories of this group, 'La Flute,'
Bladé, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, II, 100-102. G. L. K.
The last paragraph. De Gubernatis, Zoölogical Mythology, I, 195,
cites other similar stories: Afanasief, Skazki, V, 71, No 17, and two
varieties, VI, 133, No 25; the twentieth story of Santo Stefano di
Calcinaia, II, 325. G. L. K.
11. The Cruel Brother.
P. 143 b, line 27. Add #D# 3, and the Swedish ballad at p. 203, stanzas
14-17.
12. Lord Randal.
P. 151 a. Lt.-Col. W. F. Prideaux, of Calcutta, has kindly informed me
that #E# was printed in The Universal Magazine, 1804. It is there said
to have been sung, to a very simple and very ancient Scotch tune, by a
peasant-girl at the village of Randcallas, Perthshire. See, also, Notes
and Queries, Sixth Series, XII, 134.
152 b. Italian #A# is translated in the Countess Evelyn
Martinengo-Cesaresco's Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs, p. 219.
156 b, at the end of the second paragraph. The Čelakovský and the
Sakharof ballad are the same. Add: Trudy, V, 432, No 822; p. 915, No
481.
13. Edward.
P. 168 b. #B# is translated also in Seckendorf's Musenalmanach für das
Jahr 1808, p. 7, and by Du Méril, Histoire de la Poésie scandinave, p.
467.
14. Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie.
P. 172 b. #Färöe.# Four versions are known; Lyngbye's is repeated in
Hammershaimb's Færøsk Anthologi, No 13, p. 45, 'Torkils døtur.'
173. 'La Fille d'un Cabaretier,' Guillon, Chansons pop. de l'Ain, p.
165, has some of the circumstances of No 14. A girl is stopped by three
"libertins" in a wood. She gives them her ring and her chain, to ransom
her person. They say they will have that too, and kill her when she
resists. They then go for breakfast to her father's tavern, and while
they are paying their scot the ring falls and is recognized by her
mother. The youngest confesses, and they are taken to the forest and
burned.
In a Russian ballad the only sister of nine [seven] brothers is given
in marriage to a rich merchant, who lives at a distance from her home.
After three years the married pair undertake a journey to her native
place. On their way they are attacked by nine robbers, who kill her
husband, throw her child into the sea, and act their pleasure with her.
One of the nine, entering into talk with the woman, discovers that she
is his sister. Sakharof, translated in Ralston's Songs of the Russian
People, p. 49 f; Ruibnikof, Part III, p. 340, No 62, Part IV, p. 99, No
19; Hilferding, col. 149, No 28, col. 844, No 167, col. 1154, No 248,
col. 1265, No 294; Trudy, V, 910, No 479, #A-H#.
15. Leesome Brand.
P. 181 b, line 12. Montanus is Vincenz von Zuccalmaglio; the
ballad-editor is Wilhelm.
#French.# Add #C#, Decombe, No 96, p. 275, 'Le fils du roi d'Espagne.'
182 a, second paragraph, line 6 ff. Say: No 102, 'Willie and Earl
Richard's Daughter;' No 103, 'Rose the Red and White Lily;' No 64,
'Fair Janet',' #C# 7, #D# 1; No 63, 'Child Waters,' #J# 39; No 24,
'Bonnie Annie,' #A# 10, #B# 6, 7.
A man's help refused in travail. Add: Sir Beues of Hamtoun, p. 132, v.
3449 ff (Maitland Club).
Beues is seruise gan hire bede,
To helpe hire at the nede.
'For Godes loue,' she seide, 'nai!
Leue sire, thow go the wai;
For forbede, for is pite,
That no wimmanis priuite
To no man thourgh me be kouthe,'
16. Sheath and Knife.
P. 185. As an arrow-shot is to fix the place for a grave here and
in 'Robin Hood's Death,' so, in many popular tales, arrows are
shot to determine where a wife is to be sought: see a Hindoo tale,
Asiatic Journal, 1833, XI, 207, Benfey, Pantschatantra, I, 261; Hahn,
Griechische Märchen, No 67, II, 31, 285; Afanasief, I, 346, No 23,
cited by Ralston, The Nineteenth Century, IV, 1004, 1878; Jagić, in
Archiv für slavische Philologie, II, 619, and R. Köhler's notes at p.
620.
17. Hind Horn.
P. 194. The warning by a dream, the preternaturally rapid
transportation, and the arrival in time to prevent a second marriage
taking effect are found in the story of Aboulfaouaris, Cabinet des
Fées, XV, 336 ff, Les Mille et un Jours, Paris, 1840, 228 ff. Rohde,
Der griechische Roman, p. 182: F. Liebrecht.
196. Recognition by a ring dropped into a drinking-vessel. See Nigra,
Romania, XIV, 255 f, note 2: but Willems and Coussemaker are cited in
this book, I, 195 a (3).
197 b, second paragraph. Wernhart von Strätlingen: see the note to I,
350, of Birlinger and Buck, Volksthümliches aus Schwaben.
198 a. The story of the return, by marvellous means, of the seven
years abroad husband, in Leskien u. Brugman, Litauische Volkslieder u.
Märchen, No 22, p. 437 f: Wollner's notes, p. 571. G. L. K.
198 b, third paragraph. Add: Victor Smith, 'Le Retour du Mari,' Chants
pop. du Velay et du Forez, in Romania, IX, 289; Tarbé, Romancero de
Champagne, II, 122: "E. Muller, Chansons de mon village, journal Le
Mémorial de la Loire du 19 septembre, 1867; Daymard, Collection de
vieilles chansons, p. 220 du Bulletin de la Société des éludes du Lot,
1879" (V. Smith). Imperfect copies of this ballad in Guillon, Chansons
pop. de l'Ain, p. 95, 'Les deux Maris,' p. 39, 'Ma pauvre Elise.'
As a tale in Bladé, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, I, 43. The seigneur
is conveyed from the Holy Land by the devil, appears as a beggar, and
produces one half of his marriage contract, which fits the half left
with his wife. G. L. K.
200 a, second paragraph. Say, in the fourth line, three, six, or
twelve. Dobrynya and Nastasya in Hilferding, Nos 23, 26, 33, 38, 43,
columns 131, 144, 160, 176, 211, and twenty other places; Ruibnikof,
I, 169, No 27, III, 90, No 18; Miss Hapgood's Epic Songs of Russia,
Dobrynya and Alyosha, p. 253.
18. Sir Lionel.
P. 209 a. A king's daughter is to be given to the man that rids the
country of a boar: Diarmaid and the Magic Boar, Campbell, Tales of the
West Highlands, III, 81.
19. King Orfeo.
P. 216 a, first paragraph. The Bodleian copy, #B#, also refers to the
lay of Orpheus at the end. G. L. K. So the Lai de l'Espine, Roquefort,
Poésies de Marie de France, I, 556, v. 185, and Floire et Blanceflor,
ed. Du Méril, p. 231, v. 71: Zielke, Sir Orfeo, p. 131.
For correspondences between Sir Orfeo and the Irish epic tale of the
Wooing of Etain, see Kittredge, in The American Journal of Philology,
VII, 191 ff.
20. The Cruel Mother.
P. 219 b. Add to the German versions: #M#, #O#. Knoop, Volkssagen,
Erzählungen, u. s. w., aus dem östlichen Hinterpommern, Posen, 1885,
pp. x, xi: 'Es trieb ein Schäfer mit Lämmlein raus.' Fr. Schönwerth,
Aus der Oberpfalz, I, 234, gives a prose tale which is evidently
founded on the ballad of 'The Cruel Mother' (three children, one in the
water, one in dung, one in the wood). R. Köhler.
225.
N
Percy Papers, with no account of the derivation.
1
There was a duke's daughter lived at York,
All alone and alone a
And she fell in love with her father's clarke.
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down, etc.
2
She loved him seven long years and a day,
Till at last she came big-bellied away.
3
She set her back against a thorn,
And there she had two pretty babes born.
4
She took out a penknife long and short,
And she pierc'd these pretty babes to the tender heart.
5
So as she was walking in her father's hall,
She saw three pretty babes playing at ball.
6
The one was clothed in purple, the other in pall,
And the other was cloathed in no cloths at all.
7
'O pretty babes, pretty babes, will you be mine?
You shall be clothed in scarlet so fine,
And ye shall drink ale, beer and wine.'
8
'We are three angels, as other angels be,
And the hotest place in hell is reserved for thee.'
O
Pepys Ballads, V, 4, No 2, from a transcript in the Percy
Papers.
1
There was a duke's daughter lived in York,
Come bend and bear away the bows of yew
So secretly she loved her father's clark.
Gentle hearts, be to me true.
2
She loved him long and many a day,
Till big with child she went away.
3
She went into the wide wilderness;
Poor she was to be pitied for heaviness.
4
She leant her back against a tree,
And there she endurd much misery.
5
She leant her back against an oak,
With bitter sighs these words she spoke.
6
She set her foot against a thorne,
And there she had two pretty babes born.
7
She took her filliting off her head,
And there she ty'd them hand and leg.
8
She had a penknife long [and] sharp,
And there she stuck them to the heart.
9
She dug a grave, it was long and deep,
And there she laid them in to sleep.
10
The coldest earth it was their bed,
The green grass was their coverlid.
11
As she was a going by her father's hall,
She see three children a playing at ball.
12
One was drest in scarlet fine,
And the other[s was naked] as ere they was born.
13
'O mother, O mother, if these children was mine,
I wold dress them [in] scarlet fine.'
14
'O mother, O mother, when we was thine,
You did not dress [us] in scarlet fine.
15
'You set your back against a tree,
And there you endured great misery.
16
'You set your foot against a thorne,
And there you had us pritty babes born.
17
'You took your filliting off your head,
And there you bound us, hand to leg.
18
'You had a penknife long and sharp,
And there you stuck us to the heart.
19
'You dug a grave, it was long and deep,
And there you laid us in to sleep.
20
'The coldest earth it was our bed,
The green grass was our coverlid.
21
'O mother, mother, for your sin
Heaven-gate you shall not enter in.
22
'O mother, mother, for your sin
Hell-gates stands open to let you in.'
23
The lady's cheeks lookd pale and wan,
'Alass I,' said she, 'what have I done!'
24
She tore her silken locks of hair,
And dy'd away in sad despair.
25
Young ladies all, of beauty bright,
Take warning by her last good-night.
The Duke's Daughter's Cruelty, or, The Wonderful
Apparition of two Infants who she murtherd and buried in
a Forrest for to hide her Shame. Printed for J. Deacon at
the Sign of the Angel in Guil[t]-spur Street.
_Either the printer or the transcriber was careless._
5^2. sights.
11^1. gowing.
12^2. was naked _inserted by Percy_.
16^1. you foot; throne, _and perhaps also in_ 6^1.
20^1. coldeth.
23^1. wand.
25^2. waring.
_After 10 is introduced, absurdly, this stanza, derived
from_ 'The Famous Flower of Serving-Men:'
She cut her hair, changed her name
From Fair Elinor to Sweet William.
21. The Maid and the Palmer.
P. 228 a. The Färöe version, 'Mariu visa,' is No 9 of Hammershaimb's
Færøsk Anthologi, p. 35.
22. St Stephen and Herod.
P. 234. The Färöe 'Rudisar vísa' is No 11 of Hammershaimb's Færøsk
Anthologi, p. 39. Three copies are now known.
238 b. A description of San Domingo de la Calzada, with a narration
of the miracle of St James, is cited by Birlinger from a manuscript
of travels by a young German, 1587-93, in Alemannia, XIII, 42-44. The
traveller had heard "the fable" in Italy, too, and had seen a painting
of it at Savona. R. Köhler.
De Gubernatis, Zoölogical Mythology, II, 283 f, note 2, after citing
the legend of San Domingo de la Calzada, adds: A similar wonder is
said, by Sigonio, to have taken place in the eleventh century in the
Bolognese; but instead of St James, Christ and St Peter appear to
perform miracles. G. L. K.
239. In The Ely Volume, or, The Contributions of our Foreign Missions
to Science, etc., 2d ed., Boston, 1885, the editor, Dr Laurie,
discoursing of the Yezidees, says they speak of Satan as Melek Taoos,
King Peacock, and the cawals (a sort of circuit-riders), "carry round
with them brazen images of a bird on a sort of Oriental candlestick, as
vouchers for their mission, and a means of blessing to their followers.
One of them gave Dr Lobdell the following account of the origin of this
name [Melek Taoos]. In the absence of his disciples, Satan, in the
form of a dervish, took Christ down from the cross and carried him to
heaven. Soon after the Marys came and asked the dervish where Christ
was. They would not believe his reply, but promised to do so if he
would restore the chicken he was eating to life. He did so, and when
he told them who he was they adored him. When he left them he promised
always to appear to them as a beautiful bird, and so the peacock became
his symbol." P. 315. G. L. K.
241 a and 505.
Em dezembro, vintecinco,
Meio da noite chegado,
Um anjo ia no ar
A dizer: Elle é já nado.
Pergunta lo boi: Aonde?
La mula pergunta: Quem?
Canta lo gallo: Jesus.
Diz la ovelha: Bethlem.
Azevedo, Romanceiro do Archipelago da Madeira, p. 3. R. Köhler.
The Taking of Stamboul, in Bezsonof, Kalyeki Perekhozhie, I, 617, No
138.
25. Willie's Lyke-Wake.
P. 249 f. The story of #A#, #B#, #C# in a tale, 'La Furnarella,' A. de
Nino, Usi e Costumi abruzzesi, III, 198, No 37. R. Köhler.
#C.# Russian, in Trudy, V, 113, No 249.
29. The Boy and the Mantle.
P. 269 b. Stones. Add the Magnet, Orpheus de Lapidibus, Leipsic, 1764,
Hamberger, p. 318, translated by Erox, De Gemmis, cap. 25; and the
Agate, "Albertus Magnus, De Mineralibus, 1. II, sect, ii, c. 7:" cited
by Du Méril, Floire et Blanceflor, p. clxvi. G. L. K.
269 b, third paragraph. See the English Flor and Blancheflor, ed.
Hausknecht, 1885, p. 189, vv. 715-20.
270 b, the first paragraph. Add: Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 931,
ed. 1876. "Ebenso trägt die indische Mariatale, so lang ihre Gedanken
rein sind, ohne Gefäss das zu Kugeln geballte Wasser:" Kinderund
Hausmärchen, III, 264, 9, ed. 1856. See Benfey, Orient und Occident,
I, 719 ff, II, 97. F. Liebrecht. For the Mariatale story (from P.
Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes Orientales, etc.), see 'Paria,' in Goethes
lyrische Gedichte, erläutert von H. Düntzer, II, 449 ff, ed. 1875.
The dragon kept by the priests of Lanuvian Juno ate honey-cakes from
the hands of pure maids who went down into its cave, but twined round
the unchaste and bit them: Aelian, Hist. An., xi, 6, Propertius, IV
(V), 8. See Die Jungfernprobe in der Drachenhöhle zu Lanuvium, C. A.
Böttiger's Kleine Schriften, I, 178 ff. G. L. K.
Note [254]. In the English 'Virgilius' it is a brass serpent with the
same property: Thoms, A Collection of Early Prose Romances, II, p. 34
of Virgilius, ed. 1827: cited by Sir Walter Scott, 'Sir Tristrem,' p.
432, ed. 1833, apropos of the trick of the shameless Ysonde. G. L. K.
271 a. Aqua potationis domini: see, also, Konrad von Fussesbrunnen, Die
Kindheit Jesu, ed. Kochen-dörffer, Quellen u. Forschungen, XLIII, p. 81
f, vv. 573-88, 617-21, 673 ff. G. L. K.
A stunned white elephant will be resuscitated if touched by the hand
of a chaste woman. A king's eighty thousand wives, and subsequently
all the women in his capital, touch the elephant without effect. A
serving-woman, devoted to her husband, touches the elephant, and it
rises in sound health and begins to eat. Kathā-sarit-sāgara, Book
VII, ch. 36, Tawney's translation, p. 329 f: H. H. Wilson's Essays, II,
129 f. ("In the 115th Tale of the Gesta Romanorum, we read that two
chaste virgins were able to lull to sleep and kill an elephant that no
one else could approach." Tawney's note.) C. R. Lanman.
30. King Arthur and King Cornwall.
P. 277 a, second paragraph. Brags: see Miss Hapgood's Epic Songs of
Russia, p. 300; also pp. 48, 50, 61, 65, 161, etc.
280 b, the last paragraph. Färöe #A# is printed by Hammershaimb in
Færøsk Anthologi, p. 139, No 20.
31. The Marriage of Sir Gawain.
P. 289. Miss Martha Carey Thomas, in her Dissertation on Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight, etc., Zürich, 1883, pp. 62-64, has shown that
the ugly woman in the English romances is probably derived from 'La
damoisele hydeuse,' in the Perceval of Chrestien de Troyes, vv.
5996-6015.
32. King Henry.
P. 298, note. So of a frog, Colshorns, p. 139, No 42.
298 b, second paragraph. "In an unpublished story of the Monferrato,
communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, a beautiful girl, when plucking up
a cabbage, sees under its roots a large room, goes down into it, and
finds a serpent there, who promises to make her fortune if she will
kiss him and sleep with him. The girl consents. After three months the
serpent begins to assume the legs of a man, then a man's body, and
finally the face of a handsome youth, the son of a king, and marries
his young deliverer." De Gubernatis, Zoölogical Mythology, II, 418. G.
L. K.
34. Kemp Owyne.
P. 307 f. Caspar Decurtius, Märchen aus dem Bündner Oberlande, nach
dem Räto-Romanischen erzählt, Jecklin, Volksthümliches aus Graubünden,
Zürich, 1874, p. 126, has a tale of a Schlangenjungfrau who is a maid
by day and a serpent by night, and is disenchanted by three kisses. G.
L. K.
311. The Rev. Robert Lambe sent Percy, under date of January 29, 1768,
"the best copy of 'The Laidley Worm' that he could procure from many
incorrect, imperfect, and nonsensical ones." There are differences
between this and the copy printed in Hutchinson,[188] but one is about
as good as the other. In this earlier copy 2 follows 3 and 37 is
wanting. 6 and 7 read:
O up then spake the queen herself:
Who's this that welcoms me?
A lord replied, The king's daughter,
The flower of the North Country.
'Wo be to thee, thou gray-haird man,
Thou mightst have excepted me;
Before the morn at this same time
I'll bring her to low degree.'
And 17, 22:
He straightway built a bonny ship,
And set her on the sea;
Her sails were made of silk so fine,
Her masts of rowan-tree.
The hags came back, finding their charms
Most powerfully withstood;
For warlocks, witches, cannot work
Where there is rowan-tree wood.
Duncan Frasier does not appear in the last stanza:
Now this fact, as it happened, is
For their good sung in rhime,
Lest they should some important part
Forget of it in time.
Along with this earlier copy of Lambe's is found another, undescribed,
which shows both agreements and variations: 2 follows 3, and 6, 7 and
the final stanza are the same. 17 and 22 are wanting, and there are,
therefore, no witches and no rowan-tree. Instead of 21-23, we have this
very bad stanza:
'Run, run, my men, my sailors send
Aboard yon ship so tall,
And bid them drown the Child of Wind;
But he soon slew them all.'
In the same parcel there is a copy of 'The Laidley Worm' which is
somewhat more in the popular tone than the one already printed. It was
sent in an undated letter [1775?] to J. Bulman, Esq., of Sheepwash,
Morpeth, by E. G., that is, Captain E. Grow. "The above," says E. G.,
"is the Haggworm as I collected it from an old woman. I wrote to the
Revrd Mr Lamb for his ballad, and directed him to send to you.... I
think the inclosed more original then his, for Mr Lamb, tho a good
antiquarian, is but a bad poet, and above the one half is his own
composing." Mr J. Bulman appears to have transmitted this version to
Percy, to whom, upon another occasion, May 25, 1775, he sends "a bold
imitation of the song, now lost, of the Laidler Worm (written by Duncan
Frazier, the monk on Cheviot, in 1270), by a lady, Miss Graham of
Gloriorum, in Northumberland:" of which nothing need be said.
'The Hagg Worm,' obtained from an old woman by Captain E.
Grow.
1
Bambrough Castle's a bonny place,
Built on a marble stone,
But long, long did the lady look
Eer her father came home.
2
She knotted the keys upon a string,
And with her she has them taen;
She cast them oer her left shoulder,
And to the gates she is gaen.
3
It fell out on a day the king
Brought his new lady home,
And all the lordling[s] in his realm
To welcome them did come.
4
'You'r welcome, father,' the lady cries,
'To your halls and your towers,
And so are you, good queen,' said she,
'For all that's here is yours.'
5
'O who is this,' said the queen,
'That welcomes me so high?'
Up then spake a greyhaird man,
An ill dead may he dee!
'Tis the kinges aie daughter,
The flower of the North Country.
6
'O woe betyde the[e], greyhaired man,
An ill dead may thou dee!
Had she been fairer then she is,
You might have excepted me.
7
'I'll liken her to a laidley worm,
That warps about the stone,
And not till Child of Wynd comes back
Shall she again be wonne.'
8
The lady stood at her bower-door,
A loud laughter took she:
'I hope your prayers will have no pith;
You took not God with ye.'
9
She calld on her waiting-maid--
They calld her Dorothy--
The coffer that my gold lies in,
I leave to thee the key.
10
'Her hellish spells seize on my heart,
And quick will alter me;
For eer the seting sun is down
A laidler worm I'll be.'
11
Word's gone east, and word's gone west,
And word's gone oer the sea,
There's a laidler worm in Spindlestone Heughs
Will destroy the North Countree.
12
For seven miles east and seven miles west,
And seven miles north and south,
Nea blade of grass or corn will grow,
For the venom of her mouth.
13
To this day may be seen the cave
This monsterous worm embowered,
And the stone trough where seven cows' milk
She every day devoured.
14
Word's gone east and word's gone west,
Word oer the sea did go;
The Child of Wynd got wit of it,
Which filld his heart with woe.
15
'I have no sister but barely one,
I fear fair Margery!
I wish I was at Spindlestone Heughs,
This laidler worm to see.'
16
Up then spoke his eldest brother,
An angry man was he:
O thou art young, far over young,
To sail the stormy sea.
17
'Peace, brother,' said the Child of Wynd,
'Dear brother, let me be;
For when we come to danger dire,
I must fight when you will flee.
18
'O let us build a bonny ship,
And set her in the sea;
The sails shall be of silken twine,
The masts of rowon-tree.'
19
They built a ship, the wind and tyde
Drave them along the deep;
At last they saw a stately tower,
On the rock high and steep.
20
The sea was smooth, the sky was clear;
As they approached nigher,
King Ida's castle well they knew,
And the banks of Balmburghshire.
21
The queen lookd thro her bower-window,
To see what she coud see,
And she espied a gallant ship
Come sailing along the sea.
22
She calld on her witch-women
To sink them in the main;
They hoisted up their silken sails,
And to Warren bridge they gane.
23
The worm lept up, the worm lept down,
She plaited round the stane,
And as the ship came to the land
She banged them off again.
24
The Child leapd in the shallow water
That flows oer Budle sand,
And when he drew his berry-brown sword
She suffered them to land.
25
When they came to Bamburg castle
They tirled at the ring;
'Who 's that,' said the proud porter,
'That woud so fain be in?'
26
''T is the king's son and Child of Wynd,
Who have long been oer the sea;
We come to see our sister dear,
The peirless Margery.'
27
'Heigh a ween, and Oh a ween!
A ween, a woe-ses me!
She 's a laidler worm at Spindlestone Heughs,
These seven years and three.'
28
They highed them stright to Spindleston Heughs--
Grief added to their speed--
Where out she came a laidler worm,
And strack their hearts with dread.
29
The Child drew out his berry-brown sword,
And waved it oer her head,
And cried, If thou. .
. . . . . . .
30
'O quit thy sword, and bend thy bow,
And give me kisses three;
For if I am not wonne eer the sun goes down,
Wonne will I never be.'
31
He quit his sword, he bent his bow,
He gave her kisses three;
She threw out her fireballs,
And fiercely made them flee.
32
In she went, and out she came,
A laidley ask was she:
'Oh, tho I am a laidley ask,
No harm I'll do to thee.
33
'Oh quit thy sword, and bend thy bow,
And give me kisses three;
For if I am not wonne eer the sun goes down,
Wonne will I never be.'
34
He quit his sword, he bent his bow,
And gave her kisses three;
But she threw out her fireballs,
And fiercely made them flee.
35
In she went, and out she came,
A laidley adder was she;
['Oh, tho I am a laidley adder,
No harm I'll do to thee.]
36
'Oh quit thy sword, and bend thy bow,
And give me kisses three;
[For if I am not wonne eer the sun goes down,
Wonne will I never be.']
37
He quit his sword, he bent his bow,
He gave her kisses three;
She crept into the cave a snake,
But stept out a lady.
38
'O quit thy sword, unbend thy bow,
And give me kisses three;
For tho I am a lady fair,
I am. . to modesty.'
39
He took his mantle from his back,
And wrapd his sister in,
And thei'r away to Bamburg Castle,
As fast as they coud winne.
40
His absence and her reptile form
The king had long deplored,
But now rejoiced to see them both
Again to him restored.
41
The queen he sought, who when he found
All quailed and sore affraid,
Because she knew her power must yield
To Child of Wynd, who said:
42
'O woe be to the[e], wicked woman,
An ill deed may thou dee!
As thou my sister likened,
So likened thou shalt be.
43
'I change thy body to a toad,
That on the earth doth wend,
And wonne, wonne shalt thou never be
Untill the world doth end!'
44
Now on the ground, near Ida's tower,
She crawls a loathsome toad,
And venom spits on every maid
She meets upon the road.
8^3. with have.
27^2. _The correction to_ woe is _is obvious, but, not
knowing that there may not have been some such popular
interjection as woe-ses, I leave it._
32^4. to three.
35.
In she went, and out she came,
A laidley adder was she:
'Oh quit thy sword, and bend thy bow,
And give me kisses three.'
She t[h]rew out her fire-balls, etc., _is written between
the second and third lines. There seems to be no occasion
for a third discharge of fireballs; but indeed the
fireballs should come before the kisses, anyway._
42^2. deed did thou.
37. Thomas Rymer.
P. 322, second paragraph and note. Examples are too numerous to require
mention, but it may be noticed that in The Turke and Gowin, Percy MS.,
ed. Hales and Furnivall, I, 93 f, vv 83-101, the Turk will not let
Gawain touch any of the viands set forth in the underground castle, but
brings in safe victual for him. G. L. K.
39. Tam Lin.
P. 335. #F# was learned by Widow McCormick from an old woman in
Dumbarton: Motherwell's Note-Book, p. 4.
#I.# "The variations in the tale of Tamlane" were derived "from the
recitation of an old woman residing near Kirkhill, in West Lothian:"
Scott's Minstrelsy, II, 102, 1802.
336 b, third paragraph. Add: Aminson, IV, 6, No 27.
338. King Bean, in the form of a flying thing, turns into a handsome
youth after bathing in three vessels successively, one of milk and
water, one of milk, one of rose-water: Bernoni, Fiabe pop. veneziane,
p. 87, No 17, translated by Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 12. A
green bird bathes in a pan of milk, and becomes a handsome youth, and,
bathing in gold basins full of water, this youth turns into a bird
again: Pitré, Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti, I, 163, No 18, translated
by Crane, p. 2, and note, p. 321. A prince and his two servants,
transformed into pigeons, resume their proper shape on plunging into
basins of gold, silver, and bronze respectively: a Tuscan story in De
Gubernatis, Zoölogical Mythology, II, 299 f, note. G. L. K.
339 b, line 9 ff, Fairy Salve. This feature, in one form or another,
occurs in nearly all the stories of mortal women who have helped
elf-women in travail that are reported by Árnason, Íslenzkar þjóðsögur,
I, 15 ff. G. L. K.
For fairy salve and indiscreet users of it, see, also, J. O'Hanlon,
Irish Folk-Lore, Gentleman's Magazine, 1865, Pt II, in the Gentleman's
Magazine Library, ed. Gomme, English Traditional Lore, p. 12. G. L. K.
340 a, third line of the second paragraph. Add to Zielke, v. 68: vv.
399-405.
340 a, second paragraph, Ympe-tree. In the lay de Tydorel, published by
Gaston Paris in Romania, VIII, 67, a queen goes to sleep, v. 30, soz
une ente, with strange results. G. L. K.
40. The Queen of Elfin's Nourice.
P. 358 f. Add: Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England, ed.
1881, p. 83; P. I. Begbie, Supernatural Illusions, London, 1851, I,
44-47; Bartsch, Sagen, u. s. w., aus Meklenburg, I, 85, No 95; Kuhn,
Märkische Sagen, p. 82, No 81, and Sagen, u. s. w., aus Westfalen,
I, 285 f, No 331, and note; Grässe, Sagen des Königreichs Sachsen,
2d ed., I, 73, No 69, I, 395, No 455; Peter, Volksthümliches aus
Österreichisch-Schlesien, II, 16; Lütolf, Sagen, u. s. w., aus Lucern,
u. s. w., p. 476, No 478; Rochholz, Naturmythen, p. 113 f, No 9, and
note, and especially the same author's Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau,
I, 339: Wolf, Niederländische Sagen, p. 501, No 417; Árnason, Íslenzkar
þjóðsögur, I, 13-22 (eight). G. L. K.
41. Hind Etin.
P. 365. Add to the German ballad: #I#, Birlinger u. Crecelius, Deutsche
Lieder, Festgruss an #L.# Erk, No 1, 3 stanzas. R. Köhler.
42. Clerk Colvill.
P 374 b. #Swedish.# 'Prins Olof,' Wigström, Folkdiktning, II, 16, is
rationalized; the elf is simply a frilla, mistress.
379 a. Add: Breton #G#, 'Le Sône de la Fiancée,' Revue des Provinces,
III, 3^e livraison; Bladé, not seen by me.
380 a. French #C#. Say 'Le Fils Arnaud,' Noëlas, Essai d'un Romancero
forézien, 68 verses.
380 b. Add: #HH#, #II#, 'Jean Renaud,' Decombe, Chansons pop.
d'Ille-et-Vilaine, Nos 89, 90, pp. 253, 256; #JJ#, Le Limousin. #KK#,
Le Loiret, #LL#, La Vendée, in Mélusine, II, cols 302-305: the last
from "Revue de la Province de l'Ouest, 1856-57, IV, 50."
The first stanza, and four of the concluding, in Poésies pop. de la
France, MS., VI, 491 and 491 _bis._
382 a. Italian #B# also in Rivista di letteratura popolare, p. 56, 1877.
43. The Broomfield Hill.
P. 391. Josyan, in Sir Bevis of Hamptoun, preserves her chastity by the
use of a rune.
'I shall go make me a writ,
Thorough a clerk wise of wit,
That there shall no man have grace,
While that letter is in place,
Against my will to lie me by,
Nor do me shame nor villany.'
She did that letter soon be wrought
On the manner as she had thought;
About her neck she hanged it.
Ellis's English Metrical Romances, London, 1848, p. 256.
391 b, note [369] The text of Harleian MS., 2270, compared with another
copy in Harleian MS., No 5259, is given in Wright's Latin Stories, p.
114, No 126, Percy Society, vol. viii. R. Köhler.
In the Lai de Doon, ed. G. Paris, Romania, VIII, 61 ff, those who sleep
in the bed are found dead in the morning, and Doon simply sits up all
night. R. Köhler.
393 b, last line but one. Uhland, No 104, in Niederdeutsche
Volkslieder, herausgegeben vom Verein für niederdeutsche
Sprachforschung, p. 40, No 63.
44. The Twa Magicians.
P. 400 a. Add to the French ballads: #P#, 'Mignonne,' Guillon, p. 248,
Ain; #Q#, Mélusine, I, 338 f, Carcasonne.
401. #Persian.# Chodzko, Specimens of the Popular Poetry of Persia, p.
487, No 61, Songs of the Ghilanis. This and French #Q# are noted by
Hasdek in the Roumanian periodical Columna lui Traian, 1876, p. 44,
1877, p. 301, apropos of 'Cucul si Turturica.' #Dalmatian.# Francesco
Carrara, Canti del popolo dalmata, Zara, 1849, p. ix. Revue des
Traditions populaires, I, 98. R. Köhler.
402 a, last paragraph. The Welsh text, with an English translation, is
given by Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, p. 170: cf. pp. 174, 175.
G. L. K.
401. In the Kalevala, Ilmarinen, after the death of his first wife,
steals her younger sister, who is very unwilling to accompany him. She
threatens to break his sledge to pieces, but it is made of iron. She
will turn into a salmon (Schnäpel) in the sea; he will give chase in
the form of a pike. She will become an ermine; he an otter, and pursue
her. She will fly off as a lark; he will follow as an eagle. Here the
talk of transformation ends: Rune 37, vv. 148-178. The next morning
Ilmarinen in his wrath turns the maid into a gull. Kalewala, übertragen
von Schiefner, pp. 226-228. G. L. K.
45. King John and the Bishop.
P. 404 a. The Two Noble Kinsmen, V, ii, 67, 68,
Daughter. How far is 't now to the end o the world, my masters?
Doctor. Why, a day's journey, wench.
G. L. K.
404 b. Death the penalty for not guessing riddles. There is no occasion
to accumulate examples, but this Oriental one is worth mentioning. In
the tale of Gôsht-i Fryânô, Akht, the sorcerer, will give three and
thirty riddles to Gôsht, and if Gôsht shall give no answer, or say, I
know not, he will slay him. After answering all the riddles, Gôsht says
he will give Akht three on the same terms, and the sorcerer, failing to
solve them, is slain. Arḍâ-Vîrâf, Pahlavî text, etc., Haug and West,
Bombay and London, 1872, pp. 250, 263 f. This tale Köhler has shown to
be one with that of the fine Kirghish lay 'Die Lerche,' in Radloff,
Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stamme Süd-Sibiriens, III,
780: see Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, XIX,
633 ff.
Additions to the literature, by Dr R. Köhler.
405 b. The tale cited by Vincent of Beauvais is told by Étienne de
Bourbon, A. Lecoy de la Marche, Anecdotes historiques, légendes et
apologues, tirés du recueil inédit d'Étienne de Bourbon, No 86.
In an as yet unprinted fifteenth-century Low German poem on the
Seven Deadly Sins (Josefs Gedicht von den sieben Todsünden... nach
der Handschrift bekannt gemacht von Dr Babucke, Oster-Programm des
Progymnasiums zu Norden, 1874, p. 18), a king puts an abbot four
questions:
De erste vraghe was, wor dat ertrike wende
Unn were hoghest, eft he dat kende;
De ander, wor dat unghelucke queme
Unn bleve, wan dat eyn ende neme;
Dat drudde, wo gud de konig were na rade
Wan he stunde in synem besten wade;
De verde, we syner eldermoder beneme
De maghedom unn dar wedder in greme.
The abbot's swineherd, named Reyneke, answers:
Die erste vraghe, wor de erde hoghest were,
Reyneke sede: In deme hemmel kommet, here,
By dem vadere Cristus syn vordere hant,
Dar is de hoghe unn keret de erde bekant.
De andere, wor dat lucke ghinghe an,
Dar moste dat ungelucke wenden unn stan,
Unn kende nerghen vorder komen.
Dat hebbe ik by my sulven vornomen:
Ghisterne was ik eyn sweyn, nu bin ik beschoren,
Unde byn to eyneme heren koren.
The replies to the third and fourth questions are wanting through the
loss of some leaves of the MS. As to the first question, compare the
legend of St Andrew, Legenda Aurea, ed. Grässe, p. 21, ubi terra sit
altior omni coelo; to which the answer is made, in coelo empyreo, ubi
residet corpus Christi. See, also, Gering, Íslendzk Æventýri, No 24,
I, 95, II, 77, and note. For the fourth question see Kemble's Salomon
and Saturn, p. 295, and Köhler in Germania, VII, 476.
408 b. Other repetitions of the popular tale, many of them with the
monk or miller _sans souci_. Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen u. Gebräuche
aus Meklenburg, I, 496 (Pater ohne Sorgen); Asbjørnsen, Norske
Folke-Eventyr, Ny Samling, 1876, p. 128, No 26; Bondeson, Halländske
Sagor, p. 103, No 27; the same, Svenska Folksagor, p. 24, No 7 (utan
all sorg), cf. p. 22, No 6; Wigström, Sagor och Äfventyr upptecknade i
Skåne, p. 109, in Nyare bidrag till kännedom om de svenska landsmålen
och svenskt folklif, V, 1; Lespy, Proverbes du Pays de Béarn, p.
102; Bladé, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, III, 297; Moisant de Brieux,
Origines de quelques coutumes anciennes, etc., Caen, 1874, I, 147,
II, 100; Armana prouvençau, 1874, p. 33 (parson, bishop, gardener,
middle of the earth, weight of the moon, what is my valuation? what
am I thinking?); Pitré, Fiabe, Novelle, etc., II, 323, No 97 (senza
pinseri); Imbriani, La novellaja fiorentina, etc., p. 621, V (Milanese,
senza pensà); Braga, Contos tradicionaes do povo portuguez, I, 157, No
71, previously in Era Nova, 1881, p. 244 (sem cuidados), and No 160;
Krauss, Sagen u. Märchen der Südslaven, II, 252, No 112 (ohne Sorgen);
Erman, Archiv für die wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland, XXIV, 146
(Czar Peter, kummerloses Kloster); Vinson, Le Folk-Lore du Pays basque,
p. 106; Cerquand, Légendes et recits pop. du Pays basque, No 108.
Unterhaltende Räthsel-Spiele in Fragen u. Antworten, gesammelt von C.
H. W., Merseburg, 1824, has the story of king, abbot, and shepherd,
with the three riddles, How far is it to heaven? How deep is the sea?
What is better than a gold coach? The shepherd prompts the abbot, and
the abbot answers the king in person. The answer to the third is, the
rain that falls between Whitsuntide and St John's. For this reply
compare Archiv für slavische Philologie, V, 56, lines 25-36.
408 note [386]. Add the Æsopian tale, P. Syrku, Zur mittelalterlichen
Erzählungsliteratur aus dem Bulgarischen, Archiv für slavische
Philologie, VII, 94-97.
410 a. The Jewish-German story is given in Grünbaum's Jüdischdeutsche
Chrestomathie, 1882, pp. 440-43. The third question is, What am I
thinking? with the usual answer.
410 b. Some additions to the literature in Keller, Fastnachtspiele,
Nachlese, p. 338, note to 199.
46. Captain Wedderburn's Courtship.
P. 415 a. Ein taub hat kein lungen: R. Köhler, in Weimarisches
Jahrbuch, V, 344, 22.
416 a, second paragraph. Liebrecht's Abstract of Sakellarios's ballad
is repeated in Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 162 ff.
416, note [393]. See R. Köhler, Die Pehlevi-Erzählung von Gôsht-i
Fryânô, etc., in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen
Gesellschaft, XXIX, 634-36.
417, note [396] The one stake with no head on it occurs in the
Kalevala. Lemminkäinen, going to the Northland, is warned by his mother
that he will find a courtyard planted with stakes, with a head on every
stake but one, on which his head will be stuck. Schiefner, Rune 26, vv.
315-22, p. 163. G. L. K.
417 b. Similar are 'Las tres adivinanzas,' Marin, Cantos pop.
españoles, I, 395; 'Soldatino,' Archivio per Tradizioni popolari, I, 57.
418 a. Drolleries. See R. Köhler's article on Hagen, No 63, in
Germania, XIV, 269, written in 1868, to which, Dr K. informs me, he
could now make numerous additions.
49. The Twa Brothers.
P. 437 b. Add, though perhaps superfluous: Passow, p. 316, No 437, vv.
37, 38; Legrand, Recueil de Chansons pop. grecques, p. 220, v. 24 ff,
p. 330, v. 17 ff; Aravandinos, No 435, v. 7 ff.
53. Young Beichan.
P. 463 a, first paragraph. The French ballad in Poésies pop. de la
France, MS., IV, fol. 404; printed in Mélusine, II, col. 44. Another
copy in Mélusine, I, col. 123.
476. Substitute for #L# this broadside: 'Lord Bateman.'
1
Lord Bateman was a noble lord,
A noble lord of high degree;
He shipped himself on board a ship,
Some foreign country he would go see.
2
He sailed East, and he sailed West,
Until he came to proud Turkey,
When he was taken and put to prison,
Until his life was almost gone.
3
And in this prison there grew a tree,
It grew so stout and strong,
Where he was chained by the middle,
Until his life was almost gone.
4
This Turk he had one only daughter,
The fairest creature my eyes did see;
She stole the keys of her father's prison,
And swore Lord Bateman she would set free.
5
'Have you got houses? Have you got lands?
Or does Northumberland belong to thee?
What would you give to the fair young lady
That out of prison would set you free?'
6
'I have got houses, I have got lands,
And half Northumberland belongs to me;
I'll give it all to the fair young lady
That out of prison would set me free.'
7
O then she took me to her father's hall,
And gave to me the best of wine,
And every health she drank unto him,
'I wish, Lord Bateman, that you were mine!
8
'Now in seven years I'll make a vow,
And seven years I'll keep it strong,
If you'll wed with no other woman,
I will wed with no other man.'
9
O then she took him to her father's harbour,
And gave to him a ship of fame:
'Farewell, farewell to you, Lord Bateman,
I'm afraid I neer shall see you again.'
10
Now seven long years are gone and past,
And fourteen days, well known to thee;
She packed up all her gay clothing,
And swore Lord Bateman she would go see.
11
But when she came to Lord Bateman's castle,
So boldly she did ring the bell;
'Who's there, who's there?' cried the proud porter,
'Who's there? come unto me tell.'
12
'O is this Lord Bateman's castle?
Or is his Lordship here within?'
'O yes, O yes,' cried the young porter,
'He's just now taken his new bride in.'
13
'O tell him to send me a slice of bread,
And a bottle of the best wine,
And not forgetting the fair young lady
Who did release him when close confined.'
14
Away, away, went this proud young porter,
Away, away, and away went he,
Until he came to Lord Bateman's chamber;
Down on his bended knees fell he.
15
'What news, what news, my proud young porter?
What news hast thou brought unto me?'
'There is the fairest of all young creatures
That eer my two eyes did see.
16
'She has got rings on every finger,
And round one of them she has got three,
And as much gay clothing round her
As would buy all Northumberland free.
17
'She bids you send her a slice of bread,
And a bottle of the best wine,
And not forgetting the fair young lady
Who did release you when close confined.'
18
Lord Bateman he then in a passion flew,
And broke his sword in splinters three,
Saying, I will give all my father's riches,
That if Sophia has crossed the sea.
19
Then up spoke the young bride'[s] mother,
Who never was heard to speak so free:
You'll not forget my only daughter,
That if Sophia has crossed the sea.
20
'I own I made a bride of your daughter;
She's neither the better or worse for me;
She came to me with her horse and saddle,
She may go back in her coach and three.'
21
Lord Bateman prepared another marriage,
With both their hearts so full of glee:
'I'll range no more in foreign countries,
Now since Sophia has crossed the sea.'
Pitts, Seven Dials.
P. 485 a, and p. 21, note. See, further, on reproaching or insulting
elves and the like, Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, pp. 54-56: Cassel, Der
Schwan, 1863, p. 14. F. Liebrecht.
Bladé, Contes populaires de la Gascogne, II, 8, 9. G. L. K.
485 b. #C.# The second stanza was accidentally omitted. It is:
'What's that ye hae on your back?'
'It's my dinner and my book.'
487, note. The scene between St George and the maiden is woven into a
Greek tale, 'Der Goldäpfelbaum und die Höllenfahrt,' Hahn, No 70, II,
55. See, also, George's legend in Bezsonof, Kalyeki Perekhozhie, I,
506, 509, 520, Nos 117, 118, 120.
496 a. This copy of 'The Twa Sisters,' #Z#, a variety of #R#, was
derived from ladies in New York, and by them from a cousin.
1
There was a man lived in the West,
Sing bow down, bow down
There was a man lived in the West,
The bow was bent to me
There was a man lived in the West,
He loved his youngest daughter best;
So you be true to your own true-love
And I'll be true to thee.
2
He gave the youngest a beaver hat;
The eldest she was mad at that.
3
He gave the youngest a gay gold ring;
The eldest she had nothing.
4
As they stood by the river's brim,
The eldest pushed the youngest in.
5
'Oh dear sister, hand me your hand,
And I'll give you my house and land.
6
'Oh dear sister, hand me your glove,
And you shall have my own true-love.'
7
First she sank and then she swam,
She swam into the miller's dam.
8
The miller, with his line and hook,
He caught her by the petticoat.
9
He robbed her of her gay gold ring,
And then he threw her back again.
10
The miller, he was burnt in flame,
The eldest sister fared the same.
503 a, fourth paragraph. Add: Bellermann, p. 100, No 12.
VOL. II.
54. The Cherry-Tree Carol.
P. 1. Printed in Bullen's Carols and Poems, 1886, p. 29, with the
stanzas in this order: #A# 1-8, #B# 8, #A# 9, #B# 9-15, #B# 17. Bullen
remarks, As regards the text of this carol, no two copies are found to
agree, and one is obliged to adopt an eclectic method: p. 252.
A Dutch carol, keeping the palms, J. A. and L. J. Alberdingk-Thijm,
Oude en nieuwere Kerstliederen, p. 174, No 87.
55. The Carnal and the Crane.
P. 7. Printed in Bullen's Carols and Poems, 1886, p. 49, with Sandys's
text, a.
Legend of the Sower. I omitted to mention 'La Fuito en Egypto,' in
Arbaud, I, 33 ff. The legend of the sower is the subject of a carol
in the Bible des Noëls, printed at Caen: Beaurepaire in Le Héricher,
Littérature pop. de Normandie, p. 81 f. Also, of a Dutch carol, J. A.
and L. J. Alberdingk-Thijm, Oude en nieuwere Kerstliederen, p. 138, No
70.
Victor Smith gives two copies in Noëls du Velay et du Forez, Romania,
VIII, 420 f. R. Köhler. In the second the quail plays the part of the
partridge, the swallow befriends the Virgin. V. Smith refers also to
Eugène Muller, Chansons de mon Village, journal Le Mémorial de la Loire
du 23 septembre, 1867.
Dr R. Köhler has furnished me with these additional references.
A French Life of the Virgin, cited from a MS. of the thirteenth
century, by Reinsch, Pseudo-Evangelien, pp. 60-64.
Ferdinand Wolf, Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, III,
73, cites from Didron, Annales Archéologiques, XVI, 315, 1856, a
mystery of The Flight into Egypt, which has the legend of the Sower, in
Noëls dramatiques des Flamands de France, publiés par l'abbé Carnel.
This mystery was apparently written in the eighteenth century, for
representation by a charity-school.
The legend is popularly preserved in Ireland, and a species of beetle
is the Virgin's enemy, in place of the partridge or quail (p. 8, note
[9]): E. Adams in Transactions of the London Philological Society,
cited by Rolland, Faune populaire de la France, III, 326. The same
story in Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, X, 183.
The miraculous harvest is the subject of a Catalan popular tale,
'La Menta y'l Gaitx,' Maspons y Labrós, Lo Rondallayre, II, 28.
A hawk seconds the mint in calling out, Under the sheaf! Again,
simply, without the trait of the malicious plant or bird, in Leite de
Vasconcellos, Tradições pop. de Portugal, p. 106. (Juniper, according
to Italian tradition, saves the Virgin during her flight, when broom
and chick-pea are on the point of revealing her whereabouts by their
noise: De Gubernatis, Mythologie des Plantes, II, 153.)
The legend has been transferred by tradition to St Radegund, Acta
Sanctorum Augusti, III, 66; to St Macrina, pursued by Gargantua,
Sébillot, Gargantua dans les Traditions populaires, p. 173; and even to
Luther, von Schulenburg, Wendische Volkssagen, p. 47. It is cited from
the 145th book of the works of Bernard de Bluet d'Arberes, by P. L.
Jacob, Dissertations Bibliographiques, p. 195.
56. Dives and Lazarus.
P. 10. Printed in A. H. Bullen's Carols and Poems, 1886, p. xviii, from
a Birmingham broadside of the last century, differing only in a few
words from #A#.
57. Brown Robyn's Confession.
P. 13. I neglected to refer to the throwing over of Bonnie Annie in No
24, I, 244. Add: 'Les Pèlerins de Saint-Jacques,' Decombe, Chansons
pop. d'Ille-et-Vilaine, p. 284, No 98.
As to detention of ships by submarine people, see R. Köhler, in
Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, XXIX, 456-458.
15. For other cases of guilty men who endanger ships being ascertained
by lot and thrown into the sea, see R. Köhler's Vergleichende
Anmerkungen, prefixed to Karl Warnke's edition of the Lais of Marie de
France, p. C, Eliduc, I. Köhler cites 'Tristan le Léonois,' in which
Sadoc, a nephew of Joseph of Arimathea, is the offender who is thus
disposed of. Wesselofsky, Archiv für slavische Philologie, IX, 288 ff
(as pointed out to me by Dr Köhler), makes the admirable suggestion
that Sadok (in Hebrew, The Just) is the original of the Russian Sadko.
The story of Sadko, in Miss Hapgood's Epic Songs of Russia, p. 313.
19 b. Mermaids boding storms: Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of
England, ed. 1881, p. 15. G. L. K.
58. Sir Patrick Spens.
P. 20 b. #A a# is translated in Seckendorf's Musenalmanach für das Jahr
1808, p. 9.
59. Sir Aldingar.
P. 33, note. Octavian, ed. Sarrazin, p. 8, 195 ff, p. 72, 157 ff.
40 a, the second paragraph. There are five copies of the Färöe ballad.
The copy in the Antiquarisk Tidsskrift was made up from four. A fifth,
printed by Hammershaimb in Færøsk Anthologi, p. 188, No 25, has a
widely divergent and very inferior story. There is no ordeal by battle.
Óluva asks to be subjected to three probations, sea, fire, and a
snake-house, and comes off triumphantly. Mýlint, her slanderer, is so
absurd as to propose to try the snake-house, and is torn to pieces ere
he is half in. Óluva goes into a cloister.
60. King Estmere.
P. 49, note [59]. "_Was lough a loud laughter_ the reading of the
folio?" "A loud laughter the ladie lought," Percy Folio, I, 190, 'The
Lord of Learne,' v. 215. G. L. K.
51, and 54, stanza 49. Riding into Hall. Sir Percival rides so close
to King Arthur that his mare kisses Arthur's forehead, v. 494 ff;
knocks off the king's hat, Chrestien de Troyes, 2125 ff (the kissing
is a mistranslation); he binds his mare in the hall, v. 599, Thornton
Romances. Lancelot rides into hall in Morte Arthur, v. 1555, p. 60, ed.
Furnivall. Dame Tryamour rides into hall in the English Launfal, v.
973 ff, Ritson, Met. Rom., I, 212; Lanval, v. 617 ff, Warnke, Lais der
Marie de France, p. 111.
Floris ende Blancefloer, ed. Moltzer, p. 29, v. 1055: F. Liebrecht.
Floire et Blanceflor, ed. Du Méril, v. 665 f, p. 28. Torrent of
Portugal, ed. Halliwell, v. 1143 ff, p. 49: Torrent and others ride
into the king's hall during meat, Torrent even 'up to the lady.' Le Bel
Inconnu, ed. Hippeau, vv. 71-89, p. 4. Ipomydon, ed. Weber, vv. 1651
ff, III, 341: Ipomydon, disguised as a fool, goes to the king's court
on a rouncy, and when told to go to meat ties his horse 'fast him by;'
into the hall came riding a may. G. L. K.
51 b, the third paragraph. "En ces temps-là, dit la Chronique Générale
d'Espagne, les rois, comtes, nobles, et tous les chevaliers, afin
d'être prêts à toute heure, tenaient leurs chevaux dans la salle où
ils couchaient avec leurs femmes: Taine, Les Origines de la France
contemporaine, I, 10 f." F. Liebrecht. "E assy los reyes e condes
e los altos omes e todos los otros caualleros que se presçiauan de
armas, todos parauan los cauallos dentro en las camaras donde tenien
sus lechos donde dormian con sus mugeres, porque, luego que oyan dar el
apellido, touiessen prestos sus cauallos e sus armas, e que caualgassen
luego sin otra tardança ninguna." Crónica de España, ed. 1541, Third
Part, fol. cclxxv.
61. Sir Cawline.
P. 56. I have omitted to refer to the close resemblance to Sir
Eglamour, Thornton Romances, p. 121, Percy MS., Hales and Furnivall,
II, 341. See 'Sir Lionel,' I, 209.
56 b, line 19 f. Compare the sword given by Cristabelle to Sir
Eglamour, v. 265 f:
Saint Poule fonde hyt in the Grekes sea.
57 a. In the Lai de l'Espine, erroneously ascribed by Roquefort to
Marie de France, the hero, holding watch for the sake of adventure at
the Gué de l'Espine, en la nuit de la Saint Jéhan, tilts with eldritch
knights and wins a horse from one of them. The horse disappears, much
as in the story in Gervase of Tilbury. G. L. K.
62. Fair Annie.
P. 67, note [79]. More cases in Dr R. Köhler's annotation to 'Le
Fraisne,' Warnke, Lais der Marie de France, p. LXIV ff. See, also,
Liebrecht, Germania, XXVIII, 114 f. [The passage concerning Guinea
negroes, Köhler, p. LXXIV, occurs also, perhaps originally, in Astley's
Voyages, III, 83, whence it is cited by Sir John Lubbock, Mental and
Social Condition of Savages, p. 36, ed. 1882. G. L. K.]
63. Child Waters.
P. 85 b. Percy's ballad is translated in Seckendorf's Musenalmanach für
das Jahr 1808, p. 120.
66. Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet.
P. 127 a. Sword in bed.
Add the following references, communicated by Dr R. Köhler. Gonzenbach,
Sicilianische Märchen, Nos 39, 40, I, 272, 279; Bladé, Contes p.
de la Gascogne, I, 284; Leskien u. Brugman, Litauische Volkslieder
u. Märchen, p. 394, Märchen 11, and Wollner's note, p. 548; Pio,
Νεοελληνικα Παραμυθια, No 10, p. 174; a Latin tale in Jahrbuch für
romanische u. englische Literatur, XI, 231; Prym u. Socin, Syrische
Sagen u. Märchen, No 7, p. 25; Gaster, Beiträge zur vergleichenden
Sagen- u. Märchenkunde, p. 28; Generides, ed. Furnivall, p. 202,
v. 6511 ff, ed. Wright, 3921 ff; the French Bevis of Hampton, and
(through Amis and Amiloun) one version of the Seven Sages, epitomized
in Loiseleur des Longchamps, Essai sur les Fables indiennes, Rajna,
Ricerchi intorno ai Reali di Francia, p. 121, and Origini dell'
Epopea francese, p. 406; Lane, Thousand and One Nights, III, 346,
Story of Seyf El-Mulook (A. Weber); Weber, Ueber eine Episode im
Jaimini-Bhârata, Monatsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1869, p. 40;
Reinisch, Die Nuba-Sprache, I, 190; Consiglieri Pedroso, Portuguese
Folk-Tales, Folk-Lore Society, No 25, p. 100 (lance for sword).
The King of the Crows (a man by night) puts a naked sword between
himself and his wife. Bladé, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, I, 21. G. L. K.
127 b. Jumping over tables. See, also, I, 502 a, note to p. 194, and
502 b, note to 198 b. Add to the Polish ballads in the last, Roger,
p. 13, Nos 25, 26: in 25 the bride jumps three, in 26 she jumps four
and knocks over a fifth with her foot. R. Köhler notes a Slavic ballad
of the same set, translated by Max Waldau, Deutsches Museum, 1851,
I, 134. Nastasya (see I, 200) jumps over a table to get to Dobrynya,
Hilferding, col. 810, No 157; Miss I. F. Hapgood's Epic Songs of
Russia, p. 267.
Herr Lave, in the favorite and excellent Scandinavian ballad, 'Herr
Lave og Herr Jon,' jumps over the table when he is told "nu sover Hr.
Jon hos unge Bruddin," Kristensen, II, 304, No 86, C 13: so Kristensen,
I, 172, No 62, A 5; Wigström, Folkdiktning, I, 71, No 34, stanza 15;
Öberg, Filikromen, III, 32, 35, stanza 15; Grundtvig, No 275, 'Hr. Find
og Vendel rod,' stanza 12. Liebrecht, Englische Studien, IX, 447, adds
E. Wigström, Folkdiktning, I, 14, 'Agneta och bergamannen,' stanza 18.
Alexander, in disguise, jumps over Darius's table, Kyng Alisaunder,
4236-39, Weber, I, 174; Garadue jumps the table in the Lai du Corn,
Wolf, Ueber die Lais, vv. 551-54, p. 340. The Soudan of Dammas, Kyng
of Tars, vv. 97 ff, Ritson, II, 160, and King Richard, Richard Coer de
Lion, vv. 1795-98, Weber, II, 71, smite the table down. G. L. K.
67. Glasgerion.
P. 137 a, second paragraph. Landau notes various unpleasant stories
resembling Boccaccio's, Quellen des Dekameron, pp. 70 f, 74 ff, ed.
1884.
137 a, note [96]. The comparison between Chaucer's Glascurion and the
Welsh Geraint had already been made by Price, Essay on the Remains of
Ancient Lit. in the Welsh, etc., 1845, Literary Remains of the Rev.
Thomas Price, 1854, I, 152. G. L. K.
137 b, line 18. Insert: Briz, V, 73.
Line 20. Add: the harping of Wäinämöinen, Kalevala, Rune 41, v. 31
ff, Schiefner, p. 240. Daghda, the Druid, performs in the hall of his
enemies the three feats which give distinction to a harper: makes the
women cry tears, the women and youth burst into laughter, and the
entire host fall asleep. O'Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Irish, III, 214: cf. D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de la Litt.
Celtique, II, 190 f. G. L. K.
68. Young Hunting.
P. 143, note [100]. Danske Samlinger, Norske Magasin, are cited by
Grundtvig, IV, 151.
143. Discovery of drowned bodies. See, further, Dennys, The Folk-Lore
of China, p. 64; Liebrecht, Volkskunde, p. 332, No 169, and Englische
Studien, IX, 447; Mélusine, II, cols 252, 253.
69. Clerk Saunders.
P. 158 b, at the end of the first paragraph. Supply the Portuguese
versions, accidentally omitted: 'Dona Branca,' Braga, Cantos pop. do
Archipelago açoriano, p. 233; 'Dom Alberto,' p. 236, 'Flor de Marilia,'
p. 237.
72. The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford.
P. 174. Add to the Spanish and Italian ballad: 'Les trois Clercs,'
Decombe, as above, p. 267, No 93; 'Les trois Écoliers,' Mélusine, I,
col. 243 f; 'La Légende de Pontoise' (corrupted), Poésies p. de la
France, MS., I, fol. 82, Mélusine, II, 18 f.
73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet.
P. 179 b. #F.# After Kinloch MSS, III, 127, insert: and Dr John Hill
Burton's papers.
182. Green and blue.
"Oh green's forsaken,
And yellow's forsworn,
And blue's the sweetest
Color that's worn."
This is given (apropos of an emerald engagement-ring) as a popular
rhyme in William Black's Three Feathers, chap. ix. The scene is in
Cornwall.
"Then shall ye were a shelde of blewe,
In token ye shall be trewe,"
says the king's daughter of Hungary in the Squyr of Lowe Degre, vv.
205, 206, Ritson, III, 153. See Rochholz, Altdeutsches Bürgerleben, pp.
277, 278. G. L. K.
75. Lord Lovel.
204 and 212.
J
Communicated by Mr Macmath, as derived from his aunt,
Miss Jane Webster, who learned it from her mother, Janet
Spark, Kirkcudbrightshire.
1
Lord Lovel was standing at his stable-door,
Kaiming down his milk-white steed,
When by came Lady Anzibel,
Was wishing Lord Lovel good speed, good speed,
Was wishing Lord Lovel good speed.
2
'O where are you going, Lord Lovel?' she said,
'O where are you going?' said she:
'I'm going unto England,
And there a fair lady to see.'
3
'How long will you stay, Lord Lovel?' she said,
'How long will you stay?' says she:
'O three short years will soon go by,
And then I'll come back to thee.'
P. 205 a, note. Add: (28) a copy in B. Seuffert, Maler Müller, Berlin,
1877, p. 455f: R. Köhler. (Dropped in the second edition, 1881.)
205 b, note [122]. The Finnish version is 'Morsiamen kuolo,'
Kanteletar, 1864, p. viii.
P. 206. Add: Decombe, 'Derrièr' la Trinité,' p. 210, No 75, 'En
chevauchant mon cheval rouge,' p. 212, No 76; Ampère, Instructions, p.
36, Bulletin du Comité, etc., I, 252, 'Les chevaux rouges.'
77. Sweet William's Ghost.
P. 227, note [130]. Sir Walter Scott, in his Introduction to The
Pirate, ed. 1846, p. viii, and note, p. 136, informs us that the old
woman was Bessie Millie, living at Stromness, Pomona, Orkney (not
Shetland). W. Macmath.
227 b. Asking back troth. The Child of Bristow's father, who has been
charged by his son to come back from purgatory at intervals of a
fortnight, asks back his troth three times, and gets it after he is
ransomed by his son: Hazlitt, Early Popular Poetry, I, 120, 124, 128.
78. The Unquiet Grave.
P. 235 a. Add these versions of the tale of the child that is obliged
to carry its mother's tears in a pitcher, or whose clothes are wet with
its mother's tears: 'Das Thränenkrüglein,' Bechstein, Märchenbuch,
1845, p. 109, 1879, p. 110; Wucke, Sagen der mittleren Werra, 1864,
I, 133; also, II, 31; Krainz, Mythen u. Sagen aus dem steirischen
Hochlande, p. 405, No 309 [and Sagen aus Steirmark, p. 50, No 44];
Jäcklin, Volksthümliches aus Graubünden, Cur, 1878, p. 18, versified
by the editor; Friedrich Müller, Siebenbürgische Sagen, 1857, p. 47,
No 64, and Wien, 1885, No 87; von Shulenburg, Wendische Volkssagen, p.
238; Krauss, Sagen u. Märchen der Südslaven, II, 307, No 132. J. W.
Wolf, Deutsche Märchen u. Sagen, p. 162, No 42, gives the story from
Thomas Cantipratensis, and in a note, at p. 595, says, dieselbe Sage
ist auch muhammedanisch, doch muss ich leider die nähere Nachweise
darüber für ein anderes Mal ersparen. R. Köhler.
Schambach u. Müller, Niedersächsische Sagen, No 233, p. 220, and note
at p. 364; Lütolf, Sagen aus Lucern, p. 515. G. L. K.
236 a. Better in the Pahlavî text, Arḍâ-Vîrâf, Haug and West, Bombay
and London, 1872, ch. 16, p. 165. Srôsh, the pious, and Âtarô, the
angel, said thus. This river is the many tears which men shed from the
eyes as they make lamentation and weeping for the departed. They shed
those tears unlawfully, and they swell to this river. Those who are
not able to cross over are those for whom, after their departure, much
lamentation and weeping were made, and those who cross more easily are
those for whom less was made. Speak forth to the world thus: When you
are in the world, make no lamentation and weeping unlawfully; for so,
much harm and difficulty may happen to the souls of your departed.
236 b. Add: the legend Santo Antonio e a Princeza, Estacio da Veiga,
Romanceiro do Algarve, p. 178, Hardung, Romanceiro Portuguez, II, 151
f; and to note [134]., Jacobs, Anthologia Græca, II, 799, Appendix
Epigrammatum, 125, ed. 1814. F. Liebrecht.
80. Old Robin of Portingale.
P. 240 a. Add: 'Willie's Fatal Visit,' Buchan, II, 259 f, stanza 5;
'Wallace and his Leman,' p. 226, stanza 2.
240 b, second paragraph, fourth line. Say: burns or cuts.
And with a knyfe son gerte he schare
A crose appone his schuldir bare.
Sir Isumbras, Thornton Romances, ed. Halliwell, p. 94, v. 135 f.
King Richard, in Richard Coer de Lion, v. 1726, Weber, II, 68, says:
"Upon my flesch I bare the croys." Certain young men who had refused to
take the cross, having got worsted in a fight with robbers, condignly,
three days afterwards, crucem quem antea spreverant in carne sibi
invicem ultronei affixerunt. Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriæ,
ii, 7, Opera, ed. Dimock, VI, 126. G. L. K.
81. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.
P. 243 b, third paragraph. Heathen child: so Sir Beues of Hamtoun, v.
3558, p. 136 (Maitland Club).
244. For wiping or whetting the sword, see further under No 99, p. 378.
89. Fause Foodrage.
P. 297 a, third paragraph. A Färöe version, 'Sveinur í Vallalíð,' one
of five known, is printed by Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, No 19, p.
124.
90. Jellon Grame.
P. 303 b, the first paragraph. Add to Bugge, No 5, Landstad's version,
No 18, stanzas 6, 7, p. 224. The trait of the extraordinary growth
of the boy who is to avenge his father is preserved also in the
Färöe 'Sveinur í Vallalíð' (a variety of 'Ung Villum,' II, 297 a),
Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, p. 131, stanzas 44, 45. Again in
'Ivar Erlingen og Riddarsonen,' Landstad, No 13, stanzas 22, 23, p.
161. Sigurd grows more in one month than other bairns in six in some
Färöe versions of 'Regin Smith,' as Lyngbye, p. 58, stanzas 33, 34;
the verses having, perhaps, been adopted from other ballads: see
Hammershaimb, Sjúrðar kvæði, p. 6, note 2. This marvellous growth
occurs in some popular tales, as 'Der Grindkopf (Italian), Köhler,
in Jahrbuch fur rom. u. eng. Literatur, VIII, 253, Gonzenbach,
Sicilianische Volksmärchen, I, 158, No 26.
91. Fair Mary of Wallington.
P. 310 b, last paragraph, eleventh line. After Wunderhorn, etc.,
insert: 'Von der jungen Markgräfin,' Seckendorf's Musenalmanach für das
Jahr 1808, p. 23.
93. Lamkin.
P. 320 and 339.
W
'Bloody Lambkin,' communicated by Mr Macmath ea derived
from his aunt, Miss Jane Webster, who learned it from her
aunt, Minnie Spark, Kirkcudbrightshire.
* * * * * * *
1
And it was weel built,
without and within,
Except a little hole,
to let Bloody Lambkin come in.
* * * * * * *
2
He stabbed her young son,
wi the silver bodkin,
Till oot o the cradle
the reed blude did rin.
3
'Oh still my babe, nourrice,
still him wi the keys:'
'He'll no be still, madam,
let me do what I please.'
4
'Oh still my babe, nourrice,
still him wi the knife:'
'He'll no be still, madam,
na, no for my life.'
5
'Oh still my babe, still my babe,
still him wi the bell:'
'He'll no be still, madam,
till ye come down yoursel.'
6
'How can I come down,
this cold frosty night?
I have neither coal nor candle,
for to show me light!'
* * * * * * *
7
'O haud your tongue, nourrice,
sae loud as ye lee;
Ye'd neer a cut finger
but I pitied thee.'
95. Maid Freed from the Gallows.
P. 349 b. Add: Antonovitch and Dragomanof, Historical Songs of the
Little-Russian People, Kief, 1874, I, 102, No 34; Chodzko, Les Chants
historiques de l'Ukraine, p. 72. A Cossack writes to his father from
prison, begging to be ransomed. 'How much?' asks the father. 'Eight
oxen to every house, with their plows.' If he must give so much, the
son will have to die. The son writes to his mother. 'How much do they
ask?' 'Eight milch-cows, with their calves.' At that rate he will have
to die. He writes to his love. 'How much must be paid?' 'Seven hundred
ducks from each house.' She would rather part with all she has than let
him die.
100. Willie o Winsbury.
P. 398. This copy, #J#, which resembles #D#, was communicated by Mr
Macmath as derived, September 13, 1886, from his aunt, Miss Jane
Webster, who learned it above fifty years ago at Airds of Kells,
Kirkcudbrightshire, from the singing of Samuel Galloway. "Barborough
may be spelt Barburgh, Barbara, or even, perhaps, Barbary."
1
There was a lass in the North Countrie,
And her clothing it was the green,
And she's looked ower her father's castle-wa,
For to see her father's ships sail in, in,
For to see her father's ships on sea.
2
'What aileth thee, dear daughter?' he said,
'What makes thee so pale and wan?
I'm afraid you've got some sore sickness,
Or have lain wi some young man, man,
Or have lain wi some young man.'
3
'O I have got no sore sickness,
Nor I've lain with no young man;
But the thing that grieves me to the heart
Is my true-love is staying too long.'
That my true-love, etc.
4
'O is he a lord, or a duke, or a knight,
Or a man of birth or fame?
Or is he one of my own servant-men,
That is lately come from Spain?'
5
'He's neither a lord, nor a duke, nor a knight,
Nor a man of birth or fame;
But he is one of your own servant-men,
That is lately come from Spain.'
6
'O call him down, the Spanish dog,
O call him down to me,
For before eight o'clock next morning
Hanged he shall be, be,
Aye, hanged on a tree.'
7
'It's oh forbid, dear father,' she said,
'That anything there should be,
For if that you hang John Barborough,
You'll get nae mair good o me.'
8
He's called down his merry men all,
By one and by two and by three;
John Barborough was to be the first,
But the last man down came he.
* * * * * * *
9
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
For every pound that he laid down,
John Barborough laid down three.
Dr Davidson has given me a stanza, derived from Aberdeenshire, which is
close to #G# 10.
She turned her right an round about,
Wi the saut tear in her ee:
'O gin ye hang my True Tammas,
Ye'se never see guid o me.'
To be Corrected in the Print.
I, 67 a, line 15. _Read_ Trundesøn.
279 b, note §, first citation. _Read_ 31^2 _for_ 29^2.
319, note [308], second line. _Read_ later _for_ Latin.
322, note [318], last line but one. _Read_ baciata.
392 b, third line. O _has dropt out of_ Oesterley.
392 b, third paragraph, second line. _Read_ husband's sons are.
400 b, first line. _Read_ şi.
400 b, sixth line from the bottom. _Read_ Čelakovský.
407 b, second paragraph, last line but one. _Read_ abbot be cook.
486 a, #CC#, first line, and 504 a, 219 b, fifth line. _Read_ Schlossar.
* * * * *
II, 10 b, second paragraph, last line. _Read_ 97 _for_ 47.
78 b, stanza 26^2. _Read_ frae _for_ from.
82 a, third stanza from the bottom, second verse. _Read_ Orris.
85 a, first paragraph, last line. _Read_ #J# 30 _for_ #F# 30.
99 a, #A# 31^1, third line. _Read_ 32^3 _for_ 31^1.
133, #D# 4^1. _Read_ Lord Ingram.
136 b, second paragraph, second line. _Read_ III, 113-118.
137 b, third paragraph, second line. _Read_ Barnard.
143, note [100]. _Read_ Samlinger... Norske Magasin.
185 a, stanza 21^3. _Drop_ the.
206 a, third paragraph (7), and 215 b, second paragraph, last line but
four. _Read_ Aravandinos.
215 b, second paragraph, last line but five. _Read_ 89 _for_ 29.
256, #K# 2^4. _Read_ in o my arms.
326, stanza 8^2. _Read_ O go please it.
352, stanza 20^2. _Read_ No tho (No _having been arbitrarily struck
out_).
* * * * *
It is intended to follow the spelling of sources or to note departures
from it. The following undesigned variations from the spelling of the
texts have been observed. Undoubtedly there are others. All that shall
be detected will be registered, and literal conformity restored if the
opportunity shall offer.
I, 145 b, 21^2. _Read_ silver-shode.
II, 48 a, #C# 1^3. _Read_ rottens.
78, 4^3. _Read_ welcome.
78, 22^2. _Read_ angring.
78, 24^2. _Read_ bot.
91, #D# 24^3. _Read_ ha an.
91, #D# 27^{1-2}. _Read_ ye'el.
91, #D# 29^3. _Read_ mether an.
107, #D# 15^2. _Read_ spak.
108, #E# 2^4. _Read_ die.
111, notes, #E# 1^3. _Read_ labour.
190, #F# 13^4. _Read_ Te.
207, #B# 3^1. _Read_ whan. 4^3. _Read_ lang.
209, #D# 4^4. _Read_ fair. 5^4. _Read_ aw.
248, #D# 1^8. _Read_ Levingstone.
248, #D# 5^3, 7^1, 14^2. _Read_ gowd.
326, 12^1, 17^1. _Read_ nursy.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Changes listed in the preceding section "To be Corrected in the Print"
have been applied to the text. Other instances where typographical
errors have been corrected in the text are listed as follows:
Page 20, Footnote [30]: added missing closing quote and comma ('Sir
Patrick Spens', a piece of literary work of the last century,...)
Page 26, stanza 13^1 changed "moo" to "moon" ('I saw the new moon late
yestreen,)
Page 43: changed comma to period (et estoit roy d'Angleterre.)
Page 75, stanza 11^1: deleted erroneous comma at beginning of line (An
she gid by the first table,)
Page 96, heading to ballad version I: note that the balance of the date
is missing in the original (learned from his aunt at Old Deer, about
185)
Page 147, ballad version C, stanza 14: added missing open quote ('Come
doon, come doon, my pretty parrot,)
Page 164, ballad version F, stanza 4: added missing open quote ('O wha
is that at my bower-door,)
Page 206: initial rough breathings before Greek capitals appear to have
been interpreted as opening single quotes, and the printer has supplied
matching close quotes. Both quotes and rough breathing are retained
(... these also have: 'Ἡ Ευγενουλα,' 'Ὁ Χαρος και ἡ Κορη,' etc.)
Page 228: changed "be wailed" to "bewailed" (is bitterly bewailed by
Sigrún.)
Page 228: changed closing single quote to double quote ("hon sörjer sin
fästeman ur graf,")
Page 231, ballad version C, stanza 13: added missing open quote ('It is
three hell-hounds, Marjorie,' he says,)
Page 240: corrected reference "4^2" to "4^1" (So the "Sleep you, wake
you" of 4^1,...)
Page 240, Footnote [135]: changed "Madder" to "Madden" (As Sir
Frederick Madden has observed,...)
Page 246, heading to ballad version C changed "Roxburge" to "Roxburghe"
(#d.# Roxburghe Ballads, III, 340.)
Page 284, stanza 7: added missing close single quote (And bid Fair
Eleanor come?')
Page 285, heading to ballad version B: deleted comma preceding
semicolon (Motherwell's MS. p. 149;)
Page 294, ballad version E, stanza 1^3: suspect question mark may be a
printer's error, but is retained (His lady, in her bigly bower?)
Page 295: corrected stanza reference from "4" to "14" (14^4. the door.)
Page 356: changed "Ćelakovský" to "Čelakovský" ('The Turk duped,'
Čelakovský, III, 11)
Page 366, ballad version P, stanza 4^3: added missing close single
quote ('We'll nip the baby in the cradle,')
Page 346, changed "Series" to "eries" (#C.# Notes and Queries, Sixth
Series,...)
Page 405, note to ballad version B: changed "are" to italic (Quhat, ze,
_etc., are printed_ what, ye.)
Page 405, note on ballad version F stanza 16: italics extended to whole
paragraph (16. _Given thus in Kinloch's annotated copy... ... and that
of Buchan:_)
Page 406 changed "Islenzk" to "Íslenzk" ('Þiðriks kvæði konúngs,'
Íslenzk fornkvæði, II, 218, No 57, st. 6;)
Page 436, stanza 55^3: changed "Ihon" to "Iohn" (Thy brother Iohn shall
be a lord,)
Page 440: changed "p:" to "plate:" (20^1. siluer & plate: _see_ 22^1.)
Page 485, stanza 31^2: added missing close single quote (This fault
which you've committed;')
Page 494, Footnote [187]: changed "ould" to "would" (and would have
followed No 40 had I known)
Page 513, under notes on Ballad 78: original footnote reference, using
"double dagger" symbol, does not exist on page 236. The inference
from context is that the reference should be to Footnote [134] which
originally had "dagger" symbol (236 b.... and to note [134]., Jacobs,
Anthologia Græca, II,...)
Page 515: changed "8^1" to "8^2" (326, stanza 8^2. _Read_ O go please it.)
Page 515, under To be Corrected in the Print for Volume II, no instance
in the text could be found corresponding to the correction for Page
352, stanza 20^2.