There survive in ballads a few conventional phrases, some of which
appear to have been preserved by tradition beyond an understanding of
their import. I give here short notes on a few of the more interesting
phrases and words which appear in the present volume, the explanations
being too cumbrous for footnotes.
+Bow.+
'bent his bow and swam,' _Lady Maisry_, 21.2; _Johney Scot_, 10.2; _Lord
Ingram and Chiel Wyet_, 12.2; etc.
'set his bent bow to his breast,' _Lady Maisry_, 22.3; _Lord Ingram and
Chiel Wyet_, 13.3; _Fause Footrage_, 33.1; etc.
Child attempts no explanation of this striking phrase, which,
I believe, all editors have either openly or silently neglected.
Perhaps 'bent' may mean _un_-bent, _i.e._ with the string of the bow
slacked. If so, for what reason was it done before swimming? We can
understand that it would be of advantage to keep the string dry, but
how is it better protected when unstrung? Or, again, was it carried
unstrung, and literally 'bent' before swimming? Or was the bow solid
enough to be of support in the water?
Some one of these explanations may satisfy the first phrase (as
regards swimming); but why does the messenger 'set his bent bow to
his breast' before leaping the castle wall? It seems to me that the
two expressions must stand or fall together; therefore the entire
lack of suggestions to explain the latter phrase drives me to
distrust of any of the explanations given for the former.
A suggestion recently made to me appears to dispose of all
difficulties; and, once made, is convincing in its very obviousness.
It is, that 'bow' means 'elbow,' or simply 'arm.' The first phrase
then exhibits the commonest form of ballad-conventionalities,
picturesque redundancy: the parallel phrase is 'he slacked his shoon
and ran.' In the second phrase it is, indeed, necessary to suppose
the wall to be breast-high; the messenger places one elbow on the
wall, pulls himself up, and vaults across.
Lexicographers distinguish between the Old English _b[-o]g_ or
_b[-o]h_ (O.H.G. buog = arm; Sanskrit, bahu-s = arm), which means arm,
arch, bough, or bow of a ship; and the Old English _boga_ (O.H.G.
bogo), which means the archer's bow. The distinction is continued in
Middle English, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Instances
of the use of the word as equivalent to 'arm' may be found in Old
English in _King Alfred's Translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care_
(E.E.T.S., 1871, ed. H. Sweet) written in West Saxon dialect of the
ninth century.
It is true that the word does not survive elsewhere in this meaning,
but I give the suggestion for what it is worth.
+Briar.+
'briar and rose,' _Douglas Tragedy_, 18, 19, 20; _Fair Margaret and
Sweet William_, 18, 19, 20; _Lord Lovel_, 9, 10; etc.
'briar and birk,' _Lord Thomas and Fair Annet_, 29, 30; _Fair Janet_,
30; etc.
'roses,' _Lady Alice_, 5, 6. (See introductory note to _Lord Lovel_,
p. 67.)
The ballads which exhibit this pleasant conception that, after
death, the spirits of unfortunate lovers pass into plants, trees, or
flowers springing from their graves, are not confined to European
folklore. Besides appearing in English, Gaelic, Swedish, Norwegian,
Danish, German, French, Roumanian, Romaic, Portuguese, Servian,
Wendish, Breton, Italian, Albanian, Russian, etc., we find it
occurring in Afghanistan and Persia. As a rule, the branches of the
trees intertwine; but in some cases they only bend towards each
other, and kiss when the wind blows.
In an Armenian tale a curious addition is made. A young man,
separated by her father from his sweetheart because he was of a
different religion, perished with her, and the two were buried by
their friends in one grave. Roses grew from the grave, and sought to
intertwine, but a _thorn-bush_ sprang up between them and prevented
it. The thorn here is symbolical of religious belief.
+Pin.+
'thrilled upon a pin,' _Glasgerion_, 10.2.
'knocked at the ring,' _Fair Margaret and Sweet William_, 11.2.
(_Cp._ 'lifted up the pin,' _Fair Janet_, 14.2.)
Throughout the Scottish ballads the expression is 'tirl'd at the pin,'
_i.e._ rattled or twisted the pin.
The pin appears to have been the external part of the door-latch,
attached by day thereto by means of a leathern thong, which at night
was disconnected with the latch to prevent any unbidden guest from
entering. Thus any one 'tirling at the pin' does not attempt to open
the door, but signifies his presence to those within.
The ring was merely part of an ordinary knocker, and had nothing to
do with the latching of the door.
+Sword.+
'bright brown sword,' _Glasgerion_, 22.1; _Old Robin of Portingale_,
22.1; _Child Maurice_, 26.1, 27.1; 'good browne sword,' _Marriage of Sir
Gawaine_, 24.3; etc.
'dried it on his sleeve,' _Glasgerion_, 22.2; _Child Maurice_, 27.2 ('on
the grasse,' 26.2); 'straiked it o'er a strae,' _Bonny Birdy_, 15.2;
'struck it across the plain,' _Johney Scot_, 32.2; etc.
In Anglo-Saxon, the epithet 'brun' as applied to a sword has been
held to signify either that the sword was of bronze, or that the
sword gleamed. It has further been suggested that sword-blades may
have been artificially bronzed, like modern gun-barrels.
'Striped it thro' the straw' and many similar expressions all refer
to the whetting of a sword, generally just before using it. Straw
(unless 'strae' and 'straw' mean something else) would appear to be
very poor stuff on which to sharpen swords, but Glasgerion's sleeve
would be even less effective; perhaps, however, 'dried' should be
'tried.' Johney Scot sharpened his sword on the ground.
+Miscellaneous.+
'gare' = gore, part of a woman's dress; _Brown Robin_, 10.4; cp.
_Glasgerion_, 19.4.
Generally of a knife, apparently on a chatelaine. But in _Lamkin_
12.2, of a man's dress.
'Linne,' 'Lin,' _Young Bekie_, 5.4; _Old Robin of Portingale_, 2.1.
A stock ballad-locality, castle or town. Perhaps to be identified
with the city of Lincoln, perhaps with Lynn, or King's Lynn, in
Norfolk, where pilgrims of the fourteenth century visited the Rood
Chapel of Our Lady of Lynn, on their way to Walsingham; with equal
probability it is not to be identified at all with any known town.
'shot-window,' _Gay Goshawk_, 8.3; _Brown Robin_, 3.3; _Lamkin_, 7.3;
etc.
This commonplace phrase seems to vary in meaning. It may be 'a
shutter of timber with a few inches of glass above it' (Wodrow's
_History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland_, Edinburgh,
1721-2, 2 vols., in vol. ii. p. 286); it may be simply 'a window to
open and shut,' as Ritson explains it; or again, as is implied in
Jamieson's _Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, an
out-shot window, or bow-window. The last certainly seems to be
intended in certain instances.
'thought lang' _Young Bekie_, 16.4; _Brown Adam_, 5.2; _Johney Scot_,
6.2; _Fause Footrage_, 25.2; etc.
This simply means 'thought it long,' or 'thought it slow,' as we
should say in modern slang; in short, 'was bored,' or 'weary.'
'wild-wood swine,' a simile for drunkenness, _Brown Robin_, 7.4; _Fause
Footrage_, 16.4.
_Cp._ Shakespeare, _All's Well that Ends Well_, Act IV. 3, 286:
'Drunkenness is his best virtue; for he will be swine-drunk.' It
seems to be nothing more than a popular comparison.