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[Transcriber's Note:
The printed text used small capitals for emphasis. These have been
replaced with +marks+ where appopriate. Missing lines were shown
by rows of widely spaced dots (single lines) or asterisks (longer
sections). They are shown here in groups of three:
... ... ...
or
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Variant forms such as "Maisry" : "Maisery" or "+Text(s)+" :
"+The Text+" are unchanged. Brackets are in the original, except
when enclosing footnotes or illustration markers. Errors are listed
at the end of the text.]
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[Illustration: Facsimile of the Percy Folio MS. (_British Museum_,
Addit. MS. 27, 879, f. 46 _verso_). +Glasgerion+, first three verses
(see p. 2), annotated by Percy. The full page is 15 1/4 x 6 inches.]
POPULAR BALLADS
OF THE OLDEN TIME
SELECTED AND EDITED
BY FRANK SIDGWICK
First Series. Ballads of
Romance and Chivalry
'What hast here? Ballads?
'Pray now, buy some.'
A. H. BULLEN
47 Great Russell Street
London. MCMIII
'La rime n'est pas riche, et le style en est vieux:
Mais ne voyez-vous pas que cela vaut bien mieux
Que ces colifichets dont le bon sens murmure,
Et que la passion parle la toute pure?'
Moliere, _Le Misanthrope_, I. 2.
CONTENTS
Page
Preface ix
Introduction xvii
Ballads in the First Series xliii
Glossary of Ballad Commonplaces xlvi
List of Books for Ballad Study lii
Note on the Illustrations lv
Glasgerion 1
Young Bekie 6
Old Robin of Portingale 13
Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard 19
The Bonny Birdy 25
Fair Annie 29
The Cruel Mother 35
Child Waters 37
Earl Brand 44
The Douglas Tragedy 49
The Child of Ell 52
Lord Thomas and Fair Annet 54
The Brown Girl 60
Fair Margaret and Sweet William 63
Lord Lovel 67
Lady Maisry 70
The Cruel Brother 76
The Nutbrown Maid 80
Fair Janet 94
Brown Adam 100
Willie o' Winsbury 104
The Marriage of Sir Gawaine 107
The Boy and the Mantle 119
Johney Scot 128
Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet 135
The Twa Sisters o' Binnorie 141
Young Waters 146
Barbara Allan 150
The Gay Goshawk 153
Brown Robin 158
Lady Alice 163
Child Maurice 165
Fause Footrage 172
Fair Annie of Rough Royal 179
Hind Horn 185
Edward 189
Lord Randal 193
Lamkin 196
Fair Mary of Wallington 201
Index of Titles 209
Index of First Lines 211
PREFACE
Of making selections of ballads there is no end. As a subject for the
editor, they seem to be only less popular than Shakespeare, and every
year sees a fresh output. But of late there has sprung up a custom of
confusing the old with the new, the genuine with the imitation; and the
products of civilised days, 'ballads' by courtesy or convention, are set
beside the rugged and hard-featured aborigines of the tribe, just as the
delicate bust of Clytie in the British Museum has for next neighbour the
rude and bold 'Unknown Barbarian Captive.' To contrast by such enforced
juxtaposition a ballad of the golden world with a ballad by Mr. Kipling
is unfair to either, each being excellent in its way; and the
collocation of _Edward_ or _Lord Randal_ with a ballad of Rossetti's is
only of interest or value as exhibiting the perennial charm of the
_refrain_.
There exist, however, in our tongue--though not only in our
tongue--narratives in rhyme which have been handed down in oral
tradition from father to son for so many ages, that all record of their
authorship has long been lost. These are commonly called the Old
Ballads. Being traditional, each ballad may exist in more than one form;
in most cases the original story is clothed in several different forms.
The present series is designed to include all the best of these ballads
which are still extant in England and Scotland: Ireland and Wales
possess a similar class of popular literature, but each in its own
tongue. It is therefore necessary, in issuing this the first volume of
the series, to say somewhat as to the methods employed in editing and
selecting.
Ballad editors of yore were confronted with perhaps two, perhaps twenty,
versions of each ballad; some unintelligibly fragmentary, some
intelligibly complete; some in print, some in manuscript, some,
perchance, in their own memories. Collating these, they subjected the
text to minute revision, omitting and adding, altering and inserting, to
suit their personal tastes and standards, literary or polite; and having
thus made it over, forgot to record the act, and saw no reason to
apologise therefor.
Pioneers like Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore, and Sir Walter Scott, may
well be excused the general censure. The former, living in and pandering
to an age which invented and applied those delightful literary
adjectives 'elegant' and 'ingenious,' may be pardoned with the more
sincerity if one recalls the influence exercised on English letters by
his publication. The latter, who played the part of Percy in the matter
of Scottish ballads, and was nourished from his boyhood on the
_Reliques_, printed for the first time many ballads which still are the
best of their class, and was gifted with consummate skill and taste.
Both, moreover, did their work scientifically, according to their
lights; and both have left at least some of their originals behind them.
There is, perhaps, one more exception to the general condemnation. Of
William Allingham's _Ballad Book_, as truly a _vade mecum_ as Palgrave's
lyrical anthology in the same 'Golden Treasury' series, I would speak,
perhaps only for sentimental reasons, always with respect, admiring the
results of his editing while looking askance at the method, for he mixed
his ingredients and left no recipe.
But in the majority of cases there is no obvious excuse for this 'omnium
gatherum' process. The self-imposed function of most ballad editors
appears to have been the compilation of _rifacimenti_ in accordance with
their private ideas of what a ballad should be. And that such a state of
things was permissible is doubtless an indication of the then prevalent
attitude of half-interested tolerance assumed towards these memorials of
antiquity.
To-day, however, the ballad editor is confronted with the results of the
labours, still unfinished, of a comparatively recent school in literary
science. These have lately culminated in _The English and Scottish
Popular Ballads_, edited by the late Professor Francis James Child of
Harvard University. This work, in five large volumes, issued in ten
parts at intervals from 1882 to 1898, and left by the editor at his
death complete but for the Introduction--_valde deflendus_--gives in
full all known variants of the three hundred and five ballads adjudged
by its editor to be genuinely 'popular,' with an essay, prefixed to each
ballad, on its history, origin, folklore, etc., and notes, glossary,
bibliographies, appendices, etc.; exhibiting as a whole unrivalled
special knowledge, great scholarly intuition, and years of patient
research, aided by correspondents, students, and transcribers in all
parts of the world, Lacking Professor Child's Introduction, we cannot
exactly tell what his definition of a 'popular' ballad was, or what
qualities in a ballad implied exclusion from his collection--_e.g._ he
does not admit _The Children in the Wood_: otherwise one can find in
this monumental work the whole history and all the versions of nearly
all the ballads.
It will be obvious that Professor Child's academic method is suited
rather to the scholar than the general reader. As a rule, one text of
each ballad is all that is required, which must therefore be chosen--but
by what rules? To the scholar, it usually happens that the most ancient
and least handled text is the most interesting; but these are too
frequently incomplete and unintelligible. The literary dilettante may
prefer tasteful decorations by a Percy or a Scott; doubtless Buchan has
some admirers: but the student abhors this painting of the lily.
Therefore I have compromised--always a dangerous practice--and I have
sought to give, to the best of my judgement, _that authorised text of
each ballad which tells in the best manner the completest form of the
story or plot_. I have been forced to make certain exceptions, but for
all departures from the above rule I have given reasons which, I trust,
will be found to justify the procedure; and in all cases the sources of
each text or part of the text are indicated.
I am quite aware that it may fairly be asked: Why not assume the
immemorial privilege of a ballad editor, and concoct a text for
yourself? Why, when any text of a ballad is, as you admit, merely a
representative of parallel and similar traditional versions, should you
not compile from those other variants a text which should combine the
excellences of each, and give us the cream?
There are several objections to this course. However incompetent,
I should not shrink from the labour involved; nor do I entirely approve
the growing demand for German minuteness and exactitude in editors. But,
firstly, the ballad should be subject to variation only while it is in
oral circulation. Secondly, editorial garnishing has been overdone
already, and my unwillingness to adopt that method is caused as much by
the failure of the majority of editors as by the success of the few.
Lastly, _chacun a son gout_; there is a kind of literary selfishness in
emending and patching to suit one's private taste, and, if any one
wishes to do so, he will be most pleased with the result if he does it
for himself.
This lengthy _apologia_ is necessitated by a departure from the usual
custom of ballad-editing. For the rest, my indebtedness to the work of
Professor Child will be obvious throughout. Many of his most interesting
texts were printed for the first time from manuscripts in private hands.
These I have not sought to collate, which would, indeed, insult his
accuracy and care. But in the case of texts from the Percy Folio, where
the labour is rather to decipher than to transcribe accurately, I have
resorted not only to the reprint of Hales and Furnivall, but to the
Folio itself. The whimsical spelling of this MS. pleases me as often as
it irritates, and I have ventured in certain ballads, _e.g._
_Glasgerion_, to modernise it, and in others, _e.g._ _Old Robin of
Portingale_, to retain it _literatim_: in either case I have reduced to
uniformity the orthography of the proper names. Transcripts from other
MSS. are reproduced as they stand.
In the general Introduction I have tried to sketch the genesis and
history of the ballad impartially in its several aspects, not for
scholars and connoisseurs, but for those ready to learn. To supply
deficiencies, I have added a list of books useful to the student of
English ballads--to go no further afield. Each ballad also is prefaced
with an introduction setting forth, besides the source of the text, as
succinctly as is consistent with accuracy, the derivation, when known,
of the story; the plot of similar foreign ballads; and points of
interest in folklore, history, or criticism attached to the particular
ballad. Where the story is fragmentary, I have added an argument. It
will be realised that such introductions at the best are but a
thousandth part of what might be written; but if they shall play the
part of _hors d'oeuvres_, and whet the appetite to proceed to more solid
food, the labour will not be lost.
Difficulties in the text are explained in footnotes. Few things are more
vexatious to a reader than constant reference to a glossary; but as
compensation for the educational value thus lost, the footnotes are, to
a certain extent, progressive; that is to say, a word already explained
in a foregoing ballad is not always explained again; and to the best of
my ability I have freed the notes from the grotesque blunders observable
in most modern editions of ballads.
Besides my indebtedness to the books mentioned in the bibliographical
list, I have to acknowledge my thanks to the Rev. Sabine Baring Gould,
for permission to use his version of _The Brown Girl_; to Mr. E. K.
Chambers, for kindly reading the general Introduction; and to my friend
and partner Mr. A. H. Bullen, for constant suggestions and assistance.