Chapter 10
THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT. After Hearne, who first printed it from a manuscript in the Ashmolean collection at Oxford. It was next printed in the Reliques, under title of Chevy-Chase,--a title now reserved for the later and inferior broadside version which was singularly popular throughout the seventeenth century and is still better known than this far more spirited original. "With regard to the subject of this ballad,"--to quote from Bishop Percy,--"although it has no countenance from history, there is room to think it had originally some foundation in fact. It was one of the laws of the Marches, frequently renewed between the nations, that neither party should hunt in the other's borders, without leave from the proprietors or their deputies. There had long been a rivalship between the two martial families of Percy and Douglas, which, heightened by the national quarrel, must have produced frequent challenges and struggles for superiority, petty invasions of their respective domains, and sharp contests for the point of honour; which would not always be recorded in history. Something of this kind, we may suppose, gave rise to the ancient ballad of the Hunting o' the Cheviat. Percy, Earl of Northumberland, had vowed to hunt for three days in the Scottish border, without condescending to ask leave from Earl Douglas, who was either lord of the soil, or lord warden of the Marches. Douglas would not fail to resent the insult, and endeavour to repel the intruders by force; this would naturally produce a sharp conflict between the two parties; something of which, it is probable, did really happen, though not attended with the tragical circumstances recorded in the ballad: for these are evidently borrowed from the Battle of Otterbourn, a very different event, but which aftertimes would easily confound with it." The date of the ballad cannot, of course, be strictly ascertained. It was considered old in the middle of the sixteenth century, being mentioned in _The Complaynt of Scotland_ (1548) among the "sangis of natural music of the antiquite." Not much can be said for its "natural music," yet despite its roughness of form and enviable inconsistencies of spelling, it has always found grace with the poets. Rare Ben Jonson used to say that he would rather have been the author of _Chevy Chase_ than of all his works; Addison honored the broadside version with two critiques in the _Spectator_; and Sir Philip Sidney, though lamenting that the ballad should be "so evil apparrelled in the dust and cobwebs of that uncivill age," breaks out with the ingenuous confession: "I never heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas that I found not my heart mooved more then with a trumpet, and yet is it sung but by some blinde crouder, with no rougher voice then rude stile." Mauger, despite. _Let_, hinder. _Meany_, company. _Shyars_, shires. _Bomen_, bowmen. _Byckarte_, moved quickly, rattling their weapons. _Bent_, open field. _Aras_, arrows. _Wyld_, wild creatures, as deer. _Shear_, swiftly. _Grevis_, groves. _Glent_, glanced, flashed by. _Oware off none_, hour of noon. _Mart_, death-signal (as used in hunting.) _Quyrry_, quarry, slaughtered game. _Bryttlynge_, cutting up. _Wyste_, knew. _Byll and brande_, axe and sword. _Glede_, live coal. _The ton_, the one. _Yerle_, earl. _Cars_, curse. _Nam_, name. _Wat_, wot, know. _Sloughe_, slew. _Byddys_, abides. _Wouche_, injury. _Ost_, host. _Suar_, sure. _Many a doughete the garde to dy_, many a doughty (knight) they caused to die. _Basnites_, small helmets. _Myneyeple_, maniple (of many folds), a coat worn under the armor. _Freyke_, warrior. _Swapte_, smote. _Myllan_, Milan. _Hight_, promise. _Spendyd_, grasped (spanned). _Corsiare_, courser. _Blane_, halted. _Dynte_, stroke. _Halyde_, hauled. _Stour_, press of battle. _Dre_, endure. _Hinde_, gentle. _Hewyne in to_, hewn in two. _The mayde them byears_, they made them biers. _Makys_, mates. _Carpe off care_, tell of sorrow. _March perti_, the Border district. _Lyff-tenant_, lieutenant. _Weal_, clasp. _Brook_, enjoy. _Quyte_, avenged. _That tear begane this spurn_, that wrong caused this retaliation. _Reane_, rain. _Ballys bete_, sorrows amend.
EDOM O' GORDON. After Aytoun. This ballad was first printed at Glasgow, 1755, as taken down by Sir David Dalrymple "from the recitation of a lady," and was afterwards inserted--"interpolated and corrupted," says the unappeasable Ritson--in Percy's _Reliques_. Ritson himself published a genuine and ancient copy from a manuscript belonging apparently to the last quarter of the sixteenth century and preserved in the Cotton Library. The ballad is known under two other titles, _Captain Car_ and _The Burning o' London Castle._ Notwithstanding this inexactitude in names, the ballad has an historical basis. In 1571 Adam Gordon, deputy-lieutenant of the North of Scotland for Queen Mary, was engaged in a struggle against the clan Forbes, who upheld the Reformed Faith and the King's party. Gordon was successful in two sharp encounters, but "what glory and renown he obtained of these two victories," says the contemporary History of King James the Sixth, "was all cast down by the infamy of his next attempt; for immediately after this last conflict he directed his soldiers to the castle of Towie, desiring the house to be rendered to him in the Queen's name; which was obstinately refused by the lady, and she burst forth with certain injurious words. And the soldiers being impatient, by command of their leader, Captain Ker, fire was put to the house, wherein she and the number of twenty-seven persons were cruelly burnt to the death."
_Martinmas_, the eleventh of November. _Hauld_, stronghold. _Toun_, enclosed place. _Buskit_, made ready. _Light_, alighted. _But and_, and also. _Dree_, suffer. _But an_, unless. _Wude_, mad. _Dule_, pain. _Reek_, smoke. _Nourice_, nurse. _Jimp_, slender. _Row_, roll. _Tow_, throw. _Busk and boun_, up and away. _Freits_, ill omens. _Lowe_, blaze. _Wichty_, sturdy. _Bent_, field. _Teenfu'_, sorrowful. _Wroken_, avenged.
KINMONT WILLIE. After Scott. This dashing ballad appeared for the first time in the Border Minstrelsy, having been "preserved by tradition," says Scott, "on the West Borders, but much mangled by reciters, so that some conjectural emendations have been absolutely necessary to render it intelligible." The facts in the case seem to be that in 1596 Salkeld, deputy of Lord Scroope, English Warden of the West Marches, and Robert Scott, for the Laird of Buccleuch, Keeper of Liddesdale, met on the border line for conference in the interest of the public weal. The truce, that on such occasions extended from the day of the meeting to the next day at sunset, was this time violated by a party of English soldiers, who seized upon William Armstrong of Kinmonth, a notorious freebooter, as he, attended by but three or four men, was returning from the conference; and lodged him in Carlisle Castle. The Laird of Buccleuch, after treating in vain for his release, raised two hundred horse, surprised the castle and carried off the prisoner without further ceremony. This exploit the haughty Queen of England "esteemed a great affront" and "stormed not a little" against the "bauld Buccleuch." _Haribee_, the place of execution at Carlisle. _Liddel-rack_, a ford on the Liddel. _Reiver_, robber. _Hostelrie_, inn. _Lawing_, reckoning. _Garr'd_, made. _Basnet_, helmet. _Curch_, cap. _Lightly_, set light by. _Low_, blaze. _Splent on spauld_, armor on shoulder. _Woodhouselee_, a house belonging to Buccleuch, on the Border. _Herry_, harry, spoil. _Corbie_, crow. _Wons_, dwells. _Lear_, lore. _Row-footed_, rough-footed(?). _Spait_, flood. _Garr'd_, made. _Stear_, stir. _Coulters_, ploughshares. _Forehammers_, the large hammers that strike before the small, sledgehammers. _Fley'd_, frightened. _Spier_, inquire. _Hente_, caught. _Maill_, rent. _Airns_, irons. _Wood_, mad. _Furs_, furrows. _Trew_, trust.
KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY. After Percy, who printed from an ancient black-letter copy. There are three other broadside versions of this popular ballad extant, and at least one older version has been lost. Similar riddle-stories are to be found in almost all European literatures. There is nothing in this ballad save the name of King John, with his reputation for unjust and high-handed dealing, that can be called traditional. _Deere_, harm. _Stead_, place. _St. Bittel_, St. Botolph(?).
ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE WIDOW'S THREE SONS. After Ritson, who has collected in two volumes the ballads of Robin Hood. This is believed to be one of the oldest of them all. A concise introduction to the Robin Hood ballads is given by Mr. Hales in the _Percy Folio MS_. vol. i. This legendary king of Sherwood Forest is more rightfully the hero of English song than his splendid rival, the Keltic King Arthur,
"whose name, a ghost, Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain peak, And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still."
Yet there is scarcely less doubt as to the actual existence of a flesh-and-blood Robin Hood than there is as to the actual existence of a flesh-and-blood King Arthur. But let History look to her own; Literature need have no scruple in claiming both the archer-prince of outlaws and the blameless king of the Table Round. Robber chieftain or democratic agitator, romantic invention or Odin-myth, it is certain that by the fourteenth century Robin Hood was a familiar figure in English balladry. We have our first reference to this generous-hearted rogue of the greenwood, who is supposed by Ritson to have lived from 1160 to 1247, in Langlande's _Piers Ploughman_ (1362). There are brief notices of the popular bandit in Wyntoun's _Scottish Chronicle_ (1420), Fordun's _Scotichronicon_ (1450), and Mair's _Historia Majoris Brittaniae_ (1521). Famous literary allusions occur in Latimer's _Sixth Sermon before Edward VI_. (1548), in Drayton's _Polyolbion_ (1613), and Fuller's _Worthies of England_ (1662). The Robin Hood ballads illustrate to the full the rough and heavy qualities, both of form and thought, that characterize all our English folk-songs as opposed to the Scottish. We feel the difference instantly when a minstrel from over the Border catches up the strain:
"There's mony ane sings o'grass, o'grass, And mony ane sings o'corn; And mony ane sings o'Robin Hood, Kens little whar' he was born.
"It was na' in the ha', the ha', Nor in the painted bower; But it was in the gude greenwood, Amang the lily flower."
Yet these rude English ballads have just claims on our regard. They stand our feet squarely upon the basal rock of Saxon ethics, they breathe a spirit of the sturdiest independence, and they draw, in a few strong strokes, so fresh a picture of the joyous, fearless life led under the green shadows of the deer-haunted forest by that memorable band, bold Robin and Little John, Friar Tuck and George a Green, Will Scarlett, Midge the Miller's Son, Maid Marian and the rest, that we gladly succumb to a charm recognized by Shakespeare himself: "They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England; they say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world."--_As You Like It._
ROBIN HOOD AND ALLIN A DALE. After Ritson. This ballad is first found in broadside copies of the latter half of the seventeenth century. _Lin._, pause.
ROBIN HOOD'S DEATH AND BURIAL. After Ritson, who made his version from a collation of two copies given in a York garland.
ANNIE OF LOCHROYAN. After Aytoun, who improves on Jamieson's version. This beautiful ballad is given in varying forms by Herd, Scott, Buchan, and others. Lochroyan, or Loch Ryan, is a bay on the south-west coast of Scotland. _Jimp_, slender. _Gin_, if. _Greet_, cry. _Tirl'd_, rattled. _But and_, and also. _Warlock_, wizard. _Sinsyne_, since then. _Hooly_, slowly. _Deid_, death. _Syne_, then.
LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET. After Aytoun, who adds to the first twenty-four stanzas of the copy given in the _Reliques_ a concluding fourteen taken from Jamieson's _Sweet Willie and Fair Annie_. The unfortunate lady elsewhere figures as _The Nut-Brown Bride_ and _Fair Ellinor_. There are Norse ballads which relate something akin to the same story. _Gif_, if. _Rede_, counsel. _Owsen_, oxen. _Billie_, an affectionate term for brother. _Byre_, cow-house. _Fadge_, clumsy woman. _Sheen_, shoes. _Tift_, whiff. _Gin_, if. _Cleiding_, clothing. _Bruik_, enjoy. _Kist_, chest. _Lee_, lonesome. _Till_, to. _Dowie_, doleful. _Sark_, shroud. _But and_, and also. _Birk_, birch.
THE BANKS OF YARROW. After Allingham's collated version. There are many renderings of this ballad, which Scott declares to be a great favorite among the peasantry of the Ettrick forest, who firmly believe it founded on fact. The river Yarrow, so favored of the poets, flows through a valley in Selkirkshire and joins the Tweed above the town of Selkirk. The _Tennies_ is a farm below the Yarrow kirk. _Lawing_, reckoning. _Dawing_, dawn. _Marrow_, mate. _Dowie_, doleful. _Leafu'_, lawful. _Binna_, be not.
THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY. After Scott. This ballad is likewise known under titles of _Earl Brand, Lady Margaret_ and _The Child of Ell_. Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic ballads relate a kindred story, and the incident of the intertwining plants that spring from the graves of hapless lovers, occurs in the folk-lore of almost all peoples. _Bugelet_, a small bugle. _Dighted_, strove to stanch. _Plat_, intertwined.
FINE FLOWERS I' THE VALLEY. After Aytoun, his version, though taken down from recitation, being in reality a compound of Herd's and Jamieson's. Aytoun claims that "this is perhaps the most popular of all the Scottish ballads, being commonly recited and sung even at the present day." Different refrains are often employed, and the ballad is frequently given under title of _The Cruel Brother_. Stories similar to this are found in the balladry of both northern and southern Europe. _Marrow_, mate. _Close_, avenue leading from the door to the street. _Loutiny_, bowing. _Its lane_, alone.
THE GAY GOSS-HAWK. Mainly after Motherwell, although his version is entitled _The Jolly Goshawk_. The epithet _Gay_ has the sanction of Scott and Jamieson. Buchan gives a rendering of this ballad under title of _The Scottish Squire_. _Whin_, furze. _Bigly_, spacious. _Sark_, shroud. _Claith_, cloth. _Steeking_, stitching. _Gar'd_, made. _Chive_, morsel. _Skaith_, harm.
YOUNG REDIN. After Allingham's collated copy. There are many versions of this ballad, the hero being variously known as Young Hunting, Earl Richard, Lord William, Lord John and Young Redin. _Birl'd_, plied. _Douk_, dive. _Weil-head_, eddy. _Linn_, the pool beneath a cataract. _Brin_, burn. _Balefire_, bonfire.
WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET. After Allingham's copy framed by collating Jamieson's fragmentary version with Buchan's ballad of _The Drowned Lovers_. _Stour_, wild. _Pot_, a pool in a river. _Dowie den_, doleful hollow. _Tirled_, rattled. _Sleeked_, fastened. _Brae_, hillside. _Sowm, swim. _Minnie_, affectionate term for mother.
YOUNG BEICHAN. Mainly after Jamieson, his version being based upon a copy taken down from the recitation of the indefatigable Mrs. Brown and collated with a manuscript and stall copy, both from Scotland, a recited copy from the North of England, and a short version "picked off an old wall in Piccadilly." Of this ballad of _Young Beichan_ there are numerous renderings, the name of the hero undergoing many variations,--Bicham, Brechin, Beachen, Bekie, Bateman, Bondwell--and the heroine, although Susie Pye or Susan Pye in ten of the fourteen versions, figuring also as Isbel, Essels, and Sophia. It was probably an English ballad at the start, but bears the traces of the Scottish minstrels who were doubtless prompt to borrow it. There is likelihood enough that the ballad was originally suggested by the legend of Gilbert Becket, father of the great archbishop; the story running that Becket, while a captive in Holy Land, plighted his troth to the daughter of a Saracenic prince. When the crusader had made good his escape, the lady followed him, inquiring her way to "England" and to "London," where she wandered up and down the streets, constantly repeating her lover's name, "Gilbert," the third and last word of English that she knew, until finally she found him, and all her woes were put to flight by the peal of wedding bells. _Termagant_, the name given in the old romances to the God of the Saracens. _Pine_, pain. _Sheave_, slice. _But and_, and also. _Dreed_, endured.
GILDEROY. After the current version adapted from the original by Sir Alexander Halket or his sister, Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw, the composer of _Hardyknute_. There is extant a black-letter broadside printed in England as early as 1650, and the ballad appears in several miscellanies of later date. The reviser added the sixth, seventh, and eighth stanzas. It is mortifying to learn that this "winsome Gilderoy "--the name, properly Gillie roy, signifying in Gaelic "the red-haired lad"--was in reality one Patrick Mac-Gregor, who was hanged at the cross of Edinburgh, 1638, as a common cateran or free-booter. That the romantic element in the ballad so outweighs the historical, must account for its classification here. _Soy_, silk. _Cess_, black-mail. _Gear_, property.
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN. After the version given in Ramsay's _Tea-Table Miscellany_ and followed by Herd, Ritson, and others. Percy prints with this in the _Reliques_ a longer, but poorer copy. In Pepys's _Diary_, Jan. 2,1666, occurs an allusion to the "little Scotch song of Barbary Alien." _Gin_, if. _Hooly_, slowly. _Jow_, knell.
THE GARDENER. After Kinloch. Buchan gives a longer, but less valuable version. _Jimp_, slender. _Weed_, dress. _Camorine_, camomile. _Kail-blade_, cabbage-leaf. _Cute_, ankle. _Brawn_, calf. _Blaewort_, witch bells.
ETIN THE FORESTER. Collated. No single version of this ballad is satisfactory, not Kinloch's fine fragment, _Hynde Etin_, nor Buchan's complete but inferior version, _Young Akin_, nor the modernized copy, _Young Hastings_, communicated by Buchan to Motherwell. Earlier and better renderings of the ballad have doubtless been lost. In the old Scottish speech, an Etin signified an ogre or giant, and although the existing versions show but faint traces of a supernatural element, it is probable that the original character of the story has been changed by the accidents of tradition, and that the Etin was at the outset in line with such personages as Arnold's Forsaken Merman. In the beautiful kindred ballads which abound in the Norse and German literatures, the Etin is sometimes represented by a merman, though usually by an elf-king, dwarf-king, or hill-king. _Hind chiel_, young stripling. _Spier_, ask. _Bigg_, build. _Their lane_, alone. _Brae_, hillside. _Gars_, makes. _Greet_, weep. _Stown_, stolen. _Laverock_, lark. _Lift_, air. _Buntin'_, blackbird. _Christendame_, christening. _Ben_, in. _Shaw_, forest. _Louted_, bowed. _Boun'_, go.
LAMKIN. After Jamieson. The many versions of this ballad show an unusually small number of variations. The name, though occurring in the several forms of Lambert Linkin, Lamerlinkin, Rankin, Belinkin, Lankyn, Lonkin, Balcanqual, most often appears as Lamkin or Lammikin or Lambkin, being perhaps a nick-name given to the mason for the meekness with which he had borne his injuries. This would explain the resentful tone of his inquiries on entering the house. _Nourice_, nurse. _Limmer_, wretch. _Shot-window_, projecting window. _Gaire_, edge of frock. _Ilka_, each. _Bore_, crevice. _Greeting_, crying. _Dowie_, doleful. _Chamer_, chamber. _Lamer_, amber. _Ava'_, of all.
HUGH OF LINCOLN. Mainly after Jamieson. Percy gives a version of this famous ballad under title of _The Jew's Daughter_, and Herd and Motherwell, as well as Jamieson, have secured copies from recitation. The general view that this ballad rests upon an historical basis has but slender authority behind it. Matthew Paris, never too reliable as a chronicler, says that in 1255 the Jews of Lincoln, after their yearly custom, stole a little Christian boy, tortured and crucified him, and flung him into a pit, where his mother found the body. This is in all probability one of the many cruel slanders circulated against the Jews during the Middle Ages, to reconcile the Christian conscience to the Christian maltreatment of that long-suffering race. Such stories are related of various mediaeval innocents, in various lands and centuries, and may be classed together, until better evidence to the contrary presents itself, as malicious falsehood. This ballad should be compared, of course, with Chaucer's _Prioresses Tale_. _Keppit_, caught. _Gart_, made. _Twinn'd_, deprived. _Row'd_, rolled. _Ilka_, each. _Gin_, it.
FAIR ANNIE. Mainly after Jamieson's version entitled _Lady Jane_. Jamieson gives another copy, where the heroic lady is known as _Burd Helen_, but Scott, Motherwell, Kinloch, Buchan, and others agree on the name _Fair Annie_. The pathetic beauty of the ballad has secured it a wide popularity. There are Danish, Swedish, Dutch, and German versions. "But Fair Annie's fortunes have not only been charmingly sung," says Professor Child. "They have also been exquisitely _told_ in a favorite lay of Marie de France, 'Le Lai del Freisne.' This tale of Breton origin is three hundred years older than any manuscript of the ballad. Comparison will, however, quickly show that it is not the source either of the English or of the Low German and Scandinavian ballad. The tale and the ballads have a common source, which lies further back, and too far for us to find." _Your lane_, alone. _Braw_, finely dressed. _Gear_, goods. _But and_, and also. _Stown_, stolen. _Leugh_, laughed. _Loot_, let. _Gars_, makes. _Greet_, weep.
THE LAIRD O' DRUM. After Aytoun's collated version. Copies obtained from recitation are given by Kinloch and Buchan. The eccentric Laird o' Drum was an actual personage, who, in the seventeenth century, mortified his aristocratic relatives and delighted the commons by marrying a certain Margaret Coutts, a woman of lowly rank, his first wife having been a daughter of the Marquis of Huntly. The old shepherd speaks in the Aberdeen dialect. _Weel-faur'd_, well-favored. _Gin_, if. _Speer_, ask. _Kebbuck_, cheese. _Yetts_, gates. _Gawsy_, portly. _But the pearlin' abune her bree_, without the lace above her brow.
LIZIE LINDSAY. After Jamieson. Complete copies are given by Buchan and Whitelaw, also. _Till_, to. _Braes_, hills. _Fit_, foot. _Gin_, if. _Tocher_, dowry. _Gait_, way. _Wale_, choice. _Dey_, dairy-woman. _Laverock_, lark. _Liltin'_, carolling. _Shealin'_, sheep-shed. _Gaits and kye_, goats and cows.
KATHARINE JANFARIE. Mainly after Motherwell's version entitled _Catherine Johnstone_. Other renderings are given by Scott, Maidment, and Buchan. In Scott's version the name of the English suitor is Lord Lochinvar, and both name and story the thieving poet has turned, as everybody knows, to excellent account. The two closing stanzas here seem to betray the hand of an English balladist. _Weel-faur'd_, well-favored. _Lave_, rest. _Spier'd_, asked. _Brae_, hill.
GLENLOGIE. After Smith's version in the _Scottish Minstrel_,--a book wherein "great liberties," Motherwell claims, have been taken with ancient lays. A rough but spirited version is given by Sharpe, and a third by Buchan. _Gar_, make. _His lane_, alone.
GET UP AND BAR THE DOOR. After Herd. This ballad appears, too, in Johnson's _Museum_ and Ritson's _Scottish Songs_. _Martinmas_, the eleventh of November. _Intil_, into. _Hussyskep_, house-keeping. _Bree_, broth. _Scaud_, scald.