'Ouvre ta port', Germin', c'est moi qu'est ton mari.'
'Donnez-moi des indic's de la premiere nuit,
Et par la je croirai que vous et's mon mari.'
--_Germaine._
+The Text+ is Fraser Tytler's, taken down from the recitation of Mrs.
Brown in 1800, who had previously (1783) recited a similar version to
Jamieson. The later recitation, which was used by Scott, with others,
seems to contain certain improvisations of Mrs. Brown's which do not
appear in the earlier form.
+The Story.+--A mother, who feigns to be her own son and demands tokens
of the girl outside the gate, turns her son's love away, and is cursed
by him. Similar ballads exist in France, Germany, and Greece.
There is an early eighteenth-century MS. (Elizabeth Cochrane's
_Song-Book_) of this ballad, which gives a preliminary history. Isabel
of Rochroyal dreams of her love Gregory; she rises up, calls for a swift
steed, and rides forth till she meets a company. They ask her who she
is, and are told that she is 'Fair Isabel of Rochroyal,' seeking her
true-love Gregory. They direct her to 'yon castle'; and thenceforth the
tale proceeds much as in the other versions.
'Lochryan,' says Scott, 'lies in Galloway; Roch--or Rough--royal, I have
not found, but there is a Rough castle in Stirlingshire' (Child).