Part 6
[Annotations: 2.3: ‘rout,’ roar. 2.4: ‘withershins,’ backwards, the wrong way, the opposite of the desired way. Often = contrary to the way of the sun, but not necessarily. See note on etymology, Chambers, _Mediæval Stage_, i. 129. 3.1: ‘coif,’ cap, head-dress. 4.1: ‘had’ = haud, hold. 4.2: ‘neen nae’ = need na, need not.]
FAIR HELEN OF KIRCONNELL
+The Text+ is taken from Scott’s _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_ (1802), vol. i. pp. 72-79, omitting the tedious Part I. Another of many versions may be found in Sir John Sinclair’s _Statistical Account of Scotland_, vol. xiii. pp. 275-6, about the year 1794; fourteen stanzas, corresponding to most of Scott’s two parts.
+The Story+ of the ballad is given in the two above-mentioned books from tradition as follows. Fair Helen, of the clan of Irving or Bell, favoured Adam Fleming (Fleeming) with her love; another suitor, whose name is said to have been Bell, was the choice of the lady’s family and friends. The latter lover becoming jealous, concealed himself in the bushes of the banks of the Kirtle, which flows by the kirkyard of Kirconnell, where the true lovers were accustomed to walk. Being discovered lurking there by Helen, he levelled his carbine at Adam Fleming. Helen, however, threw herself into her lover’s arms, and received the bullet intended for him: whereupon he slew his rival. He went abroad to Spain and fought against the infidels, but being still inconsolable, returned to Kirconnell, perished on Helen’s grave, and was buried beside her. The tombstone, bearing a sword and a cross, with _Hic jacet Adamus Fleming_, is still (says Scott) shown in the churchyard of Kirconnell.
The Flemings were a family belonging to Kirkpatrick-Fleming, a parish in Dumfries which includes Kirconnell.
Wordsworth’s version of the story includes the famous rhyme:--
‘Proud Gordon cannot bear the thoughts That through his brain are travelling,-- And, starting up, to Bruce’s heart He launch’d a deadly javelin!’
FAIR HELEN OF KIRCONNELL
1. I wish I were where Helen lies, Night and day on me she cries, O that I were where Helen lies, On fair Kirconnell Lee!
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 succour me.
3. O think na ye my heart was sair, When my love dropt down and spak nae mair, There did she swoon wi’ meikle care, On fair Kirconnell Lee.
4. As I went down the water side, None but my foe to be my guide, None but my foe to be my guide, On fair Kirconnell Lee.
5. I lighted down, my sword did draw, I hacked him in pieces sma’, I hacked him in pieces sma’, For her sake that died for me.
6. O Helen fair, beyond compare, I’ll make a garland of thy hair, Shall bind my heart for evermair, Untill the day I die.
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!’
8. O Helen fair! O Helen chaste! If I were with thee I were blest, Where thou lies low, and takes thy rest On fair Kirconnell Lee.
9. I wish my grave were growing green, A winding-sheet drawn ower my e’en And I in Helen’s arms lying On fair Kirconnell Lee.
10. I wish I were where Helen lies, Night and day on me she cries, And I am weary of the skies, For her sake that died for me.
SIR HUGH, OR THE JEW’S DAUGHTER
+The Text+ is given from Jamieson’s _Popular Ballads_, as taken down by him from Mrs. Brown’s recitation.
+The Story+ of the ballad is told at length in at least two ancient monastic records; in the _Annals of the Monastery of Waverley_, the first Cistercian house in England, near Farnham, Surrey (edited by Luard, vol. ii. p. 346, etc., from MS. Cotton Vesp, A. xvi. fol. 150, etc.); more fully in the _Annals of the Monastery at Burton-on-Trent_, Staffordshire (edited by Luard, vol. i. pp. 340, etc., from MS. Cotton Vesp. E. iii. fol. 53, etc.). Both of these give the date as 1255, the latter adding July 31. Matthew Paris also tells the tale as a contemporary event. The details may be condensed as follows.
All the principal Jews in England being collected at the end of July 1255 at Lincoln, Hugh, a schoolboy, while playing with his companions (_jocis ac choreis_) was by them kidnapped, tortured, and finally crucified. His body was then thrown into a stream, but the water, _tantam sui Creatoris injuriam non ferens_, threw the corpse back on to the land. The Jews then buried it; but it was found next morning above-ground. Finally it was thrown into a well, which at once was lit up with so brilliant a light and so sweet an odour, that word went forth of a miracle. Christians came to see, discovered the body floating on the surface, and drew it up. Finding the hands and feet to be pierced, the head ringed with bleeding scratches, and the body otherwise wounded, it was at once clear to all _tanti sceleris auctores detestandos fuisse Judaeos_, eighteen of whom were subsequently hanged.
Other details may be gleaned from various accounts. The name of the Jew into whose house the boy was taken is given as Copin or Jopin. Hugh was eight or nine years old. Matthew Paris adds the circumstance of Hugh’s mother (Beatrice by name) seeking and finding him.
The original story has obviously become contaminated with others (such as Chaucer’s _Prioresses Tale_) in the course of six hundred and fifty years. But the central theme, the murder of a child by the Jews, is itself of great antiquity; and similar charges are on record in Europe even in the nineteenth century. Further material for the study of this ballad may be found in Francisque Michel’s _Hugh de Lincoln_ (1839), and J. O. Halliwell [-Phillipps]’s _Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln_ (1849).
Percy in the _Reliques_ (1765), vol. i. p. 32, says:-- ‘If we consider, on the one hand, the ignorance and superstition of the times when such stories took their rise, the virulent prejudices of the monks who record them, and the eagerness with which they would be catched up by the barbarous populace as a pretence for plunder; on the other hand, the great danger incurred by the perpetrators, and the inadequate motives they could have to excite them to a crime of so much horror, we may reasonably conclude the whole charge to be groundless and malicious.’
The tune ‘as sung by the late Mrs. Sheridan’ may be found in John Stafford Smith’s _Musica Antiqua_ (1812), vol. i. p. 65, and Motherwell’s _Minstrelsy_, tune No. 7.
SIR HUGH, OR THE JEW’S DAUGHTER
1. Four and twenty bonny boys Were playing at the ba’, And by it came him sweet Sir Hugh, And he play’d o’er them a’.
2. He kick’d the ba’ with his right foot, And catch’d it wi’ his knee, And throuch-and-thro’ the Jew’s window He gard the bonny ba’ flee.
3. He’s doen him to the Jew’s castell, And walk’d it round about; And there he saw the Jew’s daughter, At the window looking out.
4. ‘Throw down the ba’, ye Jew’s daughter, Throw down the ba’ to me!’ ‘Never a bit,’ says the Jew’s daughter, ‘Till up to me come ye.’
5. ‘How will I come up? How can I come up? How can I come to thee? For as ye did to my auld father, The same ye’ll do to me.’
6. She’s gane till her father’s garden, And pu’d an apple red and green; ‘Twas a’ to wyle him sweet Sir Hugh, And to entice him in.
7. She’s led him in through ae dark door, And sae has she thro’ nine; She’s laid him on a dressing-table, And stickit him like a swine.
8. And first came out the thick, thick blood, And syne came out the thin, And syne came out the bonny heart’s blood; There was nae mair within.
9. She’s row’d him in a cake o’ lead, Bade him lie still and sleep; She’s thrown him in Our Lady’s draw-well, Was fifty fathom deep.
10. When bells were rung, and mass was sung, And a’ the bairns came hame, When every lady gat hame her son, The Lady Maisry gat nane.
11. She’s ta’en her mantle her about, Her coffer by the hand, And she’s gane out to seek her son, And wander’d o’er the land.
12. She’s doen her to the Jew’s castell, Where a’ were fast asleep: ‘Gin ye be there, my sweet Sir Hugh, I pray you to me speak.’
13. She’s doen her to the Jew’s garden, Thought he had been gathering fruit: ‘Gin ye be there, my sweet Sir Hugh, I pray you to me speak.’
14. She near’d Our Lady’s deep draw-well, Was fifty fathom deep: ‘Whare’er ye be, my sweet Sir Hugh, I pray you to me speak.’
15. ‘Gae hame, gae hame, my mither dear. Prepare my winding sheet, And at the back o’ merry Lincoln The morn I will you meet.’
16. Now Lady Maisry is gane hame, Made him a winding sheet, And at the back o’ merry Lincoln The dead corpse did her meet.
17. And a’ the bells o’ merry Lincoln Without men’s hands were rung, And a’ the books o’ merry Lincoln Were read without man’s tongue, And ne’er was such a burial Sin Adam’s days begun.
THE DÆMON LOVER
+The Text+ is from Kinloch’s MSS., ‘from the recitation of T. Kinnear, Stonehaven.’ Child remarks of it that ‘probably by the fortunate accident of being a fragment’ it ‘leaves us to put our own construction upon the weird seaman; and, though it retains the homely ship-carpenter, is on the whole the most satisfactory of all the versions.’
+The Story+ is told more elaborately in a broadside, and resembles _Enoch Arden_ in a certain degree. James Harris, a seaman, plighted to Jane Reynolds, was captured by a press-gang, taken overseas, and, after three years, reported dead and buried in a foreign land. After a respectable interval, a ship-carpenter came to Jane Reynolds, and eventually wedded her, and the loving couple had three pretty children. One night, however, the ship-carpenter being on a three days’ journey, a spirit came to the window, and said that his name was James Harris, and that he had come to take her away as his wife. She explains that she is married, and would not have her husband know of this visit for five hundred pounds. James Harris, however, said he had seven ships upon the sea; and when she heard these ‘fair tales,’ she succumbed, went away with him, and ‘was never seen no more.’ The ship-carpenter on his return hanged himself.
Scott’s ballad in the _Minstrelsy_ spoils its own effect by converting the spirit into the devil. An American version of 1858 tells the tale of a ‘house-carpenter’ and his wife, and alters ‘the banks of Italy’ to ‘the banks of old Tennessee.’
THE DÆMON LOVER
1. ‘O whare hae ye been, my dearest dear, These seven lang years and more?’ ‘O I am come to seek my former vows, That ye promis’d me before.’
2. ‘Awa wi’ your former vows,’ she says, ‘Or else ye will breed strife; Awa wi’ your former vows,’ she says, ‘For I’m become a wife.
3. ‘I am married to a ship-carpenter, A ship-carpenter he’s bound; I wadna he ken’d my mind this nicht For twice five hundred pound’
*** *** ***
4. She has put her foot on gude ship-board, And on ship-board she’s gane, And the veil that hung oure her face Was a’ wi’ gowd begane.
5. She had na sailed a league, a league, A league but barely twa, Till she did mind on the husband she left, And her wee young son alsua.
6. ‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear, Let all your follies abee; I’ll show whare the white lillies grow, On the banks of Italie.’
7. She had na sailed a league, a league, A league but barely three, Till grim, grim grew his countenance, And gurly grew the sea.
8. ‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear, Let all your follies abee; I’ll show whare the white lillies grow, In the bottom of the sea.’
9. He’s tane her by the milk-white hand, And he’s thrown her in the main; And full five-and-twenty hundred ships Perish’d all on the coast of Spain.
[Annotations: 4.4: ‘begane,’ overlaid. 7.4: ‘gurly,’ tempestuous, lowering.]
THE BROOMFIELD HILL
+The Text+ is taken from Scott’s _Minstrelsy_ (1803). It would be of great interest if we could be sure that the reference to ‘Hive Hill’ in 8.1 was from genuine Scots tradition. In Wager’s comedy _The Longer thou Lived the more Fool thou art_ (about 1568) Moros sings a burden:--
‘Brome, brome on hill, The gentle brome on hill, hill, Brome, brome on Hive hill, The gentle brome on Hive hill, The brome stands on Hive hill a.’
Before this date ‘Brume, brume on hil’ is mentioned in _The Complaynt of Scotlande_, 1549; and a similar song was among Captain Cox’s ‘ballets and songs, all auncient.’
+The Story+, of a youth challenging a maid, and losing his wager by being laid asleep with witchcraft, is popular and widespread. In the _Gesta Romanorum_ is a story of which this theme is one main incident, the other being the well-known forfeit of a pound of flesh, as in the _Merchant of Venice_. Ser Giovanni (_Pecorone_, IV. 1) tells a similar tale, and other variations are found in narrative or ballad form in Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Germany.
Grimm notes the German superstition that the _rosenschwamm_ (gall on the wild rose), if laid beneath a man’s pillow, causes him to sleep until it be taken away.
THE BROOMFIELD HILL
1. There was a knight and a lady bright, Had a true tryste at the broom; The ane gaed early in the morning, The other in the afternoon.
2. And ay she sat in her mother’s bower door, And ay she made her mane: ‘O whether should I gang to the Broomfield Hill, Or should I stay at hame?
3. ‘For if I gang to the Broomfield Hill, My maidenhead is gone; And if I chance to stay at hame, My love will ca’ me mansworn.’
4. Up then spake a witch-woman, Ay from the room aboon: ‘O ye may gang to the Broomfield Hill, And yet come maiden hame.
5. ‘For when ye gang to the Broomfield Hill, Ye’ll find your love asleep, With a silver belt about his head, And a broom-cow at his feet.
6. ‘Take ye the blossom of the broom, The blossom it smells sweet, And strew it at your true-love’s head, And likewise at his feet.
7. ‘Take ye the rings off your fingers, Put them on his right hand, To let him know, when he doth awake, His love was at his command.’
8. She pu’d the broom flower on Hive Hill, And strew’d on’s white hals-bane, And that was to be wittering true That maiden she had gane.
9. ‘O where were ye, my milk-white steed, That I hae coft sae dear, That wadna watch and waken me When there was maiden here?’
10. ‘I stamped wi’ my foot, master, And gard my bridle ring, But na kin thing wald waken ye, Till she was past and gane.’
11. ‘And wae betide ye, my gay goss-hawk, That I did love sae dear, That wadna watch and waken me When there was maiden here.’
12. ‘I clapped wi’ my wings, master, And aye my bells I rang, And aye cry’d, Waken, waken, master, Before the lady gang.’
13. ‘But haste and haste, my gude white steed. To come the maiden till, Or a’ the birds of gude green wood Of your flesh shall have their fill.’
14. ‘Ye need na burst your gude white steed Wi’ racing o’er the howm; Nae bird flies faster through the wood, Than she fled through the broom.’
[Annotations: 3.4: ‘mansworn,’ perjured. 5.4: ‘broom-cow,’ twig of broom. 8.2: ‘hals-bane,’ neck-bone. See _The Twa Corbies_ (p. 82), 4.1. 8.3: ‘wittering,’ witness. 9.2: ‘coft,’ bought. 10.3: ‘kin,’ kind of. Cp. _Lady Maisry_, 2.2 (First Series, p. 70). 14.2: ‘howm’ = holme, the level low ground on the banks of a river or stream. --Jamieson.]
WILLIE’S FATAL VISIT
+The Text+ is taken from Buchan’s _Ballads of the North of Scotland_. It consists largely of familiar fragments. Stanzas 9-11 can be found in _The Grey Cock_.
+The Story+ is a trivial piece in Buchan’s usual style; but the smiling ghost, which is female (17.1), is a delightful novelty. She assumes the position of guardian of Willie’s morals, then tears him in pieces, and hangs a piece on every seat in the church, and his head over Meggie’s pew!
WILLIE’S FATAL VISIT
1. ‘Twas on an evening fair I went to take the air, I heard a maid making her moan; Said, ‘Saw ye my father? Or saw ye my mother? Or saw ye my brother John? Or saw ye the lad that I love best, And his name it is Sweet William?’
2. ‘I saw not your father, I saw not your mother, Nor saw I your brother John; But I saw the lad that ye love best, And his name it is Sweet William.’
3. ‘O was my love riding? or was he running? Or was he walking alone? Or says he that he will be here this night? O dear, but he tarries long!’
4. ‘Your love was not riding, nor yet was he running, But fast was he walking alone; He says that he will be here this night to thee, And forbids you to think long.’
5. Then Willie he has gane to his love’s door, And gently tirled the pin: ‘O sleep ye, wake ye, my bonny Meggie, Ye’ll rise, lat your true-love in.’
6. The lassie being swack ran to the door fu’ snack, And gently she lifted the pin, Then into her arms sae large and sae lang She embraced her bonny love in.
7. ‘O will ye gang to the cards or the dice, Or to a table o’ wine? Or will ye gang to a well-made bed, Well cover’d wi’ blankets fine?’
8. ‘O I winna gang to the cards nor the dice, Nor yet to a table o’ wine; But I’ll rather gang to a well-made bed, Well-cover’d wi’ blankets fine.’
9. ‘My braw little cock, sits on the house tap, Ye’ll craw not till it be day, And your kame shall be o’ the gude red gowd, And your wings o’ the siller grey.’
10. The cock being fause untrue he was, And he crew an hour ower seen; They thought it was the gude day-light, But it was but the light of the meen.
11. ‘Ohon, alas!’ says bonny Meggie then, ‘This night we hae sleeped ower lang!’ ‘O what is the matter?’ then Willie replied, ‘The faster then I must gang.’
12. Then Sweet Willie raise, and put on his claise, And drew till him stockings and sheen, And took by his side his berry-brown sword, And ower yon lang hill he’s gane.
13. As he gaed ower yon high, high hill, And down yon dowie den, Great and grievous was the ghost he saw, Would fear ten thousand men.
14. As he gaed in by Mary kirk, And in by Mary stile, Wan and weary was the ghost Upon sweet Willie did smile.
15. ‘Aft hae ye travell’d this road, Willie, Aft hae ye travell’d in sin; Ye ne’er said sae muckle for your saul As, My Maker bring me hame!
16. ‘Aft hae ye travell’d this road, Willie, Your bonny love to see; But ye’ll never travel this road again Till ye leave a token wi’ me.’
17. Then she has ta’en him Sweet Willie, Riven him frae gair to gair, And on ilka seat o’ Mary’s kirk O’ Willie she hang a share; Even abeen his love Meggie’s dice, Hang’s head and yellow hair.
18. His father made moan, his mother made moan, But Meggie made muckle mair; His father made moan, his mother made moan, But Meggie reave her yellow hair.
[Annotations: 6.1: ‘swack,’ nimble; ‘snack,’ quick. 13.4: ‘fear,’ frighten. 17.2: ‘frae gair to gair,’ from side to side. 17.5: ‘dice,’ pew. 18.4: ‘reave,’ tore.]
ADAM
+The Text+ of this half-carol, half-ballad is taken from the Sloane MS. 2593, whence we get _Saint Stephen and King Herod_ and other charming pieces like the well-known carol, ‘I syng of a mayden.’ It is written in eight long lines in the MS.
+The Story.+--Wright, who printed the above MS. for the Warton Club in 1856, remarks that Adam was supposed to have remained bound in the _limbus patrum_ from the time of his death until the Crucifixion. In the romance of _Owain Miles_ (Cotton MS. Calig. A. ii.) the bishops told Owain that Adam was ‘yn helle with Lucyfere’ for four thousand six hundred and four years. On account of this tradition incorporated in the carol, I have ventured to include it as a ballad, although it does not find a place in Professor Child’s collection.
ADAM
1. Adam lay i-bowndyn, bowndyn in a bond, Fowre thowsand wynter thowt he not to long;
2. And al was for an appil, an appil that he tok, As clerkes fyndyn wretyn in here book.
3. Ne hadde the appil take ben, the appil taken ben, Ne hadde never our lady a ben hevene qwen.
4. Blyssid be the tyme that appil take was! Therfore we mown syngyn _Deo gracias_.
[Annotations: 2.4: ‘here,’ their. The ‘book’ is, of course, the Bible. 3.4: ‘hevene’ is the old genitive = of heaven. 4.3: ‘mown’ = can or may.]
SAINT STEPHEN AND KING HEROD
+The Text+ is taken from the same manuscript as the last. This manuscript is ascribed, from the style of handwriting, to the reign of Henry VI. The ballad is there written without division into stanzas in twenty-four long lines.
+The Story.+--The miraculous resuscitation of a roast fowl (generally a cock, as here), in confirmation of an incredible prophecy, is a tale found in nearly all European countries. Originally, we find, the miracle is connected with the Passion, not the Nativity. See the _Carnal and the Crane_.
An interpolation in a late Greek MS. of the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus relates that Judas, having failed to induce the Jews to take back the thirty pieces of silver, went home to hang himself, and found his wife roasting a cock. On his demand for a rope to hang himself, she asked why he intended to do so; and he told her he had betrayed his master Jesus to evil men, who would kill him; yet he would rise again on the third day. His wife was incredulous, and said, ‘Sooner shall this cock, roasting over the coals, crow again’; whereat the cock napped his wings and crew thrice. And Judas, confirmed in the truth, straightway made a noose in the rope, and hanged himself.
Thence the miracle-tale spread over Europe. In a Spanish version not only the cock crows, but his partner the hen lays an egg, in asseveration of the truth. The tale is generally connected with the legend of the Pilgrims of St. James; so in French, Spanish, Dutch, Wendish, and Breton ballads.
In 1701 there was printed in London a broadside sheet of carols, headed with a woodcut of the Nativity, by the side of which is printed: ‘A religious man, inventing the conceits of both birds and beasts drawn in the picture of our Saviour’s birth, doth thus express them:-- The cock croweth _Christus natus est_, Christ is born. The raven asked _Quando?_ When? The crow replied _Hac nocte_, This night. The ox cryeth out _Ubi? Ubi?_ Where? where? The sheep bleated out _Bethlehem_’ (Hone’s _Every-day Book_).
SAINT STEPHEN AND KING HEROD
1. Seynt Stevene was a clerk in kyng Herowdes halle, And servyd him of bred and cloth, as every kyng befalle.
2. Stevyn out of kechoun cam wyth boris hed on honde, He saw a sterre was fayr and brycht over Bedlem stonde.
3. He kyst adoun the bores hed, and went in to the halle; ‘I forsak the, kyng Herowdes, and thi werkes alle.
4. ‘I forsak the, kyng Herowdes, and thi werkes alle, Ther is a chyld in Bedlem born is beter than we alle.’
5. ‘Quat eylyt the, Stevene? quat is the befalle? Lakkyt the eyther mete or drynk in kyng Herodwes halle?’
6. ‘Lakit me neyther mete ne drynk in king Herowdes halle; There is a chyld in Bedlem born, is beter than we alle.’
7. ‘Quat eylyt the, Stevyn? art thou wod? or thou gynnyst to brede? Lakkyt the eyther gold or fe, or ony ryche wede?’
8. ‘Lakyt me neyther gold ne fe, ne non ryche wede; Ther is a chyld in Bedlem born, schal helpyn us at our nede.’