The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 3 (of 5)

Volume 3 — ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS

Reading edition

VOL. I.

1. Riddles Wisely Expounded.

P. 1 a. Guess or die. A grim kemp, an unco knicht, asks nine riddles of a young man; all are guessed; wherefore the kemp says it shall go well with him. Kristensen, Skattegraveren, II, 97 ff., 154 f., Nos 457, 458, 724; V, 49, No 454.

2. The Elfin Knight.

P. 6. Nigra, No 118, p. 483, ‘Che mestiere è il vostro?’ A sempstress to make a shirt without stitch or seam; a mason to make a room without bricks and mortar.

7 b, second paragraph. Add: ‘Store Fordringer,’ Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 8, No 6.

3. The Fause Knight upon the Road.

P. 20. ‘Kall og svein ungi,’ Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, p. 283, No 36 (three versions), is another piece of this kind. The boat is in all the copies, Scottish, Swedish, and Färöe.

M. Gaidoz, Mélusine, IV, 207, cites a passage from Plutarch’s life of Numa, c. 15, which is curiously like this ballad. The question being what is the proper expiatory sacrifice when divine displeasure has been indicated by thunderbolts, Zeus instructs Numa that it must be made with heads. Onions’? interposes Numa. With men’s—says Zeus. Hairs? suggests Numa. With LIVE—says Zeus. Sardines? puts in Numa.

4. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight.

P. 22. E is given from singing and recitation in Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1883–86, p. 548.

Mr W. H. Babcock has recently printed the following version, as sung in a Virginian family from “the corner between the Potomac and the Blue Ridge:” The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 28.

WILSON.

Wilson, sitting in his room one day,

With his true-love on his knee,

Just as happy as happy could be, be, be,

Just as happy as happy could be,

‘Do you want for fee?’ said she,

‘Or do you want for gold?

Or do you want a handsome ladye,

More handsomer than me?’

‘I do want for fee,’ said he,

‘And I do want for gold;

But I don’t want a handsomer ladye,

More handsomer than thee.

‘Go get some of your father’s fee,

And some of your father’s gold,

And two of the finest horses he has,

And married we will be, be, be,

And married we will be.’

She mounted on the milk-white steed,

And he the iron-grey,

And when they got to the broad waterside

It was six hours and a half till day.

‘Get down, get down! my pretty fair maid,

Get down, get down!’ said he;

‘For it’s nine of the king’s daughters I’ve drowned here,

And the tenth one you shall be.

‘Take off, take off that costly silk,

For it is a costly thing;

It cost your father too much bright gold

To drown your fair body in.

‘In stooping down to cut the cords round,

Sing, Turn your back on me;’

And with all the strength this lady had,

She pushed him right into the sea.

‘Help me out! my pretty fair miss,

O help me out!’ said he,

‘And we’ll go down to the Catholic church,

And married we will be.’

‘Lie there, lie there! you false-hearted man,

Lie there, lie there!’ said she,

‘For it’s nine of the king’s daughters you’ve drowned here,

But the tenth one’s drowned thee.’

She mounted on the milk-white steed,

And led the iron-grey,

And when she got to her own father’s house

It was three hours and a half till day.

49712

While she was walking in the room,

Which caused the parrot to wake,

Said he, What’s the matter, my pretty fair miss,

That you’re up so long before day?

‘Hush up, hush up! my pretty little parrot,

Don’t tell no tales on me;

Your cage shall be lined with sweet may gold,

And the doors of ivorie.’

While they were talking all of this,

Which caused the old man to wake,

Said, What’s the matter, my pretty little parrot,

That you chatter so long before day?

‘The cat she sprung against my cage,

And surely frightened me,

And I called for the pretty fair miss

To drive the cat away.’

(1 lacks the third verse; in 2^1,2, 3^1,2, 4^1,2, fee and gold should be exchanged; in 12², 14², wake should perhaps be say.)

26 b. Add these Danish copies: Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 210 ff., Nos 1198, 1199. (Some stanzas of ‘Kvindemorderen’ are inserted in No 932, III, 177.)

29, 34 f. O, P. O is repeated in Lütolf, Sagen, Bräuche u. Legenden, u. s. w., p. 71, No 29, ‘Schön Anneli;’ P in Kurz, Aeltere Dichter, u. s. w., der Schweizer, I, 117. ‘Schön Anneli,’ Töbler, Schweizerische Volkslieder, II, 170, No 6, is an edited copy, mainly O, with use of P.

42. A variety of A in Revue des Traditions populaires, II, 293, communicated by A. Gittée, Chanson wallonne, de Bliquy, environs d’Ath.

42 f. A robber has his hand cut off by a girl. Later he marries her. The day after the marriage they go on horseback to see his relations. On coming to a wood he says, Do you remember the night when you cut off my hand? It is now my turn. He orders her to strip, threatening her with his dagger. When she is in her shift, she begs him to turn away his eyes, seizes the dagger, and cuts his throat. ‘Le Voleur des Crêpes,’ Sébillot, Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 341, No 62. (G. L. K.)

43 b. ‘La Fille de Saint-Martin,’ etc. Add: Roland, II, 171, obtained by Nérée Quépat.

44 a. Nigra, Canti popolari del Piemonte, 1888, p. 90 ff., No 13, ‘Un’ Eroina,’ gives five unpublished versions (B-F), ‘La Monferrina,’ D, being A of this large and beautiful collection.

Add also: Giannini, Canti p. della Montagna Lucchese, 1889, p. 143, ‘La Liberatrice;’ Finamore, Storie p. abruzzesi, in Archivio, I, 207, ‘Lu Pringepe de Meláne.’

44 b. ‘Il Corsaro,’ in Nigra’s collection, No 14, p. 106 ff., with the addition of another version. For ‘La Monferrina incontaminata,’ see Nigra again, ‘La Fuga,’ No 15, pp. 111 ff.; Finamore, in Archivio, I, 87, ‘La Fandell’ e lu Cavaljiere’ (mixed).

Spanish, Nos 38–41, ‘Venganza de Honor,’ No 42, ‘La Hija de la Viudina,’ Pidal, Asturian Romances, have the incident of the girl’s killing with his own sword or dagger a caballero who offers her violence. The weapon is dropped in the course of a struggle in all but No 40; in this the damsel says, Give me your sword, and see how I would wear it.

It is a commonplace for a pair on horseback to go a long way without speaking. So Pidal, pp. 114, 115, 130, 133, 135, 159:

Siete leguas anduvieron

sin hablar una palabra.

60 a. A. Burden. The song in the Tea-Table Miscellany and the music are found in John Squair’s MS., fol. 22, Laing collection, library of the University of Edinburgh, handwriting about 1700. (W. Macmath.)

5. Gil Brenton.

P. 65 b. A ballad from Normandy, published by Legrand, Romania, X, 367, III, which I am surprised to find that I have not mentioned, is a very interesting variety of ‘Gil Brenton,’ more particularly of the Danish ‘Peder og Malfred.’ It has the attempt at substitution (a sister); the wife acknowledges that she had been forced (par ses laquais les bras il me bandit); the husband reveals, and proves, that he was the ravisher. The beginning of the Norman ballad, which is lost, would probably have had the feature of the information given the husband by the shepherdess. Another French ballad, corrupted (environs de Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine), has this and the attempt to pass off the sister; the husband kills his wife. Music is ordered in the last stanza. Rolland, IV, 70. An Italian and a Breton ballad which begin like the Danish, but proceed differently, are spoken of under ‘Fair Janet,’ No 64, II, 102 f.. See now Nigra’s ‘Fidanzata infedele’ in his collection, No 34, p. 197.

6. Willie’s Lady.

P. 82. ‘Hustru og mands moder,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 73, No 436, VII, 97, No 651; ‘Barselkvinden,’ the same, II, 10, No 7. (The tale, p. 83 b, is reprinted by inadvertence, I, 73, No 234.)

7. Earl Brand.

P. 88 a. B. “The copy principally used in this edition of the ballad was supplied by Mr Sharpe.” Scott. “The Douglas Tragedy was taught me by a nurserymaid, and was so great a favorite that I committed it to paper as soon as I was able to write.” Sharpe’s 498Letters, ed. Allardyce, I, 135, August 5, 1802. Sharpe was born in 1781.

88 b. ‘Hr. Kibolt,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VI, 17, No 257, is a good copy of ‘Ribold og Guldborg.’ It has the testaments at the end, like several others (see I, 144 b).

89–91 a. ‘Stolt Hedelil,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 68, No 231, is another version of ‘Hildebrand og Hilde,’ closely resembling G. So is ‘Den mislykkede flugt,’ the same, VIII, 17, No 24, with the proper tragic conclusion. Both are inferior copies.

92 a and 489 b. Add: K, ‘Kung Vallemo ock liten Kerstin,’ Bergström ock Nordlander, Nyare Bidrag, o. s. v., p. 101.

95 b, 96, 489. I have omitted to mention the effect of naming on ‘Clootie’ in No 1, C 19, I, 5:

As sune as she the fiend did name,

He flew awa in a blazing flame.

The Alpthier loses its power to harm and appears in its proper shape, as this or that person, if called by name: Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, 2d ed., p. 257. Were-wolves appear in their proper human shape on being addressed by their name: Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf, pp. 61, 84, Ulrich Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern u. Rügen, pp. 386–7. An enchanted prince is freed when his name is pronounced: Meier, No 53, p. 188 and n., p. 311. “There was in the engagement a man [on the side of Hades] who could not be vanquished unless his name could be discovered:” Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, I, 167, as quoted by Rhys, Celtic Mythology, Hibbert Lectures, p. 244. (G. L. K.)

96 ff., 489, II, 498. Plants from lovers’ graves.

Add: Portuguese, Roméro, II, 157, two pines.

Italian, Nigra, No 18, ‘Le due Tombe,’ p. 125 ff.

A. The lovers are buried apart, one in the church, one outside, a pomegranate springs from the man’s grave, an almond-tree from the maid’s; they grow large enough to shade three cities! B. A pomegranate is planted on the man’s grave, a hazel on the maid’s; they shade the city, and interlock. C. An almond-tree is planted on the maid’s grave, and is cut down. D. The lovers are buried as in A (and C), an almond-tree grows from the grave of the man, a jessamine from the maid’s. See also No 19, ‘Fior di Tomba,’ where, however, there is but one grave, which is to contain the maid’s parents as well as her lover. The same phenomenon in the fragments E, F. ‘Il Castello d’Oviglio,’ Ferraro, Canti p. monferrini, No 45, p. 64, is another version of this ballad. A pomegranate springs up at the maid’s feet, and shades three cities. Cf. ‘La Mort des deux Amants,’ Rolland, I, 247, No 125.

Roumanian. ‘Ring and Handkerchief’ also in Marienescu, Balade, p. 50: cited in Mélusine, IV. 142.

97 b and 489 f., II, 498 a. Bulgarian, Miladinof, Bùlgarski narodni pěsni, p. 455, No 497, translated by Krauss, Sagen u. Märchen der Südslaven, II, 427; the youth as rose-tree, the maid as grape-vine. Cited by G. Meyer in Mélusine, IV, 87. Little-Russian, plane-trees of the two sexes; cited by J. Karlowicz, ib., 87 f. Ruthenian (mother attempting to poison her son’s wife poisons both wife and son), Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen, 205 f.; buried on different sides of the church, plants meet over the roof of the church, the mother tries to cut them down, and while so engaged is turned into a pillar.

Servian. Vuk, I, No 342, II, No 30; youth, pine, maid, grape-vine. Krasić, p. 105, No 21, p. 114, No 26; vine and pine, vine twines round pine. Bulgarian, Miladinof, p. 375, No 288, rose and vine. Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 147, No 444, grape-vine and rose; No 445, youth behind the church, maid before, grape-vine and rose; p. 154, No 454, rosemary and a white flower (aleluja?). (W. W.)

Breton. Mélusine, III, 453 f. A tree springs from over the young man’s heart (but this is an insertion, and not quite beyond suspicion), a rose from the maid’s. There is another version of the ballad at p. 182 f., in which une fleur dorée grows over the man’s grave, nothing being said of his mistress’s grave, or even of her death.

Italo-Albanian. Also in Vigo, Canti p. siciliani, 1857, p. 345, V, and the edition of 1870–74, p. 698: cited in Mélusine, IV, 87.

Gaelic. Of Naisi (Naois) and Deirdre. King Conor caused them to be buried far apart, but for some days the graves would be found open in the morning and the lovers found together. The king ordered stakes of yew to be driven through the bodies, so that they might be kept asunder. Yew trees grew from the stakes, and so high as to embrace each other over the cathedral of Armagh. Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, I, 133, 1808.

In a Scotch-Gaelic version recently obtained, after Naois is put into his grave, Deirdre jumps in, lies down by his side and dies. The bad king orders her body to be taken out and buried on the other side of a loch. Firs shoot out of the two graves and unite over the loch. The king has the trees cut down twice, but the third time his wife makes him desist from his vengeance on the dead. The original in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XIII, 257; a translation in The Celtic Magazine, XIII, 138. (All of these cited by Gaidoz, Mélusine, IV, 12, and 62, note.)

8. Erlinton.

107 b, and also No 53, ‘Young Beichan,’ I, 463 b. For the Magyar ballads of Szilágyi and Hagymási, see Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen, cols 65–66; also col. 215. (A Transylvanian-Saxon ballad, a Roumanian tale, and a Transylvanian-Gipsy ballad, which follow, are of more or less questionable authenticity: Herrmann, col. 216.)

499109. C, as well as ‘Robin Hood and the Pedlars,’ III, 170, are found in a manuscript pretended to be of about 1650, but are written in a forged hand of this century. I do not feel certain that the ballads themselves, bad as they are, are forgeries, and accordingly give the variations of Gutch’s Robin Hood from the manuscript, not regarding spelling.

3². hold good.

3⁴. thou will.

7¹. thus he.

10¹. Thorough: I run.

11¹. [kine?]

16³. while.

19¹. Ile.

21³. he lent.

24³. be not.

25³. eldest.

28¹. leant.

29². wield. No “Finis” at the end.

9. The Fair Flower of Northumberland.

P. 113. The Servian hero Marko Kraljević is guilty of the same ingratitude. The daughter of the Moorish king releases him from a long captivity and makes him rich gifts. He promises to marry her and they go off together. During a halt the princess embraces him, and he finds her black face and white teeth so repulsive that he strikes off her head. He seeks to atone for his sin by pious foundations. Servian, Vuk, II, No 44 [Bowring, p. 86]; Croat, Bogišić, p. 16; Bulgarian, Miladinof, No 54, Kačanofskij, No 132. (W. W.)

10. The Twa Sisters.

P. 119. A Danish fragment of nine stanzas in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, IV, 161, No 509.

119 b. Three copies of the Swedish ballad are printed by Wahlfisk, Bidrag till Södermanlands äldere Kulturhistoria, No VI, p. 33 f.

124 b, 493 b, II, 498 b.

Rudchenko, South Russian Popular Tales, I, No 55: murder of brother revealed by a flute made from a reed that grows from his grave (No 56, flute from a willow). II, No 14, murder of a boy killed and eaten by his parents revealed by a bird that rises from his bones. (W. W.)

In a Flemish tale reported in the Revue des Traditions populaires, II, 125, Janneken is killed by Milken for the sake of a golden basket. The murder is disclosed by a singing rose. In ‘Les Roseaux qui chantent’ a sister kills her brother in a dispute over a bush covered with pain-prunelle. Roses grow from his grave. A shepherd, hearing them sing, cuts a stem of the rose-bush and whistles in it. The usual words follow. Revue des Traditions populaires, II, 365 ff.; cf. Sébillot’s long note, p. 366 ff. Das Flötenrohr (two prose versions), U. Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen, No 510, pp. 399–401. (G. L. K.)

11. The Cruel Brother.

Pp. 142 b, 496 a. ‘Rizzardo bello,’ E, ‘Ruggiero,’ in Mazzatinti, Canti p. umbri, p. 286, Bologna, 1883.

143 b. ‘Hr. Adelbrant og jomfru Lindelil,’ with a testament, again in Skattegraveren, I, 5, No I, and V, 17, No 12.

144 a, 496 b. Testaments. A wife who has been gone from home in pursuit of her pleasure is so beaten by her husband on her return that she dies. She leaves valuable legacies to her children and a rope to him. Nigra, No 25, ‘Testamento della Moglie,’ p. 159.

144 b. ‘Rævens Arvegods,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, II, 192 ff, Nos 774–78, and VIII, 209, No 810.

12. Lord Randal.

Pp. 152, 498. Italian. Add G, H, I, Nigra, No 26, A, B, C, ‘Testamento dell’ Avvelenato.’ J. ‘L’Amante avvelenato,’ Giannini, No 27, p. 199. K. ‘Mamma e Figghiolo,’ Nerucci, in Archivio, II, 526.

154 b, 498 b. ‘A megetétt János’ in Arany and Gyulai, III, 7, Kriza.

156 a. ‘Donna Lombarda’ is now No 1 of Nigra’s collection, where it is given in sixteen versions.

156 b, 499 a, II, 499 a. Slavic ballads of the sister that poisons her brother, etc. Add: Servian, Rajkowić, No 251. Compare, Bulgarian, Miladinof, No 262; Croat, Mažuranić, p. 152, Sammlung der Zeitschrift ‘Naša Sloga,’ II, No 158; Slovenian, Koritko, IV, No 47.—In Golovatsky, II, 584, a mother asks her son whether he supped with the widow. He supped with her, the witch. What did she cook for him? A small fish. Where did she catch it, dress it? Did she eat any of it? No, her head ached. Did the children? No, they went to bed.—In Verković, No 317, p. 350, the fair Stana is poisoned by her husband’s parents with a snake given as a fish. (W. W.)

A Ruthenian ballad of a mother attempting to poison her son’s wife, and poisoning the pair, Herrmann, in Ethnologische Mittheilungen, col. 205 f.

A Slovak ballad of this sort in Kollár, Narodnie Zpiewanky, II, 32, translated by Herrmann, 91 f., No 3; and another version of the same col. 204 f., No 7. Roumanian versions, cols 206, 207 f., 209 f., Nos 9, 10, 12, the last with another story prefixed. See also Herrmann, col. 90, No 1, 92 f., Nos 4, 5, 208 f., No 11, for poisoning-ballads, and his references at the top of col. 211.

13. Edward.

Pp. 167 b, 501 b. Another copy of ‘Sven i Rosengård,’ F, is printed by Aminson in Bidrag till Södermanlands äldere Kulturhistoria, No V, p. 12, eleven stanzas. The swain has killed his sister.

168 b. Danish. Four concluding stanzas (When?) in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 100, No 459.

14. Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie.

P. 170. Add:

500 F

“In Gipsy Tents,” by Francis Hindes Groome, p. 143.

There were three sisters going from home,

All in a lea and alony, oh

They met a man, and he made them stand,

Down by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh.

He took the first one by the hand,

He turned her round, and he made her stand.

Saying, Will you be a robber’s wife?

Or will you die by my penknife?

‘Oh, I wont be a robber’s wife,

But I will die by your penknife.’

Then he took the second by her hand,

He turned her round, and he made her stand.

Saying, Will you be a robber’s wife?

Or will you die by my penknife?

‘Oh, I wont be a robber’s wife,

But I will die by your penknife.’

He took the third one by the hand,

He turned her round, and he made her stand.

Saying, Will you be a robber’s wife?

Or will you die by my penknife?

‘Oh, I wont be a robber’s wife,

And I wont die by your penknife.

‘If my two brothers had been here,

You would not have killed my sisters two.’

‘What was your two brothers’ names?’

‘One was John, and the other was James.’

‘Oh, what did your two brothers do?’

‘One was a minister, the other such as you.’

‘Oh, what is this that I have done?

I have killed my sisters, all but one.

‘And now I’ll take out my penknife,

And here I’ll end my own sweet life.’

P. 173, II, 499. Add to the French ballad: ‘Le Passage du Bois,’ V. Smith, Chants p. du Velay et du Forez, Romania, X, 205; ‘La Doulento,’ Arbaud, I, 120; Poésies p. de la France, MS., IV, fol. 442, printed in Rolland, III, 55. With these belong ‘La Ragazza assassinata,’ Nigra, No 12, three versions, p. 85 ff.; ‘La Vergine uccisa,’ Ferraro, Canti p. monferrini, p. 17.

15. Leesome Brand.

P. 179 a. Danish, II. ‘Rosenelle og hr. Agervold,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 65, No 230, is an important variety of Redselille og Medelvold. Another version, III, 82, No 260, ‘Rosenelle og hr. Medervold.’ In both of these the knight is the lady’s brother.

Swedish, II. A copy of ‘Lilla Lisa och Herr Nedervall’ is printed by Aminson, Bidrag, o. s. v., No 5, p. 17.

16. Sheath and Knife.

P. 185. Mr Macmath has found the following ballad in Motherwell’s handwriting, on a half-sheet of paper. It is not completely intelligible (why should Lady Ann be left in the death-throe, to bury herself?), but undoubtedly belongs here. The first stanza agrees with D.

E

One king’s daughter said to anither,

Brume blumes bonnie and grows sae fair

‘We’ll gae ride like sister and brither.’

And we’ll neer gae down to the brume nae mair

‘We’ll ride doun into yonder valley,

Whare the greene green trees are budding sae gaily.

‘Wi hawke and hounde we will hunt sae rarely,

And we’ll come back in the morning early.’

They rade on like sister and brither,

And they hunted and hawket in the valley thegether.

‘Now, lady, hauld my horse and my hawk,

For I maun na ride, and I downa walk.

‘But set me doun be the rute o this tree,

For there hae I dreamt that my bed sall be.’

The ae king’s dochter did lift doun the ither,

And she was licht in her armis like ony fether.

Bonnie Lady Ann sat doun be the tree,

And a wide grave was houkit whare nane suld be.

5019

The hawk had nae lure, and the horse had nae master,

And the faithless hounds thro the woods ran faster.

The one king’s dochter has ridden awa,

But bonnie Lady Ann lay in the deed-thraw.

Some words are difficult to read.

2. sae wanting in burden 1.

3¹. hunt? growis fair in burden 1.

5¹. Originally Oh hauld my bridle and stirrup. Ann, or come, is written over Oh.

9². faithless?

The lost knife here in A 8–10, B 5, and in ‘Leesome Brand,’ No 15, 36–41, appears in ‘The Squire of Low Degree,’ Percy Folio, III, 267, vv. 117–126 (not in the version printed by Ritson and by Hazlitt).

‘Daughter,’ he sais, ‘ffor whose sake

Is that sorrow that still thou makes?’

‘Ffather,’ shee sais, ’as I doe see,

Itt is ffor no man in Christentye;

Ffather,’ shee sayes, ’as I doe thriue,

Itt is ffor noe man this day aliue.

Ffor yesterday I lost my kniffe;

Much rather had I haue lost my liffe!’

‘My daughter,’ he sayes, ‘if itt be but a blade,

I can gett another as good made.’

‘Ffather,’ shee sais, ‘there is neuer a smith but one

That [can] smith you such a one.’

(G. L. K.)

17. Hind Horn.

P. 193 (2). ‘Hr. Lovmand’ in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, VIII, 49, No 115.

194 ff., 502 f., II, 499 b.

According to a Devonshire tradition given by Mrs Bray, Traditions of Devonshire, II, 172 (II, 32, of the new ed. of 1879, which has a fresh title, The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy), Sir Francis Drake, having been abroad seven years, was apprised by one of his devils that his wife was about to marry again. He immediately discharged one of his great guns up through the earth. The cannon-ball “fell with a loud explosion between the lady and her intended bridegroom,” who were before the altar. In another version, known to Southey and communicated by him to Mrs Bray (as above, II, 174; new ed., II, 33, 34), the marriage is broken off by a large stone (no doubt a gun-stone) which falls on the lady’s train as she is on her way to church. Drake, in this version, returns in disguise, but is recognized by his smile. See for various stories of the same kind, ‘Iouenn Kerménou,’ Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, I, 416; ‘Der todte Schuldner,’ Zingerle, Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, II, 367; ‘De witte Swâne,’ Woeste, the same, III, 46, translated from the Markish dialect by Simrock, ‘Der gute Gerhard,’ u. s. w., p. 75; Vernaleken, Mythen u. Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich, p. 372; Vernaleken, Kinder- u. Hausmärchen, No 54, p. 315 f.; J. H. Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, p. 184 f.; Prym u. Socin, Syrische Sagen u. Märchen, No 20, II, 72. (G. L. K.)

Pp. 198 b, 502 b, II, 499 b. An Italian form of ‘Le Retour du Mari’ is ‘Il Ritorno del Soldato,’ Nigra, No 28^b, p. 174.

Another Italian ballad has some of the points in the story of Horn. A man goes off for seven years immediately after marriage; the woman looking out towards the sea perceives a pilgrim approaching; he asks for charity, and makes what seems an impudent suggestion, for which she threatens him with punishment. But how if I were your husband? Then you would give me some token. He pulls out his wedding-ring from under his cloak. ‘Il finto [falso] Pellegrino,’ Bernoni, ix, no 7, Ferraro, C. p. monferrini, p. 33, Giannini, p. 151 (nearly the same in Archivio, VI, 361); ‘La Moglie fedele,’ Wolf, p. 59, No 81, Ive, p. 334; ‘Bennardo,’ Nerucci, in Archivio, III, 44.

To the Portuguese ballads, I, 502 b, add ‘A bella Infanta,’ Bellermann, p. 100.

Add to the Polish ballads, p. 502 b: Roger, p. 13, Nos 25, 26.

With the Slavic ballads belong: Servian, Vuk, III, No 25; Bulgarian, Miladinof, Nos 65, 66, 111, 573, Kačanovskiy, Nos 68–73, 112. (W. W.)

202 a. The three singing laverocks in B 3, F 4, (cf. A 3,) are to be taken as curiosities of art. Artificial singing-birds are often mentioned in the earlier times, (by Sir John Mandeville for instance): see Liebrecht, Volkskunde, p. 89 f., No 5. Such birds, and artificially hissing snakes, occur in the Great-Russian bylina of Djuk Stepanović; cf. Wollner, Untersuchungen ü. d. grossr. Volksepik, p. 134 f. (W. W.)

205. G would have been printed as it stands in Kinloch MSS VII, 117, had the volume been in my possession. The copy principally used in Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 138, was derived from the editor’s niece, M. Kinnear. Readings of another copy are written in pencil over the transcript of the first in places, and as the name “Christy Smith” is also written at the beginning in pencil, it may be supposed that these readings were furnished by this Christy Smith. Kinloch adopted some of these readings into the copy which appears in his book, and he introduced others which seem to be his own. The readings of the Kinnear copy not retained by Kinloch will now be given under a, and those supplied (as may be supposed) by Christy Smith under b.

1². Whare was ye born? or frae what cuntrie?

3¹. a gay gowd wand.

4¹. a silver ring.

5¹. Whan that ring.

6¹. Whan that ring.

5027². Till he cam.

8¹. Whan he lookit to.

8². Says, I wish.

9². Until he cam till.

10¹. met with.

10². It was with.

11¹. my puir auld man.

13¹. to me.

13². I’ll lend you.

15¹. He has changed wi the puir auld.

16¹. What is the way that ye use.

16². words that.

18¹, 22¹. to yon town end.

19². your Hynde (your struck out).

23². his Hynde (his struck out).

24¹. he took na frae ane.

27¹. But he drank his glass.

27². Into it he dropt.

30². to your.

34². him evermair.

36¹. The red: oure them aw.

1². in what.

2¹. greenwud’s.

2². have left.

3¹. a silver wand.

4¹. And my love gave me a gay gowd ring.

5¹. As lang as that ring.

7². Till that he cam.

9². Until that.

10². a jolly beggar man.

15¹. struck out in pencil.

18¹. And whan: yonder down.

20². Unless it be frae.

22¹. yonder down.

24¹. But he wad tak frae nane.

34². for evermair.

19. King Orfeo.

P. 217. The first half of the Norse burden is more likely to have been, originally, what would correspond to the Danish Skoven [er] herlig grön, or, Skoven herlig grönnes. In the other half, grün forbids us to look for hjort in giorten, where we are rather to see Danish urt (English wort), Icelandic jurt: so that this would be, in Danish, Hvor urten hun grönnes herlig. (Note of Mr. Axel Olrik.)

20. The Cruel Mother.

P. 218 b. Danish. ‘I dølgsmål,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, V, 98, No 644; corrupted.

(N, O should be O, P, II, 500: see I, 504.)

Q

‘The Cruel Mother,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1883–86, p. 540; “sung by Eliza Wharton and brothers, children of gipsies, habitually travelling in North Shropshire and Staffordshire, 13th July, 1885.”

There was a lady, a lady of York,

Ri fol i diddle i gee wo

She fell a-courting in her own father’s park.

Down by the greenwood side, O

She leaned her back against the stile,

There she had two pretty babes born.

And she had nothing to lap ’em in,

But she had a penknife sharp and keen.

. . . . . . . .

There she stabbed them right through the heart.

She wiped the penknife in the sludge;

The more she wiped it, the more the blood showed.

As she was walking in her own father’s park,

She saw two pretty babes playing with a ball.

‘Pretty babes, pretty babes, if you were mine,

I’d dress you up in silks so fine.’

‘Dear mother, dear mother, [when we were thine,]

You dressed us not in silks so fine.

‘Here we go to the heavens so high,

You’ll go to bad when you do die.’

219 b, 504 a, II, 500 a. (M at this last place should be O.) Add: P, ‘Die Schäferstochter,’ as sung in the neighborhood of Köslin, Ulrich Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern u. Rügen, No 393, p. 310 f. (G. L. K.)

A Magyar-Croat ballad of the same tenor as the German, Kurelac, p. 150, No 451. (W. W.)

21. The Maid and the Palmer.

P. 228 a. Danish. Another copy of ‘Synderinden ’ in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, VII, 81, No 505.

230 b. Slavic. Sušil, No 3, p. 2, closely resembles Moravian A; the woman is turned to stone. In a variant, p. 3, she has had fifty paramours, and again in a Little-Russian ballad, Golovatsky, I, 235, No 68, seventy. In this last, after shrift, the sinner is dissipated in dust. (W. W.)

231. French. Add: Victor Smith, Chants du Velay et du Forez, Romania IV, 439 (the conversion, p. 438); Chabaneau, Revue des Langues Romanes, XXIX, 265, 267, 268.

Catalan. ‘Santa Magdalena,’ conversion and penance, Miscelánea Folk-Lórica, 1887, p. 119, No 8. The Samaritan Woman, simply, p. 118, No 7.

22. St Stephen and Herod.

P. 234 a. ‘Rudisar vísa’ is now No 11 of Hammershaimb’s Færøsk Anthologi, p. 39. There are two other copies.

237. ‘Skuin over de groenelands heide,’ Dykstra en van der Meulen, p. 121, resembles the Breton stories, but lacks the miracle of the capon.

239. Miracle of the roasted cock. Jesus visits a Jew on Easter Sunday and reproaches him with not believing in the resurrection. The Jew replies that Jesus 503having been put to death it was as impossible for him to come to life again as it would be for a roast chicken which lies before them. Faith can do anything, says Jesus. The fowl comes to life and lays eggs; the Jew has himself baptized. Kostomarof, Monuments of the older Russian Literature, I, 217. In a note, a Red-Russian ballad is mentioned which seems to be identical with Golovatsky, II, 6, No 8. A young Jewess, who was carrying water, was the first to see Jesus after his resurrection. She tells her father, as he sits at meat, that the God of the Russians is risen from the dead. “If you were not my daughter, I would have you drowned,” says the father. “The God of the Russians will not rise again till that capon flies up and crows.” The capon does both; the Jew is turned to stone. (W. W.)

25. Willie’s Lyke-Wake.

Pp. 247–49 a. Danish. Add: ‘Vågestuen,’ in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 17, No 17; IV, 17, 115, Nos 26, 285.

249 b and 506 a. Swedish. Bröms Gyllenmärs’ visbok has been printed in Nyare Bidrag, o. s. v., 1887, and the ballad of Herr Carl is No 77, p. 252. There is an imperfect copy in Bergström ock Nordlander, Nyare Bidrag, p. 102, No 9.

250. ‘Il Genovese’ is given in eight versions, one a fragment, by Nigra, No 41, p. 257.

250, 506 a, II, 502 a. Bulgarian. Stojan, who wants to carry off Bojana, does, at his mother’s advice, everything to bring her within his reach. He builds a church, digs a well, plants a garden. All the maids come but her. He then feigns death; she comes with flowers and mourns over him; he seizes her; the priest blesses their union. Miladinof, p. 294, No 185. An old woman, in a like case, advises a young man to feign death, and brings Bojana to see the body. “Why,” asks Bojana, “do his eyes look as if they had sight, his arms as if they would lay hold of me, his feet as if ready to jump up?” “That is because he died so suddenly,” says the beldam. The youth springs up and embraces Bojana. Verković, p. 334, No 304. A Magyar-Croat version begins like this last, but has suffered corruption: Kurelac, p. 148, No. 447. (W. W.)

28. Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane.

P. 256. The first paragraph was occasioned by a misprint in Motherwell (corrected at p. cv of his Introduction), and may be dropped. In Pitcairn’s MS. it is noted that this fragment was obtained from Mrs Gammell.

29. The Boy and the Mantle.

Pp. 268 ff., 507, II, 502.

On going to war a king gives each of his two daughters a rose. “Si vous tombez en faute, quoi que ce soit,” says he, “vos roses flétriront.” Both princesses yield to the solicitations of their lovers, so that the king, on returning, finds both roses withered, and is grieved thereat. Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays Basque, p. 102.

Wer ein ausgelöschtes Licht wieder anblasen kann ist noch Jungfrau oder Junggeselle. Wer ein ganz volles Glas zum Munde führen kann, ohne einen Tropfen su verschütten, ist Junggeselle. Zingerle, Sitten der Tiroler, p. 35.

There is a shield in Perceval le Gallois which no knight can wear with safety in a tournament if he is not all that a knight should be, and if he has not, also, “bele amie qui soit loiaus sans trecerie.” Several of Arthur’s knights try the shield with disastrous results; Perceval is more fortunate. (See 31805–31, 31865, 32023–48, 32410 ff., Potvin, IV, 45 ff..)

“Vpon the various earth’s embrodered gowne

There is a weed vpon whose head growes downe;

Sow-thistle ’tis ycleepd; whose downy wreath

If any one can blow off at a breath,

We deeme her for a maid.”

(William Browne, Britannia’s Pastorals, Book I, Song 4, Works, ed. Hazlitt, p. 103.)

Eodem auxilii genere, Tucciae virginis Vestalis, incesti criminis reae, castitas infamiae nube obscurata emersit. Quae conscientia certae sinceritatis suae spem salutis ancipiti argumento ausa petere est. Arrepto enim cribro, ‘Vesta,’ inquit, ‘si sacris tuis castas semper admovi manus, effice ut hoc hauriam e Tiberi aquam et in aedem tuam perferam.’ Audaciter et temere iactis votis sacerdotis rerum ipsa natura cessit. Valerius Maximus, viii, 1, 5. Cf. also Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxviii, 2 (3), and the commentators.

There was a (qualified) test of priestesses of Ge at Æegæ by drinking bull’s blood, according to Pausanias, VIII, xxv, 8; cited by H. C. Lea, Superstition and Force, 3d ed., 1878, p. 236 f. (All the above by G. L. K.)

A spring in Apollonius Heinrichs von Neustadt blackens the hand of the more serious offender, but in a milder case only the ring-finger, “der die geringste Befleckung nicht erträgt.” W. Grimm’s Kleinere Schriften, III, 446. (C. R. Lanman.)

30. King Arthur and King Cornwall.

P. 274. That this ballad is a traditional variation of Charlemagne’s Journey to Jerusalem and Constantinople, was, I am convinced, too hastily said. See M. Gaston Paris’s remarks at p. 110 f. of his paper, Les romans en vers du cycle de la Table Ronde (Extrait du tome xxx de l’Histoire Littéraire de la France). The king who thinks himself the best king in the world, etc., occurs (it is Arthur) also in the romance of Rigomer: the same, p. 92.

504

34. Kemp Owyne.

P. 307 b. Add ‘Linden,’ Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, V, 50, No 455.

A princess in the form of a toad is kissed three times and so disenchanted: Revue des Traditions populaires, III, 475–6. A princess in the form of a black wolf must be kissed thrice to be disenchanted: Vernaleken, Alpensagen, p. 123. A princess persuades a man to attempt her release from enchantment. Three successive kisses are necessary. On the first occasion she appears as a serpent; he can kiss her but once. The second attempt is also unsuccessful; she appears as a salamander and is kissed twice. The third time she takes the form of a toad, and the three kisses are happily given. Luzel, in the Annuaire de la Soc. des Traditions populaires, II, 53. (G. L. K.)

35. Allison Gross.

P. 314 a. Hill-maid’s promises. Add: ‘Bjærgjomfruens frieri,’ Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 100, No 460.

37. Thomas Rymer.

P. 319 b, last paragraph. In a Breton story, ‘La Fleur du Rocher,’ Sébillot, Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, II, 31, Jean Cate addresses the fairy, when he first sees her, as the Virgin Mary. (G. L. K.)

39. Tam Lin.

P. 335. Mr Macmath has found an earlier transcript of B in Glenriddel’s MSS, VIII, 106, 1789. The variations (except those of spelling, which are numerous) are as follows:

1². that wears.

1³. go.

3³. has snoded.

3⁵. is gaen.

5¹. had not.

6³. comes.

7². give.

8^2,4, 16^2,4, 35^2,4. above.

11¹. Out then: gray-head.

11³. And ever alas, fair Janet, he says.

13³. fair Janet.

13⁴. thow gaes.

14¹. If I.

14³. Ther’e not.

14⁴, 34⁴. bairns.

15⁴. ye nae, wrongly.

16⁵. she is on.

19². groves green.

20¹. Thomas.

20². for his.

20³. Whether ever.

22³. from the.

22⁴. Then from.

23³. The Queen o Fairies has.

23⁴. do dwell.

23⁶. Fiend, wrongly.

24¹. is a Hallow-een.

24³. And them.

25³. Amongst.

27¹. ride on.

27⁶. gave.

30⁴. wardly.

31³. Hald me.

34². then in.

37⁴. And there.

38³. Them that hes.

38⁴. Has.

40^3,4. eyes.

41¹. I kend.

41³. I’d.

J.

‘The Queen of the Fairies,’ Macmath MS., p. 57. “Taken down by me 14th October, 1886, from the recitation of Mr Alexander Kirk, Inspector of Poor, Dalry, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, who learned it about fifty years ago from the singing of David Ray, Barlay, Balmaclellan.”

This copy has been considerably made over, and was very likely learned from print. The cane in the maid’s hand, already sufficiently occupied, either with the Bible or with holy water, is an imbecility such as only the “makers” of latter days are capable of. (There is a cane in another ballad which I cannot at this moment recall.)

The maid that sits in Katherine’s Hall,

Clad in her robes so black,

She has to yon garden gone,

For flowers to flower her hat.

She had not pulled the red, red rose,

A double rose but three,

When up there starts a gentleman,

Just at this lady’s knee.

Says, Who’s this pulls the red, red rose?

Breaks branches off the tree?

Or who’s this treads my garden-grass,

Without the leave of me?

‘Yes, I will pull the red, red rose,

Break branches off the tree,

This garden in Moorcartney wood,

Without the leave o thee.’

He took her by the milk-white hand

And gently laid her down,

Just in below some shady trees

Where the green leaves hung down.

‘Come tell to me, kind sir,’ she said,

‘What before you never told;

Are you an earthly man?’ said she,

‘A knight or a baron bold?’

‘I’ll tell to you, fair lady,’ he said,

‘What before I neer did tell;

I’m Earl Douglas’s second son,

With the queen of the fairies I dwell.

‘When riding through yon forest-wood,

And by yon grass-green well,

A sudden sleep me overtook,

And off my steed I fell.

‘The queen of the fairies, being there,

Made me with her to dwell,

And still once in the seven years

We pay a teind to hell.

‘And because I am an earthly man,

Myself doth greatly fear,

505For the cleverest man in all our train

To Pluto must go this year.

‘This night is Halloween, lady,

And the fairies they will ride;

The maid that will her true-love win

At Miles Cross she may bide.’

‘But how shall I thee ken, though, sir?

Or how shall I thee know,

Amang a pack o hellish wraiths,

Before I never saw?’

‘Some rides upon a black horse, lady,

And some upon a brown,

But I myself on a milk-white steed,

And I aye nearest the toun.

‘My right hand shall be covered, lady,

My left hand shall be bare,

And that’s a token good enough

That you will find me there.

‘Take the Bible in your right hand,

With God for to be your guide,

Take holy water in thy left hand,

And throw it on every side.’

She’s taen her mantle her about,

A cane into her hand,

And she has unto Miles Cross gone,

As hard as she can gang.

First she has letten the black pass by,

And then she has letten the brown,

But she’s taen a fast hold o the milk-white steed,

And she’s pulled Earl Thomas doun.

The queen of the fairies being there,

Sae loud she’s letten a cry,

‘The maid that sits in Katherine’s Hall

This night has gotten her prey.

‘But hadst thou waited, fair lady,

Till about this time the morn,

He would hae been as far from thee or me

As the wind that blew when he was born.’

They turned him in this lady’s arms

Like the adder and the snake;

She held him fast; why should she not?

Though her poor heart was like to break.

They turned him in this lady’s arms

Like two red gads of airn;

She held him fast; why should she not?

She knew they could do her no harm.

They turned him in this lady’s arms

Like to all things that was vile;

She held him fast; why should she not?

The father of her child.

They turned him in this lady’s arms

Like to a naked knight;

She’s taen him hame to her ain bower,

And clothed him in armour bright.

338 a, 507, II, 505 b.

A king transformed into a nightingale being plunged three times into water resumes his shape: Vernaleken, K.-u. H. Märchen, No 15, p. 79. In Guillaume de Palerne, ed. Michelant, v. 7770 ff., pp. 225, 226, the queen who changes the werewolf back into a man takes care that he shall have a warm bath as soon as the transformation is over; but this may be merely the bath preliminary to his being dubbed knight (as in Li Chevaliers as Deus Espees, ed. Förster, vv. 1547–49, p. 50, and L’Ordene de Chevalerie, vv. 111–124, Barbazan-Méon, I, 63, 64). A fairy maiden is turned into a wooden statue. This is burned and the ashes thrown into a pond, whence she immediately emerges in her proper shape. She is next doomed to take the form of a snake. Her lover, acting under advice, cuts up a good part of the snake into little bits, and throws these into a pond. She emerges again. J. H. Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, p. 468 ff.. (G. L. K.)

339 b, II, 505 b.

Fairy salve and indiscreet users of it. See also Sébillot, Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, II, 41, 42, cf. I, 122–3; the same, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 89, 109; the same, Litt. orale de la Haute-B., pp. 19–23, 24–27, and note; Mrs Bray, Traditions of Devonshire, 1838, I, 184–188, I, 175 ff. of the new ed. called The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy; “Lageniensis” [J. O’Hanlon], Irish Folk-Lore, Glasgow, n. d., pp. 48–49. In a Breton story a fairy gives a one-eyed woman an eye of crystal, warning her not to speak of what she may see with it. Disregarding this injunction, the woman is deprived of the gift. Sébillot, Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, II, 24–25. (G. L. K.)

340. The danger of lying under trees at noon. “Is not this connected with the belief in a δαιμονιόν μεσημβρινόν (LXX, Psalm xci, 6)? as to which see Rochholz, Deutscher Unsterblichkeitsglaube, pp. 62 ff., 67 ff., and cf. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, pp. 1092–3.” Kittredge, Sir Orfeo, in the American Journal of Philology, VII, 190, where also there is something about the dangerous character of orchards. Of processions of fairy knights, see p. 189 of the same.

Tam o Lin. Add: Tom a Lin, Robert Mylne’s MS. Collection of Scots Poems, Part I, 8, 1707. (W. Macmath.)

40. The Queen of Elfan’s Nourice.

P. 358 f., II, 505 b.

Mortal women as midwives to fairies, elves, water-sprites, 506etc. Further examples are: Sébillot, Littérature orale de la Haute-Bretagne, pp. 19–23; the same, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 89, 109; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays Basque, pp. 40, 41; Meier, Deutsche Sagen, u. s. w., aus Schwaben, pp. 16–18, 59, 62; Mrs Bray, Traditions of Devonshire, 1838, I, 184–188 (in the new ed., which is called The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy, I, 174 ff.); “Lageniensis” [J. O’Hanlon], Irish Folk Lore, Glasgow, n. d., pp. 48, 49; U. Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen, pp. 50, 72; Vonbun, Die Sagen Vorarlbergs, p. 16, cf. p. 6; Vernaleken, Alpensagen, p. 183.—Mortal woman as nurse for fairy child. Sébillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 121. (G. L. K.)

41. Hind Etin.

P. 361 f. Danish. Add: ‘Jomfruen og dværgen,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, III, 98, No 393. A fragment of four stanzas, IV, 193, No 570.

364. Danish. Add: ‘Angenede og havmanden,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, III, 17, No 34.

42. Clerk Colvill.

P. 379 a, II, 506. Breton F is now printed entire (twenty-one stanzas instead of eleven) by Gaidoz, in Mélusine, IV, 301 ff. (The language appears to be Cornish.)

380, II, 506. A is printed by Rolland, III, 39; P, Q, ib., p. 41, p. 37; T, ib., p. 32, and in Revue des Traditions pop., I, 33; X, by Rolland, III, 45; GG, in Revue des T. p., III, 195. The five stanzas in Poés. pop. de la F., MS., VI, 491 (MM), by Rolland, III, 36.

Add: NN, 38 verses, without indication of place, by C. de Sivry in Rev. des T. p., II, 24; OO, ‘Le roi Léouis,’ Haute-Bretagne, 60 verses, P. Sébillot, in the same, III, 196.

A Basque version, with a translation, in Rev. des Trad. pop., III, 198.

382 a. Italian. C-F, H-K now in Nigra’s collection, ‘Morte Occulta,’ A-G, No 21, p. 142, in a different order. C, D, E, F, H, I, K are in Nigra now A, C, D, E, G, F, B. The fragment spoken of p. 383 b is now Nigra’s No 22, p. 149, ‘Mal ferito.’ The tale which follows this is given p. 148 f.

384 a. There are two good Asturian versions in Pidal, ‘Doña Alda,’ Nos 46, 47, pp. 181, 183. The editor mentions a copy in the second number of Folk-Lore Betico-Extremeño, much injured by tradition, which is more like the Catalan than the Asturian versions.

43. The Broomfield Hill.

P. 392 b. Sleep-thorns.

Sleep-thorns, or something similar, occur in the West Highland tales. In a story partly reported by Campbell, I, xci, “the sister put gath nimh, a poisonous sting or thorn, into the bed, and the prince was as though he were dead for three days, and he was buried. But Knowledge told the other two dogs what to do, and they scraped up the prince and took out the thorn, and he came alive again and went home.” So in “The Widow’s Son,” Campbell, II, 296: “On the morrow he went, but the carlin stuck a bior nimh, spike of hurt, in the outside of the door post, and when he came to the church he fell asleep.” In another version of The Widow’s Son, II, 297, a “big pin” serves as the “spike of hurt.” Cf. the needle in Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen, 3d ed., p. 141, No 32. (G. L. K.)

393. Italian ballad. Add: Righi, p. 33, No 96; Nigra, No 77, p. 393, ‘La Bevanda sonnifera,’ A-H; Giannini, ‘Il Cavaliere ingannato,’ p. 157; Ferrari, Biblioteca di Lett. pop. italiana, I, 218, ‘La bella Brunetta;’ Finamore, in Archivio, I, 89, La Fandell’ e lu Cavaljiere (mixed); Nerucci, in Archivio, II, 524, ‘La Ragazza Fantina;’ Julia, in Archivio, VI, 244, ‘La ‘nfantina e lu Cavalieri;’ Rondini, in Archivio, VII, 189.

Ricordi, Canti p. Lombardi, No 9, ‘La Moraschina,’ gives the first half of the story, with a slight alteration for propriety’s sake.

44. The Twa Magicians.

P. 400 a, II, 506 b. E, F, partly, in Revue des Traditions populaires, I, 104 f. (Q was previously cited as J.) Q. ‘Les Transformations,’ Avenay, Marne, Gaston Paris, in Rev. des Trad. pop., I, 98; R, Haute-Bretagne, Sébillot, the same, p. 100; S, Le Morvan, Tiersot, p. 102; T, Tarn-et-Garonne, the same, II, 208. U. ‘Les Métamorphoses,’ Finistère, Rolland, IV, 32, c; V, environs de Brest, the same, p. 33, d. E is printed by Rolland, IV, 30, b.

Italian. A ballad in Nigra, No 59, p. 329, ‘Amore inevitabile.’

401 a. Vuk, I, No 602, is translated in Bowring’s Servian Popular Poetry, p. 195.

In a Magyar-Croat ballad the lover advises the maid, who has been chidden by her mother on his account, if her mother repeats the scolding, to turn herself into a fish, then he will be a fisherman, etc. Kurelac, p. 309, XV, 2. (W. W.)

401 b, last two paragraphs.

Other specimens of the first kind (not in Köhler’s note to Gonzenbach, II, 214) are:

Luzel, Annuaire de la Société des Traditions populaires, II, 56; Baissac, Folk-Lore de l’Île Maurice, p. 88 ff.; Wigström, Sagor ock Äfventyr uppt. i Skåne, p. 37; Luzel, Revue des Traditions populaires, I, 287, 288; Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, II, 13, 41 ff., cf. 64–66; Vernaleken, Kinder- u. Hausmärchen, No 49, p. 277; Bladé, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, II, 26–36; Carnoy, Contes populaires picards, Romania, VIII, 227. Cf. also Ortoli, Contes pop. de l’Île de 507Corse, pp. 27–29, and Cosquin’s notes (which do not cite any of the above-mentioned places), Contes pop. de Lorraine, I, 105 ff.

Other specimens of the second kind:

Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, II, 92–95, and note; Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande, u. s. w., 3d ed., 1882, No 14, p. 52 f.. (G. L. K.)

402 a, last paragraph. “The pursuit in various forms by the witch lady has an exact counterpart in a story of which I have many versions and which I had intended to give if I had room. It is called ‘The Fuller’s Son,’ ‘The Cotter’s Son,’ and other names, and it bears a strong resemblance to the end of the Norse tale of ‘Farmer Weathersky.’” Campbell, Pop. Tales of the West Highlands, IV, 297. (G. L. K.)

46. Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship.

P. 415, note [391]. A version from Scotland has been printed in the Folk-Lore Journal, III, 272, ‘I had six lovers over the sea.’ (G. L. K.)

417, note [396], II, 507 b.

The one stake with no head on it occurs also in Wolfdietrich B. The heathen, whom Wolfdietrich afterwards overcomes at knife-throwing, threatens him thus:

“Sihstu dort an den zinnen fünf hundert houbet stân,

Diu ich mit mînen henden alle verderbet hân?

Noch stât ein zinne lære an mînem türnlîn:

Dâ muoz dîn werdez houbet ze einem phande sîn.”

(St. 595, Jänicke, Deutsches Heldenbuch, III, 256.)

Two cases in Campbell’s Pop. T. of the West Highlands. “Many a leech has come, said the porter. There is not a spike on the town without a leech’s head but one, and may be it is for thy head that one is.” (The Ceabharnach, I, 312.) Conall “saw the very finest castle that ever was seen from the beginning of the universe till the end of eternity, and a great wall at the back of the fortress, and iron spikes within a foot of each other, about and around it; and a man’s head upon every spike but the one spike. Fear struck him and he fell a-shaking. He thought that it was his own head that would go on the headless spike.” (The Story of Conall Gulban, III, 202.) In Crestien’s Erec et Enide, Erec overcomes a knight in an orchard. There are many stakes crowned with heads, but one stake is empty. Erec is informed that this is for his head, and that it is customary thus to keep a stake waiting for a new-comer, a fresh one being set up as often as a head is taken. Ed. by Bekker in Haupt’s Ztschr., X, 520, 521, vv. 5732–66. (G. L. K.)

49. The Twa Brothers.

P. 435. There is a copy in Nimmo, Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, p. 131, made from D, E, with half a dozen lines for connection.

437 b. It is E (not A) that is translated by Grundtvig; and D by Afzelius, Grimm, Talvj, Rosa Warrens.

436 f. In one of the older Croat ballads Marko Kraljević and his brother Andrija, who have made booty of three horses, quarrel about the third when they come to dividing, and Marko fells Andrija with a stab. Andrija charges Marko not to tell their mother what took place, but to say that he is not coming home, because he has become enamored of a girl in a foreign country. Bogišić p. 18, No 6. There is a Magyar-Croat variant of this, in which two brothers returning from war fall out about a girl, and the older (who, by the way, is a married man) stabs the younger. The dying brother wishes the mother to be told that he has staid behind to buy presents for her and his sisters. The mother asks when her son will come home. The elder brother answers, When a crow turns white and a withered maple greens. The (simple) mother gets a crow and bathes it daily in milk, and irrigates the tree with wine; but in vain. Other Slavic examples of these hopeless eventualities: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 74, No 30, 97, No 7, 164, No 12, 173, No 23, 229, No 59; II, 41, No 61, 585, No 18, 592, No 27; III, 12, No 9, 136, No 256, 212, No 78; Bohemian, Erben, p. 182, No 340; Polish, Roger, p. 3, No 2; Servian, Vuk, I, No 364, Herzegovine, p. 209, No 176, p. 322, No 332; Bulgarian, Verković, No 226; Dozon, p. 95; Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 11, No 61, p. 130, No 430, p. 156, No 457 (and note), p. 157, No 459, p. 244, No 557. (W. W.)

53. Young Beichan.

P. 454. The modern street or broadside ballad L (see II, 508) is given from singing by Miss Burne, Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 547.

459 b. The Färöe ballad (of which there are four copies) is printed in Hammershaimb’s Færøsk Anthologi, p. 260, No 33, ‘Harra Pætur og Elinborg.’

462 a. ‘Gerineldo,’ also in Pidal, Asturian Romances, p. 90 f.

462 a, b. ‘Moran d’ Inghilterra,’ with a second version, in Nigra, No 42, p. 263.

VOL. II.

55. The Carnal and the Crane.

P. 7 f., 510 a. Legend of the Sower. Catalan (with the partridge), Miscelánea Folk-Lórica, 1887, p. 115, No 6.

Moravian, Sušil, p. 19, No 16; Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 9, No 13. (W. W.)

56. Dives and Lazarus.

P. 10 b. ‘Il ricco Epulone,’ Nigra, No 159, p. 543, with Jesus and the Madonna for Lazarus.

508Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 737, No 5; III, 263, No 1, and 267, No 2. Lazarus and the rich man are represented as brothers. (W. W.)

57. Brown Robyn’s Confession.

P. 13 b, 5th line. A is not a manuscript of the ‘fifteenth’ century, but of the date 1590 or 1591. (Note of Mr Axel Olrik.)

59. Sir Aldingar.

Pp. 37–43. The first adventure of the fragmentary romance of Joufrois affords this story. Count Richard of Poitiers has a son Joufrois. The boy begs his father to send him to the English court, that King Henry may knight him. The English king receives him well, but he remains a vaslet for some time. The seneschal of the court endeavors to win the queen’s amisté, but fails. He tells the king that he has seen the queen in bed with a kitchen-boy, and Henry swears that she shall hang or burn. The vaslet Joufrois offers to prove the seneschal a liar, and begs to be knighted for that purpose. Everybody thinks him mad to undertake battle with the seneschal, who is an unmatched man-at-arms: li biaus vaslet estoit enfens. The fight takes place at Winchester. Joufrois’ sword is broken, but he picks up a piece of a huge lance and disables his adversary with a blow on the arm. Joufrois then threatens to cut off the felon’s head if he does not retract, and as the seneschal prefers death to eating his words, this is done. Joufrois, Altfranzösisches Rittergedicht, ed. Hofmann und Muncker, vv. 91–631, pp. 3–18. (G. L. K.)

60. King Estmere.

Pp. 51, 510 b. Mr Kittredge has noted for me some twenty other cases in metrical romances of knights riding into hall.

Aiol’s steed is stabled in the hall, Aiol et Mirabel, ed. Förster, vv. 1758–61, p. 51. So Gawain’s horse in the ‘Chevalier à l’Espée,’ vv. 224–236, Méon, Nouveau Recueil, I, 134. Cf. ‘Perceval le Gallois,’ ed. Potvin, II, 255 ff., vv. 16803–42. In ‘Richars li Biaus,’ the hero evidently has his horse with him while at dinner in the hall of the robber-castle: ed. Förster, v. 3396, p. 93; cf. the editor’s note, p. 182. In ‘Perceval le Gallois,’ a knight takes his horse with him into a bedchamber and ties him to a bed-post: ed. Potvin, III, 34, v. 21169 f.. Cf. Elie de Saint Gille, ed. Förster, pp. 377, 379, 380, vv. 2050–55, 2105, 2129–42. (G. L. K.)

61. Sir Cawline.

P. 56 b. Amadas, while watching at the tomb of Ydoine, has a terrific combat with a highly mysterious stranger knight, whom he vanquishes. The stranger then informs Amadas that Ydoine is not really dead, etc., etc. He gives sufficient evidence of his elritch character, and the author clinches the matter by speaking of him as “the maufé” (v. 6709). Amadas et Ydoine, ed. Hippeau, vv. 5465 ff., p. 189 ff.. (G. L. K.)

60. Stanzas 42 ff.. It might have been remarked that this feat of tearing out a lion’s heart belongs to King Richard (see Weber’s Romances, II, 44), hence, according to the romance, named Cœur de Lion, and that it has also been assigned to an humbler hero, in a well-known broadside ballad, ‘The Honour of a London Prentice,’ Old Ballads, 1723, I, 199 (where there are two lions for one).

63. Child Waters.

P. 83. Italian. ‘Ambrogio e Lietta,’ Nigra, No 35, p. 201. The Piedmontese ballad, though incomplete, has the rough behavior of the man to the woman, the crossing of the water, the castle and the mother, the stable, and twins brought forth in a manger.

84 b. Danish. ‘Hr. Peders stalddreng,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 121, No 441; ‘Liden Kirsten som stalddreng,’ V, 98, No 645.

‘Hr. Grönnevold,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VII, 49, No 177, is an imperfect copy of the second sort of Scandinavian ballads.

64. Fair Janet.

P. 103, note. ‘La Fidanzata Infedele’ is now No 34 of Nigra’s collection. See above the addition to No 5, I, 65 b.

65. Lady Maisry.

P. 113 a, last paragraph. Burning, etc. See Amis e Amiloun (the French text), v. 364, p. 134, ed. Kölbing; Elie de St Gille, ed. Förster, vv. 2163–69, p. 381. Amadis de Gaule, Nicolas de Herberay, Anvers, 1573, I, 8 f., book 1, chap. 2, maid or wife; but Venice, 1552, I, 6 b, and Gayangos, Libros de Caballerias, p. 4, wife. (G. L. K.)

113 b. Only certain copies, and those perverted, of Grundtvig Nos 108, 109 have the punishment of burning for simple incontinence. This is rather the penalty for incest: cf. Syv, No 16,==Kristensen, I, No 70, II, No 49,==Grundtvig, No 292, and many other ballads. (Note of Mr Axel Olrik.)

Note §. ‘Galanzuca,’ ‘Galancina,’ Pidal, Asturian Romance, Nos 6, 7, pp. 92, 94, belong here. They have much of the story of ‘Lady Maisry,’ with a happy ending.

66. Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet.

P. 127 a, 9th line of the second paragraph. A copy of ‘Fru Margaretha’ in Harald Oluffsons Visbok. Nyare Bidrag, o. s. v., p. 36, No 16, stanzas 21, 22.

509127 b, 511 b. In a Breton ballad, Mélusine, III, 350 f., a priest jumps a table, at the cry of his sister, who is in a desperate extremity.

But the greatest achievements in this way are in Slavic ballads. A bride, on learning of her bridegroom’s death, jumps over four tables and lights on the fifth, rushes to her chamber and stabs herself: Moravian, Sušil, p. 83. According to a variant, p. 84, note, she jumps over nine. A repentant husband who had projected the death of his wife, on hearing that she is still living, leaps nine tables without touching the glasses on them: Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 184, No 479. (W. W.)

Mr Kittredge has given me many cases from romances.

127 b, note. Sword reduced to a straw: add Nigra, No 113, etc. ‘Gerineldo:’ add Pidal, Asturian Romances, Nos 3, 4, 5.

67. Glasgerion.

P. 137 b. ‘Poter del Canto’ is now No 47, p. 284, of Nigra’s collection.

68. Young Hunting.

P. 142. A copy in A. Nimmo’s Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, ‘Young Hyndford,’ p. 155, is made up (with changes) from Scott, Kinloch, Buchan, Motherwell and Herd, E, J, B, K, F, G.

143, 512 a. Discovery of drowned bodies. See Revue des Traditions populaires, I, 56; Mélusine, III, 141.

69. Clerk Saunders.

P. 157. There are four copies of the Färöe ‘Faðir og dóttir,’ and Hammershaimb has printed a second (with but slight variations) in his Færøsk Anthologi: p. 253, No 31.

158. Spanish. Add: ‘La Esposa infiel,’ Pidal, Asturian Romances, No 33, p. 154.

71. The Bent Sae Brown.

P. 170. Nine versions of ‘Jomfruens Brødre’ in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 145 ff., Nos 717–23, V, 81 ff., Nos 633, 634.

72. The Clerk’s Twa Sons o Owsenford.

Pp. 174, 512. Add to the French ballads one from Carcassonne, first published in a newspaper of that place, Le Bon Sens, August 10, 1878, and reprinted in Mélusine, II, 212. The occurrence which gave rise to the ballad is narrated by Nigra, C. p. del Piemonte, p. 54 f., after Mary Lafon, and the Italian version is No 4 of that collection, ‘Gli Scolari di Tolosa.’ The ballad is originally French, the scene Toulouse.

73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet.

P. 179 f. D. The Roxburghe copy of ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor,’ III, 554, is printed by Mr J. W. Ebsworth in the Ballad Society’s edition of the Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 647. (Mr Ebsworth notes that the broadside occurs in the Bagford Ballads, II, 127; Douce, I, 120 v., III, 58 v., IV, 36; Ouvry, II, 38; Jersey, III, 88.) ‘The Unfortunate Forrester,’ Roxburghe, II, 553, is printed at p. 645 of the same volume. A copy from singing is given (with omissions) in Miss Burne’s Shropshire Folk-Lore, 1883–86, p. 545; another, originally from recitation, in Mr G. R. Tomson’s Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888, p. 82. Both came, traditionally, from print. Still another, from the singing of a Virginian nurse-maid (helped out by her mother), was communicated by Mr W. H. Babcock to the Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 33, 1889, and may be repeated here, both because it is American and also because of its amusing perversions.

THE BROWN GIRL

‘O mother, O mother, come read this to me,

And regulate all as one,

Whether I shall wed fair Ellinter or no,

Or fetch you the brown girl home.’

‘Fair Ellinter she has houses and wealth,

The brown girl she has none;

But before I am charged with that blessing,

Go fetch me the brown girl home.’

He dressed himself in skylight green,

His groomsmen all in red;

And every town as he rode through

They took him to be some king.

He rode and he rode until he came to fair Ellinter’s door;

He knocked so loud at the ring;

There was none so ready as fair Ellinter herself

To rise and let him in.

‘O what is the news, Lord Thomas?’ she said,

‘O what is the news to thee?’

‘I’ve come to invite you to my wedding,

And that is bad news to thee.’

‘God forbid, Lord Thomas,’ she said,

‘That any such thing should be!

For I should have been the bride myself,

And you should the bridegroom be.

‘O mother, O mother, come read this to me,

And regulate all as one,

Whether I shall go to Lord Thomas’ wed,

Or stay with you at home.’

5108

‘Here you have one thousand friends,

Where there you would but one;

So I will invite you, with my blessing,

To stay with me at home.’

But she dressed herself in skylight red,

Her waiting-maids all in green,

And every town as she rode through

They took her to be some queen.

She rode and she rode till she came to Lord Thomas’s door;

She knocked so loud at the ring;

There was none so ready as Lord Thomas himself

To rise and let her in.

He took her by her lily-white hand,

He led her across the hall;

Sing, ‘Here are five and twenty gay maids,

She is the flower of you all.’

He took her by her lily-white hand,

He led her across the hall,

He sat her down in a big arm-chair,

And kissed her before them all.

The wedding was gotten, the table was set,

. . . . . . .

The first to sit down was Lord Thomas himself,

His bride, fair Ellinter, by his side.

‘Is this your bride, Lord Thomas?’ she said;

‘If this is your bride, Lord Thomas, she looks most wonderfully dark,

When you could have gotten a fairer

As ever the sun shone on.’

‘O don’t you despise her,’ Lord Thomas said he,

‘O don’t you despise her to me;

Yes, I like the end of your little finger

Better than her whole body.’

The brown girl, having a little penknife,

And being both keen and sharp,

Right between the long and short ribs,

She pierced poor Ellinter’s heart.

‘O what is the matter, fair Ellinter,’ said he,

‘That you look so very dark,

When your cheeks used to have been so red and rosy

As ever the sun shined on?’

‘Are you blind, or don’t you see,

My heart-blood come trickling down to my knee?’

3^1,2. green and red should be interchanged: cf. 9.

13, 14. Rearranged.

15¹. said she.

181. Add to the French ballads, ‘La Délaissée,’ V. Smith, Romania, VII, 82; Legrand, Romania, X, 386, No 32; ‘La triste Noce,’ Thiriat, Mélusine, I, 189; and to the Italian ballad, Nigra, No 20, p. 139, ‘Danze e Funerali.’

75. Lord Lovel.

P. 205 b. Other copies of ‘Den elskedes Død’ (‘Kjærestens Død’), Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VII, 1, 2, Nos 1, 2; Bergström ock Nordlander, in Nyare Bidrag, o. s. v., pp. 92, 100; and ‘Olof Adelen,’ p. 98, may be added, in which a linden grows from the common grave, with two boughs which embrace.

Note. With the Scandinavian-German ballads belongs ‘Greven og lille Lise,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, V, 20, No 14.

206, 512 b. To the southern ballads which have a partial resemblance may be added: French, Beaurepaire, p. 52, Combes, Chants p. du Pays castrais, p. 139, Arbaud, I, 117, Victor Smith, Romania, VII, 83, No. 32; Italian, Nigra, ‘La Sposa morta,’ No 17, p. 120 ff. (especially D).

215. I ought not to have omitted the σήματα by which Ulysses convinces Penelope, Odyssey, xxiii, 181–208; to which might be added those which convince Laertes, xxiv, 328 ff. See also the romance of Don Bueso, Duran, I, lxv:

¿Qué señas me dabas

Por ser conocida? et cét.

76. The Lass of Roch Royal.

II, 213. There is a version of this ballad in the Roxburghe collection, III, 488, a folio slip without imprint, dated in the Museum Catalogue 1740. I was not aware of the existence of this copy till it was printed by Mr Ebsworth in the Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 609. He puts the date of issue circa 1765. It is here given from the original. Compare H.

THE LASS OF OCRAM

I built my love a gallant ship,

And a ship of Northern fame,

And such a ship as I did build,

Sure there never was seen.

For her sides were of the beaten gold,

And the doors were of block-tin,

And sure such a ship as I built

There sure never was seen.

And as she was a sailing,

By herself all alone,

She spied a proud merchant-man,

Come plowing oer the main.

5114

‘Thou fairest of all creatures

Under the heavens,’ said she,

‘I am the Lass of Ocram,

Seeking for Lord Gregory.’

‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,

As I take you for to be,

You must go to yonder island,

There Lord Gregory you’ll see.’

‘It rains upon my yellow locks,

And the dew falls on my skin;

Open the gates, Lord Gregory,

And let your true-love in!’

‘If you’re the Lass of Ocram,

As I take you not to be,

You must mention the three tokens

Which passd between you and me.’

‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,

One night on my father’s hill,

With you I swaft my linen fine?

It was sore against my will.

‘For mine was of the Holland fine,

And yours but Scotch cloth;

For mine cost a guinea a yard,

And yours but five groats.’

‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,

As I think you not to be,

You must mention the second token

That passd between you and me.’

‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,

One night in my father’s park,

We swaffed our two rings?

It was all in the dark.

‘For mine was of the beaten gold,

And yours was of block-tin;

And mine was true love without,

And yours all false within.’

‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,

As I take you not to be,

You must mention the third token

Which past between you and me.’

‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,

One night in my father’s hall,

Where you stole my maidenhead?

Which was the worst of all.’

‘Begone, you base creature!

Begone from out of the hall!

Or else in the deep seas

You and your babe shall fall.’

‘Then who will shoe my bonny feet?

And who will close my hands?

And who will lace my waste so small,

Into a landen span?

‘And who will comb my yellow locks,

With a brown berry comb?

And who’s to be father of my child

If Lord Gregory is none?’

‘Let your brother shoe your bonny feet,

Let your sister close your hands,

Let your mother lace your waist so small,

Into a landen span.

‘Let your father comb your yellow locks,

With a brown berry comb,

And let God be father of your child,

For Lord Gregory is none.’

‘I dreamt a dream, dear mother,

I could wish to have it read;

I saw the Lass of Ocram

A floating on the flood.’

‘Lie still, my dearest son,

And take thy sweet rest;

It is not half an hour ago,

The maid passd this place.’

‘Ah! cursed be you, mother!

And cursed may you be,

That you did not awake me,

When the maid passd this way!

‘I will go down into some silent grove,

My sad moan for to make;

It is for the Lass of Ocram

My poor heart now will break.’

(4¹. Perhaps the reading was: The fairest, etc.)

Mr W. H. Babcock has printed a little ballad as sung in Virginia, in which are two stanzas that belong to ‘The Lass of Roch Royal:’ The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 31.

‘Come along, come along, my pretty little miss,

Come along, come along,’ said he,

‘And seat yourself by me.’

512‘Neither will I come, and neither sit down,

For I have not a moment’s time;

For I heard that you had a new sweetheart,

And your heart is no more mine.’

‘It never was, and it never shall be,

And it never was any such a thing;

For yonder she stands, in her own father’s garden,

The garden of the vine,

Mourning for her own true love,

Just like I’ve mourned for mine.’

I laid my head in a little closet-door,

To hear what my true love had to say,

So that I might know a little of his mind

Before he went away.

I laid my head on the side of his bed,

My arms across his breast;

I made him believe, for the fall of the year,

The sun rose in the west.

‘I’m going away, I’m coming back again,

If it is ten thousand miles;

It’s who will shoe your pretty little feet?

And who will glove your hand?

And who will kiss your red, rosy lips,

While I’m in a foreign land?’

‘My father will shoe my pretty little feet,

My mother glove my hand,

My babe will kiss my red, rosy lips,

While you’re in a foreign land.’

Mr James Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology, obtained two very similar stanzas in the ‘Carolina Mountains.’

‘O who will shoe your feet, my dear?

Or who will glove your hands?

Or who will kiss your red rosy cheeks,

When I’m in the foreign lands?’

‘My father will shoe my feet, my dear,

My mother will glove my hands,

And you may kiss my red rosy cheeks

When you come from the foreign lands.’

78. The Unquiet Grave.

P. 234.

E

‘In Gipsy Tents,’ by Francis Hindes Groome, 1880, p. 141, as sung by an old woman.

‘Cold blows the wind over my true love,

Cold blows the drops of rain;

I never, never had but one sweet-heart,

In the green wood he was slain.

‘But I’ll do as much for my true love

As any young girl can do;

I’ll sit and I’ll weep by his grave-side

For a twelvemonth and one day.’

When the twelvemonth’s end and one day was past,

This young man he arose:

‘What makes you weep by my grave-side

For twelve months and one day?’

‘Only one kiss from your lily cold lips,

One kiss is all I crave;

Only one kiss from your lily cold lips,

And return back to your grave.’

‘My lip is cold as the clay, sweet-heart,

My breath is earthly strong;

If you should have a kiss from my cold lip,

Your days will not be long.’

‘Go fetch me a note from the dungeon dark,

Cold water from a stone;

There I’ll sit and weep for my true love

For a twelvemonth and one day.

‘Go dig me a grave both long, wide and deep;

I will lay down in it and take one sleep,

For a twelvemonth and one day;

I will lay down in it and take a long sleep,

For a twelvemonth and a day.’

F

‘Cold blows the wind,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1883–86, p. 542; “sung by Jane Butler, Edgmond, 1870–80.”

‘Cold blows the wind over my true love,

Cold blow the drops of rain;

I never, never had but one true love,

And in Camvile he was slain.

‘I’ll do as much for my true love

As any young girl may;

I’ll sit and weep down by his grave

For twelve months and one day.’

But when twelve months were come and gone,

This young man he arose:

513‘What makes you weep down by my grave?

I can’t take my repose.’

‘One kiss, one kiss, of your lily-white lips,

One kiss is all I crave;

One kiss, one kiss, of your lily-white lips,

And return back to your grave.’

‘My lips they are as cold as my clay,

My breath is heavy and strong;

If thou wast to kiss my lily-white lips,

Thy days would not be long.

‘O don’t you remember the garden-grove

Where we was used to walk?

Pluck the finest flower of them all,

‘Twill wither to a stalk.’

‘Go fetch me a nut from a dungeon deep,

And water from a stone,

And white milk from a maiden’s breast

[That babe bare never none].’

G

From the singing of a wandering minstrel and story-teller of the parish of Cury, Cornwall. After the last stanza followed “a stormy kind of duet between the maiden and her lover’s ghost, who tries to persuade the maid to accompany him to the world of shadows.” Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England, First Series, 1865, p. xvi.

‘Cold blows the wind to-day, sweetheart,

Cold are the drops of rain;

The first truelove that ever I had

In the green wood he was slain.

‘’Twas down in the garden-green, sweetheart,

Where you and I did walk;

The fairest flower that in the garden grew

Is witherd to a stalk.

‘The stalk will bear no leaves, sweetheart,

The flowers will neer return,

And since my truelove is dead and gone,

What can I do but mourn?’

A twelvemonth and a day being gone,

The spirit rose and spoke:

. . . . . . .

‘My body is clay-cold, sweetheart,

My breath smells heavy and strong,

And if you kiss my lily-white lips

Your time will not be long.’

235 f. Add: Gaspé, Les anciens Canadiens, Québec, 1877, I, 220 ff.; cited by Sébillot, Annuaire des Traditions populaires, 1887, p. 38 ff..

236. A 5, etc. So Nigra, ‘La Sposa morta,’ p. 122, No 17, D 12: ‘Mia buca morta l’à odur di terra, ch’a l’era, viva, di roze e fiur.’

Little-Russian tale, Trudy, II, 416, No 122. A girl who is inconsolable for the death of her mother is advised to hide herself in the church after vespers on Thursday of the first week in Lent, and does so. At midnight the bells ring, and a dead priest performs the service for a congregation all of whom are dead. Among them is the girl’s godmother, who bids her begone before her mother remarks her. But the mother has already seen her daughter, and calls out, You here too? Weep no more for me. My coffin and my grave are filled with your tears; wretched it is to bathe in them! (W. W.) After this the mother’s behavior is not quite what we should expect. Cf. the tale in Gaspé, just cited.

79. The Wife of Usher’s Well.

II, 238.

C

‘The Widow-Woman,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1883–86, p. 541; “taken down by Mr Hubert Smith, 24th March, 1883, from the recitation of an elderly fisherman at Bridgworth, who could neither read nor write, and had learnt it some forty years before from his grandmother in Corve Dale.”

“The West and South Shropshire folk say far for fair.”

There was a widow-woman lived in far Scotland,

And in far Scotland she did live,

And all her cry was upon sweet Jesus,

Sweet Jesus so meek and mild.

Then Jesus arose one morning quite soon,

And arose one morning betime,

And away he went to far Scotland,

And to see what the good woman want.

And when he came to far Scotland,

. . . . . . .

Crying, What, O what, does the good woman want,

That is calling so much on me?

‘It’s you go rise up my three sons,

Their names, Joe, Peter, and John,

And put breath in their breast,

And clothing on their backs,

And immediately send them to far Scotland,

That their mother may take some rest.’

5145

Then he went and rose up her three sons,

Their names, Joe, Peter, and John,

And did immediately send them to far Scotland,

That their mother may take some rest.

Then she made up a supper so neat,

As small, as small, as a yew-tree leaf,

But never one bit they could eat.

Then she made up a bed so soft,

The softest that ever was seen,

And the widow-woman and her three sons

They went to bed to sleep.

There they lay; about the middle of the night,

Bespeaks the youngest son:

‘The white cock he has crowed once,

The second has, so has the red.’

And then bespeaks the eldest son:

‘I think, I think it is high time

For the wicked to part from their dead,’

Then they laid [==led] her along a green road,

The greenest that ever was seen,

Until they came to some far chaperine,

Which was builded of lime and sand;

Until they came to some far chaperine,

Which was builded with lime and stone.

And then he opened the door so big,

And the door so very wide;

Said he to her three sons, Walk in!

But told her to stay outside.

‘Go back, go back!’ sweet Jesus replied,

‘Go back, go back!’ says he;

‘For thou hast nine days to repent

For the wickedness that thou hast done.’

Nine days then was past and gone,

And nine days then was spent,

Sweet Jesus called her once again,

And took her to heaven with him.

80. Old Robin of Portingale.

P. 240 a. ‘Sleep you, wake you.’ Add: ‘Young Beichan,’ No 53, B 5; Duran, Romancero, I, 488, Nos 742, 743.

240 a, II, 513 a.

The very wicked knight Owen, after coming out of St Patrick’s Purgatory, lay in his orisons fifteen days and nights before the high altar,

“And suþþe in is bare flech þe holi crois he nom,

And wende to þe holi lond, and holi mon bicom.”

Horstmann, Altengl. Legenden, 1875, p. 174, vv. 611–612; also p. 208, v. 697, and p. 209, v. 658. In a mediæval traveller’s tale the Abyssinians are said to burn the cross in their children’s foreheads. “Vort wonent da andere snoide kirsten in deme lande ind die heischent Ysini; wan man yr kinder douft ind kirsten macht, dan broet der priester yn eyn cruce vor dat houft.” Ein niederrheinischer Bericht über den Orient, ed. Röhricht u. Meier, in Zacher’s Zeitschrift, XIX, 15. (G. L. K.)

83. Child Maurice.

P. 272. F.

Mr Macmath has found the edition of 1755, and has favored me with a copy. Substitute for F. a., p. 263: Gill Morice, An Ancient Scottish Poem. Second Edition. Glasgow, Printed and sold by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1755. (Small 4º, 15 pages.) The copy mentioned p. 263 b, note, is a reprint of this or of the first edition; it has but two variations of reading. The deviations from the text of 1755 will be put in the list of things to be corrected in the print.

84. Bonny Barbara Allen.

P. 276. In Miss Burne’s Shropshire Folk-Lore, 1883–86, p. 543, there is a copy, taken from singing, which I must suppose to be derived ultimately from print.

85. Lady Alice.

P. 279. The following version is printed by Mr G. R. Tomson in his Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888, p. 434, from a MS. of Mrs Rider Haggard.

GILES COLLINS AND LADY ANNICE

Giles Collins said to his own mother,

‘Mother, come bind up my head,

And send for the parson of our parish,

For to-morrow I shall be dead.

‘And if that I be dead,

As I verily believe I shall,

O bury me not in our churchyard,

But under Lady Annice’s wall.’

Lady Annice sat at her bower-window,

Mending of her night-coif,

When passing she saw as lovely a corpse

As ever she saw in her life.

‘Set down, set down, ye six tall men,

Set down upon the plain,

515That I may kiss those clay-cold lips

I neer shall kiss again.

‘Set down, set down, ye six tall men,

That I may look thereon;

For to-morrow, before the cock it has crowd,

Giles Collins and I shall be one.

‘What had you at Giles Collins’s burying?

Very good ale and wine?

You shall have the same to-morrow night,

Much about the same time.’

Giles Collins died upon the eve,

This fair lady on the morrow;

Thus may you all now very well know

This couple died for sorrow.

Lt-Col. Prideaux has sent me this copy, from Fly-Leaves, London, John Miller, 1854, Second Series, p. 98.

GILES COLLINS

Lady Annis she sat in her bay-window,

A-mending of her night-coif;

As she sat, she saw the handsomest corpse

That ever she saw in her life.

‘Who bear ye there, ye four tall men?

Who bear ye on your shouldyers?’

‘It is the body of Giles Collins,

An old true lovyer of yours.’

‘Set’n down, set’n down,’ Lady Annis she said,

‘Set’n down on the grass so trim;

Before the clock it strikes twelve this night,

My body shall lie beside him.’

Lady Annis then fitted on her night-coif,

Which fitted her wondrous well;

She then pierced her throat with a sharp-edgd knife,

As the four pall-bearers can tell.

Lady Annis was buried in the east church-yard,

Giles Collins was laid in the west,

And a lily grew out from Giles Collins’s grave

Which touched Lady Annis’s breast.

There blew a cold north-westerly wind,

And cut this lily in twain;

Which never there was seen before,

And it never will again.

89. Fause Foodrage.

P. 298 a. Add, ‘Sönnens hævn,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, IV, 113, No 284; a fragment.

90. Jellon Grame.

Pp. 303 b, 513 b. Marvellous growth, etc. Ormr Stórólfsson very early attained to a great size, and at seven was a match for the strongest men: Flateyjarbok, I, 521, Fornmanna Sögur, III, 205, cited by Bugge in Paul u. Braune’s Beiträge, XII, 58. Wolfdietrich gains one man’s strength every year, and amazes everybody in his infancy even. Wolfdietrich A, ed. Amelung, sts 31, 38–41, 45, 233, 234, pp. 84, 85, 86, 108. (Some striking resemblances to Robert le Diable.) Cf. also Wigalois, ed. Pfeiffer, 36, 2 f.,==Benecke, 1226 f.:

In einem jâre wuchs ez mêr

dan ein anderz in zwein tuo.

Elias (afterwards the Knight of the Swan), who is to avenge his mother, astonishes by his rapid growth the old hermit who brings him up:

“A! Dieu! dist ly preudons, à qui est cest enfant?

Il est sy jouènes d’âge et s’a le corps sy grant:

S’il croist sy faitement, ce sera ung gaiant.”

Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Reiffenberg, vv. 960–963, I, 45. “The little Malbrouk grew fast, and at seven years old he was as tall as a tall man.” Webster, basque Legends, 2d ed., p. 78; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays basque, p. 81. The Ynca Mayta Ccapac “a few months after his birth began to talk, and at ten years of age fought valiantly and defeated his enemies.” Markham, Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas, Hakluyt Society, p. 83. A Tête-Rasée infant in four days grows to the full size of man. Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, pp. 241–243. (G. L. K.)

91. Fair Mary of Wallington.

P. 310. Danish. Another copy of ‘Malfreds Død,’ Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, VI, 195, No 804.

93. Lamkin.

P. 320. The negroes of Dumfries, Prince William County, Virginia, have this ballad, orally transmitted from the original Scottish settlers of that region, with the stanza found in F (19) and T (15):

Mr Lammikin, Mr Lammikin,

oh, spare me my life,

And I’ll give you my daughter Betsy,

and she shall be your wife.

“They sang it to a monotonous measure.” (Mrs Dulany.)

516

94. Young Waters.

P. 343. By the kindness of Mr Macmath, I have now a copy of the original edition.

Young Waters, an Ancient Scottish Poem, never before printed. Glasgow, Printed and sold by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1755. (Small 4º, 8 pages.) The few differences of reading will be given with corrections to be made in the print.

95. The Maid Freed from the Gallows.

P. 346. Mr Alfred Nutt has communicated to the Folk-Lore Journal, VI, 144, 1888, the outline of a ballad in which, as in some versions of the European continent, the man has the place of the maid. But this may be a modern turn to the story, arising from the disposition to mitigate a tragic tale. The ballad was obtained “from a relative of Dr Birbeck Hill’s, in whose family it is traditional. Mother, father, and brethren all refuse him aid, but his sweetheart is kinder, and buys him off.” For the burden see C 6, which, as well as B 12, might better have been printed as such.

‘Hold up, hold up your hands so high!

Hold up your hands so high!

For I think I see my own mother coming

Oer yonder stile to me.

Oh the briars, the prickly briars,

They prick my heart full sore;

If ever I get free from the gallows-tree,

I’[ll] never get there any more.

‘Oh mother hast thou any gold for me,

Any money to buy me free,

To save my body from the cold clay ground,

And my head from the gallows-tree?’

‘Oh no, I have no gold for thee,

No money to buy thee free,

For I have come to see thee hanged,

And hangëd thou shalt be.’

Struppa’s text of ‘Scibilia Nobili’ is repeated in Salomone-Marino’s Leggende p. siciliane in Poesia, p. 160, No 29. The editor supplies defects and gives some varying readings from another version, in which Scibilia is the love, not the wife, of a cavalier.—Mango, Calabria, in Archivio, I, 394, No 75 (wife).—‘La Prigioniera,’ Giannini, No 25, p. 195, two copies, reduces the story to four or five stanzas. The sequel, No 26, p. 197, is likely to have been originally an independent ballad. It is attached to ‘Scibilia Nobili,’ but is found separately in Bernoni, XI, No 3, ‘La Figlia snaturata,’ Finamore, Archivio, I, 212, ‘Catarine.’

347 b. ‘Frísa vísa’ is reprinted by Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, p. 268, No 34. The editor expressly says that the ballad is used as a children’s game, like the English F. So also are Danish A, and a Magyar ballad of like purport, to be mentioned presently.

348 b. Danish. A, in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, ‘Jomfruens udløsning,’ II, 49, No 279, 1884; B, III, 5, No 3, 1885. From tradition. Both versions agree with the Swedish in all important points, and the language of B points to a Swedish derivation.

349 a. Ransom for maid refused by father, mother, brother, sister, and paid by lover: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 50, No 11; II, 245, No 7. (W. W.)

349 b, 514 a. Man redeemed by maid when abandoned by his own blood: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 250, No 26; Servian, Vuk, III, 547, No 83; Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 254, No 61, p. 352, No 96. (W. W.)

In a Slovak ballad in Kollár, Národnie Zpiewanky, II, 13, translated by Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen, col. 42 f., John, in prison, writes to his father to ransom him; the father asks how much would have to be paid; four hundred pieces of gold and as many of silver; the father replies that he has not so much, and his son must perish. An ineffectual letter to mother, brother, sister, follows; then one to his sweetheart. She brings a long rope, with which he is to let himself down from his dungeon. If the rope proves too short, he is to add his long hair (cf. I, 40 b, line 2, 486 b); and if it be still too short, he may light upon her shoulders. John escapes. Nearly the same is the Polish ballad translated in Waldbrühl’s Balalaika, which is referred to II, 350 b.

A fragment of a Székler ransom-ballad is found in Arany and Gyulai’s collection, III, 42: Herrmann, as above, col. 49. Another form of love-test is very popular in Hungary, of which Herrmann gives eight versions. In one of these, from a collection made in 1813, Arany and Gyulai, I, 189 (Herrmann’s IV), the story is told with the conciseness of the English ballad. A snake has crept into a girl’s bosom: she entreats her father to take it out; he dares not, and sends her to her mother; the mother has as little devotion and courage as the father, and sends her to her brother; she is successively passed on to sister-in-law, brother-in-law, sister; then appeals to her lover, who instantly does the service. This is the kernel, and perhaps all that is original, in versions, I (of Herrmann), col. 34 f., contributed by Kálmány; II, 36 f., contributed by Szabó; V, col. 38, Kálmány, Koszorúk az Alföld vad Virágaiból, I, 21, translated into German by Wlislocki, Ungarische Revue, 1884, p. 344; VIII, col. 39, Kálmány, Szeged Népe, II, 13. In Herrmann, VI, col. 38, Kálmány, Koszorúk, II, 62; VII, col. 38 f., Kálmány, Szeged Népe, II, 12; and III, col. 37 (a fragment), young man and maid change parts. In I, III, V (?), VI, VII, the father says he can better do without a daughter (son) than without one of his hands, and the youth (maid) would rather lose one of his (her) hands than his (her) 517beloved.^[326] In I the snake has been turned to a purse of gold when the maid attempts to take it out; in II, according to a prose and prosaic comment of the reciter, there was no snake, but the girl had put a piece of gold in her bosom, and calls it a yellow adder to experiment upon her family; in VII, again, there is no snake, but a rouleau of gold, and the snake is explained away in like manner in a comment to VIII. Even the transformation in I is to be deprecated; the money in the others is a modern depravation.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · The “white hand” in the Slovenian ballad, II, 350, is hard to explain unless there is a mixture of a prison-ballad and a snake-ballad.