2. The one of them said to his mate, 'Where shall we our breakefast take?'

3. 'Downe in yonder greene field, There lies a knight slain vnder his shield.

4. 'His hounds they lie downe at his feete, So well they can their master keepe,

5. 'His haukes they flie so eagerly, There's no fowle dare him come nie.'

6. Downe there comes a fallow doe, As great with yong as she might goe.

7. She lift vp his bloudy hed, And kist his wounds that were so red.

8. She got him vp vpon her backe, And carried him to earthen lake.

9. She buried him before the prime, She was dead her selfe ere euen-song time.

10. God send euery gentleman Such haukes, such hounds, and such a leman.

[Annotations: 9.1: 'prime,' the first hour of the day.]



THE TWA CORBIES

1. As I was walking all alane, I heard twa corbies making a mane, The tane unto the t'other say, 'Where sall we gang and dine to-day?'

2. 'In behint yon auld fail dyke, I wot there lies a new slain knight; And nae body kens that he lies there, But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.

3. 'His hound is to the hunting gane, His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame, His lady's ta'en another mate, So we may mak' our dinner sweet.

4. 'Ye'll sit on his white hause bane, And I'll pike out his bonny blue een: Wi' ae lock o' his gowden hair, We'll theek our nest when it grows bare.

5. 'Mony a one for him makes mane, But nane sall ken whare he is gane: O'er his white banes, when they are bare, The wind sall blaw for evermair.'

[Annotations: 2.1: 'fail dyke,' turf wall. 4.1: 'hause-bane,' neck-bone. 4.4: 'theek,' thatch.]



YOUNG BENJIE

The Text is given from Scott's Minstrelsy (1803). He remarks, 'The ballad is given from tradition.' No. 29 in the Abbotsford MS., 'Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,' is Young Benjie (or Boonjie as there written) in thirteen stanzas, headed 'From Jean Scott,' and written in William Laidlaw's hand. All of this except the first stanza is transferred, with or without changes, to Scott's ballad, which is nearly twice as long.

The Story of this ballad, simple in itself, introduces to us the elaborate question of the 'lyke-wake,' or the practice of watching through the night by the side of a corpse. More about this will be found under The Lyke-Wake Dirge, and in the Appendix at the end of this volume. Here it will suffice to quote Sir Walter Scott's introduction:—

'In this ballad the reader will find traces of a singular superstition, not yet altogether discredited in the wilder parts of Scotland. The lykewake, or watching a dead body, in itself a melancholy office, is rendered, in the idea of the assistants, more dismally awful, by the mysterious horrors of superstition. In the interval betwixt death and interment, the disembodied spirit is supposed to hover around its mortal habitation, and, if provoked by certain rites, retains the power of communicating, through its organs, the cause of its dissolution. Such enquiries, however, are always dangerous, and never to be resorted to unless the deceased is suspected to have suffered foul play, as it is called.... One of the most potent ceremonies in the charm, for causing the dead body to speak, is setting the door ajar, or half open. On this account, the peasants of Scotland sedulously avoid leaving the door ajar while a corpse lies in the house. The door must either be left wide open or quite shut; but the first is always preferred, on account of the exercise of hospitality usual on such occasions. The attendants must be likewise careful never to leave the corpse for a moment alone, or, if it is left alone, to avoid, with a degree of superstitious horror, the first sight of it.' —(Ed. 1803, vol. iii. pp. 251-2.)

YOUNG BENJIE

1. Of a' the maids o' fair Scotland, The fairest was Marjorie; And young Benjie was her ae true love, And a dear true-love was he.

2. And wow! but they were lovers dear, And loved fu' constantlie; But ay the mair when they fell out, The sairer was their plea.

3. And they hae quarrelled on a day, Till Marjorie's heart grew wae, And she said she'd chuse another luve. And let young Benjie gae.

4. And he was stout, and proud hearted, And thought o't bitterlie, And he's gaen by the wan moon-light, To meet his Marjorie.

5. 'O open, open, my true love! O open, and let me in!' 'I dare na open, young Benjie, My three brothers are within.

6. 'Ye lied, ye lied, my bonny burd, Sae loud's I hear ye lie; As I came by the Lowden banks, They bade gude e'en to me.

7. 'But fare ye weel, my ae fause love, That I hae loved sae lang! It sets ye chuse another love, And let young Benjie gang.'

8. Then Marjorie turned her round about, The tear blinding her ee, 'I darena, darena let thee in, But I'll come down to thee.'

9. Then saft she smiled, and said to him, 'O what ill hae I done?' He took her in his armis twa, And threw her o'er the linn.

10. The stream was strang, the maid was stout, And laith laith to be dang, But, ere she wan the Lowden banks, Her fair colour was wan.

11. Then up bespak her eldest brother, 'O see na ye what I see?' And out then spak her second brother, 'It's our sister Marjorie!'

12. Out then spak her eldest brother, 'O how shall we her ken?' And out then spak her youngest brother, 'There's a honey mark on her chin.'

13. Then they've ta'en up the comely corpse, And laid it on the grund: 'O wha has killed our ae sister, And how can he be found?

14. 'The night it is her low lykewake, The morn her burial day, And we maun watch at mirk midnight, And hear what she will say.'

15. Wi' doors ajar, and candle-light, And torches burning clear, The streikit corpse, till still midnight, They waked, but naething hear.

16. About the middle o' the night, The cocks began to craw, And at the dead hour o' the night, The corpse began to thraw.

17. 'O wha has done the wrang, sister, Or dared the deadly sin? Wha was sae stout, and feared nae dout, As thraw ye o'er the linn?'

18. 'Young Benjie was the first ae man, I laid my love upon; He was sae stout and proud-hearted, He threw me o'er the linn.'

19. 'Sall we young Benjie head, sister, Sall we young Benjie hang, Or sall we pike out his twa gray een, And punish him ere he gang?'

20. 'Ye mauna Benjie head, brothers, Ye mauna Benjie hang, But ye maun pike out his twa gray een, And punish him ere he gang.

21. 'Tie a green gravat round his neck, And lead him out and in, And the best ae servant about your house, To wait young Benjie on.

22. 'And ay, at every seven years' end, Ye'll tak him to the linn; For that's the penance he maun drie, To scug his deadly sin.'

[Annotations: 2.4: 'plea,' quarrel. 7.3: 'sets,' befits. 9.4: 'linn,' stream. 10.3: 'dang,' overcome. 15.3: 'streikit,' stretched out. 15.4: 'wake,' watch. 16.4: 'thraw,' twist. 22.4: 'scug,' expiate.]



THE LYKE-WAKE DIRGE

The Text is given verbatim et literatim from John Aubrey's MS. of his Remains of Gentilisme & Judaisme (1686-7) in the Lansdowne MSS., No. 231, folio 114 recto and verso. This text has often been printed before (see Appendix), but always with errors. The only change made here is the placing of Aubrey's marginal notes among the footnotes: the spelling is Aubrey's spelling. The present version was obtained by Aubrey in 1686 from an informant whose father had heard it sung sixty years previously.

Sir Walter Scott's text, better known than Aubrey's, presents very few variations, the chief being 'sleete' for 'fleet' in 1.3 (see below). This would seem to point to the fact that Scott obtained his version from a manuscript, and confused the antique '[s]' (= s) with 'f.' A collation, incomplete and inexact, of the two texts is given by T. F. Henderson in his edition of the Minstrelsy (1902), vol. iii. pp. 170-2.

The Story.—This dirge, of course, is not a ballad in the true sense of the word. But it is concerned with myths so widespread and ancient, that as much could be written about the dirge as almost any one of the ballads proper. I have added an Appendix at the end of this volume, to which those interested in the subject may refer. For the present, the following account may suffice.

Ritson found an illustration of this dirge in a manuscript letter, written by one signing himself 'H. Tr.' to Sir Thomas Chaloner, in the Cotton MSS. (Julius, F. vi., fols. 453-462). The date approximately is the end of the sixteenth century (Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder, 1521-1565; the younger, 1561-1615). The letter is concerned with antiquities in Durham and Yorkshire, especially near Guisborough, an estate of the Chaloner family. The sentence referring to the Lyke-Wake Dirge was printed by Scott, to whom it was communicated by Ritson's executor after his death. It is here given as re-transcribed from the manuscript (f. 461 verso).

'When any dieth, certaine women singe a songe to the dead body, recytinge the iorney that the partie deceased must goe, and they are of beleife (such is their fondnesse) that once in their liues yt is good to giue a payre of newe shoes to a poore man; forasmuch as after this life they are to pass barefoote through a greate launde full of thornes & furzen, excepte by the meryte of the Almes aforesaid they have redeemed their forfeyte; for at the edge of the launde an aulde man shall meete them with the same shoes that were giuen by the partie when he was liuinge, and after he hath shodde them he dismisseth them to goe through thicke and thin without scratch or scalle.'

The myth of Hell-shoon (Norse, helsko) appears under various guises in many folklores. (See Appendix.)

Sir Walter Scott, in printing 'sleete' in 1.3, said: 'The word sleet, in the chorus,[1] seems to be corrupted from selt, or salt; a quantity of which, in compliance with a popular superstition, is frequently placed on the breast of a corpse.' It is true that a superstition to this effect does exist: but 'fleet' is doubtless the right reading. Aubrey glosses it as 'water'; but Murray has shown (New English Dictionary, s.v.), by three quotations from wills dated between 1533 and 1570, that 'fire and flet' is an expression meaning simply 'fire and house-room.' 'Flet,' in short, is our modern 'flat' in an unspecialised and uncorrupted form.

[Footnote 1: Scott repeats the first stanza at the end of his version.]

THE LYKE-WAKE DIRGE

(Lansdowne MS., 231, fol. 114 recto.)

1. This ean night, this ean night, eve[r]y night and awle: Fire and Fleet and Candle-light and Christ recieve thy Sawle.

2. When thou from hence doest pass away every night and awle To Whinny-moor thou comest at last and Christ recieve thy [thy silly poor] Sawle.

3. If ever thou gave either hosen or shun every night and awle Sitt thee downe and putt them on and Christ recieve thy Sawle.

4. But if hosen nor shoon thou never gave nean every night &c: The Whinnes shall prick thee to the bare beane and Christ recieve thy Sawle.

5. From Whinny-moor that thou mayst pass every night &c: To Brig o' Dread thou comest at last and Christ &c: [fol. 114 verso] no brader than a thread.

6. From Brig of Dread that thou mayst pass every night &c: To Purgatory fire thou com'st at last and Christ &c:

7. If ever thou gave either Milke or drinke every night &c: The fire shall never make thee shrink and Christ &c:

8. But if milk nor drink thou never gave nean every night &c: The Fire shall burn thee to the bare bane and Christ recive thy Sawle.

[Annotations: 1.1: 'ean,' one. 1.3: 'Fleet,' water. —Aubrey's marginal note. See above. 2.3: Whin is a Furze. —Aubrey. 2.4: This line stands in the MS. as here printed. 3.1: Job cap. xxxi. 19. If I have seen any perish for want of cloathing, or any poor without covering: 20. If his loyns have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep, &c. —Aubrey. 3.3: There will be hosen and shoon for them. —Aubrey. 4.3: 'beane.' The 'a' was inserted by Aubrey after writing 'bene.' 6.1: 'no brader than a thread.' Written by Aubrey as here printed over the second half of the line. Probably it indicates a lost stanza. See Appendix. 8.3: 'bane' might be read 'bene.']



THE BONNY EARL OF MURRAY

The Text is given from Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, where it first appeared in the tenth edition (1740) in vol. iv. pp. 356-7. Child had not seen this, and gave his text from the eleventh edition of 1750. There is, however, scarcely any difference.

The Story of the murder of the Earl of Murray by the Earl of Huntly in February 1592 is found in several histories and other accounts:— The History of the Church of Scotland (1655) by John Spottiswoode, Archbishop of Glasgow and of St. Andrews: History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland (1836) by Donald Gregory: The History and Life of King James (the Sixth), ed. T. Thomson, Bannatyne Club, (1825): Extracts from the Diarey of R[obert] B[irrel], Burges of Edinburgh (? 1820): and Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather. The following condensed account may suffice:—James Stewart, son of Sir James Stewart of Doune ('Down,' 6.2), Earl of Murray by his marriage with the heiress of the Regent Murray, 'was a comely personage, of a great stature, and strong of body like a kemp,' whence he was generally known as the Bonny Earl of Murray. In the last months of 1591, a rumour reached the King's ears that the Earl of Murray had assisted in, or at least countenanced, the attack recently made on Holyrood House by Stewart, Earl of Bothwell; and Huntly was commissioned to arrest Murray and bring him to trial. Murray, apprehended at Donibristle (or Dunnibirsel), his mother the Lady Doune's house, refused to surrender to his feudal enemy the Earl of Huntly, and the house was fired. Murray, after remaining behind the rest of his party, rushed out and broke through the enemy, but was subsequently discovered (by the plumes on his headpiece, which had caught fire) and mortally wounded. Tradition says that Huntly was compelled by his followers to incriminate himself in the deed, and struck the dying Murray in the face, whereat the bonny Earl said, 'You have spoiled a better face than your own.'

THE BONNY EARL OF MURRAY

1. Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands, Oh! where have you been? They have slain the Earl of Murray, And they lay'd him on the green! They have, &c.

2. Now wae be to thee, Huntly, And wherefore did you sae? I bade you bring him wi' you, But forbade you him to slay. I bade, &c.

3. He was a braw gallant, And he rid at the ring; And the bonny Earl of Murray, Oh! he might have been a King. And the, &c.

4. He was a braw gallant, And he play'd at the ba'; And the bonny Earl of Murray Was the flower amang them a'. And the, &c.

5. He was a braw gallant, And he play'd at the glove; And the bonny Earl of Murray, Oh! he was the Queen's love. And the, &c.

6. Oh! lang will his lady Look o'er the castle Down, E'er she see the Earl of Murray Come sounding thro' the town. E'er she, &c.

[Annotations: 3.2: A game of skill and horsemanship. 5.2: Probably like the last. 6.3: 'E'er' = ere.]



BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL

The Text is from Motherwell's Minstrelsy, pp. 44-5.

The Story.—Motherwell says it 'is probably a lament for one of the adherents of the house of Argyle, who fell in the battle of Glenlivat, stricken on Thursday, the third day of October, 1594 years.' Another suggestion is that it refers to a Campbell of Calder killed in a feud with Campbell of Ardkinglas, the murder being the result of the same conspiracy which brought the Bonny Earl of Murray to his death. Another version of the ballad, however, gives the name as James, and it is useless and unnecessary to particularise.

BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL

1. Hie upon Hielands And low upon Tay, Bonnie George Campbell Rade out on a day. Saddled and bridled And gallant rade he; Hame came his gude horse, But never cam he!

2. Out cam his auld mither Greeting fu' sair, And out cam his bonnie bride Rivin' her hair. Saddled and bridled And booted rade he; Toom hame cam the saddle, But never cam he!

3. 'My meadow lies green, And my corn is unshorn; My barn is to big, And my babie's unborn.' Saddled and bridled And booted rade he; Toom hame cam the saddle, But never cam he!

[Annotations: 2.4: 'rivin',' tearing. 2.7: 'Toom,' empty. 3.3: 'is to big,' remains to be built.]



THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW

The Text is given from Scott's Minstrelsy (1803), vol. iii. pp. 83-4. His introduction states that it was obtained from recitation in the Forest of Ettrick, and that it relates to the execution of a Border freebooter, named Cokburne, by James V., in 1529.

The Story referred to above may have once existed in the ballad, but the lyrical dirge as it now stands is obviously corrupted with a broadside-ballad, The Lady turned Serving-man, given with 'improvements' by Percy (Reliques, 1765, vol. iii. p. 87, etc.). Compare the first three stanzas of the Lament with stanzas 3, 4, and 5 of the broadside:—

3. And then my love built me a bower, Bedeckt with many a fragrant flower; A braver bower you never did see Than my true-love did build for me.

4. But there came thieves late in the night, They rob'd my bower, and slew my knight, And after that my knight was slain, I could no longer there remain.

5. My servants all from me did flye, In the midst of my extremity, And left me by my self alone, With a heart more cold then any stone.

It is of course impossible to compare the bald style of the broadside with the beautiful Scottish dirge; and the difficulty of clothing a bower with lilies, which offends Professor Child, may be disregarded.

THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW

1. My love he built me a bonny bower, And clad it a' wi' lilye flour; A brawer bower ye ne'er did see, Than my true love he built for me.

2. There came a man, by middle day, He spied his sport, and went away; And brought the king, that very night, Who brake my bower, and slew my knight.

3. He slew my knight, to me sae dear; He slew my knight, and poin'd his gear; My servants all for life did flee, And left me in extremitie.

4. I sew'd his sheet, making my mane; I watched the corpse, myself alane; I watched his body, night and day; No living creature came that way.

5. I took his body on my back, And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sate; I digg'd a grave, and laid him in, And happ'd him with the sod sae green.

6. But think na ye my heart was sair, When I laid the moul' on his yellow hair? O think na ye my heart was wae, When I turn'd about, away to gae?

7. Nae living man I'll love again, Since that my lovely knight is slain; Wi' ae lock of his yellow hair, I'll chain my heart for evermair.

[Annotation: 3.2: 'poin'd' = poinded, distrained.]



BONNY BEE HO'M and THE LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND

The Texts are taken respectively from Alexander Fraser Tytler's Brown MS., and from Herd's MSS., vol. i. fol. 49, where it is stated that a verse is wanting.

The Story of Bonny Bee Ho'm is of the slightest. The gift of the ring and chain occurs in many ballads and folk-tales. For the ring, see Hind Horn, 4-6 (First Series, p. 187).

For the lady's vow to put no comb in her hair, occurring in both ballads, compare Clerk Sanders, 21.4

The Lowlands of Holland is merely a lyrical version of the same theme.

BONNY BEE HO'M

1. By Arthur's Dale as late I went I heard a heavy moan; I heard a ladie lammenting sair, And ay she cried 'Ohone!

2. 'Ohon, alas! what shall I do, Tormented night and day! I never loved a love but ane, And now he's gone away.

3. 'But I will do for my true-love What ladies woud think sair; For seven year shall come and go Ere a kaim gang in my hair.

3. 'There shall neither a shoe gang on my foot, Nor a kaim gang in my hair, Nor e'er a coal nor candle-light Shine in my bower nae mair.'

5. She thought her love had been on the sea, Fast sailling to Bee Ho'm; But he was in a quiet chamer, Hearing his ladie's moan.

6. 'Be husht, be husht, my ladie dear, I pray thee mourn not so; For I am deep sworn on a book To Bee Ho'm for to go.'

7. She has gi'en him a chain of the beaten gowd, And a ring with a ruby stone: 'As lang as this chain your body binds, Your blude can never be drawn.

8. 'But gin this ring shoud fade or fail, Or the stone shoud change its hue, Be sure your love is dead and gone, Or she has proved untrue.'

9. He had no been at Bonny Bee Ho'm A twelve mouth and a day, Till, looking on his gay gowd ring, The stone grew dark and gray.

10. 'O ye take my riches to Bee Ho'm, And deal them presentlie, To the young that canna, the auld that maunna, And the blind that does not see.'

11. Now death has come into his bower, And split his heart in twain; So their twa souls flew up to heaven, And there shall ever remain.

[Annotation: 1.4: 'twin'd' = twinned, separated.]



THE LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND

1. 'My love has built a bony ship, and set her on the sea, With seven score good mariners to bear her company; There's three score is sunk, and three score dead at sea, And the Lowlands of Holland has twin'd my love and me.

2. 'My love he built another ship, and set her on the main, And nane but twenty mariners for to bring her hame; But the weary wind began to rise, and the sea began to rout, My love then and his bonny ship turn'd withershins about.

3. 'There shall neither coif come on my head nor comb come in my hair; There shall neither coal nor candle-light shine in my bower mair; Nor will I love another one until the day I die, For I never lov'd a love but one, and he's drowned in the sea.'

4. 'O had your tongue, my daughter dear, be still and be content, There are mair lads in Galloway, ye neen nae sair lament:' 'O there is none in Gallow, there's none at a' for me, For I never lov'd a love but one, and he's drowned in the sea.'

[Annotations: 2.3: 'rout,' roar. 2.4: 'withershins,' backwards, the wrong way, the opposite of the desired way. Often = contrary to the way of the sun, but not necessarily. See note on etymology, Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, i. 129. 3.1: 'coif,' cap, head-dress. 4.1: 'had' = haud, hold. 4.2: 'neen nae' = need na, need not.]



FAIR HELEN OF KIRCONNELL

The Text is taken from Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802), vol. i. pp. 72-79, omitting the tedious Part I. Another of many versions may be found in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xiii. pp. 275-6, about the year 1794; fourteen stanzas, corresponding to most of Scott's two parts.

The Story of the ballad is given in the two above-mentioned books from tradition as follows. Fair Helen, of the clan of Irving or Bell, favoured Adam Fleming (Fleeming) with her love; another suitor, whose name is said to have been Bell, was the choice of the lady's family and friends. The latter lover becoming jealous, concealed himself in the bushes of the banks of the Kirtle, which flows by the kirkyard of Kirconnell, where the true lovers were accustomed to walk. Being discovered lurking there by Helen, he levelled his carbine at Adam Fleming. Helen, however, threw herself into her lover's arms, and received the bullet intended for him: whereupon he slew his rival. He went abroad to Spain and fought against the infidels, but being still inconsolable, returned to Kirconnell, perished on Helen's grave, and was buried beside her. The tombstone, bearing a sword and a cross, with Hic jacet Adamus Fleming, is still (says Scott) shown in the churchyard of Kirconnell.

The Flemings were a family belonging to Kirkpatrick-Fleming, a parish in Dumfries which includes Kirconnell.

Wordsworth's version of the story includes the famous rhyme:—

'Proud Gordon cannot bear the thoughts That through his brain are travelling,— And, starting up, to Bruce's heart He launch'd a deadly javelin!'

FAIR HELEN OF KIRCONNELL

1. I wish I were where Helen lies, Night and day on me she cries, O that I were where Helen lies, On fair Kirconnell Lee!

2. Curst be the heart that thought the thought, And curst the hand that fired the shot, When in my arms burd Helen dropt, And died to succour me.

3. O think na ye my heart was sair, When my love dropt down and spak nae mair, There did she swoon wi' meikle care, On fair Kirconnell Lee.

4. As I went down the water side, None but my foe to be my guide, None but my foe to be my guide, On fair Kirconnell Lee.

5. I lighted down, my sword did draw, I hacked him in pieces sma', I hacked him in pieces sma', For her sake that died for me.

6. O Helen fair, beyond compare, I'll make a garland of thy hair, Shall bind my heart for evermair, Untill the day I die.

7. O that I were where Helen lies, Night and day on me she cries, Out of my bed she bids me rise, Says, 'Haste, and come to me!'

8. O Helen fair! O Helen chaste! If I were with thee I were blest, Where thou lies low, and takes thy rest On fair Kirconnell Lee.

9. I wish my grave were growing green, A winding-sheet drawn ower my e'en And I in Helen's arms lying On fair Kirconnell Lee.

10. I wish I were where Helen lies, Night and day on me she cries, And I am weary of the skies, For her sake that died for me.



SIR HUGH, OR THE JEW'S DAUGHTER

The Text is given from Jamieson's Popular Ballads, as taken down by him from Mrs. Brown's recitation.

The Story of the ballad is told at length in at least two ancient monastic records; in the Annals of the Monastery of Waverley, the first Cistercian house in England, near Farnham, Surrey (edited by Luard, vol. ii. p. 346, etc., from MS. Cotton Vesp, A. xvi. fol. 150, etc.); more fully in the Annals of the Monastery at Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire (edited by Luard, vol. i. pp. 340, etc., from MS. Cotton Vesp. E. iii. fol. 53, etc.). Both of these give the date as 1255, the latter adding July 31. Matthew Paris also tells the tale as a contemporary event. The details may be condensed as follows.

All the principal Jews in England being collected at the end of July 1255 at Lincoln, Hugh, a schoolboy, while playing with his companions (jocis ac choreis) was by them kidnapped, tortured, and finally crucified. His body was then thrown into a stream, but the water, tantam sui Creatoris injuriam non ferens, threw the corpse back on to the land. The Jews then buried it; but it was found next morning above-ground. Finally it was thrown into a well, which at once was lit up with so brilliant a light and so sweet an odour, that word went forth of a miracle. Christians came to see, discovered the body floating on the surface, and drew it up. Finding the hands and feet to be pierced, the head ringed with bleeding scratches, and the body otherwise wounded, it was at once clear to all tanti sceleris auctores detestandos fuisse Judaeos, eighteen of whom were subsequently hanged.

Other details may be gleaned from various accounts. The name of the Jew into whose house the boy was taken is given as Copin or Jopin. Hugh was eight or nine years old. Matthew Paris adds the circumstance of Hugh's mother (Beatrice by name) seeking and finding him.

The original story has obviously become contaminated with others (such as Chaucer's Prioresses Tale) in the course of six hundred and fifty years. But the central theme, the murder of a child by the Jews, is itself of great antiquity; and similar charges are on record in Europe even in the nineteenth century. Further material for the study of this ballad may be found in Francisque Michel's Hugh de Lincoln (1839), and J. O. Halliwell [-Phillipps]'s Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln (1849).

Percy in the Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 32, says:— 'If we consider, on the one hand, the ignorance and superstition of the times when such stories took their rise, the virulent prejudices of the monks who record them, and the eagerness with which they would be catched up by the barbarous populace as a pretence for plunder; on the other hand, the great danger incurred by the perpetrators, and the inadequate motives they could have to excite them to a crime of so much horror, we may reasonably conclude the whole charge to be groundless and malicious.'

The tune 'as sung by the late Mrs. Sheridan' may be found in John Stafford Smith's Musica Antiqua (1812), vol. i. p. 65, and Motherwell's Minstrelsy, tune No. 7.

SIR HUGH, OR THE JEW'S DAUGHTER

1. Four and twenty bonny boys Were playing at the ba', And by it came him sweet Sir Hugh, And he play'd o'er them a'.

2. He kick'd the ba' with his right foot, And catch'd it wi' his knee, And throuch-and-thro' the Jew's window He gard the bonny ba' flee.

3. He's doen him to the Jew's castell, And walk'd it round about; And there he saw the Jew's daughter, At the window looking out.

4. 'Throw down the ba', ye Jew's daughter, Throw down the ba' to me!' 'Never a bit,' says the Jew's daughter, 'Till up to me come ye.'

5. 'How will I come up? How can I come up? How can I come to thee? For as ye did to my auld father, The same ye'll do to me.'

6. She's gane till her father's garden, And pu'd an apple red and green; 'Twas a' to wyle him sweet Sir Hugh, And to entice him in.

7. She's led him in through ae dark door, And sae has she thro' nine; She's laid him on a dressing-table, And stickit him like a swine.

8. And first came out the thick, thick blood, And syne came out the thin, And syne came out the bonny heart's blood; There was nae mair within.

9. She's row'd him in a cake o' lead, Bade him lie still and sleep; She's thrown him in Our Lady's draw-well, Was fifty fathom deep.

10. When bells were rung, and mass was sung, And a' the bairns came hame, When every lady gat hame her son, The Lady Maisry gat nane.

11. She's ta'en her mantle her about, Her coffer by the hand, And she's gane out to seek her son, And wander'd o'er the land.

12. She's doen her to the Jew's castell, Where a' were fast asleep: 'Gin ye be there, my sweet Sir Hugh, I pray you to me speak.'

13. She's doen her to the Jew's garden, Thought he had been gathering fruit: 'Gin ye be there, my sweet Sir Hugh, I pray you to me speak.'

14. She near'd Our Lady's deep draw-well, Was fifty fathom deep: 'Whare'er ye be, my sweet Sir Hugh, I pray you to me speak.'

15. 'Gae hame, gae hame, my mither dear. Prepare my winding sheet, And at the back o' merry Lincoln The morn I will you meet.'

16. Now Lady Maisry is gane hame, Made him a winding sheet, And at the back o' merry Lincoln The dead corpse did her meet.

17. And a' the bells o' merry Lincoln Without men's hands were rung, And a' the books o' merry Lincoln Were read without man's tongue, And ne'er was such a burial Sin Adam's days begun.



THE DAEMON LOVER

The Text is from Kinloch's MSS., 'from the recitation of T. Kinnear, Stonehaven.' Child remarks of it that 'probably by the fortunate accident of being a fragment' it 'leaves us to put our own construction upon the weird seaman; and, though it retains the homely ship-carpenter, is on the whole the most satisfactory of all the versions.'

The Story is told more elaborately in a broadside, and resembles Enoch Arden in a certain degree. James Harris, a seaman, plighted to Jane Reynolds, was captured by a press-gang, taken overseas, and, after three years, reported dead and buried in a foreign land. After a respectable interval, a ship-carpenter came to Jane Reynolds, and eventually wedded her, and the loving couple had three pretty children. One night, however, the ship-carpenter being on a three days' journey, a spirit came to the window, and said that his name was James Harris, and that he had come to take her away as his wife. She explains that she is married, and would not have her husband know of this visit for five hundred pounds. James Harris, however, said he had seven ships upon the sea; and when she heard these 'fair tales,' she succumbed, went away with him, and 'was never seen no more.' The ship-carpenter on his return hanged himself.

Scott's ballad in the Minstrelsy spoils its own effect by converting the spirit into the devil. An American version of 1858 tells the tale of a 'house-carpenter' and his wife, and alters 'the banks of Italy' to 'the banks of old Tennessee.'

THE DAEMON LOVER

1. 'O whare hae ye been, my dearest dear, These seven lang years and more?' 'O I am come to seek my former vows, That ye promis'd me before.'

2. 'Awa wi' your former vows,' she says, 'Or else ye will breed strife; Awa wi' your former vows,' she says, 'For I'm become a wife.

3. 'I am married to a ship-carpenter, A ship-carpenter he's bound; I wadna he ken'd my mind this nicht For twice five hundred pound'

*** *** ***

4. She has put her foot on gude ship-board, And on ship-board she's gane, And the veil that hung oure her face Was a' wi' gowd begane.

5. She had na sailed a league, a league, A league but barely twa, Till she did mind on the husband she left, And her wee young son alsua.

6. 'O haud your tongue, my dearest dear, Let all your follies abee; I'll show whare the white lillies grow, On the banks of Italie.'

7. She had na sailed a league, a league, A league but barely three, Till grim, grim grew his countenance, And gurly grew the sea.

8. 'O haud your tongue, my dearest dear, Let all your follies abee; I'll show whare the white lillies grow, In the bottom of the sea.'

9. He's tane her by the milk-white hand, And he's thrown her in the main; And full five-and-twenty hundred ships Perish'd all on the coast of Spain.

[Annotations: 4.4: 'begane,' overlaid. 7.4: 'gurly,' tempestuous, lowering.]



THE BROOMFIELD HILL

The Text is taken from Scott's Minstrelsy (1803). It would be of great interest if we could be sure that the reference to 'Hive Hill' in 8.1 was from genuine Scots tradition. In Wager's comedy The Longer thou Lived the more Fool thou art (about 1568) Moros sings a burden:—

'Brome, brome on hill, The gentle brome on hill, hill, Brome, brome on Hive hill, The gentle brome on Hive hill, The brome stands on Hive hill a.'

Before this date 'Brume, brume on hil' is mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotlande, 1549; and a similar song was among Captain Cox's 'ballets and songs, all auncient.'

The Story, of a youth challenging a maid, and losing his wager by being laid asleep with witchcraft, is popular and widespread. In the Gesta Romanorum is a story of which this theme is one main incident, the other being the well-known forfeit of a pound of flesh, as in the Merchant of Venice. Ser Giovanni (Pecorone, IV. 1) tells a similar tale, and other variations are found in narrative or ballad form in Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Germany.

Grimm notes the German superstition that the rosenschwamm (gall on the wild rose), if laid beneath a man's pillow, causes him to sleep until it be taken away.

THE BROOMFIELD HILL

1. There was a knight and a lady bright, Had a true tryste at the broom; The ane gaed early in the morning, The other in the afternoon.

2. And ay she sat in her mother's bower door, And ay she made her mane: 'O whether should I gang to the Broomfield Hill, Or should I stay at hame?

3. 'For if I gang to the Broomfield Hill, My maidenhead is gone; And if I chance to stay at hame, My love will ca' me mansworn.'

4. Up then spake a witch-woman, Ay from the room aboon: 'O ye may gang to the Broomfield Hill, And yet come maiden hame.

5. 'For when ye gang to the Broomfield Hill, Ye'll find your love asleep, With a silver belt about his head, And a broom-cow at his feet.

6. 'Take ye the blossom of the broom, The blossom it smells sweet, And strew it at your true-love's head, And likewise at his feet.

7. 'Take ye the rings off your fingers, Put them on his right hand, To let him know, when he doth awake, His love was at his command.'

8. She pu'd the broom flower on Hive Hill, And strew'd on's white hals-bane, And that was to be wittering true That maiden she had gane.

9. 'O where were ye, my milk-white steed, That I hae coft sae dear, That wadna watch and waken me When there was maiden here?'

10. 'I stamped wi' my foot, master, And gard my bridle ring, But na kin thing wald waken ye, Till she was past and gane.'

11. 'And wae betide ye, my gay goss-hawk, That I did love sae dear, That wadna watch and waken me When there was maiden here.'

12. 'I clapped wi' my wings, master, And aye my bells I rang, And aye cry'd, Waken, waken, master, Before the lady gang.'

13. 'But haste and haste, my gude white steed. To come the maiden till, Or a' the birds of gude green wood Of your flesh shall have their fill.'

14. 'Ye need na burst your gude white steed Wi' racing o'er the howm; Nae bird flies faster through the wood, Than she fled through the broom.'

[Annotations: 3.4: 'mansworn,' perjured. 5.4: 'broom-cow,' twig of broom. 8.2: 'hals-bane,' neck-bone. See The Twa Corbies (p. 82), 4.1. 8.3: 'wittering,' witness. 9.2: 'coft,' bought. 10.3: 'kin,' kind of. Cp. Lady Maisry, 2.2 (First Series, p. 70). 14.2: 'howm' = holme, the level low ground on the banks of a river or stream. —Jamieson.]



WILLIE'S FATAL VISIT

The Text is taken from Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland. It consists largely of familiar fragments. Stanzas 9-11 can be found in The Grey Cock.

The Story is a trivial piece in Buchan's usual style; but the smiling ghost, which is female (17.1), is a delightful novelty. She assumes the position of guardian of Willie's morals, then tears him in pieces, and hangs a piece on every seat in the church, and his head over Meggie's pew!

WILLIE'S FATAL VISIT

1. 'Twas on an evening fair I went to take the air, I heard a maid making her moan; Said, 'Saw ye my father? Or saw ye my mother? Or saw ye my brother John? Or saw ye the lad that I love best, And his name it is Sweet William?'

2. 'I saw not your father, I saw not your mother, Nor saw I your brother John; But I saw the lad that ye love best, And his name it is Sweet William.'

3. 'O was my love riding? or was he running? Or was he walking alone? Or says he that he will be here this night? O dear, but he tarries long!'

4. 'Your love was not riding, nor yet was he running, But fast was he walking alone; He says that he will be here this night to thee, And forbids you to think long.'

5. Then Willie he has gane to his love's door, And gently tirled the pin: 'O sleep ye, wake ye, my bonny Meggie, Ye'll rise, lat your true-love in.'

6. The lassie being swack ran to the door fu' snack, And gently she lifted the pin, Then into her arms sae large and sae lang She embraced her bonny love in.

7. 'O will ye gang to the cards or the dice, Or to a table o' wine? Or will ye gang to a well-made bed, Well cover'd wi' blankets fine?'

8. 'O I winna gang to the cards nor the dice, Nor yet to a table o' wine; But I'll rather gang to a well-made bed, Well-cover'd wi' blankets fine.'

9. 'My braw little cock, sits on the house tap, Ye'll craw not till it be day, And your kame shall be o' the gude red gowd, And your wings o' the siller grey.'

10. The cock being fause untrue he was, And he crew an hour ower seen; They thought it was the gude day-light, But it was but the light of the meen.

11. 'Ohon, alas!' says bonny Meggie then, 'This night we hae sleeped ower lang!' 'O what is the matter?' then Willie replied, 'The faster then I must gang.'

12. Then Sweet Willie raise, and put on his claise, And drew till him stockings and sheen, And took by his side his berry-brown sword, And ower yon lang hill he's gane.

13. As he gaed ower yon high, high hill, And down yon dowie den, Great and grievous was the ghost he saw, Would fear ten thousand men.

14. As he gaed in by Mary kirk, And in by Mary stile, Wan and weary was the ghost Upon sweet Willie did smile.

15. 'Aft hae ye travell'd this road, Willie, Aft hae ye travell'd in sin; Ye ne'er said sae muckle for your saul As, My Maker bring me hame!

16. 'Aft hae ye travell'd this road, Willie, Your bonny love to see; But ye'll never travel this road again Till ye leave a token wi' me.'

17. Then she has ta'en him Sweet Willie, Riven him frae gair to gair, And on ilka seat o' Mary's kirk O' Willie she hang a share; Even abeen his love Meggie's dice, Hang's head and yellow hair.

18. His father made moan, his mother made moan, But Meggie made muckle mair; His father made moan, his mother made moan, But Meggie reave her yellow hair.

[Annotations: 6.1: 'swack,' nimble; 'snack,' quick. 13.4: 'fear,' frighten. 17.2: 'frae gair to gair,' from side to side. 17.5: 'dice,' pew. 18.4: 'reave,' tore.]



ADAM

The Text of this half-carol, half-ballad is taken from the Sloane MS. 2593, whence we get Saint Stephen and King Herod and other charming pieces like the well-known carol, 'I syng of a mayden.' It is written in eight long lines in the MS.

The Story.—Wright, who printed the above MS. for the Warton Club in 1856, remarks that Adam was supposed to have remained bound in the limbus patrum from the time of his death until the Crucifixion. In the romance of Owain Miles (Cotton MS. Calig. A. ii.) the bishops told Owain that Adam was 'yn helle with Lucyfere' for four thousand six hundred and four years. On account of this tradition incorporated in the carol, I have ventured to include it as a ballad, although it does not find a place in Professor Child's collection.

ADAM

1. Adam lay i-bowndyn, bowndyn in a bond, Fowre thowsand wynter thowt he not to long;

2. And al was for an appil, an appil that he tok, As clerkes fyndyn wretyn in here book.

3. Ne hadde the appil take ben, the appil taken ben, Ne hadde never our lady a ben hevene qwen.

4. Blyssid be the tyme that appil take was! Therfore we mown syngyn Deo gracias.

[Annotations: 2.4: 'here,' their. The 'book' is, of course, the Bible. 3.4: 'hevene' is the old genitive = of heaven. 4.3: 'mown' = can or may.]



SAINT STEPHEN AND KING HEROD

The Text is taken from the same manuscript as the last. This manuscript is ascribed, from the style of handwriting, to the reign of Henry VI. The ballad is there written without division into stanzas in twenty-four long lines.

The Story.—The miraculous resuscitation of a roast fowl (generally a cock, as here), in confirmation of an incredible prophecy, is a tale found in nearly all European countries. Originally, we find, the miracle is connected with the Passion, not the Nativity. See the Carnal and the Crane.

An interpolation in a late Greek MS. of the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus relates that Judas, having failed to induce the Jews to take back the thirty pieces of silver, went home to hang himself, and found his wife roasting a cock. On his demand for a rope to hang himself, she asked why he intended to do so; and he told her he had betrayed his master Jesus to evil men, who would kill him; yet he would rise again on the third day. His wife was incredulous, and said, 'Sooner shall this cock, roasting over the coals, crow again'; whereat the cock napped his wings and crew thrice. And Judas, confirmed in the truth, straightway made a noose in the rope, and hanged himself.

Thence the miracle-tale spread over Europe. In a Spanish version not only the cock crows, but his partner the hen lays an egg, in asseveration of the truth. The tale is generally connected with the legend of the Pilgrims of St. James; so in French, Spanish, Dutch, Wendish, and Breton ballads.

In 1701 there was printed in London a broadside sheet of carols, headed with a woodcut of the Nativity, by the side of which is printed: 'A religious man, inventing the conceits of both birds and beasts drawn in the picture of our Saviour's birth, doth thus express them:— The cock croweth Christus natus est, Christ is born. The raven asked Quando? When? The crow replied Hac nocte, This night. The ox cryeth out Ubi? Ubi? Where? where? The sheep bleated out Bethlehem' (Hone's Every-day Book).

SAINT STEPHEN AND KING HEROD

1. Seynt Stevene was a clerk in kyng Herowdes halle, And servyd him of bred and cloth, as every kyng befalle.

2. Stevyn out of kechoun cam wyth boris hed on honde, He saw a sterre was fayr and brycht over Bedlem stonde.

3. He kyst adoun the bores hed, and went in to the halle; 'I forsak the, kyng Herowdes, and thi werkes alle.

4. 'I forsak the, kyng Herowdes, and thi werkes alle, Ther is a chyld in Bedlem born is beter than we alle.'

5. 'Quat eylyt the, Stevene? quat is the befalle? Lakkyt the eyther mete or drynk in kyng Herodwes halle?'

6. 'Lakit me neyther mete ne drynk in king Herowdes halle; There is a chyld in Bedlem born, is beter than we alle.'

7. 'Quat eylyt the, Stevyn? art thou wod? or thou gynnyst to brede? Lakkyt the eyther gold or fe, or ony ryche wede?'

8. 'Lakyt me neyther gold ne fe, ne non ryche wede; Ther is a chyld in Bedlem born, schal helpyn us at our nede.'

9. 'That is al so soth, Stevyn, al so soth i-wys, As this capoun crowe schal that lyth here in myn dysh.'

10. That word was not so sone seyd, that word in that halle, The capoun crew Cristus natus est! among the lordes alle.

11. 'Rysyt up, myn turmentowres, be to and al be on, And ledit Stevyn out of this town and stonit him with ston.'

12. Tokyn he Stevene, and stonyd hym in the way; And therfore is his evyn on Crystes owyn day.

[Annotations: 5.1: What aileth thee? 5.3, etc.: 'Lakkyt the,' Dost thou lack. 7.1: 'wod,' mad. 7.2: 'brede,' rouse, i.e. become angry (?). 11.1, etc.: 'Rysyt,' 'ledit,' 'stonit': these are all imperatives. 11.2: 'be to,' etc., by twos and all one by one (?). Cp. Fair Margaret and Sweet William, 10.2 (First Series, p. 65).]



THE CHERRY-TREE CAROL

The Text.—As this carol consists of two parts, the first containing the actual story of the cherry-tree, and the second consisting of the angel's song to Joseph, I have taken the first part (stt. 1-12 inclusive) from the version of Sandys (Christmas Carols), and the second (stt. 13-17) from W. H. Husk's Songs of the Nativity.

The Story of the cherry-tree is derived from the Pseudo-Matthew's gospel, and is also to be found in the fifteenth of the Coventry Mysteries. In other languages the fruit chosen is naturally adapted to the country: thus in Provencal it is an apple; elsewhere (as in the original), dates from the palm-tree; and again, a fig-tree.

The second part is often printed as a separate carol, and might well stand alone. Readers of Westward Ho! will remember how Amyas Leigh trolls it forth on Christmas Day. Traditional versions are still to be heard in Somerset and Devon.

THE CHERRY-TREE CAROL

1. Joseph was an old man, And an old man was he, When he wedded Mary, In the land of Galilee.

2. Joseph and Mary walked Through an orchard good, Where was cherries and berries, So red as any blood.

3. Joseph and Mary walked Through an orchard green, Where was berries and cherries, As thick as might be seen.

4. O then bespoke Mary, So meek and so mild: 'Pluck me one cherry, Joseph, For I am with child.'

5. O then bespoke Joseph, With words most unkind: 'Let him pluck thee a cherry That got thee with child.'

6. O then bespoke the babe, Within his mother's womb: 'Bow down then the tallest tree, For my mother to have some.'

7. Then bowed down the highest tree Unto his mother's hand; Then she cried, 'See, Joseph, I have cherries at command.'

8. O then bespake Joseph: 'I have done Mary wrong; But cheer up, my dearest, And be not cast down.'

9. Then Mary plucked a cherry As red as the blood; Then Mary went home With her heavy load.

10. Then Mary took her babe, And sat him on her knee, Saying, 'My dear son, tell me What this world will be.'

11. 'O I shall be as dead, mother, As the stones in the wall; O the stones in the streets, mother, Shall mourn for me all.

12. 'Upon Easter-day, mother, My uprising shall be; O the sun and the moon, mother, Shall both rise with me.'

* * *

13. As Joseph was a walking, He heard an angel sing: 'This night shall be born Our heavenly king.

14. 'He neither shall be born In housen nor in hall, Nor in the place of Paradise, But in an ox's stall.

15. 'He neither shall be clothed In purple nor in pall, But all in fair linen, As wear babies all.

16. 'He neither shall be rocked In silver nor in gold, But in a wooden cradle, That rocks on the mould.

17. 'He neither shall be christened In white wine nor red, But with fair spring water, With which we were christened.'



THE CARNAL AND THE CRANE

The Text is taken from Sandys' Christmas Carols, where it is printed from a broadside. The only alterations, in which I have followed Professor Child, are the obvious correction of 'east' for 'west' (8.1), and the insertion of one word in 16.2, where Child says 'perhaps a preposition has been dropped.'

The Story is compounded of popular legends connected with the life and miracles of Christ. For the miracle of the cock, see Saint Stephen and King Herod. The adoration of the beasts is derived from the Historia de Nativitate Mariae, and is repeated in many legends of the infancy of Christ, but is not sufficiently remarkable in itself to be popular in carols. The origin of the miracle of the harvest is unknown, though in a Breton ballad it forms one of the class known as the miracles of the Virgin (cp. Brown Robyn's Confession). Swedish, Provencal, Catalan, Wendish, and Belgian folk-tales record similar legends.

It is much to be regretted that this ballad, which from internal evidence (e.g. the use of the word 'renne,' 1.2) is to be attributed to an early age, should have become so incoherent and corrupted by oral tradition. No manuscript or printed copy is known earlier than about 1750, when it occurs in broadside form. The very word 'Carnal' has lapsed from the dictionaries, though somewhere it may survive in speech. Stanza 17 is obviously out of place; one may suspect gaps on either side, for surely more beasts than the 'lovely lion' were enumerated, and a new section begins at stanza 18.

THE CARNAL AND THE CRANE

1. As I pass'd by a river side, And there as I did reign, In argument I chanced to hear A Carnal and a Crane.

2. The Carnal said unto the Crane, 'If all the world should turn, Before we had the Father, But now we have the Son!

3. 'From whence does the Son come, From where and from what place?' He said, 'In a manger, Between an ox and ass.'

4. 'I pray thee,' said the Carnal, 'Tell me before thou go, Was not the mother of Jesus Conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost?'

5. 'She was the purest virgin, And the cleanest from sin; She was the handmaid of our Lord, And mother of our King.'

6. 'Where is the golden cradle That Christ was rocked in? Where are the silken sheets That Jesus was wrapt in?'

7. 'A manger was the cradle That Christ was rocked in: The provender the asses left So sweetly he slept on.'

8. There was a star in the east land So bright it did appear, Into King Herod's chamber, And where King Herod were.

9. The Wise Men soon espied it, And told the king on high A princely babe was born that night No king could e'er destroy.

10. 'If this be true,' King Herod said, 'As thou tellest unto me, This roasted cock that lies in the dish Shall crow full fences three.'

11. The cock soon freshly feather'd was, By the work of God's own hand, And then three fences crowed he, In the dish where he did stand.

12. 'Rise up, rise up, you merry men all, See that you ready be; All children under two years old Now slain they all shall be.'

13. Then Jesus, ah, and Joseph, And Mary, that was so pure, They travell'd into Egypt, As you shall find it sure.

14. And when they came to Egypt's land, Amongst those fierce wild beasts, Mary, she being weary, Must needs sit down to rest.

15. 'Come sit thee down,' says Jesus, 'Come sit thee down by me, And thou shalt see how these wild beasts Do come and worship me.'

16. First came the lovely lion, Which [to] Jesus' grace did spring, And of the wild beasts in the field The Lion shall be king.

17. We'll choose our virtuous princes Of birth and high degree, In every sundry nation, Where'er we come and see.

18. Then Jesus, ah, and Joseph, And Mary, that was unknown, They travelled by a husbandman, Just while his seed was sown.

19. 'God speed thee, man,' said Jesus, 'Go fetch thy ox and wain, And carry home thy corn again Which thou this day hast sown.'

20. The husbandman fell on his knees Even upon his face: 'Long time hast thou been looked for, But now thou art come at last.

21. 'And I myself do now believe Thy name is Jesus called; Redeemer of mankind thou art, Though undeserving all.'

22. 'The truth, man, thou hast spoken, Of it thou mayst be sure, For I must lose my precious blood For thee and thousands more.

23. 'If any one should come this way, And enquire for me alone, Tell them that Jesus passed by As thou thy seed didst sow.'

24. After that there came King Herod, With his train so furiously, Enquiring of the husbandman Whether Jesus passed by.

25. 'Why, the truth it must be spoke, And the truth it must be known; For Jesus passed by this way When my seed was sown.

26. 'But now I have it reapen, And some laid on my wain, Ready to fetch and carry Into my barn again.'

27. 'Turn back,' said the captain, 'Your labour and mine's in vain; It's full three quarters of a year Since he his seed hath sown.'

28. So Herod was deceived, By the work of God's own hand, And further he proceeded Into the Holy Land.

29. There's thousands of children young Which for his sake did die; Do not forbid those little ones, And do not them deny.

30. The truth now I have spoken, And the truth now I have shown; Even the Blessed Virgin She's now brought forth a son.

[Annotations: 1.2: 'reign' = renne, the old form of run. 1.4: 'Carnal,' jackdaw (? der. cornicula, corneille). 10.4: 'fences,' times. 21.4: i.e. though all (mankind) be undeserving.]



DIVES AND LAZARUS

The Text is given from Joshua Sylvester's A Garland of Christmas Carols, where it is printed from an old Birmingham broadside.

The Story is one which naturally attracted the attention of the popular ballad-maker, and parallel ballads exist in fairly wide European distribution.

Like the Carnal and the Crane, the form in which this ballad is now known is no witness of its antiquity. A 'ballet of the Ryche man and poor Lazarus' was licensed to be printed in 1558; 'a ballett, Dyves and Lazarus,' in 1570-1.

In Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas (1639), a fiddler says he can sing the merry ballad of Diverus and Lazarus. A correspondent in Notes and Queries (ser. IV. iii. 76) says he had heard only Diverus, never Dives, and contributes from memory a version as sung by carol-singers at Christmas in Worcestershire, in which the parallelism of the stanzas is pushed so far that, in the lines corresponding to 13.3 and 13.4 in the present version, we have the delightfully popular idea—

'There is a place prepared in hell, For to sit upon a serpent's knee.'

Husk (Songs of the Nativity) also gives this version, from an eighteenth-century Worcestershire broadside. I have no doubt but that this feature is traditional from the unknown sixteenth-century ballad.

DIVES AND LAZARUS

1. As it fell out upon a day, Rich Dives he made a feast, And he invited all his friends, And gentry of the best.

2. Then Lazarus laid him down and down, And down at Dives' door: 'Some meat, some drink, brother Dives, Bestow upon the poor.'

3. 'Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus, That lies begging at my door; No meat nor drink will I give thee, Nor bestow upon the poor.'

4. Then Lazarus laid him down and down, And down at Dives' wall: 'Some meat, some drink, brother Dives, Or with hunger starve I shall.'

5. 'Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus, That lies begging at my wall; No meat nor drink will I give thee, But with hunger starve you shall.'

6. Then Lazarus laid him down and down, And down at Dives' gate: 'Some meat, some drink, brother Dives, For Jesus Christ his sake.'

7. 'Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus, That lies begging at my gate; No meat nor drink will I give thee, For Jesus Christ his sake.'

8. Then Dives sent out his merry men, To whip poor Lazarus away; They had no power to strike a stroke, But flung their whips away.

9. Then Dives sent out his hungry dogs. To bite him as he lay; They had no power to bite at all, But licked his sores away.

10. As it fell out upon a day, Poor Lazarus sickened and died; There came two angels out of heaven. His soul therein to guide.

11. 'Rise up, rise up, brother Lazarus, And go along with me; For you've a place prepared in heaven, To sit on an angel's knee.'

12. As it fell out upon a day, Rich Dives sickened and died; There came two serpents out of hell, His soul therein to guide.

13. 'Rise up, rise up, brother Dives, And go with us to see A dismal place prepared in hell, From which thou canst not flee.'

14. Then Dives looked up with his eyes. And saw poor Lazarus blest: 'Give me one drop of water, brother Lazarus, To quench my flaming thirst.

15. 'Oh! had I as many years to abide, As there are blades of grass, Then there would be an end, but now Hell's pains will ne'er be past.

16. 'Oh! was I now but alive again, The space of an half hour: Oh! that I'd made my peace secure, Then the devil should have no power.'



BROWN ROBYN'S CONFESSION

The Text is the only one known, that printed by Buchan, Ballads of the North of Scotland, and copied into Motherwell's MS.

The Story, relating as it does a miracle of the Virgin, is, perhaps, the only one we possess of a class which, in other lands, is so extensive. A similar Scandinavian ballad has a tragical termination, except in one version.

The casting of lots to discover the Jonah of a ship is a feature common to many literatures.

BROWN ROBYN'S CONFESSION

1. It fell upon a Wodensday Brown Robyn's men went to sea, But they saw neither moon nor sun, Nor starlight wi' their ee.

2. 'We'll cast kevels us amang, See wha the unhappy man may be;' The kevel fell on Brown Robyn, The master-man was he.

3. 'It is nae wonder,' said Brown Robyn, 'Altho I dinna thrive, For wi' my mither I had twa bairns, And wi' my sister five.

4. 'But tie me to a plank o' wude And throw me in the sea; And if I sink; ye may bid me sink, But if I swim, just lat me bee.'

5. They've tyed him to a plank o' wude, And thrown him in the sea; He didna sink, tho' they bade him sink; He swim'd, and they bade lat him bee.

6. He hadna been into the sea An hour but barely three, Till by it came Our Blessed Lady, Her dear young son her wi'.

7. 'Will ye gang to your men again, Or will ye gang wi' me? Will ye gang to the high heavens, Wi' my dear son and me?'

8. 'I winna gang to my men again, For they would be feared at mee; But I woud gang to the high heavens, Wi' thy dear son and thee.'

9. 'It's for nae honour ye did to me, Brown Robyn, It's for nae guid ye did to mee; But a' is for your fair confession You've made upon the sea.'

[Annotation: 2.1: 'kevels,' lots.]



JUDAS

The Text is given from a thirteenth-century MS. in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (B. 14, 39): it is thus the earliest text of any ballad that we possess. In the MS. it is written in long lines, four (or six, as in 4, 12, and 14) to the stanza.

As the language in which it is written is not easily intelligible, I have added a paraphrase on the opposite pages.

[Transcriber's Note: The modern paraphrase is shown here stanza by stanza, with a deeper indent than the primary text.]

The Story is of great interest, as it adds to the various legends of Judas a 'swikele' sister. The treachery of Judas has long been popularly explained (from the Gospel of St. John, xii. 3-6) as follows:— Judas, being accustomed as bearer of the bag to take a tithe of all moneys passing through his hands, considered that he had lost thirty pence on the ointment that might have been sold for three hundred pence, and so took his revenge.

A Wendish ballad makes him lose the thirty pieces of silver, intrusted to him for buying bread, in gambling with certain Jews, who, when he had lost everything, suggested that he should sell his Master. Afterwards, in remorse, he rushes away to hang himself. The fir-tree is soft wood and will not bear him. The aspen is hard wood, and will bear him; so he hangs himself on the aspen. Since when, the aspen always trembles in fear of the Judgement day.

JUDAS

PARAPHRASE

1. Hit wes upon a Scere-thorsday that ure loverd aros; Ful milde were the wordes he spec to Iudas.

1. It was upon a Scere-Thursday That our Lord arose; Full mild were the words He spake to Judas.

2. 'Iudas, thou most to Iurselem, oure mete for to bugge; Thritti platen of selver thou bere up othi rugge.

2. 'Judas, thou must to Jerusalem, Our meat for to buy; Thirty plates of silver Bear thou upon thy back.

3. 'Thou comest fer ithe brode stret, fer ithe brode strete, Summe of thine tunesmen ther thou meist i-mete.'

3. 'Come thou far in the broad street, Far in the broad street, Some of thy townsmen Where thou might'st meet.'

4. Imette wid is soster, the swikele wimon: 'Iudas, thou were wrthe me stende the wid ston, For the false prophete that tou bilevest upon.'

4. Being met with his sister, The treacherous woman: 'Judas, thou wert worthy One should have stoned thee with stone. For the false prophet That thou believest upon.'

5. 'Be stille, leve soster, thin herte the to-breke! Wiste min loverd Crist, ful wel he wolde be wreke.'

5. 'Be still, dear sister, May thine heart burst thee in twain! Did my Lord Christ know, Full well would he be avenged.'

6. 'Iudas, go thou on the roc, heie up on the ston; Lei thin heved i my barm, slep thou the anon.'

6. 'Judas, go thou on the rock, High up on the stone; Lay thine head in my bosom, Sleep thou anon.'

7. Sone so Iudas of slepe was awake, Thritti platen of selver from hym weren itake.

7. So soon as Judas From sleep was awake, Thirty plates of silver From him were taken.

8. He drou hym selve bi the cop that al it lavede ablode: The Iewes out of Iurselem awenden he were wode.

8. He drew himself by the head So that it all ran with blood, The Jews out of Jerusalem Thought he was mad.

9. Foret hym com the riche Ieu that heiste Pilatus: 'Wolte sulle thi loverd that hette Iesus?'

9. Forth to him came the rich Jew, That hight Pilatus; 'Wilt thou sell thy Lord, That hight Jesus?'

10. 'I nul sulle my loverd for nones cunnes eiste, Bote hit be for the thritti platen that he me bi taiste.'

10. 'I will not sell my Lord For no kind of goods, Except it be for the thirty plates That he entrusted to me.'

11. 'Wolte sulle thi lord Crist for enes cunnes golde?' 'Nay, bote hit be for the platen that he habben wolde.'

11. 'Wilt thou sell thy Lord Christ For any kind of gold?' 'Nay, except it be for the plates That he wished to have.'

12. In him com ur lord gon as is postles seten at mete: 'Wou sitte ye, postles, ant wi nule ye ete? Ic am iboust ant isold today for oure mete.'

12. In came our Lord walking As his apostles sat at meat: 'How sit ye, apostles, And why will ye not eat? I am bought and sold To-day for our meat.'

13. Up stod him Iudas: 'Lord, am I that [frek]? I nas never othe stude ther me the evel spec.'

13. Up stood Judas: 'Lord, am I that man? I was never in the place Where I spake evil of thee.'

14. Up him stod Peter, ant spec wid al is miste: 'Thau Pilatus him come wid ten hundred cnistes, Yet Ic wolde, loverd, for thi love fiste.'

14. Up stood Peter, And spoke with all his might: 'Though Pilate should come With ten hundred knights, Yet I would, Lord, For thy love fight.'

15. 'Still thou be, Peter; well I the icnowe; Thou wolt fur sake me thrien ar the coc him crowe.'

15. 'Still be thou, Peter; Well I thee know; Thou wilt forsake me thrice Ere the cock crow.'

[Annotations: 1.1: 'Scere-thorsday,' the Thursday before Easter. 2.3 (paraphrase): 'plates,' pieces. 6.3: 'barm,' lap, bosom: cp. the romance of King Horn (E.E.T.S., 1866), ll. 705-6, 'He fond Horn in arme On Rymenhilde barme.' 8.1: 'drou,' past tense of draw. 8.1 (paraphrase): i.e. he tore his hair. 12.1: 'gon' is infinitive; 'cam gon' = he came on foot, or perhaps at a foot-pace. This curious construction is only used with verbs of motion. Cp. the Homeric be: d' imenai. 13.2: 'frek,' man: Skeat's suggestion. 13.3: 'nas' = ne was.]



THE MAID AND THE PALMER

The Text is from the Percy Folio MS. The only other known text is a fragment from Sir Walter Scott's recollection, printed in C. K. Sharpe's Ballad Book.

The Story is well known in the folklore of Europe, and is especially common in the Scandinavian languages. As a rule, however, all these ballads blend the story of the woman of Samaria with the traditions concerning Mary Magdalen that were extant in mediaeval times.

From the present ballad it could hardly be gathered (except, perhaps, from stanza 11) that the old palmer represents Christ. This point is at once obvious in the Scandinavian and other ballads.

The extraordinary burden in the English ballad is one of the most elaborate in existence, and is quite as inexplicable as any.

The expression 'to lead an ape in hell' (14.2) occurs constantly in Elizabethan and later literature, always in connection with women who die, or expect to die, unmarried. Dyce says the expression 'never has been (and never will be) satisfactorily explained'; but it was suggested by Steevens that women who had no mate on earth should adopt in hell an ape as a substitute.

THE MAID AND THE PALMER

1. The maid shee went to the well to washe, Lillumwham, Lillumwham The mayd shee went to the well to washe, Whatt then, what then? The maid shee went to the well to washe, Dew ffell of her lilly white fleshe. Grandam boy, grandam boy, heye! Leg a derry Leg a merry mett mer whoope whir Drivance, Larumben, Grandam boy, heye!

2. White shee washed & white shee ronge, White shee hang'd o' the hazle wand.

3. There came an old palmer by the way, Sais, 'God speed thee well, thou faire maid.

4. 'Hast either cupp or can, To give an old palmer drinke therin?'

5. Sayes, 'I have neither cupp nor cann, To give an old palmer drinke therin.'

6. 'But an thy lemman came from Roome, Cuppes & cannes thou wold ffind soone.'

7. Shee sware by God & good St. John, Lemman had shee never none.

8. Saies, 'Peace, ffaire mayd, you are fforsworne; Nine children you have borne.

9. 'Three were buryed under thy bed's head; Other three under thy brewing leade;

10. 'Other three on yon play greene; Count, maide, & there be nine.'

11. 'But I hope you are the good old man That all the world beleeves upon.

12. 'Old palmer, I pray thee, Pennaunce that thou wilt give to me.'

13. 'Penance I can give thee none, But seven yeere to be a stepping-stone.

14. 'Other seaven a clapper in a bell; Other seven to lead an ape in hell.

15. 'When thou hast thy penance done, Then thou'st come a mayden home.'

[Annotations: 2.1,2: 'White': so in the MS.; perhaps should be 'while' in each case. 'washed' is washee in the MS. 9.1: 'Three,' Percy's emendation of They in the MS. 9.2: 'leade,' vat. 10.1: 'yon': MS. won. 10.2: '&' for and=]



LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT

The Text is taken from Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, where it is entitled The Gowans sae gay. This ballad is much better known in another form, May Colvin (Collin, Collean).

The Story.—Professor Child says, 'Of all ballads this has perhaps obtained the widest circulation,' and devotes thirty-two pages to its introduction. Known in the south as well as in the north of Europe, the Germans and Scandinavians preserve it in fuller and more ancient forms than the Latin nations.

In the still popular Dutch ballad Halewijn, Heer Halewijn sings so sweetly that the king's daughter asks leave to go to him. Her father, mother, and sister remind her that those who have gone to him have never returned; her brother says he does not care where she goes, if she retains her honour. She makes an elaborate toilet, takes the best horse in the king's stables, and joins Halewijn in the wood. They ride till they come to a gallows with many women hanged upon it. Halewijn offers her the choice of the means of her death, because she is fairest of all. She says she will choose the sword, but that Halewijn had better take off his coat, as it would be a pity to splash it with her blood. As he takes it off, she cuts off his head, which, however, continues to talk, suggesting she should blow his horn to warn his friends. She does not fall into this rather obvious trap, nor will she agree to his suggestion that she should rub his neck with a certain ointment. As she rides home, she meets Halewijn's mother, and tells her he is dead. She is received back with great honour and affection in her father's castle.

This is the best form of the story, but many others only a little less full are found in Flanders, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Germany (nearly thirty variants which fall into three main divisions found respectively in North-West, South, and North-East Germany), Poland (where it is extraordinarily common), Bohemia, Servia, France, North Italy, Spain, and Portugal; and a Magyar ballad bears a certain resemblance. On the whole, the English ballad here printed (but not May Colvin) and the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian ballads, would seem to be the best preserved, on account of their retention of the primary notion, that the maid first charms the knight to sleep and then binds him. In May Colvin and many of the other European versions, the knight bids her strip off her gown; she asks him to turn away his face as she does so, and when he is not looking, she pushes him into the river or sea.

The remarkable likeness existing between the names of the knight in the many languages, e.g. Halewijn (Dutch), Ulver, Olmar, Hollemen (Danish), Olbert (German), and Elf-knight in English, has caused some speculation as to a common origin. Professor Bugge has gone so far as to conjecture that the whole story is an offshoot of the tale of Judith and Holofernes, the latter name being the originals of the variants given above. While this hypothesis is perhaps too startling to be accepted without further evidence, it must be allowed that there are resemblances in the two stories; and as for the metamorphosis of Holofernes into Halewijn or Olbert, it is at once apparent that such changes are quite within the possibilities of phonetic tradition; and any one who is unwilling to credit this should recollect the Scottish 'keepach' and 'dreeach' (used together or separately), which are derived, almost beyond belief, from 'hypochondriac.'

May Colvin is one of the few ancient ballads still kept in print in broadside form.

LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT

1. Fair lady Isabel sits in her bower sewing, Aye as the gowans grow gay There she heard an elf-knight blawing his horn. The first morning in May

2. 'If I had yon horn that I hear blawing, And yon elf-knight to sleep in my bosom.'

3. This maiden had scarcely these words spoken, Till in at her window the elf-knight has luppen.

4. 'It's a very strange matter, fair maiden,' said he, 'I canna blaw my horn but ye call on me.

5. 'But will ye go to yon greenwood side? If ye canna gang, I will cause you to ride.'

6. He leapt on a horse, and she on another, And they rode on to the greenwood together.

7. 'Light down, light down, Lady Isabel,' said he, 'We are come to the place where you are to die.'

8. 'Hae mercy, hae mercy, kind sir, on me, Till ance my dear father and mother I see.'

9. 'Seven king's-daughters here hae I slain, And ye shall be the eight o' them.'

10. 'O sit down a while, lay your head on my knee, That we may hae some rest before that I die.'

11. She stroak'd him sae fast, the nearer he did creep, Wi' a sma' charm she lull'd him fast asleep.

12. Wi' his ain sword-belt sae fast as she ban him, Wi' his ain dag-durk sae sair as she dang him.

13. 'If seven king's-daughters here ye hae slain, Lye ye here, a husband to them a'.'

[Annotations: 10.1: 'yon': MS. won. 10.2: '&' for and = 12.1: 'ban,' bound. 12.2: 'dag-durk,' dagger.]



A NOBLE RIDDLE WISELY EXPOUNDED

The Text is from a broadside of the seventeenth century from the press of Coles, Vere, Wright, and Clarke, now preserved in the Rawlinson collection in the Bodleian Library.

The Story of this ballad is one of the common class of riddle-ballads. Some of these riddles are found also in Captain Wedderburn.

It is not clear why in 18.1 'poyson is greener than the grass.' In Captain Wedderburn (17.1) it is 'death' that is greener than the grass, which is equally inexplicable. A variant of the latter gives 'virgus' [= verjuice], a kind of vinegar, which obviously means 'green juice.' It is possible that this might come to be regarded as a synonym for 'poyson'; and the next step is to substitute 'death' for 'poyson.'

A NOBLE RIDDLE WISELY EXPOUNDED

1. There was a lady of the North Country, Lay the bent to the bonny broom And she had lovely daughters three. Fa la la la, fa la la la ra re

2. There was a knight of noble worth Which also lived in the North.

3. The knight, of courage stout and brave, A wife he did desire to have.

4. He knocked at the ladie's gate One evening when it was late.

5. The eldest sister let him in, And pin'd the door with a silver pin.

6. The second sister she made his bed, And laid soft pillows under his head.

7. The youngest daughter that same night, She went to bed with this young knight.

8. And in the morning, when it was day, These words unto him she did say:

9. 'Now you have had your will,' quoth she, 'I pray, sir knight, will you marry me?'

10. The young brave knight to her replyed, 'Thy suit, fair maid, shall not be deny'd:

11. 'If thou canst answer me questions three, This very day will I marry thee.'

12. 'Kind sir, in love, O then,' quoth she, 'Tell me what your three questions be.'

13. 'O what is longer than the way, Or what is deeper than the sea?

14. 'Or what is louder than the horn, Or what is sharper than a thorn?

15. 'Or what is greener than the grass, Or what is worse than a woman was?'

16. 'O love is longer than the way, And hell is deeper than the sea.

17. 'And thunder is louder than the horn, And hunger is sharper than a thorn.

18. 'And poyson is greener than the grass, And the Devil is worse than woman was.'

19. When she these questions answered had, The knight became exceeding glad.

20. And having truly try'd her wit, He much commended her for it.

21. And after, as it is verifi'd, He made of her his lovely bride.

22. So now, fair maidens all, adieu, This song I dedicate to you.

23. I wish that you may constant prove Vnto the man that you do love.

[Annotation: 5.1: The broadsides all give 'youngest' for 'eldest.']



CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN

The Text is from Kinloch's MSS., where it was written down from the recitation of Mary Barr: it is entitled 'The Earl of Rosslyn's Daughter.'

The Story is the converse of A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded, in which the maid wins a husband by riddles; in the present one the captain out-riddles the maid. Similar tales are very popular in many lands, being found in Persia, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Lithuania, East Siberia, etc.

Most of the lady's riddles are found in an old English song, and its traditional derivatives. The song, which is given below, is found in Sloane MS. 2593, which contains other carols and ballads (see pp. 123-8)[A]. From this is derived the nursery song beginning—

'I had four brothers over the sea'

(with many variations:— 'four sisters,' 'six lovers,' 'a true lover'), and with a curious half-Latin refrain which varies between

Para-mara, dictum, domine,

and

Peri-meri, dixi, domine.

The following is the song referred to above. It was twice printed by T. Wright from the fifteenth-century MS.

A Transcriber's Note: Pp. 123-128: "Adam" (123) and "Saint Stephen and King Herod" (125).]

1. I have a yong suster fer beyondyn the se; Many be the drowryis that che sente me.

2. Che sente me the cherye, withoutyn ony ston, And so che dede [the] dowe, withoutyn ony bon.

3. Sche sente me the brere, withoutyn ony rynde, Sche bad me love my lemman withoute longgyng.

4. How xuld ony cherye be withoute ston? And how xuld ony dowe ben withoute bon?

5. How xuld any brere ben withoute rynde? How xuld I love my lemman without longyng?

6. Quan the cherye was a flour, than hadde it non ston; Quan the dowe was an ey, than hadde it non bon.

7. Quan the brere was onbred, than hadde it non rynd; Quan the mayden hayt that che lovit, che is without longing.

[Annotations: 1.3: 'drowryis' = druries, keepsakes. 2.3: 'dowe,' dove. 3.1: 'brere,' brier: here perhaps the 'hip' of the dog-rose (see 7.1). 3.3: 'lemman,' sweetheart. 4.1: etc. 'xuld' = should. 6.3: 'ey,' egg. 7.3: 'hayt that che lovit,' has what she loves.]



CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN

1. The Lord of Rosslyn's daughter gaed through the wud her lane, And there she met Captain Wedderburn, a servant to the king. He said unto his livery man, 'Were 't na agen the law, I wad tak her to my ain bed, and lay her at the wa'.'

2. 'I'm walking here my lane,' she says, 'amang my father's trees; And ye may lat me walk my lane, kind sir, now gin ye please. The supper-bell it will be rung, and I'll be miss'd awa'; Sae I'll na lie in your bed, at neither stock nor wa'.'

3. He said, 'My pretty lady, I pray lend me your hand, And ye'll hae drums and trumpets always at your command; And fifty men to guard ye wi', that weel their swords can draw; Sae we'll baith lie in ae bed, and ye'll lie at the wa'.'

4. 'Haud awa' frae me, kind sir, I pray lat go my hand; The supper-bell it will be rung, nae langer maun I stand. My father he'll na supper tak, gif I be miss'd awa'; Sae I'll na lie in your bed, at neither stock nor wa'.'

5. 'O my name is Captain Wedderburn, my name I'll ne'er deny, And I command ten thousand men, upo' yon mountains high. Tho' your father and his men were here, of them I'd stand na awe, But should tak ye to my ain bed, and lay ye neist the wa'.'

6. Then he lap aff his milk-white steed, and set the lady on, And a' the way he walk'd on foot, he held her by the hand; He held her by the middle jimp, for fear that she should fa'; Saying, 'I'll tak ye to my ain bed, and lay thee at the wa'.'

7. He took her to his quartering-house, his landlady looked ben, Saying, 'Monie a pretty ladie in Edinbruch I've seen; But sic 'na pretty ladie is not into it a': Gae, mak for her a fine down-bed, and lay her at the wa'.'

8. 'O haud awa' frae me, kind sir, I pray ye lat me be, For I'll na lie in your bed till I get dishes three; Dishes three maun be dress'd for me, gif I should eat them a', Before I lie in your bed, at either stock or wa'.

9. 'Tis I maun hae to my supper a chicken without a bane; And I maun hae to my supper a cherry without a stane; And I maun hae to my supper a bird without a gaw, Before I lie in your bed, at either stock or wa'.'

10. 'Whan the chicken's in the shell, I'm sure it has na bane; And whan the cherry's in the bloom, I wat it has na stane; The dove she is a genty bird, she flees without a gaw; Sae we'll baith lie in ae bed, and ye'll be at the wa'.'

11. 'O haud awa' frae me, kind sir, I pray ye give me owre, For I'll na lie in your bed, till I get presents four; Presents four ye maun gie me, and that is twa and twa, Before I lie in your bed, at either stock or wa'.

12. 'Tis I maun hae some winter fruit that in December grew, And I maun hae a silk mantil that waft gaed never through; A sparrow's horn, a priest unborn, this nicht to join us twa, Before I lie in your bed, at either stock or wa'.'

13. 'My father has some winter fruit that in December grew; My mither has a silk mantil the waft gaed never through; A sparrow's horn ye soon may find, there's ane on ev'ry claw, And twa upo' the gab o' it, and ye shall get them a'.

14. 'The priest he stands without the yett, just ready to come in; Nae man can say he e'er was born, nae man without he sin; He was haill cut frae his mither's side, and frae the same let fa': Sae we'll baith lie in ae bed, and ye'se lie at the wa'.'

15. 'O haud awa' frae me, kind sir, I pray don't me perplex, For I'll na lie in your bed till ye answer questions six: Questions six ye maun answer me, and that is four and twa, Before I lie in your bed, at either stock or wa'.

16. 'O what is greener than the gress, what's higher than thae trees? O what is worse than women's wish, what's deeper than the seas? What bird craws first, what tree buds first, what first does on them fa'? Before I lie in your bed, at either stock or wa'.'

17. 'Death is greener than the gress, heaven higher than thae trees; The devil's waur than women's wish, hell's deeper than the seas; The cock craws first, the cedar buds first, dew first on them does fa'; Sae we'll baith lie in ae bed, and ye'se lie at the wa','

18. Little did this lady think, that morning whan she raise, That this was for to be the last o' a' her maiden days. But there's na into the king's realm to be found a blither twa, And now she's Mrs. Wedderburn, and she lies at the wa'.

[Annotations: 2.4: The 'stock' of a bed is the outer side, and the 'wa'' (= wall) the inner. Ancient beds were made like boxes with the outer side cut away. 7.1: 'quartering-house,' lodging-house. 9.3: 'gaw,' gall. It is an ancient superstition that the dove or pigeon has no gall, the fact being that the gall-bladder is absent. See Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica, iii. 3. 10.3: 'genty,' neat, limber. —Jamieson. 14.1: 'yett,' gate.]



THE ELPHIN KNIGHT

The Text is from a broadside in black letter in the Pepysian Library at Cambridge; bound up at the end of a book published in 1673.

The Story of this ballad but poorly represents the complete form of the story as exhibited in many German and other ballads, where alternate bargaining and riddling ensues between a man and a maid. This long series of ballads is akin to the still longer series in which the person upon whom an impossible task is imposed is considered to have got the mastery by retaliating with another impossible task.

The opening stanzas of this ballad correspond closely with those of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight.

THE ELPHIN KNIGHT

My plaid awa, my plaid awa, And ore the hill and far awa, And far awa to Norrowa, My plaid shall not be blown awa.

1. The elphin knight sits on yon hill, Ba, ba, ba, lilli-ba He blaws his horn both lowd and shril. The wind hath blown my plaid awa

2. He blowes it east, he blowes it west, He blowes it where he lyketh best.

3. 'I wish that horn were in my kist, Yea, and the knight in my armes two.'

4. She had no sooner these words said, When that the knight came to her bed.

5. 'Thou art over young a maid,' quoth he, 'Married with me thou il wouldst be.'

6. 'I have a sister younger than I, And she was married yesterday.'

7. 'Married with me if thou wouldst be, A courtesie thou must do to me.

8. 'For thou must shape a sark to me, Without any cut or heme,' quoth he.

9. 'Thou must shape it knife-and-sheerlesse, And also sue it needle-threedlesse.'

10. 'If that piece of courtesie I do to thee, Another thou must do to me.

11. 'I have an aiker of good ley-land, Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand.

12. 'For thou must eare it with thy horn, So thou must sow it with thy corn.

13. 'And bigg a cart of stone and lyme, Robin Redbreast he must trail it hame.

14. 'Thou must barn it in a mouse-holl, And thrash it into thy shoe's soll.

15. 'And thou must winnow it in thy looff, And also seek it in thy glove.

16. 'For thou must bring it over the sea, And thou must bring it dry home to me.

17. 'When thou hast gotten thy turns well done, Then come to me and get thy sark then.'

18. 'I'll not quite my plaid for my life; It haps my seven bairns and my wife.' The wind shall not blow my plaid awa

19. 'My maidenhead I'l then keep still, Let the elphin knight do what he will.' The wind's not blown my plaid awa

[Annotations: 3.1: 'kist,' chest. 8.1: 'sark,' shirt. 12.1: 'eare,' plough. 13.1: 'bigg,' build. 15.1: 'looff,' palm. 15.2: 'seek,' sack.]



KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT

The Text here printed is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. ii. p. 302, etc. He compiled his ballad from a broadside and another copy, Kinge John and Bishoppe, that he found in his Folio MS.; and since he made it a much more readable ballad than either of his originals, it is reproduced here.

The Story.—Riddles asked by a monarch of one of his dependants, and answered by a third person assuming the guise of the person questioned, form the subject of many ancient tales. In Sacchetti's Novelle we find both the abbot and his representative, a miller, who answers Bernabo Visconti the four questions, How far is it to heaven? How much water is there in the sea? What is going on in hell? What is the value of my person? The answers to the first two of these are given simply in large numbers and Bernabo told to measure for himself if he does not believe them. The value of Bernabo's person is estimated, as in our ballad, at one piece less than our Lord.

Another favourite question in these ballads is, Where is the centre of the earth? The answer is given by the man planting his staff and saying, 'Here: prove it wrong if you can.'

In the Percy Folio version, the shepherd is the half-brother of the abbot.

KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY

1. An ancient story Ile tell you anon Of a notable prince, that was called King John; And he ruled England with maine and with might, For he did great wrong, and maintein'd little right.

2. And Ile tell you a story, a story so merrye, Concerning the Abbot of Canterburye; How for his house-keeping, and high renowne, They rode post for him to London towne.

3. An hundred men, the king did heare say, The abbot kept in his house every day; And fifty golde chaynes, without any doubt, In velvet coates waited the abbot about.

4. 'How now, father abbot, I heare it of thee, Thou keepest a far better house than mee, And for thy house-keeping and high renowne, I feare thou work'st treason against my crown.'

5. 'My liege,' quo' the abbot, 'I would it were knowne, I never spend nothing but what is my owne; And I trust, your grace will do me no deere, For spending of my owne true-gotten geere.'

6. 'Yes, yes, father abbot, thy fault it is highe, And now for the same thou needest must dye; For except thou canst answer me questions three, Thy head shall be smitten from thy bodie.

7. 'And first,' quo' the king, 'when I'm in this stead, With my crowne of golde so faire on my head, Among all my liege-men so noble of birthe Thou must tell me to one penny what I am worthe.

8. 'Secondlye, tell me, without any doubt, How soone I may ride the whole world about; And at the third question thou must not shrink, But tell me here truly what I do think.'

9. 'O, these are hard questions for my shallow witt, Nor I cannot answer your grace as yet; But if you will give me but three weekes space, Ile do my endeavour to answer your grace.'

10. 'Now three weeks space to thee will I give. And that is the longest time thou hast to live; For if thou dost not answer my questions three, Thy lands and thy livings are forfeit to mee.'

11. Away rode the abbot all sad at that word, And he rode to Cambridge, and Oxenford; But never a doctor there was so wise, That could with his learning an answer devise.

12. Then home rode the abbot of comfort so cold, And he mett his shepheard a going to fold: 'How now, my lord abbot, you are welcome home; What newes do you bring us from good king John?'

13. 'Sad newes, sad newes, shepheard, I must give; That I have but three days more to live: For if I do not answer him questions three, My head will be smitten from my bodie.

14. 'The first is to tell him there in that stead, With his crowne of golde so fair on his head, Among all his liege men so noble of birth, To within one penny of what he is worth.

15. 'The seconde, to tell him, without any doubt, How soone he may ride this whole world about: And at the third question I must not shrinke, But tell him there truly what he does thinke.'

16. 'Now cheare up, sire abbot, did you never hear yet, That a fool he may learn a wise man witt? Lend me horse, and serving-men, and your apparel. And I'll ride to London to answere your quarrel.

17. 'Nay frowne not, if it hath been told unto mee, I am like your lordship as ever may bee: And if you will but lend me your gowne, There is none shall knowe us at fair London towne.'

18. 'Now horses, and serving-men thou shalt have, With sumptuous array most gallant and brave; With crozier, and miter, and rochet, and cope, Fit to appeare 'fore our fader the pope.'

19. 'Now welcome, sire abbot,' the king he did say, ''Tis well thou'rt come back to keepe thy day; For an if thou canst answer my questions three, Thy life and thy living both saved shall be.

20. 'And first, when thou seest me here in this stead, With my crown of golde so fair on my head, Among all my liege-men so noble of birthe, Tell me to one penny what I am worth.'

21. 'For thirty pence our Saviour was sold Amonge the false Jewes, as I have bin told; And twenty nine is the worth of thee, For I thinke, thou art one penny worser than he.'

22. The king he laughed, and swore by St. Bittel, 'I did not think I had been worth so littel! —Now secondly tell me, without any doubt, How soone I may ride this whole world about.'

23. 'You must rise with the sun, and ride with the same, Until the next morning he riseth againe; And then your grace need not make any doubt, But in twenty-four hours you'll ride it about.'

24. The king he laughed, and swore by St. Jone, 'I did not think it could be gone so soone! —Now from the third question thou must not shrinke, But tell me here truly what I do thinke.'

25. 'Yea, that I shall do, and make your grace merry: You thinke I'm the abbot of Canterburye; But I'm his poor shepheard, as plain you may see, That am come to beg pardon for him and for me.'

26. The king he laughed, and swore by the masse, 'Ile make thee lord abbot this day in his place!' 'Now naye, my liege, be not in such speede, For alacke I can neither write, ne reade.'

27. 'Four nobles a weeke, then I will give thee, For this merry jest thou hast showne unto mee; And tell the old abbot when thou comest home, Thou hast brought him a pardon from good king John.'

[Annotations: 5.3: 'deere,' harm. 5.3: 'deere,' harm. 22.1: 'Meaning probably St. Botolph.' —Percy's note. But the Folio gives St. Andrew, so that it is Percy's own emendation.]



THE FAUSE KNIGHT UPON THE ROAD

The Text is taken from the Introduction to Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. lxxiv.

The Story appears to be a conversation between a wee boy and the devil, the latter under the guise of a knight. The boy will be carried off unless he can 'have the last word,' a charm of great power against all evil spirits.

A very similar ballad, of repartees between an old crone and a wee boy, was found at the Lappfiord, Finland.

THE FAUSE KNIGHT UPON THE ROAD

1. 'O whare are ye gaun?' Quo the fause knicht upon the road: 'I'm gaun to the scule,' Quo' the wee boy, and still he stude.

2. 'What is that upon your back?' 'Atweel it is my bukes.'

3. 'What's that ye've got in your arm?' 'Atweel it is my peit.'

4. 'Wha's aucht they sheep?' 'They're mine and my mither's.'

5. 'How monie o' them are mine?' 'A' they that hae blue tails.'

6. 'I wiss ye were on yon tree:' 'And a gude ladder under me.'

7. 'And the ladder for to break:' 'And you for to fa' down.'

8. 'I wiss ye were in yon sie:' 'And a gude bottom under me.'

9. 'And the bottom for to break:' 'And ye to be drowned.'

[Annotations: 2.2: 'Atweel,' = I wot well, truly. 3.2: 'peit,' peat, carried to school to contribute to the fire. 4.1: 'Wha's aucht,' who owns.]