»» • '• ■* » THE BALLAD BOOK A Selection of the Choicest Old Ballads EDITED BY WILLIAM ALLINGHAM NKW YORK WHITE, STOKES, & AI,I,EN MDCCCLXXXVI $^fc c,^"^^ (^^ioi PREFACE THIS little Book is intended to present, for the delight of lovers of poetry, some fourscore of the best Old Ballads in at once the best and the most authentic attainable form. But let it be understood at the beginning, that in most cases the authority, if it deserve the name at all, for the text of an old ballad, is of an obscure and evasive kind ; and the more scrutiny, the less as- surance. To not many of the poems in this book could even an approximate date be affixed, and to not one the author's name. Ballad, ballata^ is originally a song sung in dancing {dallattdo), or perhaps intermixed with dances. II. "The Old Ballads" suggests as distinct a set of impressions as the name of Shakespeare, Spenser, or Chaucer; but on looking close we find ourselves puzzled ; the sharp bounding lines disappear ; the mountain chain so definite on the horizon is found to be a disunited and intricate region. Perhaps most people's notion of the Old Ballads is formed out of recollections of Percy's 654618 vi Of the Dissertations^ etc. Reliqttes^ Ritson's Robin Hood set, Scott's Bor- der Minstrelsy^ as repositories ; of " Sir Patrick Spens," " Clerk Saunders," " The Twa Corbies," " Chevy Chace," " Thomas the Rhymer," and a few more ballads individually ; and withal of the presence of certain joyless introductions, disser- tations, notes, appendices, commentaries, contro- versies, of an antiquarian, historical, or pseudo- historical nature, wherein the poetry is packed, like pots of dainties and wine-flasks, in straw and sawdust In most of the collections, lyrics and metrical tales are associated with the bal- lads proper, and it has been usual, besides, to load on a heap of Modern Imitations. All honor and gratitude to the collectors and editors, great- er and lesser ; yet one must venture to say that the really fine and favorite Old Ballads have hitherto formed the vital portions of a set of vol- umes which are, on the whole, rather lumpish and unreadable. The feast they offer is some- what Hke an " olla podrida " of Spenser's Fairy Queen, Dodsley's Miscella?ty, the driest columns of Notes and Queries, and a selection from the Poet's Corner of the provincial newspapers. The Ballads which we give have, one and all, no connection of the slightest importance with history. Things that did really happen are no doubt shadowed forth in many of them, but with such a careless confusion of names, places, and times, now thrice and thirty times confounded by alterations in course of oral transmission, va- rious versions, personal and local adaptations, Of the Best Ballads vii not to Speak of editorial emendations, that it is mere waste of time and patience to read (if any one ever does read) those grave disquisitions, his- torical and antiquarian, wherewith it has been the fashion to encumber many of these rudely pic- turesque and pathetic poems. All the aforesaid wrappages, or nearly all, the present editor has taken the liberty to put aside, leaving the reader of this volume of Ballads to enjoy them simply as poems, unvexed with dull and trivial questions, to which, after all, no precise aijswers are forthcom- ing. III. Those Ballads which give color and val- ue to this department of English hterature are the best of the " Robin Hood " set, and the Scot- tish and North English Ballads of a romantic and supernatural kind. The truly historical bal- lads are one and all inferior, and, considered as poetry, rather like chips in the porridge. The printers' ballads, by Deloney, Johnson, Elderton (who, as old Camden reports, " did arm himself with ale when he ballated"), and other profes- sional writers, made in a prosaic pedestrian style, though some of them meritorious in their own way, and preserving here and there a tinge of the better sort of ballad-writing, are of Uttle or no account in the estimate. Some of the best " Robin Hood" Ballads were early printed ; the " Lytell Geste," by Wynken de Worde, probably in 1489 : but of the romantic Minstrel Ballads by far the greater number have been preserved by oral transmission, and gathered together by col- viii Of Dates lectors during the last hundred years, chiefly in the remoter parts of the kingdom, and from the mouths of persons of humble rank. Of the com- paratively few old MS. copies extant, most, if not all, were doubtless also taken down, directly or otherwise, from the oral delivery of profession- al minstrels, who themselves, whether as invent- ors or repeaters, were not accustomed to com- mit their verses to paper ; and such MS. copies, made by anonymous, and often, as in the case of Percy's Folio, illiterate hands, have really no more authority than oral versions obtained in our own day, except in so far as they may be held to represent the popular forms at such or such a date. The Ballads owe no little of their merit to the countless riddlings, siftings, shiftings, omissions, and additions of innumerable reciters. The lucky changes hold, the stupid ones fall aside. Thus, with some effective fable, story, or incident for its soul, and taking form from the hands of a "maker" who knew his business, the ballad (like the nursery rhyme) glides from generation to generation, and fits itself more and more to the brain and ear of its proper audience. At last the editors take it up, and then the alterations are huge and sudden, — here with great and ob- vious improvement, there injurious and destruc- tive. It is the quick work (good and evil) of a despotism compared with the gradual results of an old constitutional government IV. How to date most of our popular romantic Of a Claim for Lady Wardlaw ix ballads is, to this day, a much debated question. It has been usual to take for granted, in a vague way, that they are old, — very old ; and to con- nect them with a certain marketable neatness, but with no true strength of link, with the bards, trou- veres, court minstrels, and so on. On the other hand, a gentleman of much study in the matter has recentiy given it as his opinion \_The Roman- tic Scottish Ballads f their Epoch and Authorship, by Robert Chambers, 1859] of most, if not all, the best of the romantic ballads, that some were written, and the others entirely recast, no further back than in the last century, by Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw. To us, however, it appears that "Hardyknute" (granting the lady's authorship of that) has httle or no poetical merit, and owes its reputation to the novelty, in that day, of its style ; the true and poor examples (whereof "Hardyknute" was a poorish imitation) lying hidden as yet from the reading public. From " Hardyknute " alone Mr. Chambers argues Lady Wardlaw's capability of writing or putting into their present forms " Sir Patrick Spens," " Ed- ward, Edward," "The Jew's Daughter," "Young Waters," " Edom o' Gordon," "The Gay Gos- hawk," "Gil Morice," "Annie o' Lochroyan,'' and many other of our best ballads. " Childe Maurice" (printed by Jamieson literatim from Percy's foho MS.) is "a poor, bald, imperfect composition," says Mr. Chambers, " in compari- son with *Gil Morice.'" This old MS. copy is indeed imperfect, in the sense of fragmentary ; X Romantic Ballads that is, it does not give the whole ballad as then existing ; yet even in what it does give are to be seen the characteristics of our finest ballad po- etry, and we have gone back to it for the use of tlie present work. That, like every other ballad orally transmitted, this ballad became modified and altered in the course of successive genera- tions, cannot be doubted ; that, once the epoch of editors set in, the ballads were in a short time more touched, and by more skilful hands, than during their whole previous existence, seems in- dubitable ; but, that Lady Wardlaw, or any indi- vidual writer, recast " Gil Morice," or any other, much less most, of our best ballads, we find no evidence whatever. If not proved old, they have certainly not been proved modern. V. We look upon our romantic ballads as a class of poems traceable backwards to perhaps the fifteenth century, — impressive stories in a simple style of verse, sung (and often filled in with prose narration) by professional strollers of a humbler sort than the courtly minstrels, who themselves by this time were beginning to de- cline from their high place. These narrative songs (some derived from ancient times and for- eign countries, some abridged from the long metrical romances, some of new invention) were composed, not without genius in the best, by unlearned men for popular audiences ; and pass- ing from mouth to mouth and generation to gen- eration of singers and reciters, dull and clever, undergoing numerous alterations by the way by Popular Poems xi reason of slips of memory, personal tastes, local adaptations and prejudices, additions, omissions, patches, and lucky thoughts, and on the whole gaining in strength in the process, came in a lat- er day into the baskets of literary collectors, were transferred into the editorial laboratories, there sifted, mixed, shaken, clarified, improved (or the contrary), no one can ever tell how much, and sent at last into the World of Books in a proper- ly solemn shape, their triviality duly weighted with a load of antiquarianism, and garnished with fit apologies for the presentation of such " barbarous productions " to " a polished age like the present," and assurances that those high lit- erary personages, the " ingenious " Mr. This and the "elegant" Mr. That, whose own poems are so justly, &c. (read now, forgotten), have given some countenance to the venture. VI. Popular poems, similar in style and often in subject, are found in Denmark, Sweden, Ger- many, and other countries, all doubtless deriving no little from the splendidly obscure Oriental nursery of our race. In 1586, Sophia, Queen of Denmark, visiting Tycho Brahe, prince of stars, in his island observatory, was there storm-sted three days; when, to amuse her Majesty, a store of old Danish Ballads, collected by Pastor Sseffrensen, a friend of Tycho's, was produced ; and, with the Queen's encouragement, a select hundred of them were published in 1 591, under the title of KcEinpe Viser, Heroic Ballads. Just a century after this, Peter Say, another priest, xii Antiquity of the Ballads published a second hundred ballads of his own collecting. A complete edition of the Danske Viser, in 5 vols., appeared at Copenhagen in 1812-14. Of the Swedish Ballads, collections have been published at Stockholm in 3 vols., 1 8 14- 16, and in 3 vols., 1834-42. Among these Scandinavian Ballads are found parallel stories to our "Fair Annie," "Kem- pion," "Douglas Tragedy," "Katharine Jan- farie," "Etin the Forester," " Binnorie," "Willy's Lady," "May Colvin," "The Cruel Brother," " Sweet William's Ghost " ; while " Lord Ron- ald," and " Edward, Edward," appear in the old German popular minstrelsy. This strong family likeness to old foreign ballads (wheresoever we may look for the origin) is in itself no bad evi- dence for the antiquity of ours. The existence of many versions in various parts of the country goes strongly to prove the same point. But this is not all. " The Lytell Geste," as we have said, was printed about 1485. The " Hunting of the Cheviot" must be at least as old as Henry VII I. 's reign (some think half a century earlier). " Childe Maurice" in Percy's MS. is apparently in six- teenth-century spelling. A verse from "Little Musgrave" is quoted in 161 1 by Beaumont and Fletcher, and another from "Fair Margaret's Misfortunes" (see our notes). "Hynd Horn," " Tamlane," " Thomas the Rhymer," " Fair An- nie," " Kempion," and others, are ballad versions of early metrical romances. Several are by sub- ject and treatment clearly referable to the me- Oral Transmission xiii diseval times, such as " Hugh of Lincoln," and " Young Beichan." " Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor," and " The Bailiff's Daughter of Isling- ton," are among the black-letter broadsheets in Pepys's collection. In Wit Restor''d (1658) ap- pear " Johnnie Annstrong," " The Miller and the King's Daughter " (a burlesque version of " Bin- norie "), and " The Old Ballad of Little Musgrave and the Lady Barnard." In short, we believe that many of our best Old Ballads were old bal- lads in Shakespeare's time, and, considering the conservatism of the commonalty in such matters, that, for all the verbal variations, they are sub- stantially not much altered since then. VII. From the ancient Skalds and Bards, who were historians and genealogists as well as poets, the high harpers and gleemen, trouveres, jongleurs, romancists, and minstrels of every no- bler kind, we come, in those books which treat thereof, by obscure transition to the later ballad- singers of humble rank, stroUing from house to hamlet, from tavern to cottage, with their songs old and nev/. Most of the ballads went to a fit- ting tune, but one tune did duty for many bal- lads. Some, perhaps, were rather chantingly recited than sung; and the song or the chant, when given by a professed performer, was usual- ly accompanied by a harp, cithern (guitar), fid- dle, or other suitable instrument. Here and there a skilled private person would be sure to emulate in his own little circle the completeness of the professor ; while much more often the bal- xiv The Printing Press lad would be given in the huge chimney-nook of a farm-house or on the bench of a village-green, to some casual knot of listeners, in such irregu- lar and imperfect fashion as the memory and voice of some old woman or peasant youth could attain. But the printer encroached more and more on the power and privileges of the min- strel, whose profession grew ever poorer and lower, till at last he is denounced in 39th Eliz. cap. iv. among " rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars." This marks the decline of the once highly honorable class, some fragrance of whose ancient repute, however, still lingered round a few sad survivors in Scotland and Ireland within living memory. VIII. As to the extent of ballad Hterature in the middle of the i6th century, take this fact (quoted from Collier by Mr. Chappell, Music of the Olden Tirne^ i. 106), that, at tlie end of the year 1560, "796 ballads, left for entry at Sta- tioners' Hall, remained in the cupboard of the council-chamber of the company, to be trans- ferred to the new wardens ; and only 44 books." Most of these, however, were doubtless of that inferior London ballad literature written for the press, those broad-sheets whereof the Roxburghe collection almost entirely consists, those " Gar- lands " and " Penny Merriments " so numerous in their day, a literature interesting in other ways, but not as poetry, saving some rare exceptions. Why comparatively so few of our finest ballads are found early in print may be accounted for Haiu we have gotten our Ballads xv thus, that the printing-press itself gave rise to this new school of ballad-makers, whose really very inferior compositions had a novelty, and, in a low sense, completeness of form and style, which brought them into favor, especially in the cities and the more polished and " progressive " parts of the country. Ballad-making, through the dingiest kind of printing-offices, has been continued from that day to this, when it finds its issues in a Seven Dials court, a Dublin lane near Thomas Street, or some similar alley of Cork or Glasgow. Meanwhile the nobler or wild-flower sort of popular ballad still sprang up here aod there till about the time, we should guess, of Pope and Swift ; chiefly, if not exclusively, in the ruder Northern parts of the kingdom, which all along have been the most prolific in this kind, owing, perhaps, to the wild, moory, and moun- tainous scenery, the adventurous and martial habits, the old-world customs, and the closer connection with ballad-loving Scandinavia. The actual events to which the following ballads refer (very inaccurately as a rule), occurred, as far as we can trace, in or about the years affixed: — "Hughie Graham," 1560; " Edom o' Gordon" (old version. Captain Carre), 1571 ; "Kinmont WiUie," 1596 ; " Laird o' Drum," 1643 ; " Baron of Brackley," 1666 ; " Bessie Bell and Mary Gray," 1666. With the eighteenth century set in the epoch of \i2^7iA-editmg. IX. After a good deal of reading and consid- eration on this matter, our opinion is that our xvi The Collectiotis Old Ballads, as a class of popular poems, took their rise in pre- Shakespearian times (not to be more particular than we have v/arrant for), and were most of them transmitted orally for many- generations, and, consequently, in countless va- ried versions ; that in the century and a half after Shakespeare ballads continued to be composed in Scotland and the North of England for popu- lar audiences in the good old style ; and that, half a century or so later than this, these, as well as similar remains in MS. and in rare books, be- gan to excite the curiosity of " the hterary world," and certain of the countless oral versions, picked up by chance or sought out in the likeliest quar- ters, took printed forms, — manipulated more or less, or "given exactly as recited" by this or that peasant or gentlewoman of the old school, accord- ing to the nature of the collector. X. Now to say something of the chief collec- tions. Wit Restor'd (London, 1658) contains a version of "Johnnie Armstrong" and one of" Lit- tle Musgrave "; and Miscellany Poems ^ edited by Dryden, 6 vols. (London, 1684- 1708), aversion of the latter. A Collection of Old Ballads (Br. Mus. set, vol. i. London, 1723; vol. ii. 2d ed. 1726; vol. iii. 2d ed. 1738) has " Johnnie Arm- strong," several of " Robin Hood," " Lord Thom- as and Fair Ellinor," "Chevy Chase," "Gilde- roy," and "The Baffled Knight." Allan Ram- say's Ever Green, Scots Poems wrote by the Ingenious before i6oo (Edinburgh, 1724), has " The Battle of Hariaw " and " The Reid Squair Percy xvii Raid" (both of the dull local-historical kind), " Johnnie Armstrong " again, and the apocryphal " Hardyknute ; " his Tea-table Miscellany (Edin- burgh, 1724) gives some better ballad-things, without saying where they come from, — namely, " Barbara Allan," " Sweet William's Ghost " (im- perfect and with spurious additions), " The Bon- ny Earl of Murray," "Waly, Waly," and also " Johny Faa, the Gypsie Laddie." In 1765 came Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Po- etry ^ gathered chiefly from " an ancient folio MS. in the editors possession, which contains near two hundred poems, songs, and metrical roman- ces. This manuscript was written about the middle of the last century, but contains composi- tions of all times and dates, from the ages prior to Chaucer to the conclusion of the reign of Charles I." This folio was given to Percy by Humphrey Pitt, Esq., of Prior's- Lee, Shropshire, who said it was purchased with a library of old books. The bishop's nephew, editing the fourth edition in 1794, adds some particulars of this MS. "The first and last leaves are wanting; and of fifty-four pages near the beginning half of every leaf hath been torn away, and several oth- ers are injured towards the end. Besides that, tlirough a great part of the volume the top or bottom, and sometimes both, have been cut off in the binding. . . . Even where the leaves have suffered no injury', the transcripts, which seeiii to have been all made by one person (they are at least all in the same kind of hand), are sometimes xviii Percy extremely incorrect and faulty. Hence the pul> lie may judge how much they are i?idebted\Q(\Vi\V' ocal !] to the composer of this collection." The famous MS., seen but by a select few, is, after all, of no very great importance for our particular business. Of the ballads we deal in, but two — *^ Glasgerion " and "Childe Waters" — are given by Percy as from the Folio only, though others have received insertions and corrections from that source. Four — "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet," " The Jew's Daughter," " Edward, Ed- ward," "Sir Patrick Spens" — are from MSS. "sent from Scotland." "Young Waters," " Gil Morice," and " Edom o' Gordon," are from cop- ies recently printed at Glasgow; and "Little Musgrave," " King John and the Abbot," " Lord Thomas and Fair EUinor," "Barbara Allen," "The BaiUffs Daughter of Ishngton," "The FroUcksome Duke," from old printed copies (emendated). For the rest, the Reliques consist of old poems, lyrics, and inferior ballads, some rare, some not. Speaking of his mode of deal- ing with his materials in the Folio and elsewhere, Percy says in his Preface : " These old popular rhymes, being many of them copied from illiter- ate transcripts, or the imperfect recitation of itin- erant ballad-singers, have, as might be expected, been handed down to us with less care than any other writings in the world. And the old copies, whether MS. or printed, were often so defective and corrupted, that a scrupulous adherence to their wretched readings would only have exhibit- Herd — Scott xix ed unintelligible nonsense, or such poor, meagre stuff as neither came from the bard nor was worthy the press ; when, by a few slight correc- tions or additions, a most beautiful or interesting sense hath started forth, and so naturally and ea- sily, that the editor could seldom prevail on him- self to indulge the vanity of making a formal claim to the improvement ; but must plead guilty to the charge of concealing his own share in the amendments, under some such general title as a ' Modem Copy ' or the like." He adds that, "where any considerable liberties were taken with the old copies," three asterisks are subjoined to the poem. In 1769 (2d ed. 1776) appeared Herd's An- dent and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Bal^ lads^ dr'c.y an indiscriminate gathering — no au- thorities given — including, among other ballads, versions of " Lammikin," " The Bonny Lass of Lochryan" ; " Fine Flowers in the Valley" [oth- erwise "The Cruel Brother"]; "Earl Richard" [otherwise " Young Redin "] ; "The Lowlands of Holland " ; " May Colvin " ; a fragment of " Fair Annie," of " Kertonha " [otherwise " Tamlane "], of "The Cruel Mother," and of "Helen of Kir- connell." Now we come to Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the first two volumes published in 1802, the third in 1803, containing no fewer than forty ballads not published before, and among these, "Thomas the Rhymer"; "The Twa Corbies"; "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" XX Scott ["The Banks o' Yarrow »']; "Brown Adam '^ "The Wife of Usher's V/ell"; "Annan Wa- ter"; "The Douglas Tragedy"; "Kempion"; " Johnnie of Braidislee" ; " Katharine Janferie " ; " Clerk Saunders " ; " The Song of the Outlaw Murray " ; " Kinmont WilUe " ; " The Fray o' Su- port" ; "The Daemon Lover" ["The Ship o' the Fiend"]; "Lament of the Border Widow"; "WiUie's Lady"; aversion of "Lord Randal" ["Lord Ronald"]; of "Helen of Kirconnell"; and of " Tamlane." With these, which seem to us the best, and with some more of the same class, the Minstrelsy includes a number of local- historical ballads (heavily loaded with antiqua- rian commentary), and a camp-following crowd of " Imitations." As to where and how Scott got those ballads and versions which were not before in print, and still more in regard to his manipulations, we are generally left in fog. Of the local-historical bal- lads he says he " has been obliged to draw his materials chiefly from oral tradition" (ed. 1851, i. 223), After pipers and other itinerants of the Border districts, he speaks of "shepherds and aged persons," and says, " It is chiefly from this latter source that the editor has drawn his ma- terials, most of which were collected many years ago," adding and correcting from a manuscript collection of Border songs made by Mr. Riddell, "a sedulous Border antiquary." Where copies disagreed, the editor preserved what seemed to him the best reading. " The romantic ballads," Scott xxi Scott says, are "much more extensively known among the peasantry of Scotland than the Bor- der-raid ballads, the fame of which is generally confined to the mountains where they were origi- nally composed. Hence, it has been easy to col- lect these tales of romance,. to a number much greater than the editor has chosen to insert." Besides his own gatherings, Scott had the use of Mr. Herd's MSS., containing ballads pub- lished and unpubHshed. He also had two MS. books of ballads from Mr. A. F. Tytler (after- wards Lord Woodhouselee). Mr. Tytler's father got these from Professor Gordon, of Aberdeen. Professor Gordon's daughter, Mrs. Brown, re- membered most of them from the singing of her aunt, Mrs. Farquhar of Braemar, who was full of the old songs and ballads which she had heard from nurses and country women; and these, with others of Mrs. Brown's own picking up, were at last written down. Much other as- sistance and information Scott received "from various quarters." To some of Scott's many arrangements and "conjectural emendations" reference is made here and there in our notes. We have no doubt that the ballads have gained very much on the whole from his treatment, and lost nothing of the least substantial importance. A subsequent editor, who held it to be the strict and stern duty of his tribe to give every ballad precisely as found, speaks of " the alembic estab- lished at Abbotsford for the purification of An- cient Song" (Motherwell's Minstrelsy^ 131). Of xxii jfamieson and Others versions printed verbatim from the lips of the people, Motherwell's book, Buchan's, and others^ contain many specimens, not without interest; but is it, for example, necessary to print a horse, in quarto, as " that bonnie apple-gx2Cf^^ (Mother- well, p. 237), because the line was so recited by " an old woman in Renfrewshire " ? Jamieson, in his Popular Ballads and Smtgs (2 vol. Edin. 1806), gave about fifteen ballads not before published (among them "Burd Helen," *' William and May Margaret," "Young Bei- chan," " Alison Gross "), and versions of many others ; also " Childe Maurice," from the Percy folio. He collected many of his ballads himself^ was furnished with others by friends, and took down about a dozen from the copious Mrs. Brown, whom he visited, and who afterwards sent him several more. Jamieson (who by the by had a vein of poetic genius) put in many stanzas ; see, for instance, his note to " Sweet Willie and Fair Annie" (i. 35), and to " The Twa Sisters '' (i. 49). In 1808 came out Finlay's Ballads, containing different versions of several, nothing new of im- portance. By Laing, Sharpe, Maidment, some small contributions were made to this branch of literature. Kinloch (1827) gives some useful ver- sions, with a half a dozen minor ballads. Mo- therwell's Minstrelsy (1827), gives interesting oral versions of several, and a few, not of high class, hitherto unpublished, mixed up incongru- ously witli modern pieces of no great merit. Bnchan and Others xxiii Next comes Peter Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, hitherto unpublished (2 vols. 1828). Here is much that is not to be found elsewhere; and Peter's bal- lads are, we believe, more truly than any one else's (except Motherwell's few), real popular ver- sions ; at the same time they are, as a rule, rude, vulgar, and often silly. His volumes we have found very useful for collation with others, and have also gleaned from them the ballads of "Earl Mar's Daughter," "Young John," and " Brown Robyn's Confession." Of more recent ballad-books (none of which we believe profess to add anything to our old store), we may men- tion Mr. Robert Chambers's volume, TJie Scottish Ballads (1829), who "associated what seemed [to him] tlie best stanzas and the best lines, nay, even the best words of the various copies ex- tant"; and, moreover, added many stanzas of his own composition ; Mr. Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Ballads (1845), ^ close-printed volume of nearly 600 pages, crowded with modern com- positions, and also with spurious verses in the older ballads ; Mr. Bell's A?icient Poems, Bal- lads, and Songs, of the Peasantry of England (1857), which has no ballads of our kind ; Pro- fessor Aytoun's Ballads of Scotland (2 vols. 1858, 3d ed. 1 861), a large miscellaneous collection, chiefly from the books which we have already named, mixed with some Scottish poems not of the ballad class, edited on the principle of select- ing the best versions and fragments, and where xxiv Hobin Hood necessary, " restoring " and " consolidating " the ballads in a complete form. This, which includes the insertion here and there of new lines and stanzas, is skilfully done. The largest collection of British ballads ever published has lately appeared in America, edited by Professor Child (8 vols. Philadelphia, 1857- 59), who has done his work of amassment in an unpretending and gentlemanlike manner, copy- ing down from the collections a variety of ver- sions, adopting a quasi arrangement in " books " and appendices, and packing a large miscellane- ous heap of ballad things, good, bad, and indif- ferent, into eight trim volumes. XI. The Robin Hood Ballads must be consid- ered by themselves. Though doubtless there was some kind of foundation for the stories, Robin Hood is an inhabitant of the world of fic- tion, not of history. The general tradition runs thus : Robin Hood (in the reigns of King Henry II. and Richard I., say some; others put him later), being a man of noble family, for some rea- son outlawed, took to the woods of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, and was there joined by other " merry men," or bold fellows, the chief of them named Little John (he being very tall), Will Scathlock or Scarlett, George h Green, pinner (poundkeeper) of Wakefield, Much, a miller's son, and a jolly friar, Tuck. Also with him lived in the green forest his sweetheart and wife, Maid Marian. Robin and his men shot the king's deer, robbed rich wayfarers in a gallant and Robin Hood Ballads xxvH The ballads were flying about the country, generation after generation, in the form of broad sheets and of little collections called " Garlands," till Ritson gathered them into his two volumes, published 1795. Industrious and irritable Joe (who described Mr. Gough of the Gentleman^s Magazine as " the scurrilous and malignant edi- tor of that degraded pubUcation ") * is long and angry in defence of Robin Hood's character, and particularly admires him for robbing "clerical drones or pious locusts." Among the oldest of the ballads, if not the old- est, are those eight connected ones, entitled, " A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode," given in this vol- ume in its old form, with some slight correction of the lawless spelling (what good in spelling " high " four different ways in nine lines ?), and an abate- ment of the very strong swearing that was for- merly in fashion. " Robin Hood and the Monk " is another of the oldest, and also of the best ; but it is a long ballad, and we had not room for it. The Robin Hood Ballads^ taken in the lump, being full of repetition, and often vulgar, or per- haps vulgarised in style, form a disappointing book, one of those which people buy for its name * speaking of Bishop Percy's version of " Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbome," Ritson exclaims, " How an editor .... can justify such wanton, arbitrary, and even injudicious alterations in the publication of an ancient poem is beyond the conception of a person not habituated to ' liberties ' of this nature, nor des- titute of all manner of regard for truth and probity " [Robin Hood, vol. ii. at end). Furious Joe, by-the-bye, "hisself," ff he took no liberties, made many a blunder. xxviii Robin Hood Ballads and neglect for its own sake. Each ballad had a popularity, in its own time and circle; but taken together they have no vital coherency or continuity, and form a chance bundle, ticketed "• Robin Hood," not, as one might hope from the usual way of talldng, a series with some poetic movement and unity, a kind of rude ballad-his- tory. The set of eight connected ballads, " The Ly- tell Geste " is the most important section of Rob- in Hood song, and with those few others here presented will give our guests a good dish of law- less venison.* But if the ballads as a whole be tedious, the central figure, (whithersoever or how- soever come) is a clear and delightful one, of that small class of ideal personages to which I>on Quixote and Robinson Crusoe also belong, — ^ a bold, generous, and courteous Outlaw, famous in archery, living under greenwood tree with his merry-men, taldng from the rich and giving to the poor, — a figure that, once lodged in the popular imagination, became an easy and fa- vorite subject for one rhymester after another. So let us into the forest-land of romance, and for a while "live like the old Robin Hood of England," — "fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world." XII. The set of ballads in our own volume^is, * " The Lytell Geste " Is probably of the early part of the sfcc- ttfenth century, and the older songs so often alluded to by early writers were doubtless remodelled in that age for the popular amusement, and have come to us in the form which they theh got into ; the originals, except fragments, being now lost. Of this Book xxix we believe, on the whole, much nearer to what the sung and recited ballads really were, at their best, than those which we have all accepted as The Old Ballads in the collections of Percy, Jamieson, Scott, and other editors. Many mod- ern interpolations, confessed or obvious, are now left out, greatly, if we mistake not, to the im- provement of the ballads. Where rearrange- ment, or selection from different copies (freely practised by preceding editors), appeared desira- ble, it has been done with diligent examination of a large mass of materials, and with the most punctilious caution ; and where the present edi- tor found occasion, which was rarely, to supply some link, repair some dropt stitch, he has dealt merely with things neutral, carefully avoiding to foist in any touches of pseudo-antique, whether in incident, language, or custom. A very few words are altered for manners' sake. Substan- tially ^ he has added nothing to the ballads. On the general effect of his labors he would be con- tent to leave the verdict either to half a dozen true knowers of English poetry (if so many could be found at one time), or else to any group of ordinary listeners, men, women, and ehildren, who care to listen to the like, — such a group as ballads were made to please. Let, for example, " Earl Mar's Daughter " be read as here given, or "Young Redin," or "The Jolly Goshawk," or " Etin," or " Binnorie," or " Little Musgrave," or " Willy's Lady," and also those versions of the same which are printed in any other collection. XXX Our Versions No doubt, however, those who have been bred up, as it were, in a particular form of a ballad will be upt, at least at first, to mislike any other form. One who has had impressed upon his youthful mind — It was in or about the Martinmas time When the green leaves were a-fallin', That Sir John Graeme in the west countrie Fell in love with Barbara Allen — may very hkely be ill-content to find name of person and season of year altered, as they are in the following equally authentic version, — All in the merry month of May, When green buds they were swellin'. Young Jemmy Grove on his death-bed lay For love of Barbara Allen. But let him not, therefore, fall foul of the editor, who was bound to choose without prejudice be- tween autumn and spring. Jemmy Grove and Sir John. Most of the old ballads, as taken down from the mouths of nurses, peasants, itinerant musi- cians, or from broadsheets and ha'penny song- books, would be found corrupt, incoherent, in- complete ; and with here and there a striking bit, on the whole vexatious and tiresome to read. The various oral versions of a popular ballad obtainable throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland, are perhaps, even at this late day, prac- tically innumerable, — one as " authentic " as an- other. What then to do ? Various versions of half a dozen ballads would make a volume the size of this, — and a very worthless volume. The Editing xxxi right course has appeared to be this, to make one's self acquainted with all attainable versions of a ballad. Then (granting a " turn " for such things, to begin; without which all were labor in vain), the editor may be supposed to get as much insight as may be had into the origin and character of the ballad in question ; he sees or surmises more or less as to the earliest version or versions, as to blunders, corruptions, altera- tions of every sort (national, local, personal), on the part of reciters; he then comes to inves- tigate the doings of former editors, adopting thankfully what he finds good, correcting at points whereupon he has attained better informa- tion, rejecting (when for the worse) acknowledged or obvious interpolations or changes. He is to give it in one form — the best according to his judgment and feeling — in firm black and white, for critics, and for readers cultivated and simple ; the ballad itself is multiform, and even shifting, vapourlike, as one examines it ; the conditions of his task are therefore by no means easy ; and when the work is done with his utmost care and skill, nothing can be easier than to pull it to pieces and prove it "a thing of naught." So much, not in deprecation of criticism, but to sug- gest to any one inclined to be critical the diffi- culties attending a task which, the more you look into the nature of it, the more is it found to be without soHd basis or definite boundaries. To make the narrative clear, and bring out for- cibly the dramatic points, is what every balladist xxxii BcUlad-Minstrel aimed at; the comparative success with which this is done tests the value of this version, or that, of a story. Take the present version of " Lamkin," where- in, as usual in our book, no addition is made to the traditionary matter. Collating the existing versions, each more or less altered and corrupt- ed, and viewing them by the Hght of imaginative truth, we have set forth the story (essentially unchanged) in a complete and consistent form. The incidents and the style remain unaltered. This is just what a good reciter or minstrel would do, and used to do. All the essentials remain; but a better ballad is the result Our Irish nurse's version (like several others) calls the murderer "Lamkin," and suggests that it was an epithet given to the cruel man, by rule of contrary. This much enhances the horror, although the hint for it may first have come by accident In short, the present editor has dealt, as poet and critic, with a heap of confused materials, much as he would have dealt orally with the same materials, had fortune placed him in the world some three centuries ago in the condition of a ballad-minstrel (many worse conditions for a poet), singing in hall or cottage to groups of old and young. XIV. Without entering upon a discussion of the respective claims of England and Scotland in ballad-making, we merely say that there is in the present volume at least as much of English English and Scottish Ballads xxxiii as of Scottish produce. For old ballads, as a class, belong to both countries ; and though one here and there may be assigned to each, attempts to divide them are on the whole vain and useless. Many a ballad is found in an old Scottish form and in an old English form, as for instance, " The Twa Corbies " and " The Three Ravens ; " " Young Beichan " (several versions) ; " Hugh of Lincoln" (several); "Little Musgrave;" "The Fair Flower of Northumberland ; " ** Edom o' Gordon" and "Captain Car." Percy gave "Edom o' Gordon," printed in Glasgow, 1755, but "with several fine stanzas," "from a frag- •ment of the same ballad in folio MS," " Uni- formity required that the additional stanzas sup- plied from that copy should be clothed in the Scottish orthography and idiom ; this has, there- fore, been attempted, though perhaps imperfect- ly'' (i. 123) [an instructive little confession!]: Ritson in his Ancient Songs a?td Ballads (ii. 38) gives "an entire ancient copy, the undoubted original of the Scottish ballad, and one of the few specimens now extant of the genuine proper old English ballad" [though founded on a fact which happened in Scotland]. It is in a " col- lection in the Cotton Library, marked Vespasian A XXV. At the top of the original stands the word Thus (Jesus), and at the end is Finis, Pme Willm Asheton clericu ; the name and quality, we may presume, of the original author. . The MS. having received numerous alterations or corrections, all or most of which are evidently xxxlv English and Scottish Versions for the better, they are here adopted as part of the text." Car or Ker, sent by Sir Adam Gor- don, burned Alex. Forbes's Castle of Towey in 1571. This English ballad begins : — It befell at Martynmas, When wether waxed colde, Captaine Care saide to his men, We must go take a ho.de. Some of the best stanzas of " Edom o' Gor- don " are here : — Then bespake the yongest sonn, That sat on the nurse's knee ; Sayth, mother gay, geve over your house, [The smoke] it smoldereth me. I would geve my gold, she saith, And so I wolde my fee. For a blaste of the "western " wind. To dryve the smoke from thee. But we do not find the pathetic death of the young daughter in the older ballad. The English version of " The Fair Flower of Northumberland," is by "the great ballade- maker T. D. or Thomas Deloney " ; and though vulgarly handled, has in its form recognizably the smack of old ballad literature : — It was a knight, in Scotland born, {Follotv, my love, come over the strand,) Was taken prisoner and left forlorn, Even by the good Earl of Northumberland. And as in sorrow thus he lay, {Follow, my love, come over the strand, ) The Earl's sweet daughter walks that way, And she 's the fair flower of Northumberland. Irish Versions xxxv Kinloch gives a Scottish version of the same story, "The Provost's Dochter," with this bur- den: — The Provost's dochter went out a walking, A tnay^s love whiles is easy won ; She heard a fair prisoner making her meane [moan], And she was the fair flow'r o' Northumberland. Deloney's ballad ends : — All you fair maidens, be warned by me, (Follow, my love, come over the strand,) Scots never were true, and never will be, To lord, nor lady, nor fair England." But the Scottish version has it : — She 's na the first that the Scots hae beguil'd, And she 's still the flow'r o' Northumberland. XV. The editor of this book, moved by a natural atfection for ballads, has not only made himself acquainted with all ballads and ballad literature that came within his reach, but might perhaps, if he chose, set up some claim to be considered as an original collector in a small way, — Ireland being his principal field. Ireland would certainly have contributed her full share to our general store of ballads, but for one suf- ficient reason, — her tongue was Keltic ; her na- tive popular songs and ballads lie hid in that little-known and expiring language. Many of the EngHsh and Scottish ballads, however, were carried over to the neighboring island, and are still borne in the memory of humble people. Unable here to discuss this matter of Anglo- xxxvi The Ballads of our Day Hibernian versions, we may mention as speci- mens those of " Binnorie " and " Lamkin," sung (among other ballads) by a nurse in the family of a relative of ours in Ireland. They are chiefly remarkable for corruption of language and neg- lect of jhyme. " Lamkin " begins thus : — As my lord and my lady were out walking one day, Says my lord to my lady, " Beware of Lamkin I" " O why should I fear him, or any such man, When my doors are well barr'd and my wmdows well pinn'd ? When my doors," &c. But there are some good points : — O keep your gold and silver, it will do you some good. It will buy you a coflSn when you are dead. There 's blood in the kitchen, and blood in the hall. And the young Mayor of England lies dead by the wall. The version of " Binnorie," called " Sister, dear Sister," and sung to a peculiar and beautiful air, begins : — Sister, dear sister, where shall we go play ? Cold blows the wind, and the wind Mows low. We shall go to the salt sea's brim, Atid the wind blows cheerily around us, High ho I The editor has also a large collection of tlie b^ lads and songs, printed on shps of whity-brown paper, sold by hawkers and professional ballad- singers throughout Ireland at the present day. Among these, oddly enough, he does not recol- lect one version of any of the good British bal- lads. An account of the collection may be found in a paper published some years ago in House- hold Words, entitled " Irish Ballad-Singers and Tragic Incidents rightly treated xxxvii Irish Ballads." Moreover, he has visited several of the chief ballad printing-offices, — in Dublin, in Belfast, and lately in Seven Dials. In the latter place he found two of the old ballads, and only two, still in the market, — the usual version of " Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor," and a very corrupt version of " Barbara Allen," beginning, In Reading town where I was bom, A fair maid there was dwelling, I picked her out to be my wife, Her name was Barbara Allen. XVI. To sum up, in regard to the ballads here presented, — they are narrative poems of an old, simple kind, modified in form in trans- mission to our own day. They have no histori- cal value, except in so far as they convey a general impression of a state of society very dif- ferent from ours in externals, being hot, rude, violent, and picturesque. Below the surface, per- haps, the difference is not so great. The same passions and motives show themselves in human history, with their outward fashion changed, in all places and at all times. The old ballads abound in "strong situa- tions" ; they are full of crime, of "battle, mur- der, and sudden death." Such is the very sub- stance of which the best of them are wrought ; and those who are unwilling to look on the tragic side of human life must turn their eyes elsewhere. Two or three fine ballads have been omitted ag too painful or horrible for our audience. Many gloomy stories remain, but all told with simple xxxviii Love-Stories — Faerie seriousness and right feeling. When sin and crime are spoken of, it is with due gravity. The dignity of human nature is upheld. In the vari- eties of character and fortune, some facts present themselves which are by general consent deemed unsuitable for literary treatment, and they who deal with such, however well, narrow their audi- ence from millions to units ; but there are many incidents and combinations of a tragical kind of which it is wholesome to speak, and whereof no one has so good a right to speak as the poet, — provided he speaks rightly. We do well for our humanity by looking at the darker incidents of life, in their turn, in the mirror of art, when there presented with a true sense of their solemn and fathomless import. There is nothing finer in literature, in the same compass, than " Childe Maurice," "Little Musgrave," "Clerk Saun- ders," "Fine Flowers in the Valley," "Young Redin," " Childe Vyet," and " Glasgerion." But all is not darkness and tempest in this region of song ; gay stories of true love with a happy end- ing are many ; and they who love enchantments, and to be borne off into fairy-land, may have their wish at the turning of a leaf. And now the editor sends forth the Httle book, with the feeling that he has done what in him lay to make it generally acceptable. CONTENTS PAGB 1. THOMAS THE RHYMER i Thomas is carried off by the Fairy Queen, and remains in Elfland seven years. 2. THE TWA CORBIES 5 They find the corpse of a knight 3. HYND HORN ; . . 6 He, having troth-plight firom the king's daughter, is exiled seven years ; returns in disguise on the day of her wedding to another, and wins her after all. 4. THE BANKS O' YARROW 11 Two brothers-in-law, being at odds, agree to fight a duel on the banks of Yarrow River, but one of the com- batants puts armed men in ambush and treacherously slays the other. The traitor's sister, wife of the slain man, comes to this bloody field. 5. EARL MAR'S DAUGHTER 14 She finds a dove, which is an enchanted prince, and her lover ; and at last he bears her away to his mother's casUe. 6. BROWN ADAM 21 His punishment of one who insulted his wife. xl Contents 7. EDOM O' GORDON 23 How he burned a castle, with the lady and her children therein. 8. YOUNG WATERS .29 The Icing, being causelessly jealous of Young Waters, prociires his execution. 9. THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL ... 33 This widow, hearing her tlu-ee sons are lost at sea, passionately prays that the storm may never cease till they come back to her. One night, at Martinmas, they come home ; but at cock-crow depart again. 10. THE DEATH OF PARCY REED . . .34 Going a-huntmg on the Border, he is attacked by his enemies, and slain. n. "WALY, WALY" 42 Sad song of a forsaken lady. 12. THE LAIRD O' DRUM. . . * . . 43 How he marries a peasant girL 13. ANNAN WATER 47 A lover rides to his tryst on a night of storm and flood. 14. THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT . . 49 With the fight between Percy and Douglas and their men. 15. BESSIE BELL AND MARY GRAY ... 60 Two maidens who built a hut on a hillside, to escape the pestilence ; but in vain. 16. SIR PATRICK SPENS 61 He is sent by the king of Scotland on a voyage to Nor- way, and wrecked on his way home. 17. KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CAN- TERBURY 6s The King poses the Abbot with tliree questions, but the Abbot's Sheph.erd solves them. Contents xli tZ. THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY 69 Lord William, stealing away Lady Margaret Douglas, is pursued by her father and her two brothers, with whom he fights, and leaves them lying dead or sore wounded. But Lord William himself is hurt, and no sooner gains his mother's house than he hes down to die, and before the morning his lady also is dead. 19. KEMPION 73 A fair maiden being transformed by a sorceress into the shape of a dreadful serpent, is released by tliree kisses from her lover. 20. JOHNNIE OF BRAIDISLEE .... 77 A-hunting, he is attacked by seven foresters, and car- ried home dead to his mother. 21. THE BIRTH OF ROBIN HOOD. . . . 8i How he was bom in the green-wood. 32. FAIR ANNIE 84 How she^jras forced to welcome a new bride to her lord's castle ; yet all happened well at last. 23. CHILDE MAURICE 90 He sends a message to John Stewart's wife to meet hun in the wood ; but tliither goes John Stewart himself and slays Cliilde Maurice through jealousy, not knowing him to be in truth the lady's only son. 24. BROWN ROBYN'S CONFESSION ... 94 How it saved him, though wicked, when thrown into the sea. 25. THE JOLLY GOSHAWK 96 The bird brings a love-letter to the maiden ; who, feign- ing death by a sleeping draught, is carried to the fourth kirk in Scotland, and there met and rescued by her lover. 86. ALISON GROSS loa A wicked old Witch turns a youth into a serpent, and he is released by the Queen of the Fairies. xlii Contents 27. JOHNNIE ARMSTRONG 104 Being a noted Border Freebooter, he is summoned by the King to Edinburgh, and thers treacherously slain, with his men. a8. KATHARINE JANFARIE 108 On the wedding-day, her Scottish lover carries her off from her English bridegroom. 29. ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE WIDOW'S THREE SONS m About to be hanged at Nottingham, they are rescued by Robin Hood, disguised as a beggannan. 30. FAIR ANNIE OF LOCHROYAN . . .116 Sailing to her love Lord Gregory's castle, his mother, with false words, refuses to admit her ; whereupon re- embarking, she is drowned. 31. A LYKE-WAKE DIRGE \ 122 An old song, fit to be sung in watching the dead. 32. ETIN THE FORESTER 124 Lady Margaret, after living seven years in the forest, is again received by her father, and her husband and children are taken into his favor. 33. THE LAWLANDS O' HOLLAND . . .132 One laments her sweetheart, drowned on a voyage to Holland. 34. THE TWA SISTERS OF BINNORIE . . 133 One sister, through jealousy, pushes the other into the water ; who is there drowned, and her body afterwards caught in the mill-dam. 35. GLENLOGIE 137 How Bonnie Jean falls in love with him. 36. THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD . . 139 A little brother and sister, being left to the guardian- ship of their uncle, an unjust man, lose their lives. Contents xliii 37. YOUNG BEICHAN MS Being cast into prison in paynim-land, he is set free by a Moor's feir daughter, they pledging troth to one another. She lovingly follows him to England, and they are wedded at last 38. CLERK SAUNDERS 152 Clerk Saunders (so called as being a learned young knight) is slain in his sweetheart's arms ; and after- wards his ghost appears to her. 39. THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON 157 Her true lover, returning from a distance to seek her, meets her on the road, but at first knows her not. 40. A LYTELL GESTE OF ROBYN HODE The Firste Fytte 160 Robin lends a poor Knight four hundred pounds The Seconds Fvttb i73 The Knight releases liis pawned lands; and after- wards, going to repay Robin Hood, succors a yeoman for Robin's sake. The Thyrde Fytte ....'..• 184 Little John goes into the service of the Sheriff, robs his house, and entices him into the hands of Robin Hood. The Fourth Fytte 194 Robin reimburses himself of his loan by means of a Monk of St. Mary's Abbey, and the Knight is free. The Fyfth Fytte 206 How Robin Hood went to a public shooting at Not- tingham, was attacked by tUe Sheriff, and received into Sir Richard's castle. The Syxte Fytte 2M The Sheriff casts the Knight into prison, and Robin rescues him. The Seventh Fytte 21S The King visits Robin Hood. xliv Contents The Eighth Fytte 329 Robin enters the King's service, but after a time re- turns to the greenwood, where he abides till his death. 41. BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL . . .236 He rode forth gallantly, but never returned home. 42. LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ELLINOR . 237 He, by advice of friends, marries the Brown Girl ; who, Fair Ellinor coming to the wedding, there stabs her, and is herself slain by Lord Thomas. 43 HUGH OF LINCOLN 340 Showing how a wicked Jew's Daughter murdered this chUd. 44. BARBARA ALLEN'S CRUELTY . . . 243 Her hard-heartedness to her lover, until he died for her sake ; and her grief afterwards. 45. MAY COLVIN ,45^ Wiled from home by a false knight, who would drown her, she pushes him into the sea, and retiums home. 46. "EDWARD, EDWARD" 248 The young man lias killed his father, he casts off his wife and cliildren and forsakes his estates, and he leaves his curse upon his mother for her evil advice. 47. THE OUTLAW MURRAY 250 The King of Scotland coming with a force to Ettrick Forest, summons Murray and his men to submit to the royal authority ; which, after a parley, they do, and are taken into favor. 48. THE CRUEL BROTHER 262 Misliking his sister's marriage, he stabs her, bo that she dies. 49- LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND THE LADY BAR- NARD 266 Both, being guilty, are slain by Lord Barnard. Contents xlv 50. KINMONT WILLIE . . .... 271 A Scottish Borderer, who, being imprisoned by the English in Carlisle Castle, is by the Laird of Buc- cleuch forcibly released. 51. FINE FLOWERS IN THE VALLEY . . 279 A ballad, with this burden, treating of a mother's cruelty. 52. ROBIN HOOD'S DEATH AND BURIAL . 280 Being ill, Robin goes for aid to Kirkley numiery; where the Abbess, though his kinswoman, treacher- ously lets him bleed to death. He shoots his last arrow, and where it falls hb grave is made. 53. YOUNG REDIN 284 Telling his sweetheart that he loves another far better, she finds means to Idll him and throws his body into the river, where it is found, and slie is punished for her crime. 54. THE FRAY O' SUPORT 289 The outcry of an English Border-woman, whose cattle have been driven off by moss-troopers. 55. THE SHIP O' THE FIEND .... 293 A woman, first faithless to her lover, and then to her husband and child, is supematuraUy punished. 56. LAMKIN 297 The cruel " Larakin," aided by a wicked nurse, gets into Lord Weare's castle and murders Lady Weare and her little son. 57. THE FROLICKSOME DUKE; OR, THE TINK- ER'S GOOD FORTUNE 302 The Tinker, carried into the palace while asleep, is per- suaded to think himself a great Lord. 58. CHILDE VYET, OR THE BROTHERS . . 305 Lady Maisry, loving Childe Vyet, is forced ta marry his elder brother Lord Ingram, and a sudden fate falls upon the tliree. xlvi Contents 59. THE BARON OF BRACKLEY . . .310 His unloving wife taunts him into fighting against odds, and rejoices when he is killed. 60. BURD ELLEN 313 In a page's dress she painfully follows her lover; his cruelty, and his relentment. 61. THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW . 318 Her home being broken into and her husband slain. 62. WILLY'S LADY 319 Willy's young wife is placed under a spell by her wicked mother-in-law ; but at length released. 63. HUGHIE GRAHAM 323 A Borderer, he is hanged at Carlisle for stealing the Bishop's mare. 64. LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET . . 325 She coming to Lord Thomas's wedding, is stabbed, through jealousy, by his nut-brown bride, who there- upon is slain by Lord Thomas, and he afterwards kills himself. 65. LIZIE LINDSAY 330 She goes from Edinbm-gh to the Higlilands with young Donald, her lover. 66. SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST . . . .334 His ghost comes to Margaret to ask back a plighted troth, and she follows it to the churchyard. 67. LADY ELSPAT 337 Her mother, on false pretence, imprisons the lover of Lady Elspat, who bears witness for him and procures his releasemeut. 68. WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET, OR THE WATER OF CLYDE 339 Willie, against his mother's command, crosses the Clyde to visit May Margaret, and on returning is drowned. Contents xlvii 69. THE DUKE OF GORDON'S DAUGHTER . 345 She marries Captain Ogilvie, who is sent abroad, but returns to claim his wife. 7a FAIR MARGARET'S MISFORTUNES . . 350 William, whom she loves, marrying another woman. Fair Margaret dies of grief, and her ghost comes to their bedside. William goes to see Fair Margaret's corpse, and he too dies of sorrow. 71. LORD RONALD 353 He comes home to his mother from his sweetheart's house, poisoned. 73. YOUNG JOHN AND HIS TRUE SWEET- HEART 354 He treats her harshly, but through her faithfulness his heart is softened. 73. HELEN OF KIRKCONNELL . . . .356 Her lover laments the death of fair Helen, who re- ceived the wound directed against him. 74. GLASGERION 358 A famous young Harper, of noble birth, wins the heart of the king's daughter ; but, by the treachery of his servant, their love comes to a sad and sudden end. 75. THE GARDENER ,363 A fanciful short ballad of wooing. 76. TAMLANE 364 He is stolen by the Queen of the Fairies ; and at length released from Elfland by Lady Janet. Notes 373 Index of First Lines 395 THE BALLAD BOOK THOMAS THE RHYMER TRUE Thomas lay on Huntley bank j A ferlie spied he \vi' his ee ; There he saw a lady bright Come riding doun by the Eildon Tree. Her skirt was o' the grass-green silk, Her mantle o' tlie velvet fine ; At ilka tett o* her horse's mane Hung fifty siller bells and nine. True Thomas he pu'd aff his cap, And louted low doun on his knee j ** Hail to thee, Mary, Queen of Heaven ! For thy peer on earth could never be." ferlie," marvel. "tett, "tassel. The Ballad Book 4 "O no, O no, Thomas," she said, " That name does not belong to me j I 'm but the Queen o' fair Elfland, That hitlier have come to visit thee. 5 " Harp and carp, Thomas," she said ; *' Harp and carp along wi' me ; And if ye dare to kiss my lips, Sure of your body I shall be." 6 *' Betide me weal, betide me woe, That weird shall never daunten me." Syne he has kissed her on the lips, All underneath the Eildon Tree. 7 '* Now ye maun go wi' me," she said, * ' Now, Thomas, ye maun go wi' me ; And ye maun serve me seven years, Through weal or woe as may chance to be." 8 She 's mounted on her milk-white steed. And she *s ta'en Thomas up behind ; And aye, whene'er her bridle rang. The steed gaed swifter than the wind. 9 O they rade on, and farther on. The steed gaed swifter than the wind j Until they reached a desert wide, And living land was left behind. " Harp and carp," talk merrily and familiarly (?) " weird," doom. Thomas the Rhymer 3 10 "Now, Thomas, light doun, light douii,"she said, ** And lean your head upon my knee ; Abide ye there a little space, And I will show you ferlies three. II ** O see ye not yon narrow road. So thick beset wi' thorns and briers ? That is the Path of Righteousness, Though after it but few inquires. 12 " And see ye not yon braid, braid road, Tliat lies across the lily leven ? That is the Path of Wickedness, Though some call it the road to Heaven. 13 " And see ye not yon bonny road That winds about the ferny brae ? That is the road to fair Elfland, Where thou and I this night maun gae. " But, Thomas, ye sail haud your tongue, Whatever ye may hear or see ; For speak ye word in Elfin-land, Ye '11 ne'er win back to your ain countrie." ^5 O they rade on, and farther on. And they waded rivers abune the knee ; And they saw neither sun nor moon. But they heard the roaring of a sea. "leven," lawn. The Ballad Book i6 It was mirk, mirk night, there was nae starlight, They waded through red blude to the knee j For a' the blude that's shed on the earth Rins through the springs o' that countrie. 17 Sjme they came to a garden green, And she pu'd an apple frae a tree : "Take this for thy wages, Thomas," she said ; ' ' It will give thee the tongue that can never lee. " 18 " My tongue is my ain," then Thomas he said j " A gudely gift ye wad gie to me ! I neither dought to buy or sell At fair or tryst where I might be. 19 " I dought neither speak to prince or peer, Nor ask of grace from fair ladye ! " — "Now haud thy peace, Thomas," she said, " For as I say, so must it be." 2Q He has gotten a coat of the even cloth. And a pair o' shoon of the velvet green ; And till seven years were come and gane, True Thomas on earth was never seen. "dought," could. The Twa Corbies II TffM TWA CORBIES 1 AS I was walking all alane, I heard twa corbies making a mane : The tane unto the tither did say, " Whar sail we gang and dine the day?" 2 "In behint yon auld fail dyke, I wot there lies a new-slain knight ; And naebody kens that he lies there But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair. 3 •' His hound is to the hunting gane. His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame, His lady 's ta'en anither mate, Sae we may mak' our dinner sweet 4 "Ye '11 sit on his white hause-bane, And I '11 pike out his bonny blue e'en ; Wi* ae lock o' his gowden hair We '11 theek our nest when it grows bare. 5 " Mony 's the one for him makes mane, But nane sail ken whar he is gane. O'er his white banes, when they are bare, The wind sail blaw forevermair." ' corbies, " ravens. " fail, " turf, sod . " hause, " neck, "theek," thatch. The Ballad Book ni HYND HORN NEAR the King's court was a young child bom, With a heylillelu and a how lo Ian; And his name it was called Young Hynd Horn, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. Seven lang years he served the King, With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; And it's a' for the sake o' his daughter Jean, And the birk and the bromn blooms bonnie. 3 The King an angry man was he. With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; He sent Young Hynd Horn to the sea. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie, 4 O his love gave him a gay gold ring, With a hey lillelu atid a how lo Ian ; With three shining diamonds set therein, And the birk and the broom blootns bonnie, 5 "As lang as these diamonds keep their hue, With a hey lillelu and a how lo lan^ Ye '11 know I am a lover true, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. Hynd Horn 6 "But when your ring turns pale and wan, With a key lillelu and a how lo lan^ Then I 'm in love with another man, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie" 7 He's gone to the sea and far away, With a hey lillelu and a horiv lo Ian; And he *s stayed for seven lang years and a day,. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie: 8 Seven lang years by land and sea, With a hey lillelu and a haw lo Ian ; And ne 's aften looked how his ring may be, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie, 9 One day when he looked tliis rhig upon. With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian, The shining diamonds were pale and wan. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. lo He hoisted sails, and hame cam' he, With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; Hame unto his ain countrie, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie^ II He 's left the sea and he 's come to land. With a hey lillelu and a hozv lo Ian ; And the first he met was an auld beggar-man. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie^ The Ballad Book 12 "What news, what news, my silly auld man? With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; For it 's seven lang years since I saw this land, And the birk and the brooin blooms bonnie.'" 13 "No news, no news," doth the beggar-man say. With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; "But our King's ae daughter she 's wedded to-day, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie.^' 14 " Wilt thou give to me thy begging coat ? With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; And I '11 give to thee my scarlet cloak. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. 9 IS " Give me your auld pike-stafF, and hat, With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; And ye sail be right weel paid for that, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie.'''' 16 The auld beggar-man cast off his coat, With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian, And he 's ta'en up the scarlet cloak. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. 17 He 's gi'en him his auld pike-staff and hat. With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; And he was right weel paid for that. And tJie birk and the broom blooms bonnie. Hynd Horn i8 The auld beggar-man was bound for the mill, With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; But Young Hynd Horn for the King's ain hall, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie, 19 When he came to the King's ain gate, With a hey lillelu and a how lo lan^ He asked a drink for Young Hynd Horn's sake, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie, 20 These news unto the bonny bride cam'. With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian, That at the gate there stands an auld man, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie 21 There stands an auld man at the King's gate, With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; He asketh a drink for Young Hynd Horn's sake, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. 22 The Bride cam' tripping down the stair. With a hey lillelu and a haw lo Ian ; The combs o' fine goud in her hair, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie; 23 A cup o' the red wine in her hand, With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; And that she gave to the beggar-man. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. The Ballad Book 24 Out o' the cup he drank the wiae. With a hey lillelu and a hmv lo Ian; And into the cup he dropt the ring, And tlu birk and the broom blooms bonnie, 25 " O gat thou this by sea or by land % With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian, Or gat thou it aff a dead man's hand ? And tlte birk and the broom blooms boniue^'' 26 " I gat it neither by sea nor land, With a hey lillelu and a how lo lan^ Nor gat I it from a dead man's hand, And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie. 27 " But I gat it at my wooing gay, With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian ; And I gie it to you on your wedding-day. And the birk and the broom blooms bonnU. 7» " I '11 cast aside my satin goun. With a hey lilleltt and a how lo Ian, And I '11 follow you frae toun to toun. And ike birk and the broom blooms bonnie. 29 *' I '11 talc* the fine goud frae my hair. With a hey lillelu and a haw lo Ian, And follow you forevermair, And the birk and tJie broom blooms bonnie,''* The Banks o^ Yarrow 30 He let his cloutie cloak doun fa'. With a hey lillelu and a how lo Ian; Young Hynd Horn shone above them a', And the birk and the broom blooms bonnie, 31 The hrid^oom thought he had her wed, With a hey lillelu and a horn lo Ian; But she is Young Hynd Horn's instead^ And the birk and the broom blooms bonnle. IV THE BANKS 0' YARROW, LATE at e'en, drinking the wine, And ere they paid the lawing, They set a combat them between. To fight it in the dawing. 2 " What though ye be my sister's lord. We '11 cross ovx swords to-morrow," " What though my wife your sister be, I 'U meet ye then on Yarrow." 3 " O stay at hame, my ain gude lord 1 O stay, my ain dear marrow ! My cruel brither will you betray On the dowie banks o' Yarrow. " lawing," reckoniiig. " marrow " (married), husband or wife. "dowie," doleful. The Ballad Book 4 " O fare ye weel, my lady dear ! And put aside your sorrow ; For if I gae, I '11 sune return Frae the bonny banks o' Yarrow." 5 She kiss'd his cheek, she kaim'd his hair, As oft she 'd dune before, O j She belted him wi' his gude brand, And he 's awa' to Yarrow. 6 When he gaed up the Tennles bank, As he gaed mony a morrow, Nine armed men lay in a den, On the dowie braes o* Yarrow. 7 ** O come ye here to hunt or hawk The bonny Forest thorough ? Or come ye here to wield your brand Upon the banks o' Yarrow?" " I come not here to hunt or hawk, As oft I 've dune before, O, But I come here to wield my brand Upon the banks o' Yarrow. 9 *'If ye attack me nine to ane. That God may send ye sorrow ! — Yet will I fight while stand I may, On the bonny banks o' Yarrow." The Banks d Yarrow lo Two has he hurt, and three has slahi, On the bloody braes o' Yarrow ; But the stubborn knight crept m behmd, And pierced his body thorough. II " Gae hame, gae hame, you brither John, And tell your sister sorrow, — To come and lift her leafu' lord On the dowie banks o' Yarrow." 12 Her brither John gaed ower yon hill. As oft he 'd dune before, O ; There he met his sister dear. Cam' rinnin' fast to Yarrow. 13 "I dreamt a dream last night," she S3.ys, " I wish it binna sorrow ; I dreamt I pu'd the heather green Wi' my true love on Yarrow." 14 "111 read your dream, sister," he says, " I '11 read it into sorrow j Ye 're bidden go take up your love. He's sleeping soimd on Yarrow." 15 She 's torn the ribbons frae her head That were baith braid and narrow ; - She 's kilted up her lang claithing, And she 's awa' to Yarrow, "leafu'," lawful. IJ The Ballad Book i6 She 's ta'en him in her arms twa, And gi^en him kisses thorough ; She sought to bind his mony wounds, But he lay dead on Yarrow. I? "O haud your tongue," her father says, " And let be a' yoiu: sorrow ; I '11 wed you to a better lord Than liim ye lost on Yarrow.'^ i8 "O haud your tongue, father," she says, " Far warse ye mak' my sorrow ; A better lord could never be Than him that lies on Yarrow." 19 She kissed his lips, she kaim'd his hair, As oft she 'd dune before, O ; And there wi' grief her heart did break, Upcwi the banks o* Yarrow. V EARL MAR'S DAUGHTER IT was intill a pleasant time, Upon a simmer's day. The noble Earl Mar's daughter Went forth to sport and play. Earl Mar's Daughter 15, ^ And as die played and sported Below a green aik tree^ There she saw a sprightly dcx> Set QiCL a branch sae hi& 3 "O Coo-my-doo, my love sae true, If ye '11 come doun to me, Ye 'se hae a cage o' gude red goud Instead o* simple tree. 4 " m talc' ye hame and pet ye weel, Within my bower and ha* ; I '11 gar ye shine as fair a bird As ony o' them a*." 5 And she had nae these words weel spoke, Nor yet these words weel said, Till Coo-my-doo flew frae the branch. And lighted on her head. 6 Then she has brought this pretty bird Hame to her bower and ha'. And made him shine as fair a bird As ony o' them a*. 7 When day was gane, and night was come, About the evening-tide, This lady spied a bonny youtL Stand stiaight up by her side. " doo," dove. i6 The Ballad Book 8 ' ' Now whence come ye, young man, *' she said, " To put me into fear? My door was bolted right secure, And what way cam' ye here ? '*' 9 " O haud your tongue, my lady fair, Lat a' your folly be ; Mind ye not o' your turtle-doo Ye coaxed from aff tlie tree ? '* lO " O wha are ye, young man ? " she said, " What country come ye frae ? " " I flew across the sea," he said, " 'T was but this verra day. II "My mither is a queen," he says, *' Likewise of magic skill ; 'Twas she that turned me in a doo. To fly where'er I will 12 "And it was but this verra day That I cam' ower the sea : I loved you at a single look ; With you I'll live and dee." 13 "O Coo-my-doo, my love sae true, Nae mair frae me ye'se gae. " "That's never my intent, my. love j As ye said, it shall be sae." Earl Mar's Daughter 17 14 There he has lived in bower wi' her, For sax lang years and ane ; Till sax young sons to him she bare, And the seventh she 's brought hame. 15 But aye, as soon 's a child was bom, He carried them away. And brought them to his mither's care, As fast as he could fly. 16 Thus he has stayed in bower wi' her For seven lang years and mair ; Till there cam' a lord o' hie renown To court that lady fair. 17 But still his proffer she refused, And a' his presents too ; Says, " I 'm content to live alone Wi' my bird Coo-my-doo." 18 Her father sware an angry oath, He sware it wi' ill-will j " To-morrow, ere I eat or drink, That bird I '11 surely kiU." 19 The bird was sitting in his cage. And heard what he did say j He jumped upon the window-sill : *"T is time I was away." 2 i8 The Ballad Book 20 Then Coo-my-doo took flight and flew Beyond the raging sea, And lighted at his mither's castl^ Upon a tower sae hie. 21 The Queen his mither was walking out, To see what she could see, And there she saw her darling soo Set on the tower sae hie. 22 " G^t dancers here to dance," she said, " And minstrels for to play ; For here 's my dear son Florentine Come back wi' me to stay^" 23 "Get nae dancers to dance, nrither, Nor minstrels for to play ; For the mither o' my seven sons, The mom 's her wedding-day»" 24 " Now tell me, dear son Florentine, O tell, and tell me true ; Tell me this day, without delay. What sail I do for you?" 25 *' Inst^d of dancers to dance, mither, Or minstrels for to play. Turn four-and-twenty well-wight n^n, Like storks, in feathers gray ; "well- wight," very sUong. Earl Mar's Daughter 19 26 " My seven sons In seven swans, Aboon their heads to flee ; And I mysell a gay goshawk, A bird o' high d^ree." 27 Then, sighing, said the Queen to hersell, "That thmg's too high for me !" But she applied to an auld woman, Who had mair skill than she. 28 Instead o' dancers to dance a dance, Or minstrels for to play. Were four and twenty wei^i^ht men Turned birds o' feathers gray \ 29 Her seven sons in seven swans, Aboon their heads to flee j And he himself a gay goshawk, A bird o' high d^ree. 30 This flock of birds took flight and flew Beyond the raging sea ; They landed near the Earl Mar's castle, Took shelter in every tree. 31 They were a flock o' pretty birds, Right wondrous to be seen ; The weddin'eers they looked at them Whilst walking on tlie green. 20 The Ballad Book 32 These birds flew up frae bush and tree, And lighted on the ha' j And, when the wedding-train cam' forth, Flew down amang them a\ 33 The storks they seized tlie boldest men. That they could not flght or flee ; The swans they bound the brid^room fest tint© a green aik-tree. 34 They flew around the bride-maidens. Around the bride's own he.ad ; And, wi' the twinkling o' an ee. The bride and they were fled. 35 There 's ancient men at weddings been For eighty years or more ; But siccan a curious wedding-day They never saw before. 36 For naething could the company do, Nor naething could they say j But they saw a flock o' pretty birds That took their bride away. Brown Adam VI BROWN ADAM I OWHA wad wish the wind to blaw. Or the green leaves fa' therewith ? Or wha wad wish a lealer love Than Brown Adam the Smith ? 2 But they hae banished him, Brown Adam, Frae father and frae mother ; And they hae banished him, Brown Adam, Frae sister and frae brother. 3 And they hae banished him. Brown Adam, The flower o' a' his kin ; And he 's bigged a bower in gude greenwood Above his ladye and him. 4 It fell upon a summer's day. Brown Adam he thought lang ; And, for to himt some venison. To greenwood he wad gang. 5 He has ta'en his bow his arm o'er, His bolts and arrows lang ; And he is to the gude greenwood As fast as he could gang. 22 The Ballad Book 6 O he 's shot up, and he 's shot down, The bird upon the brier j And he sent it hame to his ladye, Bade her be of gude cheer. 7 he *s shot up, and he 's shot down, The bird upon the thorn ; And sent it hame to his ladye, Said he 'd be hame the morn. 8 When he cam' to his ladye's bower-door He stood a little forbye, And there he heard a fu' fause knight Tempting his gay ladye. 9 FoF he 's ta'en out a gay goud ring, Had cost him many a poun*: "O grant me love for love, ladye. And this sail be thy own." lO " I lo'e Brown Adam weel," she said ; " I trow sae does he me ; 1 wadna gie Brown Adam's love For nae fause knight I see." Out has he ta*en a purse o' gowd Was a' fou to the string : *' O grant me love for love, ladye. And a' this sail be tliine." Edom 0* Goj'don 23 12 " I lo'e Brown Adam weel," she says; " I wot sae does he me : I wadna be your light leman, For mair than ye could gie." Forth he drew his sharp bright brand ; His arm was stout and Strang : " Now grant me love for love, ladye, Or thro' ye this sail gang ! " Then, sighing, says that lady fair, " Brown Adam tarries lang ! " 14 Then in and starts him Brown Adam, Says, " I 'm just at your hand." He 's gar'd him leave his bonny bow, He 's gar'd him leave his brand. He 's gar'd him leave a dearer pledge, — Four fingers o' his right hand. VII EDOM 0' GORDON IT fell about the Martinmas, When the wind blew shrill and cauld, Said Edom o' Gordon to his men, " We maun draw to a hauld. 2 *' And whatna hauld sail we draw to. My merry men and me ? We will gae to the house of the Rodes, To see that fair ladye." "hauld," hold, stronghold. 24 The Ballad Book 3 The lady stood on her castle wa', Beheld baith dale and down ; There she was aware of a host of men Came riding towards the town. 4 " O see ye not, my merry men a*, see ye not what I see ? Methinks I see a host of men ; 1 marvel who they be." 5 She weened it had been her lovely lord As he cam' riding hame ; It was the traitor, Edom o' Gordon, Wha recked nor sin nor shame. 6 She had nae sooner busldt hersell. And putten on her gown, Till Edom o' Gordon an' his men Were round about the town. 7 They had nae sooner supper set, Nae sooner said the grace, But Edom o' Gordon an' his men Were lighted about the place. 8 The lady ran up to her tower-head, As fast as she could hie. To see if by her fair speeches She could wi' him agree. "to%vn.*' enclosed Dlace. " hnskit " rpsdied. Edom o' Gordon 25 9 "Come (Joun to me, ye lady gay, Come doim, come doim to me ; This night sail ye lig within mine arms, To-morrow my bride sail be." 10 "I winna come down, ye fause Gordon, I winna come down to thee ; I winna forsake my ain dear lord, — And he is na far frae me." ** Gie owre your house, ye lady fair, Gie owre your house to me ; Or I sail bum yoursell therein. But and your babies three." 12 " I winna gie owre, ye fause Gordon, To nae sic traitor as thee ; And if ye bum my ain dear babes. My lord sail mak' ye dree. 13 "Now reach my pistol, Glaud, my man. And charge ye weel my gun \ For, but an I pierce that bluidy butcher, My babes, we been imdone ! " 14 She stood upon her castle wa*. And let twa bullets flee : She missed that bluidy butcher's heart, And only razed his knee, "dree." suffer. 26 The Ballad Book IS " Set fire to the house ! " quo' fause Gordon, Wud -wi' dule and ire : " Fause ladye, ye sail rue that shot As ye bum in the fire ! " i6 " Wae worth, wae worth ye, Jock, my man ! I paid ye weel your fee ; Why pu' ye out the grund-wa* stane, Lets in the reek to me? 17 " And e'en wae worth ye, Jock, my man ! I paid ye weel your hire ; Why pu' ye out the grund-wa' stane, To me lets in the fire ? 18 " Ye paid me weel ray hire, ladye. Ye paid me weel my fee : But now I 'm Edom o' Gordon's man, — Maun either do or dee." 19 O fhen bespake her little son, Sat on the nurse's knee : Says, " O mither dear, gie owre this house, For the reek it smothers me." " I wad gie a* my goud, my bairn, Sae wad I a' my fee, For ae blast o' the western wind. To blaw the reek frae thee." " wud," mad. " reek," smoke. Edom d Gordon 27 21 O then bespake her daughter dear, — She was baith jimp amd sma': " O row' me in a pair o* sheets, And tow me owre the wa'l " 22 They row'd her in a pair o* sheets, And towed her owre the wa' ; But on the point o' Gordon's spear She gat a deadly fa'. 23 bonnie, bonnie was her mouth. And cherry were her cheeks, And clear, clear was her yellow hair, Whereon the red blood dreeps. 24 Then wi' his spear he turned her owre; gin her face was wan ! He said, " Ye are the first that e'er 1 wished alive again." 25 He cam* and lookit again at her j O gin her skin was white ! ** I might hae spared that bonnie face To hae been some man's delight" 26 "Busk and boun, my merry men a*, For ill dooms I do guess ; — 1 cannot look on that bonnie face As it lies on the grass.' • " Busk and bovui," trim up and prepare to go. 28 The Ballad Book 27 " Wha looks to freits, my master dear, Its freits will follow them ; Let it ne'er be said that Edom o' Gordon Was daimted by a dame. " 28 But when the ladye saw the fire Come flaming o'er her head, She wept, and kissed her children twain, Says, "Bairns, we been but dead." 29 The Gordon then his bugle blew, And said, " Awa', awa' ! This house o' the Rodes is a' in a flame j I hauld it time to ga'." 30 And this way lookit her ain dear lord, As he came owre the lea ; He saw his castle a' in a lowe, Sae far as he could see. 31 Put on, put on, my wighty men. As fast as ye can dri'e ! For he that 's hindmost o' the thrang Sail ne'er get good o' me. " 32 Then some they rade, and some they rah, Out-owre the grass and bent ; But ere the foremost could win up, Baith lady and babes were brent, " freits," ill omens. " lowe," blaze, "wighty," sturdy. Young Waters 29 33 And after the Gordon he is gane, Sae fast as he might dri'e ; And soon i' the Gordon's foul heart's blude He 's wroken his fair ladye. Vlft VOt/NG WATERS IT was about Yule, when the wind blew cool, And the round tables began, O there is come to our King's court Many a well-favored man. 2 The Queen looked over the castle wall. Beheld both dale and down, And there she saw the brave Young Waters Come riding to the town. 3 His footmen they ran on before. His horsemen rode behind ; A mantle seamed with burning gold Did keep him from the wind. 4 Then careless spake a wily lord. And to the Queen said he, "Now which might seem the comeliest man • That rides in that company ? " " wroken," avenged. 30 The Ballad Book 5 "I 've seen lord, and I 've seen laird. And knights of high degree ; But so fair a face as Young Waters' Mine eyes did never see." 6 Out then spake the jealous King, And an angry man was he : *'Now if he had been twice as fair. You might have excepted me." 7 " You 're neither laird nor lord," she says, But the King that wears the crown ; There is not a knight in fair Scotland But to thee maun bow down." 8 For all that she could do or say. Appeased he would not be ; But for the words which she had said Young Waters he must dee. 9 *' Young Waters is a traitor bold, I have proof enough," says he ; And vile fause-witness though it was. Young Waters he must dee. lo Now they have ta'en Young Waters, Put fetters on his feet ; Now they have ta'en Young Waters, And thrown him in dungeon deep. Young Waters 31 II " Oft I have ridden through Stirling town In wind, and snow, and sleet ; But I never rode through Stirling town With fetters at my feet 12 " Oft I have ridden through Stirling town. In the sunshine and the rain j But now I ride through Stirling town, Ne'er to return again." 13 They brought unto the heading-hill His hounds within a leash ; They brought unto the heading-hill His goshawk in a jess. 14 They led unto the heading-hill His horse and golden saddle ; The nurse came to the heading-hill With his young son from the cradle. 15 His wife came to the heading-hill : " Adieu, dear love, to thee ! " And for the words the Queen had spoke Did brave Young Waters dee. 3* The Ballad Book IX THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL THERE lived a wife at Usher's WeU, And a wealthy wife was she ; She had three stout and stalwart sons, And sent them o'er the sea. 2 They hadna been a week from her, A week but barely ane, When word cam' to the carline wife That her three sons were gane. 3 They hadna been a week from her, A week but barely three, When word cam' to the carline wife That her sons she M never see. 4 "I wish the wind may never cease, Nor fish be in the flood, Till my three sons come hame to me. In earthly flesh and blood ! " 5 It fell about the Martinmas, When nights are lang and mirk, The carline wife's three sons cam' hame. And their hats were o' the birk. ** cailine-wife, " an old peasant-woman. ' ' birk, " birch. The Wife of Usher's Well 33 6 It neither grew in syke nor ditch. Nor yet in any sheugh ; But at the gates o' Paradise That birk grew fair eneugh. 7 " Blow up the fire, my maidens I Bring water from the well ! For a' my house shall feast this night, Since my three sons are well." 8 And she has made to them a bed, She 's made it large and wide ; And she 's ta'en her mantle round about, Sat down at the bedside. 9 Up then crew the red, red cock, And up and crew the gray ; The eldest to the youngest said, *' 'Tis time we were away. 10 **The cock doth craw, the day doth daw. The channerin' worm doth chide ; Gin we be miss'd out o' our place, A sair pain we maun bide." II " Lie still, lie still but a little wee while, Lie still but if we may ; Gin my mother should miss us when she wakes. She '11 go mad ere it be day. " syke," marsh. ** sheugh," trench. 3 34 The Ballad Book 12 " Our mother has nae mair but us ; See where she leans asleep ; The mantle that was on herself, She has happ'd it round our feet" 13 O it 's they have ta'en up their mother's mantle, And they Ve hung it on a pin : *' O lang may ye hing, my mother's mantle, Ere ye hap us again ! 14 " Fare ye weel, my mother dear I Fareweel to bam and byre ! And fare ye weel, the bonny lass That kindles my mother's fire ! " X THE DEATH OF PARCY REED GOD send the land deliverance Frae every reaving, riding Scot ! We '11 sune hae neither cow nor ewe, We '11 sune hae neither staig nor stot 2 The outlaws come fra Liddesdale, They herry Redesdale far and near ; The rich man's gelding it maun gang, They canna pass the puir man's mear. " reaving " (reave or rive ; reft), taking by violence. • staig nor stot," young horse nor ox. " herry, plunder." The Death of Parcy Reed .^ - 35 3 Sure it were weel, had ilka thief Around his neck a halter Strang ; And curses heavy may they light On traitors vile oursels amang I 4 Now Parcy Reed has Crosier ta'en, He has delivered him to the law j But Crosier says he '11 do waur than that, He'll make the tower o' Troughend fa.' 5 And Crosier says he will do waur — He will do waur if waur can be ; He '11 make Farcy's bairns a' fatherless j And Farcy's land raiay then lie lee. 6 "To the hunting, ho ! " cried Parcy Reed, ''The morning sun is on the dew ; The cauler breeze frae off the fells Will lead the dogs to the quarry true. 7 "To the hunting, ho ! " cried Farcy Reed, And to the hunting he has gane j And the three fause Ha's o' Girsonsfield Alang wi' him he has them ta'en. 8 They hunted high, they hunted low. By heathery hill and birken shaw ; They raised a buck on Rooken Edge, And blew the mort at Ealylawe. 36 Tlie Ballad Book 9 They hunted high, they hunted low, They made the echoes ring amain ; With music sweet o' horn and hound, They merry made fair Redesdale glen. They hunted high, they hunted low, They hunted up, they hunted down. Until the day was past the prime, And it grew late in the afternoon. II They himted high in Batinghope, When as the sun was sinking low. Says Parcy then, *' Ca' off the dogs. We'll bait our steeds and homeward go.' They lighted aff in Batinghope, Atween the brown and benty ground; They had but rested a little while. Till Parcy Reed was sleeping sound. 13 There 's nane may lean on a rotten staff, But him that risks to get a fa' \ There 's nane may in a traitor trust, And traitors black were every Ha'. 14 They 've stown the bridle aff his steed. And they 've put water in his lang gun j They 've fixed his sword within the sheath, That out again it winna come. The Death of Farcy Reed 37 15 "Awaken ye, waken ye, Parey Reed, Or by your enemies be ta'en j For yonder are the five Crosiers A-cpming owre the Hingin-stane." 16 " If they be five, and we be four, Sae that ye stand alang wi' me, Then every man ye will take one, And only leave but two to me : We will them meet as brave men ought, And malce them either fight or flee. " 17 "We mayna stand, we canna stand. We dauma stand alang wi' thee j The Crosiers haud thee at a feud, And they wad gar us a' to dee." 18 "O, turn thee, turn thee, Johnnie Ha*, O, ttmi thee, man, and fight wi' me j When ye come to Troughend again, My glide black naig I will gie thee ; He cost full twenty pound o* goud, Atween my brother John and me." 19 " I mayna turn, I canna turn, I dauma turn and fight wi' thee j The Crosiers haud thee at a feud, And they wad kill baith thee and me." 38 The Ballad Book 20 * O, turn thee, turn thee, Willie Ha', O, turn thee, man, and fight wi' me j When ye come to Troughend again, A yoke o' owsen I '11 gie thee." 21 " I mayna turn, I canna turn, I dauma turn and fight wi' thee ; The Crosiers haud thee at a feud, And they wad kill baith thee and me.'* 22 "O, turn thee, turn thee. Tommy Ha', O, turn now, man, and fight v/i' me ; If ever we come to Troughend again. My daughter Jean I '11 gie to thee." 23 " I mayna turn, I canna turn, I dauma turn and fight wi' thee ; The Crosiers haud thee at a feud, And they wad kill baith tliee and me." 24 " O, shame upon ye, traitors 2! \ I wish your hames ye may never see ; Ye 've stown the bridle afF my naig. And I can neither fight nor flee. 25 **Ye've stown the bridle aff my naig, And ye 've put water i' my lang gun ; Ye 've fixed my sword within the sheath, That out again it wiima come. " The Death of Parcy Reed 39 26 He had but time to cross himseP, A prayer he hadna time to say, Till round him came the Crosiers keen, All riding graithed, and in array. 27 ** Weel met, weel met, now, Parcy Reed, Thou art the very man wq sought ; Owre lang hae we been in your debt, Now will we pay you as we ought. 28 "We'll pay thee at the nearest tree, Where we shall hang thee like a hound " ; Brave Parcy raised his fankit sword. And felled the foremost to the groiind. 29 Alake, and wae for Parcy Reed, Alake, he was an unarmed man ; Four weapons pierced him all at ©nee. As they assailed him there and than. 30 They fell upon him all at once, They mangled him most cruellie ; Their slightest wound might caused his deid, And they have gi'en hira thirty-three. They hacket off his hands and feet, And left him lying on the lee. 31 " Now, Parcy Reed, we 've paid our debt. Ye canna weel dispute the tale," The Crosiers said, and off they rade, — They rade the airt o' Liddesdale. • graithed, " accoutred. ' ' faakit, " entangled. 40 The Ballad Book 32 It was the hour o' gloamin' gray, When herds come in frae fauld and pen j A herd he saw a huntsman lie, Says he, " Can this be Laird Troughen' ? " 33 "There's some will ca' rae Parcy Reed, And some will ca' me Laird Troughen'; It 's little matter what they ca' me, My faes hae made me ill to ken. 34 *' There's some will ca' me Parcy Reed, And speak my praise in tower and town j It 's little matter what they do now. My life-blood rudds the heather brown. 35 "There's some will ca' me Parcy Reed, And a' my virtues say and sing ; But now I would much rather hae A draught o' water frae the spring I " 36 The herd flung afF his clouted shoon. And to the nearest fountain ran ; He made his bonnet serve a cup, And wan the blessing o' the dying man. 37 " Now, honest herd, ye maun do mair, — Ye maun do mair as I ye tell ; Ye maun bear tidings to Troughend, And bear likewise my last farewell. The Death of Parcy Reed 41 38 " A farewell to my wedded wife, A farewell to my brother John, Wha sits into the Trough end tower, Wi' heart as hard as any stone. 39 *' A farewell to my daughter Jean, A farewell to my young sons five ; 'Had they been at their father's hand, I had this night been man alive. 40 "A farewell to my followers a'. And a' my neighbors gude at need ; Bid them think how the treacherous Ha's Betrayed the life o' Parcy Reed. 41 " The laird o' Clennel bears my bow, The laird o' Brandon bears my brand j Whene'er they ride i* the border side. They '11 mind the fate o' the Laird Troughend." 42 The Ballad Book WALY, WALY OWALY, waly, up the bank, O waly, waly, doun the brae, And waly, waly, jion bum-side, Where I and my love were wont to gae I I leaned my back unto an aik, I thocht it was a trustie tree. But first it bowed and syne it brak', — Sae my true love did litchtlie me. 2 O waly, waly, but love be bonnie A little time while it is new I But when it 's auld it waxeth cauld, And fadeth awa' like the morning dew. O wherefore should I busk my heid, Or wherefore should I kame my hair ? For my true love has me forsook, And says he '11 never lo'e me mair. 3 Noo Arthur's Seat sail be my bed, The sheets sail ne'er be pressed by me ; Saint Anton's well sail be my drink ; Since my true love 's forsaken me. Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blaw. And shake the green leaves off the tree ? O gentle death, when wilt thou come ? ^For of my life I am wearie. The Laird o' Drum 43 4 T is not the frost that freezes fell. Nor blawing snaw's mclemencie; 'T is not sic cauld that makes me cry ; But my love's heart grown cauld to me. When we cam' in by Glasgow toun, We were a comely sicht to see ; My love was clad in the black velvdt, An' I mysel' in cramasie. s But had I wist before I kissed That love had been so ill to win, I *d lo«ked my heart in a case o' goud, And pinned it wi' a siller pin. Oh, oh ! if my young babe were bom, And set upon the nurse's knee ; And I mysel' were dead and gane, And the green grass grcwing over me ! XII THE LAIRD ytell [Johan] dronke, The whyle that he wolde. The sheryfe had in his kechjni a coke, A stoute man and a bolde. 21 " I make myn avowe," sayd the coke, " Thou arte a shrewde hynde, In an housholde to dwel, For to ask thus to dyne." 22 And there he lent Lytell Johan Good strokes thre. •' I make myn avowe," sayd Lytell Johan, " These strokes lyketh well me. 23 *' Thou arte a bolde man and an hardy, And so thynketh me ; And or I passe fro this place, Asayed better shalt thou be." " lyveray," the quantity of provisions delivCTed at one time by the butler was called a livery [Ritson). " hynde," servant "asayed," tried. 1 88 The Ballad Book 24 Lytell Johan drewe a good swerde, The coke toke another in honde ; They thought nothynge for to fle, But styfly for to stonde. 25 " I make myn avowe," sayd Lytell Johan, " And be my trewe lewte, Thou art one of the best swerdemen That ever yet sawe I me. 26 " Coowdest thou shote as well m a bowe, To grene wood thou sholdest with me, And two tymes in the yere thy clothynge Ichaunged sholde be ; 27 "And every yere of Robyn Hode Twenty marke to thy fee." "Put up thy swerde," sayd the coke, "And felowes wyll we be." 28 Then he fette to Lytell Johan The numbles of a doe, Good brede and full good wjme. They ete and dranke therto. 29 And whan they had dronken well, Ther trouthes togyder they plyght, That they wolde be with Robyn That ylke same day at nyght "trouthes," troths. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode i8c 30 The dyde them to the tresure-hous, As fast as they myght gone, The lockes that were of good stele They brake them every chone ; 31 They toke away the sylver vessell. And all that they myght get, Feces, masars, and spones, Wolde they non forgete ; 32 Also they toke the good pence, Thre hondred pounde and thre ; And dyd them strayt to Robyn Hode, Under the grene wode tre. 33 **God the save, my dere mayster," [Little Johan said he,] And than sayd Robyn to Lytell Johan, " Welcome myght thou be ; 34 " And also be that fay re yemkn Thou bryngest there with thee. What tydynges fro Notyngham ? Lytell Johan, tell thou me. " 35 " Well thee greteth the proude sheryfe, And sende thee here by me His coke and his sylver vessell. And thre hondred pounde and thre." "plyght," pledged. "Feces, masars, and spones," drinking-cups, bowls, and spoons. I90 The Ballad Book 36 " I make myn avow," sayd Robyn, " However the thing may be, It was never by his good wyll, This good is come to me ! " 37 Lytell Johan hym there bethought On a shrewed wyle. Fyve myle in the forest he ran, Hym happed at his wyll ; 38 Than he met the proud sheryf, Huntynge with hounde and home, Lytell Johan coud his curteysye, And kneled hym befome : 39 " God thee save, my dere mayster, Keep thee well," sayd he. " Raynolde Grenelefe," sayd the sheryfe, " Where hast thou no we be ? " 40 " I have be in this forest, A fayre syght can I se. It was one of the fayrest syghtes That ever yet sawe I me j 41 *' Yonder I se a ryght fayre hart, His coloure is [full shene,] Seven score of dere upon an herde Be all with hym bedene ; " Hym happed at his wyll," i. e. it chanced to him as he wished(?) '* shene," bright A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 191 42 " His tynde are so sharp, mayst^r, Of sexty and well mo, That I durst not shote for drede Lest thy wolde me sloo.*' 43 " I make myn avowe 1 " sayd the sheryf, " That syght wolde I fayn se^" *'Buske you thyderwarde, my dere mayst^r, Anone, and wende witli me." 44 The sheryfe rode, and Lytell Johan Of fote he was full smarte. And whan they came afore Rob)ni : " Lo, here is the mayster harte I " 45 Styll stode the proude sheryf, A sory man was he : ** Wo worth the, Raynolde Grenelefe 1 Thou hast now betrayed me. I " 46 *' I make myn avowe," sayd Lytell Johan, " Mayster, ye be to blame ; I was mysserved of my dynere. When I was with you at hame." 47 Soone he was to supper sette, And served with sylver whyte ; And whan the sheryf se his vessell, For sorowe he myght not ete. ' bedene," besides (?) " tjoide," antlers. " buske," betake. 192 The Ballad Book 48 "Make good chere," sayd Robyn Hode, " Sheryfe, for chary t^, And for the love of Lytell Johan, Thy lyfe is graunted to the." 49 When they had supped well, The day was all agone, Robyn commaunded Lytell Johan To drawe off his hosen and his shone, 50 His kyrtell and his cote a pye, That was furred well fyne, And take hym a grene mant^ll, To lappe his body therin. 51 Robyn commaunded his wyght yong men, Under the grene wood tre, They shall lay in that same sorte That the sheryf myght them se. 52 All nyght laye that proud sherjrf, In his breche and in his sherte, No wonder it was, in grene wode, Tho his sydes do smerte. S3 " Make glad chere," sayd Robjm Hode, " Sheryfe, for chary t^, For this is our order I wys, Under the grene wood tre." " kyrtell and cote a pye," jacket and cloak. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 193 54 "This is harder order," sayd the sheryfe, " Than ony anker or frere ; For al the golde in mery Englonde I wolde not longe dwell here." 55 "All these twelve monethes," sayd Robjni, " Thou shake dwell with me ; I shall thee teche, proud sheryfe, An outlawe for to be. " 56 " Or I here another nyght lye," sayd the sheryfe, " Robyn, nowe I praye thee, Smyte of my hede rather to-mome, And I forgyve it thee. 57 "Lete me go," then sayd the sher3rf, " For saynt Chary te, And I wyll be thy best frende That ever yet had thee." 58 "Thou shalte swere me an othe," sayd Robjm, " On my bryght bronde, Thou shalt never awayte me scathe, By water ne by londe ; 59 " And if thou fynde ony of my men, By nyght or by day. Upon thyne othe thou shalt swere, To helpe them that thou may." " anker," anchorite. " scathe," injury. U 194 The Ballad Book 60 Now have the sheryf iswore his othe, And home he began to gone, He was as full of grene wode As ever was [haw] of stone.*' * THE FOURTH FVTTE [Robin reimburses kitnself of his loan by means of a Monk of St. Mary's A bbey, and the Knight isfree.'\ THE sherjrf dwelled in Notynghame, He was fayne that he was gone, And Robyn and his mery men Went to wode anone. 2 *' Go we to dyner ? " sayd Lytell Johan. Robyn Hode sayd, ** Nay ; For I drede our lady be wroth with me, For she sent me not my pay." 3 " Have no dout, mayster," sayd Lytell Johan, *' Yet is not the sonne at rest ; For I dare saye, and saufly swere, The knyght is trewe and trust. " 4 "Take thy bowe in thy hande," sayd Rob)m, •' Let Moch wende with thee. And so shall Wyllyam Scathelock, And no man abyde with me, * i. e. he had enough of it. This seems to have been a popular saying (see Childe Maurice) ; but "hip," the word used in each place, means, now at least, the dog-rose berry, which has woolly seeds, not a stone ; while " haw " makes the image perfect. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 195 5 ** And walke up into the Sayles, And to Watlynge-strete, And wayte after some unketh gest, Up-chaunce ye may them mete. 6 ** Whether he be messengere, Or a man that myrthes can, Or 3rf he be a pore man. Of my good he shall have some." 7 Forth then stert Lytell Johan, Half in tray and tene, And gyrde hym with a fiill good swerde, Under a mantel of grene. 8 They went up to the Sayles, These yemen all thre ; They loked est, they loked wes^ They myght no man se. 9 But as they loked in Bamysdale, By the hye waye, Than were they ware of two blacke monkes, Eche on a good palferay. 10 Then bespake L5rtell Johan, To Much he gan say, *' I dare lay my lyfe to wedde. That these monkes have brought our pay. ' tray and tene," anger and vexation. " wedde," pawn. 196 The Ballad Book II ** Make glad chere," sayd Lytell Johan, '* And frese ovir bowes of ewe, And loke your hertes be seker and sad, Your strynges trusty and trewe. 12 " The monke hath fifty-two men. And seven somers full stronge ; There rydeth no bysshop in this londe So ryally, I understond. 13 " Brethern," sayd Lytell Johan, " Here are no more but we thre ; But we brynge them to dyner, Our mayster dare we not se. 14 " Bende your bowes," sayd Lytell Johan, " Make all yon prese to stonde ; The formost monke, his lyfe and his deth Is closed in my honde. 15 " Abyde, chorle monke," sayd Ljrtell Johan, " No ferther that thou gone ; Yf thou doost, by dere worthy god Thy deth is in my honde. 16 "And evyll thryfte on thy hede," sayd Ljrtell Johan, •* Ryght under thy hattes bonde. For thou hast made our mayster wroth. He is fastynge so longe. " " frese," try (?) " ewe," yew. " seker and sad," sure and settled. "somers," sumpter-beasts, carrying baggage. "prese," press, crowd. A Lyiell Gesie of Robyn Hode 197 17 " Who is your mayster ? " sayd the monke. Lytell Johan sayd, " Robyn Hode." " He is a stronge thefe," sayd the monke, " Of hym herd I never good." 18 " Thou lyest," than sayd Lytell Johan, " And that shall rewe thee ; He is a yeman of the forest, To dyne he hath bode thee. 19 Much was redy with a bolte, Reddily and a-none. He set the monke to fore the brest, To the grounde that he can gone. 20 Of fyfty-two wyght yonge men. There abode not one, Saf a lytell page, and a grome To lede the somers with Johan. 21 They brought the monke to the lodge dore, Whether he were loth or lefe. For to speke with Robyn Hode, Maugre in the)rr tethe. 22 Robyn dyd adowne his hode. The monke whan that he see ; The monke was not so curteyse. His hode then let he be. ' rewe, " repent. * ' bode, " bidden. * ' grome, " groom, "lefe," willing. 198 The Ballad Book 23 " He is a chorle, mayster, I swere," Than sayd Lytell Johan. " Thereof no force," sayd Robyn, For curteysy can he none. 24 *' How many men," sayd Rob)m, "Had this monke, Johan? " " Fyfty and two whan that we met, But many of them be gone." 25 " Let blowe a home," sayd Robyn, " That felaushyp may us knowe." Seven score of wyght yemen Came pryckynge on a rowe, 26 And everych of them a good mant^ll. Of scarlet and of raye. All they came to good Robyn, To wyte what he wolde say. 27 They made the monke to wasshe and wype, And syt at his denere. Robyn Hode and Lytell Johan They served him bothe in fere. 28 "Do gladly, monke," sayd Robyn. " Gramercy, syr," sayd he. " Where is your abbay, whan ye are at home, And who is your avow^ ? " " thereof no force," no matter. " pryckynge," spurring, — seems here used for hastening. " raye," striped cloth {Halli- •well). ' • wyte, "know. "in fere, " together. ' ' gra- mercy," much thanks. " avowe," patron. A LyUll Geste of Robyn Hode 199 29 " Saynt Mary abbay," sayd the monkc," " Though I be symple here." "In what offyce?" sayd Robyn. "Syr, the hye selerer." 30 "Ye be the more welcome," sayd Robyn, " So ever mote I the. Fyll of the best wyne," sayd Robyn, " This monke shall drynke to me. 31 " But I have grete mervayle," sayd Robyn, " Of all this longe day, I drede our lady be wroth with me, She sent me not my pay." 32 " Have no doute, mayster," sayd Lytell Johan, " Ye have no nede I saye, This monke it hath brought, I dare well swere, For he is of her abbay. " 33 " She was a borowe," sayd Robyn, " Betwene a knyght and me, Of a lytell money that I hym lent, Under the grene wode tree ; 34 *' And yf thou hast that sylver ibroughtc, I praye the let me se, And I shall helpe thee eftsones, Yf thou have nede of me." ' hye selerer," high-cellarer. " mote I the," may I thrlye. "borowe," surety. 200 The Ballad Book 35 The monke swore a full grete othe, With a sory chere : "Of the borowehode thou spekest to me, Herde I never ere. " 36 "I make myn avowe," sayd Robyn, ** Monke, thou arte to blame, For god is holde a ryghtwys man. And so is his dame. 37 "Thou toldest with thyn owne tonge. Thou may not say nay, How thou arte her servaunt. And servest her every day : 38 " And thou art made her messengere. My money for to pay, Therfore I con thee more thanke. Thou arte come at thy day. 39 ** What is 4n your cofers ? " sayd Robyn, "Trewe then tell thou me." " Syr," he sayd, ** twenty marke, Al so mote I the." 40 " Yf there be no more," sayd Robyn, *' I wyll not one peny ; Yf thou hast myster of ony more, Syr, more I shall lende to the ; "eftsones," hereafter [Ritson) ; immediately {HalliwelT). "sory chere," sad countenance. "ere," before. " myster," need. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 2< 41 *^ And yi I fynde more," sayd Robyn, *' I wys thou shake it forgone ; For of thy spendynge sylver, monk, Therof wyll I ryght none. 42 *'Gk) nowe forthe, Lytell Johan, And the trouth tell thou me j If there be no more but twenty marke, No peny that I se. " 43 Lytell Johan spred his mantell downe. As he had done before, And he tolde out of the monkes male, Eyght hundreth pounde and more. 44 Lytell Johan let it lye full styll, And went to his mayster in hast : " Syr," he sayd, " The monke is trewe 5ntiowe, Our lady hath doubled your cost" 45 "I make myn avowe," sayd Rob3nQ, " (Monke, what tolde I thee ?) Our lady is the trewest woman That ever yet founde I me. 46 "By all that's good," sayd Robyn, *' To seche all Englond thorowe, Yet founde I never to my pay A moche better borowe. " male," budget. 202 The Ballad Book 47 " Fyll of the best wjnie, do hym drynke," sayd Rob)m ; •'And grete well thy lady hende, And yi she have nede of Robyn Hode, She shall hym fynde a frende ; 48 " And 3rf she nedeth ony more sylv^r, Come thou agayne to me, And, by this token she hath me sent, She shall have such thre. " 49 The monke was going to London ward, There to holde grete mote, The knyght that rode so hye on hors. To brynge hym under fote. 50 " Whither be ye away ? " sayd Robyn. " Syr, to manors in this londe, To reken with our reves. That have done moch wronge." 51 The monke toke the hors with spurre. No lenger wolde he abyde. " Aske to drynke," than sayd Robyn, " Or that ye forther ryde." 52 *'Nay, fore heaven," than sayd the monke, " Me reweth I cam so nere ; For better chepe I myght have dyned In Blythe or in DankeStere." " hende," gentle. " mote," meeting. " reves," bailiffs. " Dankestere," Doncaster. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 203 53 " Grete well your abbot,'* sayd Robyn, " And your pry our, I you pray, And byd hym sende me such a monke To dyner every day." 54 Now lete we that monke be styll, And speke we of that knyght. Yet he came to holde his day Whyle that it was lyght 55 He dyde him stre)rt to Bamysdale, Under the grene wode tre. And he founde there Robyn Hode, And all his mery meyn^. 56 The knyght lyght downe of his good palfriy, Robyn whan he gan see, So curteysly he dyde adoune his hode, And set hym on his knee. 57 " God the save, good Robjrh Hode, And al this company. " " Welcome be thou, gentyll knyght, And ryght welcome to me." 58 Than bespake hym Robyn Hode To that knyght so fre : ** What nede dryveth the to grene wode ? I pray the, syr knyght, tell me. "meyne," company. 204 The Ballad Book 59 *' And welcome be thou, gentyl knyght, Why hast thou be so longe ? " "For the abbot and the hye justyce Wolde have had my londe. " 60 " Hast thou thy londe agayne ? " sayd Robyn, " Treuth than tell thou me." "Ye, truly," sayd the knyght, " And that thanke I god and the. 61 " But take not a grefe, I have be so longe ; I came by a wrastelynge, And there I dyd holpe a pore yemin, With wronge was put behynde." 62 "Nay, that is well," sayd Robyn, " Syr knyght," that thanke I the ; What man that helpeth a good yem^n, His frende than wyll I be. " 63 " Have here fourehondred pounde," sayd the knyght, "The whiche ye lent to me ; And here is also an hondred more For your curteysy. '* 64 " Nay, syr knyght," than sayd Robjm, " Thou broke it well for ay ; For our lady, by her selerer, Hath sent to me my pay \ " for," because. " broke," enjoy. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 205 65 "And yf I toke it twyse, A shame it were to me : But trewely, gentyll knyght, Welcom arte thou to me." 66 Whan Robyn had tolde his tale, He leugh and had good chere. "By my trouthe," then sayd the knyght, " Your money is redy here." 67 "Broke it well," sayd Robyn, "Thou gentyll knyght so fre j And welcome be thou, gentill knyght, Under my trystell tree. 68 " But what shall these bowes do ? " sayd Robyn, " And these arowes ifedered fre ? " " By my troth," than sayd the knyght, " A pore present to thee." 69 "Come now forth, Lytell Johan, And go to my treasure. And brynge me there foure hondred.pounde, The monke over- tolde it to me. 70 " Have here foure hondred poimde. Thou gentyll knyght and trewe. And bye hors and harnes good, And gylte thy spurres all newe : 'trystell," where he kept tryst or appointment of meeting with his men (?) " bye," buy. 2o6 The Ballad Book 71 ** And yf thou fayle ony spendynge, Come to Robyn Hode, And by my trouth thou shalt none fayle The whyles I have any good. 72 "And broke well thy four hundred pound, Whiche I lent to the, And make thy selfe no more so bare, By the counsell of me." THE FYFTH FYTTE [How Robin Hood went to a public shooting at Nottingham, was attacked by the Sheriff, and received into Sir Rich- ard's castle. 1 I NOW hath the knyght his leve itake. And wente hym on his way j Robyn Hode and his mery men Dwelled styll full many a day. 2 Lyth and lysten, gentil men. And herken what I shall say. How the proud sheryfe of Notyngham Dyde crye a full fayre play : 3 That all the best archers of the north Sholde come upon a day, And he that shoteth alderbest The game shall bore away. " lyth," attend. " aiderbest," best of all. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 207 4 " He that shoteth alderbest, Furthest fayre and lowe, At a payre of fynly buttes. Under the grene wode shawe. S "A ryght good arowe he shall have, The shaft of sylver whyte, The heade and tlie feders of ryche rede gold^ In Englonde is none lyke. " 6 This then herde good Robyn, Under his trystell tre : "Make you redy, ye wyght yonge men, That shotynge wyll I se. 7 " Buske you, my mery yonge men. Ye shall go with me ; And I wyll wete the shrjrves fayth, Trewe and yf he be. " 8 Whan they had theyr bowes ibent, Theyr takles fedred fre. Seven score of wyght yonge men Stode by Robyns kne. 9 Whan they cam to Notyngham, The buttes were fayre and longe, Many was the bold archere That shoted with bowes stronge. " fynly," goodly. " buske," make ready. " wyght,* strong, active. "wete the shryves fayth," know the sheriff's feith. "takles," tackles," i. e. arrows. 2o8 The Ballad Book lo " There shall but syx shote with me, The others shal kepe my hede, And stande with good bowes bent, That I be not desceyved." II The fourth outlawe his bowe gan bende, And that was Robyn Hode, And that behelde the proude sheiyfe. All by the butt he stode. 12 Thryes Robyn shot about. And alway he slist the wand. And so dyde good Gylberte, With the whyte hande. 13 Lytell Johan and good Scatheloke Were archers good and fre ; Lytell Much and good Reynolde, The worste wolde they not be. 14 Whan they had shot aboute, These archours fayre and good, Evermore was the best, Forsoth, Robyn Hode. 15 Hym was delyvered the goode ar6w, For best worthy was he ; He toke the yeft so curteysly ; To grene wode wolde he. " slist," sliced. " yeft," gift. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 209 16 They cryed out on Robyn Hode, And great homes gan they blowe. " Wo worth thee, treason ! " sayd Robyn, " Full evyl thou art to knowe. 17 "And wo be thou, thou proud sheryf, Thus gladdynge thy gest, Other wyse thou behote me In yonder wylde forest j 18 "But had I thee in grene wode, Under my trystell tre. Thou sholdest leve me a better wedde Than thy trewe lewt^. " 19 Full many a bowe there was bent, And arowes let they glyde, Many a kyrtell there was rent, . And hurt many a syde. 20 The outlawes' shot was so stronge, That no man myght them dryve, And the proud sheryfes men They fled away full blyve. 21 Robyn sawe the busshement to-broke ; In grene wode he wolde have be ; Many an arowe there was shot Amonge that company. "gest," guest. "behote," promised. " wedde," pledge. " lewte," loyalty, good faith. " kyrtell," short coat. " blyve," briskly. " busshement to-broke," ambush broken up. 14 210 The Ballad Book 22 Ljrtell Johan was hurte full sore, With an arowe in his kne, That he myght neyther go nor ryde ; It was full grete pyte. 23 "Mayster," then sayd Lytell Johan, " If ever thou lovest me, And for that ylke lordes love, That dyed upon a tre, 24 " And for the medes of my servyce, That I have served the, Lete never the proude sheryf Al)rve now fynde me ; 25 "But take out thy browne swerde, And smyte all of my hede, Or gyve me woundes deep and wyde. So to leve me dede. " 26 **I wolde not that," sayd Rob)^, *' Johan, that thou were slawe, For all the golde in mery Englond, Though it lay now on a rawe. " 27 " God forbede," sayd lytell Much, "That dyed on a tre, That thou sholdest, Lytell Johan, Parte our company. " "ylke," same. "medes," reward. "rawe," row. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode 2\\ 28 Up he toke hjon on his backe, And bare hym well a myle, Many a tyme he layd hym downe, And shot another whyle. 29 Then was there a fayre castell, A lytell within the wode, Double-dyched it was about, And walled, by the rode j 30 And there dwelled that gentyll knyght, Syr Rychard at the Lee, That Robyn had lent his good. Under the grene wode tre. 31 In he toke good Robyn, And all his company : "Welcome be thou, Robyn Hode, Welcome art thou [to] me ; 32 "And moche [I] thanke the of thy comfort, And of thy curteysye. And of thy grete kyndenesse. Under the grene wode tre. 33 ** I love no man in all this worlde So moch as I do the ; For all the proud sheryf of Notyngham, Ryght here shalt thou be. " rode," rood. 212 The Ballad Book 34 " Shet the gates, and drawe the bridge, And let no man com in ; And arme you well, and make you redy, And to the walle ye wynne. 35 " For one thyng, Robyn, I thee behote : I swere by saynt Quyntyn, T/ This lang seven years and mair?" " O I 'm come again to seek your love And the vows that ye did swear." 2 ** Now haud your tongue o' my love and vows, For they can breed but strife ; Now haud your tongue o' my former vows, For I am anither man's wife. " 3 He turned him right and round about. And the tear blinded his e'e : "I wad never hae trodden on Irish ground, If it had not been for thee. 4 " I might hae had a noble lady, Far beyond the sea ; I might hae had a noble lady. Were it no for the love o' thee." 5 " If ye might hae had a noble lady, Yoursel' ye hae to blame ; Ye might hae taken the noble lady, For ye kenn'd that I was nane." ^m The Ballad Book 6 ** O fause are the vows o' womankind, But fair is their fause bodie ; I wad never hae trodden on Irish ground, Were it no for the love o' thee ! 7 " For I despised the pearls and rings. And the fair ladye also ; And I am come back to my ain true love, But with me she'll not go." 8 " My husband he is a carpenter. And earns gude bread wi' his hand j, And I hae borne him a little son ; Wi' you I winna gang." 9 " Ye may leave your husband to bims^, And your little son also ; And sail wi' me across the sea : Sae fair the wind doth blow." lo " O what hae you to keep me wi\ If I wi' you should go, — If I should forsake my good husband, My little young son also ? " " See ye not yon seven pretty ships, — The eighth brought me to land, — With merchandise and mariners, And music on every hand ? The Ship o* the Fiend 295 12 " There *s mantles warm to wrap my love, O* the silk and soft velvet, And rich attires to declc her head. And costly shoon for her feet" 13 She turned her round upon the shore, Her love's ships to behold ; Their mainyards and their topmasts high Were covered o'er wf gold. 14 And she has gone to her little young son, Kissed him baith cheek and chin : " O fare ye weel, my little son ! For I '11 never see you again." 15 She has drawn the shppers on her feet, Weel wrought wi' threads o' gold. And he *s wrapt her rovmd wi' the soft "velvet To haud her frae the cold. 16 " O how do you like the ship ? " he said, ** Or how do you like the sea ? And how do you like the bold mariners, That wait upon thee and me ?" 17 " O weel I like the ship," she said, •• And weel I like the sea ; But where are a' your mariners ? I see nane but thee and me.*' 296 The Ballad Book 18 She hadna sailed a league frae land, A league but barely three, Till she minded on her dear husband, And her little young son tee. 19 *' O gin I were on shore again, On shore where I wad be, Nae living man should flatter me To sail upon the sea ! " 20 " O hand your tongue o' weeping," says he, *• Let a' your mourning be ; I '11 show ye how the lilies grow On the banks o' Italie." *' O what hills are yon, yon pleasant hills, That the sun shines sweetly on ? " " O yon are the hills o' Heaven," he said, " Where you will never win." 22 "O whatna mountain is yon," she said, " Sae dreary wi' frost and snow?" " O yon is the mountain o' Hell," he cried, " Where you and I maun go ! " 23 And aye when she turned her round about, Aye taller he seemed for to be ; Until that the tops o' that gallant ship Nae taller were than he. "tee, " too. ' ' maun, " must Lamkin 297 24 He strack the mainmast wi' his hand, The foremast wi' his knee ; The gallant ship was broken in twain And sank into the sea. LVI LAMKIN LAMKIN was as good a mason As ever hewed a stane ; He biggit Lord Weare's great castle, But payment gat he nane. 2 ** O pay me now, Lord Weare, Come pay me out o' hand." **I canna pay you, Lamkin, Unless I sell my land." 3 ** O gin ye winna pay me, I here sail make a vow, Before that ye come hame again. Ye sail hae cause to rue." 4 The lord said to his lady, As he mounted his horse, " Beware, beware of Lamkin, That lieth in the moss." 298 The Ballad Book 5 The lord said to his lady, As he rode away, " Beware, beware of Lamkin, That lieth in the clay." 6 " What care I for Lamkin, Or any of his gang ? I '11 keep my doors weel guarded, My windows all penned in." 7 When all the doors were guarded. And all the windows shut, There was still one little window. And that one was forgot 8 And the nourice was a fause limmeir As e'er hung on a tree ; And she laid a plot wi' Lamkin When her lord went over the sea. 9 She laid a plot wi' Lamkin, When the servants were awa'. Loot him in at the little window And brought him to the ha\ 10 *' O where 's a' the men o' this house. That ca' me Lamkin ? " '* They're at the barn thrashing ; 'T will be lang ere they come in." "nourice," nurse. Lamkin 299 II ** O where *s the women o' this house, That ca' me Lamkin ? " ** They 're at the well washing ; 'T will be lang ere they come in." " O where 's the lady o' this house. That ca s me Lamkin?" ** She 's up in her bower sewing, But we soon can bring her down." 13 ** And how are we to bring her down ? " Says the Lamkin. " Pinch the babe in the cradle here," Says the fause nourice to him. 14 " O still my bairn, nourice, Still him if you can." ** He will not still, madam. For a' his father's land." IS " O still my bairn, good nourice, O still him wi' the keys." *'He will not still, my lady. Let me do what I please." 16 " O still my bairn, kind nourice, O still him wi' the ring." " He will not still, dear mistress, Let me do anything. " 300 The Ballad Book 17 " O still my bairn, sweet nourice, still him wi' the bell." " He will not still, my lady dear, Till ye come down yoursel'." 18 The first step the lady stepped, She stepped on a stane ; The last step the lady stepped, There she met Lamkin. 19 " O mercy, mercy, Lamkin ! Have mercy upon me ! O harm ye not my little son, 1 pray you let him be ! " 20 " Now sail I kill her, nourice ? Or sail I let her be ? " " O kill her, kill her, Lamkin, For she ne'er was good to me. " 21 "Then scour the basin, nourice, And mak' it fair and clean. For to keep this lady's heart's blood. For she comes o' noble kin." 22 " There needs nae basin, Lamkin ; Let it run upon the floor ; What better is the heart's blood O' the rich than o' the poor ? " Lamkin 301 23 Lord Weare he sat in England A-drinking o' the wine \ He felt his heart fu' heavy At tliis very same time. 24 "I wish a' may be weel," he says, " Wi' my dear lady at hame ; For the rings upon my fingers They 've bursten into twain." 25 He sailed in his bonny ship Upon the saut sea-faem ; He leaped upon his horse, And swiftly he rade hame, 26 *' O wha's blude is this," he says, "Thatliethinmy ha'?" ** It is your little son's heart's blude, The clearest ava*." 27 " O wha's blude is this," he says, "That lies in the bower ? " " It is your lady's heart's blude, Where Lamkin he slew her." 28 O sweetly sang the blackbird, That sat upon the tree ; But sair moaned Lamkin, When he was judged to dee. 302 The Ballad Book 29 O bonny sang the mavis Out o' the thorny brake j But sair grat the nourice, When she was tied to the stake. LVII THE FROLICKSOME DUKE; OR, THE TINKER'S GOOD FORTUNE NOW, as fame does report, a young Duke keeps a court, One that pleases his fancy with frolicksome sport : But amongst all the rest, here is one, I protest. Which will make you to smile when you hear the true jest : A poor tinker he found, lying drunk on the ground, As secure in sleep as if laid in a swound. 2 The Duke said to his men, " William, Richard, and Ben, Take him home to my palace ; we '11 sport with him then." O'er a horse he was laid, and with care soon conveyed To the palace, altho' he was poorly arrai'd : Then they stript off his cloaths, both his shirt, shoes, and hose. And they put him to bed for to take his repose. "grat," wept. The Frolicksome Duke 303 3 Having pulled off his shirt, which was all over dirt. They did give him clean holland, this was no great hurt : On a bed of soft down, like a lord of renown, They did lay him to sleep the drink out of his crown. In the morning, when day, then admiring he lay, For to see the rich chamber, both gaudy and gay. 4 Now he lay something late, in his rich bed of state, Till at last knights and squires they on him did wait ; And the chamberlain bare then did likewise declare, He desired to know what apparel he 'd wear : The poor tinker, amazed, on the gendeman gazed, And admired how he to this honor was raised. 5 Tho' he seemed something mute, yet he chose a rich suit, Which he straitways put on without longer dispute, Wiih a star on his side, which the tinker oft eyed. And it seemed for to swell him no little with pride ; For he said to himself, *' Where is Joan my sweet wife? Sure she never did see me so fine in her life." 6 From a convenient place, the right Duke, his good grace. Did observe his behavior in every case. To a garden of state, on the tinker they wait. Trumpets sounding before him : thought he, this is great : Where an hour or two, pleasant walks he did view, With commanders and squires in scarlet and blue. 304 The Ballad Book 7 A fine dinner was drest, both for him and his guests : He was placed at the table above all the rest, In a rich chair [or bed,] lined with fine crimson red, With a rich golden canopy over his head : As he sat at his meat, the musick played sweet. With the choicest of singing his joys to compleat 8 While the tinker did dine, he had plenty of wine, Rich Canary, with sherry and tent superfine. Like a right honest soul, faith, he took off his bowl, Till at last he began for to tumble and roul From his chair to tlie floor, where he sleeping did snore. Being seven times drunker than ever before. 9 Then the Duke did ordain, they should strip him amain. And restore him his old leather garments again. 'T was a point next the worst, yet perform it they must, And they carry'd him strait where they found him at first Then he slept all the night, as indeed well he might ; But when he did waken, his joys took their flight 10 For his glory [to him] so pleasant did seem. That he thought it to be but a meer golden dream ; Till at length he was brought to the Duke, where he sought For a pardon, as fearing he had set him at nought But his highness he said, " Thou 'rt a jolly bold blade : Such a frolick before, I think, never was plaid." Childe Vyet ; or, The Brothers 305 II Then his highness bespoke him a new suit and cloak, Which he gave for the sake of this frolicksome joke, Nay, and five hundred pound, with ten acres of ground : "Thou shalt never," said he, "range the counteries round, Crying old brass to mend, for I '11 be thy good friend, Nay, and Joan thy sweet wife shall my duchess attend. " 12 Then the tinker reply'd : " What ! must Joan my sweet bride Be a lady in chariots of pleasure to ride ? Must we have gold and land ev'ry day at command ? Then I shall be a squire, I well understand. Well I thank your good grace, and your love I embrace ; I was never before in so happy a case I " LVIII CHILDE VYET; OR, THE BROTHERS LORD INGRAM and Childe Vyet Were both born in one hall ; And both laid their loves on one lady, — The worse did them befall. 2 Lord Ingram woo'd Lady Maisry From father and from mother ; Lord Ingram woo'd Lady Maisry From sister and from brother. 3o6 The Ballad Book 3 Lord Ingram woo*d Lady Maisiy With leave of all her kin : But Childe Vyet woo'd herself alone, And she loved none but him. 4 Now Lady Maisry she sat in her bower Dressing her hair one day ; And in there came her proud father, In robes and rich array. 5 " Get up now, Lady Maisry, Put on your wedding-gown ; For this is the day, and Lord Ingram's here, And your wedding must be done 1 " 6 *• O where shall I get a bonny boy Will win gold to his fee, — Will run unto Childe Vyet's ha' With this letter from me? 7 « I 'd rather be Childe Vyet's wife, The white fish for to sell, Before I 'd be Lord Ingram's wife, To wear the silks so well. " I 'd rather be Childe Vyet's wife. With him to beg my bread. Before I 'd be Lord Ingram's wife. To wear the gold so red. " Childe Vyet; or^ The Brothers 307 9 " O here I am, the boy," says one, " Will win gold to his fee. And carry any letter away To Childe Vyet from thee." 10 The first line that Childe Vyet read, The tear blinded his e'e ; The next line that he looked on, An angry man was he. "What ails my own brother," he says, "That he '11 not let my Love be 1 But I '11 come in haste to my brother's wedding, My lady she shall be free ! " 12 But when he came to his brother's wedding, Childe Vyet could ne'er get in ; For every gate was guarded weel, And his way he might not win. 13 'Tween Mary Kirk and the Castle 'T was all spread o'er with garl. To keep the lady and her maidens From treading upon the marl. 14 From Mary Kirk to the Castle Was spread a cloth of gold, To keep that lady and her maidens From setting foot on the mould, "garl," gravel (?) 3o8 The Ballad Book There was no cook in the kitchen That got not a gown of gray ; And a' was blithe and gladsome ; But Lady Maisry was wae. 16 There was not a groom in the stable That got not a coat of green ; And a* was blithe and gladsome ; — Lady Maisry, she was wi' wean. 17 When mass was sung, and bells were rung, And all men bound for bed. Lord Ingram and Lady Maisry In one bed they were laid. 18 When they were laid upon their bed, It was baith soft and warm, He laid his hand over her side : Says he, "You are with bairn." 19 " I told you once, so did I twice. When ye came as my wooer, That Childe Vyet, your one brother, One night lay in my bower. 20 "I told you twice, so did I thrice. Ere ye came me to wed, That Childe Vyet, your one brother. One night lay in my bed. " Childe Vyet; or^ The Brothers 309 21 " Then father your bairn on me, Maisry, And on no other man ; And I '11 gie him to his dowry Full fifty ploughs o' land." 22 " I will not fatlier my bairn on you, Nor yet on no wrong man, Though ye gave him to his dowry Five thousand ploughs o' land. " 23 From the curtain leaped out Childe Vyet, Shed by his yellow hair, And he gave Lord Ingram to the death A deep wound and a sair. 24 Then up did start Lord Ingram, Shed by his coal-black hair. And gave Childe Vyet to the death A deep wound and a sair. 25 There was pity enough for those two lords, When they were lying dead ; There was more for young Lady Maisry, In that chamber when she went mad. 3IO The Ballad Book LIX THE BARON OF BRACKLEY I DOWN Dee-side came Inverey whistling and play, ing; He 's lighted at Brackley yates at the day dawing. Says, *' Baron o' Brackley, O are ye within? There 's sharp swords at the yate will gar your blood spin. " 3 The lady rase up, to the window she went ; She heard her kye lowing o'er hiU and o'er bent. 4 " O rise up, ye baron, and turn back your kye ; For the lads o' Drumwharran are driving them bye." 5 " How can I rise, lady, or turn them again? Whare'er I have ae man, I wat t^ey hae ten." 6 "Then rise up, my lasses, tak' rocks in your hand, And turn back the kye ; — I hae you at command, 7 " Gin I had a husband, as I hae nane, He wadna lye in his bed, see his kye ta'en." "kye," cows, "rock," rod that holds the tow on a spinning-wheel. The Baron of Brackley 311 8 Then up got the baron, and cried for his graith ; Says, " Lady, I'll gang, tho' to leave you I 'm laith. 9 " Come, kiss me, then, Peggy, and gie me my speir j I aye was for peace, tho' I never feared weir. 10 ** Come, kiss me, then, Peggy, nor think I 'm to blame j I weel may gae out, but I 'U never win in ! " II When Brackley was busked, and rade o'er the closs, A gallanter baron ne'er lap to a horse. 12 When Brackley was mounted, and rade o'er the green, He was as bauld a baron as ever was seen. 13 Tho' there cam' wi' Inverey thirty and three. There was nane wi' bonny Brackley but his brother and he. H Twa gallanter Gordons did never sword draw ; But against four and thirty, wae 's me, what is twa ? 15 Wi' swords and wi' daggers they did him surround j And they've pierced bonny Brackley wi' many a wound. " graith," armor. " weir," war. " closs," close. 312 The Ballad Book i6 Frae the head o' the Dee to the banks o' the Spey, The Gordons may mourn him, and ban Inverey, 17 " O came ye by Brackley yates, was ye in there? Or saw ye his Peggy dear riving her hair ? " 18 " O 1 came by Brackley yates, I was in there, And I saw his Peggy a-making good cheer." 19 That lady she feasted them, carried them ben ; She laughed wi' the men that her baron had slain. 20 " O fye on you, lady ! how could you do sae ? You opened your yates to the fause Inverey." 21 She ate wi' him, drank wi' him, welcomed him in ; She welcomed the villain that slew her baron ! 22 There 's grief in the kitchen, and mirth in the ha' j But the Baron o' Brackley is dead and awa'. "ban," curse. " ben," within. ir Burd Ellen 313 BURD ELLEN LORD JOHN stood in his stable door, Said he was boun' to ride ; Burd Ellen stood in her bower door, Said she 'd rin by his side. 2 He 's pitten on his riding-boots, And fast awa' rade he ; Burd Ellen 's cut her yellow locks An inch above her e*e, She 's clad hersell in a page's dress, And after him ran she, 3 Until they came to a wan water. And folk do call it Clyde ; Then he lookit o'er his left shoulder. To see if she wad bide. 4 The firstan step the lady stept, The water cam' till her knee : " Ochon, alas ! " said the lady, " This water 's o'er deep for me." 5 The neistan step the lady stept. The water cam' till her middle ; And sighin' said that fair lady, '* I 've wat my gouden girdle." 314 The Ballad Book 6 The thirden step the lady stept, The water cam' to her pap ; And the baim that was in her twa sides For cauld began to quake. 7 "Lie still, my babe ! lie stilly my babe I Ye work your mother wae ; Your father rides on high horseback^ Cares little for us twae." 8 Near the midst o' Clyde water There was a yeard-fast stone ; He lightly turned his horse about, And took the lady on ; He brought her to the other side, And there he set her down. 9 •* O tell me this now, good Lord Joha, And a word ye winna lie, How far is it to your lodgin', Whar' we this night maun be?" lO " See ye na yon castle, Ellen, That shines sae bright and hie ? There 's a lady in it, Ellen, Will sunder you and me. " II " I wish nae ill to your lady, She ne'er comes in my tliought ; But I wish that woman maist o' your love, That dearest has you bought ! " "yeard-fast," earth-fast. Burd Ellen 315 O four and twenty gay ladies Welcomed Lord John to the ha' ; But a fairer lady than ony there Led his horse to the stable-sta'. 13 O four and twenty gay ladies Went wi' Lord John to the green ; But a fairer lady than ony there At the manger stood alane. 14 When bells were rung, and mass was sung, And a' men boun' to meat, Burd Ellen was at the bye-table Amang the pages set. 15 " O eat and drink, my bonny boy. The white bread and the beer." " The never a bit can I eat or drink. My heart 's sae fu' o' fear. " 16 •' O eat and drink, my bonny boy. The white bread and the wine. " " O how sail I eat or drink, master, Wi' heart sae fu' o' pine ? " 17 But out and spak' Lord John's mother, And a wise woman was she : * * Whar' met ye wi' that bonny boy That looks sae sad on thee ? * 3i6 The Ballad Book i8 *' Sometimes his color waxes red, Sometimes it waxes wan ; He 's liker a woman big wi' bairn Than a young lord's serving-man." 19 " O it makes me laugh, my mother dear, Sic words to hear frae thee ; He is a squire's ae dearest son. That for love has followed me. ao " Rise up, rise up, my bonny boy, Gie my horse com and hay." " O that I will, my master dear, As quickly as I may." 21 She 's ta*en the hay under her arm, The com intill her hand, And she 's gane to the great stable As fast as e'er she can. 22 " O room ye round, my bonny steeds ! O room ye near the wa' ! For this pain that strikes me through my sides Fu' soon will gar me fa'." 23 She leaned her back against the wa', Strong travail cam' her on j And e'en amang the great horse's feet Burd Ellen brought forth her son. Burd Ellen 317 24 " O open the door, Burd Ellen ! O open and let me in ; I want to see if my steed be fed, And my greyhounds fit to rin." 25 " How could I open, how shall I open. How can I open to thee, When l)dng amang your great steed's feet, And your yoimg son on my knee ? " 26 He strack the door hard wi' his foot, Sae has he wi' his knee ; Iron hinges and wooden bars Into the floor flang he. " Be not afeard, Burd Ellen ! " he says ; " There 's nane comes in but me." 27 "An asking, an asking, sweet Lord John, An asking I beg of thee, — The meanest woman about yom: place. To tend my yoimg son and me." 28 ** Tak' up, tak' up my bonny young son I Gar wash him wi' the milk ; Tak' up, tak' up my fair lady ! Gar row her in the silk. 29 " Be of good cheer, Burd Ellen ! " he says, "O be of good cheer, I pray; Your bridal and your churching both Shall be upon one day." "gar," make. '•row,"roU. 3i8 The Ballad Book LXI THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW I MY love he built me a bonny bower, And clad it a' wi' lily flower ; A brawer bower ye ne'er did see Than my true love he built for me. 2 There came a man, by middle day, He spied his sport, and went away ; And brought the King that very night, Who brake my bower and slew my knight 3 He slew my knight, to me sae dear ; He slew my knight, and poined his gear \ My servants all for life did flee. And left me in extremetie. 4 I sewed his sheet, making my mane ; I watched the corpse, myself alane ; I watched his body night and day ; No living creature came that way. 5 I took his body on my back, And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sat ; I digged a grave, and laid him in. And happ'd him wi' the sod sae green, "poined," seized. Willy's Lady 319 6 But think na ye my heart was sair, When I laid the mouF on his yellow hair ? think na ye my heart was wae, When I turned about, awa' to gae ? 7 Nae living man I '11 love again, Since that my lovely knight is slain ; Wi' ae lock of his yellow hair 1 '11 chain my heart for evermair. LXII WILLY'S LADY SWEET Willy's ta'en him o'er the faem, He 's wooed a Avife and brought her hame \ He 's wooed her for her yellow hair. But his mither wrought her mickle care, And mickle dolour gart her dree ; For lighter can she never be, But in her bower she sits wi' pain, And Willy mourns for her in vain. 2 Now to his mither he is gane. That vile rank witch, who lives her lane ; He says, " My lady has a cup, O' siller wrought, wi' gouden lip ; This gudely gift ye now sail aim, And let her be lighter o' her young bairn." ' faem," foam. " gart her dree," caused her to suffer. " her 'lane," alone. "aim," earn. 320 The Ballad Book 3 " O' her young bairn she 's never be lighter, Nor in her bower to shine the brighter ; But she sail die and turn to clay, And ye sail wed anither may. " " Anither may I '11 marry nane, Anither may I '11 ne'er bring hame." But, sighing, said his bonny young wife, " Alas, I 'm weary o' my life I " 4 He did him to his mither again, That vile rank witch, who lives her lane ; And says, " My lady has a girdle, It 's a' pure goud around the middle, And set wi' fifty pearls and ten. And fifty diamonds round the hem j This gudely gift ye now sail aim. And let her be lighter o' her young bairn." 5 ** O' her young bairn she 's never be lighter, Nor in her bower to shine the brighter ; But she sail die and go to clay, And you sail wed anither may." " Anither may I '11 marry nane, Anither may I '11 ne'er bring hame." But, sighing, said his bonny young wife, " Alas, I 'm weary o' my life ! " 6 He did him to his mither again. That vile rank witch, who hves her 'lane ; He says, *' My lady has a steed. The like o' him no in the lands o' Leed j " may," maid. " Leed," Liddesdale (?) Wi/Z/s Lady 321 At ilka tett o' that horse's mane There 's a gowden chess and bell ringm' : The steed and bells ye now sail aim. Let her be lighter o' her young bairn." 7 " She ^s never o' her bairn be lighter, Nor in her bower to shine the brighter ; Die she must, and go to clay, And you sail wed anither may. *' *' Anither may I '11 marry nane, Anither may I '11 never bring hame." But, moaning, said his bonny young wif^ *' Alas, I 'm weary o' my life 1 " 8 Then out it spak', the Billy Blind, He spak' aye in a gude time ; "Ye '11 do ye to the market-place, And there ye '11 buy a loaf o' wace. Ye '11 shape it bairn and baimly like, And in it twa glassen een ye 'U pit. 9 " And do ye to your mither then. And bid her come to the christenin'. For dear 's the boy he 's been to you ; Then notice weel what she sail do ; And do you stand a little away. And listen weel what she will say." 10 He did him to the market-place, And there he bought a loaf o' wace ; " tett," tassel. " chess " (qu. "jess ") ? "Billy Blind," a sort of Brownie, Lar, or House-Spirit * ' wace, " wax. ' ' een, " eyes. " pit, " put 21 322 The Ballad Book He shaped it bairn and baimly like. And in it twa glassen een he pat He did him to his mither then, And bade her to his boy's christenin* ; And then he stood a little away, And noticed weel what she would say. *' O, wha has loosed the nine witch-knots That were amang that lady's locks ? And wha 's ta'en out the kaims o' care That were into that lady's hair ? And wha has killed the master-kid * That ran aneath that lady's bed ? And wha has untied her left-foot shee, And letten that lady lighter be ? " 12 O, Willy has loosed the nine witch-knots That lay amang his lady's locks ; Willy 's ta'en out the kaims o' care Were set into his lady's hair ; And Willy 's killed the master-kid That ran aneath his lady's bed ; And Willy 's untied her left foot shee, And letten his lady lighter be ; And now he has gotten a bonny son, And mickle grace be him upon. ' ' pat, " put. ' ' kaims, " combs. ' ' shee, " shoe. * One of the witch's familiars, we may imagine, taking the shape of a pet kid. Hughie Graham 323 LZIII HUGHIE GRAHAM I OUR lords are to the mountains gane, A-hunting o' the fallow deer. And they hae grippet Hughie Graham, For stealing o' the Bishop's mare. 2 And they hae tied him hand and foot, And led him up thro' Carlisle town ; The lads and lasses met him there, Cried " Hughie Graham, thou art a loun." 3 *'0, loose my right hand free," he says, " And put my braid sword in the same, He 's no in Carlisle to\^-n this day, Daur tell the tale to Hughie Graham." 4 Up then bespake the brave Whitefoord, As he sat by the Bishop's knee, " Five hundred white stots I '11 gie you. If ye '11 let Hughie Graham gae free." 5 **0, haud your tongue," the Bishop says, *' And wi' your pleading let me be ; For tho' ten Grahams were in his coat, Hughie Graham this day shall dee. " " stots," oxen. 324 The Ballad Book 6 Up then bespake the fair Whitefoord, As she sat by the Bishop's knee, *' Five hundred wliite pence I '11 gie you, If ye '11 gie Hughie Graham to me. " 7 **0, baud your tongue now, lady fair, And wi' your pleading let it be ; Altho' ten Grahams were in his coat, It's for my honor he maun dee." 8 They 've ta'en him to the gallows know^ He looked to the gallows tree. Yet never color left his cheek. Nor ever did he blin' his e'e. 9 At length he looked round about, To see whatever he could spy, And there he saw his auld father. And he was weeping bitterly. lO " O, baud your tongue, my father dear, And wi' your weeping let it be ; The weeping 's sairer on my heart, Than a' that they can do to me. II " And ye may gie my brother John My sword that 's bent in the middle clear. And let him come at twelve o'clock, And see me pay the Bishop's mare, "knowe," little hill. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet 325 12 ** And ye may gie my brother James My sword that 's bent in the middle brown, And bid him come at four o'clock, And see his brother Hugh cut down. 13 **And ye may tell my kith and kin I never did disgrace their blood ; And when they meet the Bishop's cloak, To mak' it shorter by the hood." LXIV LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET LORD THOMAS and fair Annet Sat all day on a hill j When night was come and the sun was set, They had not talked their fill. 2 Lord Thomas said a word in haste. Fair Aimet took it ill : "I winna wed a tocherless maid Against my parents' wiU." 3 O, Annet 's gane off intill her bower j Lord Thomas rode swiftly doun j And now he has come to his mither's ha* By the lee light o' the moon. ' tocherless," without a fortune. "lee light," calm light. 326 The Ballad Book 4 " O, sleep ye, wake ye, mither ? " he says, *' O, are ye there within ? " " I sleep right aft, I wake right aft ; What want ye wi' me, son? 5 " Where hae ye been this night, Thomas ? Where hae ye tarried sae lang ? " " O, I hae been courtin' fair Annet, But I think she used me wrang. 6 " Now rede me, rede me, mither," he says, " A gude rede gie to me : O, sail I tak' the nut-brown girl. And let fair Annet be ? " 7 " It *s an ye wed the nut-brown girl, I '11 heap the gold wi' my hand ; But an ye wed her, fair Annet, 1 11 straike it wi' a wand. 8 "The nut-brown girl has houses and lands, Fair Annet has nane," she said ; *' And I charge you, for my benison, The nut-brown girl to wed." 9 " But alas ! alas ! " Lord Thomas, he says, " O, fair is Annet's face ! " " What matter for that, Lord Thomas, my son? She has nae ither grace." "rede me," advise me. " straike it wi' a wand," give bare ineasure, as if in measuring a gallon of oats you were to stroke off the top grains with a stick. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet 327 10 " Alas ! alas ! " Lord Thomas, he says, "But fair is Annet's hand ! " " What matter for that, Lord Thomas, my son? She hasna ae rood o' land. " II " Sheep will die in cots, mither, And owsen die in byre ; And what 's the land or gold to me, If I lose my heart's desire ? " 12 Then he has till his sister gane : "Now, sister, rede ye me ; O, sail I marry the nut-brown girl, And set fair Annet free ? " 13 " I 'se rede ye tak* fair Annet, Thomas, She *11 bring neither dool nor shame ; But the crabbit brown girl wad gar ye cry, O, what is this we brought hame ! " 14 "No, I will talc' my mither's counsel, And marry me out o' hand ; And I will tak' the nut-brown girl, With her houses and her land." 15 His sister has found a bonnie boy. Wad fain win hose and shoon ; One that will rin to fair Annet's bower, By the lee light o' the moon. "dool," grief. "gar," make. 328 The Ballad Book i6 The boy he is come to Annet's bower, And tirled at the pin, And wha sae ready as Annet hersel' To open and let him in. 17 " Ye are bidden come to Lord Thomas's weddin', At twal o' the clock at noon ; Ye are bidden come to Lord Thomas's weddin', And ye cannot come ower soon. 18 " Ye mauna put on the black, the black, Nor yet the dowie brown. But the silken blue, and your kerch sae white. And your bonnie locks hangin' down." 19 "It's I will come to Lord Thomas's weddin', At twal o' the clock at noon ; It 's I will come to Lord Thomas's weddin', — I thought it would be my own. 20 " My maids, come to my dressing-room, And dress to me my hair ; Whare'er ye laid a plait before See ye lay ten times mair. 21 *' Lay out my smock o' needlework Wrought on the hoUand fine ; Lay out my skirts, and silken suits, And choose the best o' nine. " " dowie," mournful. " kerch," kerchief. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet 329 22 At each tate o' Annet's horse's mane There hung a silver bell ; When there came a tift o' the southern wind, They all began to knelL 23 She passed through the crowd in Mary's kirk, She sat upon the dais ; The light that came frae the fair Annet Enlightened a' that place. 24 She sat close by tlie nut-brown bride ; And her e'en they shone so clear. That Lord Thomas he foi^ot the bride. Since ever his love drew near. 25 O wha is this, my father dear, That blinks in Lord Thomas's e'e ? " ** O this is Lord Thomas's first true love, Before he loved thee." 26 Lord Thomas held a rose in his hand. And he gave it kisses three, He reached it past the nut-brown bride. Laid it on Annet's knee. 27 The bride she drew a long bodkin Out o' her gay head-gear. And struck fair Annet to the heart, That word she never spak' mair. " tate," tassel. " dais," platfonn. 330 The Ballad Book 28 " O Christ thee save ! " Lord Thomas he said, "Methinks thou look'st wondrous wan ; Thou used'st to look with as fresh a color As ever the sun shone on." 29 He saw fair Annet wax pale and faint. And wondered what might be ; But when he saw her dear heart's blood A' wood-wroth waxed he. 30 He drew his dagger frae his side, His dagger sae sharp and meet. And drave it into the nut-brown bride, That fell dead at his feet 31 "Now stay for me, dear Annet," he said, " O stay, my dear ! " he cried ; Then struck the dagger intill his heart, And fell dead by her side. LXV LIZIE LINDSAY I "XT TILL ye go to the Hielands, Lizie Lindsay, V V Will ye go to the Hielands wi' me ? Will ye go to the Hielands, Lizie Lindsay, And dine on fresh curds and green whey ? " " wood-wroth," mad-angry. Lizie Lindsay 33] 2 Then out spak' Lizie's mother, A good old lady was she : '* Gin ye say sic a word to my daughter, I '11 gar ye be hanged hie ! " 3 " Keep weel your daughter for me, madam ; Keep weel your daughter for me. I care as little for your daughter As ye can care for me ! " Then out spak* Lizie's ain maiden, A bonnie young lassie was she ; "Now gin I were heir to a kingdom, Awa' wi' young Donald I 'd be." 5 *' O say you sae to me, Nelly ? And does my Nelly say sae ? Maun I leave my father and mither, Awa' wi' young Donald to gae ? " 6 And Lizie's ta'en till her her stockings. And Lizie's ta'en till her her shoon. And kilted up her green claithing. And awa' wi' young Donald she 's gane. 7 The road it was lang and weaiy ; The braes they were ill to climb ; Bonnie Lizie was weary wi' travelling, A fit further couldna she win. . "fit," foot. 332 The Ballad Book 8 " O are we near hame, dear Donald ? O are we near hame, I pray ? " " We're no near hame, bonnie Lizie, Nor yet the half o' the way." 9 Sair, O sair was she sighing, And the saut tear blin'd her e'e : " Gin this be the pleasures o* loving, They never will do wi' me \ " lo " Now baud your tongue, bonnie Lizie ; Ye never shall rue for me ; Gie me but your love for my love, It is a' that your tocher will be. " O haud your tongue, bonnie Lizie, Although that the gait seem lang ; And you 's hae the wale o' good living When to Kincaussie we gang. 12 " My father he is an auld shepherd, My mother she is an auld dey ; And we '11 sleep on a bed o' green rashes, And dine on fresh curds and green whey." 13 They cam' to a homely poor cottage j The auld woman 'gan to say : " O ye 're welcome hame. Sir Donald, Ye've been sae lang away." ■gait," road. "wale," choice, best. " dey, " dairy-woman. Lizie Lindsay 333 H "Ye mustna call me Sir Donald, But call me young Donald your son ; For I hae a bonnie young lady Behind me, tliat 's coming in. " Come in, come in, bonnie Lizie, Come in, come in," said he ; "Although that our cottage be little, I hope we '11 the better agree. 16 " O make us a supper, dear mither. And make it o' curds and green whey ; And make us a bed o' green rashes, And cover it o'er wi' fresh hay." 17 She 's made them a bed o' green rashes. And covered it o'er wi' fresh hay. Bonny Lizie was weary wi' travelling, And lay till 'twas lang o' the day. 18 " The sun looks in o'er the hill-head. The laverock is liltin* gay ; Get up, get up, bonnie Lizie, Ye Ve lain till it 's lang o' the day. 19 *' Ye might hae been out at the shealin'. Instead o' sae lang to lie ; And up and helping my mither To milk her gaits and her kye." 'laverock," lark. " shealin'," shed. " gaits and kye," goats and eows. 334 The Ballad Book 20 Then sadly spak' Lizie Lindsay, She spak' it wi' mony a sigh : "The ladies o' Edinbro' city They milk neither gaits nor kye." 21 " Rise up, rise up, bonnie Lizie, Rise up and mak' yoursel' fine ; For we maun be at Kincaussie, Before that the clock strikes nine." 22 But when they cam' to Kincaussie, The porter doth loudly say, " O ye 're welcome hame, Sir Donald ; Ye 've been sae lang away ! " 23 It 's doun then cam' his auld mither, Wi' all the keys in her hand ; Saying, "Take you these, bonnie Lizie, For all is at your command." LXVI SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST THERE came a ghost to Marjorie's door, Wi' many a grievous groan. And aye he tirled at the pin. But answer made she none. 1 Sweet William's Ghost 335 2 " O say, is that my father? Or is \ my brother John ? Or is it my true love Willy, From Scotland new come home?" 3 '"Tis not thy father, Marjorie, Nor yet thy brother John ; But 't is thy true love Willy, From Scotland new come home. 4 " O Marjorie sweet ! O Marjorie dear ! For faith and charitie, Will ye gie me back my faith and troth That I gave once to thee ? " 5 "Thy faith and troth thou gavest to me, And again thou 'It never win. Until thou come within my bower And kiss me cheek and chin." 6 "My lips they are sae bitter," he says, My breath it is sae Strang, If ye get ae kiss from me to-night, Your days will not be lang. 7 "The cocks are crawing, Marjorie, — The cocks are crawing again ; The dead wi' the quick they mustna stay, And I must needs begone." 336 The Ballad Book 8 She followed him high, she followed him low, Till she came to yon churchyard green ; And there the deep grave opened up, And young William he lay down. 9 " What three things are these, sweet William, That stand beside your head ? " "O it's three maidens, Marjorie, That once I promised to wed. " lo " What three things are these, sweet William, That stand close at your side ? " " O it's three babes," he says, *' Marjorie, That these three maidens had." II " What three things are these, sweet William, That lie close at your feet ? " " O it's three hell-hounds, Marjorie, That 's waiting my soul to keep. " 12 And she took up her white, white hand, And struck him on the breast ; Saying, " Have here again thy faith and troth, And I wish your soul good rest" ^ Lady Elspat 337 ixvn LADY ELSPAT " T> RENT 'S your brow, my Lady Elspat; X3 Gouden yellow is your hair ! O* a' the maids o' fair Scotland, There 's no anither half sae fair." 2 " O keep your vows, sweet William," she says, *' The vows which ye ha' made to me ; And at the back o' my mither's castell. This night I '11 surely meet wi* thee." 3 But wae be to her brother's page. That heard the words thir twa did say ; He 's tauld them to her lady mither, Wha wrought sweet William mickle wae. 4 For she 's ta'en him, sweet William, And she's gar'd bind him wi' his bow-string. Till the red bluid o' his fair bodie Frae ilka nail o' his hand did spring. 5 She kept him in a tower o' strength, Till the Lord-justice came to town ; Out has she ta'en him, sweet William, Brought him before the Lord-justice boun', " brent," straight 22 338 The Ballad Book 6 "And what is the crime, now, lady," he says, *' That has by this young man been dane ? " *' O he has broken my bonny castell, That was weel biggit wi' lime and stane. 7 "And he has broken my bonny coffers, That was weel bandit wi' aiken ban' j And he has stown my rich jewels ; I wot he has stown them every ane. " 8 Then out it spak her Lady Elspat, As she sat by Lord-justice's knee j " Now ye hae tauld your tale, mither, I pray, Lord-justice, ye '11 now hear me, 9 "He hasna broken her bonny castell. That was weel biggit wi' lime and stane j Nor has he stown her rich jewels. For I wat she has them every ane. lO " But though he was my first true love, And though I had sworn to be his bride, Because he hadna a great estate, She would this way our loves divide.'* II Syne out and spak the Lord-justice, I wat the tear was in his e'e ; " I see nae faut in this young man ; Sae loose his bands, and set him free. "aiken," oaken. Willie and May Margaret 339 12 ** And tak your love, now, Lady Elspat, And my best blessin* you baith upon , For gin he be your first true love, He is my eldest sister's son. 13 "There stands a steed in my stable, Cost me baith gold and white monie : Ye 's get as mickle o' my free land As he 11 ride about in a summer's day." LXVIII WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET, OR THE WATER OF CLYDE WILLIE stands in his stable, A-clapping of his steed ; And over his white fingers His nose began to bleed, 2 " Gie com to my horse, raither ; Gie meat unto my man ; For I maun gang to Margaret's bower, Before the night comes on." 3 "O stay at home, my son Willie ! The wind blaws cold and stour ; The night will be baitli mirk and late, Before ye reach her bower." ' ' stour, " strong. " mirk, " dark. 340 The Ballad Book 4 " O tho' the night were ever sae dark, O the wind blew never sae cauld, I will be in May Margaret's bower Before twa hours be tauld.'* " O bide this night wi' me, Willie, bide this night wi' me ! The bestan fowl in a' the roost At your supper, my son, shall be." 6 " A' your fowls, and a' your roosts, 1 value not a pin ; I only care for May Margaret, And ere night to her bower I '11 win." 7 ** O an ye gang to May Margaret Sae sair against my will, In the deepest pot o' Clyde's water My malison ye 's feel ! " 8 He mounted on his coal-black steed. And fast he rade awa' ; But ere he came to Clyde's water Fu' loud the wind did blaw. 9 As he rade over yon hie hie hill, And doun yon dowie den, There was a roar in Clyde's water Wad feared a hundred men. * * malison, " curse. ' ' dowie den, " doleful hollow. Willie and May Margaret 341 10 But Willie has swam through Clyde's water, Though it was wide and deep ; And he came to May Margaret's door When a' were fast asleep. II O he 's gane round and round about, And tirled at the pin, But doors were steeked and windows barred, And nane to let him in, 12 ** O open the door to me, Margaret ! open and let me in 1 For my boots are fu' o' Clyde's water, 1 'm shivering to the chin.*' 13 " I dauma open the door to you, I dauma let you in ; For my mither she is fast asleep. And I maun mak' nae din." 14 ** O gin ye winna open the door. Nor be sae kind to me, Now tell me o' some out-chamber. Where I this night may be." IS " Ye canna win in this night, Willie, Nor here ye canna be ; For I 've nae chambers out nor in, Nae chamber but barely three. " steeked," fastened. 342 The Ballad Book i6 "The tane is fu* to the roof wi' com, The tither is fu* wi' hay ; The third is fu' o' merry young men. They winna remove till day." 17 " O fare ye weel, then, May Margaret, Sin' better it mauna be. I have won my mither's malison Coming this night to thee." 18 He 's mounted on his coal-black steed, O but his heart was wae I But e'er he came to Clyde's water, 'T was halfway up the brae. 19 When down he rade to the river-flood, 'T was fast flowing ower the brim ; The rushing that was in Clyde's water Took WiUie's rod frae him, 20 He leaned him ower his saddle-bow To catch his rod again ; The rushing that was in Clyde's water Took Willie's hat frae him. 21 He leaned him ower his saddle-bow To catch his hat by force ; The rushing that was in Clyde's water Took Willie frae his horse. Willie and May Margaret 343 22 "01 canna turn to my horse's head ; I canna strive to sowm ; I 've gotten my mither's malison, And it 's here that I maun drown 1 " 23 The very hour this young man sank Into the pot sae deep, Up wakened his love. May Margaret, Out of her heavy sleep. 24 " Come hither, come hither, my minnie dear, Come hither, read my dream ; I dreamed my love Willie was at our gates, And nane would let him in." 25 " Lie still, lie still, dear Margaret, Lie still and tak' your rest j Your lover Willie was at the gates, 'Tis but two quarters past" 26 Nimbly, nimbly rase she up, And quickly put she on ; While ever against her window The louder blew the win'. 27 Out she ran into the night. And down the dowie den ; The strength that was in Clyde water Wad drown five hundred men. 'sowm," swim. "pot," deep pool. " mimjie," mother. 344 The Ballad Book 28 She stepped in to her ankle, She stepped free and bold ; *' Ohone, alas ! " said that lady, ** This water is wondrous cold." 29 The second step that she waded. She waded to the knee ; Says she, " I 'd fain wade farther in, If I my love could see." 30 The neistan step that she waded, She waded to the chin ; 'T was a whirlin' pot o' Clyde's water She got sweet Willie in. 31 " O ye Ve had a cruel mither, Willie I And I have had anither ; But we shall sleep in Clyde's water Like sister and like brither." 32 When the water o' Clyde left roaring And the sun shone warm and fair. They found these twa in each ither's arms, Like lovers true as they were. The Duke of Gordon's Daughter 345 LXIX THE DUKE OF GORDON'S DAUGHTER THE Duke of Gordon's three daughters, Elizabeth, Marg'ret, and Jean, They left bonny Castle Gordon, And lived in Aberdeen. 2 They had not lived in Aberdeen A month but only two, Captain Ogilvie courted Lady Jean, And she loved him fond and true. 3 Word came to the Duke of Gk>rdon, In tlie chamber where he lay, Lady Jean was in love with a captain, And from him she would not stay, 4 "Go saddle to me the black horse, My servant on the gray, I must mount and gallop to Aberdeen And bring Lady Jean away." 5 They were not a mile outside the town, A mile but barely ane. When he met his daughters walking, And looked hard for Lady Jean. 34^ The Ballad Book 6 Then up came Lady Elizabeth fine, And Lady Margaret fair ; But Lady Jean was the flower o' the three, And he could not see her there. 7 " O where is your sister, maidens! O where is your sister now ? Come, tell me where is your sister That she is not walking with you? " 8 " O pardon, pardon, father 1 O give us no fault, we pray ! Lady Jean is Captain OgUvie's wife. And with him she will gae." 9 Fast he spurred and galloped. Till he came to Aberdeen ; And he saw brave Captain Ogilvie Training his men on the green. 10 " Woe be to you, Captain Ogilvie \ And an ill death shalt thou dee. For wiling away my daughter, High hanged thou shalt be." II The duke has wrote a broad letter. Sent to the king's own hand. For to hang brave Captain Ogilvie, If ever he hanged a man. The Duke of Gordon's Daughter 347 12 "I will not hang Captain Ogilvie, Whatever the duke may say, But I 'U cause him to put the gold lace off, For a common soldier's array." 13 Now word came to Captain Ogilvie, In the chamber where he lay, To cast off the gold lace and scarlet, And put on a soldier's array. " If this be for bonny Jean Gordon, This penance I can take wi* ; If this be for dear Jeanie Gordon, All this and more I *11 dree," IS Lady Jean had not been married A year but only three, Tin she had a babe on every ann, And another upon her knee. 16 ** O but I 'm weary wandering ! O but my fortune's bad ! It sets not a Duke's own daughter To follow a soldier lad. 17 " O but I 'm weary wandering J O but I think it lang ! It sets not a Duke's own daughter To follow a simple man." "dree," endure. 34^ The Ballad Book i8 " Now hold thy tongue, bonny Jeanie I O hold thy tongue, my lamb ! I once was a noble captain, — For your sake a simple man." 19 And when they came to the Highland hills. Cold was the frost and snow j Lady Jean's shoes were torn to bits, And no farther could she go. 20 "O were I in the glens o' Foudlen, Where hunting I have been, I would go to fair Castle Gordon, Without either stockings or sheen I 21 When they came to fair Castle Gordon, And crossing over the green, The porter gave out with a loud, loud shout, "Yonder 's our Lady Jean ! " 22 " O welcome bonny Jean Gordon, You are dearly welcome to me I O welcome, dear Jeanie Gordon, But away with your Ogilvie ! " 23 Over-seas went the Captain, As a soldier under command ; But a messenger soon followed after, Bade him home to heir his land, "sheen," shoes. The Duke of Gordon's Daughter 349 24 " Your uncle is dead and buried ; He has left all his land to thee." ** Sail home, sail home ! " says brave Ogilvie, " For now my dear Jeanie I *11 see. " 25 He came to fair Castle Gordon, Outside the gate stood he ; The porter gave out with a loud, loud shout, *' O here 's Captain Ogilvie ! " 26 "You are welcome, sweet Captain Ogilvie !" Your fortune 's advanced I hear ; No guest could come to this castle More welcome than you, or more dear," 27 " The last time I came to your castle, You kept me outside your door j I am come for my wife and children. And I ask you for nothing more." 28 Down the stair she came laughing. And the tears upon her face ; With two little children, one on each dde, Another in her embrace. 29 " O welcome, my bonnie Jeanie, And dearly welcome to me ! Now come away home with our children, Parted never to be ! " 35P The Ballad Book IXX FAIR MARGARETS MISFORTUNES ** T AM no love for you, Margaret, -L You are no love for me. Before to-morrow at eight of the clock, A rich wedding you shall see." 2 Fair Margaret sat in her bower-window Combing her yellow hair ; There she espied sweet William and his bride, As they were a-riding near. Down she laid her ivory comb. And up she bound her hair ; She went away out of her bower. But never returned there. 4 When day was gone and night was come. And all men fast asleep, There came the spirit of fair Marg'ret, And stood at William's feet. 5 "Are you awake, sweet William?" she said, " Or, William, are you asleep ? God give you joy of your gay bride-bed. And me of my winding-sheet. " Fair Margaret's Misfortunes 351 6 When day was come and night was gon^ And all men waked from sleep, Sweet William to his lady said, ** Alas ! I have cause to weep. 7 ** I dreamt a dream, my dear ladye, — Such dreams are never good, — I dreamt my bower was full of red swine, And the walls ran down with blood," 8 He called up his merrymen all, By one, by two, and by three ; Saying, " I '11 away to fair Margaret's bower, By the leave of my ladye. " 9 And when he came to fair Margaret's bower. He knocked at the ring ; And who so ready as her seven brethren, To let sweet William in. 10 He turned down the covering-sheet. To see the face of the dead. *' Metliinks she looks all pale and wan ; She hath lost her cherry red. II " I would do more for thee, Margaret, Than would any of thy kin : And I will kiss thy pale cold lips, Thoufih a smile T cannot win." 352 The Ballad Book 12 With that bespake the seven bretliren, Making most piteous moan, " You may go and kiss your jolly brown bride, And let our sister alone ! " 13 ** If I do kiss my jolly brown bride, I do but what is right ; I ne'er made a vow to yonder poor corpse, By day, nor yet by night 14 ** Deal on, deal on, ye merrymen all, Deal on your cake and your wine ; Whatever is dealt at her funeral to-day. Shall be dealt to-morrow at mine ! " 15 Fair Margaret died as it might be to-day, Sweet William he died the morrow, Fair Margaret died for pure true love, Sweet William he died for sorrow. 16 Margaret was buried in the lower chancel. And William in the higher ; Out of her breast there sprang a rose-tre^ And out of his a brier. 17 They grew till they grew unto the church-top. And then they could grow no higher ; And there they tied a true-lover's knot, Which made all people admire. Lord Ronald 353 18 At last the clerk of the parish came, As the truth doth well appear. And by misfortune he cut them down. Or else they had now been here. LXXI LORD RONALD I " C\ WHERE hae ye been, Lord Ronald, my son? V_>^ O where hae ye been, my handsome young man?" "I hae been to the wood; mother, make my bed soon, For I 'm weary wi' hunting, and fain would lie down." 2 "Where gat ye your dinner. Lord Ronald, my son? Where gat ye your dinner, my handsome young man ? " " I dined wi' my love ; mother, make my bed soon. For I 'm weary wi' liunting, and fain would lie down." 3 " What gat ye to dinner, Lord Ronald, my son ? What gat ye to dinner, my handsome young man ? " " I gat eels boiled in broo ; mother, make my bed soon. For I 'm weary wi' himting, and fain would lie down." 4 " And where are your bloodhounds, Lord Ronald, my son? And where are your bloodhounds, my handsome young man?" 23 354 The Ballad Book " O they swelled and they died ; mother, make my bed soon, For I 'm weary wi' hunting, and fain would lie down." 5 "01 fear ye are poisoned, Lord Ronald, my son ! O I fear ye are poisoned, my handsome young man 1 " " O yes, I am poisoned ! mother, make my bed soon, For I 'm sick at the heart, and I fain would lie down." Lxxn YOUNG JOHN AND HIS TRUE SWEETHEART A FAIR maid sat at her bower-door. Wringing her lily hands ; And by it came a sprightly youth Fast tripping o'er the strands. 2 " Where gang ye, young John," she says, "Sae early in the day? It gars me think, by your fast trip. Your journey 's far away." 3 He turned about wi' an angry look, And said, " What's that to thee? I 'm gaen' to see a lovely may That fairer far than ye." " gars," makes. Young John and his True Sweetheart 355 4 " Now hae you played me this, fause love, In simmer, mid the flowers ? I sail repay ye back again In winter, 'raid the showers. 5 " But again, dear love, and again, dear love, Will ye not turn again ? For as ye look to ither women Sail I to ither men." 6 " O make your choice o' whom you please, For I my choice will have j I 've chosen a fairer may than thee, I never will deceive." 7 She 's kilted up her claithing fine. And after him gaed she ; But aye he said, " Turn back, turn back, Nae further gang wi' me ! " 8 " But again, dear love, and again, dear love, Will ye never love me again ? Alas ! for loving you sae weel, And you nae me again ! " 9 The firstan town that they cam' till, He bought her brooch and ring j But aye he bade her turn again. And nae farther gang wi' him. 356 The Ballad Book 10 " But again, dear love, and again, dear love, Will ye never love me again ? Alas ! for loving you sae weel, And you na me again ! " II The second town that they cam' till, His heart it grew mair fain ; And he was as deep in love wi' her As she wi* him again* 12 The neistan town that they cam' till, He bought her wedding-gown ; And made her lady o' ha's and bowers. In bonny Berwick town. LXXIII HELEN OF KIRKCONNELL 1 I WISH I were where Helen lies ; Night and day on me she cries ; O that I were where Helen lies, On fair Kirkconnell lea ! 2 Curst be the heart that thought the thought. And curst the hand that fired the shot, When in my arms burd Helen dropt, And died to succor me ! 'neistan," next. "burd" (bird), damsel, young lady. Helen of Kirkconnell 357 3 think na ye my heart was sair When my love dropt, and spak' nae mair ! There did she swoon wi' meikle care, On fair Kirkconnell lea. 4 And I went down the water side, None but my foe to be my guide, None but my foe to be my guide, On fair Kirkconnell lea, s 1 crossed the stream, my sword did draw, I hacked him into pieces sma', I hacked him into pieces sma'. For her sake that died for me. 6 O Helen fair, beyond compare I 1 11 mak' a garland o' your hair. Shall bind my heart for evermair, Until the day I dee ! 7 O that I were where Helen lies ! Night and day on me she cries ; Out of my bed she bids me rise. Says, " Haste, and come to me I 8 O Helen fair ! O Helen chaste ! Were I with thee I would be blest. Where thou liest low and tak'st thy rest, On fair Kirkconnell lea. 358 The Ballad Book 9 I wish my grave were growing green, A winding-sheet drawn o'er my e'en, And I in Helen's arms lying, On fair Kirkconnell lea. lO I wish I were where Helen lies 1 Night and day on me she cries. And I am weary of the skies, For her sake that died for me^ LXXIV GLASGERION GLASGERION was a harper gude, He harpit to the King ; Glasgerion was the best harper That ever harped on string. 2 He 'd harp a fish from the river, Or water out o' a stane ; He harpit the heart frae a maiden's breast, To love but him alane. 3 He 's ta'en his harp intil his hand ; He harpit and he sang j And aye he harpit to the King, Wha never thought it lang. Glasgerion 359 4 ** I '11 gie you a robe, Gla^erion, A robe of the royal pa', Gin ye will harp i' the winter's night Afore my nobles a'." 5 The King but and his nobles a' Sat birling at the wine ; And he wad hae nane but his ae daughter To wait on them at dme. 6 Glasgerion 's ta'en his harp in hand. Till he 's harpit them a' asleep ; A' except the young Princess, Whom love did waking keep. 7 And first he has harpit a grave tune, And syne he has harpit a gay j And mony 's the sigh and the loving word That passed atween them twae. 8 " Come to my bower, Glasgerion, When all men are at rest ; As I am a lady true of word Thou shalt be a welcome guest" 9 Home then came Glasgerion ; A glad man, lord ! was he : "And come thou hither, Jack, my boy, Come hither unto me." ' pa'," pall, rich cloth. ' ' birlins," drinking festively. 36o The Ballad Book lO "For the King's daughter," Glasgerion said, " Hath granted me my boon : And at her bower-door I must be, By the setting of the moon." II " Lie down in your bed, dear master, And sleep as sound as you may ; I '11 keep gude watch, and I '11 waken you Afore it be time to gae." 12 But up he rose, that lither lad. His master's clothes did on j A collar he cast upon his neck. He seemed a gentleman. 13 And when he came to the lady's bower He tirlit at the pin : The laiiy she was true of her word, She rose and let him in. 14 He did not kiss that lady's mouth. Nor when he came nor yode ; And sore that lady did mistrust He was but of churl's blood. IS Home then came that lither lad, Did off baith cloak and shoon, And cast the collar from off his neck : He was but a churl's son. " lither," lazy, dissolute, deceitful (slippery ?). " tirlit at the pin," lightly rattled the latch. " yode," went. Glasgerion 361 16 " Won up, won up, good master I For I fear it is day -dawn, And there 's nae a cock in a' the land But has wappit its wings and crawn," 17 Then quickly rose Glasgerion, Did on his hosen and shoon, And cast a collar about his neck j For he was a lord's own son. 18 And when he came to the lady's bower, He tirlit at the pin : The lady was more than true of her word, She rose and let him in. 19 ** O whether now have you left with me Your bracelet or your glove ? Or are you returned back again To know more of my love?" 20 Glasgerion swore a full great oath, By oak and ash and thorn, *' I was never before in your chamber, lady, Sith the day that I was bom." 21 *' O then it was your lither foot-page -, He hath beguiled me " : Then she pulled forth a littie sharp knife That hang down by her knee. • * wappit, " flapped. ' ' crawn, " crowed. 362 The Ballad Book 22 O'er her white feet the red blood ran Or ever a hand could stay ; And dead she lieth on her bower-floor, At the dawning o' the day. 23 Home then he runs, Glasgerion, And woe, good lord ! was he : Says, *' Come thou hither. Jack my boy, Come hither imto me." 24 "If I had taken a life to-night. Jack, I would tell it to thee ; But if I have taken no life to-night. Jack, thou hast taken three." 25 And he pulled out his bright brown sword, And dried it on his sleeve, And there smote oflf that lither lad's head Who did his lady grieve. 26 He set the sword's point to his breast. The pummil to a stone : Through the falseness of that lither lad, These three lives were all gone. The Gardener 363 LXXV THE GARDENER THE gard'ner stands in his bower door, Wi' a primrose in his hand, And by there cam' a maiden, As jimp as a willow wand. 2 "O lady, can ye fancy me. For to be my bride ? Ye 'se get a' the flowers in my garden. To be to you a weed. 3 ** The lily white sail be your smock ; It becomes your bodie best ; Your head sail be buskt wi' gilly-flower, Wi' the primrose in your breast 4 " Your goun sail be the sweet-william ; Your coat the camovine j Your apron o' the sallads neat. That taste baith sweet and fine. 5 " Your hose sail be the brade kail-blade. That is baith brade and lang ; Narrow, narrow, at the cute. And brade, brade at the brawn. ' j imp, " slender. ' * weed, " dress. ' ' camovine, " camomile. ** cute," ankle. " brawn," calf. 364 The Ballad Book 6 " Your gloves sail be the marigold, All glittering to your hand, Weel spread owre wi' the blue blaewort, That grows amang corn-land." 7 " O fare ye well, young man," she says, " Farewell, and I bid adieu ; If you can fancy me," she says, " I cannot fancy you. 8 ** Sin ye've provided a weed for me Among the simmer flowers, It 's I 'se provide anither for you, Amang the winter-showers : 9 " The new fawn snaw to be your smock ; It becomes your bodie best ; Your head sail be wrapt wi' the eastern wind, And the cauld rain on your breast" LXXVI TAMLANE I 01 forbid ye, maidens a', Who are sae sweet and fair, To come or gae by Carterhaugh, For young Tamlane is there. Tamlane 365 2 Fair Janet sat within her bower, Sewing her silken seam, And wished to be in Carterhaugh, Amang the leaves sae green. 3 She let the seam fa' to her foot, The needle to her tae, And she 's awa' to Carterhaugh, As quickly as she may. 4 She hadna' pu'd a wild-flower, A flower but barely three, When up he started, yoimg Tamlane, Says " Lady, let a-be 1 5 "What gars ye pu' the flowers, Janet? What gars ye break the tree ? Or why come ye to Carterhaugh, Without the leave o' me?" 6 " O I will pu' the flowers," she says, " And I will break the tree, And I will come to Carterhaugh, And ask nae leave o' thee." 7 But when she came to her father's ha'. She looked sae wan and pale They thought the lady had gotten a fright Or with sickness sair did aiL " tae," toe. 3tf6 The Ballad Book 8 She dinna comb her yellow hair Or mak' mickle o' her head ; And ilka thing that lady took Was like to bring her deid, 9 It's four-and-twenty ladies Were playing at the ba' j Janet, that wightest wont to be. Was faintest o' them a'. lO Out and spak* an auld gray knight, Lay o'er the castle wa', — ** Ever alas for thee, Janet ! And we '11 be blamed a'." II " Now hand your tongue ! " fair Janet she says, ** Or an ill deid may you dee ! Father my bairn on whom I will, It bringeth nae blame to thee. 12 " O gin my Love were an earthly knight, As he is an elfin gay, I wadna gie my ain true Love For ony lord that we hae ! " 13 She prink'd hersell and preen'd hersell By the ae light o' the moon, And she 's awa' to Carterhaugh, To speak wi' young Tamlane. *'mak' mickle," make much of. " deid," death, "wightest," nimblest. " dee," die. " prink'd hersell and preen'd hersell," deck'd herself and pinn'd herself. "ae," only. Tamlane 367 14 No sooner had she pu'd a leaf, A leaf but only twae, When up he started, young Tamlane, Says, "Lady, thou pu's nae mae !" IS " O tell me truth, Tamlane ! " she says, " A word ye mauna lee ; Were ever ye in a holy chapel, Or sain'd in Christentee ? " 16 "The truth I 'U tell to thee, Janet, A word I winna lee ; I am a knight's and a lady's son. And was sain'd as well as thee. 17 " But once it fell upon a day, As hunting I did ride, As I rade east and o'er yon hill. Strange chance did me betides 18 " There blew a drowsy, drowsy wind. Dead sleep upon me fell. The Queen of Fairies she was there And took me to herselL 19 " And never would I tire, Janet, In fairy-land to dwell ; But aye at every seven years They pay the teind to hell ; •* lee, " lie. " sain'd," sanctified, baptized. " teind," tithe. 3)55 The Ballad Book And though the Queen mak's much o' me, I fear 'twill be mysell 20 " To-morrow night it 's Hallowe'en, Our fairy court will ride Through England and through Scotland baith. And through the world sae wide j And if that ye wad borrow me. At Miles Cross ye maun bide, 21 " Ye 11 gae into the Miles Moss Atween twelve hours and one ; Tak' holy water in your hand, And cast a compass roun'." 22 "But how shall I ken thee, Tamlane, Or how shall I thee knaw, Amang sae mony unearthly knights. The like I never saw ? " -I "The first court that comes along Ye *11 let them a' pass by ; The second court that comes along Salute them reverently. 24 "The third court that comes along Is clad in robes o' green, And it 's the head court o' them a*, And in it rides the Queen ; *' Hallowe'en, " eve of Allhallows. * ' borrow, " ransom, "cast a compass," draw a circle. Tamlane 369 25 "And I upon a milk-white steed Wi' a bright star in my crown ; Because I am a christened knight They gave me that renown. 26 " My right hand will be gloved, Janet, My left hand will be bare ; And when ye see these tokens Ye 11 ken that I am there. 27 " Ye '11 seize upon me at a spring, And to the ground I 'U fa', And then ye '11 hear a niefu' cry That Tamlane he 's awa'. 28 " They '11 turn me cauld in your arms, Janet, As ice on a frozen lake ; But haud me fast, let me not pass. Gin ye would be my maik. 29 *' They '11 turn me in your arms, Janet, An adder and an aske ; They '11 turn me in your arms, Janet, A bayle that bums fast \ 30 "They'll shape me in your arms, Janet, A dove, but and a swan ; And at last they '11 shape me in your arms A mother-naked man : " maik, " mate. " aske, " a kind of lizard. ' ' bayle, " a large fire. 24 370 The Ballad Book Cast your green mantle over me, And sae shall I be wan." 31 The very next night imto Miles Moss Fair Janet she is gone, And she stands beside the Miles Cross Atween twelve hours and one. 32 There 's holy water in her hand, She casts a compass round ; And soon she saw a fairy band Come riding o'er the mound. 33 And first gaed by the black, black steed. And then gaed by the bro^vn ; But fast she gript the milk-white steed And pu'd the rider down. 34 She pu*d him frae the milk-white steed. And loot the bridle fa' ; And up there rase an eldritch cry, " He 's won amang us a' ! " 35 They turned him in fair Janet's arms Like ice on frozen lake ; They turned him into a burning fire, An adder, and a snake. 36 They shaped him in her arms at last A mother-naked man ; She cuist her mantle over him, And sae her true-love wan. "wan," won. "eldritch," elvish. "cuisi Tamlane 371 37 Up then and spak' the Queen o' Fairies, Out o' a bush o' broom, " She that has borrowed young Tamlane, Has gotten a stately groom ! " 38 Up then and spak' the Queen o' Fairies, Out o' a bush o' rye, " She 's ta'en awa' the bonniest knight In a' my companie ! 39 *' But had I kennM, Tamlane," she says, "A lady wad borrowed thee, I wad ta'en out thy twa gray e'en. Put in twa e'en o' tree. 40 " Had I butkenn'd, Tamlane," she says, " Before we cam' frae hame, I wad ta'en out your heart o' flesh, Put in a heart of stane. 41 " Had I but had the wit yestreen That I have coft this day, I 'd paid my teind seven times to hell Ere you 'd been won away ! " " tree," wood. " coft," bought. " teind," tithe. NOTES I. Thomas the Rhymer. — Thomas Learmont, of Erceldowne (a -village on the river Leader, two miles above its junction with the Tweed), was a Scottish gentleman who lived in the thirteenth century ; * and to him, commonly called "Thomas the Rhymer," and sometimes " True Thomas," many poems and "prophecies" in circidation among the common people were attributed. The ruins of an ancient tower are still pointed out as his; and therein it seems, sometime in the last century, one Murray, a quack-doctor of the humbler sort, attempted for a while to revive the business of Wizard, t A rhymer no doubt was Thomas in his day, but nothing that now survives is really traceable to his hand. He was carried oflF into Fairy- Land, said the story-tellers, and came back with gift of prophecy ; and on this peg various ballads and " prophecies " were hung. There is a defective MS. of perhaps the fourteenth century in the Cathedral Library of Lincoln containing parts of a poem on Thomas of Erceldowne, and parts of the same poem exist in two other defective MSS., one in the Univer- sity Library, Cambridge, and one in the British Museum. J It is an old form of the story how Thomas met the Queen of Elfland, and has much beauty ; but the ballad given in Border Minstrelsy, as mainly from oral tradition, is more simple and suitable to our purpose. With Sir Walter's "altered" second and "modem" third parts, in continua- * Deed or charter by Thomas's son, dated in 1299 ; in Advo- cates' Library, Edinburgh ; given by Scott in Border Minstrelsy. t Scott X Laing, Select Remains 0/ A ncient Popular Poetry of Scot- land, as quoted by Prof. Child. 374 Notes tion of the same, we have no business. He has placed the three parts together in the volume of " Imitations." II. The Twa Corbies. — Scott's Border Minstrelsy ; from Mr. C. K. Sharpe, "as written down, from tradition, by a lady." It much resembles "The Tliree Ravens," given by Ritson in Ancient Songs, from Melisjnata, London, 1611 ; a bal- lad, says Ritson, " much older, not only than the date of the book, but than most of the other pieces contained in it." III. Hynd Horn. — (" Hynd," courteous, gentle.) Cromek's Select Scottish Songs : Kinloch : Buchan : Motherwell. A popular ballad-abridgment of an ancient metrical romance wliich is preserved in Harleian MS. 2253, British Museum, written apparently (thinks Ritson) in the reign of Edward II., and which itself is a translation and abridgment of a French original. This romance, "The Geste of King Horn," is given in Ritson's Ancient English Metrical Romances, iL 91. IV. The Banks o' Yarrow. — Of this ballad, said to be popu- lar in Ettrick Forest, there are many various versions ; it is supposed to be founded on fact, but, in searching for the fact, one finds only loose and contradictory traditions, — nothing at aU worth attending to. The river Yarrow, much famed in song, runs through a wide vale in Selkirkshire between lofty green hills, and joins the Tweed above the town of Selkirk. " The Tennies " is a farm below the Yarrow Kirk. v. Earl Mar's Daughter. — From Buchan, with some verbal alterations. The version, like most of Buchan's, is by him presented in the form given by the reciter ; but that form is veiy evidently vulgarized. For example, take such a line as this: — "Your lovely face did me enchant," or the last stanza in his copy (omitted by us on the de- merits) : — " When that Earl Mar he came to know Where his dochter did stay. He signed a bond o' unity. And visits now they pay." Our version, keeping imchanged every incident and turn of thought, is, in form, essentially much more a true old ballad than Buchan's. Notes 375 Brown Adam. — Border Minstrelsy. " There Is a copy of this ballad in Mrs. Brown's collection. The editor has seen one printed on a single sheet. The epithet, 'Smith,' im- plies, probably, the surname, not the profession, of the hero, who seems to be an outlaw. There is, however, in Mrs. Brown's copy a verse of little merit here omitted, alluding to the implements of that occupation." — Scoti. Edom o' Gordon. — Printed by Foulis, Glasgow, 1755, as taken down by Sir D. Dalrymple " from the recitation of a lady " ; in Percy's Reliques, " interpolated and corrupted," says Ritson. Ritson gave a copy, from a collection in the Cotton Library, in his A ncient So;igs ; a version called " Loudoun Castle " is given in TAe Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire (First Series). This ballad refers, but with the inexactness usual in bal- lads, to an event of 1571, when Adam Gordon, Deputy- Lieutenant of the North of Scotland for Queen Mary, sent Captain Carr, or Ker, with a party of men to seize Towie, a mansion of the Forbes family. Forbes was not at home, and his lady refused to open the gates, taunting Carr from her walls, who at last set the house on fire and burned all the inmates, thirty-seven in number. Some versions name Captain Carr as guilty of the cruel deed ; but others Adam, or Edom, of Gordon, who sent him ; and the latter name has settled into this ballad. Other names of places and per- sons mentioned differ in the different versions. [, Young Waters. — Given by Percy "from a copy printed not long since at Glasgow, in one sheet 8vo. The world was indebted for its publication to the Lady Jean Hume, sister to the Earl of Hume " [very vague !]. Buchan has a much longer, but a weak and vulgar version. The ballad has been supposed to allude to the fate of the Earl of Mur- ray, murdered by the Earl of Himtley, 1592, under prompt- ing (as people said) of the jealous king. There is, at most, a resemblance in the -motive. The Wife of- Usher's Well. — Border Minstrelsy. Two verses, "Lie still," &c., and "O it's they've ta'en up," &c., are from Mr. R. Chambers's version, recovered from recitation ; one, " Our mother has nae mair," has been added to complete the sense, and "fish be in the flood," &c., put instead of "fishes in the flood," — Scott's, which 376 Notes he notes as obscure and probably corrupted by reciters. Mr. Aytoun has " freshes in the flood " ; Mr. Lockhart sug- gested "feshes," i. e. troubles. This ballad is by some thought to be a fragment of a longer one, " The Clerk's Twa Sons o' Owsenford " ; but the part is much better than the whole (an acknowledged composite) as given by Mr. Chambers. "Martinmas," feast of St. Martin, November II, the customary time to kill winter beef and pork, and a season of rustic jolhty. "Mantle." — A peasant woman's mantle lasted many years, and was a kind of homely-sacred object to the chil- dren of a family, X The Death of Parcv Reed. — First published in the Lo' cal Historian^ s Table-Book, by Mr. Robert White, from the chanting of an old woman. Percival or Parcy Reed, proprietor of Troughend, in Redesdale, Northumberland, having brought to. justice certain moss-trooping relatives or allies of the Croziers, was by these Croziers set upon and murdered, with connivance of the Halls of Girsonsfield, a ferm near Troughend. The ballad (which, with some awk- wardness, is a simple and effective narrative of the realistic kind) is said to keep close to facts ; date and authorities not given. XI. Waly, Waly. — First published in Allan Ramsay's Tea- Table Miscellany, in 1724, and marked " Z," as an Old Song. Some have dated it about the middle of the sbc- teenth century. Part of it (by Mr. Chambers all of it) has been pieced into a later ballad on the Marchioness of Doug- lass, married 1670 and deserted by her husband. XII. The Laird o' Drum. — Kinloch: Buchan : Percy Society, vol. xvii. Professor Aytoun gives a version from collation, which we have taken the liberty to follow, except a line or two. Alexander Irvine of Drum (one of Charles I.'s Scot- tish adherents) married, in 1643, Mary, daughter of the Marquis of Huntly ; but for his second wife chose Margaret Coutts, a girl of humble rank, thus offending his family, — but not the public, for whom this ballad was made. The love of an untitled youth for a noble maiden is a usual source of interest in German novels, and so is a coiutship between persons of very unequal rank in our ballad htera- ture. Many of the current Irish ballads turn upon this : for Notes yj^ example, "The Bonny Laboring Boy," "Willy Reilly," "Willy of Lough-Eme Shore," XIII. Annan Water. — Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border^ "from tradition." It is said that a bridge was built over the Annan after the drowning which the ballad narrates. XIV. The Hunting of the Cheviot. — This ballad (of Henry Vin. 's time ?) is here presented in modem spelling. Heame printed it in the preface to his Guliehnus Neubrigetisis, from a MS. in the Ashmolean collection at Oxford. It has no ascertained historical basis whatever; some of the incidents and verses are borrowed from the ballads on "The Battle of Otterboume," relating to an encounter between Percy and Douglas in the year 1388. The better known but inferior ballad of " Chevy Chace," is a modern- ized version of this, done probably in the time of James I. XV. Bessie Bell and Mary Gray. — Recovered by Mr. Sharpe, says Mr. Chambers. Given in Lyle's Ancient Ballads and Songs (1827), as collated "from the singing of two aged persons." Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, daugh- ters of two country gentlemen near Perth, were intimate friends. Bessie being on a visit to Mary at her fether's house of Lynedoch when the plague of 1666 broke out, the two girls, to avoid contagion, went to live in a bower, or summer-house of some kind, in a retired and picturesque place called the Bum-braes, about a mile west of Lynedoch House. But the plague found and slew them, and their bodies were buried at Domoch Haugh, a secluded spot by the river Almond. (Pennant's Tour.) Allan Ramsay wrote a song with the same title, and using the first verse of this ballad. XVI. Sir Patrick Spens. — Percy : Scott : Jamieson : Buchan : Motherwell. A ballad, the subject of much discussion, into which for once we may dip a httle, as a specimen of such debates and what they come to. It is " very old, but evi- dently retouched," say some; refers to an ineffectual expe- dition. Sir Walter Scott guesses, that may have been sent for Margaret, called the Maid of Norway (daughter of Eric, king of Norway, and Margaret, daughter of Alexander III. of Scotland), after the death of her grandfather Alexander in 1285, which made her Queen of Scotland : but she re- mamed in Norway, and in a short time died there. Mr. 378 Notes Finlay thinks it more likely to have to do with James the Third's marriage with Margaret, daughter of the king of Denmark. "No memorial of the subject of the ballad exists in history," says Ritson. Mr. Motherwell has no doubt whatever that " the ballad is founded on authentic history," and sings the fate of certain Scottish nobles who accompanied Margaret, daughter of Alexander III., to her nuptials with Eric, king of Norway, and were drowned on their homeward voyage, teste Fordun's History of Scotland. Mr. Robert Chambers, in his collection of Scottish Ballads, published 1829, says "the occasion of the ballad is now known to have been," &c. (as Motherwell says), — and " thinlcs it extremely probable that Sir Patrick Spens lived near the Httle port of Aberdour," &a But in 1859 {Essay on the Romantic Scottish Ballads^ Mr. Chambers " feels assured that Sir Patrick is a modern ballad, and suspects, or more than suspects, that the author is Lady Wardlaw." Percy's version (" from two manuscript copies transmitted from Scotland") says not a word of Norway, or of any king's daughter : Scott's (made up from two MS. copies, collated with several verses recited by a friend) has, — "The King's daughter of Noroway, 'T is thou maun bring her hame." Professor Aytoun alters these two lines into, — " The King's daughter to Noroway, It 's tliou maun tak' her hame," which Mr. Chambers calls " unjustifiable " conduct. Bu- chan's version (taken down from the recitation of a blind wandering minstrel in the North of Scotland, who learned it in his youth from a very old person) has, — "To Noroway^vvi' our King's daughter, A chosen queen she 's now." There is no old MS. of the ballad. All the " foundation '* which really seems attainable is this, that in^ld times there was much intercourse between Scotland and Norway, and between the royal courts of the two countries, and that some shipwreck, not altogether unlike this, may probably have happened. In fine, let not our readers trouble them- selves about the connection of this, or any other of ihcbe Notes 219 ballads, with "authentic history," and they will be gainers in comfort, and no losers otherwise. At Dunfermline, on the north side of the Firth of Forth, was a palace of the Scottish Kings. Aberdour is a little port, about five miles distant. There is an extremely fine tract of hard white sand (says Mr. Chambers) to the east of Aberdour. [. King John and the Abbot. — From Percy's Reliqiiesl there marked with */, the sign of " considerable liberties " taken by the editor. " The common popular ballad [says he] of Ki7ig John and tJie Abbot seems to have been abridged and modernized about the time of James I. fi-om one much older, entitled King John and tJie Bishop of Canterbury. The editor's folio MS. contains a copy of this last, but in too corrupt a state to be reprinted ; it, how- ever, afforded many lines worth reviving, which will be found inserted in the ensuing stanzas." [I. ThkBovgvasTragkdy. —Border Minstrelsy. Mother- well gives an imperfect version. Scott says this ballad " is one of the few to which popular tradition has ascribed com- plete locality. The farm of Blackhouse, in Selkirkshire, is said to have been the scene." He does not attempt to give a date. There are very similar Swedish and Danish ballads. Kempion. — Border Minstrelsy, " chiefly fi-om Mrs. Brown's MS., with corrections fi-om a recited fiagment." The ballad of " Kemp Owain " (" Champion Owen " per- haps), given by Buchan and by Motherwell, tells the same story, with differences of detail. " The Laidly Worm of Spindlestonheugh," often printed in ballad-books, is a partly modem version of the same. The subject is a fa- vorite one in popular fiction. Johnnie of Braidislee. — " Johnny of Breadislee," in Border Minstrelsy : " Johnie of Braidisbank," in Mother- well's Minstrelsy : "Johnny Cock " (two versions), in Fry's Pieces of Ancient Poetry, Bristol, 1814 : "Johnie of Cocklesmuir " (North of Scotland version), in Kinloch's A ncient Scottish Ballads : also in Buchan's Scottish Tra- ditional versions of A ncient Ballads, Percy Society, vol. xvii. These are various versions of one story. We have compared and selected, but added nothing. Scott, whose version was first published, says " the hero of this ballad appears to have been an oudaw and deer-stealer, — proba- 380 Notes bly one of tlie broken men residing upon the Border. There are several different copies, in one of which the principal personage is called * Johnie of Cockielaw.' The stanzas of greatest merit have been selected from each copy." This is what we also have endeavored to do, with the advantage of additional copies to select from. XXI. The Birth of Robin Hood. — Jamieson, from the reci- tation of Mrs. Brown, " without the alteration of a single word." It is not one oi the "Robin Hood Ballads," as printed in the Garlands, and collected by Ritson. Buchan gives a queer version : — "What aileth my love Clementina?" &c., &c. 5£Xii. Fair Annie. — Herd : Scott : Jamieson : Motherwell : Chambers. The story of " Fair Annie," of which we have in print several different Scottish versions, is found in old French, in Swedish, in Danish, in Dutch, in German. XXIII. Childe Maurice. — Of this ballad, before it appeared in Percy's Religues, two editions are known to have been printed in Scotland under the title of "Gil Morice." An advertisement to the second edition (Glasgow, 1755) states that " its preservation was ov«ng to a lady who favored the printers with a copy, as it was carefully collected from the mouths of old women and nurses " ; and " any reader who can render them more complete " is requested to make public his information. On this, four other stanzas were forthcoming, which Percy inserted when he published the ballad in his Reliqties, though, "perliaps, after all, only an ingenious interpolation" : they began thus : — " His hair was like the threeds of gold Drawne frae Minerva's loome " (!). But besides this particular piece of ingenuity, and other very evident though unacknowledged patches, this ballad, according to Scott (see Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 259), had undergone " a total revisal, about the period when the tragedy of ' Douglas ' [founded thereon] was in the zenith of its popularity": that is, before Percy took it in hand. The Bishop had found in that mystenous Folio MS., in whose existence Ritson was so slow to believe, "a very old imperfect copy of the same ballad " ; but greatly prefers the modem version : " the coloring is much improved and heightened, and many additional strokes ai'e tlu-ovsm in." Notes 381 In 1806 Jamieson printed from tlie Folio MS. the ballad of "Childe Maurice." A few lines, perhaps half a dozen, are wanting, but the story is complete. There seems to be little or no doubt that the name " Gil Morice " itself is a modem corruption. A version was recited to Mr. Mother- well, about the year 1825, by an old woman who gave the name of "Chield Morice," and said she recollected when the new set of the ballad under the title of " Gil Morice " began to supersede the old form. Mr. Motherwell also got a version of the ballad, in 1825, from the recitation of Widow McCormack, of Paisley, under the title of" Child Norice." This version, which is brief, and has several good points, he considers as the true original of all the others, and that " Child Norice "• (i. e. Nurseling) is the right form of the name. This, however, remains unproven, and if we go by internal evidence, the version in the Folio MS. is certainly the oldest we have. In it the slayer of " Child Maurice " is named John Stevrard. For our version we have collated (adding nothing) the Folio version and the sets of Motherwell's two old women; disregarding the thorouglily corrupt version of the Reliqttes. 5CXIV. Brown Robyn's Confession. — This curious ballad-ver- sion of a Catholic miracle is from Buchan, i. 1 10, who does not say where he found it. XXV. The Jolly Goshawk. — Mainly from Motherwell. Scott's "selected" version ("The Gray Goss- Hawk ") is much sophisticated. Buclian has a version entitled, " The Scottish Squire." XXVI. Alison Gross. — Jamieson, "from the recitation of Mrs. Brown." XXVII. Of "Johnnie Armstrong" the best version is in Wit Restor'd (1658); another, with additional stanzas, is in A Collection of Old Ballads (London, 1723); another, being a Scottish version, and very different from these, in Ram- say's Evergreen (1724). This Ballad no doubt gives one a true notion, as far as it goes, of the times of Border free- booting ; but while making use of a real name and event, it has not the least claim to historic accuracy. King James V. of Scotland (he who "made the rush-bush keep the cow"), being on an expedition through Ettrick and else- where against the Borderers, perhaps in 1529, was boldly 382 Notes accosted by the famous freebooter John Armstrong, at the head of some thirty or forty horsemen, who asked pardon and offered his services ; but the king had them all seized and " hanged upon growing trees " at Carlenrig, ten miles from Hawick. " The bodies were buried in a deserted churchyard, where their graves are still shown." [Pitscot- tie's History, p. 145. Scott's Border Minstrelsy, i. 402.] XXVIII. Katharine Janfarie. — Scott's Border Minstrelsy : Motherwell (" Catharine Johnstone ") : Maidment's North Countrie Garland : Buchan's Gleanings. In Scott's ver- sion the English bridegroom is named " Lord Lochinvar" ; and Scott founded his lyinc of Lochinvar on tliis ballad, but gave that name to the unsuccessful suitor. Young Child Dying, translated by Jamieson in Illustra- tiotis 0/ Nortliem A ntiguities, is an old Danish ballad on the same story. XXIX. Robin Hood rescuing the Widow's Three Sons. — In Ritson's Robin Hood, from Robin Hood's Garland (earliest edition kno\\'n, 1670); probably "one of the old- est " ballads of Robin Hood, thinks Ritson. XXX. Fair Annie of Lochroyan. — Herd : a fragment in Johnson's Mtiseunt : Scott's Border Minstrelsy, " se- lected " from five versions : Jamieson, from MS. trans- mitted from Aberdeen by Professor Robert Scott : Buchan ("Love Gregory"). Lochroyan, or Loch Ryan, a bay on the southwest coast of Scotland, holding the seaport of Stranraer. XXXI. A Lyke-wake Dirge. — This Lyke-Wake [i. e. Dead- Watch] Dirge is of the North of England, and is said to have been sung, in Yorkshire, over corpses, down to about 1624 (see Brand's "Pop. Antiq." 1841, ii. 155). Scott, publishing it in his Border Mifistrelsy, noted : " The late Mr. Ritson found an illustration of this dirge in a MS. of the Cotton Library, containing an account of Cleveland, in Yorkshire, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ' When any dieth, certaine women sing a song to the dead bodie, recyting the jomey 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, forasmuch as, after this life, they are to pass barefoote through a great launde, full of thomes and furzen, except Notes 383 by the meryte of the almes aforesaid they have redeemed the forfejrte ; for at the edge of the launde an oulde man shall meet them with the same shoes that were given by the par- tye when he was lyving ; and, after he hath shodde them, dismisseth them to go tlirough thick and thin, without scratch or scalle.' — Julms, F. vi. 459." " The Bridge of Dread, \jm% in our road when we pass from this world, is described," says Sir Walter, "in the legend of Sir Owain, No. xl. in the MS. collection of Ro- mances, W. xli. Advocates' Library, Edinburgh." The Orientals have a similar fancy, of a narrow bridge over an abyss. In the Border Mhtstrelsy it is noted that sleet seems to be corrupted from selt, i. e. salt, which it was customary to lay in a platter on the breast of the corpse. In Brand we have^^i'^, but the whole version there seems inferior. The sixth and seventh verses of the dirge (if no more) are lost. XXXII. Etin the Forester. — A fragment of it is given by Kinloch (" Hynde Etin ") ; by Buchan a complete version ("Young Akin "), and, by the same (through Motherwell), a modernized copy. There is a similar Swedish ballad. "Etin" seems to mean, or be a name for, a Giant, and in some forms of the story the hero is obscurely spoken of as a supematviral or preternatural being. This character, how- ever, was not kept up by the reciters, and at last slipped away from the ballad, which is consistent and complete as a purely human story ; Etin being taken (if not as a mere name) as designating a man living a wild sylvan life. XXXIII. The Lawlands o' Holland. — A fragment of it in Herd (1769) : a version in Johnson's Mitsical Museum. "This ballad, the Editor is informed, was composed about the beginning of last century by a young widow in Gallo- way, whose husband was drowned on a voyage to Holland. The third verse in the Museum is spurious nonsense, and Johnson has omitted the last stanza altogether." — Mr. Stenhouse, Notes to Musical Museutn (1853), iv. 115. It is probably an old strain readapted. XXXIV. The Twa Sisters o' Binnorie. — A short burlesque version, "The MUIer and the King's Daughter," in Wit Restored (1658) : a manufactured version in Pinkerton's Tragic Ballads : another manufactured version in Border 384 Notes Minstrelsy, "compiled," says Scott, "from a copy in Mrs. Brown's MSS., intermixed with a beautiful fragment, of fourteen verses, transmitted to the Editor by J. C. Walker, Esq., the ingenious historian of the Irish Bards," who had it from Miss Brook, who had it from an old woman. Jamie- son gives a version, verbatim from the recitation of Mrs. Brown, but with no less than ten interpolated stanzas of his own. In Mrs. Brown's copy the burden ran : *' Edinborough, Edinborough, — Stirling for aj'e ; — Bonny St. Johnston stands upon Tay " : in the Irish fragment thus : " Hey ho, my Nanny, O ; While the swans swim bonny, O." Both Scott and Jamieson adopted the "Binnorie" bur- den, without saying distinctly where it came from. On the pronunciation of this word the doctors differ ; " it may be necessary, euphottuB gratia," says Jamieson, " to caution the English reader that the burden is pronounced Binno- rie." " Pronounced Binnorie," says Mr. Lockhart curtly, in a note in Border Minstrelsy, and is backed by Professor A5rtoun. There are Scandinavian ballads with a similar story. XXXV. Glenlogie. — Smith's Scottish Minstrel; a book in which, according to Motherwell, "great liberties" are taken with the songs. Mr. Sharpe, in his Ballad Book, gives another version, which is preferred by Mr. Chambers and by Professor Aytoun. XXXVI. The Children in the Wood. — Perhaps the best bal- lad in the pedestrian style. Reprinted by Percy "from two ancient copies, one of them in blackletter, in the Pepys Collection." The ballad was entered on the Stationers' books in 1595. A play by Robert Yarrington, published 1601, has a very similar plot ; the scene laid in Padua. XXXVII. Young Beichan. — Jamieson : KInloch : Percy So- ciety, vol. xvii., &c. This very popular ballad, of which there are numerous versions (including the modem one of Lord Bateman), seems founded on an adventnre of Gil- bert Becket, fether of the famous archbishop; see Robeit Notes 385 of Gloucester's Life and Martyrdom of Thomas Bekei (Percy Society, vol. xix,). The fair foreigner on reaching London could speak no intelligible word but her lover's name, and constantly asking for " Gilbert ! Gilbert," she at last found h'ni out. Our version is mostly from Jamieson, omittmg his ac- knowledged interpolations. He gives a second and infe- rior baUad, " Young Bekie," on the same subject Kinloch has a version which seems to have been recast by some viilgar modem hand, but it gives the story clearly, and has supplied us with some verses. We have added none. xxxvni. Clerk Swuvrks. — Border Minstrelsy. "From Mr. Herd's MSS., with several corrections from a shorter and more imperfect copy in the same volume, and one or two conjectiual emendations in the arrangement of the stanzas." Other versions in Jamieson (with additions by him) : Kinloch : Buchan. Clerk Savmdei-s was so called, probably, for his learning: one version describes liim as "well learned at the school" " Crystal wand " needs ex- planation or emendation.* Some think the verses from " The dinking bell " to the end to be separate and distinct from those which precede them, and that Scott adapted and combined the two into one story. But, though several other ballads have a very similar conclusion I find no proof that " Clerk Saunders " is not as well entitled to it as any of the rest, and it would certainly take very strong proof to induce us to break in pieces so complete and impressive a poem. Jamieson's version, " transmitted by Mrs. Arrott, of Aberbrothick," has the ghost : — " She was lookin' o'er her castle high, To see what she might fa' ; And there she saw a grieved ghost Comin' wauking o'er the wa'," &c. and Margaret follows it to the grave. XXXIX. The Bailiff's Davghter of Islington. — Percy's Reliques, " from an ancient blackletter copy in the Pepys * " The clinking bell," &c, It was formerly the custom at ftmerals to ring a handbell before the corpse as they carried it along, so that those who heard it might offer a prayer for the soul of the deceased. 386 Notes collection, with some improvements communicated by a lady as she had heard the same recited in her youth." XL. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode. See Preface. XLi. Bonnie George Campbell. — TJie Scottish Minstrel (1820 - 24), vol. v., words and music. For rhyme's sake v/e have altered the sixth line of each stanza. They ran thus:— I. " And gallant rade he " ; II. " And booted rade he " ; III. "And booted rade he." XLii. Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor. — In Collection of Old Ballads, London, 1723, vol. i. In Percy's Reliques^ " given (with corrections) from an ancient copy in black- letter, in the Pepys collection." In Ritson's Ancient Songs, ii. 89. We have for once (in this and in No. Lxiv.) given two ballad versions of the same story, — for example's sake, and because each has merit and a standing of its own. xmi. "Hugh of Lincoln." — Herd: Percy: Jamieson : Motherwell : and several other versions. Percy's MS. copy " sent from Scotland," begins, — " The rain rins down though Mirry-land toune, Sae dois it doune the Pa " ; and the bishop learnedly argues that Milan and the Po must be meant, " although the Adige, not the Po, runs through Milan." Other versions give other corrupt forms, " merry Linkim," and" Maitland town": Jamieson's copy "from Mrs. Brown's recitation" has the right reading, "merry Lincoln." In 1255, teste Matthew Paris (but a so-so-wit- ness), the Jews of Lincoln stole a little Christian boy named Hugh, tortured and crucified him, and flung his body into a pit, where his mother found it. The occupant of the house confessed the crime, and that the Jews every year thus kiUed a Christian child. He was hanged, as also were eighteen of the richest Jews in Lincoln. The child's body was buried with honors in Lincoln Cathedral (where they still pretend to show his tomb). Chaucer's Prioresses Tale is on the same subject. Horrible tales against the poor rich Jev.'s were abundant in the Middle Ages. XLiv. Barbara Allen's Cruelty. — Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany. Percy gives the same, "with a few conjec- tural emendations," and also another version, "with some Notes 387 corrections, from an old blackletter copy." Pep5rs in his Diary, Jan. 2, 1665-6, names "the Httle song of Barbary Allen." XLV. May Colvin. — Herd : Buchan : Motherwell : Sharpe's Ballad Book, &c. A story found in various forms, not only in English, but also in Swedish and in German ballad litera- ture. The country people on the coast of Carrick, in Ajnr- shire, point out " Fause Sir John's Loup," and an equally authentic claim in this matter is made for a locality in the North of Scotland. XLVI. "Edward, Edward." — First printed in Percy's Rel' iqzies, " transmitted to the editor by Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., late Lord Hailes"; written, some say, (but where is proof?) by Lady Wardlaw, — who was, in all probability, authoress of the overpraised " Hardyknute." XLVii. The Outlaw Murray. — Border Minstrelsy. Com- piled by Scott from various sources ; no ascertained histori- cal foundation. XLvni. The Cruel Brother. — Herd : Jamieson " from reci- tation of Mrs. Amott " : Gilbert's A ncieni Christmas Carols, &c. There are Danish, Swedish, and German ballads more or less like to this. XLix. Little Musgrave, &c. — In Wit Restored (1658) : "The Old Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Bar- nard " ; in Percy (altered by him) : a Scottish version in Jamieson : another in vol. xvii. of the Percy Society. The ballad is quoted in Beaiunont and Fletcher's burlesque play oi Knight of the Burning Pestle (produced 161 1), thus : — " And some they whistled and some they sung, Hey, down, down I And some did loudly say. Ever as the Lord Bamet's horn blew, Away, Musgrave, away." — Act v. Scene 3. L. K.inuoiii'v'Wii.i.iK.— Border Minstrelsy. 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 confer- ence, and under the usual truce, which lasted till next day at sunset. William Armstrong, of Kinmont, a notori- ous freebooter, returning from this conference, was seized and lodged in Carlisle castle. The Laird of Buccleuch, af- 388 Notes ter treating in vain for his release, raised two hundred horse, and on the 13th of April surprised the castle and carried off the prisoner, on hearing of which Queen Elizabeth " stormed not a httle." Scott gives a long account of this in the Bor- der Minstrelsy. " This ballad," he says, " is preserved by tradition on the West Borders, but much mangled by recit- ers, so that some conjectural emendations have been abso- lutely necessary to render it intelligible." \A. Fine Flowers in the Valley. — Given in Johnson's Musical Museum : also by Motherwell, as " The Cruel Mother," with the burden " Three, three, and three by three ; Three, three, and thirty-three''^ I and by Kinloch, with the burden " A II alone, and alonie ; Doun by the greenimid sae bonnie." Our version is Johnson's (to a word or two), adding the last verse from Kinloch. The burden, singing of flowers and leaves, at once deepens and softens the tragedy. Lil. Robin Hood's Death and Burial. — Printed in Robin Hood's Garland (York), and given by Ritson, "from a collation of two difiFerent copies, containing numerous vari- ations." I.111. Young Redin. — A ballad found in various versions and under various names : " Earl Richard," " Young Hunting," "Lord William," "Young Redin." A fragment of it in Herd : a " selected " version in Border Mifistrelsy : a ver- sion in Buchan : one, " from recitation of Miss E. Beattie," in Kinloch: another, "from recitation," in Motherwell : a factitious version, in pseudo-antique spelling, in Scarce Ancient Ballads, Alexander Laing, Aberdeen, 1822. Liv. The Fray o' Suport. — Border Miitstrelsy. This odd and forcible outburst " is usually clianted in a sort of wild recitative, except the burden, which swells into a long and varied howl, not unlike a view-hollo An English- woman, residing in Suport [Cumberland], near the foot of the Kers-hope, liaving been plundered in the night by a band of the Scottish moss-troopers, is supposed to convoke her servants and friends for the pursuit, or Hot Trod. .... The present text is collected from four copies, which differed widely from each other." — Scott. Notes 389 LV. The Ship o' the Fiend. — In Border Minstrelsy as " The Daemon Lover " (a name wliich we have ventured to alter, being evidently not old), " taken down from recitation by Mr. William Laidlaw." In Buchan, "James Herries"; In Motherwell, a fragment. LVi. Lamkin. — A very popular ballad ; found in Herd as " Lammikin " : in Jamieson as '* Lanekin " : in Finlay in two versions: in Motherwell as "Lambert Linkin " : also in A New Book 0/ Old Ballads as " Bold Rankin " : and in the Drarjuing-Room Scrap Book, 1837, as " Long Lon- kin." All these we liave collated (as usual, adding nothing to the traditionary matter), and with these a copy taken down from the mouth of au Irish nurse in the family of a relative of the editor. The murderer is called by various names, "Lamkin," "Lammikin," "Lankin," "Linkin," "Belinkin," " Balcanqual," "Lambert Linkin," " Lara- merlinkin," "Rankin." One version begins : — " Belinkin was as gude a mason As ever pickt a stane ; He built up Prime Castle But payment gat nane." Lvii. The Frolicksome Duke. — From Percy's Reliqttes. The plot of this ballad is immeasurably old. It appears in a story of the A rabian Nights, a play of Shakespeare, and many other forms. LViii. Childe Vvet. — Maidment's North Cmintrie Garland: Buchan : in Jamieson a fragment of a similar story (" Lord Wa'yates and Auld Ingram "). Lix. The Baron of Brackley. — Jamieson. Buchan has another version in his Gleanings. Between John Gordon of Brackley, in Aberdeenshire, and Farquharson, of In- verey, was a fray in September, 1666, wherein the former was killed. LX. BuRD Ellen. — Given by Percy from his " MS. collection " (touching it up a little) as "Child Waters" : by Jamieson as " Burd Ellen " : by Buchan in another version imder the same name : by Kinloch as " Lady Margaret." Mr. R. Chambers gives a composite version, with some lines from a MS. supplied by Mr. Kinloch. uxi. Lament of the Border Widow. —Border Minstrelsy. J90 Notes **This fragment, obtained from recitation in the Forest of Ettrick, is said to relate to tlie execution of Cockbume of Henderland, a Border freebooter, hanged over the gate of his own tower by James V. in the course of that mem- orable expedition in 1529, which was fetal to Johnie Arm- strong, Adam Scott oi Tushielaw, and many other maraud- ers."— ^c^«. LXii. Willy's Ladye is given by Scott, and the same story by Jamieson imder the title of Sweet Willy. Jamieson gives also a modernized version ; and Lewis in his Tales of Wonder dished up a ballad upon it in his own taste. Pro- fessor Aytoun has given it mainly from Jamieson with a few touches. Billy Blind seems to be a comic name, taken from the game of Blindman's Buff, for a familiar and good- natured house-spirit, a sort of Brownie or Lar. Scott never met the name elsewhere than in Mrs. Brown's bal- lads. It seems that in Scotland the blinded person in the aforesaid game is also called the Bogle (i. e. goblin) ; and hence, by a metathesis, the domestic Bogle may have come to be caUed "The Billy Blind." LXill. HuGHiE Graham. — From The Scots Musical Museum^ sent by Bums "from oral tradition in Ayrshire." Bums certainly dressed up the ballad, and wrote some of the present stanzas. Allan Cunningham again retouched the Bums version for his Soiigs of Scotland. Scott's version in the Border Minstrelsy was "long current in Selkirk- shire," but it also is more or less improved by the editor. A corrupt copy of the ballad is found in Wit and Mirth, &C. (London, 17 14). Our version is precisely that of Bums, changing or re- storing " Stirling " into Carhsle, in accordance with all the other copies, and omitting one verse, in which Hughie Graham sends a message to his wife accusing her of mis- conduct with the Bishop, a verse that in point of art is no gain to the ballad. It makes a statement which, if referred to at all, ought to be woven into the whole narrative. Mr. Stenhouse \_Scots Musical Museum, new edit. 1853, iv. 297] says, that "according to tradition" the Bishop of Carlisle about 1560 did so wrong a Border chief) who in revenge made a raid into Cumberland. But all this is, as usual, vague and intangible. The ballad is a spirited little Notes , 391 picture from the rude times on the Border, and we should • only weary ourselves In vain by trying to make more of it. LXiv. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet. — Given by Percy, "with some corrections from a MS. copy transmitted from Scotland." He says, it "seems to be composed out of" two English ballads, " Lord Thomas and Fair EUinor " and " Fair Margaret and Sweet WiUiam." There is a similar Swedish ballad. Lxv. LiziE Lindsay. — Jamieson : Buchan : Whitelaw (from recitation of a lady at Glasgow). We have collated, but not added. Verse 19 one suspects to be partly Jamieson's ; but it is useful to the situation, and its prettiness, though of a modem cast, appears harmless enough. There is a well-known song founded on this ballad. Lxvi. Sweet William's Ghost. — First given in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, imperfectly, and with at least two spurious stanzas : also by Kinloch, as " Sweet WilUam and May Margaret " : and by Motherwell as " William and Marjorie," a better version, from recitation. We have added nothing in presenting a complete and consistent ballad, distinct from "Clerk Saunders." Some of the ver- sions seem little else than variations of the latter part of "Clerk Saimders." There are corresponding ballads in Danish and Swedish, and similar stories are found in the ballad literature of many other lands. " Sweet William's Ghost " is very dreamlike and awful. The need of getting back the faith and troth once plighted is one of the strange laws of the ghostly kingdom. Lxvii. Lady Elspat. — Jamieson; from Mrs. Brovra's recita- tion. Here given with two or three merely verbal altera- tions. Lxviii. Willie and May Margaret. — Jamieson (imperfect copy), " from the recitation of Mrs. Brown." Buchan, " The Drovraed Lovers." Lxix. The Duke of Gordon's Daughter. — The version here given is founded, with numerous verbal alterations, on a copy (without date or place) bound up with other bal- lads in a volume in the British Museum. I have lost the exact reference to this volume, which I examined among other such, several years ago. S92 Notes Lxx. Fair Margaret's Misfortunes. — Percy (from a mod- em printed copy, picked up on a stall) : Herd : RitsoiL Verse $ is quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, Act ii. 8, in this fonn; — " When it was grown to dark midnight, And all were fest asleep. In came Margaret's grimly ghost, And stood at William's feet" We retain the popular ending of "the rose and the briar," which, slightly varied, is common to many ballads, though it comes in here not very harmoniously. Probably it was used, in this and other instances, to carry off somewhat lightly a true tragical story. The full title of the stall copy, as given by Percy, is Fair Margaret's Misfortunes ; or Sweet WillianCs Fright/id Dreams on his Wedding Night, with the Sudden Death and Burial of those noble Lovers. But he has entitled the ballad, " Fair Margaret and Sweet William." LXXi. Lord Ronald. — Border Minstrelsy (" Lord Randal "). "The hero is more generally termed Lord Ronald {^coit admits), but I vrillingly follow the authority of an Ettrick Forest copy for calling him Randal ; because, though the circumstances are so very different, I think it not impossible that tlie ballad may originally have regarded the death of Thomas Randolph, or Randal, Earl of Murray, &c., &c.," mere antiquarian moonshine. Kinloch gives a version wherein " Lord Donald" is poi- soned by a dish of toads, served up as fish. Getting "frogs for fish," i. e. foul play, is a phrase used in the ballad of " Katharine Jan&rie," p. no. Buchan's version "Willie Doo " is in the form of a nursery song. Sweden and Germany have similar ballads. LXXli. Young John. — From Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of tJie North of Scotland. LXXIH. Helen of Kirkconnell. — Border Minstrelsy — from tradition. There given with a worthless " First Part " of six verses — ("My captive spirit 's at thy feet!" &c.) Other versions are given by Herd, Ritson, Jamieson, and others. Wordsworth has a ballad {Ellen Irwin), of little merit, on the same story. Notes 393 Adam Fleming, says tradition, loved Helen Irving, or Bell (for this surname is uncertain, as well as the date o! the occurrence), daughter of the Laird of Kirkconnell, ia Dumfriesshire. The lovers being together one day by the river Kirtle, a rival suitor suddenly appeared on the oppo- site bank and pointed his gim ; Helen threw herself before her sweetheart, received the bullet, and died in his arms. Then Adam Fleming fought with his guilty rival and slew him. Lxxiv. Glasgerion. — In Percy's Religttes, " from the editor's folio MS." Jamieson gives a Scottish version ("Glenkin- die"), mainly "from the recitation of an old woman." Chaucer, in his House of Fame (iii. ii8), names *'Glas- kyrion " as a renowned British harper. Lxxv. The Gardener. — Kinloch : Buchan. Lxxvi. Tamlane. — A fragment of this ballad is given by Herd (" Kertonha ") : a version in Johnson's Mtiseum ("Tom Linn "). In Border Minstrelsy, Scott gives a much longer version, " prepared from a collation of the printed copies, with a very accurate one in Glenriddel's MSS., and with several recitals from tradition. Some verses are omitted in this edition, being ascertained to belong to a separate bal- lad." Besides collating and omitting, Scott was "enabled to add several verses of beauty and interest to this edition of Tamlane, in consequence of a copy obtained from a gen- tleman residing near Langholm, which is said to be very ancient, though the language is somewhat of a modem cast." The stanzas alluded to in this evasive manner are undoubtedly modem, and we have therefore omitted them, with several others equally spurious. Yet one of these was quoted the other day in a periodical of high rank, in a paper on the fairy mythology, as from " the old ballad of Tam- lane," which we mention to show again how very loose are the prevailing notions with regard to "Old Ballads," even among literary men. This was the stanza quoted : — " Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill, The hemlock small blew clear ; And louder notes from hemlock large, And bog-reed, stmck the ear ; But solemn sounds, or sober thoughts, The Fairies cannot bear." 394 Notes Then follows: — " They sing, inspired with love and joy, Like skylarks in the air : Of solid sense, or thought that 's grave, You '11 find no traces there." Pretty enough in its own way, but certainly not the " true thing." A fragment, "Tom Linn," is given in A Ncio Book of Old Ballads, Edinburgh, 1844. The hero is else- where named "Tom alin," and "Thomlin." "The Tale of the Young Tamlene " is mentioned in The Complaynt 0/ Scotland {iSA^). Carterhaugh is a plain about a mile from Selkirk, and the peasants are said to point out the localities where the inci- dents of the ballad took place. INDEX OF FIRST LINES PAGE A fair maid sat at her bower-door . 354 A' the boys of merry Lincoln 240 All in the merry month of May 243 An ancient story I '11 tell you anon 65 Annan Water 's wading deep 47 As I was walking all alane S Brent's your brow, my Lady Elspat 337 Childe Maurice was a handsome young man 90 Clerk Saunders and may Margaret 152 Down Dee-side came Inverey y^histling and playing ... 310 Ettrick Forest is a fair forest 250 Fair Catherine from her bower-window 284 False Sir John a-wooing came 245 Glasgerion was a harper gude 358 God send the land deliverance . 34 Her mither died when she was young 73 Hie upon Hielands 236 I am no love for you, Margaret 350 I wish I were where Helen lies 356 In London was Lord Beichan bom 145 Is there ever a man in all Scotland 104 It fell about the Martinmas 23 It fell upon a holy-day . 266 39^ Index It fell upon a Wodensday 94 It was about Yule, when the wind blew cool 29 It was intill a pleasant time 14 Johnnie rose up in a May morning 77 Lamkin was as good a mason 297 Late at e'en, drinking the wine 11 Lithe and lysten, gentylraen 160 Lord Ingram and Childe Vyet 305 Lord John stood in his stable door 313 Lord Thomas and fair Annet 325 Lord Thomas he was a bolde forester . . 237 My love he built me a boimy bower 318 Near the King's court was a young child bom 6 Now, as fame does report, a yoimg Duke keeps a court , . 302 Now ponder well, you parents dear 139 O Alison Gross, that lives in yon tower 102 O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray 60 O fairest lady ever seen 262 O have ye na heard o' the fause Sakelde 271 O, I forbid ye, maidens a' 364 O waly, waly, up the bank , 42 O well is me, my jolly goshawk 96 O wha wad wish the wind to blaw . 21 O wha v/ill shoe my bonny foot 116 O where hae ye been, Lord Ronald, my son? 353 O where hae ye been, my lang-lost lover 293 O Willie 's large o' limb and lith 8i Our lords are to the mountains gane 323 " Rise up, rise up, Lord Douglas I " she says 69 She sat down below a thorn 279 Sleep'ry Sim of the Lamb-hill 289 Sweet Willy 's ta en him o'er the faem 319 The Duke of Gordon's three daughters 345 The gard'ner stands in liis bower door 363 Index 397 The king sits in Dunfermline town , 6i The Laird o' Drum is a-hunting gane 43 The love that I hae chosen 132 The Percy out of Northumberland 49 The reivers they stole Fair Annie 84 There are twelve months in all the year in There came a ghost to Marjorie's door 334 There lived a wife at Usher's Well 32 There was a may, and a weel-fared may 108 There was a youth, and a well-beloved youth 157 There were twa sisters sat in a bower 133 This ae nighte, this ae nighte 122 Threescore o' nobles rade to the king's ha' 137 True Thomas lay on Himtley bank i When Robin Hood and Little John 280 Why does your brand sae drop wi' blude 248 Willie stands in his stable . . . 339 Will ye go to the Hielands, Lizie Lindsay 330 Young Lady Maigaret sits in her bower 124 U.C. 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