Part 3

In speaking of manuscripts, we must not omit to mention the Scottish collectors. Most of them went to work in the right way, seeking out aged men and women in out-of-the-way corners of Scotland, and taking down their ballads from their lips. If we condemn these editors for subsequently adorning the traditional versions, we must be grateful to them for preserving their manuscripts so that we can still read the ballads as they received them. The old ladies of Scotland seem to have possessed better memories than the old men. Besides Sir Walter Scott's anonymous 'Old Lady,' there was another to whom we owe some of the finest versions of the Scottish ballads. This was Mrs. Brown, daughter of Professor Gordon of Aberdeen. Born in 1747, she learned most of her ballads before she was twelve years old, or before 1759, from the singing of her aunt, Mrs. Farquhar of Braemar. From about twenty to forty years later, she repeated her ballads, first to Jamieson, and afterwards to William Tytler, each of whom compiled a manuscript. The latter, the Tytler-Brown MS., unfortunately is lost, but the ballads are practically all known from the other manuscript and various sources.

Perhaps the richest part of our stock are the Scottish and Border ballads. Beside them, most of our mawkish English ballads look pale and withered. The reason, perhaps, may be traced to the effect of natural surroundings on literature. The English ballads were printed or written down at a period which is early compared with the date of collection of the Scottish ballads. In fact, it is only during the last hundred and thirty years that the ballads of Scotland have been recovered from oral tradition. In mountainous districts, where means of communication and intercourse are naturally limited, tradition dies more hard than in countries where there are no such barriers. Moreover, as Professor Child points out, 'oral transmission by the unlettered is not to be feared nearly so much as by minstrels, nor by minstrels nearly so much as modern editors.' Svend Grundtvig illustrates this from his twenty-nine versions of the Danish ballad 'Ribold and Guldborg.' In versions from recitation, he has shown that there occur certain verses which have never been printed, but which are found in old manuscripts; and these recited versions also contain verses which have never been either printed or written down in Danish, but which are to be found still in recitation, not only in Norwegian and Swedish versions, but even in Icelandic tradition of two hundred years' standing.

Such, then, is the history of our ballads, so far as it may be stated in a few pages. With regard to origins, the 'nebular' theory cannot be summarily dismissed;[13] but, after weighing the evidence and arguments, the balance of probability would seem to lie with the supporters of the 'artistic' theory in a modified form. The ballad may say, with Topsy, 'Spec's I growed'; but _vires adquirit eundo_ is only true of the ballad to a certain point; progress, which includes the invention of printing and the absorption into cities of the unsophisticated rural population, has since killed the oral circulation of the ballad. Thus it was not an unmixed evil that in the Middle Ages, as a rule, the ballads were neglected; for this neglect, while it rendered the discovery of their sources almost impossible, gave the ballads for a time into the safe-keeping of their natural possessors, the common people. Civilisation, advancing more swiftly in some countries than in others, has left rich stores here, and little there. Our close kinsmen of Denmark, and the rest of Scandinavia, possess a ballad-literature of which they do well to be proud; and Spain is said to have inherited even better legacies. A study of our native ballads yields much interest, much delight, and much regret that the gleaning is comparatively so small. But what we still have is of immense value. The ballads may not be required again to revoke English literature from flights into artificiality and subjectivity; but they form a leaf in the life of the English people, they uphold the dignity of human nature, they carry us away to the legends, the romances, the beliefs, the traditions of our ancestors, and take us out of ourselves to 'fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.'

[Footnote 13: Professor Gummere (_The Beginnings of Poetry_) is perhaps the strongest champion of this theory, and takes an extreme view.]

BALLADS IN THE FIRST SERIES

The only possible method of classifying ballads is by their subject-matter; and even thus the lines of demarcation are frequently blurred. It is, however, possible to divide them roughly into several main classes, such as ballads of romance and chivalry; ballads of superstition and of the supernatural; Arthurian, historical, sacred, domestic ballads; ballads of Robin Hood and other outlaws; and so forth.

The present volume is concerned with ballads of romance and chivalry; but it is useless to press too far the appropriateness of this title. _The Nutbrown Maid_, for instance, is not a true ballad at all, but an amoebaean idyll, or dramatic lyric. But, on the whole, these ballads chiefly tell of life, love, death, and human passions, of revenge and murder and heroic deed.

'These things are life: And life, some think, is worthy of the Muse.'

They are left unexpurgated, as they came down to us: to apologise for things now left unsaid would be to apologise not only for the heroic epoch in which they were born, but also for human nature.

And how full of life that heroic epoch was! Of what stature must Lord William's steed have been, if Lady Maisry could hear him sneeze a mile away! How chivalrous of Gawaine to wed an ugly bride to save his king's promise, and how romantic and delightful to discover her on the morrow to have changed into a well-fared may!

The popular Muse regards not probability. Old Robin, who hails from Portugal, marries the daughter of the mayor of Linne, that unknown town so dear to ballads. In _Young Bekie_, Burd Isbel's heart is wondrous sair to find, on liberating her lover, that the bold rats and mice have eaten his yellow hair. We must not think of objecting that the boldest rat would never eat a live prisoner's hair, but only applaud the picturesque indication of durance vile.

In the same ballad, Burd Isbel, 'to keep her from thinking lang'--a prevalent complaint--is told to take 'twa marys' on her journey. We suddenly realise how little there was to amuse the Burd Isbels of yore. Twa marys provide a week's diversion. Otherwise her only occupation would have been to kemb her golden hair, or perhaps, like Fair Annie, drink wan water to preserve her complexion.

But if their occupations were few, their emotions and affections were strong. Ellen endures insult after insult from Child Waters with the faithful patience of a Griselda. Hector the hound recognises Burd Isbel after years of separation. Was any lord or lady in need of a messenger, there was sure to be a little boy at hand to run their errand soon, faithful unto death. On receipt of painful news, they kicked over the table, and the silver plate flew into the fire. When roused, men murdered with a brown sword, and ladies with a penknife. We are left uncertain whether the Cruel Mother did not also 'howk' a grave for her murdered babe with that implement.

But readers will easily pick out and enjoy for themselves other instances of the naive and picturesque in these ballads.

GLOSSARY OF BALLAD COMMONPLACES

There survive in ballads a few conventional phrases, some of which appear to have been preserved by tradition beyond an understanding of their import. I give here short notes on a few of the more interesting phrases and words which appear in the present volume, the explanations being too cumbrous for footnotes.

+Bow.+

'bent his bow and swam,' _Lady Maisry_, 21.2; _Johney Scot_, 10.2; _Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet_, 12.2; etc.

'set his bent bow to his breast,' _Lady Maisry_, 22.3; _Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet_, 13.3; _Fause Footrage_, 33.1; etc.

Child attempts no explanation of this striking phrase, which, I believe, all editors have either openly or silently neglected. Perhaps 'bent' may mean _un_-bent, _i.e._ with the string of the bow slacked. If so, for what reason was it done before swimming? We can understand that it would be of advantage to keep the string dry, but how is it better protected when unstrung? Or, again, was it carried unstrung, and literally 'bent' before swimming? Or was the bow solid enough to be of support in the water?

Some one of these explanations may satisfy the first phrase (as regards swimming); but why does the messenger 'set his bent bow to his breast' before leaping the castle wall? It seems to me that the two expressions must stand or fall together; therefore the entire lack of suggestions to explain the latter phrase drives me to distrust of any of the explanations given for the former.

A suggestion recently made to me appears to dispose of all difficulties; and, once made, is convincing in its very obviousness. It is, that 'bow' means 'elbow,' or simply 'arm.' The first phrase then exhibits the commonest form of ballad-conventionalities, picturesque redundancy: the parallel phrase is 'he slacked his shoon and ran.' In the second phrase it is, indeed, necessary to suppose the wall to be breast-high; the messenger places one elbow on the wall, pulls himself up, and vaults across.

Lexicographers distinguish between the Old English _b[-o]g_ or _b[-o]h_ (O.H.G. buog = arm; Sanskrit, bahu-s = arm), which means arm, arch, bough, or bow of a ship; and the Old English _boga_ (O.H.G. bogo), which means the archer's bow. The distinction is continued in Middle English, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Instances of the use of the word as equivalent to 'arm' may be found in Old English in _King Alfred's Translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care_ (E.E.T.S., 1871, ed. H. Sweet) written in West Saxon dialect of the ninth century.

It is true that the word does not survive elsewhere in this meaning, but I give the suggestion for what it is worth.

+Briar.+

'briar and rose,' _Douglas Tragedy_, 18, 19, 20; _Fair Margaret and Sweet William_, 18, 19, 20; _Lord Lovel_, 9, 10; etc.

'briar and birk,' _Lord Thomas and Fair Annet_, 29, 30; _Fair Janet_, 30; etc.

'roses,' _Lady Alice_, 5, 6. (See introductory note to _Lord Lovel_, p. 67.)

The ballads which exhibit this pleasant conception that, after death, the spirits of unfortunate lovers pass into plants, trees, or flowers springing from their graves, are not confined to European folklore. Besides appearing in English, Gaelic, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, French, Roumanian, Romaic, Portuguese, Servian, Wendish, Breton, Italian, Albanian, Russian, etc., we find it occurring in Afghanistan and Persia. As a rule, the branches of the trees intertwine; but in some cases they only bend towards each other, and kiss when the wind blows.

In an Armenian tale a curious addition is made. A young man, separated by her father from his sweetheart because he was of a different religion, perished with her, and the two were buried by their friends in one grave. Roses grew from the grave, and sought to intertwine, but a _thorn-bush_ sprang up between them and prevented it. The thorn here is symbolical of religious belief.

+Pin.+

'thrilled upon a pin,' _Glasgerion_, 10.2.

'knocked at the ring,' _Fair Margaret and Sweet William_, 11.2.

(_Cp._ 'lifted up the pin,' _Fair Janet_, 14.2.)

Throughout the Scottish ballads the expression is 'tirl'd at the pin,' _i.e._ rattled or twisted the pin.

The pin appears to have been the external part of the door-latch, attached by day thereto by means of a leathern thong, which at night was disconnected with the latch to prevent any unbidden guest from entering. Thus any one 'tirling at the pin' does not attempt to open the door, but signifies his presence to those within.

The ring was merely part of an ordinary knocker, and had nothing to do with the latching of the door.

+Sword.+

'bright brown sword,' _Glasgerion_, 22.1; _Old Robin of Portingale_, 22.1; _Child Maurice_, 26.1, 27.1; 'good browne sword,' _Marriage of Sir Gawaine_, 24.3; etc.

'dried it on his sleeve,' _Glasgerion_, 22.2; _Child Maurice_, 27.2 ('on the grasse,' 26.2); 'straiked it o'er a strae,' _Bonny Birdy_, 15.2; 'struck it across the plain,' _Johney Scot_, 32.2; etc.

In Anglo-Saxon, the epithet 'brun' as applied to a sword has been held to signify either that the sword was of bronze, or that the sword gleamed. It has further been suggested that sword-blades may have been artificially bronzed, like modern gun-barrels.

'Striped it thro' the straw' and many similar expressions all refer to the whetting of a sword, generally just before using it. Straw (unless 'strae' and 'straw' mean something else) would appear to be very poor stuff on which to sharpen swords, but Glasgerion's sleeve would be even less effective; perhaps, however, 'dried' should be 'tried.' Johney Scot sharpened his sword on the ground.

+Miscellaneous.+

'gare' = gore, part of a woman's dress; _Brown Robin_, 10.4; cp. _Glasgerion_, 19.4.

Generally of a knife, apparently on a chatelaine. But in _Lamkin_ 12.2, of a man's dress.

'Linne,' 'Lin,' _Young Bekie_, 5.4; _Old Robin of Portingale_, 2.1.

A stock ballad-locality, castle or town. Perhaps to be identified with the city of Lincoln, perhaps with Lynn, or King's Lynn, in Norfolk, where pilgrims of the fourteenth century visited the Rood Chapel of Our Lady of Lynn, on their way to Walsingham; with equal probability it is not to be identified at all with any known town.

'shot-window,' _Gay Goshawk_, 8.3; _Brown Robin_, 3.3; _Lamkin_, 7.3; etc.

This commonplace phrase seems to vary in meaning. It may be 'a shutter of timber with a few inches of glass above it' (Wodrow's _History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1721-2, 2 vols., in vol. ii. p. 286); it may be simply 'a window to open and shut,' as Ritson explains it; or again, as is implied in Jamieson's _Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, an out-shot window, or bow-window. The last certainly seems to be intended in certain instances.

'thought lang' _Young Bekie_, 16.4; _Brown Adam_, 5.2; _Johney Scot_, 6.2; _Fause Footrage_, 25.2; etc.

This simply means 'thought it long,' or 'thought it slow,' as we should say in modern slang; in short, 'was bored,' or 'weary.'

'wild-wood swine,' a simile for drunkenness, _Brown Robin_, 7.4; _Fause Footrage_, 16.4.

_Cp._ Shakespeare, _All's Well that Ends Well_, Act IV. 3, 286: 'Drunkenness is his best virtue; for he will be swine-drunk.' It seems to be nothing more than a popular comparison.

LIST OF BOOKS FOR BALLAD STUDY FOR ENGLISH READERS

A.--The Literary History of Ballads

The Introductions, etc., to the Collections of Ballads in List B.

1861. _David Irving._ History of Scottish Poetry.

1871. _Thomas Warton._ History of English Poetry, ed. W. Carew Hazlitt. 4 vols.

1875. _Andrew Lang._ Article in Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th edition), vol. iii.

1876. _Stopford Brooke._ English Literature. New edition, enlarged, 1897.

1883. _W. W. Newell._ Games and Songs of American Children. New York.

1887. _Andrew Lang._ Myth, Ritual, and Religion. 2 vols.

1893. _John Veitch._ History and Poetry of the Scottish Border. 2 vols.

1893. _F. J. Child._ Article 'Ballads' in Johnson's Cyclopaedia, vol. i. pp. 464-6.

1895-97. _W. J. Courthope._ A History of English Poetry. Vols. i. and ii.

1897. _G. Gregory Smith._ The Transition Period: being vol. iv. of Periods of English Literature, ed. G. Saintsbury.

1898. _Andrew Lang_ in _Quarterly Review_ for July.

1901. _F. B. Gummere._ The Beginnings of Poetry.

1903. _E. K. Chambers._ The Mediaeval Stage. 2 vols.

1903. _Andrew Lang_ in _Folk-Lore_ for June.

1903. _J. H. Millar._ A Literary History of Scotland.

B.--Collections of Ballads

[_This list does not pretend to be exhaustive, but to give the more important collections, especially those containing trustworthy Introductions._]

1723-25. A Collection of Old Ballads, corrected from the best and most ancient copies extant. 3 vols. London.

1724. _Allan Ramsay._ The Ever-Green. 2 vols. Edinburgh.

1724-27. _Allan Ramsay._ The Tea-Table Miscellany. First eight editions in 3 vols., Edinburgh, Dublin, and London. Ninth and subsequent editions in four volumes, or four volumes in one, London.

1765. _Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore._ Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 3 vols. London.

1769. _David Herd._ The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. Edinburgh. The second edition, 1776, under a slightly different title. 2 vols. Edinburgh.

1781. _John Pinkerton._ Scottish Tragic Ballads. London.

1787-1803. _James Johnson._ The Scots Musical Museum. 6 vols. Edinburgh.

1790. _Joseph Ritson._ Ancient Songs, etc. London. (Printed 1787, dated 1790, and published 1792.)

1791. _Joseph Ritson._ Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry. London.

1794. _Joseph Ritson._ Scotish Song. 2 vols. London.

1795. " " Robin Hood. 2 vols. London.

1802-3. _Walter Scott._ Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. 3 vols. Kelso and Edinburgh.

1806. _Robert Jamieson._ Popular Ballads and Songs from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions. 2 vols. Edinburgh.

1808. _John Finlay._ Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads, chiefly ancient. 2 vols. Edinburgh.

1822. _Alexander Laing._ Scarce Ancient Ballads. Aberdeen.

1823. _Alexander Laing._ The Thistle of Scotland. Aberdeen.

1823. _Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe._ A Ballad Book. Edinburgh.

1824. _James Maidment._ A North Countrie Garland. Edinburgh.

1826. _Robert Chambers._ The Popular Rhymes of Scotland. Edinburgh.

1827. _George Kinloch._ Ancient Scottish Ballads. London and Edinburgh.

1827. _William Motherwell._ Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern. Glasgow.

1828. _Peter Buchan._ Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland. 2 vols. Edinburgh.

1834. The Universal Songster. 3 vols. London.

1845. _Alexander Whitelaw._ The Book of Scottish Ballads. Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London.

1846. _James Henry Dixon._ Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. London.

1847. _John Matthew Gutch._ A Lytyll Geste of Robin Hode. 2 vols. London.

1855-59. _William Chappell._ Popular Music of the Olden Time. 2 vols. London.

1857. _Robert Bell._ Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. London.

1857-59. _Francis James Child._ English and Scottish Ballads. 8 vols. 2nd edition, 1864.

1864. _William Allingham._ The Ballad Book. London.

1867-68. _J. W. Hales_ and _F. J. Furnivall_. Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript. 4 vols. London.

1882-98. _Francis James Child._ The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. 5 vols. Boston, New York, and London.

1895. _Andrew Lang._ Border Ballads. London: Lawrence and Bullen.

1897. _Andrew Lang._ A Collection of Ballads. London: Chapman and Hall's 'Diamond Library.'

1897. _Francis B. Gummere._ Old English Ballads. Boston, U.S.A. Athenaeum Press Series.

1902. _T. F. Henderson._ Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, by Sir Walter Scott. New edition. 3 vols. London.

NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

The illustrations on pp. 28, 75, and 118 are taken from Royal MS. 10. E. iv. (of the fourteenth century) in the British Museum, where they occur on folios 34 _verso_, 215 _recto_, and 254 _recto_ respectively. The designs in the original form a decorated margin at the foot of each page, and are outlined in ink and roughly tinted in three or four colours. Much use is made of them in the illustrations to J. J. Jusserand's _English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages_, where M. Jusserand rightly points out that this MS. 'has perhaps never been so thoroughly studied as it deserves.'

GLASGERION

Ther herde I pleyen on an harpe That souned bothe wel and sharpe, Orpheus ful craftely, And on his syde, faste by, Sat the harper Orion, And Eacides Chiron, And other harpers many oon, And the Bret[A] Glascurion.

--Chaucer, _Hous of Fame_, III.

+The Text+, from the Percy Folio, luckily is complete, saving an omission of two lines. A few obvious corrections have been introduced, and the Folio reading given in a footnote. Percy printed the ballad in the _Reliques_, with far fewer alterations than usual.

+The Story+ is also told in a milk-and-water Scotch version, _Glenkindie_, doubtless mishandled by Jamieson, who 'improved' it from two traditional sources. The admirable English ballad gives a striking picture of the horror of 'churles blood' proper to feudal days.

In the quotation above, Chaucer places Glascurion with Orpheus, Arion, and Chiron, four great harpers. It is not improbable that Glascurion and Glasgerion represent the Welsh bard Glas Keraint (Keraint the Blue Bard, the chief bard wearing a blue robe of office), said to have been an eminent poet, the son of Owain, Prince of Glamorgan.

The oath taken 'by oak and ash and thorn' (stanza 18) is a relic of very early times. An oath 'by corn' is in _Young Hunting_.

[Footnote A: From Skeat's edition: elsewhere quoted 'gret Glascurion.']

GLASGERION

1. Glasgerion was a king's own son, And a harper he was good; He harped in the king's chamber, Where cup and candle stood, And so did he in the queen's chamber, Till ladies waxed wood.

2. And then bespake the king's daughter, And these words thus said she: ... ... ... ... ... ...

3. Said, 'Strike on, strike on, Glasgerion, Of thy striking do not blin; There's never a stroke comes over this harp But it glads my heart within.'

4. 'Fair might you fall, lady,' quoth he; 'Who taught you now to speak? I have loved you, lady, seven year; My heart I durst ne'er break.'

5. 'But come to my bower, my Glasgerion, When all men are at rest; As I am a lady true of my promise, Thou shalt be a welcome guest.'

6. But home then came Glasgerion, A glad man, Lord, was he! 'And come thou hither, Jack, my boy, Come hither unto me.

7. 'For the king's daughter of Normandy Her love is granted me, And before the cock have crowen At her chamber must I be.'

8. 'But come you hither, master,' quoth he, 'Lay your head down on this stone; For I will waken you, master dear, Afore it be time to gone.'

9. But up then rose that lither lad, And did on hose and shoon; A collar he cast upon his neck, He seemed a gentleman.

10. And when he came to that lady's chamber, He thrilled upon a pin. The lady was true of her promise, Rose up, and let him in.

11. He did not take the lady gay To bolster nor no bed, But down upon her chamber-floor Full soon he hath her laid.

12. He did not kiss that lady gay When he came nor when he yode; And sore mistrusted that lady gay He was of some churles blood.

13. But home then came that lither lad, And did off his hose and shoon. And cast that collar from about his neck; He was but a churles son: 'Awaken,' quoth he, 'my master dear, I hold it time to be gone.

14. 'For I have saddled your horse, master, Well bridled I have your steed; Have not I served a good breakfast? When time comes I have need.'

15. But up then rose good Glasgerion, And did on both hose and shoon, And cast a collar about his neck; He was a kinges son.

16. And when he came to that lady's chamber, He thrilled upon a pin; The lady was more than true of her promise, Rose up, and let him in.

17. Says, 'Whether have you left with me Your bracelet or your glove? Or are you back returned again To know more of my love?'