Part 56

A young lord, Willie, asks his ‘gay lady’ whose the child is that she is going with. She owns that a priest is the father, which does not appear to disconcert Willie. A boy is born, and the mother charges Willie to throw him into the sea, ‘never to return till white fish he bring hame.’ Willie takes the boy (now called his son) to his mother, and tells her that his ‘bride’ is a king’s daughter; upon which his mother, who had had an ill opinion of the lady, promises to do as well by Willie’s son as she had done by Willie. Returning to his wife, he finds her weeping and repining for the ‘white fisher’ that she had ‘sent to the sea.’ Willie offers her a cordial; she says that the man who could have drowned her son would be capable of poisoning her. Willie then tells her that his mother has the boy in charge; she is consoled, and declares that if he had not been the father she should not have been the mother.

To make this story hang together at all, we must suppose that the third and fourth stanzas are tropical, and that Willie was the priest; or else that they are sarcastic, and are uttered in bitter resentment of Willie’s suspicion, or affected suspicion. But we need not trouble ourselves much to make these counterfeits reasonable. Those who utter them rely confidently upon our taking folly and jargon as the marks of genuineness. The white fisher is a trumpery fancy; 2, 7, 8, 12 are frippery commonplaces.

* * * * *

1 ‘It is a month, and isna mair, Love, sin I was at thee, But find a stirring in your side; Who may the father be?

2 ‘Is it to a lord of might, Or baron of high degree? Or is it to the little wee page That rode along wi me?’

3 ‘It is not to a man of might, Nor baron of high degree, But it is to a popish priest; My lord, I winna lie.

4 ‘He got me in my bower alone, As I sat pensively; He vowed he would forgive my sins, If I would him obey.’

5 Now it fell ance upon a day This young lord went from home, And great and heavy were the pains That came this lady on.

6 Then word has gane to her gude lord, As he sat at the wine, And when the tidings he did hear Then he came singing hame.

7 When he came to his own bower-door, He tirled at the pin: ‘Sleep ye, wake ye, my gay lady, Ye’ll let your gude lord in.’

8 Huly, huly raise she up, And slowly put she on, And slowly came she to the door; She was a weary woman.

9 ‘Ye’ll take up my son, Willie, That ye see here wi me, And hae him down to yon shore-side, And throw him in the sea.

10 ‘Gin he sink, ye’ll let him sink, Gin he swim, ye’ll let him swim; And never let him return again Till white fish he bring hame.’

11 Then he’s taen up his little young son, And rowd him in a band, And he is on to his mother, As fast as he could gang.

12 ‘Ye’ll open the door, my mother dear, Ye’ll open, let me come in; My young son is in my arms twa, And shivering at the chin.’

13 ‘I tauld you true, my son Willie, When ye was gaun to ride, That lady was an ill woman That ye chose for your bride.’

14 ‘O hold your tongue, my mother dear, Let a’ your folly be; I wat she is a king’s daughter That’s sent this son to thee.

15 ‘I wat she was a king’s daughter I loved beyond the sea, And if my lady hear of this Right angry will she be.’

16 ‘If that be true, my son Willie— Your ain tongue winna lie— Nae waur to your son will be done Than what was done to thee.’

17 He’s gane hame to his lady, And sair mourning was she: ‘What ails you now, my lady gay, Ye weep sa bitterlie?’

18 ‘O bonny was the white fisher That I sent to the sea; But lang, lang will I look for fish Ere white fish he bring me!

19 ‘O bonny was the white fisher That ye kiest in the faem; But lang, lang will I look for fish Ere white fish he fetch hame!

20 ‘I fell a slumbering on my bed That time ye went frae me, And dreamd my young son filld my arms, But when waked, he’s in the sea.’

21 ‘O hold your tongue, my gay lady, Let a’ your mourning be, And I’ll gie you some fine cordial, My love, to comfort thee.’

22 ‘I value not your fine cordial, Nor aught that ye can gie; Who could hae drownd my bonny young son Could as well poison me.’

28 ‘Cheer up your heart, my lily flower, Think nae sic ill o me; Your young son’s in my mother’s bower, Set on the nourice knee.

24 ‘Now, if ye’ll be a gude woman, I’ll neer mind this to thee; Nae waur is done to your young son Than what was done to me.’

25 ‘Well fell’s me now, my ain gude lord; These words do cherish me; If it hadna come o yoursell, my lord, ‘T would neer hae come o me.’

* * * * *

7^3. Ye sleep ye, wake ye.

265

THE KNIGHT’S GHOST

‘The Knight’s Ghost,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 227.

A lady who is expecting the return of her lord from sea goes down to the strand to meet him. The ship comes in, but the sailors tell her that she will never see her husband; he has been slain. She invites the men to drink with her, takes them down to the cellar, makes them drunk, locks the door, and bids them lie there for the bad news they have told; then she throws the keys into the sea, to lie there till her lord returns. After these efforts she falls asleep in her own room, and her dead lord starts up at her feet; he brings the keys with him, and charges her to release his men, who had done their best for him and were not to blame for his death. The lady, to turn this visit to the more account, asks to be informed what day she is to die, and what day to be buried. The knight is not empowered to answer, but, come to heaven when she will, he will be her porter. He sees no objection to telling her that she will be married again and have nine children, six ladies free and three bold young men.

The piece has not a perceptible globule of old blood in it, yet it has had the distinction of being more than once translated as a specimen of Scottish popular ballads. ‘Monie’ in 2^2 may be plausibly read, or understood, ‘menie,’ retinue; still the antecedent presumption in favor of nonsense in ballads of this class makes one hesitate. 7^{3,4} is unnatural; no dissembling would be required to induce the young men to drink. In 8^3, ‘birled them wi the beer’ is what we should expect, not ‘birled wi them.’

Translated by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder der Vorzeit, p. 57, No 13; by Gerhard, p. 154.

* * * * *

1 ‘There is a fashion in this land, And even come to this country, That every lady should meet her lord When he is newly come frae sea:

2 ‘Some wi hawks, and some wi hounds, And other some wi gay monie; But I will gae myself alone, And set his young son on his knee.’

3 She’s taen her young son in her arms, And nimbly walkd by yon sea-strand, And there she spy’d her father’s ship, As she was sailing to dry land.

4 ‘Where hae ye put my ain gude lord, This day he stays sae far frae me?’ ‘If ye be wanting your ain gude lord, A sight o him ye’ll never see.’

5 ‘Was he brunt? or was he shot? Or was he drowned in the sea? Or what’s become o my ain gude lord, That he will neer appear to me?’

6 ‘He wasna brunt, nor was he shot, Nor was he drowned in the sea; He was slain in Dumfermling, A fatal day to you and me.’

7 ‘Come in, come in, my merry young men, Come in and drink the wine wi me; And a’ the better ye shall fare For this gude news ye tell to me.’

8 She’s brought them down to yon cellar, She brought them fifty steps and three; She birled wi them the beer and wine, Till they were as drunk as drunk could be.

9 Then she has lockd her cellar-door, For there were fifty steps and three: ‘Lie there, wi my sad malison, For this bad news ye’ve tauld to me.’

10 She’s taen the keys intill her hand And threw them deep, deep in the sea: ‘Lie there, wi my sad malison, Till my gude lord return to me.’

11 Then she sat down in her own room, And sorrow lulld her fast asleep, And up it starts her own gude lord, And even at that lady’s feet.

12 ‘Take here the keys, Janet,’ he says, ‘That ye threw deep, deep in the sea; And ye’ll relieve my merry young men, For they’ve nane o the swick o me.

13 ‘They shot the shot, and drew the stroke, And wad in red bluid to the knee; Nae sailors mair for their lord coud do Nor my young men they did for me.’

14 ‘I hae a question at you to ask, Before that ye depart frae me; You’ll tell to me what day I’ll die, And what day will my burial be?’

15 ‘I hae nae mair o God’s power Than he has granted unto me; But come to heaven when ye will, There porter to you I will be.

16 ‘But ye’ll be wed to a finer knight Than ever was in my degree; Unto him ye’ll hae children nine, And six o them will be ladies free.

17 ‘The other three will be bold young men, To fight for king and countrie; The ane a duke, the second a knight, And third a laird o lands sae free.’

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS

VOL. I.

1. Riddles Wisely Expounded.

Pp. 1–3, 484; II, 495 a. #Little-Russian#. Three lads give a girl riddles. ‘If you guess right, shall you be ours?’ Golovatsky, II, 83, 19. Two other pieces in the same, III, 180, 55. (W. W.)

A king’s daughter, or other maid, makes the reading of her riddles a condition of marriage in several Polish tales; it may be further stipulated that a riddle shall be also given which the woman cannot guess, or that those who fail shall forfeit their life. Karłowicz in Wisła, III, 258, 270, where are cited, besides a MS. communication, Zbiór wiadomości do antropologii krajowej, V, 194, VII, 12; Gli[‘n]ski, Bajarz Polski, III, No 1; Kolberg, Krakowskie, IV, 204.

2. The Elfin Knight.

P. 7 a. The last two stanzas of #F# are also in Kinloch MSS, V, 275, with one trivial variation, and the burden, ‘And then, etc.’

Sir Walter Scott had a copy beginning, ‘There lived a wife in the wilds of Kent:’ Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1880, p. 147 f.

7 b, 484 a. Add: #P#, #Q#, Hruschka u. Toischer, Deutsche Volkslieder aus Böhmen, p. 171, No 124, a, b.

7 b, III, 496 a. ‘Store Fordringer,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 342, No 85 (with the stupid painted roses).

7 f, 484 a, II, 495 a, III, 496 a. Add: ‘I tre Tamburi,’ Ferraro, C. P. del Basso Monferrato, p. 52; ‘Il Compito,’ Romaic, Tommaseo, III, 13 (already cited by Nigra).

8 a, II, 495 a. Tasks. #Servian# ballads. Karadžić, Sr. n. pj., I, 164, No 240, ‘The Spinster and the Tsar;’ I, 165, No 242, ‘The Spinster and the Goldsmith.’ Cf. I, 166, No 243. Also, Karadžić, Sr. n. pj. iz Herz., p. 217, No 191; Petranović, I, 13, No 16 (where the girl’s father sets the tasks), and p. 218, No 238; Rajković, p. 209, No 237. #Bulgarian.# Collection of the Bulgarian Ministry of Public Instruction, II, 31, 3; III, 28, 4. Cf. Verković, p. 52, 43; Bezsonov, II, 74, 105; Miladinof, p. 471, 536. #Russian.# An episode in the old Russian legend of Prince Peter of Murom and his wife Fevronija, three versions: Kušelev-Bezborodko, Monuments of Old Russian Literature, I, 29 ff. (W. W.)

Wit-contests in verse, the motive of love or marriage having probably dropped out. Polish. Five examples are cited by Karłowicz, Wisła, III, 267 ff.: Kolberg, Krakowskie, II, 149, and Mazowsze, II, 149, No 332, Zbiór wiad. do antrop., X, 297, No 217, and two not before printed. Moravian examples from Sušil, p. 692 f., No 809, p. 701 ff., No 815: make me a shirt without needle or thread, twist me silk out of oaten straw; count me the stars, build me a ladder to go up to them; drain the Red Sea, make me a bucket that will hold it; etc. Zapolski, White Russian Weddings and Wedding-Songs, p. 35, No 19. Wisła, as before, III, 532 ff.

Polish tales of The Clever Wench are numerous: Wisła, III, 270 ff.

13 b. A fragment of a riddle given by a wise man to the gods is preserved in a cuneiform inscription: [What is that] which is in the house? which roars like a bull? which growls like a bear? which enters into the heart of a man? etc. The answer is evidently air, wind. George Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis, 1876, p. 156 : cited by J. Karłowicz, Wisła, III, 273.

15–20, 484 f., II, 495 f. Communicated by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. “From the north of Cornwall, near Camelford. This used to be sung as a sort of game in farm-houses, between a young man who went outside the room and a girl who sat on the settle or a chair, and a sort of chorus of farm lads and lasses. Now quite discontinued.” The dead lover represents the auld man in #I#.

1 A fair pretty maiden she sat on her bed, The wind is blowing in forest and town She sighed and she said, O my love he is dead! And the wind it shaketh the acorns down

2 The maiden she sighed; ‘I would,’ said she, ‘That again my lover might be with me!’

3 Before ever a word the maid she spake, But she for fear did shiver and shake.

4 There stood at her side her lover dead; ‘Take me by the hand, sweet love,’ he said.

5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 ‘Thou must buy me, my lady, a cambrick shirt, Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine And stitch it without any needle-work. O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine

7 ‘And thou must wash it in yonder well, Whilst, etc. Where never a drop of water in fell. O and thus, etc.

8 ‘And thou must hang it upon a white thorn That never has blossomed since Adam was born.

9 ‘And when that these tasks are finished and done I’ll take thee and marry thee under the sun.’

10 ‘Before ever I do these two and three, I will set of tasks as many to thee.

11 ‘Thou must buy for me an acre of land Between the salt ocean and the yellow sand.

12 ‘Thou must plough it oer with a horse’s horn, And sow it over with one peppercorn.

13 ‘Thou must reap it too with a piece of leather, And bind it up with a peacock’s feather.

14 ‘And when that these tasks are finished and done, O then will I marry thee under the sun.’

15 ‘Now thou hast answered me well,’ he said, The wind, etc. ‘Or thou must have gone away with the dead.’ And the wind, etc.

16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mr Frank Kidsen has given a copy of ‘Scarborough Fair,’ with some better readings, as sung “in Whitby streets twenty or thirty years ago,” in Traditional Tunes, p. 43, 1891.

* * * * *

1–4, _second line of burden_, true love.

2^2. Without any seam or needlework.

3^1. yonder dry well.

3^2. no water sprung.

4^1. Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn.

4^2. Which never bore blossom since.

5, 6. _Wanting._

7^1. O will you find me.

7^2. Between the sea-foam [and] the sea-sand. Or never be a true lover of mine.

8^1. O will you plough.

9^1. O will you reap it.

9^2. And tie it all up.

10^1. And when you have done and finished your work.

10^2. You may come to me for your. And then you shall be a. _At p. 172, the first stanza of another version is given, with_ Rue, parsley, rosemary and thyme _for the first line of the burden_.

3. The Fause Knight upon the Road.

Pp. 20, 485 (also, 14 a, 484 a), III, 496 a. Foiling mischievous sprites and ghosts by getting the last word, or prolonging talk till the time when they must go, especially the noon-sprite: Wisła, III, 275 f., and notes 44–6; also, 269 f. The Wends have the proverbial phrase, to ask as many questions as a noon-sprite. The Poles have many stories of beings that take service without wages, on condition of no fault being found, and make off instantly upon the terms being broken.

20, III, 496 a. The last verses of ‘Tsanno d’Oymé,’ Daymard, Vieux Chants pop. recueillis en Quercy, p. 70, are after the fashion of this ballad.

‘Tsano d’Oymé, atal fuessés négado!’ ‘Lou fil del rey, et bous né fuessés l’aygo!’

‘Tsano d’Oymé, atal fuessés brullado!’ ‘Lou fil del rey, et bous fuessés las clappos!’

4. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight.

P. 24 a. A copy in Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 236, ‘May Colvine and Fause Sir John’ (of which no account is given), is a free compilation from #D b#, #D a#, and #C c#.

The Gaelic tale referred to by Jamieson may be seen, as Mr Macmath has pointed out to me, in Rev. Alexander Stewart’s ’Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe, Edinburgh, 1885, p. 205 ff. Dr Stewart gives nine stanzas of a Gaelic ballad, and furnishes an English rendering. The story has no connection with that of No 4.

25 b, note. ‘Halewyn en het kleyne Kind,’ in the first volume of the MS. Poésies pop. de la France, was communicated by Crussemaker, and is the same piece that he printed. Other copies in Lootens et Feys, No 45, p. 85 (see p. 296); Volkskunde, II, 194, ‘Van Mijn-heerken van Bruindergestem.’

27 a, note †. Add: MacInness, Folk and Hero Tales [Gaelic], p. 301, a Highland St George: see I, 487, note.

27 f. Professor Bugge, Arkiv för nordisk Filologi, VII, 120–36, 1891, points out that a Swedish ballad given in Grundtvig, D. g. F. IV, 813 f., #F#, and here referred to under ‘Hind Etin,’ I, 364 b, as Swedish #C#, has resemblances with ‘Kvindemorderen.’ Fru Malin is combing her hair _al fresco_, when a suitor enters her premises; he remarks that a crown would sit well on her head. The lady skips off to her chamber, and exclaims, Christ grant he may wish to be mine! The suitor follows her, and asks, Where is the fair dame who wishes to be mine? But when Fru Malin comes to table she is in trouble, and the suitor puts her several leading questions. She is sad, not for any of several reasons suggested, but for the bridge under which her seven sisters (syskon) lie. ‘Sorrow not,’ he says, ‘we shall build the bridge so broad and long that four-and-twenty horses may go over at a time.’ They pass through a wood; on the bridge her horse stumbles, and she is thrown into the water. She cries for help; she will give him her gold crown. He cares nothing for the crown, and never will help her out. Bugge maintains that this ballad is not, as Grundtvig considered it, a compound of ‘Nökkens Svig’ and ‘Harpens Kraft,’ but an independent ballad, ‘The Bride Drowned,’ of a set to which belong ‘Der Wasserman,’ Haupt and Schmaler, I, 62, No 34, and many German ballads: see Grundtvig, IV, 810 f, and here I, 365 f., 38.

29–37, 486 a. Add: #E E#, Hruschka u. Toischer, Deutsche Volkslieder aus Böhmen, p. 126, No 35. Like #Q#, p. 35.

39 ff. The Polish ballad ‘Jás i Kasia.’ Mr John Karłowicz has given, in Wisła, IV, 393–424, the results of a study of this ballad, and they are here briefly summarized.

Ten unprinted versions are there added to the large number already published, making about ninety copies, if fragments are counted. Copies not noted at I, 39, 486, are, besides these ten, the following. Kolberg, Krakowskie, II, 111, 168, Nos 208, 336; Kieleckie, II, 148, No 453; Leęczychie, p. 131, No 223; Lubelskie, I, 289 ff., Nos 473, 474; Pozna[‘n]skie, IV, 63, No 131; Mazowsze, III, 274, No 386, IV, 320, No 346. Zbiór wiadomości do antropologii krajowej, II, 78, Nos 89, 90; IV, 129; X, 123. Wisła, II, 132, 159. Prace filologiczne, II, 568. Keętrzy[‘n]ski, O Mazurach, p. 35, No 1. Zawili[‘n]ski, Z powieści i pieśni górali beskidowych, p. 88, No 66. Wasilewski, Jagodne, etc., No 120. Federowski, Lud okolic Żarek, etc., p. 102, No 49.

Most of the ten versions printed in Wisła agree with others previously published; in some there are novel details. In No 3, p. 398, Kasia, thrown into the water by her lover, is rescued by her brother. In No 10, p. 404, Jás, when drowning the girl, tells her that he has drowned four already, and she shall be the fifth; her brother comes sliding down a silken rope; fishermen take the girl out dead. There are still only two of all the Polish versions in which Catharine kills John, #A a#, #b#. The name Ligar, in the latter, points clearly, Mr Karłowicz remarks, to the U-linger, Ad-elger, Ol-legehr of the German versions, and he is convinced that the ballad came into Poland from Germany, although the girl is not drowned in the German ballad, as in the Polish, English, and French.

John, who is commonly the hero in the Polish ballad, is at the beginning of many copies declared to have sung, and the words have no apparent sense. But we observe that in the versions of western Europe the hero plays on the horn, sings a seductive song, promises to teach the girl to sing, etc.; the unmeaning Polish phrase is therefore a survival.

In many of the German versions a bird warns the maid of her danger. This feature is found once only in Polish: in Zawili[‘n]ski (No 69 A of Karłowicz).

At p. 777 of Sušil’s Moravian Songs there are two other versions which I have not noticed, the second of them manifestly derived from Poland.

There is a Little-Russian ballad which begins like the Polish ‘Jás i Kasia,’ but ends with the girl being tied to a tree and burned, instead of being drowned: Wisła, IV, 423, from Zbiór wiadom. do antrop., III, 150, No 17. Traces of the incident of the burning are also found in Polish and Moravian songs: Wisła, pp. 418–22. It is probable that there were two independent ballads, and that these have been confounded.

42 a, III, 497 a. #A#. Add: ‘Renaud et ses Femmes,’ Revue des Traditions Populaires, VI, 34.

43 a. ‘Lou Cros dé Proucinello,’ Daymard, Vieux Chants p. recueillis en Quercy, p. 130, has at the end two traits of this ballad. A young man carries off a girl whom he has been in love with seven years; he throws her into a ravine; as she falls, she catches at a tree; he cuts it away; she cries, What shall I do with my pretty gowns? and is answered, Give them to me for another mistress. Cf. also Daymard, p. 128.

43 b, III, 497 a. ‘La Fille de Saint-Martin.’ Add: ‘Le Mari Assassin,’ Chanson du pays de Caux, Revue des Traditions Populaires, IV, 133.

43 f., 488 a, III, 497. #Italian.# The ballad in Nannarelli (488 a) I have seen: it is like ‘La Monferrina incontaminata.’ Add: ‘La bella Inglese,’ Salvadori, in Giornale di Filologia Romanza, II, 201; ‘Un’ eroina,’ A. Giannini, Canzoni del Contado di Massa Lunense, No 1, Archivio, VIII, 273; [‘Montiglia’], [‘Inglesa’], Bolognini, Annuario degli Alpinisti Tridentini, XIII, Usi e Costumi del Trentino, 1888, p. 37 f.

44 b. ‘La Princesa Isabel,’ Pidal, Romancero Asturiano, p. 350 (sung by children as an accompaniment to a game), is a variety of ‘Rico Franco.’

45 a, 488 a. Another Portuguese version, ‘O caso de D. Ignez,’ Braga, Ampliações ao Romanceiro das Ilhas dos Açores, Revista Lusitana, I, 103.

45 b. Breton, 5. Marivonnic also in Quellien, Chansons et Danses des Bretons, 1889, p. 99.

50 b, note ǁ. As to this use of blood, cf. H. von Wlisłocki, Volksthümliches zum Armen Heinrich, Ztschr. f. deutsche Philologie, 1890, XXIII, 217 ff; Notes and Queries, 7th Series, VIII, 363. (G. L. K.)

55. #B#. A copy in Walks near Edinburgh, by Margaret Warrender, 1890, p. 104, differs from #B b# in only a few words, as any ordinary recollection would. As:

* * * * *

4^3, 6^3, 8^3. my guid steed.

9^4. It will gar our loves to twine.

10^4. An I’ll ring for you the bell.

11^3. Grant me ae kiss o your fause, fause mouth (_improbable reading_).

14^2. she won.

14^3. most heartily.

56 ff., 488 f., II, 497 f.