of The King and the Lord Abbot. With allowance. Ro. L'Estrange. Printed
for P. Brooksby at the Golden Ball in Pye-corner.
[377] The King and the Bishop, or,
Unlearned Men hard matters out can find
When Learned Bishops Princes eyes do blind.
To the Tune of Chievy Chase. Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J.
Wright (1655-80). Printed for J. Wright, Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T.
Passenver.
The Old Abbot and King Olfrey. To the tune of the Shaking of the Sheets.
Printed by and for A. M., and sold by the booksellers of London.
J. Wright's date is 1650-82, T. Passinger's, 1670-82. Chappell.
[378] Printed by J. M. for C. D., at the Stationers Armes within
Aldgate. C. D. is, no doubt, C. Dennison, who published 1685-89. See
Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads, I, xix.
[379] Among these, St Bittel for St Andrew of #A# 26, with the note,
"meaning probably St Botolph:" why "probably"?
[380] This story serves as a gloss on 2 Chronicles, ii, 13, 14, where
Hiram sends Solomon a cunning Tyrian, skilful to find out every device
which shall be put to him by the cunning men of Jerusalem. The Queen of
Sheba's hard questions to Solomon, not specified in 1 Kings, x, 1-13,
were, according to tradition, of the same general character as the
Indian ones spoken of at p. 12. See Hertz, Die Rätsel der Königin von
Saba, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, XXVII, 1 ff.
[381] These are proper riddles, and of a kind still current in popular
tradition. See, e. g., Svend Vonved, Grundtvig, I, 237 f. There are
thirty-five, before the last, in the oldest text, given, with a
translation, by Vigfusson and Powell, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 'King
Heidrek's Riddles,' I, 86 ff.
[382] Sacchetti's life extended beyond 1400, or perhaps beyond 1410.
[383] The form of the third question is slightly varied at first ¿Cuál
es el error en que yo estoy pensando? But when put to the herdsman the
question is simply ¿En qué estoy yo pensando? I was pointed to this
story by Seidemann, in Archiv für Litteraturgeschichte, IX, 423.
Trueba's C. P. forms vol. 19 of Brockhaus's Coleccion de Autores
Españoles.
[384] The editor of the Grand Parangon, at p. xiii, cites from an older
source an anecdote of a king insisting upon being told how much he ought
to bring if offered for sale. While his courtiers are giving flattering
replies, a fool leaps forward and says, Twenty-nine deniers, and no
more; for if you were worth thirty, that would be autant que le
tout-puissant Dieu valut, quant il fut vendu. The king took this answer
to heart, and repented of his vanities. So an emperor is converted by
this reply from a man-at-arms, Van den verwenden Keyser, Jan van
Hollant, c. 1400, Willems, Belgisch Museum, X, 57; Thijm, p. 145. The
like question and answer, as a riddle, in a German MS. of the fifteenth
century, and in Questions énigmatiques, Lyon, 1619; Köhler, in
Weimarisches Jahrbuch, V, 354 ff.
[385] In Prussia Frederick the Great plays the part of Gustavus. Sepp,
p. 558.
[386] Another Swabian story, in Meier, No 28, p. 99, is a mixed form.
The Duke of Swabia reads "Hans sans cares" over a miller's house-door,
and says, "Bide a wee: if you have no cares, I will give you some." The
duke, to give the miller a taste of what care is, says he must solve
this riddle or lose his mill: Come to me neither by day nor by night,
neither naked nor clothed, neither on foot nor on horseback. The miller
promises his man his daughter in marriage and the mill in succession, if
he will help him out of his dilemma. The man at once says, Go on
Mid-week, for Mid-week is no day (Mitt-woch ist ja gar kein Tag, wie
Sonn-tag, Mon-tag), neither is it night; and if you are to be neither
clothed nor bare, put on a fishing-net; and if you are to go neither on
foot nor on horseback, ride to him on an ass. All but the beginning of
this is derived from the cycle of 'The Clever Wench:' see No 2.
Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen in Siebenbürgen, No 45, which is also of
this cycle, has taken up a little of 'Hans ohne Sorgen.' A church has an
inscription, Wir leben ohne Sorgen. This vexes the king, who says as
before, Just wait, and I will give you reason for cares, p. 244, ed.
1856.
[387] These two stories were communicated to me by Mr Ralston.
[388] In the beginning there is a clear trace of the Oriental tales of
'The Clever Lass' cycle.
46
CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN'S COURTSHIP
#A. a.# 'I'll no ly neist the wa,' Herd's MS., I, 161.
#b.# 'She'll no ly neist [the] wa,' the same, II, 100.
#B. a.# 'The Earl of Rosslyn's Daughter,' Kinloch MSS, I,
83. #b.# 'Lord Roslin's Daughter,' Lord Roslin's
Daughter's Garland, p. 4. #c.# 'Lord Roslin's Daughter,'
Buchan's MSS, II, 34. #d.# 'Captain Wedderburn's
Courtship,' Jamieson's Popular Ballads, II, 159. #e.#
Harris MS., fol. 19 b, No 14. #f.# Notes and Queries, 2d
S., IV, 170.
#C.# 'The Laird of Roslin's Daughter,' Sheldon's
Minstrelsy of the English Border, p. 232.
A copy of this ballad was printed in The New British Songster, a
Collection of Songs, Scots and English, with Toasts and Sentiments for
the Bottle, Falkirk, 1785: see Motherwell, p. lxxiv.[389] Few were more
popular, says Motherwell, and Jamieson remarks that 'Captain
Wedderburn' was equally in vogue in the north and the south of Scotland.
Jamieson writes to the Scots Magazine, 1803, p. 701: "Of this ballad I
have got one whole copy and part of another, and I remember a good deal
of it as I have heard it sung in Morayshire when I was a child." In his
Popular Ballads, II, 154, 1806, he says that the copy which he prints
was furnished him from Mr Herd's MS. by the editor of the Border
Minstrelsy, and that he had himself supplied a few readings of small
importance from his own recollection. There is some inaccuracy here. The
version given by Jamieson is rather #B#, with readings from #A#.
We have had of the questions six, #A# 11, 12, What is greener than the
grass? in No 1, #A# 15, #C# 13, #D# 5; What's higher than the tree? in
#C# 9, #D# 1; What's war than a woman's wiss? ("than a woman _was_") #A#
15, #C# 13, #D# 5; What's deeper than the sea? #A# 13, #B# 8, #C# 9, #D#
1. Of the three dishes, #A# 8, 9, we have the bird without a gall in Ein
Spil von den Freiheit, Fastnachtspiele aus dem 15^n Jhdt, II, 558, v.
23,[390] and the two others in the following song, from a manuscript
assigned to the fifteenth century, and also preserved in several forms
by oral tradition:[391] Sloane MS., No 2593, British Museum; Wright's
Songs and Carols, 1836, No 8; as printed for the Warton Club, No xxix,
p. 33.
I have a ȝong suster fer beȝondyn the se,
Many be the drowryis that che sente me.
Che sente me the cherye, withoutyn ony ston,
And so che dede [the] dowe, withoutyn ony bon.
Sche sente me the brere, withoutyn ony rynde,
Sche bad me love my lemman withoute longgyng.
How xuld ony cherye be withoute ston?
And how xuld ony dowe ben withoute bon?
How xuld any brere ben withoute rynde?
How xuld y love myn lemman without longyng?
Quan the cherye was a flour, than hadde it non ston;
Quan the dowe was an ey, than hadde it non bon.
Quan the brere was onbred, than hadde it non rynd;
Quan the mayden haȝt that che lovit, che is without longyng.
'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship,' or 'Lord Roslin's Daughter,'[392] is a
counterpart of the ballad in which a maid wins a husband by guessing
riddles. (See Nos 1 and 2, and also the following ballad, for a lady who
_gives_ riddles.) The ingenious suitor, though not so favorite a
subject as the clever maid, may boast that he is of an old and
celebrated family. We find him in the Gesta Romanorum, No 70; Oesterley,
p. 383, Madden's English Versions, No 35, p. 384. A king had a beautiful
daughter, whom he wished to dispose of in marriage; but she had made a
vow that she would accept no husband who had not achieved three tasks:
to tell her how many feet long, broad, and deep were the four elements;
to change the wind from the north; to take fire into his bosom, next the
flesh, without harm. The king issued a proclamation in accordance with
these terms. Many tried and failed, but at last there came a soldier who
succeeded. To answer the first question he made his servant lie down,
and measured him from head to foot. Every living being is composed of
the four elements, he said, and I find not more than seven feet in them.
A very easy way was hit on for performing the second task: the soldier
simply turned his horse's head to the east, and, since wind is the life
of every animal, maintained that he had changed the wind. The king was
evidently not inclined to be strict, and said, Clear enough. Let us go
on to the third. Then, by the aid of a stone which he always carried
about him, the soldier put handfuls of burning coals into his bosom
without injury. The king gave his daughter to the soldier.
An extraordinary ballad in Sakellarios's _Κυπριακα_ III, 15, No 6,
'The Hundred Sayings,' subjects a lover to a severe probation of
riddles. (Liebrecht has given a full abstract of the story in Gosche's
Archiv, II, 29.) A youth is madly enamored of a king's daughter, but,
though his devotion knows no bound, cannot for a long time get a word
from her mouth, and then only disdain. She shuts herself up in a tower.
He prays for a heat that may force her to come to the window, and that
she may drop her spindle, and he be the only one to bring it to her. The
heavens are kind: all this comes to pass, and she is fain to beg him to
bring her the spindle. She asks, Can you do what I say? Shoulder a
tower? make a stack of eggs? trim a date-tree, standing in a great
river?[393] All this he can do. She sends him away once and again to
learn various things; last of all, the hundred sayings that lovers use.
He presents himself for examination. "One?" "There is one only God: may
he help me!" "Two?" "Two doves with silver wings are sporting together:
I saw how they kissed," etc. "Three?" "Holy Trinity, help me to love the
maid!" "Four?" "There is a four-pointed cross on thy smock, and it
implores God I may be thy mate:" and so he is catechised through all the
units and tens.[394] Then the lady suddenly turns about, concedes
everything, and proposes that they shall go to church: but the man says,
If I am to marry all my loves, I have one in every town, and wife and
children in Constantinople. They part with reciprocal scurrilities.
Usually when the hand of a princess is to be won by the performance of
tasks, whether requiring wit, courage, the overcoming of magic arts, or
what not, the loss of your head is the penalty of failure. (See the
preface to the following ballad.) Apollonius of Tyre, of Greek original,
but first found in a Latin form, is perhaps the oldest riddle-story of
this description. Though its age has not been determined, the tale has
been carried back even to the end of the third or the beginning of the
fourth century, was a great favorite with the Middle Ages, and is kept
only too familiar by the play of Pericles.
More deserving of perpetuation is the charming Persian story of Prince
Calaf, in Pétis de La Croix's 1001 Days (45^e-82^e jour), upon which
Carlo Gozzi founded his play of "La Turandot," now best known through
Schiller's translation. Tourandocte's riddles are such as we should call
legitimate, and are three in number. "What is the being that is found in
every land, is dear to all the world, and cannot endure a fellow?" Calaf
answers, The sun. "What mother swallows the children she has given birth
to, as soon as they have attained their growth?" The sea, says Calaf,
for the rivers that flow into it all came from it. "What is the tree
that has all its leaves white on one side and black on the other?" This
tree, Calaf answers, is the year, which is made up of days and
nights.[395]
A third example of this hazardous wooing is the story of The Fair One of
the Castle, the fourth in the Persian poem of The Seven Figures (or
Beauties), by Nisami of Gendsch († 1180). A Russian princess is shut
up in a castle made inaccessible by a talisman, and every suitor must
satisfy four conditions: he must be a man of honor, vanquish the
enchanted guards, take away the talisman, and obtain the consent of her
father. Many had essayed their fortune, and their heads were now arrayed
on the pinnacles of the castle.[396] A young prince had fulfilled the
first three conditions, but the father would not approve his suit until
he had solved the princess's riddles. These are expressed symbolically,
and answered in the same way. The princess sends the prince two pearls
from her earring: he at once takes her meaning,--life is like two drops
of water,--and returns the pearls with three diamonds, to signify that
joy--faith, hope, and love--can prolong life. The princess now sends him
three jewels in a box, with sugar. The prince seizes the idea,--life is
blended with sensuous desire,--and pours milk on the sugar, to intimate
that as milk dissolves sugar, so sensuous desire is quenched by true
love. After four such interchanges, the princess seals her consent with
a device not less elegant than the others.[397]
A popular tale of this class is current in Russia, with this variation:
that the hard-hearted princess requires her lovers to give her riddles,
and those who cannot pose her lose their heads. Foolish Iván, the
youngest of three brothers, adventures after many have failed. On his
way to the trial he sees a horse in a cornfield and drives it out with a
whip, and further on kills a snake with a lance, saying in each case,
Here's a riddle! Confronted with the princess, he says to her, As I came
to you, I saw by the roadside what was good; and in the good was good;
so I set to work, and with what was good I drove the good from the good.
The good fled from the good out of the good. The princess pleads a
headache, and puts off her answer till the next day, when Iván gives her
his second enigma: As I came to you, I saw on the way what was bad, and
I struck the bad with a bad thing, and of what was bad the bad died. The
princess, unable to solve these puzzles, is obliged to accept foolish
Iván. (Afanasief, Skazki, II, 225 ff, No 20, in Ralston's Songs of the
Russian People, p. 354 f.) Closely related to this tale, and still
nearer to one another, are the Grimms' No 22, 'Das Räthsel' (see, also,
the note in their third volume), and the West Highland story, 'The
Ridere (Knight) of Riddles,' Campbell, No 22, II, 27. In the former, as
in the Russian tale, it is the princess that must be puzzled before she
will yield her hand; in the latter, an unmatchable beauty is to be had
by no man who does not put a question which her father cannot solve.
Here may be put three drolleries, all clearly of the same origin, in
which a fool wins a princess by nonplussing her: 'The Three Questions,'
Halliwell's Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, p. 32; a "schwank" of the
fourteenth century, by Heinz der Kellner, von der Hagen's
Gesammtabenteuer, No 63, III, 179 (there very improperly called
Turandot); 'Spurningen,' Asbjørnson og Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr, No 4,
Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse, p. 148. According to the first of
these, the king of the East Angles promises his clever daughter to any
one who can answer three of her questions (in the other versions, more
correctly, _silence_ her). Three brothers, one of them a natural, set
out for the court, and, on the way, Jack finds successively an egg, a
crooked hazel-stick, and a nut, and each time explodes with laughter.
When they are ushered into the presence, Jack bawls out, What a troop of
fair ladies! "Yes," says the princess, "we are fair ladies, for we carry
fire in our bosoms." "Then roast me an egg," says Jack, pulling out the
egg from his pocket. "How will you get it out again?" asks the princess?
"With a crooked stick," says Jack, producing the same. "Where did that
come from?" says the princess. "From a nut," answers Jack, pulling out
the nut. And so, as the princess is silenced, the fool gets her in
marriage.[398]
Even nowadays riddles play a noteworthy part in the marriages of Russian
peasants. In the government Pskof, as we are informed by Khudyakof, the
bridegroom's party is not admitted into the bride's house until all the
riddles given by the party of the bride have been answered; whence the
saying or proverb, to the behoof of bridegrooms, Choose comrades that
can guess riddles. In the village of Davshina, in the Yaroslav
government, the bridegroom's best man presents himself at the bride's
house on the wedding-day, and finding a man, called the bride-seller,
sitting by the bride, asks him to surrender the bride and vacate his
place. "Fair and softly," answers the seller; "you will not get the
bride for nothing; make us a bid, if you will. And how will you trade?
will you pay in riddles or in gold?" If the best man is prepared for the
emergency, as we must suppose he always would be, he answers, I will pay
in riddles. Half a dozen or more riddles are now put by the seller, of
which these are favorable specimens: Give me the sea, full to the brim,
and with a bottom of silver. The best man makes no answer in words, but
fills a bowl with beer and lays a coin at the bottom. Tell me the thing,
naked itself, which has a shift over its bosom. The best man hands the
seller a candle. Finally the seller says, Give me something which the
master of this house lacks. The best man then brings in the bridegroom.
The seller gives up his seat, and hands the best man a plate, saying,
Put in this what all pretty girls like. The best man puts in what money
he thinks proper, the bridesmaids take it and quit the house, and the
bridegroom's friends carry off the bride.
So, apparently in some ballad, a maid gives riddles, and will marry only
the man who will guess them.
By day like a hoop,
By night like a snake;
Who reads my riddle,
I take him for mate. (A belt.)
No 1103 of Khudyakof.[399]
In Radloff's Songs and Tales of the Turkish tribes in East Siberia, I,
60, a father, wanting a wife for his son, applies to another man, who
has a marriageable daughter. The latter will not make a match unless the
young man's father will come to him with pelt and sans pelt, by the road
and not by the road, on a horse and yet not on a horse: see 8 ff of this
volume. The young man gives his father proper instructions, and wins his
wife.
A Lithuanian mother sends her daughter to the wood to fetch "winter May
and summer snow." She meets a herdsman, and asks where she can find
these. The herdsman offers to teach her these riddles in return for her
love, and she complying with these terms, gives her the answers: The
evergreen tree is winter May, and sea-foam is summer snow. Beiträge zur
Kunde Preussens, I, 515 (Rhesa), and Ausland, 1839, p. 1230.
The European tales, excepting the three drolleries (and even they are
perhaps to be regarded only as parodies of the others), must be of
Oriental derivation; but the far north presents us with a similar story
in the lay of Alvíss, in the elder Edda. The dwarf Alvíss comes to claim
Freya for his bride by virtue of a promise from the gods. Thor[400] says
that the bride is in his charge, and that he was from home when the
promise was made: at any rate, Alvíss shall not have the maid unless he
can answer all the questions that shall be put him. Thor then requires
Alvíss to give him the names of earth, heaven, moon, sun, etc., ending
with barley and the poor creature small beer, in all the worlds; that
is, in the dialect of the gods, of mankind, giants, elves, dwarfs, etc.
Alvíss does this with such completeness as to extort Thor's admiration,
but is craftily detained in so doing till after sunrise, when Thor
cries, You are taken in! Above ground at dawn! and the dwarf turns to
stone.
* * * * *
Translated, in part, after Aytoun, by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p.
107.
A
#a.# Herd's MS., I, 161. #b.# The same, II, 100.
1
The laird of Bristoll's daughter was in the woods walking,
And by came Captain Wetherbourn, a servant to the king;
And he said to his livery man, Wer 't not against the law,
I would tak her to mine ain bed, and lay her neist the wa.
2
'I'm into my father's woods, amongst my father's trees,
O kind sir, let mee walk alane, O kind sir, if you please;
The butler's bell it will be rung, and I'll be mist awa;
I'll lye into mine ain bed, neither at stock nor wa.'
3
'O my bonny lady, the bed it's not be mine,
For I'll command my servants for to call it thine;
The hangings are silk satin, the sheets are holland sma,
And we's baith lye in ae bed, but you's lye neist the wa.
4
'And so, my bonny lady,--I do not know your name,--
But my name's Captain Wetherburn, and I'm a man of fame;
Tho your father and a' his men were here, I would na stand in awe
To tak you to mine ain bed, and lay you neist the wa.
5
'Oh my bonny, bonny lady, if you'll gie me your hand,
You shall hae drums and trumpets to sound at your command;
Wi fifty men to guard you, sae weel their swords can dra,
And wee's baith lye in ae bed, but you's lye neist the wa.'
6
He's mounted her upon a steid, behind his gentleman,
And he himself did walk afoot, to had his lady on,
With his hand about her midle sae jimp, for fear that she should fa;
She man lye in his bed, but she'll not lye neist the wa.
7
He's taen her into Edinburgh, his landlady cam ben:
'And monny bonny ladys in Edinburgh hae I seen,
But the like of this fine creature my eyes they never sa;'
'O dame bring ben a down-bed, for she's lye neist the wa.'
8
'Hold your tongue, young man,' she said, 'and dinna trouble me,
Unless you get to my supper, and that is dishes three;
Dishes three to my supper, tho I eat nane at a',
Before I lye in your bed, but I winna lye neist the wa.
9
'You maun get to my supper a cherry but a stane,
And you man get to my supper a capon but a bane,
And you man get a gentle bird that flies wanting the ga,
Before I lye in your bed, but I'll not lye neist the wa.'
10
'A cherry whan in blossom is a cherry but a stane;
A capon when he's in the egg canna hae a bane;
The dow it is a gentle bird that flies wanting the ga;
And ye man lye in my bed, between me and the wa.'
11
'Hold your tongue, young man,' she said, 'and dinna me perplex,
Unless you tell me questions, and that is questions six;
Tell me them as I shall ask them, and that is twa by twa,
Before I lye in your bed, but I'll not lye neist the wa.
12
'What is greener than the grass, what's higher than the tree?
What's war than a woman's wiss, what's deeper than the sea?
What bird sings first, and whereupon the dew down first does fa?
Before I lye in your bed, but I'll not lye neist the wa.'
13
'Virgus is greener than the grass, heaven's higher than the tree;
The deil's war than a woman's wish, hell's deeper than the sea;
The cock sings first, on the Sugar Loaf the dew down first does fa;
And ye man lye in my bed, betweest me and the wa.'
14
'Hold your tongue, young man,' she said, 'I pray you give it oer,
Unless you tell me questions, and that is questions four;
Tell me them as I shall ask them, and that is twa by twa,
Before I lye in your bed, but I winna lye neist the wa.
15
'You man get to me a plumb that does in winter grow;
And likewise a silk mantle that never waft gaed thro;
A sparrow's horn, a priest unborn, this night to join us twa,
Before I lye in your bed, but I winna lye neist the wa.'
16
'There is a plumb in my father's yeard that does in winter grow;
Likewise he has a silk mantle that never waft gaed thro;
A sparrow's horn, it may be found, there's ane in every tae,
There's ane upo the mouth of him, perhaps there may be twa.
17
'The priest is standing at the door, just ready to come in;
Nae man could sae that he was born, to lie it is a sin;
For a wild boar bored his mother's side, he out of it did fa;
And you man lye in my bed, between me and the wa.'
18
Little kent Grizey Sinclair, that morning when she raise,
'T was to be the hindermost of a' her single days;
For now she's Captain Wetherburn's wife, a man she never saw,
And she man lye in his bed, but she'll not lye neist the wa.
B
#a.# Kinloch MSS, I, 83, from Mary Barr's recitation. #b.#
Lord Roslin's Daughter's Garland. #c.# Buchan's MSS, II,
34. #d.# Jamieson's Popular Ballads, II, 159. #e.# Harris
MS., fol. 19 b, No 14, from Mrs Harris's recitation. #f.#
Notes and Queries, 2d S., IV, 170, "as sung among the
peasantry of the Mearns," 1857.
1
The Lord of Rosslyn's daughter gaed through the wud her lane,
And there she met Captain Wedderburn, a servant to the king.
He said unto his livery-man, Were 't na agen the law,
I wad tak her to my ain bed, and lay her at the wa.