This ballad is published from tradition, with some conjectural
emendations. It is corrected by a copy in Mrs Brown's MS., from which
it differs in the concluding stanzas. Some verses are apparently
modernized.
_Jellon_ seems to be the same name with _Jyllian_ or _Julian_. "Jyl of
Brentford's Testament" is mentioned in Warton's _History of Poetry,-
Vol. II. p. 40. The name repeatedly occurs in old ballads, sometimes as
that of a man, at other times as that of a woman. Of the former is
an instance in the ballad of _"Knight and the Shepherd's
Daughter,"--Reliques of Ancient Poetry,_ Vol. III. p. 72.
Some do call me Jack, sweetheart.
And some do call me _Jille_.
Witton Gilbert, a village four miles west of Durham, is, throughout the
bishopric, pronounced Witton Jilbert. We have also the common name of
Giles, always in Scotland pronounced Jill. For Gille, or Julianna, as
a female name, we have _Fair Gillian_ of Croyden, and a thousand
authorities. Such being the case, the editor must enter his protest
against the conversion of Gil Morrice, into child Maurice, an epithet
of chivalry. All the circumstances in that ballad argue, that the
unfortunate hero was an obscure and very young man, who had never
received the honour of knighthood. At any rate, there can be no reason,
even were internal evidence totally wanting, for altering a well known
proper name, which, till of late years, has been the uniform title of
the ballad.