14^2. Ye mind me but of sorrow.
14^{3,4}.
A fairer rose did never bloom
Than now lies croppd on Yarrow.
(_Cf._ #M# 11^{3,4}.)
_Scott gives in a note_, III, 79, 1803, “the last stanza, as
(_since?_) it occurs in most copies.” (_Cf._ #F#, #G#, #H#.)
That lady, being big with child,
And full of consternation,
She swooned in her father’s arms,
Amidst that stubborn nation.
#F.#
2^3. browns, _and so again_ #G# 1^3. _A derivation from_ bruny,
_mail-coat, is scarcely to be thought of_. _Apparently a
corruption of_ brand, (_cf._ #E# 4^3); _but_ brand _occurs in_
#F# 4^3, #G# 3^3.
#G.#
1^2. before him. 1^3. and his noble brouns.
10^3. shalt.
#H.#
3, 4. The stubborn lord _in 3^3 is the wife’s father, and the
race, or family, is_ stubborn _according to 10_. _Stubborn folk
think opposers stubborn, no doubt; still the epithet is unlikely
in 4^3._ Lad _I suppose to refer to the man who in the other
versions stabs from behind_.
5^3. dern _for_ den. _The_ nine men _must be dead, as in_ #E# 11,
#F# 9, #G# 6. _The_ well armd _belongs to an earlier (lost)
stanza, corresponding to_ #E# 5, #F# 3, #G# 2.
#I.# _Variations in Buchan’s printed copy_:
1^1. Ten lords. The lords _in my copy of the MS., but, as Dixon
has also_ Ten, _I presume_ The _to be an error. Otherwise I
should have read_ Th[re]e, _as in_ #B#, #C#, #D#.
4^2. As aft he’d.
7^4. thrust him thro body and mell, O.
8^3. mother to. 14^4. ower his.
#J.#
_The first copy seems to be the earlier, and that which was
transcribed into the MS. to have been slightly edited, but the
variations are few, mostly spellings. The first copy has no
title. The title of the second is altered from_ The Braes of
Yarrow _to_ The Dowie Glens of Yarrow. _At the end of the second
is this note_: This song I took down from Marion Miller in
Threepwood, in the Parish of Melrose. The air was plaintive and
extremely wild. I consider this song more valuable on account
that Mern had never sung it to any but myself for fifteen years,
and she had almost said, or rather promised, that she would
never sing it to another.
Thoro, 1^1, _etc._, _is spelt_ Thorough, Thorrough, _in the first
copy_, Thorough, Thorrough, Thorro, Thoro, _in the second_; _but
in the latter_ ugh _is struck out wherever it occurs_.
4^3. thrusty, _in both_; _i.e._, trusty.
11^3. the (birks) heather green, _in both_.
_First._ 5^2, 17^1, 18^1. oh, Oh.
_Second._ 5^2. What she had neer done before, O.
6^2, 19^2. was filled wi.
9^1. Five he. 9^2. nae. 9^3. steed.
12^2. to your.
18^2. wi _for_ in.
#K.#
3^3. far far _should probably be_ forth, _as in_ #J#; _possibly_
forth for.
#L.#
12^{3,4}, 13^{1,2}. _Compare Logan’s_ Braes of Yarrow.
They sought him east, they sought him west,
They sought him all the forest thorough;
They only saw the cloud of night
They only heard the roar of Yarrow.
#O.#
“A fragment, to the tune of Leaderhaughs and Yarrow.”
215