Note 94 — 5 GIL BRENTON
Reading edition
In his note-book, p. 117, Motherwell writes, with less than his usual discretion: "The ballad of Bothwell, Cospatric, or Gil Brenton, appears to be copied from an account of the birth of Makbeth given by Wintown." The substance of this account is, that Macbeth's mother had a habit of repairing to the woods for wholesome air, and that, during one of her rambles, she fell in with a fair man, really the Devil, who passed the day with her, and got on her a son.
"And of that dede in taknyng He gave his lemman thare a ryng, And bad hyr that scho suld kepe that wele, And hald for hys luve that jwele."
Cronykil, Book VI, ch. xviii, 57-90.