Ballad Book Part 31

_Sark_, shirt. _Gin_, if. _Tyne_, p.r.o.ng. _Shear_, reap. _Bigg_, build. _Loof_, hollow of the hand. _But_ (candle, etc.), without (candle, etc.)

LADY ISOBEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT. Mainly after Buchan's version ent.i.tled _The Water o' Wearie's Well_, although it is in another version given by Buchan, under t.i.tle of _The Gowans sae Gay_, that the name of the lady is disclosed, and the elfin nature of the eccentric lover revealed. In that ballad Lady Isobel falls in love with the elf-knight on hearing him

"blawing his horn, The first morning in May,"

and this more tuneful version retains in the first two stanzas a fading trace of the fairy element and the magic music, the bird, whose song may be supposed to have caused the lady's heartache, being possibly the harper in elfin disguise. In most of the versions, however, the knight is merely a human knave, usually designated as Fause Sir John, and the lady is frequently introduced as May Colven or Colvin or Collin or Collean, though also as Pretty Polly. The story is widely circulated, appearing in the folk-songs of nearly all the nations of northern and southern Europe. It has been suggested that the popular legend may be "a wild shoot from the story of Judith and Holofernes." _Dowie_, doleful.

TOM THUMBE. After Ritson, with omissions. Ritson prints from a ma.n.u.script dated 1630, the oldest copy known to be extant, but the story itself can be traced much further back and was evidently a prime favorite with the English rustics. The plain, often doggerel verse, and the rough, often coa.r.s.e humor of this ballad make it appear at striking disadvantage among the Scottish folk-songs, essentially poetic as even the rudest of them are. Tom Thumbe, it must be confessed, is but a clumsy sort of elf, and the ballad as a whole can hardly be said to have a fairy atmosphere. Yet it is of value as adding to the data for a comparison between the English and the Scottish peasantry, as throwing light on the fun-loving spirit, the sports and practical joking of Merrie England, as showing the tenacity of the Arthurian tradition, together with the confusion of chivalric memories, as displaying the ignorant credulity of the popular mind toward science no less than toward history, and as ill.u.s.trating, by giving us in all this bald, sing-song run of verses, here and there a sweet or dainty fancy and at least one stanza of exquisite tenderness and grace, the significant fact that in the genuine old English ballads beauty is not the rule, but the surprise. _Counters_, coin-shaped pieces of metal, ivory, or wood, used in reckoning.

_Points_, here probably the bits of tin plate used to tag the strands of cotton yarn with which, in lieu of b.u.t.tons, the common folk fastened their garments. The points worn by the n.o.bles were laces or silken strands ornamented with aiglets of gold or silver.

KEMPION. After Allingham's version collated from copies given by Scott, Buchan, and Motherwell, with a touch or two from the kindred ballad _The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heugh._ Buchan and Motherwell make the name of the hero Kemp Owyne. Similar ballads are known in Iceland and Denmark, and the main features of the story appear in both the cla.s.sic and romantic literatures. _Weird_, destiny. _Dree_, suffer. _Borrowed_, ransomed. _Arblast bow_, cross-bow. _Stythe_, place. _Louted_, bowed.

ALISON GROSS. After Jamieson's version taken from the recitation of Mrs. Brown. Child claims that this tale is a variety of _Beauty and the Beast. Lemman_, lover. _Gar_, make. _Toddle_, twine. _Seely Court_, Happy Court or Fairy Court. See English Dictionary for changes of meaning in _silly_.

THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL. After Scott, with a stanza or two from Chambers, both versions being recovered by recitation. Although this is scarcely more than a fragment, it is well-nigh unsurpa.s.sed for genuine ballad beauty, the mere touches of narrative suggesting far deeper things than they actually relate. _Martinmas_, the eleventh of November. _Carline wife_, old peasant-woman. _Fashes_, troubles.

_Birk_, birch. _Syke_, marsh. _Sheugh_, trench. _Channerin'_, fretting. _Gin_, if. _Byre_, cow-house.

A LYKE-WAKE DIRGE. After Scott. This dirge belongs to the north of England and is said to have been chanted, in Yorkshire, over the dead, down to about 1624. _Lyke-Wake_, dead-watch. _Sleete_, salt, it being the old peasant custom to place a quant.i.ty of this on the breast of the dead. _Whinny-muir_, Furze-moor. A ma.n.u.script found by Ritson in the Cotton Library states: "When any dieth, certaine women sing a song to the dead bodie, recyting the journey that the partye deceased must goe; and they are of beliefe (such is their fondnesse) that once in their lives, it is good to give a pair of new shoes to a poor man, for as much as, after this life, they are to pa.s.s barefoote through a great launde, full of thornes and furzen, except by the meryte of the almes aforesaid they have redemed the forfeyte; for, at the edge of the launde, an oulde man shall meet them with the same shoes that were given by the partie when he was lyving; and, after he hath shodde them, dismisseth them to go through thick and thin, without scratch or scalle." _Brigg o' Dread_, Bridge of Dread. Descriptions of this Bridge of Dread are found in various Scottish poems, the most minute being given in the legend of _Sir Owain_. Compare the belief of the Mahometan that in his approach to the judgment-seat, he must traverse a bar of red-hot iron, stretched across a bottomless abyss, true believers being upheld by their good works, while the wicked fall headlong into the gulf.

PROUD LADY MARGARET. After Aytoun. The original versions of this ballad, as given by Scott, Buchan, Dixon, and Laing, differ widely. It is known under various t.i.tles, _The Courteous Knight_, _The Jolly Hind Squire_, _The Knicht o Archerdale_, _Fair Margret_, and _Jolly Janet_. Similar ballads are rife in France, although in these it is more frequently the ghost of a dead lady who admonishes her living lover. _Wale_, choose. _Ill-washen feet_, etc., in allusion to the custom of washing and dressing the dead for burial. _f.e.c.kless_, worthless. _Pirie's chair_ remains an unsolved riddle of the ballad, editors and commentators not being as good at guessing as the ghost.

THE TWA SISTERS O' BINNORIE. Mainly after Aytoun. There are many versions of this ballad in Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland, varying widely in t.i.tles, refrains, and indeed in everything save the main events of the story. A broadside copy appeared as early as 1656. Ballads on the same subject are very popular among the Scandinavian peoples, and traces of the story are found as far away as China and South Africa. _Twined_, parted. _Make_, mate. _Gar'd_, made. Although Lockhart would have the burden p.r.o.nounced Binno?rie, a more musical effect is secured by following Jamieson and p.r.o.nouncing Binnorie.

THE DEMON LOVER. After Scott. Buchan has a version under t.i.tle of _James Herries_, the demon being here transformed into a lover who has died abroad and comes in spirit guise to punish his "Jeanie Douglas"

for her broken vows. Motherwell gives a graphic fragment. _Ilka_, every, _Drumly_, dark. _Won_, dwell.

RIDDLES WISELY EXPOUNDED. Mainly after Motherwell. There are several broadsides, differing slightly, of this ballad. Riddling folk-songs similar to this in general features have been found among the Germans and Russians and in Gaelic literature. _Speird_, asked. Unco, uncanny.

Gin, if. Pies, magpies. Clootie, see Burus's Address to the Deil.

"O thou! whatever t.i.tle suit thee, Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie," etc.

SIR PATRICK SPENS. After Scott. There are many versions of

"The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence,"

as Coleridge so justly terms it, the fragment in the Reliques being un-surpa.s.sed among them all for poetic beauty. Herd's longer copy, like several of the others, runs song-fashion:

"They had not saild upon the sea A league but merely nine, O, When wind and weit and snaw and sleit Cam' blawin' them behin', O."

Motherwell gives the ballad in four forms, in one of them the skipper being dubbed Sir Patrick, in another Earl Patrick, in another Young Patrick, and in yet another Sir Andrew Wood. Jamieson's version puts into Sir Patrick's mouth an exclamation that reflects little credit upon his sailor character:

"O wha is this, or wha is that, Has tald the king o' me?

For I was never a gude seaman, Nor ever intend to be."

But with a few such trifling exceptions, the tone toward the skipper is universally one of earnest respect and sympathy, the keynote of every ballad being the frank, unconscious heroism of this "gude Sir Patrick Spens." In regard to the foundation for the story, Scott maintains that "the king's daughter of Noroway" was Margaret, known to history as the Maid of Norway, daughter of Eric, king of Norway, and of Margaret, daughter of Alexander III. of Scotland. This last-named monarch died in 1285, the Maid of Norway, his yellow-haired little granddaughter, being the heiress to his crown. The Maid of Norway died, however, before she was of age to a.s.sume control of her turbulent Scottish kingdom. Scott surmises, on the authority of the ballad, that Alexander, desiring to have the little princess reared in the country she was to rule, sent this expedition for her during his life-time. No record of such a voyage is extant, although possibly the presence of the king is a bold example of poetic license, and the reference is to an earlier and more disastrous emba.s.sy than that finally sent by the Regency of Scotland, after Alexander's death, to their young queen, Sir Michael Scott of wizard fame being at that time one of the amba.s.sadors. Finlay, on the other hand, places this ballad in the days of James III., who married Margaret of Denmark. Here we have historic testimony of the voyage, but none of the shipwreck,--yet against any one of these theories the natural objection is brought that so lamentable a disaster, involving so many n.o.bles of the realm, would hardly be suffered to escape the pen of the chronicler.

Motherwell, Maidment, and Aytoun, relying on a corroborative pa.s.sage in Fordun's _Scotichronicon_, hold with good appearance of reason that the ballad pictures what is known as an actual shipwreck, on the return from Norway of those Scottish lords who had escorted thither the bride of Eric, the elder Margaret, afterward mother of the little Maid of Norway. The ballad itself well bears out this theory, especially in the taunt flung at the Scottish gallants for lingering too long in nuptial festivities on the inhospitable Norwegian coast.

The date of this marriage was 1281. _Skeely_, skilful. _Gane_, sufficed. _Half-fou_, half-bushel. _Gurly_, stormy.

THE BATTE OF OTTERBURNE. After Scott. There are several Scottish versions of this spirit-stirring ballad, and also an English version, first printed in the fourth edition of the _Reliques_. The English ballad, naturally enough, dwells more on the prowess of Percy and his countrymen in the combat than on their final discomfiture. A vivid account of the battle of Otterburne may be found in Froissart's _Chronicles_. In brief, it was a terrible slaughter brought about by the eager pride and ambition of those two hot-blooded young chieftains, James, Earl of Douglas, and the redoubtable Harry Percy.

Yet the generosity of the leaders and the devoted loyalty of their men throw a moral splendor over the scene of bloodshed. In the year 1388 Douglas, at the head of three thousand Scottish spears, made a raid into Northumberland and, before the walls of Newcastle, engaged Percy in single combat, capturing his lance with the attached pennon.

Douglas retired in triumph, brandishing his trophy, but Hotspur, burning with shame, hurriedly mustered the full force of the Marches and, following hard upon the Scottish rear, made a night attack upon the camp of Douglas at Otterbnrne, about twenty miles from the frontier. Then ensued a moonlight battle, gallant and desperate, fought on either side with unflinching bravery, and ending in the defeat of the English, Percy being taken prisoner. But the Scots bought their glory dear by the loss of their n.o.ble leader, who, when the English troops, superior in number, were gaining ground, dashed forward with impetuous courage, cheering on his men, and cleared a way with his swinging battle-axe into the heart of the enemy's ranks.

Struck down by three mortal wounds, he died in the midst of the fray, urging with his failing breath these last requests upon the little guard of kinsmen who pressed about him: "First, that yee keep my death close both from our owne folke and from the enemy; then, that ye suffer not my standard to be lost or cast downe; and last, that ye avenge my death, and bury me at Melrosse with my father. If I could hope for these things," he added, "I should die with the greater contentment; for long since I heard a prophesie that a dead man should winne a field, and I hope in G.o.d it shall be I." Lammas-tide, the first of August. Muirmen, moorinen. Harried, plundered. The tane, the one. Fell, skin. (The inference is that Percy was rescued by his men.) _Gin_, if. _Burn_, brook. _Kale_, broth. _Fend_, sustain. _Bent_, open field. _Pet.i.tions_, tents (pavilions). _Branking_, prancing.

_Wargangs_, wagons. _Ayont_, beyond. _Hewmont_, helmet. _Smakkit_, smote. _Bracken_, fern.

THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT. After Hearne, who first printed it from a ma.n.u.script in the Ashmolean collection at Oxford. It was next printed in the Reliques, under t.i.tle of Chevy-Chase,--a t.i.tle now reserved for the later and inferior broadside version which was singularly popular throughout the seventeenth century and is still better known than this far more spirited original. "With regard to the subject of this ballad,"--to quote from Bishop Percy,--"although it has no countenance from history, there is room to think it had originally some foundation in fact. It was one of the laws of the Marches, frequently renewed between the nations, that neither party should hunt in the other's borders, without leave from the proprietors or their deputies. There had long been a rivalship between the two martial families of Percy and Douglas, which, heightened by the national quarrel, must have produced frequent challenges and struggles for superiority, petty invasions of their respective domains, and sharp contests for the point of honour; which would not always be recorded in history.

Something of this kind, we may suppose, gave rise to the ancient ballad of the Hunting o' the Cheviat. Percy, Earl of Northumberland, had vowed to hunt for three days in the Scottish border, without condescending to ask leave from Earl Douglas, who was either lord of the soil, or lord warden of the Marches. Douglas would not fail to resent the insult, and endeavour to repel the intruders by force; this would naturally produce a sharp conflict between the two parties; something of which, it is probable, did really happen, though not attended with the tragical circ.u.mstances recorded in the ballad: for these are evidently borrowed from the Battle of Otterbourn, a very different event, but which aftertimes would easily confound with it."

The date of the ballad cannot, of course, be strictly ascertained. It was considered old in the middle of the sixteenth century, being mentioned in _The Complaynt of Scotland_ (1548) among the "sangis of natural music of the antiquite." Not much can be said for its "natural music," yet despite its roughness of form and enviable inconsistencies of spelling, it has always found grace with the poets.

Rare Ben Jonson used to say that he would rather have been the author of _Chevy Chase_ than of all his works; Addison honored the broadside version with two critiques in the _Spectator_; and Sir Philip Sidney, though lamenting that the ballad should be "so evil apparrelled in the dust and cobwebs of that uncivill age," breaks out with the ingenuous confession: "I never heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas that I found not my heart mooved more then with a trumpet, and yet is it sung but by some blinde crouder, with no rougher voice then rude stile."

Mauger, despite. _Let_, hinder. _Meany_, company. _Shyars_, shires. _Bomen_, bowmen. _Byckarte_, moved quickly, rattling their weapons. _Bent_, open field. _Aras_, arrows. _Wyld_, wild creatures, as deer. _Shear_, swiftly. _Grevis_, groves. _Glent_, glanced, flashed by. _Oware off none_, hour of noon. _Mart_, death-signal (as used in hunting.) _Quyrry_, quarry, slaughtered game. _Bryttlynge_, cutting up. _Wyste_, knew. _Byll and brande_, axe and sword. _Glede_, live coal. _The ton_, the one. _Yerle_, earl. _Cars_, curse. _Nam_, name.

_Wat_, wot, know. _Sloughe_, slew. _Byddys_, abides. _Wouche_, injury.

_Ost_, host. _Suar_, sure. _Many a doughete the garde to dy_, many a doughty (knight) they caused to die. _Basnites_, small helmets.

_Myneyeple_, maniple (of many folds), a coat worn under the armor.

_Freyke_, warrior. _Swapte_, smote. _Myllan_, Milan. _Hight_, promise. _Spendyd_, grasped (spanned). _Corsiare_, courser. _Blane_, halted. _Dynte_, stroke. _Halyde_, hauled. _Stour_, press of battle.

_Dre_, endure. _Hinde_, gentle. _Hewyne in to_, hewn in two. _The mayde them byears_, they made them biers. _Makys_, mates. _Carpe off care_, tell of sorrow. _March perti_, the Border district.

_Lyff-tenant_, lieutenant. _Weal_, clasp. _Brook_, enjoy. _Quyte_, avenged. _That tear begane this spurn_, that wrong caused this retaliation. _Reane_, rain. _Ballys bete_, sorrows amend.

EDOM O' GORDON. After Aytoun. This ballad was first printed at Glasgow, 1755, as taken down by Sir David Dalrymple "from the recitation of a lady," and was afterwards inserted--"interpolated and corrupted," says the unappeasable Ritson--in Percy's _Reliques_.

Ritson himself published a genuine and ancient copy from a ma.n.u.script belonging apparently to the last quarter of the sixteenth century and preserved in the Cotton Library. The ballad is known under two other t.i.tles, _Captain Car_ and _The Burning o' London Castle._ Notwithstanding this inexact.i.tude in names, the ballad has an historical basis. In 1571 Adam Gordon, deputy-lieutenant of the North of Scotland for Queen Mary, was engaged in a struggle against the clan Forbes, who upheld the Reformed Faith and the King's party. Gordon was successful in two sharp encounters, but "what glory and renown he obtained of these two victories," says the contemporary History of King James the Sixth, "was all cast down by the infamy of his next attempt; for immediately after this last conflict he directed his soldiers to the castle of Towie, desiring the house to be rendered to him in the Queen's name; which was obstinately refused by the lady, and she burst forth with certain injurious words. And the soldiers being impatient, by command of their leader, Captain Ker, fire was put to the house, wherein she and the number of twenty-seven persons were cruelly burnt to the death."

_Martinmas_, the eleventh of November. _Hauld_, stronghold. _Toun_, enclosed place. _Buskit_, made ready. _Light_, alighted. _But and_, and also. _Dree_, suffer. _But an_, unless. _Wude_, mad. _Dule_, pain. _Reek_, smoke. _Nourice_, nurse. _Jimp_, slender. _Row_, roll. _Tow_, throw. _Busk and boun_, up and away. _Freits_, ill omens. _Lowe_, blaze. _Wichty_, st.u.r.dy. _Bent_, field. _Teenfu'_, sorrowful. _Wroken_, avenged.

KINMONT WILLIE. After Scott. This dashing ballad appeared for the first time in the Border Minstrelsy, having been "preserved by tradition," says Scott, "on the West Borders, but much mangled by reciters, so that some conjectural emendations have been absolutely necessary to render it intelligible." The facts in the case seem to be that in 1596 Salkeld, deputy of Lord Scroope, English Warden of the West Marches, and Robert Scott, for the Laird of Buccleuch, Keeper of Liddesdale, met on the border line for conference in the interest of the public weal. The truce, that on such occasions extended from the day of the meeting to the next day at sunset, was this time violated by a party of English soldiers, who seized upon William Armstrong of Kinmonth, a notorious freebooter, as he, attended by but three or four men, was returning from the conference; and lodged him in Carlisle Castle. The Laird of Buccleuch, after treating in vain for his release, raised two hundred horse, surprised the castle and carried off the prisoner without further ceremony. This exploit the haughty Queen of England "esteemed a great affront" and "stormed not a little"

against the "bauld Buccleuch." _Haribee_, the place of execution at Carlisle. _Liddel-rack_, a ford on the Liddel. _Reiver_, robber.

_Hostelrie_, inn. _Lawing_, reckoning. _Garr'd_, made. _Basnet_, helmet. _Curch_, cap. _Lightly_, set light by. _Low_, blaze. _Splent on spauld_, armor on shoulder. _Woodhouselee_, a house belonging to Buccleuch, on the Border. _Herry_, harry, spoil. _Corbie_, crow.

_Wons_, dwells. _Lear_, lore. _Row-footed_, rough-footed(?). _Spait_, flood. _Garr'd_, made. _Stear_, stir. _Coulters_, ploughshares.

_Forehammers_, the large hammers that strike before the small, sledgehammers. _Fley'd_, frightened. _Spier_, inquire. _Hente_, caught. _Maill_, rent. _Airns_, irons. _Wood_, mad. _Furs_, furrows. _Trew_, trust.

KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY. After Percy, who printed from an ancient black-letter copy. There are three other broadside versions of this popular ballad extant, and at least one older version has been lost. Similar riddle-stories are to be found in almost all European literatures. There is nothing in this ballad save the name of King John, with his reputation for unjust and high-handed dealing, that can be called traditional. _Deere_, harm. _Stead_, place. _St. Bittel_, St. Botolph(?).

ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE WIDOW'S THREE SONS. After Ritson, who has collected in two volumes the ballads of Robin Hood. This is believed to be one of the oldest of them all. A concise introduction to the Robin Hood ballads is given by Mr. Hales in the _Percy Folio MS_.

vol. i. This legendary king of Sherwood Forest is more rightfully the hero of English song than his splendid rival, the Keltic King Arthur,

"whose name, a ghost, Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain peak, And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still."