Part 65

P. 108 a. Compare the Great-Russian bylinas about Il’ja of Murom and his son (daughter). Il’ja is captain of the march-keepers, Dobrynja second in command. No man, on foot or on horse, no bird or beast, undertakes to pass. But one day a young hero crosses, neither greeting nor paying toll. One of the guards, commonly Dobrynja, is sent after him, but comes back in a fright. Il’ja takes the matter in hand, has a fight with the young man, is worsted at first, but afterwards gets the better of him. Wollner, Volksepik der Grossrussen, p. 115. (W. W.)

141. Robin Hood rescuing Will Stutly.

P. 186. Stanzas 19, 20. The boon of being allowed to fight at odds, rather than be judicially executed, is of very common occurrence in South-Slavic songs, generally with the nuance that the hero asks to have the worst horse and the worst weapon. A well-known instance is the Servian song of Jurišić Janko, Karadžić, II, 319, No 52, and the older Croat song of Svilojević (treating the same matter), Bogišić, p. 120 No 46. (W. W.)

155. Sir Hugh, or, The Jew’s Daughter.

P. 241. For the subject in general, and particularly ‘el santo niño de la Guardia,’ see further H. C. Lea, in The English Historical Review, IV, 229, 1889.

242 b, fourth paragraph. See J. Loeb, Un mémoire de Laurent Ganganelli sur la calomnie du meurtre rituel, in Revue des Etudes juives, XVIII, 179 ff., 1889. (G. L. K.) For the other side: Il sangue cristiano nei riti ebraici della moderna sinagoga. Versione dal greco del Professore N. F. S. Prato, 1883. Henri Desportes, Le mystère du sang chez les Juifs de tous les temps. Paris, 1889.

246 b. #E# 5. The following stanza was inserted by Motherwell as a variation in a copy of his Minstrelsy afterwards acquired by Mr P. A. Ramsay:

She went down to the Jew’s garden, Where the grass grows lang and green, She pulled an apple aff the tree, Wi a red cheek and a green, She hung it on a gouden chain, To wile that bonnie babe in.

249 ff. A version resembling #H-M#, #O# has been kindly communicated by Mr P. Z. Round.

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S

Written down April, 1891, by Mrs W. H. Gill, of Sidcup, Kent, as recited to her in childhood by a maid-servant in London.

1 It rained so high, it rained so low, . . . . . . . In the Jew’s garden all below.

2 Out came a Jew, All clothëd in green, Saying, Come hither, come hither, my sweet little boy, And fetch your ball again.

3 ‘I won’t come hither, I shan’t come hither, Without my school-fellows all; My mother would beat me, my father would kill me, And cause my blood to pour.

4 ‘He showed me an apple as green as grass, He showed me a gay gold ring, He showed me a cherry as red as blood, And that enticed me in.

5 ‘He enticed me into the parlour, He enticed me into the kitchen, And there I saw my own dear sister, A picking of a chicken.

6 ‘He set me in a golden chair And gave me sugar sweet; He laid me on a dresser-board, And stabbed me like a sheep.

7 ‘With a Bible at my head, A Testament at my feet, A prayer-book at the side of me, And a penknife in so deep.

8 ‘If my mother should enquire for me, Tell her I’m asleep; Tell her I’m at heaven’s gate, Where her and I shall meet.’

156. Queen Eleanor’s Confession.

Pp. 258 ff.

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G

‘Earl Marshall,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 4 b, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of William Laidlaw.

1 The queen of England she is seek, And seek and like to dee; She has sent for friers out of France, To bespeek hir speed[i]ly.

2 The king has cald on his merrymen, By thirtys and by threes; Earl Marshall should have been the formest man, But the very last man was he.

3 ‘The queen of England s[h]e is seek, And seek and like to dee, And she has sent for friers out of France, To bespeek hir speedyly.

4 ‘But I will put on a frier’s weeg, And ye’l put on another, And we’ll away to Queen Helen gaits, Like friers both together.’

5 ‘O no, no,’ says Earl Marshall, ‘For this it must not be; For if the queen get word of that, High hanged I will be.’

6 ‘But I will swear by my septer and crown, And by the seas so free, I will swear by my septer and crown, Earl Marshall, thow’s no dee.’

7 So he has put on a frier’s wig, And the king has put on another, And they are away to Queen Helen gaits, Like friers both together.

8 When they came to Queen Helen gaits, They tirled at the pin; There was non so ready as the queene herself To open and let them in.

9 ‘O are you two Scottish dogs?— And hanged you shall be— Or are [you] friers come out of France, To bespeek me speedily?’

10 ‘We are not two Scottish dogs, Nor hanged we shall be; For we have not spoken a wrong word Since we came over the sea.’

11 ‘Well then, the very first that ever I sind I freely confess to thee; Earl Marshall took my maidenhead Below yon greenwood tree.’

12 ‘That is a sin, and very great sin, But the Pope will pardon thee;’ ‘Amene, Amene,’ says Earl Marshall, But a feert, feert heart had he.

13 ‘The very next sin that ever I sind I freely confess to thee; I had [poisen] seven years in my breast To poisen King Hendry.’

14 ‘That is a sin, and very great sin, But the Pope forgiveth thee;’ ‘Amene, Amene,’ says Earl Marshall, But a feert, feert heart had he.

15 ‘The very next sin that ever I sind I freely confess to thee; I poisened one of my court’s ladies, Was far more fairer than me.’

16 ‘That is a sin, and a very great sin, But the Pope forgiveth thee;’ ‘Amene, Amene,’ says Earl Marshall, But a feert, feert heart had he.

17 ‘Do you see yon bony boys, Playing at the baw? The oldest of them is Earl Marshall’s, And I like him best of all.’

18 ‘That is a sin, and very great sin, But the Pope forgiveth thee;’ ‘Amene, Amene,’ says Earl Marshall, But a feert, feert heart had he.

19 ‘Do ye see two bony [boys], Playing at the baw? The youngest of them is King Hendry’s, And I like him worst of all.

20 ‘Because he is headed like a bull, And his nose is like a boar;’ ‘What is the matter?’ says King Henry, ‘For he shall be my heir.’

21 Now he put off his frier’s wig And drest himself [in] red; She wrung hir hands, and tore hir hair, And s[w]ore she was betraid.

22 ‘Had I not sworn by my septer and crown, And by the seas so free, Had I not sworn by my septer and crown, Earl Marshall, thowst have died.’

4^2. yet.

4^3. will.

14^2. they.

19^2. is Earl Marshall’s.

158. Hugh Spencer’s Feats in France.

III, 276, note †. I had remarked that this ballad was after the fashion of Russian bylinas. Professor Wollner indicates especially the bylina of Dobrynja and Vasilij Kazimirović, which in a general way is singularly like ‘Hugh Spencer.’ In this very fine ballad, Vladimir is in arrears with his tribute to a Saracen king, and appoints Vasilij his envoy, to make payment. Vasilij asks that he may have Dobrynja go with him, and Dobrynja asks for Ivanuka’s company. (Compare #B#.) Dobrynja beats the king at chess and at the bow (which corresponds to the justing in the English ballad); then follows a great fight, the result of which is that the Saracen king is fain to pay tribute himself. Wollner, Volksepik der Grossrussen, pp. 123–125.

Other examples of difficult feats done in foreign lands, commonly by comrades of the hero, in Karadić, II, 445, 465, Nos 75, 79; also II, 132, No 29; and the Bulgarian Sbornik, II, 130, 1, 132, 3. (W. W.)

161. The Battle of Otterburn.

Pp. 294, 520. St George Our Lady’s Knight. ‘Swete Sainct George, our ladies knyght,’ Skelton, ‘Against the Scottes,’ v. 141, Dyce, I, 186; ‘Thankyd be Saynte Gorge our ladyes knythe,’ in the ‘Ballade of the Scottysche Kynge,’ p. 95 of the fac-simile edition by J. Ashton, 1882 (where the passage is somewhat different). In his note, II, 220, to the poem ‘Against the Scottes,’ Dyce remarks that St George is called Our Lady’s Knight “in a song written about the same time as the present poem, Cott. MS. Domit. A. xviii. fol. 248.” This appears to be the song quoted from the same MS. by Sir H. Ellis, Original Letters, First Series, I, 79:

‘Swet Sent Jorge, our Ladyes knyte, Save Kyng Hary bothe be day and nyȝth.’

In his Chorus de Dis, super triumphali victoria contra Gallos, etc., Skelton speaks of St George as Gloria Cappadocis divæ milesque Mariæ, v. 13; Dyce, I, 191. See also John Anstis, The Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, London, 1724, I, 122; II, 27, 48 f. (G. L. K.)

299. #C.# First published in the second edition of the Minstrelsy, 1803, I, 27. 1^{3,4} there read The doughty earl of Douglas rode Into England, to catch a prey; 31^1, Yield thee, O yield thee, etc., and 31^3, Whom to shall I yield, said, etc.

For his later edition of ‘The Battle of Otterburn,’ Scott says he used “two copies ... obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest.” James Hogg sent Scott, in a letter dated September 10 (1802?), twenty-nine stanzas “collected from two different people, a crazy old man and a woman deranged in her mind,” and subsequently recovered, by “pumping” his “old friends’ memory,” other lines and half lines out of which (using the necessary cement, and not a little) he built up eleven stanzas more, and these he seems to have forwarded in the same letter. These two communications are what is described by Scott as two copies. They will be combined here according to Hogg’s directions, and the second set of verses bracketed for distinction.

The materials out of which #C# was constructed can now easily be separated. We must bear in mind that Scott allowed himself a liberty of alteration; this he did not, however, carry very far in the present instance. 1–13, 15–19, 23 are taken, with slight change or none, from Hogg’s first “copy” of verses; 24, 26–29 from the second; 30–35 are repeated from Scott’s first edition. 14 is altered from #A# 16; 20=Hogg 21^{1,2} + Scott; 21=Hogg 22^1 + Hogg 35^{2–4}; 22=Hogg 23^{1,3} + Scott; 25=Hogg 28^1 + #B# 8^{2–4}. Scott did well to drop Hogg 9, and ought to have dropped Hogg 8.

“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 132, Abbotsford, stanzas 1–24, 35–38, 40; the same, No 5, stanzas 25–34, 39. Communicated to Scott, in a letter, by James Hogg.

1 It fell about the Lammas time, When the muir-men won their hay, That the doughty Earl Douglas went Into England to catch a prey.

2 He chose the Gordons and the Graemes, With the Lindsays light and gay; But the Jardines wadna wi him ride, And they rued it to this day.

3 And he has burnt the dales o Tine And part of Almonshire, And three good towers on Roxburgh fells He left them all on fire.

4 Then he marchd up to Newcastle, And rode it round about: ‘O whae’s the lord of this castle, Or whae’s the lady o ‘t?’

5 But up spake proud Lord Piercy then, And O but he spak hie! I am the lord of this castle, And my wife’s the lady gaye.’

6 ‘If you are lord of this castle, Sae weel it pleases me; For ere I cross the border again The ane of us shall die.’

7 He took a lang speir in his hand, Was made of the metal free, And for to meet the Douglas then He rode most furiously.

8 But O how pale his lady lookd, Frae off the castle wa, When down before the Scottish spear She saw brave Piercy fa!

9 How pale and wan his lady lookd, Frae off the castle hieght, When she beheld her Piercy yield To doughty Douglas’ might!

10 ‘Had we twa been upon the green, And never an eye to see, I should have had ye flesh and fell; But your sword shall gae wi me.’

11 ‘But gae you up to Otterburn, And there wait dayes three, And if I come not ere three days’ end A fause lord ca ye me.’

12 ‘The Otterburn’s a bonny burn, ’Tis pleasant there to be, But there is naught at Otterburn To feed my men and me.

13 ‘The deer rins wild owr hill and dale, The birds fly wild frae tree to tree, And there is neither bread nor kale To fend my men and me.

14 ‘But I will stay at Otterburn, Where you shall welcome be; And if ye come not ere three days’ end A coward I’ll ca thee.’

15 ‘Then gae your ways to Otterburn, And there wait dayes three; And if I come not ere three days’ end A coward ye’s ca me.’

16 They lighted high on Otterburn, Upon the bent so brown, They lighted high on Otterburn, And threw their pallions down.

17 And he that had a bonny boy Sent his horses to grass, And he that had not a bonny boy His ain servant he was.

18 But up then spak a little page, Before the peep of the dawn; ‘O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord, For Piercy’s hard at hand!’

19 ‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye loud liar, Sae loud I hear ye lie! The Piercy hadna men yestreen To dight my men and me.

20 ‘But I have seen a dreary dream, Beyond the isle o Sky; I saw a dead man won the fight, And I think that man was I.’

21 He belted on his good broad-sword And to the field he ran, Where he met wi the proud Piercy, And a’ his goodly train.

22 When Piercy wi the Douglas met, I wat he was right keen; They swakked their swords till sair they swat, And the blood ran them between.

23 But Piercy wi his good broad-sword, Was made o the metal free, Has wounded Douglas on the brow Till backward he did flee.

24 Then he calld on his little page, And said, Run speedily, And bring my ain dear sister’s son, Sir Hugh Montgomery.

25 [Who, when he saw the Douglas bleed, His heart was wonder wae: ‘Now, by my sword, that haughty lord Shall rue before he gae.’

26 ‘My nephew bauld,’ the Douglas said, ‘What boots the death of ane? Last night I dreamd a dreary dream, And I ken the day’s thy ain.

27 ‘I dreamd I saw a battle fought Beyond the isle o Sky, When lo, a dead man wan the field, And I thought that man was I.

28 ‘My wound is deep, I fain wad sleep, Nae mair I’ll fighting see; Gae lay me in the breaken bush That grows on yonder lee.

29 ‘But tell na ane of my brave men That I lye bleeding wan, But let the name of Douglas still Be shouted in the van.

30 ‘And bury me here on this lee, Beneath the blooming brier, And never let a mortal ken A kindly Scot lyes here.’

31 He liftit up that noble lord, Wi the saut tear in his ee, And hid him in the breaken bush, On yonder lily lee.

32 The moon was clear, the day drew near, The spears in flinters flew, But mony gallant Englishman Ere day the Scotsmen slew.

33 Sir Hugh Montgomery he rode Thro all the field in sight, And loud the name of Douglas still He urgd wi a’ his might.

34 The Gordons good, in English blood They steepd their hose and shoon, The Lindsays flew like fire about, Till a’ the fray was doon.]

35 When stout Sir Hugh wi Piercy met, I wat he was right fain; They swakked their swords till sair they swat, And the blood ran down like rain.

36 ‘O yield thee, Piercy,’ said Sir Hugh, ‘O yield, or ye shall die!’ ‘Fain wad I yield,’ proud Piercy said, ‘But neer to loun like thee.’

37 ‘Thou shalt not yield to knave nor loun, Nor shalt thou yield to me; But yield thee to the breaken bush That grows on yonder lee.’

38 ‘I will not yield to bush or brier, Nor will I yield to thee; But I will yield to Lord Douglas, Or Sir Hugh Montgomery.’

39 [When Piercy knew it was Sir Hugh, He fell low on his knee, But soon he raisd him up again, Wi mickle courtesy.]

40 He left not an Englishman on the field . . . . . . . That he hadna either killd or taen Ere his heart’s blood was cauld.

35^3. swords still.

Hogg writes:

“As for the scraps of Otterburn which I have got, they seem to have been some confused jumble, made by some person who had learned both the songs which you have, and in time had been straitened to make one out of them both. But you shall have it as I had it, saving that, as usual, I have sometimes helped the measure, without altering one original word.”

After 24: “This ballad, which I have collected from two different people, a crazy old man and a woman deranged in her mind, seems hitherto considerably entire; but now, when it becomes most interesting, they have both failed me, and I have been obliged to take much of it in plain prose. However, as none of them seemed to know anything of the history save what they had learned from the song, I took it the more kindly. Any few verses which follow are to me unintelligible.

“He told Sir Hugh that he was dying, and ordered him to conceal his body, and neither let his own men nor Piercy’s know; which he did, and the battle went on headed by Sir Hugh Montgomery, and at length” (35, etc.).

After 38: “Piercy seems to have been fighting devilishly in the dark; indeed, my relaters added no more, but told me that Sir Hugh died on the field, but that” (40).

In the postscript, Hogg writes:

“Not being able to get the letter away to the post, I have taken the opportunity of again pumping my old friends’ memory, and have recovered some more lines and half lines of Otterburn, of which I am become somewhat enamourd. These I have been obliged to arrange somewhat myself, as you will see below; but so mixed are they with original lines and sentences that I think, if you pleased, they might pass without any acknowledgment. Sure no man will like an old song the worse of being somewhat harmonious. After [24] you may read [25–34]. Then after [38] read [39].”

Of Almonshire [3^2] Hogg writes: “Almon shire may probably be a corruption of Banburgh shire, but as both my relaters called it so, I thought proper to preserve it.”

Andrew Livingston writes to Scott, Airds by Castle Douglas, 28th April, 1806, Letters, I, No 183: “My mother recollects seven or eight verses of the ballad of ‘The Battle of Otterburn’ different from any I have seen either in the first and second editions of the Minstrelsy or in Percy’s Reliques.... In several parts they bear a great resemblance to the copy in the first edition of the Minstrelsy.”

162. The Hunting of the Cheviot.

P. 306. Fighting on or with stumps, etc.

Ketilbjörn’s foot is cut off at the ankle-joint. He does not fall, but hobbles against his enemies and kills two of them before his strength gives out: Gull-þóris Saga, c. 18, ed. Maurer, p. 75. Gnúpr fought on his knees after his foot was off: Vemundar Saga ok Vígaskútu, c. 13, Rafn, Íslendinga Sögur, II, 266. Sörli kills eleven men with his club, hobbling round on one foot and one stump (apparently, though Sörli and Hárr are perhaps confused in the narrative): Göngu-Hrólfs Saga, c. 31, Rafn, Fornaldar Sögur, III, 329, Ásmundarson, III, 214 (wrongly, 114). Már fights when both his hands are off: Gull-þóris Saga, c. 10, Maurer, p. 59. Compare the exploits of Sölvi after both his hands have been cut off: Göngu-Hrólfs Saga, c. 31, Rafn, F. S., III, 331, Ásmundarson, III, 215 (wrongly 115); and Röndólfr’s performances after one of his hands has been cut off and all the toes of one foot, in the same saga, c. 30, Rafn, p. 324 f., Ásmundarson, p. 211 (111); and Göngu-Hrólfr’s, who has had both feet cut off while he slept, the same saga, c. 25, Rafn, pp. 307–9, Ásmundarson, 197 f. The Highlander at the battle of Gasklune had his predecessor in Ali, in the same saga, c. 30, Rafn, p. 324, Ásmundarson, p. 210 (110). (G. L. K.)

167. Sir Andrew Barton.

P. 338 b. Gold to bury body. So in the story of Buridan and the Queen of France, Haupt’s Zeitschrift II, 364. (G. L. K.)

In Apollonius of Tyre: puellam in loculo conposuit . . . et uiginti sestertios ad caput ipsius posuit, et scripturam sic continentem: Quicumque corpus istud inuenerit et humo tradiderit medios sibi teneat, medios pro funere expendat; et misit in mare. C. 25, ed. Riese, p. 29. Cf. Jourdains de Blaivies, 2222–33, K. Hofmann, Amis et Amiles und Jourdains de Blaivies, 1882, p. 168 f. (P. Z. Round.)

‘The Sonnge of Sir Andraye Barton, Knight,’ English Miscellanies, edited by James Raine, Surtees Society, vol. lxxxv, p. 64, 1890; from a MS. in a hand of the sixteenth century now in York Minster Library.

This very interesting version of Sir Andrew Barton, the editor informs us, was originally No 25 of a ballad-book in small quarto. It came recently “into the possession of the Dean and Chapter of York with a number of papers which belonged in the seventeenth century to the episcopal families of Lamplugh and Davenant.” If, as is altogether probable, there were copies of other ballads in the same book in quality as good as this, and if, as is equally probable, no more of the book can be recovered, our only comfort is the cold one of having had losses. In several details this copy differs from that of the Percy MS., but not more than would be expected. The English sail out of the Thames on the morrow after midsummer month, July 1, and come back the night before St Maudlen’s eve, or the night of July 20, stanzas 17, 74. In stanza 42 Barton boasts that he had once sent thirty Portingail heads home salted— ‘to eat with bread’! We read in Lesley’s History that the Hollanders had taken and spoiled divers Scots ships, and had cruelly murdered and cast overboard the merchants and passengers; in revenge for which Andrew Barton took many ships of that country, and filled certain pipes with the heads of the Hollanders and sent them to the Scottish king. (Ed. 1830, p. 74; ed. 1578, p. 329.) The eating is a ferocious addition of the ballad. Several passages of this copy are corrupted. A throws light upon some of these places, but others remain to me unamendable.

1 It fell against a midsomer moneth, When birds soonge well in every tree, Our worthë prence, Kinge Henrye, He roode untoe a chelvellrye.

2 And allsoe toe a forrest soe faire, Wher his Grace wente toe tak the ayre; And twentye marchantes of London citie Then on there knees they kneelled there.

3 ‘Ye are welcome home, my rich merchantes, The best salers in Christentie!’ ‘We thanke yowe; by the rood, we are salers good, But rich merchantes we cannot be.

4 ‘To France nor Flanders we der not goe, Nor a Burgesse voy[a]ge we der not fare, For a robber that lyes abrod on the sea, And robs us of oure merchantes-ware.’

5 King Henry was stout, and turnd hime about; He sware by the lord that was mickell of might, ‘Is ther any rober in the world soe stoute Der worke toe England that unrighte?’

6 The merchantes answered, soore they sight, With a woefull harte to the kinge againe, ‘He is one that robes us of our right, Were we twentie shippes and he but one.’

7 King Henrye lookte over his shoulder agayne, Amongst his lordes of hye degree: ‘Have I not a lord in all my land soe stoute Der take yon robber upon the sea?’

8 ‘Yes,’ then did answeer my lord Charls Howwarde, Neare the kinge’s grace that he did stande; He saide, If your Grace will give me leave, My selfe will be the onlie man,

9 ‘That will goe beat Sir Andrewe Barton Upon the seas, if he be there; I’le ether bringe hime and his shippe toe this lande, Ore I’le come in England never more.’

10 ‘Yow shall have five hundrethe men,’ saide Kinge Henrye, ‘Chuse them within my realme soe free, Beside all other merriners and boys, Toe gide the great shippe on the sea.’

11 The first of all the lord up cald, A noble gunner he was one; This man was thre score yeares and ten, And Petter Symond height his name.