Part 2 — 27 THE WHUMMIL BORE
Reading edition
a. Motherwell's MS., p. 191. b. Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xvi, No III.
This ballad, if it ever were one, seems not to have been met with, or at least to have been thought worth notice, by anybody but Motherwell. As already observed in the preface to 'Hind Horn,' stanza 2 seems to have slipped into that ballad, in consequence of the resemblance of stanza 1 to F 2, H 3 of 'Hind Horn.' This first stanza is, however, a commonplace in English and elsewhere: e. g., 'The Squire of Low Degree:'
He served the kyng, her father dere, Fully the tyme of seven yere. vv 5, 6. He loved her more then seven yere, Yet was he of her love never the nere. vv 17, 18.
Ritson, Met. Rom. III, 145 f.
1 Seven lang years I hae served the king, Fa fa fa fa lilly And I never got a sight of his daughter but ane. With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle, Lillum too tee a ta too a tee a ta a tally 2 I saw her thro a whummil bore, And I neer got a sight of her no more. 3 Twa was putting on her gown, And ten was putting pins therein. 4 Twa was putting on her shoon, And twa was buckling them again. 5 Five was combing down her hair, And I never got a sight of her nae mair. 6 Her neck and breast was like the snow, Then from the bore I was forced to go.
a.
22. Variation: And she was washing in a pond.
62. Variation: Ye might have tied me with a strae.
b.
Burden:
Fa, fa, falilly With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle, Lillum too a tee too a tally.