The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume III, Edited
Whole book · 80 sections
THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS
Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
EDITED BY
FRANCIS JAMES CHILD
IN FIVE VOLUMES
VOLUME III
NEW YORK
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
This Dover edition, first published in 1965, is an
unabridged and unaltered republication of the
work originally published by Houghton, Mifflin and
Company, as follows:
Vol. I—Part I, 1882; Part II, 1884
Vol. II—Part III, 1885; Part IV, 1886
Vol. III—Part V, 1888; Part VI, 1889
Vol. IV—Part VII, 1890; Part VIII, 1892
Vol. V—Part IX, 1894; Part X, 1898.
This edition also contains as an appendix to
Part X an essay by Walter Morris Hart entitled
“Professor Child and the Ballad,” reprinted in
toto from Vol. XXI, No. 4, 1906 [New Series Vol.
XIV, No. 4] of the Publications of the Modern
Language Association of America.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65–24347
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc.
180 Varick Street
New York, N.Y. 10014
ADVERTISEMENT TO PART V NUMBERS 114–155
Rev. Professor Skeat has done me the great service of collating Wynken de Worde’s
text of The Gest of Robin Hood, the manuscript of Robin Hood and the Monk and of Robin
Hood and the Potter, and all the Robin Hood broadsides in the Pepys collection. Mr Macmath
has collated the fragments of the earlier copy of The Gest which are preserved in the
Advocates’ Library, and, as always, has been most ready to respond to every call for aid. I
would also gratefully acknowledge assistance received from Mr W. Aldis Wright, of Trinity
College, Cambridge; the Rev. Edmund Venables, Precentor of Lincoln; Dr Furnivall;
and, in America, from Mr W. W. Newell, Miss Perine and Mrs Dulany.
F. J. C.
February, 1888.
ADVERTISEMENT TO PART VI NUMBERS 156–188
Mr Macmath has helped me in many ways in the preparation of this Sixth Part, and,
as before, has been prodigal of time and pains. I am under particular obligations to Mr
Robert Bruce Armstrong, of Edinburgh, for his communications concerning the ballad-folk
of the Scottish border, and to Dr Wilhelm Wollner, of the University of Leipsic,
and Mr George Lyman Kittredge, my colleague in Harvard College, for contributions (indicated
by the initials of their names) which will be found in the Additions and Corrections.
Dr Wollner will continue his services. Mr John Karłowicz, of Warsaw, purposes to
review in ‘Wisła’ all the English ballads which have Polish affinities, and Professor Alexander
Vesselofsky has allowed me to hope for his assistance; so that there is a gratifying
prospect that the points of contact between the English and the Slavic popular ballads will in
the end be amply brought out. Thanks are due and are proffered, for favors of various kinds,
to Lieutenant-Colonel Lumsden, of London, Lieutenant-Colonel Prideaux, of Calcutta,
Professor Skeat, Miss Isabel Florence Hapgood, Professor Vinogradof, of Moscow,
Professor George Stephens, Mr Axel Olrik, of Copenhagen (to whom the completion
of Svend Grundtvig’s great work has been entrusted), Mr James Barclay Murdoch, of
Glasgow, Dr F. J. Furnivall, Professor C. R. Lanman, Mr P. Z. Round, and Mr W. W.
Newell.
114 JOHNIE COCK — A — B — C — D — E — F — G — H — I — J — K — L — M
1
A. Percy Papers, Miss Fisher’s MS., No 5, 1780.
B. ‘Johnny Cock,’ Pieces of Ancient Poetry from Unpublished
Manuscripts and Scarce Books, Bristol,
1814, [John Fry], p. 53.
C. ‘Johnny Cock,’ Pieces of Ancient Poetry, etc.,
p. 51.
D. ‘Johnie of Cockerslee,’ Kinloch’s annotated copy
of his Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 38 bis.
E. ‘Johnie o Cocklesmuir,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 29;
Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 36.
F. ‘Johnie of Breadislee,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 59,
1802.
G. ‘Johnnie Brad,’ Harris MS., fol. 25.
H. ‘Johnnie o Cocklesmuir,’ Buchan’s MSS, I, 82;
Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads,
p. 77, Percy Society, vol. xvii.
I. ‘Johnie of Braidisbank,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy,
p. 23.
J. Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 181.
K. Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xxxi: one stanza.
L. Harris MS., fol. 25 b: one stanza.
M. Froude, Thomas Carlyle, II, 335, New York, 1882,
supplemented by Mrs Aitken: one stanza.
The first notice in print of this precious
specimen of the unspoiled traditional ballad is
in Ritson’s Scotish Song, 1794, I, xxxvi, note
25: the Rev. Mr Boyd, the translator of
Dante, had a faint recollection of three ballads,
one of which was called ‘Johny Cox.’
Before this, 1780, a lady of Carlisle had sent
a copy to Doctor Percy, A. Scott, 1802, was
the first to publish the ballad, selecting “the
stanzas of greatest merit” from several copies
which were in his hands. John Fry gave two
valuable fragments, C, B (which he did not
separate), in his Pieces of Ancient Poetry,
1814, from a manuscript “appearing to be the
text-book of some illiterate drummer.”[1] I
have been able to add only three versions to
those which were already before the world, A,
D, G; and of these D is in part the same as E,
previously printed by Kinloch.
Pinkerton, Select Scotish Ballads, II, xxxix,
1783, has preserved a stanza, which he assigns
to a supposititious ballad of ‘Bertram the
Archer:’[2]
‘My trusty bow of the tough yew,
That I in London bought,
And silken strings, if ye prove true,
That my true-love has wrought.’
This stanza agrees with J 6, and with A 18,
H 19 in part, and is very likely to belong here;
but it might be a movable passage, or commonplace.
All the versions are in accord as to the
primary points of the story. A gallant young
fellow, who pays no regard to the game-laws,
goes out, despite his mother’s entreaties, to
ding the dun deer down. He kills a deer, and
feasts himself and his dogs so freely on it that
2they all fall asleep. An old palmer, a silly
auld, stane-auld carl, observes him, and carries
word to seven foresters [fifteen B, three
(?) C]. They beset Johnie and wound him;
he kills all but one, and leaves that one, badly
hurt, to carry tidings of the rest. Johnie
sends a bird to his mother to bid her fetch him
away, F 19, 20, cf. B 13; a bird warns his
mother that Johnie tarries long, H 21 (one of
Buchan’s parrots). The boy in A 20, 21 is evidently
a corruption of bird. Information is
given the mother in a different way in L. B-G
must be adjudged to be incomplete; I-M are
mere fragments. H has a false and silly conclusion,
22–24, in imitation of Robin Hood and
of Adam Bell. Mrs Harris had heard another
version besides G (of which she gives only one
stanza, L), in which “Johnie is slain and
thrown owre a milk-white steed; news is sent
to Johnie’s mother, who flies to her son.” It
is the one forester who is not quite killed that
is thrown over his steed to carry tidings home,
F 18, G 11. D 19, E 17, and Mrs Harris’s
second version are, as to this point, evidently
corrupted.
The hero’s name is Johnny Cock, B 2, C 1;
Johny Cox, Rev. Mr Boyd; John o Cockis
(Johny Cockis?), H 17; Johny o Cockley’s
Well, A 14; o Cockerslee, D 14; of Cockielaw,
in one of the versions used by Scott for
F; o Cocklesmuir, E 13, H 15. Again, Johnie
Brad, G 1, L; Johnie o Breadislee, F 14;
Braidislee, J 2.
The hunting-ground, or the place where
Johnie is discovered, is up in Braidhouplee,
down in Bradyslee, A 6, high up in Bradyslee,
low down in Bradyslee, A 12; Braidscaur
Hill, D 6, Braidisbanks, D 12, I 1; Bride’s
Braidmuir, H 2, 5; Broadspear Hill, E 2, 5;
Durrisdeer only in F 4. The seven foresters
are of Pickeram Side, A 3, 19; of Hislinton,
F 9. B 11 reads, Fifteen foresters in the braid
alow; which seems to require emendation, perhaps
simply to Braid alow, perhaps to Braidislee.
With regard to the localities in A, Percy
notes that Pickeram Side is in Northumbria,
and that there is a Cockley Tower in Erringside,
near Brady’s Cragg, and a Brady’s Cragg
near Chollerford Bridge. There is a Cockley,
alias Cocklaw, in Erringside, near Chollerton,
in the south division of Tynedale Ward, parish
of St John Lee. The Erring is a small
stream which enters the Tyne between Chollerton
and Chollerford. Again, Cocklaw
Walls appears in the map of the Ordnance
Survey, a little to the north and east of Cockley
in Erringside, and Cocklaw Walls may represent
the Cockley’s Well of the ballad.
(Percy notes that Cockley’s Well is said to
be near Bewcastle, Cumberland.) I have not
found Brady’s Cragg or Pickeram Side in the
Ordnance Survey maps, nor indeed any of the
compounds of Braidy or Braid anywhere.
There is a Braid a little to the south of
Edinburgh, Braid Hills and Braid Burn; and
Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p. 17, says that there
is tradition for this region having been the
hunting-ground.
Scott’s copy, F, lays the scene in Dumfriesshire,
and there is other tradition to the same
effect.[3]
Percy was struck with the occurrence of
the wolf in A 17, found also in B 10, C 5. He
considered, no doubt, that the mention of the
wolf was a token of the high antiquity of the
ballad. “Wolues that wyryeth men, wommen
and children” are spoken of in Piers
Plowman, C, Passus, X, v. 226, Skeat, 1886,
I, 240, and the C text is assigned to about
1393. Holinshed (1577), I, 378, says that
though the island is void of wolves south of
the Tweed, yet the Scots cannot boast the
like, since they have grievous wolves.
F is translated by Schubart, p. 187; Wolff,
3Halle der Völker, I, 41, Hausschatz, p. 224;
Doenniges, p. 10; Gerhard, p. 51; R. von Bismarck,
Deutsches Museum, 1858, I, 897;
Cesare Cantù, Documenti alla Storia Universale,
V, 806; in Le Magasin Pittoresque, 1838,
p. 127 b; by Loève-Veimars, p. 296. Grundtvig,
p. 269, No 41, translates a compound of
F, I, E (Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads,
p. 36), and B; Knortz, Schottische Balladen,
No 18, a mixture of F and others.
Communicated to Percy by Miss Fisher, of Carlisle, 1780,
No 5 of MS.
1
Johny he has risen up i the morn,
Calls for water to wash his hands;
But little knew he that his bloody hounds
Were bound in iron bands. bands
Were bound in iron bands
2
Johny’s mother has gotten word o that,
And care-bed she has taen:
‘O Johny, for my benison,
I beg you’l stay at hame;
For the wine so red, and the well baken bread,
My Johny shall want nane.
3
‘There are seven forsters at Pickeram Side,
At Pickeram where they dwell,
And for a drop of thy heart’s bluid
They wad ride the fords of hell.’
4
Johny he’s gotten word of that,
And he’s turnd wondrous keen;
He’s put off the red scarlett,
And he’s put on the Lincolm green.
5
With a sheaf of arrows by his side,
And a bent bow in his hand,
He’s mounted on a prancing steed,
And he has ridden fast oer the strand.
6
He’s up i Braidhouplee, and down i Bradyslee,
And under a buss o broom,
And there he found a good dun deer,
Feeding in a buss of ling.
7
Johny shot, and the dun deer lap,
And she lap wondrous wide,
Until they came to the wan water,
And he stemd her of her pride.
8
He ’as taen out the little pen-knife,
’Twas full three quarters long,
And he has taen out of that dun deer
The liver bot and the tongue.
9
They eat of the flesh, and they drank of the blood,
And the blood it was so sweet,
Which caused Johny and his bloody hounds
To fall in a deep sleep.
10
By then came an old palmer,
And an ill death may he die!
For he’s away to Pickram Side,
As fast as he can drie.
11
‘What news, what news?’ says the Seven Forsters,
‘What news have ye brought to me?’
‘I have noe news,’ the palmer said,
‘But what I saw with my eye.
12
‘High up i Bradyslee, low down i Bradisslee,
And under a buss of scroggs,
O there I spied a well-wight man,
Sleeping among his dogs.
13
‘His coat it was of light Lincolm,
And his breeches of the same,
His shoes of the American leather,
And gold buckles tying them.’
14
Up bespake the Seven Forsters,
Up bespake they ane and a’:
O that is Johny o Cockleys Well,
And near him we will draw.
15
O the first y stroke that they gae him,
They struck him off by the knee;
Then up bespake his sister’s son:
‘O the next’ll gar him die!’
416
‘O some they count ye well-wight men,
But I do count ye nane;
For you might well ha wakend me,
And askd gin I wad be taen.
17
‘The wildest wolf in aw this wood
Wad not ha done so by me;
She’d ha wet her foot ith wan water,
And sprinkled it oer my brae,
And if that wad not ha wakend me,
She wad ha gone and let me be.
18
‘O bows of yew, if ye be true,
In London, where ye were bought,
Fingers five, get up belive,
Manhuid shall fail me nought.’
19
He has killd the Seven Forsters,
He has killd them all but ane,
And that wan scarce to Pickeram Side,
To carry the bode-words hame.
20
‘Is there never a boy in a’ this wood
That will tell what I can say;
That will go to Cockleys Well,
Tell my mither to fetch me away?’
21
There was a boy into that wood,
That carried the tidings away,
And many ae was the well-wight man
At the fetching o Johny away.
Pieces of Ancient Poetry from Unpublished Manuscripts
and Scarce Books, Bristol, 1814, p. 53.
1
Fifteen foresters in the Braid alow,
And they are wondrous fell;
To get a drop of Johnny’s heart-bluid,
They would sink a’ their souls to hell.
2
Johnny Cock has gotten word of this,
And he is wondrous keen;
Heś custan off the red scarlet,
And on the Linkum green.
3
And he is ridden oer muir and muss,
And over mountains high,
Till he came to yon wan water,
And there Johnny Cock did lie.
4
They have ridden oer muir and muss,
And over mountains high,
Till they met wi’ an old palmer,
Was walking along the way.
5
‘What news, what news, old palmer?
What news have you to me?’
‘Yonder is one of the proudest wed sons
That ever my eyes did see.’
* * * * *
6
He’s taen out a horn from his side,
And he blew both loud and shrill,
Till a’ the fifteen foresters
Heard Johnny Cock blaw his horn.
7
They have sworn a bluidy oath,
And they swore all in one,
That there was not a man among them a’
Would blaw such a blast as yon.
8
And they have ridden oer muir and muss,
And over mountains high,
Till they came to yon wan water,
Where Johnny Cock did lie.
9
They have shotten little Johnny Cock,
A little above the ee:
. . . . . . .
‘For doing the like to me.
10
‘There’s not a wolf in a’ the wood
Woud ’ ha’ done the like to me;
‘She’d ha’ dipped her foot in coll water,
And strinkled above my ee,
And if I would not have waked for that,
‘She’d ha’ gane and let me be.
11
‘But fingers five, come here, [come here,]
And faint heart fail me nought,
And silver strings, value me sma things,
Till I get all this vengeance rowght!’
12
He ha[s] shot a’ the fifteen foresters,
Left never a one but one,
And he broke the ribs a that ane’s side,
And let him take tiding home.
13
‘... a bird in a’ the wood
Could sing as I could say,
It would go in to my mother’s bower,
And bid her kiss me, and take me away.’
5
Pieces of Ancient Poetry from Unpublished Manuscripts
and Scarce Books, Bristol, 1814, p. 51.
1
Johnny Cock, in a May morning,
Sought water to wash his hands,
And he is awa to louse his dogs,
That’s tied wi iron bans.
That’s tied wi iron bans
2
His coat it is of the light Lincum green,
And his breiks are of the same;
His shoes are of the American leather,
Silver buckles tying them.
3
‘He’ hunted up, and so did ‘he’ down,
Till ‘he’ came to yon bush of scrogs,
And then to yon wan water,
Where he slept among his dogs.
* * * * *
4
Johnny Cock out-shot a’ the foresters,
And out-shot a the three;
Out shot a’ the foresters,
Wounded Johnny aboun the bree.
5
‘Woe be to you, foresters,
And an ill death may you die!
For there would not a wolf in a’ the wood
Have done the like to me.
6
‘For’ ’twould ha’ put its foot in the coll water
And ha strinkled it on my bree,
And gin that would not have done,
Would have gane and lett me be.
7
‘I often took to my mother
The dandoo and the roe,
But now I’l take to my mother
Much sorrow and much woe.
8
‘I often took to my mother
The dandoo and the hare,
But now I’l take to my mother
Much sorrow and much care.’
Kinloch’s annotated copy of his Ancient Scottish Ballads,
p. 38 bis: a West-Country version.
1
Up Johnie raise in a May morning,
Calld for water to wash his hands,
And he has calld for his gude gray hunds,
That lay bund in iron bands. bands
That lay bund in iron bands
2
‘Ye’ll busk, ye’ll busk my noble dogs,
Ye’ll busk and mak them boun,
For I’m going to the Braidscaur hill,
To ding the dun deer doun.’
3
Whan Johnie’s mither gat word o that,
On the very bed she lay,
Says, Johnie, for my malison,
I pray ye at hame to stay.
4
Your meat sall be of the very, very best,
Your drink sall be the same,
And ye will win your mither’s benison,
Gin ye wad stay at hame.
5
But Johnie has cast aff the black velvet,
And put on the Lincoln twine,
And he is on to gude greenwud,
As fast as he could gang.
6
His mither’s counsel he wad na tak,
He’s aff, and left the toun,
He’s aff unto the Braidscaur hill,
To ding the dun deer doun.
7
Johnie lookit east, and Johnie lookit west,
And he lookit aneath the sun,
And there he spied the dun deer sleeping,
Aneath a buss o whun.
8
Johnie shot, and the dun deer lap,
And he’s scaithed him in the side,
And atween the water and the wud
He laid the dun deer’s pride.
9
They ate sae meikle o the venison,
And drank sae meikle o the blude,
That Johnie and his twa gray hunds
Fell asleep in yonder wud.
10
By ther cam a silly auld man,
And a silly auld man was he,
And he’s aff to the proud foresters,
As fast as he could dree.
611
‘What news, what news, my silly auld man?
What news? come tell to me:’
‘I heard na news, I speird na news
But what my een did see.
12
‘As I cam in by Braidisbanks,
And doun amang the whuns,
The bonniest youngster eer I saw
Lay sleepin amang his hunds.
13
‘His cheeks war like the roses red,
His neck was like the snaw;
His sark was o the holland fine,
And his jerkin lac’d fu braw.’
14
Up bespak the first forester,
The first forester of a’:
O this is Johnie o Cockerslee;
Come draw, lads, we maun draw.
15
Up bespak the niest forester,
The niest forester of a’:
An this be Johnie o Cockerslee,
To him we winna draw.
16
The first shot that they did shoot,
They woundit him on the bree;
Up bespak the uncle’s son,
‘The niest will gar him die.’
17
The second shot that eer they shot,
It scaithd him near the heart;
‘I only wauken,’ Johnie cried,
‘Whan first I find the smart.
18
‘Stand stout, stand stout, my noble dogs,
Stand stout, and dinna flee;
Stand fast, stand fast, my gude gray hunds,
And we will gar them die.’
19
He has killed six o the proud foresters,
And wounded the seventh sair:
He laid his leg out owre his steed,
Says, I will kill na mair.
20
‘Oh wae befa thee, silly auld man,
An ill death may thee dee!
Upon thy head be a’ this blude,
For mine, I ween, is free.’
Kinloch’s MSS, VII, 29: from recitation in the North
Country.
1
Johnie rose up in a May morning,
Calld for water to wash his hands,
And he has calld for his gud gray hunds,
That lay bund in iron bands. bands
That lay bund in iron bands
2
‘Ye’ll busk, ye’ll busk my noble dogs,
Ye’ll busk and mak them boun,
For I’m gaing to the Broadspear hill,
To ding the dun deer doun.’
3
Whan Johnie’s mither heard o this,
She til her son has gane:
‘Ye’ll win your mither’s benison,
Gin ye wad stay at hame.
4
‘Your meat sall be o the very, very best,
And your drink o the finest wine;
And ye will win your mither’s benison,
Gin ye wad stay at hame.’
5
His mither’s counsel he wad na tak,
Nor wad he stay at hame;
But he’s on to the Broadspear hill,
To ding the dun deer doun.
6
Johnie lookit east, and Johnie lookit west,
And a little below the sun,
And there he spied the dun deer lying sleeping,
Aneath a buss o brume.
7
Johnie shot, and the dun deer lap,
And he has woundit him in the side,
And atween the water and the wud
He laid the dun deer’s pride.
8
They ate sae meikle o the venison,
And drank sae meikle o the blude,
That Johnie and his twa gray hunds
Fell asleep in yonder wud.
9
By there cam a silly auld man,
A silly auld man was he,
And he’s aff to the proud foresters,
To tell what he did see.
710
‘What news, what news, my silly auld man,
What news? come tell to me:’
‘Na news, na news,’ said the silly auld man,
‘But what mine een did see.
11
‘As I cam in by yon greenwud,
And doun amang the scrogs,
The bonniest youth that ere I saw
Lay sleeping atween twa dogs.
12
‘The sark that he had on his back
Was o the holland sma,
And the coat that he had on his back
Was laced wi gowd fu braw.’
13
Up bespak the first forester,
The first forester ava:
‘An this be Johnie o Cocklesmuir,
It’s time we war awa.’
14
Up bespak the niest forester,
The niest forester ava:
‘An this be Johnie o Cocklesmuir,
To him we winna draw.’
15
The first shot that they did shoot,
They woundit him on the thie;
Up bespak the uncle’s son,
The niest will gar him die.
16
‘Stand stout, stand stout, my noble dogs,
Stand stout, and dinna flee;
Stand fast, stand fast, my gude gray hunds,
And we will mak them dee.’
17
He has killed six o the proud foresters,
And he has woundit the seventh sair;
He laid his leg out oure his steed,
Says, I will kill na mair.
Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 59, 1802; made up from several
different copies. Nithsdale.
1
Johnie rose up in a May morning,
Called for water to wash his hands:
‘Gar loose to me the gude graie dogs,
That are bound wi iron bands.’
2
When Johnie’s mother gat word o that,
Her hands for dule she wrang:
‘O Johnie, for my bennison,
To the grenewood dinna gang!
3
‘Eneugh ye hae o the gude wheat-bread,
And eneugh o the blude-red wine,
And therefore for nae vennison, Johnie,
I pray ye, stir frae hame.’
4
But Johnie’s buskt up his gude bend bow,
His arrows, ane by ane,
And he has gane to Durrisdeer,
To hunt the dun deer down.
5
As he came down by Merriemass,
And in by the benty line,
There has he espied a deer lying,
Aneath a bush of ling.
6
Johnie he shot, and the dun deer lap,
And he wounded her on the side,
But atween the water and the brae,
His hounds they laid her pride.
7
And Johnie has bryttled the deer sae weel
That he’s had out her liver and lungs,
And wi these he has feasted his bludey hounds
As if they had been erl’s sons.
8
They eat sae much o the vennison,
And drank sae much o the blude,
That Johnie and a’ his bludey hounds
Fell asleep as they had been dead.
9
And by there came a silly auld carle,
An ill death mote he die!
For he’s awa to Hislinton,
Where the Seven Foresters did lie.
10
‘What news, what news, ye gray-headed carle?
What news bring ye to me?’
‘I bring nae news,’ said the gray-headed carle,
‘Save what these eyes did see.
11
‘As I came down by Merriemass,
And down amang the scroggs,
The bonniest childe that ever I saw
Lay sleeping amang his dogs.
12
‘The shirt that was upon his back
Was o the holland fine;
8The doublet which was over that
Was o the Lincome twine.
13
‘The buttons that were on his sleeve
Were o the gowd sae gude;
The gude graie hounds he lay amang,
Their mouths were dyed wi blude.’
14
Then out and spak the first forester,
The heid man ower them a’:
If this be Johnie o Breadislee,
Nae nearer will we draw.
15
But up and spak the sixth forester,
His sister’s son was he:
If this be Johnie o Breadislee,
We soon shall gar him die.
16
The first flight of arrows the foresters shot,
They wounded him on the knee;
And out and spak the seventh forester,
The next will gar him die.
17
Johnie’s set his back against an aik,
His fute against a stane,
And he has slain the Seven Foresters,
He has slain them a’ but ane.
18
He has broke three ribs in that ane’s side,
But and his collar bane;
He’s laid him twa-fald ower his steed,
Bade him carry the tidings hame.
19
‘O is there na a bonnie bird
Can sing as I can say,
Could flee away to my mother’s bower,
And tell to fetch Johnie away?’
20
The starling flew to his mother’s window-stane,
It whistled and it sang,
And aye the ower-word o the tune
Was, Johnie tarries lang!
21
They made a rod o the hazel-bush,
Another o the slae-thorn tree,
And mony, mony were the men
At fetching our Johnie.
22
Then out and spake his auld mother,
And fast her teirs did fa;
Ye wad nae be warnd, my son Johnie,
Frae the hunting to bide awa.
23
‘Aft hae I brought to Breadislee
The less gear and the mair,
But I neer brought to Breadislee
What grieved my heart sae sair.
24
‘But wae betyde that silly auld carle,
An ill death shall he die;
For the highest tree on Merriemass
Shall be his morning’s fee.’
25
Now Johnie’s gude bend bow is broke,
And his gude graie dogs are slain,
And his bodie lies dead in Durrisdeer,
And his hunting it is done.
Harris MS., fol. 25: from Mrs Harris’s recitation.
1
Johnnie Brad, on a May mornin,
Called for water to wash his hands,
An there he spied his twa blude-hounds,
Waur bound in iron bands. bands
Waur bound in iron bands
2
Johnnie’s taen his gude bent bow,
Bot an his arrows kene,
An strippit himsel o the scarlet red,
An put on the licht Lincoln green.
3
Up it spak Johnnie’s mither,
An’ a wae, wae woman was she:
I beg you bide at hame, Johnnie,
I pray be ruled by me.
4
Baken bread ye sall nae lack,
An wine you sall lack nane;
Oh Johnnie, for my benison,
I beg you bide at hame!
5
He has made a solemn aith,
Atween the sun an the mune,
That he wald gae to the gude green wood,
The dun deer to ding doon.
6
He luiket east, he luiket wast,
An in below the sun,
An there he spied the dun deer,
Aneath a bush o brume.
97
The firsten shot that Johnnie shot,
He wounded her in the side;
The nexten shot that Johnnie shot,
I wat he laid her pride.
8
He’s eaten o the venison,
An drunken o the blude,
Until he fell as sound asleep
As though he had been dead.
9
Bye there cam a silly auld man,
And a silly auld man was he,
An he’s on to the Seven Foresters,
As fast as he can flee.
10
‘As I cam in by yonder haugh,
An in among the scroggs,
The bonniest boy that ere I saw
Lay sleepin atween his dogs.’
* * * * *
11
The firsten shot that Johnnie shot,
He shot them a’ but ane,
An he flang him owre a milk-white steed,
Bade him bear tidings hame.
Buchan’s MSS, I, 82; Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions
of Ancient Ballads, p. 77, Percy Society, vol. xvii.
1
Johnnie raise up in a May morning,
Calld for water to wash his hands,
And he’s commant his bluidy dogs
To be loosd frae their iron bands. bands
To be loosd frae their iron bands
2
‘Win up, win up, my bluidy dogs,
Win up, and be unbound,
And we will on to Bride’s Braidmuir,
And ding the dun deer down.’
3
When his mother got word o that,
Then she took bed and lay;
Says, Johnnie, my son, for my blessing,
Ye’ll stay at hame this day.
4
There’s baken bread and brown ale
Shall be at your command;
Ye’ll win your mither’s blythe blessing,
To the Bride’s Braidmuir nae gang.
5
Mony are my friends, mither,
Though thousands were my foe;
Betide me life, betide me death,
To the Bride’s Braidmuir I’ll go.
6
The sark that was on Johnnie’s back
Was o the cambric fine;
The belt that was around his middle
Wi pearlins it did shine.
7
The coat that was upon his back
Was o the linsey brown;
And he’s awa to the Bride’s Braidmuir,
To ding the dun deer down.
8
Johnnie lookd east, Johnnie lookd west,
And turnd him round and round,
And there he saw the king’s dun deer,
Was cowing the bush o brune.
9
Johnnie shot, and the dun deer lap,
He wounded her in the side;
Between him and yon burnie-bank,
Johnnie he laid her pride.
10
He ate sae muckle o the venison,
He drank sae muckle bleed,
Till he lay down between his hounds,
And slept as he’d been dead.
11
But by there came a stane-auld man,
An ill death mat he dee!
For he is on to the Seven Foresters,
As fast as gang could he.
12
‘What news, what news, ye stane-auld man?
What news hae ye brought you wi?’
‘Nae news, nae news, ye seven foresters,
But what your eyes will see.
13
‘As I gaed i yon rough thick hedge,
Amang yon bramly scroggs,
The fairest youth that eer I saw
Lay sleeping between his dogs.
1014
‘The sark that was upon his back
Was o the cambric fine;
The belt that was around his middle
Wi pearlins it did shine.’
15
Then out it speaks the first forester:
Whether this be true or no,
O if it’s Johnnie o Cocklesmuir,
Nae forder need we go.
16
Out it spake the second forester,
A fierce fellow was he:
Betide me life, betide me death,
This youth we’ll go and see.
17
As they gaed in yon rough thick hedge,
And down yon forest gay,
They came to that very same place
Where John o Cockis he lay.
18
The first an shot they shot at him,
They wounded him in the thigh;
Out spake the first forester’s son:
By the next shot he maun die.
19
‘O stand ye true, my trusty bow,
And stout steel never fail!
Avenge me now on all my foes,
Who have my life i bail.’
20
Then Johnnie killd six foresters,
And wounded the seventh sair;
Then drew a stroke at the stane-auld man,
That words he neer spake mair.
21
His mother’s parrot in window sat,
She whistled and she sang,
And aye the owerturn o the note,
‘Young Johnnie’s biding lang.’
22
When this reached the king’s own ears,
It grievd him wondrous sair;
Says, I’d rather they’d hurt my subjects all
Than Johnnie o Cocklesmuir.
23
‘But where are all my wall-wight men,
That I pay meat and fee,
Will gang the morn to Johnnie’s castle,
See how the cause may be.’
24
Then he’s calld Johnnie up to court,
Treated him handsomelie,
And now to hunt in the Bride’s Braidmuir,
For life has license free.
Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 23.
1
Johnie rose up in a May morning,
Called for water to wash his hands, hands
And he is awa to Braidisbanks,
To ding the dun deer down. down
To ding the dun deer down
2
Johnie lookit east, and Johnie lookit west,
And it’s lang before the sun,
And there he did spy the dun deer lie,
Beneath a bush of brume.
3
Johnie shot, and the dun deer lap,
And he’s woundit her in the side;
Out then spake his sister’s son,
‘And the neist will lay her pride.’
* * * * *
4
They’ve eaten sae meikle o the gude venison,
And they’ve drunken sae muckle o the blude,
That they’ve fallen into as sound a sleep
As gif that they were dead.
* * * * *
5
‘It’s doun, and it’s doun, and it’s doun, doun,
And it’s doun amang the scrogs,
And there ye’ll espy twa bonnie boys lie,
Asleep amang their dogs.’
* * * * *
6
They waukened Johnie out o his sleep,
And he’s drawn to him his coat:
‘My fingers five, save me alive,
And a stout heart fail me not!’
* * * * *
11
Chambers’s Scottish Ballads, p. 181, stanzas 13, 16, 17,
21, 22, 23, 26: from the recitation of a lady resident at
Peebles.
1
His coat was o the scarlet red,
His vest was o the same;
His stockings were o the worset lace,
And buckles tied to the same.
2
Out then spoke one, out then spoke two,
Out then spoke two or three;
Out spoke the master forester,
‘It’s Johnie o Braidislee.
3
‘If this be true, thou silly auld man,
Which you tell unto me,
Five hundred pounds of yearly rent
It shall not pay your fee.’
* * * * *
4
‘O wae be to you seven foresters!
I wonder ye dinna think shame,
You being seven sturdy men,
And I but a man my lane.
5
‘Now fail me not, my ten fingers,
That are both long and small!
Now fail me not, my noble heart!
For in thee I trust for all.
6
‘Now fail me not, my good bend bow,
That was in London coft!
Now fail me not, my golden string,
Which my true lover wrocht!’
* * * * *
7
He has tossed him up, he has tossed him doun,
He has broken his collar-bone;
He has tied him to his bridle reins,
Bade him carry the tidings home.
Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xxxi.
‘There’s no a bird in a’ this foreste
Will do as meikle for me
As dip its wing in the wan water
An straik it on my ee-bree.’
Harris MS., fol. 25 b.
But aye at ilka ae mile’s end
She fand a cat o clay,
An written upon the back o it
‘Tak your son Johnnie Brod away.’
Froude’s Life of Carlyle, 1795–1875, II, 335, New York,
1882, completed by a communication of Mr Macmath: as
sung by Carlyle’s mother.
‘O Busk ye, O busk ye, my three bluidy hounds,
O busk ye, and go with me,
For there’s seven foresters in yon forest,
And them I want to see.’ see
And them I want to see
A.
‘The Seven Forsters at Pickeram Side’ is a
title supplied by Percy.
62. I wun is added by Percy, at the end.
73, 173. one water.
151. Oh.
194. bord words, or bood words.
BfollowsCin Fry without a break. Words distinguished
by ’ ’ inB, Care emendations or
additions of Fry. 4, 5 come between 12 and
13.
11. braid alow.
101. the word.
105. would have.
112. hearted.
133. bows.
43. Out-shot.
D.
“There is a West-Country version of this ballad,
under the title of Johnie of Cockerslee,
12differing very little from the present. The
variations in the reading I have marked at
their respective places.” Kinloch. Assuming
that Kinloch has given all the variations
(which include six entire stanzas), the
West-Country version is reproduced by combining
these readings with so much of the
other copy, Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads,
p. 38, as did not vary.
153. Kinloch
neglected to alter Cocklesmuir here.
E.
63. lying is struck through, probably to improve
the metre. Kinloch made two slight
changes in printing.
H.
51. Mony ane. (?)
91. Johnnie lap: probably
an error of the copyist.
92, 182. wound: cf. 202.
214. bidding.
Dixon has changed stane-auld to silly-auld in
111, 121, 203; Cockis to Cockl’s in 174; and
has Scotticised the spelling.
I.
Motherwell notes a stanza as wanting after 3,
some stanzas as wanting after 4, 5.
J.
“The version of the ballad here given is partly
copied from those printed in the Border
Minstrelsy and in the publications of Messrs
Kinloch and Motherwell, and is partly taken
from the recitation of a lady resident at
Peebles and from a manuscript copy submitted
to me by Mr Kinloch. The twelfth,
thirteenth, fourteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth,
twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third,
twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh stanzas are
here printed for the first time.” Chambers.
The 14th stanza had been printed by Scott,
F 12; the 23d, repeated here (6), by Pinkerton;
the 27th is D 20. The first half of the
12th is D 131,2, and the remainder Chambers’s
own: compare his 11 and F 11, from
which it seems to have been made.
L.
“I have heard another version, where Johnnie
is slain and thrown ‘owre a milk-white
steed.’ News is sent to Johnnie’s mother,
who flies to her son; But aye at ilka ae
mile’s end, etc.”
M.
“While she [Carlyle’s mother] was at Craigenputtock,
I made her train me to two song-tunes;
and we often sang them together, and
tried them often again in coming down into
Annandale.” The last half of the stanza is
cited. Letter of T. Carlyle, May 18, 1834,
in Froude’s Life, 1795–1835, II, 335.
“Mrs Aitken, sister of T. Carlyle, sent me
[January 15, 1884] the first two lines to
complete the stanza of this Johny Cock, but
can call up no more of the ballad.” Letter
of Mr Macmath.
115 ROBYN AND GANDELEYN
Sloane MS., 2593, fol. 14 b, British Museum.
Printed by Ritson, Ancient Songs, 1790,
p. 48, and by Thomas Wright, Songs and
Carols (selected from the Sloane MS.), No X,
London, 1836, and again in his edition of the
whole MS. for the Warton Club, 1856, p. 42.
The manuscript is put at about 1450.
Wright remarks on the similarity of the
name Gandelyn to Gamelyn in the tale assigned
to the Cook in some manuscripts of the
Canterbury Tales, and on the resemblance of
the tale of Gamelyn to Robin Hood story.
But he could hardly have wished to give the
impression that Robin in this ballad is Robin
Hood. This he no more is than John in the
ballad which precedes is Little John; though
Gandelyn is as true to his master as Little
13John is, and is pronounced to be by the king,
in ‘Robin Hood and the Monk.’ Ritson gave
the ballad the title of ‘Robin Lyth,’ looking
on the ‘lyth’ of the burden as the hero’s surname;
derived perhaps from the village of
Lythe, two or three miles to the north of
Whitby. A cave on the north side of the
promontory of Flamborough, called Robin
Lyth’s Hole (popularly regarded as the stronghold
of a pirate), may have been, Ritson
thinks, one of the skulking-places of the Robin
who fell by the shaft of Wrennok. “Robin
Hood,” he adds, “had several such in those
and other parts; and, indeed, it is not very
improbable that our hero had been formerly in
the suite of that gallant robber, and, on his
master’s death, had set up for himself.”
Thought is free.
Translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske
Folkeviser, page 44, No. 6.
1
I herde a carpyng of a clerk,
Al at ȝone wodes ende,
Of gode Robyn and Gandeleyn;
Was þer non oþer þynge.
Robynn lyth in grene wode bowndyn
2
Stronge theuys wern þo chylderin non,
But bowmen gode and hende;
He wentyn to wode to getyn hem fleych,
If God wold it hem sende.
3
Al day wentyn þo chylderin too,
And fleych fowndyn he non,
Til it were a-geyn euyn;
Þe chylderin wold gon hom.
4
Half an honderid of fat falyf der
He comyn a-ȝon,
And alle he wern fayr and fat i-now,
But markyd was þer non:
‘Be dere God,’ seyde gode Robyn,
‘Here of we xul haue on.’
5
Robyn bent his joly bowe,
Þer in he set a flo;
Þe fattest der of alle
Þe herte he clef a to.
6
He hadde not þe der i-flawe,
Ne half out of þe hyde,
There cam a schrewde arwe out of þe west,
Þat felde Robertes pryde.
7
Gandeleyn lokyd hym est and west,
Be euery syde:
‘Hoo hat myn mayster slayin?
Ho hat don þis dede?
Xal I neuer out of grene wode go
Til I se [his] sydis blede.’
8
Gandeleyn lokyd hym est and lokyd west,
And sowt vnder þe sunne;
He saw a lytil boy
He clepyn Wrennok of Donne.
9
A good bowe in his hond,
A brod arwe þer ine,
And fowre and twenti goode arwys,
Trusyd in a þrumme:
‘Be war þe, war þe, Gandeleyn,
Her-of þu xalt han summe.
10
‘Be war þe, war þe, Gandeleyn,
Her of þu gyst plente:’
‘Euer on for an oþer,’ seyde Gandeleyn;
‘Mysaunter haue he xal fle.
11
‘Qwer-at xal our marke be?’
Seyde Gandeleyn:
‘Eueryche at oþeris herte,’
Seyde Wrennok ageyn.
12
‘Ho xal ȝeue þe ferste schote?’
Seyde Gandeleyn:
‘And I xul ȝeue þe on be-forn,’
Seyde Wrennok ageyn.
13
Wrennok schette a ful good schote,
And he schet not to hye;
Þrow þe sanchoþis of his bryk;
It towchyd neyþer thye.
14
‘Now hast þu ȝouyn me on be-forn,’
Al þus to Wrennok seyde he,
‘And þrow þe myȝt of our lady
A bettere I xal ȝeue þe.’
15
Gandeleyn bent his goode bowe,
And set þer in a flo;
14He schet þrow his grene certyl,
His herte he clef on too.
16
‘Now xalt þu neuer ȝelpe, Wrennok,
At ale ne at wyn,
Þat þu hast slawe goode Robyn,
And his knaue Gandeleyn.
17
‘Now xalt þu neuer ȝelpe, Wrennok,
At wyn ne at ale,
Þat þu hast slawe goode Robyn,
And Gandeleyn his knaue.’
Robyn lyȝth in grene wode bowndyn
Written continuously, without division of stanzas
or verses. The burden, put after 1, stands at
the head of the ballad.
And for & always.
14. gynge.
43. I now.
45. Robyn wanting.
51. went.
76. Ti I.
93. & xx.
102. hir.
123. ȝewe.
124. seyd.
143. þu myȝt.
174. Gandelyyn: knawe.
Last line: bowdyn.
116 ADAM BELL, CLIM OF THE CLOUGH, AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLY — APPENDIX THE SECOND PART OF ADAM BELL
a. Two fragments, stanzas 1134–1282, 1612–170, of an
edition by John Byddell, London, 1536: Library of
the University of Cambridge.[4]
b. A fragment, stanzas 533–1113, by a printer not identified:
formerly in the possession of J. Payne Collier.[5]
c. ‘Adambel, Clym of the cloughe, and Wyllyam of
cloudesle,’ William Copeland, London [1548–68]:
British Museum, C. 21, c. 64.[6]
d. ‘Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of
Cloudesle,’ James Roberts, London, 1605: Bodleian
Library, C. 39, Art. Selden.
e. Another edition with the same title-page: Bodleian
Library, Malone, 299.
f. ‘Adam Bell, Clime of the Cloug[he], and William
off Cloudeslee,’ Percy MS., p. 390: British Museum.
Hales and Furnivall, III, 76.
‘Adam Bell’ is licensed to John Kynge
in the Stationers’ Registers, 19 July, 1557–9
July, 1558: Arber, I, 79. Again, among
copies which were Sampson Awdeley’s, to
John Charlewood, 15 January, 1582; and,
among copies which were John Charlwoode’s,
to James Robertes, 31 May, 1594: Arber, II,
405, 651. Seven reprints of the seventeenth
century, later than d, are noted in Mr W. C.
Hazlitt’s Handbook, p. 35.
The larger part of a has been reprinted by
Mr F. S. Ellis, in his catalogue of the library
of Mr Henry Huth, I, 128 f, 1880.[7]b was
used by Mr W. C. Hazlitt for his edition of
the ballad in Remains of the Early Popular
Poetry of England, II, 131.[8]c was reprinted
15by Percy in his Reliques, 1765, I, 129, with
corrections from f; and by Ritson, Pieces of
Ancient Popular Poetry, 1791, p. 5, with the
necessary emendations of Copland’s somewhat
faulty text. d is followed by a Second Part,
described by Ritson, in temperate terms, as
“a very inferior and servile production.” It
is here given (with much reluctance) in an
Appendix.
Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William
of Cloudesly, outlawed for breach of the
game-laws, swear brotherhood, and betake
themselves to Inglewood, a forest adjacent to
Carlisle. William is a wedded man, and one
day tells his brethren that he means to go to
Carlisle to see his wife and children. Adam
would not advise this, lest he should be taken
by the justice. William goes to Carlisle, nevertheless,
knocks at his window, and is admitted
by Alice, his wife, who tells him with a
sigh that the place has been beset for him a
half year and more. While they make good
cheer, an old woman, whom William had kept
seven years for charity, slips out, and informs
the justice that William is come to town.[9]
The justice and the sheriff come presently
with a great rout to take William. Man and
wife defend the house till it is set on fire. William
lets his wife and children down with
sheets, and shoots on till his bowstring is burnt,
then runs into the thick of his foes with
sword and buckler, but is felled by doors and
windows thrown on him, and so taken. The
sheriff orders the gates of Carlisle to be shut
close, and sets up a gallows to hang William.
A boy, friendly to the family, gets out at a
crevice in the wall, and carries word to Adam
and Clim, who instantly set out for the rescue.
Adam and Clim find the gates shut so fast
that there is no chance of getting in without
a stratagem. Adam has a fair written letter
in his pocket: they will make the porter think
that they have the king’s seal. They beat on
the gate till the porter comes, and demand to
be let in as messengers from the king to the justice.
The porter demurs, but they browbeat
him with the king’s seal; he opens the gate;
they wring his neck and take his keys. First
bending their bows and looking to the strings,
they make for the market-place, where they
find Cloudesly lying in a cart, on the point
to be hanged. William sees them, and takes
hope. Adam makes the sheriff his mark, Clim
the justice; both fall, deadly wounded; the
citizens fly; the outlaws loose Cloudesly’s
ropes. William wrings an axe from the hand
of an officer, and smites on every side; Adam
and Clim shoot till their arrows are gone, then
draw their swords. Horns are blown, and the
bells rung backwards; the mayor of Carlisle
comes with a large force, and the fight is hotter
than ever. But all for naught, for the
outlaws get to the gates, and are soon in Inglewood,
under their trysty-tree.
Alice had come to Inglewood to make
known to Adam and Clim what had befallen
her husband, but naturally had not found
them, since they were already gone to William’s
rescue. A woman is heard weeping,
and Cloudesly, taking a turn to see what this
may mean, comes upon his wife and three
boys. Very sad she is, but the sight of her
husband makes all well. Three harts are
killed for supper, and William gives Alice the
best for standing so boldly by him. The outlaws
determine to go to the king to get a charter
of peace. William takes his eldest son
with him, leaving Alice and the two younger
at a nunnery. The three brethren make their
way to the king’s presence, without leave of
porter or announcement by usher, kneel down
and hold up their hands, and ask grace for
having slain the king’s deer. The king inquires
their names, and when he hears who
they are says they shall all be hanged, and orders
them into arrest. Adam Bell once more
asks grace, since they have come to the king
of their free will, or else that they may go,
with such weapons as they have, when they
16will ask no grace in a hundred years. The
king replies again that all three shall be
hanged. Hereupon the queen reminds the
king that when she was wedded he had promised
to grant the first boon she should ask;
she had hitherto asked nothing, but now begs
the three yeomen’s lives. The king must
needs consent.
Immediately thereafter comes information
that the outlaws had slain the justice and
the sheriff, the mayor of Carlisle, all the constables
and catchpolls, the sergeants of the
law, forty foresters, and many more. This
makes the king so sad that he can eat no more;
but he wishes to see these fellows shoot that
have wrought all this woe. The king’s archers
and the queen’s go to the butts with the three
yeomen, and the outlaws hit everything that
is set up. Cloudesly holds the butts too wide
for a good archer, and the three set up two
hazel rods, twenty score paces apart; he is a
good archer, says Cloudesly, that cleaves one
of these. The king says no man can do it;
but Cloudesly cleaves the wand. The king
declares him the best archer he ever saw.
William says he will do a greater mastery:
he will lay an apple on his son’s head (a boy
of seven), and split it in two at six score paces.
The king bids him make haste so to do: if he
fail, he shall be hanged; and if he touch the
boy, the outlaws shall be hanged, all three.
Cloudesly ties the child to a stake, turning its
face from him, sets an apple on its head, and,
begging the people to remain quiet, cleaves
the apple in two. The king gives Cloudesly
eighteen pence a day as his bowman, and
makes him chief rider over the North Country.
The queen adds twelve pence, makes him
a gentleman of cloth and fee and his two brothers
yeomen of her chamber, gives the boy
a place in her wine-cellar, and appoints Alice
her chief gentlewoman and governess of her
nursery. The yeomen express their thanks,
go to Rome [to some bishop, in the later
copy] to be absolved of their sins, live the
rest of their lives with the king, and die good
men, all three.
The rescue of Robin Hood by Little John
and Much in No 117, sts 61–82, has a general
resemblance to the rescue of Cloudesly by
Adam and Clim in this ballad, st. 52 ff. The
rescue of Will Stutly has also some slight similarity:
cf. No 141, sts 26–33, and 70, 79–81, of
‘Adam Bell.’
The shooting of an apple from a boy’s head,
sts 151–62, is, as is well known, a trait in
several German and Norse traditions, and
these particular feats, as well as everything
resembling them, have been a subject of eager
discussion in connection with the apocryphal
history of William Tell.
The Icelandic saga of Dietrich of Bern,
compiled, according to the prologue, from Low
German tales and ballads, narrates that young
Egil, a brother of Weland the Smith, came
to Nidung’s court with the fame of being the
best bowman in the world. Nidung, to prove
his skill, required Egil [on pain of death] to
shoot an apple from the head of his son, a
child of three years, only one trial being permitted.
Egil split the apple in the middle.
Though allowed but one chance, Egil had provided
himself with three arrows. When asked
why, he answered the king that the two others
were meant for him, if he had hit the boy
with the first. Saga Ðiðriks Konungs af
Bern, ed. Unger, c. 75, p. 90 f; Peringskiöld,
Wilkina Saga, c. 27, p. 63 f; Raszmann, Die
Deutsche Heldensage, II, 247 f; the Swedish
rifacimento, Sagan om Didrik af Bern, ed.
Hyltén-Cavallius, c. 73, p. 54. The Icelandic
saga was composed about 1250.
Saxo, writing about 1200, relates nearly the
same incidents of Toko, a man in the service
of King Harold Bluetooth († c. 985). Toko,
while drinking with comrades, had bragged
that he was good enough bowman to hit the
smallest apple on top of a stick at the first shot.
This boast was carried to the king, who exacted
a fulfilment of it on pain of death; but
the apple was to be set on the head of Toko’s
son. The father exhorted the boy to stand
perfectly still, and, to make this easier, turned
the child’s face from the direction of the shot;
then, laying out three arrows from his quiver,
executed the required feat. When the king
asked why he had taken three arrows, Toko
replied, To wreak the miss of the first with
17the points of the others. Saxo Grammaticus,
Gesta Danorum, Book x, ed. Holder,
p. 329 f.
The White Book of Obwalden, written about
1470, informs us that Tell, a good archer,
having refused to bow to Gesler’s hat, was ordered
by the landvogt to shoot an apple from
the head of one of his children. Unable to
resist, Tell laid-by a second arrow, shot the
apple from the child’s head, and being asked
why he had reserved the other arrow, replied
that if the first had missed he would
have shot Gesler or one of his men with the
second.[10]
This story is introduced into a piece of
verse on the origin of the Swiss confederacy,
of nearly the same date as the prose document.
In this the landvogt says to Tell that
if he does not hit with the first shot, it will
cost him his life; the distance is one hundred
and twenty paces, as in the English ballad,
and Tell says simply that he would have shot
the landvogt if he had hit his son.[11] (Tell
uses a cross-bow, not the long-bow, as the
English.)
Henning Wulf, a considerable person in
Holstein, who had headed an unsuccessful outbreak
against Christian the First of Denmark,
was captured and brought before the king.
The king, knowing Henning to be an incomparable
archer, ordered him to shoot an apple
from the head of his only son, a child: if
he succeeded, he was to go free. The exploit
was happily accomplished. But Henning had
put a second arrow into his mouth, and the
king asked the object. The second arrow
was for the king, had the boy been hit. Henning
Wulf was outlawed. The story, which
is put at 1472, is the subject of a painting
preserved in a church.[12]
The Norwegian king, Haraldr Harðráðr
(† 1066), who has a grudge against Hemingr,
son of Áslákr, undertakes to put him to proof
in shooting, swimming, and snow-shoe sliding.
They go to a wood, and both execute extraordinary
feats with bow and lance; but Hemingr
is much superior to the king. The king
orders Hemingr to shoot a nut from his brother
Björn’s head, on pain of death for missing.
Hemingr would rather die than venture such
a shot; but his brother offers himself freely,
and undertakes to stand still. Then let the
king stand by Björn, says Hemingr, and see
whether I hit. But the king prefers to stand
by Hemingr, and appoints somebody else to
the other position. Hemingr crosses himself,
calls God to witness that the king is responsible,
throws his lance, and strikes the nut from
his brother’s head, doing him no harm. Hemings
Ðáttr, Flateyjarbók, III, 405 f (1370–80);
Müller, Sagabibliothek, III, 356 ff.
This story was probably derived from an old
song, and is preserved in Norwegian and Färöe
ballads: ‘Harald kongin og Hemingen
unge,’ Landstad, Norske Folkeviser, No 15, A,
B, pp. 177–188; ‘Geyti Áslaksson,’ Hammershaimb,
Færöiske Kvæder, No 17, A-C, II, 149–163.
In Norwegian A, 5–10, the shot is exacted
under pain of imprisonment. Hemingen
insists that the king shall take a place near
his brother [son], whom he exhorts to stand
erect and bold; one half of the nut falls, the
other is left on the head; the king asks what
was to have been done with a second arrow
which Hemingen had secreted, and is answered
as in the previous cases.[13] The first and last
18of these incidents are wanting in B (19–22).
In the Färöe ballad, A, 53–62, the king tells
Geyti (whom he also calls Hemingur) that he
must shoot a nut from his brother’s head.
Geyti asks the king to go to the wood with him
to see the result, invokes God and St Olav,
hits the nut without touching his brother. It
is not till the next day that the king asks
Geyti why he had two arrows with him in
the wood.
The same story, pleasingly varied for the
occasion, is found in the saga of the Norwegian
king Ólafr Tryggvason († 1000). The
king hears that Eindriði, a handsome, rich,
and amiable young man, is unconverted. Eindriði
is a good swimmer, bowman, and dirk-thrower.
Ólafr, a proficient in all such exercises,
proposes to try masteries with him in
the feats which he has repute for, on the terms
that if Eindriði is beaten he shall be baptized,
but if victor shall hold such faith as he will.
The first trial is in swimming, and in this
Ólafr shows unequivocal superiority. The
next day they shoot at a target, and the advantage,
after two essays, is rather with Eindriði.
The king compliments Eindriði; but
the issue between them is not yet decided.
This fine young fellow’s salvation is at stake,
and expedients which one might otherwise
scruple at are justifiable. Ólafr knows that
Eindriði tenderly loves a pretty child, four or
five years old, his sister’s son. This boy shall
be our target, says the king. A chessman
(the king-piece) on his head shall be the
mark, to be shot off without hurting the boy.
Eindriði must needs submit, but means to
have revenge if the child comes to harm. The
king orders a cloth to be passed round the
boy’s head, each end of which is to be held
firmly by a man, so as to prevent any stirring
when the whiz of the arrow is heard. Ólafr
signs both himself and the point of his arrow
with the cross, and shoots; the arrow takes off
the chessman, passing between it and the
head, grazing the crown and drawing some
little blood. The king bids Eindriði take his
turn; but Eindriði’s mother and sister beg him
with tears to desist, and he, though ready to
take the risk, yields to their entreaties, and
leaves the victory with Ólafr. On the third
day there is a match at a game with dirks.
For a time no one can say which does the
better; but in the end Ólafr performs feats
so marvellous as in Eindriði’s conviction to
demonstrate the assistance of a deity: wherefore
he consents to be baptized. Saga Ólafs
Tryggvasonar, Fornmanna Sögur, II, 259–74,
c. 235; Flateyjarbók, I, 456–64, cc. 359–64.
Punker, a warlock of Rorbach (a town not
far from Heidelberg), had obtained from the
devil, as the regular recompense for his having
thrice pierced the crucifix, the power of making
three unerring shots daily, and had so been
able to pick off in detail all but one of the garrison
of a besieged town. To put his skill to
proof, a certain nobleman ordered him to
shoot a piece of money from his own son’s
head. Punker wished to be excused, for he
feared that the devil might play him false;
but being induced to make the trial, knocked
the coin from the boy’s cap, doing him no
damage. Before shooting, he had stuck another
arrow into his collar, and asked why,
replied that if the devil had betrayed him,
and he had killed the child, he would have
sent the other bolt through the body of the
person who had obliged him to undertake the
performance. Malleus Maleficarum, Pars II,
Quæstio I, c. xvi.[14] The date of the transaction
is put at about 1420.
The last three forms of this tradition have
the unimportant variations of brother and
brother, or uncle and nephew, for father and
son, and of nut, chessman, or coin for apple.
The story is German-Scandinavian, and not
remarkably extended.[15] The seven versions
19agree in two points: the shot is compulsory;
the archer meditates revenge in case he harms
the person on whose head the mark is placed.[16]
These features are wanting in the English
ballad. William of Cloudesly offers of his
own free motion to shoot an apple from his
son’s head, and this after the king had declared
him the best archer he had ever seen,
for splitting a hazel-rod at twenty score paces;
so that the act was done purely for glory. To
be sure, the king threatens him with death if
he does not achieve what he has undertaken,
as death is also threatened in four of the seven
German-Scandinavian stories for refusal to try
the shot or for missing; but the threats in
sts 154 f of the English ballad are a revival of
the vow in sts 119 f. Justice has been balked
by the unconditional boon granted the queen;
aggravating and exasperating circumstances
have come to light since this unadvised grace
was conceded, and a hope is presented for a
pretext under which the king may still hang
the outlaws, all three. The shooting of the
apple from the boy’s head, isolated from any
particular connection, is perhaps all of the
German-Scandinavian story that was known
to the English ballad-maker, and all minor resemblances
may well be fortuitous.[17]
If the shooting of an apple by somebody
from somebody’s head is to be regarded as the
kernel of the story, its area may then be considerably
extended.
Castrén heard the following story among
the Finns in Russian Karelia. Robbers had
carried a man off over a lake. The son of the
captive, a boy of twelve, followed along the
other side of the lake, threatening to shoot
them if they did not let his father go. These
threats, for a time, only procured worse treatment
for the prisoner; but at last the boy was
told that his father should be released if he
could shoot an arrow across the water and
split an apple laid on his father’s head. This
the boy did, and his father was liberated.
Castrén’s Reiseerinnerungen aus den Jahren
1838–44, ed. Schiefner, p. 89 f.
A Persian poet introduces into a work
composed about 1175 this anecdote.[18] A distinguished
king was very fond of a beautiful
slave, so much so that he was never easy unless
he was in some way engaged with him.
When the king amused himself with shooting,
this slave would tremble with fear, for the
king would make his mark of an apple placed
on his favorite’s head, split the apple, and in
so doing make the slave sick with alarm.
J. Grimm had seen a manuscript of travels
in Turkey, in the Cassel library, with a picture
of an archer aiming at an apple on a
child’s head. Deutsche Mythologie, I, 317,
note, ed. 1875.
With regard to the Persian story, Benfey
observes that it must be admitted as possible
that the shooting of an apple from the head
of a beloved person may have been pitched
upon in various localities, independently, as
the mark of supreme skill in archery, but
that this is not likely, and that the history of
tradition requires us rather to presume that
the conception was original in one instance
20only, and borrowed in the remainder; in which
case the borrowing would be by the West from
the East, and not the other way. We can
come to no decision, however, he adds, until
the source of the Persian story, or some older
form of it, shall have been discovered. (Göttinger
Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1861, p. 680.) The
cautiousness of the imperial scholar is worthy
of all imitation. The Persian saga, as it is
sometimes called, is, in the perhaps mutilated
form in which we have it, an inconsistent and
inept anecdote; the German-Scandinavian
saga is a complete and rational story. In
this story it is fundamental that the archer
executes a successful shot under circumstances
highly agitating to the nerves; he risks the
life of a beloved object, and in the majority
of versions his own life is at stake besides.
That the act must be done under compulsion
is the simplest corollary. If the archer is cool
enough to volunteer the shot, then the chief
difficulty in making it is removed. This is a
fault in the English ballad, where the father
is unconcerned, and all the feeling is shown
by the spectators. Cloudesly had already
split a hazel-rod at twenty score paces;
what was it for him to hit an apple at six
score?[19]
But we are still far from covering the range
of stories which have been treated as having
some significant relation to that of Egil. Any
shot at an apple, any shot at an object on a
child’s person (provided the case be not a fact
and recent), has been thought worth quoting,
as a probable sprout from the same root. For
examples: In an Esthonian popular tale, one
Sharpeye hits an apple which a man a long
way off is holding by his mouth. In a Servian
poem, the hero, Milosch, sends an arrow
through a ring, and hits a golden apple on the
point of a lance. Bellerophon’s sons, Hippolochus
and Isandrus, disputing which should
be king of the Lycians, it was proposed that
the question should be settled by seeing which
could shoot through a ring placed on the
breast of a child lying on his back. Laodamia,
sister of the competitors, offered her son
Sarpedon for the trial, and the uncles, to show
their appreciation of such handsome behavior,
resigned their claims in favor of Sarpedon.
The shot, we may understand, did not come
off.[20]
With regard to all this series of stories, and
others which have been advanced as allied,
more will be required to make out a substantial
relationship than their having in common
a shot at some object in contiguity with a
living human body, be the object an apple, or
whatever else. The idea of thus enhancing
the merit or interest of a shot is not so ingenious
that one instance must be held to be
original, and all others derivative. The archer
Alcon, according to Servius,[21] was wont to
shoot through rings placed on men’s heads.
Sir John Malcolm (Kaye’s Life, II, 400) was
told that at Mocha, when the dates were ripe,
a stone, standing up some three inches, would
be put on the head of a child, at which two
or three of the best marksmen would fire,
with ball, at thirty-one yards distance. A
case was reported, about fifty years ago, of a
man in Pennsylvania shooting a very small
apple from the head of another man.[22] A
linen-weaver was judicially punished at Spires,
some thirty years ago, for shooting a sheet of
paper from his son’s hand, and afterwards a
potato (“also einen Erdapfel,” Rochholz!)
from the boy’s head.[23] The keel-boat men of
the Mississippi, in their playfulness, would cut
the pipe out of a companion’s hat-band at a
long distance. “If they quarreled among
themselves, and then made friends, their test
that they bore no malice was to shoot some
small object from each other’s heads,” such as
21an apple. Such feats have of late been common
on the American stage.
Whatever may be thought of the linen-weaver
at Spires, it will scarcely be maintained
that the Mississippi keel-boat men shot
at apples in imitation of William Tell. As
to the selection of an apple, it seems enough
to say that an apple makes a convenient mark,
is familiar to temperate climates, and at hand
at almost any part of the year.[24] But the
chief point of all to be borne in mind is, that
whether the Mississippi boatmen took their
cue, directly or indirectly, from William Tell,
they do not become mythical personages by
virtue of their repeating his shot. None the
more does William of Cloudesly. A story
long current in Europe, a mythical story if
you please, could certainly be taken up by an
English ballad-maker without prejudice to the
substantial and simply romantic character of
his hero.[25]
The late Mr Joseph Hunter unhesitatingly
declared Adam Bell “a genuine personage of
history,” and considered that he had had “the
good fortune to recover from a very authentic
source of information some particulars of this
hero of our popular minstrelsy which show
distinctly the time at which he lived.”
“King Henry the Fourth, by letters enrolled
in the Exchequer, in Trinity Term, in
the seventh year of his reign [1406], and
bearing date the 14th day of April, granted
to one Adam Bell an annuity of 4l. 10s. issuing
out of the fee-farm of Clipston, in the
forest of Sherwood, together with the profits
and advantages of the vesture and herbage
of the garden called the Halgarth, in which
the manor-house of Clipston is situated.
“Now, as Sherwood is noted for its connection
with archery, and may be regarded
also as the patria of much of the ballad poetry
of England, and the name of Adam Bell
is a peculiar one, this might be almost of
itself sufficient to show that the ballad had a
foundation in veritable history. But we further
find that this Adam Bell violated his
allegiance by adhering to the Scots, the king’s
enemies; whereupon this grant was virtually
resumed, and the sheriff of Nottinghamshire
accounted for the rents which would have
been his. In the third year of King Henry
the Fifth [1416], the account was rendered
by Thomas Hercy, and in the fourth year by
Simon Leak. The mention of his adhesion
to the Scots leads us to the Scottish border,
and will not leave a doubt in the mind of
the most sceptical that we have here one of
the persons, some of whose deeds (with some
poetical license, perhaps) are come down to
us in the words of one of our popular ballads.”
(New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and
Writings of Shakespeare, I, 245 f, 1845.)
Mr Hunter’s points are, that an Adam Bell
had a grant from the proceeds of a farm in
the forest of Sherwood, that Adam Bell is a
peculiar name, and that his Adam Bell adhered
to the king’s enemies. To be sure,
Adam Bell’s retreat in the ballad is not Sherwood,
in Nottinghamshire, but Englishwood,
or Inglewood, in Cumberland (an old hunting-ground
of King Arthur’s, according to several
romances), a forest sixteen miles in length,
22reaching from Carlisle to Penrith.[26] But it
would be captious to insist upon this. Robin
Hood has no connection in extant ballads
with the Cumberland forest, but Wyntoun’s
Scottish Chronicle, c. 1420, makes him to
have frequented Inglewood as well as Barnsdale.[27]
The historical Adam Bell was granted
an annuity, and forfeited it for adhering to
the king’s enemies, the Scots; the Adam Bell
of the ballad was outlawed for breaking the
game-laws, and in consequence came into conflict
with the king’s officers, but never adhered
to the king’s enemies, first or last, received
the king’s pardon, was made yeoman of the
queen’s chamber, dwelt with the king, and
died a good man. Neither is there anything
peculiar in the name Adam Bell. Bell was
as well known a name on the borders[28] as
Armstrong or Graham. There is record of
an Adam Armstrong and an Adam Graham;
there is a Yorkshire Adam Bell mentioned
in the Parliamentary Writs (II, 508, 8 and
17 Edward II,) a hundred years before Hunter’s
annuitant; a contemporary Adam Bell,
of Dunbar, is named in the Exchequer Rolls
of Scotland under the years 1414, 1420
(IV, 198, 325); and the name occurs repeatedly
at a later date in the Registers of the
Great Seal of Scotland.
The placability of the king in this ballad is
repeated in the Gest of Robin Hood, and is
also exhibited in the Tale of Gamelyn, where
Gamelyn is made justice of all the free forest,
as William is here made chief rider over all
the North Country. The king, besides, forgives
all Gamelyn’s eight young men, and
puts them in good office. The king of the
outlaws, in the tale, had previously made his
peace without any difficulty. Vv 888–94,
687–89.
Translated, after Percy’s Reliques, by Bodmer,
II, 78; by Fouqué, Büsching, Erzählungen,
u. s. w., des Mittelalters, I, 1; the third
Fit, by Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Altenglands,
No 70.
c. 1
Mery it was in grene forest,
Amonge the leues grene,
Where that men walke both east and west,
Wyth bowes and arrowes kene,
2
To ryse the dere out of theyr denne;
Suche sightes as hath ofte bene sene,
As by th[r]e yemen of the north countrey,
By them it is as I meane.
3
The one of them hight Adam Bel,
The other Clym of the Clough,
The thyrd was William of Cloudesly,
An archer good ynough.
4
They were outlawed for venyson,
These thre yemen euerechone;
They swore them brethen vpon a day,
To Englysshe-wood for to gone.
5
Now lith and lysten, gentylmen,
And that of myrthes loueth to here:
Two of them were single men,
The third had a wedded fere.
6
Wyllyam was the wedded man,
Muche more then was hys care:
He sayde to hys brethen vpon a day,
To Carelel he would fare,
7
For to speke with fayre Alse hys wife,
And with hys chyldren thre:
‘By my trouth,’ sayde Adam Bel,
‘Not by the counsell of me.
238
‘For if ye go to Caerlel, brother,
And from thys wylde wode wende,
If the justice mai you take,
Your lyfe were at an ende.’
9
‘If that I come not to morowe, brother,
By pryme to you agayne,
Truste not els but that I am take,
Or else that I am slayne.’
10
He toke hys leaue of hys brethen two,
And to Carlel he is gone;
There he knocked at hys owne wyndowe,
Shortlye and anone.
11
‘Wher be you, fayre Alyce, my wyfe,
And my chyldren three?
Lyghtly let in thyne husbande,
Wyllyam of Cloudesle.’
12
‘Alas!’ then sayde fayre Alyce,
And syghed wonderous sore,
‘Thys place hath ben besette for you
Thys halfe yere and more.’
13
‘Now am I here,’ sayde Cloudesle,
‘I woulde that I in were;
Now feche vs meate and drynke ynoughe,
And let vs make good chere.’
14
She feched him meat and drynke plenty,
Lyke a true wedded wyfe,
And pleased hym with that she had,
Whome she loued as her lyfe.
15
There lay an old wyfe in that place,
A lytle besyde the fyre,
Whych Wyllyam had found, of cherytye,
More then seuen yere.
16
Up she rose, and walked full styll,
Euel mote she spede therefoore!
For she had not set no fote on ground
In seuen yere before.
17
She went vnto the justice hall,
As fast as she could hye:
‘Thys nyght is come vn to thys town
Wyllyam of Cloudesle.’
18
Thereof the iustice was full fayne,
And so was the shirife also:
‘Thou shalt not trauaile hether, dame, for nought;
Thy meed thou shalt haue or thou go.’
19
They gaue to her a ryght good goune,
Of scarlat it was, as I heard say[n]e;
She toke the gyft, and home she wente,
And couched her doune agayne.
20
They rysed the towne of mery Carlel,
In all the hast that they can,
And came thronging to Wyllyames house,
As fast [as] they might gone.
21
Theyr they besette that good yeman,
Round about on euery syde;
Wyllyam hearde great noyse of folkes,
That heytherward they hyed.
22
Alyce opened a shot-wyndow,
And loked all about;
She was ware of the justice and the shrife bothe,
Wyth a full great route.
23
‘Alas! treason,’ cryed Alyce,
‘Euer wo may thou be!
Go into my chambre, my husband,’ she sayd,
‘Swete Wyllyam of Cloudesle.’
24
He toke hys sweard and hys bucler,
Hys bow and hy[s] chyldren thre,
And wente into hys strongest chamber,
Where he thought surest to be.
25
Fayre Alice folowed him as a louer true,
With a pollaxe in her hande:
‘He shalbe deade that here cometh in
Thys dore, whyle I may stand.’
26
Cloudesle bent a wel good bowe,
That was of trusty tre,
He smot the justise on the brest,
That hys arrowe brest in thre.
27
‘God’s curse on his hartt,’ saide William,
‘Thys day thy cote dyd on;
If it had ben no better then myne,
It had gone nere thy bone.’
28
‘Yelde the, Cloudesle,’ sayd the justise,
‘And thy bowe and thy arrowes the fro:’
‘Gods curse on hys hart,’ sayde fair Al[i]ce,
‘That my husband councelleth so.’
2429
‘Set fyre on the house,’ saide the sherife,
‘Syth it wyll no better be,
And brenne we therin William,’ he saide,
‘Hys wyfe and chyldren thre.’
30
They fyred the house in many a place,
The fyre flew vpon hye;
‘Alas!’ than cryed fayr Alice,
‘I se we shall here dy.’
31
William openyd hys backe wyndow,
That was in hys chambre on hye,
And wyth shetes let hys wyfe downe,
And hys chyldren thre.
32
‘Haue here my treasure,’ sayde William,
‘My wyfe and my chyldren thre;
For Christes loue do them no harme,
But wreke you all on me.’
33
Wyllyam shot so wonderous well,
Tyll hys arrowes were all go,
And the fyre so fast vpon hym fell,
That hys bo[w]stryng brent in two.
34
The spercles brent and fell hym on,
Good Wyllyam of Cloudesle;
But than was he a wofull man, and sayde,
Thys is a cowardes death to me.
35
‘Leuer I had,’ sayde Wyllyam,
‘With my sworde in the route to renne,
Then here among myne ennemyes wode
Thus cruelly to bren.’
36
He toke hys sweard and hys buckler,
And among them all he ran;
Where the people were most in prece,
He smot downe many a man.
37
There myght no man stand hys stroke,
So fersly on them he ran;
Then they threw wyndowes and dores on him,
And so toke that good yeman.
38
There they hym bounde both hand and fote,
And in depe dongeon hym cast;
‘Now, Cloudesle,’ sayde the hye justice,
‘Thou shalt be hanged in hast.’
39
‘One vow shal I make,’ sayde the sherife,
‘A payre of new galowes shall I for the make,
And al the gates of Caerlel shalbe shutte,
There shall no man come in therat.
40
‘Then shall not helpe Clim of the Cloughe,
Nor yet Adam Bell,
Though they came with a thousand mo,
Nor all the deuels in hell.’
41
Early in the mornyng the justice vprose,
To the gates fast gan he gon,
And commaunded to be shut full cloce
Lightile euerychone.
42
Then went he to the market-place,
As fast as he coulde hye;
A payre of new gallous there dyd he vp set,
Besyde the pyllory.
43
A lytle boy stod them amonge,
And asked what meaned that gallow-tre;
They sayde, To hange a good yeaman,
Called Wyllyam of Cloudesle.
44
That lytle boye was the towne swyne-heard,
And kept fayre Alyce swyne;
Full oft he had sene Cloudesle in the wodde,
And geuen hym there to dyne.
45
He went out of a creues in the wall,
And lightly to the woode dyd gone;
There met he with these wyght yonge men,
Shortly and anone.
46
‘Alas!’ then sayde that lytle boye,
‘Ye tary here all to longe;
Cloudesle is taken and dampned to death,
All readye for to honge.’
47
‘Alas!’ then sayde good Adam Bell,
‘That euer we see thys daye!
He myght her with vs haue dwelled,
So ofte as we dyd him praye.
48
‘He myght haue taryed in grene foreste,
Under the shadowes sheene,
And haue kepte both hym and vs in reaste,
Out of trouble and teene.’
49
Adam bent a ryght good bow,
A great hart sone had he slayne;
‘Take that, chylde,’ he sayde, ‘to thy dynner,
And bryng me myne arrowe agayne.’
2550
‘Now go we hence,’ sayed these wight yong men,
Tary we no lenger here;
We shall hym borowe, by Gods grace,
Though we bye it full dere.’
51
To Caerlel went these good yemen,
In a mery mornyng of Maye:
Her is a fyt of Cloudesli,
And another is for to saye.
52
And when they came to mery Caerlell,
In a fayre mornyng-tyde,
They founde the gates shut them vntyll,
Round about on euery syde.
53
‘Alas!’ than sayd good Adam Bell,
‘That euer we were made men!
b.
These gates be shyt so wonderly well,
That we may not come here in.’
54
Than spake Clymme of the Cloughe:
With a wyle we wyll vs in brynge;
Let vs say we be messengers,
Streyght comen from oure kynge.
55
Adam sayd, I haue a lettre wryten wele,
Now let vs wysely werke;
We wyll say we haue the kynges seale,
I holde the porter no clerke.
56
Than Adam Bell bete on the gate,
With strökes greate and stronge;
The porter herde suche a noyse therate,
And to the gate faste he thronge.
57
‘Who is there nowe,’ sayd the porter,
‘That maketh all this knockynge?
‘We be two messengers,’ sayd Clymme of the Clo[ughe],
‘Be comen streyght frome oure kynge.’
58
‘We haue a lettre,’ sayd Adam Bell,
‘To the justyce we must it brynge;
Let vs in, oure message to do,
That we were agayne to our kynge.’
59
‘Here cometh no man in,’ sayd the porter,
‘By hym that dyed on a tre,
Tyll a false thefe be hanged,
Called Wyllyam of Clowdysle.’
60
Than spake that good [yeman Clym of the Cloughe,
And swore by Mary fre,
If that we stande long wythout,
Lyke a thefe hanged shalt thou be.]
61
[Lo here] we haue got the kynges seale;
[What! l]ordane, arte thou wode?
[The p]orter had wende it had been so,
[And l]yghtly dyd of his hode.
62
‘[Welco]me be my lordes seale,’ sayd he,
‘[For] that shall ye come in:’
[He] opened the gate ryght shortly,
[An] euyll openynge for hym!
63
‘[N]owe we are in,’ sayd Adam Bell,
‘[T]herof we are full fayne;
[But] Cryst knoweth that herowed hell,
[H]ow we shall come oute agayne.’
64
‘[Had] we the keys,’ sayd Clym of the Clowgh,
‘Ryght well than sholde we spede;
[Than] myght we come out well ynough,
[Whan] we se tyme and nede.’
65
[They] called the porter to a councell,
[And] wronge hys necke in two,
[And] kest hym in a depe dongeon,
[And] toke the keys hym fro.
66
‘[N]ow am I porter,’ sayd Adam Bell;
‘[Se], broder, the keys haue we here;
[The] worste porter to mery Carlell,
[That ye] had this hondreth yere.
67
‘[Now] wyll we oure bowës bende,
[Into the t]owne wyll we go,
[For to delyuer our dere] broder,
[Where he lyeth in care and wo.’
68
Then they bent theyr good yew bowes,
And loked theyr stringes were round;]
The market-place of mery Carlyll,
They beset in that stounde.
69
And as they loked them besyde,
A payre of newe galowes there they se,
And the iustyce, with a quest of swerers,
That had iuged Clowdysle there hanged to be.
70
And Clowdysle hymselfe lay redy in a carte,
Fast bounde bothe fote and hande,
And a strong rope aboute his necke,
All redy for to be hangde.
71
The iustyce called to hym a ladde;
Clowdysles clothes sholde he haue,
To take the mesure of that good yoman,
And therafter to make his graue.
72
‘I haue sene as greate a merueyll,’ sayd Clowd[esle],
‘As bytwene this and pryme,
He that maketh thys graue for me,
Hymselfe may lye therin.’
2673
‘Thou spekest proudely,’ sayd the iustyce;
‘I shall hange the with my hande:’
Full well that herde his bretheren two,
There styll as they dyd stande.
74
Than Clowdysle cast hys eyen asyde,
And sawe hys bretheren stande,
At a corner of the market-place,
With theyr good bowes bent in theyr hand,
Redy the iustyce for to chase.
75
‘I se good comforte,’ sayd Clowdysle,
‘Yet hope I well to fare;
If I myght haue my handes at wyll,
[Ryght l]ytell wolde I care.’
76
[Than b]espake good Adam Bell,
[To Clym]me of the Clowgh so fre;
[Broder], se ye marke the iustyce well;
[Lo yon]der ye may him se.
77
[And at] the sheryf shote I wyll,
[Stron]gly with an arowe kene;
[A better] shotte in mery Carlyll,
[Thys se]uen yere was not sene.
78
[They lo]used theyr arowes bothe at ones,
[Of no] man had they drede;
[The one] hyt the iustyce, the other the sheryf,
[That b]othe theyr sydes gan blede.
79
[All men] voyded, that them stode nye,
[Whan] the iustyce fell to the grounde,
[And the] sheryf fell nyghe hym by;
[Eyther] had his dethës wounde.
80
[All the c]ytezeyns fast gan fle,
[They du]rste no lenger abyde;
[There ly]ghtly they loused Clowdysle,
[Where he] with ropes lay tyde.
81
[Wyllyam] sterte to an offycer of the towne,
[Hys axe] out his hande he wronge;
[On eche] syde he smote them downe,
[Hym tho]ught he had taryed to longe.
82
[Wyllyam] sayd to his bretheren two,
[Thys daye] let vs togyder lyue and deye;
[If euer you] haue nede as I haue nowe,
[The same] shall ye fynde by me.
83
[They] shyt so well in that tyde,
For theyr strynges were of sylke full sure,
That they kepte the stretes on euery syde;
That batayll dyd longe endure.
84
They fought togyder as bretheren true,
Lyke hardy men and bolde;
Many a man to the grounde they threwe,
And made many an hertë colde.
85
But whan theyr arowes were all gone,
Men presyd on them full fast;
They drewe theyr swerdës than anone,
And theyr bowës from them caste.
86
They wente lyghtly on theyr waye,
With swerdes and buckelers rounde;
By that it was the myddes of the daye,
They had made many a wounde.
87
There was many a noute-horne in Carlyll blowen,
And the belles backwarde dyd they rynge;
Many a woman sayd alas,
And many theyr handes dyd wrynge.
88
The mayre of Carlyll forth come was,
And with hym a full grete route;
These thre yomen dredde hym full sore,
For theyr lyuës stode in doubte.
89
The mayre came armed, a full greate pace,
With a polaxe in his hande;
Many a stronge man with hym was,
There in that stoure to stande.
90
The mayre smote at Clowdysle with his byll,
His buckeler he brast in two;
Full many a yoman with grete yll,
‘[Al]as, treason!’ they cryed for wo.
‘[Ke]pe we the gates fast,’ they bad,
‘[T]hat these traytours theroute not go.’
91
But all for nought was that they wrought,
For so fast they downe were layde
Tyll they all thre, that so manfully fought,
Were goten without at a brayde.
92
‘Haue here your keys,’ sayd Adam Bell,
‘Myne offyce I here forsake;
Yf ye do by my councell,
A newë porter ye make.’
93
He threwe the keys there at theyr hedes,
And bad them evyll to thryue,
And all that letteth ony good yoman
To come and comforte his wyue.
94
Thus be these good yomen gone to the wode,
As lyght as lefe on lynde;
They laughe and be mery in theyr mode,
Theyr enemyes were farre behynde.
95
Whan they came to Inglyswode,
Under theyr trysty-tre,
There they founde bowës full gode,
And arowës greate plentë.
96
‘So helpe me God,’ sayd Adam Bell,
And Clymme of the Clowgh so fre,
27‘I wolde we were nowe in mery Carlell,
[Be]fore that fayre meynë.’
97
They set them downe and made good chere,
And eate an[d dr]anke full well:
Here is a fytte [of] these wyght yongemen,
And another I shall you tell.
98
As they sat in Inglyswode,
Under theyr trysty-tre,
Them thought they herde a woman [wepe],
But her they myght not se.
99
Sore syghed there fayre Alyce, and sayd,
Alas that euer I se this daye!
For now is my dere husbonde slayne,
Alas and welawaye!
100
Myght I haue spoken wyth hys dere breth[eren],
With eyther of them twayne,
[To shew to them what him befell]
My herte were out of payne.
101
Clowdysle walked a lytell besyde,
And loked vnder the grene wodde lynde;
He was ware of his wyfe and his chyldre[n thre],
Full wo in herte and mynde.
102
‘Welcome, wyfe,’ than sayd Wyllyam,
‘Unto this trysty-tre;
I had wende yesterdaye, by swete Sai[nt John],
Thou sholde me neuer haue se.’
103
‘Now wele is me,’ she sayd, ‘that [ye be here],
My herte is out of wo:’
‘Dame,’ he sayd, ‘be mery and glad,
And thanke my bretheren two.’
104
‘Here of to speke,’ sayd Ad[am] Bell,
‘I-wys it [is no bote];
The me[at that we must supp withall,
It runneth yet fast on fote.’
105
Then went they down into a launde,
These noble archares all thre,
Eche of the]m slewe a harte of grece,
[The best t]hey coude there se.
106
‘[Haue here the] best, Alyce my wyfe,’
[Sayde Wyllya]m of Clowdysle,
‘[By cause ye so] boldely stode me by,
[Whan I w]as slayne full nye.’
107
[Than they] wente to theyr souper,
[Wyth suc]he mete as they had,
[And than]ked God of theyr fortune;
[They we]re bothe mery and glad.
108
[And whan] they had souped well,
[Certayne] withouten leace,
[Clowdysle] sayde, We wyll to oure kynge,
[To get v]s a chartre of peace.
109
[Alyce shal] be at soiournynge,
[In a nunry] here besyde;
[My tow sonn]es shall with her go,
[And ther the]y shall abyde.
110
[Myne eldest so]ne shall go with me,
[For hym haue I] no care,
[And he shall breng] you worde agayne
[How that we do fare.
111
Thus be these wig]ht men to London gone,
[As fast as they ma]ye hye,
[Tyll they came to the kynges] palays,
c.
There they woulde nedës be.
112
And whan they came to the kyngës courte,
Unto the pallace gate,
Of no man wold they aske leue,
But boldly went in therat.
113
They preced prestly into the hall,
Of no man had they dreade;
The porter came after and dyd them call,
a.
And with them began to [chyde.]
114
The vssher sayd, Yemen, what wolde ye haue?
I praye you tell me;
Ye myght thus make offycers shent:
Good syrs, of whens be ye?
115
‘Syr, we be outlawes of the forest,
Certayne withouten leace,
And hyther we be come to our kynge,
To get vs a charter of peace.’
116
And whan they came before our kynge,
As it was the lawe of the lande,
They kneled downe without lettynge,
And eche helde vp his hande.
117
They sayd, Lorde, we beseche you here,
That ye wyll graunte vs grace.
For we haue slayne your fatte falowe dere,
In many a sondry place.
118
‘What is your names?’ than sayd our kynge,
‘Anone that you tell me:’
They sayd, Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough,
And Wylliam of Clowdesle.
28119
‘Be ye those theues,’ than sayd our kynge,
‘That men haue tolde of to me?
Here to God I make a vowe,
Ye shall be hanged all thre.
120
‘Ye shall be dead without mercy,
As I am kynge of this lande:’
c.
He commanded his officers euerichone
Fast on them to lay hand.
121
There they toke these good yemen,
And arested them all thre:
‘So may I thryue,’ sayd Adam Bell,
‘Thys game lyketh not me.
a. 122
‘But, good lorde, we beseche you nowe,
That ye wyll graunte vs grace,
In so moche as we be to you commen;
Or elles that we may fro you passe,
123
‘With suche weapons as we haue here,
Tyll we be out of your place;
And yf we lyue this hondred yere,
We wyll aske you no grace.’
124
‘Ye speke proudly,’ sayd the kynge,
‘Ye shall be hanged all thre:’
‘That were great pity,’ sayd the quene,
‘If any grace myght be.
125
‘My lorde, whan I came fyrst in to this lande,
To be your wedded wyfe,
The fyrst bone that I wolde aske,
Ye wolde graunte me belyfe.
126
‘And I asked you neuer none tyll nowe,
Therfore, good lorde, graunte it me:’
‘Nowe aske it, madame,’ sayd the kynge,
‘And graunted shall it be.’
127
‘Than, good lorde, I you beseche,
The yemen graunte you me:’
‘Madame, ye myght haue asked a bone
That sholde haue ben worthe them thre.
128
‘Ye myght haue asked towres and towne[s],
Parkes and forestes plentie:’
c.
‘None so pleasaunt to mi pay,’ she said,
‘Nor none so lefe to me.’
129
‘Madame, sith it is your desyre,
Your askyng graunted shalbe;
But I had leuer haue geuen you
Good market-townës thre.’
130
The quene was a glad woman,
And sayd, Lord, gramarcy;
I dare vndertake for them
That true men shall they be.
131
But, good lord, speke som mery word,
That comfort they may se:
‘I graunt you grace,’ then said our king,
‘Wasshe, felos, and to meate go ye.’
132
They had not setten but a whyle,
Certayne without lesynge,
There came messengers out of the north,
With letters to our kyng.
133
And whan the came before the kynge,
The kneled downe vpon theyr kne,
And sayd, Lord, your offycers grete you wel,
Of Caerlel in the north cuntre.
134
‘How fare[th] my justice,’ sayd the kyng,
‘And my sherife also?’
‘Syr, they be slayne, without leasynge,
And many an officer mo.’
135
‘Who hath them slayne?’ sayd the kyng,
‘Anone thou tell me:’
‘Adam Bel, and Clime of the Clough,
And Wyllyam of Cloudesle.’
136
‘Alas for rewth!’ then sayd our kynge,
‘My hart is wonderous sore;
I had leuer [th]an a thousand pounde
I had knowne of thys before.
137
‘For I haue y-graunted them grace,
And that forthynketh me;
But had I knowne all thys before,
They had ben hanged all thre.’
138
The kyng opened the letter anone,
Hym selfe he red it tho,
And founde how these thre outlawes had slaine
Thre hundred men and mo.
139
Fyrst the justice and the sheryfe,
And the mayre of Caerlel towne;
Of all the constables and catchipolles
Alyue were left not one.
140
The baylyes and the bedyls both,
And the sergeauntes of the law,
And forty fosters of the fe
These outlawes had y-slaw;
141
And broken his parks, and slaine his dere;
Ouer all they chose the best;
So perelous outlawes as they were
Walked not by easte nor west.
29142
When the kynge this letter had red,
In hys harte he syghed sore;
‘Take vp the table,’ anone he bad,
‘For I may eate no more.’
143
The kyng called hys best archars,
To the buttes with hym to go;
‘I wyll se these felowes shote,’ he sayd,
‘That in the north haue wrought this wo.’
144
The kynges bowmen buske them blyue,
And the quenes archers also,
So dyd these thre wyght yemen,
Wyth them they thought to go.
145
There twyse or thryse they shote about,
For to assay theyr hande;
There was no shote these thre yemen shot
That any prycke might them stand.
146
Then spake Wyllyam of Cloudesle;
By God that for me dyed,
I hold hym neuer no good archar
That shuteth at buttes so wyde.
147
‘Wherat?’ then sayd our kyng,
‘I pray thee tell me:’
‘At suche a but, syr,’ he sayd,
‘As men vse in my countree.’
148
Wyllyam wente into a fyeld,
And his to brothren with him;
There they set vp to hasell roddes,
Twenty score paces betwene.
149
‘I hold him an archar,’ said Cloudesle,
‘That yonder wande cleueth in two:’
‘Here is none suche,’ sayd the kyng,
‘Nor none that can so do.’
150
‘I shall assaye, syr,’ sayd Cloudesle,
‘Or that I farther go:’
Cloudesle, with a bearyng arow,
Claue the wand in to.
151
‘Thou art the best archer,’ then said the king,
‘Forsothe that euer I se:’
‘And yet for your loue,’ sayd Wylliam,
‘I wyll do more maystry.
152
‘I haue a sonne is seuen yere olde;
He is to me full deare;
I wyll hym tye to a stake,
All shall se that be here;
153
‘And lay an apple vpon hys head,
And go syxe score paces hym fro,
And I my selfe, with a brode arow,
Shall cleue the apple in two.’
154
‘Now hast the,’ then sayd the kyng;
‘By him that dyed on a tre,
But yf thou do not as thou hest sayde,
Hanged shalt thou be.
155
‘And thou touche his head or gowne,
In syght that men may se,
By all the sayntes that be in heaven,
I shall hange you all thre.’
156
‘That I haue promised,’ said William,
‘I wyl it neuer forsake;’
And there euen before the kynge,
In the earth he droue a stake;
157
And bound therto his eldest sonne,
And bad hym stande styll therat,
And turned the childes face fro him,
Because he shuld not sterte.
158
An apple vpon his head he set,
And then his bowe he bent;
Syxe score paces they were outmet,
And thether Cloudesle went.
159
There he drew out a fayr brode arrowe;
Hys bowe was great and longe;
He set that arrowe in his bowe,
That was both styffe and stronge.
160
He prayed the people that was there
That they would styll stande;
‘For he that shooteth for such a wager,
Behoueth a stedfast hand.’
161
Muche people prayed for Cloudesle,
a.
That hys lyfe saued myght be,
And whan he made hym redy to shote,
There was many a wepynge eye.
162
Thus Clowdesle clefte the apple in two,
That many a man it se;
‘Ouer goddes forbode,’ sayd the kynge,
‘That thou sholdest shote at me!
163
‘I gyue the .xviii. pens a daye,
And my bowe shalte thou bere,
And ouer all the north countree
I make the chefe rydere.’
30164
‘And I gyue the .xii. pens a day,’ sayd the que[ne],
‘By God and by my faye;
Come fetche thy payment whan thou wylt,
No man shall say the naye.
165
‘Wyllyam, I make the gentylman
Of clothynge and of fee,
And thy two brethren yemen of my chambr[e],
For they are so semely to se.
166
‘Your sone, for he is tendre of age,
Of my wyne-seller shall he be,
And whan he commeth to mannës state,
Better auaunced shall he be.
167
‘And, Wylliam, brynge me your wyfe,’ sayd th[e quene];
Me longeth sore here to se;
She shall be my chefe gentylwoman,
And gouerne my nursery.’
168
The yemen thanked them full courteysly,
And sayd, To Rome streyght wyll we wende,
[Of all the synnes that we haue done
To be assoyled of his hand.
169
So forth]e be gone these good yemen,
[As fast a]s they myght hye,
[And aft]er came and dwelled with the kynge,
[And dye]d good men all thre.
170
[Thus e]ndeth the lyues of these good yemen,
[God sen]de them eternall blysse,
[And all] that with hande-bowe shoteth,
[That of] heuen they may neuer mysse!
Deficiencies in a, b are supplied from c unless
it is otherwise noted.
a.
1201. deed.
b.
871. an oute horne. The emendation is Prof.
Skeat’s.
991,2. and sayd begins the second line.
1003. supplied fromd, e.
c.
53. singele.
111. be your.
132. In woulde.
162. spende.
171, 1071. whent.
183. fore.
221. shop-wyndow.
224. great full great.
233. Gy.
261. welgood.
303. Alece.
332. all gon.
343,4. and sayde begins the fourth line.
442. there Alyce.
444. geuend.
464. Allreadye.
484. in reaffte [?].
511. Cyerlel.
521. Carelell.
Variations fromb.
533. shut: wonderous.
541, 561, 643, 761, 853, 1021, 1071. Then.
543. Lee.
544. come nowe.
553. seales.
563. a wanting.
564. faste wanting.
574. come ryght.
582. me for we.
591. commeth none.
592. Be: vpon.
613. went.
621. he saide.
623. full shortlye.
631. are we.
633. know.
644, 792, 1064, 1081. When.
651. a wanting.
654. hys keys.
662, 673, 763. brother.
664. hundred.
681. They bent theyr bowes. Then, good yew
frome, f.
683. in mery.
684. in wanting.
693. And they: squyers.
702. bounde wanting.
712. Cloudesle.
713. good wanting: yeman, and ye always,
as, 883, 903, 933, 941.
721. Cloudesli.
732. the hange.
733. that wanting: brtehren, or, breehren.
742, 821, 841, 1001, 1034. brethen.
742. stande wanting.
743. marked.
745. to chaunce.
751. good wanting.
752. will.
761. Then spake.
763. Brother.
771. shyrfe.
772. an wanting.
781. thre arrowes.
784. there sedes.
792. fell downe.
812. out of.
814. he taryed all to.
822. togyder wanting.
824. shall you.
831. shot.
833. sede.
841. The: together.
852. preced to.
863. mas myd.
872. they wanting.
884. For of theyr lyues they stode in great.
902. brust.
903. euyll.
906. That.
911. yt ye.
912. to fast.
914. at wanting.
922,3. Transposed: Yf you do, etc., Myne offce.
924. do we.
931. theyr keys.
942. lyghtly as left.
943. The lough an.
944. fere.
951, 981. Englyshe.
952. Under the: trusty, and 982.
953. There wanting.
954. full great.
961. God me help.
963. nowe wanting.
972. drynke.
973. fet of.
974. And wanting: I wyll.
983. They thaught: woman wepe.
984. mought.
991. the fayre; and sayde begins the next line.
992. I sawe.
1002. Or with.
1003. wanting.
1004. put out.
1022. Under thus trusti.
311024. had se.
1061, 1091. Alce.
1063. by me.
1071. theyr wanting.
1072,3. Transposed: And thanked, etc., Wyth
such.
1082. without any.
1091. Alce shalbe at our.
1103. you breng.
1111. these good yemen.
1112. myght hye.
1113. pallace.
Variations froma.
1143. you.
1152. without any.
1153. become.
1161. the kyng.
1163, 1171. The.
1171. beseche the.
1181. be your nams: then, and 1191.
1222. you graunt.
1233. hundreth.
1243. then sayd.
1261. you wanting.
1272. These: ye.
1274. all thre.
1281. town.
1371. hauy graunted.
1531. apele.
Variations froma.
1622. myght se.
1624. sholdest wanting.
1641. .xvii.
1643. when.
1651. the a.
1663. estate.
1672. her sore.
1674. To gouerne.
1681. thanketh.
1682. To some bysshop wyl we wend.
1691. begone: there good.
1704. they wanting.
a bout, a gayne, a monge, a none, a byde, a
lyue, ther at, etc., are joined.
d, e, f.
The readings of all three are the same
unless divergence is noted.
11. f. in the.
13. whereas men hunt east.
21. raise.
22. d. sights haue oft.
e. sights haue not oft. f. has oft.
23. three yeomen.
24. as wanting.
32. Another.
42. thre wanting.
d, e. euery chone. f. eueryeche one.
43. brethren on a.
44. English wood.
52. And wanting: mirth.
53. e. were wanting.
63. brethren, and generally. e. on a.
71. There to: Alice.
72. f. with wanting.
81. e, f. we go. d. Carlell, and generally.
e, f. Carlile, and generally.
83. If that: doe you.
84. life is.
93. Trust you then that. d, f. tane.
e. taken.
111. Alice he said.
112. My wife and children three.
113. owne husband. f. thy.
122. e, f. very sore.
124. d, f. halfe a. e. Full halfe a.
131. e. I am.
132. d, f. in I. e. in we.
141. d. fet.
142. d. true and.
143. e. what she.
151. d. in the.
152. little before.
161. rose and forth she goes.
162. e. might.
163. not wanting.
164. e. yeeres. f. not 7 yeere.
171. into.
173. night she said is come to towne.
181. e. Thereat.
182. e. was wanting. f. And wanting.
183. e. dame wanting.
184. ere.
192. d, e. as wanting. d, e, f. saine.
201. raised.
202. that wanting.
203. e. And thronging fast vnto the house.
204. As fast as. e. gan.
211. the good yeoman.
212. Round wanting.
213. d. of the folke. e. of folke.
f. of the folkes.
214. thetherward: fast for they.
221. back for shot.
223. e. bothe wanting.
e, f. second the wanting.
224. e, f. And with them. e. a great rout.
f. a full great.
231. then cryed.
233. e, f. second my wanting.
f. sweet husband.
242. e.second hys wanting.
243. the for hys.
f. He went.
244. f. the surest.
251. Alice like a louer true.
252. f. Tooke a.
253. d, f. Said he shall die that commeth.
e. Said he shall dye.
261. right good.
262. of a.
264. burst.
274. had beene neere the.
282. d.second thy wanting. e. thine arrowes.
f. the bow and arrowes.
292. d, e. Sith no better it will be.
293. burne: saith. f. burne there.
294. and his.
301. f. The for they: and often.
302. d, e. vp wanting. f. fledd on.
303. then, and generally. e, f. said faire.
304. e. we here shall. f. here wee shall.
311. a for hys.
312. second on wanting. d. was on.
313. And there: he did let downe.
314. His wife and children.
321. f. Haue you here.
322. d, f. second my wanting.
321,2. e.wanting.
323. f. Gods loue.
332. d, f. agoe. e. go.
333. the wanting. about for vpon.
334. f. burnt.
341. fell vppon.
343,4. and sayde begins the fourth line.
351. e, f. had I.
352. runne.
353. e. amongst. d, f. my.
354. So: burne.
361. buckler then.
362. f. amongst.
363. people thickest were.
371. man abide. e, f. strokes.
372. e. run.
373. f. Then the: att him. e. doore.
374. that yeoman. f. And then the.
381. both wanting.
382. in a.
383. d, e. then said. d, f. hye wanting.
32392. e. gallowes thou shalt haue.
393. d. al wanting.
401. There. f. helpe yett.
403. f. a 100d men.
411. arose.
412. f. can he.
413. d. them to: full wanting.
e, f. to shut close.
423. d, e. he set vp.
f. There he new a paire of gallowes he sett vpp.
424. f. Hard by the.
432. meant.
441. the wanting. f. The litle.
443. f. seene William.
444. e. gaue.
451. at a creuice of.
452. wood he ran (ron, runn). f. And wanting.
453. e. he met. e, f. wighty yeomen.
461. e, f. said the.
462. e, f. You.
463. e, f. tane. e. doomd.
464. d. Already. e, f. And ready to be hangd.
472. saw.
473. d, e. might haue tarried heere with vs.
f. He had better haue tarryed with vs.
474. e. as wanting.
481. haue dwelled.
482. these for the. f. shaddoowes greene.
483. haue wanting: at rest.
484. d, f. of all.
492. he had.
501. e. we go.
d. wighty yeomen. e, f. iolly yeomen.
502. longer.
511. f. bold yeomen.
512. f. All in a mor[n]inge of May.
514. f. And wanting.
521. f. to wanting.
522. f. All in a morning.
523. vnto.
533. wonderous. d, f. be shut. e. are shut.
f. ffast for well.
534. therein.
544. come.
e. the king.
551. wryten wanting.
552. e. Now wanting. f. wiselye marke.
561. d, f. at the. f. gates.
562. f. hard and.
563. d, e. a wanting.
f. marueiled who was theratt.
564. faste wanting. e, f. gates.
571. nowe wanting. f. Who be.
572. f. makes.
573. e. said they then.
f. quoth Clim.
574. come right.
584. the for our.
591. none in.
592. e. of a.
593. Till that. f. a wanting.
601. d. the for that.
e. that good yeman wanting.
f. spake good Clim.
604. d, f. thou shalt.
611. got wanting.
613. d, e. porter wend (weend).
f. had went wanting.
621. is my: he said.
622. d. ye shall. e, f. you shall.
623. e, f. gates. d, e. full shortly.
f. ryght wanting.
631. are we.
632. Whereof: are right.
633. d. knowes.
e, f. Christ he knowes assuredly.
634. e. come wanting. f. gett out.
642,3,4. then, When, and nearly always.
651. a wanting.
653. cast.
654. d, f. his keyes.
662. e. we haue.
663. in for to.
664. d. hundred.
e, f. That came this hundred.
671. we will.
673. brother.
674. That for Where he.
681. d. Then: their good.
e, f. Then: their good yew.
683. in for of.
693. d, f. of squiers. e. squirers.
694. e, f. That iudged William hanged.
701. e, f. hymselfe wanting.
f. ready there in.
704. d, e. Already.
f. to hange.
712. he should. e. Cloudesle.
713. good wanting.
714. e. thereby make him a. f. And wanting.
721. a wanting.
723. a graue.
732. I will thee hang.
733. heard this.
741. eye. e. William.
742. two (tow) brethren: stande wanting.
743. e. the corner: place wel prepard.
744. d. good wanting: bent wanting.
e, f. wanting.
745. d, e. the justice to chase.
f. the iustice to slaine.
751. good wanting.
753. e. hands let free.
754. d, e. might I.
761. Then spake.
763. Brother: you.
764. you.
771. And wanting.
782. d, e. they had.
783. f. the shirrfe, the other the iustice.
784. d, f. can.
791. e. stood them.
793. fell wanting.
794. d, e. deaths.
801. f. flye.
802. d, f. longer.
803. e. Then.
811. d, f. start. e. stept.
812. out of.
814. had wanting: all too. f. Hee thought.
821. e. brethren.
822. togyder wanting.
831. shot. e, f. in wanting.
832. full wanting.
834. e. The.
d, f. long did.
841. like for as.
852. d, f. pressed to.
853. e. swords out anon.
863. d, f. was mid. f. were mid.
864. had wanting.
871. e. There was wanting. e, f. Carlile was.
872. they wanting. d. backwards.
881, 891, 901. mayor, maior.
883. thre wanting.
884. For of.
d, f. they stood in great.
e. they were in great.
894. e. Within that stoure.
902. brast.
d, f. he wanting.
903. euill.
904. f. ffull woe.
905. f. Keepe well.
906. That.
912. d, e. downe they.
f. were downe.
914. gotten out. e. of a.
922. heere I. e. My.
923. d, f. you.
924. doe you.
931. d, f. their keyes at.
d. head.
933. any.
941. e, f. be the.
33d. word.
942. lightly.
943. f. wood.
951. d, e. English wood. f. merry greenwood.
952. the trustie.
954. d. full great.
961. God me helpe.
963. nowe wanting.
964. d. manie. e. many. f. meanye.
971. d, f. sate. e. Then sat they.
972. d, e. drunke.
973. fit of: yeomen for yonge men.
f. A 2d ffitt of the wightye.
974. And wanting: I will.
981. English wood. d, f. sate.
982. d, e. trustie. f. the greenwoode.
983. woman wepe. e, f. They.
984. e, f. could act.
991. Sore then: there wanting.
d, f. and sayd begins the next line.
991,2. e. And sayd Alas wanting.
992. saw.
993. f. nowe wanting.
1001. e. spoke.
1002. Or with.
1003. d, e. To shew to them what him befell.
f. To show them, etc.
1011. aside.
1012. f. He looked.
1013. second his wanting. e. He saw his.
1022. Under. d. this trustie. e. a trusty.
f. the trustye.
1024. d, f. shouldest had.
e. shouldst had.
1034. d, e. brethren.
1044. e. It resteth.
1051. the lawnd.
1052. noble men all.
1054. f. that they cold see.
1062. f. saith.
1063. Because: by me.
1071. they went: theyr wanting.
1073. for their.
1082, 1152. without any leace (lease).
1091. at our.
1092. f. Att a.
1101. My.
1102. I haue.
1111. good yeomen.
1112. d, f. might hye. e. can hye.
1113. pallace.
1114. e, f. Where.
d. neede. e, f. needs.
1121. kings. f. But when.
1122. f. & to.
1131. proceeded presently.
1132. they had.
1134. e, f. gan.
1141. e, f. you.
1142. e, f. to me.
1143. You: thus wanting.
1144. from for of.
1152. f. Certes.
1153. the for our.
1161. the for our.
d, f. when. e. whan.
1171. d, e. beseech thee.
f. beseeche yee sure.
1181. What be.
e, f. the for our.
1183. e. They sayd wanting.
1191. d, e. than wanting. f. then.
e. the for our.
1192. of wanting.
1193. f. Here I make a vow to God.
1194. You.
1203. f. officer[s] euery one.
1211. e. Therefore.
1223. doo for be: come.
1224. from.
1232. d. your wanting.
1233. d, e. hundreth: f. 100d.
1234. d, e. of you.
f. Of you wee will aske noe.
1254. You.
1261. ye.
1264. f. itt shalbe.
1271. f. good my.
1272. These: ye.
1274. them all.
1281. f. You: townes.
1302. e. garmarcie. f. god a mercye.
1304. they shall.
1312. d. they may comfort see.
e. they might comfort see.
f. some comfort they might see.
1313. e, f. the for our.
1321. e. sittin. f. sitten.
1323. came two.
1333. e. our for your.
1341. fareth.
1351. e. slaine them. f. then said.
1352. Anone that you.
1353. and wanting.
1361. f. ffor wrath.
1363. then. f. rather then.
1364. of wanting.
1371. f. y- wanting.
1372. d. forethinketh.
1381. d, f. king he.
1383. And there: thre wanting.
1392. mayor.
1393. catchpoles.
1394. f. but one.
1401. bayliffes.
1403. forresters.
1404. haue.
f. haue the slawe.
1412. e, f. Of all. f. coice the.
1413. d. Such.
1422. hys wanting.
1423. d. table he said.
e. table then said he. f. tables then sayd hee.
1424. e, f. I can.
1431. then called.
1433. e, f. said he. f. To see.
1434. e. hath.
1441. d, e. buskt: blithe.
f. archers busket: blythe.
1442. f. Soe did the queenes alsoe.
1443. d, e. thre wanting. f. weightye.
1444. f. They thought with them.
1452. thre wanting.
1454. them wanting.
1462. e, f. By him.
1463. d, e. a good.
f. him not a good.
1471. e. the for our.
f. then wanting.
1472. to me.
1481. into the.
1482. brethren.
1484. f. 400 paces.
1494. For no man can so doo.
1501. f. syr wanting.
1502. further.
151. d, f. our king. e, f. then wanting.
1523. tie him.
1524. e, f. see him.
1541. hast thee. f. then wanting.
1543. f. dost: has.
1554. you hang.
1562. d, e. I neuer will forsake.
f. That I will neuer.
1573. him fro.
1583. out wanting. f. meaten.
1592. e. were.
1601. were there.
341604. had neede of a. e, f. steddy.
1621. claue.
1622. myght see. d, f. As.
1623. Now God forbid then said.
1624. d, e. shouldst.
1631. f. gaue: 8 pence.
1634. e. chiefe ranger.
1641. xiii. e, f. Ile.
1651. thee a.
1653. f. bretheren.
1654. are louely to.
1662. e, f. he shall be.
1663. mans estate. e, f. coms, comes.
1664. d. aduanced I will him see.
e, f. Better preferred.
1672. d. sore for to.
e. I long full sore to see. f. I long her sore.
1674. To.
1682. d. To some bishop will we wend. e, f. To some bishop we will wend.
1684. at his.
1691. e. the good.
1692. they can. d. So fast.
1693. and liued.
1694. good yeomen.
1701. f. liffe.
1703. f. with a.
1704. d, e. they wanting.
Insignificant variations of spelling are not noticed.
August 16, 1586, there was entered to Edward
White, in the Stationers’ Registers, ‘A ballad of
William Clowdisley neuer printed before:’ Arber,
II, 455. This was in all probability the present
piece, afterwards printed with ‘Adam Bell’ as a
Second Part. The Second Part of Adam Bell was
entered to John Wright, September 24, 1608: Arber,
III, 390. The ballad is a pure manufacture,
with no root in tradition, and it is an absurd extravaganza
besides. The copy in the Percy Folio,
here collated with the earliest preserved printed
copy, has often the better readings, but may have
been corrected. a has such monstrosities as y-then,
y-so.
a. ‘The Second Part of Adam Bell,’ London, James Roberts,
1605. b. ‘Younge Cloudeslee,’ Percy MS. p. 398;
Hales and Furnivall, III, 102.
1
List northerne laddes to blither things
Then yet were brought to light,
Performed by our countriemen
In many a fray and fight:
2
Of Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough,
And William of Cloudisly,
Who were in fauour with the king,
For all their misery.
3
Yong William of the wine-seller,
When yeoman he was made,
Gan follow then his father’s steps:
He loued a bonny maide.
4
‘God’s crosse,’ quoth William, ‘if I misse,
And may not of her speed,
I’le make a thousand northern hearts
For very wo to bleed.’
5
Gone he is a wooing now,
Our Ladie well him guide!
To merry Mansfield, where I trow
A time he will abide.
6
‘Soone dop the dore, faire Cicelie bright,
I come with all the hast:
I come a wooing thee for loue,
Here am I come at last.’
7
‘I know you not,’ quoth Cicelie tho,
‘From whence that yee bee come;
My loue you may not haue, I trow,
I vow by this faire sonne.
8
‘For why, my loue is fixt so sure
Vpon another wight;
I swere by sweet Saint Anne, I’le neuer
Abuse him, out of sight.
9
‘This night I hope to see my loue,
In all his pride and glee;
If there were thousands, none but him
My heart would ioy to see.’
10
‘God’s curse vpon him,’ yong William said,
‘Before me that hath sped!
A foule ill on the carrion nurse
That first did binde his head!’
11
Gan William tho for to prepare
A medicine for that chaffe:
‘His life,’ quoth he, ‘full hard may fare;
Hee’s best to keepe alaffe.’
12
He drew then out his bright brown sword,
Which was so bright and keene;
A stouter man and hardier
Nere handled sword, I weene.
3513
‘Browne tempered, strong, and worthy blade,
Vnto thy maister show,
If now to triall thou bee put,
How thou canst bide a blow.’
14
Yong William till an oake gan hie,
Which was in compasse round
Well six and fifty inches nie,
And feld it to the ground.
15
‘So mot he fare,’ quoth William tho,
‘That for her loue hath laid
Which I haue loued, and nere did know
Him suter till that maide.
16
‘And now, deare father, stout and strong,
William of Cloudesley,
How happie were thy troubled sonne
If here I mot thee see.
17
‘And thy too brethren, Adam Bell
And Clim of the Clough;
Against a thousand men, and more,
We foure would be enough.
18
‘Growne it is full foure a clocke,
And night will come beliue;
Come on, thou lurden, Cislei’s loue,
This night must I thee shriue.
19
‘Prepare thee strong, thou fow[l] black caufe!
What ere thou be, I weene
I’le giue thy coxcomb saick a gird
In Mansfield as neuer was seene.’
20
William a yong faune had slaine,
In Sherwood, merry forrest;
A fairer faune for man’s meat
In Sherwood was neuer drest.
21
Hee hied then till a northerne lasse,
Not halfe a mile him fro;
He said, Dop dore, thou good old nurse,
That in to thee I goe.
22
‘I faint with being in the wood;
Lo heere I haue a kid,
Which I haue slo for thee and I;
Come dresse it then, I bid.
23
‘Fetch bread and other iolly fare,
Whereof thou hast some store;
A blither gest this hundred yeare
Came neuer here before.’
24
The good old nant gan hie a pace
To let yong William in;
‘A happie nurse,’ quoth William then,
‘As can be lightly seene.
25
‘Wend till that house hard by,’ quoth he,
‘That’s made of lime and stone,
Where is a lasse, faire Cisse,’ hee said;
‘I loue her as my owne.
26
‘If thou can fetch her vnto me,
That we may merry be,
I make a vow, in the forrest,
Of deare thou shalt haue fee.’
27
‘Rest then, faire sir,’ the woman said;
‘I sweare by good Saint Iohn,
I will bring to you that same maide
Full quickly and anon.’
28
‘Meane time,’ quoth William, ‘I’le be cooke
And see the faune i-drest;
A stouter cooke did neuer come
Within the faire forrest.’
29
Thick blith old lasse had wit enow
For to declare his minde;
So fast she hi’d, and nere did stay,
But left William behind.
30
Where William, like a nimble cooke,
Is dressing of the fare,
And for this damsell doth he looke;
‘I would that she were here!’
31
‘Good speed, blithe Cisse,’ quoth that old lasse;
‘God dild yee,’ quoth Cisley againe;
‘How done you, nant Ione?’ she said,
‘Tell me it, I am faine.’
32
The good old Ione said weele she was,
‘And commen in an arrand till you;
For you must to my cottage gone,
Full quick, I tell you true;
33
‘Where we full merry meane to be,
All with my elder lad:’
When Cissley heard of it, truely,
She was exceeding glad.
34
‘God’s curse light on me,’ quoth Cissley tho,
‘If with you I doe not hie;
I neuer ioyed more forsooth
Then in your company.’
35
Happy the good-wife thought her selfe
That of her purpose she had sped,
And home with Cisley she doth come,
So lightly did they tread.
36
And comming in, here William soone
Had made ready his fare;
The good old wife did wonder much
So soone as she came there.
3637
Cisley to William now is come,
God send her mickle glee!
Yet was she in a maze, God wot,
When she saw it was hee.
38
‘Had I beene ware, good sir,’ she said,
‘Of that it had beene you,
I would haue staid at home in sooth,
I tell you very true.’
39
‘Faire Cisley,’ then said William kind,
‘Misdeeme thou not of mee;
I sent not for thee to the end
To do thee iniury.
40
‘Sit downe, that we may talke a while,
And eate all of the best
And fattest kidde that euer was slaine
In merry Sirwood forrest.’
41
His louing words wan Cisley then
To keepe with him a while;
But in the meane time Cislei’s loue
Of her was tho beguile.
42
A stout and sturdie man he was
Of quality and kind,
And knowne through all the north country
To beare a noble minde.
43
‘But what,’ quoth William, ‘do I care?
If that he meane to weare,
First let him winne; els neuer shall
He haue the maide, I sweare.’
44
Full softly is her louer come,
And knocked at the dore;
But tho he mist of Cislei’s roome,
Whereat he stampt and swore.
45
‘A mischief on his heart,’ quoth he,
‘That hath enlured the maide
To be with him in company!’
He car’d not what he sayd.
46
He was so with anger mooued
He sware a well great oth,
‘Deere should he pay, if I him knew,
Forsooth and by my troth!’
47
Gone he is to finde her out,
Not knowing where she is;
Still wandring in the weary wood,
His true-loue he doth misse.
48
William purchast hath the game,
Which he doth meane to hold:
‘Come rescew her, and if you can,
And dare to be so bold!’
49
At length when he had wandred long
About the forrest wide,
A candle-light a furlong off
Full quickly he espied.
50
Then to the house he hied him fast,
Where quickly he gan here
The voice of his owne deere true-loue,
A making bonny cheere.
51
Then gan he say to Cisley tho,
O Cisley, come a way!
I haue beene wandring thee to finde
Since shutting in of day.
52
‘Who calls faire Cisse?’ quoth William then;
‘What carle dares bee so bold
Once to aduenture to her to speake
Whom I haue now in hold?’
53
‘List thee, faire sir,’ quoth Cislei’s loue,
‘Let quickly her from you part;
For all your lordly words, I sweare
I’le haue her, or make you smart.’
54
Yong William to his bright browne sword
Gan quickly then to take:
‘Because thou so dost challenge me,
I’le make thy kingdome quake.
55
‘Betake thee to thy weapon strong;
Faire time I giue to thee;
And for my loue as well as thine
A combat fight will I.’
56
‘Neuer let sonne,’ quoth Cislei’s loue,
‘Shine more vpon my head,
If I doe flie, by heauen aboue,
Wert thou a giant bred.’
57
To bilbo-blade gat William tho,
And buckler stiffe and strong;
A stout battaile then they fought,
Well nie two houres long.
58
Where many a grieuous wound was giue
To each on either part;
Till both the champions then were droue
Almost quite out of heart.
59
Pitteous mone faire Cisley made,
That all the forrest rong;
The grieuous shrikes made such a noise,
She had so shrill a tongue.
60
At last came in the keepers three,
With bowes and arrowes keene,
Where they let flie among these two,
An hundred as I weene.
3761
William, stout and strong in heart,
When he had them espied,
Set on corrage for his part;
Among the thickst he hied.
62
The chiefe ranger of the woods
At first did William smite;
Where, at on blow, he smot his head
Fro off his shoulders quite.
63
And being in so furious teene,
About him then he laid;
He slew immediatly the wight
Was sutor to the maide.
64
Great moane was then made;
The like was neuer heard;
Which made the people all around
To crie, they were so feard.
65
‘Arme! arme!’ the country cried,
‘For God’s loue quickly hie!’
Neuer was such a slaughter seene
In all the north country.
66
Will[iam] still, though wounded sore,
Continued in his fight
Till he had slaine them all foure,
That very winter-night.
67
All the country then was raisd,
The traytor for to take
That for the loue of Cisley faire
Had all this slaughter make.
68
To the woods hied William tho—
’Twas best of all his play—
Where in a caue with Cisley faire
He liued many a day.
69
Proclamation then was sent
The country all around,
The lord of Mansfield should he be
That first the traytor found.
70
Till the court these tydings came,
Where all men did bewaile
The yong and lusty William,
Which so had made them quaile.
71
Hied vp then William Cloudesley,
And lustie Adam Bell,
And famous Clim of the Clough,
Which three then did excell.
72
To the king they hied them fast,
Full quickly and anon;
‘Mercy I pray,’ quoth old William,
‘For William my sonne.’
73
‘No mercy, traitors,’ quoth the king,
‘Hangd shall yee be all foure;
Vnder my nose this plot haue you laid
To bringe to passe before.’
74
‘In sooth,’ bespake then Adam Bell,
‘Ill signe Your Grace hath seene
Of any such comotion
Since with you we haue beene.
75
‘If then we can no mercy haue,
But leese both life and goods,
Of your good grace we take our leaue
And hie vs to the woods.’
76
‘Arme, arme,’ then quoth the king,
‘My merry men euerychone,
Full fast againe these rebbells now
Vnto the woods are gone.
77
‘A, wo is vs! what shall we doo,
Or which way shall we worke,
To hunt them forth out of the woods,
So traytrouslie there that lurke?’
78
‘List you,’ quoth a counsellor graue,
A wise man he seemd;
The[n] craued the king his pardon free
Vnto them to haue deemd.
79
‘God’s forbod!’ quoth the king,
‘I neuer it will do!
For they shall hang, each mother’s sonne;
Faire sir, I tell you true.’
80
Fifty thousand men were charged
After them for to take;
Some of them, set in sundry townes,
In companies did waite.
81
To the woods gan some to goe,
In hope to find them out;
And them perforce they thought to take,
If they might find them out.
82
To the woods still as they came
Dispatched still they were;
Which made full many a trembling heart,
And many a man in feare.
83
Still the outlawes, Adam Bell
And Clim of the Clough,
Made iolly cheere with venison,
Strong drinke and wine enough.
84
‘Christ me blesse!’ then said our king,
‘Such men were neuer knowne;
They are the stoutest-hearted men
That manhoode euer showne.
3885
‘Come, my secretary good,
And cause to be declared
A generall pardone to them all,
Which neuer shall be discared.
86
‘Liuing plenty shall they haue,
Of gold and eke of fee,
If they will, as they did before,
Come liue in court with me.’
87
Sodenly went forth the newes,
Declared by trumpets sound,
Whereof these three were well aduis’d,
In caue as they were in ground.
88
‘But list you, sirs,’ quoth William yong,
‘I dare not trust the king;
It is some fetch is in his head,
Whereby to bring vs in.
89
‘Nay, stay we here: or first let me
A messenger be sent
Vnto the court, where I may know
His Maiestie’s intent.’
90
This pleased Adam Bell:
‘So may we liue in peace,
We are at his most high command,
And neuer will we cease.
91
‘But if that still we shall be vrged,
And called by traitrous name,
And threated hanging for euery thing,
His Highnesse is to blame.
92
‘Neare had His Grace subiects more true,
And sturdier then wee,
Which are at His Highnesse will;
God send him well to bee!’
93
So to the court is yong William gone,
To parley with the king,
Where all men to the king’s presence
Did striue him for to bring.
94
When he before the king was come,
He kneeled down full low;
He shewed quickly to the king
What duty they did owe;
95
In such delightfull order blith,
The king was quickly wonne
To comfort them in their request,
As he before had done.
96
‘Fetch bread and drinke,’ then said His Grace,
‘And meat all of the best;
And stay all night here at the court,
And soundly take thy rest.’
97
‘Gramercies to Your Grace,’ said William,
‘For pardon graunted I see:’
‘For signe thereof, here take my seale,
And for more certainty.’
98
‘God’s curse vpon me,’ sayd William,
‘For my part if I meane
Euer againe to stirre vp strife!
It neuer shall bee seene.’
99
The nobles all to William came,
He was so stout and trimme,
And all the ladies, for very ioy,
Did come to welcome him.
100
‘Faire Cisley now I haue to wife,
In field I haue her wonne;’
‘Bring her here, for God’s loue,’ said they all,
‘Full welcome shall she be [soone].’
101
Forth againe went William backe,
To wood that he did hie,
And to his father there he shewd
The king his pardone free.
102
‘Health to His Grace,’ quoth Adam Bell,
‘I beg it on my knee!’
The like said Clim of the Clough,
And William of Cloudesley.
103
To the court they all prepare,
Euen as fast as they can hie,
Where graciously they were receiud,
With mirth and merry glee.
104
Cisley faire is wend alone
Vpon a gelding faire;
A proprer damsell neuer came
In any courtly ayre.
105
‘Welcome, Cisley,’ said the queene,
‘A lady I thee make,
To wait vpon my owne person,
In all my chiefest state.’
106
So quickly was this matter done,
Which was so hardly doubted,
That all contentions after that
From court were quickly rowted.
107
Fauourable was the king;
So good they did him finde,
The[y] neuer after sought againe
To vex his royall minde.
108
Long time they liued in court,
So neare vnto the king
That neuer after was attempt
Offred for any thing.
39109
God aboue giue all men grace
In quiet for to liue,
And not rebelliously abroad
Their princes for to grieue.
110
Let not the hope of pardon mooue
A subiect to attempt
His soueraigne’s anger, or his loue
From him for to exempt.
111
But that all men may ready be
With all their maine and might
To serue the Lord, and loue the King,
In honor, day and night!
a.
14. In mickle.
61. Some.
134. canst thou.
203. man’s y-meat.
212. he fro.
282. I drest.
352. That her purpose he had of sped.
354. they read.
374. amaze.
461. was yso.
641. ythen.
762. euery chone.
921. more subjects true.
933. Which for Where.
b.
14. In many.
52. will for well.
61. Soone.
63. to thee.
131. sword for strong.
134. thou canst.
184. I must.
191. ffowle.
194. was neuer.
203. man’s meate.
212. him ffroe.
213. dop the.
223. slaine ffor thee & mee.
282. To see: well drest.
311. God speed.
313. doe yee.
321. woman for Ione.
322. in wanting: to you.
352. of her purpose shee had sped.
354. they did tread.
373. a maze.
403. The ffattest.
443. mist Cisleys companye.
452. allured this.
461. soe.
524. in my for now in.
572. That was both stiffe.
574. Weer neere.
611. strong & stout.
661. William.
682. Itt was the best.
732. You shall be hanged.
733. plott yee have.
762. euer-eche one.
783. The craued.
794. I tell you verry true.
861. Liuings.
921. subiects more true.
933. Where.
971. Gramercy.
1004. Welcome shee shall bee soone.
1041. is gone.
1054. cheefe estate.
1064. rooted.
1073. ffought for sought.
117 A GEST OF ROBYN HODE
a. ‘A Gest of Robyn Hode,’ without printer’s name,
date, or place; the eleventh and last piece in a volume
in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh. Reprinted
by David Laing, 1827, with nine pieces
from the press of Walter Chepman and Androw
Myllar, Edinburgh, 1508, and one other, by a printer
unknown, under the title of The Knightly Tale of
Golagrus and Gawane, and other Ancient Poems.
b. ‘A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode,’ etc., London,
Wynken de Worde, n. d.: Library of the University
of Cambridge.
f. ‘A Mery Geste of Robyn Hoode,’ etc., London,
Wyllyam Copland, n. d.: British Museum, C. 21. c.
g. ‘A Merry Iest of Robin Hood,’ etc., London, printed
for Edward White, n. d.: Bodleian Library, Z. 3.
Art. Seld., and Mr Henry Huth’s library.
The best qualified judges are not agreed as
to the typographical origin of a: see Dickson,
Introduction of the Art of Printing into
Scotland, Aberdeen, 1885, pp 51 ff, 82 ff, 86 f.
Mr Laing had become convinced before his
death that he had been wrong in assigning
40this piece to the press of Chepman and Myllar.
The date of b may be anywhere from
1492 to 1534, the year of W. de Worde’s
death. Of c Ritson says, in his corrected
preface to the Gest, 1832, I, 2: By the favor
of the Reverend Dr Farmer, the editor had
in his hands, and gave to Mr Douce, a few
leaves of an old 4to black letter impression
by the above Wynken de Worde, probably
in 1489, and totally unknown to Ames and
Herbert. No reason is given for this date.[30]
I am not aware that any opinion has been
expressed as to the printer or the date of d, e.
W. Copland’s edition, f, if his dates are fully
ascertained, is not earlier than 1548. Ritson
says that g is entered to Edward White in
the Stationers’ books, 13 May, 1594. “A
pastorall plesant commedie of Robin Hood &
Little John, &c,” is entered to White on the
14th of May of that year, Arber, II, 649:
this is more likely to have been a play of
Robin Hood.
a, b, f, g, are deficient at 71, 3391, and misprinted
at 49, 50, repeating, it may be, the
faults of a prior impression. a appears, by
internal evidence, to be an older text than b.[31]
Some obsolete words of the earlier copies
have been modernized in f, g,[32], and deficient
lines have been supplied. A considerable
number of Middle-English forms remain[33]
after those successive renovations of reciters
and printers, which are presumable in such
cases. The Gest may have been compiled at
a time when such forms had gone out of use,
and these may be relics of the ballads from
which this little epic was made up; or the
whole poem may have been put together as
early as 1400, or before. There are no firm
grounds on which to base an opinion.
No notice of Robin Hood has been down
to this time recovered earlier than that which
was long ago pointed out by Percy as occurring
in Piers Plowman, and this, according
to Professor Skeat, cannot be older than
about 1377.[34] Sloth, in that poem, says in
his shrift that he knows “rymes of Robyn
Hood and Randolf, erle of Chestre,”[35] though
but imperfectly acquainted with his paternoster:
B, passus v, 401 f, Skeat, ed. 1886,
I, 166. References to Robin Hood, or to his
story, are not infrequent in the following century.
41In Wyntoun’s Chronicle of Scotland, put
at about 1420, there is this passage, standing
quite by itself, under the year 1283:
Lytill Ihon and Robyne Hude
Waythmen ware commendyd gude;
In Yngilwode and Barnysdale
Thai oysyd all this tyme thare trawale.
Laing, II, 263.
Disorderly persons undertook, it seems, to
imitate Robin Hood and his men. In the
year 1417, says Stowe, one, by his counterfeit
name called Fryer Tucke, with many other
malefactors, committed many robberies in the
counties of Surrey and Sussex, whereupon
the king sent out his writs for their apprehension:
Annals, p. 352 b, ed. 1631.[36] A
petition to Parliament, in the year 1439, represents
that one Piers Venables, of Derbyshire,
rescued a prisoner, “and after that
tyme, the same Piers Venables, havynge no
liflode ne sufficeante of goodes, gadered and
assembled unto him many misdoers, beynge of
his clothinge, ... and, in manere of insurrection,
wente into the wodes in that contré,
like as it hadde be Robyn-hode and his
meyné:” Rotuli Parliamentorum, V, 16.[37]
Bower, writing 1441–47, describes the
lower orders of his time as entertaining themselves
with ballads both merry and serious,
about Robin Hood, Little John, and their
mates, and preferring them to all others;[38]
and Major, or Mair, who was born not long
after 1450, says in his book, printed in 1521,
that Robin Hood ballads were in vogue over
all Britain.[39]
Sir John Paston, in 1473, writes of a servant
whom he had kept to play Robin Hood
and the Sheriff of Nottingham, and who was
gone into Bernysdale: Fenn, Original Letters,
etc., II, 134, cited by Ritson.
Gutch cites this allusion to Robin Hood
ballads “from Mr Porkington, No 10, f. 152,
written in the reign of Edward IV:”
Ther were tynkerris in tarlottus, the met was fulle goode,
The “sowe sat one him benche” (sic), and harppyd Robyn Hoode.
And again, the name simply, from “a song
on Woman, from MS. Lambeth, 306, fol. 135,
of the fifteenth century”:
He that made this songe full good
Came of the northe and of the sothern blode,
And somewhat kyne to Robyn Hode.
Gutch, Robin Hood, I, 55 f.
These passages show the popularity of
Robin Hood ballads for a century or more
42before the time when the Gest was printed, a
popularity which was fully established at the
beginning of this period, and unquestionably
extended back to a much earlier day. Of
these ballads, there have come down to us in
a comparatively ancient form the following:
those from which the Gest (printed, perhaps,
before 1500) was composed, being at least
four, Robin Hood, the Knight and the Monk,
Robin Hood, Little John and the Sheriff,
Robin Hood and the King, and Robin Hood’s
Death (a fragment); Robin Hood and the
Monk, No 118, more properly Robin Hood
rescued by Little John, MS. of about 1450,
but not for that older than the ballads of the
Gest; Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborn, No
119, Percy MS. c. 1650; Robin Hood’s Death,
No 120, Percy MS. and late garlands; Robin
Hood and the Potter, No 121, MS. of about
1500, later, perhaps, than any other of the
group.[40] Besides these there are thirty-two
ballads, Nos 122–153. For twenty-two of
these we have the texts of broadsides and
garlands of the seventeenth century,[41] four of
the same being also found in the Percy MS.;
eight occur in garlands, etc., of the last century,
one of these same in the Percy MS., and
another in an eighteenth-century MS.; one is
derived from a suspicious nineteenth-century
MS., and one from nineteenth-century tradition.
About half a dozen of these thirty-two
have in them something of the old popular
quality; as many more not the least smatch
of it. Fully a dozen are variations, sometimes
wearisome, sometimes sickening, upon
the theme ‘Robin Hood met with his match.’
A considerable part of the Robin Hood poetry
looks like char-work done for the petty press,
and should be judged as such. The earliest
of these ballads, on the other hand, are among
the best of all ballads, and perhaps none in
English please so many and please so long.
That a considerable number of fine ballads
of this cycle have been lost will appear all
but certain when we remember that three of
the very best are found each in only one
manuscript.[42]
Robin Hood is absolutely a creation of the
ballad-muse. The earliest mention we have
of him is as the subject of ballads. The only
two early historians who speak of him as a
ballad-hero, pretend to have no information
about him except what they derive from ballads,
and show that they have none other
by the description they give of him; this
description being in entire conformity with
ballads in our possession, one of which is
found in a MS. as old as the older of these
two writers.
Robin Hood is a yeoman, outlawed for reasons
not given but easily surmised, “courteous
and free,” religious in sentiment, and
above all reverent of the Virgin, for the love
of whom he is respectful to all women. He
lives by the king’s deer (though he loves no
man in the world so much as his king) and
by levies on the superfluity of the higher
orders, secular and spiritual, bishops and archbishops,
43abbots, bold barons, and knights,[43]
but harms no husbandman or yeoman, and
is friendly to poor men generally, imparting
to them of what he takes from the rich.
Courtesy, good temper, liberality, and manliness
are his chief marks; for courtesy and
good temper he is a popular Gawain. Yeoman
as he is, he has a kind of royal dignity,
a princely grace, and a gentleman-like refinement
of humor. This is the Robin Hood of
the Gest especially; the late ballads debase
this primary conception in various ways and
degrees.
This is what Robin Hood is, and it is
equally important to observe what he is not.
He has no sort of political character, in the
Gest or any other ballad. This takes the
ground from under the feet of those who seek
to assign him a place in history. Wyntoun,
who gives four lines to Robin Hood, is quite
precise. He is likely to have known of the
adventure of King Edward and the outlaw,
and he puts Robin under Edward I, at the
arbitrary date of 1283, a hundred and forty
years before his own time. Bower, without
any kind of ceremony, avouches our hero to
have been one of the proscribed followers of
Simon de Montfort, and this assertion of
Bower is adopted and maintained by a writer
in the London and Westminster Review,
1840, XXXIII, 424.[44] Major, who probably
knew some ballad of Richard I and Robin
Hood, offers a simple conjecture that Robin
flourished about Richard’s time, “circa hæc
tempora, ut auguror,” and this is the representation
in Matthew Parker’s ‘True Tale,’
which many have repeated, not always with
ut auguror; as Scott, with whom no one can
quarrel, in the inexpressibly delightful Ivanhoe,
and Thierry in his Conquête de l’Angleterre,
Book xi, IV, 81 ff, ed. 1830, both of
whom depict Robin Hood as the chief of a
troop of Saxon bandits, Thierry making him
an imitator of Hereward. Hunter, again,
The Ballad-Hero, Robin Hood, p. 48, interprets
the King Edward of the Gest as Edward
II, and makes Robin Hood an adherent
of the Earl of Lancaster in the fatal insurrection
of 1322. No one of these theories has
anything besides ballads for a basis except
Hunter’s. Hunter has an account-book in
which the name Robin Hood occurs; as to
which see further on, under stanzas 414–450
of the Gest. Hereward the Saxon, Fulk Fitz
Warine, Eustace the Monk, Wallace, all outlaws
of one kind or another, are celebrated in
romantic tales or poems, largely fabulous,
which resemble in a general way, and sometimes
in particulars, the traditional ballads
about Robin Hood;[45] but these outlaws are
recognized by contemporary history.
The chief comrades of Robin Hood are:
Robin Hood and the Monk, Little John,
Scathlok (Scarlok, Scarlet), and Much; to
these the Gest adds Gilbert of the White
Hand and Reynold, 292 f. A friar is not
a member of his company in the older ballads.
A curtal, or cutted friar, called Friar
Tuck in the title, but not in the ballad, has
a fight with Robin Hood in No 123, and is
perhaps to be regarded as having accepted
Robin’s invitation to join his company; this,
however, is not said. Friar Tuck is simply
named as one of Robin’s troop in two broadsides,
No 145, No 147, but plays no part in
them. These two broadsides also name Maid
Marian, who appears elsewhere only in a late
and entirely insignificant ballad, No 150.[46]
44Friar Tuck is a character in each of two
Robin Hood plays, both of which we have,
unluckily, only in a fragmentary state. One
of these plays, dating as far back as 1475,
presents scenes from Robin Hood and Guy
of Gisborn, followed, without any link, by others
from some ballad of a rescue of Robin
Hood from the sheriff; to which extracts from
still other ballads may have been annexed. In
this play the friar has no special mark; he
simply makes good use of his bow. The other
play, printed by Copland with the Gest, not
much before 1550, treats more at length the
story of Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar, and
then that of Robin Hood and the Potter,
again, and naturally, without connection.
The conclusion is wanting, and the play may
have embraced still other ballads. The Friar
in this is a loose and jovial fellow, and gave
the hint for Scott’s Clerk of Copmanhurst.[47]
The second of the Robin Hood plays is
described in the title as “very proper to be
played in May-games.” These games were
in the sixteenth century, and, it would seem,
before, often a medley of many things. They
were not limited to the first day of May, or
even to the month of May; they might occur
in June as well. They were not uniform, and
might include any kind of performance or
spectacle which suited the popular taste. “I
find,” says Stow, “that in the moneth of
May, the citizens of London, of all estates,
lightlie in every parish, or sometimes two or
three parishes joyning together, had their
several Mayinges, and did fetch in Maypoles,
with divers warlike shewes, with good archers,
morrice-dancers, and other devices for pastime
all the day long; and towards the evening
they had stage-playes and bonefires in the
streetes.”[48] In the Diary of Henry Machyn
we read that on the twenty-sixth of May,
1555, there was a goodly May-game at St
Martins in the Field, with giant and hobby-horses,
morris-dance and other minstrels;
and on the third day of June following, a
goodly May-game at Westminster, with giants
and devils, and three morris-dancers, and many
disguised, and the Lord and Lady of the May
rode gorgeously, with divers minstrels playing.
On the thirtieth of May, 1557, there was
a goodly May-game in Fenchurch Street, in
which the Nine Worthies rode, and they had
speeches, and the morris-dance, and the Sowdan,
and the Lord and Lady of the May, and
more besides. And again, on the twenty-fourth
of June, 1559, there was a May-game,
with a giant, the Nine Worthies, with
speeches, a goodly pageant with a queen, St
George and the Dragon, the morris-dance, and
afterwards Robin Hood and Little John, and
Maid Marian and Friar Tuck, and they had
speeches round about London. (Pp 89, 137,
201.)[49]
In the rural districts the May-game was
naturally a much simpler affair. The accounts
of the chamberlains and churchwardens of
Kingston upon Thames for Mayday, 23 Henry
VII–28 Henry VIII, 1507–36, contain charges
for the morris, the Lady, Little John, Robin
Hood, and Maid Marian; the accounts for 21
Henry VII–1 Henry VIII relate to expenses
for the Kyngham, and a king and queen are
mentioned, presumably king and queen of
May; under 24 Henry VII the “cost of the
Kyngham and Robyn Hode are entered together.”[50]
“A simple northern man” is made to say
in Albion’s England, 1586:
45At Paske began our Morris, and ere Penticost our May;
Tho Robin Hood, Liell John, Frier Tucke and Marian deftly play,
And Lard and Ladie gang till kirk, with lads and lasses gay.[51]
Tollet’s painted window (which is assigned
by Douce to about 1460–70, and, if rightly
dated, furnishes the oldest known representation
of a May-game with the morris) has,
besides a fool, a piper and six dancers, a Maypole,
a hobby-horse, a friar, and a lady, and
the lady, being crowned, is to be taken as
Queen of May.
What concerns us is the part borne by
Robin Hood, John, and the Friar in these
games, and Robin’s relation to Maid Marian.
In Ellis’s edition of Brand’s Antiquities, I,
214, note h, we are told that Robin Hood is
styled King of May in The Book of the Universal
Kirk of Scotland. This is a mistake,
and an important mistake. In April, 1577,
the General Assembly requested the king to
“discharge [prohibit] playes of Robin Hood,
King of May, and sick others, on the Sabboth
day.” In April, 1578, the fourth session, the
king and council were supplicated to discharge
“all kynd of insolent playis, as King of May,
Robin Hood, and sick others, in the moneth of
May, played either be bairnes at the schools,
or others”; and the subject was returned to
in the eighth session. We know from various
sources that plays, founded on the ballads,
were sometimes performed in the course of
the games. We know that archers sometimes
personated Robin Hood and his men in the
May-game.[52] The relation of Robin Hood,
John, and the Friar to the May-game morris
is obscure. “It plainly appears,” says Ritson,
“that Robin Hood, Little John, the
Friar, and Maid Marian were fitted out at
the same time with the morris-dancers, and
consequently, it would seem, united with
them in one and the same exhibition,” meaning
the morris. But he adds, with entire
truth, in a note: “it must be confessed that
no other direct authority has been met with for
constituting Robin Hood and Little John integral
characters of the morris-dance.”[53] And
further, with less truth so far as the Friar is
concerned: “that Maid Marian and the Friar
were almost constantly such is proved beyond
the possibility of a doubt.” The Friar is found
in Tollet’s window, which Douce speaks of,
cautiously, as a representation of an English
May-game and morris-dance. The only “direct
authority,” so far as I am aware, for the
Friar’s being a party in the morris-dance (unconnected
with the May-game) is the late
authority of Ben Jonson’s Masque of the
Metamorphosed Gipsies, 1621, cited by Tollet
in his Memoir; where it is said that the absence
of a Maid Marian and a friar is a surer
mark than the lack of a hobby-horse that a
certain company cannot be morris-dancers.[54]
The lady is an essential personage in the morris.[55]
How and when she came to receive the
appellation of Maid Marian in the English
46morris is unknown. The earliest occurrence
of the name seems to be in Barclay’s fourth
Eclogue,[56] “subjoined to the last edition of
The Ship of Foles, but originally printed
soon after 1500:” Ritson, I, lxxxvii, ed. 1832.
Warton suggested a derivation from the
French Marion, and the idea is extremely
plausible. Robin and Marion were the subject
of innumerable motets and pastourelles of
the thirteenth century, and the hero and
heroine of a very pretty and lively play, more
properly comic opera, composed by Adam de
la Halle not far from 1280. We know from
a document of 1392 that this play was annually
performed at Angers, at Whitsuntide,
and we cannot doubt that it was a stock-piece
in many places, as from its merits it deserved
to be. There are as many proverbs about
Robin and Marion as there are about Robin
Hood, and the first verse of the play, derived
from an earlier song, is still (or was fifty years
ago) in the mouths of the peasant girls of
Hainault.[57] In the May-game of June, 1559,
described by Machyn, after many other things,
they had “Robin Hood and Little John,” and
“Maid Marian and Friar Tuck,” some dramatic
scene, pantomime, or pageant, probably two;
but there is nothing of Maid Marian in the
two (fragmentary) Robin Hood plays which
are preserved, both of which, so far as they
go, are based on ballads. Anthony Munday,
towards the end of the sixteenth century,
made a play, full of his own inventions, in
which Robert, Earl of Huntington, being outlawed,
takes refuge in Sherwood, with his
chaste love Matilda, daughter of Lord Fitzwaters,
and changes his name to Robin Hood,
hers to Maid Marian.[58] One S. G., a good
deal later, wrote a very bad ballad about the
Earl of Huntington and his lass, the only
ballad in which Maid Marian is more than a
name. Neglecting these perversions, Maid
Marian is a personage in the May-game and
morris who is not infrequently paired with a
friar, and sometimes with Robin Hood, under
what relation, in either case, we cannot precisely
say. Percy had no occasion to speak
of her as Robin’s concubine, and Douce none
to call her Robin’s paramour.
That ballads about Robin Hood were familiar
throughout England and Scotland we know
from early testimony. Additional evidence
of his celebrity is afforded by the connection
of his name with a variety of natural objects
and archaic remains over a wide extent of
country.
“Cairns on Blackdown in Somersetshire,
and barrows near to Whitby in Yorkshire
47and Ludlow in Shropshire, are termed Robin
Hood’s pricks or butts; lofty natural eminences
in Gloucestershire and Derbyshire are
Robin Hood’s hills; a huge rock near Matlock
is Robin Hood’s Tor; an ancient boundary
stone in Lincolnshire is Robin Hood’s cross; a
presumed loggan, or rocking-stone, in Yorkshire
is Robin Hood’s penny-stone; a fountain
near Nottingham, another between Doncaster
and Wakefield, and one in Lancashire
are Robin Hood’s wells; a cave in Nottinghamshire
is his stable; a rude natural rock in
Hope Dale is his chair; a chasm at Chatsworth
is his leap; Blackstone Edge, in Lancashire,
is his bed; ancient oaks, in various
parts of the country, are his trees.”[59] All
sorts of traditions are fitted to the localities
where they are known. It would be an exception
to ordinary rules if we did not find
Robin Hood trees and Robin Hood wells and
Robin Hood hills. But, says Wright, in his
essay on the Robin Hood ballads (p. 208),
the connection of Robin Hood’s name with
mounds and stones is perhaps one of the
strongest proofs of his mythic character, as
if Robin Hood were conceived of as a giant.
The fact in question is rather a proof that those
names were conferred at a time when the real
character of Robin Hood was dimly remembered.
In the oldest ballads Robin Hood is
simply a stout yeoman, one of the best that
ever bare bow; in the later ballads he is repeatedly
foiled in contests with shepherds and
beggars. Is it supposable that those who
knew of him even at his best estate, could give
him a loggan for a penny-stone? No one has as
yet undertaken to prove that the ballads are
later than the names.[60] Mounds and stones
bear his name for the same idle reason that
“so many others have that of King Arthur,
King John, and, for want of a better, that of
the devil.”[61]
Kuhn, starting with the assumption that
the mythical character of Robin Hood is fully
established (by traditions posterior to the ballads
and contradictory to their tenor), has
sought to show that our courteous outlaw is in
particular one of the manifestations of Woden.
The hobby-horse, which, be it borne in mind,
though now and then found in the May-game
48or morris-dance, was never intimately associated,
perhaps we may say never at all associated,
with Robin Hood, represents, it is maintained,
Woden. The fundamental grounds
are these. In a Christmas, New Year, or
Twelfth Day sport at Paget’s Bromley, Staffordshire,
the rider of the hobby-horse held a
bow and arrow in his hands, with which he
made a snapping noise. In a modern Christmas
festivity in Kent, the young people would
affix the head of a horse to a pole about four
feet in length, and tie a cloth round the head
to conceal one of the party, who, by pulling a
string attached to the horse’s lower jaw, produced
a snapping noise as he moved along.
This ceremony, according to the reporter, was
called a hoodening, and the figure of the
horse a hooden, “a wooden horse.”[62] The
word hooden, according to Kuhn, we may unhesitatingly
expound as Woden; Hood is a
corruption of “Hooden,” and this Hooden
again conducts us to Woden.
Glosyng is a ful glorious thing certayn.
The sport referred to is explained in Pegge’s
Alphabet of Kenticisms (collected 1735–36),
under the name hooding, as a country
masquerade at Christmas time, which in Derbyshire
they call guising, and in other places
mumming; and to the same effect in the Rev.
W. D. Parish’s Dictionary of the Kentish
Dialect (soon to be published) under hoodening,
which word is an obvious corruption,
or secondary form, of hooding. The word
hooding, applied to the sport, means just what
it does in the old English hooding-cloth, a
curtain; that is, a covering, and so a disguise
by covering. It is true that wooden is pronounced
hooden,[63] or ooden, in Kent, and that
the hobby-horse had a wooden head, but it
is quite inconceivable that the sport should
receive its name from a circumstance so subordinate
as the material of which the horse
was made. Such an interpretation would
hardly be thought of had not hooding in its
proper sense long been obsolete. That this
is the case is plain from two facts: the hooding
used to be accompanied with carol-singing,
and the Rev. Mr Parish informs us that carol-singing
on Christmas Eve is still called hoodening
at Monckton, in East Kent. The form
Hooden, from which Robin’s name is asserted
by Kuhn to be corrupted, is invented for the
occasion. I suppose that no one will think
that the hobby-horse-rider’s carrying a bow
and arrows, in the single instance of the Staffordshire
sport, conduces at all to the identifying
of Robin Hood with the hobby-horse.
Whether the Hobby-Horse represents Woden
is not material here. It is enough that the
Hobby-Horse cannot be shown to represent
Robin Hood.[64]
I cannot admit that even the shadow of a
case has been made out by those who would
attach a mythical character either to Robin
Hood or to the outlaws of Inglewood, Adam
Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of
Cloudesly.[65]
49Ballads of other nations, relating to classes
of men living in revolt against authority and
society, may be expected to show some kind
of likeness to the English outlaw-ballads, and
such resemblances will be pointed out upon
occasion. Spanish broadside ballads dating
from the end of the sixteenth century commemorate
the valientes and guapos of cities,
robbers and murderers of the most flaunting
and flagitious description: Duran, Romancero,
Nos 1331–36, 1339–43, II, 367 ff.[66] These
display towards corregidores, alcaides, customhouse
officers, and all the ministers of government
an hostility corresponding to that of
Robin Hood against the sheriff; they empty
the jails and deliver culprits from the gallows;
reminding us very faintly of the Robin Hood
broadsides, as of the rescues in Nos 140, 141,
the Progress to Nottingham, No 139, in which
Robin Hood, at the age of fifteen, kills fifteen
foresters, or of Young Gamwell, in No 128, who
begins his career by killing his father’s steward.[67]
But Robin Hood and his men, in the
most degraded of the broadsides, are tame innocents
and law-abiding citizens beside the
guapos. The Klephts, whose songs are preserved
in considerable numbers, mostly from
the last century and the present, have the
respectability of being engaged, at least in
part, in a war against the Turks, and the
romance of wild mountaineers. They, like
Robin Hood, had a marked animosity against
monks, and they put beys to ransom as he
would an abbot or a sheriff. There are
Magyar robber-ballads in great number;[68]
some of these celebrate Shobri (a man of this
century), who spares the poor, relieves beggars,
pillages priests (but never burns or
kills), and fears God: Erdélyi’s collection, I,
194–98, Nos 237–39; Arany-Gyulai, II, 56,
No 49; Kertbeny, Ausgewählte Ungarische
Volkslieder, pp 246–251, Nos 136–38; Aigner,
pp 198–201. Russian robber-songs are
given by Sakharof, under the title Udaluiya,
Skazaniya, 1841, I, iii, 224–32; Ralston, Songs
of the Russian People, pp 44–50. There are
a few Sicilian robber-ballads in Pitré, Canti
pop. Siciliani, Nos 913–16, II, 125–37.
The Gest is a popular epic, composed from
several ballads by a poet of a thoroughly congenial
spirit. No one of the ballads from
which it was made up is extant in a separate
shape, and some portions of the story may
have been of the compiler’s own invention.
The decoying of the sheriff into the wood,
stanzas 181–204, is of the same derivation as
the last part of Robin Hood and the Potter,
No 121, Little John and Robin Hood
exchanging parts; the conclusion, 451–56, is
of the same source as Robin Hood’s Death,
No 120. Though the tale, as to all important
considerations, is eminently original, absolutely
so as to the conception of Robin Hood,
some traits and incidents, as might be expected,
50are taken from what we may call the
general stock of mediæval fiction.
The story is a three-ply web of the adventures
of Robin Hood with a knight, with the
sheriff of Nottingham, and with the king
(the concluding stanzas, 451–56, being a mere
epilogue), and may be decomposed accordingly.
I. How Robin Hood relieved a knight,
who had fallen into poverty, by lending him
money on the security of Our Lady, the first
fit, 1–81; how the knight recovered his
lands, which had been pledged to Saint Mary
Abbey, and set forth to repay the loan, the
second fit, 82–143; how Robin Hood, having
taken twice the sum lent from a monk of
this abbey, declared that Our Lady had discharged
the debt, and would receive nothing
more from the knight, the fourth fit, 205–280.
II. How Little John insidiously took
service with Robin Hood’s standing enemy,
the sheriff of Nottingham, and put the sheriff
into Robin Hood’s hands, the third fit, 144–204;
how the sheriff, who had sworn an oath
to help and not to harm Robin Hood and his
men, treacherously set upon the outlaws at a
shooting-match, and they were fain to take
refuge in the knight’s castle; how, missing of
Robin Hood, the sheriff made prisoner of the
knight; and how Robin Hood slew the sheriff
and rescued the knight, the fifth and sixth
fit, 281–353. III. How the king, coming in
person to apprehend Robin Hood and the
knight, disguised himself as an abbot, was
stopped by Robin Hood, feasted on his own
deer, and entertained with an exhibition of
archery, in the course of which he was
recognized by Robin Hood, who asked his
grace and received a promise thereof, on condition
that he and his men should enter into
the king’s service; and how the king, for a
jest, disguised himself and his company in
the green of the outlaws, and going back to
Nottingham caused a general flight of the
people, which he stopped by making himself
known; how he pardoned the knight; and
how Robin Hood, after fifteen months in the
king’s court, heart-sick and deserted by all
his men but John and Scathlock, obtained a
week’s leave of the king to go on a pilgrimage
to Saint Mary Magdalen of Barnsdale, and
would never come back in two-and-twenty
years, the seventh and eighth fit, 354–450.
A particular analysis may be spared, seeing
that many of the details will come out incidentally
in what follows.
Barnsdale, Robin Hood’s haunt in the
Gest, 3, 21, 82, 134, 213, 262, 440, 442, is
a woodland region in the West Riding of
Yorkshire, a little to the south of Pontefract
and somewhat further to the north of Doncaster.
The river Went is its northern boundary.
“The traveller enters upon it [from
the south] a little beyond a well-known place
called Robin Hood’s Well [some ten miles
north of Doncaster, near Skelbrook], and he
leaves it when he has descended to Wentbridge.”
(For Wentbridge, see No 121, st.
6; the Gest, 1351.) A little to the west is
Wakefield, and beyond Wakefield, between
that town and Halifax, was the priory of
Kyrkesly or Kirklees. The Sayles, 18, was a
very small tenancy of the manor of Pontefract.
The great North Road, formerly so called,
and here, 18, denominated Watling Street
(as Roman roads often are), crosses Barnsdale
between Doncaster and Ferrybridge.[69]
Saint Mary Abbey, “here besyde,” 54, was
at York, and must have been a good twenty
miles from Barnsdale. The knight, 1264, is
said to be “at home in Verysdale.” Wyresdale
(now Over and Nether Wyersdale) was
an extensive tract of wild country, part of
the old forest of Lancashire, a few miles to
the southeast of Lancaster. The knight’s son
had slain a knight and a squire of Lancaster,
a, Lancashire, b, f, g, 53. It is very likely,
therefore, that the knight’s castle, in the original
ballad, was in Lancashire. However this
may be, it is put in the Gest, 309 f, on the
way between Nottingham and Robin Hood’s
51retreat, which must be assumed to be Barnsdale.
From it, again, Barnsdale is easily
accessible to the knight’s wife, 334 f.[70] Wherever
it lay or lies, the distance from Nottingham
or from Barnsdale, as also the distance
from Nottingham to Barnsdale (actually
some fifty miles), is made nothing of in the
Gest.[71] The sheriff goes a-hunting; John,
who is left behind, does not start from Nottingham
till more than an hour after noon,
takes the sheriff’s silver to Barnsdale,[72] runs
five miles in the forest, and finds the sheriff
still at his sport: 155 f, 168, 176–82. We
must not be nice. Robin Hood has made a
vow to go from London to Barnsdale barefoot.
The distance thither and back would not be
much short of three hundred and fifty miles.
King Edward allows him a seven-night, and
no longer, 442 f. The compiler of the Gest
did not concern himself to adjust these matters.
There was evidently at one time a
Barnsdale cycle and a Sherwood cycle of
Robin Hood ballads. The sheriff of Nottingham
would belong to the Sherwood series
(to which Robin Hood and the Monk appertains).
He is now a capital character in all the
old Robin Hood ballads. If he was adopted
from the Sherwood into the Barnsdale set,
this was done without a rearrangement of the
topography.
5–7. Robin Hood will not dine until he has
some guest that can pay handsomely for his
entertainment, 18, 19, 206, 209; dinner, accordingly,
is sometimes delayed a long time,
25, 30, 143, 220; to Little John’s impatience,
5, 16, 206, 211. This habit of Robin’s seems
to be a humorous imitation of King Arthur,
who in numerous romances will not dine till
some adventure presents itself; a custom
which, at least on one occasion, proves vexatious
to his court. Cf. I, 257 f.[73]
8–10. Robin’s general piety and his special
devotion to the Virgin are again to be remarked
in No 118. There is a tale of a knight
who had a castle near a public road, and
robbed everybody that went by, but said his
Ave every day, and never allowed anything
to interfere with his so doing, in Legenda
Aurea, c. 51, Grässe, p. 221; Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer,
III, 563, No 86; Morlini
Novellæ, Paris, 1855, p. 269, No 17, etc.
13–15. Robin’s practice corresponds closely
with Gamelyn’s:
Whil Gamelyn was outlawed hadde he no cors;
There was no man that for him ferde the wors
But abbotes and priours, monk and chanoun;
On hem left he no-thing, whan he mighte hem nom.
vv 779–82, ed. Skeat.
Fulk Fitz Warine, nor any of his, during
the time of his outlawry would ever do hurt
to any one except the king and his knights:
Wright, p. 77 f.
45. “Distraint of knighthood,” or the practice
of requiring military tenants who held
20 l. per annum to receive knighthood, or pay
a composition, began under Henry III, as early
as 1224, and was continued by Edward I.
This was regarded as a very serious oppression
under James I and Charles I, and was
abolished in 1642. Stubbs, Constitutional
History, II, 281 f; Hallam, Constitutional
History, ed. 1854, I, 338, note x, II, 9, 99.
62–66. The knight has no security to offer
for a loan “but God that dyed on a tree,”
and such security, or that of the saints, is peremptorily
rejected by Robin; but when the
knight says that he can offer no other, unless
52it be Our Lady, the Virgin is instantly accepted
as entirely satisfactory. In a well-known
miracle of Mary, found in most of the
larger collections, a Christian, who resorts to
a Jew to borrow money, tenders Jesus as security,
and the Jew, who regards Jesus as a
just man and a prophet, though not divine, is
willing to lend on the terms proposed. The
Christian, not being able, as he says, to produce
Jesus Christ in person, takes the Jew
to a church, and, standing before an image of
the Virgin and Child, causes him to take the
hand of the Child, saying, Lord Jesus Christ,
whose image I have given as pledge for this
money, and whom I have offered this Jew as
my surety, I beg and entreat that, if I shall
by any chance be prevented from returning
the money to this man upon the day fixed,
but shall give it to thee, thou wilt return it
to him in such manner and form as may please
thee. In the sequel this miraculous interposition
becomes necessary, and the money is
punctually restored, the act of grace being implicitly
or distinctly attributed to Mary rather
than her Son; distinctly in an English form
of the legend, where the Christian, especially
devoted to the Virgin, offers Saint Mary for
his borrow: Horstmann, Die altenglischen
Marienlegenden des MS. Vernon, in Archiv
für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, LVI,
232, No 6.[74]
107. The abbot had retained the chief justice
“by robe and fee,” to counsel and aid him
in the spoliation of the knight, 93. Taking
and giving of robes and fees for such purposes
is defined as conspiracy in a statute of Edward
I, 1305–06; and by another statute, 20
Edward III, c. vi, 1346, justices are required
to swear that they will take robes and fees
from no man but the king: et que vos ne
prendrez fee, tant come vos serez justicz, ne
robes, de nul homme, graunt ne petit, sinoun
du roi meismes. Statutes of the Realm, I,
145, 305: cited by J. Lewelyn Curtis, in
Notes and Queries, S. I, VI, 479 f. All the
English judges, including the chief justice,
were convicted of bribery and were removed,
under Edward I, 1289.
121. The knight would have given something
for the use of the four hundred pound
had the abbot been civil, though under no obligation
to pay interest. In 270 the knight
proffers Robin twenty mark (3⅓ per cent) for
his courtesy, which seemingly small sum was
to be accompanied with the valuable gift of a
hundred bows and a hundred sheaf of peacock-feathered,
silver-nocked arrows. But though
the abbot had not lent for usury, still less had
he lent for charity. The knight’s lands were to
be forfeited if the loan should not be punctually
returned, 86 f, 94, 106; and of this the
knight was entirely aware, 85. “As for mortgaging
or pawning,” says Bacon, Of Usury,
“either men will not take pawns without use,
or, if they do, they will look precisely for the
forfeiture. I remember a cruel moneyed man
in the country that would say, The devil take
this usury; it keeps us from forfeitures of
mortgages and bonds.” But troubles, legal
or other, might ensue upon this hard-dealing
unless the knight would give a quittance,
117 f.
135–37. A ram was the prize for an ordinary
wrestling-match; but this is an occasion
which brings together all the best yeomen
of the West Country, and the victor is to
have a bull, a horse saddled and bridled, a
pair of gloves, a ring, and a pipe of wine. In
Gamelyn “there was set up a ram and a ring,”
v. 172.
181–204. The sheriff is decoyed into the
wood by Robin Hood in No 121, 56–69, No
53122, A, 18–25, B, 20–27, as here by Little
John. Fulk Fitz Warine gets his enemy,
King John, into his power by a like stratagem.
Fulk, disguised as a collier, is asked by King
John if he has seen a stag or doe pass. He
has seen a horned beast; it had long horns.
He offers to take the king to the place where
he saw it, and begs the king to wait while he
goes into the thicket to drive the beast that
way. Fulk’s men are in the forest: he tells
them that he has brought the king with only
three knights; they rush out and seize the
king. Fulk says he will have John’s life, but
the king promises to restore Fulk’s heritage
and all that had been taken from him and his
men, and to be his friend forever after. A
pledge of faith is exacted and given, and very
happy is the king so to escape. But the king
keeps the forced oath no better than the sheriff.
Wright, p. 145 ff. There is a passage which
has the same source, though differing in details,
in Eustace the Monk, Michel, pp. 36–39,
vv 995–1070. The story is incomparably better
here than elsewhere.
213–33. The black monks are Benedictines.
There are two according to 213 f, 218, 2254,
but the high cellarer only (who in 91–93 is
exultant over the knight’s forfeiture) is of consequence,
and the other is made no account of.
Seven score of wight young men, 2293, is the
right number for a band of outlaws; so Gamelyn,
v. 628. The sheriff has his seven score
in Guy of Gisborn, 13.
243–47. “What is in your coffers?” So
Eustace the monk to the merchant, v. 938, p.
34, Michel: “Di-moi combien tu as d’argent.”
The merchant tells the exact truth,
and Eustace, having verified the answer by
counting, returns all the money, saying, If you
had lied in the least, you would not have carried
off a penny. When Eustace asks the
same question of the abbot, v. 1765, p. 64, the
abbot answers, after the fashion of our cellarer,
Four silver marks. Eustace finds thirty
marks, and returns to the abbot the four which
he had confessed.
213–272. Nothing was ever more felicitously
told, even in the best dit or fabliau, than
the “process” of Our Lady’s repaying the
money which had been lent on her security.
Robin’s slyly significant welcome to the monk
upon learning that he is of Saint Mary Abbey,
his professed anxiety that Our Lady is
wroth with him because she has not sent him
his pay, John’s comfortable suggestion that
perhaps the monk has brought it, Robin’s
incidental explanation of the little business in
which the Virgin was a party, and request to
see the silver in case the monk has come upon
her affair, are beautiful touches of humor,
and so delicate that it is all but brutal to
point them out. The story, however, is an
old one, and was known, perhaps, wherever
monks were known. A complete parallel is
afforded by Pauli’s Schimpf und Ernst, No 59
(c. 1515). A nobleman took a burgess’s son
prisoner in war, carried him home to his castle,
and shut him up in a tower. After lying
there a considerable time, the prisoner asked
and obtained an interview with his captor, and
said: Dear lord, I am doing no good here to
you or myself, since my friends will not send
my ransom. If you would let me go home, I
would come back in eight weeks and bring you
the money. Whom will you give for surety?
asked the nobleman. I have no one to offer,
replied the prisoner, but the Lord God, and
will swear you an oath by him to keep my
word. The nobleman was satisfied, made his
captive swear the oath, and let him go. The
hero sold all that he owned, and raised the
money, but was three weeks longer in so doing
than the time agreed upon. The nobleman,
one day, when he was riding out with a
couple of servants, fell in with an abbot or
friar who had two fine horses and a man.
See here, my good fellows, said the young
lord; that monk is travelling with two horses,
as fine as any knight, when he ought to be
riding on an ass. Look out now, we will play
him a turn. So saying, he rode up to the
monk, seized the bridle of his horse, and
asked, Sir, who are you? Who is your lord?
The monk answered, I am a servant of God,
and he is my lord. You come in good time,
said the nobleman. I had a prisoner, and set
him free upon his leaving your lord with me
as a surety. But I can get nothing from this
54lord of yours; he is above my power; so I will
lay hands on his servant; and accordingly
made the monk go with him afoot to the castle,
where he took from him all that he had.
Shortly after, his prisoner appeared, fell at
his feet, and wished to pay the ransom, begging
that he would not be angry, for the
money could not be got sooner. But the nobleman
said, Stand up, my good man. Keep
your money, and go whither you will, for your
surety has paid your ransom. Ed. Oesterley,
p. 49. The gist of the story is in Jacques
de Vitry, Sermones Vulgares, fol. 62, MS.
17,509, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Scala
Celi (1480), 159 b, “De Restitucione,” and
elsewhere: see Oesterly’s note, p. 480. A
very amusing variety is the fabliau Du povre
Mercier, Barbazan et Méon, III, 17; Montaiglon
et Raynaud, II, 114; Legrand, III, 93,
ed. 1829.[75]
2933. Reynolde. Possibly Little John borrows
this Reynolde’s name in 149, but there
is no apparent reason why he should. In
the following very strange, and to me utterly
unintelligible, piece in Ravenscroft’s Deuteromelia,
which may have been meant to have
only enough sense to sing, Renold, a miller’s
son, mickle of might (was he rechristened
Much?), becomes one of Robin Hood’s men.
(Deuteromelia, p. 4: London, for Tho. Adams,
1609.)
302–05. The Klepht Giphtakis, wounded
in knee and hand, exclaims: Where are you,
my brother, my friend? Come back and take
me off, or take off my head, lest the Turk
should do so, and carry it to that dog of an
Ali Pacha. (1790. Fauriel, I, 20; Zambelios,
p. 621, No 32; Passow, p. 52, No 61.)
357–59. The king traverses the whole
length of Lancashire and proceeds to Plumpton
Park, missing many of his deer. Camden,
Britannia, II, 175, ed. 1772, places Plumpton
Park on the bank of the Petterel, in Cumberland,
55east of Inglewood. (Hunter, p. 30,
citing no authority, says it was part of the
forest of Knaresborough, in Yorkshire.) Since
this survey makes the king wroth with Robin
Hood, we must give a corresponding extent
to Robin’s operations. And we remember
that Wyntoun says that he exercised his profession
in Inglewood and Barnsdale.
371 ff. The story of the seventh fit has a
general similitude to the extensive class of
tales, mostly jocular, represented by ‘The King
and the Miller;’ as to which, see further on.
403–09. The sport of “pluck-buffet” (4243)
is a feature in the romance of Richard Cœur
de Lion, 762–98, Weber, II, 33 f. Richard
is betrayed to the king of Almayne by a minstrel
to whom he had given a cold reception,
and is put in prison. The king’s son, held
the strongest man of the land, visits the prisoner,
and proposes to him an exchange of this
sort. The prince gives Richard a clout which
makes fire spring from his eyes, and goes off
laughing, ordering Richard to be well fed, so
that he may have no excuse for returning a
feeble blow when he takes his turn. The
next day, when the prince comes for his payment,
Richard, who has waxed his hand by
way of preparation, delivers a blow which
breaks the young champion’s cheek-bone and
fells him dead. There is another instance in
‘The Turke and Gowin,’ Percy MS., Hales
and Furnivall, I, 91 ff.
414–450. Robin Hood is pardoned by King
Edward on condition of his leaving the greenwood
with all his company, and taking service
at court. In the course of a twelvemonth,[77]
keeping up his old profusion, Robin has spent
not only all his own money, but all his men’s,
in treating knights and squires, and at the
end of the year all his band have deserted
him save John and Scathlock. About this
time, chancing to see young men shooting,
the recollection of his life in the woods comes
over him so powerfully that he feels that he
shall die if he stays longer with the king.
He therefore affects to have made a vow to
go to Barnsdale “barefoot and woolward.”
Upon this plea he obtains from the king leave
of absence for a week, and, once more in the
forest, never reports for duty in two and
twenty years.
Hunter, who could have identified Pigrogromitus
and Quinapalus, if he had given his
mind to it, sees in this passage, and in what
precedes it of King Edward’s trip to Nottingham,
a plausible semblance of historical reality.[78]
Edward II, as may be shown from
Rymer’s Fœdera, made a progress in the
counties of York, Lancaster, and Nottingham,
in the latter part of the year 1323. He was
in Yorkshire in August and September, in
Lancashire in October, at Nottingham November
9–23, spending altogether five or six
weeks in that neighborhood, and leaving it a
little before Christmas. “Now it will scarcely
be believed, but it is, nevertheless, the plain
and simple truth, that in documents preserved
in the Exchequer, containing accounts of expenses
in the king’s household, we find the
name of Robyn Hode, not once, but several
times occurring, receiving, with about eight
and twenty others, the pay of 3d. a day, as
one of the ‘vadlets, porteurs de la chambre’ of
the king;” these entries running from March
24, 1324, to November 22 of the same year.
There are entries of payments to vadlets
during the year preceding, but unluckily the
accountant has put down the sums in gross,
without specifying the names of persons who
received regular wages. This, as Hunter remarks,
does not quite prove that Robyn Hode
had not been among these persons before
Christmas, 1323, but, on the other hand, account-book
evidence is lacking to show that
he had been. Hunter’s interpretation of the
data is that Robyn Hode entered the king’s
service at Nottingham a little before Christmas,
1323. If this was so, his career as porter
was not only brief, but pitiably checkered.
His pay is docked for five days’ absence in
May, again for eight days in August, then for
fifteen days in October. “He was growing
weary of his new mode of life.” Seven days,
once more, are deducted in November, and
56under the 22d of that month we find this
entry: Robyn Hode, jadys un des porteurs,
poar cas qil ne poait pluis travailler de donn
par comandement, v. s. After this his name
no longer appears.
A simple way of reading the Exchequer
documents is that one Robert Hood, some
time (and, for aught we know, a long time)
porter in the king’s household, after repeatedly
losing time, was finally discharged, with
a present of five shillings, because he could not
do his work. To detect “a remarkable coincidence
between the ballad and the record”
requires not only a theoretical prepossession,
but an uncommon insensibility to the ludicrous.[79]
But taking things with entire seriousness,
there is no correspondence between
the ballad and the record other than this:
that Robin Hood, who is in the king’s service,
leaves it; in the one instance deserting, and
in the other being displaced. Hunter himself
does not, as in the case of Adam Bell, insist
that the name Robin Hood is “peculiar.”
He cites, p. 10, a Robert Hood, citizen of
London, who supplied the king’s household
with beer, 28 Edward I, and a Robert Hood
of Wakefield, twice mentioned, 9, 10 Edward
II.[80] Another Robert Hood at Throckelawe,
Northumbria, is thrice mentioned in the Exchequer
Rolls, Edward I, 19, 20, 30: Rot.
Orig. in Cur. Scac. Abbrev., I, 69, 73, 124.
A Robert Hood is manucaptor for a burgess
returned from Lostwithiel, Cornwall, 7 Edward
II, Parliamentary Writs, II, 1019, and another,
of Howden, York, 10 Edward III, is
noted in the Calendar of Patent Rolls, p. 125,
No 31, cited by Ritson. In all these we have
six Robin Hoods between 30 Edward I and 10
Edward III, a period of less than forty years.
433, 435–50 are translated by A. Grün,
p. 166.
a. 1
Lythe and listin, gentilmen,
That be of frebore blode;
I shall you tel of a gode yeman,
His name was Robyn Hode.
2
Robyn was a prude outlaw,
[Whyles he walked on grounde;
So curteyse an outlawe] as he was one
Was never non founde.
3
Robyn stode in Bernesdale,
And lenyd hym to a tre;
And bi hym stode Litell Johnn,
A gode yeman was he.
4
And alsoo dyd gode Scarlok,
And Much, the miller’s son;
There was none ynch of his bodi
But it was worth a grome.
5
Than bespake Lytell Johnn
All vntoo Robyn Hode:
Maister, and ye wolde dyne betyme
It wolde doo you moche gode.
6
Than bespake hym gode Robyn:
To dyne haue I noo lust,
Till that I haue som bolde baron,
Or som vnkouth gest.
7
. . . . . . .
That may pay for the best,
Or som knyght or [som] squyer,
That dwelleth here bi west.
578
A gode maner than had Robyn;
In londe where that he were,
Euery day or he wold dyne
Thre messis wolde he here.
9
The one in the worship of the Fader,
And another of the Holy Gost,
The thirde of Our derë Lady,
That he loued allther moste.
10
Robyn loued Oure derë Lady;
For dout of dydly synne,
Wolde he neuer do compani harme
That any woman was in.
11
‘Maistar,’ than sayde Lytil Johnn,
‘And we our borde shal sprede,
Tell vs wheder that we shal go,
And what life that we shall lede.
12
‘Where we shall take, where we shall leue,
Where we shall abide behynde;
Where we shall robbe, where we shal reue,
Where we shal bete and bynde.’
13
‘Therof no force,’ than sayde Robyn;
‘We shall do well inowe;
But loke ye do no husbonde harme,
That tilleth with his ploughe.
14
‘No more ye shall no gode yeman
That walketh by grenë-wode shawe;
Ne no knyght ne no squyer
That wol be a gode felawe.
15
‘These bisshoppes and these archebishoppes,
Ye shall them bete and bynde;
The hyë sherif of Notyingham,
Hym holde ye in your mynde.’
16
‘This worde shalbe holde,’ sayde Lytell Johnn,
‘And this lesson we shall lere;
It is fer dayes; God sende vs a gest,
That we were at oure dynere!’
17
‘Take thy gode bowe in thy honde,’ sayde Rob[yn];
‘Late Much wende with the;
And so shal Willyam Scarlo[k],
And no man abyde with me.
18
‘And walke vp to the Saylis,
And so to Watlinge Stret[e],
And wayte after some vnkuth gest,
Vp chaunce ye may them mete.
19
‘Be he erle, or ani baron,
Abbot, or ani knyght,
Bringhe hym to lodge to me;
His dyner shall be dight.’
20
They wente vp to the Saylis,
These yeman all thre;
They loked est, they loke[d] weest;
They myght no man see.
21
But as they loked in to Bernysdale,
Bi a dernë strete,
Than came a knyght ridinghe;
Full sone they gan hym mete.
22
All dreri was his semblaunce,
And lytell was his pryde;
His one fote in the styrop stode,
That othere wauyd beside.
23
His hode hanged in his iyn two;
He rode in symple aray;
A soriar man than he was one
Rode neuer in somer day.
24
Litell Johnn was full curteyes,
And sette hym on his kne:
‘Welcom be ye, gentyll knyght,
Welcom ar ye to me.
25
‘Welcom be thou to grenë wode,
Hendë knyght and fre;
My maister hath abiden you fastinge,
Syr, al these ourës thre.’
26
‘Who is thy maister?’ sayde the knyght;
Johnn sayde, Robyn Hode;
‘He is [a] gode yoman,’ sayde the knyght,
‘Of hym I haue herde moche gode.
27
‘I graunte,’ he sayde, ‘with you to wende,
My bretherne, all in fere;
My purpos was to haue dyned to day
At Blith or Dancastere.’
28
Furth than went this gentyl knight,
With a carefull chere;
The teris oute of his iyen ran,
And fell downe by his lere.
5829
They brought hym to the lodgë-dore;
Whan Robyn hym gan see,
Full curtesly dyd of his hode
And sette hym on his knee.
30
‘Welcome, sir knight,’ than sayde Robyn,
‘Welcome art thou to me;
I haue abyden you fastinge, sir,
All these ouris thre.’
31
Than answered the gentyll knight,
With wordës fayre and fre;
God the saue, goode Robyn,
And all thy fayre meynë.
32
They wasshed togeder and wyped bothe,
And sette to theyr dynere;
Brede and wyne they had right ynoughe,
And noumbles of the dere.
33
Swannes and fessauntes they had full gode,
And foules of the ryuere;
There fayled none so litell a birde
That euer was bred on bryre.
34
‘Do gladly, sir knight,’ sayde Robyn;
‘Gramarcy, sir,’ sayde he;
‘Suche a dinere had I nat
Of all these wekys thre.
35
‘If I come ageyne, Robyn,
Here by thys contrë,
As gode a dyner I shall the make
As that thou haest made to me.’
36
‘Gramarcy, knyght,’ sayde Robyn;
‘My dyner whan that I it haue,
I was neuer so gredy, bi dere worthy God,
My dyner for to craue.
37
‘But pay or ye wende,’ sayde Robyn;
‘Me thynketh it is gode ryght;
It was neuer the maner, by dere worthi God,
A yoman to pay for a knyhht.’
38
‘I haue nought in my coffers,’ saide the knyght,
‘That I may prefer for shame:’
‘Litell Johnn, go loke,’ sayde Robyn,
‘Ne let nat for no blame.
39
‘Tel me truth,’ than saide Robyn,
‘So God haue parte of the:’
‘I haue no more but ten shelynges,’ sayde the knyght,
‘So God haue parte of me.’
40
If thou hast no more,’ sayde Robyn,
‘I woll nat one peny;
And yf thou haue nede of any more,
More shall I lend the.
41
‘Go nowe furth, Littell Johnn,
The truth tell thou me;
If there be no more but ten shelinges,
No peny that I se.’
42
Lyttell Johnn sprede downe hys mantell
Full fayre vpon the grounde,
And there he fonde in the knyghtës cofer
But euen halfe [a] pounde.
43
Littell Johnn let it lye full styll,
And went to hys maysteer [full] lowe;
‘What tidyngës, Johnn?’ sayde Robyn;
‘Sir, the knyght is true inowe.’
44
‘Fyll of the best wine,’ sayde Robyn,
‘The knyght shall begynne;
Moche wonder thinketh me
Thy clot[h]ynge is so thin[n]e.
45
‘Tell me [one] worde,’ sayde Robyn,
‘And counsel shal it be;
I trowe thou warte made a knyght of force,
Or ellys of yemanry.
46
‘Or ellys thou hast bene a sori husbande,
And lyued in stroke and stryfe;
An okerer, or ellis a lechoure,’ sayde Robyn,
‘Wyth wronge hast led thy lyfe.’
47
‘I am none of those,’ sayde the knyght,
‘By God that madë me;
An hundred wynter here before
Myn auncetres knyghtes haue be.
48
‘But oft it hath befal, Robyn,
A man hath be disgrate;
But God that sitteth in heuen aboue
May amende his state.
49
‘Withyn this two yere, Robyne,’ he sayde,
‘My neghbours well it knowe,
Foure hundred pounde of gode money
Ful well than myght I spende.
5950
‘Nowe haue I no gode,’ saide the knyght,
‘God hath shaped such an ende,
But my chyldren and my wyfe,
Tyll God yt may amende.’
51
‘In what maner,’ than sayde Robyn,
‘Hast thou lorne thy rychesse? ’
‘For my greatë foly,’ he sayde,
‘And for my kynd[ë]nesse.
52
‘I hade a sone, forsoth, Robyn,
That shulde hau[e] ben myn ayre,
Whanne he was twenty wynter olde,
In felde wolde iust full fayre.
53
‘He slewe a knyght of Lancaster,
And a squyer bolde;
For to saue hym in his ryght
My godes both sette and solde.
54
‘My londes both sette to wedde, Robyn,
Vntyll a certayn day,
To a ryche abbot here besyde
Of Seynt Mari Abbey.’
55
‘What is the som?’ sayde Robyn;
‘Trouth than tell thou me;’
‘Sir,’ he sayde, ‘foure hundred pounde;
The abbot told it to me.’
56
‘Nowe and thou lese thy lond,’ sayde Robyn,
‘What woll fall of the?’
‘Hastely I wol me buske,’ sayd the knyght,
‘Ouer the saltë see,
57
‘And se w[h]ere Criste was quyke and dede,
On the mount of Caluerë;
Fare wel, frende, and haue gode day;
It may no better be.’
58
Teris fell out of hys iyen two;
He wolde haue gone hys way:
‘Farewel, frende, and haue gode day;
I ne haue no more to pay.’
59
‘Where be thy frendës?’ sayde Robyn:
‘Syr, neuer one wol me knowe;
While I was ryche ynowe at home
Great boste than wolde they blowe.
60
‘And nowe they renne away fro me,
As bestis on a rowe;
They take no more hede of me
Thanne they had me neuer sawe.’
61
For ruthe thanne wept Litell Johnn,
Scarlok and Muche in fere;
‘Fyl of the best wyne,’ sayde Robyn,
‘For here is a symple chere.
62
‘Hast thou any frende,’ sayde Robyn,
‘Thy borowe that woldë be? ’
‘I haue none,’ than sayde the knyght,
‘But God that dyed on tree.’
63
‘Do away thy iapis,’ than sayde Robyn,
‘Thereof wol I right none;
Wenest thou I wolde haue God to borowe,
Peter, Poule, or Johnn?
64
‘Nay, by hym that me made,
And shope both sonne and mone,
Fynde me a better borowe,’ sayde Robyn,
‘Or money getest thou none.’
65
‘I haue none other,’ sayde the knyght,
‘The sothe for to say,
But yf yt be Our derë Lady;
She fayled me neuer or thys day.’
66
‘By dere worthy God,’ sayde Robyn,
‘To seche all Englonde thorowe,
Yet fonde I neuer to my pay
A moche better borowe.
67
‘Come nowe furth, Litell Johnn,
And go to my tresourë,
And bringe me foure hundered pound,
And loke well tolde it be.’
68
Furth than went Litell Johnn,
And Scarlok went before;
He tolde oute foure hundred pounde
By eight and twenty score.
69
‘Is thys well tolde?’ sayde [litell] Much;
Johnn sayde, ‘What gre[ue]th the?
It is almus to helpe a gentyll knyght,
That is fal in pouertë.
70
‘Master,’ than sayde Lityll John,
‘His clothinge is full thynne;
Ye must gyue the knight a lyueray,
To lappe his body therin.
6071
‘For ye haue scarlet and grene, mayster,
And man[y] a riche aray;
Ther is no marchaunt in mery Englond
So ryche, I dare well say.’
72
‘Take hym thre yerdes of euery colour,
And loke well mete that it be;’
Lytell Johnn toke none other mesure
But his bowë-tree.
73
And at euery handfull that he met
He lepëd footës three;
‘What deuyllës drapar,’ sayid litell Muche,
‘Thynkest thou for to be?’
74
Scarlok stode full stil and loughe,
And sayd, By God Almyght,
Johnn may gyue hym gode mesure,
For it costeth hym but lyght.
75
‘Mayster,’ than said Litell Johnn
To gentill Robyn Hode,
‘Ye must giue the knig[h]t a hors,
To lede home this gode.’
76
‘Take hym a gray coursar,’ sayde Robyn,
‘And a saydle newe;
He is Oure Ladye’s messangere;
God graunt that he be true.’
77
‘And a gode palfray,’ sayde lytell Much,
‘To mayntene hym in his right;’
‘And a peyre of botës,’ sayde Scarlock,
‘For he is a gentyll knight.’
78
‘What shalt thou gyue hym, Litell John?’ said Robyn;
‘Sir, a peyre of gilt sporis clene,
To pray for all this company;
God bringe hym oute of tene.’
79
‘Whan shal mi day be,’ said the knight,
‘Sir, and your wyll be?’
‘This day twelue moneth,’ saide Robyn,
‘Vnder this grenë-wode tre.
80
‘It were greate shamë,’ sayde Robyn,
‘A knight alone to ryde,
Withoutë squyre, yoman, or page,
To walkë by his syde.
81
‘I shall the lende Litell John, my man,
For he shalbe thy knaue;
In a yema[n]’s stede he may the stande,
If thou greate nedë haue.’
THE SECONDE FYTTE.
82
Now is the knight gone on his way;
This game hym thought full gode;
Whanne he loked on Bernesdale
He blessyd Robyn Hode.
83
And whanne he thought on Bernysdale,
On Scarlok, Much, and Johnn,
He blyssyd them for the best company
b.
That euer he in come.
84
Then spake that gentyll knyght,
To Lytel Johan gan he saye,
To-morrowe I must to Yorke toune,
To Saynt Mary abbay.
85
And to the abbot of that place
Foure hondred pounde I must pay;
And but I be there vpon this nyght
My londe is lost for ay.
86
The abbot sayd to his couent,
There he stode on grounde,
This day twelfe moneth came there a knyght
And borowed foure hondred pounde.
87
[He borowed foure hondred pounde,]
Upon all his londë fre;
But he come this ylkë day
Dysheryte shall he be.
88
‘It is full erely,’ sayd the pryoure,
‘The day is not yet ferre gone;
I had leuer to pay an hondred pounde,
And lay downe anone.
89
‘The knyght is ferre beyonde the see,
In Englonde is his ryght,
And suffreth honger and colde,
And many a sory nyght.
90
‘It were grete pytë,’ said the pryoure,
‘So to haue his londe;
And ye be so lyght of your consyence,
Ye do to hym moch wronge.’
91
‘Thou arte euer in my berde,’ sayd the abbot,
‘By God and Saynt Rycharde;’
61With that cam in a fat-heded monke,
The heygh selerer.
92
‘He is dede or hanged,’ sayd the monke,
‘By God that bought me dere,
And we shall haue to spende in this place
Foure hondred pounde by yere.’
93
The abbot and the hy selerer
Stertë forthe full bolde,
The [hye] iustyce of Englonde
The abbot there dyde holde.
94
The hyë iustyce and many mo
Had take in to they[r] honde
Holy all the knyghtës det,
To put that knyght to wronge.
95
They demed the knyght wonder sore,
The abbot and his meynë:
‘But he come this ylkë day
Dysheryte shall he be.’
96
‘He wyll not come yet,’ sayd the iustyce,
‘I dare well vndertake;’
But in sorowe tymë for them all
The knyght came to the gate.
97
Than bespake that gentyll knyght
Untyll his meynë:
Now put on your symple wedes
That ye brought fro the see.
98
[They put on their symple wedes,]
They came to the gates anone;
The porter was redy hymselfe,
And welcomed them euerychone.
99
‘Welcome, syr knyght,’ sayd the porter;
‘My lorde to mete is he,
And so is many a gentyll man,
For the loue of the.’
100
The porter swore a full grete othe,
‘By God that madë me,
Here be the best coresed hors
That euer yet sawe I me.
101
‘Lede them in to the stable,’ he sayd,
‘That eased myght they be;’
‘They shall not come therin,’ sayd the knyght,
‘By God that dyed on a tre.’
102
Lordës were to mete isette
In that abbotes hall;
The knyght went forth and kneled downe,
And salued them grete and small.
103
‘Do gladly, syr abbot,’ sayd the knyght,
‘I am come to holde my day:’
The fyrst word the abbot spake,
‘Hast thou brought my pay?’
104
‘Not one peny,’ sayd the knyght,
‘By God that maked me;’
‘Thou art a shrewed dettour,’ sayd the abbot;
‘Syr iustyce, drynke to me.
105
‘What doost thou here,’ sayd the abbot,
‘But thou haddest brought thy pay?’
‘For God,’ than sayd the knyght,
‘To pray of a lenger daye.’
106
‘Thy daye is broke,’ sayd the iustyce,
‘Londe getest thou none:’
‘Now, good syr iustyce, be my frende,
And fende me of my fone!’
107
‘I am holde with the abbot,’ sayd the iustyce,
‘Both with cloth and fee:’
‘Now, good syr sheryf, be my frende!’
‘Nay, for God,’ sayd he.
108
‘Now, good syr abbot, be my frende,
For thy curteysë,
And holde my londës in thy honde
Tyll I haue made the gree!
109
‘And I wyll be thy true seruaunte,
And trewely seruë the,
Tyl ye haue foure hondred pounde
Of money good and free.’
110
The abbot sware a full grete othe,
‘By God that dyed on a tree,
Get the londe where thou may,
For thou getest none of me.’
111
‘By dere worthy God,’ then sayd the knyght,
‘That all this worldë wrought,
But I haue my londe agayne,
Full dere it shall be bought.
112
‘God, that was of a mayden borne,
Leue vs well to spede!
62For it is good to assay a frende
Or that a man haue nede.’
113
The abbot lothely on hym gan loke,
And vylaynesly hym gan call;
‘Out,’ he sayd, ‘thou falsë knyght,
Spede the out of my hall!’
114
‘Thou lyest,’ then sayd the gentyll knyght,
‘Abbot, in thy hal;
False knyght was I neuer,
By God that made vs all.’
115
Vp then stode that gentyll knyght,
To the abbot sayd he,
To suffre a knyght to knele so longe,
Thou canst no curteysye.
116
In ioustës and in tournement
Full ferre than haue I be,
And put my selfe as ferre in prees
As ony that euer I se.
117
‘What wyll ye gyue more,’ sayd the iustice,
‘And the knyght shall make a releyse?
And elles dare I safly swere
Ye holde neuer your londe in pees.’
118
‘An hondred pounde,’ sayd the abbot;
The justice sayd, Gyue hym two;
‘Nay, be God,’ sayd the knyght,
a.
‘Yit gete ye it not so.
119
‘Though ye wolde gyue a thousand more,
Yet were ye neuer the nere;
Shall there neuer be myn heyre
Abbot, iustice, ne frere.’
120
He stert hym to a borde anone,
Tyll a table rounde,
And there he shoke oute of a bagge
Euen four hundred pound.
121
‘Haue here thi golde, sir abbot,’ saide the knight,
‘Which that thou lentest me;
Had thou ben curtes at my comynge,
Rewarded shuldest thou haue be.’
122
The abbot sat styll, and ete no more,
For all his ryall fare;
He cast his hede on his shulder,
And fast began to stare.
123
‘Take me my golde agayne,’ saide the abbot,
‘Sir iustice, that I toke the:’
‘Not a peni,’ said the iustice,
‘Bi Go[d, that dy]ed on tree.’
124
‘Sir [abbot, and ye me]n of lawe,
b.
Now haue I holde my daye;
Now shall I haue my londe agayne,
For ought that you can saye.’
125
The knyght stert out of the dore,
Awaye was all his care,
And on he put his good clothynge,
The other he lefte there.
126
He wente hym forth full mery syngynge,
As men haue tolde in tale;
His lady met hym at the gate,
At home in Verysdale.
127
‘Welcome, my lorde,’ sayd his lady;
‘Syr, lost is all your good?’
‘Be mery, dame,’ sayd the knyght,
a.
‘And pray for Robyn Hode,
128
‘That euer his soulë be in blysse:
He holpe me out of tene;
Ne had be his kyndënesse,
Beggers had we bene.
129
‘The abbot and I accorded ben,
He is serued of his pay;
The god yoman lent it me,
As I cam by the way.’
130
This knight than dwelled fayre at home,
The sothe for to saye,
Tyll he had gete four hundred pound,
Al redy for to pay.
131
He purueyed him an hundred bowes,
The stryngës well ydyght,
An hundred shefe of arowës gode,
The hedys burneshed full bryght;
132
And euery arowe an ellë longe,
With pecok wel idyght,
Inocked all with whyte siluer;
It was a semely syght.
133
He purueyed hym an [hondreth men],
Well harness[ed in that stede],
63b.
And hym selfe in that same sete,
And clothed in whyte and rede.
134
He bare a launsgay in his honde,
And a man ledde his male,
And reden with a lyght songe
Vnto Bernysdale.
135
But as he went at a brydge ther was a wrastelyng,
And there taryed was he,
And there was all the best yemen
Of all the west countree.
136
A full fayre game there was vp set,
A whyte bulle vp i-pyght,
A grete courser, with sadle and brydil,
a.
With golde burnyssht full bryght.
137
A payre of gloues, a rede golde rynge,
A pype of wyne, in fay;
What man that bereth hym best i-wys
The pryce shall bere away.
138
There was a yoman in that place,
And best worthy was he,
And for he was ferre and frembde bested,
Slayne he shulde haue be.
139
The knight had ruthe of this yoman,
In placë where he stode;
He sayde that yoman shulde haue no harme,
For loue of Robyn Hode.
140
The knyght presed in to the place,
An hundreth folowed hym [free],
With bowës bent and arowës sharpe,
For to shende that companye.
141
They shulderd all and made hym rome,
To wete what he wolde say;
He toke the yeman bi the hande,
And gaue hym al the play.
142
He gaue hym fyue marke for his wyne,
There it lay on the molde.
And bad it shulde be set a broche,
Drynkë who so wolde.
143
Thus longe taried this gentyll knyght,
Tyll that play was done;
So longe abode Robyn fastinge,
Thre hourës after the none.
THE THIRDE FYTTE.
144
Lyth and lystyn, gentilmen,
All that nowe be here;
Of Litell Johnn, that was the knightës man,
Goode myrth ye shall here.
145
It was vpon a mery day
That yonge men wolde go shete;
Lytell Johnn fet his bowe anone,
And sayde he wolde them mete.
146
Thre tymes Litell Johnn shet aboute,
And alwey he slet the wande;
The proudë sherif of Notingham
By the markës can stande.
147
The sherif swore a full greate othe:
‘By hym that dyede on a tre,
This man is the best arschére
That euer yet sawe I [me.]
148
‘Say me nowe, wight yonge man,
What is nowe thy name?
In what countre were thou borne,
And where is thy wonynge wane?’
149
‘In Holdernes, sir, I was borne,
I-wys al of my dame;
Men cal me Reynolde Grenëlef
Whan I am at home.’
150
‘Sey me, Reyno[l]de Grenëlefe,
Wolde thou dwell with me?
And euery yere I woll the gyue
Twenty marke to thy fee.’
151
‘I haue a maister,’ sayde Litell Johnn,
‘A curteys knight is he;
May ye leuë gete of hym,
The better may it be.’
152
The sherif gate Litell John
Twelue monethës of the knight;
Therfore he gaue him right anone
A gode hors and a wight.
153
Nowe is Litell John the sherifës man,
God lende vs well to spede!
But alwey thought Lytell John
To quyte hym wele his mede.
64154
‘Nowe so God me helpë,’ sayde Litell John,
‘And by my true leutye,
I shall be the worst seruaunt to hym
That euer yet had he.’
155
It fell vpon a Wednesday
The sherif on huntynge was gone,
And Litel Iohn lay in his bed,
And was foriete at home.
156
Therfore he was fastinge
Til it was past the none;
‘Gode sir stuarde, I pray to the,
Gyue me my dynere,’ saide Litell John.
157
‘It is longe for Grenëlefe
Fastinge thus for to be;
Therfor I pray the, sir stuarde,
Mi dyner gif me.’
158
‘Shalt thou neuer ete ne drynke,’ saide the stuarde,
‘Tyll my lorde be come to towne:’
‘I make myn auowe to God,’ saide Litell John,
‘I had leuer to crake thy crowne.’
159
The boteler was full vncurteys,
There he stode on flore;
He start to the botery
And shet fast the dore.
160
Lytell Johnn gaue the boteler suche a tap
His backe went nere in two;
Though he liued an hundred ier,
The wors shuld he go.
161
He sporned the dore with his fote;
It went open wel and fyne;
And there he made large lyueray,
Bothe of ale and of wyne.
162
‘Sith ye wol nat dyne,’ sayde Litell John,
‘I shall gyue you to drinke;
And though ye lyue an hundred wynter,
On Lytel Johnn ye shall thinke.’
163
Litell John ete, and Litel John drank,
The whilë that he wolde;
The sherife had in his kechyn a coke,
A stoute man and a bolde.
164
‘I make myn auowe to God,’ saide the coke,
‘Thou arte a shrewde hynde
In ani hous for to dwel,
For to askë thus to dyne.’
165
And there he lent Litell John
God[ë] strokis thre;
‘I make myn auowe to God,’ sayde Lytell John,
‘These strokis lyked well me.
166
‘Thou arte a bolde man and hardy,
And so thinketh me;
And or I pas fro this place
Assayed better shalt thou be.’
167
Lytell Johnn drew a ful gode sworde,
The coke toke another in hande;
They thought no thynge for to fle,
But stifly for to stande.
168
There they faught sore togedere
Two mylë way and well more;
Myght neyther other harme done,
The mountnaunce of an owre.
169
‘I make myn auowe to God,’ sayde Litell Johnn,
‘And by my true lewtë,
Thou art one of the best sworde-men
That euer yit sawe I [me.]
170
‘Cowdest thou shote as well in a bowe,
To grenë wode thou shuldest with me,
And two times in the yere thy clothinge
Chaunged shuldë be;
171
‘And euery yere of Robyn Hode
Twenty merke to thy fe:’
‘Put vp thy swerde,’ saide the coke,
‘And felowës woll we be.’
172
Thanne he fet to Lytell Johnn
The nowmbles of a do,
Gode brede, and full gode wyne;
They ete and drank theretoo.
173
And when they had dronkyn well,
Theyre trouthës togeder they plight
That they wo[l]de be with Robyn
That ylkë samë nyght.
174
They dyd them to the tresoure-hows,
As fast as they myght gone;
65The lokkës, that were of full gode stele,
They brake them euerichone.
175
They toke away the siluer vessell,
And all that thei mig[h]t get;
Pecis, masars, ne sponis,
Wolde thei not forget.
176
Also [they] toke the godë pens,
Thre hundred pounde and more,
And did them st[r]eyte to Robyn Hode,
Under the grenë wode hore.
177
‘God the saue, my derë mayster,
And Criste the saue and se!’
And thanne sayde Robyn to Litell Johnn,
Welcome myght thou be.
178
‘Also be that fayre yeman
Thou bryngest there with the;
What tydyngës fro Noty[n]gham?
Lytill Johnn, tell thou me.’
179
‘Well the gretith the proudë sheryf,
And sende[th] the here by me
His coke and his siluer vessell,
And thre hundred pounde and thre.’
180
‘I make myne avowe to God,’ sayde Robyn,
‘And to the Trenytë,
It was neuer by his gode wyll
This gode is come to me.’
181
Lytyll Johnn there hym bethought
On a shrewde wyle;
Fyue myle in the forest he ran,
Hym happed all his wyll.
182
Than he met the proudë sheref,
Huntynge with houndes and horne;
Lytell Johnn coude of curtesye,
And knelyd hym beforne.
183
‘God the saue, my derë mayster,
And Criste the saue and se!’
‘Reynolde Grenëlefe,’ sayde the shryef,
‘Where hast thou nowe be?’
184
‘I haue be in this forest;
A fayre syght can I se;
It was one of the fayrest syghtes
That euer yet sawe I me.
185
‘Yonder I sawe a ryght fayre harte,
His coloure is of grene;
Seuen score of dere vpon a herde
Be with hym all bydene.
186
‘Their tyndës are so sharpe, maister,
Of sexty, and well mo,
That I durst not shote for drede,
Lest they wolde me slo.’
187
‘I make myn auowe to God,’ sayde the shyref,
‘That syght wolde I fayne se:’
‘Buske you thyderwarde, mi derë mayster,
Anone, and wende with me.’
188
The sherif rode, and Litell Johnn
Of fote he was full smerte,
And whane they came before Robyn,
‘Lo, sir, here is the mayster-herte.’
189
Still stode the proudë sherief,
A sory man was he;
‘Wo the worthe, Raynolde Grenëlefe,
Thou hast betrayed nowe me.’
190
‘I make myn auowe to God,’ sayde Litell Johnn,
‘Mayster, ye be to blame;
I was mysserued of my dynere
Whan I was with you at home.’
191
Sone he was to souper sette,
And serued well with siluer white,
And whan the sherif sawe his vessell,
For sorowe he myght nat ete.
192
‘Make glad chere,’ sayde Robyn Hode,
‘Sherif, for charitë,
And for the loue of Litill Johnn
Thy lyfe I graunt to the.’
193
Whan they had souped well,
The day was al gone;
Robyn commaunde[d] Litell Johnn
To drawe of his hosen and his shone;
194
His kirtell, and his cote of pie,
That was fured well and fine,
And to[ke] hym a grene mantel,
To lap his body therin.
195
Robyn commaundyd his wight yonge men,
Vnder the grenë-wode tree,
66They shulde lye in that same sute,
That the sherif myght them see.
196
All nyght lay the proudë sherif
In his breche and in his [s]chert;
No wonder it was, in grenë wode,
Though his sydës gan to smerte.
197
‘Make glade chere,’ sayde Robyn Hode,
‘Sheref, for charitë;
For this is our ordre i-wys,
Vnder the grenë-wode tree.’
198
‘This is harder order,’ sayde the sherief,
‘Than any ankir or frere;
For all the golde in mery Englonde
I wolde nat longe dwell her.’
199
‘All this twelue monthes,’ sayde Robin,
‘Thou shalt dwell with me;
I shall the techë, proudë sherif,
An outlawë for to be.’
200
‘Or I be here another nyght,’ sayde the sherif,
‘Robyn, nowe pray I the,
Smyte of mijn hede rather to-morowe,
And I forgyue it the.
201
‘Lat me go,’ than sayde the sherif,
‘For sayntë charitë,
And I woll be the best[ë] frende
That euer yet had ye.’
202
‘Thou shalt swere me an othe,’ sayde Robyn,
‘On my bright bronde;
Shalt thou neuer awayte me scathe,
By water ne by lande.
203
‘And if thou fynde any of my men,
By nyght or [by] day,
Vpon thyn othë thou shalt swere
To helpe them tha[t] thou may.’
204
Nowe hathe the sherif sworne his othe,
And home he began to gone;
He was as full of grenë wode
As euer was hepe of stone.
THE FOURTH FYTTE.
205
The sherif dwelled in Notingham;
He was fayne he was agone;
And Robyn and his mery men
Went to wode anone.
206
‘Go we to dyner,’ sayde Littell Johnn;
Robyn Hode sayde, Nay;
For I drede Our Lady be wroth with me,
For she sent me nat my pay.
207
‘Haue no doute, maister,’ sayde Litell Johnn;
‘Yet is nat the sonne at rest;
For I dare say, and sauely swere,
The knight is true and truste.’
208
‘Take thy bowe in thy hande,’ sayde Robyn,
‘Late Much wende with the,
And so shal Wyllyam Scarlok,
b.
And no man abyde with me.
209
‘And walke vp vnder the Sayles,
And to Watlynge-strete,
And wayte after some vnketh gest;
Vp-chaunce ye may them mete.
210
‘Whether he be messengere,
Or a man that myrthës can,
Of my good he shall haue some,
Yf he be a porë man.’
211
Forth then stert Lytel Johan,
Half in tray and tene,
And gyrde hym with a full good swerde,
Under a mantel of grene.
212
They went vp to the Sayles,
These yemen all thre;
They loked est, they loked west,
They myght no man se.
213
But as [t]he[y] loked in Bernysdale,
By the hyë waye,
Than were they ware of two blacke monkes,
Eche on a good palferay.
214
Then bespake Lytell Johan,
To Much he gan say,
I dare lay my lyfe to wedde,
That [these] monkes haue brought our pay.
67215
‘Make glad chere,’ sayd Lytell Johan,
‘And frese your bowes of ewe,
And loke your hertës be seker and sad,
Your stryngës trusty and trewe.
216
‘The monke hath two and fifty [men,]
And seuen somers full stronge;
There rydeth no bysshop in this londe
So ryally, I vnderstond.
217
‘Brethern,’ sayd Lytell Johan,
‘Here are no more but we thre;
But we bryngë them to dyner,
Our mayster dare we not se.
218
‘Bende your bowes,’ sayd Lytell Johan,
‘Make all yon prese to stonde;
The formost monke, his lyfe and his deth
Is closed in my honde.
219
‘Abyde, chorle monke,’ sayd Lytell Johan,
‘No ferther that thou gone;
Yf thou doost, by dere worthy God,
Thy deth is in my honde.
220
‘And euyll thryfte on thy hede,’ sayd Lytell Johan,
‘Ryght vnder thy hattës bonde;
For thou hast made our mayster wroth,
He is fastynge so longe.’
221
‘Who is your mayster?’ sayd the monke;
Lytell Johan sayd, Robyn Hode;
‘He is a stronge thefe,’ sayd the monke,
‘Of hym herd I neuer good.’
222
‘Thou lyest,’ than sayd Lytell Johan,
‘And that shall rewë the;
He is a yeman of the forest,
To dyne he hath bodë the.’
223
Much was redy with a bolte,
Redly and anone,
He set the monke to-fore the brest,
To the grounde that he can gone.
224
Of two and fyfty wyght yonge yemen
There abode not one,
Saf a lytell page and a grome,
To lede the somers with Lytel Johan.
225
They brought the monke to the lodgë-dore,
Whether he were loth or lefe,
For to speke with Robyn Hode,
Maugre in theyr tethe.
226
Robyn dyde adowne his hode,
The monke whan that he se;
The monke was not so curtëyse,
His hode then let he be.
227
‘He is a chorle, mayster, by dere worthy God,’
Than sayd Lytell Johan:
‘Thereof no force,’ sayd Robyn,
‘For curteysy can he none.
228
‘How many men,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Had this monke, Johan?’
‘Fyfty and two whan that we met,
But many of them be gone.’
229
‘Let blowe a horne,’ sayd Robyn,
‘That felaushyp may vs knowe;’
Seuen score of wyght yemen
Came pryckynge on a rowe.
230
And euerych of them a good mantell
Of scarlet and of raye;
All they came to good Robyn,
To wyte what he wolde say.
231
They made the monke to wasshe and wype,
And syt at his denere,
Robyn Hode and Lytell Johan
They serued him both in-fere.
232
‘Do gladly, monke,’ sayd Robyn.
‘Gramercy, syr,’ sayd he.
‘Where is your abbay, whan ye are at home,
And who is your avowë?’
233
‘Saynt Mary abbay,’ sayd the monke,
‘Though I be symple here.’
‘In what offyce?’ sayd Robyn:
‘Syr, the hyë selerer.’
234
‘Ye be the more welcome,’ sayd Robyn,
‘So euer mote I the;
Fyll of the best wyne,’ sayd Robyn,
‘This monke shall drynke to me.
235
‘But I haue grete meruayle,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Of all this longë day;
I drede Our Lady be wroth with me,
She sent me not my pay.’
68236
‘Haue no doute, mayster,’ sayd Lytell Johan,
‘Ye haue no nede, I saye;
This monke it hath brought, I dare well swere,
For he is of her abbay.’
237
‘And she was a borowe,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Betwene a knyght and me,
Of a lytell money that I hym lent,
Under the grëne-wode tree.
238
‘And yf thou hast that syluer ibrought,
I pray the let me se;
And I shall helpë the eftsones,
Yf thou haue nede to me.’
239
The monke swore a full grete othe,
With a sory chere,
‘Of the borowehode thou spekest to me,
Herde I neuer ere.’
240
‘I make myn avowe to God,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Monke, thou art to blame;
For God is holde a ryghtwys man,
And so is his dame.
241
‘Thou toldest with thyn ownë tonge,
Thou may not say nay,
How thou arte her seruaunt,
And seruest her euery day.
242
‘And thou art made her messengere,
My money for to pay;
Therfore I cun the morë thanke
Thou arte come at thy day.
243
‘What is in your cofers?’ sayd Robyn,
‘Trewe than tell thou me:’
‘Syr,’ he sayd, ‘twenty marke,
Al so mote I the.’
244
‘Yf there be no more,’ sayd Robyn,
‘I wyll not one peny;
Yf thou hast myster of ony more,
Syr, more I shall lende to the.
245
‘And yf I fyndë [more,’ sayd] Robyn,
‘I-wys thou shalte it for gone;
For of thy spendynge-syluer, monke,
Thereof wyll I ryght none.
246
‘Go nowe forthe, Lytell Johan,
And the trouth tell thou me;
If there be no more but twenty marke,
No peny that I se.’
247
Lytell Johan spred his mantell downe,
As he had done before,
And he tolde out of the monkës male
Eyght [hondred] pounde and more.
248
Lytell Johan let it lye full styll,
And went to his mayster in hast;
‘Syr,’ he sayd, ‘the monke is trewe ynowe,
Our Lady hath doubled your cast.’
249
‘I make myn avowe to God,’ sayd Robyn—
‘Monke, what tolde I the?—
Our Lady is the trewest woman
That euer yet founde I me.
250
‘By dere worthy God,’ sayd Robyn,
‘To seche all Englond thorowe,
Yet founde I neuer to my pay
A moche better borowe.
251
‘Fyll of the best wyne, and do hym drynke,’ sayd Robyn,
‘And grete well thy lady hende,
And yf she haue nede to Robyn Hode,
A frende she shall hym fynde.
252
‘And yf she nedeth ony more syluer,
Come thou agayne to me.
And, by this token she hath me sent,
She shall haue such thre.’
253
The monke was goynge to London ward,
There to holde grete mote,
The knyght that rode so hye on hors,
To brynge hym vnder fote.
254
‘Whether be ye away?’ sayd Robyn:
‘Syr, to maners in this londe,
Too reken with our reues,
That haue done moch wronge.’
255
‘Come now forth, Lytell Johan,
And harken to my tale;
A better yemen I knowe none,
To seke a monkës male.’
256
‘How moch is in yonder other corser?’ sayd Robyn,
‘The soth must we see:’
69‘By Our Lady,’ than sayd the monke,
‘That were no curteysye,
257
‘To bydde a man to dyner,
And syth hym bete and bynde.’
‘It is our oldë maner,’ sayd Robyn,
‘To leue but lytell behynde.’
258
The monke toke the hors with spore,
No lenger wolde he abyde:
‘Askë to drynkë,’ than sayd Robyn,
‘Or that ye forther ryde.’
259
‘Nay, for God,’ than sayd the monke,
‘Me reweth I cam so nere;
For better chepe I myght haue dyned
In Blythe or in Dankestere.’
260
‘Grete well your abbot,’ sayd Robyn,
‘And your pryour, I you pray,
And byd hym send me such a monke
To dyner euery day.’
261
Now lete we that monke be styll,
And speke we of that knyght:
Yet he came to holde his day,
Whyle that it was lyght.
262
He dyde him streyt to Bernysdale,
Under the grenë-wode tre,
And he founde there Robyn Hode,
And all his mery meynë.
263
The knyght lyght doune of his good palfray;
Robyn whan he gan see,
So curteysly he dyde adoune his hode,
And set hym on his knee.
264
‘God the sauë, Robyn Hode,
And all this company:’
‘Welcome be thou, gentyll knyght,
And ryght welcome to me.’
265
Than bespake hym Robyn Hode,
To that knyght so fre:
What nedë dryueth the to grenë wode?
I praye the, syr knyght, tell me.
266
‘And welcome be thou, ge[n]tyll knyght,
Why hast thou be so longe?’
‘For the abbot and the hyë iustyce
Wolde haue had my londe.’
267
‘Hast thou thy londe [a]gayne?’ sayd Robyn;
‘Treuth than tell thou me:’
‘Ye, for God,’ sayd the knyght,
‘And that thanke I God and the.
268
‘But take not a grefe,’ sayd the knyght, ‘that I haue be so longe;
I came by a wrastelynge,
And there I holpe a porë yeman,
With wronge was put behynde.’
269
‘Nay, for God,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Syr knyght, that thanke I the;
What man that helpeth a good yeman,
His frende than wyll I be.’
270
‘Haue here foure hondred pounde,’ than sayd the knyght,
‘The whiche ye lent to me;
And here is also twenty marke
For your curteysy.’
271
‘Nay, for God,’ than sayd Robyn,
‘Thou broke it well for ay;
For Our Lady, by her [hyë] selerer,
Hath sent to me my pay.
272
‘And yf I toke it i-twyse,
A shame it were to me;
But trewely, gentyll knyght,
Welcom arte thou to me.’
273
Whan Robyn had tolde his tale,
He leugh and had good chere:
‘By my trouthe,’ then sayd the knyght,
‘Your money is redy here.’
274
‘Broke it well,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Thou gentyll knyght so fre;
And welcome be thou, ge[n]tyll knyght,
Under my trystell-tre.
275
‘But what shall these bowës do?’ sayd Robyn,
‘And these arowës ifedred fre?’
‘By God,’ than sayd the knyght,
‘A porë present to the.’
276
‘Come now forth, Lytell Johan,
And go to my treasurë,
And brynge me there foure hondred pounde;
The monke ouer-tolde it me.
70277
‘Haue here foure hondred pounde,
Thou gentyll knyght and trewe,
And bye hors and harnes good,
And gylte thy spores all newe.
278
‘And yf thou fayle ony spendynge,
Com to Robyn Hode,
And by my trouth thou shalt none fayle,
The whyles I haue any good.
279
‘And broke well thy foure hondred pound,
Whiche I lent to the,
And make thy selfe no more so bare,
By the counsell of me.’
280
Thus than holpe hym good Robyn,
The knyght all of his care:
God, that syt in heuen hye,
Graunte vs well to fare!
THE FYFTH FYTTE.
281
Now hath the knyght his leue i-take,
And wente hym on his way;
Robyn Hode and his mery men
Dwelled styll full many a day.
282
Lyth and lysten, gentil men,
And herken what I shall say,
How the proud[ë] sheryfe of Notyngham
Dyde crye a full fayre play;
283
That all the best archers of the north
Sholde come vpon a day,
And [he] that shoteth allther best
The game shall bere a way.
284
He that shoteth allther best,
Furthest fayre and lowe,
At a payre of fynly buttes,
Under the grenë-wode shawe,
285
A ryght good arowe he shall haue,
The shaft of syluer whyte,
The hede and the feders of ryche rede golde,
In Englond is none lyke.
286
This than herde good Robyn,
Under his trystell-tre:
‘Make you redy, ye wyght yonge men;
That shotynge wyll I se.
287
‘Buske you, my mery yonge men,
Ye shall go with me;
And I wyll wete the shryuës fayth,
Trewe and yf he be.’
288
Whan they had theyr bowes i-bent,
Theyr takles fedred fre,
Seuen score of wyght yonge men
Stode by Robyns kne.
289
Whan they cam to Notyngham,
The buttes were fayre and longe;
Many was the bolde archere
That shoted with bowës stronge.
290
‘There shall but syx shote with me;
The other shal kepe my he[ue]de,
And standë with good bowës bent,
That I be not desceyued.’
291
The fourth outlawe his bowe gan bende,
And that was Robyn Hode,
And that behelde the proud[ë] sheryfe,
All by the but [as] he stode.
292
Thryës Robyn shot about,
And alway he slist the wand,
And so dyde good Gylberte
Wyth the whytë hande.
293
Lytell Johan and good Scatheloke
Were archers good and fre;
Lytell Much and good Reynolde,
The worste wolde they not be.
294
Whan they had shot aboute,
These archours fayre and good,
Euermore was the best,
For soth, Robyn Hode.
295
Hym was delyuered the good arowe,
For best worthy was he;
He toke the yeft so curteysly,
To grenë wode wolde he.
296
They cryed out on Robyn Hode,
And grete hornës gan they blowe:
‘Wo worth the, treason!’ sayd Robyn,
‘Full euyl thou art to knowe.
297
‘And wo be thou! thou proudë sheryf,
Thus gladdynge thy gest;
71Other wyse thou behotë me
In yonder wylde forest.
298
‘But had I the in grenë wode,
Under my trystell-tre,
Thou sholdest leue me a better wedde
Than thy trewe lewtë.’
299
Full many a bowë there was bent,
And arowës let they glyde;
Many a kyrtell there was rent,
And hurt many a syde.
300
The outlawes shot was so stronge
That no man myght them dryue,
And the proud[ë] sheryfës men,
They fled away full blyue.
301
Robyn sawe the busshement to-broke,
In grenë wode he wolde haue be;
Many an arowe there was shot
Amonge that company.
302
Lytell Johan was hurte full sore,
With an arowe in his kne,
That he myght neyther go nor ryde;
It was full grete pytë.
303
‘Mayster,’ then sayd Lytell Johan,
‘If euer thou loue[d]st me,
And for that ylkë lordës loue
That dyed vpon a tre,
304
‘And for the medes of my seruyce,
That I haue serued the,
Lete neuer the proudë sheryf
Alyue now fyndë me.
305
‘But take out thy brownë swerde,
And smyte all of my hede,
And gyue me woundës depe and wyde;
No lyfe on me be lefte.’
306
‘I wolde not that,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Johan, that thou were slawe,
For all the golde in mery Englonde,
Though it lay now on a rawe.’
307
‘God forbede,’ sayd Lytell Much,
‘That dyed on a tre,
That thou sholdest, Lytell Johan,
Parte our company.’
308
Up he toke hym on his backe,
And bare hym well a myle;
Many a tyme he layd hym downe,
And shot another whyle.
309
Then was there a fayre castell,
A lytell within the wode;
Double-dyched it was about,
And walled, by the rode.
310
And there dwelled that gentyll knyght,
Syr Rychard at the Lee,
That Robyn had lent his good,
Under the grenë-wode tree.
311
In he toke good Robyn,
And all his company:
‘Welcome be thou, Robyn Hode,
Welcome arte thou to me;
312
‘And moche [I] thanke the of thy confort,
And of thy curteysye,
And of thy gretë kyndënesse,
Under the grenë-wode tre.
313
‘I loue no man in all this worlde
So much as I do the;
For all the proud[ë] sheryf of Notyngham,
Ryght here shalt thou be.
314
‘Shyt the gates, and drawe the brydge,
a.
And let no man come in,
And arme you well, and make you redy,
And to the walles ye wynne.
315
‘For one thynge, Robyn, I the behote;
I swere by Saynt Quyntyne,
These forty dayes thou wonnest with me,
To soupe, ete, and dyne.’
316
Bordes were layde, and clothes were spredde,
Redely and anone;
Robyn Hode and his mery men
To metë can they gone.
THE VI. FYTTE.
317
Lythe and lysten, gentylmen,
And herkyn to your songe;
Howe the proudë shyref of Notyngham,
And men of armys stronge,
72318
Full fast cam to the hyë shyref,
The contrë vp to route,
And they besette the knyghtës castell,
The wallës all aboute.
319
The proudë shyref loude gan crye,
And sayde, Thou traytour knight,
Thou kepest here the kynges enemys,
Agaynst the lawe and right.
320
‘Syr, I wyll auowe that I haue done,
The dedys that here be dyght,
Vpon all the landës that I haue,
As I am a trewë knyght.
321
‘Wende furth, sirs, on your way,
And do no more to me
Tyll ye wyt oure kyngës wille,
What he wyll say to the.’
322
The shyref thus had his answere,
Without any lesynge;
[Fu]rth he yede to London towne,
All for to tel our kinge.
323
Ther he telde him of that knight,
And eke of Robyn Hode,
And also of the bolde archars,
That were soo noble and gode.
324
‘He wyll auowe that he hath done,
To mayntene the outlawes stronge;
He wyll be lorde, and set you at nought,
In all the northe londe.’
325
‘I wil be at Notyngham,’ saide our kynge,
‘Within this fourteenyght,
And take I wyll Robyn Hode,
And so I wyll that knight.
326
‘Go nowe home, shyref,’ sayde our kynge,
‘And do as I byd the;
And ordeyn gode archers ynowe,
Of all the wydë contrë.’
327
The shyref had his leue i-take,
And went hym on his way,
And Robyn Hode to grenë wode,
Vpon a certen day.
328
And Lytel John was hole of the arowe
That shot was in his kne,
And dyd hym streyght to Robyn Hode,
Vnder the grenë-wode tree.
329
Robyn Hode walked in the forest,
Vnder the leuys grene;
The proudë shyref of Notyngham
Thereof he had grete tene.
330
The shyref there fayled of Robyn Hode,
He myght not haue his pray;
Than he awayted this gentyll knyght,
Bothe by nyght and day.
331
Euer he wayted the gentyll knyght,
Syr Richarde at the Lee,
As he went on haukynge by the ryuer-syde,
And lete [his] haukës flee.
332
Toke he there this gentyll knight,
With men of armys stronge,
And led hym to Notyngham warde,
Bounde bothe fote and hande.
333
The sheref sware a full grete othe,
Bi hym that dyed on rode,
He had leuer than an hundred pound
That he had Robyn Hode.
334
This harde the knyghtës wyfe,
A fayr lady and a free;
She set hir on a gode palfrey,
To grenë wode anone rode she.
335
Whanne she cam in the forest,
Vnder the grenë-wode tree,
Fonde she there Robyn Hode,
And al his fayre menë.
336
‘God the sauë, godë Robyn,
And all thy company;
For Our derë Ladyes sake,
A bonë graunte thou me.
337
‘Late neuer my wedded lorde
Shamefully slayne be;
He is fast bowne to Notingham warde,
For the loue of the.’
338
Anone than saide goode Robyn
To that lady so fre,
What man hath your lorde [i-]take?
. . . . . .
73339
. . . . . .
‘For soth as I the say;
He is nat yet thre mylës
Passed on his way.’
340
Vp than sterte gode Robyn,
As man that had ben wode:
‘Buske you, my mery men,
For hym that dyed on rode.
341
‘And he that this sorowe forsaketh,
By hym that dyed on tre,
Shall he neuer in grenë wode
No lenger dwel with me.’
342
Sone there were gode bowës bent,
Mo than seuen score;
Hedge ne dyche spared they none
That was them before.
343
‘I make myn auowe to God,’ sayde Robyn,
‘The sherif wolde I fayne see;
And if I may hym take,
I-quyte shall it be.’
344
And whan they came to Notingham,
They walked in the strete;
And with the proudë sherif i-wys
Sonë can they mete.
345
‘Abyde, thou proudë sherif,’ he sayde,
‘Abyde, and speke with me;
Of some tidinges of oure kinge
I wolde fayne here of the.
346
‘This seuen yere, by dere worthy God,
Ne yede I this fast on fote;
I make myn auowe to God, thou proudë sherif,
It is nat for thy gode.’
347
Robyn bent a full goode bowe,
An arrowe he drowe at wyll;
He hit so the proudë sherife
Vpon the grounde he lay full still.
348
And or he myght vp aryse,
On his fete to stonde,
He smote of the sherifs hede
With his bright[ë] bronde.
349
‘Lye thou there, thou proudë sherife,
Euyll mote thou cheue!
There myght no man to the truste
b.
The whyles thou were a lyue.’
350
His men drewe out theyr bryght swerdes,
That were so sharpe and kene,
And layde on the sheryues men,
And dryued them downe bydene.
351
Robyn stert to that knyght,
And cut a two his bonde,
And toke hym in his hand a bowe,
And bad hym by hym stonde.
352
‘Leue thy hors the behynde,
And lerne for to renne;
Thou shalt with me to grenë wode,
Through myrë, mosse, and fenne.
353
‘Thou shalt with me to grenë wode,
Without ony leasynge,
Tyll that I haue gete vs grace
Of Edwarde, our comly kynge.’
THE VII. FYTTE.
354
The kynge came to Notynghame,
With knyghtës in grete araye,
For to take that gentyll knyght
And Robyn Hode, and yf he may.
355
He asked men of that countrë
After Robyn Hode,
And after that gentyll knyght,
That was so bolde and stout.
356
Whan they had tolde hym the case
Our kynge vnderstode ther tale,
And seased in his honde
The knyghtës londës all.
357
All the passe of Lancasshyre
He went both ferre and nere,
Tyll he came to Plomton Parke;
He faylyd many of his dere.
358
There our kynge was wont to se
Herdës many one,
He coud vnneth fynde one dere,
That bare ony good horne.
359
The kynge was wonder wroth withall,
And swore by the Trynytë,
74‘I wolde I had Robyn Hode,
With eyen I myght hym se.
360
‘And he that wolde smyte of the knyghtës hede,
And brynge it to me,
He shall haue the knyghtës londes,
Syr Rycharde at the Le.
361
‘I gyue it hym with my charter,
And sele it [with] my honde,
To haue and holde for euer more,
In all mery Englonde.’
362
Than bespake a fayre olde knyght,
That was treue in his fay:
A, my leegë lorde the kynge,
One worde I shall you say.
363
There is no man in this countrë
May haue the knyghtës londes,
Whyle Robyn Hode may ryde or gone,
And bere a bowe in his hondes,
364
That he ne shall lese his hede,
That is the best ball in his hode:
Giue it no man, my lorde the kynge,
That ye wyll any good.
365
Half a yere dwelled our comly kynge
In Notyngham, and well more;
Coude he not here of Robyn Hode,
In what countrë that he were.
366
But alway went good Robyn
By halke and eke by hyll,
And alway slewe the kyngës dere,
And welt them at his wyll.
367
Than bespake a proude fostere,
That stode by our kyngës kne:
Yf ye wyll se good Robyn,
Ye must do after me.
368
Take fyue of the best knyghtës
That be in your lede,
And walke downe by yon abbay,
And gete you monkës wede.
369
And I wyll be your ledës-man,
And lede you the way,
And or ye come to Notyngham,
Myn hede then dare I lay,
370
That ye shall mete with good Robyn,
On lyue yf that he be;
Or ye come to Notyngham,
With eyen ye shall hym se.
371
Full hast[ë]ly our kynge was dyght,
So were his knyghtës fyue,
Euerych of them in monkës wede,
And hasted them thyder blyve.
372
Our kynge was grete aboue his cole,
A brode hat on his crowne,
Ryght as he were abbot-lyke,
They rode up in-to the towne.
373
Styf botës our kynge had on,
Forsoth as I you say;
He rode syngynge to grenë wode,
The couent was clothed in graye.
374
His male-hors and his gretë somers
Folowed our kynge behynde,
Tyll they came to grenë wode,
A myle vnder the lynde.
375
There they met with good Robyn,
Stondynge on the waye,
And so dyde many a bolde archere,
For soth as I you say.
376
Robyn toke the kyngës hors,
Hastëly in that stede,
And sayd, Syr abbot, by your leue,
A whyle ye must abyde.
377
‘We be yemen of this foreste,
Vnder the grenë-wode tre;
We lyue by our kyngës dere,
[Other shyft haue not wee.]
378
‘And ye haue chyrches and rentës both,
And gold full grete plentë;
Gyue vs some of your spendynge,
For saynt[ë] charytë.’
379
Than bespake our cumly kynge,
Anone than sayd he;
I brought no more to grenë wode
But forty pounde with me.
380
I haue layne at Notyngham
This fourtynyght with our kynge,
75And spent I haue full moche good,
On many a grete lordynge.
381
And I haue but forty pounde,
No more than haue I me;
But yf I had an hondred pounde,
I wolde vouch it safe on the.
382
Robyn toke the forty pounde,
And departed it in two partye;
Halfendell he gaue his mery men,
And bad them mery to be.
383
Full curteysly Robyn gan say;
Syr, haue this for your spendyng;
We shall mete another day;
‘Gramercy,’ than sayd our kynge.
384
‘But well the greteth Edwarde, our kynge,
And sent to the his seale,
And byddeth the com to Notyngham,
Both to mete and mele.’
385
He toke out the brodë targe,
And sone he lete hym se;
Robyn coud his courteysy,
And set hym on his kne.
386
‘I loue no man in all the worlde
So well as I do my kynge;
Welcome is my lordës seale;
And, monke, for thy tydynge,
387
‘Syr abbot, for thy tydynges,
To day thou shalt dyne with me,
For the loue of my kynge,
Under my trystell-tre.’
388
Forth he lad our comly kynge,
Full fayre by the honde;
Many a dere there was slayne,
And full fast dyghtande.
389
Robyn toke a full grete horne,
And loude he gan blowe;
Seuen score of wyght yonge men
Came redy on a rowe.
390
All they kneled on theyr kne,
Full fayre before Robyn:
The kynge sayd hym selfe vntyll,
And swore by Saynt Austyn,
391
‘Here is a wonder semely syght;
Me thynketh, by Goddës pyne,
His men are more at his byddynge
Then my men be at myn.’
392
Full hast[ë]ly was theyr dyner idyght,
And therto gan they gone;
They serued our kynge with al theyr myght,
Both Robyn and Lytell Johan.
393
Anone before our kynge was set
The fattë venyson,
The good whyte brede, the good rede wyne,
And therto the fyne ale and browne.
394
‘Make good chere,’ said Robyn,
‘Abbot, for charytë;
And for this ylkë tydynge,
Blyssed mote thou be.
395
‘Now shalte thou se what lyfe we lede,
Or thou hens wende;
Than thou may enfourme our kynge,
Whan ye togyder lende.’
396
Up they stertë all in hast,
Theyr bowës were smartly bent;
Our kynge was neuer so sore agast,
He wende to haue be shente.
397
Two yerdës there were vp set,
Thereto gan they gange;
By fyfty pase, our kynge sayd,
The merkës were to longe.
398
On euery syde a rose-garlonde,
They shot vnder the lyne:
‘Who so fayleth of the rose-garlonde,’ sayd Robyn,
‘His takyll he shall tyne,
399
‘And yelde it to his mayster,
Be it neuer so fyne;
For no man wyll I spare,
So drynke I ale or wyne:
400
‘And bere a buffet on his hede,
I-wys ryght all bare:’
And all that fell in Robyns lote,
He smote them wonder sare.
401
Twyse Robyn shot aboute,
And euer he cleued the wande,
76And so dyde good Gylberte
With the Whytë Hande.
402
Lytell Johan and good Scathelocke,
For nothynge wolde they spare;
When they fayled of the garlonde,
Robyn smote them full sore.
403
At the last shot that Robyn shot,
For all his frendës fare,
Yet he fayled of the garlonde
Thre fyngers and mare.
404
Than bespake good Gylberte,
And thus he gan say;
‘Mayster,’ he sayd, ‘your takyll is lost,
Stande forth and take your pay.’
405
‘If it be so,’ sayd Robyn,
‘That may no better be,
Syr abbot, I delyuer the myn arowe,
I pray the, syr, serue thou me.’
406
‘It falleth not for myn ordre,’ sayd our kynge,
‘Robyn, by thy leue,
For to smyte no good yeman,
For doute I sholde hym greue.’
407
‘Smyte on boldely,’ sayd Robyn,
‘I giue the largë leue:’
Anone our kynge, with that worde,
He folde vp his sleue,
408
And sych a buffet he gaue Robyn,
To grounde he yede full nere:
‘I make myn avowe to God,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Thou arte a stalworthe frere.
409
‘There is pith in thyn arme,’ sayd Robyn,
‘I trowe thou canst well shete:’
Thus our kynge and Robyn Hode
Togeder gan they mete.
410
Robyn behelde our comly kynge
Wystly in the face,
So dyde Syr Rycharde at the Le,
And kneled downe in that place.
411
And so dyde all the wylde outlawes,
Whan they se them knele:
‘My lorde the kynge of Englonde,
Now I knowe you well.
412
‘Mercy then, Robyn,’ sayd our kynge,
‘Vnder your trystyll-tre,
Of thy goodnesse and thy grace,
For my men and me!’
413
‘Yes, for God,’ sayd Robyn,
‘And also God me saue,
I askë mercy, my lorde the kynge,
And for my men I craue.’
414
‘Yes, for God,’ than sayd our kynge,
‘And therto sent I me.
With that thou leue the grenë wode,
And all thy company;
415
‘And come home, syr, to my courte,
And there dwell with me.’
‘I make myn avowe to God,’ sayd Robyn,
‘And ryght so shall it be.
416
‘I wyll come to your courte,
Your seruyse for to se,
And brynge with me of my men
Seuen score and thre.
417
‘But me lykë well your seruyse,
I [wyll] come agayne full soone,
And shote at the donnë dere,
As I am wonte to done.’
THE VIII. FYTTE.
418
‘Haste thou ony grenë cloth,’ sayd our kynge,
‘That thou wylte sell nowe to me?’
‘Ye, for God,’ sayd Robyn,
‘Thyrty yerdës and thre.’
419
‘Robyn,’ sayd our kynge,
‘Now pray I the,
Sell me some of that cloth,
To me and my meynë.’
420
‘Yes, for God,’ then sayd Robyn,
‘Or elles I were a fole;
Another day ye wyll me clothe,
I trowe, ayenst the Yole.’
421
The kynge kest of his colë then,
A grene garment he dyde on,
And euery knyght also, i-wys,
Another had full sone.
77422
Whan they were clothed in Lyncolne grene,
They keste away theyr graye;
‘Now we shall to Notyngham,’
All thus our kynge gan say.
423
They bente theyr bowes, and forth they went,
Shotynge all in-fere,
Towarde the towne of Notyngham,
Outlawes as they were.
424
Our kynge and Robyn rode togyder,
For soth as I you say,
And they shote plucke-buffet,
As they went by the way.
425
And many a buffet our kynge wan
Of Robyn Hode that day,
And nothynge spared good Robyn
Our kynge in his pay.
426
‘So God me helpë,’ sayd our kynge,
‘Thy game is nought to lere;
I sholde not get a shote of the,
Though I shote all this yere.’
427
All the people of Notyngham
They stode and behelde;
They sawe nothynge but mantels of grene
That couered all the felde.
428
Than euery man to other gan say,
‘I drede our kynge be slone;
Comë Robyn Hode to the towne, i-wys
On lyue he lefte neuer one.’
429
Full hast[ë]ly they began to fle,
Both yemen and knaues,
And olde wyues that myght euyll goo,
They hypped on theyr staues.
430
The kynge l[o]ughe full fast,
And commaunded theym agayue;
When they se our comly kynge,
I-wys they were full fayne.
431
They ete and dranke, and made them glad,
And sange with notës hye;
Than bespake our comly kynge
To Syr Rycharde at the Lee.
432
He gaue hym there his londe agayne,
A good man he bad hym be;
Robyn thanked our comly kynge,
And set hym on his kne.
433
Had Robyn dwelled in the kyngës courte
But twelue monethes and thre,
That [he had] spent an hondred pounde,
And all his mennes fe.
434
In euery place where Robyn came
Euer more he layde downe,
Both for knyghtës and for squyres,
To gete hym grete renowne.
435
By than the yere was all agone
He had no man but twayne,
Lytell Johan and good Scathelocke,
With hym all for to gone.
436
Robyn sawe yonge men shote
Full fayre vpon a day;
‘Alas!’ than sayd good Robyn,
‘My welthe is went away.
437
‘Somtyme I was an archere good,
A styffe and eke a stronge;
I was compted the best archere
That was in mery Englonde.
438
‘Alas!’ then sayd good Robyn,
‘Alas and well a woo!
Yf I dwele lenger with the kynge,
Sorowe wyll me sloo.’
439
Forth than went Robyn Hode
Tyll he came to our kynge:
‘My lorde the kynge of Englonde,
Graunte me myn askynge.
440
‘I made a chapell in Bernysdale,
That semely is to se,
It is of Mary Magdaleyne,
And thereto wolde I be.
441
‘I myght neuer in this seuen nyght
No tyme to slepe ne wynke,
Nother all these seuen dayes
Nother ete ne drynke.
442
‘Me longeth sore to Bernysdale,
I may not be therfro;
Barefote and wolwarde I haue hyght
Thyder for to go.’
78443
‘Yf it be so,’ than sayd our kynge,
‘It may no better be,
Seuen nyght I gyue the leue,
No lengre, to dwell fro me.’
444
‘Gramercy, lorde,’ then sayd Robyn,
And set hym on his kne;
He toke his leuë full courteysly,
To grenë wode then went he.
445
Whan he came to grenë wode,
In a mery mornynge,
There he herde the notës small
Of byrdës mery syngynge.
446
‘It is ferre gone,’ sayd Robyn,
‘That I was last here;
Me lyste a lytell for to shote
At the donnë dere.’
447
Robyn slewe a full grete harte;
His horne than gan he blow,
That all the outlawes of that forest
That horne coud they knowe,
448
And gadred them togyder,
In a lytell throwe.
Seuen score of wyght yonge men
Came redy on a rowe,
449
And fayre dyde of theyr hodes,
And set them on theyr kne:
‘Welcome,’ they sayd, ‘our [derë] mayster,
Under this grenë-wode tre.’
450
Robyn dwelled in grenë wode
Twenty yere and two;
For all drede of Edwarde our kynge,
Agayne wolde he not goo.
451
Yet he was begyled, i-wys,
Through a wycked woman,
The pryoresse of Kyrkësly,
That nye was of hys kynne:
452
For the loue of a knyght,
Syr Roger of Donkesly,
That was her ownë speciall;
Full euyll motë they the!
453
They toke togyder theyr counsell
Robyn Hode for to sle,
And how they myght best do that dede,
His banis for to be.
454
Than bespake good Robyn,
In place where as he stode,
‘To morow I muste to Kyrke[s]ly,
Craftely to be leten blode.’
455
Syr Roger of Donkestere,
By the pryoresse he lay,
And there they betrayed good Robyn Hode,
Through theyr falsë playe.
456
Cryst haue mercy on his soule,
That dyed on the rode!
For he was a good outlawe,
And dyde pore men moch god.
a.
Here begynneth a gest of Robyn Hode.
1–12. Printed without division of stanzas or
verses.
22,3. Deficiency supplied fromb.
41. gooe.
42. milsers.
43. yuch.
64. vnkoutg.
71. lacking in all.
84. .iij. messis.
93. The .iij.
94. all ther.
134. tillet.
154. mynge.
183. vnknuth.
323. ynought.
331. felsauntes.
371. wened.
383. Late for Litell, which all the others have.
392. of for haue.
393. but .xx.: see 424.
411. nowne.
413. .xx. felinges.
462. in strocte.
463. And.
473. And.
474. haue bene.
502,3. The verses are transposed.
502. God had.
542. Vutyll.
663. to may.
684. Bo .xxviij.
704. To helpe: cf. 1944.
773. betes.
782. clere.
793. .xij.
821. ou.
823. bernedtale.
833. for he.
834–1183. wanting; supplied fromb.
1191. a .M.
1204. Euen .cccc.
1212. thon.
1234. Bi god ... on tree. The tops of d
and of th, and a part of dy, remain.
1241. Sir ... n of lawe.
1242. Only the top of N remains.
1242–1273. wanting, being torn away; supplied
fromb.
1282. Ha.
1303. .cccc. li.
1311,3. an .C.
1313. aros we.
1321. an ille.
1323. Worked all.
1331,2. He purneyed hym an. Only a part of
n in the last word remains. Well harness.
79Only a part of n and the tops of ess remaining.
1333–1363. wanting; supplied fromb.
1382. Bnd.
1431. louge.
1432. doue.
1504. tho thy.
1603. Thougt: an C.
1604. he be go.
1613. And therfore.
1622. gyne.
1632. he wol be.
1642. read hyne?
1653. anowe.
1684. mountnauuce.
1753. wasars.
1792. sende the. Perhaps sent the, as in
3842 (b).
1801. abowe.
1813. v myle.
1822. Hnntynge.
1833. Rrynolde.
1853. vij. score.
1871. shyrel.
1991. this xij.
2013. thy best.
2023. scade.
2061. Johū.
2064. pray.
2084–3141. wanting; supplied fromb.
3153. These xl.: with men.
3213. welle.
3301. fayles.
3313. ryner.
3333. an C. li.
3393. myeles.
3493. to thy.
From 3494wanting; supplied fromb.
b.Title-page: Here begynneth a lytell geste of
Robyn hode. At the head of the poem:
Here begynneth a lytell geste of Robyn
hode and his meyne, And of the proude
Sheryfe of Notyngham.
24. y-founde.
33. Iohan: and always.
41. Scathelock.
43. no.
51. be spake hym.
53. yf ye.
61. hym wanting.
62. I haue.
63. that wanting.
64. vnketh.
71. wanting.
73. knygot or some squyere.
84. Thre.
92. The other.
93. was of.
94. all other moste.
113. that wanting: gone.
114. that wanting.
131. than wanting.
134. tylleth.
144. wolde.
154. ye wanting.
161. beholde: Ihoan.
162. shall we.
171. Robyn.
173. Scathelocke.
183. vnketh.
20. vnto.
202. yemen.
211. to wanting.
213. came there.
221. then was all his semblaunte.
231. hangynge ouer.
234. somers.
241. full wanting.
244. you.
261. is your.
263. is a.
272. all thre.
281. went that.
291. vnto.
292. gan hym.
302. thou arte.
303. abyde.
322. set tyll.
323. right wanting.
333. neuer so.
354. that wanting.
362. whan I haue.
383. Lytell Iohan: Robyn hode.
391. than wanting.
392. god haue.
393, 413. but .x. s.
401. thou haue.
404. len.
414. Not one.
424. halfe a.
432. full lowe.
433. tydynge.
434. inough.
444. clothynge: thynne.
451. one worde.
453. thou were.
462. in stroke.
464. hast thou.
471. of them.
473. An .C. wynter.
474. haue be.
491. within two or thre.
493. hondreth.
502,3. The verses are transposed.
502. hath shapen.
511. than wanting.
531. of Lancastshyre.
534. both.
541. beth.
562. What shall.
574. may not.
583. frendes.
592. knowe me.
604. had wanting.
612. Scathelocke and Much also.
621. frendes.
622. borowes that wyll.
624. on a.
631. waye: than wanting.
633. I wyll.
643. me wanting.
674. loke that it well tolde.
682, 741, 773, 832. Scathelocke.
684. By eyghtene.
691. lytell Much.
692. greueth.
704. To helpe.
712. many a.
722. it well mete it be.
731. And of.
732. lept ouer.
733. deuylkyns.
734. for wanting.
743. hym the better.
744. Bygod it cost him.
751. than wanting.
752. All vnto Robyn.
753. an hors.
754. al this.
764. God leue.
782. clere.
803. Without.
811. lene.
821. went on.
822. he thought.
831. bethought.
871. wanting.
883. hondrde.
892. he is ryght.
981. wanting.
1132. gan loke.
1184. grete ye.
1192. were thou.
1214. Rewarde.
1234. By god that dyed on a tree.
1241. Syr abbot, and ye men of lawe.
1282. of my.
1283. not be.
1303. got foure hondreth.
1312. dyght.
1323. I nocked.
1331,2.
purueyed hym an hondreth men
Well harneysed in that stede.
1351. Qy? But at Wentbrydge ther was.
1362. bulle I vp pyght.
1372. in good fay.
1373. that wanting.
1383. frend bestad.
1384. I-slayne.
1392. where that.
1402. hondred: fere for free.
1452. shote.
1461. shot.
1462. sleste.
1464. gan.
1474. euer wanting: I me.
1484. wan.
1491. sir wanting: bore.
1502. Wolte.
1513. gete leue.
1532. Ge gyue.
1551. befell.
1563. to wanting.
1564. me to dyne.
1572. so longe to be.
1573. sir wanting.
1574. gyue thou.
1593. the wanting.
1601. a rap.
1602. yede nygh on two.
1603. an .c. wynter.
1604. wors he sholde go.
1612. went vp.
801613. there: made a.
1614. and wyne.
1631. second John wanting.
1632. whyle he.
1643. an householde to.
1653. to God wanting.
1654. lyketh: me wanting.
1661. and an.
1671. ful wanting.
1682. well wanting.
1694. I me.
1704. I-chaunged.
1734. same day.
1743. of full wanting.
1753. and spones.
1754. they none.
1761. they toke.
1763. dyde hym.
1764. wode tre.
1781. And also.
1792. sende the: cf. 3842.
1811. hym there.
1812. whyle.
1814. at his.
1822. hounde.
1823. coud his.
1843. syght.
1851. I se.
1853. an herde.
1861. His tynde.
1883. afore.
1884. sir wanting.
1894. now be trayed.
1912. well wanting.
1913. se his.
1921. Make good.
1924. lyfe is graunted.
1932. a gone.
1933. commaunded.
1941. cote a pye.
1942. well fyne.
1943. toke.
1953. They shall lay: sote.
1961. laye that.
1964. sydes do smerte.
1991. All these.
2001. Or I here a nother nyght sayd.
2002. I praye.
2003. to-morne.
2013. the best.
2014. That yet had the.
2023. Thou shalt neuer a wayte me scathe.
2032. or by.
2041. haue: I-swore.
2052. that he was gone.
2053. had his.
2064. pay.
2074. trusty.
2083. Scathelock.
2093. after such.
2103,4.
Or yf he be a pore man
Of my good he shall haue some.
2144. these wanting.
2152. frese our: leese your? dress your?
2161. .lii.: men wanting.
2182. you for yon.
2241. .lii.
2314. serued them.
2403. ryghtwysman.
2404. his name.
2421. art nade.
2434. Also.
2451. more sayd wanting.
2474. hondred wanting.
2671. gayne.
2721. I toke it I twyse: the second I is probably a misprint.
2791. thy .cccc. li.
2802. all of this.
2833. all ther best.
2841. all theyre best.
2922. they slist.
2932. acchers.
2991. beut.
3053. dede, second d inverted.
3144. walle.
3153. These twelue: with me.
3161. were wanting.
3164. gan they.
3172. vnto.
3193. enemye.
3194. Agayne the lawes.
3202. dedes thou.
3212. doth.
3223. yode.
3231. tolde.
3234. That noble were.
3241. He wolde: had.
3243. He wolde.
3251. woll: sayd the.
3261. nowe wanting: thou proud sheryf:
sayde our kynge wanting.
3262. the bydde.
3294. Therfore.
3301. fayled.
3304. and by.
3311. a wayted that.
3314. let his.
3323. hym home.
3324. honde and fote.
3332. on a tre.
3341. harde wanting: This the lady, the.
3342. and fre.
3351. to the.
3352. tre tre.
3361. God the good: saue wanting.
3363. lady loue.
3371. Late thou neuer.
3372. Shamly I slayne be.
3373. fast I-bounde.
3382. lady fre.
3383. I take.
3384, 3391. wanting.
3394. on your.
3402. As a: be.
3403. yonge men.
3404. on a.
3412. on a.
3413. wode be.
3411. Nor.
3421. i bent.
3423. spare.
3432. The knyght.
3434. I-quyt than.
3444. gan.
3462. so fast.
3464. At is.
3471. full wanting.
3472. at his.
3492. thou thryue.
3493. to the.
3512. his hoode.
3562. vnder-stonde.
3632. hane.
3683. walked; qy? walketh: by your.
3714. blyth.
3774. repeats verse 2: Other shyft haue not
we, Copland and Ed. White’s copies.
3814. I vouch it halfe on the. fandg: I
would geue it to thee.
3851. brode tarpe. Copland and Ed. White’s
copies: seale for tarpe.
4002. A wys.
4014. the good whyte.
4024. sore.
4092. shote.
4094. than they met. f, they gan: g, gan
they mete.
4121,2. Copland and Ed. White: sayd Robyn
to our king, Vnder this.
4172. Copland and Ed. White: I wyll come.
4213. had so I wys: so Copland and Ed.
White.
4231. Theyr bowes bente: cf.f, g.
4332. .xii.
4333. he had in Copland and Ed. White.
4362. ferre: fayre inc, Copland and Ed.
White.
4373. was commytted. Copland and Ed.
White: was commended for.
4401. bernysdade.
4412. Qy? No tymë slepe.
4431. he so.
4493. our dere ine.
4542. places.
81Explycit. kynge Edwarde and Robyn hode
and Lytell Johan Enprented at London
in fletestrete at the sygne of the sone By
Wynken de Worde.
a bode, a gast, a gone, a nother, a vowe, be
fore, be gan, be spake, for gone, i brought,
launs gay, out lawes, to gyder, vnder take,
etc., etc., are printed abode, etc., etc.; I
wys, i-wys; & and.
It will be understood that not all probable
cases of ë have been indicated.
c.
264. myche.
284. ere for lere.
292. hym gan, as ina.
293. he wanting.
303. a byde.
304. oures.
321. wesshe.
322. sat tyll.
323. ryght inough, as ina.
333. non so lytell, as ina.
342. Garmercy.
344. all this.
354. that wanting, as inb.
362. it wanting.
372. Me thynke.
383. Lytell Johan, as inb.
391. then sayd, as ina.
392. haue parte of the.
393, 413. .x. s..
401. haue, as inb.
404. len, as inb.
414. Not one, as inb.
424. halfe a.
432. full lowe, as inb.
433. tydynge, as inb.
443. Myche, thyket.
451. one worde, as inb.
453. were, as inb.
461. haste be.
462. stroke.
463. And, as ina.
464. hast led, as ina.
471. nene of tho.
473. An .c. wynter.
474. haue be.
483. that syt.
491. this two yere, as ina.
492. well knowe.
502,3. order as ina, b.
502. hath shapen, as inb.
511. than wanting, as inb.
512. thou lose.
531. lancasesshyre.
534. bothe, as ina, b.
541. bothe, as ina.
562. shall fall, as inb.
571. wher.
574. noo better, as ina.
581. eyen has fallen into the next line (eyen
way).
583. frende, as ina.
584. I ne haue noo nother.
591. the frendes.
d.
2802. all of this, as inb.
2814. full styll.
2822. [her] keneth.
2833. all thee beste.
2841. all there beste.
2863. ye wanting.
2874, 2881,2,3. cut off.
2891,2. transposed.
2903. I bent.
2911. can bende.
2914. as he.
2921. shet.
2922. they clyft.
2931. Scathelocke.
2932. good in fere.
2954. then wolde.
2962. can they.
2963. the wanting.
297. cut off, except ylde forest in line 4.
3022. on his.
3023. go ne.
3032. louest.
3051. all out.
3053. woundes depe.
3061–3. cut off.
3064. now wanting: only the lower part of
the words of this line remains.
3072. vpon.
3103. Robyn hode lente.
3121. myche thanket he of the.
3123. the grete.
3144. walle, as inb.
315. nearly all cut away.
3172. herkeneth to.
3193. enmye, as inb.
3194. lawes, as inb.
3202. [t]hou here, as inb.
3233,4, 3241,2. wanting.
3243. He wolde, as inb.
3261. Goo home thou proude sheryf, as inb.
3262. the bydde, as inb.
3294. Therfore, as inb.
3311. wayted thys gentyll.
3314. his haukes.
3323,4, 3331,2. wanting.
3342. and a, as ina.
3343. a wanting.
3363. ladye loue, as inb.
3373. bounde, as inb.
3382. so wanting.
3383. I take.
3384, 3391. wanting, as ina, b.
3394. has only [y]our way.
3402. be wode.
3403. mery yonge men, as inb.
3404. on rode, as ina.
3412. only [th]at dyed on preserved.
342. wanting.
3434. then shall, as inb.
3444. can they, as ina.
3462. so faste, as inb.
3464. It is not, as ina.
3471. full godd, as ina.
3472. at wyll, as ina.
3492. thryue, as inb.
3493. to the struste.
3502. bothe sharp.
e.
4362. Full fayre.
4364. is gone.
4373. cōmitted.
4412. to slepe.
4413. Nor of all.
4414. Noutter ete nor.
4421. longeth so sore to be in.
4423,4, 4431,2. wanting.
4464. donde.
4472. can he.
4473. outlawes in.
4493. our dere.
f.
Title: A mery geste of Robyn Hoode and of
hys lyfe, wyth a newe playe for to be played
in Maye games, very plesaunte and full of
pastyme. At the head of the poem: Here
begynneth a lyttell geste of Robyn hoode
and his mery men, and of the proude
Shyryfe of Notyngham.
Insignificant variations of spelling are not
noted.
12. freborne.
24. yfounde.
32. lened vpon a.
33. stode wanting.
41. Scathelocke: and always.
42. mylners.
8243. was no.
53. if ye.
61. hym wanting.
64. vnketh.
71. wanting.
73. or some squyer.
92. The other.
93. was of.
94. of all other.
113. that wanting: shall gone.
114. that wanting.
131. than wanting.
133. husbandeman.
134. with the.
144. That would.
154. ye wanting.
162. shall we.
163. farre.
181. Nowe walke ye vp vnto the Sayle.
183. vnketh.
184. By chaunce some may ye.
191. cearle misprinted for earle.
193. hym then to.
201. went anone vnto.
211. loked in B.
212. deme (for derne) strate.
213. there wanting.
221. drousli (droufli?) than: semblaunt.
231. hanged ouer: eyes.
234. on sommers.
241. full wanting.
244. are you.
253. you wanting.
261. is your.
263. is a.
264. haue I harde.
271. graunt the: wynde.
272. brethren all three.
281. went that.
283. eyes.
291. vnto.
292. gan hym.
294. downe on.
302. thou art.
303. you wanting.
323. right wanting.
333. fayleth neuer so.
334. was spred.
354. that wanting.
361. I thank the, knyght, then said.
362. when I haue.
363. By god I was neuer so gredy.
373. dere wanting.
383. Lytell John: Robyn hoode.
391. than wanting.
401. thou haue.
403. I shall lende.
414. Not any penny.
424. halfe a.
432. full lowe.
434. inowe wanting.
451. me one.
453. thou were.
461. Or yls els: haste by.
462. stroke.
464. thou wanting.
471. of them.
473, 493, 553, etc. hundreth.
482. hat be.
491. two or three yerers.
492. wanting.
502,3. transposed.
502. hath shopen.
504. god it amende.
511. than wanting.
512. lost thy.
523. wenters.
531. Lancastshyre.
562. What shall.
581. eyes.
583. frendes.
584. ne wanting.
592. knowe mee.
593. Whyles.
594. boste that.
604. had wanting: neuer me.
612. Much also.
621. frendes.
622. borowes: wyll.
623. than wanting.
624. on a.
631. than wanting.
633. I haue.
641. made me.
643. me wanting.
653. yf wanting.
674. it well tolde.
684. eyghten score.
691. lyttell Much.
692. greueth.
704. To wrappe.
712. muche ryche.
722. that well mete it.
731. And of.
732. lept ouer.
733. What the deuils.
734. for wanting.
741. lought.
743. hym the better.
744. By god it cost.
751. than wanting.
752. All unto R.
753. that knight an.
754. al this.
764. God lende that it.
781. shal.
782. clene.
784. out wanting.
794. Under the.
813. may stande.
822. he thought.
834. came.
841. spake the.
863. xij monethes.
871. wanting.
872. his lande and fee.
874, 954. Disherited.
892. is his.
894. sore.
913. came.
924. poundes.
933. The highe.
942. taken.
961. not wanting.
963. teme to.
981. wanting.
1003. corese.
1013. The shal.
1024. saluted.
1033. that the.
1034. me my.
1042. hath made.
1054. To desyre you of.
1064. defend me from.
1111. then wanting.
1122. Sende.
1123. a assaye.
1131. on then gan.
1132. wanting.
1154. canst not.
1184. Ye get ye it.
1192. were thou.
1203. of wanting.
1213. Haddest thou.
1214. I would haue rewarded thee.
1222. royall chere.
1224. fast gan.
1234. on a.
1243. I shall.
1283. not be.
1292. is wanting.
1294. came.
1303. got.
1312. stringes were well dyght.
1323. And nocked ye were with.
1333. sute.
1343. And rode.
1351. But wanting: by a bridg was.
1362. vp ypyght.
1364. burnisshed.
1372. in good fay.
1373. that wanting.
1383. fayre and frend.
1392. where ye he.
1401. the wanting.
1402. him in fere.
1411. sholdreth and: come for rome.
1422. laye than.
1424. And drynke.
1434. the wanting.
1452. shute.
1462. alway cleft.
1464. gan.
1472. a wanting.
1474. That euer I dyd see.
1481. me thou.
1483. thou wast.
1484. wining.
1491. sir wanting.
1502. Wylt.
1513. gete leue.
1523. gaue to him anone.
1532. He geue vs.
1541. me wanting.
831544. he had yete.
1563. to wanting.
1564. me meate.
1571. to long.
1572. Fasting so long to.
1573. sir wanting.
1574. geue thou.
1584. had lere.
1601. rappe.
1602. backe yede nygh into.
1603. lyueth an hundreth wynter.
1604. worse he should go.
1612. went vp.
1613. And there: a wanting.
1614. of wanting.
1623. liue this.
1624. shall ye.
1631. and also dronke.
1632. that he.
1642. hyne, perhaps rightly.
1643. an householde to.
1644. For wanting.
1653. to God wanting.
1654. do lyke wel me.
1661. a hardy.
1671. ful wanting.
1673. for wanting.
1682. wel wanting.
1694. I me.
1704. Chaunged it should.
1734. same day at nyght.
1741. The hyed.
1751. the wanting.
1753. masers and.
1754. they non.
1761. they toke.
1762. and three.
1763. And hyed.
1764. wode tree.
1774. Welcome thou art to me.
1781. And so is that good.
1782. That thou hast brought wyth the.
1792. And he hath send the.
1793. His cope.
1801. advow.
1811. there wanting.
1814. at his.
1823. coulde his.
1841. haue nowe.
1851. I se.
1853. of wanting: a.
1861. tyndes be.
1873. Buske the.
1883. afore.
1884. sir wanting.
1893. worthe the.
1894. now betrayed.
1912. well wanting.
1921. good chere.
1924. lyfe is graunted.
1933. commaunded.
1941. cote a pye.
1943. toke.
1951. wight yemen.
1953. shall: in that sorte.
1961. that proude.
1964. sydes do smarte.
1971. chere wanting.
1984. dwel longe.
1991. these.
2001. Or I here another nyght lye.
2013. the best.
2023. Thou shalt neuer wayte me skathe.
2024. nor by.
2032. by day.
2041. swore.
2042. he wanting.
2044. was any man.
2052. that he was gone.
2062. Hode wanting.
2064. pay.
2091. walke wanting: into the.
2093. And loke for some straunge.
2094. By chaunce you.
2102. a wanting.
2103,4. as inb.
2111. sterte.
2112. fraye.
2121. went than vnto.
2131. as he.
2142. can.
2144. these monkes.
2152. And bende we.
2153. harte.
2161. but lii men.
2182. Make you yonder preste.
2201. An euell.
2202. vnder the.
2211. What hyght your.
2222. shall sore rewe.
2231. a bowe.
2232. Redy.
2234. gan.
2241. twoo and fifty wyght yemen.
2242. abode but.
2262. whan he did se.
2291. an.
2311. The made.
2314. serued them.
2342. mote I thryue or the.
2362. Ye nede not so to saye.
2363. hath brought it.
2371. And wanting.
2381. broughte.
2383. the eft agayne.
2384. of me.
2403. right wise.
2412. mayest.
2421. made wanting.
2423. I do the thanke.
2434. So mote I thryue or the.
2442. not out one.
2443. hast nede.
2444. shall I: to wanting.
2451. fyne more sayd.
2454. Thereof I wyll haue.
2471. John layd.
2473. he wanting.
2474. hundreth poundes.
2484. cost.
2492. that tolde.
2493. the trust.
2521. And she haue nede of ony.
2561. And what is on the other courser.
2562. sothe we must.
2563. than wanting.
2594. second in wanting.
2631. light fro his.
2632. can.
2633. Right curteysly.
2651. good Robin.
2664. They would.
2671. agayne.
2673. than sayd.
2674. that wanting.
2681. no grefe: printed in two lines.
2683. dyd helpe.
2691. Now, by my treuthe than sayd.
2692. For that, knight, thanke.
2701. poundes.
2703. there.
2703,4. printed in one line.
2711. than wanting.
2713. her high.
2721. And I should take: twyse.
2724. thou art.
2731. And whan.
2732. laughed and made.
2744. Under this trusty.
2752. fethered.
2753. gentyl knyght.
2762. My wyll done that it be.
2773. bye the a hors.
2774. the for thy (as me, be for my, by).
2792. I dyd lende.
2802. of all his.
2803. sytteth.
2833. they that shote al of the best.
842834. The best.
2841. al of the best.
2843. of goodly.
2853. fethers.
2862. his trusty.
2863, 2883. wyght yemen.
2871. mery yemen.
2873. I shall knowe.
2882. Their arowes fethere free.
2893. archers.
2894. shote.
2911. can.
2922. he clefte.
2924. the lylly white.
2941. Whan that.
2943. than was.
2944. good Robin.
2951. To him.
2953. gyft full.
2954. than would.
2962. gan the.
2972. Thus chering.
2973. Another promyse thou made to me.
2974. Within the wylde.
2981. And I had ye in the gr[e]ne forest.
2982. trusty tree.
2983. me leue.
3004. away belyue.
3014. Amonge the.
3021. John he was hort.
3022. in the.
3032. loues.
3044. nowe to.
3052. smite thou of.
3053. woundes so wyde and longe.
3054. That I after eate no breade.
3061. that wanting.
3062. slayne.
3064. Though I had it all by me.
3071. forbyd that: Much then.
3074. Depart.
3084. another a whyle.
3121. I do the thankes for thy comfort.
3122,3. And for.
3131. all the.
3141. Shutte.
3144. wall.
3151. the hote.
3153. Thou shalt these xij dayes abide.
3162. Redye.
3164. gan.
3172. vnto the.
3173. Howe the proude shirife began.
3191. can.
3193. kepest there.
3194. lawes.
3204. am true.
3212. do ye no more vnto.
3223. he went.
3234. That noble were and.
3241. He wolde: had.
3243. He wold.
3251. the kynge.
3261. Go home, thou proude sheryfe.
3262. the bydde.
3294. Therfore.
3301. Ther he.
3303. that gentyl.
3304. and by.
3311. awayted that.
3314. his hauke.
3321. misprinted To be.
3323. him home to.
3324. Ybounde.
3332. on a tree.
3334. robin hode had he.
3341. Then the lady the.
3342. a wanting.
3351. to the.
3353. There she found.
3361. Robyn Hode.
3363. ladyes loue.
3371. Let thou.
3372. to be.
3373. bound.
3382. so wanting.
3383. ytake.
3384. The proude shirife than sayd she.
339. Only this: He is not yet passed thre
myles, You may them ouertake.
3402. a man: ben.
3403. mery yemen.
3404. on a tree.
3412. on a tree.
3413,4. And by him that al thinges maketh
No lenger shall dwell with me.
3421. ybent.
3432. The knight would.
3433. And yf ye he may him take.
3434. Yquyte than shall he bee.
3444. gan the.
3462. so fast.
3464. That is.
3471. full wanting.
3472. at his.
3492. may thou thryue.
3493. to the.
3494. thou wast.
3511. start.
3512. cut into.
3544. and wanting.
3551. them for men.
3562. vnderstode.
3571. the compasse.
3572. He wend.
3582. a one.
3583. fynde any.
3594. eyes.
3603. He should.
3612. it with.
3643. to no.
3662. By halte.
3664. And vsed.
3682. That we be.
3684. walked: by your.
3692. on the.
3694. I saye.
3704. eyes.
3711. hastely.
3713. They were all in.
3714. thyther blythe.
3752. Standinge by.
3761. toke wanting.
3764. you.
3774. Other shyft haue not we.
3782. And good.
3803. full wanting.
3813. a.
3814. I would geve it to the.
3822. And deuyde it than did he.
3823. Half he gaue to.
3842. He hath sent.
3843. to wanting.
3844. and to.
3851. brode seale.
3852. lete me.
3874. trusty tre.
3881. he had.
3884. fast was.
3892. he can it.
3893. wyght yemen.
3894. Came runnyng.
3912. pene.
3921. hastely: dyght.
3922. can.
3944. Blessed may.
3952. that thou.
3953. maiest.
3954. together by lente.
3964. ben.
3971. werd.
3972. can the.
3973. fifty space.
3982. The.
4001,2. A good buffet on his head bare, For
that shalbe his fyne.
4003. And those: fell to.
4014. the lilly white hande.
4042. And than he.
4054. syr wanting.
4061. the kyng.
4072. largely.
4074. folded.
4081. geue.
4084. a tall.
4092. can wel.
4094. Togeder they gan.
4101. Stedfastly in.
4112. they sawe.
4114. wele.
4121. than sayd Robin.
4122. this trusty.
4124. for me.
4131. And yet sayd good Robin.
4132. As good god do me.
4133. aske the.
4134. I it.
4141. than wanting.
4142. Thy peticion I graunt the.
4143. So yt thou wylt leue.
4151. syr wanting.
4152. There to.
854171. But and I lyke not.
4172. I wyll.
4174. I was.
4182. now sell.
4193. To sel to me.
4201. for good.
4203. And other.
4211. his cote.
4213. had so ywys.
4214. They clothed them full soone.
4223. shal we.
4224. All this our kyng can.
4231. The bent their bowes.
4242. and as.
4243. And all they shot.
4254. kyng whan he did paye.
4261. the kyng.
4281. to the other can.
4291. hastely.
4302. them to come.
4303. sawe.
4314. of the.
4323. Robin hode.
4331. Robin hode: dwelleth.
4333. That he had.
4342. lay.
4343. and squyers.
4351. all gone.
4364. wend.
4373. commended for.
4382. Alas what shall I do.
4394. my.
4404. And there would I faene be.
4411. might no time this seuen nightes.
4413. Neyther all this.
4414. eate nor.
4423. wolward haue I.
4433. nyghtes.
4463. I haue a lyttell lust.
4472. can.
4483. wyght yemen.
4484. Came runnyng.
4494. Under the.
4501. dwelleth.
4502. yeres.
4503. Than for all.
4522. Donkester.
4523. wanting.
4524. For euyll mot thou the.
Thus endeth the lyfe of Robyn hode.
g.
Title and heading as inf.
12. free borne.
14. yfound.
22. Whilst: on the.
32. leaned vpon a.
33. stode wanting.
41. Scathlock, and always.
42. milners.
43. was no.
51. bespake him.
53. if you.
61. hym wanting: Robin hood.
62. I haue.
63. that wanting.
64. vnketh.
71. wanting.
73. or some squire.
92. The other.
93. was of.
94. of all other.
101. he loued.
113. what way we: gone.
114. that wanting.
131. than wanting.
133. you: husbandman.
134. with the.
141. you.
144. That would.
151. These wanting.
154. ye wanting.
161. be wanting.
162. shall we.
172. goe with.
181. Now walke ye vp vnto the shore.
184. By chance some may ye meet.
193. him then.
201. went anon vnto.
211. looked in.
212. a deme.
213. came there.
221. All drouflye, perhaps (wrongly) drouslye:
semblant.
223. on the.
224. The other.
231. ouer his eyes.
234. on summers.
241. full wanting.
244. you.
253. you wanting.
261. is your.
263. is a.
264. haue I.
272. bretheren all three.
281. went that.
283. eyes.
291. vnto the.
292. gan him.
293. he did.
294. downe on.
302. thou art.
303. you wanting.
323. right wanting.
333. neuer so.
334. was spread.
354. that wanting.
361. I thanke thee knight then said.
362. when I haue.
363. By God I was neuer so greedy.
371. ere you.
372. Me thinke is.
373. dere wanting.
383. Little John: Robin hood.
391. than wanting.
401. thou haue.
404. I shall.
414. Not any peny.
424. halfe a.
432. full lowe.
434. inowe wanting.
451. one word.
453. thou wert: a wanting.
461. hast be.
462. stroke.
464. With whores hast thou.
471. of these.
473. An hundreth winters.
474. haue be.
481. of it.
482. disgrast.
491. Within 2 or 3 yeares: said he.
492. wanting.
493, 553, 673, etc. hundreth.
502,3. transposed.
502. hath shapen.
504. God it amend.
511. than wanting.
512. lost.
523. winters.
531. Lancashire.
541. landes be.
562. What shall.
581. eyes.
583. friends.
584. ne wanting.
592. a one: knowe me.
593. Whiles.
604. had wanting.
611. misprinted ruthe they went.
612. Much also.
621. friends.
622. borrowes: will.
623. than wanting.
624. on a.
631. thy iest: than wanting.
632. I will.
633. will God.
641. made me.
642. doth misprinted for both.
643. me wanting.
653. yf wanting.
654. faileth.
674. it well tolde.
683. tolde forth.
684. eighteene score.
691. little much.
692. grieued.
694. fallen.
704. To wrap.
712. much rich.
722. that well ymet it.
731. And of.
732. leped ouer.
734. for wanting.
741. full wanting: laught.
743. the better measure.
744. By God it cost.
751. than wanting.
752. All vnto R.
753. an.
754. all his good.
761. God lend that it be.
782. clene.
784. bring them.
793. months.
794. Vnder the.
813. the wanting.
86822. he thought.
834. came.
841. spake the.
853. vpon wanting.
863. months: there wanting.
871. wanting.
872. land and fee.
874, 954. Disherited.
883. a.
884. lay it.
892. is his.
894. sore.
904. You doe him.
924. pounds.
931. and high.
932. Stert.
933. The high.
942. taken.
953. comes.
961. not wanting.
963. to them.
981. wanting.
1003. best corse.
1004. I wanting.
1011. them to.
1013. come there.
1024. saluted.
1034. me my.
1042. hath made.
1054. To desire of.
1064. defend me against.
1092. wanting.
1103. thy lande.
1111. then wanting.
1122. Send.
1131. on them.
1132. wanting.
1134. Step thee: of the.
1161. tournaments.
1162. farre that.
1172. a wanting.
1173. Or else: safely say.
1184. Ye get not my land so.
1191. thousand pound more.
1192. were thou.
1212. that wanting.
1213. Hadst.
1214. I would haue rewarded thee.
1222. royall cheere.
1224. gan.
1232. to thee.
1234. on a.
1241. and you.
1242. held.
1283. had not.
1292. is wanting.
1294. came on the.
1303. got.
1323. And nocked they were with.
1333. suite.
1343. And rode.
1351. As he went vp a bridge was.
1361,2. wanting.
1363. with a.
1372. in good.
1373. that wanting.
1383. friend bested.
1384. Yslaine.
1392. where that.
1393. the yeoman.
1394. the loue.
1402. him in feare.
1411. all wanting.
1421. markes.
1424. And drinke.
1432. that the.
1434. the wanting.
1462. alway claue.
1464. gan.
1474. euer I did see.
1481. me thou.
1483. wast thou.
1484. wonning.
1491. sir wanting.
1492. al wanting.
1502. Wilt.
1513. ye get leave.
1523. to him anon.
1532. He giue vs.
1541. me wanting.
1544. he had yet.
1551. befell.
1554. forgot.
1562. the wanting.
1563. to wanting.
1564. me meat.
1572. Fasting so long to.
1573. sir wanting.
1574. giue thou.
1581. Shalt neither eat nor drinke.
1591. was vncourteous.
1592. on the.
1601. a rappe.
1602. backe yede nigh.
1603. liueth: winters.
1604. he still shall goe.
1612. ope.
1613. there: a large.
1614. and wine.
1621. you.
1623. you liue this.
1624. shall ye.
1631. eat and also drunke.
1633. in the.
1641. my.
1642. hine: perhaps rightly.
1643. an housholde for.
1653. to God wanting.
1654. doe like well.
1661. and a.
1671. ful wanting.
1672. toke wanting.
1673. for wanting.
1682. well wanting.
1694. euer I saw yet.
1704. changed it should.
1714. we will.
1733. ylke day at.
1741. They hied.
1742. they could.
1743. full wanting.
1744. euery one.
1751. the wanting.
1753. masers and.
1754. they none.
1761. Also they.
1762. and three.
1763. And hied them to.
1764. wood tree.
1773. And thou.
1774. Welcome thou art to me.
1781. And so is that good yeoman.
1782. That thou hast brought with.
1792. He hath sent thee here.
1793. His cup.
1802. And by.
1811. there wanting.
1813. he ran wanting.
1814. at his.
1822. hound.
1823. could his.
1831. saue thee.
1832. you saue.
1834. haue you.
1841. haue now be in the.
1851. I see.
1853. of wanting.
1861. tindes be.
1871. my.
1873. Buske thee.
1882. A foote.
1883. afore.
1884. sir wanting.
1893. worth thee.
1894. nowe wanting.
1901. Litell wanting.
1912. well wanting.
1921. Make good.
1922. of for for.
1924. life is graunted.
1931. had all.
1933. commanded.
1934. hose and shoone.
1941. coate a pie.
1943. tooke.
1951. wight yeomen.
1953. That they shall lie in that sorte.
1961. lay that.
1964. sides doe smart.
1971. chere wanting.
1984. dwell long.
1991. All this.
2001. Or I heere an other night lie.
2002. I pray.
2003. my: to morne.
2004. wanting.
2013. the best.
2023. Thou shalt: wait: scath.
2024. nor by.
2032. or else by.
2042. home againe to.
2043. as wanting.
2044. was any man.
2052. that he was gon.
2062. But Robin said.
2064. pay.
2073. dare sweare.
2091. walke wanting: into the.
872093. And looke for some strange.
2094. By chance you.
2102. a wanting.
2103,4. as inb, excepting goods for good.
2112. in a fray.
2121. went then vnto.
2131. as they.
2133. They were ware.
2144. These monkes.
2152. And bend we.
2153. looke our.
2161. hath but fifty and two man.
2164. royall.
2171. Bretheren.
2182. Make you yonder priest.
2201. An.
2211. What hight your.
2222. sore rue.
2231. a bowe.
2232. Ready.
2234. ground he gan.
2241. two and fiftie wight yeomen.
2242. abode but.
2253. Hode wanting.
2261. downe.
2262. when he did.
2264. let it.
2291. blowe we.
2314. serued him.
2323. you.
2342. So mote I thriue of thee.
2362. You neede not so to say.
2363. hath brought it.
2371. And wanting.
2381. hast the mony brought.
2383. eft againe.
2384. need of.
2401. my.
2412. not denay.
2421. made wanting.
2423. I doe thee thanke.
2432. Truth.
2434. So mought I thriue and thee.
2442. not take one.
2443. hast need of.
2444. shall I: to wanting.
2451. finde more said.
2453. spending-money.
2454. Thereof I will haue.
2464. penny let me.
2471. John laid.
2472. he wanting.
2474. Eight hundreth.
2483. true now.
2484. cost.
2492. Monke that.
2511. and to.
2513. need of.
2521. haue need of any.
2561. And what is in ye other coffer.
2562. we must.
2563. than wanting.
2582. he wanting.
2594. or D.
2631. light from his.
2632. can.
2633. Right for So: down.
2651. bespake good Robin: Hode wanting.
2663. For wanting.
2664. They would.
2673. then said.
2674. And that.
2681. take no griefe.
2683. did I helpe.
2684. they put.
2691. Now by my truth then.
2692. For that knight thanke.
2701. than wanting.
2703. there is: also wanting.
2711. then said.
2713. her hie.
2721. And I should take it twice.
2722. for me.
2731. And when.
2732. He laughed and made.
2744. this trusty.
2751. do he said.
2752. fethered.
2753. the gentle.
2762. My will doone that it be.
2763. Go and fetch me foure: pounds.
2773. buye thee.
2783. shalt not.
2784. Whilste I.
2791. well for.
2792. I did send.
2802. of all his.
2803. sitteth.
2811. take.
2812. wend.
2833. And they that shoote all of the best.
2834. The best.
2841. all of the best.
2843. of goodly.
2851. he should.
2853. and feathers.
2854. the like.
2862. his trusty.
2863. ye ready you wight yeomen.
2871. merry yeomen.
2873. I shall know.
2882. Their takles.
2883. of wanting: wight yeomen.
2893. were: archers.
2894. shot.
2911. The first.
2914. the buttes where.
2922. he claue.
2924. lilly-white.
2934. they would.
2943. then was.
2951. To him.
2953. guift full.
2954. then would.
2962. A great horn gan he.
2971. be to thee.
2972. Thus cheering.
2973. An other promise thou madest to me.
2974. Within the greene.
2981. But and I had thee there againe.
2982. the trusty.
2983. giue me.
2993. was torne.
3004. away beliue.
3011. broke.
3014. the for that.
3021. he was.
3022. on the knee.
3032. you loued.
3052. thou off.
3053. wounds so wide and long.
3054. That I after eat no bread.
3061. that wanting.
3062. wert slaine.
3064. Though I had it all by me.
3071. forbid that: Much then.
3074. Depart.
3083. he set.
3102. of the.
3113. be thou wanting.
3121. I do thee thanke for.
3122,3. And for.
3131. all the.
3144. the wall.
3151. thee hite.
3152. And sweare.
3153. Thou shalt these twelue daies abide with
me.
3162. Ready and.
3164. gan.
3172. hearken vnto the.
3173. sheriffe began.
3193. there: enemies.
3194. all law.
3201. what I.
3204. a wanting.
3212. doe ye.
3213. you wit your.
3223. he went.
3234. noble were and.
3241. He would: had.
3243. He would.
3251. said the.
3254. will I.
883261. Goe home thou proude: sayde our kynge
wanting.
3262. I you bid.
3294. Therefore had.
3301. there he.
3303. that gentle.
3311. Euer awaited that.
3312. of the.
3314. his hauke.
3321. To betray this gentle knight.
3323. him home.
3324. Ybound.
3332. on a tree.
3333. had rather then a.
3334. That Robin hood had hee.
3341. Then the lady the.
3342. a wanting.
3351. to the.
3353. There found she.
3354. merry menye.
3363. loue for sake.
3371. Let thou.
3373. bound.
3382. so wanting.
3383. thy lord ytake.
3384. The proud sheriffe then said she.
339.
he is not yet passed three miles,
you may them ouertake:
340.
Vp then start good Robin
as a man that has been wake:
Buske ye, my merry yeomen,
for him that dyed on a tree.
3412. on a tree.
3413. And by him that all things maketh.
3414. shall dwell.
3421. ybent.
3422. More.
3423. they spared none.
3432. The knight.
3433. if ye may him ouertake.
3434. then shall he.
3444. gan.
3452. so fast.
3454. thy boote.
3471. full wanting.
3472. at his.
3491. the for thou.
3492. may thou.
3493. to thee.
3503. it on.
3504. driue.
3512. cut in.
3532. leasind.
3544. hode if.
3551. them for men.
3562. vnderstood.
3564. all the knights land.
3571. The compasse of.
3572. wend.
3582. many a one.
3583. finde any.
3594. eyes.
3602. vnto.
3603. He should.
3604. of for at.
3612. it with.
3623. O my.
3642. his best.
3643. to no.
3662. halt.
3663. he slew.
3664. And vsed.
3682. now be.
3683. by your.
3684. a monks.
3691. lodesman.
3692. on the.
3694. come at.
3704. eyes.
3711. hastily.
3713. They were all: monks weeds.
3714. thither blithe.
3724. to wanting.
3741. sommer.
3743. Vntill.
3752. by the.
3763. sayd wanting.
3764. you.
3774. Other shift haue not wee.
3782. good for gold.
3803. full wanting.
3811. I wanting.
3813. an.
3814. I would giue it to thee.
3822. And deuided it then did he.
3823. Halfe he gaue to.
3824. to wanting.
3832. Syr wanting.
3842. He hath sent.
3851. broad seale.
3863. be my.
3871. tyding.
3874. the trusty.
3881. he had.
3884. full was fast.
3892. gan it.
3893. wight yeomen.
3894. running for redy.
3921. hastily: dight.
3922. can.
3934. the good ale browne.
3944. may thou.
3951. I for we.
3952. Or that.
3953. maist.
3954. be lend.
3964. beene.
3972. can.
4001,2. A good buffet on his head beare for
this shall be his fine.
4003. And those: fell in.
4012. claue.
4014. lilly white.
4032. Fore: freends faire.
4033. of wanting.
4042. then for thus.
4054. syr wanting.
4061. said ye.
4062. be for by, as often.
4072. largely.
4074. folded.
4084. a tall frier.
4092. can.
4094. gan they meet.
4102. Stedfast in.
4111. the said!
4112. sawe.
4121. said Robin to.
4122. this trusty.
4124. and for mee.
4131. And yet said good R.
4132. As good God do me.
4133. aske thee.
4134. I it.
4141. than wanting.
4142. Thy petition I graunt thee.
4143. So that thou wilt leaue.
4151. syr wanting.
4152. There to dwell.
4171. But and I like not.
4172. I will.
4174. I was.
4182. nowe wanting.
4193. To sell.
4211. his cote.
4213. had so ywis.
4214. They clothed them full.
4222. the gray.
4223. Now shall we.
4224. All this: can.
4231. They bent their.
4243. And all they.
4254. king when he did pay.
4261. said the.
4264. I shot.
4281. togither can.
4284. leaueth not one.
4291. hastely.
4302. to come againe.
4303. saw our.
4314. of the.
4323. Robin hood.
4331. Robin hood dwelled.
4333. That he had.
4343. and squires.
4344. a great.
4351. gone.
4354. hym wanting.
4362. faire.
4364. wend.
4373. was commended for the.
4382. Alas what shall I doe.
4404. there would I faine be.
4411. might no time this: nights.
4412. one for ne.
4413. all this.
4414. nor for ne.
4423. haue I.
894433. nights.
4463. I haue a little lust for.
4472. can.
4483. wight yeomen.
4484. running for redy.
4494. Vnder the.
4502. yeeres.
4503. Then for dred.
4522. Dankastre.
4523. wanting.
4524. For euill: they thee.
4553. good wanting.
Thus endeth the life of Robin hood.
118 ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE
‘Guye of Gisborne,’ Percy MS., p. 262; Hales and Furnivall, II, 227.
First printed in the Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry, 1765, I, 74, and, with less
deviation from the original, in the fourth edition,
1794, I, 81. Reprinted from the Reliques
in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, I, 114.
Robin Hood has had a dream that he has
been beaten and bound by two yeomen, who
have taken away his bow. He vows that he
will have vengeance, and sets out in search
of them with Little John. Robin and John
shoot as they go, till they come to the greenwood
and see a yeoman leaning against a tree,
clad in a horse-hide, with head, tail, and mane.
John proposes to go to the yeoman to ask his
intentions. Robin considers this to be forward
of John, and speaks so roughly to him that
John parts company, and returns to Barnsdale.
Things are in a bad way there: the
sheriff of Nottingham has attacked Robin’s
band; two have been slain; Scarlett is flying,
and the sheriff in pursuit with seven score
men. John sends an arrow at the pursuers,
which kills one of them; but his bow breaks,
and John is made prisoner and tied to a tree.
Robin learns from the man in horse-hide
that he is seeking Robin Hood, but has lost
his way. Robin offers to be his guide, and as
they go through the wood proposes a shooting-match.
Both shoot well, but Robin so
much the better that the other breaks out into
expressions of admiration, and asks his name.
Tell me thine first, says Robin. “I am Guy
of Gisborne;” “and I Robin Hood, whom
thou long hast sought.” They fight fiercely
for two hours; Robin stumbles and is hit, but
invokes the Virgin’s aid, leaps up and kills
Guy. He nicks Guy’s face so that it cannot
be recognized, throws his own green gown
over the body, puts on the horse-hide, and
blows Guy’s horn. The sheriff hears in the
sound tidings that Guy has slain Robin, and
thinks it is Guy that he sees coming in the
horse-hide. The supposed Guy is offered anything
that he will ask, but will take no reward
but the boon of serving the knave as
he has the master. Robin hies to Little John,
looses him, and gives him Sir Guy’s bow.
The sheriff takes to flight, but cannot outrun
John’s arrow, which cleaves his heart.
The beginning, and perhaps the development,
of the story might have been more lucid
but for verses lost at the very start. Robin
Hood dreams of two yeomen that beat and
bind him, and goes to seek them, “in greenwood
where they be.” Sir Guy being one, the
other person pointed at must of course be the
sheriff of Nottingham (who seems to be beyond
his beat in Yorkshire,[81] but outlaws can
raise no questions of jurisdiction), in league
with Sir Guy (a Yorkshireman, who has done
90many a curst turn) for the capture or slaying
of Robin. The dream simply foreshadows
danger from two quarters. But Robin Hood
is nowhere informed, as we are, that the
sheriff is out against him with seven score
men, has attacked his camp, and taken John
prisoner. He knows nothing of this so far
on as stanza 453, where, after killing Guy, he
says he will go to Barnsdale to see how his
men are faring. Why then does he make his
arrangements in stanzas 42–452, before he returns
to Barnsdale, to pass himself off for Sir
Guy? Plainly this device is adopted with the
knowledge that John is a prisoner, and as a
means of delivering him; which all that follows
shows. Our embarrassment is the greater
because we cannot point out any place in the
story at which the necessary information could
have been conveyed; there is no cranny where
it could have been thrust in. It will not be
enough, therefore, to suppose that verses have
dropped out; there must also have been a considerable
derangement of the story.
The abrupt transition from the introductory
verses, 1, 21,2, is found in Adam Bell, and the
like occurs in other ballads.
A fragment of a dramatic piece founded on
the ballad of Guy of Gisborne has been preserved
in manuscript of the date of 1475, or
earlier.[82] In this, a knight, not named, engages
to take Robin Hood for the sheriff, and
is promised gold and fee if he does. The
knight accosts Robin, and proposes that they
shoot together. They shoot, cast the stone,
cast the axle-tree, perhaps wrestle (for the
knight has a fall), then fight to the utterance.
Robin has the mastery, cuts off the knight’s
head, and dons his clothes, putting the head
into his hood. He hears from a man who
comes along that Robin Hood and his men
have been taken by the sheriff, and says, Let
us go kill the sheriff. Then follows, out of
the order of time, as is necessary in so brief a
piece, the capture of Friar Tuck and the
others by the sheriff. The variations from
the Percy MS. story may be arbitrary, or may
be those of another version of the ballad. The
friar is called Tuck, as in the other play: see
Robin Hood and the Potter.
Ritson pointed out that Guy of Gisborne is
named with “other worthies, it is conjectured
of a similar stamp,” in a satirical piece of
William Dunbar, ‘Of Sir Thomas Norray.’
Gisburne is in the West Riding of Yorkshire,
on the borders of Lancashire, seven
miles from Clitheroe.
He that had neither beene a kithe nor kin
Might haue seene a full fayre sight, 361,2,
anticipates Byron:—
By heaven, it is a splendid sight to see,
For one who hath no friend, no brother, there.
Childe Harold, I, 401,2.
Translated, after Percy’s Reliques, by Bodmer,
II, 128; La Motte Fouqué, in Büsching’s
Erzählungen, p. 241; Doenniges, p. 174; Anastasius
Grün, p. 103; Cesare Cantù, Documenti,
etc., p. 799 (the first thirty-seven
stanzas).
1
When shawes beene sheene, and shradds full fayre,
And leeues both large and longe,
Itt is merrry, walking in the fayre fforrest,
To heare the small birds songe.
2
The woodweele sang, and wold not cease,
Amongst the leaues a lyne:
And it is by two wight yeomen,
By deare God, that I meane.
* * * * *
3
‘Me thought they did mee beate and binde,
And tooke my bow mee froe;
If I bee Robin a-liue in this lande,
I’le be wrocken on both them towe.’
4
‘Sweauens are swift, master,’ quoth Iohn,
‘As the wind that blowes ore a hill;
Ffor if itt be neuer soe lowde this night,
To-morrow it may be still.’
5
‘Buske yee, bowne yee, my merry men all,
Ffor Iohn shall goe with mee;
For I’le goe seeke yond wight yeomen
In greenwood where the bee.’
6
Thé cast on their gowne of greene,
A shooting gone are they,
Vntill they came to the merry greenwood,
Where they had gladdest bee;
There were the ware of [a] wight yeoman,
His body leaned to a tree.
927
A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
Had beene many a mans bane,
And he was cladd in his capull-hyde,
Topp, and tayle, and mayne.
8
‘Stand you still, master,’ quoth Litle Iohn,
‘Vnder this trusty tree,
And I will goe to yond wight yeoman,
To know his meaning trulye.’
9
‘A, Iohn, by me thou setts noe store,
And that’s a ffarley thinge;
How offt send I my men beffore,
And tarry my-selfe behinde?
10
‘It is noe cunning a knaue to ken,
And a man but heare him speake;
And itt were not for bursting of my bowe,
Iohn, I wold thy head breake.’
11
But often words they breeden bale,
That parted Robin and Iohn;
Iohn is gone to Barn[e]sdale,
The gates he knowes eche one.
12
And when hee came to Barnesdale,
Great heauinesse there hee hadd;
He ffound two of his fellowes
Were slaine both in a slade,
13
And Scarlett a ffoote flyinge was,
Ouer stockes and stone,
For the sheriffe with seuen score men
Fast after him is gone.
14
‘Yett one shoote I’le shoote,’ sayes Litle Iohn,
‘With Crist his might and mayne;
I’le make yond fellow that flyes soe fast
To be both glad and ffaine.’
15
Iohn bent vp a good veiwe bow,
And ffetteled him to shoote;
The bow was made of a tender boughe,
And fell downe to his foote.
16
‘Woe worth thee, wicked wood,’ sayd Litle Iohn,
‘That ere thou grew on a tree!
Ffor this day thou art my bale,
My boote when thou shold bee!’
17
This shoote it was but looselye shott,
The arrowe flew in vaine,
And it mett one of the sheriffes men;
Good William a Trent was slaine.
18
It had beene better for William a Trent
To hange vpon a gallowe
Then for to lye in the greenwoode,
There slaine with an arrowe.
19
And it is sayd, when men be mett,
Six can doe more then three:
And they haue tane Litle Iohn,
And bound him ffast to a tree.
20
‘Thou shalt be drawen by dale and downe,’ quoth the sheriffe,
‘And hanged hye on a hill:’
‘But thou may ffayle,’ quoth Litle Iohn,
‘If itt be Christs owne will.’
21
Let vs leaue talking of Litle Iohn,
For hee is bound fast to a tree,
And talke of Guy and Robin Hood,
In the green woode where they bee.
22
How these two yeomen together they mett,
Vnder the leaues of lyne,
To see what marchandise they made
Euen at that same time.
23
‘Good morrow, good fellow,’ quoth Sir Guy;
‘Good morrow, good ffellow,’ quoth hee;
‘Methinkes by this bow thou beares in thy hand,
A good archer thou seems to bee.’
24
‘I am wilfull of my way,’ quoth Sir Guye,
‘And of my morning tyde:’
‘I’le lead thee through the wood,’ quoth Robin,
‘Good ffellow, I’le be thy guide.’
25
‘I seeke an outlaw,’ quoth Sir Guye,
‘Men call him Robin Hood;
I had rather meet with him vpon a day
Then forty pound of golde.’
26
‘If you tow mett, itt wold be seene whether were better
Afore yee did part awaye;
Let vs some other pastime find,
Good ffellow, I thee pray.
27
‘Let vs some other masteryes make,
And wee will walke in the woods euen;
93Wee may chance mee[t] with Robin Hoode
Att some vnsett steven.’
28
They cutt them downe the summer shroggs
Which grew both vnder a bryar,
And sett them three score rood in twinn,
To shoote the prickes full neare.
29
‘Leade on, good ffellow,’ sayd Sir Guye,
‘Lead on, I doe bidd thee:’
‘Nay, by my faith,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘The leader thou shalt bee.’
30
The first good shoot that Robin ledd
Did not shoote an inch the pricke ffroe;
Guy was an archer good enoughe,
But he cold neere shoote soe.
31
The second shoote Sir Guy shott,
He shott within the garlande;
But Robin Hoode shott it better then hee,
For he cloue the good pricke-wande.
32
‘Gods blessing on thy heart!’ sayes Guye,
‘Goode ffellow, thy shooting is goode;
For an thy hart be as good as thy hands,
Thou were better then Robin Hood.
33
‘Tell me thy name, good ffellow,’ quoth Guy,
‘Vnder the leaues of lyne:’
‘Nay, by my faith,’ quoth good Robin,
‘Till thou haue told me thine.’
34
‘I dwell by dale and downe,’ quoth Guye,
‘And I haue done many a curst turne;
And he that calles me by my right name
Calles me Guye of good Gysborne.’
35
‘My dwelling is in the wood,’ sayes Robin;
‘By thee I set right nought;
My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale,
A ffellow thou has long sought.’
36
He that had neither beene a kithe nor kin
Might haue seene a full fayre sight,
To see how together these yeomen went,
With blades both browne and bright.
37
To haue seene how these yeomen together foug[ht],
Two howers of a summers day;
Itt was neither Guy nor Robin Hood
That ffettled them to flye away.
38
Robin was reacheles on a roote,
And stumbled at that tyde,
And Guy was quicke and nimble with-all,
And hitt him ore the left side.
39
‘Ah, deere Lady!’ sayd Robin Hoode,
‘Thou art both mother and may!
I thinke it was neuer mans destinye
To dye before his day.’
40
Robin thought on Our Lady deere,
And soone leapt vp againe,
And thus he came with an awkwarde stroke;
Good Sir Guy hee has slayne.
41
He tooke Sir Guys head by the hayre,
And sticked itt on his bowes end:
‘Thou hast beene traytor all thy liffe,
Which thing must haue an ende.’
42
Robin pulled forth an Irish kniffe,
And nicked Sir Guy in the fface,
That hee was neuer on a woman borne
Cold tell who Sir Guye was.
43
Saies, Lye there, lye there, good Sir Guye,
And with me be not wrothe;
If thou haue had the worse stroakes at my hand,
Thou shalt haue the better cloathe.
44
Robin did off his gowne of greene,
Sir Guye hee did it throwe;
And hee put on that capull-hyde,
That cladd him topp to toe.
45
‘The bowe, the arrowes, and litle horne,
And with me now I’le beare;
Ffor now I will goe to Barn[e]sdale,
To see how my men doe ffare.’
46
Robin sett Guyes horne to his mouth,
A lowd blast in it he did blow;
That beheard the sheriffe of Nottingham,
As he leaned vnder a lowe.
47
‘Hearken! hearken!’ sayd the sheriffe,
‘I heard noe tydings but good;
For yonder I heare Sir Guyes horne blowe,
For he hath slaine Robin Hoode.
48
‘For yonder I heare Sir Guyes horne blow,
Itt blowes soe well in tyde,
94For yonder comes that wighty yeoman,
Cladd in his capull-hyde.
49
‘Come hither, thou good Sir Guy,
Aske of mee what thou wilt haue:’
‘I’le none of thy gold,’ sayes Robin Hood,
‘Nor I’le none of itt haue.
50
‘But now I haue slaine the master,’ he sayd,
‘Let me goe strike the knaue;
This is all the reward I aske,
Nor noe other will I haue.’
51
‘Thou art a madman,’ said the shiriffe,
‘Thou sholdest haue had a knights ffee;
Seeing thy asking [hath] beene soe badd,
Well granted it shall be.’
52
But Litle Iohn heard his master speake,
Well he knew that was his steuen;
‘Now shall I be loset,’ quoth Litle Iohn,
‘With Christs might in heauen.’
53
But Robin hee hyed him towards Litle Iohn,
Hee thought hee wold loose him beliue;
The sheriffe and all his companye
Fast after him did driue.
54
‘Stand abacke! stand abacke!’ sayd Robin;
‘Why draw you mee soe neere?
Itt was neuer the vse in our countrye
One’s shrift another shold heere.’
55
But Robin pulled forth an Irysh kniffe,
And losed Iohn hand and ffoote,
And gaue him Sir Guyes bow in his hand,
And bade it be his boote.
56
But Iohn tooke Guyes bow in his hand—
His arrowes were rawstye by the roote—;
The sherriffe saw Litle Iohn draw a bow
And ffettle him to shoote.
57
Towards his house in Nottingam
He ffled full fast away,
And soe did all his companye,
Not one behind did stay.
58
But he cold neither soe fast goe,
Nor away soe fast runn,
But Litle Iohn, with an arrow broade,
Did cleaue his heart in twinn.
11. When shales beeene.
14. birds singe.
21. woodweete.
23. by 2.
111. ball.
123. 2 of.
133. with 7.
151. veiwe. The word is partly pared away.
154. footee.
181. a william.
192. 6 can ... 3.
214. in they green.
221. these 2.
234. archer: an e has been added at the end.
Furnivall.
254. 40li :.
274. a stroke before the v of steven. Furnivall.
283. 3 score.
311. 2d :.
323. for on.
372. 2 howers.
441. did on.
551. kniffee.
119 ROBIN HOOD AND THE MONK
a. MS. of about 1450: Cambridge University Library,
Ff. 5. 48, fol. 128 b. b. One leaf of a MS. of the
same age, containing stanzas 693–72, 772–802: Bagford
Ballads, vol. i, art. 6, British Museum.
a is printed from the manuscript in Jamieson’s
Popular Ballads, II, 54, 1806;
Hartshorne’s Ancient Metrical Tales, p. 179,
1829; Ritson’s Robin Hood, ed. 1832, II, 221,
95collated by Sir Frederic Madden. Here
printed from a fresh transcript, carefully revised
by Rev. Professor Skeat.
On a bright Whitsuntide morning, Robin
Hood, not having “seen his Savior” for more
than a fortnight, resolves to go to mass at
Nottingham. Much advises that he take
twelve yeomen with him for safety, but Robin
will have only Little John. They improve
the time, while on their way to church, by
shooting for a wager. Robin scornfully offers
John three to one; but John nevertheless
wins five shillings of his master, at which
Robin loses his temper, and strikes John.
John will be his man no more, and returns to
the wood. Robin, sorry for this consequence
of his bad humor, goes on to Nottingham
alone. A monk at Saint Mary’s church recognizes
Robin, and gives information to the
sheriff, who comes with a large force to arrest
the king’s felon. Robin kills or wounds many
of the posse, but his sword breaks upon the
sheriff’s head. In some way which we do not
learn, owing to verses lost,[85] Robin’s men hear
that their master has been taken. They are
all out of their wits but Little John. Mild
Mary, he tells his comrades, will never forsake
one who has been so long devoted to her, and
he, with her help, will see to the monk. The
next day John and Much waylay the monk,
who is carrying letters to the king conveying
the tidings of Robin’s capture; they kill him,
take the letters, and carry them to the king
themselves. The king gives them twenty
pounds for their news, and makes them yeomen
of the crown; he sends his privy seal to
the sheriff by John, commanding that Robin
Hood shall be brought to him unhurt. The
sheriff, upon receiving the seal, makes John
good cheer, and goes to bed heavy with wine.
John and Much, while the sheriff is sleeping,
make their way to the jail. John rouses the
porter, runs him through,[86] and takes his keys,
unbinds Robin Hood, and puts a good sword
in his hand; they leap from the wall where it
is lowest. The sheriff finds the jailer dead in
the morning, and searches the town for his
captive; but Robin is in merry Sherwood.
Farewell now, says John; I have done thee a
good turn for an ill. Nay, says Robin, I make
thee master of my men and me. So shall it
never be, answers John; I care only to be a
comrade. The king hears that Robin has escaped,
and that the sheriff is afraid to show
himself. Little John has beguiled us both,
says the king. I made them yeomen of the
crown, and gave them pay with my own hand!
Little John loves Robin Hood better than he
does us. Say no more. John has beguiled
us all.
Too much could not be said in praise of this
ballad, but nothing need be said. It is very
perfection in its kind; and yet we have others
equally good, and beyond doubt should
have had more, if they had been written down
early, as this was, and had not been left to
the chances of tradition. Even writing would
not have saved all, but writing has saved this
(in large part), and in excellent form.
The landscape background of the first two
stanzas has been often praised, and its beauty
will never pall. It may be called landscape
or prelude, for both eyes and ears are addressed,
and several others of these woodland
ballads have a like symphony or setting:
Adam Bell, Robin Hood and the Potter, Guy
of Gisborne, even the much later ballad of
The Noble Fisherman. It is to be observed
that the story of the outlaw Fulk Fitz Warine,
which has other traits in common with Robin
Hood ballads, begins somewhat after the same
fashion.[87]
96Robin Hood’s devotion to the Virgin, st. 34,
is a feature which reappears in Robin Hood
and the Potter, Guy of Gisborne, Robin
Hood and the Curtal Friar, and above all in
The Gest. His profound piety, as evinced in
stanzas 6, 7, and again in 8, 9 of The Gest,
is commemorated by Bower in a passage in
the Scotichronicon, of about the same date as
the manuscript of the present ballad (1450),
which we have every reason to assume to be
derived from a lost ballad.[88] Robin Hood had
mass regularly sung at Barnsdale, nor would
he suffer the office to be interrupted for the
most pressing occasion. (We know from The
Gest, st. 440, that he had a pretty chapel
there, dedicated to Mary Magdalen.) One
day, while so engaged, he was informed that
the sheriff and his men, old foes of his, had
tracked him to the very retired part of the forest
where the service was going on, and was
urged to fly with his best speed. This, for
reverence of the sacrament, which he was then
most devoutly adoring, he utterly refused to
do, and then, while the rest were fearing for
their lives, trusting in him whom he worshipped,
fell upon his enemies, with a few of
his followers who had rallied to him, and easily
put them to rout. Enriched with their
spoil and ransom, he was led to hold the
ministers of the church (but apparently not
“bishops and archbishops,” Gest, st. 15) and
masses in greater veneration than ever, mindful
of the common saw, God hears the man
who often hears the mass.[89]
There is a general resemblance between the
rescue of Robin Hood in stanzas 61–81 and
that of William of Cloudesly in Adam Bell,
56–94, and the precaution suggested by Much
in the eighth stanza corresponds to the warning
given by Adam in the eighth stanza of
the other ballad. There is a verbal agreement
in stanzas 71 of the first and 66 of the
second.[90] Such agreements or repetitions are
numerous in the Robin Hood ballads, and in
other traditional ballads, where similar situations
occur.
Robin Hood’s rescue of Little John, in Guy
of Gisborne, after quarrelling with him on a
fanciful provocation, is a partial offset for Little
John’s heart-stirring generosity in this
ballad. We have already had several cases of
ballads in which the principal actors exchange
parts.
That portion of ‘Robin Hood’s Death’ in
which Robin Hood gets angry with Scarlet,
and shoots with Little John on his way to be
let blood, may have been transferred, at least
in part, from Robin Hood and the Monk.
It is hardly worth the while to ask whether
the monk in this ballad is the same who is
pillaged in The Gest. So rational a suggestion
as that more than one monk must have
fallen into Robin’s hands, in the course of his
long and lucrative career, may not be conclusive,
but we may rest certain that there were
many Robin Hood ballads besides the few old
ones which have come down to us; and if so,
there would be many variations upon so agreeable
a topic as the depleting of overstocked
friars.
Translated, after Jamieson, by Grundtvig,
Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. 148, No
24; by Anastasius Grün, p. 89.
971
In somer, when þe shawes be sheyne,
And leves be large and long,
Hit is full mery in feyre foreste
To here þe foulys song:
2
To se þe dere draw to þe dale,
And leve þe hilles hee,
And shadow hem in þe levës grene,
Vnder the grene-wode tre.
3
Hit befel on Whitsontide,
Erly in a May mornyng,
The son vp feyre can shyne,
And the briddis mery can syng.
4
‘This is a mery mornyng,’ seid Litull John,
‘Be hym þat dyed on tre;
A more mery man þen I am one
Lyves not in Cristiantë.
5
‘Pluk vp þi hert, my dere mayster,’
Litull John can sey,
‘And thynk hit is a full fayre tyme
In a mornyng of May.’
6
‘Ȝe, on thyng greves me,’ seid Robyn,
‘And does my hert mych woo;
Þat I may not no solem day
To mas nor matyns goo.
7
‘Hit is a fourtnet and more,’ seid he,
‘Syn I my sauyour see;
To day wil I to Notyngham,’ seid Robyn,
‘With þe myght of mylde Marye.’
8
Than spake Moche, þe mylner sun,
Euer more wel hym betyde!
‘Take twelue of þi wyght ȝemen,
Well weppynd, be þi side.
Such on wolde þi selfe slon,
Þat twelue dar not abyde.’
9
‘Of all my mery men,’ seid Robyn,
‘Be my feith I wil non haue,
But Litull John shall beyre my bow,
Til þat me list to drawe.’
10
‘Þou shall beyre þin own,’ seid Litull Jon,
‘Maister, and I wyl beyre myne,
And we well shete a peny,’ seid Litull Jon,
‘Vnder þe grene-wode lyne.’
11
‘I wil not shete a peny,’ seyd Robyn Hode,
‘In feith, Litull John, with the,
But euer for on as þou shetis,’ seide Robyn,
‘In feith I holde þe thre.’
12
Thus shet þei forth, þese ȝemen too,
Bothe at buske and brome,
Til Litull John wan of his maister
Fiue shillings to hose and shone.
13
A ferly strife fel þem betwene,
As they went bi the wey;
Litull John seid he had won fiue shillings,
And Robyn Hode seid schortly nay.
14
With þat Robyn Hode lyed Litul Jon,
And smote hym with his hande;
Litul Jon waxed wroth þerwith,
And pulled out his bright bronde.
15
‘Were þou not my maister,’ seid Litull John,
‘Þou shuldis by hit ful sore;
Get þe a man wher þou w[ilt],
For þou getis me no more.’
16
Þen Robyn goes to Notyngham,
Hym selfe mornyng allone,
And Litull John to mery Scherwode,
The pathes he knew ilkone.
17
Whan Robyn came to Notyngham,
Sertenly withouten layn,
He prayed to God and myld Mary
To bryng hym out saue agayn.
18
He gos in to Seynt Mary chirch,
And kneled down before the rode;
Alle þat euer were þe church within
Beheld wel Robyn Hode.
19
Beside hym stod a gret-hedid munke,
I pray to God woo he be!
Fful sone he knew gode Robyn,
As sone as he hym se.
20
Out at þe durre he ran,
Fful sone and anon;
Alle þe ȝatis of Notyngham
He made to be sparred euerychon.
21
‘Rise vp,’ he seid, ‘þou prowde schereff,
Buske þe and make þe bowne;
98I haue spyed þe kynggis felon,
Ffor sothe he is in þis town.
22
‘I haue spyed þe false felon,
As he stondis at his masse;
Hit is long of þe,’ seide þe munke,
‘And euer he fro vs passe.
23
‘Þis traytur name is Robyn Hode,
Vnder þe grene-wode lynde;
He robbyt me onys of a hundred pound,
Hit shalle neuer out of my mynde.’
24
Vp þen rose þis prowde shereff,
And radly made hym ȝare;
Many was þe moder son
To þe kyrk with hym can fare.
25
In at þe durres þei throly thrast,
With staves ful gode wone;
‘Alas, alas!’ seid Robyn Hode,
‘Now mysse I Litull John.’
26
But Robyn toke out a too-hond sworde,
Þat hangit down be his kne;
Þer as þe schereff and his men stode thyckust,
Thedurwarde wolde he.
27
Thryes thorowout þem he ran þen,
For soþe as I yow sey,
And woundyt mony a moder son,
And twelue he slew þat day.
28
His sworde vpon þe schireff hed
Sertanly he brake in too;
‘Þe smyth þat þe made,’ seid Robyn,
‘I pray to God wyrke hym woo!
29
‘Ffor now am I weppynlesse,’ seid Robyn,
‘Alasse! agayn my wylle;
But if I may fle þese traytors fro,
I wot þei wil me kyll.’
30
Robyn in to the churchë ran,
Throout hem euerilkon,
* * * * *
31
Sum fel in swonyng as þei were dede,
And lay stil as any stone;
Non of theym were in her mynde
But only Litull Jon.
32
‘Let be your rule,’ seid Litull Jon,
‘Ffor his luf þat dyed on tre,
Ȝe þat shulde be duȝty men;
Het is gret shame to se.
33
‘Oure maister has bene hard bystode
And ȝet scapyd away;
Pluk vp your hertis, and leve þis mone,
And harkyn what I shal say.
34
‘He has seruyd Oure Lady many a day,
And ȝet wil, securly;
Þerfor I trust in hir specialy
No wyckud deth shal he dye.
35
‘Þerfor be glad,’ seid Litul John,
‘And let þis mournyng be;
And I shal be þe munkis gyde,
With þe myght of mylde Mary.
36
. . . . . . .
‘We will go but we too;
And I mete hym,’ seid Litul John,
. . . . . . .
37
‘Loke þat ȝe kepe wel owre tristil-tre,
Vnder þe levys smale,
And spare non of this venyson,
Þat gose in thys vale.’
38
Fforþe þen went these ȝemen too,
Litul John and Moche on fere,
And lokid on Moch emys hows,
Þe hye way lay full nere.
39
Litul John stode at a wyndow in þe mornyng,
And lokid forþ at a stage;
He was war wher þe munke came ridyng,
And with hym a litul page.
40
‘Be my feith,’ seid Litul John to Moch,
‘I can þe tel tithyngus gode;
I se wher þe munke cumys rydyng,
I know hym be his wyde hode.’
41
They went in to the way, þese ȝemen boþe,
As curtes men and hende;
Þei spyrred tithyngus at þe munke,
As they hade bene his frende.
42
‘Ffro whens come ȝe?’ seid Litull Jon,
‘Tel vs tithyngus, I yow pray,
99Off a false owtlay, [callid Robyn Hode,]
Was takyn ȝisterday.
43
‘He robbyt me and my felowes boþe
Of twenti marke in serten;
If þat false owtlay be takyn,
Ffor soþe we wolde be fayn.’
44
‘So did he me,’ seid þe munke,
‘Of a hundred pound and more;
I layde furst hande hym apon,
Ȝe may thonke me þerfore.’
45
‘I pray God thanke you,’ seid Litull John,
‘And we wil when we may;
We wil go with you, with your leve,
And bryng yow on your way.
46
‘Ffor Robyn Hode hase many a wilde felow,
I tell you in certen;
If þei wist ȝe rode þis way,
In feith ȝe shulde be slayn.’
47
As þei went talking be þe way,
The munke and Litull John,
John toke þe munkis horse be þe hede,
Fful sone and anon.
48
Johne toke þe munkis horse be þe hed,
Ffor soþe as I yow say;
So did Much þe litull page,
Ffor he shulde not scape away.
49
Be þe golett of þe hode
John pulled þe munke down;
John was nothyng of hym agast,
He lete hym falle on his crown.
50
Litull John was so[re] agrevyd,
And drew owt his swerde in hye;
This munke saw he shulde be ded,
Lowd mercy can he crye.
51
‘He was my maister,’ seid Litull John,
‘Þat þou hase browȝt in bale;
Shalle þou neuer cum at our kyng,
Ffor to telle hym tale.’
52
John smote of þe munkis hed,
No longer wolde he dwell;
So did Moch þe litull page,
Ffor ferd lest he wolde tell.
53
Þer þei beryed hem boþe,
In nouþer mosse nor lyng,
And Litull John and Much infere
Bare þe letturs to oure kyng.
54
. . . . . . .
He knelid down vpon his kne:
‘God ȝow saue, my lege lorde,
Ihesus yow saue and se!
55
‘God yow saue, my lege kyng!’
To speke John was full bolde;
He gaf hym þe letturs in his hond,
The kyng did hit vnfold.
56
Þe kyng red þe letturs anon,
And seid, So mot I the,
Þer was neuer ȝoman in mery Inglond
I longut so sore to se.
57
‘Wher is þe munke þat þese shuld haue brouȝt?’
Oure kyng can say:
‘Be my trouth,’ seid Litull John,
‘He dyed after þe way.’
58
Þe kyng gaf Moch and Litul Jon
Twenti pound in sertan,
And made þeim ȝemen of þe crown,
And bade þeim go agayn.
59
He gaf John þe seel in hand,
The sheref for to bere,
To bryng Robyn hym to,
And no man do hym dere.
60
John toke his leve at oure kyng,
Þe sothe as I yow say;
Þe next way to Notyngham
To take, he ȝede þe way.
61
Whan John came to Notyngham
The ȝatis were sparred ychon;
John callid vp þe porter,
He answerid sone anon.
62
‘What is þe cause,’ seid Litul Jon,
‘Þou sparris þe ȝates so fast?’
‘Because of Robyn Hode,’ seid [þe] porter,
‘In depe prison is cast.
63
‘John and Moch and Wyll Scathlok,
Ffor sothe as I yow say,
100Þei slew oure men vpon our wallis,
And sawten vs euery day.’
64
Litull John spyrred after þe schereff,
And sone he hym fonde;
He oppyned þe kyngus priue seell,
And gaf hym in his honde.
65
Whan þe scheref saw þe kyngus seell,
He did of his hode anon:
‘Wher is þe munke þat bare þe letturs?’
He seid to Litull John.
66
‘He is so fayn of hym,’ seid Litul John,
‘Ffor soþe as I yow say,
He has made hym abot of Westmynster,
A lorde of þat abbay.’
67
The scheref made John gode chere,
And gaf hym wyne of the best;
At nyȝt þei went to her bedde,
And euery man to his rest.
68
When þe scheref was on slepe,
Dronken of wyne and ale,
Litul John and Moch for soþe
Toke þe way vnto þe jale.
69
Litul John callid vp þe jayler,
And bade hym rise anon;
He seyd Robyn Hode had brokyn prison,
And out of hit was gon.
70
The porter rose anon sertan,
As sone as he herd John calle;
Litul John was redy with a swerd,
And bare hym to þe walle.
71
‘Now wil I be porter,’ seid Litul John,
‘And take þe keyes in honde:’
He toke þe way to Robyn Hode,
And sone he hym vnbonde.
72
He gaf hym a gode swerd in his hond,
His hed [ther]with for to kepe,
And ther as þe walle was lowyst
Anon down can þei lepe.
73
Be þat þe cok began to crow,
The day began to spryng;
The scheref fond þe jaylier ded,
The comyn bell made he ryng.
74
He made a crye thoroout al þe tow[n],
Wheder he be ȝoman or knave,
Þat cowþe bryng hym Robyn Hode,
His warison he shuld haue.
75
‘Ffor I dar neuer,’ said þe scheref,
‘Cum before oure kyng;
Ffor if I do, I wot serten
Ffor soþe he wil me heng.’
76
The scheref made to seke Notyngham,
Bothe be strete and stye,
And Robyn was in mery Scherwode,
As liȝt as lef on lynde.
77
Then bespake gode Litull John,
To Robyn Hode can he say,
I haue done þe a gode turne for an euyll,
Quyte þe whan þou may.
78
‘I haue done þe a gode turne,’ seid Litull John,
‘Ffor sothe as I yow say;
I haue brouȝt þe vnder grene-wode lyne;
Ffare wel, and haue gode day.’
79
‘Nay, be my trouth,’ seid Robyn Hode,
‘So shall hit neuer be;
I make þe maister,’ seid Robyn Hode,
‘Off alle my men and me.’
80
‘Nay, be my trouth,’ seid Litull John,
‘So shalle hit neuer be;
But lat me be a felow,’ seid Litull John,
‘No noder kepe I be.’
81
Thus John gate Robyn Hod out of prison,
Sertan withoutyn layn;
Whan his men saw hym hol and sounde,
Ffor sothe they were full fayne.
82
They filled in wyne, and made hem glad,
Vnder þe levys smale,
And ȝete pastes of venyson,
Þat gode was with ale.
83
Than worde came to oure kyng
How Robyn Hode was gon,
And how þe scheref of Notyngham
Durst neuer loke hym vpon.
84
Then bespake oure cumly kyng,
In an angur hye:
101Litull John hase begyled þe schereff,
In faith so hase he me.
85
Litul John has begyled vs bothe,
And þat full wel I se;
Or ellis þe schereff of Notyngham
Hye hongut shulde he be.
86
‘I made hem ȝemen of þe crowne,
And gaf hem fee with my hond;
I gaf hem grith,’ seid oure kyng,
‘Thorowout all mery Inglond.
87
‘I gaf theym grith,’ þen seid oure kyng;
‘I say, so mot I the,
Ffor sothe soch a ȝeman as he is on
In all Inglond ar not thre.
88
‘He is trew to his maister,’ seid our kyng;
‘I sey, be swete Seynt John,
He louys better Robyn Hode
Then he dose vs ychon.
89
‘Robyn Hode is euer bond to hym,
Bothe in strete and stalle;
Speke no more of this mater,’ seid oure kyng,
‘But John has begyled vs alle.’
90
Thus endys the talkyng of the munke
And Robyn Hode i-wysse;
God, þat is euer a crowned kyng,
Bryng vs all to his blisse!
a.
A curl over final n, as in Robyn, John, on,
sawten, etc.; a crossed h, as in John, mych,
etc.; crossed ll, as in full, litull, well, etc.;
a hooked g, as in mornyng, kyng, etc., have
been treated as not significant. As to
Robyn, cf. 73, 111,3, 134, 141, etc., where
there is simple n; as to John, 101,3, 143,
314, etc., where we have Jon; as to Litull,
141,3, 391, 683, 691, 703, 711, where we have
Litul. And is printed for &; be twene, be
fore, be side, be held, be spake, þer with,
thorow out, with outen, etc., are joined.
31. tide no longer legible.
71. seid h ..., illegible after h.
83,6. xij.
101. þi nown.
124, 133. v s’.
141. lyed before Robyn struck through.
233. of a C li.
271. thorow at: but cf. 302.
274. xij.
301. Robyns men to the churche ran: Madden.
There are no men with Robin. “This line
is almost illegible. It certainly begins with
Robyn, and the second word is not men.
I read it, Robyn into the churche ran.”
Skeat.
302. A gap here between two pages, and there
are commonly six stanzas to a page. At
least six are required for the capture of
Robin Hood and the conveying of the tidings
to his men.
432. Of xx.
441. me me in my copy, probably by inadvertence.
442. Of a C li.
531. hym.
561. Þe kyng.
582. xx li.
774. bhas Quit me, which is perhaps better.
782. perhaps saie; nearly illegible.
902. I wysse.
b.
693. þe prison.
704. throw to.
711. be jayler.
712. toke.
722. hed ther with.
723. wallis were.
724. down ther they.
772. [t]hen for can (?).
774. Quit me.
782. the saye.
783. þe grene.
791,3. Hode wanting.
120 ROBIN HOOD’S DEATH — A — B
102
A. ‘Robin Hoode his Death,’ Percy MS., p. 21; Hales
and Furnivall, I, 53.
B. ‘Robin Hood’s Death and Burial.’ a. The English
Archer, Paisley, John Neilson, 1786: Bodleian
Library, Douce, F. F. 71 (6), p. 81. b. The English
Archer, York, printed by N. Nickson, in Feasegate,
n. d.: Bodleian Library, Douce, F. F. 71 (4),
p. 70.
B is given in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II,
183, “from a collation of two different copies”
of a York garland, “containing numerous variations,
a few of which are retained in the
margin.”
A. Robin Hood is ailing, and is convinced
that the only course for him is to go to Kirklees
priory for blooding. Will Scarlet cannot
counsel this, unless his master take fifty bowmen
with him; for a yeoman lives there with
whom there is sure to be a quarrel. Robin
bids Scarlet stay at home, if he is afraid.
Scarlet, seeing that his master is wroth, will
say no more.[91] Robin Hood will have no one
go with him but Little John, who shall carry
his bow. John proposes that they shall shoot
for a penny along the way, and Robin assents.
The opening of the ballad resembles that
of Robin Hood and the Monk. There Robin’s
soul is ill at ease, as here his body, and he
resolves to go to Nottingham for mass; Much,
the Miller’s son, advises a guard of twelve
yeomen; Robin will take none with him except
John, to bear his bow;[92] and John suggests
that they shall shoot for a penny as
they go.
A very interesting passage of the story here
followed, of which we can barely guess the
contents, owing to nine stanzas having been
torn away. Robin Hood and John keep up
their shooting all the way, until they come to
a black water, crossed by a plank. On the
plank an old woman is kneeling, and banning
Robin Hood. Robin Hood asks why, but the
answer is lost, and it is not probable that we
shall ever know: out of her proper malignancy,
surely, or because she is a hired witch,
for Robin is the friend of lowly folk. But if
this old woman is banning, others, no doubt
women, are weeping, for somehow they have
learned that he is to be let blood that day at
the priory, and foresee that ill will come of
it. Robin is disturbed by neither banning
nor weeping; the prioress is his cousin, and
would not harm him for the world. So they
shoot on until they come to Kirklees.
Robin makes the prioress a present of
twenty pound, with a promise of more when
she wants, and she falls to work with her
bleeding-irons. The thick blood comes, and
then the thin, and Robin knows that there
has been treason. John asks, What cheer?
Robin answers, Little good. Nine stanzas
are again wanting, and again in a place where
we are not helped by the other version. John
103must call from the outside of the building,
judging by what follows. An altercation
seems to pass between Robin and some one;
we should suppose between Robin and Red
Roger. Robin slips out of a shot-window,
and as he does so is thrust through the side
by Red Roger. Robin swoops off Red Roger’s
head, and leaves him for dogs to eat. Then
Red Roger must be below, and John is certainly
below. He would have seen to Red
Roger had they both been within. But John
must be under a window on a different side
of the building from that whence Robin issues,
for otherwise, again, he would have seen to
Red Roger. We are driven to suppose that
the words in st. 19 pass between Robin above
and Roger below.
Though Robin is near his last breath, he
has, he says, life enough to take his housel.
He must get it in a very irregular way, but
he trusts it will “bestand” him.[93] John asks
his master’s leave to set fire to Kirklees, but
Robin will not incur God’s blame by harming
any woman [“widow”] at his latter end. Let
John make his grave of gravel and greet, set
his sword at his head, his arrows at his feet,
and lay his bow by his side.[94]
B, though found only in late garlands, is
in the fine old strain. Robin Hood says to
Little John that he can no longer shoot
matches, his arrows will not flee; he must
go to a cousin to be let blood. He goes,
alone, to Kirkley nunnery, and is received
with a show of cordiality. His cousin bloods
him, locks him up in the room, and lets him
bleed all the livelong day, and until the next
day at noon. Robin bethinks himself of escaping
through a casement, but is not strong
enough. He sets his horn to his mouth and
blows thrice, but so wearily that Little John,
hearing, thinks his master must be nigh to
death. John comes to Kirkley, breaks the
locks, and makes his way to Robin’s presence.
He begs the boon of setting fire to Kirkley,
but Robin has never hurt woman in all his
life, and will not at his end. He asks for his
bow to shoot his last shot, and where the
arrow lights there his grave shall be.[95] His
grave is to be of gravel and green, long
enough and broad enough, a sod under his
head, another at his feet, and his bow by
his side, that men may say, Here lies bold
Robin Hood.
The account of Robin Hood’s death which
is given in The Gest, agrees as to the main
items with what we find in A. The prioress
of Kirkesly, his near kinswoman, betrayed
him when he went to the nunnery to be let
blood, and this she did upon counsel with Sir
Roger of Donkester, with whom she was intimate.
The Life of Robin Hood in the Sloane
MS, which is mostly made up from The Gest,
naturally repeats this story.
Grafton, in his Chronicle, 1569, citing “an
olde and auncient pamphlet,” says: For the
sayd Robert Hood, beyng afterwardes troubled
with sicknesse, came to a certain nonry in
Yorkshire, called Bircklies, where, desiryng
to be let blood, he was betrayed and bled to
death: edition of 1809, p. 221. So the Harleian
MS, No 1233, article 199, of the middle
of the seventeenth century, and not worth citing,
but cited by Ritson. According to Stanihurst,
in Holinshed’s Ireland (p. 28 of ed. of
1808), after Robin Hood had been betrayed at
a nunnery in Scotland called Bricklies, Little
John was fain to flee the realm, and went to
Ireland, where he executed an extraordinary
shot, by which he thought his safety compromised,
and so removed to Scotland, and died
there.
Martin Parker’s True Tale of Robin Hood,
which professes to be collected from chronicles,
ascribes Robin Hood’s death to a faithless
104friar, who pretended “in love to let him
blood,” when he had a fever, and allowed him
to bleed to death. Robin Hood and the Valiant
Knight, a late and thoroughly worthless
broadside ballad, says simply, He sent for a
monk to let him blood, who took his life
away.
A Russian popular song has an interesting
likeness to the conclusion of Robin Hood’s
Death. The last survivor of a band of brigands,
feeling death to be nigh, exclaims:
Bury me, brothers, between three roads,
The Kief, and the Moscow, and the Murom famed in story.
At my feet fasten my horse,
At my head set a life-bestowing cross,
In my right hand place my keen sabre.
Whoever passes by will stop;
Before my life-bestowing cross will he utter a prayer,
At the sight of my black steed will he be startled,
At the sight of my keen sword will he be terrified.
‘Surely this is a brigand who is buried here,
A son of the brigand, the bold Stenka Razín.’
Sakharof, Skazaniya Russkago Naroda, I, iii, 226.[96]
Dimos, twenty years a Klepht, tells his
comrades to make his tomb wide and high
enough for him to fight in it, standing up,
and to leave a window, so that the swallows
may tell him that spring has come and the
nightingales that it is May: Fauriel, I, 56;
Zambelios, p. 607, 13; Passow, p. 85. This
is a song of the beginning of the present
century.
B is translated in Le Magasin Pittoresque,
1838, p. 126 f; by Loève-Veimars, p. 223;
by Cantù, Documenti alla Storia Universale,
V, III, p. 801; Anastasius Grün, p. 200;
Knortz, L. u. R. Alt-Englands, No 20.
Percy MS., p. 21; Hales and Furnivall, I, 53.
1
‘I will neuer eate nor drinke,’ Robin Hood said,
‘Nor meate will doo me noe good,
Till I haue beene att merry Churchlees,
My vaines for to let blood.’
2
‘That I reade not,’ said Will Scarllett,
‘Master, by the assente of me,
Without halfe a hundred of your best bowmen
You take to goe with yee.
3
‘For there a good yeoman doth abide
Will be sure to quarrell with thee,
And if thou haue need of vs, master,
In faith we will not flee.’
4
‘And thou be feard, thou William Scarlett,
Att home I read thee bee:’
‘And you be wrothe, my deare master,
You shall neuer heare more of mee.’
* * * * *
5
‘For there shall noe man with me goe,
Nor man with mee ryde,
And Litle Iohn shall be my man,
And beare my benbow by my side.’
6
‘You’st beare your bowe, master, your selfe,
And shoote for a peny with mee:’
‘To that I doe assent,’ Robin Hood sayd,
‘And soe, Iohn, lett it bee.’
7
They two bolde children shotten together,
All day theire selfe in ranke,
Vntill they came to blacke water,
And over it laid a planke.
8
Vpon it there kneeled an old woman,
Was banning Robin Hoode;
‘Why dost thou bann Robin Hoode?’ said Robin,
. . . . . . .
* * * * *
1059
. . . . . . .
‘To giue to Robin Hoode;
Wee weepen for his deare body,
That this day must be lett bloode.’
10
‘The dame prior is my aunts daughter,
And nie vnto my kinne;
I know shee wold me noe harme this day,
For all the world to winne.’
11
Forth then shotten these children two,
And they did neuer lin,
Vntill they came to merry Churchlees,
To merry Churchlee[s] with-in.
12
And when they came to merry Churchlees,
They knoced vpon a pin;
Vpp then rose dame prioresse,
And lett good Robin in.
13
Then Robin gaue to dame prioresse
Twenty pound in gold,
And bad her spend while that wold last,
And shee shold haue more when shee wold.
14
And downe then came dame prioresse,
Downe she came in that ilke,
With a pair off blood-irons in her hands,
Were wrapped all in silke.
15
‘Sett a chaffing-dish to the fyer,’ said dame prioresse,
‘And stripp thou vp thy sleeue:’
I hold him but an vnwise man
That will noe warning leeve.
16
Shee laid the blood-irons to Robin Hoods vaine,
Alacke, the more pitye!
And pearct the vaine, and let out the bloode,
That full red was to see.
17
And first it bled, the thicke, thicke bloode,
And afterwards the thinne,
And well then wist good Robin Hoode
Treason there was within.
18
‘What cheere my master?’ said Litle Iohn;
‘In faith, Iohn, litle goode;’
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
* * * * *
19
‘I haue upon a gowne of greene,
Is cut short by my knee,
And in my hand a bright browne brand
That will well bite of thee.’
20
But forth then of a shot-windowe
Good Robin Hood he could glide;
Red Roger, with a grounden glaue,
Thrust him through the milke-white side.
21
But Robin was light and nimble of foote,
And thought to abate his pride,
Ffor betwixt his head and his shoulders
He made a wound full wide.
22
Says, Ly there, ly there, Red Roger,
The doggs they must thee eate;
‘For I may haue my houzle,’ he said,
‘For I may both goe and speake.
23
‘Now giue me mood,’ Robin said to Litle Iohn,
‘Giue me mood with thy hand;
I trust to God in heauen soe hye
My houzle will me bestand.’
24
‘Now giue me leaue, giue me leaue, master,’ he said,
‘For Christs loue giue leaue to me,
To set a fier within this hall,
And to burne vp all Churchlee.’
25
‘That I reade not,’ said Robin Hoode then,
‘Litle Iohn, for it may not be;
If I shold doe any widow hurt, at my latter end,
God,’ he said, ‘wold blame me;
26
‘But take me vpon thy backe, Litle Iohn,
And beare me to yonder streete,
And there make me a full fayre graue,
Of grauell and of greete.
27
‘And sett my bright sword at my head,
Mine arrowes at my feete,
And lay my vew-bow by my side,
My met-yard wi . . . .
106
a. The English Archer, Paisley, printed by John Neilson
for George Caldwell, Bookseller, near the Cross, 1786, p. 81,
No 24. b. The English Archer, York, printed by N. Nickson,
in Feasegate, n. d., p. 70.
1
When Robin Hood and Little John
Down a down a down a down
Went oer yon bank of broom,
Said Robin Hood bold to Little John,
We have shot for many a pound.
Hey, etc.
2
But I am not able to shoot one shot more,
My broad arrows will not flee;
But I have a cousin lives down below,
Please God, she will bleed me.
3
Now Robin he is to fair Kirkly gone,
As fast as he can win;
But before he came there, as we do hear,
He was taken very ill.
4
And when he came to fair Kirkly-hall,
He knockd all at the ring,
But none was so ready as his cousin herself
For to let bold Robin in.
5
‘Will you please to sit down, cousin Robin,’ she said,
‘And drink some beer with me?’
‘No, I will neither eat nor drink,
Till I am blooded by thee.’
6
‘Well, I have a room, cousin Robin,’ she said,
‘Which you did never see,
And if you please to walk therein,
You blooded by me shall be.’
7
She took him by the lily-white hand,
And led him to a private room,
And there she blooded bold Robin Hood,
While one drop of blood would run down.
8
She blooded him in a vein of the arm,
And locked him up in the room;
Then did he bleed all the live-long day,
Until the next day at noon.
9
He then bethought him of a casement there,
Thinking for to get down;
But was so weak he could not leap,
He could not get him down.
10
He then bethought him of his bugle-horn,
Which hung low down to his knee;
He set his horn unto his mouth,
And blew out weak blasts three.
11
Then Little John, when hearing him,
As he sat under a tree,
‘I fear my master is now near dead,
He blows so wearily.’
12
Then Little John to fair Kirkly is gone,
As fast as he can dree;
But when he came to Kirkly-hall,
He broke locks two or three:
13
Until he came bold Robin to see,
Then he fell on his knee;
‘A boon, a boon,’ cries Little John,
‘Master, I beg of thee.’
14
‘What is that boon,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Little John, [thou] begs of me?’
‘It is to burn fair Kirkly-hall,
And all their nunnery.’
15
‘Now nay, now nay,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘That boon I’ll not grant thee;
I never hurt woman in all my life,
Nor men in woman’s company.
16
‘I never hurt fair maid in all my time,
Nor at mine end shall it be;
But give me my bent bow in my hand,
And a broad arrow I’ll let flee;
And where this arrow is taken up,
There shall my grave digged be.
17
‘Lay me a green sod under my head,
And another at my feet;
And lay my bent bow by my side,
Which was my music sweet;
And make my grave of gravel and green,
Which is most right and meet.
18
‘Let me have length and breadth enough,
With a green sod under my head;
That they may say, when I am dead
Here lies bold Robin Hood.’
19
These words they readily granted him,
Which did bold Robin please:
And there they buried bold Robin Hood,
Within the fair Kirkleys.
107A.
13. church Lees: cf. 113.
23. halfe 100d.
31. there is.
62. nor shoote.
71, 111. 2.
83, 182, 274. half a page gone.
121. church lees.
132. 20ty :.
201. shop for shot.
203. grounding.
244. church lee.
B. a.
Robin Hood’s death and burial: shewing
how he was taken ill, and how he went to
his cousin at Kirkly-hall, in Yorkshire, who
let him blood, which was the cause of his
death. Tune of Robin Hood’s last farewel,
etc.
22. fly.
153. burnt for hurt.
194. Kirkly.
The ballad, as Ritson says, “is made to conclude
with some foolish lines (adopted from
the London copy” of R. H. and the Valiant
Knight) in order to introduce the
epitaph.
20
Thus he that never feard bow nor spear
Was murderd by letting blood;
And so, loving friends, the story it ends
Of valiant Robin Hood.
21
There’s nothing remains but his epitaph now,
Which, reader, here you have,
To this very day which read you may,
As it is upon his grave.
Hey down a derry derry down
The epitaph, however, does not follow.
b.
Title as ina, omitting in Yorkshire and Tune
of, etc. Printed in stanzas of two long
lines. The burden is wanting.
12. over.
13. bold wanting.
22. broad wanting: flee.
31. he wanting.
32. coud wen.
41. when that.
42. knocked at.
54. I blood letted be.
64. You blood shall letted be.
72. let him into.
74. Whilst: down wanting.
81. in the vein.
82. in a.
83. There.
91. casement door.
92. to be gone.
94. Nor he: him wanting.
104. strong blasts.
112. under the.
113. now wanting.
122. he could.
131. see wanting.
141. quoth for said.
142. thou begs.
15. wanting.
161. neer.
162. at my.
164. my broad arrows.
171,2. To go with 163,4.
With verdant sods most neatly put,
Sweet as the green wood tree.
191. promisd him.
194. Near to: Kirkleys.
201. that feard neither.
203. it wanting.
204. valiant bold.
211. There is.
214. it was upon the.
After 19.
Kirkleys was beautiful of old,
Like Winifrid’s of Wales,
By whose fair well strange cures are told
In legendary tales.
Upon his grave was laid a stone,
Declaring that he dy’d,
And tho so many years ago,
Time can’t his actions hide.
At the end is the epitaph, wanting ina.
Robin Hood’s Epitaph, set on his tomb by the
Prioress of Kirkley Monastry, in Yorkshire.
Robert Earl of Huntington
Lies under this little stone.
No archer was like him so good,
His wildness nam’d him Robin Hood.
Full thirteen years and something more
These no[r]thern parts he vexed sore:
Such out-laws as he and his men
May England never know again.
121 ROBIN HOOD AND THE POTTER — APPENDIX THE PLAYE OF ROBYN HODE (vv. 121 ff.)
108
Library of the University of Cambridge, MS. E e. 4. 35, fol. 14 b, of about 1500.
Printed from the manuscript in Ritson’s
Robin Hood, 1795, I, 81; here from a transcript
of the original, carefully revised by Rev.
Professor Skeat.
Robin Hood sees a potter driving over the
lea; the potter has been in the habit of passing
that way, and never has paid toll. Little
John has had a brush with the potter, and
offers to lay forty shillings that no man can
make him leave a pledge. Robin accepts
the wager, stops the potter, and demands a
“pledge”; the potter refuses to leave pledge
or pay toll, takes a staff from his cart, knocks
Robin’s buckler out of his hand, and, ere
Robin can recover it, fells him with a blow
in the neck. Robin owns that he has lost.
The potter says it is no courtesy to stop a
poor yeoman thus; Robin agrees heartily,
and proposes fellowship, also to change clothes
with the potter and sell his ware at Nottingham.
The potter is willing; John warns his
master to beware of the sheriff. Robin takes
his stand near the sheriff’s gate, and offers his
pots so cheap that soon there are but five
left; these he sends as a gift to the sheriff’s
wife, who in return asks him to dinner.
While they are at their meal, two of the
sheriff’s men talk of a shooting-match for
forty shillings: this the potter says he will
see, and after a good dinner goes with the
rest to the butts. All the archers come half
a bow’s length short of the mark; Robin, at
his wish, gets a bow from the sheriff, and his
first shot misses the mark by less than a foot,
his second cleaves the central pin in three.
The sheriff applauds; Robin says there is a
bow in his cart which he had of Robin Hood.
The sheriff wishes he could see Robin Hood,
and the potter offers to gratify this wish on
the morrow. They go back to the sheriff’s for
the night, and early the next day set forth;
the sheriff riding, the potter in his cart.
When they come to the wood, the potter
blows his horn, for so they shall know if
Robin be near; the horn brings all Robin’s
men. The sheriff would now give a hundred
pound not to have had his wish; had he
known his man at Nottingham, it would have
been a thousand year ere the potter had
come to the forest. I know that well, says
Robin, and therefore shall you leave your horse
with us, and your other gear. Were it not
for your wife you would not come off so lightly.
The sheriff goes home afoot, but with a white
palfrey, which Robin presents to his wife.
Have you brought Robin home? asks the
dame. Devil speed him, answers her spouse,
he has taken everything from me; all but
this fair palfrey, which he has sent to thee.
The merry dame laughs, and swears that the
pots have been well paid for. Robin asks
the potter how much his pots were worth,
gives him ten pounds instead of the two
nobles for which they could have been sold,
and a welcome to the wood whenever he shall
come that way.
The Play of Robin Hood, an imperfect
copy of which is printed at the end of Copland’s
and of White’s edition of The Gest, is
founded on the ballads of Robin Hood and
the Curtal Friar and of Robin Hood and the
Potter. The portion which is based on the
ballad of Robin and the Potter is given in an
appendix.
Robin Hood and the Butcher, No 122, repeats
many of the incidents of the present
ballad. The sheriff is enticed into the forest
(by Little John instead of Robin Hood) in
109The Gest, 181 ff. This part of the story, in
Robin Hood and the Butcher, is much more
like that of The Gest than it is in Robin Hood
and the Potter. We shall have only too
many variations of the adventure in which
Robin Hood unexpectedly meets his match in
a hand-to-hand fight, now with a pinder, then
with a tanner, tinker, shepherd, beggar, etc.
His adversaries, after proving their mettle, are
sometimes invited and induced to join his company:
not so here. In some broadside ballads
of this description, with an extravagance common
enough in imitations, Robin Hood is
very badly mauled, and made all but contemptible.[97]
In Robin Hood and the Potter,
Little John is willing to wager on the
result of a trial, from his own experience.
Will Scadlock is equally confident in Robin
Hood and the Curtal Friar, perhaps for the
same reason, although this is not said. In
Robin Hood and the Shepherd, Little John
takes his turn after his master, and so with
three of Robin’s men in Robin Hood and the
Beggar, No 133.
Hereward the Saxon introduces himself into
the Norman court as a potter, to obtain information
of an attack which William the
Conqueror was thought to intend on his
stronghold at Ely: De Gestis Herwardi
Saxonis, 24, in Michel, Chroniques Anglo-Normandes,
II, 69, attributed to the twelfth
century. Wallace, in like manner, to scout
in the English camp: Blind Harry’s poem,
ed. Moir, Book Six, v. 435 ff, p. 123 ff. This
is also one of the many artifices by which
Eustace the Monk deceives his enemy, the
Count of Boulogne: Roman d’Eustache le
Moine, ed. Michel, p. 39, v. 1071 ff, a poem
of the thirteenth century. See, for Hereward
and Eustace, T. Wright’s Essays on
Subjects connected with the Literature, etc.,
of England in the Middle Ages, II, 108 ff,
135.
Disguise is the wonted and simplest expedient
of an outlaw mixing among his foes,
“wherein the pregnant enemy does much.”
Fulk Fitz Warine takes the disguise of an old
monk, a merchant, a charcoal-burner; Hereward,
that of a potter, a fisherman; Eustace
the Monk, of a potter, shepherd, pilgrim,
charcoal-burner, woman, leper, carpenter, minstrel,
etc.; Wallace, of a potter, pilgrim,
woman (twice), etc., in Blind Harry’s poem,
of a beggar in ballads; Robin Hood, of a
potter, butcher, beggar, shepherd, an old
woman, a fisherman (?), Guy of Gisborne.
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 76.
1
In schomer, when the leves spryng,
The bloschoms on euery bowe,
So merey doyt the berdys syng
Yn wodys merey now.
2
Herkens, god yemen,
Comley, corteys, and god,
On of the best þat yeuer bare bowe,
Hes name was Roben Hode.
3
Roben Hood was the yeman’s name,
That was boyt corteys and ffre;
Ffor the loffe of owre ladey,
All wemen werschepyd he.
4
Bot as the god yeman stod on a day,
Among hes mery maney,
He was ware of a prowd potter,
Cam dryfyng owyr the ley.
5
‘Yonder comet a prod potter,’ seyde Roben,
‘That long hayt hantyd þis wey;
He was neuer so corteys a man
On peney of pawage to pay.’
6
‘Y met hem bot at Went-breg,’ seyde Lytyll John,
‘And therefore yeffell mot he the!
Seche thre strokes he me gafe,
Yet by my seydys cleffe þey.
1107
‘Y ley forty shillings,’ seyde Lytyll John,
‘To pay het thes same day,
Ther ys nat a man among hus all
A wed schall make hem ley.’
8
‘Here ys forty shillings,’ seyde Roben,
‘More, and thow dar say,
Þat y schall make þat prowde potter,
A wed to me schall he ley.’
9
There thes money they leyde,
They toke het a yeman to kepe;
Roben beffore the potter he breyde,
A[nd] bad hem stond stell.
10
Handys apon hes hors he leyde,
And bad the potter stonde foll stell;
The potter schorteley to hem seyde,
Ffelow, what ys they well?
11
‘All thes thre yer, and more, potter,’ he seyde,
‘Thow hast hantyd thes wey,
Yet were tow neuer so cortys a man
On peney of pauage to pay.’
12
‘What ys they name,’ seyde þe potter,
‘Ffor pauage thow aske of me?’
‘Roben Hod ys mey name,
A wed schall thow leffe me.’
13
‘Wed well y non leffe,’ seyde þe potter,
‘Nor pavag well y non pay;
Awey they honde ffro mey hors!
Y well the tene eyls, be mey ffay.’
14
The potter to hes cart he went,
He was not to seke;
A god to-hande staffe þerowt he hent,
Beffore Roben he leppyd.
15
Roben howt with a swerd bent,
A bokeler en hes honde;
The potter to Roben he went,
And seyde, Ffelow, let mey hors go.
16
Togeder then went thes to yemen,
Het was a god seyt to se;
Thereof low Robyn hes men,
There they stod onder a tre.
17
Leytell John to hes ffelowhe[s] seyde,
‘Yend potter well steffeley stonde:’
The potter, with a acward stroke,
Smot the bokeler owt of hes honde.
18
A[nd] ar Roben meyt get het agen
Hes bokeler at hes ffette,
The potter yn the neke hem toke,
To the gronde sone he yede.
19
That saw Roben hes men,
As thay stod onder a bow;
‘Let vs helpe owre master,’ seyde Lytell John,
‘Yonder potter,’ seyde he, ‘els well hem slo.’
20
Thes yemen went with a breyde,
To ther mast[er] they cam.
Leytell John to hes mast[er] seyde,
Ho haet the wager won?
21
‘Schall y haffe yowre forty shillings,’ seyde Lytl John,
‘Or ye, master, schall haffe myne?’
‘Yeff they were a hundred,’ seyde Roben,
‘Y ffeythe, they ben all theyne.’
22
‘Het ys fol leytell cortesey,’ seyde þe potter,
‘As y haffe harde weyse men saye,
Yeffe a pore yeman com drywyng on the wey,
To let hem of hes gorney.’
23
‘Be mey trowet, thow seys soyt,’ seyde Roben,
‘Thow seys god yeme[n]rey;
And thow dreyffe fforthe yeuery day,
Thow schalt neuer be let ffor me.
24
‘Y well prey the, god potter,
A ffelischepe well thow haffe?
Geffe me they clothyng, and þow schalt hafe myne;
Y well go to Notynggam.’
25
‘Y gra[n]t thereto,’ seyde the potter,
‘Thow schalt ffeynde me a ffelow gode;
Bot thow can sell mey pottys well,
Com ayen as thow yode.’
26
‘Nay, be mey trowt,’ seyde Roben,
‘And then y bescro mey hede,
Yeffe y bryng eny pottys ayen,
And eney weyffe well hem chepe.’
27
Than spake Leytell John,
And all hes ffelowhes heynd,
111‘Master, be well ware of the screffe of Notynggam,
Ffor he ys leytell howr ffrende.’
28
‘Heyt war howte!’ seyde Roben,
‘Ffelowhes, let me a lone;
Thorow the helpe of Howr Ladey,
To Notynggam well y gon.’
29
Robyn went to Notynggam,
Thes pottys ffor to sell;
The potter abode with Robens men,
There he ffered not eylle.
30
Tho Roben droffe on hes wey,
So merey ower the londe:
Her es more, and affter ys to saye,
The best ys beheynde.
31
When Roben cam to Notynggam,
The soyt yef y scholde saye,
He set op hes hors anon,
And gaffe hem hotys and haye.
32
Yn the medys of the towne,
There he schowed hes ware;
‘Pottys! pottys!’ he gan crey foll sone,
‘Haffe hansell ffor the mare!’
33
Ffoll effen agenest the screffeys gate
Schowed he hes chaffare;
Weyffes and wedowes abowt hem drow,
And chepyd ffast of hes ware.
34
Yet, ‘Pottys, gret chepe!’ creyed Robyn,
‘Y loffe yeffell thes to stonde;’
And all that say hem sell
Seyde he had be no potter long.
35
The pottys that were werthe pens ffeyffe,
He solde tham ffor pens thre;
Preveley seyde man and weyffe,
‘Ywnder potter schall neuer the.’
36
Thos Roben solde ffoll ffast,
Tell he had pottys bot ffeyffe;
Op he hem toke of hes care,
And sende hem to the screffeys weyffe.
37
Thereof sche was ffoll ffayne,
‘Gereamarsey, ser,’ than seyde sche;
‘When ye com to thes contre ayen,
Y schall bey of the[y] pottys, so mot y the.’
38
‘Ye schall haffe of the best,’ seyde Roben,
And sware be the Treneytë;
Ffoll corteysley [sc]he gan hem call,
‘Com deyne with the screfe and me.’
39
‘God amarsey,’ seyde Roben,
‘Yowre bedyng schall be doyn;’
A mayden yn the pottys gan bere,
Roben and þe screffe weyffe ffolowed anon.
40
Whan Roben yn to the hall cam,
The screffë sone he met;
The potter cowed of corteysey,
And sone the screffe he gret.
41
‘Lo, ser, what thes potter hayt geffe yow and me;
Ffeyffe pottys smalle and grete!’
‘He ys ffoll wellcom,’ seyd the screffe;
‘Let os was, and go to mete.’
42
As they sat at her methe,
With a nobell chere,
To of the screffes men gan speke
Off a gret wager;
43
Off a schotyng, was god and ffeyne,
Was made the thother daye,
Off forty shillings, the soyt to saye,
Who scholde thes wager wen.
44
Styll than sat thes prowde potter,
Thos than thowt he;
As y am a trow cerstyn man,
Thes schotyng well y se.
45
Whan they had ffared of the best,
With bred and ale and weyne,
To the bottys the made them prest,
With bowes and boltys ffoll ffeyne.
46
The screffes men schot ffoll ffast,
As archares þat weren godde;
There cam non ner ney the marke
Bey halffe a god archares bowe.
47
Stell then stod the prowde potter,
Thos than seyde he;
And y had a bow, be the rode,
On schot scholde yow se.
11248
‘Thow schall haffe a bow,’ seyde the screffe,
‘The best þat thow well cheys of thre;
Thou semyst a stalward and a stronge,
Asay schall thow be.’
49
The screffe commandyd a yeman þat stod hem bey
Affter bowhes to weynde;
The best bow þat the yeman browthe
Roben set on a stryng.
50
‘Now schall y wet and thow be god,
And polle het op to they nere;’
‘So god me helpe,’ seyde the prowde potter,
‘Þys ys bot rygȝt weke gere.’
51
To a quequer Roben went,
A god bolt owthe he toke;
So ney on to the marke he went,
He ffayled not a fothe.
52
All they schot abowthe agen,
The screffes men and he;
Off the marke he welde not ffayle,
He cleffed the preke on thre.
53
The screffes men thowt gret schame
The potter the mastry wan;
The screffë lowe and made god game,
And seyde, Potter, thow art a man.
54
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
Thow art worthey to bere a bowe
Yn what plas that þow goe.
55
‘Yn mey cart y haffe a bowe,
Ffor soyt,’ he seyde, ‘and that a godde;
Yn mey cart ys the bow
That gaffe me Robyn Hode.’
56
‘Knowest thow Robyn Hode?’ seyde the screffe,
‘Potter, y prey the tell thow me;’
‘A hundred torne y haffe schot with hem,
Vnder hes tortyll-tre.’
57
‘Y had leuer nar a hundred ponde,’ seyde þe screffe,
‘And sware be the Trenitë,
. . . . . . .
Þat the ffals outelawe stod be me.’
58
‘And ye well do afftyr mey red,’ seyde þe potter,
‘And boldeley go with me,
And to morow, or we het bred,
Roben Hode well we se.’
59
‘Y wel queyt the,’ kod the screffe,
‘Y swere be God of meythe;’
Schetyng thay left, and hom þey went,
Her soper was reddy deythe.
60
Vpon the morow, when het was day,
He boskyd hem fforthe to reyde;
The potter hes cart fforthe gan ray,
And wolde not leffe beheynde.
61
He toke leffe of the screffys wyffe,
And thankyd her of all thyng:
‘Dam, ffor mey loffe and ye well þys were,
Y geffe yow here a golde ryng.’
62
‘Gramarsey,’ seyde the weyffe,
‘Ser, god eylde het the;’
The screffes hart was neuer so leythe,
The ffeyre fforeyst to se.
63
And when he cam yn to the fforeyst,
Yonder the leffes grene,
Berdys there sange on bowhes prest,
Het was gret goy to se.
64
‘Here het ys merey to be,’ seyde Roben,
‘Ffor a man that had hawt to spende;
Be mey horne I schall awet
Yeff Roben Hode be here.’
65
Roben set hes horne to hes mowthe,
And blow a blast þat was ffoll god;
Þat herde hes men þat þere stode,
Ffer downe yn the wodde.
66
‘I her mey master blow,’ seyde Leytell John,
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
They ran as thay were wode.
67
Whan thay to thar master cam,
Leytell John wold not spare;
‘Master, how haffe yow ffare yn Notynggam?
How haffe yow solde yowre ware?’
68
‘Ye, be mey trowthe, Leyty[ll] John,
Loke thow take no care;
113Y haffe browt the screffe of Notynggam,
Ffor all howre chaffare.’
69
‘He ys ffoll wellcom,’ seyde Lytyll John,
‘Thes tydyng ys ffoll godde;
The screffe had leuer nar a hundred ponde
He had [neuer sene Roben Hode.]
70
‘[Had I] west þat befforen,
At Notynggam when we were,
Thow scholde not com yn ffeyre fforest
Of all thes thowsande eyre.’
71
‘That wot y well,’ seyde Roben,
‘Y thanke God that ye be here;
Thereffore schall ye leffe yowre hors with hos,
And all yowre hother gere.’
72
‘That ffend I Godys fforbod,’ kod the screffe,
‘So to lese mey godde;
. . . . . . .
. . . . . .
73
‘Hether ye cam on hors ffoll hey,
And hom schall ye go on ffote;
And gret well they weyffe at home,
The woman ys ffoll godde.
74
‘Y schall her sende a wheyt palffrey,
Het ambellet be mey ffey,
. . . . . . .
. . . . . .
75
‘Y schall her sende a wheyt palffrey,
Het hambellet as the weynde;
Nere ffor the loffe of yowre weyffe,
Off more sorow scholde yow seyng.’
76
Thes parted Robyn Hode and the screffe;
To Notynggam he toke the waye;
Hes weyffe ffeyre welcomed hem hom,
And to hem gan sche saye:
77
Seyr, how haffe yow ffared yn grene fforeyst?
Haffe ye browt Roben hom?
‘Dam, the deyell spede hem, bothe bodey and bon;
Y haffe hade a ffoll gret skorne.
78
‘Of all the god that y haffe lade to grene wod,
He hayt take het ffro me;
All bot thes ffeyre palffrey,
That he hayt sende to the.’
79
With þat sche toke op a lowde lawhyng,
And swhare be hem þat deyed on tre,
‘Now haffe yow payed ffor all þe pottys
That Roben gaffe to me.
80
‘Now ye be com hom to Notynggam,
Ye schall haffe god ynowe;’
Now speke we of Roben Hode,
And of the pottyr ondyr the grene bowhe.
81
‘Potter, what was they pottys worthe
To Notynggam þat y ledde with me?’
‘They wer worthe to nobellys,’ seyde he,
‘So mot y treyffe or the;
So cowde y [haffe] had ffor tham,
And y had there be.’
82
‘Thow schalt hafe ten ponde,’ seyde Roben,
‘Of money ffeyre and ffre;
And yeuer whan thow comest to grene wod,
Wellcom, potter, to me.’
83
Thes partyd Robyn, the screffe, and the potter,
Ondernethe the grene-wod tre;
God haffe mersey on Roben Hodys solle,
And saffe all god yemanrey!
22. cortessey.
34. werschep ye.
44. the lefe.
51, 61. syde.
63. Seche iij.
64. þey cleffe by my seydys.
71, 81, 211, 433. xl s’.
73. hys all.
74. hem leffe.
111. thes iij.
114. I peney.
142. And teke at the beginning of the line
struck through.
161. thes ij.
171. ffelow he seyde.
173. a caward.
192. onder or ender.
194. hels: sclo.
201. went yemen.
202. To thes.
213, 563, 571. a c.
25. st. 29 is wrongly put here.
254. yede.
272. ffelow hes.
28. The order of the lines is 3, 2, 1, 4.
303. Heres.
351. pens v.
352. pens iij. d.
362. bot v.
372. Gere amarsey seyde sche than, with a
character after sche which is probably an
abbreviation for ser, as in 622.
114414. to to.
421. methe.
423. ij of.
433. xl s.
453. the pottys.
454. bolt yt.
482. of iij.
483. senyst.
484. A say.
502. And [thow]? The ll in polle is crossed;
potte may have been intended by the writer.
524. on iij.
541,2. No blank here, and none at 573, 662,3,
723,4, 743,4.
553,4. Yn mey cart ys the bow þat Robyn
gaffe me.
563. A c.
571, 693. a c.
592. & swere: meythey.
594. scoper.
643. he schall.
681. I leyty.
694, 701. He had west þat be fforen.
741,2. Ought perhaps to be dropped. The
writer, having got the second verse wrong,
may have begun the stanza again.
803. After this line is repeated, Ye schall
haffe god ynowhe.
804. bowhes.
813. worthe ij.
816. be there.
82. hafe x li.
Expleycyt Robynhode.
A bowt, a non, be heynde, etc. are joined.
And for & throughout. Some terminal curls
rendered with e were, perhaps, mere tricks
of writing; as marks over final m, n, in
cam, on, yemen, etc., crossed double l in all,
etc., a curled n in Roben, have been assumed
to be.
As printed by Copland, at the end of his edition
of the Gest, with a few corrections from White’s
edition, 1634: Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 199.
I have not thought it necessary to collate Ritson’s
reprint with Copland. The collations with White
here are made with the undated copy in the Bodleian
Library, Z. 3. Art. Seld.
ROBYN HODE
Lysten, to [me], my mery men all,
v. 121
And harke what I shall say;
Of an adventure I shall you tell,
That befell this other daye.
With a proude potter I met,
And a rose-garlande on his head,
The floures of it shone marvaylous freshe;
This seven yere and more he hath used this waye,
Yet was he never so curteyse a potter
As one peny passage to paye.
130
Is there any of my mery men all
That dare be so bolde
To make the potter paie passage,
Either silver or golde?
LYTELL JOHN
Not I master, for twenty pound redy tolde.
135
For there is not among us al one
That dare medle with that potter, man for man.
I felt his handes not long agone,
But I had lever have ben here by the;
Therfore I knowe what he is.
140
Mete him when ye wil, or mete him whan ye shal,
He is as propre a man as ever you medle[d] withal.
ROBYN HODE
I will lai with the, Litel John, twenti pound so read,
If I wyth that potter mete,
I wil make him pay passage, maugre his head.
145
LYTTEL JOHN
I consente therto, so eate I bread;
If he pay passage, maugre his head,
Twenti pound shall ye have of me for your mede.
THE POTTERS BOY JACKE
Out alas, that ever I sawe this daye!
For I am clene out of my waye
150
From Notyngham towne;
If I hye me not the faster,
Or I come there the market wel be done.
ROBYN HODE
Let me se, are the pottes hole and sounde?
JACKE
Yea, meister, but they will not breake the ground.
155
ROBYN HODE
I wil them breke, for the cuckold thi maisters sake;
And if they will breake the grounde,
Thou shalt have thre pence for a pound.
JACKE
Out alas! what have ye done?
If my maister come, he will breke your crown.
160
THE POTTER
Why, thou horeson, art thou here yet?
Thou shouldest have bene at market.
115JACKE
I met with Robin Hode, a good yeman;
He hath broken my pottes,
And called you kuckolde by your name.
165
THE POTTER
Thou mayst be a gentylman, so God me save,
But thou semest a noughty knave.
Thou callest me cuckolde by my name,
And I swere by God and Saynt John,
Wyfe had I never none:
170
This cannot I denye.
But if thou be a good felowe,
I wil sel mi horse, mi harneis, pottes and paniers to,
Thou shalt have the one halfe, and I will have the other.
If thou be not so content,
175
Thou shalt have stripes, if thou were my brother.
ROBYN HODE
Harke, potter, what I shall say:
This seven yere and more thou hast used this way,
Yet were thou never so curteous to me
As one penny passage to paye.
180
THE POTTER
Why should I pay passage to thee?
ROBYN HODE
For I am Robyn Hode, chiefe gouernoure
Under the grene-woode tree.
THE POTTER
This seven yere have I used this way up and downe,
Yet payed I passage to no man,
185
Nor now I wyl not beginne, to do the worst thou can.
ROBYN HODE
Passage shalt thou pai here under the grene-wode tre,
Or els thou shalt leve a wedde with me.
THE POTTER
If thou be a good felowe, as men do the call,
Laye awaye thy bowe,
190
And take thy sword and buckeler in thy hande,
And se what shall befall.
ROBIN HODE
Lyttle John, where art thou?
LYTTEL [JOHN]
Here, mayster, I make God avowe.
I tolde you, mayster, so God me save,
195
That you shoulde fynde the potter a knave.
Holde your buckeler faste in your hande,
And I wyll styfly by you stande,
Ready for to fyghte;
Be the knave never so stoute,
200
I shall rappe him on the snoute,
And put hym to flyghte.
The rest is wanting.
121. to [me], wanting in White.
142. medled, W.
153. maryet.
154. the, C.; thy, W.
186. to do: to wanting in W.
188. wedded, C.; wed, W.
196. your, C.; you, W.
122 ROBIN HOOD AND THE BUTCHER — A — B
A. ‘Robin Hood and the Butcher,’ Percy MS., p. 7;
Hales and Furnivall, I, 19.
B. ‘Robin Hood and the Butcher.’ a. Wood, 401,
19 b. b. Garland of 1663, No 6. c. Garland of
1670, No 5. d. Pepys, II, 102, No 89.
Other copies, of the second class, are in the
Roxburghe collection, III, 259, and the Douce
collection, III, 114. B a was printed, with
changes, by Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II,
23; a copy resembling the Douce by Evans,
Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 106.
The story is a variation of Robin Hood
and the Potter. According to A, the sheriff
116of Nottingham has resolved to have Robin’s
head. A butcher is driving through the
forest, and his dog flies at Robin, for which
Robin kills the dog. The butcher undertakes
to let a little of the yeoman’s blood for
this, and there is a bout between staff and
sword, in which we know that the butcher
must bear himself well, though just here
the first of three considerable gaps occurs.
Robin buys the butcher’s stock, changes clothes
with him, and goes to Nottingham to market
his flesh. There he takes up his lodging
at the sheriff’s, having perhaps conciliated
the sheriff’s wife with the present of a
fine joint. He sells at so low a rate that
his stock is all gone before any one else has
sold a bit. The butchers ask him to drink,
and Robin makes an appointment with them
at the sheriff’s. A second gap deprives us of
the knowledge of what passes here, but we
infer that, as in B, Robin is so reckless of his
money that the sheriff thinks he can make
a good bargain in horned beasts with him.
Robin is ready; we see that he has come
with a well-formed plan. The next day the
sheriff goes to view the livestock, and is
taken into the depth of the forest; it turns
out that the wild deer are the butcher’s
horned beasts. Robin’s men come in at the
sound of his horn; the sheriff is lightened of
all his money, and is told that his head is
spared only for his wife’s sake. All this the
sheriff tells his wife, on his return, and she
replies that he has been served rightly for not
tarrying at home, as she had begged him to
do. The sheriff says he has learned wisdom,
and will meddle no more with Robin Hood.
B a omits the brush between Robin and the
butcher, mostly wanting, indeed, in A also,
but only because of the damage which the
manuscript has suffered.
The passage in which the sheriff is inveigled
into Robin’s haunts has, as already
mentioned, close affinity with the Gest, 181 ff.
The first three stanzas of A would not be
missed, and apparently belong to some other
ballad.[98]
B a is signed T. R., as is also Robin Hood
and the Beggar in two editions, and these
we may suppose to be the initials of the person
who wrote the story over with middle
rhyme in the third line of the stanza, a peculiarity
which distinguishes a group of ballads
which were sung to the tune of Robin Hood
and the Stranger: see Robin Hood and Little
John, No 125, and also No 128.
Percy MS., p. 7; Hales and Furnivall, I, 19.
1
But Robin he walkes in the g[reene] fforrest,
As merry as bird on boughe,
But he that feitches good Robins head,
Hee’le find him game enoughe.
2
But Robine he walkes in the greene fforrest,
Vnder his trusty-tree;
Sayes, Hearken, hearken, my merrymen all,
What tydings is come to me.
3
The sheriffe he hath made a cry,
Hee’le have my head i-wis;
But ere a tweluemonth come to an end
I may chance to light on his.
4
Robin he marcht in the greene forrest,
Vnder the greenwood scray,
And there he was ware of a proud bucher,
Came driuing flesh by the way.
5
The bucher he had a cut-taild dogg,
And at Robins face he flew;
But Robin he was a good sword,
The bucher’s dogg he slew.
6
‘Why slayes thou my dogg?’ sayes the bucher,
‘For he did none ill to thee;
117By all the saints that are in heaven
Thou shalt haue buffetts three.’
7
He tooke his staffe then in his hand,
And he turnd him round about:
‘Thou hast a litle wild blood in thy head,
Good fellow, thou’st haue it letten out.’
8
‘He that does that deed,’ sayes Robin,
‘I’le count him for a man;
But that while will I draw my sword,
And fend it if I can.’
9
But Robin he stroke att the bloudy bucher,
In place were he did stand,
* * * * *
10
‘I [am] a younge bucher,’ sayes Robin,
‘You fine dames am I come amonge;
But euer I beseech you, good Mrs Sheriffe,
You must see me take noe wronge.’
11
‘Thou art verry welcome,’ said Master Sherriff’s wiffe,
‘Thy inne heere up [to] take;
If any good ffellow come in thy companie,
Hee’st be welcome for thy sake.’
12
Robin called ffor ale, soe did he for wine,
And for it he did pay:
‘I must to my markett goe,’ says Robin,
‘For I hold time itt of the day.’
13
But Robin is to the markett gone,
Soe quickly and beliue,
He sold more flesh for one peny
Then othe[r] buchers did for fiue.
14
The drew about the younge bucher,
Like sheepe into a fold;
Yea neuer a bucher had sold a bitt
Till Robin he had all sold.
15
When Robin Hood had his markett made,
His flesh was sold and gone;
Yea he had receiued but a litle mony,
But thirty pence and one.
16
Seaven buchers, the garded Robin Hood,
Ffull many time and oft;
Sayes, We must drinke with you, brother bucher,
It’s custome of our crafte.
17
‘If that be the custome of your crafte,
As heere you tell to me,
Att four of the clocke in the afternoone
At the sheriffs hall I wilbe.’
* * * * *
18
. . . . . . .
‘If thou doe like it well;
Yea heere is more by three hundred pound
Then thou hast beasts to sell.’
19
Robyn sayd naught, the more he thought:
‘Mony neere comes out of time;
If once I catch thee in the greene fforest,
That mony it shall be mine.’
20
But on the next day seuen butchers
Came to guard the sheriffe that day;
But Robin he was the whigh[t]est man,
He led them all the way.
21
He led them into the greene fforest,
Vnder the trusty tree;
Yea, there were harts, and ther were hynds,
And staggs with heads full high.
22
Yea, there were harts and there were hynds,
And many a goodly ffawne;
‘Now praised be God,’ says bold Robin,
‘All these they be my owne.
23
‘These are my horned beasts,’ says Robin,
‘Master Sherriffe, which must make the stake;’
‘But euer alacke, now,’ said the sheriffe,
‘That tydings comes to late!’
24
Robin sett a shrill horne to his mouth,
And a loud blast he did blow,
And then halfe a hundred bold archers
Came rakeing on a row.
25
But when the came befor bold Robin,
Even there the stood all bare:
‘You are welcome, master, from Nottingham:
How haue you sold your ware?’
* * * * *
26
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
It proues bold Robin Hood.
11827
‘Yea, he hath robbed me of all my gold
And siluer that euer I had;
But that I had a verry good wife at home,
I shold haue lost my head.
28
‘But I had a verry good wife at home,
Which made him gentle cheere,
And therfor, for my wifes sake,
I shold haue better favor heere.
29
‘But such favor as he shewed me
I might haue of the devills dam,
That will rob a man of all he hath,
And send him naked home.’
30
‘That is very well done,’ then says his wiffe,
‘Itt is well done, I say;
You might haue tarryed att Nottingham,
Soe fayre as I did you pray.’
31
‘I haue learned wisdome,’ sayes the sherriffe,
‘And, wife, I haue learned of thee;
But if Robin walke easte, or he walke west,
He shall neuer be sought for me.’
a. Wood, 401, leaf 19 b. b. Garland of 1663, No 6.
c. Garland of 1670, No 5. d. Pepys, II, 102, No 89.
1
Come, all you brave gallants, and listen a while,
With hey down, down, an a down
That are in the bowers within;
For of Robin Hood, that archer good,
A song I intend for to sing.
2
Upon a time it chancëd so
Bold Robin in forrest did spy
A jolly butcher, with a bonny fine mare,
With his flesh to the market did hye.
3
‘Good morrow, good fellow,’ said jolly Robin,
‘What food hast? tell unto me;
And thy trade to me tell, and where thou dost dwell,
For I like well thy company.’
4
The butcher he answered jolly Robin:
No matter where I dwell;
For a butcher I am, and to Notingham
I am going, my flesh to sell.
5
‘What is [the] price of thy flesh?’ said jolly Robin,
‘Come, tell it soon unto me;
And the price of thy mare, be she never so dear,
For a butcher fain would I be.’
6
‘The price of my flesh,’ the butcher repli’d,
‘I soon will tell unto thee;
With my bonny mare, and they are not dear,
Four mark thou must give unto me.’
7
‘Four mark I will give thee,’ saith jolly Robin,
‘Four mark it shall be thy fee;
Thy mony come count, and let me mount,
For a butcher I fain would be.’
8
Now Robin he is to Notingham gone,
His butcher’s trade for to begin;
With good intent, to the sheriff he went,
And there he took up his inn.
9
When other butchers they opened their meat,
Bold Robin he then begun;
But how for to sell he knew not well,
For a butcher he was but young.
10
When other butchers no meat could sell,
Robin got both gold and fee;
For he sold more meat for one peny
Than others could do for three.
11
But when he sold his meat so fast,
No butcher by him could thrive;
For he sold more meat for one peny
Than others could do for five.
12
Which made the butchers of Notingham
To study as they did stand,
Saying, surely he was some prodigal,
That had sold his father’s land.
13
The butchers they stepped to jolly Robin,
Acquainted with him for to be;
‘Come, brother,’ one said, ‘we be all of one trade,
Come, will you go dine with me?’
11914
‘Accurst of his heart,’ said jolly Robin,
‘That a butcher doth deny;
I will go with you, my brethren true,
And as fast as I can hie.’
15
But when to the sheriff’s house they came,
To dinner they hied apace,
And Robin he the man must be
Before them all to say grace.
16
‘Pray God bless us all,’ said jolly Robin,
‘And our meat within this place;
A cup of sack so good will nourish our blood,
And so I do end my grace.
17
‘Come fill us more wine,’ said jolly Robin,
‘Let us merry be while we do stay;
For wine and good cheer, be it never so dear,
I vow I the reckning will pay.
18
‘Come, brother[s], be merry,’ said jolly Robin,
‘Let us drink, and never give ore;
For the shot I will pay, ere I go my way,
If it cost me five pounds and more.’
19
‘This is a mad blade,’ the butchers then said;
Saies the sheriff, He is some prodigal,
That some land has sold, for silver and gold,
And now he doth mean to spend all.
20
‘Hast thou any horn-beasts,’ the sheriff repli’d,
‘Good fellow, to sell unto me?’
‘Yes, that I have, good Master Sheriff,
I have hundreds two or three.
21
‘And a hundred aker of good free land,
If you please it to see;
And I’le make you as good assurance of it
As ever my father made me.’
22
The sheriff he saddled a good palfrey,
With three hundred pound in gold,
And away he went with bold Robin Hood,
His horned beasts to behold.
23
Away then the sheriff and Robin did ride,
To the forrest of merry Sherwood;
Then the sheriff did say, God bless us this day
From a man they call Robin Hood!
24
But when that a little further they came,
Bold Robin he chancëd to spy
A hundred head of good red deer,
Come tripping the sheriff full nigh.
25
‘How like you my hornd beasts, good Master Sheriff?
They be fat and fair for to see;’
‘I tell thee, good fellow, I would I were gone,
For I like not thy company.’
26
Then Robin he set his horn to his mouth,
And blew but blasts three;
Then quickly anon there came Little John,
And all his company.
27
‘What is your will?’ then said Little John,
‘Good master come tell it to me;’
‘I have brought hither the sheriff of Notingham,
This day to dine with thee.’
28
‘He is welcome to me,’ then said Little John,
‘I hope he will honestly pay;
I know he has gold, if it be but well told,
Will serve us to drink a whole day.’
29
Then Robin took his mantle from his back,
And laid it upon the ground,
And out of the sheriffeś portmantle
He told three hundred pound.
30
Then Robin he brought him thorow the wood,
And set him on his dapple gray:
‘O have me commended to your wife at home;’
So Robin went laughing away.
A.
12. bughe.
13. d in head has a tag to it: Furnivall.
64. 3. After 92, 174, 254, half a page gone.
134. 5.
154. 30ty :.
173. 4.
183. 300li :.
193. cacth: in thy.
201. 7.
243. 100d :.
283. profor for.
B. a.
Robin Hood and the Butcher. To the Tune
of Robin Hood and the Begger.
At the end, T. R.
Colophon. London. Printed for F. Grove on
Snow Hill. F. Grove printed 1620–55:
Chappell.
120124. hath sold.
b.
Robin Hood and the Butcher; shewing how
he robbed the sheriff of Nottingham. To
the Tune of Robin Hood and the Begger.
42. I do.
51. What is price.
104, 114. Then.
121. when misprinted for made.
124. had sold.
181. brother.
183. go on.
193. hath sold.
211. And an.
214. to me.
251. Sheriff wanting.
274. with me.
293. sheriffs.
c.
Title as inb.
2, 8, and after 8, burden: a hey.
51. is ye.
104, 114. Then.
124. had sold.
172. do wanting.
181. brother.
183. go on.
184. costs.
193. hath sold.
212. it please.
213. you wanting.
214. did me.
243. red wanting.
272. pray tell.
293. sheriffs.
d.
Robin Hood and the Butcher. To the Tune
of Robin Hood and the Beggar.
Colophon. Printed for I. Clarke, W. Thackeray,
and T. Passenger. 1670–86 (?).
Burden. From 21 on, With a hey (not With
hey). Also after the fourth line, With a
hey, &c.
11. ye.
12. this bower.
14. for wanting.
22. in the.
51. What’s the.
53. be it.
73. The.
83. a good.
91. butchers did open.
104. Then.
124. hath sold.
133. of a.
142. will deny.
153. Robin Hood.
164. do wanting.
172. be merry.
181. brothers.
184. pound or.
201. thou wanting: hornd: sheriff then said.
211. A hundred acres.
222. And with.
223. And wanting.
262. blew out.
271. will master said.
272. I pray you come.
273. hither wanting.
281. then wanting.
283. were it but.
294. five for three, wrongly, see 222.
301. he wanting: through.
123 ROBIN HOOD AND THE CURTAL FRIAR — A — B — APPENDIX THE PLAY OF ROBIN HOOD
A. ‘Robine Hood and Ffryer Tucke,’ Percy MS., p.
10; Hales and Furnivall, I, 26.
B. ‘The Famous Battel between Robin Hood and the
Curtal Fryer.’ a. Garland of 1663, No 11. b.[99]
Pepys, I, 78, No 37. c. Garland of 1670. d. Wood,
401, leaf 15 b. e. Pepys, II, 99, No 86. f. Douce,
II, 184.
B also in the Roxburghe collection, III, 16.
B d was printed in Ritson’s Robin Hood,
1795, II, 58, corrected by b and compared
with e; and in Evans’s Old Ballads, 1777–1784,
I, 136, probably from the Aldermary
garland.
The opening verses of A are of the same
description as those with which Nos 117, 118,
119, and others begin. 1 has been corrupted,
and 2 also, one would think, as there is no
apparent reason for maids weeping and young
men wringing hands in the merry month of
May. In the first stanza,
But how many merry monthes be in the yeere?
There are 13 in May;
The midsummer moone is the merryest of all,
Next to the merry month of May.
month in the first and the fourth line
might be changed to moon, to justify thirteen
in the second, and to accord with moon in the
third. For in May, in the second line, we
may read, I say, or many say. The first
stanza of No 140, B, runs:
There are twelve months in all the year,
As I hear many say;
But the merriest month in all the year
Is the merry month of May.
121Nearly, or quite, one half of A has been
torn from the manuscript, but there is no reason
to suppose that the story differed much
from that of B.
Upon Little John’s killing a hart at five
hundred foot, Robin Hood exclaims that he
would ride a hundred mile to find John’s
match. Scadlock, with a laugh, says that
there is a friar at Fountains Abbey who will
beat both John and Robin, or indeed Robin
and all his yeomen. Robin Hood takes an
oath never to eat or drink till he has seen that
friar. (Cf. No 30, I, 275, 279.) Robin goes
to Fountains Abbey, and ensconces his men
in a fern-brake. He finds the friar walking
by the water, well armed, and begs [orders, B]
the friar to carry him over.[100] The friar takes
Robin on his back, and says no word till he is
over; then draws his sword and bids Robin
carry him back, or he shall rue it. Robin
takes the friar on his back, and says no word
till he is over; then bids the friar carry him
over once more. The friar, without a word,
takes Robin on his back, and when he comes
to the middle of the stream throws him in.
When both have swum to the shore, Robin
lets an arrow fly, which the friar puts by with
his buckler. The friar cares not for his arrows,
though Robin shoots till his arrows are
all gone. They take to swords, and fight with
them for six good hours, when Robin begs
the boon of blowing three blasts on his horn.
The friar gives him leave to blow his eyes out:
fifty bowmen come raking over the lea. The
friar in turn asks a boon, to whistle thrice in
his fist. Robin cares not how much he whistles:
fifty good bandogs come raking in a row.
Here there is a divergence. According to A,
the friar will match every man with a dog, and
himself with Robin. God forbid, says Robin;
better be matched with three of the dogs than
with thee. Stay thy tikes, and let us be
friends. In B, two dogs go at Robin and tear
his mantle from his back; all the arrows shot
at them the dogs catch in their mouths. Little
John calls to the friar to call off his dogs,
and enforces his words by laying half a score
of them dead on the plain with his bow. The
friar cries, Hold; he will make terms. Robin
Hood offers the friar clothes and fee to forsake
Fountains Abbey for the green-wood. We
must infer, as in the parallel case of the Pinder
of Wakefield, that the offer is accepted.[101]
But the Curtal Friar, like the Pinder again,
plays no part in Robin Hood story out of his
own ballad.
Robin Hood and the Friar, in both versions,
is in a genuinely popular strain, and was made
to sing, not to print. Verbal agreements show
that A and B have an earlier ballad as their
common source; but of this, one or the other
has retained but little. I cannot think that
B 33, 34 are of the original matter. It is a
derogation from Robin Hood’s prowess that he
should have his mantle torn from his back,
and we may ask why the dogs do not catch
Little John’s arrows as well as others.
Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, in the West
Riding of Yorkshire, was a Cistercian monastery,
dating from the twelfth century. (It
is loosely called a nunnery in A 4.) The friar
is called “cutted” in A and “curtal” in B,
and these words have been held to mean short-frocked,
and therefore to make the friar a Franciscan.
Staveley, The Romish Horseleech,
speaking of the Franciscans, says at p. 214,
Experience shews that in some countrys,
where friers used to wear short habits, the order
was presently contemned and derided, and
men called them curtaild friers. Cited by
Douce, Illustrations of Shakspere, I, 61. So,
according to Douce, we may probably understand
the curtal friar to be a curtailed friar,
and in like manner of the curtal dogs. “Cutted”
in A can signify nothing but short-frocked.
In the title of that version, though
not in the text, the friar is called Tuck, which
means that he is “ytukked bye,” like Chaucer’s
122Friar John, but not that he wears a short
frock. The friar in the play (see below) has
a “long cote,” v. 46. But I apprehend that
B has the older word in curtal, and that curtal
is simply curtilarius, and applied to both
friar and dogs because they had the care and
keeping of the curtile, or vegetable garden, of
the monastery.[102]
The title of A in the MS. is Robin Hood
and Friar Tuck; from which it follows that
the copyist, or some predecessor, considered
the stalwart friar of Fountains Abbey to be
one with the jocular friar of the May-games
and the morris dance. But Friar Tuck, the
wanton and the merry, like Maid Marian,
owes his association with Robin Hood primarily
to these popular sports, and not in the
least to popular ballads. In the truly popular
ballads Friar Tuck is never heard of, and in
only two even of the broadsides, Robin Hood
and Queen Katherine and Robin Hood’s
Golden Prize, is he so much as named; in
both no more than named, and in both in conjunction
with Maid Marian.
‘The Play of Robin Hood,’ the first half of
which is based on the present ballad, calls the
friar Friar Tuck, and represents him accordingly.
See the Appendix. He is also called
Tuck in the play founded on Guy of Gisborne.
In Munday’s Downfall of Robert, Earl of
Huntington, Friar Tuck is by implication
identified with the friar who fell into the well,
Dodsley’s Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, VIII, 185;
and Mr Chappell is consequently led to say,
at p. 390 of his ‘Popular Music,’ that the
ballad of the Friar in the Well was in all probability
a tale of “Robin Hood’s fat friar.”
Cavilling at this phrase of Shakspere’s only
so far as to observe that the friar of the traditional
Robin Hood ballad is as little fat as
wanton, I need but say that the truth of the
case had been already accurately expressed by
Mr Chappell at p. 274 of his invaluable work:
“the story is a very old one, and one of the
many against monks and friars in which not
only England, but all Europe, delighted.”
The boon to blow three blasts on his horn,
B 25, is also asked by Robin of the Shepherd,
No 134, st. 15. The reply made by the Shepherd,
st. 16, is, If thou shouldst blow till tomorrow
morn, I scorn one foot to flee. In
R. H. Rescuing Three Squires, B 25, when
Robin, disguised as a beggar, intimates to the
sheriff that he may blow his horn, the answer
is nearly the same as here: Blow till both thy
eyes fall out. In No 127, st. 34 f, Robin asks
a boon of the Tinker, without specifying what
the boon is; the Tinker refuses; Robin blows
his horn while the Tinker is not looking. In
No 135, st. 16 f, Robin asks the three keepers
to let him blow one blast on his horn, and
they refuse. This boon of [three] blasts on
a horn is not an important matter in these
Robin Hood ballads, but it may be noticed as
a feature of other popular ballads in which an
actor is reduced to extremity: as in the Swedish
ballad Stolts Signild, Arwidsson, II, 128, No
97, and the corresponding Signild og hendes
Broder, Danske Viser, IV, 31, No 170, in both
of which the answer to the request is, Blow as
much as you will. So in a Russian bylina,
when Solomon is to be hanged, he obtains permission
three several times to blow his horn,
and is told to blow as much as he will, and
upon the third blast his army comes to the
rescue: Rybnikof, II, No 52, Jagié, in Archiv
für slavische Philologie, I, 104 ff; Miss Hapgood’s
Epic Songs of Russia, p. 287 f; also F.
Vogt, Salman und Morolf, p. 104, sts 494 ff.[103]
Three cries take the place of three blasts,
upon occasion: as in the case of the unhappy
maid in the German forms of No 4, I, 32 ff,
where also the maid is sometimes told to cry
as much as she wants, and in Gesta Romanorum,
Oesterley, cap. 108, p. 440.
B is translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 124.
123
Percy MS., p. 10; Hales and Furnivall, I, 26.
1
But how many merry monthes be in the yeere?
There are thirteen, I say;
The midsummer moone is the merryest of all,
Next to the merry month of May.
2
In May, when mayds beene fast weepand,
Young men their hands done wringe,
* * * * *
3
‘I’le . . pe . . . . .
Over may noe man for villanie:’
‘I’le never eate nor drinke,’ Robin Hood sa[id],
‘Till I that cutted friar see.’
4
He builded his men in a brake of fearne,
A litle from that nunery;
Sayes, If you heare my litle horne blow,
Then looke you come to me.
5
When Robin came to Fontaines Abey,
Wheras that fryer lay,
He was ware of the fryer where he stood,
And to him thus can he say.
6
A payre of blacke breeches the yeoman had on,
His coppe all shone of steele,
A fayre sword and a broad buckeler
Beseemed him very weell.
7
‘I am a wet weary man,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Good fellow, as thou may see;
Wilt beare [me] over this wild water,
Ffor sweete Saint Charity?’
8
The fryer bethought him of a good deed;
He had done none of long before;
He hent up Robin Hood on his backe,
And over he did him beare.
9
But when he came over that wild water,
A longe sword there he drew:
‘Beare me backe againe, bold outlawe,
Or of this thou shalt have enoughe.’
10
Then Robin Hood hent the fryar on his back,
And neither sayd good nor ill;
Till he came ore that wild water,
The yeoman he walked still.
11
Then Robin Hood wett his fayre greene hoze,
A span aboue his knee;
S[ay]s, Beare me ore againe, thou cutted f[ryer]
* * * * *
12
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . good bowmen
[C]ame raking all on a rowe.
13
‘I beshrew thy head,’ said the cutted ffriar,
‘Thou thinkes I shall be shente;
I thought thou had but a man or two,
And thou hast [a] whole conuent.
14
‘I lett thee haue a blast on thy horne,
Now giue me leaue to whistle another;
I cold not bidd thee noe better play
And thou wert my owne borne brother.’
15
‘Now fute on, fute on, thou cutted fryar,
I pray God thou neere be still;
It is not the futing in a fryers fist
That can doe me any ill.’
16
The fryar sett his neave to his mouth,
A loud blast he did blow;
Then halfe a hundred good bandoggs
Came raking all on a rowe.
17
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
‘Euery dogg to a man,’ said the cutted fryar,
‘And I my selfe to Robin Hood.’
18
‘Over God’s forbott,’ said Robin Hood,
‘That euer that soe shold bee;
I had rather be mached with three of the tikes
Ere I wold be matched on thee.
19
‘But stay thy tikes, thou fryar,’ he said,
‘And freindshipp I’le haue with thee;
But stay thy tikes, thou fryar,’ he said,
‘And saue good yeomanry.’
20
The fryar he sett his neave to his mouth,
A lowd blast he did blow;
124The doggs the coucht downe euery one,
They couched downe on a rowe.
21
‘What is thy will, thou yeoman?’ he said,
‘Haue done and tell it me;’
‘If that thou will goe to merry greenwood,
* * * * *
a. Garland of 1663, No 11. b. Pepys, I, 78, No 37.
c. Garland of 1670, No 10. d. Wood, 401, leaf 15 b.
e. Pepys, II, 99, No 86. f. Douce, II, 184.
1
In summer time, when leaves grow green,
And flowers are fresh and gay,
Robin Hood and his merry men
Were disposed to play.
2
Then some would leap, and some would run,
And some would use artillery:
‘Which of you can a good bow draw,
A good archer to be?
3
‘Which of you can kill a buck?
Or who can kill a do?
Or who can kill a hart of greece,
Five hundred foot him fro?’
4
Will Scadlock he killd a buck,
And Midge he killd a do,
And Little John killd a hart of greece,
Five hundred foot him fro.
5
‘God’s blessing on thy heart,’ said Robin Hood,
‘That hath [shot] such a shot for me;
I would ride my horse an hundred miles,
To finde one could match with thee.’
6
That causd Will Scadlock to laugh,
He laughed full heartily:
‘There lives a curtal frier in Fountains Abby
Will beat both him and thee.
7
‘That curtal frier in Fountains Abby
Well can a strong bow draw;
He will beat you and your yeomen,
Set them all on a row.’
8
Robin Hood took a solemn oath,
It was by Mary free,
That he would neither eat nor drink
Till the frier he did see.
9
Robin Hood put on his harness good,
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him weel.
10
He took his bow into his hand,
It was made of a trusty tree,
With a sheaf of arrows at his belt,
To the Fountains Dale went he.
11
And comming unto Fountain[s] Dale,
No further would he ride;
There was he aware of a curtal frier,
Walking by the water-side.
12
The fryer had on a harniss good,
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him weel.
13
Robin Hood lighted off his horse,
And tied him to a thorn:
‘Carry me over the water, thou curtal frier,
Or else thy life’s forlorn.’
14
The frier took Robin Hood on his back,
Deep water he did bestride,
And spake neither good word nor bad,
Till he came at the other side.
15
Lightly leapt Robin Hood off the friers back;
The frier said to him again,
Carry me over this water, fine fellow,
Or it shall breed thy pain.
16
Robin Hood took the frier on ’s back,
Deep water he did bestride,
And spake neither good word nor bad,
Till he came at the other side.
17
Lightly leapt the fryer off Robin Hoods back;
Robin Hood said to him again,
Carry me over this water, thou curtal frier,
Or it shall breed thy pain.
12518
The frier took Robin Hood on’s back again,
And stept up to the knee;
Till he came at the middle stream,
Neither good nor bad spake he.
19
And coming to the middle stream,
There he threw Robin in:
‘And chuse thee, chuse thee, fine fellow,
Whether thou wilt sink or swim.’
20
Robin Hood swam to a bush of broom,
The frier to a wicker wand;
Bold Robin Hood is gone to shore,
And took his bow in hand.
21
One of his best arrows under his belt
To the frier he let flye;
The curtal frier, with his steel buckler,
He put that arrow by.
22
‘Shoot on, shoot on, thou fine fellow,
Shoot on as thou hast begun;
If thou shoot here a summers day,
Thy mark I will not shun.’
23
Robin Hood shot passing well,
Till his arrows all were gone;
They took their swords and steel bucklers,
And fought with might and maine;
24
From ten oth’ clock that day,
Till four ith’ afternoon;
Then Robin Hood came to his knees,
Of the frier to beg a boon.
25
‘A boon, a boon, thou curtal frier,
I beg it on my knee;
Give me leave to set my horn to my mouth,
And to blow blasts three.’
26
‘That will I do,’ said the curtal frier,
‘Of thy blasts I have no doubt;
I hope thou’lt blow so passing well
Till both thy eyes fall out.’
27
Robin Hood set his horn to his mouth,
He blew but blasts three;
Half a hundred yeomen, with bows bent,
Came raking over the lee.
28
‘Whose men are these,’ said the frier,
‘That come so hastily?’
‘These men are mine,’ said Robin Hood;
‘Frier, what is that to thee?’
29
‘A boon, a boon,’ said the curtal frier,
‘The like I gave to thee;
Give me leave to set my fist to my mouth,
And to whute whutes three.’
30
‘That will I do,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Or else I were to blame;
Three whutes in a friers fist
Would make me glad and fain.’
31
The frier he set his fist to his mouth,
And whuted whutes three;
Half a hundred good ban-dogs
Came running the frier unto.
32
‘Here’s for every man of thine a dog,
And I my self for thee:’
‘Nay, by my faith,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘Frier, that may not be.’
33
Two dogs at once to Robin Hood did go,
The one behind, the other before;
Robin Hoods mantle of Lincoln green
Off from his back they tore.
34
And whether his men shot east or west,
Or they shot north or south,
The curtal dogs, so taught they were,
They kept their arrows in their mouth.
35
‘Take up thy dogs,’ said Little John,
‘Frier, at my bidding be;’
‘Whose man art thou,’ said the curtal frier,
‘Comes here to prate with me?’
36
‘I am Little John, Robin Hoods man,
Frier, I will not lie;
If thou take not up thy dogs soon,
I’le take up them and thee.’
37
Little John had a bow in his hand,
He shot with might and main;
Soon half a score of the friers dogs
Lay dead upon the plain.
38
‘Hold thy hand, good fellow,’ said the curtal frier,
‘Thy master and I will agree;
And we will have new orders taken,
With all the haste that may be.’
12639
‘If thou wilt forsake fair Fountains Dale,
And Fountains Abby free,
Every Sunday throughout the year,
A noble shall be thy fee.
40
‘And every holy day throughout the year,
Changed shall thy garment be,
If thou wilt go to fair Nottingham,
And there remain with me.’
41
This curtal frier had kept Fountains Dale
Seven long years or more;
There was neither knight, lord, nor earl
Could make him yield before.
A.
Half a page is gone after 22, 113, 213.
11. moones?
12. 13 in May.
14. month may pass, though moone is expected.
21,2. might perhaps be intelligible with the
other half of the stanza.
104, 203. They.
111. eze.
134. counent? comment? F.
151. Now fate.
163. 100d :.
173,4. bis{
181. Ever.
183. 3.
B. a.
The famous battel between Robin Hood and
the Curtal Fryer, near Fountain Dale.
To a new northern tune.
41, 61. Sadlock: Scadlock elsewhere.
151. stept. Cf. 171: leapt inb, e.
194. sing.
243. his wanting, and in all butb, e.
244. the wanting, and in all butb, e.
274. ranking: ind, e, f, ranging.
321. of thine wanting: found only inb.
344. catcht: kept inb, d.
353. thon.
b.
Title as ina, omitting near Fountain Dale.
Printed at London for H. Gosson. (1607–41.)
24. for to.
34, 44, 53, 273, 313. hundreth.
53. a for an.
54. with wanting.
73. and all.
74. all a on a.
81. Hood he.
92, 122. And wanting.
104. Fountaine.
111. into.
112. he would.
113. he was: of the.
121. a wanting.
144, 164. th’ other.
151. leapt for stept.
161. on his.
181. Hood wanting.
182. in for up.
202. wigger.
204. in his.
221. Scot: a misprint.
232. gane.
234. They for And.
241. of clock of that.
242. four of th’.
243. to his.
244. of the.
254. But to.
261. I will.
274. raking.
282. comes.
294, 303, 312. whues, unobjectionable: in all
the rest whutes.
311. he set.
313. of good band-dogs.
321. man of thine.
328. said for quoth.
344. kept the.
384. that wanting.
401. through the.
412. and more.
c.
Title as ina, except Dales.
52. hath wanting.
63, 71. Fountain.
84. he the frier did.
151. stept.
201. swom.
231. shot so.
283. men wanting.
313. band-dogs.
344. catcht.
354. to me.
402. garments.
d.
Title as inb.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, W. Gilbertson. (1640–80?)
53. a.
54. with wanting.
74. all in.
111. Fountains.
112. farther.
151. stept.
161. on his.
202. wigger.
231. shot so.
234. They for And.
243. his wanting.
244. the wanting.
274. ranging.
283. men wanting.
311. he wanting.
321. of thine wanting.
332. and the other.
344. They kept.
393. through the.
402. garments.
e.
Title as inb.
Printed for W. Thackeray, J. Millet, and A. Milbourn. (1680–97?)
24. for wanting.
34, 44. hundreth.
52. That shot such a shoot.
53. a for an.
54. with wanting.
63. Fountain.
7, 8. wanting.
102. made wanting.
111. Fountain’s.
112. farther.
113. he was.
121. on wanting.
151. leapt for stept.
153. thou fine.
161. on his.
163. speak.
173. over the.
202. wigger.
203. to the.
222. on wanting.
231. shot so.
232. were all gane.
234. They for And.
243. to his.
244. Of the.
261. I will.
272. blew out.
274. ranging.
313. bay dogs.
321. Here is.
343. The cutrtles.
344. caught the.
381. Hold thy hand, hold thy hand, said.
391,2, 411. Fountain.
401. through the.
402. garments.
412. and for or.
f.
Title as inb.
London, printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and
J. Wright. (1655–80.)
22. some wanting.
52. shot such a shoot.
53. a.
54. with wanting.
111. Fountains.
127112. farther.
113. ware.
151. step’d.
153. thou fine.
161. on his.
202. wigger.
203. to the.
213, 343. curtle.
222. on wanting.
231. shot so.
232. Till all his arrows were.
234. They for And.
243. his wanting.
244. the wanting.
274. ranging.
283. men wanting.
303. fryer.
311. he wanting.
313. bay-dogs.
321. Here is: of thine wanting.
332. and the other.
344. caught the.
392, 411. Fountain.
393, 401. through the.
402. garments.
412. and more.
(1–110)
a.
Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 192, as printed
by William Copland, at the end of his edition
of the Gest.
b.
As printed by Edward White, at the end of his
edition of the Gest: Bodleian Library, Z. 3.
Art. Seld.
ROBYN HODE
Now stand ye forth, my mery men all,
And harke what I shall say;
Of an adventure I shal you tell,
The which befell this other day.
As I went by the hygh way,
5
With a stout frere I met,
And a quarter-staffe in his hande.
Lyghtely to me he lept,
And styll he bade me stande.
There were strypes two or three,
10
But I cannot tell who had the worse,
But well I wote the horeson lept within me,
And fro me he toke my purse.
Is there any of my mery men all
That to that frere wyll go,
15
And bryng hym to me forth withall,
Whether he wyll or no?
LYTELL JOHN
Yes, mayster, I make God avowe,
To that frere wyll I go,
And bring him to you,
20
Whether he wyl or no.
FRYER TUCKE
Deus hic! deus hic! God be here!
Is not this a holy worde for a frere?
God save all this company!
But am not I a jolly fryer?
25
For I can shote both farre and nere,
And handle the sworde and buckler,
And this quarter-staffe also.
If I mete with a gentylman or yeman,
I am not afrayde to loke hym upon,
30
Nor boldly with him to carpe;
If he speake any wordes to me,
He shall have strypes two or thre,
That shal make his body smarte.
But, maisters, to shew you the matter
35
Wherfore and why I am come hither,
In fayth I wyll not spare.
I am come to seke a good yeman,
In Bernisdale men sai is his habitacion,
His name is Robyn Hode.
40
And if that he be better man than I,
His servaunt wyll I be, and serve him truely;
But if that I be better man than he,
By my truth my knave shall he be,
And leade these dogges all three.
45
ROBYN HODE
Yelde the, fryer, in thy long cote.
FRYER TUCKE
I beshrew thy hart, knave, thou hurtest my throt[e].
ROBYN HODE
I trowe, fryer, thou beginnest to dote;
Who made the so malapert and so bolde
To come into this forest here,
50
Amonge my falowe dere?
FRYER
Go louse the, ragged knave.
If thou make mani wordes, I will geve the on the eare,
Though I be but a poore fryer.
To seke Robyn Hode I am com here,
55
And to him my hart to breke.
ROBYN HODE
Thou lousy frer, what wouldest thou with hym?
He never loved fryer, nor none of freiers kyn.
FRYER
Avaunt, ye ragged knave!
Or ye shall have on the skynne.
60
128ROBYN HODE
Of all the men in the morning thou art the worst,
To mete with the I have no lust;
For he that meteth a frere or a fox in the morning,
To spede ill that day he standeth in jeoperdy.
Therfore I had lever mete with the devil of hell,
65
(Fryer, I tell the as I thinke,)
Then mete with a fryer or a fox
In a mornyng, or I drynk.
FRYER
Avaunt, thou ragged knave! this is but a mock;
If thou make mani words thou shal have a knock.
70
ROBYN HODE
Harke, frere, what I say here:
Over this water thou shalt me bere,
The brydge is borne away.
FRYER
To say naye I wyll not;
To let the of thine oth it were great pitie and sin;
75
But up on a fryers backe, and have even in!
ROBYN HODE
Nay, have over.
FRYER
Now am I, frere, within, and thou, Robin, without,
To lay the here I have no great doubt.
Now art thou, Robyn, without, and I, frere, within,
80
Lye ther, knave; chose whether thou wilte sinke or swym.
ROBYN HODE
Why, thou lowsy frere, what hast thou done?
FRYER
Mary, set a knave over the shone.
ROBYN HODE
Therfore thou shalt abye.
FRYER
Why, wylt thou fyght a plucke?
85
ROBYN HODE
And God send me good lucke.
FRYER
Than have a stroke for fryer Tucke.
ROBYN HODE
Holde thy hande, frere, and here me speke.
FRYER
Say on, ragged knave,
Me semeth ye begyn to swete.
90
ROBYN HODE
In this forest I have a hounde,
I wyl not give him for an hundreth pound.
Geve me leve my horne to blowe,
That my hounde may knowe.
FRYER
Blowe on, ragged knave, without any doubte,
95
Untyll bothe thyne eyes starte out.
Here be a sorte of ragged knaves come in,
Clothed all in Kendale grene,
And to the they take their way nowe.
ROBYN HODE
Peradventure they do so.
100
FRYER
I gave the leve to blowe at thy wyll,
Now give me leve to whistell my fyll.
ROBYN HODE
Whystell, frere, evyl mote thou fare!
Untyll bothe thyne eyes stare.
FRYER
Now Cut and Bause!
105
Breng forth the clubbes and staves,
And downe with those ragged knaves!
ROBYN HODE
How sayest thou, frere, wylt thou be my man,
To do me the best servyse thou can?
Thou shalt have both golde and fee.
110
After ten lines of ribaldry, which have no pertinency
to the traditional Robin Hood and Friar,
the play abruptly passes to the adventure of Robin
Hood and the Potter.
a.
Ritson has been followed, without collation with
Copland.
35. maister.
64. spede ell.
70. you, you for thou, thou.
82. donee.
104. starte.
b.
13. he wanting.
15. to the.
23. word of.
31. Not.
35. maister.
41. if he.
43. be a.
59. ye wanting.
61. in a.
65. had rather: of hell wanting.
70. yu: yu shalt.
81. choose either sinke.
97. Here is.
103. might thou.
104. stare.
124 THE JOLLY PINDER OF WAKEFIELD — A — B
129
A. a. Wood, 402, leaf 43. b. Garland of 1663, No 4.
c. Garland of 1670, No 3. d. Pepys, II, 100, No
87 a. e. Wood, 401, leaf 61 b.
B. Percy MS., p. 15; Hales and Furnivall, I, 32.
Printed in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II,
16, from one of Wood’s copies, “compared
with two other copies in the British Museum,
one in black letter:” Evans, Old Ballads,
1777, 1784, I, 99.
There is another copy in the Roxburghe
collection, III, 24, and there are two in the
Bagford.
‘A ballett of Wakefylde and a grene’ is
entered to Master John Wallye and Mistress
Toye, 19 July, 1557–9 July, 1558: Stationers’
Registers, Arber, I, 76.
The ballad is one of four, besides the Gest,
that were known to the author of the Life
of Robin Hood in Sloane MS., 715, which
dates from the end of the seventeenth century.
It is thoroughly lyrical, and therein “like the
old age,” and was pretty well sung to pieces
before it ever was printed. A snatch of it is
sung, as Ritson has observed, in each of the
Robin Hood plays, The Downfall of Robert,
Earl of Huntington, by Anthony Munday,
and The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington,
by A. Munday and Henry Chettle, both
printed in 1601.
Silence sings the line ‘And Robin Hood,
Scarlet, and John,’ 32, in the Second Part of
King Henry Fourth, V, 3, and Falstaff addresses
Bardolph as Scarlet and John in the
first scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
In Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster, V, 4,
Dyce, I, 295, we have: “Let not ... your
Robinhoods, Scarlets, and Johns tie your affections
in darkness to your shops.” Scarlet and
John, comrades of Robin Hood from the beginning,
are prominent in many ballads.
Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John have left
the highway and made a path over the corn,[105]
apparently in defiance of the Pinder of Wakefield,
who has the fame of being able to exact
a penalty of trespassers, whatever their rank.
The Pinder bids them turn again; they, being
three to one, scorn to comply. The Pinder
fights with them till their swords are broken.
Robin cries Hold! and asks the Pinder to
join his company in the greenwood. This
the Pinder is ready to do at Michaelmas,
when his engagement to his present master
will be terminated. Robin asks for meat and
drink, and the Pinder offers him bread, beef,
and ale.
The adventure of the ballad is naturally
introduced into the play of George a Greene,
the Pinner of Wakefield, printed in 1599,
reprinted in Dodsley’s Old Plays (the third
volume of the edition of 1825), and by Dyce
among the works of Robert Greene. George
a Greene fights with Scarlet, and beats him;
then with Much (not John), and beats him;
then with Robin Hood. Robin protests he is
the stoutest champion that ever he laid hands
on, and says:
130George, wilt thou forsake Wakefield
And go with me?
Two liveries will I give thee every year,
And forty crowns shall be thy fee.
George welcomes Robin to his house, offering
him wafer-cakes, beef, mutton, and veal.
(Dyce, II, 196 f.)
The scene in the play is found in the prose
history of George a Green, London, 1706, of
which a copy is known, no doubt substantially
the same, of the date 1632. The Pinner here
fells ‘Slathbatch,’ Little John, and the Friar,
before his bout with Robin. See Thoms, A
Collection of Early Prose Romances, II, 44–47,
and the prefaces, p. viii ff, p. xviii f, for
more about the popularity of the Pinner’s
story.
Wakefield is in the West Riding of the
county of York.
Richard Brathwayte, in a poetical epistle
“to all true-bred northerne sparks of the generous
society of the Cottoneers,” Strappado
for the Divell, 1615 (cited by Ritson, Robin
Hood, ed. 1795, I, xxvii-ix), speaks of
The Pindar’s valour, and how firme he stood
In th’ townes defence gainst th’ rebel Robin Hood;
How stoutly he behav’d himselfe, and would,
In spite of Robin, bring his horse to th’ fold:
from which we might infer that according
to one account the Pinder had impounded
Robin’s horse. But as Robin Hood, in this
passage, is confounded with the rebel Earl of
Kendal, or some one of his adherents, it is
safe to suppose that Brathwayte has been
twice inaccurate.[106]
The ballad is so imperfect that one might
be in doubt whether the Pinder fights with
Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John all together
or successively. But to suppose the Pinder
capable of dealing with all three at once
would be monstrous, and we see from the
History and from Greene’s play that the Pinder
must take them one after the other, and
Robin the last of the three.
There are seven other ballads, besides The
Pinder of Wakefield, in which Robin Hood,
after trying his strength with a stout fellow,
and coming off somewhat or very much the
worse, induces his antagonist to enlist in his
company. Several of these are very late,
and most of them imitations, we may say, of
the Pinder, or one of the other. These ballads
are: Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar;
Robin Hood and Little John; Robin Hood
and the Tanner; Robin Hood and the Tinker,
28 ff; Robin Hood Revived; Robin Hood
and the Ranger; Robin Hood and the Scotchman.
We might add Robin Hood and Maid
Marian. The episode of Little John and the
Cook, in the Gest, 165–171, is after the same
pattern. There is another set in which a
contest of a like description does not result in
an accession to the outlaw-band. These are
Robin Hood and the Potter; Robin Hood and
the Butcher; Robin Hood and the Beggar, I;
Robin Hood and the Beggar, II (Robin Hood
first beaten, then three of his men severely
handled); Robin Hood and the Shepherd
(Robin Hood overmastered, Little John on
the point of being beaten, etc.); The Bold
Pedlar and Robin Hood (John outmatched
first, then his master); Robin Hood’s Delight
(combat between Robin Hood, Little
John, and Scadlock and three Keepers);
Robin Hood and the Pedlars (again three to
three).
There are, as might be expected, frequent
verbal agreements in these ballads, and many
of them are collected by Fricke, Die Robin-Hood-Balladen,
pp 91–95.
The fights in these ballads last from an
hour, Gest, st. 168, to a long summer’s day,
in this ballad, st. 6. In Robin Hood and
Maid Marian, st. 11, the time is at least an
hour, or more; in Robin Hood and the Tanner,
131st. 20, two hours and more; in Robin Hood
and the Ranger, st. 12, three hours; in Robin
Hood and the Curtal Friar, B 24, and Robin
Hood and the Shepherd, st. 11, from ten
o’clock till four; in Robin Hood’s Delight, st.
11, from eight o’clock till two, and past.
a. Wood, 402, leaf 43. b. Garland of 1663, No 4.
c. Garland of 1670, No 3. d. Pepys, II, 100, No 87 a.
e. Wood, 401, leaf 61 b.
1
In Wakefield there lives a jolly pinder,
In Wakefield, all on a green; (bis)
2
‘There is neither knight nor squire,’ said the pinder,
‘Nor baron that is so bold, (bis)
Dare make a trespasse to the town of Wakefield,
But his pledge goes to the pinfold.’ (bis)
3
All this beheard three witty young men,
’Twas Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John;
With that they spyed the jolly pinder,
As he sate under a thorn.
4
‘Now turn again, turn again,’ said the pinder,
‘For a wrong way have you gone;
For you have forsaken the king his highway,
And made a path over the corn.’
5
‘O that were great shame,’ said jolly Robin,
‘We being three, and thou but one:’
The pinder leapt back then thirty good foot,
’Twas thirty good foot and one.
6
He leaned his back fast unto a thorn,
And his foot unto a stone,
And there he fought a long summer’s day,
A summer’s day so long,
Till that their swords, on their broad bucklers,
Were broken fast unto their hands.
* * * * *
7
‘Hold thy hand, hold thy hand,’ said Robin Hood,
‘And my merry men euery one;
For this is one of the best pinders
That ever I try’d with sword.
8
‘And wilt thou forsake thy pinder his craft,
And live in [the] green wood with me?
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
9
‘At Michaelmas next my covnant comes out,
When every man gathers his fee;
I’le take my blew blade all in my hand,
And plod to the green wood with thee.’
10
‘Hast thou either meat or drink,’ said Robin Hood,
‘For my merry men and me?
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
11
‘I have both bread and beef,’ said the pinder,
‘And good ale of the best;’
‘And that is meat good enough,’ said Robin Hood,
‘For such unbidden guest.
12
‘O wilt thou forsake the pinder his craft,
And go to the green wood with me?
Thou shalt have a livery twice in the year,
The one green, the other brown [shall be].’
13
‘If Michaelmas day were once come and gone
And my master had paid me my fee,
Then would I set as little by him
As my master doth set by me.’
Percy MS., p. 15; Hales and Furnivall, I, 32.
* * * * *
1
‘But hold y . . hold y . . .’ says Robin,
‘My merrymen, I bid yee,
For this [is] one of the best pindars
That euer I saw with mine eye.
1322
‘But hast thou any meat, thou iolly pindar,
For my merrymen and me?’
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
3
‘But I haue bread and cheese,’ sayes the pindar,
‘And ale all on the best:’
‘That’s cheere good enoughe,’ said Robin,
‘For any such vnbidden guest.
4
‘But wilt be my man?’ said good Robin,
‘And come and dwell with me?
And twise in a yeere thy clothing [shall] be changed
If my man thou wilt bee,
The tone shall be of light Lincolne greene,
The tother of Picklory.’
5
‘Att Michallmas comes a well good time,
When men haue gotten in their ffee;
I’le sett as litle by my master
As he now setts by me,
I’le take my benbowe in my hande,
And come into the grenwoode to thee.’
A.
The second and fourth lines were repeated in
singing.
a.
The Iolly Pinder of Wakefield.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and W. G[i]lber[t]son.
(F. Coles, 1646–1674; T. Vere,
1648–1680; W. Gilbertson, 1640–1663.
Chappell.)
11. their.
31. witty, which all have, is a corruption of
wight.
101. laid.
134. by my.
b, c.
Robin Hood and the jolly Pinder of Wakefield,
shewing how he fought with Robin
Hood, Scarlet, and John a long summer’s
day. To a Northern tune.
b.
11. there dwels.
24. it goes.
41. saith.
51. a for great: saith.
112. all.
113. that’s.
121. thy for the.
c.
43. king’s high.
62. fast unto.
64. And a.
65. that wanting.
91. covenants.
101. thou wanting.
d.
The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield with Robin
Hood, Scarlet, and John.
Printed by and for Alex. Milbourn, in Green-Arbor
Court, in the Little Old-Baily. (A.
Milbourn, 1670–1697. Chappell.)
33. espy’d.
34. sat.
42. you have.
43. the kings.
51. a for great.
62. foot against.
63. they for he.
66. broke.
81. pinders craft.
82. in the.
131. was come.
134. set wanting.
e.
The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield: with Robin
Hood, Scarlet and John.
No printer’s name.
33. espyed.
34. sat.
42. you have.
43. kings.
61. foot against.
66. broke.
81. pinders craft.
131. was come.
134. set wanting.
Pepys Penny Merriments Garland: according
to Hales and Furnivall.
64. And a.
65. that wanting.
101. thou wanting.
121. thy pinder.
Gutch, Robin Hood, II, 144 f, says that the
Roxburghe copy has in 31 wight yeomen.
He prints 72–4:
And my merry men stand aside;
For this is one of the best pinders
That with sword ever I tryed.
83–4.
Thou shalt have a livery twice in the year,
Th’one greene, tither brown shall be.
These parts of stanzas 7, 8 he gives as from
a black-letter copy, which he does not describe.
B.
11,2 make half a stanza in the MS., and 13,4
are joined with 21,2. 45,6 and 51,2 make a
stanza. It is not supposed that 4 and 5
were originally stanzas of six lines, but
rather that, one half of each of two stanzas
having been forgotten, the other has attached
itself to a complete stanza which
chanced to have the same rhyme. Stanzas
of six lines, formed in this way, are common
in traditional ballads.
34. guests.
43. 2s :. in.
125 ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN
133
a. A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723, I, 75. b. Aldermary Garland, by R. Marshall, n. d., No 22.
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 138; Evans,
Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 204. There is a
bad copy in a Robin Hood’s Garland of 1749.
“This ballad,” says Ritson, “is named in a
schedule of such things under an agreement
between W. Thackeray and others in 1689,
Col. Pepys, vol. 5.” It occurs in a list of ballads
printed for and sold by William Thackeray
at the Angel in Duck-Lane (see The
Ballad Society’s reprint of the Roxburghe
Ballads, W. Chappell, I, xxiv, from a copy in
the Bagford collection), but by some caprice
of fortune has not, so far as is known, come
down in the broadside form, neither is it found
in the older garlands.
Robin Hood and Little John belongs to a
set of ballads which have middle rhyme in the
third line of the stanza, and are directed to be
sung to one and the same tune. These are:
R. H. and the Bishop, R. H. and the Beggar,
R. H. and the Tanner, to the tune of R. H. and
the Stranger; R. H. and the Butcher, R. H.’s
Chase, Little John and the Four Beggars, to
the tune of R. H. and the Beggar; R. H. and
Little John, R. H. and the Ranger, to the
tune of Arthur a Bland (that is, R. H. and
the Tanner). There is no ballad with the
title Robin Hood and the Stranger. Ritson
thought it proper to give this title to a ballad
which uniformly bears the title of Robin Hood
Newly Revived, No 128, because Robin’s antagonist
is repeatedly called “the stranger” in
it. But Robin’s antagonist is equally often
called “the stranger” in the present ballad
(eleven times in each), and Robin Hood and
Little John has the middle rhyme in the third
line, which Robin Hood Newly Revived has
not (excepting in seven stanzas at the end,
which are a portion of a different ballad, Robin
Hood and the Scotchman). Robin Hood and
Little John (and Robin Hood Newly Revived
as well) would naturally be referred to as
Robin Hood and the Stranger, for the same
reason that Robin Hood and the Tanner is referred
to as Arthur a Bland. The fact that
the middle rhyme in the third line is found
in Robin Hood and Little John, but is lacking
in Robin Hood Newly Revived, gives a slightly
superior probability to the supposition that the
former, or rather some older version of it (for
the one we have is in a rank seventeenth-century
style), had the secondary title of Robin
Hood and the Stranger.[107]
Like Robin Hood’s Progress to Nottingham,
134this ballad affects, in the right apocryphal
way, to know an adventure of Robin’s early
life. Though but twenty years old, Robin
has a company of threescore and nine bowmen.
With all these he shakes hands one
morning, and goes through the forest alone,
prudently enjoining on the band to come to
his help if he should blow his horn. He
meets a stranger on a narrow bridge, and
neither will give way. Robin threatens the
stranger with an arrow, which, as he requires
to be reminded, is cowardly enough, seeing
that the other man has nothing but a staff.
Recalled to ordinary manliness, Robin Hood,
laying down his bow, provides himself with
an oaken stick, and proposes a battle on the
bridge, which he shall be held to win who
knocks the other into the water in the end.
In the end the stranger tumbles Robin into the
brook, and is owned to have won the day. The
band are now summoned by the horn, and
when they hear what the stranger has done are
about to seize and duck him, but are ordered
to forbear. Robin Hood proposes to his antagonist
that he shall join his men, and John
Little, as he declares his name to be, accedes.
John Little is seven foot tall.[108] Will Stutely
says his name must be changed, and they rebaptize
the “infant” as Little John.
‘A pastorall plesant commedie of Robin
Hood and Little John, etc.,’ is entered to Edward
White in the Stationers’ Registers, May
14, 1594, and ‘Robin Hood and Litle John’
to Master Oulton, April 22, 1640. (Arber, II,
649, IV, 507.)
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 65.
1
When Robin Hood was about twenty years old,
With a hey down down and a down
He happend to meet Little John,
A jolly brisk blade, right fit for the trade,
For he was a lusty young man.
2
Tho he was calld Little, his limbs they were large,
And his stature was seven foot high;
Where-ever he came, they quak’d at his name,
For soon he would make them to fly.
3
How they came acquainted, I’ll tell you in brief,
If you will but listen a while;
For this very jest, amongst all the rest,
I think it may cause you to smile.
4
Bold Robin Hood said to his jolly bowmen,
Pray tarry you here in this grove;
And see that you all observe well my call,
While thorough the forest I rove.
5
We have had no sport for these fourteen long days,
Therefore now abroad will I go;
Now should I be beat, and cannot retreat,
My horn I will presently blow.
6
Then did he shake hands with his merry men all,
And bid them at present good b’w’ye;
Then, as near a brook his journey he took,
A stranger he chancd to espy.
7
They happend to meet on a long narrow bridge,
And neither of them would give way;
Quoth bold Robin Hood, and sturdily stood,
I’ll show you right Nottingham play.
8
With that from his quiver an arrow he drew,
A broad arrow with a goose-wing:
The stranger reply’d, I’ll liquor thy hide,
If thou offerst to touch the string.
9
Quoth bold Robin Hood, Thou dost prate like an ass,
For were I to bend but my bow,
I could send a dart quite thro thy proud heart,
Before thou couldst strike me one blow.
10
‘Thou talkst like a coward,’ the stranger reply’d;
‘Well armd with a long bow you stand,
135To shoot at my breast, while I, I protest,
Have nought but a staff in my hand.’
11
‘The name of a coward,’ quoth Robin, ‘I scorn,
Wherefore my long bow I’ll lay by;
And now, for thy sake, a staff will I take,
The truth of thy manhood to try.’
12
Then Robin Hood stept to a thicket of trees,
And chose him a staff of ground-oak;
Now this being done, away he did run
To the stranger, and merrily spoke:
13
Lo! see my staff, it is lusty and tough,
Now here on the bridge we will play;
Whoever falls in, the other shall win
The battel, and so we’ll away.
14
‘With all my whole heart,’ the stranger reply’d;
‘I scorn in the least to give out;’
This said, they fell to ‘t without more dispute,
And their staffs they did flourish about.
15
And first Robin he gave the stranger a bang,
So hard that it made his bones ring:
The stranger he said, This must be repaid,
I’ll give you as good as you bring.
16
So long as I’m able to handle my staff,
To die in your debt, friend, I scorn:
Then to it each goes, and followd their blows,
As if they had been threshing of corn.
17
The stranger gave Robin a crack on the crown,
Which caused the blood to appear;
Then Robin, enrag’d, more fiercely engag’d,
And followd his blows more severe.
18
So thick and so fast did he lay it on him,
With a passionate fury and ire,
At every stroke, he made him to smoke,
As if he had been all on fire.
19
O then into fury the stranger he grew,
And gave him a damnable look,
And with it a blow that laid him full low,
And tumbld him into the brook.
20
‘I prithee, good fellow, O where art thou now?’
The stranger, in laughter, he cry’d;
Quoth bold Robin Hood, Good faith, in the flood,
And floating along with the tide.
21
I needs must acknowledge thou art a brave soul;
With thee I’ll no longer contend;
For needs must I say, thou hast got the day,
Our battel shall be at an end.
22
Then unto the bank he did presently wade,
And pulld himself out by a thorn;
Which done, at the last, he blowd a loud blast
Straitway on his fine bugle-horn.
23
The eccho of which through the vallies did fly,
At which his stout bowmen appeard,
All cloathed in green, most gay to be seen;
So up to their master they steerd.
24
‘O what’s the matter?’ quoth William Stutely;
‘Good master, you are wet to the skin:’
‘No matter,’ quoth he; ‘the lad which you see,
In fighting, hath tumbld me in.’
25
‘He shall not go scot-free,’ the others reply’d;
So strait they were seizing him there,
To duck him likewise; but Robin Hood cries,
He is a stout fellow, forbear.
26
There’s no one shall wrong thee, friend, be not afraid;
These bowmen upon me do wait;
There’s threescore and nine; if thou wilt be mine,
Thou shalt have my livery strait.
27
And other accoutrements fit for a man;
Speak up, jolly blade, never fear;
I’ll teach you also the use of the bow,
To shoot at the fat fallow-deer.
28
‘O here is my hand,’ the stranger reply’d,
‘I’ll serve you with all my whole heart;
My name is John Little, a man of good mettle;
Nere doubt me, for I’ll play my part.’
29
His name shall be alterd,’ quoth William Stutely,
‘And I will his godfather be;
Prepare then a feast, and none of the least,
For we will be merry,’ quoth he.
13630
They presently fetchd in a brace of fat does,
With humming strong liquor likewise;
They lovd what was good; so, in the greenwood,
This pretty sweet babe they baptize.
31
He was, I must tell you, but seven foot high,
And, may be, an ell in the waste;
A pretty sweet lad; much feasting they had;
Bold Robin the christning grac’d.
32
With all his bowmen, which stood in a ring,
And were of the Notti[n]gham breed;
Brave Stutely comes then, with seven yeomen,
And did in this manner proceed.
33
‘This infant was called John Little,’ quoth he,
‘Which name shall be changed anon;
The words we’ll transpose, so where-ever he goes,
His name shall be calld Little John.’
34
They all with a shout made the elements ring,
So soon as the office was ore;
To feasting they went, with true merriment,
And tippld strong liquor gillore.
35
Then Robin he took the pretty sweet babe,
And cloathd him from top to the toe
In garments of green, most gay to be seen,
And gave him a curious long bow.
36
‘Thou shalt be an archer as well as the best,
And range in the greenwood with us;
Where we’ll not want gold nor silver, behold,
While bishops have ought in their purse.
37
‘We live here like squires, or lords of renown,
Without ere a foot of free land;
We feast on good cheer, with wine, ale, and beer,
And evry thing at our command.’
38
Then musick and dancing did finish the day;
At length, when the sun waxed low,
Then all the whole train the grove did refrain,
And unto their caves they did go.
39
And so ever after, as long as he livd,
Altho he was proper and tall,
Yet nevertheless, the truth to express,
Still Little John they did him call.
a.
Title. Robin Hood and Little John. Being
an account of their first meeting, their fierce
encounter, and conquest. To which is
added, their friendly agreement, and how
he came to be calld Little John.
To the tune of Arthur a Bland.
b.
Title as ina.
22. statue.
32. you would.
33. among.
34. it wanting.
43. his for my, wrongly.
51. for wanting.
53. be wanting.
84. offer.
92. where I do bend.
112. Therefore.
113. I will.
131. it wanting.
132. on this.
151. And first: he wanting.
152. he for it.
161. a for my.
163. both goes, and follow.
181. he did.
191. in a fury.
193. which for that.
201. O wanting.
223. blew.
231. did ring.
234. their matter.
243. that for which.
271. fitting also.
301. him for in.
304. baptiz’d.
311. feet.
313. He was a sweet.
323. came.
344. liquors.
352. the wanting.
391. they for he.
392. he be.
126 ROBIN HOOD AND THE TANNER
137
a. Wood, 401, leaf 9 b.
b. Garland of 1663, No 10.
c. Garland of 1670, No 9.
d. Pepys, II, 111, No 98.
Printed in Old Ballads, 1723, I, 83.
a was printed by Ritson, Robin Hood,
1795, II, 30. Evans has an indifferent copy,
probably edited, in his Old Ballads, 1777,
1784, I, 112.
Arthur a Bland, a Nottingham tanner, goes
of a summer’s morning into Sherwood forest
to see the red deer. Robin Hood pretends
to be a keeper and to see cause for staying
the Tanner. The Tanner says it will take
more than one such to make him stand.
They have a two hours’ fight with staves,
when Robin cries Hold! The Tanner henceforth
shall be free of the forest, and if he
will come and live there with Robin Hood
shall have both gold and fee. Arthur a Bland
gives his hand never to part from Robin,
and asks for Little John, whom he declares
to be his kinsman. Robin Hood blows his
horn. Little John comes at the call, and,
learning what has been going on, would like
to try a bout with the Tanner, but after a
little explanation throws himself upon his
kinsman’s neck. The three take hands for a
dance round the oak-tree.
The sturdy Arthur a Bland is well hit off,
and, bating the sixteenth and thirty-fifth
stanzas, the ballad has a good popular ring.
There is corruption at 83, 123, and perhaps 133.
Little John offers to fight with the Tinker
in No 127, and again with the Stranger in
No 128, as here with the Tanner, and is forbidden,
as here, by his master. In R. H.
and the Shepherd, No 135, he undertakes
the Shepherd after Robin has owned himself
conquered, and the fight is stopped after John
has received some sturdy blows. In the Bold
Pedlar and Robin Hood, No 132, John begins
and Robin follows, and each in turn cries,
Pedlar, pray hold your hand. In R. H. and
the Potter, No 121, John is ready to bet
on the Potter, because he has already had
strokes from him which he has reason to remember.
As the Tanner is John’s cousin, so, in
Robin Hood Revived, No 128, the Stranger
turns out to be Robin Hood’s nephew, Young
Gamwell, thenceforward called Scathlock;
and in No 132 the Bold Pedlar proves to
be Gamble Gold, Robin’s cousin.
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 117.
1
In Nottingham there lives a jolly tanner,
With a hey down down a down down
His name is Arthur a Bland;
There is nere a squire in Nottinghamshire
Dare bid bold Arthur stand.
2
With a long pike-staff upon his shoulder,
So well he can clear his way;
By two and by three he makes them to flee,
For he hath no list to stay.
3
And as he went forth, in a summer’s morning,
Into the forrest of merry Sherwood,
To view the red deer, that range here and there,
There met he with bold Robin Hood.
1384
As soon as bold Robin Hood did him espy,
He thought some sport he would make;
Therefore out of hand he bid him to stand,
And thus to him he spake:
5
Why, what art thou, thou bold fellow,
That ranges so boldly here?
In sooth, to be brief, thou lookst like a thief,
That comes to steal our king’s deer.
6
For I am a keeper in this forrest;
The king puts me in trust
To look to his deer, that range here and there,
Therefore stay thee I must.
7
‘If thou beest a keeper in this forrest,
And hast such a great command,
Yet thou must have more partakers in store,
Before thou make me to stand.’
8
‘Nay, I have no more partakers in store,
Or any that I do need;
But I have a staff of another oke graff,
I know it will do the deed.’
9
‘For thy sword and thy bow I care not a straw,
Nor all thine arrows to boot;
If I get a knop upon thy bare scop,
Thou canst as well shite as shoote.’
10
‘Speak cleanly, good fellow,’ said jolly Robin,
‘And give better terms to me;
Else I’le thee correct for thy neglect,
And make thee more mannerly.’
11
‘Marry gep with a wenion!’ quoth Arthur a Bland,
‘Art thou such a goodly man?
I care not a fig for thy looking so big;
Mend thou thyself where thou can.’
12
Then Robin Hood he unbuckled his belt,
He laid down his bow so long;
He took up a staff of another oke graff,
That was both stiff and strong.
13
‘I’le yield to thy weapon,’ said jolly Robin,
‘Since thou wilt not yield to mine;
For I have a staff of another oke graff,
Not half a foot longer then thine.
14
‘But let me measure,’ said jolly Robin,
‘Before we begin our fray;
For I’le not have mine to be longer then thine,
For that will be called foul play.’
15
‘I pass not for length,’ bold Arthur reply’d,
‘My staff is of oke so free;
Eight foot and a half, it will knock down a calf,
And I hope it will knock down thee.’
16
Then Robin Hood could no longer forbear;
He gave him such a knock,
Quickly and soon the blood came down,
Before it was ten a clock.
17
Then Arthur he soon recovered himself,
And gave him such a knock on the crown,
That on every hair of bold Robin Hoods head,
The blood came trickling down.
18
Then Robin Hood raged like a wild bore,
As soon as he saw his own blood;
Then Bland was in hast, he laid on so fast,
As though he had been staking of wood.
19
And about, and about, and about they went,
Like two wild bores in a chase;
Striving to aim each other to maim,
Leg, arm, or any other place.
20
And knock for knock they lustily dealt,
Which held for two hours and more;
That all the wood rang at every bang,
They ply’d their work so sore.
21
‘Hold thy hand, hold thy hand,’ said Robin Hood,
‘And let our quarrel fall;
For here we may thresh our bones into mesh,
And get no coyn at all.
22
‘And in the forrest of merry Sherwood
Hereafter thou shalt be free:’
‘God-a-mercy for naught, my freedom I bought,
I may thank my good staff, and not thee.’
23
‘What tradesman art thou?’ said jolly Robin,
‘Good fellow, I prethee me show:
And also me tell in what place thou dost dwel,
For both these fain would I know.’
13924
‘I am a tanner,’ bold Arthur reply’d,
‘In Nottingham long have I wrought;
And if thou’lt come there, I vow and do swear
I will tan thy hide for naught.’
25
‘God a mercy, good fellow,’ said jolly Robin,
‘Since thou art so kind to me;
And if thou wilt tan my hide for naught,
I will do as much for thee.
26
‘But if thou’lt forsake thy tanners trade,
And live in green wood with me,
My name’s Robin Hood, I swear by the rood
I will give thee both gold and fee.’
27
‘If thou be Robin Hood,’ bold Arthur reply’d,
‘As I think well thou art,
Then here’s my hand, my name’s Arthur a Bland,
We two will never depart.
28
‘But tell me, O tell me, where is Little John?
Of him fain would I hear;
For we are alide by the mothers side,
And he is my kinsman near.’
29
Then Robin Hood blew on the beaugle horn,
He blew full lowd and shrill,
But quickly anon appeard Little John,
Come tripping down a green hill.
30
‘O what is the matter?’ then said Little John,
‘Master, I pray you tell;
Why do you stand with your staff in your hand?
I fear all is not well.’
31
‘O man, I do stand, and he makes me to stand,
The tanner that stands thee beside;
He is a bonny blade, and master of his trade,
For soundly he hath tand my hide.’
32
‘He is to be commended,’ then said Little John,
‘If such a feat he can do;
If he be so stout, we will have a bout,
And he shall tan my hide too.’
33
‘Hold thy hand, hold thy hand,’ said Robin Hood,
‘For as I do understand,
He’s a yeoman good, and of thine own blood,
For his name is Arthur a Bland.’
34
Then Little John threw his staff away,
As far as he could it fling,
And ran out of hand to Arthur a Bland,
And about his neck did cling.
35
With loving respect, there was no neglect,
They were neither nice nor coy,
Each other did face, with a lovely grace,
And both did weep for joy.
36
Then Robin Hood took them both by the hand,
And danc’d round about the oke tree;
‘For three merry men, and three merry men,
And three merry men we be.
37
‘And ever hereafter, as long as I live,
We three will be all one;
The wood shall ring, and the old wife sing,
Of Robin Hood, Arthur, and John.’
a.
Robin Hood and the Tanner, or, Robin Hood
met with his match: A merry and pleasant
song relating the gallant and fierce combate
fought between Arthur Bland, a Tanner of
Nottingham, and Robin Hood, the greatest
and most noblest archer of England. The
tune is, Robin and the Stranger.
Printed for W. Gilbertson. (1640–63: Chappell.)
32. merry Forrest of.
72. hath.
73. But.
93. the bare.
111. qd..
133. straff.
144. Wanting in my copy, probably by accidental
omission: supplied fromb.
173. That from every side: Old Ballads,
1713, to restore the middle rhyme.
212. let your Quiver: cf.b, c, d.
213. thrash: to: cf.b.
224. good wanting.
263. the wood: cf.d.
352. noice.
361. took him by: cf.d.
374. Kobin.
b.
Title as in a.By the same printer as a.
Burden sometimes With hey, etc.
11. lives there.
12, 111, 273. Arthur Bland.
32. merry Forrest of.
62. he puts.
72. hath.
73. Yet.
74. Before that.
83, 123, 133. graft.
93. thy bare.
111. quoth.
131. I yield.
134. than.
143. to wanting.
144. For that will be called foul play.
172. He gave.
173. Hoods wanting.
212. let our quarrel.
213. thresh: into.
140224. my good.
232. pray thee.
243. thou come.
252. kinde and free.
263. the wood.
281. where’s.
292. both for full.
301. then wanting.
333. thy.
344. he did.
361. took him by.
362. round wanting.
371. so long.
c.
Title as ina.Burden after 21, With
hey, etc.
12, 111, 273. Arthur Bland.
24. not.
32. merry Forrest of.
43. them to.
72. hath.
73. Yet you.
74. Before that.
83, 123, 133. graft.
93. thy bare.
111. qd..
131. I yield.
143. to wanting.
144. For that will be called foul play.
163. blood ran.
172. He gave.
173. hair on Robins.
174. blood ran.
184. been cleaving wood.
201. deal.
204. so fast.
212. let our quarrel.
213. thresh: into.
224. my good.
243. thou come.
252. kind and free.
261. thou wilt.
263. the wood.
283. mother.
291. he blew.
292. both for full.
293. and anon.
303. your wanting.
312. me for thee.
331. Hood wanting.
333. thy blood.
344. he did.
354. they both.
361. took him by.
362. round wanting.
371. And we: so long as we.
d.
Title as ina, except: the greatest archer in
London. Printed for J. Wright, J. Clarke,
W. Thackeray, and T. Passenger. (1670–1682?)
Burden sometimes, With hey, etc.
14. to stand.
31. on a.
32. forrest of merry.
41. Robin he did him.
44. he did spake.
54. the kings.
61. If thou beest a, caught from 71.
72. hast.
73. Then thou.
74. makst.
82. Nor any: do not.
92. thy.
93. thou get a knock upon thy.
111. gip: wernion qd.
114. if thou.
122. And threw it upon the ground.
123. Says, I have a.
124. That is both strong and sound.
131. But let me measure, said.
143. I’le have mine no longer.
144. For that will be counted foul play.
161. Hood wanting.
171. he wanting.
173. from every hair of.
181. raved for raged.
183. he was.
184. stacking.
194. other wanting.
202. for wanting.
212. let our quarrel.
213. thrash our bones to.
223. I’ve.
224. my good.
243. thou come.
261. thou wilt.
262. in the.
263. name is: rood.
291. on his.
292. both for full.
294. tripping over the hill.
302. you me.
303. the staff.
313. and a.
323. about.
333. thy.
352. They was.
371. we live.
372. all as (printed sa).
127 ROBIN HOOD AND THE TINKER
a. Wood, 401, leaf 17 b.
b. Pepys, II, 107, No 94.
c. Douce, III, 118 b.
In the Roxburghe collection, III, 22. Not
in the Garland of 1663 or that of 1670.
a is printed in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795,
II, 38; in Gutch’s Robin Hood, II, 264,
“compared with” the Roxburghe copy. The
ballad was printed by Evans, Old Ballads,
1777, 1784, I, 118.
The fewest words will best befit this contemptible
imitation of imitations. Robin Hood
meets a Tinker, and they exchange scurrilities.
The Tinker has a warrant from the
king to arrest Robin, but will not show it when
asked. Robin Hood suggests that it will be
best to go to Nottingham, and there the two
141take one inn and drink together till the
Tinker falls asleep; when Robin makes off,
and leaves the Tinker to pay the shot. The
host informs the Tinker that it was Robin
Hood that he was drinking with, and recommends
him to seek his man in the parks.
The Tinker finds Robin, and they fall to it,
crab-tree staff against sword. Robin yields,
and begs a boon; the Tinker will grant none.
A blast of the horn brings Little John and
Scadlock. Little John would fain see whether
the Tinker can do for him what he has done
for his master, but Robin proclaims a peace,
and offers the Tinker terms which induce him
to join the outlaws.
It is not necessary to suppose the warrant
to arrest Robin a souvenir of ‘Guy of Gisborne’;
though that noble ballad is in a 17th
century MS., it does not appear to have been
known to the writers of broadsides.
1
In summer time, when leaves grow green,
Down a down a down
And birds sing on every tree,
Hey down a down a down
Robin Hood went to Nottingham,
Down a down a down
As fast as hee could dree.
Hey down a down a down
2
And as hee came to Nottingham
A Tinker he did meet,
And seeing him a lusty blade,
He did him kindly greet.
3
‘Where dost thou live?’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘I pray thee now mee tell;
Sad news I hear there is abroad,
I fear all is not well.’
4
‘What is that news?’ the Tinker said;
‘Tell mee without delay;
I am a tinker by my trade,
And do live at Banbura.’
5
‘As for the news,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘It is but as I hear;
Two tinkers they were set ith’ stocks,
For drinking ale and bear.’
6
‘If that be all,’ the Tinker said,
‘As I may say to you,
Your news it is not worth a fart,
Since that they all bee true.
7
‘For drinking of good ale and bear,
You wil not lose your part:’
‘No, by my faith,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘I love it with all my heart.
8
‘What news abroad?’ quoth Robin Hood;
‘Tell mee what thou dost hear;
Being thou goest from town to town,
Some news thou need not fear.’
9
‘All the news,’ the Tinker said,
‘I hear, it is for good;
It is to seek a bold outlaw,
Which they call Robin Hood.
10
‘I have a warrant from the king,
To take him where I can;
If you can tell me where hee is,
I will make you a man.
11
‘The king will give a hundred pound
That hee could but him see;
And if wee can but now him get,
It will serve you and mee.’
12
‘Let me see that warrant,’ said Robin Hood;
‘I’le see if it bee right;
And I will do the best I can
For to take him this night.’
13
‘That will I not,’ the Tinker said;
‘None with it I will trust;
And where hee is if you’l not tell,
Take him by force I must.’
14
But Robin Hood perceiving well
How then the game would go,
‘If you will go to Nottingham,
Wee shall find him I know.’
15
The Tinker had a crab-tree staff,
Which was both good and strong;
Robin hee had a good strong blade,
So they went both along.
14216
And when they came to Nottingham,
There they both tooke one inn;
And they calld for ale and wine,
To drink it was no sin.
17
But ale and wine they drank so fast
That the Tinker hee forgot
What thing he was about to do;
It fell so to his lot
18
That while the Tinker fell asleep,
Hee made then haste away,
And left the Tinker in the lurch,
For the great shot to pay.
19
But when the Tinker wakened,
And saw that he was gone,
He calld then even for his host,
And thus hee made his moan.
20
‘I had a warrant from the king,
Which might have done me good,
That is to take a bold outlaw,
Some call him Robin Hood.
21
‘But now my warrant and mony’s gone,
Nothing I have to pay;
And he that promisd to be my friend,
He is gone and fled away.’
22
‘That friend you tell on,’ said the host,
‘They call him Robin Hood;
And when that first hee met with you,
He ment you little good.’
23
‘Had I known it had been hee,
When that I had him here,
Th’ one of us should have tri’d our strength
Which should have paid full dear.
24
‘In the mean time I must away;
No longer here I’le bide;
But I will go and seek him out,
What ever do me betide.
25
‘But one thing I would gladly know,
What here I have to pay;’
‘Ten shillings just,’ then said the host;
‘I’le pay without delay.
26
‘Or elce take here my working-bag,
And my good hammer too;
And if that I light but on the knave,
I will then soon pay you.’
27
‘The onely way,’ then said the host,
‘And not to stand in fear,
Is to seek him among the parks,
Killing of the kings deer.’
28
The Tinker hee then went with speed,
And made then no delay,
Till he had found then Robin Hood,
That they might have a fray.
29
At last hee spy’d him in a park,
Hunting then of the deer;
‘What knave is that,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘That doth come mee so near?’
30
‘No knave, no knave,’ the Tinker said,
‘And that you soon shall know;
Whether of us hath done most wrong,
My crab-tree staff shall show.’
31
Then Robin drew his gallant blade,
Made then of trusty steel;
But the Tinker laid on him so fast
That he made Robin reel.
32
Then Robins anger did arise;
He fought full manfully,
Vntil hee had made the Tinker
Almost then fit to fly.
33
With that they had a bout again,
They ply’d their weapons fast;
The Tinker threshed his bones so sore
He made him yeeld at last.
34
‘A boon, a boon,’ Robin hee cryes,
‘If thou wilt grant it mee;’
‘Before I do it,’ the Tinker said,
‘I’le hang thee on this tree.’
35
But the Tinker looking him about,
Robin his horn did blow;
Then came unto him Little John,
And William Scadlock too.
36
‘What is the matter,’ quoth Little John,
‘You sit in th’ highway side?’
‘Here is a Tinker that stands by,
That hath paid well my hide.’
14337
‘That Tinker,’ then said Little John,
‘Fain that blade I would see,
And I would try what I could do,
If hee’l do as much for mee.’
38
But Robin hee then wishd them both
They should the quarrel cease,
‘That henceforth wee may bee as one,
And ever live in peace.
39
‘And for the jovial Tinker’s part,
A hundred pound I’le give,
In th’ year to maintain him on,
As long as he doth live.
40
‘In manhood hee is a mettle man,
And a mettle man by trade;
I never thought that any man
Should have made me so fraid.
41
‘And if hee will bee one of us,
Wee will take all one fare,
And whatsoever wee do get,
He shall have his full share.’
42
So the Tinker was content
With them to go along,
And with them a part to take,
And so I end my song.
a.
A new song, to drive away cold winter,
Between Robin Hood and the Jovial Tinker;
How Robin by a wile
The Tinker he did cheat,
But at the length, as you shall hear,
The Tinker did him beat;
Whereby the same they then did so agree
They after livd in love and unity.
To the tune of In Summer Time.
London, Printed for F. Grove, dwelling on
Snowhill. (1620–55.)
13. Nottingam.
82. here.
101. warrand.
b.
Title as in a: except that he is wanting in
the fourth line, and so in the last line but
one.
Printed for I. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T.
Passenger. (1670–86?)
31. qd.
44. Banburay.
63. it wanting.
111. king would: an.
143. you would.
162. they took up their.
221. speak for tell.
241. was for will.
244. me wanting.
253. Ten shillings just I have to pay.
263. if I: on that.
283. then found.
313. Tinker he laid on so fast.
322. right for full.
331. laid about.
334. That he.
354. Will.
392. pounds: I for Ile.
401. mettled.
404. afraid.
411. with us.
c.
Robin Hood and the Jolly Tinker: Shewing
how they fiercely encountered, and after the
victorious conquest lovingly agreed. Tune
of In Summer Time.
London, Printed by J. Hodges, at the Looking
Glass, on London Bridge. Not in black
letter.
31. doth.
41. the news.
44. Bullbury.
53. they are.
63. it wanting.
84. needs.
111. would give an.
114. thee for you.
151. A crab-tree staff the Tinker had.
162. they took up at their inn.
182. Robin made haste away.
191. did awake.
193. even wanting.
203. to seek.
211. the for my.
214. He wanting.
221. speak for tell.
231. I but.
233. might for strength.
241. I will.
244. should betide.
251. But wanting.
253. just I have to pay.
261. bags.
263. that wanting.
273. amongst.
291. in the.
312. Made of a.
313. he laid: him wanting.
323. that he.
324. Then almost.
331. they laid about.
333. full for so.
334. That he.
342. grant to.
354. also for too.
363. There.
372. would I.
373. And would.
382. They would.
393. In a.
401. mettle.
404. afraid.
128 ROBIN HOOD NEWLY REVIVED
144
‘Robin Hood Newly Reviv’d.’ a. Wood, 401, leaf
27 b. b. Roxburghe, III, 18, in the Ballad Society’s
reprint, II, 426. c. Garland of 1663, No 3. d. Garland
of 1670, No 2. e. Pepys, II, 101, No 88.
Also Douce, III, 120 b, London, by L.
How, and Roxburghe, III, 408: both of these
are of the eighteenth century.
a is printed, with not a few changes, in
Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 66. Evans,
Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 143, agrees nearly
with the Aldermary garland.
Robin Hood, walking the forest, meets
a gaily-dressed young fellow, who presently
brings down a deer at forty yards with his bow.
Robin commends the shot, and offers the
youngster a place as one of his yeomen. The
offer is rudely received; each bends his bow
at the other. Robin suggests that one of them
may be slain, if they shoot: swords and bucklers
would be better. Robin strikes the first
blow, and is so stoutly answered that he is fain
to know who the young man is. His name is
Gamwell, and, having killed his father’s steward,
he has fled to the forest to join his uncle,
Robin Hood. The kinsmen embrace, and
walk on till they meet Little John. Robin
Hood tells John that the stranger has beaten
him. Little John would like a bout, to see if
the stranger can beat him. This Robin forbids,
for this stranger is his own sister’s son;
he shall be next in rank to Little John among
his yeomen, and be called Scarlet.
The story seems to have been built up on a
portion of the ruins, so to speak, of the fine
tale of Gamelyn. There the king of the outlaws,
sitting at meat with his seven score
young men, sees Gamelyn wandering in the
wood with Adam, and tells some of his young
men to fetch them in. Seven start up to execute
the order, and when they come to Gamelyn
and his comrade bid the twain hand over
their bows and arrows. Gamelyn replies,
Not though ye fetch five men, and so be
twelve; but no violence being attempted, the
pair go to the king, who asks them what they
seek in the woods. Gamelyn answers, No
harm; but to shoot a deer, if we meet one,
like hungry men. The king gives them to
eat and drink of the best, and, upon learning
that the spokesman is Gamelyn, makes him
master, under himself, over all the outlaws.
Little John having long had the place of first
man under Robin, the best that the ballad-maker
could do for Gamwell was to make
him chief yeoman after John.[109] (The Tale of
Gamelyn, ed. Skeat, vv 625–686. The resemblance
of the ballad is remarked upon at
p. x.)
Ritson gives this ballad the title of Robin
Hood and the Stranger, remarking: The title
now given to this ballad is that which it seems
to have originally borne; having been foolishly
altered to Robin Hood newly Revived.
R. H. and the Bishop, R. H. and the Beggar,
R. H. and the Tanner, are directed to be sung
to the tune of Robin Hood and the Stranger,
but no ballad bears such a title in any garland
or broadside.[110] The ballad referred to
as Robin Hood and the Stranger may possibly
have been this, but, for reasons given at
145p. 133, Robin Hood and Little John is, as I
think, more likely to be the one meant.
Robin Hood and the Stranger was one
name for the most popular of Robin Hood
tunes, and this particular tune was sometimes
called ‘Robin Hood’ absolutely (see the note
at the end of the next ballad). If the ballad
denoted by Robin Hood and the Stranger
was also sometimes known as ‘Robin Hood’
simply, and especially if this ballad was Robin
Hood and Little John, an explanation presents
itself of the title ‘Robin Hood newly
Revived.’ What is revived is the favorite
topic of the process by which Robin Hood
enlarged and strengthened his company. The
earlier ballad had shown how Little John
came to join the band; the second undertakes
to tell us how Scarlet was enlisted, the next
most important man after John.
The second part, referred to in the last
stanza, was separated, Mr Chappell thought,
when the present ballad was “newly revived,”
because the whole was found too long for a
penny (one would say that both parts together
were “dear enough a leek”), and seven
stanzas (incoherent in themselves and not cohering
with what lies before us) added to fill
up the sheet. These stanzas will be given
under No 130, as Robin Hood and the Scotchman;
and the “second part,” ‘R. H. and the
Prince of Aragon,’ or ‘R. H., Will. Scadlock
and Little John,’ follows immediately.
1
Come listen a while, you gentlemen all,
With a hey down down a down down
That are in this bower within,
For a story of gallant bold Robin Hood
I purpose now to begin.
2
‘What time of the day?’ quoth Robin Hood then;
Quoth Little John, ’Tis in the prime;
‘Why then we will to the green wood gang,
For we have no vittles to dine.’
3
As Robin Hood walkt the forrest along—
It was in the mid of the day—
There was he met of a deft young man
As ever walkt on the way.
4
His doublet it was of silk, he said,
His stockings like scarlet shone,
And he walkt on along the way,
To Robin Hood then unknown.
5
A herd of deer was in the bend,
All feeding before his face:
‘Now the best of ye I’le have to my dinner,
And that in a little space.’
6
Now the stranger he made no mickle adoe,
But he bends and a right good bow,
And the best buck in the herd he slew,
Forty good yards him full froe.
7
‘Well shot, well shot,’ quoth Robin Hood then,
‘That shot it was shot in time;
And if thou wilt accept of the place,
Thou shalt be a bold yeoman of mine.’
8
‘Go play the chiven,’ the stranger said,
‘Make haste and quickly go;
Or with my fist, be sure of this,
I’le give thee buffets store.’
9
‘Thou hadst not best buffet me,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘For though I seem forlorn,
Yet I can have those that will take my part,
If I but blow my horn.’
10
‘Thou wast not best wind thy horn,’ the stranger said,
‘Beest thou never so much in hast,
For I can draw out a good broad sword,
And quickly cut the blast.’
11
Then Robin Hood bent a very good bow,
To shoot, and that he would fain;
The stranger he bent a very good bow,
To shoot at bold Robin again.
12
‘O hold thy hand, hold thy hand,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘To shoot it would be in vain;
For if we should shoot the one at the other,
The one of us may be slain.
14613
‘But let’s take our swords and our broad bucklers,
And gang under yonder tree:’
‘As I hope to be sav’d,’ the stranger said,
‘One foot I will not flee.’
14
Then Robin Hood lent the stranger a blow
Most scar’d him out of his wit;
‘Thou never felt blow,’ the stranger he said,
‘That shall be better quit.’
15
The stranger he drew out a good broad sword,
And hit Robin on the crown,
That from every haire of bold Robins head
The blood ran trickling down.
16
‘God a mercy, good fellow!’ quoth Robin Hood then,
‘And for this that thou hast done;
Tell me, good fellow, what thou art,
Tell me where thou doest woon.’
17
The stranger then answered bold Robin Hood,
I’le tell thee where I did dwell;
In Maxfield was I bred and born,
My name is Young Gamwell.
18
For killing of my own fathers steward,
I am forc’d to this English wood,
And for to seek an vncle of mine;
Some call him Robin Hood.
19
‘But thou art a cousin of Robin Hoods then?
The sooner we should have done:’
‘As I hope to be sav’d,’ the stranger then said,
‘I am his own sisters son.’
20
But, Lord! what kissing and courting was there,
When these two cousins did greet!
And they went all that summers day,
And Little John did meet.
21
But when they met with Little John,
He there unto [him] did say,
O master, where have you been,
You have tarried so long away?
22
‘I met with a stranger,’ quoth Robin Hood then,
‘Full sore he hath beaten me:’
‘Then I’le have a bout with him,’ quoth Little John,
‘And try if he can beat me.’
23
‘Oh [no], oh no,’ quoth Robin Hood then,
‘Little John, it may [not] be so;
For he’s my own dear sisters son,
And cousins I have no mo.
24
‘But he shall be a bold yeoman of mine,
My chief man next to thee;
And I Robin Hood, and thou Little John,
And Scarlet he shall be:
25
‘And wee’l be three of the bravest outlaws
That is in the North Country.’
If you will have any more of bold Robin Hood,
In his second part it will be.
a, b, e.
Robin Hood newly reviv’d. To a delightful
new tune.
c, d.
Robin Hood newly revived: Or his meeting
and fighting with his cousin Scarlet. To a
delightful new tune.
a.
Printed for Richard Burton. (1641–74.)
21, 71, 91, 121, 161, 221, 223, qd.
63. in th.
112. To that shoot and.
212. him supplied fromc, d.
b.
London, Printed for Richard Burton, at the
Sign of the Horshooe in West Smithfield.
32. midst.
41. it wanting.
64. full wanting.
112. To shot and that.
124. must be.
212. him wanting.
231. Oh no.
232. may not.
c.
33. ware for met.
71, 91, 121, 161, 221, 223, 231, qd.
93. can I.
101. blow for wind.
112. To shoot and that.
133. he said.
161, 184. bold Robin.
191. art thou.
212. unto him.
231. Oh no.
232. may not.
254. In this.
d.
21, 71, 91, 121, 161, 221, qd.
33. ware for met.
64. good wanting.
72. was in.
92. am for seem.
111. he bent.
112. To shoot and that.
124. must be.
133. he said.
162. that wanting.
181. own wanting.
191. art thou.
212. unto him.
231. Oh no.
232. may not.
253. If thou wilt.
254. In this.
147e.
Printed for J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T.
Passenger. (1670–82?)
12. in wanting.
21, 71, 91, 121, 161, 221, 223. quod.
32. midst.
33. with for of.
41. it wanting.
62. and wanting.
64. full wanting.
73. except.
93. can wanting.
112. To that shot and he.
113. bent up a noble.
121. O wanting.
124. must be.
191. art thou.
212. him wanting.
221, 231. then wanting.
231. Oh no.
232. may not.
253. If you’l have more.
254. In this.
Followed in all the copies by seven stanzas which
belong to a different ballad.See No 130.
129 ROBIN HOOD AND THE PRINCE OF ARAGON
‘Robin Hood, Will. Scadlock and Little John.’[111]
a. Roxburghe, I, 358, in the Ballad Society’s reprint,
II, 431. b. Pepys, II, 120, No 106.
Also Roxburghe, III, 582, without a printer’s
name.
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 71, from a,
with changes; Evans, Old Ballads, 1777,
1784, I, 186.
This is only a pseudo-chivalrous romance,
tagged to Robin Hood Newly Revived as a
Second Part, with eight introductory stanzas.
Both parts are as vapid as possible, and no
piquancy is communicated by the matter of
the two being as alien as oil and water. The
Prince of Aragon, a Turk and an infidel,
has beleaguered London, and will have the
princess to his spouse, unless three champions
can vanquish him and his two giants. Robin
Hood, Scadlock, and John undertake the case,
and disguise themselves as pilgrims, so as not
to be stopped on their way. Robin kills the
prince, and John and Scadlock each a giant.
The king demands to know who his deliverers
are, and Robin Hood avails himself of the opportunity
to get the king’s pardon for himself
and his men. The princess was to be the
victor’s prize, but cannot marry all three, as
might perhaps have been foreseen. She is
allowed to pick, and chooses Will Scadlock.
The Earl of Maxfield is present, and weeps
bitterly at the sight of Scadlock, because, he
says, he had a son like Will, of the name of
Young Gamwell. Scadlock, whom we know
from the First Part to be Gamwell, falls at
his father’s feet, and the wedding follows.
1
Now Robin Hood, Will Scadlock and Little John
Are walking over the plain,
With a good fat buck which Will Scadlock
With his strong bow had slain.
2
‘Jog on, jog on,’ cries Robin Hood,
‘The day it runs full fast;
For though my nephew me a breakfast gave,
I have not yet broke my fast.
3
‘Then to yonder lodge let us take our way,
I think it wondrous good,
Where my nephew by my bold yeomen
Shall be welcomd unto the green wood.’
4
With that he took the bugle-horn,
Full well he could it blow;
Streight from the woods came marching down
One hundred tall fellows and mo.
5
‘Stand, stand to your arms!’ crys Will Scadlock,
‘Lo! the enemies are within ken:’
148With that Robin Hood he laughd aloud,
Crys, They are my bold yeomen.
6
Who, when they arriv’d and Robin espy’d,
Cry’d, Master, what is your will?
We thought you had in danger been,
Your horn did sound so shrill.
7
‘Now nay, now nay,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘The danger is past and gone;
I would have you to welcome my nephew here,
That hath paid me two for one.’
8
In feasting and sporting they passed the day,
Till Phœbus sunk into the deep;
Then each one to his quarters hy’d,
His guard there for to keep.
9
Long had they not walked within the green wood,
But Robin he was espy’d
Of a beautiful damsel all alone,
That on a black palfrey did ride.
10
Her riding-suit was of sable hew black,
Sypress over her face,
Through which her rose-like cheeks did blush,
All with a comely grace.
11
‘Come, tell me the cause, thou pritty one,’
Quoth Robin, ‘and tell me aright,
From whence thou comest, and whither thou goest,
All in this mournful plight?’
12
‘From London I came,’ the damsel reply’d,
‘From London upon the Thames,
Which circled is, O grief to tell!
Besieg’d with forraign arms.
13
‘By the proud Prince of Aragon,
Who swears by his martial hand
To have the princess for his spouse,
Or else to waste this land:
14
‘Except that champions can be found
That dare fight three to three,
Against the prince and giants twain,
Most horrid for to see:
15
‘Whose grisly looks, and eyes like brands,
Strike terrour where they come,
With serpents hissing on their helms,
Instead of feathered plume.
16
‘The princess shall be the victors prize,
The king hath vowd and said.
And he that shall the conquest win
Shall have her to his bride.
17
‘Now we are four damsels sent abroad,
To the east, west, north, and south,
To try whose fortune is so good
To find these champions forth.
18
‘But all in vaine we have sought about;
Yet none so bold there are
That dare adventure life and blood,
To free a lady fair.’
19
‘When is the day?’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘Tell me this and no more:’
‘On Midsummer next,’ the damsel said,
‘Which is June the twenty-four.’
20
With that the teares trickled down her cheeks,
And silent was her tongue;
With sighs and sobs she took her leave,
Away her palfrey sprung.
21
This news struck Robin to the heart,
He fell down on the grass;
His actions and his troubled mind
Shewd he perplexed was.
22
‘Where lies your grief?’ quoth Will Scadlock,
‘O master, tell to me;
If the damsels eyes have piercd your heart,
I’ll fetch her back to thee.’
23
‘Now nay, now nay,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘She doth not cause my smart;
But it is the poor distressed princess
That wounds me to the heart.
24
‘I will go fight the giants all
To set the lady free:’
‘The devil take my soul,’ quoth Little John,
‘If I part with thy company.’
25
‘Must I stay behind?’ quoth Will Scadlock;
‘No, no, that must not be;
I’le make the third man in the fight,
So we shall be three to three.’
26
These words cheerd Robin at the heart,
Joy shone within his face;
Within his arms he huggd them both,
And kindly did imbrace.
27
Quoth he, We’ll put on mothly gray,
With long staves in our hands,
A scrip and bottle by our sides,
As come from the Holy Land.
28
So may we pass along the high-way;
None will ask from whence we came,
But take us pilgrims for to be,
Or else some holy men.
14929
Now they are on their journey gone,
As fast as they may speed,
Yet for all haste, ere they arriv’d,
The princess forth was led:
30
To be deliverd to the prince,
Who in the list did stand,
Prepar’d to fight, or else receive
His lady by the hand.
31
With that he walkt about the lists,
With giants by his side:
‘Bring forth,’ said he, ‘your champions,
Or bring me forth my bride.
32
‘This is the four and twentieth day,
The day prefixt upon;
Bring forth my bride, or London burns,
I swear by Acaron.’
33
Then cries the king, and queen likewise,
Both weeping as they speak,
Lo! we have brought our daughter dear,
Whom we are forcd to forsake.
34
With that stept out bold Robin Hood,
Crys, My liege, it must not be so;
Such beauty as the fair princess
Is not for a tyrants mow.
35
The prince he then began to storm;
Crys, Fool, fanatick, baboon!
How dares thou stop my valours prize?
I’ll kill thee with a frown.
36
‘Thou tyrant Turk, thou infidel,’
Thus Robin began to reply,
‘Thy frowns I scorn; lo! here’s my gage,
And thus I thee defie.
37
‘And for these two Goliahs there,
That stand on either side,
Here are two little Davids by,
That soon can tame their pride.’
38
Then did the king for armour send,
For lances, swords, and shields:
And thus all three in armour bright
Came marching to the field.
39
The trumpets began to sound a charge,
Each singled out his man;
Their arms in pieces soon were hewd,
Blood sprang from every vain.
40
The prince he reacht Robin a blow—
He struck with might and main—
Which forcd him to reel about the field,
As though he had been slain.
41
‘God-a-mercy,’ quoth Robin, ‘for that blow!
The quarrel shall soon be try’d;
This stroke shall shew a full divorce
Betwixt thee and thy bride.’
42
So from his shoulders he’s cut his head,
Which on the ground did fall,
And grumbling sore at Robin Hood,
To be so dealt withal.
43
The giants then began to rage,
To see their prince lie dead:
‘Thou’s be the next,’ quoth Little John,
‘Unless thou well guard thy head.’
44
With that his faulchion he whirld about—
It was both keen and sharp—
He clove the giant to the belt,
And cut in twain his heart.
45
Will Scadlock well had playd his part,
The giant he had brought to his knee;
Quoth he, The devil cannot break his fast,
Unless he have you all three.
46
So with his faulchion he run him through,
A deep and gashly wound;
Who damd and foamd, cursd and blasphemd,
And then fell to the ground.
47
Now all the lists with cheers were filld,
The skies they did resound,
Which brought the princess to herself,
Who was faln in a swound.
48
The king and queen and princess fair
Came walking to the place,
And gave the champions many thanks,
And did them further grace.
49
‘Tell me,’ quoth the king, ‘whence you are,
That thus disguised came,
Whose valour speaks that noble blood
Doth run through every vain.’
50
‘A boon, a boon,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘On my knees I beg and crave:’
‘By my crown,’ quoth the king, ‘I grant;
Ask what, and thou shalt have.’
51
‘Then pardon I beg for my merry men,
Which are within the green wood,
For Little John, and Will Scadlock,
And for me, bold Robin Hood.’
52
‘Art thou Robin Hood?’ then quoth the king;
‘For the valour you have shewn,
Your pardons I doe freely grant,
And welcome every one.
15053
‘The princess I promised the victors prize;
She cannot have you all three:’
‘She shall chuse,’ quoth Robin: saith Little John,
Then little share falls to me.
54
Then did the princess view all three,
With a comely lovely grace,
Who took Will Scadlock by the hand,
Quoth, Here I make my choice.
55
With that a noble lord stept forth,
Of Maxfield earl was he,
Who lookt Will Scadlock in the face,
Then wept most bitterly.
56
Quoth he, I had a son like thee,
Whom I lovd wondrous well;
But he is gone, or rather dead;
His name is Young Gamwell.
57
Then did Will Scadlock fall on his knees,
Cries, Father! father! here,
Here kneels your son, your Young Gamwell
You said you lovd so dear.
58
But, lord! what imbracing and kissing was there,
When all these friends were met!
They are gone to the wedding, and so to bedding,
And so I bid you good night.
a.
Robin Hood, Will. Scadlock, and Little John, or,
A narrative of their victory obtained against
the Prince of Aragon and the two Giants: and
how Will. Scadlock married the Princess.
Tune of Robin Hood, or, Hey down, down a down.
London, Printed by and for W. O[nley], and are
to be sold by the booksellers. (1650–1702.)
11. Will., and always, except 553.
271. moth-ly.
322. perfixt.
471. sheers.
b.
A new ballad of Robin Hood, etc., as ina. To
the tune of, etc. London: Printed for A. M[ilbourne],
W. O[nley], and T. Thackeray in Duck
Lane. (1670–89?)
13. William.
73. I should.
74. has.
102. Cypress.
113. whether.
133. to his.
271. mothly.
321. twenty day.
322. prefixt.
323. or wanting.
371. those.
381. the king did.
403. him rell.
423. grumbled.
463. ramb’d for dam’d.
471. with sheets.
564. it is.
583. and so the bedding.
130 ROBIN HOOD AND THE SCOTCHMAN — A — B
A. a. Wood, 401, leaf 27 b. b. Roxburghe, III, 18, in
the Ballad Society’s reprint, II, 426. c. Garland of
1663, No 3. d. Garland of 1670, No 2. e. Pepys,
II, 101, No 88.
B. Gutch’s Robin Hood, II, 392, from an Irish garland,
printed at Monaghan, 1796.
A is simply the conclusion given to Robin
Hood Newly Revived in the broadsides, and
has neither connection with that ballad nor
coherence in itself, being on the face of it the
beginning and the end of an independent ballad,
with the break after the third stanza. 3
may possibly refer to the Scots giving up
Charles I to the parliamentary commissioners,
in 1647. In B, four stanzas appear to have
been added to the first three of A in order
to make out a story,—the too familiar one of
Robin being beaten in a fight with a fellow
whom he chances to meet, and consequently
enlisting the man as a recruit.
151
a. Wood, 401, leaf 27 b. b. Roxburghe, III, 18, in the
Ballad Society’s reprint, II, 426. c. Garland of 1663, No 3.
d. Garland of 1670, No 2. e. Pepys, II, 101, No 88.
1
Then bold Robin Hood to the north he would go,
With a hey down down a down down
With valour and mickle might,
With sword by his side, which oft had been tri’d,
To fight and recover his right.
2
The first that he met was a bony bold Scot,
His servant he said he would be;
‘No,’ quoth Robin Hood, ‘it cannot be good,
For thou wilt prove false unto me.
3
‘Thou hast not bin true to sire nor cuz:’
‘Nay, marry,’ the Scot he said,
‘As true as your heart, I’le never part,
Gude master, be not afraid.’
* * * * *
4
Then Robin Hood turnd his face to the east;
‘Fight on my merry men stout,
Our cause is good,’ quoth brave Robin Hood,
‘And we shall not be beaten out.’
5
The battel grows hot on every side,
The Scotchman made great moan;
Quoth Jockey, Gude faith, they fight on each side;
Would I were with my wife Ione!
6
The enemy compast brave Robin about,
’Tis long ere the battel ends;
Ther’s neither will yeeld nor give up the field,
For both are supplied with friends.
* * * * *
7
This song it was made in Robin Hoods dayes;
Let’s pray unto Iove above
To give us true peace, that mischief may cease,
And war may give place unto love.
Gutch’s Robin Hood, II, 392, from an Irish garland,
printed at Monaghan, 1796.
1
Now bold Robin Hood to the north would go,
With valour and mickle might,
With sword by his side, which oft had been try’d,
To fight and recover his right.
2
The first that he met was a jolly stout Scot,
His servant he said he would be;
‘No,’ quoth Robin Hood, ‘it cannot be good,
For thou wilt prove false unto me.
3
‘Thou hast not been true to sire or cuz;’
‘Nay, marry,’ the Scot he said,
‘As true as your heart, I never will part;
Good master, be not afraid.’
4
‘But eer I employ you,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘With you I must have a bout;’
The Scotchman reply’d, Let the battle be try’d,
For I know I will beat you out.
5
Thus saying, the contest did quickly begin,
Which lasted two hours and more;
The blows Sawney gave bold Robin so brave
The battle soon made him give oer.
6
‘Have mercy, thou Scotchman,’ bold Robin Hood cry’d,
‘Full dearly this boon have I bought;
We will both agree, and my man you shall be,
For a stouter I never have fought.’
7
Then Sawny consented with Robin to go,
To be of his bowmen so gay;
Thus ended the fight, and with mickle delight
To Sherwood they hasted away.
A.
For the printer, etc., see No 128, Robin Hood
newly Revived.
a.
13. trid.
14. rigth.
43, 53. qd.
b.
13. tri’d.
31. or for nor.
43. case.
c.
43, 53. qd.
d.
43. case.
e.
21. met with was a bold.
23. qd.
43. case: quod.
131 ROBIN HOOD AND THE RANGER
152
‘Robin Hood and the Ranger.’ a. Robin Hood’s Garland,
London, C. Dicey, in Bow Church-Yard, n. d.,
but before 1741, p. 78. b. R. H.’s Garland, London,
W. & C. Dicey, n. d. c. R. H.’s Garland, London,
L. How, in Peticoat Lane, n. d. d. The English
Archer, etc., York, N. Nickson, in Feasegate, n. d.
e. The English Archer, etc., Paisley, John Neilson,
1786. f. R. H.’s Garland, York, T. Wilson & R.
Spence, n. d. (All in the Bodleian Library.)
In Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 133, from
a York edition of Robin Hood’s Garland. Evans,
Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 200, apparently
from an Aldermary garland.
Mr Halliwell, in Notices of Fugitive Tracts,
etc., Percy Society, vol. xxix. p. 19, refers to
an edition of Robin Hood’s Garland printed
for James Hodges, at the Looking-glass, London-bridge,
n. d., as containing “the earliest
copy yet known” of Robin Hood and the
Ranger, but does not indicate how the alleged
fact was ascertained. Inside of the cover of
a is written, William Stukely, 1741. b appears
in advertisements as early as 1753.
Robin Hood, while about to kill deer, is
forbidden by a forester, and claiming the forest
as his own, the cause has to be tried with
weapons. They break their swords on one
another, and take to quarter-staves. Robin
Hood is so sorely cudgelled that he gives up
the fight, declaring that he has never met with
so good a man. He summons his yeomen
with his horn; the forester is induced to join
them.
1
When Phœbus had melted the sickles of ice,
With a hey down, &c.
And likewise the mountains of snow,
Bold Robin Hood he would ramble to see,
To frolick abroad with his bow.
2
He left all his merry men waiting behind,
Whilst through the green vallies he passd;
There did he behold a forester bold,
Who cry’d out, Friend, whither so fast?
3
‘I’m going,’ quoth Robin, ‘to kill a fat buck,
For me and my merry men all;
Besides, eer I go, I’ll have a fat doe,
Or else it shall cost me a fall.’
4
‘You’d best have a care,’ said the forester then,
‘For these are his majesty’s deer;
Before you shall shoot, the thing I’ll dispute,
For I am head-forester here.’
5
‘These thirteen long summers,’ quoth Robin, ‘I’m sure,
My arrows I here have let fly,
Where freely I range; methinks it is strange,
You should have more power than I.
6
‘This forest,’ quoth Robin, ‘I think is my own,
And so are the nimble deer too;
Therefore I declare, and solemnly swear,
I wont be affronted by you.’
7
The forester he had a long quarter-staff,
Likewise a broad sword by his side;
Without more ado, he presently drew,
Declaring the truth should be try’d.
8
Bold Robin Hood had a sword of the best,
Thus, eer he would take any wrong,
His courage was flush, he’d venture a brush,
And thus they fell to it ding dong.
1539
The very first blow that the forester gave,
He made his broad weapon cry twang;
’Twas over the head, he fell down for dead,
O that was a damnable bang!
10
But Robin he soon did recover himself,
And bravely fell to it again;
The very next stroke their weapons were broke,
Yet never a man there was slain.
11
At quarter-staff then they resolved to play,
Because they would have t’other bout;
And brave Robin Hood right valiantly stood,
Unwilling he was to give out.
12
Bold Robin he gave him very hard blows,
The other returnd them as fast;
At every stroke their jackets did smoke,
Three hours the combat did last.
13
At length in a rage the bold forester grew,
And cudgeld bold Robin so sore
That he could not stand, so shaking his hand,
He said, Let us freely give oer.
14
Thou art a brave fellow, I needs must confess
I never knew any so good;
Thou’rt fitting to be a yeoman for me,
And range in the merry green wood.
15
I’ll give thee this ring as a token of love,
For bravely thou’st acted thy part;
That man that can fight, in him I delight,
And love him with all my whole heart.
16
Then Robin Hood setting his horn to his mouth,
A blast he merrily blows;
His yeomen did hear, and strait did appear,
A hundred, with trusty long bows.
17
Now Little John came at the head of them all,
Cloathd in a rich mantle of green;
And likewise the rest were gloriously drest,
A delicate sight to be seen.
18
‘Lo, these are my yeomen,’ said Robin Hood,
‘And thou shalt be one of the train;
A mantle and bow, a quiver also,
I give them whom I entertain.’
19
The forester willingly enterd the list,
They were such a beautiful sight;
Then with a long bow they shot a fat doe,
And made a rich supper that night.
20
What singing and dancing was in the green wood,
For joy of another new mate!
With mirth and delight they spent the long night,
And liv’d at a plentiful rate.
21
The forester neer was so merry before
As then he was with these brave souls,
Who never would fail, in wine, beer or ale,
To take off their cherishing bowls.
22
Then Robin Hood gave him a mantle of green,
Broad arrows, and a curious long bow;
This done, the next day, so gallant and gay,
He marched them all on a row.
23
Quoth he, My brave yeomen, be true to your trust,
And then we may range the woods wide:
They all did declare, and solemnly swear,
They’d conquer, or die by his side.
a.
Robin Hood and the Ranger, or True Friendship
after a fierce Fight. Tune of Arthur
a Bland.
24. whether.
83. he’ll.
121. a very hard blow.
b.
24. whither.
62. are all.
112. the other.
121. very hard blows.
142. any one.
152. thou hast.
182. And wanting.
234. They would.
c.
Burden: With a hey down down down and a
down.
24. whither.
53. methink’.
62. deers.
83. he’d.
101. soon recoverd.
102. to wanting.
103. they broke.
121. very hard blows.
124. this combat.
134. He cry’d.
144. And live.
162. blast then.
192. a wanting.
212. with the.
d.
Tune of, etc. wanting. Burden wanting.
11. the circles.
13. he wanting: ramble away.
24. whither.
52. arrows here I’ve.
54. then I.
62. so is.
71. he wanting.
81. he had.
15483. he’d.
91. that wanting.
93. his head.
101. soon recoverd.
103. they broke.
121. he wanting: many hard blows.
134. He cry’d.
161. Then wanting: Hood set his bugle horn.
162. blast then.
163. and soon.
164. An.
173. rest was.
181. said bold.
184. I’ll.
203. the whole.
212. with the.
213. beer and.
214. take of the.
222. a wanting.
234. They would.
e.
Burden: With a hey down down derry down:
or Hey down derry derry down.
11. circle.
13. he wanting: ramble away.
23. he did.
24. whither.
31. quoth Robin wanting.
33. ere.
52. here wanting.
62. so is.
71. he wanting.
82. neer.
83. he’d.
84. thus wanting.
93. his head.
101. soon recovered.
103. they broke.
111. then wanting.
121. many hard blows.
134. He cry’d.
154. whole wanting.
161. set his brave.
162. blast then.
163. and soon.
164. An.
181. said bold.
183. and a bow.
184. I’ll.
201. were in.
203. the whole.
212. with the.
222. a wanting.
f.
11. ickles of ice.
13. would frolicksome be.
14. And ramble about with his bow.
24. whither.
81. Hood wanting.
83. he’d.
101. recovered.
103. they broke.
104. Yet neither of them were slain.
112. the other.
121. very hard blows.
124. this combat.
134. He cry’d.
141. And live.
181. said bold.
194. a good.
212. As when.
213. beer and.
132 THE BOLD PEDLAR AND ROBIN HOOD
J. H. Dixon, Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 71, Percy Society, vol. xvii, 1846.
“An aged female in Bermondsey, Surrey,
from whose oral recitation the editor took
down the present version, informed him, that
she had often heard her grandmother sing it,
and that it was never in print; but he has of
late met with several common stall copies.”
Robin Hood and Little John fall in with a
pedlar. Little John asks what goods he carries,
and says he will have half his pack.
The pedlar says he shall have the whole if he
can make him give a perch of ground. They
fight, and John cries Hold. Robin Hood undertakes
the pedlar, and in turn cries Hold.
Robin asks the pedlar’s name. He will not
give it till they have told theirs, and when
they have so done says it still lies with him
to tell or not. However, he is Gamble Gold,
forced to flee his country for killing a man.
If you are Gamble Gold, says Robin, you are
my own cousin. They go to a tavern and
dine and drink.
Stanzas 11, 12, 15 recall Robin Hood’s Delight,
No 136, 19, 20, 24; 13, 14 Robin Hood
Revived, No 128, 17, 18. As remarked under
No 128, this is a traditional variation of Robin
Hood Revived.
1
There chanced to be a pedlar bold,
A pedlar bold he chanced to be;
He rolled his pack all on his back,
And he came tripping oer the lee.
Down a down a down a down,
Down a down a down
2
By chance he met two troublesome blades,
Two troublesome blades they chanced to be;
The one of them was bold Robin Hood,
And the other was Little John so free.
1553
‘O pedlar, pedlar, what is in thy pack?
Come speedilie and tell to me:’
‘I’ve several suits of the gay green silks,
And silken bow-strings two or three.’
4
‘If you have several suits of the gay green silk,
And silken bow-strings two or three,
Then it’s by my body,’ cries Little John,
‘One half your pack shall belong to me.’
5
‘O nay, o nay,’ says the pedlar bold,
‘O nay, o nay, that never can be;
For there’s never a man from fair Nottingham
Can take one half my pack from me.’
6
Then the pedlar he pulled off his pack,
And put it a little below his knee,
Saying, If you do move me one perch from this,
My pack and all shall gang with thee.
7
Then Little John he drew his sword,
The pedlar by his pack did stand;
They fought until they both did sweat,
Till he cried, Pedlar, pray hold your hand!
8
Then Robin Hood he was standing by,
And he did laugh most heartilie;
Saying, I could find a man, of a smaller scale,
Could thrash the pedlar and also thee.
9
‘Go you try, master,’ says Little John,
‘Go you try, master, most speedilie,
Or by my body,’ says Little John,
‘I am sure this night you will not know me.’
10
Then Robin Hood he drew his sword,
And the pedlar by his pack did stand;
They fought till the blood in streams did flow,
Till he cried, Pedlar, pray hold your hand!
11
Pedlar, pedlar, what is thy name?
Come speedilie and tell to me:
‘My name! my name I neer will tell,
Till both your names you have told to me.’
12
‘The one of us is bold Robin Hood,
And the other Little John so free:’
‘Now,’ says the pedlar, ‘it lays to my good will,
Whether my name I chuse to tell to thee.
13
‘I am Gamble Gold of the gay green woods,
And travelled far beyond the sea;
For killing a man in my father’s land
From my country I was forced to flee.’
14
‘If you are Gamble Gold of the gay green woods,
And travelled far beyond the sea,
You are my mother’s own sister’s son;
What nearer cousins then can we be?’
15
They sheathed their swords with friendly words,
So merrilie they did agree;
They went to a tavern, and there they dined,
And bottles cracked most merrilie.
31, 51, 52. Oh.
133 ROBIN HOOD AND THE BEGGAR, I
a. Wood, 401, leaf 23 b.
b. Garland of 1663, No 8.
c. Garland of 1670, No 7.
d. Pepys, II, 116, No 100.
a is printed, with changes, by Ritson, Robin
Hood, 1795, II, 122. Evans, Old Ballads,
1777, 1784, I, 180, agrees with the Aldermary
garland.
156There is a copy in the Roxburghe Collection,
III, 20.
Robin Hood, riding towards Nottingham,
comes upon a beggar, who asks charity.
Robin says he has no money, but must have
a bout with him. The beggar with his staff
gives three blows for every stroke of Robin’s
with his sword. Robin cries truce, and at the
suggestion, we might almost say upon the
requisition, of the beggar, exchanges his horse
and finery for the beggar’s bags and rags.
Thus equipped, he proceeds to Nottingham,
and has the adventure with the sheriff and
three yeomen which is the subject of No 140.
The copy in the Wood and in the Roxburghe
collections is signed T. R., like Robin
Hood and the Butcher, B, and, like the latter
ballad, this is a rifacimento, with middle
rhyme in the third line. It is perhaps made
up from two distinct stories; the Second Part,
beginning at stanza 20, from Robin Hood
rescuing Three Squires, and what precedes
from a ballad resembling Robin Hood and the
Beggar, II.
But no seventeenth-century version of Robin
Hood and the Beggar, II, is known, and it is
more likely that we owe the fight between
Robin Hood and the Beggar to the folly and
bad taste of T. R. Robin has no sort of
provocation to fight with the beggar, and no
motive for changing clothes, the proposition
actually coming from the beggar, st. 15, and
it is an accident that his disguise proves useful
(cf. Guy of Gisborne). The beggar should
have reported that three men were to be
hanged, but instead of this is forced into a
fight, in order that one more ignominious defeat
may be scored against Robin.
The verses,
93,4,
I am an outlaw, as many do know,
My name it is Robin Hood,
occur also in Robin Hood and the Bishop, No
143, 63,4. ‘And this mantle of mine I’le to
thee resign,’ 163, looks very like a reminiscence
of Robin Hood and the Bishop, 103,
‘Thy spindle and twine unto me resign.’[112]
1
Come light and listen, you gentlemen all,
Hey down, down, and a down
That mirth do love for to hear,
And a story true I’le tell unto you,
If that you will but draw near.
2
In elder times, when merriment was,
And archery was holden good,
There was an outlaw, as many did know,
Which men called Robin Hood.
3
Vpon a time it chanced so
Bold Robin was merry disposed,
His time to spend he did intend,
Either with friends or foes.
4
Then he got vp on a gallant brave steed,
The which was worth angels ten;
With a mantle of green, most brave to be seen,
He left all his merry men.
5
And riding towards fair Nottingham,
Some pastime for to spy,
There was he aware of a jolly beggar
As ere he beheld with his eye.
6
An old patcht coat the beggar had on,
Which he daily did vse for to wear;
And many a bag about him did wag,
Which made Robin Hood to him repair.
7
‘God speed, God speed,’ said Robin Hood,
‘What countryman? tell to me:’
‘I am Yorkeshire, sir; but, ere you go far,
Some charity give vnto me.’
8
‘Why, what wouldst thou have?’ said Robin Hood,
‘I pray thee tell vnto me:’
‘No lands nor livings,’ the beggar he said,
‘But a penny for charitie.’
9
‘I have no money,’ said Robin Hood then,
‘But, a ranger within the wood,
I am an outlaw, as many do know,
My name it is Robin Hood.
10
‘But yet I must tell thee, bonny beggar,
That a bout with [thee] I must try;
157Thy coat of gray, lay down I say,
And my mantle of green shall lye by.’
11
‘Content, content,’ the beggar he cry’d,
‘Thy part it will be the worse;
For I hope this bout to give thee the rout,
And then have at thy purse.’
12
The beggar he had a mickle long staffe,
And Robin had a nut-brown sword;
So the beggar drew nigh, and at Robin let fly,
But gave him never a word.
13
‘Fight on, fight on,’ said Robin Hood then,
‘This game well pleaseth me;’
For every blow that Robin did give,
The beggar gave buffets three.
14
And fighting there full hard and sore,
Not far from Nottingham town,
They never fled, till from Robinś head
The blood came trickling down.
15
‘O hold thy hand,’ said Robin Hood then,
‘And thou and I will agree;’
‘If that be true,’ the beggar he said,
‘Thy mantle come give vnto me.’
16
‘Nay a change, a change,’ cri’d Robin Hood;
‘Thy bags and coat give me,
And this mantle of mine I’le to thee resign,
My horse and my braverie.’
17
When Robin Hood had got the beggars clothes,
He looked round about;
‘Methinks,’ said he, ‘I seem to be
A beggar brave and stout.
18
‘For now I have a bag for my bread,
So have I another for corn;
I have one for salt, and another for malt,
And one for my little horn.
19
‘And now I will a begging goe,
Some charitie for to find:’
And if any more of Robin you’l know,
In this second part it’s behind.
20
Now Robin he is to Nottingham bound,
With his bags hanging down to his knee,
His staff, and his coat, scarce worth a groat,
Yet merrilie passed he.
21
As Robin he passed the streets along,
He heard a pittifull cry;
Three brethren deer, as he did hear,
Condemned were to dye.
22
Then Robin he highed to the sheriffs [house],
Some reliefe for to seek;
He skipt, and leapt, and capored full high,
As he went along the street.
23
But when to the sheriffs doore he came,
There a gentleman fine and brave,
‘Thou beggar,’ said he, ‘come tell vnto me
What is it that thou wouldest have?’
24
‘No meat, nor drink,’ said Robin Hood then,
‘That I come here to crave;
But to beg the lives of yeomen three,
And that I fain would have.’
25
‘That cannot be, thou bold beggar,
Their fact it is so cleer;
I tell to thee, hangd they must be,
For stealing of our kings deer.’
26
But when to the gallows they did come,
There was many a weeping eye:
‘O hold your peace,’ said Robin then,
‘For certainly they shall not dye.’
27
Then Robin he set his horn to his mouth,
And he blew but blastes three,
Till a hundred bold archers brave
Came kneeling down to his knee.
28
‘What is your will, master?’ they said,
‘We are here at your command:’
‘Shoot east, shoot west,’ said Robin Hood then,
‘And look that you spare no man.’
29
Then they shot east, and they shot west;
Their arrows were so keen
The sheriffe he, and his companie,
No longer must be seen.
30
Then he stept to these brethren three,
And away he had them tane;
But the sheriff was crost, and many a man lost,
That dead lay on the plain.
31
And away they went into the merry green wood,
And sung with a merry glee,
And Robin took these brethren good
To be of his yeomandrie.
158a.
Robin Hood and the Beggar: Shewing how
Robin Hood and the Beggar fought, and
how he changed clothes with the Beggar,
and how he went a begging to Nottingham,
and how he saved three brethren from being
hangd for stealing of deer. To the tune of
Robin Hood and the Stranger. Signed
T. R.
London, Printed for Francis Grove, on Snowhill.
(1620–55.)
Burden: an a.
11. light in all: a corruption of lyth.
22. archrey.
34. friend or foe: cf.b, c.
42. angell.
61. had one.
101. tell the.
121. saffe.
213. brethred.
274. dow.
314. yeomandriee.
b, c.
Title as in a. Not signed. Burden sometimes,
With hey, etc., or, With a hey, etc.;
once, inc, Hey derry derry down.
b.
34. friends or foes.
42. angels.
71. Hood then.
72. unto.
83. he wanting.
93. doth know.
102. with thee.
104. lay.
161. said for cri’d.
201. he wanting.
214. was for to.
221. sheriffs house.
272. he wanting.
302. them had.
c.
34. friends or foes.
42. angels.
71. Hood then.
72. unto.
83. living.
102. with thee.
194. known for behind.
214. for to.
221. sheriffs house.
253. they hanged.
272. he wanting.
302. them had.
d.
Title as ina: except of the king’s deer. Not
signed.
Printed for I. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T.
Passinger. (1670–86.)
Burden: With a hey down down and a down.
32. merrily.
34. friend or foe.
42. angels.
51. brave for fair.
71. Hood then.
72. unto.
102. with thee.
111. he said.
121. muckle.
124. But he.
133. Robin gave.
143. Robin Hood’s head.
153. If it.
171. Hood wanting.
173. Methink.
183. for mault: for salt.
194. In the. house wanting, as ina.
223. and he leapt.
234. is’t: would’st.
254. of the.
263. O wanting: Robin Hood.
274. down on their.
282. here wanting.
291. east then.
302. has.
303. many men.
311. And wanting.
313. Then Robin Hood.
134 ROBIN HOOD AND THE BEGGAR, II
a. ‘The History of Robin Hood and the Beggar,’
Aberdeen, Printed by and for A. Keith: Bodleian
Library, Douce, HH 88, pasted between pp 68, 69 of
Robin Hood’s Garland, London, C. Dicey. A. Keith
of Aberdeen printed from 1810 to 1835.
b. ‘A pretty dialogue betwixt Robin Hood and a
Beggar,’ Newcastle, in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795,
I, 97.
a is printed by Gutch, Robin Hood, II,
230, with deviations. Of b Ritson says: The
corruptions of the press being equally numerous
and minute, some of the most trifling
have been corrected without notice. Despite
the corruptions, b is, in some readings, preferable
to a. Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p. xliii,
says that pretty early stall copies were printed
both at Aberdeen and Glasgow.
Robin Hood attempts to stop a beggar,
from whom he thinks he may get some
money. The beggar gives no heed to his
summons, but hies on. Robin, getting a
surly answer upon a second essay, says that
if there be but a farthing he will have it,
orders the beggar to loose the strings of his
pocks, and threatens him with an arrow. The
beggar defies him, and upon Robin’s drawing
his bow, reaches him such a stroke with a
staff that bow and arrow are broken to bits.
159Robin takes to his sword; the beggar lights
on his hand with his staff and disables him
completely, then follows in with lusty blows,
till Robin falls in a swoon. The beggar moves
on with entire unconcern. Three of Robin’s
men come by and revive him with water.
Their master tells them of his disgrace; he
had never been in so hard a place in forty
year. He bids them bring the beggar back
or slay him. Two of the three will be enough
for that, they say, and one shall stay with
him. Two set forth, accordingly, with a caution
to be wary, take a short cut, which
brings them out ahead of the beggar, and
leap on him from a hiding, one gripping his
staff and the other putting a dagger to his
breast. The beggar sues for his life in vain;
they will bind him and will take him back to
their master, to be slain or hanged. He offers
them a hundred pound and more for his liberty.
They decide together to take the
money, and say nothing about it, simply reporting
that they have killed the old carl.
The beggar spreads his cloak on the ground
and many a pock on it; then, standing between
them and the wind, takes a great bag
of meal from his neck and flings the meal
into their eyes. Having thus blinded them,
he seizes his staff, which they had stuck in
the ground, and gives each of them a dozen.
The young men take to their heels, the beggar
calling after them to stop for their pay.
Robin, after a jest at the meal on their
cloaths, makes them tell how they have fared.
We are shamed forever, he cries; but smiles
to see that they have had their taste of the
beggar’s tree.
This tale is rightly called by Ritson a
North Country composition of some antiquity,
“perhaps Scottish.” Fragments of Robin
Hood ballads, Motherwell informs us, were
traditionally extant in his day which had not
(and have not) found their way into printed
collections, and we know from very early
testimony that such ballads were current in
Scotland. This is by far the best of the
Robin Hood ballads of the secondary, so to
speak cyclic, period. It has plenty of homely
humor, but the heroic sentiment is gone. It
does not belong to the iron, the cast-iron, age
of Robin Hood’s Birth, Breeding, etc.; but
neither does it belong to the golden age of
Robin Hood and the Monk, or the Gest. It
would be no gain to have Thersites drubbing
Odysseus. Robin finds his match, for the
nonce, in the Potter, but he does not for that
depute two of his men to be the death of the
Potter. It never occurred to Little John and
Much to get a hundred pound from a beggar,
kill him, and pocket the money.
A story resembling that of the second part
of this ballad occurs, as Ritson has observed,
in Le moyen de parvenir, “1739, I, 304;”
II, 94, London, 1786; p. 171, Paris, 1841.
A friar encounters two footpads, who offer to
relieve him of the burden of his frock. He
asks them to let him take it off peaceably,
puts his staff under his foot, takes off the
frock and throws it before them. While one
of the pair stoops to get it, the friar picks up
the staff and hits the knave a blow which
sends him headlong; the other runs off.
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 180.
1
Lyth and listen, gentlemen,
That’s come of high born blood;
I’ll tell you of a brave booting
That befel Robin Hood.
2
Robin Hood upon a day,
He went forth him alone,
And as he came from Barnesdale
Into a fair evening,
3
He met a beggar on the way,
That sturdily could gang;
He had a pike-staff in his hand,
That was baith stark and strang.
4
A clouted cloak about him was,
That held him from the cold;
The thinnest bit of it, I guess,
Was more than twenty fold.
1605
His meal-pock hang about his neck,
Into a leathern fang,
Well fastened with a broad buckle,
That was both stark and strang.
6
He had three hats upon his head,
Together sticked fast;
He cared neither for wind nor weet,
In lands wherever he past.
7
Good Robin coost him in his way,
To see what he might be;
If any beggar had money,
He thought some part had he.
8
‘Tarry, tarry,’ good Robin says,
‘Tarry, and speak with me;’
He heard him as he heard [him] not,
And fast his way can hie.
9
‘It be’s not so,’ says good Robin,
‘Nay, thou must tarry still;’
‘By my troth,’ says the bold beggar,
‘Of that I have no will.
10
‘It is far to my lodging-house,
And it is growing late;
If they have supt ere I come in,
I will look wondrous blate.’
11
‘Now, by my troth,’ says good Robin,
‘I see well by thy fare,
If thou chear well to thy supper,
Of mine thou takes no care;
12
‘Who wants my dinner all the day,
And wots not where to lie,
And should I to the tavern go,
I want money to buy.
13
‘Sir, thou must lend me some money,
Till we two meet again:’
The beggar answerd cankerdly,
I have no money to lend.
14
Thou art as young a man as I,
And seems to be as sweer;
If thou fast till thou get from me,
Thou shalt eat none this year.
15
‘Now, by my troth,’ says good Robin,
‘Since we are sembled so,
If thou have but a small farthing,
I’ll have it ere thou go.
16
‘Therefore, lay down thy clouted cloak,
And do no longer stand,
And loose the strings of all thy pocks;
I’ll ripe them with my hand.
17
‘And now to thee I make a vow,
If thou make any din,
I shall see if a broad arrow
Can pierce a beggar’s skin.’
18
The beggar smil’d, and answer made:
Far better let me be;
Think not that I will be afraid
For thy nip crooked tree.
19
Or that I fear thee any whit
For thy curn nips of sticks;
I know no use for them so meet
As to be pudding-pricks.
20
Here I defy thee to do me ill,
For all thy boistrous fare;
Thou’s get nothing from me but ill,
Would thou seek it evermair.
21
Good Robin bent his noble bow—
He was an angry man—
And in it set a broad arrow;
Yet er ’twas drawn a span,
22
The beggar, with his noble tree,
Reacht him so round a rout
That his bow and his broad arrow
In flinders flew about.
23
Good Robin bound him to his brand,
But that provd likewise vain;
The beggar lighted on his hand
With his pike-staff again.
24
I wot he might not draw a sword
For forty days and more;
Good Robin could not speak a word,
His heart was never so sore.
25
He could not fight, he could not flee,
He wist not what to do;
The beggar, with his noble tree,
Laid lusty flaps him to.
16126
He paid good Robin back and side,
And beft him up and down,
And with his pike-staff still on laid
Till he fell in a swoon.
27
‘Fy! stand up, man,’ the beggar said,
‘’Tis shame to go to rest;
Stay still till thou get thy mony [told],
I think it were the best.
28
‘And syne go to the tavern-house,
And buy both wine and ale;
Hereat thy friends will crack full crouse,
Thou has been at a dale.’
29
Good Robin answerd never a word,
But lay still as a stane;
His cheeks were white as any clay,
And closed were his eyne.
30
The beggar thought him dead but fail,
And boldly bownd away;
I would you had been at the dale,
And gotten part of the play.
31
Now three of Robin’s men, by chance,
Came walking on the way,
And found their master in a trance,
On ground where he did lie.
32
Up have they taken good Robin,
Making a piteous bier,
Yet saw they no man there at whom
They might the matter spear.
33
They looked him all round about,
But wounds on him saw none,
Yet at his mouth came bocking out
The blood of a good vein.
34
Cold water they have taken syne,
And cast into his face;
Then he began to lift his eyne,
And spake within short space.
35
‘Tell us, dear master,’ says his men,
‘How with you stands the case?’
Good Robin sighd ere he began
To tell of his disgrace.
36
‘I have been watchman in this wood
Near hand this forty year,
Yet I was never so hard bestead
As you have found me here.
37
‘A beggar with a clouted cloak,
In whom I feard no ill,
Hath with a pike-staff clawd my back;
I fear’t shall never be well.
38
‘See, where he goes out oer yon hill,
With hat upon his head;
If ever you lovd your master well,
Go now revenge this deed.
39
‘And bring him back again to me,
If it lie in your might,
That I may see, before I die,
Him punisht in my sight.
40
‘And if you may not bring him back,
Let him not go loose on;
For to us all it were great shame
If he escapt again.’
41
‘One of us shall with you remain,
Because you’re ill at ease;
The other two shall bring him back,
To use him as you please.’
42
‘Now, by my troth,’ says good Robin,
‘I trow there’s enough said;
If he get scouth to weild his tree,
I fear you’ll both be paid.’
43
‘Be ye not feard, our good master,
That we two can be dung
With any blutter base beggar,
That hath nought but a rung.
44
‘His staff shall stand him in no stead;
That you shall shortly see;
But back again he shall be led,
And fast bound shall he be,
To see if you will have him slain,
Or hanged on a tree.’
45
‘But cast you slily in his way,
Before he be aware,
And on his pike-staff first lay hands;
You’ll speed the better far.’
16246
Now leave we Robin with his man,
Again to play the child,
And learn himself to stand and gang
By haulds, for all his eild.
47
Now pass we to the bold beggar,
That raked oer the hill,
Who never mended his pace no more
Nor he had done no ill.
48
The young men knew the country well,
So soon where he would be,
And they have taken another way,
Was nearer by miles three.
49
They rudely ran with all their might,
Spar’d neither dub nor mire,
They stirred neither at laigh nor hight,
No travel made them tire,
50
Till they before the beggar wan,
And coost them in his way;
A little wood lay in a glen,
And there they both did stay.
51
They stood up closely by a tree,
In ilk side of the gate,
Until the beggar came them to,
That thought not of such fate.
52
And as he was betwixt them past,
They leapt upon him baith;
The one his pike-staff gripped fast,
They feared for its scaith.
53
The other he held in his sight
A drawn dirk to his breast,
And said, False carl, quit thy staff,
Or I shall be thy priest.
54
His pike-staff they have taken him frae,
And stuck it in the green;
He was full leath to let [it] gae,
If better might have been.
55
The beggar was the feardest man
Of one that ever might be;
To win away no way he can,
Nor help him with his tree.
56
He wist not wherefore he was tane,
Nor how many was there;
He thought his life-days had been gone,
And grew into despair.
57
‘Grant me my life,’ the beggar said,
‘For him that died on tree,
And take away that ugly knife,
Or then for fear I’ll die.
58
‘I grievd you never in all my life,
By late nor yet by ayre;
Ye have great sin, if ye should slay
A silly poor beggar.’
59
‘Thou lies, false lown,’ they said again,
‘By all that may be sworn;
Thou hast near slain the gentlest man
That ever yet was born.
60
‘And back again thou shalt be led,
And fast bound shalt thou be,
To see if he will have thee slain,
Or hanged on a tree.’
61
The beggar then thought all was wrong;
They were set for his wrack;
He saw nothing appearing then
But ill upon worse back.
62
Were he out of their hands, he thought,
And had again his tree,
He should not be had back for nought,
With such as he did see.
63
Then he bethought him on a wile,
If it could take effect,
How he the young men might beguile,
And give them a begeck.
64
Thus for to do them shame or ill
His beastly breast was bent;
He found the wind grew something shril,
To further his intent.
65
He said, Brave gentlemen, be good,
And let the poor man be;
When ye have taken a beggar’s blood,
It helps you not a flee.
66
It was but in my own defence,
If he hath gotten skaith;
But I will make a recompence,
Much better for you baith.
16367
If ye will set me safe and free,
And do me no danger,
An hundred pounds I will you give,
And much more good silver,
68
That I have gathered these many years,
Under this clouted cloak,
And hid up wonder privately,
In bottom of my pock.
69
The young men to a council yeed,
And let the beggar gae;
They wist how well he had no speed
From them to run away.
70
They thought they would the money take,
Come after what so may,
And then they would not bring him back,
But in that part him slay.
71
By that good Robin would not know
That they had gotten coin;
It would content him for to show
That there they had him slain.
72
They said, False carl, soon have done
And tell forth that money;
For the ill turn thou hast done
’Tis but a simple fee.
73
And yet we will not have thee back,
Come after what so may,
If thou will do that which thou spake,
And make us present pay.
74
O then he loosd his clouted cloak,
And spread it on the ground,
And thereon laid he many a pock,
Betwixt them and the wind.
75
He took a great bag from his hase;
It was near full of meal;
Two pecks in it at least there was,
And more, I wot full well.
76
Upon his cloak he laid it down,
The mouth he opend wide,
To turn the same he made him bown,
The young men ready spy’d.
77
In every hand he took a nook
Of that great leathern meal,
And with a fling the meal he shook
Into their faces hail.
78
Wherewith he blinded them so close
A stime they could not see;
And then in heart he did rejoice,
And clapt his lusty tree.
79
He thought, if he had done them wrong
In mealing of their cloaths,
For to strike off the meal again
With his pike-staff he goes.
80
Or any one of them could red their eyne,
Or yet a glimmering could see,
Ilk ane of them a dozen had,
Well laid on with the tree.
81
The young men were right swift of foot,
And boldly ran away;
The beggar could them no more hit,
For all the haste he may.
82
‘What ails this haste?’ the beggar said,
‘May ye not tarry still,
Until your money be receivd?
I’ll pay you with good will.
83
‘The shaking of my pocks, I fear,
Hath blown into your eyne;
But I have a good pike-staff here
Will ripe them out full clean.’
84
The young men answerd neer a word,
They were dumb as a stane;
In the thick wood the beggar fled,
Eer they riped their eyne.
85
And syne the night became so late,
To seek him was but vain:
But judge ye, if they looked blate
When they came home again.
86
Good Robin speard how they had sped;
They answerd him, Full ill;
‘That cannot be,’ good Robin says;
‘Ye have been at the mill.
87
‘The mill it is a meatrif place,
They may lick what they please;
Most like ye have been at that art,
Who would look to your cloaths.’
16488
They hangd their heads, and droped down,
A word they could not speak:
Robin said, Because I fell a-swoon,
I think you’ll do the like.
89
Tell on the matter, less and more,
And tell me what and how
Ye have done with the bold beggar
I sent you for right now.
90
And then they told him to an end,
As I have said before,
How that the beggar did them blind,
What misters process more.
91
And how he lin’d their shoulders broad
With his great trenchen tree,
And how in the thick wood he fled,
Eer they a stime could see.
92
And how they scarcely could win home,
Their bones were beft so sore:
Good Robin cry’d, Fy! out, for shame!
We’re sham’d for evermore.
93
Altho good Robin would full fain
Of his wrong revenged be,
He smil’d to see his merry young men
Had gotten a taste of the tree.
a.
The History of Robin Hood and the Beggar:
in two Parts. Part I: Shewing how Robin
Hood, in attempting to rob a Beggar near
Barnesdale, was shamefully defeated, and
left for dead, till taken up by three of his
men. Part II: How the beggar blinded
two of his men with a bag of meal, who
were sent to kill him or bring him back.
Title prefixed to the ballad: Robin Hood and
the Beggar.
In stanzas of two long lines. After 30: The
Second Part.
223. arrows.
301. but sail: that is, but ſail.
383. you for your.
412. ill a case: which perhaps should be retained.
461. and for with.
464. the eild.
483. a another.
514. fate: b, late, that is, let.
533. quite.
654. fly: b, flee.
773. sling: that is, ſling.
793. strick.
892. where and.
b.
In stanzas of two long lines.
Some of these readings may be Ritson’s corrections.
12. That be.
24. a wanting.
32. Who for That.
42. frae the.
52. whang.
53. to a.
71. cast.
83. heard him not.
84. on his.
91. ’Tis be.
93. said.
113. shares well.
114. dost not care.
121. all this.
123. would I.
131. you must.
132. two wanting.
141. art a.
152. asembled.
153. has.
161. Come lay.
173. if wanting.
204. Wouldst: it wanting.
214. Lo eer.
223. arrow.
242,4. mair, sair.
253. ſlaps.
262. baiſt.
263. laid on loud for still on laid.
271. Fy wanting.
273. still till: money told.
284. hast been at the.
293. pale for white.
301. but fail.
302. his way.
303. ye.
312. by the.
314. where that he lay.
332. wound.
341. gotten for taken.
342. unto.
343. to hitch his ear.
344. speak.
351. said.
362. this twenty.
364. ye.
372. Of whom.
373. with his.
374. ‘twill.
381. out wanting.
383. eer ye.
404. escape.
412. ill at ease.
423. And he.
431. ye, good wanting.
434. has.
445. ye.
453. hands lay.
454. Ye.
461. with his.
464. his eild.
473. no wanting.
474. Then he.
481,2. wanting.
491. They stoutly.
493. They started at neither how nor height.
502. cast them.
512. In each.
513. them nigh.
514. thought of no such late.
543. let it.
544. An better might it been.
552. any for one.
561. Nor wist he.
564. He for And.
572. on the.
573. And hold.
574. Or else.
582. Neither by late or air.
583. You have great sin if you would.
592. For all.
594. Of one that eer.
601. shall.
623. led back.
633. he might the young men.
634. gave them a begack.
641. for wanting: for ill.
643. blew for grew.
652. a poor.
654. flee.
662. has.
664. Is better.
671. fair and.
672. no more dear.
674. odd for good.
681. this.
691. to the.
693. full well.
703. And yet: not take.
704. that place.
165713. for wanting.
722. forth thy.
723. turn that.
724. It’s: plee for fee.
743. lay he.
751. half, that is, half.
761. this cloak: set it.
763. bound.
772. bag for meal.
773. fling.
774. face all hail.
792. cloath.
793. strike.
801. Eer any of.
802. Or a glimmering might.
804. with his.
812. boldly bound.
821. What’s all this.
822. May not thou.
834. Can ripe.
852. in vain.
871. meat rife part.
873. at the.
874. at your.
881. they drooped.
883. a sound.
884. ye.
891. less or.
892. what and.
901. And when.
904. presses for process.
911,2. wanting.
913. woods.
922. were baste.
932. his wrath.
135 ROBIN HOOD AND THE SHEPHERD
a. Garland of 1663, No 13.
b. Garland of 1670, No 12.
c. Wood, 401, leaf 13 b.
d. Pepys, II, 115, No 102.
Roxburghe, II, 392, III, 284; Douce, III,
115 b, by L. How, of the eighteenth century.
A manuscript copy in the British Museum,
Add. 15072, fol. 59, is a, with omission of
122–154, and a few errors of carelessness.
Printed in Ritson’s Robin Hood from c and
one of the Roxburghe broadsides. Evans, Old
Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 136, seems to have followed
the Aldermary garland, with slight deviation.
Robin Hood, walking in the forest, finds a
shepherd lying on the ground, and bids him
rise and show what he has in his bottle and
bag. The shepherd tells him that he shall
not see a drop of his bottle until his valor has
been tried. Robin stakes twenty pound on
the issue of a fight, and the shepherd his bag
and bottle. They fight from ten to four, hook
against sword. Robin Hood falls to the
ground, and the shepherd calls on him to own
himself beaten. Robin demands the boon of
three blasts on his horn. These bring Little
John, who undertakes the shepherd, and is so
roughly handled that Robin is fain to yield his
wager, to which Little John heartily agrees.
It is but the natural course of exaggeration
that the shepherd, having beaten Robin Hood,
should beat Little John. This is descending
low enough, but we do not see the bottom of
this kind of balladry here.
In King Alfred and the Shepherd, Old
Ballads, 1723, I, 43, stanzas 6–17, the king
plays Robin’s part, fighting four hours with
the Shepherd and then craving a truce. Further
on Alfred blows his horn. There are
also verbal agreements.
1
All gentlemen and yeomen good,
Down a down a down a down
I wish you to draw near;
For a story of gallant brave Robin Hood
Vnto you I wil declare.
Down, etc.
2
As Robin Hood walkt the forrest along,
Some pastime for to spie,
There was he aware of a jolly shepherd,
That on the ground did lie.
1663
‘Arise, arise,’ cryed jolly Robin,
‘And now come let me see
What is in thy bag and bottle, I say;
Come tell it unto me.’
4
‘What’s that to thee, thou proud fellow?
Tell me as I do stand
What thou hast to do with my bag and bottle?
Let me see thy command.’
5
‘My sword, which hangeth by my side,
Is my command I know;
Come, and let me taste of thy bottle,
Or it may breed thee wo.’
6
‘Tut, the devil a drop, thou proud fellow,
Of my bottle thou shalt see,
Untill thy valour here be tried,
Whether thou wilt fight or flee.’
7
‘What shall we fight for?’ cries bold Robin Hood;
‘Come tell it soon to me;
Here is twenty pounds in good red gold;
Win it, and take it thee.’
8
The Shepherd stood all in a maze,
And knew not what to say:
‘I have no money, thou proud fellow,
But bag and bottle I’le lay.’
9
‘I am content, thou shepherd-swain,
Fling them down on the ground;
But it will breed thee mickle pain,
To win my twenty pound.’
10
‘Come draw thy sword, thou proud fellow,
Thou stands too long to prate;
This hook of mine shall let thee know
A coward I do hate.’
11
So they fell to it, full hardy and sore;
It was on a summers day;
From ten till four in the afternoon
The Shepherd held him play.
12
Robins buckler proved his chief defence,
And saved him many a bang,
For every blow the Shepherd gave
Made Robins sword cry twang.
13
Many a sturdy blow the Shepherd gave,
And that bold Robin found,
Till the blood ran trickling from his head;
Then he fell to the ground.
14
‘Arise, arise, thou proud fellow,
And thou shalt have fair play,
If thou wilt yield, before thou go,
That I have won the day.’
15
‘A boon, a boon,’ cried bold Robin;
‘If that a man thou be,
Then let me take my beaugle-horn,
And blow but blasts three.’
16
‘To blow three times three,’ the Shepherd said,
‘I will not thee deny;
For if thou shouldst blow till to-morrow morn,
I scorn one foot to fly.’
17
Then Robin set his horn to his mouth,
And he blew with mickle main,
Until he espied Little John
Come tripping over the plain.
18
‘O who is yonder, thou proud fellow,
That comes down yonder hill?’
‘Yonder is Little John, bold Robin Hoods man,
Shall fight with thee thy fill.’
19
‘What is the matter?’ saies Little John,
‘Master, come tell to me:’
‘My case is great,’ saies Robin Hood,
‘For the Shepherd hath conquered me.’
20
‘I am glad of that,’ cries Little John,
‘Shepherd, turn thou to me;
For a bout with thee I mean to have,
Either come fight or flee.’
21
‘With all my heart, thou proud fellow,
For it never shall be said
That a shepherds hook of thy sturdy look
Will one jot be dismaid.’
22
So they fell to it, full hardy and sore,
Striving for victory;
‘I will know,’ saies John, ‘ere we give ore,
Whether thou wilt fight or flye.’
23
The Shepherd gave John a sturdy blow,
With his hook under the chin;
‘Beshrew thy heart,’ said Little John,
‘Thou basely dost begin.’
16724
‘Nay, that’s nothing,’ said the Shepherd;
‘Either yield to me the day,
Or I will bang thee back and sides,
Before thou goest thy way.
25
‘What? dost thou think, thou proud fellow,
That thou canst conquer me?
Nay, thou shalt know, before thou go,
I’le fight before I’le flee.’
26
With that to thrash Little John like mad
The Shepherd he begun;
‘Hold, hold,’ cryed bold Robin Hood,
‘And I’le yield the wager won.’
27
‘With all my heart,’ said Little John,
‘To that I will agree;
For he is the flower of shepherd-swains,
The like I never did see.’
28
Thus have you heard of Robin Hood,
Also of Little John,
How a shepherd-swain did conquer them;
The like did never none.
a, b.
Robin Hood and the Shepard: Shewing how
Robin Hood, Little John and the Shepheard
fought a sore combate.
Tune is, Robin Hood and Queen Katherine.
a.
Burden: a third a down is not printed after
the first line, but is after the last.
43. hast thou.
54. thy wo.
72. Gome.
204. Eihter.
262. Sheherd.
b.
Burden: Down a down a down a down.
After 91, 214, With a, &c.
13. bold for brave.
43. thou hast.
53. tast.
54. thee for thy.
71. bold wanting.
73. pound.
102. standst.
121. chiefest.
133. tickling.
161. Then said the Shepherd to bold Robin.
162. wanting.
171. Robin he.
183. Little wanting.
193. is very bad, cries.
261. Again the Shepherd laid on him.
264. And wanting: I will.
274. I did never.
284. was never known.
c.
Robin Hood and the Shepheard: Shewing how
Robin Hood, Little John and the Shepheard
fought a sore combat.
The Shepherd fought for twenty pound,
And Robin for bottle and bag,
But the Shepheard stout gave them the rout
So sore they could not wag.
The tune is Robin and Queen Katherine.
London, Printed for John Andrews, at the
White Lion, in Pie-Corner. (1660.)
Burden: Down a down a down a down.
13. bold for brave.
43. thou hast.
54. my wo.
81. amaze.
113. four till ten.
121. chiefest.
134. And then.
161. wanting.
193. cries for saies.
194. hath beaten.
223. ile know saith.
224. flee.
251. doest.
261. wanting.
262. began.
264. And wanting: I will.
273. Shepheards.
274. I did never.
d.
Title as in a, b.
Printed for William Thackeray, at the Angel
in Duck Lane. (1689.)
Burden: Down a down down.
13. bold for brave.
23. he was.
43. hast thou, as ina.
51. that for which.
54. thy woe, as ina.
61. Tut wanting.
71. bold wanting.
73. pound.
102. standest.
111. hard.
121. chiefest.
153. beagle.
161. Then said the Shepherd to bold Robin.
162. To that will I agree.
164. flee.
171. he set.
172. with might and main.
183. Little wanting.
193. bad cries.
212. shall never.
213. at thy.
224. flee.
243. thy for thee.
261. Again the Shepherd laid on him.
262. began.
263. Hood wanting.
264. And wanting: I will.
274. I did never.
284. The like was never known.
136 ROBIN HOOD’S DELIGHT (ROBIN HOOD, JOHN, SCARLOCK AND THREE KEEPERS)
168
a. Wood, 401, leaf 41 b.
b. Garland of 1663, No 17.
c. Garland of 1670, No 16.
d. Pepys, II, 112, No 99.
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 116, from
a, with changes. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777,
1784, I, 176.
Robin Hood, Scarlock, and John, walking
in Sherwood, are charged to stand by three
of King Henry’s keepers. There is a fight
from eight till two o’clock, in which the outlaws
are at some disadvantage. Robin asks
that he may blow his horn, then he will fight
again. The keepers refuse; he must fall on
or yield. Robin owns them to be stout fellows;
he will not fight it out there with
swords, but at Nottingham with sack. They
go to Nottingham accordingly, and drink
themselves good friends.
The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood, No 132,
a late traditional copy, shows traces of st.
20 of this ballad in st. 12, where the Pedlar
says it lies with him whether he will tell his
name, and again at the end, where Robin
Hood, John, and the Pedlar drink friendship
at the tavern. Robin Hood’s antagonists are
again foresters and keepers in the Progress to
Nottingham, and in Robin Hood and the Ranger.
There are numerous verbal agreements
between Robin Hood’s Delight and Robin
Hood and the Shepherd.
Translated by Loève-Veimars, p. 199.
1
There is some will talk of lords and knights,
Doun a doun a doun a doun
And some of yeoman good,
But I will tell you of Will Scarlock,
Little John and Robin Hood.
Doun a doun a doun a doun
2
They were outlaws, as ’tis well known,
And men of a noble blood;
And a many a time was their valour shown
In the forrest of merry Sheerwood.
3
Vpon a time it chanced so,
As Robin Hood would have it be,
They all three would a walking go,
Some pastime for to see.
4
And as they walked the forest along,
Upon a midsummer day,
There was they aware of three keepers,
Clade all in green aray.
5
With brave long faucheons by their sides,
And forest-bills in hand,
They calld aloud to those bold outlaws,
And charged them to stand.
6
‘Why, who are you,’ cry’d bold Robin,
‘That speaks so boldly here? ’
‘We three belong to King Henry,
And are keepers of his deer.’
7
‘The devil thou art!’ sayes Robin Hood,
‘I am sure that it is not so;
169We be the keepers of this forest,
And that you soon shall know.
8
‘Come, your coats of green lay on the ground,
And so will we all three,
And take your swords and bucklers round,
And try the victory.’
9
‘We be content,’ the keepers said,
‘We be three, and you no less;
Then why should we be of you afraid,
And we never did transgress?’
10
‘Why, if you be three keepers in this forest,
Then we be three rangers good,
And we will make you to know, before you do go,
You meet with bold Robin Hood.’
11
‘We be content, thou bold outlaw,
Our valour here to try,
And we will make you know, before we do go,
We will fight before we will fly.
12
‘Then, come draw your swords, you bold outlaws,
And no longer stand to prate,
But let us try it out with blows,
For cowards we do hate.
13
‘Here is one of us for Will Scarlock,
And another for Little John,
And I my self for Robin Hood,
Because he is stout and strong.’
14
So they fell to it full hard and sore;
It was on a midsummers day;
From eight a clock till two and past,
They all shewed gallant play.
15
There Robin, and Will, and Little John,
They fought most manfully,
Till all their winde was spent and gone,
Then Robin aloud did cry:
16
‘O hold, O hold,’ cries bold Robin,
‘I see you be stout men;
Let me blow one blast on my bugle-horn,
Then I’le fight with you again.’
17
‘That bargain’s to make, bold Robin Hood,
Therefore we it deny;
Though a blast upon thy bugle-horn
Cannot make us fight nor fly.
18
‘Therefore fall on, or else be gone,
And yield to us the day:
It shall never be said that we were afraid
Of thee, nor thy yeomen gay.’
19
‘If that be so,’ cries bold Robin,
‘Let me but know your names,
And in the forest of merry Sheerwood
I shall extol your fames.’
20
‘And with our names,’ one of them said,
‘What hast thou here to do?
Except that you will fight it out,
Our names thou shalt not know.’
21
‘We will fight no more,’ sayes bold Robin,
‘You be men of valour stout;
Come and go with me to Nottingham,
And there we will fight it out.
22
‘With a but of sack we will bang it out,
To see who wins the day;
And for the cost, make you no doubt
I have gold and money to pay
23
‘And ever after, so long as we live,
We all will brethren be;
For I love those men with heart and hand
That will fight, and never flee.’
24
So away they went to Nottingham,
With sack to make amends;
For three dayes space they wine did chase,
And drank themselves good friends.
a.
Robin Hood’s Delight, or, A merry combat
fought between Robin Hood, Little John
and Will Scarelock and three stout Keepers
in Sheerwood Forrest.
Robin was valiant and stout, so was Scarelock and John, in the field,
But these keepers stout did give them the rout, and made them all for to yield;
170But after the battel ended was, bold Robin did make them amends,
For claret and sack they did not lack, so drank themselves good friends.
To the tune of Robin Hood and Quene Katherine,
or, Robin Hood and the Shepheard.
London, Printed for John Andrews, at the
White Lion, near Pye Corner. (1660.)
b, c.
Title the same, without the verses: Scarlet
for Scarelock.
12. b, yeomen.
13, 131. Scarlet.
21. it is.
23. And many.
43. was he: c, forresters for keepers.
51. side.
52. c, forrests bils.
53. c, bold wanting.
71. b, bold Robin, Hood wanting: c, said
Robin Hood.
72. b, it wanting: c, that wanting.
104. met.
113. do wanting.
114. b. wee’l.
161. c. thy hand cryes.
171. is.
193. c. in that.
194. b. I will.
203. thou wilt.
231. hereafter.
d.
Title as inb, c, except: fought against.
Printed for William Thackeray, at the Angel
in Duck Lane. (1689.)
11. There’s.
12. yeomen.
13, 131. Scarlet.
23. And many.
43. forresters for keepers.
53. bold wanting.
62. speak.
71. said.
72. that wanting.
73. the wanting: in for of.
81. Come wanting.
92. you wanting.
93. we of you be.
101. the for three.
103. we’l: to wanting.
113. first we, do wanting.
141. hardy.
153. spend.
163. with my beagle.
171. is.
173. Thy blast: beagle.
183. never shall: we are.
203. thou wilt.
231. hereafter.
233. these.
137 ROBIN HOOD AND THE PEDLARS
‘Robinhood and the Peddlers,’ the fourth ballad in a
MS. formerly in the possession of J. Payne Collier,
now in the British Museum; previously printed in
Gutch’s Robin Hood, II, 351.
The manuscript in which this ballad occurs
contains a variety of matters, and, as the best
authority[113] has declared, may in part have
been written as early as 1650, but all the
ballads are in a nineteenth-century hand, and
some of them are maintained to be forgeries.
I see no sufficient reason for regarding this
particular piece as spurious, and therefore,
though I should be glad to be rid of it, accept
it for the present as perhaps a copy of a
broadside, or a copy of a copy.
The story resembles that of Robin Hood’s
Delight, pedlars taking the place of keepers;
but Robin is reduced to an ignominy paralleled
only in the second ballad of Robin Hood
and the Beggar. Robin Hood, accompanied
by Scarlet and John, bids three pedlars stand.
They pay no heed, and he sends an arrow
through the pack of one of them. Hereupon
they throw down their packs and wait for
their assailants to come up. Robin’s bow is
broken by a blow from a staff of one of the
pedlars. Robin calls a truce until he and his
men can get staves. There is then an equal
fight, the end of which is that Robin Hood is
knocked senseless and left in a swoon, tended
by Scarlet and John. But before the pedlars
set forward, Kit o Thirske, the best man
of the three, and the one who has fought with
Robin, administers a balsam to his fallen foe,
171which he says will heal his hurts, but which
operates unpleasantly.
Thirsk is about twenty miles from York, in
the North Riding.
1
Will you heare a tale of Robin Hood,
Will Scarlett, and Little John?
Now listen awhile, it will make you smile,
As before it hath many done.
2
They were archers three, of hie degree,
As good as ever drewe bowe;
Their arrowes were long and their armes were strong,
As most had cause to knowe.
3
But one sommers day, as they toke their way
Through the forrest of greene Sherwood,
To kill the kings deare, you shall presently heare
What befell these archers good.
4
They were ware on the roade of three peddlers with loade,
Ffor each had his packe,
Ffull of all wares for countrie faires,
Trusst up upon his backe.
5
A good oke staffe, a yard and a halfe,
Each one had in his hande;
And they were all bound to Nottingham towne,
As you shall understand.
6
‘Yonder I see bolde peddlers three,’
Said Robin to Scarlett and John;
‘We’le search their packes upon their backes
Before that they be gone.
7
‘Holla, good fellowes!’ quod Robin Hood,
‘Whither is it ye doe goe?
Now stay and rest, for that is the best,
’Tis well ye should doe soe.’
8
‘Noe rest we neede, on our roade we speede,
Till to Nottingham we get:’
‘Thou tellst a lewde lye,’ said Robin, ‘for I
Can see that ye swinke and swet.’
9
The peddlers three crosst over the lee,
They did not list to fight:
‘I charge you tarrie,’ quod Robin, ‘for marry,
This is my owne land by right.
10
‘This is my mannor and this is my parke,
I would have ye for to knowe;
Ye are bolde outlawes, I see by cause
Ye are so prest to goe.’
11
The peddlers three turned round to see
Who it might be they herd;
Then agen went on as they list to be gone,
And never answered word.
12
Then toke Robin Hood an arrow so good,
Which he did never lacke,
And drew his bowe, and the swift arrowe
Went through the last peddlers packe.
13
Ffor him it was well on the packe it fell,
Or his life had found an ende;
And it pierst the skin of his backe within,
Though the packe did stand his frend.
14
Then downe they flung their packes eche one,
And stayde till Robin came:
Quod Robin, I saide ye had better stayde;
Good sooth, ye were to blame.
15
‘And who art thou? by S. Crispin, I vowe
I’le quickly cracke thy head!’
Cried Robin, Come on, all three, or one;
It is not so soone done as said.
16
My name, by the roode, is Robin Hood,
And this is Scarlett and John;
It is three to three, ye may plainelie see,
Soe now, brave fellowes, laye on.
17
The first peddlars blowe brake Robins bowe
That he had in his hand;
And Scarlett and John, they eche had one
That they unneath could stand.
18
‘Now holde your handes,’ cride Robin Hood,
‘Ffor ye have got oken staves;
But tarie till wee can get but three,
And a fig for all your braves.’
17219
Of the peddlers the first, his name Kit o Thirske,
Said, We are all content;
Soe eche tooke a stake for his weapon, to make
The peddlers to repent.
20
Soe to it they fell, and their blowes did ring well
Uppon the others backes;
And gave the peddlers cause to wish
They had not cast their packes.
21
Yet the peddlers three of their blowes were so free
That Robin began for to rue;
And Scarlett and John had such loade laide on
It made the sunne looke blue.
22
At last Kits oke caught Robin a stroke
That made his head to sound;
He staggerd, and reelde, till he fell on the fielde,
And the trees with him went round.
23
‘Now holde your handes,’ cride Little John,
And soe said Scarlett eke;
‘Our maister is slaine, I tell you plaine,
He never more will speake.’
24
‘Now, heaven forefend he come to that ende,’
Said Kit, ‘I love him well;
But lett him learne to be wise in turne,
And not with pore peddlers mell.
25
‘In my packe, God wot, I a balsame have got
That soone his hurts will heale;’
And into Robin Hoods gaping mouth
He presentlie powrde some deale.
26
‘Now fare ye well, tis best not to tell
How ye three peddlers met;
Or if ye doe, prithee tell alsoe
How they made ye swinke and swett.’
27
Poore Robin in sound they left on the ground,
And hied them to Nottingham,
While Scarlett and John Robin tended on,
Till at length his senses came.
28
Noe soone[r], in haste, did Robin Hood taste
The balsame he had tane,
Than he gan to spewe, and up he threwe
The balsame all againe.
29
And Scarlett and John, who were looking on
Their maister as he did lie,
Had their faces besmeard, both eies and beard,
Therewith most piteously.
30
Thus ended that fray; soe beware alwaye
How ye doe challenge foes;
Looke well aboute they are not to stoute,
Or you may have worst of the blowes.
138 ROBIN HOOD AND ALLEN A DALE
a. ‘Robin Hood and Allin of Dale,’ Douce, II, leaf 185.
b. ‘Robin Hood and Allin of Dale,’ Pepys, II, 110,
No 97.
c. ‘Robin Hood and Allen a Dale,’ Douce, III, 119 b.
Printed in A Collection of Old Ballads,
1723, II, 44, and Evans’s Old Ballads, 1777,
1784, I, 126, after a copy very near to c. In
Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 46, probably
after Roxburghe II, 394. Not included in the
garlands of 1663, 1670; in a garland of 1749,
the Aldermary garland, R. Marshall, and the
Lichfield, M. Morgan, both not dated, No 8;
in the York garland, 1811, No 9. In the
Kinloch MSS, V, 183, there is a copy, derived
173from the broadside, but Scotticised, and improved
in the process.
A young man, Allen a Dale, whom Robin
Hood has seen passing, one day singing and
the next morning sighing, is stopped by Little
John and the Miller’s Son, and brought
before their master, who asks him if he has
any money. He has five shillings and a ring,
and was to have been married the day before,
but his bride has been given to an old knight.
Robin asks what he will give to get his true-love.
All that he can give is his faithful service.
Robin goes to the church and declares
the match not fit: the bride shall choose for
herself. He blows his horn, and four-and-twenty
of his men appear, the foremost of
whom is Allen a Dale. Robin tells Allen
that he shall be married on the spot. The
bishop says no; there must be three askings.
Robin puts the bishop’s coat on Little John,
and Little John asks seven times. Robin
gives Allen the maid, and bids the man take
her away that dare.
The ballad, it will be observed, is first found
in broadside copies of the latter half of the
seventeenth century. The story is told of
Scarlock in the life of Robin Hood in Sloane
MS, 715, 7, fol. 157, of the end of the sixteenth
century; Thoms, Early Prose Romances,
II, p. 39.
“Scarlock he induced [to become one of
his company] upon this occacion. One day
meting him as he walked solitary and lyke to
a man forlorne, because a mayd to whom he
was affyanced was taken from [him] by the
violence of her frends, and given to another,
that was auld and welthy; whereupon Robin,
understandyng when the maryage-day should
be, came to the church as a beggar, and having
his company not far of, which came in so
sone as they hard the sound of his horne, he
‘took’ the bryde perforce from him that was
in hand to have maryed her, and caused the
preist to wed her and Scarlocke togeyther.”
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 146.
1
Come listen to me, you gallants so free,
All you that loves mirth for to hear,
And I will you tell of a bold outlaw,
That lived in Nottinghamshire. (bis.)
2
As Robin Hood in the forrest stood,
All under the green-wood tree,
There was he ware of a brave young man,
As fine as fine might be.
3
The youngster was clothed in scarlet red,
In scarlet fine and gay,
And he did frisk it over the plain,
And chanted a roundelay.
4
As Robin Hood next morning stood,
Amongst the leaves so gay,
There did he espy the same young man
Come drooping along the way.
5
The scarlet he wore the day before,
It was clean cast away;
And every step he fetcht a sigh,
‘Alack and a well a day!’
6
Then stepped forth brave Little John,
And Nick the millers son,
Which made the young man bend his bow,
When as he see them come.
7
‘Stand off, stand off,’ the young man said,
‘What is your will with me?’
‘You must come before our master straight,
Vnder yon green-wood tree.’
8
And when he came bold Robin before,
Robin askt him courteously,
O hast thou any money to spare
For my merry men and me?
9
‘I have no money,’ the young man said,
‘But five shillings and a ring;
And that I have kept this seven long years,
To have it at my wedding.
10
‘Yesterday I should have married a maid,
But she is now from me tane,
And chosen to be an old knights delight,
Whereby my poor heart is slain.’
17411
‘What is thy name?’ then said Robin Hood,
‘Come tell me, without any fail:’
‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,
‘My name it is Allin a Dale.’
12
‘What wilt thou give me,’ said Robin Hood,
‘In ready gold or fee,
To help thee to thy true-love again,
And deliver her unto thee?’
13
‘I have no money,’ then quoth the young man,
‘No ready gold nor fee,
But I will swear upon a book
Thy true servant for to be.’
14
‘How many miles is it to thy true-love?
Come tell me without any guile:’
‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,
‘It is but five little mile.’
15
Then Robin he hasted over the plain,
He did neither stint nor lin,
Vntil he came unto the church
Where Allin should keep his wedding.
16
‘What dost thou do here?’ the bishop he said,
‘I prethee now tell to me:’
‘I am a bold harper,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘And the best in the north countrey.’
17
‘O welcome, O welcome,’ the bishop he said,
‘That musick best pleaseth me;’
‘You shall have no musick,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘Till the bride and the bridegroom I see.’
18
With that came in a wealthy knight,
Which was both grave and old,
And after him a finikin lass,
Did shine like glistering gold.
19
‘This is no fit match,’ quoth bold Robin Hood,
‘That you do seem to make here;
For since we are come unto the church,
The bride she shall chuse her own dear.’
20
Then Robin Hood put his horn to his mouth,
And blew blasts two or three;
When four and twenty bowmen bold
Came leaping over the lee.
21
And when they came into the church-yard,
Marching all on a row,
The first man was Allin a Dale,
To give bold Robin his bow.
22
‘This is thy true-love,’ Robin he said,
‘Young Allin, as I hear say;
And you shall be married at this same time,
Before we depart away.’
23
‘That shall not be,’ the bishop he said,
‘For thy word shall not stand;
They shall be three times askt in the church,
As the law is of our land.’
24
Robin Hood pulld off the bishops coat,
And put it upon Little John;
‘By the faith of my body,’ then Robin said,
‘This cloath doth make thee a man.’
25
When Little John went into the quire,
The people began for to laugh;
He askt them seven times in the church,
Least three times should not be enough.
26
‘Who gives me this maid,’ then said Little John;
Quoth Robin, That do I,
And he that doth take her from Allin a Dale
Full dearly he shall her buy.
27
And thus having ended this merry wedding,
The bride lookt as fresh as a queen,
And so they returnd to the merry green wood,
Amongst the leaves so green.
a.
Robin Hood and Allin of Dale: Or, a pleasant
relation how a young gentleman being in love
with a young damsel, which was taken from
him to be an old knight’s bride, and how
Robin Hood, pittying the young mans case,
took her from the old knight, when they
were going to be marryed, and restored her
to her own true love again.
Bold Robin Hood he did the young man right,
And took the damsel from the doteing knight.
175To a pleasant northern tune, or, Robin Hood
in the green wood stood.
With allowance. Printed for F. Cole, T.
Vere, J. Wright and J. Clarke. (Coles,
Vere and Wright, 1655–80, J. Clarke, 1650–82:
Chappell.)
114. Alllin.
181. wealhty.
223. marrid.
b.
Title, etc., as ina.
With allowance. Printed for Alex. Milbourn,
in Green-Arbor-Court, in the Little-Old-Baily.
(Alexander Milbourne 1670–97:
Chappell.)
13. tell you.
23. he was aware.
102. she was from me tane.
161. dost thou here.
162. unto.
184. like the.
191. not a fit: qd.
252. for wanting.
261. then wanting.
263. And wanting.
271. having ende of.
272. lookt like a.
c.
Robin Hood and Allen a Dale: Or, the manner
of Robin Hood’s rescuing a young lady
from an old knight to whom she was going
to be married, and restoring her to Allen a
Dale, her former love.
To the tune of Robin Hood in the green wood.
No printer. Sold in Bow-Church-Yard, London.
13. tell you.
23. aware.
43. spy.
52. quite for clean.
62. Midge for Nick.
93. these seven.
102. she was from me taen.
112. any wanting.
134. for wanting.
161. do wanting: then for he.
162. unto me.
171. then for he.
184. Who shone like the glittering.
191. not a fit.
194. she wanting.
223. at the.
243. Robin he.
244. This coat.
251. to for into.
252. for wanting.
261. me wanting: maid,
says.
272. bride she lookd like a.
139 ROBIN HOOD’S PROGRESS TO NOTTINGHAM
a. Wood, 402, leaf 14 b. b. Wood, 401, leaf 37 b. c. Garland of 1663, No 2. d. Garland of 1670, No 1.
e. Pepys, II, 104, No 92.
This piece occurs also in the Roxburghe
Ballads, III, 270, 845, the Douce, III, 120,
was among Heber’s ballads (a copy by W.
Onley), and is probably in all collections of
broadsides.
a or b was printed by Ritson, Robin Hood,
1795, II, 12. A copy in Evans’s Old Ballads,
1777, 1784, I, 96, is later, and very like Douce,
III, 120.
When Robin Hood is but fifteen years of
age, he falls in with fifteen foresters who are
drinking together at Nottingham. They hear
with scorn that he intends to take part in a
shooting-match. He wagers with them that
he will kill a hart at a hundred rod, and does
this. They refuse to pay, and bid him begone
if he would save his sides from a basting.
Robin kills them all with his bow; people
come out from Nottingham to take him, but
get very much hurt. Robin goes to the green
wood; the townsmen bury the foresters.
This is evidently a comparatively late ballad,
but has not come down to us in its oldest
form. The story is told to the following effect
in the life of Robin Hood in Sloane MS. 715,
7, fol. 157, written, as it seems, says Ritson, towards
the end of the sixteenth century. Robin
Hood, going into a forest with a bow of extraordinary
strength, fell in with some rangers,
or woodmen, who gibed at him for pretending
to use a bow such as no man could shoot with.
Robin said that he had two better, and that
the one he had with him was only a “birding-bow”;
nevertheless he would lay his head
against a certain sum of money that he would
kill a deer with it at a great distance. When
176the chance offered, one of the rangers sought
to disconcert him by reminding him that he
would lose his head if he missed his mark.
Robin won the wager, and gave every man
his money back except the one who had tried
to fluster him. A quarrel followed, which
ended with Robin’s killing them all, and consequently
betaking himself to life in the woods.
Thoms, Early Prose Romances, II, Robin
Hood, 37 ff.
Douce notes in his copy of Ritson’s Robin
Hood (Bodleian Library) the second stanza
of this ballad as it is cited in the Duke of
Newcastle’s play, ‘The Varietie’:
When Robin came to Nottingham,
His dinner all for to dine,
There met him fifteen jolly foresters,
Were drinking ale and wine.
Gutch’s Robin Hood, II, 123.
Translated by A. Grün, p. 61; Doenniges,
p. 170.
1
Robin Hood hee was and a tall young man,
Derry derry down
And fifteen winters old,
And Robin Hood he was a proper young man,
Of courage stout and bold.
Hey down derry derry down
2
Robin Hood he would and to fair Nottingham,
With the general for to dine;
There was he ware of fifteen forresters,
And a drinking bear, ale, and wine.
3
‘What news? What news?’ said bold Robin Hood;
‘What news, fain wouldest thou know?
Our king hath provided a shooting-match:’
‘And I’m ready with my bow.’
4
‘We hold it in scorn,’ then said the forresters,
‘That ever a boy so young
Should bear a bow before our king,
That’s not able to draw one string.’
5
‘I’le hold you twenty marks,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘By the leave of Our Lady,
That I’le hit a mark a hundred rod,
And I’le cause a hart to dye.’
6
‘We’l hold you twenty mark,’ then said the forresters,
‘By the leave of Our Lady,
Thou hitst not the marke a hundred rod,
Nor causest a hart to dye.’
7
Robin Hood he bent up a noble bow,
And a broad arrow he let flye,
He hit the mark a hundred rod,
And he caused a hart to dy.
8
Some said hee brake ribs one or two,
And some said hee brake three;
The arrow within the hart would not abide,
But it glanced in two or three.
9
The hart did skip, and the hart did leap,
And the hart lay on the ground;
‘The wager is mine,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘If ’twere for a thousand pound.’
10
‘The wager’s none of thine,’ then said the forresters,
‘Although thou beest in haste;
Take up thy bow, and get thee hence,
Lest wee thy sides do baste.’
11
Robin Hood hee took up his noble bow,
And his broad arrows all amain,
And Robin Hood he laught, and begun to smile,
As hee went over the plain.
12
Then Robin Hood hee bent his noble bow,
And his broad arrows he let flye,
Till fourteen of these fifteen forresters
Vpon the ground did lye.
13
He that did this quarrel first begin
Went tripping over the plain;
But Robin Hood he bent his noble bow,
And hee fetcht him back again.
14
‘You said I was no archer,’ said Robin Hood,
‘But say so now again;’
With that he sent another arrow
That split his head in twain.
15
‘You have found mee an archer,’ saith Robin Hood,
‘Which will make your wives for to wring,
177And wish that you had never spoke the word,
That I could not draw one string.’
16
The people that lived in fair Nottingham
Came runing out amain,
Supposing to have taken bold Robin Hood,
With the forresters that were slain.
17
Some lost legs, and some lost arms,
And some did lose their blood,
But Robin Hood hee took up his noble bow,
And is gone to the merry green wood.
18
They carryed these forresters into fair Nottingham,
As many there did know;
They digd them graves in their church-yard,
And they buried them all a row.
a, b.
Robin Hoods Progresse to Nottingham,
Where hee met with fifteen forresters, all on a row,
And hee desired of them some news for to know,
But with crosse graind words they did him thwart,
For which at last hee made them smart.
To the tune of Bold Robin Hood.
a.
London, Printed for Fran. Grove. And entred
according to order. (1620–55: Chappell.)
b.
London, Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and
J. Wright. (1655–80: Chappell.)
3. Commonly punctuated as if spoken entirely
by Robin. There would certainly be an
antecedent probability against three speeches
in one stanza, in an older ballad.
c, d.
Robin Hoods Progress to Notingham, where
he slew fifteen Forresters. To the tune of
Bold Robin Hood.
c.
63. an.
73. a mark.
153. spake.
d.
73. an hundred.
113. began.
123. of the.
142. say you so.
143. he another arrnw let fly.
181. to fair.
e.
Title as in a, b, above, with these variations
in the verse:
2, news to. 3, And with. 4, them for to.
Printed for J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T.
Passenger. (1670–82?)
11. and wanting.
21. would unto.
23. aware.
41. scorn said bold R. Hood.
53. the mark an.
54, 74. one hart.
61. marks.
63. That thou: an.
73. an.
82. some say.
83. in for within.
112. all wanting.
113. began.
144. Which split.
151. said.
152. for wanting.
153. wish you ne’r had.
173. R. Hood he bent.
183. yards.
184. all on a row.
140 ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THREE SQUIRES — A — B — C — APPENDIX ROBIN HOOD AND THE SHERIFF
A. Percy MS., p. 5; Hales and Furnivall, I, 13;
Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, II, 49.
B. a. ‘Robin Hood rescuing the Widow’s Three Sons
from the Sheriff, when going to be executed,’ The
English Archer, York, N. Nickson, n. d. b. The
English Archer, Paisley, John Neilson, 1786. c.
Adventures of ... Robin Hood, Falkirk, T. Johnston,
1808. All in the Bodleian Library, Douce,
F.F. 71.
C. ‘Robin Hood rescuing the Three Squires from Nottingham
Gallows.’ a. Robin Hood’s Garland, London,
Printed by W. & C. Dicey, n. d. b. R. H.’s
Garland, London, L. How, in Peticoat Lane, n. d.
c. R. H.’s Garland, York, T. Wilson and R. Spence,
n. d. d. R. H.’s Garland, Preston, W. Sergent,
n. d. e. R. H.’s Garland, London, J. Marshall &
Co., n. d. f. R. H.’s Garland, Wolverhampton, J.
Smart, n. d. a-d, Douce, FF. 71, f, Douce, Add.
262, Bodleian Library.
178B is given by Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795,
II, 151, “from the York edition of Robin
Hood’s garland;” C, the same, II, 216, from
an Aldermary Churchyard garland, and by
Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 215.
B. Robin Hood, while on his way to Nottingham,
meets an old woman who is weeping
for three squires condemned to die that
day, not for recognized crimes, but for killing
the king’s deer. These seem to be his own
men: st. 6. Pursuing his way, he meets an
old “palmer,” really a beggar, who confirms
the bad news. He changes clothes with the
palmer (who at first thinks the proposal a
mock), and at Nottingham comes upon the
sheriff, and asks what he will give an old fellow
to be his hangman. The sheriff offers
suits and pence; Robin says, hangmen be
cursed, he will never take to that business.
He has a horn in his pocket which would
blow the sheriff little good; the sheriff bids
him blow his fill. The first blast brings a
hundred and fifty of Robin’s men; the second
brings three score more. They free their
own men and hang the sheriff.
In C the three squires are expressly said to
be the woman’s sons;[114] for the palmer we
have a beggar; Robin asks it as a boon that
he may be hangman, and will have nothing
for his service but three blasts on his horn,
‘that their souls to heaven may flee.’ The
horn brings a hundred and ten men, and the
sheriff surrenders the three squires.
In the fragment A, Robin changes clothes
with an old man, who appears by stanza 11
to be a beggar. His men are with him meanwhile,
and he orders them to conceal themselves
in a wood until they hear his horn. A
blast brings three hundred of them; Robin
casts off his beggar’s gear and stands in his
red velvet doublet;[115] his men bend their bows
and beset the gallows. The sheriff throws
up his hands and begs for terms; Robin demands
the three squires. The sheriff objects,
for they are the king’s felons; Robin will
have them, or the sheriff shall be the first
man to flower the tree.
‘Robin Hood and the Beggar,’ No 133,
from stanza 16, is another version of this ballad.
Robin changes clothes with a beggar,
after a hard fight in which he has had the
worse, goes to Nottingham, and hears that
three brothers are condemned to die. He hies
to the sheriff to plead for them; a gentleman
at the door tells him they must be hanged for
deer-stealing clearly proved. At the gallows
Robin blows his horn; a hundred archers present
themselves, and ask his will. He commands
them to shoot east and west and spare
no man. The sheriff and his men, all that
are not laid low, fly, and the three brothers,
who have already shown their quality, are
added to Robin’s company.
A Scottish version of B, derived from the
English, is given in an appendix. It occurs
in Kinloch MSS, V, 288, and may be as old
as the York garland used by Ritson, or older.
Ritson was informed by his friend Edward
Williams, the Welsh bard, that C and its
tune were well known in South Wales by the
name of Marchog Glas, or Green Knight. As
to the tune, says Dr Rimbault, it is not to be
found in the collections of Welsh airs, nor
was his friend John Parry, then representing
the Welsh bards, able to give any account of
it. Nothing further is said by Rimbault,
either way, of the ballad.
B 6, in which Robin reminds the old woman
that she had once given him to sup and dine,
implicitly as a reason for his exerting himself
in behalf of the three squires (who, according
to the title of the ballad, but not the
text, are her three sons), looks like a reminiscence
of st. 9 of R. H. and the Bishop, No 143,
where an old woman shows her gratitude to
Robin Hood for having given her shoes and hose,
and may not originally have belonged here.[C]
B 1, A 91,2, 113,4, B 25, 281,2 are almost repetitions
of Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar,
A 1, A 43,4, 123,4, B 26, 281,2.[116]
179The rescue in the ballad is introduced into
Anthony Munday’s play of The Downfall of
Robert Earl of Huntington, Act II, Scene 2.
Scarlet and Scathlock, sons of Widow Scarlet,
are to be hanged. Friar Tuck attends them
as confessor. Robin Hood, disguised as an
old man, pretends that they have killed his
son, and asks the sheriff that they may be
delivered to him for revenge. The sheriff
allows them to be unbound. Robin, for a
feigned reason, blows his horn; Little John
and Much come in and begin a fight; Friar
Tuck, pretending to help the sheriff, knocks
down his men; the sheriff and his men run
away. (Dodsley’s Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt,
VIII, 134–41.)
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1832, II, 155, suggests
that the circumstance of Robin’s changing
clothes with the palmer may possibly be
taken from “the noble history of Ponthus of
Galyce,” printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1511,
and cites this passage, which resembles the
narrative in B 8, 10, 11: “And as he [Ponthus]
rode, he met with a poore palmer, beggynge
his brede, the whiche had his gowne
all to-clouted and an olde pylled hatte: so
he alyght, and sayd to the palmer, frende, we
shall make a chaunge of all our garmentes,
for ye shall have my gowne and I shall have
yours and your hatte. A, syr, sayd the palmer,
ye bourde you with me. In good fayth, sayd
Ponthus, I do not; so he dyspoyled hym and
cladde hym with all his rayment, and he put
vpon hym the poore mannes gowne, his gyrdell,
his hosyn, his shone, his hatte and his
bourden.”
This noble history is taken from one in
French which is merely the romance of Horn
turned into prose, and it is also possible that
the passage in the English ballad may be derived
from some version of Hind Horn: see
No 17.
Wallace changes clothes with a beggar in
‘Gude Wallace,’ No 157, F, G, where there is
a general likeness to this ballad of Robin
Hood. It may be noted that Wulric the
Heron, one of the comrades of Hereward, rescues
four brothers who were about to be
hanged, killing some of their common enemies:
Michel, Chroniques Anglo-Normandes,
II, 51.
B is translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 135,
Doenniges, p. 135, Knortz L. u. R. Altenglands,
No 19; combined with C, by Talvj,
Charakteristik, p. 489.
* * * * *
1
‘. . . . . . .
In faith thou shal[t] haue mine,
And twenty pound in thy purse,
To spend att ale and wine.’
2
‘Though your clothes are of light Lincolne green,
And mine gray russett and torne,
Yet it doth not you beseeme
To doe an old man scorne.’
3
‘I scorne thee not, old man,’ says Robin,
‘By the faith of my body;
Doe of thy clothes, thou shalt haue mine,
For it may noe better bee.’
4
But Robin did on this old mans hose,
The were torne in the wrist;
‘When I looke on my leggs,’ said Robin,
‘Then for to laugh I list.’
5
But Robin did on the old mans shooes,
And the were cliitt full cleane;
‘Now, by my faith,’ sayes Litle Iohn,
‘These are good for thornës keene.’
6
But Robin did on the old mans cloake,
And it was torne in the necke;
‘Now, by my faith,’ said William Scarlett,
‘Heere shold be set a specke.’
7
But Robin did on this old mans hood,
Itt gogled on his crowne;
‘When I come into Nottingham,’ said Robin,
‘My hood it will lightly downe.
8
‘But yonder is an outwood,’ said Robin,
‘An outwood all and a shade,
180And thither I reede you, my merrymen all,
The ready way to take.
9
‘And when you heare my litle horne blow,
Come raking all on a rowte
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
* * * * *
10
But Robin he lope, and Robin he threw,
He lope over stocke and stone;
But those that saw Robin Hood run
Said he was a liuer old man.
11
[Then Robin set his] horne to his mowth,
A loud blast cold h[e] blow;
Ffull three hundred bold yeomen
Came rakinge all on a row.
12
But Robin cast downe his baggs of bread,
Soe did he his staffe with a face,
And in a doublet of red veluett
This yeoman stood in his place.
13
‘But bend your bowes, and stroke your strings,
Set the gallow-tree aboute,
And Christs cursse on his heart,’ said Robin,
‘That spares the sheriffe and the sergiant!’
14
When the sheriffe see gentle Robin wold shoote,
He held vp both his hands;
Sayes, Aske, good Robin, and thou shalt haue,
Whether it be house or land.
15
‘I will neither haue house nor land,’ said Robin,
‘Nor gold, nor none of thy ffee,
But I will haue those three squires
To the greene fforest with me.
16
‘Now marry, Gods forbott,’ said the sheriffe,
‘That euer that shold bee;
For why, they be the kings ffelons,
They are all condemned to dye.’
17
‘But grant me my askinge,’ said Robin,
‘Or by the faith of my body
Thou shalt be the first man
Shall flower this gallow-tree.’
18
‘But I wi[ll haue t]hose three squires
. . . . . . .
a. The English Archer, Robin Hood’s Garland, York,
N. Nickson, n. d., p. 65. b. The English Archer, etc., Paisley,
John Neilson, 1786. c. Adventures of Robin Hood,
Falkirk, T. Johnston, 1808.
1
There are twelve months in all the year,
As I hear many men say,
But the merriest month in all the year
Is the merry month of May.
2
Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone,
With a link a down and a day,
And there he met a silly old woman,
Was weeping on the way.
3
‘What news? what news, thou silly old woman?
What news hast thou for me?’
Said she, There’s three squires in Nottingham town
To-day is condemned to die.
4
‘O have they parishes burnt?’ he said,
‘Or have they ministers slain?
Or have they robbed any virgin,
Or with other men’s wives have lain?’
5
‘They have no parishes burnt, good sir,
Nor yet have ministers slain,
Nor have they robbed any virgin,
Nor with other men’s wives have lain.’
6
‘O what have they done?’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘I pray thee tell to me:’
‘It’s for slaying of the king’s fallow deer,
Bearing their long bows with thee.’
7
‘Dost thou not mind, old woman,’ he said,
‘Since thou made me sup and dine?
By the truth of my body,’ quoth bold Robin Hood,
‘You could not tell it in better time.’
8
Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone,
With a link a down and a day,
And there he met with a silly old palmer,
Was walking along the highway.
1819
‘What news? what news, thou silly old man?
What news, I do thee pray?’
Said he, Three squires in Nottingham town
Are condemnd to die this day.
10
‘Come change thy apparel with me, old man,
Come change thy apparel for mine;
Here is forty shillings in good silver,
Go drink it in beer or wine.’
11
‘O thine apparel is good,’ he said,
‘And mine is ragged and torn;
Whereever you go, wherever you ride,
Laugh neer an old man to scorn.’
12
‘Come change thy apparel with me, old churl,
Come change thy apparel with mine;
Here are twenty pieces of good broad gold,
Go feast thy brethren with wine.’
13
Then he put on the old man’s hat,
It stood full high on the crown:
‘The first bold bargain that I come at,
It shall make thee come down.’
14
Then he put on the old man’s cloak,
Was patchd black, blew, and red;
He thought no shame all the day long
To wear the bags of bread.
15
Then he put on the old man’s breeks,
Was patchd from ballup to side;
‘By the truth of my body,’ bold Robin can say,
‘This man lovd little pride.’
16
Then he put on the old man’s hose,
Were patchd from knee to wrist;
‘By the truth of my body,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘I’d laugh if I had any list.’
17
Then he put on the old man’s shoes,
Were patchd both beneath and aboon;
Then Robin Hood swore a solemn oath,
It’s good habit that makes a man.
18
Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone,
With a link a down and a down,
And there he met with the proud sheriff,
Was walking along the town.
19
‘O save, O save, O sheriff,’ he said,
‘O save, and you may see!
And what will you give to a silly old man
To-day will your hangman be?’
20
‘Some suits, some suits,’ the sheriff he said,
‘Some suits I’ll give to thee;
Some suits, some suits, and pence thirteen
To-day’s a hangman’s fee.’
21
Then Robin he turns him round about,
And jumps from stock to stone;
‘By the truth of my body,’ the sheriff he said,
‘That’s well jumpt, thou nimble old man.’
22
‘I was neer a hangman in all my life,
Nor yet intends to trade;
But curst be he,’ said bold Robin,
‘That first a hangman was made.
23
‘I’ve a bag for meal, and a bag for malt,
And a bag for barley and corn;
A bag for bread, and a bag for beef,
And a bag for my little small horn.
24
‘I have a horn in my pocket,
I got it from Robin Hood,
And still when I set it to my mouth,
For thee it blows little good.’
25
‘O wind thy horn, thou proud fellow,
Of thee I have no doubt;
I wish that thou give such a blast
Till both thy eyes fall out.’
26
The first loud blast that he did blow,
He blew both loud and shrill;
A hundred and fifty of Robin Hood’s men
Came riding over the hill.
27
The next loud blast that he did give,
He blew both loud and amain,
And quickly sixty of Robin Hood’s men
Came shining over the plain.
28
‘O who are yon,’ the sheriff he said,
‘Come tripping over the lee?’
‘The’re my attendants,’ brave Robin did say,
‘They’ll pay a visit to thee.’
29
They took the gallows from the slack,
They set it in the glen,
They hangd the proud sheriff on that,
Releasd their own three men.
182
Robin Hood’s Garland. a. London, printed by W. & C.
Dicey, in St. Mary Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane,
Cheapside, and sold at the Warehouse at Northampton, n. d.:
p. 74, No 24. b. London, printed by L. How, in Peticoat
Lane, n. d.: p. 23. c. York, T. Wilson and R. Spence,
n. d.: p. 27. d. Preston, W. Sergent, n. d.: p. 62. e. London,
printed and sold by J. Marshall & Co., Aldermary
Church Yard, Bow Lane, n. d.: No 24. f. Wolverhampton,
printed and sold by J. Smart, n. d.
1
Bold Robin Hood ranging the forest all round,
The forest all round ranged he;
O there did he meet with a gay lady,
She came weeping along the highway.
2
‘Why weep you, why weep you?’ bold Robin he said,
‘What, weep you for gold or fee?
Or do you weep for your maidenhead,
That is taken from your body?’
3
‘I weep not for gold,’ the lady replyed,
‘Neither do I weep for fee;
Nor do I weep for my maidenhead,
That is taken from my body.’
4
‘What weep you for then?’ said jolly Robin,
‘I prithee come tell unto me;’
‘Oh! I do weep for my three sons,
For they are all condemned to die.’
5
‘What church have they robbed?’ said jolly Robin,
‘Or parish-priest have they slain?
What maids have they forced against their will?
Or with other men’s wives have lain?’
6
‘No church have they robbd,’ this lady replied,
‘Nor parish-priest have they slain;
No maids have they forc’d against their will,
Nor with other men’s wives have lain.’
7
‘What have they done then?’ said jolly Robin,
‘Come tell me most speedily:’
‘Oh! it is for killing the king’s fallow deer,
And they are all condemned to die.’
8
‘Get you home, get you home,’ said jolly Robin,
‘Get you home most speedily,
And I will unto fair Nottingham go,
For the sake of the squires all three.’
9
Then bold Robin Hood for Nottingham goes,
For Nottingham town goes he,
O there did he meet with a poor beggar-man,
He came creeping along the highway.
10
‘What news, what news, thou old beggar-man?
What news, come tell unto me:’
‘O there is weeping and wailing in fair Nottingham,
For the death of the squires all three.’
11
This beggar-man had a coat on his back,
’Twas neither green, yellow, nor red;
Bold Robin Hood thought ’twas no disgrace
To be in a beggar-man’s stead.
12
‘Come, pull off thy coat, you old beggar-man,
And you shall put on mine;
And forty good shillings I’ll give thee to boot,
Besides brandy, good beer, ale and wine.’
13
Bold Robin Hood then unto Nottingham came,
Unto Nottingham town came he;
O there did he meet with great master sheriff,
And likewise the squires all three.
14
‘One boon, one boon,’ says jolly Robin,
‘One boon I beg on my knee;
That, as for the deaths of these three squires,
Their hangman I may be.’
15
‘Soon granted, soon granted,’ says great master sheriff,
‘Soon granted unto thee;
And you shall have all their gay cloathing,
Aye, and all their white money.’
16
‘O I will have none of their gay cloathing,
Nor none of their white money,
But I’ll have three blasts on my bugle-horn,
That their souls to heaven may flee.’
17
Then Robin Hood mounted the gallows so high,
Where he blew loud and shrill,
Till an hundred and ten of Robin Hood’s men
They came marching all down the green hill.
18
‘Whose men are they all these?’ says great master sheriff,
‘Whose men are they? tell unto me:’
‘O they are mine, but none of thine,
And they’re come for the squires all three.’
18319
‘O take them, O take them,’ says great master sheriff,
‘O take them along with thee;
For there’s never a man in all Nottingham
Can do the like of thee.’
A.
13. 20l :.
52. Only one of the i’s is dotted in cliit: Furnivall.
63. said wm.
92. half a page wanting.
10 follows 12.
113. 300d :.
153, 181. 3.
172. or be me.
181. half a page wanting.
B. a.
33. Knews.
41, 61, 111, 191,2, 251, 281. Oh.
82. and a down a.
121. chur.
151. Teen.
162. Where.
174. Itts.
244. For me.
281. are you.
b.
Robin Hood rescu’d the Widow’s three Sons
from the Sheriff when going to be hanged.
c.
How Robin Hood rescued, etc.,
... to be hanged.
b, c.
21. Hood wanting.
22. a down down.
23. met with.
24. along the highway.
32. to me.
34. To-day are.
52. Nor have they.
63. ’Tis for.
73. quoth wanting.
81. Robin he is.
82. a down down and a day.
83. old wanting.
91. silly palmer.
102. with for for.
103. of for in.
104. beer and good wine.
121. churl.
143. not for no.
144. the poor bags.
151. Then.
152. Were for Was.
153. did say.
162, 172. Were wanting.
172. both wanting.
174. ’Tis.
181. Robin is unto.
182. a down down and a day.
184. the highway.
192. you may you [may
you?].
194. That to-day.
204. day is.
212. stone to stone.
221. never: in wanting.
232. And wanting.
241. a small horn now in.
242. it wanting.
244. For thee.
254. fly out.
263. An: Robin’s men.
273. Robin’s men.
281. are you.
282. Comes.
283. bold Robin.
294. And released.
b.
183. with wanting.
202. unto thee.
203. pence fourteen.
c.
62. unto me.
72. mad’st.
151. poor for old.
201. suits and pence fourteen.
202,3. wanting.
211. turnd.
212. jumpd.
222. the trade.
243. I put.
253. gave.
292. let for set.
C.a.
The Garland is not earlier, and probably not
much later, than 1753, “The Arguments ...
in the ... affair of Eliz. Canning ... robbed
... in Jany, 1753,” occurring in advertisements
printed therewith.
161. of ther.
b.
54. have they.
64. have they.
114. in the.
124. beside.
163. buglee.
172. blew both.
183. are all.
194. That can.
c.
11. ranged.
31. this lady.
44. all wanting.
54. have they.
63. they have.
64. have they.
73. it’s all.
74. they’re.
83. will then to.
91. bold wanting: to for for.
112. It was.
112. or red.
113. it was.
114. in the.
121. thou old.
123. give you.
131. then to.
133. And there.
134. Aye and.
142. upon my.
143. the three.
151. great wanting.
152. Soon grant it I will unto thee.
154. Aye wanting.
161. I’ll.
163. of my.
172. blew both.
174. They wanting.
183. are all.
194. That can.
d.
13. he did.
32. I wanting.
62. No.
72. Come tell unto me speedily.
83. will for.
103. there’s: fair wanting.
114. in the.
121. thou old.
122. thou shalt.
151. great wanting.
171. When.
173. Hood’s wanting.
174. They wanting: all wanting.
181. all wanting: great wanting.
184. And are.
193. in fair.
e.
54. have they.
64. have they.
103. there’s: fair wanting.
114. in the.
121. thou old.
122. thou shalt.
143. death.
151. great wanting.
171. When.
174. They wanting: all wanting.
181. are they: great wanting.
182. come tell.
184. And are.
193. in fair.
f.
54. have they.
64. have they.
74. they’re.
103. there’s: fair wanting.
114. in the.
121. thou old.
122. thou shalt.
143. death.
151. great wanting.
171. When.
174. They wanting: all wanting.
181. are they: great wanting.
182. come tell.
184. And are come.
193. in fair.
184
Kinloch MSS, V, 288, in Kinloch’s handwriting.
1
Robin Hood’s to Nottinghame gane,
Wi a linkie down and a day,
And there he met wi an auld woman,
Coming weeping alang the highway.
2
‘Weep ye for any of my gold, auld woman?
Or weep ye for my fee?
Or weep ye for any warld’s gear
This day I can grant to thee?’
3
‘I weep not for your gold, kind sir,
I weep not for your fee;
But I weep for my three braw sons,
This day condemned to die.’
4
‘O have they parishes burned?’ he said,
‘Or have they ministers slain?
Or have they forced maidens against their will?
Or wi other men’s wives hae they lain?’
5
‘They have not parishes burned, kind sir,
They have not ministers slain;
They neer forced a maid against her will,
Nor wi no man’s wife hae they lain.’
6
‘O what hae they done then?’ quo Robin Hood,
‘I pray thee tell unto me:’
‘O they killed the king’s fallow deer,
And this day are condemned to die.’
7
‘O have you mind, old mother,’ he said,
‘Since you made my merry men to dine?
And for to repay it back unto thee
Is come in a very good time.’
8
Sae Robin Hood’s to Nottinghame gane,
With a linkie down and a day,
And there he met an old beggar man,
Coming creeping along the high way.
9
‘What news, what news, old father?’ he said,
‘What news hast thou for me?’
‘There’s three merry men,’ quo the poor auld man,
‘This day condemned to die.’
10
‘Will you change your apparel wi me, old father?
Will you change your apparel for mine?
And twenty broad shillings I’ll gie ye to the boot,
To drink gude beer or wine.’
11
‘Thine is of the scarlet fine,
And mine is baith ragged and torn;
Sae never let a young supple youth
Laugh a gude auld man to scorn.’
12
‘Change your apparel wi me, old churl,
And quickly change it for mine,
And thirty broad shillings I’ll gie to the boot,
To drink gude beer or wine.’
13
When Robin put on the auld man’s hat,
It was weary high in the crown;
‘By the hand of my body,’ quo Robin Hood,
‘I am lang whan I loot down.’
14
Whan Robin put on the auld man’s cloak,
There was mony a pock therein;
A pock for meal, and a pock for maut,
And a pock for groats and corn,
And a little wee pockie that hung by his side
That he put in his bugle-horn.
15
Sae Robin Hood’s [to] Nottinghame gane,
Wi a linkie down and a day,
And there he met wi the high sheriff,
Coming riding alang the high way.
16
‘O save you, O save you, high sheriff,’ he said,
‘And weel saved mote you be!
And what will you gie to the silly auld man
Your hangman for to be?’
17
‘Thirteen pence,’ the sheriff replied,
‘That is the hangman’s fee,
But an the claiths of the three young men
This day condemned to die.’
18
‘I never hanged a man in a’ my life,
And intend not to begin;
But ever I hang a man in my life,
High sheriff, thou’s be the ane.
19
‘But I have a horn in my pocket,
I gat it frae Robin Hood,
And gif I tak out my little horn,
For thee it will no blaw gude.’
20
‘Blaw, blaw, bauld beggar,’ he said,
‘Blaw, and fear nae doubt;
I wish you may gie sic a blast
Till your eyne loup out.’
21
Then Robin he gave a skip,
And he skipped frae a stick till a stane;
‘By the hand of my body,’ quo the high sheriff,
‘You are a supple auld man.’
18522
Then Robin set his horn to his mouth,
And he blew baith loud and shrill,
Till sixty-four of bold Robin’s men
Cam marching down the green hill.
23
‘What men are these,’ quo the high sheriff,
‘That comes sae merrily?’
‘They are my men,’ quo Robin Hood,
‘And they’ll pay a visit to thee.’
24
They tack the gallows out of the glen,
And they set it in a slap;
They hanged the sheriff upon it,
And his best men at his back.
25
They took the gallows out o the slap,
And they set [it] back in the glen,
And they hanged the sheriff upon it,
Let the three young men gae hame.
141 ROBIN HOOD RESCUING WILL STUTLY
a. Wood, 401, leaf 35 b.
b. Garland of 1663, No 7.
c. Garland of 1670, No 6.
d. Pepys, II, 106, No 93.
This ballad probably occurs in all the
larger collections of broadsides. It was given
in Old Ballads, 1723, I, 90. a is printed by
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 102. Evans,
Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 164, follows an
Aldermary copy.
Robin Hood learns that Will Stutly has
been captured and is to be hanged the next
day. Robin and his men go to the rescue,
and ask information of a palmer who is standing
under the wall of the castle in which
Stutly is confined; the palmer confirms the
news. Stutly is brought out by the sheriff,
of whom he asks to have a sword and die in
fight, not on the tree. This refused, he asks
only to have his hands loosed. The sheriff
again refuses; he shall die on the gallows.
Little John comes out from behind a bush,
cuts Stutly’s bonds, and gives him a sword
twitched by John from one of the sheriff’s
men. An arrow shot by Robin Hood puts
the sheriff to flight, and his men follow.
Stutly rejoices that he may go back to the
woods.
This is a ballad made for print, with little
of the traditional in the matter and nothing
in the style. It may be considered as an
imitation of The Rescue of the Three Squires,
whence the ambush in st. 9 and the palmer
‘fair’ in 10.
1
When Robin Hood in the green-wood livd,
Derry derry down
Vnder the green-wood tree,
Tidings there came to him with speed,
Tidings for certainty,
Hey down derry derry down
2
That Will Stutly surprized was,
And eke in prison lay;
Three varlets that the sheriff had hired
Did likely him betray.
3
I, and to-morrow hanged must be,
To-morrow as soon as it is day;
But before they could this victory get,
Two of them did Stutly slay.
4
When Robin Hood he heard this news,
Lord! he was grieved sore,
I, and unto his merry men [said],
Who altogether swore,
1865
That Will Stutly should rescued be,
And be brought safe again;
Or else should many a gallant wight
For his sake there be slain.
6
He cloathed himself in scarlet then,
His men were all in green;
A finer show, throughout the world,
In no place could be seen.
7
Good lord! it was a gallant sight
To see them all on a row;
With every man a good broad sword,
And eke a good yew bow.
8
Forth of the green wood are they gone,
Yea, all couragiously,
Resolving to bring Stutly home,
Or every man to die.
9
And when they came the castle neer
Whereas Will Stutly lay,
‘I hold it good,’ saith Robin Hood,
‘Wee here in ambush stay,
10
‘And send one forth some news to hear,
To yonder palmer fair,
That stands under the castle-wall;
Some news he may declare.’
11
With that steps forth a brave young man,
Which was of courage bold;
Thus hee did say to the old man:
I pray thee, palmer old,
12
Tell me, if that thou rightly ken,
When must Will Stutly die,
Who is one of bold Robins men,
And here doth prisoner lie?
13
‘Alack, alass,’ the palmer said,
‘And for ever wo is me!
Will Stutly hanged must be this day,
On yonder gallows-tree.
14
‘O had his noble master known,
Hee would some succour send;
A few of his bold yeomandree
Full soon would fetch him hence.’
15
‘I, that is true,’ the young man said;
‘I, that is true,’ said hee;
‘Or, if they were neer to this place,
They soon would set him free.
16
‘But fare thou well, thou good old man,
Farewell, and thanks to thee;
If Stutly hanged be this day,
Revengd his death will be.’
17
He was no sooner from the palmer gone,
But the gates was opened wide,
And out of the castle Will Stutly came,
Guarded on every side.
18
When hee was forth from the castle come,
And saw no help was nigh,
Thus he did say unto the sheriff,
Thus he said gallantly:
19
Now seeing that I needs must die,
Grant me one boon, says he;
For my noble master nere had man
That yet was hangd on the tree.
20
Give me a sword all in my hand,
And let mee be unbound,
And with thee and thy men I’le fight,
Vntill I lie dead on the ground.
21
But his desire he would not grant,
His wishes were in vain;
For the sheriff had sworn he hanged should be,
And not by the sword be slain.
22
‘Do but unbind my hands,’ he saies,
‘I will no weapons crave,
And if I hanged be this day,
Damnation let me have.’
23
‘O no, O no,’ the sheriff he said,
‘Thou shalt on the gallows die,
I, and so shall thy master too,
If ever in me it lie.’
24
‘O dastard coward!’ Stutly cries,
‘Thou faint-heart pesant slave!
If ever my master do thee meet,
Thou shalt thy paiment have.
25
‘My noble master thee doth scorn,
And all thy cowardly crew;
Such silly imps unable are
Bold Robin to subdue.’
18726
But when he was to the gallows come,
And ready to bid adiew,
Out of a bush leaps Little John,
And steps Will Stutly to.
27
‘I pray thee, Will, before thou die,
Of thy dear friends take leave;
I needs must borrow him a while,
How say you, master sheriff?’
28
‘Now, as I live,’ the sheriff he said,
‘That varlet will I know;
Some sturdy rebell is that same,
Therefore let him not go.’
29
With that Little John so hastily
Away cut Stutly’s bands,
And from one of the sheriff his men,
A sword twicht from his hands.
30
‘Here, Will, here, take thou this same,
Thou canst it better sway;
And here defend thy self a while,
For aid will come straight way.’
31
And there they turnd them back to back,
In the middle of them that day,
Till Robin Hood approached neer,
With many an archer gay.
32
With that an arrow by them flew,
I wist from Robin Hood;
‘Make haste, make haste,’ the sheriff he said,
‘Make haste, for it is good.’
33
The sheriff is gone; his doughty men
Thought it no boot to stay,
But, as their master had them taught
They run full fast away.
34
‘O stay, O stay,’ Will Stutly said,
‘Take leave ere you depart;
You nere will catch bold Robin Hood
Vnless you dare him meet.’
35
‘O ill betide you,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘That you so soon are gone;
My sword may in the scabbord rest,
For here our work is done.’
36
‘I little thought when I came here,
When I came to this place,
For to have met with Little John,
Or seen my masters face.’
37
Thus Stutly was at liberty set,
And safe brought from his foe;
‘O thanks, O thanks to my master,
Since here it was not so.’
38
‘And once again, my fellows,
We shall in the green woods meet,
Where we will make our bow-strings twang,
Musick for us most sweet.’
a.
Robin Hood his rescuing Will Stutly from the
sheriff and his men, who had taken him
prisoner, and was going to hang him.
To the tune of Robin Hood and Queen Katherine.
London, Printed for F. Grove, on Snow-hill.
Entred according to order. (1620–55: Chappell.)
251. thou dost.
264. too.
292. Stutli’s.
331. doubtless.
b.
Title as ina, except rescuing of: were going.
43. said wanting.
63. in all the.
111. steps out.
131. Alas, alas.
134. yonders gallow.
142. would soon.
164. shall be.
194. the wanting.
251. thou dost.
264. too.
281. he wanting.
331. doubtless.
c.
Title as ina, except were going.
14. Tiding for certainly.
34. stay.
43. men said.
131. Alass, alass.
172. was wanting.
242. hearted.
251. thee dost.
264. too.
292. Stutli’s.
331. doubtless.
362. came hereto,
d.
Title as ina.
Printed for J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T.
Passenger. (1670–86?)
11. livd wanting.
32. as ’tis.
43. and to: men said.
52. brought back.
81. they are.
93. said.
131. Alas, alas.
133. to day.
143. yeomanry.
172. gates were.
192. said.
194. the wanting.
211. But this.
213. swore.
242. hearted.
251. thee doth.
261. gone for come.
281. he wanting.
291. And Little.
293. sheriffs.
331. doubtless.
351. said for quoth.
362. came here.
142 LITTLE JOHN A BEGGING — A — B
188
A. Percy MS., p. 20; Hales and Furnivall, I, 47.
B. ‘Little John and the Four Beggers.’ a. Wood,
401, leaf 33 b. b. Garland of 1663, No 16.
c. Garland of 1670, No 15. d. Pepys, II, 119,
No 105.
B is also in the Roxburghe collection, III,
10.
B a is printed in Ritson’s Robin Hood,
1795, II, 128. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777,
1784, I, 196 follows the Aldermary garland.
A. Little John, meaning to go a begging,
induces an old mendicant to change clothes
with him and to give him some hints how to
conduct himself. Thus prepared he attempts
to attach himself to three palmers, who, however,
do not covet his company. One of the
palmers gives John a whack on the head.
We may conjecture, from the course of the
story in B, that John serves them all accordingly,
and takes from them so much money
that, if he had kept on in this way, he might,
as he says, have bought churches.
The beginning of A is very like that of
Robin Hood rescuing Three Squires, A; but
the disguise is for a different object. We
are reminded again of Hind Horn, and particularly
of versions C, G, H, in which the
beggar, after change of clothes, is asked for
instructions.
B. John is deputed by Robin to go a begging,
and asks to be provided with staff, coat,
and bags. He joins four sham beggars, one
of whom takes him a knock on the crown.
John makes the dumb to speak and the halt
to run, and bangs them against the wall, then
gets from one’s cloak three hundred pound,
and from another’s bag three hundred and
three, which he thinks is doing well enough
to warrant his return to Sherwood.
B is translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 155.
Percy MS., p. 20; Hales and Furnivall, I, 47.
* * * * *
1
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . beggar,’ he sayes,
‘With none such fellows as thee.’
2
‘I am not in iest,’ said Litle Iohn,
‘I sweare all by the roode;
Change with mee,’ said Little Iohn,
‘And I will giue thee some boote.’
3
But he has gotten on this old mans gowne,
It reacht not to his wrist;
‘Christ’s curse on’s hart,’ said Litle Iohn,
‘That thinkes my gowne amisse.’
4
But he has gotten on this old mans shoes,
Are clouted nine fold about;
‘Beshrew his hart,’ says Litle Iohn,
‘That bryer or thorne does doubt.
5
‘Wilt teach me some phrase of thy begging?’ says Iohn;
‘I pray thee, tell it mee,
How I may be as beggar-like
As any in my companie.’
6
‘Thou must goe two foote on a staffe,
The third vpon a tree;
Full loud that thou must cry and fare,
When nothing ayleth thee.’
7
But Iohn he walket the hills soe high,
Soe did [he] the hills soe browne;
189The ready way that he cold take
Was towards Nottingham towne.
8
But as he was on the hills soe high,
He mett with palmers three;
Sayes, God you saue, my brethren all,
Now God you saue and see!
9
This seuen yeere I haue you sought;
Before I cold neuer you see!
Said they, Wee had leuer such a cankred carle
Were neuer in our companie.
10
But one of them tooke Litle Iohn on his head,
The blood ran over his eye;
Little Iohn turned him twise about
. . . . . . .
* * * * *
11
‘If I . . . . . . .
As I haue beene but one day,
I shold haue purcchased three of the best churches
That stands by any highway.’
a. Wood, 401, leaf 33 b. b. Garland of 1663, No 16.
c. Garland of 1670, No 15. d. Pepys, II, 119, No 105.
1
All you that delight to spend some time
With a hey down down a down down
A merry song for to sing,
Vnto me draw neer, and you shall hear
How Little John went a begging.
2
As Robin Hood walked the forrest along,
And all his yeomandree,
Sayes Robin, Some of you must a begging go,
And, Little John, it must be thee.
3
Sayes John, If I must a begging go,
I will have a palmers weed,
With a staff and a coat, and bags of all sort,
The better then I shall speed.
4
Come, give me now a bag for my bread,
And another for my cheese,
And one for a peny, when as I get any,
That nothing I may leese.
5
Now Little John he is a begging gone,
Seeking for some relief;
But of all the beggers he met on the way,
Little John he was the chief.
6
But as he was walking himself alone,
Four beggers he chanced to spy,
Some deaf, and some blind, and some came behind;
Says John, Here’s brave company!
7
‘Good-morrow,’ said John, ‘my brethren dear,
Good fortune I had you to see;
Which way do you go? pray let me know,
For I want some company.
8
‘O what is here to do?’ then said Little John,
‘Why rings all these bells?’ said he;
‘What dog is a hanging? come, let us be ganging,
That we the truth may see.’
9
‘Here is no dog a hanging,’ then one of them said,
‘Good fellow, we tell unto thee;
But here is one dead wil give us cheese and bred,
And it may be one single peny.’
10
‘We have brethren in London,’ another he said,
‘So have we in Coventry,
In Barwick and Dover, and all the world over,
But nere a crookt carril like thee.
11
‘Therefore stand thee back, thou crooked carel,
And take that knock on the crown;’
‘Nay,’ said Little John, ‘I’le not yet be gone,
For a bout will I have with you round.
12
‘Now have at you all,’ then said Little John,
‘If you be so full of your blows;
Fight on, all four, and nere give ore,
Whether you be friends or foes.’
13
John nipped the dumb, and made him to rore,
And the blind that could not see,
And he that a cripple had been seven years,
He made him run faster then he.
14
And flinging them all against the wall,
With many a sturdie bang,
190It made John sing, to hear the gold ring,
Which against the walls cryed twang.
15
Then he got out of the beggers cloak
Three hundred pound in gold;
‘Good fortune had I,’ then said Little John,
‘Such a good sight to behold.’
16
But what found he in a beggers bag,
But three hundred pound and three?
‘If I drink water while this doth last,
Then an ill death may I dye!
17
‘And my begging-trade I will now give ore,
My fortune hath bin so good;
Therefore I’le not stay, but I will away
To the forrest of merry Sherwood.’
18
And when to the forrest of Sherwood he came,
He quickly there did see
His master good, bold Robin Hood,
And all his company.
19
‘What news? What news?’ then said Robin Hood,
‘Come, Little John, tell unto me;
How hast thou sped with thy beggers trade?
For that I fain would see.’
20
‘No news but good,’ then said Little John,
‘With begging ful wel I have sped;
Six hundred and three I have here for thee,
In silver and gold so red.’
21
Then Robin took Little John by the hand,
And danced about the oak-tree:
‘If we drink water while this doth last,
Then an il death may we die!’
22
So to conclude my merry new song,
All you that delight it to sing,
’Tis of Robin Hood, that archer good,
And how Little John went a begging.
A.
Half a page wanting at the beginning, and
after 103.
32. his crest.
42. 9.
61. 2.
62. 3d.
82, 113. 3.
91. 7.
93. had neuer.
102. him 2s :.
B. a.
Little John and the Four Beggers: A new
merry song of Robin Hood and Little John,
shewing how Little John went a begging,
and how he fought with Four Beggers, and
what a prize he got of the Four Beggers.
The tune is, Robin Hood and the Begger.
Printed for William Gilber[t]son. (1640–63.)
134. them for him.
144. Whih again.
224. beggiug.
b.
Title as ina.
112. on thy.
114. I will.
123. never.
134. made him.
144. again.
203. Three hundred.
c.
Title as in a, except: from these four Beggers.
To the tune of Robin Hood and the
Begger.
Burden: last down wanting.
83. a wanting: let’s.
92. I for we.
101. he wanting.
123. never.
134. made him: than.
144. against.
194. I fain would fain.
201. then wanting.
203. Three hundred.
222. it wanting.
d.
Title as in a, except: Or, a new. To the
tune of Robin Hood, &c.
Printed for J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray,
and T. Passenger. (1670–86?)
12. for wanting.
33. sorts.
34. then shall I.
43. as wanting.
51,4. he wanting.
71. my children.
102. in the Country.
134. made run then.
144. against.
161. in the.
172. it hath.
181. But when.
193. with the.
222. And you.
143 ROBIN HOOD AND THE BISHOP
191
‘Robin Hood and the Bishop.’ a. Wood, 401, leaf
11 b.
b. Garland of 1663, No 5.
c. Garland of 1670, No 4.
d. Pepys, II, 109, No 96.
e. Roxburghe, I, 362, in the Ballad Societys reprint,
II, 448.
Also Pepys, II, 122, No 107, by Alexander
Milbourne (1670–97): Old Ballads, 1723,
II, 39.
a is printed in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795,
II, 19. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784,
I, 102, apparently follows the Aldermary
Churchyard garland.
Robin Hood, while ranging the forest, sees
a bishop and all his men coming, and, knowing
that if he is taken no mercy will be given
him, asks the help of an old woman, to whom
he makes himself known. The old woman
has had a kindness from him, and wishes to
return it. She consents to exchange her gray
coat and spindle for his green mantle and
arrows, and Robin makes for his band in this
disguise. The bishop carries off the old
woman on a horse, making no doubt that he
has Robin in custody, but, as he proceeds
through the wood, sees a hundred bowmen,
and asks his prisoner what this may be. I
think it be Robin Hood, says the supposed
outlaw. “And who are you?” “Why, I
am an old woman.” The bishop turns about,
but Robin stays him, ties him to a tree, takes
five hundred pound from his portmantle, and
then is willing he should go. But Little John
will not let him off till he has sung a mass;
after which the bishop is mounted on his
dapple-gray, with his face to the tail, and told
to pray for Robin Hood.
This ballad and the following are variations
upon the theme of Robin Hood and the
Monk, in the Gest. The disguise as a woman
occurs in other outlaw stories; as in Eustace
the Monk, Michel, p. 43. Also in Blind
Harry’s Wallace, ed. Moir, Book I, 239, and
Book IV, 764, pp 9, 72: in the first case Wallace
has a rock and sits spinning. See also
the ballad of Gude Wallace, further on.
We hear again of the forced mass, st. 23,
in Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, A 31,
B 40; and of money borrowed against the
bishop’s will, in A 32 of the same. It is the
Bishop of Hereford who suffers: see the ballad
which follows.
Translated by Doenniges, p. 203; Anastasius
Grün, p. 113.
1
Come, gentlemen all, and listen a while,
Hey down down an a down
And a story I’le to you unfold;
I’le tell you how Robin Hood served the Bishop,
When he robbed him of his gold.
2
As it fell out on a sun-shining day,
When Phebus was in his prime,
Then Robin Hood, that archer good,
In mirth would spend some time.
3
And as he walkd the forrest along,
Some pastime for to spy,
There was he aware of a proud bishop,
And all his company.
4
‘O what shall I do?’ said Robin Hood then,
‘If the Bishop he doth take me,
No mercy he’l show unto me, I know,
But hanged I shall be.’
1925
Then Robin was stout, and turnd him about,
And a little house there he did spy;
And to an old wife, for to save his life,
He loud began for to cry.
6
‘Why, who art thou?’ said the old woman,
‘Come tell it to me for good:’
‘I am an out-law, as many do know,
My name it is Robin Hood.
7
‘And yonder’s the Bishop and all his men,
And if that I taken be,
Then day and night he’l work me spight,
And hanged I shall be.’
8
‘If thou be Robin Hood,’ said the old wife,
‘As thou dost seem to be,
I’le for thee provide, and thee I will hide
From the Bishop and his company.
9
‘For I well remember, one Saturday night
Thou bought me both shoos and hose;
Therefore I’le provide thy person to hide,
And keep thee from thy foes.’
10
‘Then give me soon thy coat of gray,
And take thou my mantle of green;
Thy spindle and twine unto me resign,
And take thou my arrows so keen.’
11
And when that Robin Hood was so araid,
He went straight to his company;
With his spindle and twine, he oft lookt behind
For the Bishop and his company.
12
‘O who is yonder,’ quoth Little John,
‘That now comes over the lee?
An arrow I will at her let flie,
So like an old witch looks she.’
13
‘O hold thy hand, hold thy hand,’ said Robin then,
‘And shoot not thy arrows so keen;
I am Robin Hood, thy master good,
And quickly it shall be seen.’
14
The Bishop he came to the old womans house,
And he called with furious mood,
‘Come let me soon see, and bring unto me,
That traitor Robin Hood.’
15
The old woman he set on a milk-white steed,
Himselfe on a dapple-gray,
And for joy he had got Robin Hood,
He went laughing all the way.
16
But as they were riding the forrest along,
The Bishop he chanc’d for to see
A hundred brave bow-men bold
Stand under the green-wood tree.
17
‘O who is yonder,’ the Bishop then said,
‘That’s ranging within yonder wood?’
‘Marry,’ says the old woman, ‘I think it to be
A man calld Robin Hood.’
18
‘Why, who art thou,’ the Bishop he said,
‘Which I have here with me?’
‘Why, I am an old woman, thou cuckoldly bishop;
Lift up my leg and see.’
19
‘Then woe is me,’ the Bishop he said,
‘That ever I saw this day!’
He turnd him about, but Robin so stout
Calld him, and bid him stay.
20
Then Robin took hold of the Bishops horse,
And ty’d him fast to a tree;
Then Little John smil’d his master upon,
For joy of that company.
21
Robin Hood took his mantle from’s back,
And spread it upon the ground,
And out of the Bishops portmantle he
Soon told five hundred pound.
22
‘So now let him go,’ said Robin Hood;
Said Little John, That may not be;
For I vow and protest he shall sing us a mass
Before that he goe from me.
23
Then Robin Hood took the Bishop by the hand,
And bound him fast to a tree,
And made him sing a mass, God wot,
To him and his yeomandree.
24
And then they brought him through the wood,
And set him on his dapple-gray,
And gave the tail within his hand,
And bade him for Robin Hood pray.
193a.
Robin Hood and the Bishop: Shewing how
Robin Hood went to an old womans house
and changed cloaths with her, to scape
from the Bishop; and how he robbed the
Bishop of all his gold, and made him sing
a mass. To the tune of Robin Hood and
the Stranger.
London, Printed for F. Grove on Snow-Hill.
(1620–55.)
Burden: sometimes With a hey, etc.; With
hey, etc.
22. her for his: cf.b, c.
82. doth: cf.b, c, d, e.
91. on for one: cf.e.
162. chance.
b.
Title as in a. Burden: with the same variations
as in a.
22. in his.
54. for wanting.
81. then said.
82. dost.
91. on.
143. soon wanting.
162. chanc’d.
171. then wanting.
172. yonders.
183. cuckoldy.
191. to me.
193. Robin Hood.
c.
Title as in a. Burden: always With a hey,
etc.
22. in his.
44. wanting.
53,4. for wanting.
82. dost.
91. on.
161. long.
162. chanced.
171. he said.
183. cuckoldy.
191. to me.
193. Robin Hood.
244. bid.
d.
Title as in a, except, escape: robbed him:
sing mass.
Burden: With a hey down down and a down.
21. of a.
22. in her.
23. That for Then.
44. shall I.
54. for wanting.
73. my for me.
81. old woman.
82. dost.
91. well wanting: on.
111. that wanting: thus for so.
131. Robin Hood.
162. chanc’d.
183. am a woman: cuckoldy.
193. Robin Hood.
204. of his.
221. So wanting.
231. by’th.
241. And when.
e.
Title as in a, except, escape: robbed him: sing
mass.
London, Printed by and for W. O[nley], etc.
(1650–1702.)
Burden: With a hey down down an a down.
12. to you I’ll.
13. to you.
21. of a.
22. in her.
23. Bold Robin Hood.
33. he wanting. (?)
41. saith.
44. shall I.
52. did he.
53. for wanting.
54. aloud began to.
73. my for me.
74. shall I.
81. then said the old woman.
82. dost.
91. well wanting: one.
92. brought.
102. the for my.
111. thus for so.
113. and wanting.
123. at her I will.
131. saith.
162. chanc’d.
174. A wanting.
183. am a woman.
193. Robin Hood.
194. to him.
204. of this.
221. So wanting.
231. by th’.
144 ROBIN HOOD AND THE BISHOP OF HEREFORD — A — B
A. a. Robin Hood’s Garland, London, J. Marshall &
Co., Aldermary Churchyard, No 23. b. ‘Robin
Hood and the Bishop of Hereford,’ Douce Ballads,
III, 123 b, London, C. Sheppard, 1791. c. Chappell’s
Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 395, from
a broadside printed for Daniel Wright, next the
Sun Tavern in Holborn. d. Robin Hood’s Garland,
1749, No 23.
B. E. Cochrane’s Song-Book, p. 149, No 113.
A a in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 146,
“compared with the York copy,” that is,
with two or three slight changes: Evans, Old
Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 211. B, the Scottish
copy, is very likely only an imperfect remembrance
of a broadside, but the date of the
MS., though this is perhaps not determinable,
has been put as early as 1730.
Robin Hood, expecting the Bishop of Hereford
to pass near Barnsdale, has a deer killed
for his dinner. He dresses himself and six
of his men in shepherd’s attire, and when the
194Bishop approaches they make an ado to attract
his attention. The Bishop interrogates
them. Robin owns that they mean to make
merry with the king’s venison. The Bishop
will show them no mercy; they must go before
the king with him. Robin summons his
band with his horn and it is the Bishop’s
turn to cry mercy. Robin will not let him
off, but takes him to Barnsdale, and makes
him great cheer. The Bishop foresees that
there will be a heavy reckoning. Little John
searches the Bishop’s portmanteau, and takes
out three hundred pound; enough, he says,
to make him in charity with the churchman.
They make the Bishop dance in his boots, A,
or sing a mass, B, and he is glad to get off so
lightly.
The Bishop of Hereford appears in the
next ballad, Robin Hood and Queen Katherine.
He there tells us that Robin had made
him sing a mass out of hours, and had borrowed
money of him against his will.
The conclusion of this ballad is to the same
effect as that of the preceding, and was probably
suggested by the Gest. No copy has
been found, in print or writing, earlier than
the last century; a fact of no special importance.
Whenever written, if written it was,
it is far superior to most of the seventeenth
century broadsides. Mr Chappell speaks of
it as being now (thirty years ago) the most
popular of the Robin Hood set.
Translated by Talvj, Charakteristik, p.
493; Anastasius Grün, p. 151; Loève-Veimars,
p. 204.
a. Robin Hood’s Garland, Aldermary Churchyard, No
23. b. Douce Ballads, III, 123 b, 1791. c. Chappell’s
Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 395, from a broadside
printed for Daniel Wright, d. Robin Hood’s Garland,
without place, 1749, No 23, p. 98.
1
Some they will talk of bold Robin Hood,
And some of barons bold,
But I’ll tell you how he servd the Bishop of Hereford,
When he robbd him of his gold.
2
As it befel in merry Barnsdale,
And under the green-wood tree,
The Bishop of Hereford was to come by,
With all his company.
3
‘Come, kill a venson,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘Come, kill me a good fat deer;
The Bishop of Hereford is to dine with me to-day,
And he shall pay well for his cheer.
4
‘We’ll kill a fat venson,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘And dress it by the highway-side;
And we will watch the Bishop narrowly,
Lest some other way he should ride.’
5
Robin Hood dressd himself in shepherd’s attire,
With six of his men also;
And, when the Bishop of Hereford came by,
They about the fire did go.
6
‘O what is the matter?’ then said the Bishop,
‘Or for whom do you make this a-do?
Or why do you kill the king’s venson,
When your company is so few?’
7
‘We are shepherds,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘And we keep sheep all the year,
And we are disposed to be merry this day,
And to kill of the king’s fat deer.’
8
‘You are brave fellows!’ said the Bishop,
‘And the king of your doings shall know;
Therefore make haste and come along with me,
For before the king you shall go.’
9 ‘O pardon, O pardon,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘O pardon, I thee pray!
For it becomes not your lordship’s coat
To take so many lives away.’
10
‘No pardon, no pardon,’ says the Bishop,
‘No pardon I thee owe;
Therefore make haste, and come along with me,
For before the king you shall go.’
19511
Then Robin set his back against a tree,
And his foot against a thorn,
And from underneath his shepherd’s coat
He pulld out a bugle-horn.
12
He put the little end to his mouth,
And a loud blast did he blow,
Till threescore and ten of bold Robin’s men
Came running all on a row;
13
All making obeysance to bold Robin Hood;
’Twas a comely sight for to see:
‘What is the matter, master,’ said Little John,
‘That you blow so hastily?’
14
‘O here is the Bishop of Hereford,
And no pardon we shall have:’
‘Cut off his head, master,’ said Little John,
‘And throw him into his grave.’
15
‘O pardon, O pardon,’ said the Bishop,
‘O pardon, I thee pray!
For if I had known it had been you,
I’d have gone some other way.’
16
‘No pardon, no pardon,’ said Robin Hood,
‘No pardon I thee owe;
Therefore make haste and come along with me,
For to merry Barnsdale you shall go.’
17
Then Robin he took the Bishop by the hand,
And led him to merry Barnsdale;
He made him to stay and sup with him that night,
And to drink wine, beer, and ale.
18
‘Call in the reckoning,’ said the Bishop,
‘For methinks it grows wondrous high:’
‘Lend me your purse, Bishop,’ said Little John,
‘And I’ll tell you bye and bye.’
19
Then Little John took the bishop’s cloak,
And spread it upon the ground,
And out of the bishop’s portmantua
He told three hundred pound.
20
‘Here’s money enough, master,’ said Little John,
‘And a comely sight ’tis to see;
It makes me in charity with the Bishop,
Tho he heartily loveth not me.’
21
Robin Hood took the Bishop by the hand,
And he caused the music to play,
And he made the Bishop to dance in his boots,
And glad he could so get away.
E. Cochrane’s Song-Book, p. 149, No 113.
1
Some talk of lords, and some talk of lairds,
And some talk of barrons bold,
But I’ll tell you a story of bold Robin Hood,
How he robbed the Bishop of his gold.
2
‘Cause kill us a venison,’ sayes Robin Hood,
‘And we’ll dress it by the high-way side,
And we will watch narrowly for the Bishop,
Lest some other way he do ride.’
3
‘Now who is this,’ sayes the Bishop,
‘That makes so boldly here
To kill the king’s poor small venison,
And so few of his company here?’
4
‘We are shepherds,’ says Robin Hood,
‘And do keep sheep all the year;
And we thought it fit to be merry on a day,
And kill one of the king’s fallow deer.’
5
‘Thou art a bold fellow,’ the Bishop replyes,
‘And your boldness you do show;
Make hast, make hast, and go along with me,
For the king of your doings shall know.’
6
He leand his back unto a brae,
His foot against a thorn,
And out from beneath his long shepherds coat
He pulled a blowing-horn.
7
He put his horn in to his mouth,
And a snell blast he did blow,
Till four and twenty of bold Robins men
Came riding up all in a row.
8
‘Come, give us a reckoning,’ says the Bishop,
‘For I think you drink wondrous large:’
196‘Come, give me your purse,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘And I will pay all your charge.’
9
He pulled off his long shepherds coat,
And he spread it on the ground,
And out of the Bishops long trunk-hose,
He pulled a hundred pound.
10
‘O master,’ quoth Litle John,
‘It’s a very bony sight for to see;
It makes me to favour the Bishop,
Tho in heart he loves not me.’
11
‘Come, sing us a mass,’ sayes bold Robin Hood,
‘Come, sing us a mass all anon;
Come, sing us a mass,’ sayes bold Robin Hood,
‘Take a kick in the a—se, and be gone.’
A. a.
The Bishop of Hereford’s Entertainment by
Robin Hood and Little John, &c., in merry
Barnsdale.
84. Forr.
183. master for Bishop: cf.b.
b.
London, Published April 7th, 1791, by C.
Sheppard, No 19, Lambert Hill, Doctors
Commons.
33. ’s to.
74. to taste.
101. said.
114. out his.
122. he did.
123. Robin Hood’s.
132. for wanting.
133. What’s.
142. Says no.
171. he wanting.
173. him stay and dine with him that day.
182. For I think.
183. bishop for master.
203. me have charity for.
213. And wanting: the old.
c.
Title as ina.
11. O some: of brave.
13. ye.
14. And robbd.
21. All under.
31. kill me.
33. ’s to.
101. said.
161. said bold.
181. in a.
183. purse, master.
213. the old.
d.
Title as ina: &c wanting.
11. they wanting.
13. of Hereford wanting.
14. his wanting.
31. Hood wanting.
33. to-day wanting.
34. well wanting.
41. kill the vension.
51. Hood he.
52. And six: men likewise.
54. Then for They.
61. then wanting.
63. of the.
64. And your: so small.
71. Hood wanting.
91. bold wanting.
101. said.
104. you must.
114. out his fine.
122. he did.
124. marching down in a.
133. master wanting.
144. into the.
154. I would: gone another.
161. bold Robin: Hood wanting.
171. he wanting.
172. And he.
173. to wanting.
181. in a.
182. Methinks it runs.
183. master wanting.
193. portmantle.
194. He took.
201. master wanting.
202. And it is: ’tis wanting.
211. Robin he took.
212. he wanting.
213. And wanting.
214. so wanting.
145 ROBIN HOOD AND QUEEN KATHERINE — A — B — C
A. ‘Robin Hoode and Quene Kath[erine],’ Percy MS.,
p. 15; Hales and Furnivall, I, 37.
B. ‘Renowned Robin Hood,’ etc. a. Wood, 502, leaf
10. b. Roxburghe, I, 356, in the Ballad Society’s
reprint, II, 419. c. Garland of 1663, No 9. d. Garland
of 1670, No 8. e. Wood, 401, leaf 31 b.
f. Pepys, II, 103, No 90.
C. ‘Robin Hood, Scarlet and John,’ etc., Garland of
1663, No 1.
A copy in Roxburghe, III, 450, printed by
L. How, in Petticoat Lane, is of the eighteenth
century. In Ritson’s Robin Hood,
1795, II, 82, “from an old black-letter copy
197in a private collection, compared with another
in that of Anthony a Wood.” In Evans’s
Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 149, from an
Aldermary garland.
Robin Hood has made Queen Katherine his
friend by presenting her with a sum of gold
which he had taken from the king’s harbingers.
The king has offered a heavy wager
that his archers cannot be excelled, and the
queen may have her choice of all other bowmen
in England. Availing herself of these
terms, the queen summons Robin Hood and
his men, who are to come to London on St
George’s day, under changed names. She
hopes to have Robin relieved of his outlawry.
The king’s archers lead off, and make three.
The ladies think the queen has no chance.
She asks Sir Richard Lee, known to us already
from the Gest, to be on her side. Sir
Richard Lee, we are told, is sprung from
Gawain’s blood (A, Gower’s, Gowrie’s in
other texts), and naturally would deny nothing
to a lady. The Bishop of Hereford declines
to be of the queen’s party, but stakes a
large sum on the king’s men. The queen’s
archers shoot, and the game stands three and
three; the queen bids the king beware. The
third three shall pay for all, says the king.
It is now time for the outlaws to do their
best. Loxly, as Robin Hood is called, leads
off. The particulars of the outlaws’ exploits
are wanting in A.
In B, C, Robin’s feat is obscurely described.
Clifton, who represents Scarlet (for in B, C,
contrary to older tradition, Scarlet seems to
be put before John), cleaves the willow wand,
and Midge (Mutch), the Miller’s Son, who,
according to A 10, is John, is but little behind
him.[117] The queen, to assure the safety
of her men, begs the boon that the king will
not be angry with any of her party, and the
king replies, Welcome, friend or foe.
After this there is no occasion for concealment.
The Bishop of Hereford, learning who
Loxly is, says that Robin is only too old an
acquaintance; Robin had once made him say
a mass at two in the afternoon, and borrowed
money of him which had never been repaid.
Robin offers to pay him for the mass by giving
half of the gold back. Small thanks, says
the bishop, for paying me with my own
money. King Henry, quite outstripping even
the easiness of Edward in the Gest, says he
loves Robin never the worse, and invites him
to leave his outlaws and come live at the
court, a proposal which is peremptorily rejected.
This is a very pleasant ballad, with
all the exaggeration, and it is much to be
regretted that one half of A is lost.
C is a piece of regular hack-work, and
could not maintain itself in competition with
B, upon which, perhaps, it was formed. It
will be observed that Sir Richard Lee is
changed into Sir Robert Lee in C, and that
the thirty-fourth stanza represents the king
as subsequently making Robin Hood Earl of
Huntington.
The adventure of the Bishop of Hereford
with Robin Hood is the subject of a separate
ballad, now found only in a late form: see
No 144.
Loxly, the name given to Robin in the
present ballad, is, according to the Life in
the Sloane MS., a town in Yorkshire, “or
after others in Nottinghamshire,” where Robin
was born. The ballad of Robin Hood’s Birth,
Breeding, etc., following the same tradition,
or invention, says “Locksly town in Nottinghamshire.”
It appears from Spencer Hall’s
Forester’s Offering, London, 1841, that there
is a Loxley Chase near Sheffield, in Yorkshire,
and a Loxley River too: Gutch, I, 75.
Finsbury field was long a noted place for the
practice of archery. In the year 1498, says
Stow, all the gardens which had continued
time out of mind without Moorgate, to wit,
about and beyond the lordship of Fensberry,
were destroyed. And of them was made a
198plain field for archers to shoot in. Survey of
London, 1598, p. 351, cited, with other things
pertinent, by Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II,
86 f.
R. H. and the Shepherd, R. H. rescuing
Will Stutly, and R. H.’s Delight, are directed
to be sung to the tune of R. H. and Queen
Katherine, B, and may therefore be inferred
to be of later date. R. H.’s Progress to
Nottingham is to be sung to “Bold Robin
Hood,” and as this conjunction of words occurs
several times in R. H. and Queen Katherine,
and the burden and its disposition, in
the Progress to Nottingham, are the same as
in R. H. and Queen Katherine, “Bold Robin
Hood” may indicate this present ballad. R.
H. and Queen Katherine, C, is directed to be
sung to the tune of The Pinder of Wakefield.
R. H.’s Chase is a sequel to R. H. and
Queen Katherine.
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 172.
Percy MS., p. 15; Hales and Furnivall, I, 37.
1
Now list you, lithe you, gentlemen,
A while for a litle space,
And I shall tell you how Queene Katterine
Gott Robin Hood his grace.
2
Gold taken from the kings harbengers
Seldome times hath beene seene,
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
* * * * *
3
. . . . . . .
‘Queene Katherine, I say to thee;’
‘That’s a princly wager,’ quoth Queene Katherine,
‘Betweene your grace and me.
4
‘Where must I haue mine archers?’ says Queene Katherine;
‘You haue the flower of archery:’
‘Now take your choice, dame,’ he sayes,
‘Thorow out all England free.
5
‘Yea from North Wales to Westchester,
And also to Couentry;
And when you haue chosen the best you can,
The wager must goe with mee.’
6
‘If that prooue,’ says Queene Katherine,
‘Soone that wilbe tride and knowne;
Many a man counts of another mans pursse,
And after looseth his owne.’
7
The queene is to her palace gone,
To her page thus shee can say:
Come hither to me, Dicke Patrinton,
Trusty and trew this day.
8
Thou must bring me the names of my archers all,
All strangers must they bee,
Yea from North Wales to West Chester,
And alsoe to Couentrie.
9
Commend me to Robin Hood, says Queene Katherine,
And alsoe to Litle John,
And specially to Will Scarlett,
Ffryar Tucke and Maid Marryan.
10
Robin Hood we must call Loxly,
And Little John the Millers sonne;
Thus wee then must change their names,
They must be strangers euery one.
11
Commend mee to Robin Hood, sayes Queene Katherine,
And marke, page, what I say;
In London they must be with me
[Vpon St Georges day.]
* * * * *
12
. . . . . . .
‘These words hath sent by me;
Att London you must be with her
Vpon St Georg[e]s day.
13
‘Vpon St Georg[e]s day att noone
Att London needs must you bee;
199Shee wold not misse your companie
For all the gold in Cristinty.
14
‘Shee hath tane a shooting for your sake,
The greatest in Christentie,
And her part you must needs take
Against her prince, Henery.
15
‘Shee sends you heere her gay gold ring
A trew token for to bee;
And, as you are [a] banisht man,
Shee trusts to sett you free.’
16
‘And I loose that wager,’ says bold Robin Hoode,
‘I’le bring mony to pay for me;
And wether that I win or loose,
On my queenes part I will be.’
17
In sommer time when leaues grow greene,
And flowers are fresh and gay,
Then Robin Hood he deckt his men
Eche one in braue array.
18
He deckt his men in Lincolne greene,
Himselfe in scarlett red;
Fayre of theire brest then was it seene
When his siluer armes were spread.
19
With hattis white and fethers blacke,
And bowes and arrowes keene,
And thus he ietted towards louly London,
To present Queene Katherine.
20
But when they cam to louly London,
They kneeled vpon their knee;
Sayes, God you saue, Queene Katherine,
And all your dignitie!
* * * * *
21
. . . . . . . of my guard,’
Thus can King Henry say,
‘And those that wilbe of Queene Katerines side,
They are welcome to me this day.’
22
‘Then come hither to me, Sir Richard Lee,
Thou art a knight full good;
Well it is knowen ffrom thy pedygree
Thou came from Gawiins blood.
23
‘Come hither, Bishopp of Hereford,’ quoth Queene Katherine—
A good preacher I watt was hee—
‘And stand thou heere vpon a odd side,
On my side for to bee.’
24
‘I like not that,’ sayes the bishopp then,
‘By faikine of my body,
For if I might haue my owne will,
On the kings I wold bee.’
25
‘What will thou be[t] against vs,’ says Loxly then,
‘And stake it on the ground?’
‘That will I doe, fine fellow,’ he says,
‘And it drawes to fiue hundreth pound.’
26
‘There is a bett,’ says Loxly then;
‘Wee’le stake it merrily;’
But Loxly knew full well in his mind
And whose that gold shold bee.
27
Then the queenes archers they shot about
Till it was three and three;
Then the lady’s gaue a merry shout,
Sayes, Woodcocke, beware thine eye!
28
‘Well, gam and gam,’ then quoth our king,
‘The third three payes for all;’
Then Robine rounded with our queene,
Says, The kings part shall be small.
29
Loxly puld forth a broad arrowe,
He shott it vnder hand,
. . . . s vnto . .
. . . . . . .
* * * * *
30
. . . . . . .
‘For once he vndidd mee;
If I had thought it had beene bold Robin Hoode,
I wold not haue betted one peny.
31
‘Is this Robin Hood?’ says the bishopp againe;
‘Once I knew him to soone;
He made me say a masse against my will,
Att two a clocke in the afternoone.
32
‘He bound me fast vnto a tree,
Soe did he my merry men;
200He borrowed ten pound against my will,
But he neuer paid me againe.’
33
‘What and if I did?’ says bold Robin Hood,
‘Of that masse I was full faine;
In recompence, befor king and queene
Take halfe of thy gold againe.’
34
‘I thanke thee for nothing,’ says the bishopp,
‘Thy large gift to well is knowne,
That will borrow a mans mony against his will,
And pay him againe with his owne.’
35
‘What if he did soe?’ says King Henery,
‘For that I loue him neuer the worsse;
Take vp thy gold againe, bold Robin Hood,
And put [it] in thy pursse.
36
‘If thou woldest leaue thy bold outlawes,
And come and dwell with me,
Then I wold say thou art welcome, bold Robin Hood,
The flower of archery.’
37
‘I will not leaue my bold outlawes
For all the gold in Christentie;
In merry Sherwood I’le take my end,
Vnder my trusty tree.
38
‘And gett your shooters, my leeig[e], where you will,
For in faith you shall haue none of me;
And when Queene Katherine puts up her f[inger]
Att her Graces commandement I’le bee.’
* * * * *
a. Wood, 402, leaf 10. b. Roxburghe, I, 356, in the Ballad
Society’s reprint, II, 419. c. Garland of 1663, No 9.
d. Garland of 1670, No 8. e. Wood, 401, leaf 31 b. f.
Pepys, II, 103, No 90.
1
Gold tane from the kings harbengers,
Down a down a down
As seldome hath been seen,
Down a down a down
And carried by bold Robin Hood
For a present to the queen.
Down a down a down
2
‘If that I live a year to an end,’
Thus gan Queen Katherin say,
‘Bold Robin Hood, I will be thy friend,
And all thy yeomen gay.’
3
The queen is to her chamber gone,
As fast as she can wen;
She cals unto her her lovely page,
His name was Richard Patringten.
4
‘Come hither to mee, thou lovely page,
Come thou hither to mee;
For thou must post to Notingham,
As fast as thou canst dree.
5
‘And as thou goest to Notingham,
Search all those English wood;
Enquire of one good yeoman or another
That can tell thee of Robin Hood.’
6
Sometimes he went, sometimes hee ran,
As fast as he could win;
And when hee came to Notingham,
There he took up his inne.
7
And when he came to Notingham,
And had took up his inne,
He calls for a pottle of Renish wine,
And drank a health to his queen.
8
There sat a yeoman by his side;
‘Tell mee, sweet page,’ said hee,
‘What is thy business or the cause,
So far in the North Country?’
9
‘This is my business and the cause,
Sir, I’le tell it you for good,
To inquire of one good yeoman or another
To tell mee of Robin Hood.’
10
‘I’le get my horse betime in the morn,
By it be break of day,
And I will shew thee bold Robin Hood,
And all his yeomen gay.’
11
When that he came at Robin Hoods place,
Hee fell down on his knee:
201‘Queen Katherine she doth greet you well,
She greets you well by mee.
12
‘She bids you post to fair London court,
Not fearing any thing;
For there shall be a little sport,
And she hath sent you her ring.’
13
Robin took his mantle from his back—
It was of the Lincoln green—
And sent it by this lovely page,
For a present unto the queen.
14
In summer time, when leaves grow green,
It is a seemly sight to see
How Robin Hood himself had drest,
And all his yeomandry.
15
He cloathed his men in Lincoln green,
And himself in scarlet red,
Black hats, white feathers, all alike;
Now bold Robin Hood is rid.
16
And when he came at Londons court,
Hee fell downe on his knee:
‘Thou art welcome, Locksly,’ said the queen,
‘And all thy good yeomendree.’
17
The king is into Finsbury field,
Marching in battel ray,
And after follows bold Robin Hood,
And all his yeomen gay.
18
‘Come hither, Tepus,’ said the king,
‘Bow-bearer after mee,
Come measure mee out with this line
How long our mark shall be.’
19
‘What is the wager?’ said the queen,
‘That must I now know here:’
‘Three hundred tun of Renish wine,
Three hundred tun of beer.
20
‘Three hundred of the fattest harts
That run on Dallom lee;
That’s a princely wager,’ said the king,
‘That needs must I tell thee.’
21
With that bespake one Clifton then,
Full quickly and full soon;
‘Measure no mark for us, most soveraign leige,
Wee’l shoot at sun and moon.’
22
‘Ful fifteen score your mark shall be,
Ful fifteen score shall stand;’
‘I’le lay my bow,’ said Clifton then,
‘I’le cleave the willow wand.’
23
With that the kings archers led about,
While it was three and none;
With that the ladies began to shout,
Madam, your game is gone!
24
‘A boon, a boon,’ Queen Katherine cries,
‘I crave on my bare knee;
Is there any knight of your privy counsel
Of Queen Katherines part will be?
25
‘Come hither to mee, Sir Richard Lee,
Thou art a knight full good;
For I do know by thy pedigree
Thou springst from Goweres blood.
26
‘Come hither to me, thou Bishop of Herefordshire’—
For a noble priest was he—
‘By my silver miter,’ said the bishop then,
‘I’le not bet one peny.
27
‘The king hath archers of his own,
Full ready and full light,
And these be strangers every one,
No man knows what they height.’
28
‘What wilt thou bet,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Thou seest our game the worse?’
‘By my silver miter,’ said the bishop then,
‘All the mony within my purse.’
29
‘What is in thy purse?’ said Robin Hood,
‘Throw it down on the ground;’
‘Fifteen score nobles,’ said the bishop then,
‘It’s neer an hundred pound.’
30
Robin Hood took his bagge from his side,
And threw it down on the green;
William Scadlocke went smiling away,
‘I know who this mony must win.’
31
With that the queens archers led about,
While it was three and three;
With that the ladies gave a shout,
‘Woodcock, beware thyn ee!’
32
‘It is three and three, now,’ said the king,
‘The next three pays for all;’
202Robin Hood went and whispered to the queen,
‘The kings part shall be but small.’
33
Robin Hood he led about,
He shot it under hand,
And Clifton, with a bearing arrow,
He clave the willow wand.
34
And little Midge, the Miller’s son,
Hee shot not much the worse;
He shot within a finger of the prick;
‘Now, bishop, beware thy purse!’
35
‘A boon, a boon,’ Queen Katherine cries,
‘I crave on my bare knee,—
That you will angry be with none
That is of my party.’
36
‘They shall have forty days to come,
And forty days to go,
And three times forty to sport and play;
Then welcome friend or fo.’
37
‘Then thou art welcome, Robin Hood,’ said the queen,
‘And so is Little John,
So is Midge, the Miller’s son;
Thrice welcome every one.’
38
‘Is this Robin Hood?’ the king now said;
‘For it was told to mee
That he was slain in the pallace-gate,
So far in the North Country.’
39
‘Is this Robin Hood,’ said the bishop then,
‘As I see well to be?
Had I knowne that had been that bold outlaw,
I would not have bet one peny.
40
‘Hee took me late one Saturday at night,
And bound mee fast to a tree,
And made mee sing a mass, God wot,
To him and his yeomendree.’
41
‘What and if I did?’ says Robin Hood,
‘Of that mass I was full fain;
For recompense to thee,’ he says,
‘Here’s half thy gold again.’
42
‘Now nay, now nay,’ saies Little John,
‘Master, that shall not be;
We must give gifts to the kings officers;
That gold will serve thee and mee.’
The Garland of 1663, No 1.
1
Stout Robin Hood, a most lusty out-law,
As ever yet lived in this land,
As ever yet lived in this land.
His equal I’m sure you never yet saw,
So valiant was he of his hand,
So valiant was he of his hand.
2
No archers could ever compare with these three,
Although from us they are gone;
The like was never, nor never will be,
To Robin Hood, Scarlet and John.
3
Many stout robberies by these men were done,
Within this our kingdom so wide;
Vpon the highway much treasure they have won,
No one that his purse ere deny’d.
4
Great store of money they from the kings men
Couragiously did take away;
Vnto fair Queen Katherine they gave it again,
Who to them these words did say.
5
If that I live but another fair year,
Kind Robin Hood, said the fair queen,
The love for this courtesie that I thee bear,
Assure thy self it shall be seen.
6
Brave Robin Hood courteously thanked her Grace,
And so took his leave of the queen;
He with his bold archers then hied him apace,
In summer time, to the woods green.
7
‘Now wend we together, my merry men all,
To the green wood to take up our stand:’
These archers were ready at Robin Hoods call,
With their bent bows all in their hand.
2038
‘Come, merrily let us now valiantly go
With speed unto the green wood,
And there let us kill a stout buck or a do,
For our master, Robin Hood.’
9
At London must now be a game of shooting,
Where archers should try their best skill;
It was so commanded by their gracious king;
The queen then thought to have her will.
10
Her little foot-page she sent with all speed,
To find out stout Robin Hood,
Who in the North bravely did live, as we read,
With his bow-men in the green wood.
11
When as this young page unto the North came,
He staid under a hill at his inn;
Within the fair town of sweet Nottingham,
He there to enquire did begin.
12
The page then having enquired aright
The way unto Robin Hoods place,
As soon as the page had obtained of him sight,
He told him strange news from her Grace.
13
‘Her Majestie praies you to haste to the court,’
And therewithall shewd him her ring;
We must not delay his swift haste to this sport,
Which then was proclaimd by the king.
14
Then Robin Hood hies him with all speed he may,
With his fair men attired in green,
And towards fair London he then takes his way;
His safety lay all on the queen.
15
Now Robin Hood welcome was then to the court,
Queen Katharine so did allow;
Now listen, my friends, and my song shal report
How the queen performed her vow.
16
The king then went marching in state with his peers
To Finsbury field most gay,
Where Robin Hood follows him, void of all fears,
With his lusty brave shooters that day.
17
The king did command that the way should be
Straight mete with a line that was good;
The answer was made to him presently,
By lusty bold Robin Hood.
18
‘Let there be no mark measured,’ then said he soon;
‘I,’ so said Scarlet and John,
‘For we will shoot to the sun or the moon;
We scorn to be outreacht with none.’
19
‘What shall the wager be?’ then said the queen,
‘Pray tell me before you begin:’
‘Three hundred tuns of good wine shall be seen,
And as much of strong bear for to win.
20
‘Three hundred of lusty fat bucks, sweet, beside,
Shall now be our royal lay:’
Quoth Robin Hood, What ere does betide,
I’le bear this brave purchase away.
21
‘Full fifteenscore,’ saith the king, ‘it shall be;’
Then straight did the bow-men begin,
And Robin Hoods side gave them leave certainly
A while some credit to win.
22
The royal queen Katharine aloud cried she,
Is here no lord, nor yet knight,
That will take my part in this bold enmity?
Sir Robert Lee, pray do me right.
23
Then to the bold Bishop of Herefordshire
Most mildly spoke our good queen;
But he straight refused to lay any more,
Such ods on their parties were seen.
24
‘What wilt thou bet, seeing our game is the worse?’
Unto him then said Robin Hood:
‘Why then,’ quoth the bishop, ‘all that’s in my purse;’
Quoth Scarlet, That bargain is good.
25
‘A hundred good pounds there is in the same,’
The bishop unto him did say;
Then said Robin Hood, Now here’s for the game,
And to bear this your money away.
26
Then did the kings archer his arrows command
Most bravely and with great might,
204But brave jolly Robin shot under his hand,
And then did hit the mark right.
27
And Clifton he then, with his arrow so good,
The willow-wood cleaved in two;
The Miller’s young son came not short, by the rood,
His skill he most bravely did show.
28
Thus Robin Hood and his crew won the rich prize,
From all archers that there could be;
Then loudly unto the king Queen Katherine cries,
Forgive all my company!
29
The king then did say, that for forty daies,
Free leave then to come or go,
For any man there, though he got the praise,
‘Be he friend,’ quoth he, ‘or be he foe.’
30
Then quoth the queen, Welcome thou art, Robin Hood,
And welcome, brave bow-men all three;
Then straight quoth the king, I did hear, by the rood,
That slain he was in the countrey.
31
‘Is this Robin Hood?’ the bishop did say,
‘Is this Robin Hood certainly?
He made me to say him mass last Saturday,
To him and his bold yeomendry.’
32
‘Well,’ quoth Robin Hood, ‘in requital thereof,
Half thy gold I give unto thee;’
‘Nay, nay,’ then said Little John in a scoff,
‘‘Twill serue us ith’ North Countrey.’
33
Then Robin Hood pardon had straight of the king,
And so had they every one;
The fame of these days most loudly does ring,
Of Robin Hood, Scarlet and John.
34
Great honours to Robin Hood after were done,
As stories for certain do say;
The king made him Earl of fair Huntington,
Whose fame will never decay.
35
Thus have you heard the fame of these men,
Good archers they were every one;
We never shal see the like shooters again
As Robin Hood, Scarlet and John.
A.
After 22, 113, 204, 293, 384, half a page is gone.
21. Perhaps harvengers.
52. cauentry.
93. Perhaps William.
After 16: The 2d part.
182. hinselfe.
254. 500th :.
272, 282. 3.
314. 2.
323. 10li :.
B.
Renowned Robin Hood: or, his famous archery
truly related; with the worthy exploits
hee acted before Queen Katherine, hee being
an outlaw-man; and how shee for the
same obtained of the king his own and his
fellows pardon. To a new tune.
a.
London, Printed for F. Grove, on Snow-hill.
Entred according to order. (1620–55.)
164. yeomen three: so b-e, but yeomendree,
the reading of f, must be right, since the
whole band is present, and only two yeomen
besides Robin are distinguished.
232, 312. While, if preserved, must be taken
in the sense of till, which occurs in f, 232,
as in A, 272.
311. the kings: so all. A, 27 has queenes,
rightly.
314. thy knee: so all exceptb, which has thy
nee.
352. crave that on.
394. have wanting: cf.A 30, c, f.
404. yeomen three: so all. See 164.
b.
Printed at London for Francis Grove.
22. can.
33. unto her lovely.
34. Parringten.
44. can.
63, 71. came at.
81. sate.
84. in this.
102. Be it the.
111. Hood.
133. sent that.
142. It’s.
213. markes.
231. archer.
254. sprungst.
311. the kings.
314. thy nee.
333. baring.
334. clove.
351. cryed.
352. crave that on.
381. now said the king.
382. so told.
383. in Pallace gates.
394. not bet.
404. yeomen three.
411. an if.
412. full wanting.
c.
33. unto her lovelie.
53, 93. or other.
81. sate.
91. is the.
104. yeoman.
164. yeomen three.
171. gone for field.
204. must I needs.
233. shoot.
244. On for Of.
254. sprangst from Gowries.
303. Sadlock.
304. whose this money must be.
205311. the kings.
314. thy knee.
323. to wanting.
352. crave that on.
394. have bet.
401. on for one.
404. yeomen three.
d.
33. unto her lovely.
34. Patrington.
134. to for unto.
144. his wanting.
164. yeomen three.
244. On for Of.
254. sprangst.
311. the kings.
314. thy knee.
352. crave that on.
364. welcome every one.
391. quoth for said.
394. not bet.
401. on for one.
404. yeomen three.
e.
London, Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere & J.
Wright. (1655–80.)
34. Patrington.
73. calld.
81. sate.
83. thy cause.
101. betimes.
164. good wanting: yeomen three.
172. gallant ray.
192. needs for now.
202. runs.
223. quoth for said.
311. the kings.
313. shoot.
314. thy knee.
352. that wanting.
383. the wanting.
393. I thought it had.
394. not bet.
404. yeomen three.
422. may not.
f.
In the title: being an outlaw man (hee wanting):
how he for how shee.
Printed for J. W[right], J. C[larke], W.
T[hackeray], and T. Passenger. (1670–86?)
33. unto her lovely.
34. Parington.
41. Come thou: my for thou.
43. now for post.
52. woods.
62. wen.
73. bottle.
74. drinks.
81. sate.
83. or thy.
101. betimes.
111. to for at.
132. the wanting.
134. to for unto.
142. It was.
164. thy yeomandree.
171. is gone to.
172. array.
184. must be.
204. to the.
231. lead.
232. Till it.
242. crave it.
243. ever a for any.
244. side for part.
254. sprangest.
283. then said the bishop.
291. in it said.
303. Will.
311. the kings.
314. thy knee.
324. part wanting.
352. crave it.
353. would for will.
364. welcome every one.
373. And so.
381. said now.
391. quoth for said.
393. it had.
394. not a bet.
401. on Saturday night.
404. yeomen three.
411. then says.
422. may not.
C.
Robin Hood, Scarlet and John: Wherein you
may see how Robin Hood, having lived an
out-law many years, the Queen sent for him,
and shooting a match before the King and
Queen at London, and winning the rich
prize, the Queen gained his pardon, and he
was afterwards Earl of Huntington.
To the tune of The Pinder of Wakefield.
203. what or.
261. archers.
273. yonng.
283. Katheline.
301,3. qd.
146 ROBIN HOOD’S CHASE
a. Garland of 1663, No 15.
b. Garland of 1670, No 14.
c. Wood, 401, leaf 29 b.
d. Pepys, II, 104, No 91.
Roxburghe, III, 14, 418; Douce, III,
121 b, London, by L. How, an eighteenth-century
copy. c is signed T. R., and has no
printer’s name.
Reprinted in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795,
II, 92, from c. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777,
1784, I, 156, agrees nearly with the Aldermary
garland.
Robin Hood’s Chase is a sequel to Robin
Hood and Queen Katherine, and begins with
a summary of that ballad. King Henry, who
has been gracious, and over-gracious, to the
outlaw, has a revulsion of feeling after Robin
has left his presence, and sets out in pursuit
of him. When the king reaches Nottingham,
Robin leaves Sherwood for Yorkshire,
whence he speeds successively to Newcastle,
Berwick, Carlisle, Lancaster, Chester, the
206king always following him close. At Chester
the happy idea occurs to him of going back
to London, as if to inquire whether he were
wanted. Queen Katherine informs Robin
that the king has gone to Sherwood to seek
him, and Robin says he will return to the
forest immediately to learn the king’s will.
King Henry, coming home weary and vexed,
is told by his queen that Robin has been
there to seek him. A cunning knave, quoth
the king. The queen intercedes for Robin.
This is a well-conceived ballad, and only
needs to be older.
Translated by A. Grün, p. 169, with omission
of stanzas 1–7, 24.
1
Come you gallants all, to you I do call,
With a hey down down a down down
That now is within this place,
For a song I will sing of Henry the king,
How he did Robin Hood chase.
2
Queen Katherine she a match then did make,
As plainly doth appear,
For three hundred tun of good red wine,
And three hundred tun of beer.
3
But yet her archers she had to seek,
With their bows and arrows so good;
But her mind it was bent, with a good intent,
To send for bold Robin Hood.
4
But when bold Robin Hood he came there,
Queen Katherine she did say,
Thou art welcome, Locksley, said the queen,
And all thy yeomen gay.
5
For a match at shooting I have made,
And thou my part must be:
‘If I miss the mark, be it light or dark,
Then hanged I will be.’
6
But when the game came to be playd,
Bold Robin he then drew nigh;
With his mantle of green, most brave to be seen,
He let his arrows fly.
7
And when the game it ended was,
Bold Robin wan it with a grace,
But after, the king was angry with him,
And vowed he would him chase.
8
What though his pardon granted was
While he with them did stay,
But yet the king was vexed at him
When as he was gone his way.
9
Soon after the king from the court did hie,
In a furious angry mood,
And often enquire, both far and near,
After bold Robin Hood.
10
But when the king to Nottingham came,
Bold Robin was then in the wood;
‘O come now,’ said he, ‘and let me see
Who can find me bold Robin Hood.’
11
But when that Robin Hood he did hear
The king had him in chase,
Then said Little John, Tis time to be gone,
And go to some other place.
12
Then away they went from merry Sherwood,
And into Yorkshire he did hie,
And the king did follow, with a hoop and a hallow,
But could not come him nigh.
13
Yet jolly Robin he passed along,
He [went] straight to Newcastle town,
And there stayed he hours two or three,
And then he for Berwick was gone.
14
When the king he did see how Robin did flee,
He was vexed wondrous sore;
With a hoop and a hallow he vowed to follow,
And take him, or never give ore.
15
‘Come now, let’s away,’ then cries Little John,
‘Let any man follow that dare;
To Carlile wee’l hie with our company,
And so then to Lancaster.’
16
From Lancaster then to Chester they went,
And so did king Henery;
But Robin away, for he durst not stay,
For fear of some treachery.
20717
Saies Robin, Come, let us to London go,
To see our noble queens face;
It may be she wants our company,
Which makes the king so us chase.
18
When Robin he came Queen Katherine before,
He fell upon his knee:
‘If it please your Grace, I am come to this place,
To speak with king Henery.’
19
Queen Katherine she answered bold Robin again,
The king is gone to merry Sherwood;
And when he went he to me did say
He would go seek Robin Hood.
20
‘Then fare you well, my gracious queen,
For to Sherwood I will hie apace;
For fain would I see what he would with me,
If I could but meet with his Grace.’
21
But when King Henery he came home,
Full weary, and vexed in mind,
When he did hear Robin had been there,
He blamed Dame Fortune unkind.
22
‘You are welcome home,’ Queen Katherine cried,
‘Henry, my soveraign liege;
Bold Robin Hood, that archer good,
Your person hath been to seek.’
23
But when King Henry he did hear
That Robin had been there him to seek,
This answer he gave, He’s a cunning knave,
For I have sought him this whole three weeks.
24
‘A boon! a boon!’ Queen Katherine cried,
‘I beg it here on your Grace,
To pardon his life, and seek no more strife:’
And so endeth Robin Hoods chase.
a, b, c.
Robin Hood’s Chase: or, A merry
progress between Robin Hood and King
Henry, shewing how Robin Hood led the
King his chase from London to London,
and when he had taken his leave of the
Queen he returned to merry Sherwood.
To the tune of Robin Hood and the Begger.
a.
Burden: variously printed With a hey, etc.,
With hey, etc.; twice Down a down a down.
52,3. Robin between the lines, to show that
what follows is his speech. So b, c. In
d Robin stands at the head of the third
line.
213. But when: sob, c.
234, 3 weeks.
b.
Burden: With hey, etc., or, With a hey, etc.
21. she then a match.
31. she had her archers.
61. game it.
72. a wanting.
102. then wanting.
111. that bold.
132. went wanting.
144. and for or.
151. cry’d.
162. good King Henry.
184. Henry.
213. But when.
232. there wanting.
234. 3 weeks.
242. here on my knee.
c.
Signed T. R. No printer.
Burden: With hey down down an a down.
24. hundred wanting.
33. it wanting.
51. of for at.
61. it came.
83. after for yet.
102. then wanting.
132. went wanting.
162, 184, 211. Henry.
163. to stay.
182. fell low.
184. For to.
213. But when.
222. leech.
234. 3 weeks.
d.
Title as ina, b, c, except: The tune is.
Printed for William Thackeray at the Angel
in Duck-Lane. (1689.)
Burden: With hey down down a down.
21. then a match did.
31. yet she had her archers.
51. of for at.
52. on my.
54. will I.
62. he wanting.
72. a wanting.
84. had for was.
102. O bold: then wanting.
103. Come said he.
111. that bold Robin he.
132. And went strait.
133. he stayed.
134, 141. he wanting.
144. gave.
151. than said Little.
162, 184, 211. Henry.
171. for London.
182. fell low.
184. For to.
193. he wanting.
194. go to.
203. what he’d have.
213. And that he.
221. You’re.
232. there wanting.
233. He is a.
234. 3 week.
242. of your.
147 ROBIN HOOD’S GOLDEN PRIZE
208
a. Wood, 401, leaf 39 b.
b. Garland of 1663, No 14.
c. Garland of 1670, No 13.
d. Pepys, II, 114, No 101.
Also Roxburghe, III, 12, 486; Old Ballads,
1723, II, 121; Douce, III, 121, London,
by L. How, of the last century.
Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 97, from a,
with changes. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777,
1784, I, 160, agrees nearly with the Aldermary
garland.
Entered, says Ritson, in the Stationers’
book, by Francis Grove, 2d June, 1656.[118]
Being directed to be sung to the tune “R. H.
was a tall young man,” that is, R. H.’s Progress
to Nottingham, this ballad is the later
of the two.
Robin Hood, disguised as a friar, asks
charity of two priests. They pretend to have
been robbed, and not to have a penny. Robin
pulls them from their horses, saying, Since you
have no money, we will pray for some, and
keeps them at their prayers for an hour.
Now, he says, we will see what heaven has
sent us; but the monks can find nothing in
their pockets. We must search one another,
Robin says, and beginning the operation finds
five hundred pounds on the monks. Of this
he gives fifty pounds to each of the priests to
pay for their prayers, keeping the remainder.
The priests would now move on, but Robin
requires three oaths of them, of truth, chastity
and charity, before he lets them go.
The kernel of the story is an old tale which
we find represented in Pauli’s Schimpf und
Ernst, 1533, Österley, p. 397, Anhang, No 14,
‘Wie drey lantzknecht vmb ein zerung batten.’
Three soldiers, out of service, meet the
cellarer of a rich Benedictine cloister, who
has a bag hanging at his saddle-bow, with
four hundred ducats in it. They ask for
some money, for God’s sake and good fellowship’s.
The cellarer answers that he has no
money: there is nothing but letters in his
bag. Then, since we all four are without
money, they say, we will kneel down and
pray for some. After a brief orison, the three
jump up, search the bag, and find four hundred
ducats. The cellarer offers them a handsome
douceur, and says he had the money in
the bag before; but to this they will give no
credence. They give the monk his share of
one hundred, and thank God devoutly for his
grace. Retold by Waldis, with a supplement,
Esopus, IV, 21, ed. Kurz, II, 64; and by others,
see Oesterley’s notes, p. 552, Kurz’s, p. 156.
a seems to be signed L. P., and these would
most naturally be the initials of the versifier.
Translated by Doenniges, p. 198, by Anastasius
Grün, p. 131.
2091
I have heard talk of bold Robin Hood,
Derry derry down
And of brave Little John,
Of Fryer Tuck, and Will Scarlet,
Loxley, and Maid Marion.
Hey down derry derry down
2
But such a tale as this before
I think there was never none;
For Robin Hood disguised himself,
And to the wood is gone.
3
Like to a fryer, bold Robin Hood
Was accoutered in his array;
With hood, gown, beads and crucifix,
He past upon the way.
4
He had not gone [past] miles two or three,
But it was his chance to spy
Two lusty priests, clad all in black,
Come riding gallantly.
5
‘Benedicete,’ then said Robin Hood,
‘Some pitty on me take;
Cross you my hand with a silver groat,
For Our dear Ladies sake.
6
‘For I have been wandring all this day,
And nothing could I get;
Not so much as one poor cup of drink,
Nor bit of bread to eat.’
7
‘Now, by my holydame,’ the priests repli’d,
‘We never a peny have;
For we this morning have been robd,
And could no mony save.’
8
‘I am much afraid,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘That you both do tell a lye;
And now before that you go hence,
I am resolvd to try.’
9
When as the priests heard him say so,
Then they rode away amain;
But Robin Hood betook him to his heels,
And soon overtook them again.
10
Then Robin Hood laid hold of them both,
And pulld them down from their horse:
‘O spare us, fryer!’ the priests cry’d out,
‘On us have some remorse!’
11
‘You said you had no mony,’ quoth he,
‘Wherefore, without delay,
We three will fall down on our knees,
And for mony we will pray.’
12
The priests they could not him gainsay,
But down they kneeled with speed;
‘Send us, O send us,’ then quoth they,
‘Some mony to serve our need.’
13
The priests did pray with mournful chear,
Sometimes their hands did wring,
Sometimes they wept and cried aloud,
Whilst Robin did merrily sing.
14
When they had been praying an hours space,
The priests did still lament;
Then quoth bold Robin, Now let’s see
What mony heaven hath us sent.
15
We will be sharers now all alike
Of the mony that we have;
And there is never a one of us
That his fellows shall deceive.
16
The priests their hands in their pockets put,
But mony would find none:
‘We’l search our selves,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Each other, one by one.’
17
Then Robin Hood took pains to search them both,
And he found good store of gold;
Five hundred peeces presently
Vpon the grass was told.
18
‘Here is a brave show,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Such store of gold to see,
And you shall each one have a part,
Cause you prayed so heartily.’
19
He gave them fifty pound a-peece,
And the rest for himself did keep;
The priests durst not speak one word,
But they sighed wondrous deep.
20
With that the priests rose up from their knees,
Thinking to have parted so;
‘Nay, stay,’ said Robin Hood, ‘one thing more
I have to say ere you go.
21021
‘You shall be sworn,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘Vpon this holy grass,
That you will never tell lies again,
Which way soever you pass.
22
‘The second oath that you here must take,
All the days of your lives
You never shall tempt maids to sin,
Nor lye with other mens wives.
23
‘The last oath you shall take, it is this,
Be charitable to the poor;
Say you have met with a holy fryer,
And I desire no more.’
24
He set them upon their horses again,
And away then they did ride;
And hee returnd to the merry green-wood,
With great joy, mirth and pride.
a.
Robin Hoods Golden Prize.
He met two priests upon the way,
And forced them with him to pray.
For gold they prayed, and gold they had,
Enough to make bold Robin glad.
His share came to four hundred pound,
That then was told upon the ground;
Now mark, and you shall hear the jest;
You never heard the like exprest.
Tune is, Robin Hood was a tall young man.
London, Printed for F. Grove on Snow-hill.
Entred according to order. Finis, L. P.
F. Grove’s date, according to Mr Chappell,
is 1620–55. Ritson says that the ballad
was entered in the Stationers’ book by
Francis Grove, 2d June, 1656.
b.
Robin Hoods Golden Prize: Shewing how he
robbed two priests of five hundred pound.
The tune is, Robin Hood was a tall young
man.
41. gone past.
61. all the.
71. holy dame: priest.
92. Then wanting.
101. hold on.
131. with a.
154. fellow.
174. he for was.
184. For praying so.
191. pounds.
193. not to.
231. it wanting.
c.
Title the same: except, Tune is.
24. he is.
41. gone past.
71. holy dame.
92. Then wanting.
101. holt of.
131. with a.
151. now wanting.
154. fellow.
171. pain: both wanting.
183. each one shall.
191. pounds.
241. upon wanting.
d.
Title as in c. Printed for William Thackeray
at the Angel in Duck-lane. (1689.)
11. bold wanting.
22. think was never known.
41. gone past.
71. holy dame.
83. before you do go.
91. so say.
101. hold on.
111. you’d: quoth Robin Hood.
122. kneel.
131. with a.
143. let us.
151. now wanting.
152. the wanting.
154. fellow.
162. could.
171. pain: both wanting.
174. he for was.
183. each one shall.
191. pounds.
192. doth for did.
201. up wanting.
223. unto sin.
233. with wanting.
241. on for upon.
148 THE NOBLE FISHERMAN, OR, ROBIN HOOD’S PREFERMENT
211
a. Wood, 402, p. 18. b. Wood, 401, leaf 25 b. c.
Garland of 1663, No 12. d. Garland of 1670, No
11. e. Rawlinson, 566. f. Pepys, II, 108, No 95.
g. Pepys, II, 123, No 108.
Also Roxburghe, II, 370, III, 524; The
Noble Fisherman’s Garland, 1686; Bagford,
643. m. 10, 22.
‘The Noble Ffisherman, or, Robin Hoods
great Prize’ is receipted for to Francis Coules
in the Stationers’ Registers, June 13, 1631:
Arber, IV, 254.
Ritson, Robin Hood, II, 110, 1795, “from
three old black-letter copies, one in the collection
of Anthony a Wood, another in the
British Museum, and the third in a private
collection.” Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784,
I, 171, from an Aldermary garland.
Robin Hood is here made to try his fortunes
on the sea, like Eustace the Monk and
Wallace. He goes to Scarborough and gives
himself out as a fisherman, and is engaged as
such by a widow with whom he lodges, who
is the owner of a ship. Out of his wantonness,
rather than his ignorance, we must suppose,
Simon, as he calls himself, when others
cast baited hooks into the water, casts in bare
lines; for which he is laughed to scorn. A
French cruiser bears down on the fishermen,
and the master gives up all for lost. Simon
asks for his bow; not a Frenchman will he
spare. The master, not strangely, takes such
talk for brag. Simon requests to be tied to a
mast, ‘that at his mark he may stand fair,’
and to have his bow in his hand, when never
a Frenchman will he spare. He shoots one
of the enemy through the heart, and then
asks to be loosed and to have his bow in his
hand, when, again, never a Frenchman will
he spare. The Englishmen board, and find
a booty of twelve thousand pound. Simon
announces that he shall give half the ship to
the dame who employed him, and the other
half to his comrades. The master objects;
Simon has won the vessel with his own hand
(a point which might have been made more
distinctly to appear in the narrative), and he
shall have her. But the outlaw afloat has
still his munificent old ways; so it shall be
as to the ship, and the twelve thousand
pound shall build an asylum ‘for the opprest’!
All this may strike us as infantile,
but the ballad was evidently in great favor
two hundred years ago.
Translated (not entirely) by A. Grün, p.
295.
1
In summer time, when leaves grow green,
When they doe grow both green and long,
Of a bould outlaw, calld Robin Hood,
It is of him I sing this song.
2
When the lilly leafe and the elephant
Doth bud and spring with a merry good cheere,
This outlaw was weary of the wood-side,
And chasing of the fallow deere.
3
‘The fishermen brave more mony have
Then any merchant, two or three;
Therefore I will to Scarborough goe,
That I a fisherman brave may be.’
2124
This outlaw calld his merry men all,
As they sate under the green-wood tree:
‘If any of you have gold to spend,
I pray you heartily spend it with me.
5
‘Now,’ quoth Robin, ‘I’le to Scarborough goe,
It seemes to be a very faire day;’
Who tooke up his inne at a widdow-womans house,
Hard by upon the water gray.
6
Who asked of him, Where wert thou borne?
Or tell to me, where dost thou fare?
‘I am a poore fisherman,’ saith he then,
‘This day intrapped all in care.’
7
‘What is thy name, thou fine fellow?
I pray thee heartily tell to me;’
‘In mine own country where I was borne,
Men called me Simon over the Lee.’
8
‘Simon, Simon,’ said the good wife,
‘I wish thou maist well brook thy name;’
The outlaw was ware of her courtesie,
And rejoycd he had got such a dame.
9
‘Simon, wilt thou be my man?
And good round wages I’le give thee;
I have as good a ship of mine owne
As any sayle upon the sea.
10
‘Anchors and planks thou shalt want none,
Masts and ropes that are so long;’
‘And if that you thus furnish me,’
Said Simon, ‘nothing shall goe wrong.’
11
They pluckt up anchor, and away did sayle,
More of a day then two or three;
When others cast in their baited hooks,
The bare lines into the sea cast he.
12
‘It will be long,’ said the master then,
‘Ere this great lubber do thrive on the sea;
I’le assure you he shall have no part of our fish,
For in truth he is of no part worthy.’
13
‘O woe is me,’ said Simon then,
‘This day that ever I came here!
I wish I were in Plomton Parke,
In chasing of the fallow deere.
14
‘For every clowne laughs me to scorne,
And they by me set nought at all;
If I had them in Plomton Park,
I would set as little by them all.’
15
They pluckt up anchor, and away did sayle,
More of a day then two or three;
But Simon spied a ship of warre,
That sayld towards them most valourously.
16
‘O woe is me,’ said the master then,
‘This day that ever I was borne!
For all our fish we have got to-day
Is every bit lost and forlorne.
17
‘For your French robbers on the sea,
They will not spare of us one man,
But carry us to the coast of France,
And ligge us in the prison strong.’
18
But Simon said, Doe not feare them,
Neither, master, take you no care;
Give me my bent bow in my hand,
And never a Frenchman will I spare.
19
‘Hold thy peace, thou long lubber,
For thou art nought but braggs and boast;
If I should cast the over-board,
There were nothing but a lubber lost.’
20
Simon grew angry at these words,
And so angry then was he
That he tooke his bent bow in his hand,
And to the ship-hatch goe doth he.
21
‘Master, tye me to the mast,’ saith he,
‘That at my mark I may stand fair,
And give me my bended bow in my hand,
And never a Frenchman will I spare.’
22
He drew his arrow to the very head,
And drew it with all might and maine,
And straightway, in the twinkling of an eye,
Doth the Frenchmans heart the arow gain.
23
The Frenchman fell downe on the ship-hatch,
And under the hatches down below;
Another Frenchman that him espy’d
The dead corps into the sea doth throw.
24
‘O master, loose me from the mast,’ he said,
‘And for them all take you no care,
And give me my bent bow in my hand,
And never a Frenchman will I spare.’
21325
Then streight [they] did board the Frenchmans ship,
They lying all dead in their sight;
They found within the ship of warre
Twelve thousand pound of money bright.
26
‘The one halfe of the ship,’ said Simon then,
‘I’le give to my dame and children small;
The other halfe of the ship I’le bestow
On you that are my fellowes all.’
27
But now bespake the master then,
For so, Simon, it shall not be;
For you have won her with your own hand,
And the owner of it you shall bee.
28
‘It shall be so, as I have said;
And, with this gold, for the opprest
An habitation I will build,
Where they shall live in peace and rest.’
a.
The Noble Fisher-man, or, Robin Hoods Preferment:
shewing how he won a great prize
on the sea, and how he gave the one halfe
to his dame and the other to the building of
almes-houses.
The tune is, In summer time.
London, Printed for F. Coles, in the Old
Baily. (1631?)
31. fisher-man, which perhaps should stand.
51. with for quoth.
204. hatchs.
212. fare.
224. Frenchman.
231. fell owne.
252. lyin.
282. for thee.
b.
Title as ina, except: won a prize, gave one
half.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson.
(1648–63?)
21. Clephant.
22. good wanting.
31. fisherman.
33. will I.
51. with for quoth.
124. of wanting.
142. set nothing.
163. fish that we have got: to-day wanting.
171. For yon.
194. There’s but a simple.
204. ship-hatch.
211. mast he said.
212. fare.
213. bent.
224. Frenchmans.
231. downe.
251. streight they boarded the French ship.
252. lying.
254. in mony.
263. of my ship I’le give.
264. To you.
273. hands.
274. must be.
282. for thee.
c, d.
Title as ina, except: won a prize, gave one.
The tune is, Summer time.
22. good wanting.
31. fisher men.
32. Than.
51. Now quoth.
62. c, thou dost.
63. said.
64. d, cares.
74. call.
94. sails.
112. d, than.
123. you wanting.
124. of wanting.
142. set nothing.
152. than.
154. most wanting.
163. fish that we have got: to-day wanting.
171. yon: robber.
182. you any.
194. There’s but a simple.
204. shiphatch.
211. mast he said.
212. fair.
213. bent.
214. d, a wanting.
224. Frenchmans.
231. down.
241. c, mast side.
251. they boarded the French ship.
252. lying.
254. in for of.
263. of my ship I’le give.
264. To you.
271. c, But wanting.
273. hands.
274. you must: d, of you it.
282. for the.
e.
Title as in b. Variations found also in b
are not given.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and
J. Clarke. (1650–80?)
51. Now quoth.
54. waters.
61. of wanting.
94. sails.
153. espy’d.
174. And lay.
182. any for no.
233. that him did espy.
f.
Title as inb.
Printed for Alex. Milbourn, Will. Ownley,
Tho. Thackeray at the Angel in Duck-lane.
(Date indeterminable: after 1670.)
12. doe wanting.
14. my song.
22. good wanting.
31. fishermen.
32. merchants.
34. fisherman might be.
43. If you have any.
51. Now quoth Robin Hood.
54. waters.
61. of wanting.
63. said.
72. tell it.
74. call.
92. I will.
93. of my.
94. sails.
101. shalt not want.
103. that wanting.
123. you wanting.
124. of wanting.
142. set nothing.
153. espyed.
154. most wanting.
163. fish that we have got.
171. robber.
174. And lay.
182. you any.
194. There’s but a simple lubber lost.
204. And in.
211. saith he wanting.
212. fair.
213. bent.
224. Frenchmans.
231. ship-catch: sog.
232. there below.
251. Then they boarded the French: sog.
254. in for of.
263. other part: I’le give.
264. To you.
273. hands.
274. owner thereof you must.
282. for the.
g.
Title as inb.
Printed for I. Wright, I. Clarke, W. Thackeray,
and T. Passinger. (1670–86?)
Agrees generally withf.
171. For yon.
149 ROBIN HOOD’S BIRTH, BREEDING, VALOR AND MARRIAGE
214
a. Roxburghe, I, 360, in The Ballad Society’s reprint,
II, 440.
b. Pepys, II, 116, No 103. c. Pepys, II, 118, No 104.
Printed in Dryden’s Miscellany, VI, 346,
ed. 1716; A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723,
I, 64; Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 1 (a);
Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 86.
The jocular author of this ballad, who
would certainly have been diverted by any
one’s supposing him to write under the restraints
of tradition, brings Adam Bell, Clim,
and Cloudesly into company with Robin
Hood’s father. So again the silly Second Part
of Adam Bell in one of the copies, that of
1616. Robin Hood’s father’s bow, st. 3, carried
two north-country miles and an inch.
The son, then, was only half his father,
though, in Ritson’s words, “Robin Hood and
Little John have frequently shot an arrow a
measured mile.”
Robin Hood’s mother was niece to Guy of
Warwick, and sister to Gamwel of Gamwel
Hall. In Robin Hood newly Revived, Young
Gamwel is Robin Hood’s sister’s son. According
to this ballad, Robin Hood goes with
his mother to keep Christmas with old Gamwell,
his uncle, whose seat is forty miles from
Locksly town. Little John is a member of
the household, a fine lad at gambols and juggling,
and twenty such tricks. Robin Hood,
however, puts Little John down in this way,
and everybody else. His uncle is so much
pleased that he tells Robin he shall be his heir,
and no more go home. Robin asks the boon
that Little John may be his page. All the
while, for how long we know not, Robin Hood
has had his band of yeomen in Sherwood.
Thither he goes (the time is not specified, but
birds are singing in st. 50), and while he is
collecting his men, Clorinda, queen of the shepherds
and archeress, passes, and arrests his attention.
The favorable impression which she
makes at first sight is confirmed by her presently
shooting a deer through side and side.
Robin takes her to his bower for a refection,
which is served by four-and-twenty yeomen.
She inquires his name; he gives it, and asks
her to be his bride. After a blush and a pause,
Clorinda says, With all my heart, and it is
no wonder that Robin proposes to send for a
priest immediately. Clorinda is, however,
engaged to go to Titbury feast, whither she
invites Robin to keep her company. On the
way he has an affray with eight yeomen, who
bid him hand over the buck which Clorinda
had killed, and which he is somehow taking
along with him. With Little John’s help, five
of the eight are killed; the rest are spared.
A bull-baiting is going on at Titbury, which
one wonders that a person of Clorinda’s imputed
“wisdom and modesty” should care
for; but somehow Clorinda throws off her
dignity in the 45th stanza. After dinner the
parson is sent for, the marriage ceremony is
performed, and Robin and Clorinda return to
Sherwood.
The author of this ballad (“the most beautiful
and one of the oldest extant” of the series,
says the editor of the collection of 1723)
knew nothing of the Earl of Huntington and
Matilda Fitzwater, but represents Robin
Hood as the son of a forester. In everything
except keeping Robin a yeoman, he writes
“as the world were now but to begin, antiquity
forgot, custom not known;” but poets
in his day, to quote the critic of 1723, “were
looked upon like other Englishmen, born to
live and write with freedom.”
Concerning the bull-running at Tutbury,
215or Stutesbury, Staffordshire (a hideously brutal
custom, of long standing), a compendium of
antiquarian information is given by Gutch, II,
118. Arthur a Bradley, a rollicking ballad of
a Merry Wedding, mentioned in stanza 46, is
printed by Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 210.
1
Kind gentlemen, will you be patient awhile?
Ay, and then you shall hear anon
A very good ballad of bold Robin Hood,
And of his man, brave Little John.
2
In Locksly town, in Nottinghamshire,
In merry sweet Locksly town,
There bold Robin Hood he was born and was bred,
Bold Robin of famous renown.
3
The father of Robin a forrester was,
And he shot in a lusty long bow,
Two north country miles and an inch at a shot,
As the Pinder of Wakefield does know.
4
For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clugh,
And William a Clowdesle
To shoot with our forrester for forty mark,
And the forrester beat them all three.
5
His mother was neece to the Coventry knight,
Which Warwickshire men call Sir Guy;
For he slew the blue bore that hangs up at the gate,
Or mine host of The Bull tells a lye.
6
Her brother was Gamwel, of Great Gamwel Hall,
And a noble house-keeper was he,
Ay, as ever broke bread in sweet Nottinghamshire,
And a squire of famous degree.
7
The mother of Robin said to her husband,
My honey, my love, and my dear,
Let Robin and I ride this morning to Gamwel,
To taste of my brothers good cheer.
8
And he said, I grant thee thy boon, gentle Joan,
Take one of my horses, I pray;
The sun is a rising, and therefore make haste,
For to-morrow is Christmas-day.
9
Then Robin Hoods fathers grey gelding was brought,
And sadled and bridled was he;
God wot, a blew bonnet, his new suit of cloaths,
And a cloak that did reach to his knee.
10
She got on her holiday kirtle and gown,
They were of a light Lincoln green;
The cloath was homespun, but for colour and make
It might a beseemed our queen.
11
And then Robin got on his basket-hilt sword,
And his dagger on his tother side,
And said, My dear mother, let’s haste to be gone,
We have forty long miles to ride.
12
When Robin had mounted his gelding so grey,
His father, without any trouble,
Set her up behind him, and bad her not fear,
For his gelding had oft carried double.
13
And when she was settled, they rode to their neighbours,
And drank and shook hands with them all;
And then Robin gallopt, and never gave ore,
Till they lighted at Gamwel Hall.
14
And now you may think the right worshipful squire
Was joyful his sister to see;
For he kist her and kist her, and swore a great oath,
Thou art welcome, kind sister, to me.
15
To-morrow, when mass had been said in the chappel,
Six tables were coverd in the hall,
And in comes the squire, and makes a short speech,
It was, Neighbours, you’re welcome all.
16
But not a man here shall taste my March beer,
Till a Christmas carrol he sing:
Then all clapt their hands, and they shouted and sung,
Till the hall and the parlour did ring.
17
Now mustard and braun, roast beef and plumb pies,
Were set upon every table:
And noble George Gamwel said, Eat and be merry,
And drink too, as long as you’re able.
18
When dinner was ended, his chaplain said grace,
And, ‘Be merry, my friends,’ said the squire;
‘It rains, and it blows, but call for more ale,
And lay some more wood on the fire.
19
‘And now call ye Little John hither to me,
For Little John is a fine lad
At gambols and juggling, and twenty such tricks
As shall make you merry and glad.’
20
When Little John came, to gambols they went,
Both gentleman, yeoman and clown;
And what do you think? Why, as true as I live,
Bold Robin Hood put them all down.
21621
And now you may think the right worshipful squire
Was joyful this sight for to see;
For he said, Cousin Robin, thou’st go no more home,
But tarry and dwell here with me.
22
Thou shalt have my land when I dye, and till then
Thou shalt be the staff of my age;
‘Then grant me my boon, dear uncle,’ said Robin,
‘That Little John may be my page.’
23
And he said, Kind cousin, I grant thee thy boon;
With all my heart, so let it be;
‘Then come hither, Little John,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Come hither, my page, unto me.
24
‘Go fetch me my bow, my longest long bow,
And broad arrows, one, two, or three;
For when it is fair weather we’ll into Sherwood,
Some merry pastime to see.’
25
When Robin Hood came into merry Sherwood,
He winded his bugle so clear,
And twice five and twenty good yeomen and bold
Before Robin Hood did appear.
26
‘Where are your companions all?’ said Robin Hood,
‘For still I want forty and three;’
Then said a bold yeoman, Lo, yonder they stand,
All under a green-wood tree.
27
As that word was spoke, Clorinda came by;
The queen of the shepherds was she;
And her gown was of velvet as green as the grass,
And her buskin did reach to her knee.
28
Her gait it was graceful, her body was straight,
And her countenance free from pride;
A bow in her hand, and quiver and arrows
Hung dangling by her sweet side.
29
Her eye-brows were black, ay, and so was her hair,
And her skin was as smooth as glass;
Her visage spoke wisdom, and modesty too;
Sets with Robin Hood such a lass!
30
Said Robin Hood, Lady fair, whither away?
O whither, fair lady, away?
And she made him answer, To kill a fat buck;
For to-morrow is Titbury day.
31
Said Robin Hood, Lady fair, wander with me
A little to yonder green bower;
There sit down to rest you, and you shall be sure
Of a brace or a lease in an hour.
32
And as we were going towards the green bower,
Two hundred good bucks we espy’d;
She chose out the fattest that was in the herd,
And she shot him through side and side.
33
‘By the faith of my body,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘I never saw woman like thee;
And comst thou from east, ay, or comst thou from west,
Thou needst not beg venison of me.
34
‘However, along to my bower you shall go,
And taste of a forresters meat:’
And when we come thither, we found as good cheer
As any man needs for to eat.
35
For there was hot venison, and warden pies cold,
Cream clouted, with honey-combs plenty;
And the sarvitors they were, beside Little John,
Good yeomen at least four and twenty.
36
Clorinda said, Tell me your name, gentle sir;
And he said, ’Tis bold Robin Hood:
Squire Gamwel’s my uncle, but all my delight
Is to dwell in the merry Sherwood.
37
For ’tis a fine life, and ’tis void of all strife.
‘So ’tis, sir,’ Clorinda reply’d;
‘But oh,’ said bold Robin, ‘how sweet would it be,
If Clorinda would be my bride!’
38
She blusht at the motion; yet, after a pause
Said, Yes, sir, and with all my heart;
‘Then let’s send for a priest,’ said Robin Hood,
‘And be married before we do part.’
39
But she said, It may not be so, gentle sir,
For I must be at Titbury feast;
And if Robin Hood will go thither with me,
I’ll make him the most welcome guest.
40
Said Robin Hood, Reach me that buck, Little John,
For I’ll go along with my dear;
Go bid my yeomen kill six brace of bucks,
And meet me to-morrow just here.
41
Before we had ridden five Staffordshire miles,
Eight yeomen, that were too bold,
Bid Robin Hood stand, and deliver his buck;
A truer tale never was told.
42
‘I will not, faith!’ said bold Robin: ‘come, John,
Stand to me, and we’ll beat em all:’
Then both drew their swords, an so cut em and slasht em
That five of them did fall.
21743
The three that remaind calld to Robin for quarter,
And pitiful John beggd their lives;
When John’s boon was granted, he gave them good counsel,
And so sent them home to their wives.
44
This battle was fought near to Titbury town,
When the bagpipes bated the bull;
I am king of the fidlers, and sware ’tis a truth,
And I call him that doubts it a gull.
45
For I saw them fighting, and fidld the while,
And Clorinda sung, Hey derry down!
The bumpkins are beaten, put up thy sword, Bob,
And now let’s dance into the town.
46
Before we came to it, we heard a strange shouting,
And all that were in it lookd madly;
For some were a bull-back, some dancing a morris,
And some singing Arthur-a-Bradly.
47
And there we see Thomas, our justices clerk,
And Mary, to whom he was kind;
For Tom rode before her, and calld Mary, Madam,
And kist her full sweetly behind.
48
And so may your worships. But we went to dinner,
With Thomas and Mary and Nan;
They all drank a health to Clorinda, and told her
Bold Robin Hood was a fine man.
49
When dinner was ended, Sir Roger, the parson
Of Dubbridge, was sent for in haste;
He brought his mass-book, and he bade them take hands,
And he joynd them in marriage full fast.
50
And then, as bold Robin Hood and his sweet bride
Went hand in hand to the green bower,
The birds sung with pleasure in merry Sherwood,
And ’twas a most joyful hour.
51
And when Robin came in the sight of the bower,
‘Where are my yeomen?’ said he;
And Little John answered, Lo, yonder they stand,
All under the green-wood tree.
52
Then a garland they brought her, by two and by two,
And plac’d them upon the bride’s head;
The music struck up, and we all fell to dance,
Till the bride and the groom were a-bed.
53
And what they did there must be counsel to me,
Because they lay long the next day,
And I had haste home, but I got a good piece
Of the bride-cake, and so came away.
54
Now out, alas! I had forgotten to tell ye
That marryd they were with a ring;
And, so will Nan Knight, or be buried a maiden,
And now let us pray for the king:
55
That he may get children, and they may get more,
To govern and do us some good;
And then I’ll make ballads in Robin Hood’s bower,
And sing em in merry Sherwood.
a.
A new ballad of bold Robin Hood, shewing his
Birth, Breeding, Valour and Marriage, at Titbury
Bull-running: calculated for the meridian
of Staffordshire, but may serve for Derbyshire
or Kent.
London, Printed by and for W. O[nley], and are
to be sold by the booksellers. (1650–1702.)
151. Morrow.
162. be sung.
171. mustards, braun: cf.b.
202. gentlemen, yeomen: cf.b.
302. Oh.
384. be merry: cf.b.
403. Go wanting: cf.b.
433. good wanting: cf.b.
521. the brought.
522. them at the bride’s bed: cf.b.
b.
A proper new ballad of bold Robin Hood, shewing
his Birth, his Breeding, his Valour, etc., as above.
To a pleasant new northern tune.
Printed for I. Wright, I. Clarke, W. Thackeray,
and T. Passenger. (1670–86?)
12, 63, 291, 333. I for Ay.
21. And, by mistake, for In: in merry Nottinghamshire.
33. shoot.
44. beat um.
53. at that.
93. Got on his.
131. And wanting.
132. drunk.
134. at great.
151. To-morrow.
152. ith hall.
154. y’are.
162. be sung.
171. mustard and braun.
174. y’are.
181. this for his.
194. you both.
202. gentleman, yeoman.
214. here wanting.
241. Go and fetch my bow.
242. and for or.
243. ’tis.
264. the for a.
274. buskins.
283. quiver of.
302. O.
303. him an.
304. Tilbery.
343. came.
383. let us.
384. be married.
403. Go bid.
412. Six for Eight: too too.
422. beat um.
423. slasht um.
424. of the six.
433. good counsel.
453. Rob.
461. came in we.
511. in sight.
514. a for the.
521. they.
522. upon the bride’s head.
554. sing um.
c.
Printed by and for Alex. Milbourn, at the Stationers-Arms,
in Green-Arbor-Court, in the Little-Old-Baily.
(1670–97.) Compared only here and
there.
91. God wot his.
304. Tilbury.
412. Eight: too too.
424. of the eight.
453. Bob.
150 ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN
218
Wood, 401, leaf 21 b.
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 157, from
Wood’s copy. In none of the garlands.
The Earl of Huntington, alias Robin Hood,
is forced by fortune’s spite to part from his
love Marian, and take to the green wood.
Marian dresses herself “like a page,” and,
armed with bow, sword, and buckler, goes in
quest of Robin. Both being disguised, neither
recognizes the other until they have had an
hour at swords, when Robin Hood, who has
lost some blood, calls to his antagonist to give
over and join his band. Marian knows his
voice, and discovers herself. A banquet follows,
and Marian remains in the wood.
Though Maid Marian and Robin Hood had
perhaps been paired in popular sports, no one
thought of putting more of her than her
name into a ballad, until one S. S. (so the
broadside is signed) composed this foolish
ditty. The bare name of Maid Marian occurs
in No 145 A, 94 and in No 147, 14.
Even in Barclay’s fourth eclogue, written
not long after 1500, where, according to Ritson,[119]
the earliest notice of Maid Marian occurs,
and where, he says, “she is evidently
connected with Robin Hood,” the two are
really kept distinct; for the lusty Codrus in
that eclogue wishes to hear “some mery fit
of Maide Marion, or els of Robin Hood.”
In Munday’s play of The Downfall of Robert
Earl of Huntington, Matilda, otherwise
Marian, daughter to Lord Lacy, accompanies
Earl Robert to Sherwood, upon his being outlawed
for debt the very day of their troth-plight.
There she lives a spotless maiden,
awaiting the time when the outlawry shall
be repealed and Robin may legally take her
to wife. Neither the author of the play nor
that of the ballad was, so far as is known,
repeating any popular tradition.
The ordinary partner of Maid Marian is
Friar Tuck, not Robin Hood. There is no
ground for supposing that there ever were
songs or tales about the Maid and Friar, notwithstanding
what is cursorily said by one of
the characters in Peele’s Edward I:
Why so, I see, my mates, of old
All were not lies that beldames told
Of Robin Hood and Little John,
Friar Tuck and Maid Marian.
ed. Dyce, I, 133.
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 72,
Loève-Veimars, p. 208.
1
A Bonny fine maid of a noble degree,
With a hey down down a down down
Maid Marian calld by name,
Did live in the North, of excellent worth,
For she was a gallant dame.
2
For favour and face, and beauty most rare,
Queen Hellen shee did excell;
For Marian then was praisd of all men
That did in the country dwell.
3
’Twas neither Rosamond nor Jane Shore,
Whose beauty was clear and bright,
That could surpass this country lass,
Beloved of lord and knight.
4
The Earl of Huntington, nobly born,
That came of noble blood,
To Marian went, with a good intent,
By the name of Robin Hood.
5
With kisses sweet their red lips meet,
For shee and the earl did agree;
In every place, they kindly imbrace,
With love and sweet unity.
2196
But fortune bearing these lovers a spight,
That soon they were forced to part,
To the merry green wood then went Robin Hood,
With a sad and sorrowfull heart.
7
And Marian, poor soul, was troubled in mind,
For the absence of her friend;
With finger in eye, shee often did cry,
And his person did much comend.
8
Perplexed and vexed, and troubled in mind,
Shee drest her self like a page,
And ranged the wood to find Robin Hood,
The bravest of men in that age.
9
With quiver and bow, sword, buckler, and all,
Thus armed was Marian most bold,
Still wandering about to find Robin out,
Whose person was better then gold.
10
But Robin Hood, hee himself had disguisd,
And Marian was strangly attir’d,
That they provd foes, and so fell to blowes,
Whose vallour bold Robin admir’d.
11
They drew out their swords, and to cutting they went,
At least an hour or more,
That the blood ran apace from bold Robins face,
And Marian was wounded sore.
12
‘O hold thy hand, hold thy hand,’ said Robin Hood,
‘And thou shalt be one of my string,
To range in the wood with bold Robin Hood,
To hear the sweet nightingall sing.’
13
When Marian did hear the voice of her love,
Her self shee did quickly discover,
And with kisses sweet she did him greet,
Like to a most loyall lover.
14
When bold Robin Hood his Marian did see,
Good lord, what clipping was there!
With kind imbraces, and jobbing of faces,
Providing of gallant cheer.
15
For Little John took his bow in his hand,
And wandring in the wood,
To kill the deer, and make good chear,
For Marian and Robin Hood.
16
A stately banquet the[y] had full soon,
All in a shaded bower,
Where venison sweet they had to eat,
And were merry that present hour.
17
Great flaggons of wine were set on the board,
And merrily they drunk round
Their boules of sack, to strengthen the back,
Whilst their knees did touch the ground.
18
First Robin Hood began a health
To Marian his onely dear,
And his yeomen all, both comly and tall,
Did quickly bring up the rear.
19
For in a brave veine they tost off the[ir] bouls,
Whilst thus they did remain,
And every cup, as they drunk up,
They filled with speed again.
20
At last they ended their merryment,
And went to walk in the wood,
Where Little John and Maid Marian
Attended on bold Robin Hood.
21
In sollid content together they livd,
With all their yeomen gay;
They livd by their hands, without any lands,
And so they did many a day.
22
But now to conclude, an end I will make
In time, as I think it good,
For the people that dwell in the North can tell
Of Marian and bold Robin Hood.
A Famous Battle between Robin Hood and Maid
Marian, declaring their Love, Life, and Liberty.
Tune, Robin Hood Reviv’d.
No printer: black-letter. S. S. at the end.
111. out rheir.
191. vente.
213. there: wirhout.
A MS. copy in Percy’s papers has in 161 he had,
and in 191, in a brave venie they tost off their
bowles. It is barely possible that venie, which
Ritson prints, may be right.
151 THE KING’S DISGUISE, AND FRIENDSHIP WITH ROBIN HOOD
220
a. Robin Hood’s Garland, London, W. & C. Dicey, in
St Mary Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane, Cheapside,
n. d. (but not older than 1753), p. 76, No 25.
b. Robin Hood’s Garland, London, Printed by L.
How, in Peticoat Lane, n. d. c. ‘The King’s Disguise
and True Friendship with Robin Hood,’ London,
Printed by L. How, in Petticoat Lane, Douce
Ballads, III, 113 b (not black letter). d. Robin
Hood’s Garland, London, R. Marshall, in Aldermary
Church-Yard, Bow-Lane, n. d., p. 80, No 25.
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 162, “from
the common collection of Aldermary Church
Yard;” Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I,
218; Gutch, Robin Hood, II, 281, Ritson’s
copy “compared with one in the York edition.”
The ballad is not found in a garland of
1749; but this garland has only twenty-four
pieces.
The story, as far as st. 38, is a loose paraphrase,
with omissions, of the seventh and
eighth fits of the Gest, and seems, like the
two which here follow it, “to have been written
by some miserable retainer to the press,
merely to eke out the book; being, in fact,
a most contemptible performance:” Ritson.
121 may have been borrowed from Martin
Parker’s True Tale, No 154, 151. By the
clergyman who was first Robin Hood’s bane,
291, is meant the prior of York, who in Munday’s
play, The Downfall of Robert Earl of
Huntington, procures his outlawry. The forcing
of the sheriff to give the king a supper
may be the beggarly author’s own invention.
The last two lines are intended to serve as
a link with Robin Hood and the Valiant
Knight, which, however, does not immediately
succeed in the garlands, Robin Hood
and the Golden Arrow being interposed.
Translated by Doenniges, p. 185; A. Grün,
p. 159; Loève-Veimars, p. 212.
1
King Richard hearing of the pranks
Of Robin Hood and his men,
He much admir’d, and more desir’d,
To see both him and them.
2
Then with a dozen of his lords
To Nottingham he rode;
When he came there, he made good cheer,
And took up his abode.
3
He having staid there some time,
But had no hopes to speed,
He and his lords, with [free] accord,
All put on monk’s weeds.
4
From Fountain-abby they did ride,
Down to Barnsdale;
Where Robin Hood preparëd stood
All company to assail.
5
The king was higher then the rest,
And Robin thought he had
An abbot been whom he did spleen;
To rob him he was glad.
6
He took the king’s horse by the head,
‘Abbot,’ says he, ‘abide;
I am bound to rue such knaves as you,
That live in pomp and pride.’
7
‘But we are messengers from the king,’
The king himself did say;
‘Near to this place his royal Grace
To speak with thee does stay.’
2218
‘God save the king,’ said Robin Hood,
‘And all that wish him well;
He that does deny his sovereignty,
I wish he was in hell.’
9
‘O thyself thou curses,’ says the king,
‘For thou a traitor art:’
‘Nay, but that you are his messenger,
I swear you lie in heart.
10
‘For I never yet hurt any man
That honest is and true;
But those that give their minds to live
Upon other men’s due.
11
‘I never hurt the husbandman,
That use to till the ground;
Nor spill their blood that range the wood
To follow hawk or hound.
12
‘My chiefest spite to clergy is,
Who in these days bear a great sway;
With fryars and monks, with their fine sprunks,
I make my chiefest prey.
13
‘But I am very glad,’ says Robin Hood,
‘That I have met you here;
Come, before we end, you shall, my friend,
Taste of our green-wood cheer.’
14
The king did then marvel much,
And so did all his men;
They thought with fear, what kind of cheer
Robin would provide for them.
15
Robin took the king’s horse by the head,
And led him to the tent;
‘Thou would not be so usd,’ quoth he,
‘But that my king thee sent.
16
‘Nay, more than that,’ said Robin Hood,
‘For good king Richard’s sake,
If you had as much gold as ever I told,
I would not one penny take.’
17
Then Robin set his horn to his mouth,
And a loud blast he did blow,
Till a hundred and ten of Robin Hood’s men
Came marching all of a row.
18
And when they came bold Robin before,
Each man did bend his knee;
‘O,’ thought the king, ‘’tis a gallant thing,
And a seemly sight to see.’
19
Within himself the king did say,
These men of Robin Hood’s
More humble be than mine to me;
So the court may learn of the woods.
20
So then they all to dinner went,
Upon a carpet green;
Black, yellow, red, finely minglëd,
Most curious to be seen.
21
Venison and fowls were plenty there,
With fish out of the river:
King Richard swore, on sea or shore,
He neer was feasted better.
22
Then Robin takes a can of ale:
‘Come, let us now begin;
Come, every man shall have his can;
Here’s a health unto the king.’
23
The king himself drank to the king,
So round about it went;
Two barrels of ale, both stout and stale,
To pledge that health were spent.
24
And after that, a bowl of wine
In his hand took Robin Hood;
‘Until I die, I’ll drink wine,’ said he,
‘While I live in the green-wood.
25
‘Bend all your bows,’ said Robin Hood,
‘And with the grey goose wing
Such sport now shew as you would do
In the presence of the king.’
26
They shewd such brave archery,
By cleaving sticks and wands,
That the king did say, Such men as they
Live not in many lands.
27
‘Well, Robin Hood,’ then says the king,
‘If I could thy pardon get,
To serve the king in every thing
Wouldst thou thy mind firm set?’
28
‘Yes, with all my heart,’ bold Robin said,
So they flung off their hoods;
To serve the king in every thing,
They swore they would spend their bloods.
29
‘For a clergyman was first my bane,
Which makes me hate them all;
But if you’ll be so kind to me,
Love them again I shall.’
30
The king no longer could forbear,
For he was movd with ruth;
[‘Robin,’ said he, ‘I now tell thee
The very naked truth.]
31
‘I am the king, thy sovereign king,
That appears before you all;’
When Robin see that it was he,
Strait then he down did fall.
22232
‘Stand up again,’ then said the king,
‘I’ll thee thy pardon give;
Stand up, my friend; who can contend,
When I give leave to live?’
33
So they are all gone to Nottingham,
All shouting as they came;
But when the people them did see,
They thought the king was slain,
34
And for that cause the outlaws were come,
To rule all as they list;
And for to shun, which way to run
The people did not wist.
35
The plowman left the plow in the fields,
The smith ran from his shop;
Old folks also, that scarce could go,
Over their sticks did hop.
36
The king soon let them understand
He had been in the green wood,
And from that day, for evermore,
He’d forgiven Robin Hood.
37
When the people they did hear,
And the truth was known,
They all did sing, ‘God save the king!
Hang care, the town’s our own!’
38
‘What’s that Robin Hood?’ then said the sheriff;
‘That varlet I do hate;
Both me and mine he causd to dine,
And servd us all with one plate.’
39
‘Ho, ho,’ said Robin, ‘I know what you mean;
Come, take your gold again;
Be friends with me, and I with thee,
And so with every man.
40
‘Now, master sheriff, you are paid,
And since you are beginner,
As well as you give me my due;
For you neer paid for that dinner.
41
‘But if that it should please the king
So much your house to grace
To sup with you, for to speak true,
[I] know you neer was base.’
42
The sheriff could not [that] gain say,
For a trick was put upon him;
A supper was drest, the king was guest,
But he thought ’twould have undone him.
43
They are all gone to London court,
Robin Hood, with all his train;
He once was there a noble peer,
And now he’s there again.
44
Many such pranks brave Robin playd
While he lived in the green wood:
Now, my friends, attend, and hear an end
Of honest Robin Hood.
The King’s Disguise, and Friendship with Robin
Hood.
To a Northern Tune.
a.
91. thyself, thyself.
93. yon.
284. spent.
291. ban.
302. with truth.
303,4. Supplied from R. H.’s Garland, York, Thomas
Wilson & Son, 1811.
b, c.
33. with free.
61. c, livd.
91. O thyself thou.
131. said.
143. that kind.
181. bold wanting.
211. was.
234. was.
264. c, Lived.
272. I [s]hould.
274. would.
282. they wanting.
284. they’d.
291. ban.
302. with truth.
303,4. wanting.
331. c, they’re.
341. was.
351. his plow: field.
364. b, Ha’d: c, Had.
372. And that.
384. b, with plate: c, in plate.
402. are the.
411. c, it wanting.
414. b, I wanting: c, I know.
421. that gain say.
424. it would undone.
431. They’re.
d.
33. with one.
53. he had seen.
64. lives.
91. Thyself thou cursest said.
103. who give.
141. king he then did.
161. quoth for said.
214. never.
223. And every.
234. was spent.
284. blood.
291. bane.
302. with truth.
303,4. wanting.
313. saw for see.
361. did let.
371. Then.
414. I wanting.
421. that wanting.
424. a guest.
152 ROBIN HOOD AND THE GOLDEN ARROW
223
a. Robin Hood’s Garland, London, W. and C. Dicey,
St Mary Aldermary Church-yard, Bow-Lane, n. d.,
p. 80, No 26. b. Robin Hood’s Garland, London,
R. Marshall, in Aldermary Church-yard, Bow-Lane,
n. d., p. 84, No 26. c. Robin Hood’s Garland, Preston,
Printed and sold by W. Sergent, n. d.
Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 226,
and Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 171, from
an Aldermary garland. Gutch, II, 289, from
Ritson, “compared with the York edition.”
The ballad is not found in a garland of
1749.
The first twenty-three stanzas are based
upon The Gest, sts 282–95. The remainder is
mostly taken up with John’s astute device for
sending information to the sheriff. The two
concluding lines are for connection with R.
H. and the Valiant Knight, which follows in
some garlands, as here.
According to Martin Parker’s True Tale,
Robin Hood shot a letter addressed to the
king into Nottingham, on an arrow-head,
offering to submit upon terms: sts 78–81.
Two cases of a message shot on an arrow are
cited by Rochholz, Tell u. Gessler in Sage u.
Geschichte, p. 28 and note.
Translated by A. Grün, p. 140.
1
When as the sheriff of Nottingham
Was come, with mickle grief,
He talkd no good of Robin Hood,
That strong and sturdy thief.
Fal lal dal de
2
So unto London-road he past,
His losses to unfold
To King Richard, who did regard
The tale that he had told.
3
‘Why,’ quoth the king, ‘what shall I do?
Art thou not sheriff for me?
The law is in force, go take thy course
Of them that injure thee.
4
‘Go get thee gone, and by thyself
Devise some tricking game
For to enthral yon rebels all;
Go take thy course with them.’
5
So away the sheriff he returnd,
And by the way he thought
Of the words of the king, and how the thing
To pass might well be brought.
6
For within his mind he imagined
That when such matches were,
Those outlaws stout, without [all] doubt,
Would be the bowmen there.
7
So an arrow with a golden head
And shaft of silver white,
Who won the day should bear away
For his own proper right.
8
Tidings came to brave Robin Hood,
Under the green-wood tree:
‘Come prepare you then, my merry men,
We’ll go yon sport to see.’
9
With that stept forth a brave young man,
David of Doncaster:
‘Master,’ said he, ‘be ruld by me,
From the green-wood we’ll not stir.
10
‘To tell the truth, I’m well informed
Yon match is a wile;
The sheriff, I wiss, devises this
Us archers to beguile.’
22411
‘O thou smells of a coward,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Thy words does not please me;
Come on’t what will, I’ll try my skill
At yon brave archery.’
12
O then bespoke brave Little John:
Come, let us thither gang;
Come listen to me, how it shall be
That we need not be kend.
13
Our mantles, all of Lincoln green,
Behind us we will leave;
We’ll dress us all so several
They shall not us perceive.
14
One shall wear white, another red,
One yellow, another blue;
Thus in disguise, to the exercise
We’ll gang, whateer ensue.
15
Forth from the green-wood they are gone,
With hearts all firm and stout,
Resolving [then] with the sheriff’s men
To have a hearty bout.
16
So themselves they mixed with the rest,
To prevent all suspicion;
For if they should together hold
They thought [it] no discretion.
17
So the sheriff looking round about,
Amongst eight hundred men,
But could not see the sight that he
Had long expected then.
18
Some said, If Robin Hood was here,
And all his men to boot,
Sure none of them could pass these men,
So bravely they do shoot.
19
‘Ay,’ quoth the sheriff, and scratchd his head,
‘I thought he would have been here;
I thought he would, but, tho he’s bold,
He durst not now appear.’
20
O that word grieved Robin Hood to the heart;
He vexëd in his blood;
Eer long, thought he, thou shalt well see
That here was Robin Hood.
21
Some cried, Blue jacket! another cried, Brown!
And the third cried, Brave Yellow!
But the fourth man said, Yon man in red
In this place has no fellow.
22
For that was Robin Hood himself,
For he was cloathd in red;
At every shot the prize he got,
For he was both sure and dead.
23
So the arrow with the golden head
And shaft of silver white
Brave Robin Hood won, and bore with him
For his own proper right.
24
These outlaws there, that very day,
To shun all kind of doubt,
By three or four, no less no more,
As they went in came out.
25
Until they all assembled were
Under the green-wood shade,
Where they report, in pleasant sport,
What brave pastime they made.
26
Says Robin Hood, All my care is,
How that yon sheriff may
Know certainly that it was I
That bore his arrow away.
27
Says Little John, My counsel good
Did take effect before,
So therefore now, if you’ll allow,
I will advise once more.
28
‘Speak on, speak on,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Thy wit’s both quick and sound;
[I know no man amongst us can
For wit like thee be found.’]
29
‘This I advise,’ said Little John;
‘That a letter shall be pend,
And when it is done, to Nottingham
You to the sheriff shall send.’
30
‘That is well advised,’ said Robin Hood,
‘But how must it be sent?’
‘Pugh! when you please, it’s done with ease,
Master, be you content.
31
‘I’ll stick it on my arrow’s head,
And shoot it into the town;
The mark shall show where it must go,
When ever it lights down.’
32
The project it was full performd;
The sheriff that letter had;
Which when he read, he scratchd his head,
And rav’d like one that’s mad.
33
So we’ll leave him chafing in his grease,
Which will do him no good;
Now, my friends, attend, and hear the end
Of honest Robin Hood.
225a.
122. hither.
253. relate for report.
283,4. supplied from R. H.’s Garland, York, Thomas
Wilson & Son, 1811.
b, c.
33. to take.
63. without all.
101. the wanting.
102. it is.
111. O wanting.
112. do not.
122. thither.
143. in the.
153. then wanting.
164. thought it.
174. suspected.
193. c, but wanting.
212. a third.
221. c, bold Robin.
242. kinds.
243. nor more.
253. relate.
283,4. wanting.
313. must show.
321. well for full.
331. in the.
153 ROBIN HOOD AND THE VALIANT KNIGHT
a. Robin Hood’s Garland, London, C. Dicey, Bow
Church Yard, n. d., but before 1741, p. 88, Bodleian
Library, Douce H H, 88. b. Robin Hood’s Garland,
1749, without place or printer, p. 101, No 24.
c. Robin Hood’s Garland, London, R. Marshall, in
Aldermary Church-Yard, Bow-Lane, n. d., p. 87,
No 27.
Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 232,
from an Aldermary garland; Ritson, Robin
Hood, 1795, II, 178, from an Aldermary garland,
corrected by a York copy.
Written, perhaps, because it was thought
that authority should in the end be vindicated
against outlaws, which may explain why this
piece surpasses in platitude everything that
goes before.
Translated by Loève-Veimars, p. 219.
1
When Robin Hood, and his merry men all,
Derry, etc.
Had reigned many years,
The king was then told they had been too bold
To his bishops and noble peers.
Hey, etc.
2
Therefore they called a council of state,
To know what was best to be done
For to quell their pride, or else, they reply’d,
The land would be over-run.
3
Having consulted a whole summers day,
At length it was agreed
That one should be sent to try the event,
And fetch him away with speed.
4
Therefore a trusty and worthy knight
The king was pleasd to call,
Sir William by name; when to him he came,
He told him his pleasure all.
5
‘Go you from hence to bold Robin Hood,
And bid him, without more a-do,
Surrender himself, or else the proud elf
Shall suffer with all his crew.
6
‘Take here a hundred bowmen brave,
All chosen men of might,
Of excellent art for to take thy part,
In glittering armour bright.’
7
Then said the knight, My sovereign liege,
By me they shall be led;
I’ll venture my blood against bold Robin Hood,
And bring him alive or dead.
8
One hundred men were chosen straight,
As proper as eer men saw;
On Midsummer-day they marched away,
To conquer that brave outlaw.
9
With long yew bows and shining spears,
They marchd in mickle pride,
And never delayd, or halted, or stayd,
Till they came to the greenwood-side.
10
Said he to his archers, Tarry here;
Your bows make ready all,
That, if need should be, you may follow me;
And see you observe my call.
22611
‘I’ll go in person first,’ he cry’d,
‘With the letters of my good king,
Both signd and seald, and if he will yield,
We need not draw one string,’
12
He wanderd about till at length he came
To the tent of Robin Hood;
The letter he shews; bold Robin arose,
And there on his guard he stood.
13
‘They’d have me surrender,’ quoth bold Robin Hood,
‘And lie at their mercy then;
But tell them from me, that never shall be,
While I have full seven-score men.’
14
Sir William the knight, both hardy and bold,
Did offer to seize him there,
Which William Locksly by fortune did see,
And bid him that trick forbear.
15
Then Robin Hood set his horn to his mouth,
And blew a blast or twain,
And so did the knight, at which there in sight
The archers came all amain.
16
Sir William with care he drew up his men,
And plac’d them in battle array;
Bold Robin, we find, he was not behind;
Now this was a bloody fray.
17
The archers on both sides bent their bows,
And the clouds of arrows flew;
The very first flight, that honoured knight
Did there bid the world adieu.
18
Yet nevertheless their fight did last
From morning till almost noon;
Both parties were stout, and loath to give out;
This was on the last [day] of June.
19
At length they went off; one part they went
To London with right good-will;
And Robin Hood he to the green-wood tree,
And there he was taken ill.
20
He sent for a monk, who let him blood,
And took his life away;
Now this being done, his archers they run,
It was not a time to stay.
21
Some got on board and crossd the seas,
To Flanders, France, and Spain,
And others to Rome, for fear of their doom,
But soon returnd again.
22
Thus he that never feard bow nor spear
Was murderd by letting of blood;
And so, loving friends, the story doth end
Of valiant bold Robin Hood.
23
There’s nothing remains but his epitaph now,
Which, reader, here you have;
To this very day, and read it you may,
As it was upon his grave.
Robin Hood’s Epitaph,
Set on his tomb
By the Prioress of Birkslay Monastery, in Yorkshire.
Robin, Earl of Huntington,
Lies under this little stone.
No archer was like him so good;
His wildness nam’d him Robin Hood.
Full thirteen years, and something more,
These northern parts he vexed sore.
Such outlaws as he and his men
May England never know again!
Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight; together
with an account of his Death and Burial, &c.
Tune of Robin Hood and the Fifteen Foresters.
a.
Inside the cover is written, William Stukely, 1741.
184. day found inb.
b.
A carelessly printed book, with only twenty-four
ballads. It belonged to Bishop Percy. Burden
omitted.
11. When bold Robin and.
13. had been told he.
14. With his.
21. the best.
24. will be.
3. wanting.
61. Take an.
63. art to.
73. again Robin.
121. till at last.
122. of bold.
131. would have: bold, Hood, wanting.
133. that it.
134. Whilst.
151. Robin he set.
174. there wanting.
181. the fight.
184. last day.
192. For London.
193. he wanting.
201. to let.
202. done away they ran.
21. wanting.
221. that neither.
243. it wanting.
244. it were.
The epitaph is not given.
c.
Burden: Derry down down: Hey down derry
derry down.
13. that they had been bold.
22. best wanting.
51. Go you.
61. an.
73. bold wanting.
104. see that.
113. Well signd.
144. bid them: to forbear.
184. day wanting.
191. party.
192. For London.
201. to let.
202. Who took.
204. a wanting.
211. Some went.
233. and wanting.
154 A TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD
227
Martin Parker’s True Tale of Robin
Hood was entered to Francis Grove the 29th
of February, 1632: Stationers’ Registers,
Arber, IV, 273. A copy in the British Museum
(press-mark C. 39. a. 52), which is here
reprinted, is assumed by Mr W. C. Hazlitt,
Handbook, p. 439, and Mr George Bullen,
Brit. Mus. Catalogue, to be of this first edition.
The title of this copy is: A True Tale
of Robbin [Hood], or, A briefe touch of the
life and death o[f that] Renowned Outlaw,
Robert Earle of Huntin[gton] vulgarly called
Robbin Hood, who lived and died in [A. D.]
1198, being the 9. yeare of the reigne of King
Ric[hard] the first, commonly called Richard
Cuer de Lyon. Carefully collected out of the
truest Writers of our English C[hroni]cles.
And published for the satisfaction of those
who desire to s[ee] Truth purged from falsehood.
By Martin Parker. Printed at London
for T. Cotes, and are to be sold by F.
Grove dwellin[g] upon Snow-hill, neare the
Saracen[s head].[120]
Martin Parker professes in st. 117 to follow
chronicles, not “fained tales.” Perhaps he
regards broadside-ballads with historical names
in them as chronicles: at any rate, though he
reports some things which are found in Grafton,
and in Major as cited by Grafton, much
the larger part of his True Tale is now to be
found only in ballads. When he does not
agree with ballads which have come down to
us, he may have used earlier copies, or he
may have invented. The story of the abbot
in 23–26 is at least from the same source as
Robin Hood and the Bishop; the plundering of
King Richard’s receivers in 33 is evidently the
same event as that referred to in the first stanza
of Robin Hood and Queen Katherine; Robin
Hood is said to have built eight almshouses
in 71, and one in the last stanza of The Noble
Fisherman. The Gest could hardly have been
unknown to Parker. Stanzas 3–9, concerning
Robin’s rank, prodigality, and outlawry, may
have been based upon Munday’s play; but
nothing is said of Maid Marian. 44–50 and
56–65 may report the substance of some lost
broadside.
Perhaps Parker calls his compilation a True
Tale because a tale of Robin Hood was a
proverb for an incredible story: “Tales of
Robin Hood are good for fools.”
1
Both gentlemen, or yeomen bould,
Or whatsoever you are,
To have a stately story tould,
Attention now prepare.
2
It is a tale of Robin Hood,
Which I to you will tell,
Which being rightly understood,
I know will please you well.
3
This Robbin, so much talked on,
Was once a man of fame,
Instiled Earle of Huntington,
Lord Robert Hood by name.
2284
In courtship and magnificence,
His carriage won him prayse,
And greater favour with his prince
Than any in his dayes.
5
In bounteous liberality
He too much did excell,
And loved men of quality
More than exceeding well.
6
His great revennues all he sould
For wine and costly cheere;
He kept three hundred bowmen bold,
He shooting lovd so deare.
7
No archer living in his time
With him might well compare;
He practisd all his youthfull prime
That exercise most rare.
8
At last, by his profuse expence,
He had consumd his wealth,
And being outlawed by his prince,
In woods he livd by stealth.
9
The abbot of Saint Maries rich,
To whom he mony ought,
His hatred to this earle was such
That he his downefall wrought.
10
So being outlawed, as ’tis told,
He with a crew went forth
Of lusty cutters, stout and bold,
And robbed in the North.
11
Among the rest, one Little John,
A yeoman bold and free,
Who could, if it stood him upon,
With ease encounter three.
12
One hundred men in all he got,
With whom, the story sayes,
Three hundred common men durst not
Hold combate any wayes.
13
They Yorkshire woods frequented much,
And Lancashire also,
Wherein their practises were such
That they wrought mickle woe.
14
None rich durst travell to and fro,
Though nere so strongly armd,
But by these theeves, so strong in show,
They still were robd and harmd.
15
His chiefest spight to the clergie was,
That lived in monstrous pride;
No one of them he would let passe
Along the high-way side,
16
But first they must to dinner goe,
And afterwards to shrift:
Full many a one he served so,
Thus while he livd by theft.
17
No monkes nor fryers he would let goe,
Without paying their fees:
If they thought much to be usd so,
Their stones he made them leese.
18
For such as they the country filld
With bastards in those dayes;
Which to prevent, these sparkes did geld
All that came by their wayes.
19
But Robbin Hood so gentle was,
And bore so brave a minde,
If any in distresse did passe,
To them he was so kinde
20
That he would give and lend to them,
To helpe them at their neede:
This made all poore men pray for him,
And wish he well might speede.
21
The widdow and the fatherlesse
He would send meanes unto,
And those whom famine did oppresse
Found him a friendly foe.
22
Nor would he doe a woman wrong,
But see her safe conveid;
He would protect with power strong
All those who crav’d his ayde.
23
The abbot of Saint Maries then,
Who him undid before,
Was riding with two hundred men,
And gold and silver store.
24
But Robbin Hood upon him set
With his couragious sparkes,
And all the coyne perforce did get,
Which was twelve thousand markes.
25
He bound the abbot to a tree,
And would not let him passe
Before that to his men and he
His lordship had sayd masse.
26
Which being done, upon his horse
He set him fast astride,
And with his face towards his ar—
He forced him to ride.
27
His men were faine to be his guide,
For he rode backward home;
The abbot, being thus villifide,
Did sorely chafe and fume.
22928
Thus Robbin Hood did vindicate
His former wrongs receivd;
For ’twas this covetous prelate
That him of land bereavd.
29
The abbot he rode to the king
With all the haste he could,
And to his Grace he every thing
Exactly did unfold.
30
And sayd if that no course were tane,
By force or stratagem,
To take this rebell and his traine,
No man should passe for them.
31
The king protested by and by
Unto the abbot then
That Robbin Hood with speed should dye,
With all his merry men.
32
But ere the king did any send,
He did another feate,
Which did his Grace much more offend;
The fact indeed was great.
33
For in a short time after that,
The kings receivers went
Towards London with the coyne they got,
For’s Highnesse northerne rent.
34
Bold Robbin Hood and Little John,
With the rest of their traine,
Not dreading law, set them upon,
And did their gold obtaine.
35
The king much moved at the same,
And the abbots talke also,
In this his anger did proclaime,
And sent word to and fro,
36
That whosoere, alive or dead,
Could bring him Robbin Hood,
Should have one thousand markes, well payd
In gold and silver good.
37
This promise of the king did make
Full many yeomen bold
Attempt stout Robbin Hood to take,
With all the force they could.
38
But still when any came to him,
Within the gay greene wood,
He entertainement gave to them,
With venison fat and good.
39
And shewd to them such martiall sport,
With his long bow and arrow,
That they of him did give report,
How that it was great sorow,
40
That such a worthy man as he
Should thus be put to shift,
Being late a lord of high degree,
Of living quite bereft.
41
The king, to take him, more and more
Sent men of mickle might,
But he and his still beate them sore,
And conquered them in fight.
42
Or else, with love and courtesie,
To him he won their hearts:
Thus still he lived by robbery,
Throughout the northerne parts.
43
And all the country stood in dread
Of Robbin Hood and’s men;
For stouter lads nere livd by bread,
In those dayes nor since then.
44
The abbot which before I nam’d
Sought all the meanes he could
To have by force this rebell tane,
And his adherents bold.
45
Therefore he armd five hundred men,
With furniture compleate,
But the outlawes slew halfe of them,
And made the rest retreate.
46
The long bow and the arrow keene
They were so usd unto
That still they kept the forest greene,
In spight o th’ proudest foe.
47
Twelve of the abbots men he tooke,
Who came him to have tane,
When all the rest the field forsooke;
These he did entertaine
48
With banquetting and merriment,
And, having usd them well,
He to their lord them safely sent,
And willd them him to tell
49
That if he would be pleasd at last
To beg of our good king
That he might pardon what was past,
And him to favour bring,
50
He would surrender backe agen
The money which before
Was taken by him and his men,
From him and many more.
51
Poore men might safely passe by him,
And some that way would chuse,
For well they knew that to helpe them
He evermore did use.
23052
But where he knew a miser rich,
That did the poore oppresse,
To feele his coyne his hand did itch;
Hee’de have it, more or lesse.
53
And sometimes, when the high-way fayld,
Then he his courage rouses;
He and his men have oft assayld
Such rich men in their houses.
54
So that, through dread of Robbin then
And his adventurous crew,
The mizers kept great store of men,
Which else maintaynd but few.
55
King Richard, of that name the first,
Sirnamed Cuer de Lyon,
Went to defeate the Pagans curst,
Who kept the coasts of Syon.
56
The Bishop of Ely, chancelor,
Was left as vice-roy here,
Who like a potent emperor
Did proudly domminere.
57
Our chronicles of him report
That commonly he rode
With a thousand horse from court to court,
Where he would make abode.
58
He, riding downe towards the north,
With his aforesayd traine,
Robbin and his did issue forth,
Them all to entertaine.
59
And, with the gallant gray-goose wing,
They shewed to them such play,
That made their horses kicke and fling,
And downe their riders lay.
60
Full glad and faine the bishop was,
For all his thousand men,
To seeke what meanes he could to passe
From out of Robbins ken.
61
Two hundred of his men were kil’d,
And fourescore horses good;
Thirty, who did as captives yeeld,
Were carryed to the greene wood.
62
Which afterwards were ransomed,
For twenty markes a man;
The rest set spurres to horse, and fled
To th’ town of Warrington.
63
The bishop, sore enraged then,
Did, in King Richards name,
Muster a power of northerne men,
These outlawes bold to tame.
64
But Robbin, with his courtesie,
So wonne the meaner sort,
That they were loath on him to try
What rigor did import.
65
So that bold Robbin and his traine
Did live unhurt of them,
Vntill King Richard came againe
From faire Jerusalem.
66
And then the talke of Robbin Hood
His royall eares did fill;
His Grace admir’d that ith’ greene wood
He thus continued still.
67
So that the country farre and neare
Did give him great applause;
For none of them neede stand in feare,
But such as broke the lawes.
68
He wished well unto the king,
And prayed still for his health,
And never practised any thing
Against the common wealth.
69
Onely, because he was undone
By th’ crewell clergie then,
All meanes that he could thinke upon
To vexe such kinde of men
70
He enterprized, with hatefull spleene;
In which he was to blame,
For fault of some, to wreeke his teene
On all that by him came.
71
With wealth which he by robbery got
Eight almes-houses he built,
Thinking thereby to purge the blot
Of blood which he had spilt.
72
Such was their blinde devotion then,
Depending on their workes;
Which, if ’twere true, we Christian men
Inferiour were to Turkes.
73
But, to speake true of Robbin Hood,
And wrong him not a iot,
He never would shed any mans blood
That him invaded not.
74
Nor would he iniure husbandmen,
That toyld at cart and plough;
For well he knew, were’t not for them,
To live no man knew how.
75
The king in person, with some lords,
To Notingham did ride,
To try what strength and skill affords
To crush these outlawes pride.
23176
And, as he once before had done,
He did againe proclaime,
That whosoere would take upon
To bring to Notingham,
77
Or any place within the land,
Rebellious Robbin Hood,
Should be preferd in place to stand
With those of noble blood.
78
When Robbin Hood heard of the same,
Within a little space,
Into the towne of Notingham
A letter to his Grace
79
He shot upon an arrow-head,
One evening cunningly;
Which was brought to the king, and read
Before his Maiestie.
80
The tennour of this letter was
That Robbin would submit,
And be true leigeman to his Grace,
In any thing that’s fit,
81
So that his Highnesse would forgive
Him and his merry men all;
If not, he must i th’ greene wood live,
And take what chance did fall.
82
The king would faine have pardoned him,
But that some lords did say,
This president will much condemne
Your Grace another day.
83
While that the king and lords did stay
Debating on this thing,
Some of these outlawes fled away
Unto the Scottish king.
84
For they supposd, if he were tane,
Or to the king did yeeld,
By th’ commons all the rest on ’s traine
Full quickely would be quelld.
85
Of more than full a hundred men
But forty tarryed still,
Who were resolvd to sticke to him,
Let fortune worke her will.
86
If none had fled, all for his sake
Had got their pardon free;
The king to favour meant to take
His merry men and he.
87
But ere the pardon to him came,
This famous archer dy’d:
His death, and manner of the same,
I’le presently describe.
88
For, being vext to thinke upon
His followers revolt,
In melancholly passion
He did recount their fault.
89
‘Perfideous traytors!’ sayd he then,
‘In all your dangers past
Have I you guarded as my men
To leave me thus at last?’
90
This sad perplexity did cause
A fever, as some say,
Which him unto confusion drawes,
Though by a stranger way.
91
This deadly danger to prevent,
He hide him with all speede
Vnto a nunnery, with intent
For his healths sake to bleede.
92
A faithlesse fryer did pretend
In love to let him blood;
But he by falshood wrought the end
Of famous Robbin Hood.
93
The fryer, as some say, did this
To vindicate the wrong
Which to the clergie he and his
Had done by power strong.
94
Thus dyed he by trechery,
That could not dye by force;
Had he livd longer, certainely,
King Richard, in remorse,
95
Had unto favour him receavd;
He brave men elevated;
’Tis pitty he was of life bereavd
By one which he so hated.
96
A treacherous leech this fryer was,
To let him bleed to death;
And Robbin was, me thinkes, an asse,
To trust him with his breath.
97
His corpes the priores of the place,
The next day that he dy’d,
Caused to be buried, in mean case,
Close by the high-way side.
98
And over him she caused a stone
To be fixed on the ground;
An epitaph was set thereon,
Wherein his name was found.
99
The date o th’ yeare, and day also,
Shee made to be set there,
That all who by the way did goe
Might see it plaine appeare
232100
That such a man as Robbin Hood
Was buried in that place;
And how he lived in the greene wood,
And robd there for a space.
101
It seemes that though the clergie he
Had put to mickle woe,
He should not quite forgotten be,
Although he was their foe.
102
This woman, though she did him hate,
Yet loved his memory;
And thought it wondrous pitty that
His fame should with him dye.
103
This epitaph, as records tell,
Within this hundred yeares
By many was discerned well,
But time all things outweares.
104
His followers, when he was dead,
Were some received to grace;
The rest to forraigne countries fled,
And left their native place.
105
Although his funerall was but meane,
This woman had in minde
Least his fame should be buried cleane
From those that came behind.
106
For certainely, before nor since,
No man ere understood,
Vnder the reigne of any prince,
Of one like Robbin Hood.
107
Full thirteene yeares, and something more,
These outlawes lived thus,
Feared of the rich, loved of the poore,
A thing most marvelous.
108
A thing impossible to us
This story seemes to be;
None dares be now so venturous;
But times are chang’d, we see.
109
We that live in these latter dayes
Of civill government,
If neede be, have a hundred wayes
Such outlawes to prevent.
110
In those dayes men more barbarous were,
And lived lesse in awe;
Now, God be thanked! people feare
More to offend the law.
111
No roaring guns were then in use,
They dreampt of no such thing;
Our English men in fight did chuse
The gallant gray-goose wing.
112
In which activity these men,
Through practise, were so good,
That in those dayes non equald them,
Specially Robbin Hood.
113
So that, it seemes, keeping in caves,
In woods and forrests thicke,
Thei’d beate a multitude with staves,
Their arrowes did so pricke.
114
And none durst neare unto them come,
Unlesse in courtesie;
All such he bravely would send home,
With mirth and iollity.
115
Which courtesie won him such love,
As I before have told;
’Twas the cheefe cause that he did prove
More prosperous than he could.
116
Let us be thankefull for these times
Of plenty, truth and peace,
And leave our great and horrid crimes,
Least they cause this to cease.
117
I know there’s many fained tales
Of Robbin Hood and’s crew;
But chronicles, which seldome fayles,
Reports this to be true.
118
Let none then thinke this a lye,
For, if ’twere put to th’ worst,
They may the truth of all discry
I th’ raigne of Richard the first.
119
If any reader please to try,
As I direction show,
The truth of this brave history,
Hee’l finde it true I know.
120
And I shall thinke my labour well
Bestowed, to purpose good,
When’t shall be sayd that I did tell
True tales of Robbin Hood.
233At the end of the Tale:
The Epitaph which the Prioresse of the Monastery
of Kirkes Lay in Yorke-shire set over Robbin
Hood, which, as is before mentioned, was to bee
reade within these hundreth yeares, though in
old broken English, much to the same sence and
meaning.
Decembris quarto die, 1198: anno regni Richardii
Primi 9.
Robert Earle of Huntington
Lies under this little stone.
No archer was like him so good:
His wildnesse named him Robbin Hood.
Full thirteene yeares, and something more,
These northerne parts he vexed sore.
Such out-lawes as he and his men
May England never know agen.
Some other superstitious words were in it, which
I thought fit to leave out.[121]
Bodl. L. 78.
22. That for which.
204. wisht.
593. kicke for kickle.
702. In for For.
942. Who for That.
1081. impossible for unpossible.
1163. our for out.
155 SIR HUGH, OR, THE JEW’S DAUGHTER — A — B — C — D — E — F — G — H — I — J — K — L — M — N — O — P — Q — R
A. ‘Hugh of Lincoln,’ Jamieson’s Popular Ballads,
I, 151.
B. ‘The Jew’s Daughter,’ Percy’s Reliques, 1765,
I, 32.
C. ‘The Jewis Daughter,’ Bishop Percy’s Papers.
D. ‘Sir Hugh,’ Herd’s MSS, I, 213; stanzas 7–10, II,
219. Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 96.
E. ‘Sir Hugh, or, The Jew’s Daughter,’ Motherwell’s
Minstrelsy, p. 51.
F. A. Hume, Sir Hugh of Lincoln, p. 35.
G. From the recitation of an American lady.
H. ‘The Jew’s Daughter,’ from the recitation of an
American lady.
I. Sir Egerton Brydges, Restituta, I, 381.
J. ‘Sir Hugh.’ a. Notes and Queries, First Series,
XII, 496. b. The same, VIII, 614.
K. Notes and Queries, First Series, IX, 320; Salopian
Shreds and Patches, in Miss C. S. Burne’s Shropshire
Folk-Lore, p. 539.
L. a. Communicated by the Rev. E. Venables. b. A
Walk through Lincoln Cathedral, by the same,
p. 41.
M. F. H. Groome, In Gipsy Tents, Edinburgh, 1880,
p. 145.
N. ‘Little Harry Hughes and the Duke’s Daughter,’
Newell, Games and Songs of American Children,
p. 75.
O. G. A. Sala, Illustrated London News, LXXXI,
415, October 21, 1882, and Living London, 1883, p.
465.
P. Halliwell, Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of
Lincoln, p. 37, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales,
p. 192: two stanzas.
Q. ‘The Jew’s Daughter,’ Motherwell’s Note-Book,
p. 54: two stanzas.
R. ‘Sir Hew, or, The Jew’s Daughter,’ Motherwell’s
Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xvii, VII: one stanza.
234The copy in Pinkerton’s Tragic Ballads,
1781, p. 50, is made up of eight stanzas of D
and six of B, slightly retouched by the editor;
that in Gilchrist’s collection, 1815, I, 210, is
eight stanzas of D and nine of A; that in
Stenhouse’s edition of Johnson’s Museum, IV,
500, “communicated by an intelligent antiquarian
correspondent,” is compounded from
A, B, D, E and Pinkerton, with a little chaff
of its own; that printed by W. C. Atkinson,
of Brigg, Lincolnshire, in the London
Athenæum, 1867, p. 96, is Pinkerton’s, with
two trifling changes. Allen, History of the
County of Lincoln, 1834, p. 171 (repeating
Wilde, Lincoln Cathedral, 1819, p. 27, as appears
from Notes and Queries, 4th Series, II,
60), says that a complete manuscript of the
ballad was once in the library of the cathedral,
and cites the first stanza, which differs
from Pinkerton’s only in having “Mary Lincoln”
for “merry Lincoln.”
The several versions agree in the outline of
the story, and in many of the details. According
to A, boys who are playing football
are joined by Sir Hugh, who kicks the ball
through the Jew’s window. Sir Hugh sees
the Jew’s daughter looking out of the window,
and asks her to throw down the ball. She
tells him to come and get it; this he is afraid
to do, for fear she may do to him “as she did
to his father.” The Jew’s daughter entices
him in with an apple, leads him through nine
dark doors, lays him on a table, and sticks
him like a swine; then rolls him in a cake of
lead, and throws him into a draw-well fifty
fathoms deep, Our Lady’s draw-well. The
boy not returning at eve, his mother sets forth
to seek him; goes to the Jew’s castle, the
Jew’s garden, and to the draw-well, entreating
in each case Sir Hugh to speak. He answers
from the well, bidding his mother go
make his winding-sheet, and he will meet her
at the back of merry Lincoln the next morning.
His mother makes his winding-sheet,
and the dead corpse meets her at the back of
merry Lincoln: all the bells of Lincoln are
rung without men’s hands, and all the books
of Lincoln are read without man’s tongue.
The boy’s name is Sir Hugh in A-F, etc.;
in K the name is corrupted to Saluter, and in
the singular and interesting copy obtained in
New York, N, to Harry Hughes, the Jew’s
Daughter in this becoming the Duke’s Daughter.
The place is Merry Lincoln in A, D, L
(Lincoln, J; Lincolnshire, Q); corrupted in
B, C, to Mirryland town,[122] in E to Maitland
town; changed to Merry Scotland, I, J, O,
which is corrupted to Merrycock land, K; in
G, H, old Scotland, fair Scotland. The ball
is tossed [patted] into the Jew’s garden, G,
H, I, L, M, O, P, where the Jews are sitting
a-row, I, O. The boy will not come in without
his play-feres, B, C, D, F, G, I, J, K; if
he should go in, his mother would cause his
heart’s blood to fall, etc., G, I, K.[123] The boy
is rolled in a cake [case] of lead, A-E (L, b?);
in a quire of tin, N. The draw-well is Our
Lady’s only in A (L, b?); it is the Jew’s in
C, D; it is a [the] deep draw-well, simply, in
B, E, F, G; a little draw-well, N, a well, O;
fifty fathoms deep, A-F, N; G, eighteen fathoms,
O, five and fifty feet. In G, the Jew’s
daughter lays the Bible at the boy’s head,
and the Prayer-Book at his feet (how came
these in the Jew’s house?) before she sticks
him; in I, K, the Bible and Testament after;
in I, the Catechism in his heart’s blood. In
H, the boy, at the moment of his death, asks
that the Bible may be put at his head, and
the Testament at his feet, and in M, wants “a
seven-foot Bible” at his head and feet. In
E, F, the boy makes this request from the
draw-well (“and pen and ink at every side,”
E), and in N with the variation that his Bible
is to be put at his head, his “busker”
at his feet, and his Prayer-Book at his right
side. In O there is a jumble:
‘Oh lay a Bible at my head,
And a Prayer-Book at my feet,
In the well that they did throw me in,’ etc.
235The boy asks his mother to go and make
ready his winding-sheet in A, B, C, E, F; and
appoints to meet her at the back of the town,
A, B, E; at the birks of Mirryland town, C.
The fine trait of the ringing of the bells
without men’s hands, and the reading of the
books without man’s tongue, occurs only in A.
When Florence of Rome approached a church,
“the bellys range thorow Godys grace, withowtyn
helpe of hande:” Le Bone Florence of
Rome, Ritson, Met. Rom., III, 80, v. 1894 f.
Bells which ring without men’s hands are very
common in popular tradition. See Jamieson’s
Popular Ballads, I, 140; Wunderhorn, II, 272,
ed. 1808; Luzel, C. P. de la Basse-Bretagne,
I, 446 f., 496 f., II, 44 f., 66 f., 308 f., 542 f.;
Maurer, Isländische Volkssagen, p. 215;
Weckenstedt, Wendische Sagen, p. 379, No
5; Temme, Volkssagen der Altmark, p. 29,
No 31; Münsterische Geschichten, u. s. w., p.
186; Bartsch, Sagen aus Meklenburg, I, 390,
No 539; Mone’s Anzeiger, VIII, 303 f., No
41 and note, and VII, 32; Birlinger, Aus
Schwaben, Neue Sammlung, I, 72; Birlinger
u. Buck, I, 144, No 223, 145, No 225, a,
b, c; Schöppner, Sagenbuch der bayerischen
Lande, I, 294, No 301, etc.[124]
The story of Hugh of Lincoln is told in the
Annals of Waverley, under the year 1255, by
a contemporary writer, to this effect.[125] A boy
in Lincoln, named Hugh, was crucified by the
Jews in contempt of Christ, with various preliminary
tortures. To conceal the act from
Christians, the body, when taken from the
cross, was thrown into a running stream; but
the water would not endure the wrong done
its maker, and immediately ejected it upon
dry land. The body was then buried in the
earth, but was found above ground the next
day. The guilty parties were now very much
frightened and quite at their wit’s end; as a
last resort they threw the corpse into a drinking-well.
Thereupon the whole place was
filled with so brilliant a light and so sweet an
odor that it was clear to everybody that there
must be something holy and prodigious in the
well. The body was seen floating on the water,
and, upon its being drawn up, the hands
and feet were found to be pierced, the head
had, as it were, a crown of bloody points, and
there were various other wounds: from all
which it was plain that this was the work of
the abominable Jews. A blind woman, touching
the bier on which the blessed martyr’s
corpse was carrying to the church, received
her sight, and many other miracles followed.
Eighteen Jews, convicted of the crime, and
confessing it with their own mouth, were
hanged.
Matthew Paris, also writing contemporaneously,
supplies additional circumstances, one
of which, the mother’s finding of the child, is
prominent in the ballad.[126] The Jews of Lincoln
stole the boy Hugh, who was some eight
years old, near Peter and Paul’s day, June
29, and fed him properly for ten days, while
they were sending to all parts of England to
convoke their co-believers to a crucifixion of
him in contempt of Jesus. When they were
assembled, one of the Lincoln Jews was appointed
judge, a Pilate, as it were, and the
boy was sentenced to various torments; he
was scourged till the blood ran, crowned with
thorns, spit upon, pricked with knives, made
to drink gall, mocked and scoffed at, hailed as
false prophet; finally he was crucified, and a
lance thrust into his heart. He was then
taken down and disembowelled; for what
reason is not known, but, as it was said, for
magical purposes. The mother (whose name,
not given by this chronicler, is known to have
been Beatrice) made diligent search for her
lost child for several days, and was told by
her neighbors that they had seen the boy
playing with Jewish children, and going into
236a Jew’s house. This house the mother entered,
and saw the boy’s body, which had
been thrown into a well. The town officers
were sent for, and drew up the corpse. The
mother’s shrieks drew a great concourse to
the place, among whom was Sir John of Lexington,
a long-headed and scholarly man (a
priest of the cathedral), who declared that he
had heard of the Jews doing such things before.
Laying hands on the Jew into whose
house the boy had been known to go, John of
Lexington told him that all the gold in England
would not buy him off; nevertheless, life
and limb should be safe if he would tell everything.
The Jew, Copin by name, encouraged
and urged by Sir John, made a full confession:
all that the Christians had said was
true; the Jews crucified a boy every year, if
they could get hold of one, and had crucified
this Hugh; they had wished to bury the body,
after they had come to the conclusion that an
innocent’s bowels were of no use for divination,
but the earth would not hold it; so they
had thrown it into a well, but with no better
success, for the mother had found it, and reported
the fact to the officers. The canons of
Lincoln Cathedral begged the child’s body,
and buried it in their church with the honors
due to so precious a martyr. The king, who
had been absent in the North, being made acquainted
with these circumstances, blamed Sir
John for the promise which he had so improperly
made the wretch Copin. But Copin was
still in custody, and, seeing he had no chance
for life, he volunteered to complete his testimony!
almost all the Jews in England had
been accessory to the child’s death, and almost
every city of England where Jews lived had
sent delegates to the ceremony of his immolation,
as to a Paschal sacrifice. Copin was
then tied to a horse, and dragged to the gallows,
and ninety-one other Jews carried to
London and imprisoned. The inquisition made
by the king’s justices showed that the crime
had been virtually the common act of the
Jews of England, and the mother’s appeal to
the king, which was pressed unremittingly,
had such effect that on St Clement’s day eighteen
of the richer and more considerable Jews
of Lincoln were hanged on gallows specially
constructed for the purpose, more than sixty
being reserved for a like sentence in the tower
of London.[127]
The Annals of Burton give a long report
of this case, which is perhaps contemporary,
though the MS. is mostly of the next century.
On the last day of July, at a time when all
the principal Jews of England were collected
at Lincoln, Hugh, a school-boy (scholaris) of
nine, the only son of a poor woman, was kidnapped
towards sunset, while playing with
his comrades, by Jopin, a Jew of that place.
He was concealed in Jopin’s house six and
twenty days, getting so little to eat and drink
that he had hardly the strength to speak.
Then, at a council of all the Jews, resident
and other, it was determined that he should
be put to death. They stripped him, flogged
him, spat in his face, cut off the cartilage of
the nose and the upper lip, and broke the
main upper teeth; then crucified him. The
boy, fortified by divine grace, maintained himself
with cheerfulness, and uttered neither
complaint nor groan. They ran sharp points
into him from the sole of his foot to the
crown of his head, till the body was covered
with the blood from these wounds, then
pierced his side with a lance, and he gave
up the ghost. The boy not coming home as
usual, his mother made search for him. As
he was not found, the information given by
his playmates as to when and where they had
last seen him roused a strong suspicion among
the Christians that he had been carried off
and killed by the Jews; all the more because
there were so many of them present in the
town at that time, and from all parts of the
kingdom, though the Jews pretended that the
occasion for this unusual congregation was a
grand wedding. The truth becoming every
day clearer, the mother set off for Scotland,
where the king then chanced to be, and laid
the complaint at his feet. The Jews, meanwhile,
knowing that the business would be
237looked into, were in great consternation; they
took away the body in the night, and threw
it into a well. In the well it was found in
the course of an inquisition ordered by the
king, and, when it was drawn out, a woman,
blind for fifteen years, who had been very
fond of the boy, laid her hand on the body
in faith, exclaiming, Alas, sweet little Hugh,
that it so happened! and then rubbed her
eyes with the moisture of the body, and at
once recovered her sight. The miracle drew
crowds of people to the spot, and every sick
or infirm person that could get near the body
went home well and happy: hearing whereof,
the dean and canons of the cathedral went
out in procession to the body of the holy
martyr, and carried it to the minster with all
possible ceremony, where they buried it very
honorably (disregarding the passionate protests
of a brother canon, of the parish to
which the boy belonged, who would fain
have retained so precious, and also valuable,
an object within his own bounds). The king
stopped at Lincoln, on his way down from
Scotland, looked into the matter, found the
charges against the Jews to be substantiated,
and ordered an arrest of the whole pack.
They shut themselves up in their houses, but
their houses were stormed. In the course of
the examination which followed, John of Lessington
promised Jopin, the head of the Jews,
and their priest (who was believed to be at
the bottom of the whole transaction), that
he would do all he could to save his life, if
Jopin would give up the facts. Jopin, delighted
at this assurance, and expecting to be
able to save the other Jews by the use of
money, confessed everything. But considering
what a disgrace it would be to the king’s
majesty if the deviser and perpetrator of such
a felony escaped scot-free, Jopin was, by sentence
of court, tied to the tail of a horse,
dragged a long way through the streets, over
sticks and stones, and hanged. Such other
Jews as had been taken into custody were
sent to London, and a good many more, who
were implicated but had escaped, were arrested
in the provinces. Eighteen suffered
the same fate as Jopin. The Dominicans
exerted themselves to save the lives of the
others,—bribed so to do, as some thought;
but they lost favor by it, and their efforts
availed nothing. It was ordered by the government
that all the Jews in the land who
had consented to the murder, and especially
those who had been present, namely, seventy-one
who were in prison in London, should die
the death of Jopin. But Richard of Cornwall,
the king’s brother, to whom the king had
pledged all the Jews in England as security
for a loan, stimulated also by a huge bribe,
withstood this violation of vested rights, and
further execution was stayed.[128]
An Anglo-French ballad of ninety-two
stanzas, which also appears to be contemporary
with the event, agrees in many particulars
with the account given in the Annals of
Burton, adding several which are found in
none of the foregoing narratives.[129] Hugh of
Lincoln was kidnapped one evening towards
the beginning of August, by Peitevin, the
Jew.[130] His mother at once missed him, and
searched for him, crying, I have lost my
child! till curfew. She slept little and prayed
much, and immediately after her prayer the
suspicion arose in her mind that her child
had been abducted by the Jews. So, with
the break of day, the woman went weeping
238through the Jewry, calling at the Jews’ doors,
Where is my child? Impelled by the suspicion
which, as it pleased God, she had of
the Jews, she kept on till she came to the
court. When she came before King Henry
(whom God preserve!), she fell at his feet
and begged his grace: “Sire, my son was carried
off by the Lincoln Jews one evening;
see to it, for charity!” The king swore by
God’s pity, If it be so as thou hast told, the
Jews shall die; if thou hast lied on the
Jews, by St Edward, doubt not thou shalt
have the same judgment. Soon after the
child was carried off, the Jews of Lincoln
made a great gathering of all the richest of
their sect in England. The child was brought
before them, tied with a cord, by the Jew
Jopin. They stripped him, as erst they did
Jesus. Then said Jopin, thinking he spoke
to much profit, The child must be sold for
thirty pence, as Jesus was. Agim, the Jew,
answered, Give me the child for thirty pence;
but I wish that he should be sentenced to
death, since I have bought him. The Jews
said, Let Agim have him, but let him be put
to death forthwith: worse than this, they all
cried with one voice, Let him be put on the
cross! The child was unbound and hanged
on the cross, vilely, as Jesus was. His arms
were stretched to the cross, and his feet and
hands pierced with sharp nails, and he was crucified
alive. Agim took his knife and pierced
the innocent’s side, and split his heart in two.
As the ghost left the body, the child called to
his mother, Pray Jesus Christ for me! The
Jews buried the body, so that no one might
know of their privity, but some of them,
passing the place the next morning, found it
lying above ground. When they heard of
this marvel, they determined in council that
the corpse should be thrown into a jakes;
but the morning after it was again above
ground. While they were in agonies of terror,
one of their number came and told them
that a woman, who had been his nurse, had
agreed for money to take the body out of the
city; but he recommended that all the wounds
should first be filled with boiling wax. The
body was taken off by this nurse and thrown
into a well behind the castle.[131] A woman
coming for water the next day discovered it
lying on the ground, so filthy that she scarce
durst touch it. This woman bethought herself
of the child which had been stolen. She
went back to Lincoln, and gave information
to Hugh’s stepfather, who found her tale
probable by reason of the suspicion which he
already had of the Jews. The woman went
through the city proclaiming that she had
found the child, and everybody flocked to the
well. The coroners were sent for, and came
with good will to make their inspection. The
body was taken back to Lincoln. A woman
came up, who had long before lost her sight,
and calling out, Alas, pretty Hugh, why are
you lying here! applied her hands to the
corpse and then to her eyes, and regained her
sight. All who were present were witnesses
of the miracle, and gave thanks to God. A
converted[132] Jew presented himself, and suggested
that if they wished to know how the
child came by its death they should wash the
body in warm water; and this being done,
the examination which he made enabled him
to show that this treason had been done by
the Jews, for the very wounds of Jesus were
found upon the child. They of the cathedral,
hearing of the miracle, came out and carried
the body to the church, and buried it among
other saints with great joy: mult ben firent,
cum m’ est avis. Soon after, the mother arrived
from the court, very unhappy because
she had not been able to find her child. The
Lincoln Jews were apprehended and thrown
into prison; they said, We have been betrayed
by Falsim. The next day King Henry came
to Lincoln, and ordered the Jews before him
for an inquest. A wise man who was there
took it upon him to say that the Jew who
would tell the truth to the king should fare
the better for it. Jopin, in whose house the
treason had been done, told the whole story
as already related. King Henry, when all
had been told, cried, Right ill did he that
239killed him! The justices[133] went to council,
and condemned Jopin to death: his body was
to be drawn through the city “de chivals
forts et ben ferré[s]” till life was extinct,
and then to be hanged. And this was done.
I know well where, says the singer: by Canewic,
on the high hill.[134] Of the other Jews it
is only said that they had much shame.
The English ballads, the oldest of which
were recovered about the middle of the last
century, must, in the course of five hundred
years of tradition, have departed considerably
from the early form; in all of them the boy
comes to his death for breaking a Jew’s window,
and at the hands of the Jew’s daughter.
The occurrence of Our Lady’s draw-well, in
A, is due to a mixing, to this extent, of the
story of Hugh with that of the young devotee
of the Virgin who is celebrated in Chaucer’s
Prioresses Tale. In Chaucer’s legend, which
somewhat strangely removes the scene to a
city in Asia, a little “clergeon” (cf. the
scholaris of the Annals of Burton) excites,
not very unnaturally, the wrath of the Jews
by singing the hymn “Alma redemptoris
mater” twice a day, as he passes, schoolward
and homeward, through the Jewry. For this
they cut his throat and throw him into a
privy. The Virgin comes to him, and bids
him sing the anthem still, till a grain which
she lays upon his tongue shall be removed.
The mother, in the course of her search for
her boy, goes to the pit, under divine direction,
and hears him singing.
Another version of this legend occurs in a
collection of the Miracles of Our Lady in
the Vernon MS., c. 1375, leaf cxxiii, back;
printed by Dr. Horstmann in Herrig’s Archiv,
1876, LVI, 224, and again in the Chaucer
Society’s Originals and Analogues, p. 281.
The boy, in this, contributes to the support
of his family by singing and begging in the
streets of Paris. His song is again Alma
redemptoris mater, and he sings it one Saturday
as he goes through the Jewry. He is
killed, disposed of, and discovered as in Chaucer’s
tale, and the bishop, who “was come to
see that wonder,” finds in the child’s throat a
lily, inscribed all over with Alma redemptoris
mater, which being taken out the song
ceases. But when the child’s body is carried
to the minster, and a requiem mass is begun,
the corpse rises up, and sings Salve, sancta
parens.
Another variety of the legend is furnished
by the Spanish Franciscan Espina, Fortalicium
Fidei, 1459, in the edition of Lyons,
1500, fol. ccviii, reprinted by the Chaucer Society,
Originals and Analogues, p. 108.[135] The
boy is here called Alfonsus of Lincoln. The
Jews, having got him into their possession,
deliberate what shall be done to him, and decide
that the tongue with which he had sung
Alma redemptoris shall be torn out, likewise
the heart in which he had meditated the
song, and the body be thrown into a jakes.
The Virgin comes to him, and puts a precious
stone in his mouth, to supply the place of his
tongue, and the boy at once begins to sing
the anthem, and keeps on incessantly for four
days; at the end of which time the discovery
is made by the mother, as before. The body
is taken to the cathedral, where the bishop
delivers a sermon, concluding with an injunction
upon all present to pour out their supplications
to heaven that this mystery may be
cleared up. The boy rises to his feet, takes
the jewel from his mouth, explains everything
that has passed, hands the jewel to the
bishop, to be preserved with other reliques,
and expires.
A miracle versified from an earlier source
by Gautier de Coincy, some thirty or forty
years before the affair of Hugh of Lincoln, is
obviously of the same ultimate origin as the
Prioresses Tale. A poor woman in England
had an only son with a beautiful voice, who
did a good deal for the support of his mother
by his singing. The Virgin took a particular
interest in this clerçoncel, among whose
songs was Gaude Maria, which he used to
give in a style that moved many to tears.
One day, when he was playing in the streets
240with his comrades, they came to the Jews’
street, where some entertainment was going
on which had collected a great many people,
who recognized the boy, and asked him to
give them a song about Our Lady. He sang
with his usual pathos and applause. Jews
were listening with the rest, and one of them
was so exasperated by a passage in the hymn
that he would have knocked the singer on the
head then and there, had he dared. When
the crowd was dispersed, this Jew enticed the
child into his house by flattery and promises,
struck him dead with an axe, and buried
him. His mother went in search of him, and
learned the second day that the boy had been
singing in the Jewry the day before, and it
was intimated that the Jews might have laid
hands on him and killed him. The woman
gave the Virgin to understand that if she lost
her child she should never more have confidence
in her power; nevertheless, more than
twenty days passed before any light was
thrown on his disappearance. At the end of
that time, being one day in the Jews’ street,
and her wild exclamations having collected a
couple of thousand people, she gave vent to
her conviction that the Jews had killed her
son. Then the Virgin made the child, dead
and buried as he was, sing out Gaude Maria
in a loud and clear voice. An assault was
made on the Jews and the Jews’ houses, including
that of the murderer; and here, after
much searching, guided by the singing, they
found the boy buried under the door, perfectly
well, and his face as red as a fresh
cherry. The boy related how he had been
decoyed into the house and struck with an
axe; the Virgin had come to him in what
seemed a sleep, and told him that he was remiss
in not singing her response as he had
been wont, upon which he began to sing.
Bells were rung, the Virgin was glorified, some
Jews were converted, the rest massacred. (G.
de Coincy, ed. Poquet, col. 557 ff; Chaucer
Society, Originals and Analogues, p. 253 ff.)
The same miracle, with considerable variations,
occurs in Mariu Saga, ed. Unger, p.
203, No 62, ‘Af klerk ok gyðingum;’ also
in Collin de Plancy, Légendes des Saintes
Images, p. 218, ‘L’Enfant de Chœur de
Notre-Dame du Puy,’ under the date 1325.
Murders like that of Hugh of Lincoln have
been imputed to the Jews for at least seven
hundred and fifty years,[136] and the charge,
which there is reason to suppose may still
from time to time be renewed, has brought
upon the accused every calamity that the
hand of man can inflict, pillage, confiscation,
banishment, torture, and death, and this in
huge proportions. The process of these murders
has often been described as a parody of
the crucifixion of Jesus. The motive most
commonly alleged, in addition to the expression
of contempt for Christianity, has been
the obtaining of blood for use in the Paschal
rites,—a most unhappily devised slander, in
stark contradiction with Jewish precept and
practice. That no Christian child was ever
killed by a Jew, that there never even was
so much truth as that (setting aside the object)
in a single case of these particular criminations,
is what no Christian or Jew would
undertake to assert; but of these charges in
the mass it may safely be said, as it has been
said, that they are as credible as the miracles
which, in a great number of cases, are asserted
to have been worked by the reliques of the
young saints, and as well substantiated as the
absurd sacrilege of stabbing, baking, or boiling
the Host,[137] or the enormity of poisoning
springs, with which the Jews have equally
been taxed.[138] And these pretended child-murders,
241with their horrible consequences, are
only a part of a persecution which, with all
moderation, may be rubricated as the most
disgraceful chapter in the history of the human
race.[139]
Cases in England, besides that of Hugh of
Lincoln, are William of Norwich, 1137, the
Saxon Chronicle, Earle, p. 263, Acta Sanctorum,
March (25), III, 588; a boy at Gloucester,
1160, Brompton, in Twysden, col. 1050,
Knyghton, col. 2394; Robert of St Edmondsbury,
1181, Gervasius Dorobornensis, Twysden,
col. 1458; a boy at Norwich, stolen, circumcised,
and kept for crucifixion, 1235, Matthew
Paris, Chronica Majora, Luard, III, 305
(see also III, 543, 1239, IV, 30, 1240); a boy
at London, 1244, Matthew Paris, IV, 377
(doubtful, but solemnly buried in St. Paul’s);
a boy at Northampton, 1279, crucified, but not
quite killed, the continuator of Florence of
Worcester, Thorpe, II, 222.
It would be tedious and useless to attempt
to make a collection of the great number of
similar instances which have been mentioned
by chroniclers and ecclesiastical writers;
enough come readily to hand without much
research.
A boy was crucified and thrown into the
Loire by the Jews of Blois in 1171: Sigiberti
Gemblacensis Chronica, auctarium Roberti
de Monte, in Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist. Script.,
VI, 520, Grätz, Geschichte der Juden, VI,
217–19. Philip Augustus had heard in his
early years from playmates that the Jews sacrificed
a Christian annually (and, according to
some, partook of his heart), and this is represented
as having been his reason for expelling
the Jews from France. Richard of Pontoise
was one of these victims, in 1179: Rigordus,
Gesta Philippi Augusti, p. 14 f., § 6, and
Guillelmus Armoricus, p. 179, § 17, in the
edition of 1882; Acta Sanctorum, March
(25), III, 591. France had such a martyr as
late as 1670: see the case of Raphaël Lévy in
Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, 2r
Theil, 224; Drumont, La France Juive, II,
402–09.
Alfonso the Wise has recorded in the Siete
Partidas, 1255, that he had heard that the
Jews were wont to crucify on Good Friday
children that they had stolen (or waxen images,
when children were not to be had), Partida
VII, Tit. XXIV, Ley iia, III, 670, ed.
1807, and this was one of the most effective
grounds offered in justification of the expulsion
of the Jews under Ferdinand and Isabella:
Amador de los Rios, Historia de los
Judíos de España, I, 483 f. San Dominguito
de Val, a choir-boy of seven, Chaucer’s clergeon
over again, was said to have been stolen
and crucified at Saragossa in 1250: Basnage,
Histoire des Juifs, 1726, vol. ix, 2d part, pp.
484–86; Acta SS., Aug. (31), VI, 777. Several
children were crucified at Valladolid in
1452, and like outrages occurred near Zamora
in 1454, and at Sepulveda in 1468: Grätz,
VIII, 238. Juan Passamonte, “el niño de
Guardia,” was kidnapped in 1489, and crucified
in 1490: Llorente (Pellier), Histoire de
l’Inquisition, ed. 1818, I, 258 f.
Switzerland affords several stories of the
sort: a boy at Frisingen in 1287, Ulrich,
Sammlung jüdischer Geschichten, p. 149; Rudolf
of Bern, 1288 or 1294, Ulrich, pp. 143–49,
Acta Sanctorum, April (17), II, 504,
Stobbe, Die Juden in Deutschland, p. 283; a
boy at Zürich, 1349, another at Diessenhofen,
1401, Ulrich, pp. 82, 248 f.
Examples are particularly numerous in
Germany. 1181, Vienna, Zunz, p. 25; 1198,
Nuremberg, Stobbe, p. 281; about 1200, Erfurt,
Zunz, p. 26; 1220, St Henry, Weissenburg,
Acta SS., April, II, 505 (but 1260,
Schœpflin, Alsatia Illustrata, II, 394 f.);
1235–6, Fulda, Grätz, Geschichte der Juden,
VII, 109, 460; 1261, Magdeburg, Stobbe, p.
282; 1283, Mayence, Grätz, VII, 199; 1285,
Munich, Grätz, VII, 200, Aretin, Geschichte
242der Juden in Baiern, p. 18; 1286, Oberwesel,
near Bacharach, Werner (boy or man), Grätz,
VII, 201, 479, Stobbe, p. 282, Acta Sanctorum,
April (19), II, 697; 1292, Colmar,
Stobbe, p. 283; 1293, Krems, ib.; 1302,
Remken, ib.; 1303, Conrad, at Weissensee,
ib.; 1345, Henry, at Munich, Acta SS., May
(27), VI, 657; 1422, Augsburg, or 1429,
Ravensburg, Ulrich, p. 88 ff; 1454, Breslau,
Grätz, VIII, 205; 1462, Andrew, in Tyrol,
Acta SS., July (12), III, 462; 1474 and
1476, Ratisbon, Zeitschrift für die historische
Theologie (Train, Geschichte der Juden in
Regensburg), 1837, Heft 3, p. 98 ff., 104 ff.,
and (Saalschütz), 1841, Heft 4, p. 140 ff.,
Grätz, VIII, 279 ff.; 1475, Simon of Trent,
Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script., XX, 945–49
(Annals of Placentia), Liliencron, Historische
V. l. der Deutschen, II, 13, No 128,
Grätz, VIII, 269 ff., Acta SS., March (24),
III, 494, La Civiltà Cattolica, 1881 and
1882;[140] a little before 1478, Baden, Train, as
above, p. 117; 1540, Zappenfeld, near Neuburg
(nothing “proved”), Aretin, p. 44 f.;
1562, Andrew, Tyrol, Acta SS., July (12),
III, 462, with a picture,[141] p. 464; 1650, Caden
(and others in Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola),
Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum,
1711, 2r Theil, p. 223; near Sigeberg, in
the diocese of Cologne, Joanettus, Acta SS.,
March, III, 502, with no year.
Italy appears to be somewhat behind the
rest of Europe. The Fortalicium Fidei reports
a case at Pavia some time before 1456,
and another at Savona of about 1452: Basel
ed. (c. 1475), fol. 116 f. 1480, Venice, Beato
Sebastiano da Porto Buffolè del Bergamasco,
Civiltà Cattolica, X, 737. Israel, one of the
culprits of Trent, revealed his knowledge of
similar transactions at Padova, Mestre, Serravalle
and Bormio, in the course of his own
life, besides several in Germany: Civ. Catt.,
X, 737.
Further, 1305, Prague, Eisenmenger, p.
221; 1407, Cracow, “Dlugosz, Hist. Polonicæ,
l. x, p. 187;” 1494, Tyrnau, Ungerische
Chronica, 1581, p. 375; 1505, Budweis,
Stobbe, p. 292; 1509, Bösing, Hungary,
Eisenmenger, p. 222; 1569, Constantinople,
Fickler, Theologia Juridica, 1575, p. 505
(cited by Michel); 1598, Albertus, in Polonia,
Acta SS., April (circa 20), II, 835.
Train, as above, p. 98, note, adds, with authorities,
Pforzheim, Ueberlingen, Swäbisch-Hall,
Friuli, Halle, Eichstädt, Berlin. See
also Acta SS., April, III, 838 (De pluribus
innocentibus per Judæos excruciatis), March,
III, 589, and April, II, 505; and Drumont,
La France Juive, II, 392 f.
The charge against the Jews of murdering
children for their blood is by no means as yet
a thing of the past. The accusation has been
not infrequently made in Russia during the
present century. Although the entertaining
of such an inculpation was forbidden by an
imperial ukase in 1817, a criminal process on
this ground, involving forty-three persons, was
instituted in 1823, and was brought to a close
only in 1835, when the defendants were acquitted
on account of the entire failure of
proof: Stobbe, p. 186. The murder of a child
of six in Neuhoven, in the district of Düsseldorf,
in 1834, occasioned the demolition of
two Jewish houses and a synagogue: Illgen, in
Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie, 1837,
Heft 3, 40, note. In February, 1840, a Greek
boy of ten disappeared in Rhodes. The Jews
were believed to have killed him for his blood.
Torture was freely used to extort confessions.
The case was removed to Constantinople, and
in July, upon the report of the supreme court,
the Divan pronounced the innocence of the
243defendants: Illgen, Z. f. d. Hist. Theol., 1841,
Heft 4, p. 172, note, Hume, Sir Hugh of
Lincoln, p. 30.[142] In 1881, the Jews were in
suspicion on account of a boy at Alexandria,
and of a girl at Calarasi, Wallachia: Civiltà
Cattolica, VIII, 225, 737. The Moniteur de
Rome, June 15, 1883, affords several more
of these too familiar tales. A Greek child
was stolen at Smyrna, a few years before the
date last mentioned, towards the time of the
Passover, and its body found four days after,
punctured with pins in a thousand places.
The mother, like Beatrice in 1255, denounced
the Jews as the culprits; the Christian population
rose in a mass, rushed to the Jews’
quarter, and massacred more than six hundred.
An affair of the same nature took place
at Balata, the Ghetto of Constantinople, in
1842, of which the consequences to the Jews
are not mentioned; and again at Galata,
“where the Jews escaped by bribing the
Turkish police to suppress testimony” (Drumont,
II, 412). A young girl disappeared at
Tisza-Eszlár, in Hungary, in April, 1882, and
the Jews were suspected of having made away
with her. The preliminary judicial inquiry
was marked by the intimidation and torture
of several persons examined for evidence. Fifteen
who were held for trial were absolutely
acquitted in August, 1883, after more than a
year of imprisonment. The shops of Jews in
Budapest were plundered by Christians disappointed
in the verdict! (Der Blut-Prozess
von Tisza-Eszlár, New York, 1883.)
B is translated by Herder, I, 120; by Bodmer,
I, 59; in Seckendorf’s Musenalmanach
für das Jahr 1808, p. 5; by Doering, p. 163;
by Von Marées, p. 48. Allingham’s ballad by
Knortz, Lieder u. Romanzen Alt-Englands,
p. 118.
Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 151, as taken down by the
editor from Mrs Brown’s recitation.
1
Four and twenty bonny boys
Were playing at the ba,
And by it came him sweet Sir Hugh,
And he playd oer them a’.
2
He kickd the ba with his right foot,
And catchd 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 walkd 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.
2449
She’s rowd 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 taen her mantle her about,
Her coffer by the hand,
And she’s gane out to seek her son,
And wanderd oer 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 neard Our Lady’s deep draw-well,
Was fifty fathom deep:
‘Whareer 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 neer was such a burial
Sin Adam’s days begun.
Percy’s Reliques, I, 32, 1765; from a manuscript copy sent
from Scotland.
1
The rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,
Sae dois it doune the Pa;
Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune,
Whan they play at the ba.
2
Than out and cam the Jewis dochter,
Said, Will ye cum in and dine?
‘I winnae cum in, I cannae cum in,
Without my play-feres nine.’
3
Scho powd an apple reid and white,
To intice the yong thing in:
Scho powd an apple white and reid,
And that the sweit bairne did win.
4
And scho has taine out a little pen-knife,
And low down by her gair;
Scho has twin’d the yong thing and his life,
A word he nevir spak mair.
5
And out and cam the thick, thick bluid,
And out and cam the thin,
And out and cam the bonny herts bluid;
Thair was nae life left in.
6
Scho laid him on a dressing-borde,
And drest him like a swine,
And laughing said, Gae nou and pley
With your sweit play-feres nine.
7
Scho rowd him in a cake of lead,
Bade him lie stil and sleip;
Scho cast him in a deip draw-well,
Was fifty fadom deip.
8
Whan bells wer rung, and mass was sung,
And every lady went hame,
Than ilka lady had her yong sonne,
Bot Lady Helen had nane.
9
Scho rowd hir mantil hir about,
And sair, sair gan she weip,
And she ran into the Jewis castel,
Whan they wer all asleip.
10
‘My bonny Sir Hew, my pretty Sir Hew,
I pray thee to me speik:’
‘O lady, rinn to the deip draw-well,
Gin ye your sonne wad seik.’
24511
Lady Helen ran to the deip draw-well,
And knelt upon her kne:
‘My bonny Sir Hew, an ye be here,
I pray thee speik to me.’
12
‘The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,
The well is wondrous deip;
A keen pen-knife sticks in my hert,
A word I dounae speik.
13
‘Gae hame, gae hame, my mither deir,
Fetch me my windling sheet,
And at the back o Mirry-land toun,
It’s thair we twa sall meet.’
Percy papers; communicated to Percy by Paton, in 1768
or 69, and derived from a friend of Paton’s.
1
Four and twenty bonny boys
War playing at the ba;
Then up and started sweet Sir Hew,
The flower amang them a’.
2
He hit the ba a kick wi’s fit,
And kept it wi his knee,
That up into the Jew’s window
He gart the bonny ba flee.
3
‘Cast doun the ba to me, fair maid,
Cast doun the ba to me;’
‘O neer a bit o the ba ye get
Till ye cum up to me.
4
‘Cum up, sweet Hew, cum up, dear Hew,
Cum up and get the ba;’
‘I canna cum, I darna cum,
Without my play-feres twa.’
5
‘Cum up, sweet Hew, cum up, dear Hew,
Cum up and play wi me;’
‘I canna cum, I darna cum,
Without my play-feres three.’
6
She’s gane into the Jew’s garden,
Where the grass grew lang and green;
She powd an apple red and white,
To wyle the young thing in.
7
She wyl’d him into ae chamber,
She wyl’d him into twa,
She wyl’d him to her ain chamber,
The fairest o them a’.
8
She laid him on a dressing-board,
Where she did sometimes dine;
She put a penknife in his heart,
And dressed him like a swine.
9
Then out and cam the thick, thick blude,
Then out and cam the thin;
Then out and cam the bonny heart’s blude,
Where a’the life lay in.
10
She rowd him in a cake of lead,
Bad him lie still and sleep;
She cast him in the Jew’s draw-well,
Was fifty fadom deep.
11
She’s tane her mantle about her head,
Her pike-staff in her hand,
And prayed Heaven to be her guide
Unto some uncouth land.
12
His mither she cam to the Jew’s castle,
And there ran thryse about:
‘O sweet Sir Hew, gif ye be here,
I pray ye to me speak.’
13
She cam into the Jew’s garden,
And there ran thryse about:
‘O sweet Sir Hew, gif ye be here,
I pray ye to me speak.’
14
She cam unto the Jew’s draw-well,
And there ran thryse about:
‘O sweet Sir Hew, gif ye be here,
I pray ye to me speak.’
15
‘How can I speak, how dare I speak,
How can I speak to thee?
The Jew’s penknife sticks in my heart,
I canna speak to thee.
16
‘Gang hame, gang hame, O mither dear,
And shape my winding sheet,
And at the birks of Mirryland town
There you and I shall meet.’
17
Whan bells war rung, and mass was sung,
And a’men bound for bed,
Every mither had her son,
But sweet Sir Hew was dead.
246
Herd’s MS., I, 213; stanzas 7–10, II, 219.
1
A’the boys of merry Linkim
War playing at the ba,
An up it stands him sweet Sir Hugh,
The flower amang them a’.
2
He keppit the ba than wi his foot,
And catchd it wi his knee,
And even in at the Jew’s window
He gart the bonny ba flee.
3
‘Cast out the ba to me, fair maid,
Cast out the ba to me!’
‘Ah never a bit of it,’ she says,
‘Till ye come up to me.
4
‘Come up, sweet Hugh, come up, dear Hugh,
Come up and get the ba’!’
‘I winna come up, I mayna come [up],
Without my bonny boys a’.’
5
‘Come up, sweet Hugh, come up, dear Hugh,
Come up and speak to me!’
‘I mayna come up, I winna come up,
Without my bonny boys three.’
6
She’s taen her to the Jew’s garden,
Where the grass grew lang and green,
She’s pu’d an apple reid and white,
To wyle the bonny boy in.
7
She’s wyl’d him in thro ae chamber,
She’s wyl’d him in thro twa,
She’s wyl’d him till her ain chamber,
The flower out owr them a’.
8
She’s laid him on a dressin-board,
Whare she did often dine;
She stack a penknife to his heart,
And dressd him like a swine.
9
She rowd him in a cake of lead,
Bade him lie still and sleep;
She threw him i the Jew’s draw-well,
’Twas fifty fathom deep.
10
Whan bells was rung, and mass was sung,
An a’ man bound to bed,
Every lady got hame her son,
But sweet Sir Hugh was dead.
Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 51, as taken down from the
recitation of a lady.
1
Yesterday was brave Hallowday,
And, above all days of the year,
The schoolboys all got leave to play,
And little Sir Hugh was there.
2
He kicked the ball with his foot,
And kepped it with his knee,
And even in at the Jew’s window
He gart the bonnie ba flee.
3
Out then came the Jew’s daughter:
‘Will ye come in and dine?’
‘I winna come in, and I canna come in,
Till I get that ball of mine.
4
‘Throw down that ball to me, maiden,
Throw down the ball to me!’
‘I winna throw down your ball, Sir Hugh,
Till ye come up to me.’
5
She pu’d the apple frae the tree,
It was baith red and green;
She gave it unto little Sir Hugh,
With that his heart did win.
6
She wiled him into ae chamber,
She wiled him into twa,
She wiled him into the third chamber,
And that was warst o’t a’.
7
She took out a little penknife,
Hung low down by her spare,
She twined this young thing o his life,
And a word he neer spak mair.
8
And first came out the thick, thick blood,
And syne came out the thin,
And syne came out the bonnie heart’s blood,
There was nae mair within.
9
She laid him on a dressing-table,
She dressd him like a swine;
Says, Lie ye there, my bonnie Sir Hugh,
Wi yere apples red and green!
24710
She put him in a case of lead,
Says, Lie ye there and sleep!
She threw him into the deep draw-well,
Was fifty fathom deep.
11
A schoolboy walking in the garden
Did grievously hear him moan;
He ran away to the deep draw-well,
And fell down on his knee.
12
Says, Bonnie Sir Hugh, and pretty Sir Hugh,
I pray you speak to me!
If you speak to any body in this world,
I pray you speak to me.
13
When bells were rung, and mass was sung,
And every body went hame,
Then every lady had her son,
But Lady Helen had nane.
14
She rolled her mantle her about,
And sore, sore did she weep;
She ran away to the Jew’s castle,
When all were fast asleep.
15
She cries, Bonnie Sir Hugh, O pretty Sir Hugh,
I pray you speak to me!
If you speak to any body in this world,
I pray you speak to me.
16
‘Lady Helen, if ye want your son,
I’ll tell ye where to seek;
Lady Helen, if ye want your son,
He’s in the well sae deep.’
17
She ran away to the deep draw-well,
And she fell down on her knee,
Saying, Bonnie Sir Hugh, O pretty Sir Hugh,
I pray ye speak to me!
If ye speak to any body in the world,
I pray ye speak to me.
18
‘Oh the lead it is wondrous heavy, mother,
The well it is wondrous deep;
The little penknife sticks in my throat,
And I downa to ye speak.
19
‘But lift me out o this deep draw-well,
And bury me in yon churchyard;
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
20
‘Put a Bible at my head,’ he says,
‘And a Testament at my feet,
And pen and ink at every side,
And I’ll lie still and sleep.
21
‘And go to the back of Maitland town,
Bring me my winding sheet;
For it’s at the back of Maitland town
That you and I shall meet.’
22
O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom,
The broom that makes full sore,
A woman’s mercy is very little,
But a man’s mercy is more.
Hume’s Sir Hugh of Lincoln, p. 35, obtained from recitation
in Ireland.
1
’Twas on a summer’s morning
Some scholars were playing at ball,
When out came the Jew’s daughter
And leand her back against the wall.
2
She said unto the fairest boy,
Come here to me, Sir Hugh;
‘No! I will not,’ said he,
‘Without my playfellows too.’
3
She took an apple out of her pocket,
And trundled it along the plain,
And who was readiest to lift it
Was little Sir Hugh again.
4
She took him by the milk-white han,
An led him through many a hall,
Until they came to one stone chamber,
Where no man might hear his call.
5
She set him in a goolden chair,
And jaggd him with a pin,
And called for a goolden cup
To houl his heart’s blood in.
6
She tuk him by the yellow hair,
An also by the feet,
An she threw him in the deep draw-well;
It was fifty fadom deep.
2487
Day bein over, the night came on,
And the scholars all went home;
Then every mother had her son,
But little Sir Hugh’s had none.
8
She put her mantle about her head,
Tuk a little rod in her han,
An she says, Sir Hugh, if I fin you here,
I will bate you for stayin so long.
9
First she went to the Jew’s door,
But they were fast asleep;
An then she went to the deep draw-well,
That was fifty fadom deep.
10
She says, Sir Hugh, if you be here,
As I suppose you be,
If ever the dead or quick arose,
Arise and spake to me.
11
‘Yes, mother dear, I am here,
I know I have staid very long;
But a little penknife was stuck in my heart,
Till the stream ran down full strong.
12
‘And mother dear, when you go home,
Tell my playfellows all
That I lost my life by leaving them,
When playing that game of ball.
13
‘And ere another day is gone,
My winding-sheet prepare,
And bury me in the green churchyard,
Where the flowers are bloomin fair.
14
‘Lay my Bible at my head,
My Testament at my feet;
The earth and worms shall be my bed,
Till Christ and I shall meet.’
a. Written down by Mrs Dulany, January 14, 1885,
from the recitation of her mother, Mrs Nourse, aged above
ninety, as learned when a child, in Philadelphia. b. From
the same source, furnished several years earlier by Miss
Perine, of Baltimore.
1
It rains, it rains in old Scotland,
And down the rain does fa,
And all the boys in our town
Are out a playing at ba.
2
‘You toss your balls too high, my boys,
You toss your balls too low;
You’ll toss them into the Jew’s garden,
Wherein you darst not go.’
3
Then out came one of the Jew’s daughters,
All dressed in red and green:
‘Come in, come in, my pretty little boy,
And get your ball again.’
4
‘I winna come in, and I canna come in,
Without my playmates all,
And without the will of my mother dear,
Which would cause my heart’s blood to fall.’
5
She shewed him an apple as green as grass,
She shewed him a gay gold ring,
She shewed him a cherry as red as blood,
Which enticed the little boy in.
6
She took him by the lily-white hand,
And led him into the hall,
And laid him on a dresser-board,
And that was the worst of all.
7
She laid the Bible at his head,
The Prayer-Book at his feet,
And with a penknife small
She stuck him like a sheep.
8
Six pretty maids took him by the head,
And six took him by the feet,
And threw him into a deep draw-well,
That was eighteen fathoms deep.
* * * * *
9
‘The lead is wondrous heavy, mother,
The well is wondrous deep,
A keen pen-knife sticks in my heart,
And nae word more can I speak.’
249
Communicated by Miss Perine, of Baltimore, Maryland,
as sung by her mother about 1825.
1
It rains, it rains in fair Scotland,
It rains both great and small
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
2
He tossed the hall so high, so low,
He tossed the ball so low,
He tossed it over the Jew’s garden-wall,
Where no one dared to go.
3
Out came one of the Jew’s daughters,
All dressed in apple-green;
Said she, My dear little boy, come in,
And pick up your ball again.
4
‘I dare not come, I will not come,
I dare not come at all;
For if I should, I know you would
Cause my blood to fall.’
5
She took him by the lily-white hand,
And led him thro the kitchen;
And there he saw his own dear maid
A roasting of a chicken.
6
She put him in a little chair,
And pinned him with a pin,
And then she called for a wash-basin,
To spill his life blood in.
7
‘O put the Bible at my head,
And the Testament at my feet,
And when my mother calls for me,
You may tell her I’m gone to sleep.’
Sir E. Brydges, Restituta, I, 381, “obtained some years
since” (1814) from the recitation of an aged lady.
1
It rains, it rains in merry Scotland,
It rains both great and small,
And all the children in merry Scotland
Are playing at the ball.
2
They toss the ball so high, so high,
They toss the ball so low,
They toss the ball in the Jew’s garden,
Where the Jews are sitting a row.
3
Then up came one of the Jew’s daughters,
Cloathed all in green:
‘Come hither, come hither, my pretty Sir Hugh,
And fetch thy ball again.’
4
‘I durst not come, I durst not go,
Without my play-fellowes all;
For if my mother should chance to know,
She’d cause my blood to fall.’
* * * * *
5
She laid him upon the dresser-board,
And stuck him like a sheep;
She laid the Bible at his head,
The Testament at his feet,
The Catechise-Book in his own heart’s blood,
With a penknife stuck so deep.
* * * * *
a. Notes and Queries, First Series, XII, 496, B. H. C.,
from the manuscript of an old lacemaker in Northamptonshire.
b. N. and Q., First Series, VIII, 614, B. H. C.,
from memory, stanzas 1–6.
1
It rains, it rains in merry Scotland,
Both little, great and small,
And all the schoolfellows in merry Scotland
Must needs go play at ball.
2
They tossd the ball so high, so high,
With that it came down so low;
They tossd it over the old Jew’s gates,
And broke the old Jew’s window.
3
The old Jew’s daughter she came out,
Was clothed all in green:
‘Come hither, come hither, you young Sir Hugh,
And fetch your ball again.’
2504
‘I dare not come, nor I will not come,
Without my schoolfellows come all;
For I shall be beaten when I go home
For losing of my ball.’
5
She ‘ticed him with an apple so red,
And likewise with a fig;
She threw him over the dresser-board,
And sticked him like a pig.
6
The first came out the thickest of blood,
The second came out so thin,
The third came out the child’s heart-blood,
Where all his life lay in.
7
‘O spare my life! O spare my life!
O spare my life!’ said he;
‘If ever I live to be a young man,
I’ll do as good chare for thee.’
8
‘I’ll do as good chare for thy true love
As ever I did for the king;
I will scour a basin as bright as silver
To let your heart-blood run in.’
9
When eleven o’clock was past and gone,
And all the school-fellows came home,
Every mother had her own child
But young Sir Hugh’s mother had none.
10
She went up Lincoln and down Lincoln,
And all about Lincoln street,
With her small wand in her right hand,
Thinking of her child to meet.
11
She went till she came to the old Jew’s gate,
She knocked with the ring;
Who should be so ready as the old Jew herself
To rise and let her in!
12
‘What news, fair maid? what news, fair maid?
What news have you brought to me?
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
13
‘Have you seen any of my child today,
Or any of the rest of my kin?’
‘No, I’ve seen none of your child today,
Nor none of the rest of your kin.’
Notes and Queries, First Series, IX, 320; taken down by
S. P. Q. from the recitation of a nurse-maid in Shropshire
about 1810. Salopian Shreds and Patches, July 21, 1875,
in Miss Burne’s Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 539.
1
It hails, it rains, in Merry-Cock land,
It hails, it rains, both great and small,
And all the little children in Merry-Cock land
They have need to play at ball.
2
They tossd the ball so high,
They tossd the ball so low,
Amongst all the Jews’ cattle,
And amongst the Jews below.
3
Out came one of the Jew’s daughters,
Dressed all in green:
‘Come, my sweet Saluter,
And fetch the ball again.’
4
‘I durst not come, I must not come,
Unless all my little playfellows come along;
For if my mother sees me at the gate,
She’ll cause my blood to fall.
5
‘She showd me an apple as green as grass,
She showd me a gay gold ring;
She showd me a cherry as red as blood,
And so she entic’d me in.
6
‘She took me in the parlor,
She took me in the kitchen,
And there I saw my own dear nurse,
A picking of a chicken.
7
‘She laid me down to sleep,
With a Bible at my head and a Testament at my feet;
And if my playfellows come to quere for me,
Tell them I am asleep.’
251
a. Communicated in a letter from the Rev. E. Venables,
Precentor of Lincoln, as sung to him by a nurse-maid nearly
sixty years ago, January 24, 1885. A Buckinghamshire version.
b. A Walk through Lincoln Minster, by the Rev. E.
Venables, p. 41, 1884.
1
It rains, it hails in merry Lincoln,
It rains both great and small,
And all the boys and girls today
Do play at pat the ball.
2
They patted the ball so high, so high,
They patted the ball so low,
They patted it into the Jew’s garden,
Where all the Jews do go.
3
Then out it spake the Jew’s daughter,
As she leant over the wall;
‘Come hither, come hither, my pretty play-fellow,
And I’ll give you your ball.’
4
She tempted him [in] with apple so red,
But that wouldnt tempt him in;
She tempted him in with sugar so sweet,
And so she got him in.
5
Then she put forth her lilly-white hand,
And led him through the hall:
‘This way, this way, my pretty play-fellow,
And you shall have your ball.’
6
She led him on through one chamber,
And so she did through nine,
Until she came to her own chamber,
Where she was wont to dine,
And she laid him on a dressing-board,
And sticket him like a swine.
7
Then out it came the thick, thick blood,
And out it came the thin,
And out it came the bonnie heart’s blood,
There was no more within.
F. H. Groome, In Gipsy Tents, 1880, p. 145: “first heard
at Shepherd’s Bush, in 1872, from little Amy North.”
1
Down in merry, merry Scotland
It rained both hard and small;
Two little boys went out one day,
All for to play with a ball.
2
They tossed it up so very, very high,
They tossed it down so low;
They tossed it into the Jew’s garden,
Where the flowers all do blow.
3
Out came one of the Jew’s daughters,
Dressëd in green all:
‘If you come here, my fair pretty lad,
You shall have your ball.’
4
She showed him an apple as green as grass;
The next thing was a fig;
The next thing a cherry as red as blood,
And that would ‘tice him in.
5
She set him on a golden chair,
And gave him sugar sweet;
Laid him on some golden chest of drawers,
Stabbed him like a sheep.
6
‘Seven foot Bible
At my head and my feet;
If my mother pass by me,
Pray tell her I’m asleep.’
Newell’s Games and Songs of American Children, p. 75,
as sung by a little girl in New York: derived, through her
mother, from a grandmother born in Ireland.
1
It was on a May, on a midsummer’s day,
When it rained, it did rain small;
And little Harry Hughes and his playfellows all
Went out to play the ball.
2
He knocked it up, and he knocked it down,
He knocked it oer and oer;
The very first kick little Harry gave the ball,
He broke the duke’s windows all.
3
She came down, the youngest duke’s daughter,
She was dressed in green:
‘Come back, come back, my pretty little boy,
And play the ball again.’
2524
‘I wont come back, and I daren’t come back,
Without my playfellows all;
And if my mother she should come in,
She’d make it the bloody ball.’
5
She took an apple out of her pocket,
And rolled it along the plain;
Little Harry Hughes picked up the apple,
And sorely rued the day.
6
She takes him by the lily-white hand,
And leads him from hall to hall,
Until she came to a little dark room,
That no one could hear him call.
7
She sat herself on a golden chair,
Him on another close by,
And there’s where she pulled out her little penknife,
That was both sharp and fine.
8
Little Harry Hughes had to pray for his soul,
For his days were at an end;
She stuck her penknife in little Harry’s heart,
And first the blood came very thick, and then came very thin.
9
She rolled him in a quire of tin,
That was in so many a fold;
She rolled him from that to a little draw-well,
That was fifty fathoms deep.
10
‘Lie there, lie there, little Harry,’ she cried,
‘And God forbid you to swim,
If you be a disgrace to me,
Or to any of my friends.’
11
The day passed by, and the night came on,
And every scholar was home,
And every mother had her own child,
But poor Harry’s mother had none.
12
She walked up and down the street,
With a little sally rod in her hand,
And God directed her to the little draw-well,
That was fifty fathoms deep.
13
‘If you be there, little Harry,’ she said,
‘And God forbid you to be,
Speak one word to your own dear mother,
That is looking all over for thee.’
14
‘This I am, dear mother,’ he cried,
‘And lying in great pain,
With a little penknife lying close to my heart,
And the duke’s daughter she has me slain.
15
‘Give my blessing to my schoolfellows all,
And tell them to be at the church,
And make my grave both large and deep,
And my coffin of hazel and green birch.
16
‘Put my Bible at my head,
My busker (?) at my feet,
My little prayer-book at my right side,
And sound will be my sleep.’
G. A. Sala, Illustrated London News, October 21, 1882,
LXXXI, 415, repeated in Living London, 1883, p. 465:
heard from a nurse in childhood.
1
It rains, it rains, in merry Scotland,
It rains both great and small,
And all the children in merry Scotland
Must needs play at ball.
2
They toss the ball so high,
And they toss the ball so low;
They toss it into the Jew’s garden,
Where the Jews sate all of a row.
3
. . . . . . .
A-dressëd all in green:
‘Come in, come in, my pretty lad,
And you shall have your ball again.’
4
‘They set me in a chair of state,
And gave me sugar sweet;
They laid me on a dresser-board,
And stuck me like a sheep.
5
‘Oh lay a Bible at my head,
And a Prayer-Book at my feet!
In the well that they did throw me in,
Full five-and-fifty feet deep.’
253
Halliwell, Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln,
p. 37, Halliwell’s Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, p.
192, ed. 1849: communicated by Miss Agnes Strickland,
from oral tradition at Godalming, Surrey.
1
He tossed the ball so high, so high,
He tossed the ball so low,
He tossed the ball in the Jew’s garden,
And the Jews were all below.
2
Oh then out came the Jew’s daughter,
She was dressed all in green:
‘Come hither, come hither, my sweet pretty fellow,
And fetch your ball again.’
Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 54, as sung by Widow Michael,
an old woman in Barhead.
1
A’ the bairns o Lincolnshire
Were learning at the school,
And every Saturday at een
They learnt their lessons weel.
2
The Jew’s dochter sat in her bower-door,
Sewing at her seam;
She spied a’the bonnie bairns,
As they cam out and hame.
Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xvii, VII.
It was in the middle o the midsimmer tyme,
When the scule weans playd at the ba, ba,
Out and cam the Jew’s tochter,
And on little Sir Hew did ca, ca,
And on little Sir Hew did ca.
B.
Initial quh is changed to wh: z, for ȝ, to y.
C.
“‘The Jew’s Daughter,’ which you say was
transmitted to Mr Dodsley by a friend of
yours, never reached me, and Mr Dodsley
says he knows nothing of it. I wish you
would prevail on your friend to try to recollect
or recover it, and send me another copy
by you.” Percy to Paton, Jan. 12, 1769.
The copy in the Percy papers is in Paton’s
hand.
14. First written: The fairest o them a’.
74. First written: The flower amang them a’.
D.
104. bells were, in the second copy.
E.
92. a swan.
F.
Hume says, p. 5, that he first heard the ballad
in early boyhood; “it was afterwards
readily identified with Sir Hugh of Lincoln,
though the rustic minstrel from whom I received
it made no allusion to locality.” One
cannot tell whether this copy is the ballad
heard in early boyhood.
141. “This and the next verse are transposed.”
Hume.
G. a.
24. darest.
b.
12. doth fall.
13. When all.
14. Were out a playing ball.
21. We toss the balls so.
22. We toss the balls so.
23. We’ve tossed it.
24. Where no one dares to.
31. out and came the Jew’s daughter.
33. Said, Come.
41. will not come in, I cannot.
42. playfellows.
43. Nor for And.
44. Which will. After 4:
I must not come, I dare not come,
I cannot come at all,
For if my mother should call for me,
I cannot hear her call.
54. To entice this.
After 5 (compare Miss Perine’s own version, H 6):
She put him in a little chair,
She pinned him with a pin,
254And then she called for a wash-basin,
To spill his heart’s blood in.
63. dressing.
72. And the.
8 comes before 6.
83. they threw: deep dark well.
84. Was fifty fathoms.
9 wanting.
J.a.
64. Whereer.
b.
12. It rains both great.
22. And yet it.
33. thou young.
41. I dare not come, I dare not come.
42. Unless my.
43. And I shall be flogged when I get.
53. She laid him on the.
61. The thickest of blood did first come out.
63. The third that came was his dear heart’s
blood.
64. Where all his.
7–13 wanting.
K.
There are slight changes in the second copy.
42. all wanting.
51,3. The first as wanting.
L. a.
“After nearly sixty years my memory is not
altogether trustworthy, and I am not altogether
sure how far I have mixed up my
childish recollections with later forms of the
ballad which I have read.”
The singer tagged on to this fragment version
c of The Maid freed from the Gallows,
given at II, 352.
b.
13. For all.
31. it wanting.
41. him in.
44. And wiled the young thing in.
5. wanting.
61. him in through one dark door.
62. she has.
63,4. wanting.
65. She’s laid him.
After 7:
She’s rolled him in a cake of lead,
Bade him lie still and sleep,
And thrown him in St Mary’s well,
’Twas fifty fathoms deep.
When bells were rung, and mass was sung,
And all the boys came home,
Then every mother had her own son,
But Lady Maisy had none.
N.
“The writer was not a little surprised to hear
from a group of colored children, in the
streets of New York city (though in a more
incoherent form), the following ballad. He
traced the song to a little girl living in one
of the cabins near Central Park, from whom
he obtained this version.... The mother of
the family had herself been born in New
York, of Irish parentage, but had learned
from her own mother, and handed down to
her children, such legends of the past as the
ballad we cite.” Communicated to me by
Mr. Newell some considerable time before
publication.
O.
3. “One of the Jew’s daughters, ‘a-dressed all
in green,’ issues from the garden and says,
Come in, etc.”
255
THE
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH
POPULAR BALLADS
EDITED BY
FRANCIS JAMES CHILD
PART VI
156 QUEEN ELEANOR’S CONFESSION — A — B — C — D — E — F
257
A. a. ‘Queen Eleanor’s Confession,’ a broadside,
London, Printed for C. Bates, at the Sun and Bible
in Gilt-spur-street, near Pye-corner, Bagford Ballads,
II, No 26, British Museum (1685?). b. Another
broadside, Printed for C. Bates in Pye-corner,
Bagford Ballads, I, No 33 (1685?). c. Another
copy, Printed for C. Bates, in Pye-corner, reprinted
in Utterson’s Little Book of Ballads, p. 22. d. A
Collection of Old Ballads, 1723, I, 18.
B. Skene MS., p. 39.
C. ‘Queen Eleanor’s Confession,’ Buchan’s Gleanings,
p. 77.
D. ‘The Queen of England,’ Aytoun, Ballads of Scotland,
1859, I, 196.
E. ‘Queen Eleanor’s Confession,’ Kinloch’s Ancient
Scottish Ballads, p. 247.
F. ‘Earl Marshall,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 1.
Given in Percy’s Reliques, 1765, II, 145,
“from an old printed copy,” with some
changes by the editor, of which the more important
are in stanzas 2–4. F, “recovered
from recitation” by Motherwell, repeats Percy’s
changes in 2, 3, 104, and there is reason
to question whether this and the other
recited versions are anything more than traditional
variations of printed copies. The
ballad seems first to have got into print in
the latter part of the seventeenth century,
but was no doubt circulating orally some
time before that, for it is in the truly popular
tone. The fact that two friars hear the
confession would militate against a much earlier
date. In E there might appear to be
some consciousness of this irregularity; for
the Queen sends for a single friar, and the
King says he will be “a prelate old” and sit
in a dark corner; but none the less does the
King take an active part in the shrift.[143]
There is a Newcastle copy, “Printed and
sold by Robert Marchbank, in the Customhouse-Entry,”
among the Douce ballads in the
Bodleian Library, 3, fol. 80, and in the Roxburghe
collection, British Museum, III, 634.
This is dated in the Museum catalogue 1720?
Eleanor of Aquitaine was married to Henry
II of England in 1152, a few weeks after her
divorce from Louis VII of France, she being
then about thirty and Henry nineteen years of
age. “It is needless to observe,” says Percy,
“that the following ballad is altogether fabulous;
whatever gallantries Eleanor encouraged
in the time of her first husband, none are imputed
to her in that of her second.”
In Peele’s play of Edward I, 1593, the
story of this ballad is transferred from Henry
II and Eleanor of Aquitaine to Edward
Longshanks and that model of women and
wives, Eleanor of Castile, together with other
slanders which might less ridiculously have
been invented of Henry II’s Eleanor.[144] Edward’s
brother Edmund plays the part of the
Earl Marshall. The Queen dies; the King
bewails his loss in terms of imbecile affection,
and orders crosses to be reared at all the stages
of the funeral convoy. Peele’s Works, ed.
Dyce, I, 184 ff.
There are several sets of tales in which a
258husband takes a shrift-father’s place and hears
his wife’s confession. 1. A fabliau “Du chevalier
qui fist sa fame confesse,” Barbazan
et Méon, III, 229; Montaiglon, Recueil Général,
I, 178, No 16; Legrand, Fabliaux, etc.,
1829, IV, 132, with circumstances added by
Legrand. 2. Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles,
1432, No 78; Scala Celi, 1480, fol. 49;[145]Mensa
Philosophica, cited by Manni, Istoria del Decamerone,
p. 476; Doni, Novelle, Lucca, 1852,
Nov. xiii; Malespini, Ducento Novelle, No
92, Venice, 1609, I, 248; Kirchhof, Wendunmuth,
No 245, Oesterley, II, 535; La Fontaine,
“Le Mari Confesseur,” Contes, I, No
4. 3. Boccaccio, VII, 5.
In 1, 2, the husband discovers himself after
the confession; in 3 he is recognized by the
wife before she begins her shrift, which she
frames to suit her purposes. In all these, the
wife, on being reproached with the infidelity
which she had revealed, tells the husband
that she knew all the while that he was the
confessor, and gives an ingenious turn to her
apparently compromising disclosures which
satisfies him of her innocence. All these tales
have the cynical Oriental character, and, to a
healthy taste, are far surpassed by the innocuous
humor of the English ballad.
Oesterley, in his notes to Kirchhof, V, 103,
cites a number of German story-books in
which the tale may, in some form, be found;
also Hans Sachs, 4, 3, 7b.[146] In Bandello, Parte
Prima, No 9, a husband, not disguising himself,
prevails upon a priest to let him overhear
his wife’s confession, and afterwards
kills her.
Svend Grundtvig informed me that he had
six copies of an evidently recent (and very
bad) translation of Percy’s ballad, taken down
from recitation in different parts of Denmark.
In one of these Queen Eleanor is exchanged
for a Queen of Norway. Percy’s ballad is
also translated by Bodmer, II, 40; Ursinus,
p. 59; Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 513; Döring,
p. 373; Knortz, L. u. R. Alt-Englands, No
51.
a. A broadside, London, Printed for C. Bates, at the
Sun & Bible in Gilt-spur-street, near Pye-corner, Bagford
Ballads, II, No 26, 1685? b. A broadside, Printed for C.
Bates, in Pye-corner, Bagford Ballads, I, No 33, 1685?
c. Another copy of b, reprinted in Utterson’s Little Book
of Ballads, p. 22. d. A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723,
I, 18.
1
Queen Elenor was a sick woman,
And afraid that she should dye;
Then she sent for two fryars of France,
For to speak with them speedily.
2
The King calld down his nobles all,
By one, by two, and by three,
And sent away for Earl Martial,
For to speak with him speedily.
3
When that he came before the King,
He fell on his bended knee;
‘A boon, a boon! our gracious king,
That you sent so hastily.’
4
‘I’ll pawn my living and my lands,
My septer and my crown,
That whatever Queen Elenor says,
I will not write it down.
5
‘Do you put on one fryar’s coat,
And I’ll put on another,
And we will to Queen Elenor go,
One fryar like another.’
6
Thus both attired then they go;
When they came to Whitehall,
The bells they did ring, and the quiristers sing,
And the torches did light them all.
7
When that they came before the Queen,
They fell on their bended knee:
259‘A boon, a boon! our gracious queen,
That you sent so hastily.’
8
‘Are you two fryars of France?’ she said,
‘Which I suppose you be;
But if you are two English fryars,
Then hanged shall you be.’
9
‘We are two fryars of France,’ they said,
‘As you suppose we be;
We have not been at any mass
Since we came from the sea.’
10
‘The first vile thing that ere I did
I will to you unfold;
Earl Martial had my maidenhead,
Underneath this cloath of gold.’
11
‘That is a vile sin,’ then said the king,
‘God may forgive it thee!’
‘Amen! Amen!’ quoth Earl Martial,
With a heavy heart then spoke he.
12
‘The next vile thing that ere I did
To you I’ll not deny;
I made a box of poyson strong,
To poyson King Henry.’
13
‘That is a vile sin,’ then said the King,
‘God may forgive it thee!’
‘Amen! Amen!’ quoth Earl Martial,
‘And I wish it so may be.’
14
‘The next vile thing that ere I did
To you I will discover;
I poysoned Fair Rosamond,
All in fair Woodstock bower.’
15
‘That is a vile sin,’ then said the King,
‘God may forgive it thee!’
‘Amen! Amen!’ quoth Earl Martial,
‘And I wish it so may be.’
16
‘Do you see yonders little boy,
A tossing of that ball?
That is Earl Martialś eldest son,
And I love him the best of all.
17
‘Do you see yonders little boy,
A catching of the ball?
That is King Henry’s son,’ she said,
‘And I love him the worst of all.
18
‘His head is like unto a bull,
His nose is like a boar;’
‘No matter for that,’ King Henry said,
‘I love him the better therefore.’
19
The King pulld of his fryar’s coat,
And appeard all in red;
She shriekd and she cry’d, she wrong her hands,
And said she was betrayd.
20
The King lookd over his left shoulder,
And a grim look looked he,
And said, Earl Martial, but for my oath,
Then hanged shouldst thou be.
Skene MS., p. 39.
1
Our queen’s sick, an very sick,
She’s sick an like to die;
She has sent for the friars of France,
To speak wi her speedilie.
2
‘I’ll put on a friar’s robe,
An ye’ll put on anither,
An we’ll go to Madam the Queen,
Like friars bath thegither.’
3
‘God forbid,’ said Earl Marishall,
‘That ever the like shud be,
That I beguile Madam the Queen!
I wad be hangit hie.’
4
The King pat on a friar’s robe,
Earl Marishall on anither;
They’re on to the Queen,
Like friars baith thegither.
5
‘Gin ye be the friars of France,
As I trust well ye be—
But an ye be ony ither men,
Ye sall be hangit hie.’
6
The King he turnd him roun,
An by his troth sware he,
260We hae na sung messe
Sin we came frae the sea.
7
‘The first sin ever I did,
An a very great sin ’twas tee,
I gae my maidenhead to Earl Marishall,
Under the greenwood tree.’
8
‘That was a sin, an a very great sin,
But pardond it may be;’
‘Wi mendiment,’ said Earl Marishall,
But a heavy heart had he.
9
‘The next sin ever I did,
An a very great sin ’twas tee,
I poisened Lady Rosamond,
An the King’s darling was she.’
10
‘That was a sin, an a very great sin,
But pardond it may be;’
‘Wi mendiment,’ said King Henry,
But a heavy heart had he.
11
‘The next sin ever I did,
An a very great sin ’twas tee,
I keepit poison in my bosom seven years,
To poison him King Henrie.’
12
‘That was a sin, an a very great sin,
But pardond it may be;’
‘Wi mendiment,’ said King Henry,
But a heavy heart had he.
13
‘O see na ye yon bonny boys,
As they play at the ba?
An see na ye Lord Marishal’s son?
I lee him best of a’.
14
‘But see na ye King Henry’s son?
He’s headit like a bull, and backit like a boar,
I like him warst awa:’
‘And by my sooth,’ says him King Henry,
‘I like him best o the twa.’
15
The King he turned him roun,
Pat on the coat o goud,
. . . . . . .
The Queen turnd the King to behold.
16
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
‘Gin I hadna sworn by the crown and sceptre roun,
Earl Marishal sud been gart die.’
Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 77.
1
The Queen’s faen sick, and very, very sick,
Sick, and going to die,
And she’s sent for twa friars of France,
To speak with her speedilie.
2
The King he said to the Earl Marischal,
To the Earl Marischal said he,
The Queen she wants twa friars frae France,
To speak with her presentlie.
3
Will ye put on a friar’s coat,
And I’ll put on another,
And we’ll go in before the Queen,
Like friars both together.
4
‘But O forbid,’ said the Earl Marischal,
‘That I this deed should dee!
For if I beguile Eleanor our queen,
She will gar hang me hie.’
5
The King he turned him round about,
An angry man was he;
He’s sworn by his sceptre and his sword
Earl Marischal should not die.
6
The King has put on a friar’s coat,
Earl Marischal on another,
And they went in before the Queen,
Like friars both together.
7
‘O, if ye be twa friars of France,
Ye’re dearly welcome to me;
But if ye be twa London friars,
I will gar hang you hie.’
8
‘Twa friars of France, twa friars of France,
Twa friars of France are we,
And we vow we never spoke to a man
Till we spake to Your Majesty.’
9
‘The first great sin that eer I did,
And I’ll tell you it presentlie,
261Earl Marischal got my maidenhead,
When coming oer the sea.’
10
‘That was a sin, and a very great sin,
But pardoned it may be;’
‘All that with amendment,’ said Earl Marischal,
But a quacking heart had he.
11
‘The next great sin that eer I did,
I’ll tell you it presentlie;
I carried a box seven years in my breast,
To poison King Henrie.’
12
‘O that was a sin, and a very great sin,
But pardoned it may be;’
‘All that with amendment,’ said Earl Marischal,
But a quacking heart had he.
13
‘The next great sin that eer I did,
I’ll tell you it presentlie;
I poisoned the Lady Rosamond,
And a very good woman was she.
14
‘See ye not yon twa bonny boys,
As they play at the ba?
The eldest of them is Marischal’s son,
And I love him best of a’;
The youngest of them is Henrie’s son,
And I love him none at a’
15
‘For he is headed like a bull, a bull,
He is backed like a boar;’
‘Then by my sooth,’ King Henrie said,
‘I love him the better therefor.’
16
The King has cast off his friar’s coat,
Put on a coat of gold;
The Queen she’s turned her face about,
She could not ’s face behold.
17
The King then said to Earl Marischal,
To the Earl Marischal said he,
Were it not for my sceptre and sword,
Earl Marischall, ye should die.
Aytoun’s Ballads of Scotland, 2d edition, I, 196, from the
recitation of a lady residing in Kirkcaldy; learned of her
mother.
1
The queen of England she has fallen sick,
Sore sick, and like to die;
And she has sent for twa French priests,
To bear her companie.
2
The King he has got word o this,
And an angry man was he;
And he is on to the Earl-a-Marshall,
As fast as he can gae.
3
‘Now you’ll put on a priest’s robe,
And I’ll put on anither,
And we will on unto the Queen,
Like twa French priests thegither.’
4
‘No indeed!’ said the Earl-a-Marshall,
‘That winna I do for thee,
Except ye swear by your sceptre and crown
Ye’ll do me nae injurie.’
5
The King has sworn by his sceptre and crown
He’ll do him nae injurie,
And they are on unto the Queen,
As fast as they can gae.
6
‘O, if that ye be twa French priests,
Ye’re welcome unto me;
But if ye be twa Scottish lords,
High hanged ye shall be.
7
‘The first sin that I did sin,
And that to you I’ll tell,
I sleeped wi the Earl-a-Marshall,
Beneath a silken bell.
8
‘And wasna that a sin, and a very great sin?
And I pray ye pardon me;’
‘Amen, and amen!’ said the Earl-a-Marshall,
And a wearied man was he.
9
‘The neist sin that I did sin,
And that to you I’ll tell,
I keeped the poison seven years in my bosom,
To poison the King himsel.
26210
‘And wasna that a sin, and a very great sin?
And I pray ye pardon me;’
‘Amen, and amen!’ said the Earl-a-Marshall,
And a wearied man was he.
11
‘O see ye there my seven sons,
A’playing at the ba?
There’s but ane o them the King’s himsel,
And I like him warst of a’.
12
‘He’s high-backed, and low-breasted,
And he is bald withal;’
‘And by my deed,’ and says the King,
‘I like him best mysel!
13
‘O wae betide ye, Earl-a-Marshall,
And an ill death may ye die!
For if I hadna sworn by my sceptre and crown,
High hanged ye should be.’
Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 247.
1
The Queen fell sick, and very, very sick,
She was sick, and like to dee,
And she sent for a friar oure frae France,
Her confessour to be.
2
King Henry, when he heard o that,
An angry man was he,
And he sent to the Earl Marshall,
Attendance for to gie.
3
‘The Queen is sick,’ King Henry cried,
‘And wants to be beshriven;
She has sent for a friar oure frae France;
By the rude, he were better in heaven!
4
‘But tak you now a friar’s guise,
The voice and gesture feign,
And when she has the pardon crav’d,
Respond to her, Amen!
5
‘And I will be a prelate old,
And sit in a corner dark,
To hear the adventures of my spouse,
My spouse, and her haly spark.’
6
‘My liege, my liege, how can I betray
My mistress and my queen?
O swear by the rude that no damage
From this shall be gotten or gien!’
7
‘I swear by the rude,’ quoth King Henry,
‘No damage shall be gotten or gien;
Come, let us spare no cure nor care
For the conscience o the Queen.’
* * * * *
8
‘O fathers, O fathers, I’m very, very sick,
I’m sick, and like to dee;
Some ghostly comfort to my poor soul
O tell if ye can gie!’
9
‘Confess, confess,’ Earl Marshall cried,
‘And you shall pardoned be;’
‘Confess, confess,’ the King replied,
‘And we shall comfort gie.’
10
‘Oh, how shall I tell the sorry, sorry tale!
How can the tale be told!
I playd the harlot wi the Earl Marshall,
Beneath yon cloth of gold.
11
‘Oh, wasna that a sin, and a very great sin?
But I hope it will pardoned be;’
‘Amen! Amen!’ quoth the Earl Marshall,
And a very feart heart had he.
12
‘O down i the forest, in a bower,
Beyond yon dark oak-tree,
I drew a penknife frae my pocket
To kill King Henerie.
13
‘Oh, wasna that a sin, and a very great sin?
But I hope it will pardoned be;’
‘Amen! Amen!’ quoth the Earl Marshall,
And a very feart heart had he.
14
‘O do you see yon pretty little boy,
That’s playing at the ba?
He is the Earl Marshall’s only son,
And I loved him best of a’.
15
‘Oh, wasna that a sin, and a very great sin?
But I hope it will pardoned be;’
‘Amen! Amen!’ quoth the Earl Marshall,
And a very feart heart had he.
26316
‘And do you see yon pretty little girl,
That’s a’beclad in green?
She’s a friar’s daughter, oure in France,
And I hoped to see her a queen.
17
‘Oh, wasna that a sin, and a very great sin?
But I hope it will pardoned be;’
‘Amen! Amen!’ quoth the Earl Marshall,
And a feart heart still had he.
18
‘O do you see yon other little boy,
That’s playing at the ba?
He is King Henry’s only son,
And I like him warst of a’.
19
‘He’s headed like a buck,’ she said,
‘And backed like a bear;’
‘Amen!’ quoth the King, in the King’s ain voice,
‘He shall be my only heir.’
20
The King lookd over his left shoulder,
An angry man was he:
‘An it werna for the oath I sware,
Earl Marshall, thou shouldst dee.’
Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 1; from recitation.
1
Queene Eleanor was a sick woman,
And sick just like to die,
And she has sent for two fryars of France,
To come to her speedilie.
And she has sent, etc.
2
The King called downe his nobles all,
By one, by two, by three:
‘Earl Marshall, I’ll go shrive the Queene,
And thou shalt wend with mee.’
3
‘A boone, a boone!’ quoth Earl Marshall,
And fell on his bended knee,
‘That whatsoever the Queene may say,
No harm thereof may bee.’
4
‘O you’ll put on a gray-friar’s gowne,
And I’ll put on another,
And we will away to fair London town,
Like friars both together.’
5
‘O no, O no, my liege, my king,
Such things can never bee;
For if the Queene hears word of this,
Hanged she’ll cause me to bee.’
6
‘I swear by the sun, I swear by the moon,
And by the stars so hie,
And by my sceptre and my crowne,
The Earl Marshall shall not die.’
7
The King’s put on a gray-friar’s gowne,
The Earl Marshall’s put on another,
And they are away to fair London towne,
Like fryars both together.
8
When that they came to fair London towne,
And came into Whitehall,
The bells did ring, and the quiristers sing,
And the torches did light them all.
9
And when they came before the Queene,
They kneeled down on their knee:
‘What matter, what matter, our gracious queene,
You’ve sent so speedilie?’
10
‘O, if you are two fryars of France,
It’s you that I wished to see;
But if you are two English lords,
You shall hang on the gallowes-tree.’
11
‘O we are not two English lords,
But two fryars of France we bee,
And we sang the Song of Solomon,
As we came over the sea.’
12
‘Oh, the first vile sin I did commit
Tell it I will to thee;
I fell in love with the Earl Marshall,
As he brought me over the sea.’
13
‘Oh, that was a great sin,’ quoth the King,
‘But pardond it must bee;’
‘Amen! Amen!’ said the Earl Marshall,
With a heavie heart spake hee.
14
‘Oh, the next sin that I did commit
I will to you unfolde;
264Earl Marshall had my virgin dower,
Beneath this cloth of golde.’
15
‘Oh, that was a vile sin,’ said the King,
‘May God forgive it thee!’
‘Amen! Amen!’ groaned the Earl Marshall,
And a very frightened man was hee.
16
‘Oh, the next sin that I did commit
Tell it I will to thee;
I poisoned a lady of noble blood,
For the sake of King Henrie.’
17
‘Oh, that was a great sin,’ said the King,
‘But pardoned it shall bee;’
‘Amen! Amen!’ said the Earl Marshall,
And still a frightened man was he.
18
‘Oh, the next sin that ever I did
Tell it I will to thee;
I have kept strong poison this seven long years,
To poison King Henrie.’
19
‘Oh, that was a great sin,’ said the King,
‘But pardoned it must bee;’
‘Amen! Amen!’ said the Earl Marshall,
And still a frightened man was hee.
20
‘O don’t you see two little boys,
Playing at the football?
O yonder is the Earl Marshall’s son,
And I like him best of all.
21
‘O don’t you see yon other little boy,
Playing at the football?
O that one is King Henrie’s son,
And I like him worst of all.
22
‘His head is like a black bull’s head,
His feet are like a bear;’
‘What matter! what matter!’ cried the King,
‘He’s my son, and my only heir.’
23
The King plucked off his fryar’s gowne,
And stood in his scarlet so red;
The Queen she turned herself in bed,
And cryed that she was betrayde.
24
The King lookt oer his left shoulder,
And a grim look looked he;
‘Earl Marshall,’ he said, ‘but for my oath,
Thou hadst swung on the gallowes-tree.’
A. a.
Queen Eleanor’s Confession: Shewing how
King Henry, with the Earl Martial, in
Fryars Habits, came to her, instead of
two Fryars from France, which she sent
for. To a pleasant New Tune. Both a
and b are dated in the Museum Catalogue
1670? “C. Bates, at Sun & Bible, near
St. Sepulchre’s Church, in Pye Corner,
1685.” Chappell.
101. thta ere.
142. disdover.
171. younders.
b.
Title the same, except came to see her.
163. Martial’s.
171. see then yonders.
201. his let.
c.
Title as in a.
43. whatsoever.
84. you shall.
162. catching of the.
163. Marshal’s.
171. see then yonders.
d.
Queen Eleanor’s Confession to the Two supposed
Fryars of France.
14. To speak with her.
22. and wanting.
24. For wanting.
41. I’ll pawn my lands the King then cry’d.
43. whatsoere.
51. on a.
54. Like fryar and his brother.
63. they wanting.
74. you.
82. As I.
104. Beneath this.
111, 131, 151. That’s.
114. then wanting.
162. of the.
163. Marshal’s.
164, 174. And wanting.
183. Henry cry’d.
193. shriekd, she cry’d, and wrung.
204. Or hanged.
E.
144. loved; love in Kinloch’s annotated copy.
F.
101, 111, 201,3, 211,3. Oh.
157 GUDE WALLACE — A — B — C — D — E — F — G — H
265
A. ‘On an honourable Achievement of Sir William
Wallace, near Falkirk,’ a chap-book of Four New
Songs and a Prophecy, 1745? Johnson’s Museum,
ed. 1853, D. Laing’s additions, IV, 458 *; Maidment’s
Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 83.
B. ‘Sir William Wallace,’ communicated to Percy by
Robert Lambe, of Norham, probably in 1768.
C. ‘Gude Wallace,’ Johnson’s Museum, p. 498, No
484, communicated by Robert Burns.
D. ‘Gude Wallace,’ communicated to Robert Chambers
by Elliot Anderson, 1827.
E. ‘Willie Wallace,’communicated to James Telfer by
A. Fisher.
F. ‘Willie Wallace,’ Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 114.
G. ‘Sir William Wallace,’ Alexander Laing’s Thistle
of Scotland, p. 100; Motherwell’s MS., p. 487.
H. ‘Wallace and his Leman,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the
North of Scotland, II, 226.
C is reprinted by Finlay, I, 103. It is
made the basis of a long ballad by Jamieson,
II, 166, and serves as a thread for Cunningham’s
‘Gude Wallace,’ Scottish Songs, I, 262.[147]F is repeated by Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p.
364, and by Aytoun, I, 54. A copy in the
Laing MSS, University of Edinburgh, Div.
II, 358, is C.
Blind Harry’s Wallace (of about 1460,
earlier than 1488) is clearly the source of this
ballad. A-F are derived from vv 1080–1119
of the Fifth Book. Here Wallace, on his
way to a hostelry with a comrade, met a
woman, who counselled them to pass by, if
Scots, for southrons were there, drinking and
talking of Wallace; twenty are there, making
great din, but no man of fence. “Wallace
went in and bad Benedicite.” The captain
said, Thou art a Scot, the devil thy nation
quell. Wallace drew, and ran the captain
through; “fifteen he straik and fifteen has he
slayn;” his comrade killed the other five.
The story of A-E is sufficiently represented
by that of A. Wallace comes upon a woman
washing, and asks her for tidings. There are
fifteen Englishmen at the hostelry seeking
Wallace. Had he money he would go thither.
She tells him out twenty shillings (for which
he takes off both hat and hood, and thanks
her reverently). He bows himself over a staff
and enters the hostelry, saying, Good ben be
here (in C, he bad Benedicite, in the words of
Blind Harry). The captain asks the crooked
carl where he was born, and the carl answers
that he is a Scot. The captain offers the carl
twenty shillings for a sight of Wallace. The
carl wants no better bode, or offer.[148] He
strikes the captain such a blow over the jaws
that he will never eat more, and sticks the
rest. Then he bids the goodwife get him
food, for he has eaten nothing for two days.
Ere the meal is ready, fifteen other Englishmen
light at the door. These he soon disposes
of, sticking five, trampling five in the
gutter, and hanging five in the wood.
F makes Wallace change clothes with a
266beggar, and ask charity at the inn. He kills
his thirty men between eight and four, and
then returning to the North-Inch (a common
lying along the Tay, near Perth) finds the
maid who was washing her lilie hands in st. 3
still “washing tenderlie.” He pulls out twenty
of the fifty pounds which he got from the
captain, and hands them over to the maid for
the good luck of her half-crown.
G has the change of clothes with the beggar,
found in F, and prefixes to the story of
the other versions another adventure of Wallace,
taken from the Fourth Book of Blind
Harry, vv 704–87. Wallace’s enemies have
seen him leaving his mistress’s house. They
seize her, threaten to burn her unless she
‘tells,’ and promise to marry her to a knight
if she will help to bring the rebel down.
Wallace returns, and she seeks to detain
him, but he says he must go back to his
men. Hereupon she falls to weeping, and
ends with confessing her treason. He asks
her if she repents; she says that to mend
the miss she would burn on a hill, and is forgiven.
Wallace puts on her gown and curches,
hiding his sword under his weed, tells the
armed men who are watching for him that
Wallace is locked in, and makes good speed
out of the gate. Two men follow him, for
he seems to be a stalwart quean; Wallace
turns on them and kills them. This is Blind
Harry’s story, and it will be observed to be
followed closely in the ballad, with the addition
of a pitcher in each hand to complete
the female disguise, and two more southrons
to follow and be killed. The first half of
this version is plainly a late piece of work,
very possibly of this century, much later than
the other, which itself need not be very old.
But the portions of Blind Harry’s poem out
of which these ballads were made were perhaps
themselves composed from older ballads,
and the restitution of the lyrical form may
have given us something not altogether unlike
what was sung in the fifteenth, or even
the fourteenth, century. The fragment H is,
as far as it goes, a repetition of G.
Bower (1444–49) says that after the battle
of Roslyn, 1298, Wallace took ship and went
to France, distinguishing himself by his valor
against pirates on the sea and against the
English on the continent, as ballads both in
France and Scotland testify.[149] A fragment
of a ballad relating to Wallace is preserved
in Constable’s MS. Cantus: Leyden’s Complaynt
of Scotland, p. 226.
Wallace parted his men in three
And sundrie gaits are gone.
C is translated by Arndt, Blütenlese, p.
198; F by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p.
69, No 22.
A chap-book of Four New Songs and a Prophecy, 1745?
The Scots Musical Museum, 1853, D. Laing’s additions, IV,
458 *; Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 83.
1
‘Had we a king,’ said Wallace then,
‘That our kind Scots might live by their own!
But betwixt me and the English blood
I think there is an ill seed sown.’
2
Wallace him over a river lap,
He lookd low down to a linn;
He was war of a gay lady
Was even at the well washing.
3
‘Well mot ye fare, fair madam,’ he said,
‘And ay well mot ye fare and see!
Have ye any tidings me to tell,
I pray you’ll show them unto me.’
4
‘I have no tidings you to tell,
Nor yet no tidings you to ken;
But into that hostler’s house
There’s fifteen of your Englishmen.
2675
‘And they are seeking Wallace there,
For they’ve ordained him to be slain:’
‘O God forbid!’ said Wallace then,
‘For he’s oer good a kind Scotsman.
6
‘But had I money me upon,
And evn this day, as I have none,
Then would I to that hostler’s house,
And evn as fast as I could gang.’
7
She put her hand in her pocket,
She told him twenty shillings oer her knee;
Then he took off both hat and hood,
And thankd the lady most reverently.
8
‘If eer I come this way again,
Well paid [your] money it shall be;’
Then he took off both hat and hood,
And he thankd the lady most reverently.
9
He leand him twofold oer a staff,
So did he threefold oer a tree,
And he’s away to the hostler’s house,
Even as fast as he might dree.
10
When he came to the hostler’s house,
He said, Good-ben be here! quoth he:
An English captain, being deep load,
He asked him right cankerdly,
11
Where was you born, thou crooked carle,
And in what place, and what country?
’Tis I was born in fair Scotland,
A crooked carle although I be.’
12
The English captain swore by th’ rood,
‘We are Scotsmen as well as thee,
And we are seeking Wallace; then
To have him merry we should be.’
13
‘The man,’ said Wallace, ‘ye’re looking for,
I seed him within these days three;
And he has slain an English captain,
And ay the fearder the rest may be.’
14
‘I’d give twenty shillings,’ said the captain,
‘To such a crooked carle as thee,
If you would take me to the place
Where that I might proud Wallace see.’
15
‘Hold out your hand,’ said Wallace then,
‘And show your money and be free,
For tho you’d bid an hundred pound,
I never bade a better bode,’ [said he].
16
He struck the captain oer the chafts,
Till that he never chewed more;
He stickd the rest about the board,
And left them all a sprawling there.
17
‘Rise up, goodwife,’ said Wallace then,
‘And give me something for to eat;
For it’s near two days to an end
Since I tasted one bit of meat.’
18
His board was scarce well covered,
Nor yet his dine well scantly dight,
Till fifteen other Englishmen
Down all about the door did light.
19
‘Come out, come out,’ said they, ‘Wallace!’ then,
‘For the day is come that ye must die;’
And they thought so little of his might,
But ay the fearder they might be.
20
The wife ran but, the gudeman ran ben,
It put them all into a fever;
Then five he sticked where they stood,
And five he trampled in the gutter.
21
And five he chased to yon green wood,
He hanged them all out-oer a grain;
And gainst the morn at twelve o’clock,
He dined with his kind Scottish men.
Communicated to Percy by R. Lambe, of Norham, apparently
in 1768.
1
‘I wish we had a king,’ says Wallace,
‘That Scotland might not want a head;
In England and in Scotland baith,
I’m sure that some have sowed ill seed.’
2
Wallace he oer the water did luke,
And he luked law down by a glen,
268And he was aware of a gay lady,
As she was at the well washing.
3
‘Weel may ye save, fair lady!’ he says,
‘Far better may ye save and see!
If ye have ony tidings to tell,
I pray cum tell them a’to me.’
4
‘I have no tidings you to tell,
And as few tidings do I ken;
But up and to yon ostler-house
Are just gane fifteen gentlemen.
5
‘They now are seeking Gude Wallace,
And ay they’re damning him to hang;’
‘Oh God forbid,’ says Wallace then,
‘I’m sure he is a true Scotsman.
6
‘Had I but ae penny in my pocket,
Or in my company ae baubee,
I woud up to yon ostler-house,
A’these big gentlemen to see.’
7
She pat her hand into her pocket,
She powd out twenty shillings and three:
‘If eer I live to come this way,
Weel payed shall your money be.’
8
He leaned him twafold oer a staff,
Sae did he twafold oer a tree,
And he’s gane up to the ostler-house,
A’these fine gentlemen to see.
9
When he cam up among them a’,
He bad his benison be there;
The captain, being weel buke-learnd,
Did answer him in domineer.
10
‘Where was ye born, ye cruked carl,
Or in what town, or what countree?’
‘O I was born in fair Scotland,
A cruked carl although I be.’
11
The captain sware by the root of his sword,
Saying, I’m a Scotsman as weel as thee;
Here’s twenty shillings of English money
To such a cruked carl as thee,
If thou’ll tell me of that Wallace;
He’s ay the creature I want to see.
12
‘O hawd your hand,’ says Wallace then,
‘I’m feard your money be not gude;
If ’twere as muckle and ten times mair,
It shoud not bide anither bode.’
13
He’s taen the captain alang the chaps,
A wat he never chawed mair;
The rest he sticked about the table,
And left them a’a sprawling there.
14
‘Gude wife,’ he said, ‘for my benison,
Get up and get my dinner dight;
For it is twa days till an end
Syne I did taste ane bit of meat.’
15
Dinner was not weel made ready,
Nor yet upon the table set,
When fifteen other Englishmen
Alighted all about the yate.
16
‘Come out, come out now, Wallace,’ they say,
‘For this is the day ye are to dee;
Ye trust sae mickle in God’s might,
And ay the less we do fear thee.’
17
The gude wife ran but, the gude man ran ben,
They pat the house all in a swither;
Five sune he sticked where he stude,
And five he smitherd in a gutter.
18
Five he chac’d to the gude green-wood,
And hanged them a’out-oer a pin;
And at the morn at eight o’clock
He din’d with his men at Lough-mabin.
Johnson’s Museum, p. 498, No 484, communicated by
Robert Burns.
1
‘O For my ain king,’ quo Gude Wallace,
‘The rightfu king of fair Scotland!
Between me and my soverign blude
I think I see some ill seed sawn.’
2
Wallace out over yon river he lap,
And he has lighted low down on yon plain,
And he was aware of a gay ladie,
As she was at the well washing.
3
‘What tydins, what tydins, fair lady?’ he says,
‘What tydins hast thou to tell unto me?
269What tydins, what tydins, fair lady?’ he says,
‘What tydins hae ye in the south countrie?’
4
‘Low down in yon wee ostler-house
There is fyfteen Englishmen,
And they are seekin for Gude Wallace,
It’s him to take and him to hang.’
5
‘There’s nocht in my purse,’ quo Gude Wallace,
‘There’s nocht, not even a bare pennie;
But I will down to yon wee ostler-house,
Thir fyfteen Englishmen to see.’
6
And when he cam to yon wee ostler-house
He bad bendicite be there;
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
7
‘Where was ye born, auld crookit carl?
Where was ye born, in what countrie?’
‘I am a true Scot born and bred,
And an auld crookit carl just sic as ye see.’
8
‘I wad gie fifteen shillings to onie crookit carl,
To onie crookit carl just sic as ye,
If ye will get me Gude Wallace;
For he is the man I wad very fain see.’
9
He hit the proud captain alang the chafft-blade,
That never a bit o meal he ate mair;
And he sticket the rest at the table where they sat,
And he left them a’lyin sprawlin there.
10
‘Get up, get up, gudewife,’ he says,
‘And get to me some dinner in haste;
For it will soon be three lang days
Sin I a bit o meat did taste.’
11
The dinner was na weel readie,
Nor was it on the table set,
Till other fifteen Englishmen
Were a’lighted about the yett.
12
‘Come out, come out now, Gude Wallace!
This is the day that thou maun die:’
‘I lippen nae sae little to God,’ he says,
‘Altho I be but ill wordie.’
13
The gudewife had an auld gudeman;
By Gude Wallace he stiffly stood,
Till ten o the fyfteen Englishmen
Before the door lay in their blude.
14
The other five to the greenwood ran,
And he hangd these five upon a grain,
And on the morn, wi his merry men a’,
He sat at dine in Lochmaben town.
Communicated to Robert Chambers by Elliot Anderson,
Galashiels, 21 April, 1827, in a letter preserved among Kinloch’s
papers. Copied, with changes, in Kinloch MSS, I,
177. Furnished me by Mr. Macmath.
1
‘I wish we had our king,’ quo Gude Wallace,
‘An ilka true Scotsman had his nawn;
For between us an the southron louns
I doubt some ill seed has been sawn.’
2
Wallace he owre the water gaed,
An looked low down by a glen,
An there he saw a pretty, pretty maid,
As she was at the well washin.
3
‘O weel may ye wash, my bonny, bonny maid!
An weel may ye saep, an me to see!
If ye have ony tidins to tell,
I pray you tell them unto me.’
4
‘I have no tidins for to tell,
Nor ony uncos do I ken;
But up into yon little alehouse
An there sits fyfteen Englishmen.
5
‘An ay they are speakin o Gude Wallace,
An ay they are doomin him to hang:’
‘O forbid!’ quo Gude Wallace,
‘He’s owre truehearted a Scotsman.
6
‘Had I but a penny in my pouch,
As I have not a single bawbee,
I would up into yon little alehouse,
An ay thae southron blades to see.’
2707
She’s put her hand into her pouch,
An counted him out pennies three;
‘If ever I live to come back this way,
Weel paid the money it shall be.’
8
He’s taen a staff into his hand,
An leand himsel outowre a tree,
An he’s awa to yon little alehouse,
An ay the southron louns to see.
9
When he gaed in to that little alehouse,
He bad his bennison be there;
The captain answered him [in] wrath,
He answerd him with domineer.
10
‘O whare was ye born, ye crooked auld carle?
An how may this your dwellin be?’
‘O I was born in fair Scotland,
A crooked carle altho I be.’
11
‘O I would een gie twenty shillins
To ony sic crooked carle as thee
That wad find me out Gude Wallace;
For ay that traitor I lang to see.’
12
‘Haud out your hand,’ quo Gude Wallace,
‘I doubt your money be not gude;
If ye’ll gie ither twenty shillins,
It neer shall bide ye anither bode.’
13
He’s taen the captain outowre the jaws,
Anither word spak he neer mair;
An five he sticket whare they sat,
The rest lay scramblin here an there.
14
‘Get up, get up, gudewife,’ he says,
‘An get some meat ready for me,
For I hae fasted this three lang days;
A wat right hungry I may be.’
15
The meat it wasna weel made ready,
Nor as weel on the table set,
Till there cam fyfteen Englishmen
An lighted a’about the yett.
16
The gudewife ran but, the gudeman ran ben;
It put them a’in sic a stoure
That five he sticket whare they sat,
An five lay sprawlin at the door.
17
An five are to the greenwood gane,
An he’s hangd them a’outowre a tree,
An before the mornin twal o clock
He dined wi his men at Loch Marie.
Communicated to James Telfer by A. Fisher, as written
down from the mouth of a serving-man, who had learned it
in the neighborhood of Lochmaben. Mr Robert White’s
papers.
1
Willie Wallace the water lap,
And lighted low down in a glen;
There he came to a woman washing,
And she had washers nine or ten.
2
‘O weel may ye wash!’ said Willie Wallace,
‘O weel may ye wash!’ said fair Willie,
‘And gin ye have any tidings to tell,
I pray ye tell them unto me.’
3
‘I have nae tidings for to tell,
And as few will I let ye ken;
But down into yon hosteler-ha
Lies fifteen English gentlemen.’
4
‘O had I ae penny in my pocket,
Or had I yet ane bare bawbee,
I would go to yon hosteler-ha,
All for these Englishmen to see.
5
‘O wil ye len me ane pennie,
Or will ye len me a bare bawbee,
I would go to yon hosteler-ha,
All for these Englishmen to see.’
6
She’s put her hand into her pocket,
And she’s gaen him out guineas three,
And he’s away to yon ostler-ha,
All for these Englishmen to see.
7
Before he came to the hosteler-ha,
He linkit his armour oer a tree;
These Englishmen, being weel book-learned,
They said to him, Great Dominie!
8
Where was ye born, ye crookit carle?
Where was ye born, or in what countrie?
‘In merry Scotland I was born,
A crookit carle altho I be.’
2719
‘Here’s fifteen shillings,’ one of them said,
‘Here’s other fifteen I’ll gie to thee,
If you will tell me where the traitor Willie Wallace is,
Or where away thou thinks he’ll be.’
10
‘Pay down, pay down your money,’ he said,
‘Pay down, pay down richt speedilie,
For if your answer be not good,
You shall have the downfall of Robin Hood,’ [said he].
11
He struck the captain on the jaw,
He swore that he would chow nae mair cheese;
He’s killed all the rest with his good broad-sword,
And left them wallowing on their knees.
12
‘Go cover the table,’ said Willie Wallace,
‘Go cover the table, get me some meat,
For it is three days and rather mair
Since I did either drink or eat.’
13
They had not the table weel covered,
Nor yet the candle weel gaen licht,
Till fifteen other Englishmen
They a’down at the door did light.
14
‘Come out, come out, Willie Wallace,’ they said.
‘Come out, come out, and do not flee,
For we have sworn by our good broadswords
That this is the nicht that you sall dee.’
15
He’s killed five with his good broadsword,
He’s drowned other five in the raging sea,
And he’s taen other five to the merry greenwood,
And hanged them oer the highest tree.
Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 114; from a gypsy tinker, p. 199.
1
Wallace in the high highlans,
Neither meat nor drink got he;
Said, Fa me life, or fa me death,
Now to some town I maun be.
2
He’s put on his short claiding,
And on his short claiding put he;
Says, Fa me life, or fa me death,
Now to Perth-town I maun be.
3
He steped oer the river Tay,
I wat he steped on dry land;
He was aware of a well-fared maid,
Was washing there her lilie hands.
4
‘What news, what news, ye well-fared maid?
What news hae ye this day to me?’
‘No news, no news, ye gentle knight,
No news hae I this day to thee,
But fifteen lords in the hostage-house
Waiting Wallace for to see.’
5
‘If I had but in my pocket
The worth of one single pennie,
I would go to the hostage-house,
And there the gentlemen to see.’
6
She put her hand in her pocket,
And she has pulld out half-a-crown;
Says, Take ye that, ye belted knight,
‘Twill pay your way till ye come down.
7
As he went from the well-fared maid,
A beggar bold I wat met he,
Was coverd wi a clouted cloak,
And in his hand a trusty tree.
8
‘What news, what news, ye silly auld man?
What news hae ye this day to gie?’
‘No news, no news, ye belted knight,
No news hae I this day to thee,
But fifteen lords in the hostage-house
Waiting Wallace for to see.’
9
‘Ye’ll lend me your clouted cloak,
That covers you frae head to shie,
And I’ll go to the hostage-house,
Asking there for some supplie.’
10
Now he’s gone to the West-muir wood,
And there he’s pulld a trusty tree;
And then he’s on to the hostage gone,
Asking there for charitie.
11
Down the stair the captain comes,
Aye the poor man for to see:
272‘If ye be a captain as good as ye look,
Ye’ll give a poor man some supplie;
If ye be a captain as good as ye look,
A guinea this day ye’ll gie to me.’
12
‘Where were ye born, ye crooked carle?
Where were ye born, in what countrie?’
‘In fair Scotland I was born,
Crooked carle that I be.’
13
‘I would give you fifty pounds,
Of gold and white monie,
I would give you fifty pounds,
If the traitor Wallace ye’d let me see.’
14
‘Tell down your money,’ said Willie Wallace,
‘Tell down your money, if it be good;
I’m sure I have it in my power,
And never had a better bode.
15
‘Tell down your money,’ said Willie Wallace,
‘And let me see if it be fine;
I’m sure I have it in my power
To bring the traitor Wallace in.’
16
The money was told on the table,
Silver bright of pounds fiftie;
‘Now here I stand,’ said Willie Wallace,
‘And what hae ye to say to me? ’
17
He slew the captain where he stood,
The rest they did quack an roar;
He slew the rest around the room,
And askd if there were any more.
18
‘Come, cover the table,’ said Willie Wallace,
‘Come, cover the table now, make haste;
For it will soon be three lang days
Sin I a bit o meat did taste.’
19
The table was not well covered,
Nor yet was he set down to dine,
Till fifteen more of the English lords
Surrounded the house where he was in.
20
The guidwife she ran but the floor,
And aye the guidman he ran ben;
From eight o clock till four at noon
He has killd full thirty men.
21
He put the house in sick a swither
That five o them he sticket dead,
Five o them he drownd in the river,
And five hung in the West-muir wood.
22
Now he is on to the North-Inch gone,
Where the maid was washing tenderlie;
‘Now by my sooth,’ said Willie Wallace,
‘It’s been a sair day’s wark to me.’
23
He’s put his hand in his pocket,
And he has pulld out twenty pounds;
Says, Take ye that, ye weel-fared maid,
For the gude luck of your half-crown.
The Thistle of Scotland, Alexander Laing, p. 100, from
the repetition of an old gentlewoman in Aberdeenshire. Also
Motherwell’s MS., p. 487, communicated by Peter Buchan
of Peterhead, “who had it from an old woman in that
neighborhood.”
1
Woud ye hear of William Wallace,
An sek him as he goes,
Into the lan of Lanark,
Amang his mortel faes?
2
There was fyften English sogers
Unto his ladie cam,
Said, Gie us William Wallace,
That we may have him slain.
3
Woud ye gie William Wallace,
That we may have him slain,
And ye’s be wedded to a lord,
The best in Christendeem.
4
‘This verra nicht at seven,
Brave Wallace will come in,
And he’ll come to my chamber-door,
Without or dread or din.’
5
The fyften English sogers
Around the house did wait,
And four brave southron foragers
Stood hie upon the gait.
6
That verra nicht at seven
Brave Wallace he came in,
And he came to his ladie’s bouir,
Withouten dread or din.
2737
When she beheld him Wallace,
She star’d him in the face;
‘Ohon, alas!’ said that ladie,
‘This is a woful case.
8
‘For I this nicht have sold you,
This nicht you must be taen,
And I’m to be wedded to a lord,
The best in Christendeem.’
9
‘Do you repent,’ said Wallace,
‘The ill you’ve dane to me?’
‘Ay, that I do,’ said that ladie,
‘And will do till I die.
10
‘Ay, that I do,’ said that ladie,
‘And will do ever still,
And for the ill I’ve dane to you,
Let me burn upon a hill.’
11
Now God forfend,’ says brave Wallace,
‘I shoud be so unkind;
Whatever I am to Scotland’s faes,
I’m aye a woman’s friend.
12
‘Will ye gie me your gown, your gown,
Your gown but and your kirtle,
Your petticoat of bonny brown,
And belt about my middle?
13
‘I’ll take a pitcher in ilka hand,
And do me to the well;
They’ll think I’m one of your maidens,
Or think it is yoursell.’
14
She has gien him her gown, her gown,
Her petticoat and kirtle,
Her broadest belt, wi silver clasp,
To bind about his middle.
15
He’s taen a pitcher in ilka hand,
And dane him to the well;
They thought him one of her maidens,
They kend it was nae hersell.
16
Said one of the southron foragers,
See ye yon lusty dame?
I woud nae gie muckle to thee, neebor,
To bring her back agen.
17
Then all the southrons followd him,
And sure they were but four;
But he has drawn his trusty brand,
And slew them pair by pair.
18
He threw the pitchers frae his hands,
And to the hills fled he,
Until he cam to a fair may,
Was washin on yon lea.
19
‘What news, what news, ye weel-far’d may?
What news hae ye to gie?’
‘Ill news, ill news,’ the fair may said,
‘Ill news I hae to thee.
20
‘There is fyften English sogers
Into that thatched inn,
Seeking Sir William Wallace;
I fear that he is slain.’
21
‘Have ye any money in your pocket?
Pray lend it unto me,
And when I come this way again,
Repaid ye weel shall be.’
22
Sheś put her hand in her pocket,
And taen out shillings three;
He turnd him right and round about,
And thankd the weel-far’d may.
23
He had not gone a long rig length,
A rig length and a span,
Until he met a bold beggar,
As sturdy as coud gang.
24
‘What news, what news, ye bold beggar?
What news hae ye to gie?’
‘O heavy news,’ the beggar said,
‘I hae to tell to thee.
25
‘There is fyften English sogers,
I heard them in yon inn,
Vowing to kill him Wallace;
I fear the chief is slain.’
26
‘Will ye change apparell wi me, auld man?
Change your apparell for mine?
And when I come this way again,
Ye’ll be my ain poor man.’
27
When he got on the beggar’s coat,
The pike-staff in his hand,
He’s dane him down to yon tavern,
Where they were drinking wine.
27428
‘What news, what news, ye staff-beggar?
What news hae ye to gie?’
‘I hae nae news, I heard nae news,
As few I’ll hae frae thee.’
29
‘I think your coat is ragged, auld man;
But woud you wages win,
And tell where William Wallace is,
We’ll lay gold in your hand.’
30
‘Tell down, tell down your good red gold,
Upon the table-head,
And ye sall William Wallace see,
Wi the down-come of Robin Hood.’
31
They had nae tauld the money down,
And laid it on his knee,
When candles, lamps, and candlesticks,
He on the floor gard flee.
32
And he has drawn his trusty brand,
And slew them one by one,
Then sat down at the table-head,
And called for some wine.
33
The goodwife she ran but, ran but,
The goodman he ran ben,
The verra bairns about the fire
Were a’like to gang brain.
34
‘Now if there be a Scotsman here,
He’ll come and drink wi me;
But if there be an English loun,
It is his time to flee.’
35
The goodman was an Englishman,
And to the hills he ran;
The goodwife was a Scots woman,
And she came to his hand.
Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 226.
1
Wallace wight, upon a night,
Came riding oer the linn,
And he is to his leman’s bower,
And tirld at the pin.
2
‘O sleep ye, wake ye, lady?’ he said,
‘Ye’ll rise, lat me come in.’
‘O wha’s this at my bower-door,
That knocks, and knows my name? ’
‘My name is William Wallace,
Ye may my errand ken.’
3
‘The truth to you I will rehearse,
The secret I’ll unfold;
Into your enmies’ hands this night
I fairly hae you sold.’
4
‘If that be true ye tell to me,
Do ye repent it sair?’
‘O that I do,’ she said, ‘dear Wallace,
And will do evermair!
5
‘The English did surround my house,
And forced me theretill;
But for your sake, my dear Wallace,
I coud burn on a hill.’
6
Then he gae her a loving kiss,
The tear droppd frae his ee;
Says, Fare ye well for evermair,
Your face nae mair I’ll see.
7
She dressd him in her ain claithing,
And frae her house he came;
Which made the Englishmen admire,
To see this stalwart dame.
8
He is to Saint Johnston gane,
And there he playd him well;
For there he saw a well-far’d may,
Was washing at a well.
9
‘What news, what news, ye well-far’d may?
What news hae ye to me?
What news, what news, ye well-far’d may,
All from your north countrie?’
10
‘See ye not yon tavern-house,
That stands on yonder plain?
This very day have landet in it
Full fifteen Englishmen;
11
‘In search of Wallace, our dear champion,
Ordaining that he shoud dee.’
‘Then on my troth,’ said Wallace wight,
‘These Englishmen I’se see.’
275A.
23. was not war.
F 3 has wasna aware.
B, C, have the obviously right reading.
51. Wallace then. Maidment, there.
54. Maidment, ouer good.
101. Maidment, When come.
102. quoth he be here.
124. Maidment, should we.
B.
82. oer a stree. Stree is glossed by Lambe as
stick, but this is impossible: the s was induced
by the s in staff above.
103, 121. Oh.
111. root of his sword simply from ignorance
of the meaning of the rood, by which the
captain swears in A 12; rood of his sword
is hardly to be thought of.
122. A word for A wat. SeeD 144.
163,4. Corrupted: the words should be Wallace’s.Cf.C 12.
C.
92. meal: perhaps meat.
D.
12. Var. (or gloss), his ain.
21. went changed to gaed (for rhyme?).
94. Var. with angry jeer.
E.
23. gin he. A. Fisher says that lines are
wanting, and has supplied two after 72
(making a stanza of 73,4, 81,2, and leaving
83,4 as a half stanza) and two after 102
(leaving 103,4 as the second half of another
stanza). The arrangement here adopted is
in conformity with that of the other copies.
F.
33. wasna.
221. Insch.
G.
Buchan’s variations.
23. And for Said.
34. Christendeen.
92, 103, 152, 273. done.
104. on a.
121. me wanting.
202. I heard them in yon inn.
211. you.
322. ane by ane.
158 HUGH SPENCER’S FEATS IN FRANCE — A — B — C
A. ‘Hugh Spencer,’ Percy MS., p. 281; Hales and
Furnivall, II, 290.
B. ‘Hugh Spencer,’ Percy Papers, communicated by
the Duchess Dowager of Portland.
C. Dr Joseph Robertson’s Journal of Excursions, No 4.
The king of England, A, B, sends Hugh
Spencer as ambassador to France, to know
whether there is to be peace or war between
the two lands. Spencer takes with him a
hundred men-at-arms, A; twenty ships, B.
The French king, Charles, A 30, declares for
war, A, C; says that the last time peace was
broken it was not along of him, B. The queen,
Maude, B 9, is indignant that the king should
parley with traitors, A, with English shepherds,
B. She proposes to Spencer a joust
with one of her knights. The Englishman
has no jousting-horse. Three horses are
brought out for him, all of which he rejects,
A, B; in C, two. In A he calls for his old
hack which he had brought over sea; in B, C,
he accepts a fourth [third], a fiery-eyed black.
Spencer breaks his spear, a French shaft, upon
his antagonist; three spears [two] are tied together
to make something strong enough for
him to wield. He unhorses the Frenchman,
then rides through the French camp and kills
some thirteen or fourteen score of King
Charles’s men, A. The king says he will
have his head, A, with some provocation certainly;
the queen says as much in B, though
Spencer has only killed her champion in fair
fight. Spencer has but four true brethren
left, A 33; we are not told what had become
of the rest of his hundred. With these, or, in
B, with two, he makes a stand against the
royal guard, and kills scores of them. The
French king begs him to hold his hand, A 34,
B 35. There shall never be war with England
276while peace may be kept, A; he shall take
back with him all the ships he brought, B.[150]
Hugh is naturally turned into a Scotsman
in the Scottish version, C. The shepherd’s
son that he is matched with, 7, 15, is explained
by traditional comment to be the
queen’s cousin.
These feats of Hugh Spencer do not outstrip
those of the Breton knight Les Aubrays,
when dealing with the French, Luzel, I, 286–305,
II, 564–581; nor is his fanfaronnerie
much beyond that of Harry Fifth. The Breton
knight was explicitly helped by St Anne,
but then Spencer and Harry have God and St
George to borrow.
Liebrecht well remarks, Göttinger Gelehrte
Anzeigen, 1868, p. 1900, that Spencer’s rejecting
the three French horses and preferring
his old hack is a characteristically traditional
trait, and like what we read of Walter of
Aquitania in the continuation of his story in
the chronicle of the cloister of Novalesa. After
Walter, in his old age, had entered this monastery,
he was deputed to obtain redress for a
serious depredation on the property of the
brethren. Asking the people of the cloister
whether they have a horse serviceable for fight
in case of necessity, he is told that there are
good strong cart-horses at his disposal. He
has these brought out, mounts one and another,
and condemns all. He then inquires
whether the old steed which he had brought
with him is still alive. It is, but very old,
and only used to carry corn to the mill. “Let
me see him,” says Walter, and, mounting,
cries, “Oh, this horse has not forgotten what
I taught him in my younger days.” Grimm
u. Schmeller, Lateinische Gedichte des X. u.
XI. Jahrhunderts, p. 109. See ‘Tom Potts,’
II, 441.[151]
Of the many Hugh Spensers if we select
the younger of the favorites of Edward II,
his exploits, had they any foundation in reality,
would necessarily fall between 1322, when
Charles IV came to the French throne, and
1326, when the Spensers, father and son,
ended their career. The French king says in
B 8 that Spenser had sunk his ships and slain
his men. Hugh Spenser the younger (both,
according to Knyghton, col. 2539, but the
father was a very old man) was engaged in
piracy in 1321. The quarrel between Edward
II and Charles IV, touching the English
possessions in France, was temporarily arranged
in 1325, but not through the mediation
of the younger Spenser, who never was sent
on an embassy to France. Another Sir Hugh
Spenser was a commander in the Earl of
Arundel’s fleet in the operations against the
French in Charles VI’s time, 1387, and was
taken prisoner in consequence of his ship
grounding: Knyghton, col. 2693; Nicolas, History
of the Royal Navy, II, 322f. No one of
the three queens of Charles IV bore the name
of Maude, which is assigned to the French
queen in B, neither did the queen of Charles
VI.
Percy MS., p. 281; Hales and Furnivall, II, 290.
1
The court is kept att leeue London,
And euermore shall be itt;
The King sent for a bold embassador,
And Sir Hugh Spencer that he hight.
2
‘Come hither, Spencer,’ saith our kinge,
‘And come thou hither vnto mee;
I must make thee an embassadour
Betweene the king of Ffrance and mee.
3
‘Thou must comend me to the king of Ffrance,
And tell him thus and now ffrom mee,
277I wold know whether there shold be peace in his land,
Or open warr kept still must bee.
4
‘Thou’st haue thy shipp at thy comande,
Thou’st neither want for gold nor ffee;
Thou’st haue a hundred armed men,
All att thy bidding ffor to bee.’
5
The wind itt serued, and they sayled,
And towards Ffrance thus they be gone;
The wind did bring them safe to shore,
And safelye landed euerye one.
6
The Ffrenchmen lay on the castle-wall,
The English souldiers to behold:
‘You are welcome, traitors, out of England;
The heads of you are bought and sold.’
7
With that spake proud Spencer:
My leege, soe itt may not bee;
I am sent an embassador
Ffrom our English king to yee.
8
The king of England greetes you well,
And hath sent this word by mee;
He wold know whether there shold be peace in your land,
Or open warres kept still must bee.
9
‘Comend me to the English kinge,
And tell this now ffrom mee;
There shall neuer peace be kept in my land
While open warres kept there may bee.’
10
With that came downe the queene of Ffrance,
And an angry woman then was shee;
Saies, Itt had beene as ffitt now for a king
To be in his chamber with his ladye,
Then to be pleading with traitors out of England,
Kneeling low vppon their knee.
11
But then bespake him proud Spencer,
For noe man else durst speake but hee:
You haue not wiped your mouth, madam,
Since I heard you tell a lye.
12
‘O hold thy tounge, Spencer!’ shee said,
‘I doe not come to plead with thee;
Darest thou ryde a course of warr
With a knight that I shall put to thee?’
13
‘But euer alacke!’ then Spencer sayd,
‘I thinke I haue deserued Gods cursse;
Ffor I haue not any armour heere,
Nor yett I haue noe iusting-horsse.’
14
‘Thy shankes,’ quoth shee, ‘beneath the knee
Are verry small aboue the shinne
Ffor to doe any such honourablle deeds
As the Englishmen say thou has done.
15
‘Thy shankes beene small aboue thy shoone,
And soe the beene aboue thy knee;
Thou art to slender euery way
Any good iuster ffor to bee.’
16
‘But euer alacke,’ said Spencer then,
‘For one steed of the English countrye!’
With that bespake and one Ffrench knight,
This day thou’st haue the choyce of three.
17
The first steed he ffeiched out,
I-wis he was milke-white;
The ffirst ffoot Spencer in stirropp sett,
His backe did from his belly tyte.
18
The second steed that he ffeitcht out,
I-wis that hee was verry browne;
The second ffoot Spencer in stirropp settt,
That horsse and man and all ffell downe.
19
The third steed that hee ffeitched out,
I-wis that he was verry blacke;
The third ffoote Spencer into the stirropp sett,
He leaped on to the geldings backe.
20
‘But euer alacke,’ said Spencer then,
‘For one good steed of the English countrye!
Goe ffeitch me hither my old hacneye,
That I brought with me hither beyond the sea.’
21
But when his hackney there was brought,
Spencer a merry man there was hee;
Saies, With the grace of God and St George of England,
The ffeild this day shall goe with mee.
22
‘I haue not fforgotten,’ Spencer sayd,
‘Since there was ffeild foughten att Walsingam,
278When the horsse did heare the trumpetts sound,
He did beare ore both horsse and man.’
23
The day was sett, and togetther they mett,
With great mirth and melodye,
With minstrells playing, and trumpetts soundinge,
With drumes striking loud and hye.
24
The ffirst race that Spencer run,
I-wis hee run itt wonderous sore;
He [hitt] the knight vpon his brest,
But his speare itt burst, and wold touch noe more.
25
‘But euer alacke,’ said Spencer then,
‘For one staffe of the English countrye!
Without you’le bind me three together,’
Quoth hee, ‘they’le be to weake ffor mee.’
26
With that bespake him the Ffrench knight,
Sayes, Bind him together the whole thirtye,
For I haue more strenght in my to hands
Then is in all Spencers bodye.
27
‘But proue att parting,’ Spencer sayes,
‘Ffrench knight, here I tell itt thee;
For I will lay thee five to four
The bigger man I proue to bee.’
28
But the day was sett, and together they mett,
With great mirth and melodye,
With minstrells playing, and trumpetts soundinge,
With drummes strikeing loud and hye.
29
The second race that Spencer run,
I-wis hee ridd itt in much pride,
And he hitt the knight vpon the brest,
And draue him ore his horsse beside.
30
But he run thorrow the Ffrench campe;
Such a race was neuer run beffore;
He killed of King Charles his men
Att hand of thirteen or fourteen score.
31
But he came backe againe to the K[ing],
And kneeled him downe vpon his knee;
Saies, A knight I haue slaine, and a steed I haue woone,
The best that is in this countrye.
32
‘But nay, by my faith,’ then said the King,
‘Spencer, soe itt shall not bee;
I’le haue that traitors head of thine,
To enter plea att my iollye.’
33
But Spencer looket him once about,
He had true bretheren left but four;
He killed ther of the Kings gard
About twelve or thirteen score.
34
‘But hold thy hands,’ the King doth say,
‘Spencer, now I doe pray thee;
And I will goe into litle England,
Vnto that cruell kinge with thee.’
35
‘Nay, by my ffaith,’ Spencer sayd,
‘My leege, for soe itt shall not bee;
For an you sett ffoot on English ground,
You shall be hanged vpon a tree.’
36
‘Why then, comend [me] to that Englishe kinge,
And tell him thus now ffrom mee,
That there shall neuer be open warres kept in my land
Whilest peace kept that there may bee.’
Percy Papers: communicated by the Duchess Dowager of
Portland.
1
Our king lay at Westminster,
as oft times he had done,
And he sent for Hugh Spencer,
to come to him anon.
2
Then in came Hugh Spencer,
low kneeling on his knee:
‘What’s the matter, my liege,
you sent so speedily for me?’
3
‘Why you must go ambassadour
to France now, to see
Whether peace shall be taken,
aye, or open wars must be.’
2794
‘Who shall go with me?’
says Hugh Spencer, he:
‘That shall Hugh Willoughby
and John of Atherly.’
‘O then,’ says Hugh Spencer,
‘we’ll be a merry company.’
5
When they came before the French king,
they kneeled low on the knee:
‘O rise up, and stand up,
whose men soer you be.’
6
The first that made answer
was Hugh Spencer, he:
‘We are English ambassadours,
come hither to see
Whether peace shall be taken,
aye, or open wars must be.’
7
Then spoke the French king,
and he spoke courteously:
The last time peace was broken,
it was neer along of me.
8
For you sunk my ships, slew my men,
and thus did ye;
And the last time peace was broken,
it was neer along of me.
9
Then in came Queen Maude,
and full as ill was she:
‘A chamber of presence
is better for thee,
Then amongst English shepherds,
low bending on the knee.’
10
The first that made answer
was Hugh Spencer, he:
‘We are no English shepherds,
Queen Maude, I tell thee,
But we’re knights, and knights fellows,
the worst man in our company.’
11
O then spoke Queen Maude,
and full as ill was she:
Thou shouldst be Hugh Spencer,
thou talkst so boldly.
12
And if thou beest Hugh Spencer,
as well thou seemst to be,
I’ve oft heard of thy justling,
and some of it would fain see.
13
I have a steed in my stable
that thou canst not ride;
I have a spear in my keeping
that thou canst not guide;
And I have a knight in my realm
that thou darest not abide.
14
Then Spencer askd Willoughby
and John of Atherly
Whether he should take this justling in hand,
aye, or let it be.
15
O then spoke Hugh Willoughby
and John of Atherly:
If you won’t take it [in] hand,
why turn it unto we.
16
‘It shall neer be said in England,’
says Hugh Spencer, he,
‘That I refused a good justling
and turned it to ye.
17
‘Alas,’ says Hugh Spencer,
‘full sore may I moan,
I have nought here but an ambler,
my good steed’s at home.’
18
Then spoke a French knight,
and he spoke courteously:
I have thirty steeds in my stables,
the best of them take to thee.
19
‘Gramercy,’ says Spencer,
‘aye, and gramercy;
If eer thou comest to England,
well rewarded shalt thou be.’
20
The first steed they brought him,
he was a milk-white:
‘Take that away,’ says Spencer,
‘for I do not him like.’
21
The next steed they brought him,
he was a good dun:
‘Take that away,’ says Spencer,
‘for he’s not for my turn.’
22
The next steed they brought him,
he was a dapple-grey:
‘Take that away,’ says Spencer,
‘for he is not used to the way.’
28023
The next steed they brought him,
he was a coal-black;
His eyes burnt in his head,
as if fire were in flax;
‘Come saddle me that horse,’ says Spencer,
‘for I’ll have none but that.’
24
When that horse was saddled,
and Spencer got on,
With his spear at his foot,
O he was portly man!
25
‘Now I am on that steede-back
that I could not ride,
That spear in my keeping
that I could not guide,
Come shew me that French knight
that I dare not abide.’
26
‘It is a sign by thy sharp shin,
ay, and thy cropped knee,
That you are no fit match
to justle with me:’
‘Why it makes no matter,’ says Spencer,
‘you hear no brags of me.’
27
The first time they rode together,
now Sir Hugh and he,
He turnd him in his saddle
like an apple on a tree.
28
The next time they rode together,
now Sir Hugh and he,
He lit upon his breast-plate,
and he broke his spear in three.
29
‘A spear now,’ says Spencer,
‘a spear now get me:’
‘Thou shalt have one,’ says Willoughby,
‘if in France one there be.’
30
‘O tye two together,
and the stronger they’l be,
For the French is the better,
and the better shall be:’
‘Why it makes no matter,’ says Spencer,
‘you hear no brags of me.’
31
The next time they rode together,
now Sir Hugh and he,
He threw him fifteen foot from his saddle,
and he broke his back in three:
‘Now I have slain thy justler,
Queen Maude, I tell thee.’
32
O then spoke Queen Maude,
and full as ill was she:
If thou’st slain my justler,
by the Kings laws thou’st dye.
33
‘It shall neer be said in England,’
says Hugh Spencer, he;
‘It shall neer be said in England,’
says Hugh Willoughby;
34
‘It shall neer be said in England,’
says John of Atherly,
‘That a queen of another nation
eer had her will of we.’
35
They laid their heads together,
and their backs to the wall;
There were four score of the Queen’s guards,
and they slew them all.
36
Then spoke the French king,
and he spoke courteously:
O hold thy hand, Spencer,
I dearly pray thee.
37
Thou art sharp as thy spear,
and as fierce as thy steed,
And the stour of thy lilly-white hand
makes my heart bleed.
38
Thou hadst twenty ships hither,
thou’st have twenty away;
Then hold thy hand, Spencer,
I dearly thee pray.
281
Dr Joseph Robertson’s Journal of Excursions, No 4; taken
down from a man in the parish of Leochel, Aberdeenshire,
12 February, 1829.
1
It fell about the Martinmas time
The wind blew loud and cauld,
And all the knichts of fair Scotland
They drew them to sum hald.
2
Unless it was him young Sir Hugh,
And he beet to sail the sea,
Wi a letter between twa kings, to see an they
wald lat down the wars,
And live and lat them be.
3
On Friday shipped he, and lang
Ere Wodensday at noon
In fair France landed he,
. . . . . . .
4
He fell down before the King,
On his bare knees:
‘Gude mak ye safe and soun;’
‘Fat news o your contrie?’ he says.
5
‘The news o our countrie,’ he says,
‘Is but news brought over the sea,
To see an ye’ll lat down the wars,
And live and lat them be.’
6
‘Deed no,’ he says;
‘I’m but an auld man indeed,
But I’ll no lat down the wars,
And live and lat them be.’
7
It’s out it spak the Queen hersel: I have a shepherd’s sin
Would fight an hour wi you;
‘And by my seeth,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘That sight fain would I see.’
8
The firsten steed that he drew out,
He was the penny-gray;
He wad hae ridden oer meel or mor
A leve-lang summer’s day.
9
O girths they brak, and great horse lap,
But still sat he on he:
‘A girth, a girth,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘A girth for charity!’
‘O every girth that you shall have,
Its gude lord shall hae three.’
10
The nexten steed that he drew out,
He was the penny-brown;
He wad hae ridden oer meel or mor
As ever the dew drap down.
11
O bridles brak, and great horse lap,
But still sat he on he:
‘A bridle, a bridle,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘A bridle for charitie!’
‘O every bridle that you shall have,
And its gude lord shall have three.’
12
The nexten steed that he drew out
He was the raven-black;
His een was glancin in his head
Like wild-fire in a slack;
‘Get here a boy,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘Cast on the saddle on that.’
13
O brands there brak, and great horse lap,
But still sat he on he:
‘A brand, a brand,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘A brand for charitie!’
‘O every brand that you sall have,
And its gude lord sall have three.’
14
He gave him a dep unto the heart,
And over the steed fell he:
‘I rather had gane you money,’ she says,
‘And free lands too,
That ye had foughten an hour wi him,
And than had latten him be.’
15
‘If ye hae ony mair shepherd’s sins,’ he says,
‘Or cooks i your kitchie,
Or ony mair dogs to fell,
Ye’ll bring them here to me;
And gin they be a true-hearted Scotsman,
They’ll no be scorned by thee.’
A.
43. 100.
51,3. They.
61. walls? There is a tag at the end of this
word in the MS. Furnivall.
164. of 3.
174. MS., tylpe, with the l crossed
at top. Furnivall.
181,3. 2d ..
182. I should read berry-browne
were it not for verry blacke in 192.
282191,3. 3d ..
253. 3.
262. 30tye.
273. 5 to 4.
291. 2d ..
304. 13 or 14.
324. No emendation of this unintelligible line
occurs to me.
332. 4.
333. therof.
334. 2 or 3: cf. 304, and observe the metre.
353. for on: seitt or settt.
And for & always.
C.
144. too: pronounced tee.
15. The shepherd’s son was the Queen’s own
son: comment of the reciter. I do not
understand the last two lines; indeed they
are obviously corrupt.
159 DURHAM FIELD
‘Durham ffeilde,’ Percy MS., p. 245; Hales and Furnivall, II, 190.
While Edward Third was absent in France,
and for the time engaged with the siege of
Calais, David Bruce, the young king of Scotland,
at the instance of Philip of Valois, but
also because he “yearned to see fighting,”
invaded England with a large army. Having
taken by storm the Border castle of Liddel,
he was advised by William of Douglas to
turn back, which, it was represented by
Douglas, he could do with credit after this success.
Other lords said that Douglas had
filled his bags, but theirs were toom, and that
the way lay open to London, for there were
no men left in England but souters, skinners,
and traders.[152] The Scots moved on to Durham,
and encamped in a park not far from the
town, in a bad position. In the mean while
a powerful force had been collected by the
northern nobility and the English churchmen,
without the knowledge of the Scots. William
of Douglas, going out to forage, rode straight
to the ground where his foes lay, and in the
attempt to retreat lost five hundred of his
men. King David drew up his army in three
divisions: one under his own command, another
under the Earl of Murray and William
Douglas, the third under the Steward of Scotland
and the Earl of March. The operations
of the Scots were impeded by the ditches
and fences that traversed the ground on
which they stood, and their situation made
them an almost helpless mark for the ten
thousand archers of the English army. Murray’s
men were completely routed by a charge
of cavalry, and their leader killed. The
English then fell upon the King’s division,
which, after a desperate fight, was “vanquished
utterly.” David, who had received
two wounds from arrows, was taken prisoner
by John Copland, “by force, not yolden,”
after knocking out two of the Englishman’s
teeth with a knife. Wyntoun’s Chronykil, ed.
Laing, II, 470 ff; Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall,
II, 339 ff. The battle was fought on the
17th of October, 1346.
According to the English chronicle of
Lanercost, John of Douglas, ‘germanus domini
Willelmi,’ fought with the Earl of Murray
in the first Scottish division, and the Earl
of Buchan was associated with King David in
the command of the second. The English
were also in three bodies. The leaders of the
first were the Earl of Angus, ‘inter omnes
Angliæ nobilis persona,’ Henry Percy, Ralph
283Neville, and Henry Scrope; the Archbishop
of York led the second; Mowbray, Rokeby,
and John of Copland were in the third. Ed.
Stevenson, pp. 349–51.
David, in the ballad, proposes to himself
nothing less than the conquest of England
and the distribution of the territory among
his chief men. He is not a youth of twenty-two;
William Douglas has served him four
and thirty years. Still he will brook no
advice, and kills his own squire for warning
him of the danger of his enterprise. The
Earl of Angus is to lead the van; but Angus,
as we have seen, was engaged on the other
side. The title of Angus might have deceived
the minstrel, but it was hardly to be
expected that Neville should be turned into
a Scot as he is in st. 17. Angus, and also
‘Vaughan,’ that is Baughan, or Buchan,[153] are
to be in the king’s coat-armor, sts 11, 13, imitating
Blunt and the rest at Shrewsbury, and
the five false Richmonds at Bosworth. James[154]
Douglas offers to lead the van, 14; so does
William Douglas in 21. An Englishman
who does not know a Neville would surely not
be very precise about a Douglas, and it must
be conceded that the Douglases have not
always been kept perfectly distinct by historians.
James Douglas, whoever he may be
supposed to be, “went before;” that is, he
plays the part which belongs historically to the
Knight of Liddesdale, loses all his men, and
returns, with an arrow in his thigh, to report
that one Englishman is worth five Scots:
26–33.[155] But the Scots, even at that rate,
have the advantage, for a herald, sent out to
reconnoitre, tells their king that they are ten
to one.
The commanders on the English side are
the Bishop of Durham, Earl Percy, the Archbishop
of York, the Bishop of Carlisle, and
“Lord Fluwilliams.”[156] The Bishop of Durham
orders that no man shall fight before
he has ‘served his God,’ and five hundred
priests say mass in the field who afterwards
take part in the fray. (The monks of Durham,
Knyghton tells us, had made terms with
the Scots, and were to pay a thousand pounds
for ransom-money the next day; and so, when
they saw the Scots yielding, they raised their
voices in a Te Deum, which sounded to the
clouds and quickened the courage of the
English.) The king of Scots is wounded by
an arrow through his nose, and, stepping aside
to bleed, is taken prisoner by John of Copland,
whom he first smites angrily. Copland
sets the king on a palfrey and leads him
to London. King Edward, newly arrived
from France, asks him how he likes the shepherds,
millers, and priests. There’s not a
yeoman in England, says David, but he is
worth a Scottish knight. Aye, says King
Edward, laughing, that is because you were
fighting against the right. Shortly after this
the Black Prince brings the king of France
captive from the field of Poitiers. Says
David to John, Welcome, brother, but I would
I had gone to Rome! And I, would I had
gone to Jerusalem! replies John. Thus ends
the battle of Durham, fought, says the minstrel,
on a morning of May, sts 27, 64, and
within the same month as the battles of Crécy
and Poitiers.[157] Though Poitiers was fought
ten years after Durham, the king of Scots
and the king of France no doubt met in
London, for John was taken thither in April,
2841357, and David was not released from his
captivity until the following November.
Stanza 18 affords us an upper limit for a
date. Lord Hambleton is said to be of the
king’s kin full nigh. James Hamilton, the
first lord, married the princess Mary, sister
of James III, in 1474, and his descendants
were the next heirs to the throne after the
Stewarts, whose line was for a time but
barely kept up.
1
Lordinges, listen, and hold you still;
Hearken to me a litle;
I shall you tell of the fairest battell
That euer in England beffell.
2
For as it befell in Edward the Thirds dayes,
In England, where he ware the crowne,
Then all the cheefe chiualry of England
They busked and made them bowne.
3
They chosen all the best archers
That in England might be found,
And all was to fight with the king of Ffrance,
Within a litle stounde.
4
And when our king was ouer the water,
And on the salt sea gone,
Then tydings into Scotland came
That all England was gone.
5
Bowes and arrowes they were all forth,
At home was not left a man
But shepards and millers both,
And preists with shauen crownes.
6
Then the king of Scotts in a study stood,
As he was a man of great might;
He sware he wold hold his parlament in leeue London,
If he cold ryde there right.
7
Then bespake a squier, of Scottland borne,
And sayd, My leege, apace,
Before you come to leeue London,
Full sore you’le rue that race.
8
Ther beene bold yeomen in merry England,
Husbandmen stiffe and strong;
Sharpe swords they done weare,
Bearen bowes and arrowes longe.
9
The King was angrye at that word;
A long sword out hee drew,
And there befor his royall companye
His owne squier hee slew.
10
Hard hansell had the Scottes that day,
That wrought them woe enoughe,
For then durst not a Scott speake a word
Ffor hanging att a boughe.
11
‘The Earle of Anguish, where art thou?
In my coate-armor thou shalt bee,
And thou shalt lead the forward
Thorrow the English countrye.
12
‘Take thee Yorke,’ then sayd the King,
‘In stead wheras it doth stand;
I’le make thy eldest sonne after thee
Heyre of all Northumberland.
13
‘The Earle of Vaughan, where be yee?
In my coate-armor thou shalt bee;
The high Peak and Derbyshire
I giue it thee to thy fee.’
14
Then came in famous Douglas,
Saies, What shall my meede bee?
And I’le lead the vawward, lord,
Thorow the English countrye.
15
‘Take thee Worster,’ sayd the King,
‘Tuxburye, Killingworth, Burton vpon Trent;
Doe thou not say another day
But I haue giuen thee lands and rent.
16
‘Sir Richard of Edenborrow, where are yee?
A wise man in this warr!
I’le giue thee Bristow and the shire
The time that wee come there.
17
‘My lord Nevill, where beene yee?
You must in this warres bee;
I’le giue thee Shrewsburye,’ saies the King,
‘And Couentrye faire and free.
28518
‘My lord of Hambleton, where art thou?
Thou art of my kin full nye;
I’le giue thee Lincolne and Lincolneshire,
And that’s enouge for thee.’
19
By then came in William Douglas,
As breeme as any bore;
He kneeled him downe vpon his knees,
In his hart he sighed sore.
20
Saies, I haue serued you, my louelye leege,
This thirty winters and four,
And in the Marches betweene England and Scottland
I haue beene wounded and beaten sore.
21
For all the good service that I haue done,
What shall my meed bee?
And I will lead the vanward
Thorrow the English countrye.
22
‘Aske on, Douglas,’ said the king,
‘And granted it shall bee:’
‘Why then, I aske litle London,’ saies William Douglas,
‘Gotten giff that it bee.’
23
The King was wrath, and rose away,
Saies, Nay, that cannot bee!
For that I will keepe for my cheefe chamber,
Gotten if it bee.
24
But take thee North Wales and Weschaster,
The cuntrye all round about,
And rewarded thou shalt bee,
Of that take thou noe doubt.
25
Fiue score knights he made on a day,
And dubbd them with his hands;
Rewarded them right worthilye
With the townes in merry England.
26
And when the fresh knights they were made,
To battell the buske them bowne;
Iames Douglas went before,
And he thought to haue wonnen him shoone.
27
But the were mett in a morning of May
With the comminaltye of litle England;
But there scaped neuer a man away,
Through the might of Christës hand.
28
But all onely Iames Douglas;
In Durham in the ffeild
An arrow stroke him in the thye;
Fast flinge[s he] towards the King.
29
The King looked toward litle Durham,
Saies, All things is not well!
For Iames Dowglas beares an arrow in his thye,
The head of it is of steele.
30
‘How now Iames?’ then said the King,
‘How now, how may this bee?
And where beene all thy merrymen
That thou tooke hence with thee?’
31
‘But cease, my king,’ saies Iames Douglas,
‘Aliue is not left a man!’
‘Now by my faith,’ saies the king of Scottes,
‘That gate was euill gone.
32
‘But I’le reuenge thy quarrell well,
And of that thou may be faine;
For one Scott will beate fiue Englishmen,
If the meeten them on the plaine.’
33
‘Now hold your tounge,’ saies Iames Douglas,
‘For in faith that is not soe;
For one English man is worth fiue Scotts,
When they meeten together thoe.
34
‘For they are as egar men to fight
As a faulcon vpon a pray;
Alas! if euer the winne the vanward,
There scapes noe man away.’
35
‘O peace thy talking,’ said the King,
‘They bee but English knaues,
But shepards and millers both,
And preists with their staues.’
36
The King sent forth one of his heralds of armes
To vew the Englishmen:
‘Be of good cheere,’ the herald said,
‘For against one wee bee ten.’
37
‘Who leades those ladds?’ said the king of Scottes,
‘Thou herald, tell thou mee:’
The herald said, The Bishopp of Durham
Is captaine of that companye.
38
‘For the Bishopp hath spred the King‘s banner,
And to battell he buskes him bowne:’
286‘I sweare by St. Andrewes bones,’ saies the King,
‘I’le rapp that preist on the crowne.’
39
The King looked towards litle Durham,
And that hee well beheld,
That the Earle Percy was well armed,
With his battell-axe entred the feild.
40
The King looket againe towards litle Durham,
Four ancyents there see hee;
There were to standards, six in a valley,
He cold not see them with his eye.
41
My Lord of Yorke was one of them,
My Lord of Carlile was the other,
And my Lord Ffluwilliams,
The one came with the other.
42
The Bishopp of Durham commanded his men,
And shortlye he them bade,
That neuer a man shold goe to the feild to fight
Till he had serued his God.
43
Fiue hundred preists said masse that day
In Durham in the feild,
And afterwards, as I hard say,
They bare both speare and sheeld.
44
The Bishopp of Durham orders himselfe to fight,
With his battell-axe in his hand;
He said, This day now I will fight
As long as I can stand!
45
‘And soe will I,’ sayd my Lord of Carlile,
‘In this faire morning gay;’
‘And soe will I,’ said my Lord Ffluwilliams,
‘For Mary, that myld may.’
46
Our English archers bent their bowes.
Shortlye and anon;
They shott ouer the Scottish oast
And scantlye toucht a man.
47
‘Hold downe your hands,’ sayd the Bishopp of Durham,
‘My archers good and true:’
The second shoote that the shott,
Full sore the Scottes itt rue.
48
The Bishopp of Durham spoke on hye,
That both partyes might heare:
‘Be of good cheere, my merrymen all,
The Scotts flyen, and changen there cheere.’
49
But as the saidden, soe the didden,
They fell on heapës hye;
Our Englishmen laid on with their bowes,
As fast as they might dree.
50
The king of Scotts in a studye stood
Amongst his companye;
An arrow stoke him thorrow the nose,
And thorrow his armorye.
51
The King went to a marsh-side
And light beside his steede;
He leaned him downe on his sword-hilts,
To let his nose bleede.
52
There followed him a yeaman of merry England,
His name was Iohn of Coplande:
‘Yeeld thee, traytor!’ saies Coplande then,
‘Thy liffe lyes in my hand.’
53
‘How shold I yeeld me,’ sayes the King,
‘And thou art noe gentleman?’
‘Noe, by my troth,’ sayes Copland there,
‘I am but a poore yeaman.
54
‘What art thou better then I, Sir King?
Tell me if that thou can!
What art thou better then I, Sir King,
Now we be but man to man?’
55
The King smote angerly at Copland then,
Angerly in that stonde;
And then Copland was a bold yeaman,
And bore the King to the ground.
56
He sett the King upon a palfrey,
Himselfe upon a steede;
He tooke him by the bridle-rayne,
Towards London he can him lead.
57
And when to London that he came,
The King from Ffrance was new come home,
And there unto the king of Scottes
He sayd these words anon.
58
‘How like you my shepards and my millers?
My priests with shaven crownes?’
287‘By my fayth, they are the sorest fighting men
That ever I mett on the ground.
59
‘There was never a yeaman in merry England
But he was worth a Scottish knight:’
‘I, by my troth,’ said King Edward, and laughe,
‘For you fought all against the right.’
60
But now the prince of merry England,
Worthilye under his sheelde,
Hath taken the king of Ffrance,
At Poytiers in the ffeelde.
61
The prince did present his father with that food,
The louely king off Ffrance,
And fforward of his iourney he is gone:
God send us all good chance!
62
‘You are welcome, brother!’ sayd the king of Scotts, to the king of Ffrance,
‘For I am come hither to soone;
Christ leeve that I had taken my way
Unto the court of Roome!’
63
‘And soe wold I,’ said the king of Ffrance,
‘When I came over the streame,
That I had taken my iourney
Unto Ierusalem!’
64
Thus ends the battell of ffaire Durham,
In one morning of May,
The battell of Cressey, and the battle of Potyers,
All within one monthës day.
65
Then was welthe and welfare in mery England,
Solaces, game, and glee,
And every man loved other well,
And the King loved good yeomanrye.
66
But God that made the grasse to growe,
And leaves on greenwoode tree,
Now save and keepe our noble king,
And maintaine good yeomanry!
And for & throughout.
11. Perhaps lesten: yo.
12. a litle spell?
21. 3ds.
83. sharpes.
113. forward has a tag to thed. Furnivall.
121. thy for thee.
131. in Earle the l is made over an e. Furnivall.
152. Tuxburye doubtful in the MS.
202. 30: 4.
251. 5 score.
311. Janes.
323, 333. 5.
After 39. 2d part.
402. 4.
403. 6.
431. 500.
441. Durhan.
473. 2d.
621. brothers.
66. Pencil note in Percy’s late hand.
This and 2 following leaves being unfortunately
torn out, in sending the subsequent piece
[‘King Estmere’] to the press, the conclusion
of the preceding ballad has been carefully transcribed;
and indeed the fragments of the other
leaves ought to have been so.
160 THE KNIGHT OF LIDDESDALE
288
Hume of Godscroft, History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, 1644, p. 77.
William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale,
who figures in the foregoing ballad, was
assassinated in 1353, while hunting in Ettrick
forest, by his kinsman and godson, Lord William
Douglas.
According to the Scotichronicon, the motive
was said to be revenge for Alexander Ramsay,
one of the first men among the Scots, whom
Liddesdale had assaulted while he was holding
a court, wounded, carried off, and suffered to
die by starving; and for Sir David Berkeley,
whom Liddesdale was charged with procuring
to be murdered in 1350, in return for the
death of his brother, Sir John Douglas,
brought to pass by Berkeley. (Scotichronicon,
ed. Goodall, II, 348, 335, XIV, 8, XIII,
50, XIV, 7.)
Hume of Godscroft considers the motive
assigned to be quite unnatural, and at best a
pretence. A ballad known to him gave a
different account. “The Lord of Liddesdale,
being at his pastime, hunting in Attrick
forest, is beset by William Earle of Douglas,
and such as hee had ordained for that purpose,
and there assailed, wounded, and slain, beside
Galsewood, in the yeare 1353; upon a jealousie
that the Earle had conceived of him
with his lady, as the report goeth, for so sayes
the old song.” After citing the stanza which
follows, Hume goes on to say: “The song
also declareth how shee did write her love-letters
to Liddisdale, to disswade him from
that hunting. It tells likewise the manner
of the taking of his men, and his owne killing
at Galsewood, and how hee was carried the
first night to Lindin Kirk, a mile from Selkirk,
and was buried within the Abbacie of
Melrosse.”
“The sole basis for this statement of
Hume’s,” says Sir William Fraser, The Douglas
Book, I, 223 f, 1885, “seems to be the
anonymous Border ballad, part of which he
quotes, to which he adds the tradition that
the lady wrote to her lover to dissuade him
from that hunting. Apart from the fact that
this tradition is opposed to contemporary history,
which states that Sir William was wholly
unsuspicious of danger, the story told by
Godscroft is otherwise erroneous. He assumes
that Douglas was made earl in 1346,
and that he was married to a daughter of the
Earl of March, neither of which assumptions
is true. Douglas was not created earl until
26th January, 1357–8, and there was therefore
no ‘Countess of Douglas’ to wait for the
Knight of Liddesdale. Douglas’s only wife
was Lady Margaret of Mar, who survived
him. The exact date of their marriage has
not been ascertained, but it is certain that
Douglas had no countess of the family of
March in 1353, while it is doubtful if at that
date he was married at all. Popular tradition
is therefore at fault in assigning matrimonial
jealousy as a motive for killing the
Knight of Liddesdale.”
“Some fragments of this ballad are still
current, and will be found in the ensuing
work,” says Scott, Minstrelsy, I, 221, note,
ed. 1833. It may be that Sir Walter became
convinced that these fragments were not genuine;
at any rate, they do not appear in his
collection.
The Countesse of Douglas out of her boure she came,
And loudly there that she did call:
‘It is for the Lord of Liddesdale
That I let all these teares downe fall.’
161 THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURN — A — B — C — D — E
289
A. a. Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv, leaf 24, of about
1550. b. Harleian MS. 293, leaf 52. Both in the
British Museum.
B. a. Herd’s MSS, I, 149, II, 30; Herd’s Scottish
Songs, 1776, I, 153. b. Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border, 1802, I, 31.
C. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, I, 354.
D. Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xviii f., two stanzas.
E. Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30, one
stanza.
A a was first printed in the fourth edition
of Percy’s Reliques, 1794, I, 18, and A b in
the first edition, 1765, I, 18.
By far the most circumstantial account of
the battle of Otterburn is given by Froissart
(Chroniques, Buchon, XI, 362 ff, chap. 115 ff),
and his highly felicitous narrative may be
briefly summarized as follows.
The quarrels of Richard II with his uncles
and a consequent feud between the great
northern families of Neville and Percy furnished
the Scots an inviting opportunity for
an invasion of England on a large scale.
Under the pretext of a festive meeting, a
preliminary conference of barons and knights
was held at Aberdeen, and it was there agreed
that they should muster, the middle of August,
1388, at a place on the border near
Jedburgh, with such forces as they could
command. In all this they took no counsel
with the king, who was then past seventy,
and was regarded as of no account for their
purposes. The result was a larger gathering
than had been seen for sixty years, quite
twelve hundred lances and forty thousand
ordinary fighting-men.
The Earl of Northumberland and his sons,
the Seneschal of York, and the Captain of
Berwick had heard of the intended meeting
at Aberdeen, and had sent heralds and minstrels
thither, to get further information.
These agents reported that all Scotland was
astir, and that there was to be another parley
in the forest of Jedburgh. The barons and
knights of Northumberland made due preparations,
and, the better to keep these secret,
remained quiet in their houses, ready to sally
as soon as they learned that the Scots were
in motion. Feeling themselves incapable of
coping with so large a body as had been collected,
they decided upon a simultaneous
counter-raid, and that from the east or from
the west, according as the enemy should take
the road from the west or the east. Of this
plan of the English the Scots obtained knowledge
from a spy whom they had captured, and
to foil it they divided their army, directing the
main body towards Carlisle, under command
of Archibald Douglas, of the Earl of Fife,
son of the king, and many other nobles, while
a detachment of three or four hundred picked
men-at-arms, supported by two thousand stout
fellows, partly archers, all well mounted,[158] and
commanded by James, Earl of Douglas, the
Earl of March and Dunbar, and the Earl of
Murray, were to strike for Newcastle, cross
the river, and burn and ravage the bishopric
of Durham.
The eastern division (with which alone we
are concerned) carried out their program to
the letter. They advanced at speed, stopping
for nothing, and meeting with no resistance,
290and the burning and pillaging had begun in
Durham before the Earl of Northumberland
knew of their arrival. Fire and smoke soon
showed what was going on. The earl dispatched
his sons Henry and Ralph Percy to
Newcastle, where the whole country rallied,
gentle and simple; he himself remaining at
Alnwick, in the hope of being able to enclose
the Scots, when they should take the way
north, between two bodies of English. The
Scots attained to the very gates of Durham;
then, having burned every unfortified town
between there and Newcastle, they turned
northward, with a large booty, repassed the
Tyne, and halted at Newcastle. There was
skirmishing for two days before the city, and
in the course of a long combat between Douglas
and Henry Percy the Scot got possession
of the Englishman’s pennon. This he told
Percy he would raise on the highest point of
his castle at Dalkeith; Percy answered that
he should never accomplish that vaunt, nor
should he carry the pennon out of Northumberland.
‘Come then to-night and win it
back,’ said Douglas; ‘I will plant it before
my tent.’ It was then late, and the fighting
ceased; but the Scots kept good guard, looking
for Percy to come that very night for his
pennon. Percy, however, was constrained to
let that night pass.
The Scots broke up their camp early the
next morning and withdrew homewards. Taking
and burning the tower and town of Ponteland
on their way, they moved on to Otterburn,
thirty miles northwest from Newcastle, where
there was a strong castle or tower, in marshy
ground, which they assailed for a day without
success. At the end of the day they held a
council, and the greater part were in favor of
making for Carlisle in the morning, to rejoin
their countrymen. But the Earl of Douglas
would not hear of this; Henry Percy had
said that he would challenge his pennon;
they would stay two or three days more and
assault the castle, and see if Percy would be
as good as his word. So the Scots encamped
at their ease, making themselves huts of trees,
and availing themselves of the marshes to
fortify their position. At the entrance of the
marshes, which was on the Newcastle road,
they put their servants and foragers, and they
drove their cattle into the bogs.
Henry Percy was greatly vexed and mortified
at the loss of his pennon, and in the
evening he represented to the knights and
squires of Northumberland how much it concerned
his honor to make good what he had
said to Douglas, that the pennon should never
be carried out of England. But these gentlemen
were all convinced that Douglas was
backed by the whole power of Scotland, of
which they had seen only the van, by forty
thousand men who could handle them at their
will; at any rate, it was better to lose a pennon
than two or three hundred knights and
squires, and expose the country to risk. As
for the loss of the pennon, it was one of the
chances of arms; Douglas had won it handsomely;
another time Percy would get as
much from him, or more.[159] To this the
Percys were fain to yield. Later there came
scouts with information that Douglas was
encamped at Otterburn, that the main army
was not acting in conjunction with him, and
that his forces, all told, did not exceed three
thousand. Henry Percy was overjoyed at
the news, and cried, To horse! by the faith I
owe to God and my father, I will go seek my
pennon, and the Scots shall be ousted before
this night is over. The evening of that same
day the Bishop of Durham was expected to arrive
with a great many men, but Henry Percy
would not wait. Six hundred lances and
eight thousand foot were enough, he said, to
serve the Scots, who had but three hundred
lances and two thousand other folk. The
English set forth as soon as they could get
together, by the road which the Scots had
taken, but were not able to move very fast
by reason of their infantry.
Some of the Scots knights were supping,
and more were asleep (for they had had hard
work at the assault on the tower, and were
meaning to be up betimes to renew the attack),
when the English were upon the camp,
crying, Percy! Percy! There was naturally
291great alarm. The English made their attack
at that part of the camp where, as before said,
the servants and foragers were lodged. This
was, however, strong, and the knights sent
some of their men to hold it while they themselves
were arming. Then the Scots formed,
each under his own earl and captain. It was
night, but the weather was fair and the moon
shining. The Scots did not go straight for
the English, but took their way along by the
marshes and by a hill, according to a plan
which they had previously arranged against
the case that their camp should be attacked.
The English made short work with the underlings,
but, as they advanced, always found
fresh people to keep up a skirmish. And
now the Scots, having executed a flank movement,
fell upon their assailants in a mass,
from a quarter where nothing was looked for,
shouting their battle-cries with one voice.
The English were astounded, but closed up,
and gave them Percy! for Douglas! Then
began a fell battle. The English, being in
excess and eager to win, beat back the Scots,
who were at the point of being worsted. James
Douglas, who was young, strong, and keen
for glory, sent his banner to the front, with
the cry, Douglas! Douglas! Henry and
Ralph Percy, indignant against the earl for
the loss of the pennon, turned in the direction
of the cry, responding, Percy! Knights and
squires had no thought but to fight as long as
spears and axes would hold out. It was a
hand-to-hand fight; the parties were so close
together that the archers of neither could
operate; neither side budged, but both stood
firm. The Scots showed extraordinary valor,
for the English were three to one; but be this
said without disparagement of the English,
who have always done their duty.
As has been said, the English were so
strong that they were forcing their foes back,
and this James Douglas saw. To regain the
ground, he took a two-handed axe, plunged
into the thickest, and opened a path before
him; for there was none so well armed in
helmet or plate as not to fear his strokes. So
he made his way till he was hit by three
spears, all at once, one in the shoulder, another
in the chest, another in the thigh, and
borne to the ground. The English did not
know that it was Earl Douglas that had fallen;
they would have been so much elated that the
day would have been theirs. Neither did the
Scots; if they had, they would have given
up in despair. Douglas could not raise himself
from the ground, for he was wounded to
the death. The crush about him was great,
but his people had kept as close to him as
they could. His cousin, Sir James Lindsay,
reached the spot where he was lying, and with
Lindsay Sir John and Sir Walter Sinclair, and
other knights and squires. Near him, and
severely wounded, they found his chaplain,
William of North Berwick, who had kept up
with his master the whole night, axe in hand;
also Sir Robert Hart, with five wounds from
lances and other weapons. Sir John Sinclair
asked the earl, Cousin, how fares it with you?
‘Indifferently,’ said the earl; ‘praised be
God, few of my ancestors have died in their
beds. Avenge me, for I count myself dead.
Walter and John Sinclair, up with my banner,
and cry, Douglas! and let neither friend nor
foe know of my state.’ The two Sinclairs
and Sir John Lindsay did as they were bidden,
raised the banner, and shouted, Douglas!
They were far to the front, but others, who
were behind, hearing the shout loudly repeated,
charged the English with such valor
as to drive them beyond the place where
Douglas now lay dead, and came up with the
banner which Sir John Lindsay was bearing,
begirt and supported by good Scots knights
and squires. The Earl of Murray came up
too, and the Earl of March and Dunbar as
well, and they all, as it were, took new life
when they saw that they were together and
that the English were giving ground. Once
more was the combat renewed. The English
had the disadvantage of the fatigue of a rapid
march from Newcastle, by reason whereof
their will was better than their wind, whereas
the Scots were fresh; and the effects appeared
in this last charge, in which the Scots drove
the English so far back that they could not
recover their lost ground. Sir Ralph Percy
had already been taken prisoner. Like Douglas,
292he had advanced so far as to be surrounded,
and being so badly wounded that
his hose and boots were full of blood, he surrendered
to Sir John Maxwell. Henry Percy,
after a valorous fight with the Lord Montgomery,
became prisoner to the Scottish
knight.
It was a hard battle and well fought, but
such are the turns of fortune that, although
the English were the greater number, and
all bold men and practised in arms, and
although they attacked the enemy valiantly,
and at first drove them back a good distance,
the Scots in the end won the day. The losses
of the English were put by their antagonists
at 1040 prisoners, 1860 killed in the fight and
the pursuit, and more than 1000 wounded;
those of the Scots were about 100 killed and
200 captured.[160] The Scots retired without molestation,
taking the way to Melrose Abbey,
where they caused the Earl of Douglas to be
interred, and his obsequies to be reverently
performed. Over his body a tomb of stone
was built, and above this was raised the earl’s
banner.
Such is the story of the battle of Otterburn,
fought on Wednesday, the 19th day of
August,[161] in the year of grace 1388, as related
by Froissart (with animated tributes to the
hardihood and generosity of both parties)
upon the authority of knights and squires
actually present, both English and Scots, and
also French.
Wyntoun, ix, 840–54, 900f (Laing, III, 36f)
says that the alarm was given the Scots by a
young man that came right fast riding (cf. A
20, 21, B 4, C 17), and that many of the Scots
were able to arm but imperfectly; among
these Earl James, who was occupied with getting
his men into order and was “reckless of
his arming,” and the Earl of Murray, who
forgot his basnet (cf. C 20). Earl James was
slain no man knew in what way. Bower,
Scotichronicon, II, 405, agrees with Wyntoun.
English chroniclers, Knyghton, col.
2728, Walsingham (Riley, II, 176[162]), Malverne,
the continuator of Higden (Polychronicon,
Lumby, IX, 185), assert that Percy
killed Douglas with his own hand, Knyghton
adding that Percy also wounded the Earl of
Murray to the point of death.
That a Scots ballad of Otterburn was popular
in the sixteenth century appears from The
Complaynte of Scotlande, 1549, where a line
is cited, The Perssee and the Mongumrye met,
p. 65, ed. Murray: cf. B 91, C 301.[163] In the
following century Hume of Godscroft writes:[164]
The Scots song made of Otterburn telleth
the time, about Lammasse, and the occasion,
to take preyes out of England; also the dividing
of the armies betwixt the Earles of Fife
and Douglas, and their severall journeys,
293almost as in the authentick history. It beginneth
thus:
It fell about the Lammas tide,
When yeomen wonne their hay,
The doughtie Douglas gan to ride,
In England to take a prey.
Motherwell maintains that the ballad which
passes as English is the Scots song altered to
please the other party. His argument, however,
is far from conclusive. “That The
Battle of Otterbourne was thus dealt with by
an English transcriber appears obvious, for
it studiously omits dilating on Percy’s capture,
while it accurately details his combat
with Douglas;” that is to say, the ballad as
we have it is just what a real English ballad
would have been, both as to what it enlarges
on and what it slights. “Whereas it would
appear that in the genuine Scottish version
the capture of Percy formed a prominent
incident, seeing it is the one by which the
author of The Complaynt refers to the ballad
[The Perssee and the Mongumrye met]:”
from which Motherwell was at liberty to
deduce that B and C represent the genuine
Scottish version, several stanzas being given
to the capture of Percy in these; but this he
would not care to do, on account of the great
inferiority of these forms. A Scotsman could
alter an English ballad “to suit political feeling
and flatter national vanity,” as Motherwell
says the Scots did with Chevy Chace.
(See further on, p. 303.) There is no reason
to doubt that a Scots ballad of Otterburn
once existed, much better than the two inferior,
and partly suspicious, things which
were printed by Herd and Scott, and none
to doubt that an English minstrel would deal
freely with any Scots ballad which he could
turn to his purpose; but then there is no evidence,
positive or probable, that this particular
ballad was “adapted” from the Scots
song made of Otterburn; rather are we to
infer that the few verses of B and C which
repeat or resemble the text of A were borrowed
from A, and, as likely as not, Hume’s
first stanza too.[165]
A, in the shape in which it has come down
to us, must have a date long subsequent to
the battle, as the grammatical forms show;
still, what interested the borderers a hundred
years or more after the event must have interested
people of the time still more, and it
would be against the nature of things that
there should not have been a ballad as early
as 1400. The ballad we have is likely to have
been modernized from such a predecessor, but
I am not aware that there is anything in the
text to confirm such a supposition, unless one
be pleased to make much of the Wednesday
of the eighteenth stanza. The concluding
stanza implies that Percy is dead, and he was
killed at Shrewsbury, in 1403.
A. 3. Hoppertope hyll, says Percy, is a
corruption for Ottercap Hill (now Ottercaps
Hill) in the parish of Kirk Whelpington,
Tynedale Ward, Northumberland. Rodclyffe
Cragge (now Rothley Crags) is a cliff near
Rodeley, a small village in the parish of
Hartburn, in Morpeth Ward, south-east of
Ottercap; and Green Leyton, corruptly Green
Lynton, is another small village, south-east of
Rodeley, in the same parish. Reliques, 1794,
I, 22.
8. Henry Percy seems to have been in his
twenty-third year. As for his having been a
march-man “all his days,” he is said to have
begun fighting ten years before, in 1378, and
to have been appointed Governor of Berwick
and Warden of the Marches in 1385: White,
History of the Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 f.
Walsingham calls both Percy and Douglas
young men, and Froissart speaks at least twice
of Douglas as young. Fraser, The Douglas
Book, 1885, I, 292, says that Douglas was
probably born in 1358. White, as above,
p. 91, would make him somewhat older.
17. The chivalrous trait in this stanza, and
that in the characteristic passage 36–44, are
peculiar to this transcendently heroic ballad.
26, 27. The earldom of Menteith at the
time of this battle, says Percy, following
Douglas’s Peerage, was possessed by Robert
294Stewart, Earl of Fife, third son of King
Robert II; but the Earl of Fife was in command
of the main body and not present. (As
Douglas married a daughter of King Robert
II, the Earl of Fife was not his uncle, but his
brother-in-law.) The mention of Huntley,
says Percy, shows that the ballad was not
composed before 1449; for in that year Alexander,
Lord of Gordon and Huntley, was
created Earl of Huntley by King James II.
The Earl of Buchan at that time was Alexander
Stewart, fourth son of the king. Reliques,
1794, I, 36.
352. ‘The cronykle will not layne.’ So in
‘The Rose of England,’ No 166, st. 224, ‘The
cronickles of this will not lye,’ and also 172;
and in ‘Flodden Field,’ appendix, p. 360, st.
1214.
43, 49. It will be remembered that the
archers had no part in this fight.
45, 46. “The ancient arms of Douglas are
pretty accurately emblazoned in the former
stanza, and if the readings were, The crowned
harte, and, Above stode starres thre, it would
be minutely exact at this day. As for the
Percy family, one of their ancient badges
or cognizances was a white lyon statant, and
the silver crescent continues to be used by
them to this day. They also give three luces
argent for one of their quarters.” Percy, as
above, p. 30.
48. So far as I know, St George does not
appear as Our Lady’s knight in any legendary,
though he is so denominated or described
elsewhere in popular tradition. So in the spell
for night-mare, which would naturally be of
considerable antiquity,
S. George, S. George, Our Ladies knight,
He walkt by day, so did he by night, etc.:
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft,
1584, as reprinted by Nicholson, p. 68, ed.
1665, p. 48; and Fletcher’s Monsieur Thomas,
iv. 6, Dyce, VII, 388. In Nicholas Udall’s
‘Roister Doister,’ known to be as old as
1551, Matthew Merrygreek exclaims, “What
then? sainct George to borow, Our Ladie’s
knight!” Ed. W. D. Cooper, p. 77, Shakespeare
Society, 1847. The Danish ballad of
St George, ‘St Jørgen og Dragen,’ Grundtvig,
No 103, II, 559 ff, the oldest version of which
is from a 16th century MS., begins, “Knight
St George, thou art my man” (svend); and
in the second version, George, declining the
princess whom he has rescued, says he has
vowed to Mary to be her servant.[166] In the
corresponding Swedish ballad, of the same
age as the Danish, George is called Mary’s
knight (Maria honom riddare gjorde, st. 2):
Geijer and Afzelius, ed. Bergström, II, 402.
This is also his relation in German ballads:
Meinert, p. 254; Ditfurth, I, 55, No 68.[167]
B. 1, 9, 14 nearly resemble A 1, 50, 68,
and must have the same origin. In B 9
Douglas is changed to Montgomery; in 14
Douglas is wrongly said to have been buried
on the field, instead of at Melrose Abbey,
where his tomb is still to be seen.
7 is founded upon a tradition reported by
Hume of Godscroft: “There are that say
that he was not slain by the enemy, but by
one of his owne men, a groome of his chamber,
whom he had struck the day before with
a truncheon in the ordering of the battell,
because hee saw him make somewhat slowly
to; and they name this man John Bickerton
of Luffenesse, who left a part of his armour
behinde unfastned, and when hee was in the
greatest conflict, this servant of his came
behinde his back and slew him thereat.”
Ed. 1644, p. 105.
11. The summons to surrender to a braken-bush
is not in the style of fighting-men or
fighting-days, and would justify Hotspur’s
contempt of metre-ballad-mongers.
12, 13. B agrees with Froissart in making
a Montgomery to be the captor of Henry
Percy, whereas A represents that Montgomery
295was taken prisoner and exchanged for
Percy. In The Hunting of the Cheviot Sir
Hugh Montgomery kills Percy, and in return
is shot by a Northumberland archer.
C. Scott does not give a distinct account of
this version. He says that he had obtained
two copies, since the publication of the earlier
edition, “from the recitation of old persons residing
at the head of Ettrick Forest, by which
the story is brought out and completed in a
manner much more correspondent to the true
history.” C is, in fact, a combination of four
copies; the two from Ettrick Forest, B a, and
the MS. copy used in B b to “correct” Herd.
8, it scarcely requires to be said, is spurious,
modern in diction and in conception.
19. Perhaps derived from Hume of Godscroft
rather than from tradition. When
Douglas was dying, according to this historian,[168]
he made these last requests of certain of
his kinsmen: “First, that yee keep my death
close both from our owne folke and from the
enemy; then, that ye suffer not my standard
to be lost or cast downe; and last, that ye
avenge my death, and bury me at Melrosse
with my father. If I could hope for these
things,” he added, “I should die with the
greater contentment; for long since I heard a
prophesie that a dead man should winne a
field, and I hope in God it shall be I.” Ed.
1644, p. 100.
22 must be derived from the English version.
As the excellent editor of The Ballad
Minstrelsy of Scotland, Glasgow, 1871,
remarks, “no Scottish minstrel would ever
have dreamt of inventing such a termination
to the combat between these two redoubted
heroes ... as much at variance with history
as it is repulsive to national feeling:” p. 431.
Genealogical matters, in this and the following
ballad, are treated, not always to complete
satisfaction, in Bishop Percy’s notes, Reliques,
1794, I, 34 ff; Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, I,
351, 363 ff: White’s History of the Battle of
Otterburn, p. 67 ff; The Ballads and Songs
of Ayrshire, I, 66 f.
A is translated by Doenniges, p. 87; C by
Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser,
No 12, p. 74, and by Talvj, Charakteristik,
p. 537.
a. Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv, leaf 64, of about 1550.
b. Harleian MS. 293, leaf 52.
1
Yt fell abowght the Lamasse tyde,
Whan husbondes wynnes ther haye,
The dowghtye Dowglasse bowynd hym to ryde,
In Ynglond to take a praye.
2
The yerlle of Fyffe, wythowghten stryffe,
He bowynd hym over Sulway;
The grete wolde ever to-gether ryde;
That raysse they may rewe for aye.
3
Over Hoppertope hyll they cam in,
And so down by Rodclyffe crage;
Vpon Grene Lynton they lyghted dowyn,
Styrande many a stage.
4
And boldely brente Northomberlond,
And haryed many a towyn;
They dyd owr Ynglyssh men grete wrange,
To batell that were not bowyn.
5
Than spake a berne vpon the bent,
Of comforte that was not colde,
And sayd, We haue brente Northomberlond,
We haue all welth in holde.
6
Now we haue haryed all Bamborowe schyre,
All the welth in the worlde haue wee,
I rede we ryde to Newe Castell,
So styll and stalworthlye.
7
Vpon the morowe, when it was day,
The standerds schone full bryght;
296To the Newe Castell the toke the waye,
And thether they cam full ryght.
8
Syr Henry Perssy laye at the New Castell,
I tell yow wythowtten drede;
He had byn a march-man all hys dayes,
And kepte Barwyke vpon Twede.
9
To the Newe Castell when they cam,
The Skottes they cryde on hyght,
‘Syr Hary Perssy, and thou byste within,
Com to the fylde, and fyght.
10
‘For we haue brente Northomberlonde,
Thy erytage good and ryght,
And syne my logeyng I haue take
Wyth my brande dubbyd many a knyght.’
11
Syr Harry Perssy cam to the walles,
The Skottyssch oste for to se,
And sayd, And thou hast brente Northomberlond
Full sore it rewyth me.
12
Yf thou hast haryed all Bamborowe schyre,
Thow hast done me grete envye;
For the trespasse thow hast me done,
The tone of vs schall dye.
13
‘Where schall I byde the?’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘Or where wylte thow com to me?’
‘At Otterborne, in the hygh way,
[T]her mast thow well logeed be.
14
‘[T]he roo full rekeles ther sche rinnes,
[T]o make the game a[nd] glee;
[T]he fawken and the fesaunt both,
Among the holtes on hye.
15
‘Ther mast thow haue thy welth at wyll,
Well looged ther mast be;
Yt schall not be long or I com the tyll,’
Sayd Syr Harry Perssye.
16
‘Ther schall I byde the,’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘By the fayth of my bodye:’
‘Thether schall I com,’ sayd Syr Harry Perssy,
‘My trowth I plyght to the.’
17
A pype of wyne he gaue them over the walles,
For soth as I yow saye;
Ther he mayd the Dowglasse drynke,
And all hys ost that daye.
18
The Dowglas turnyd hym homewarde agayne,
For soth withowghten naye;
He toke hys logeyng at Oterborne,
Vpon a Wedynsday.
19
And ther he pyght hys standerd dowyn,
Hys gettyng more and lesse,
And syne he warned hys men to goo
To chose ther geldynges gresse.
20
A Skottysshe knyght hoved vpon the bent,
A wache I dare well saye;
So was he ware on the noble Perssy,
In the dawnyng of the daye.
21
He prycked to hys pavyleon-dore,
As faste as he myght ronne;
‘Awaken, Dowglas,’ cryed the knyght,
‘For hys love that syttes in trone.
22
‘Awaken, Dowglas,’ cryed the knyght,
‘For thow maste waken wyth wynne;
Yender haue I spyed the prowde Perssye,
And seven stondardes wyth hym.’
23
‘Nay by my trowth,’ the Dowglas sayed,
‘It ys but a fayned taylle;
He durst not loke on my brede banner
For all Ynglonde so haylle.
24
‘Was I not yesterdaye at the Newe Castell,
That stondes so fayre on Tyne?
For all the men the Perssy had,
He coude not garre me ones to dyne.’
25
He stepped owt at his pavelyon-dore,
To loke and it were lesse:
‘Araye yow, lordynges, one and all,
For here bygynnes no peysse.
26
‘The yerle of Mentaye, thow arte my eme,
The fowarde I gyve to the:
The yerlle of Huntlay, cawte and kene,
He schall be wyth the.
27
‘The lorde of Bowghan, in armure bryght,
On the other hand he schall be;
Lord Jhonstoune and Lorde Maxwell,
They to schall be wyth me.
28
‘Swynton, fayre fylde vpon your pryde!
To batell make yow bowen
297Syr Davy Skotte, Syr Water Stewarde,
Syr Jhon of Agurstone!’
29
The Perssy cam byfore hys oste,
Wych was ever a gentyll knyght;
Vpon the Dowglas lowde can he crye,
‘I wyll holde that I haue hyght.
30
‘For thou haste brente Northomberlonde,
And done me grete envye;
For thys trespasse thou hast me done,
The tone of vs schall dye.’
31
The Dowglas answerde hym agayne,
Wyth grett wurdes vpon hye,
And sayd, I haue twenty agaynst thy one,
Byholde, and thou maste see.
32
Wyth that the Perssy was grevyd sore,
For soth as I yow saye;
He lyghted dowyn vpon his foote,
And schoote hys horsse clene awaye.
33
Euery man sawe that he dyd soo,
That ryall was euer in rowght;
Euery man schoote hys horsse hym froo,
And lyght hym rowynde abowght.
34
Thus Syr Hary Perssye toke the fylde,
For soth as I yow saye;
Jhesu Cryste in hevyn on hyght
Dyd helpe hym well that daye.
35
But nyne thowzand, ther was no moo,
The cronykle wyll not layne;
Forty thowsande of Skottes and fowre
That day fowght them agayne.
36
But when the batell byganne to ioyne,
In hast ther cam a knyght;
The letters fayre furth hath he tayne,
And thus he sayd full ryght:
37
‘My lorde your father he gretes yow well,
Wyth many a noble knyght;
He desyres yow to byde
That he may see thys fyght.
38
‘The Baron of Grastoke ys com out of the west,
Wyth hym a noble companye;
All they loge at your fathers thys nyght,
And the batell fayne wolde they see.’
39
‘For Jhesus love,’ sayd Syr Harye Perssy,
‘That dyed for yow and me,
Wende to my lorde my father agayne,
And saye thow sawe me not wyth yee.
40
‘My trowth ys plyght to yonne Skottysh knyght,
It nedes me not to layne,
That I schulde byde hym vpon thys bent,
And I haue hys trowth agayne.
41
‘And if that I w[e]ynde of thys growende,
For soth, onfowghten awaye,
He wolde me call but a kowarde knyght
In hys londe another daye.
42
‘Yet had I lever to be rynde and rente,
By Mary, that mykkel maye,
Then ever my manhood schulde be reprovyd
Wyth a Skotte another day.
43
‘Wherfore schote, archars, for my sake,
And let scharpe arowes flee;
Mynstrells, playe vp for your waryson,
And well quyt it schall bee.
44
‘Euery man thynke on hys trewe-love,
And marke hym to the Trenite;
For to God I make myne avowe
Thys day wyll I not flee.’
45
The blodye harte in the Dowglas armes,
Hys standerde stode on hye,
That euery man myght full well knowe;
By syde stode starrës thre.
46
The whyte lyon on the Ynglyssh perte,
For soth as I yow sayne,
The lucettes and the cressawntes both;
The Skottes favght them agayne.
47
Vpon Sent Androwe lowde can they crye,
And thrysse they schowte on hyght,
And syne merked them one owr Ynglysshe men,
As I haue tolde yow ryght.
48
Sent George the bryght, owr ladyes knyght,
To name they were full fayne;
Owr Ynglyssh men they cryde on hyght,
And thrysse the schowtte agayne.
49
Wyth that scharpe arowes bygan to flee,
I tell yow in sertayne;
298Men of armes byganne to joyne,
Many a dowghty man was ther slayne.
50
The Perssy and the Dowglas mette,
That ether of other was fayne;
They swapped together whyll that the swette,
Wyth swordes of fyne collayne:
51
Tyll the bloode from ther bassonnettes ranne,
As the roke doth in the rayne;
‘Yelde the to me,’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘Or elles thow schalt be slayne.
52
‘For I see by thy bryght bassonet,
Thow arte sum man of myght;
And so I do by thy burnysshed brande;
Thow arte an yerle, or elles a knyght.’
53
‘By my good faythe,’ sayd the noble Perssye,
‘Now haste thow rede full ryght;
Yet wyll I never yelde me to the,
Whyll I may stonde and fyght.’
54
They swapped together whyll that they swette,
Wyth swordës scharpe and long;
Ych on other so faste thee beette,
Tyll ther helmes cam in peyses dowyn.
55
The Perssy was a man of strenghth,
I tell yow in thys stounde;
He smote the Dowglas at the swordës length
That he felle to the growynde.
56
The sworde was scharpe, and sore can byte,
I tell yow in sertayne;
To the harte he cowde hym smyte,
Thus was the Dowglas slayne.
57
The stonderdes stode styll on eke a syde,
Wyth many a grevous grone;
Ther the fowght the day, and all the nyght,
And many a dowghty man was slayne.
58
Ther was no freke that ther wolde flye,
But styffely in stowre can stond,
Ychone hewyng on other whyll they myght drye,
Wyth many a bayllefull bronde.
59
Ther was slayne vpon the Skottës syde,
For soth and sertenly,
Syr James a Dowglas ther was slayne,
That day that he cowde dye.
60
The yerlle of Mentaye he was slayne,
Grysely groned vpon the growynd;
Syr Davy Skotte, Syr Water Stewarde,
Syr Jhon of Agurstoune.
61
Syr Charllës Morrey in that place,
That never a fote wold flee;
Syr Hewe Maxwell, a lorde he was,
Wyth the Dowglas dyd he dye.
62
Ther was slayne vpon the Skottës syde,
For soth as I yow saye,
Of fowre and forty thowsande Scottes
Went but eyghtene awaye.
63
Ther was slayne vpon the Ynglysshe syde,
For soth and sertenlye,
A gentell knyght, Syr Jhon Fechewe,
Yt was the more pety.
64
Syr James Hardbotell ther was slayne,
For hym ther hartes were sore;
The gentyll Lovell ther was slayne,
That the Perssys standerd bore.
65
Ther was slayne vpon the Ynglyssh perte,
For soth as I yow saye,
Of nyne thowsand Ynglyssh men
Fyve hondert cam awaye.
66
The other were slayne in the fylde;
Cryste kepe ther sowlles from wo!
Seyng ther was so fewe fryndes
Agaynst so many a foo.
67
Then on the morne they mayde them beerys
Of byrch and haysell graye;
Many a wydowe, wyth wepyng teyres,
Ther makes they fette awaye.
68
Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne,
Bytwene the nyght and the day;
Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyffe,
And the Perssy was lede awaye.
69
Then was ther a Scottysh prisoner tayne,
Syr Hewe Mongomery was hys name;
For soth as I yow saye,
He borowed the Perssy home agayne.
70
Now let vs all for the Perssy praye
To Jhesu most of myght,
To bryng hys sowlle to the blysse of heven,
For he was a gentyll knyght.
299
a. Herd’s MS., I, 149, II, 30; Herd’s Scottish Songs,
1776, I, 153. b. Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 31, 1802, “corrected”
from Herd, 1776, “by a MS. copy.”
1
It fell and about the Lammas time,
When husbandmen do win their hay,
Earl Douglass is to the English woods,
And a’with him to fetch a prey.
2
He has chosen the Lindsays light,
With them the gallant Gordons gay,
And the Earl of Fyfe, withouten strife,
And Sir Hugh Montgomery upon a grey.
3
They have taken Northumberland,
And sae hae they the north shire,
And the Otter Dale, they hae burnt it hale,
And set it a’into fire.
4
Out then spake a bonny boy,
That servd ane o Earl Douglass kin;
Methinks I see an English host,
A-coming branken us upon.
5
‘If this be true, my little boy,
And it be troth that thou tells me,
The brawest bower in Otterburn
This day shall be thy morning-fee.
6
‘But if it be fase, my little boy,
But and a lie that thou tells me,
On the highest tree that’s in Otterburn
With my ain hands I’ll hing thee high.’
7
The boy’s taen out his little penknife,
That hanget low down by his gare,
And he gaed Earl Douglass a deadly wound,
Alack! a deep wound and a sare.
8
Earl Douglas said to Sir Hugh Montgomery,
Take thou the vanguard o the three,
And bury me at yon braken-bush,
That stands upon yon lilly lee.
9
Then Percy and Montgomery met,
And weel a wot they warna fain;
They swaped swords, and they twa swat,
And ay the blood ran down between.
10
‘O yield thee, yield thee, Percy,’ he said,
‘Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low;’
‘Whom to shall I yield,’ said Earl Percy,
‘Now that I see it maun be so?’
11
‘O yield thee to yon braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilly lee;
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
12
‘I winna yield to a braken-bush,
Nor yet will I unto a brier;
But I would yield to Earl Douglass,
Or Sir Hugh Montgomery, if he was here.’
13
As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,
He stuck his sword’s point in the ground,
And Sir Hugh Montgomery was a courteous knight,
And he quickly broght him by the hand.
14
This deed was done at Otterburn,
About the breaking of the day;
Earl Douglass was buried at the braken-bush,
And Percy led captive away.
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, I, 345. B completed
by two copies “obtained from the recitation of old
persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest.”
1
It fell about the Lammas tide,
When the muir-men win their hay,
The doughty Douglas bound him to ride
Into England, to drive a prey.
2
He chose the Gordons and the Græmes,
With them the Lindesays, light and gay;
But the Jardines wald not with him ride,
And they rue it to this day.
3
And he has burnd the dales of Tyne,
And part of Bambrough shire,
And three good towers on Reidswire fells,
He left them all on fire.
4
And he marchd up to Newcastle,
And rode it round about:
‘O wha’s the lord of this castle?
Or wha’s the lady o’t? ’
3005
But up spake proud Lord Percy then,
And O but he spake hie!
I am the lord of this castle,
My wife’s the lady gay.
6
‘If thou’rt the lord of this castle,
Sae weel it pleases me,
For, ere I cross the Border fells,
The tane of us shall die.’
7
He took a lang spear in his hand,
Shod with the metal free,
And for to meet the Douglas there
He rode right furiouslie.
8
But O how pale his lady lookd,
Frae aff the castle-wa,
When down before the Scottish spear
She saw proud Percy fa.
9
‘Had we twa been upon the green,
And never an eye to see,
I wad hae had you, flesh and fell;
But your sword sall gae wi me.’
10
‘But gae ye up to Otterbourne,
And, wait there dayis three,
And, if I come not ere three dayis end,
A fause knight ca ye me.’
11
‘The Otterbourne’s a bonnie burn;
’Tis pleasant there to be;
But there is nought at Otterbourne
To feed my men and me.
12
‘The deer rins wild on hill and dale,
The birds fly wild from tree to tree;
But there is neither bread nor kale
To fend my men and me.
13
‘Yet I will stay at Otterbourne,
Where you shall welcome be;
And, if ye come not at three dayis end,
A fause lord I’ll ca thee.’
14
‘Thither will I come,’ proud Percy said,
‘By the might of Our Ladye;’
‘There will I bide thee,’ said the Douglas,
‘My troth I plight to thee.’
15
They lighted high on Otterbourne,
Upon the bent sae brown;
They lighted high on Otterbourne,
And threw their pallions down.
16
And he that had a bonnie boy,
Sent out his horse to grass;
And he that had not a bonnie boy,
His ain servant he was.
17
But up then spake a little page,
Before the peep of dawn:
‘O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord,
For Percy’s hard at hand.’
18
‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye liar loud!
Sae loud I hear ye lie:
For Percy had not men yestreen
To dight my men and me.
19
‘But I have dreamd a dreary dream,
Beyond the Isle of Sky;
I saw a dead man win a fight,
And I think that man was I.’
20
He belted on his guid braid sword,
And to the field he ran,
But he forgot the helmet good,
That should have kept his brain.
21
When Percy wi the Douglas met,
I wat he was fu fain;
They swakked their swords, till sair they swat,
And the blood ran down like rain.
22
But Percy with his good broad sword,
That could so sharply wound,
Has wounded Douglas on the brow,
Till he fell to the ground.
23
Then he calld on his little foot-page,
And said, Run speedilie,
And fetch my ain dear sister’s son,
Sir Hugh Montgomery.
24
‘My nephew good,’ the Douglas said,
‘What recks the death of ane!
Last night I dreamd a dreary dream,
And I ken the day’s thy ain.
25
‘My wound is deep; I fain would sleep;
Take thou the vanguard of the three,
And hide me by the braken-bush,
That grows on yonder lilye lee.
26
‘O bury me by the braken-bush,
Beneath the blooming brier;
Let never living mortal ken
That ere a kindly Scot lies here.’
30127
He lifted up that noble lord,
Wi the saut tear in his ee;
He hid him in the braken-bush,
That his merrie men might not see.
28
The moon was clear, the day drew near,
The spears in flinders flew,
But mony a gallant Englishman
Ere day the Scotsmen slew.
29
The Gordons good, in English blood
They steepd their hose and shoon;
The Lindsays flew like fire about,
Till all the fray was done.
30
The Percy and Montgomery met,
That either of other were fain;
They swapped swords, and they twa swat,
And aye the blood ran down between.
31
‘Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy,’ he said,
‘Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low!’
‘To whom must I yield,’ quoth Earl Percy,
‘Now that I see it must be so?’
32
‘Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,
Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;
But yield thee to the braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilye lee.’
33
‘I will not yield to a braken-bush,
Nor yet will I yield to a brier;
But I would yield to Earl Douglas,
Or Sir Hugh the Montgomery, if he were here.’
34
As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,
He struck his sword’s point in the gronde;
The Montgomery was a courteous knight,
And quickly took him by the honde.
35
This deed was done at the Otterbourne,
About the breaking of the day;
Earl Douglas was buried at the braken-bush,
And the Percy led captive away.
Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xviii f; from recitation.
1
Then out an spak a little wee boy,
And he was near o Percy’s kin:
Methinks I see the English host
A coming branking us upon.
2
Wi nine waggons scaling wide,
And seven banners bearing high;
It wad do any living gude
To see their bonny colours fly.
Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30; from a recited
copy.
‘O yield thee to yon braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilly lie;
For there lies aneth yon braken-bush
What aft has conquerd mae than thee.’
A. a.
34. many a styrande.
“The reading of the MS. is, I suspect,
right; for stage, or staig, in Scotland
means a young horse unshorn of its masculine
attributes, and the obvious intention
of the poet is merely to describe that
the Scottish alighted from many a prancing
steed, in order to prepare for action.”
Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30,
who would read accordingly, [Off] many
a styrande stage. The fourth line, as
amended by Motherwell, would be a
superfluity, whereas Percy’s reading,
here adopted, adds a pleasing incident,
the rousing of the deer as the troopers
passed their haunts.
201. beste, corrected to bent.
221. repeated at the top of fol. 65 back.
302313. the one; b, thy one.
342. soth soth.
411. b, weynde.
463. cressawttes.
503. schapped: cf. 541.
604. Syr James: cf. 284.
643. Covell.
Crossed final ll, in all, styll, Castell, schall,
well, etc., has not been rendered lle.
b.
A Songe made in R. 2. his tyme of the Battelle
at Otterburne betweene the Lord Henry
Percye, Earle of Northomberland, and the
Earle Douglas of Scotland, Anº. 1388.
Either b is a transcript of a, or both are
from the same source.
32. Redclyffe.
34. Many a stirande.
44. bound.
74. they ranne.
111. Sr Henry came.
132. wille.
142. game and.
152. maiste thou.
154. Henrye.
201. houered vppon the beste bent.
244. gare me oute to.
284. Aguiston.
313. thy one.
351. no more.
352. cronicles.
373. abyde.
394. wth thie eye.
401. yonde Skotes.
411. Ffor yf I weynde.
443. my avowe.
462. I wanting.
491. arrowes gan vpe to.
503. schapped: swatte.
511. from the.
541. swotte.
571. stonderes; elke syde.
593. a wanting.
604. Sr James.
633. Ffitzhughe.
641. Harbotle.
643. Covelle.
664. a wanting.
671. the morowe.
701. Percyes.
A pencil note on the first leaf of b (signed
F. M., Sir F. Madden) states that it is in
Ralph Starkey’s hand.
B. a.
23. Fuife in my transcript of Herd, I; Fyfe
in II.
33. hae is omitted in II and the printed copy.
34. printed into a fire.
53. bravest in my transcript of Herd, I;
brawest, II; printed brawest.
73. The second MS. has gae; printed gae.
83. bring me in my transcript of Herd, I;
bury in the second MS., and so printed.
122. II, into.
b.
11. and wanting.
24. Hugh the.
31. have harried.
32. they Bambroshire.
33. And wanting.
34. a’in a blaze o fire.
51. true, thou little foot-page.
52. If this be true thou tells to me.
54. This day wanting; morning’s.
61. thou little.
62. lie thou tells to.
63. that’s wanting.
64. hang.
71. boy has.
72. hung right low.
73. gave Lord.
74. I wot a.
81. Douglas to the Montgomery said.
83. me by the.
84. that grows.
91. The Percy.
92. That either of other were fain.
101. Yield thee, O yield.
104. it must.
11
Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,
Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;
But yield thee to the braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilye lee.
121. I will not.
122. I to.
124. Hugh the: he were.
131,3. And the Montgomery.
134. And quickly took him.
144. the Percy.
C.
341. In one copy: As soon as he knew it was
Sir Hugh.
162 THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT — A is translated by Herder, II, 213; by R. — A — B
303
A. MS. Ashmole, 48, 1550 or later, Bodleian Library,
in Skeat’s Specimens of English Literature, etc.,
third edition, 1880, p. 67.[169]
B. a. ‘Chevy Chase,’ Percy MS., p. 188, Hales and
Furnivall, II, 7. b. Pepys Ballads, I, 92, No 45,
Magdalene College, Cambridge, broadside, London,
printed for M. G. c. Douce Ballads, fol. 27b, Bodleian
Library, and Roxburghe Ballads, III, 66, British
Museum, broadside, printed for F. Coles, T.
Vere, and J. Wright, d. Wood Ballads, 401, 48,
Bodleian Library, broadside, printed for F. Coles,
T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson. e. Bagford Ballads,
I, No 32, British Museum, broadside, printed by and
for W. Onley. f. A Scottish copy, without printer,
Harvard College Library.
A was first printed by Hearne in Guilielmi
Neubrigensis Historia, I, lxxxii ff, 1719;
then by Percy, Reliques, I, 1, 1765, with a
judicious preface. The whole manuscript, in
which this piece is No 8, was edited by
Thomas Wright for the Roxburghe Club in
1860: Songs and Ballads, with other short
Poems, chiefly of the Reign of Philip and
Mary.
B may probably be found in any of the
larger sets of broadsides. It is included in
such collections as Dryden’s Miscellanies,
II, 238, 1702; Pills to purge Melancholy, IV,
289, 1719; Old Ballads, I, 111, 1723; Percy’s
Reliques, I, 235, 1765. b has many readings
of a, the copy in the Percy MS. There is
a second Bagford copy, II, No 37, printed like
e, for W. Onley. f, the Scottish copy, is probably
of a date near 1700. Like the edition
printed at Glasgow, 1747, it is, in the language
of Percy, “remarkable for the wilful
corruptions made in all the passages which
concern the two nations”: Folio Manuscript,
Hales and Furnivall, II, 1, note, and Reliques,
1765, I, 234. The Scots are made fifteen
hundred, the English twenty, in 6, 13, 53, 54;
the speeches of King James and King Henry
are interchanged in 58, 60; 62, 63, are
dropped.
The ‘Hunttis of Chevet’ is among the
“sangis of natural music of the antiquite”
mentioned as sung by the “shepherds” in
The Complaynt of Scotland, a book assigned to
1549. It was an old and a popular song at the
middle of the sixteenth century. The copy
in the Ashmolean manuscript is subscribed
Expliceth, quod Rychard Sheale, upon which
ground Sheale has been held to be the author,[170]
and not, as Percy and Ritson assumed,
simply the transcriber, of the ballad. Sheale
describes himself as a minstrel living at Tamworth,
whose business was to sing and talk,
or to chant ballads and tell stories. He was
the author of four pieces of verse in the same
manuscript, one of which is of the date 1559
(No 56). This and another piece (No 46),
in which he tells how he was robbed of above
three score pound, give a sufficient idea of his
dialect and style and a measure of his ability.
This ballad was of course part of his stock
as minstrel; the supposition that he was the
author is preposterous in the extreme.
The song “which is commonly sung of the
Hunting of Chiviot,” says Hume of Godscroft,
“seemeth indeed poeticall and a meer fiction,
perhaps to stirre up vertue; yet a fiction
whereof there is no mention, neither in the
Scottish nor English chronicle”: p. 104. To
304this the general replication may be made that
the ballad can scarcely be a deliberate fiction.
The singer is not a critical historian, but he
supposes himself to be dealing with facts; he
may be partial to his countrymen, but he has
no doubt that he is treating of a real event;
and the singer in this particular case thought
he was describing the battle of Otterburn,
the Hunting of the Cheviot being indifferently
so called: st. 65. The agreement to meet, in
A, st. 9, corresponds with the plight in Otterburn,
st. 16; 174 corresponds to Otterburn
124, 304; 47, 56, 57, are the same as Otterburn
58, 61, 67; 31, 32, 66, are variants of
Otterburn 51, 52, 68; Douglas’s summons to
Percy to yield, Percy’s refusal, and Douglas’s
death, 331, 35–372, may be a variation of Otterburn,
513, 55–56; Sir John of Agarstone
is slain with Percy in 52, and with Douglas
in Otterburn 60; Sir Hugh Montgomery appears
in both.
The differences in the story of the two ballads,
though not trivial, are still not so material
as to forbid us to hold that both may be
founded upon the same occurrence, the Hunting
of the Cheviot being of course the later
version,[171] and following in part its own tradition,
though repeating some portions of the
older ballad. According to this older ballad,
Douglas invades Northumberland in an act
of public war; according to the later, Percy
takes the initiative, by hunting in the Scottish
hills without the leave and in open defiance
of Douglas, lieutenant of the Marches.
Such trespasses,[172] whether by the English or
the Scots, were not less common, we may
believe, than hostile incursions, and the one
would as naturally as the other account for a
bloody collision between the rival families of
Percy and Douglas, to those who consulted
“old men” instead of histories: cf. stanza 67.
The older and the later ballad concur (and
herein are in harmony with some chroniclers,
though not with the best) as to Percy’s slaying
Douglas. In the older ballad Percy is
taken prisoner, an incident which history
must record, but which is somewhat insipid,
for which reason we might expect tradition to
improve the tale by assigning a like fate to
both of the heroic antagonists.
The singer all but startles us with his historical
lore when he informs us in 63 that
King Harry the Fourth “did the battle of
Hombylldown” to requite the death of Percy;
for though the occasion of Homildon was
really another incursion on the part of the
Scots, and the same Percy was in command
of the English who in the ballad meets his
death at Otterburn, nevertheless the battle of
Homildon was actually done fourteen years
subsequent to that of Otterburn and falls in
the reign of Henry Fourth. The free play
of fancy in assigning the cause of Homildon
must be allowed to offset the servility to an
accurate chronology; and such an extenuation
is required only in this instance.[173] Not
only is the fourth Harry on the throne of England
at the epoch of Otterburn, but Jamy is
the Scottish king, although King James I was
not crowned until 1424, the second year of
Henry VI.
But here we may remember what is well
said by Bishop Percy: “A succession of two
or three Jameses, and the long detention of one
of them in England, would render the name
familiar to the English, and dispose a poet in
those rude times to give it to any Scottish
king he happened to mention.” The only
important inference from the mention of a
King James is that the minstrel’s date is not
earlier than 1424.
The first, second, and fourth James were
contemporary with a Henry during the whole
of their reign, and the third during a part of
his; with the others we need not concern
ourselves. It has given satisfaction to some
305who wish to reconcile the data of the ballad
with history to find in a Scottish historiographer
a record of a fight between a Percy
and a Douglas in 1435 or 1436, at the very
end of the reign of James I. Henry Percy
of Northumberland, says Hector Boece, made
a raid into Scotland with four thousand men
(it is not known whether of his own motion
or by royal authority), and was encountered
by nearly an equal force under William Douglas,
Earl of Angus, and others, at Piperden,
the victory falling to the Scots, with about
the same slaughter on both sides: Scotorum
Historia, 1526, fol. ccclxvi, back. This affair
is mentioned by Bower, Scotichronicon, 1759,
II, 500 f, but the leader of the English is not
named,[174] wherefore we may doubt whether it
was a Percy. Very differently from Otterburn,
this battle made but a slight impression
on the chroniclers.
Sidney’s words, though perhaps a hundred
times requoted since they were cited by Addison,
cannot be omitted here: “Certainly I
must confesse my own barbarousnes. 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 voyce then
rude stile: which, being so evill apparrelled
in the dust and cobwebbes of that uncivill
age, what would it worke trymmed in the
gorgeous eloquence of Pindar!”[175] Sidney’s
commendation is fully justified by the quality
of The Battle of Otterburn, but is merited in
even a higher degree by The Hunting of the
Cheviot, and for that reason (I know of no
other) The Hunting of the Cheviot may be
supposed to be the ballad he had in mind.
The song of Percy and Douglas, then, was
sung about the country by blind fiddlers about
1580 in a rude and ancient form, much older
than the one that has come down to us; for
that, if heard by Sidney, could not have
seemed to him a song of an uncivil age,
meaning the age of Percy and Douglas, two
hundred years before his day. It would give
no such impression even now, if chanted to
an audience three hundred years later than
Sidney.[176]
B is a striking but by no means a solitary
example of the impairment which an old
ballad would suffer when written over for the
broadside press. This very seriously enfeebled
edition was in circulation throughout
the seventeenth century, and much sung (says
Chappell) despite its length.[177] It is declared
by Addison, in his appreciative and tasteful
critique, Spectator, Nos 70, 74, 1711, to be the
favorite ballad of the common people of England.[178]
Addison, who knew no other version,
informs us that Ben Jonson used to say that
he had rather have been the author of Chevy
Chase than of all his works. The broadside
copy may possibly have been the only one
306known to Jonson also, but in all probability
the traditional ballad was still sung in the
streets in Jonson’s youth, if not later.
A 3. By these “shyars thre” is probably
meant three districts in Northumberland which
still go by the name of shires and are all in
the neighborhood of Cheviot. These are Islandshire,
being the district so named from
Holy Island; Norehamshire, so called from
the town and castle of Noreham or Norham;
and Bamboroughshire, the ward or hundred
belonging to Bamborough castle and town.
Percy’s Reliques, 1794, I, 5, note.
15. Chyviat Chays, well remarks Mr
Wheatley in his edition of the Reliques, I, 22,
becomes Chevy Chace by the same process as
that by which Teviotdale becomes Tividale,
and there is no sufficient occasion for the suggestion
that Chevy Chase is a corruption of
chevauchée, raid, made by Dr. E. B. Nicholson,
Notes and Queries, Third Series, XII,
124, and adopted by Burton, History of Scotland,
II, 366.
38 f. “That beautiful line taking the dead
man by the hand will put the reader in mind
of Æneas’s behavior towards Lausus, whom
he himself had slain as he came to the rescue
of his aged father” (Ingemuit miserans graviter,
dextramque tetendit, etc., Æn. X, 823,
etc.): Addison, in Spectator, No 70.
543,4, and B 503,4. Witherington’s prowess
was not without precedent, and, better still,
was emulated in later days. Witness the
battle of Ancrum Muir, 1545, or “Lilliard’s
Edge,” as it is commonly called, from a woman
that fought with great bravery there, to
whose memory there was a monument erected
on the field of battle with this inscription, as
the traditional report goes:
“Fair maiden Lilliard lies under this stane;
Little was her stature, but great her fame;
On the English lads she laid many thumps,
And when her legs were off, she fought upon her stumps.”[179]
The giant Burlong also fought wonderfully
on his stumps after Sir Triamour had smitten
his legs off by the knee: Utterson’s Popular
Poetry, I, 67, 1492–94, cited by Motherwell;
Percy MS., Hales and Furnivall, II, 131. Sir
Graysteel fights on one leg: Eger and Grine,
Percy MS., I, 386 f, 1032, 1049. Nygosar,
in Kyng Alisaunder, after both his armes have
been cut off, bears two knights from their
steeds “with his heved and with his cors”:
2291–2312, Weber, I, 98 f. Still better, King
Starkaðr, in the older Edda, fights after his
head is off: Helgakviða Hundingsbana, ii,
27, Bugge, p. 196.[180]
“Sed, etiam si ceciderit, de genu pugnat,”
Seneca, De Providentia 2, 4 (cited in The
Gentleman’s Magazine, 1794, I, 306), is explained
by Seneca himself, Epis. lxvi, 47:
“qui, succisis poplitibus, in genua se excepit
nec arma dimisit.” “In certaminibus gladiatorum
hoc sæpe accidisse et statuæ existentes
docent, imprimis gladiator Borghesinus.”
Senecæ Op. Phil., Bouillet, II, 12.
611. “Lovely London,” as Maginn remarks,
Blackwood’s Magazine, VII, 327, is like the
Homeric Αὐγειὰς ἐρατεινάς, Ἀρήνην ἐρατεινήν, Il.,
ii, 532, 591, etc. Leeve, or lovely, London, is
of frequent occurrence: see No 158, 11, No
168, appendix, 75, No 174, 351, etc. So
“men of pleasant Tivydale,” B 141, wrongly
in B a, f, “pleasant men of Tiuydale.”
643. Glendale is one of the six wards of
Northumberland, and Homildon is in this
ward, a mile northwest of Wooler.
307652. That tear begane this spurn “is said
to be a proverb, meaning that tear, or pull,
brought about this kick”: Skeat. Such a
proverb is unlikely and should be vouched.
There may be corruption, and perhaps we
should read, as a lamentation, That ear (ever)
begane this spurn! Or possibly, That tear
is for That there, meaning simply there.
For genealogical illustrations may be consulted,
with caution, Percy’s Reliques, 1794,
I, 34 ff, 282 ff. With respect to 531, Professor
Skeat notes: “Loumle, Lumley; always
hitherto printed louele (and explained Lovel),
though the MS. cannot be so read, the word
being written loūle. ‘My Lord Lumley’ is
mentioned in the ballad of Scotish Feilde,
Percy Fol. MS., I, 226, l. 270; and again in
the ballad of Bosworth Feilde, id., III, 245,
l. 250.”
v. Bismarck, Deutches Museum, 1858, I, 897;
by Von Marées, p. 63; by Grundtvig, Engelske
og skotske Folkeviser, p. 84, No 13. Into
Latin by Dr. William Maginn, in Blackwood’s
Magazine, 1819–20, VI, 199, VII, 323.
B is translated by Bothe, p. 6; by Knortz,
L. u. R. Alt-Englands, p. 24, No 7; by
Loève-Veimars, p. 55; (in part) by Cantù,
p. 802. Into Latin by Henry Bold, Dryden’s
Miscellanies, ed. 1702, II, 239; by Rev. John
Anketell, Poems, etc., Dublin, 1793, p. 264.
MS. Ashmole, 48 Bodleian Library, in Skeat’s Specimens
of English Literature, 1394–1579, ed. 1880, p. 67.
1
The Persë owt off Northombarlonde,
and avowe to God mayd he
That he wold hunte in the mowntayns
off Chyviat within days thre,
In the magger of doughtë Dogles,
and all that euer with him be.
2
The fattiste hartes in all Cheviat
he sayd he wold kyll, and cary them away:
‘Be my feth,’ sayd the dougheti Doglas agayn,
‘I will let that hontyng yf that I may.’
3
The[n] the Persë owt off Bamborowe cam,
with him a myghtee meany,
With fifteen hondrith archares bold off blood and bone;
the wear chosen owt of shyars thre.
4
This begane at a Monday at morn,
in Cheviat the hillys so he;
The chylde may rue that ys vn-born,
it wos the mor pittë.
5
The dryvars thorowe the woodës went,
for to reas the dear;
Bomen byckarte vppone the bent
with ther browde aros cleare.
6
Then the wylde thorowe the woodës went,
on euery sydë shear;
Greahondes thorowe the grevis glent,
for to kyll thear dear.
7
This begane in Chyviat the hyls abone,
yerly on a Monnyn-day;
Be that it drewe to the oware off none,
a hondrith fat hartës ded ther lay.
8
The blewe a mort vppone the bent,
the semblyde on sydis shear;
To the quyrry then the Persë went,
to se the bryttlynge off the deare.
9
He sayd, It was the Duglas promys
this day to met me hear;
But I wyste he wold faylle, verament;
a great oth the Persë swear.
10
At the laste a squyar off Northomberlonde
lokyde at his hand full ny;
He was war a the doughetie Doglas commynge,
with him a myghttë meany.
11
Both with spear, bylle, and brande,
yt was a myghtti sight to se;
Hardyar men, both off harte nor hande,
wear not in Cristiantë.
30812
The wear twenti hondrith spear-men good,
withoute any feale;
The wear borne along be the watter a Twyde,
yth bowndës of Tividale.
13
‘Leave of the brytlyng of the dear,’ he sayd,
‘and to your boÿs lock ye tayk good hede;
For neuer sithe ye wear on your mothars borne
had ye neuer so mickle nede.’
14
The dougheti Dogglas on a stede,
he rode alle his men beforne;
His armor glytteryde as dyd a glede;
a boldar barne was never born.
15
‘Tell me whos men ye ar,’ he says,
‘or whos men that ye be:
Who gave youe leave to hunte in this Chyviat chays,
in the spyt of myn and of me.’
16
The first mane that ever him an answear mayd,
yt was the good lord Persë:
‘We wyll not tell the whoys men we ar,’ he says,
‘nor whos men that we be;
But we wyll hounte hear in this chays,
in the spyt of thyne and of the.
17
‘The fattiste hartës in all Chyviat
we haue kyld, and cast to carry them away:’
‘Be my troth,’ sayd the doughetë Dogglas agay[n],
‘therfor the ton of vs shall de this day.’
18
Then sayd the doughtë Doglas
unto the lord Persë:
‘To kyll alle thes giltles men,
alas, it wear great pittë!
19
‘But, Persë, thowe art a lord of lande,
I am a yerle callyd within my contrë;
Let all our men vppone a parti stande,
and do the battell off the and of me.’
20
‘Nowe Cristes cors on his crowne,’ sayd the lorde Persë,
‘who-so-euer ther-to says nay!
Be my troth, doughttë Doglas,’ he says,
‘thow shalt neuer se that day.
21
‘Nethar in Ynglonde, Skottlonde, nar France,
nor for no man of a woman born,
But, and fortune be my chance,
I dar met him, on man for on.’
22
Then bespayke a squyar off Northombarlonde,
Richard Wytharyngton was him nam;
‘It shall neuer be told in Sothe-Ynglonde,’ he says,
‘to Kyng Herry the Fourth for sham.
23
‘I wat youe byn great lordës twaw,
I am a poor squyar of lande;
I wylle neuer se my captayne fyght on a fylde,
and stande my selffe and loocke on,
But whylle I may my weppone welde,
I wylle not [fayle] both hart and hande.’
24
That day, that day, that dredfull day!
the first fit here I fynde;
And youe wyll here any mor a the hountynge a the Chyviat,
yet ys ther mor behynde.
25
The Yngglyshe men hade ther bowys yebent,
ther hartes wer good yenoughe;
The first off arros that the shote off,
seven skore spear-men the sloughe.
26
Yet byddys the yerle Doglas vppon the bent,
a captayne good yenoughe,
And that was sene verament,
for he wrought hom both woo and wouche.
27
The Dogglas partyd his ost in thre,
lyk a cheffe cheften off pryde;
With suar spears off myghttë tre,
the cum in on euery syde;
28
Thrughe our Yngglyshe archery
gave many a wounde fulle wyde;
Many a doughetë the garde to dy,
which ganyde them no pryde.
29
The Ynglyshe men let ther boÿs be,
and pulde owt brandesthat wer brighte;
It was a hevy syght to se
bryght swordes on basnites lyght.
30
Thorowe ryche male and myneyeple,
many sterne the strocke done streght;
Many a freyke that was fulle fre,
ther vndar foot dyd lyght.
30931
At last the Duglas and the Persë met,
lyk to captayns of myght and of mayne;
The swapte togethar tylle the both swat,
with swordes that wear of fyn myllan.
32
Thes worthë freckys for to fyght,
ther-to the wear fulle fayne,
Tylle the bloode owte off thear basnetes sprente,
as euer dyd heal or ra[y]n.
33
‘Yelde the, Persë,’ sayde the Doglas,
‘and i feth I shalle the brynge
Wher thowe shalte haue a yerls wagis
of Jamy our Skottish kynge.
34
‘Thoue shalte haue thy ransom fre,
I hight the hear this thinge;
For the manfullyste man yet art thowe
that euer I conqueryd in filde fighttynge.’
35
‘Nay,’ sayd the lord Persë,
‘I tolde it the beforne,
That I wolde neuer yeldyde be
to no man of a woman born.’
36
With that ther cam an arrowe hastely,
forthe off a myghttë wane;
Hit hathe strekene the yerle Duglas
in at the brest-bane.
37
Thorowe lyvar and longës bathe
the sharpe arrowe ys gane,
That neuer after in all his lyffe-days
he spayke mo wordës but ane:
That was, Fyghte ye, my myrry men, whyllys ye may,
for my lyff-days ben gan.
38
The Persë leanyde on his brande,
and sawe the Duglas de;
He tooke the dede mane by the hande,
and sayd, Wo ys me for the!
39
‘To haue savyde thy lyffe, I wolde haue partyde with
my landes for years thre,
For a better man, of hart nare of hande,
was nat in all the north contrë.’
40
Off all that se a Skottishe knyght,
was callyd Ser Hewe the Monggombyrry;
He sawe the Duglas to the deth was dyght,
he spendyd a spear, a trusti tre.
41
He rod vppone a corsiare
throughe a hondrith archery:
He neuer stynttyde, nar neuer blane,
tylle he cam to the good lord Persë.
42
He set vppone the lorde Persë
a dynte that was full soare;
With a suar spear of a myghttë tre
clean thorow the body he the Persë ber,
43
A the tothar syde that a man myght se
a large cloth-yard and mare:
Towe bettar captayns wear nat in Cristiantë
then that day slan wear ther.
44
An archar off Northomberlonde
say slean was the lord Persë;
He bar a bende bowe in his hand,
was made off trusti tre.
45
An arow that a cloth-yarde was lang
to the harde stele halyde he;
A dynt that was both sad and soar
he sat on Ser Hewe the Monggombyrry.
46
The dynt yt was both sad and sar
that he of Monggomberry sete;
The swane-fethars that his arrowe bar
with his hart-blood the wear wete.
47
Ther was neuer a freake wone foot wolde fle,
but still in stour dyd stand,
Heawyng on yche othar, whylle the myghte dre,
with many a balfull brande.
48
This battell begane in Chyviat
an owar befor the none,
And when even-songe bell was rang,
the battell was nat half done.
49
The tocke . . on ethar hande
be the lyght off the mone;
Many hade no strenght for to stande,
in Chyviat the hillys abon.
50
Of fifteen hondrith archars of Ynglonde
went away but seuenti and thre;
Of twenti hondrith spear-men of Skotlonde,
but even five and fifti.
51
But all wear slayne Cheviat within;
the hade no streng[th]e to stand on hy;
310The chylde may rue that ys unborne,
it was the mor pittë.
52
Thear was slayne, withe the lord Persë,
Ser Johan of Agerstone,
Ser Rogar, the hinde Hartly,
Ser Wyllyam, the bolde Hearone.
53
Ser Jorg, the worthë Loumle,
a knyghte of great renowen,
Ser Raff, the ryche Rugbe,
with dyntes wear beaten dowene.
54
For Wetharryngton my harte was wo,
that euer he slayne shulde be;
For when both his leggis wear hewyne in to,
yet he knyled and fought on hys kny.
55
Ther was slayne, withthe dougheti Duglas,
Ser Hewe the Monggombyrry,
Ser Dauy Lwdale, that worthë was,
his sistars son was he.
56
Ser Charls a Murrë in that place,
that neuer a foot wolde fle;
Ser Hewe Maxwelle, a lorde he was,
withthe Doglas dyd he dey.
57
So on the morrowe the mayde them byears
off birch and hasell so g[r]ay;
Many wedous, with wepyng tears,
cam to fache ther makys away.
58
Tivydale may carpe off care,
Northombarlond may mayk great mon,
For towe such captayns as slayne wear thear
on the March-parti shall neuer be non.
59
Word ys commen to Eddenburrowe,
to Jamy the Skottishe kynge,
That dougheti Duglas, lyff-tenant of the Marches,
he lay slean Chyviot within.
60
His handdës dyd he weal and wryng,
he sayd, Alas, and woe ys me!
Such an othar captayn Skotland within,
he sayd, ye-feth shuld neuer be.
61
Worde ys commyn to lovly Londone,
till the fourth Harry our kynge,
That lord Persë, leyff-tenante of the Marchis,
he lay slayne Chyviat within.
62
‘God haue merci on his solle,’ sayde Kyng Harry,
‘good lord, yf thy will it be!
I haue a hondrith captayns in Ynglonde,’ he sayd,
’as good as euer was he:
But, Persë, and I brook my lyffe,
thy deth well quyte shall be.’
63
As our noble kynge mayd his avowe,
lyke a noble prince of renowen,
For the deth of the lord Persë
he dyde the battell of Hombyll-down;
64
Wher syx and thrittë Skottishe knyghtes
on a day wear beaten down;
Glendale glytteryde on ther armor bryght,
over castille, towar, and town.
65
This was the hontynge off the Cheviat,
that tear begane this spurn;
Old men that knowen the grownde well yenoughe
call it the battell of Otterburn.
66
At Otterburn begane this spurne,
vppone a Monnynday;
Ther was the doughtë Doglas slean,
the Persë neuer went away.
67
Ther was neuer a tym on the Marche-partës
sen the Doglas and the Persë met,
But yt ys mervele and the rede blude ronne not,
as the reane doys in the stret.
68
Ihesue Crist our balys bete,
and to the blys vs brynge!
Thus was the hountynge of the Chivyat:
God send vs alle good endyng!
311
a. Percy MS., p. 188, Hales and Furnivall, II, 7. b. Pepys
Ballads, I, 92, No 45, broadside printed for M. G. c. Douce
Ballads, fol. 27b, and Roxburghe Ballads, III, 66, broadside
printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright. d.
Wood’s Ballads, 401, 48, broadside printed for F. Coles,
T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson. e. Bagford Ballads, I, No
32, broadside printed by and for W. Onley. f. A Scottish
copy, without printer.
1
God prosper long our noble king,
our liffes and saftyes all!
A woefull hunting once there did
in Cheuy Chase befall.
2
To driue the deere with hound and horne
Erle Pearcy took the way:
The child may rue that is vnborne
the hunting of that day!
3
The stout Erle of Northumberland
a vow to God did make
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
three sommers days to take,
4
The cheefest harts in Cheuy C[h]ase
to kill and beare away:
These tydings to Erle Douglas came
in Scottland, where he lay.
5
Who sent Erle Pearcy present word
he wold prevent his sport;
The English erle, not fearing that,
did to the woods resort,
6
With fifteen hundred bowmen bold,
all chosen men of might,
Who knew ffull well in time of neede
to ayme their shafts arright.
7
The gallant greyhound[s] swiftly ran
to chase the fallow deere;
On Munday they began to hunt,
ere daylight did appeare.
8
And long before high noone the had
a hundred fat buckes slaine;
Then hauing dined, the drouyers went
to rouze the deare againe.
9
The bowmen mustered on the hills,
well able to endure;
Theire backsids all with speciall care
that day were guarded sure.
10
The hounds ran swiftly through the woods
the nimble deere to take,
That with their cryes the hills and dales
an eccho shrill did make.
11
Lord Pearcy to the querry went
to veiw the tender deere;
Quoth he, Erle Douglas promised once
this day to meete me heere;
12
But if I thought he wold not come,
noe longer wold I stay.
With that a braue younge gentlman
thus to the erle did say:
13
‘Loe, yonder doth Erle Douglas come,
hys men in armour bright;
Full twenty hundred Scottish speres
all marching in our sight.
14
‘All men of pleasant Tiuydale,
fast by the riuer Tweede:’
‘O ceaze your sportts!’ Erle Pearcy said,
‘and take your bowes with speede.
15
‘And now with me, my countrymen,
your courage forth advance!
For there was neuer champion yett,
in Scottland nor in Ffrance,
16
‘That euer did on horsbacke come,
[but], and if my hap it were,
I durst encounter man for man,
with him to breake a spere.’
17
Erle Douglas on his milke-white steede,
most like a baron bold,
Rode formost of his company,
whose armor shone like gold.
18
‘Shew me,’ sayd hee, ‘whose men you bee
that hunt soe boldly heere,
That without my consent doe chase
and kill my fallow deere.’
19
The first man that did answer make
was noble Pearcy hee,
Who sayd, Wee list not to declare
nor shew whose men wee bee;
20
‘Yett wee will spend our deerest blood
thy cheefest harts to slay.’
312Then Douglas swore a solempne oathe,
and thus in rage did say:
21
‘Ere thus I will outbraued bee,
one of vs tow shall dye;
I know thee well, an erle thou art;
Lord Pearcy, soe am I.
22
‘But trust me, Pearcye, pittye it were,
and great offence, to kill
Then any of these our guiltlesse men,
for they haue done none ill.
23
‘Let thou and I the battell trye,
and set our men aside:’
‘Accurst bee [he!]’ Erle Pearcye sayd,
‘by whome it is denyed.’
24
Then stept a gallant squire forth—
Witherington was his name—
Who said, ‘I wold not haue it told
to Henery our king, for shame,
25
‘That ere my captaine fought on foote,
and I stand looking on.
You bee two Erles,’ quoth Witheringhton,
and I a squier alone;
26
‘I’le doe the best that doe I may,
while I haue power to stand;
While I haue power to weeld my sword,
I’le fight with hart and hand.’
27
Our English archers bent their bowes;
their harts were good and trew;
Att the first flight of arrowes sent,
full foure score Scotts the slew.
28
To driue the deere with hound and horne,
Dauglas bade on the bent;
Two captaines moued with mickle might,
their speres to shiuers went.
29
They closed full fast on euerye side,
noe slacknes there was found,
But many a gallant gentleman
lay gasping on the ground.
30
O Christ! it was great greeue to see
how eche man chose his spere,
And how the blood out of their brests
did gush like water cleare.
31
At last these two stout erles did meet,
like captaines of great might;
Like lyons woode they layd on lode;
the made a cruell fight.
32
The fought vntill they both did sweat,
with swords of tempered steele,
Till blood downe their cheekes like raine
the trickling downe did feele.
33
‘O yeeld thee, Pearcye!’ Douglas sayd,
‘and in faith I will thee bringe
Where thou shall high advanced bee
by Iames our Scottish king.
34
‘Thy ransome I will freely giue,
and this report of thee,
Thou art the most couragious knight
[that ever I did see.]’
35
‘Noe, Douglas!’ quoth Erle Percy then,
‘thy profer I doe scorne;
I will not yeelde to any Scott
that euer yett was borne!’
36
With that there came an arrow keene,
out of an English bow,
Which stroke Erle Douglas on the brest
a deepe and deadlye blow.
37
Who neuer sayd more words then these:
Fight on, my merry men all!
For why, my life is att [an] end,
lord Pearcy sees my fall.
38
Then leauing liffe, Erle Pearcy tooke
the dead man by the hand;
Who said, ‘Erle Dowglas, for thy life,
wold I had lost my land!
39
‘O Christ! my verry hart doth bleed
for sorrow for thy sake,
For sure, a more redoubted knight
mischance cold neuer take.’
40
A knight amongst the Scotts there was
which saw Erle Douglas dye,
Who streight in hart did vow revenge
vpon the Lord Pearcye.
41
Sir Hugh Mountgomerye was he called,
who, with a spere full bright,
313Well mounted on a gallant steed,
ran feircly through the fight,
42
And past the English archers all,
without all dread or feare,
And through Erle Percyes body then
he thrust his hatfull spere.
43
With such a vehement force and might
his body he did gore,
The staff ran through the other side
a large cloth-yard and more.
44
Thus did both those nobles dye,
whose courage none cold staine;
An English archer then perceiued
the noble erle was slaine.
45
He had [a] good bow in his hand,
made of a trusty tree;
An arrow of a cloth-yard long
to the hard head haled hee.
46
Against Sir Hugh Mountgomerye
his shaft full right he sett;
The grey-goose-winge that was there-on
in his harts bloode was wett.
47
This fight from breake of day did last
till setting of the sun,
For when the rung the euening-bell
the battele scarse was done.
48
With stout Erle Percy there was slaine
Sir Iohn of Egerton,
Sir Robert Harcliffe and Sir William,
Sir Iames, that bold barron.
49
And with Sir George and Sir Iames,
both knights of good account,
Good Sir Raphe Rebbye there was slaine,
whose prowesse did surmount.
50
For Witherington needs must I wayle
as one in dolefull dumpes,
For when his leggs were smitten of,
he fought vpon his stumpes.
51
And with Erle Dowglas there was slaine
Sir Hugh Mountgomerye,
And Sir Charles Morrell, that from feelde
one foote wold neuer flee;
52
Sir Roger Heuer of Harcliffe tow,
his sisters sonne was hee;
Sir David Lambwell, well esteemed,
but saved he cold not bee.
53
And the Lord Maxwell, in like case,
with Douglas he did dye;
Of twenty hundred Scottish speeres,
scarce fifty-fiue did flye.
54
Of fifteen hundred Englishmen
went home but fifty-three;
The rest in Cheuy Chase were slaine,
vnder the greenwoode tree.
55
Next day did many widdowes come
their husbands to bewayle;
They washt their wounds in brinish teares,
but all wold not prevayle.
56
Theyr bodyes, bathed in purple blood,
the bore with them away;
They kist them dead a thousand times
ere the were cladd in clay.
57
The newes was brought to Eddenborrow,
where Scottlands king did rayne,
That braue Erle Douglas soddainlye
was with an arrow slaine.
58
‘O heauy newes!’ King Iames can say;
‘Scottland may wittenesse bee
I haue not any captaine more
of such account as hee.’
59
Like tydings to King Henery came,
within as short a space,
That Pearcy of Northumberland
was slaine in Cheuy Chase.
60
‘Now God be with him!’ said our king,
‘sith it will noe better bee;
I trust I haue within my realme
fiue hundred as good as hee.
61
‘Yett shall not Scotts nor Scottland say
but I will vengeance take,
And be revenged on them all
for braue Erle Percyes sake.’
62
This vow the king did well performe
after on Humble-downe;
314In one day fifty knights were slayne,
with lords of great renowne.
63
And of the rest, of small account,
did many hundreds dye:
Thus endeth the hunting in Cheuy Chase,
made by the Erle Pearcye.
64
God saue our king, and blesse this land
with plentye, ioy, and peace,
And grant hencforth that foule debate
twixt noble men may ceaze!
A.
Without division of stanzas, and in long lines,
in the MS., and so printed by Hearne,
Wright, and Skeat.
“The MS. is a mere scribble, and the spelling
very unsatisfactory:” Skeat.
12. and A vowe: for avowe, see 631.
14. days iij.
32. xv. C archardes.
34. iij.
51. 301, 371. throrowe.
71. Ther: cf. 41.
81. mot.
103. war ath the.
111. brylly and.
121. xx. C.
224. Herry the iiij..
243. mor athe: athe chyviat.
271. in iii..
361. A narrowe.
392. years iij..
431. athe.
441. A narchar.
452. haylde.
482. A nowar.
501. xvC.
502. vijx.
503. xxC.
603. A-nothar.
612. the iiij..
613. cheyff tenante.
623. a C..
681. ballys.
And for & always.
Expliceth quoth Rychard Sheale.
B. a.
13. there was.
34. 3.
61. 1500.
81. a 100.
94. that they.
133. 20.
141. pleasant men of.
253. 2.
271. bend.
283, 311. 2.
313. Lyons moods.
363. who scorke Erle.
383. thy sake; but compareA 411. b, c, have
life; sake was caught from 392.
41. 2d parte.
432. that his body.
481. slaine. There is a dot for the i, but
nothing more in the MS.: Furnivall.
493. & good.
502. in too full; perhaps wofull.
533. 20.
534. 55.
541. 1500.
542. 53.
553. They washt they.
563. a 1000.
591. in Cheuy chase was slaine.
604. 500.
623. 50.
And always for &.
b, c, d, e.
b, c, d (and I supposee), in stanzas
of eight lines.
b.
A memorable song vpon the vnhappy hunting
in Cheuy Chase betweene the Earle
Pearcy of England and Earle Dowglas of
Scotland. To the tune of Flying Fame.
London, Printed for M. G. Error for H. G.?
Henry Gosson (1607–41).
c.
A Memorable song on the unhappy Hunting
in Chevy-Chase between Earl Piercy of England
and Earl Dowglas of Scotland. Tune
of Flying Fame.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere and J. Wright.
(1655–80?)
d.
Title as inc. To the tune, etc.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere and W. Gilbertson.
(1648–61?)
e.
An Unhappy Memorable Song of the Hunting;
the rest as ind.
Licensd and Enterd according to Order.
London, Priented by and for W. Onley, and
are to be sold by C. Bates, at the Sun and
Bible in Pye-corner, (1650–1702?)
13. d. The woful.
14. there did.
22. his way.
43. e. The tidings.
53. fearing this.
71. gray-hounds.
74. when day light.
82. b, c, d. an.
84. c, d, e. rouze them up.
93. d. The.
94. that day.
103. c, d, e. And with.
113. c, d, e. once wanting.
121. e. If that I.
141. b. pleasant men of. c, d, e. men of
pleasant.
143. Then cease your sport.
153. c, d, e. For never was their (there).
154. or in.
162. b, c. but if. d. but since.
163. d. I wanting.
171. c, d, e. on a.
173. c, d, e. of the.
181. c, d, e. he said.
191. The man that first.
194. c, d. now shew.
201. b, c, d. Yet will we.
223. b, c, d. Then wanting. e. And for any.
c, e. harmless.
224. c, d, e. no ill.
233. be he. c, d, e. Lord P.
234. c, d, e. this is.
243. c, d. said he would.
251. d. ever.
252. c, d, e. I stood.
253. d. two be. b. quod W. c, d, e. said W.
271. bent.
274. c, e. threescore.
282. c, d, e. Earl D. c. had the bent. d.
bad the bent.
315283. A captain: mickle pride.
284. The spears. e. sent for went.
293. And many.
301. b. a for great.
302. b. each one chose. c, d, e. and likewise
for to hear.
303,4. c, d, e. The cries of men lying in their
gore, and scattered here and there.
313. lions mov’d.
314. and made.
323. Vntill the blood like drops of raine.
331. Yeeld thee Lord Piercy.
332. and wanting.
333. shalt.
334. b. with Iames. d. the for our.
341. c, d. will I.
342. and thus.
344. that ever I did see.
351. e. To for Noe.
363. b. And stroke E. D. to the heart. c, d, e.
Which struck E. D. to the heart.
364. e. and a.
371. c, d, e. never spake (spoke).
373. at an end.
383. c, d, e. And said. b, c, d, e. thy life.
392. with sorrow.
393. c, d, e. more renowned.
394. c, d. did. e. did ever.
401. b. among.
403. in wrath.
404. the Earl.
412. c, e. most bright.
432. b. his body he did. c, d, e. he did his
body.
433. c, d, e. The spear went.
441. c, d, e. So thus. b. both these two.
c, e. these.
451. b. a good bow in. c, d, e. a bow bent in.
454. c, d, e. unto the head drew he.
461. d. Montgomery then.
462. so right his shaft.
464. heart.
471. fight did last from break of day.
481. c, d, e. With the Earl.
482. Ogerton.
483. c, d, e. Ratcliff and Sir Iohn.
491. and good.
493. And (ofa) wanting.
502. b. wofull. c, d, e. doleful.
504. b. still vpon.
513. And wanting: the field. c, e. Charles
Currel.
514. flye.
521. b. Sir Robert. c, d, e. Sir Charles Murrel
of Ratcliff too.
522. d. sisters sisters.
523. c, d, e. Lamb so well.
524. yet saved could.
531. Markwell: c, d, e. in likewise.
532. did with E. Dowglas dye.
533. b, d. peers for speeres.
543. c, d, e. rest were slain in C. C.
564. c, d, e. when for ere.
571. c, d, e. This news.
581. did say.
582. can for may.
594. was slain in Chevy Chase.
602. twill.
611. c, e. Scot.
614. e. Lord for Erle.
621. c, d, e. vow full well the king performd.
624. b. of high.
633. ended. d. of for in.
634. b. Lord for Erle.
641. c, d, e. the king: the land.
642. c, d, e. in plenty.
f.
The copy reprinted by Maidment, Scotish
Ballads and Songs Historical and Traditionary,
1868, I, 80. This copy was given
Maidment by Mr Gibb, “for many years
one of the sub-librarians in the library of
the Faculty of Advocates. It had belonged
to his grandmother, and was probably printed
in Edinburgh about the beginning of the
last or end of the preceding century.”
53. fearing him.
61. twenty hundred.
133. fifteen hundred.
141. All pleasant men, as ina, b.
271. Our Scotish archers bent.
274. they four score English slew.
282. Douglas bade on the bent.
301. O but it was a grief to see; and again,
391, O but for O Christ.
463. wings that were.
464. were.
504. fought still on the stumps.
533. Of fifteen hundred.
534. went hame but fifty three.
541. twenty hundred.
542. scarce fifty five did flee.
554. could.
564. when they were cold as clay.
581. 60 is substituted here.
60. 58 is substituted, with change of James
to Henry, and, in the next line, of Scotland
to England.
61, 62 are omitted.
631. Now of.
643. debates.
163 THE BATTLE OF HARLAW — A — B
316
A. a. Communicated by Charles Elphinstone Dalrymple,
Esq., of Kinaldie, Aberdeenshire. b. Notes and
Queries, Third Series, VII, 393, communicated by
A. Ferguson.
B. The Thistle of Scotland, 1823, p. 92.
The copy of this ballad which was printed
by Aytoun, 1858, I, 75, was derived by Lady
John Scott from a friend of Mr Dalrymple’s,
and when it left Mr Dalrymple’s hands was
in the precise form of A a. Some changes
were made in the text published by Aytoun,
and four stanzas, 14–16, 18, were dropped, the
first three to the advantage of the ballad,
and quite in accordance with the editor’s
plan. Mr Dalrymple informs me that in his
younger days he had essayed to improve the
last two lines of stanza 7 by the change,
We’d best cry in our merry men
And turn our horses’ head,
and had rearranged stanzas 18, 19, “which
were absolutely chaotic,” adhering, however,
closely to the sense. A b, given in Notes and
Queries, from a manuscript, as “the original
version of this ballad,” exhibits the changes
made by Mr Dalrymple, and was therefore,
one would suppose, founded upon his copy.
Half a century ago the ballad was familiar
to the people, and the variations of b, which
are not few, may be traditional, and not
arbitrary; for this reason it has been thought
best not to pass them over. The Great
North of Scotland Railway, A Guide, by W.
Ferguson, Edinburgh, 1881, contains, p. 8 f,
a copy which is evidently compounded from
A b and Aytoun. It adds this variation of
the last stanza:
Gin ony body spier at ye
For the men ye took awa,
They’re sleepin soun and in their sheen
I the howe aneath Harlaw.
The editor of The Thistle of Scotland
treats the ballad as a burlesque, and “not
worth the attention of the public,” on which
ground he refrains from printing more than
three stanzas, one of these being 15; and certainly
both this and that which follows it
have a dash of the unheroic and even of the
absurd. Possibly there were others in the
same strain in the version known to Laing,
but all such may fairly be regarded as wanton
depravations, of a sort which other and highly
esteemed ballads have not escaped.
The battle of Harlaw was fought on the
24th July, 1411. Donald of the Isles, to
maintain his claim to the Earldom of Ross,[181]
invaded the country south of the mountains
with ten thousand islanders and men of Ross
(ravaging everywhere as he advanced) in the
hope of sacking Aberdeen, and reducing to
his power the country as far as the Tay.
There was universal alarm in those parts.
He was met at Harlaw, eighteen miles northwest
of Aberdeen, by Alexander Stewart,
Earl of Mar, and Alexander Ogilby, sheriff
of Angus, with the forces of Mar, Garioch,
Angus, and The Mearns, and his further progress
was stayed. The Celts lost more than
nine hundred, the Lowlanders five hundred,
including nearly all the gentry of Buchan.
(Scotichronicon, II, 444 f.) This defeat was
in the interest of civilization against savagery,
and was felt, says Burton, “as a more memorable
deliverance even than that of Bannockburn.”
(History of Scotland, 1883, II, 394.)
317As might be expected, the Lowlanders made
a ballad about this hard fight. ‘The battel
of the Hayrlau’ is noted among other popular
songs, in immediate connection with ‘The
Hunttis of Chevet,’ by the author of The
Complaint of Scotland, 1549 (Murray’s edition,
p. 65), but most unfortunately this ancient
song, unlike Chevy Chase, has been lost.
There is a well-known poem upon the battle,
in thirty-one eight-line stanzas, printed by
Ramsay, in his Ever Green, 1724, I, 78.[182]
David Laing believed that it had been printed
long before. “An edition,” he says, “printed
in the year 1668, was in the curious library
of old Robert Myln” (Early Metrical Tales, p.
xlv.) In the catalogue of Myln’s books there
is entered, apparently as one of a bundle of
pamphlets, “Harlaw, The Battle yrof, An.
1411 ... 1668,”[183] and the entry may reasonably
be taken to refer to the poem printed by
Ramsay. This piece is not in the least of a
popular character. It has the same artificial
rhyme as The Raid of the Reid Swyre and
The Battle of Balrinnes, but in every other
respect is prose. Mr Norval Clyne, Ballads
from Scottish History, p. 244 ff, has satisfactorily
shown that the author used Boece’s
History, and even, in a way, translated some
of Boece’s phrases.
The story of the traditional ballad is, at the
start, put into the mouth of a Highlander,
who meets Sir James the Rose and Sir John
the Gryme, and is asked for information
about Macdonell; but after stanza 8, these
gentlemen having gone to the field, the narrator
describes what he saw as he went on
and further on. It is somewhat surprising
that John Highlandman should be strolling
about in this idle way when he should have
been with Macdonell. The narrator[184] in the
Ever Green poem reports at second hand: as
he is walking, he meets a man who, upon
request, tells him the beginning and the end.[185]
Both pieces have nearly the same first line.
The borrowing was more probably on the
part of the ballad, for a popular ballad would
be likely to tell its tale without preliminaries.
A ballad taken down some four hundred
years after the event will be apt to retain
very little of sober history. It is almost a
matter of course that Macdonell should fall,
though in fact he was not even routed, but
only forced to retire. It was vulgarly said
in Major’s time that the Highlanders were
beaten: they turned and ran awa, says the
ballad. Donaldum non fugarunt, says Major,
and even the ballad, inconsistently, ‘Ye’d
scarce known who had won.’ We are not
disconcerted at the Highland force being
quintupled, or the battle’s lasting from Monday
morning till Saturday gloaming: diuturna
erat pugna, says Major. But the ignoring of
so marked a personage as Mar, and of other
men of high local distinction that fell in the
battle,[186] in favor of the Forbeses, who, though
already of consequence in Aberdeenshire, are
not recorded to have taken any part in the
fight, is perhaps more than might have been
looked for, and must dispose us to believe
that this particular ballad had its rise in comparatively
recent times.
Dunidier is a conspicuous hill on the old
road to Aberdeen, and Netherha is within
318two miles of it. (Overha and Netherha are
only a mile apart, and the one reading is as
good as the other.) Harlaw is a mile north
from Balquhain (pronounced Bawhyne), and
precisely at a right angle to John Highlandman’s
route from the West. Drumminor (to
which Brave Forbes sends for his mail-coat
in stanza 15) was above twenty miles away,
and the messenger would have to pass right
through the Highland army. The fact that
Drumminor ceased to be the head-castle of
that powerful name in the middle of the
last century tells in some degree in favor of
the age of the ballad. (Notes of Mr Dalrymple.)
“The tune to which the ballad is sung, a
particularly wild and simple one, I venture to
believe,” says Mr Dalrymple, “is of the highest
antiquity.” A tune of The Battle of Harlaw,
as Motherwell pointed out, Minstrelsy
lxii, is referred to in Polemo Middiana;[187] and
a “march, or rather pibroch,” held to be this
same air, is given in the Lute Book of Sir
William Mure of Rowallan, p. 30, and is reproduced
in Dauney’s Ancient Scotish Melodies,
p. 349 (see the same work, p. 138 f,
note b.) Sir William Mure is said to have
died in 1657. The Ever Green Harlaw is
adapted to an air in Johnson’s Museum, No
512, and “The Battle of Hardlaw, a pibroch,”
is given in Stenhouse’s Illustrations,
IV, 447, 1853, “from a folio MS. of Scots
tunes, of considerable antiquity.” This last
air occurs, says Maidment, in the rare Collection
of Ancient Scots Music (c. 1776) by
Daniel Dow, “The Battle of Hara Law,” p.
28: Scotish Ballads, etc., I, 200.
a. Communicated by Charles Elphinstone Dalrymple,
Esq., of Kinaldie, Aberdeenshire, in 1888, as obtained from
the country people by himself and his brother fifty years
before. b. Notes and Queries, Third Series, VII, 393, communicated
by A. Ferguson.
1
As I cam in by Dunidier,
An doun by Netherha,
There was fifty thousand Hielanmen
A-marching to Harlaw.
Wi a dree dree dradie drumtie dree.
2
As I cam on, an farther on,
An doun an by Balquhain,
Oh there I met Sir James the Rose,
Wi him Sir John the Gryme.
3
‘O cam ye frae the Hielans, man?
An cam ye a’ the wey?
Saw ye Macdonell an his men,
As they cam frae the Skee?’
4
‘Yes, me cam frae ta Hielans, man,
An me cam a’ ta wey,
An she saw Macdonell an his men,
As they cam frae ta Skee.’
5
‘Oh was ye near Macdonell’s men?
Did ye their numbers see?
Come, tell to me, John Hielanman,
What micht their numbers be?’
6
‘Yes, me was near, an near eneuch,
An me their numbers saw;
There was fifty thousan Hielanmen
A-marchin to Harlaw.’
7
‘Gin that be true,’ says James the Rose,
‘We’ll no come meikle speed;
We’ll cry upo our merry men,
And lichtly mount our steed.’
8
‘Oh no, oh no,’ says John the Gryme,
‘That thing maun never be;
The gallant Grymes were never bate,
We’ll try phat we can dee.’
9
As I cam on, an farther on,
An doun an by Harlaw,
319They fell fu close on ilka side;
Sic fun ye never saw.
10
They fell fu close on ilka side,
Sic fun ye never saw;
For Hielan swords gied clash for clash,
At the battle o Harlaw.
11
The Hielanmen, wi their lang swords,
They laid on us fu sair,
An they drave back our merry men
Three acres breadth an mair.
12
Brave Forbës to his brither did say,
Noo brither, dinna ye see?
They beat us back on ilka side,
An we’se be forced to flee.
13
‘Oh no, oh no, my brither dear,
That thing maun never be;
Tak ye your good sword in your hand,
An come your wa’s wi me.’
14
‘Oh no, oh no, my brither dear,
The clans they are ower strang,
An they drive back our merry men,
Wi swords baith sharp an lang.’
15
Brave Forbës drew his men aside,
Said, Tak your rest a while,
Until I to Drumminnor send,
To fess my coat o mail.
16
The servan he did ride,
An his horse it did na fail,
For in twa hours an a quarter
He brocht the coat o mail.
17
Then back to back the brithers twa
Gaed in amo the thrang,
An they hewed doun the Hielanmen,
Wi swords baith sharp an lang.
18
Macdonell, he was young an stout,
Had on his coat o mail,
An he has gane oot throw them a’,
To try his han himsell.
19
The first ae straik that Forbës strack,
He garrt Macdonell reel,
An the neist ae straik that Forbës strack,
The great Macdonell fell.
20
An siccan a lierachie
I’m sure ye never saw
As wis amo the Hielanmen,
When they saw Macdonell fa.
21
An whan they saw that he was deid,
They turnd an ran awa,
An they buried him in Leggett’s Den,
A large mile frae Harlaw.
22
They rade, they ran, an some did gang,
They were o sma record;
But Forbës an his merry men,
They slew them a’the road.
23
On Monanday, at mornin,
The battle it began,
On Saturday, at gloamin,
Ye’d scarce kent wha had wan.
24
An sic a weary buryin
I’m sure ye never saw
As wis the Sunday after that,
On the muirs aneath Harlaw.
25
Gin ony body speer at you
For them ye took awa,
Ye may tell their wives and bairnies
They’re sleepin at Harlaw.
The Thistle of Scotland, 1823, p. 92.
1
As I cam thro the Garrioch land,
And in by Over Ha,
There was sixty thousan Highland men
Marching to Harlaw.
11
The Highland men, with their broad sword,
Pushd on wi might and power,
Till they bore back the red-coat lads
Three furlongs long, and more.
15
Lord Forbës calld his men aside,
Says, Take your breath awhile,
Until I send my servant now
To bring my coat o mail.
320A. a.
11. Var. Garioch land.
43. she: so delivered, notwithstanding the
inconsistency with me in lines 1, 2.
113. Var. back the red-coats.
201. Sometimes pitleurachie.
25. “There are different versions of this
stanza:” C. E. D.
A. b.
Printed in two long lines.
Burden: In a dree, etc.
12. Wetherha.
14. a’marchin.
34, 44. Come marchin frae. 41,2. she cam.
51. Oh were ye near an near eneuch.
61. she was.
62. An she.
64. a’marchin for Harlaw.
71. quo James.
73,4.
So we’d best cry in our merry men,
And turn our horses’ heeds.
81. quo John.
103. gaed for gied.
114. or mair.
121. did to his brither say.
124. And we’ll be.
151. Forbes to his men did say.
152. Noo, tak.
161. Brave Forbes’ hinchman, var. servant,
then did.
192. Made the great M’Donell.
193. The second stroke that.
201. a ‘pilleurichie.’ 202. The like ye.
203. As there was amang.
213. in ‘Leggatt’s lan:’ “the manuscript is
indistinct, and it would read equally well,
Leggalt’s lan.
214. Some twa three miles awa.
222. But they were.
223. For Forbes.
224. Slew maist a’by the.
234. Ye’d scarce tell wha.
242. The like ye never.
243. As there was.
244. muirs down by.
251. An gin Hielan lasses speer.
252. them that gaed awa.
253. tell them plain an plain eneuch.
B.
151. man.
164 KING HENRY FIFTH’S CONQUEST OF FRANCE
a-d, broadsides. a. Among Percy’s papers. b. Roxburghe
Ballads, III, 358. c. Jewitt’s Ballads and
Songs of Derbyshire, p. 1. d. Chetham’s Library,
Manchester, in Hales and Furnivall, Percy’s Folio
MS., II, 597. e. Percy papers, “taken down from
memory.” f. Nicolas, History of the Battle of Agincourt,
1832, Appendix, p. 78, from the recitation of
a very aged person. g. The same, p. 80, source not
mentioned. h. Tyler, Henry of Monmouth, II, 197,
apparently from memory. i. Percy Society, XVII,
Dixon, Ancient Poems, etc., p. 52, from singing.
j. Skene MS., p. 42. k. Macmath MS., p. 27, from
tradition. l, m. Buchan’s MSS, I, 176, II, 124,
probably broadside or stall copies.
All the known copies of this ballad are
recent. It is not in Thackeray’s list of
broadsides, which dates perhaps as late as
1689 (Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads, I,
xxiv-xxvii); and it is not included in the collection
of 1723–25, which showed particular
favor to historical pieces. In a manuscript
index of first lines to a large collection of
songs and ballads “formed in 1748,” I find,
“As our king lay on his bed,” and the ballad
may probably have first been published in the
second quarter of the last century. In a
woodcut below the title of a, b, there are two
soldiers with G R on the flap of the coat and
G on the cap (no doubt in c as well); the
date of these broadsides cannot therefore be
earlier than the accession of George I, 1714.
The broadside is in a popular manner, but has
no mark of antiquity. It may, however, represent
an older ballad, disfigured by some
purveyor for the Aldermary press.
It is probable that the recited versions had
their ultimate source in print, and that
printed copies were in circulation which, besides
321the usual slight variations,[188] contained
two more stanzas, one after 2 and another
after 8, such as are found in h and elsewhere;
which stanzas are likely to have formed part
of the original matter.
g has several stanzas which are due to the
hand of some improver.
Another, and much more circumstantial,
ballad on Agincourt, written from the chronicles,
was current in the seventeenth century.
It begins, ‘A councell braue [grave] our king
did hold,’ and may be seen in the Percy Manuscript,
p. 241, Hales and Furnivall, II, 166, in
The Crown Garland of Golden Roses (with
seven stanzas fewer), ed. 1659, p. 65 of the
reprint by the Percy Society, vol. xv; Pepys’
Ballads, I, 90, No 44; Old Ballads, II, 79;
Pills to purge Melancholy, V, 49; etc.
The story of the Tennis-Balls is not mentioned
by the French historians, by Walsingham,
Titus Livius, or the anonymous biographer
of Henry in Cotton MS., Julius E. IV.[190]
It occurs, however, in several contemporary
writings, as in Elmham’s Liber Metricus de
Henrico Quinto, cap. xii (Quod filius regis
Francorum, in derisum, misit domino regi
pilas, quibus valeret cum pueris ludere potius
quam pugnare, etc.), Cole, Memorials of Henry
the Fifth, 1858, p. 101; but not in Elmham’s
prose history. So in Capgrave, De illustribus
Henricis, with a fertur, ed. Hingeston,
1858, p. 114; but not in Capgrave’s chronicle.
We might infer, in these two cases, that the
tale was thought good enough for verses and
good enough for eulogies, though not good
enough for history.
Again, in verses of Harleian MS. 565, “in
a hand of the fifteenth century,” the Dolphin
says to the English ambassadors:
But there is a chronicler who has the tale
still. Otterbourne writes: Eodem anno
\[1414], in quadragesima, rege existente apud
Kenilworth, Karolus, regis Francorum filius,
Delphinus vocatus, misit pilas Parisianas ad
ludendum cum pueris. Cui rex Anglorum
rescripsit, dicens se in brevi pilas missurum
Londoniarum, quibus terreret et confunderet
sua tecta.
And once more, the author of an inedited
“Chronicle of King Henry the Fifth that was
Kyng Henries son,” Cotton MS., Claudius A.
viii, of the middle of the fifteenth century,
fol. 1, back:[192]
And than the Dolphine of Fraunce aunswered to
our embassatours, and said in this maner, ‘that the
kyng was ouer yong and to tender of age to make
any warre ayens hym, and was not lyke yet to be
noo good werrioure to doo and to make suche a
conquest there vpon hym. And somwhat in scorne
322and dispite he sente to hym a tonne fulle of tenys-ballis,
be-cause he wolde haue some-what for to
play withalle for hym and for his lordis, and that
be-came hym better than to mayntayn any werre.
And than anone oure lordes that was embassatours
token hir leue and comen in to England ayenne,
and tolde the kyng and his counceille of the vngoodly
aunswer that they had of the Dolphyn, and
of the present the whiche he had sent vnto the
kyng. And whan the kyng had hard her wordis,
and the answere of the Dolp[h]ynne, he was
wondre sore agreued, and righte euelle apayd towarde
the Frensshemen, and toward the kyng, and
the Dolphynne, and thoughte to auenge hym vpon
hem as sone as God wold send hym grace and
myghte; and anon lette make tenys-ballis for the
Dolp[h]ynne in all the hast that the myghte be
made, and they were grete gonne-stones for the
Dolp[h]ynne to play wythe-alle.’
The Dolphin, whom two of these writers
make talk of Henry as if he were a boy, was
himself in his nineteenth year, and the English
king more than eight years his senior.
“Hume has justly observed,” says Sir Harris
Nicolas, “that the great offers made by the
French monarch, however inferior to Henry’s
demands, prove that it was his wish rather to
appease than exasperate him; and it is almost
incredible that, whilst the advisers of Charles
evinced so much forbearance, his son should
have offered Henry a personal insult....
It should be observed, as additional grounds
for doubting that the message or gift was sent
by the Dauphin, that such an act must have
convinced both parties of the hopelessness of
a pacific arrangement afterwards, and would,
it may be imagined, have equally prevented
the French court and Henry from seeking
any other means of ending the dispute than
by the sword. This, however, was not the
case; for even supposing that the offensive
communication was made on the occasion of
the last, instead ... of that of the first embassy,
it is certain that overtures were again
sent to Henry whilst he was on his journey
to the place of embarkation, and that even
when there, he wrote to the French monarch
with the object of adjusting his claims without
a recourse to arms:” pp. 9, 12 f.
History repeats itself. Darius writes to
Alexander as if he were a boy, and sends
him, with other things, a ball to play with;
and Alexander, in his reply to Darius, turns
the tables upon the Persian king by his interpretation
of the insolent gifts: Pseudo-Callisthenes,
I, 36, ed. Müller, p. 40 f.[193] The
parallel is close. It is not inconceivable that
the English story is borrowed, but I am not
prepared to maintain this.
It does not appear from any testimony external
to the ballad that married men or
widows’ sons had the benefit of an exemption
in the levy for France, or that Cheshire,
Lancashire, and Derby[194] were particularly
called upon to furnish men: st. 9. The Rev.
J. Endell Tyler believes the ballad to be
unquestionably of ancient origin, “probably
written and sung within a very few years of
the expedition,” “before Henry’s death, and
just after his marriage;” which granted, this
stanza would have a certain interest. But,
says Mr Tyler, “whether there is any foundation
at all in fact for the tradition of Henry’s
resolution to take with him no married man
or widow’s son, the tradition itself bears such
strong testimony to the general estimate of
Henry’s character for bravery at once and
kindness of heart that it would be unpardonable
to omit every reference to it,” and he has
both printed the ballad in the body of his
work and placed “that golden stanza” on his
title-page.[195] The question of Henry’s kindness
323of heart does not require to be discussed
here, but it may be said in passing that there
is not quite enough in this ballad to remove
the impression which is ordinarily made by
his conduct of the siege of Rouen.
The Battle of Agincourt was fought October
25, 1415. It is hardly necessary to say,
with reference to the marching to Paris gates,
that Henry had the wisdom to evacuate
French ground as soon after the battle as
convoy to England could be procured.
1
As our king lay musing on his bed,
He bethought himself upon a time
Of a tribute that was due from France,
Had not been paid for so long a time.
Fal, lal, etc.
2
He called for his lovely page,
His lovely page then called he,
Saying, You must go to the king of France,
To the king of France, sir, ride speedily.
3
O then went away this lovely page,
This lovely page then away went he;
And when he came to the king of France,
Low he fell down on his bended knee.
4
‘My master greets you, worthy sir;
Ten ton of gold that is due to be,
That you will send him his tribute home,
Or in French land you soon will him see.’
5
‘Your master’s young and of tender years,
Not fit to come into my degree,
And I will send him three tennis-balls,
That with them he may learn to play.’
6
O then returned this lovely page,
This lovely page then returned he,
And when he came to our gracious king,
Low he fell down on his bended knee.
7
‘What news, what news, my trusty page?
What is the news you have brought to me?’
‘I have brought such news from the king of France
That you and he will never agree.
8
‘He says you’re young and of tender years,
Not fit to come into his degree,
And he will send you three tennis-balls,
That with them you may learn to play.’
9
‘Recruit me Cheshire and Lancashire,
And Derby Hills that are so free;
No marryd man nor no widow’s son;
For no widow’s curse shall go with me.’
10
They recruited Cheshire and Lancashire,
And Derby Hills that are so free;
No marryd man, nor no widow’s son;
Yet there was a jovial bold company.
11
O then we marchd into the French land,
With drums and trumpets so merrily;
And then bespoke the king of France,
‘Lo, yonder comes proud King Henry.’
12
The first shot that the Frenchmen gave,
They killd our Englishmen so free;
We killd ten thousand of the French,
And the rest of them they ran away.
13
And then we marched to Paris gates,
With drums and trumpets so merrily:
O then bespoke the king of France,
‘The Lord have mercy on my men and me!
14
‘O I will send him his tribute home,
Ten ton of gold that is due to he,
And the finest flower that is in all France
To the Rose of England I will give free.’
324a.
King Henry V. his Conquest of France, in
revenge for the affront offered him by the
French king in sending him, instead of the
Tribute due, a Ton of Tennis-Balls.
Printed and sold at the Printing Office in Bow
Church-Yard, London.
13. due to.
b.
Title the same, with omission of the first
him and due.
Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard,
Bow Lane, London. st.
13. due from.
33. Low he came.
34. And when fell.
71. wanting.
74. he and you will ne’er.
103. man or widow’s.
124. run.
c.
Title as in b. Printed as in b.
13. due from.
31. away went.
33. Lo he.
34. And then he.
74. he and you will ne’er.
93. man or widow’s.
124. run.
d.
Title as in b. Imprint not given.
13. due from.
33. Low he came.
34. And when fell.
74. he and you will ne’er.
93. man or.
124. run.
e.
21. Then he called on.
24. With a message from King Henry.
31. Away then went.
32. Away and away and away.
34. He fell low down.
42. of gold wanting.
43. And you must send him this.
44. you’ll soon.
51, 81. tender age.
52, 82. not meet to come in.
53. So I’ll send him home some.
61,2,4as in 31,2,4.
71. my lovely.
72. what news bring you to me?
74. That I’m sure with him you’ll neer agree.
83. So he’s sent you here some.
92. that be.
93, 103. man nor widow’s.
94. For wanting.
101,2. Then they recruited Lankashire, Cheshire
and Derby Hills so free.
104. brave for bold.
112, 132. so wanting.
113, 131. O then.
123. But we.
124. them were forsd to free.
134. Lord have mercy on [my] men and me.
141. send this.
143. fairest flower in all French land.
144. make free.
f.
“Communicated by Bertram Mitford, of Mitford
Castle, in Northumberland, who wrote
it from the dictation of a very aged relative.”
11. As a.
13. Those tributes due from the French king.
24. Those tributes that are due to me.
31,2, 61,2. Away, away went this lovely page,
Away and away and away went he, nearly
as ine.
41,2. My master he does greet you well, He
doth greet you most heartily.
43. If you don’t.
52, 82. come within.
54. And in French land he ne’er dare me see.
71. my lovely, as ine.
73. from the French king.
74. That with him I’m sure you can ne’er
agree.
84. And in French land you ne’er dare him
see.
91. Go, ‘cruit me.
104. jovial brave, as ine.
121. The first that fired it was the French.
124. them were forced to flee.
133. The first that spoke was the French king.
134. Lord a mercy on my poor men and me.
141,2. O go and take your tributes home, Five
tons of gold I will give thee.
144. in all French land, as ine.
fwas clearly derived from the same source
as e.
g.
The fourth line repeated as burden.
2.
O then calld he his lovely page,
His lovely page then called he,
Who, when he came before the king,
Lo, he fell down on his bended knee.
‘Welcome, welcome, thou lovely page,
Welcome, welcome art thou here;
Go sped thee now to the king of France,
And greet us well to him so dear.
‘And when thou comst to the king of France,
And hast greeted us to him so dear,
Thou then shall ask for the tribute due,
That has not been paid for many a year.’
31,2. Away then went this lovely page, Away,
away, O then went he.
121. The first that fired it was the French,
as inf.
133. The first that spoke was the French king,
as inf.
134. Lo yonder comes proud King Henry.
After 13:
‘Our loving cousin, we greet you well,
From us thou now hast naught to fear;
We seek from you our tribute due,
That has not been paid for this many a year.’
14{1,2}.
‘O go and take your tributes home,
Five tons of gold I will give to thee,’
as inf.
143. And the fairest flower in all French land,
as ine, f.
h.
“The author, to whom the following Song of
Agincourt has been familiar from his childhood,
cannot refrain from inserting it here.”
11. musing wanting.
12. All musing at the hour of prime: “conjectural.”
13. He bethought him of the king of France.
14. And tribute due for so long a time.
23,4, 33. king in.
After 2:
Tell him to send me my tribute home,
Ten ton of gold that is due to me;
Unless he send me my tribute home,
Soon in French land I will him see.
31,2, 61,2.
Away then goes this lovely page,
As fast, as fast as he could hie.
42. gold is due to me.
53. send him home some.
74. That you and he can.
82. come up to.
83. He has sent you home some.
After 8:
Oh! then bespoke our noble king,
A solemn vow then vowed he:
I’ll promise him such English balls
As in French lands he ne’er did see.
Cf.g.
91. Go! call up.
93, 103. But neither ... nor.
94. For wanting.
101. They called up.
After 10:
He called unto him his merry men all,
And numbered them by three and three,
Until their number it did amount
To thirty thousand stout men and three.
Cf.g 103,4.
326111. Away then marched they.
112, 132. and fifes.
121. The first that fired it was the French, as
inf, g.
131. Then marched they on to.
142. due from me.
143. the very best flower.
i.
From the singing of a Yorkshire minstrel,
with “one or two verbal corrections” from
a modern broadside.
21,2, 31, 61. trusty for lovely.
After 2:
And tell him of my tribute due,
Ten ton of gold that’s due to me;
That he must send me my tribute home,
Or in French land he soon will me see.
.2, 62. Away and away and away, as ine, f.
After 8: Oh! then, etc., as inh, but tennis-balls
in line three.
91. Go call up, as inh.
101. They called up, as inh.
124. And the rest of them they were forced to
flee, nearly as inf.
134. Lord have mercy on my poor men and
me, as inf.
143. And the fairest flower that is in our
French land: cf.e, f, g.
144. shall go free, as ing.
j.
A Scottish version of the broadside from recitation
of the beginning of this century: of
slight value.
12. On his bed lay musing he: for the ee
rhyme.
After 2 (cf.g, h, i):
Ye gae on to the king of France,
Ye greet him well and speedily,
And ye bid him send the tributes due,
Or in French lands he’ll soon see me.
53, 83. some tennis.
54. may play him merrilie.
61. Away, away went.
74. him an you.
84. may play fu merrilie.
91, 101. Chester and Lincolnshire.
112. wi drum an pipe.
12 wanting.
132. wi pipe an drum.
134. God hae mercie on my poor men and me:
cf.f, i.
14 wanting.
k.
Received, 1886, from Mr Alexander Kirk,
Inspector of Poor, Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire,
who learned it many years ago from
David Rae, Barlay, Balmaclellan.
31,2, 61,2. Away, away ... Away, away, and
away: cf.e, f, g, i.
73,4. No news, no news, ... But just what my
two eyes did see: cf. No 114, A 11, E 10,
F 10.
After 8 (cf.g, h, i):
Go call to me my merry men all,
All by thirties and by three,
And I will send him such tennis-balls
As on French ground he did never see.
12 wanting.
131. But when they came to the palace-gates.
l.
‘Henry V and King of France.’
23,4, 33. king in.
52. come unto.
74. him and you.
82. come to.
111. Then they.
134. Have mercy, Lord.
m.
‘The Two Kings.’
3, 4.
When he came to the king of France,
He fell down on his bended knee:
‘My master greets you, noble sir,
For a tribute that is due to he.’
52, 82. come to.
53. send him home ten.
6, 7.
When he came to our noble king,
He fell low on his bended knee:
‘What news, what news, my lovely page?
What news have ye brought unto me?’
83. He’s sent you hame ten.
After 8:
Out then spake our noble king,
A solemn vow then vowed he:
‘I shall prepare such English balls
That in French land he ne’er did see.’
91. You do recruit.
101. They did recruit.
11 wanting.
124. The rest of them were forced to flee.
131. As we came in at the palace-gates.
134. Have mercy on my men and me.
143. The fairest flower in a’ French land.
165 SIR JOHN BUTLER
327
‘Sir Iohn Butler,’ Percy MS., p. 427; Hales and Furnivall, III, 205.
The subject of this ballad is the murder of
a Sir John Butler at Bewsey Hall, near Warrington,
Lancashire.
The story, which may be imperfect at the
beginning, is that a party of men cross the
moat in a leathern boat, and among them
William Savage is one of the first. Sir John
Butler’s daughter Ellen wakens her father
and tells him that his uncle Stanley is within
his hall. If that be true, says Sir John, a
hundred pound will not save me. Ellen goes
down into the hall, and is asked where her
father is; she avers that he is ridden to London,
but the men know better, and search for
him. Little Holcroft loses his head in trying
to keep the door of the room where Sir John
is; they enter, and call on him to yield. He
will yield to his uncle Stanley, but never to
false Peter Legh. Ellen Butler calls for a
priest; William Savage says, He shall have
no priest but my sword and me. Lady Butler
was at this time in London; had she
been at home she might have begged her
husband’s life of her good brother John. She
dreams that her lord is swimming in blood,
and long before day sets out for Bewsey
Hall. On her way she learns that her husband
is slain, and the news impels her to go
back to London, where she begs of the king
the death of false Peter Legh, her brother
Stanley, William Savage, and all. Would
ye have three men to die for one? says the
king; if thou wilt come to London, thou shalt
go home Lady Gray.
The papers of Roger Dodsworth,[197] the antiquarian
([198]16..), give the following account
of the transaction, according to the tradition
of his time. “Sir John Boteler, Knight, was
slaine in his bed by the Lord Standley’s procurement,
Sir Piers Leigh and Mister William
Savage joininge with him in that action, curruptinge
his servants, his porter settinge a
light in a windowe to give knowledge upon
the water that was about his house at Bewsaye,
when the watch that watched about his
howse at Bewsaye, where your way to ...
[i. e. Bold] comes, were gone awaye to their
owne homes; and then they came over the
moate in lether boates, and soe to his chambre,
where one of his servants, called Hontrost
[Holcroft], was slaine, being his chamberlaine;
the other brother betrayed his
master. They promised him a great reward,
and he going with them a way, they hanged
him at a tree in Bewsaye Park. After this
Sir John Boteler’s lady pursued those that
slewe her husband, and indyted xx. men for
that ‘saute,’ but being marryed to Lorde
Gray, he made her suites voyd, for which
cause she parted from her husband, the Lorde
Graye, and came into Lancastershyre, and
sayd, If my lord wyll not helpe me that I
may have my wyll of mine enemies, yet my
bodye shall be berryed by him; and she
caused a tombe of alabaster to be made,
where she lyeth upon the right hand of her
husband, Sir John Butler.”[198]
Another paper in the same collection assumes
328to give the cause of the murder. “The
occasion of the murther was this. The king
being to come to Lathom, the Erle of Derby,
his brother-in-law, sent unto hym [Sir John
Butler] a messenger to desire him to wear his
cloath [appear as his retainer] at that tyme;
but in his absence his lady said she scorned
that her husband should wayte on her brother,
being as well able to entertayne the kynge as
he was; which answer the erle tooke in great
disdayne, and persecuted the said Sir John
Butler with all the mallice that cowd be.”
After mutual ill-services, they took arms one
against the other, Sir Piers Legh and William
Savage siding with the earl, and in the
end these three corrupted Sir John Butler’s
servants and murdered him in his bed. “Hys
lady, at that instant being in London, did
dreame the same night that he was slayne,
that Bewsaye Hall did swym with blood;
whereupon she presently came homewards,
and heard by the way the report of his
death.”[199]
Sir John Boteler, son of Sir John, born in
1429, married for his third wife Margaret
Stanley, widow of Sir Thomas Troutbeck,
daughter of Thomas first Lord Stanley, and
sister of Thomas the second lord, whom Dodsworth
calls by anticipation Earl of Derby,
which he was not until 1485. Sir John
Boteler had by his first wife four daughters,
but no Ellen; by Margaret Stanley he had
a son Thomas, born in 1461. He died in
1463, and his wife afterwards married for her
third husband Henry Lord Grey of Codnor.
According to st. 23 of the ballad, Dame Margaret’s
brother Stanley, that is Lord Thomas,
is directly concerned in the murder which in
the Dodsworth story he is said only to have
procured. But an uncle Stanley appears to
be a prominent member of the hostile party
in sts 5, 12; how, we cannot explain. A ‘good’
brother John is mentioned in st. 15, of whom
Lady Butler might have begged her husband’s
life, and who must, therefore, have been present.
Lady Butler had a brother John. But
the alleged participation of Sir Peter Legh
and William Savage in this murder, perpetrated
in 1463, is an impossibility. Sir Peter
Legh was born in 1455, and was only eight
years old at that time, and William Savage,
nephew of Lord Thomas Stanley, was also a
mere child. As to the part ascribed to Lord
Thomas Stanley, Sir Thomas Butler, the son
of Sir John, is said to have lived on the most
friendly terms with him in after days, and to
have limited “an estate in remainder, after
the limitation to himself and his heirs, to the
Earl of Derby in fee,” which we can hardly
suppose he would have done if the earl had
been his father’s murderer.
The occasion of the murder is represented
in the tradition reported by Dodsworth to
have been Sir John Butler’s refusal (through
his wife) to wear the Earl of Derby’s livery
at the time of the king’s coming to Lathom.
The king (Henry VII) did indeed
come to Lathom, but not until the year 1495,
thirty-two years after Sir John’s death, and
three years after that of his wife. It is true
that other accounts make Sir Thomas, the
son of Sir John, to have been the victim of
the murder; but Sir Thomas died in 1522,
and the Earl of Derby in 1504.[200] There is
not, as Dr. Robson says, a tittle of evidence
to show that there was any murder at all,
whether of Sir John or any other of the Butler
family. But it was an unquiet time, and
the conjecture has been offered “that, being
a consistent Lancastrian,” Sir John “may
have incurred some Yorkist resentments, and
have been sacrificed by a confederacy of some
of those who, though his private friends, were
his political enemies.”[201]
Sir John Butler, son of Sir John, is of
course the only person that the ballad and
the parallel tradition can intend, for Margaret
Stanley was the only Stanley that ever married
329a Butler, and Margaret Stanley’s third
husband was Lord Grey of Codnor. But Sir
John the elder, who died in 1430, had a
daughter Ellen, “old enough to raise an alarm
when her father was attacked, while he was
actually nephew by marriage to the second
Sir John Stanley of Lathom, who survived
him.” (If we might proceed according to
established mythological rules, and transfer
to the son what is told of the father, we
might account for the “uncle Stanley” and
the Ellen of the ballad.) Sir John the senior’s
widow, Lady Isabella, was in 1437 violently
carried off and forced into marriage by
one William Poole, and her petition to Parliament
for redress calls this Poole an outlaw
“for felony for man’s death by him murdered
and slain.” It has been thought a not
overstrained presumption that this language
may refer to the death of Lady Isabella’s husband,
the earlier Sir John, though it would
be strange, if such were the reference, that
no name should be given.[202]
The Bewsey murder has been narrated,
with the variations of later tradition, by John
Fitchett in ‘Bewsey, a Poem,’ Warrington,
1796; in a ballad by John Roby, Traditions
of Lancashire, 1879, II, 72; and in another
ballad in Ballads and Songs of Lancashire,
Harland and Wilkinson, 1882, p. 13 (at p. 15
Fitchett’s verses are cited). See also Dr
Robson, in the preface to the Percy ballad,
p. 208, and Beamont, Annals of the Lords of
Warrington, p. 318.
1
But word is come to Warrington,
And Busye Hall is laid about;
Sir Iohn Butler and his merry men
Stand in ffull great doubt.
2
When they came to Busye Hall
Itt was the merke midnight,
And all the bridges were vp drawen,
And neuer a candle-light.
3
There they made them one good boate,
All of one good bull skinn;
William Sauage was one of the ffirst
That euer came itt within.
4
Hee sayled ore his merrymen,
By two and two together,
And said itt was as good a bote
As ere was made of lether.
5
‘Waken you, waken you, deare ffather!
God waken you within!
For heere is your vnckle Standlye
Come your hall within.’
6
‘If that be true, Ellen Butler,
These tydings you tell mee,
A hundred pound in good redd gold
This night will not borrow mee.’
7
Then came downe Ellen Butler
And into her ffathers hall,
And then came downe Ellen Butler,
And shee was laced in pall.
8
‘Where is thy ffather, Ellen Butler?
Haue done, and tell itt mee:’
‘My ffather is now to London ridden,
As Christ shall haue part of mee.’
9
‘Now nay, now nay, Ellen Butler,
Ffor soe itt must not bee;
Ffor ere I goe fforth of this hall,
Your ffather I must see.’
10
The sought that hall then vp and downe
Theras Iohn Butler lay;
The sought that hall then vp and downe
Theras Iohn Butler lay.
11
Ffaire him ffall, litle Holcrofft!
Soe merrilye he kept the dore,
Till that his head ffrom his shoulders
Came tumbling downe the ffloore.
12
‘Yeeld thee, yeelde thee, Iohn Butler!
Yeelde thee now to mee!’
‘I will yeelde me to my vnckle Stanlye,
And neere to ffalse Peeter Lee.’
33013
‘A preist, a preist,’ saies Ellen Butler,
‘To housle and to shriue!
A preist, a preist,’ sais Ellen Butler,
‘While that my father is a man aliue!’
14
Then bespake him William Sauage,
A shames death may hee dye!
Sayes, He shall haue no other preist
But my bright sword and mee.
15
The Ladye Butler is to London rydden,
Shee had better haue beene att home;
Shee might haue beggd her owne marryed lord
Att her good brother Iohn.
16
And as shee lay in leeue London,
And as shee lay in her bedd,
Shee dreamed her owne marryed lord
Was swiminnge in blood soe red.
17
Shee called vp her merry men all,
Long ere itt was day;
Saies, Wee must ryde to Busye Hall,
With all speed that wee may.
18
Shee mett with three Kendall men,
Were ryding by the way:
‘Tydings, tydings, Kendall men,
I pray you tell itt mee!’
19
‘Heauy tydings, deare madam;
Ffrom you wee will not leane;
The worthyest knight in merry England,
Iohn Butler, Lord! hee is slaine!’
20
‘Ffarewell, ffarwell, Iohn Butler!
Ffor thee I must neuer see:
Ffarewell, ffarwell, Busiye Hall!
For thee I will neuer come nye.’
21
Now Ladye Butler is to London againe,
In all the speed might bee,
And when shee came before her prince,
Shee kneeled low downe on her knee.
22
‘A boone, a boone, my leege!’ shee sayes,
‘Ffor Gods loue grant itt mee!’
‘What is thy boone, Lady Butler?
Or what wold thou haue of mee?
23
‘What is thy boone, Lady Butler?
Or what wold thou haue of mee?’
‘That ffalse Peeres of Lee, and my brother Stanley,
And William Sauage, and all, may dye.’
24
‘Come you hither, Lady Butler,
Come you ower this stone;
Wold you haue three men ffor to dye,
All ffor the losse off one?
25
‘Come you hither, Lady Butler,
With all the speed you may;
If thou wilt come to London, Lady Butler,
Thou shalt goe home Lady Gray.’
22. merke may be merle in the MS.: Furnivall.
42. 2 and 2.
63. a 100li ..
71. them for Then.
101,2. These two lines only are in the MS.,
but they are marked with a bracket and
bis: Furnivall.
181, 243. 3.
223,4. These two lines are bracketed, and
marked bis in the MS.: Furnivall.
166 THE ROSE OF ENGLAND
331
‘The Rose of Englande,’ Percy MS., p. 423; Hales and Furnivall, III, 187.
The title of this ballad, as Percy notes in
his manuscript, is quoted in Fletcher’s Monsieur
Thomas (printed in 1639), act third,
scene third, Dyce, VII, 364. The subject is
the winning of the crown of England from
Richard III by Henry VII, and the parties
on both sides, though some of them are sometimes
called by their proper names, are mostly
indicated by their badges or cognizances,[203]
which were perfectly familiar, so that though
there is a “perpetual allegory,” it is not a
“dark conceit.”
The red rose of Lancaster was rooted up
by a boar, Richard, who was generally believed
to have murdered Henry VI and his
son Edward, the Prince of Wales; but the
seed of the rose, the Earl of Richmond, afterwards
wore the crown. The sixth stanza
gives us to understand that the young Earl of
Richmond was under the protection of Lord
Stanley at Lathom before his uncle, the Earl
of Pembroke, fled with him to Brittany, in
1471; but this does not appear in the histories.
The Earl of Richmond came back to
claim his right (in 1485), and brought with
him the blue boar, the Earl of Oxford, to encounter,
with Richard, the white boar. Richmond
sends a messenger to the old eagle,
Lord Stanley, his stepfather, to announce his
arrival; Stanley thanks God, and hopes that
the rose shall flourish again. The Welshmen
rise in a mass under Rice ap Thomas and
shog on to Shrewsbury. Master Mitton, bailiff
of Shrewsbury, refuses at first to let Richmond
enter, but, upon receiving letters from
Sir William Stanley of Holt Castle, opens the
gates. The Earl of Oxford is about to smite
off the bailiff’s head; Richmond interferes,
and asks Mitton why he was kept out. The
bailiff knows no king but him that wears the
crown; if Richmond shall put down Richard,
he will, when sworn, be as true to Richmond
as to Richard now. Richmond recognizes
this as genuine loyalty, and will not have the
bailiff harmed. The earl moves on to Newport,
and then has a private meeting at Atherstone
with Lord Stanley, who makes great
moan because the young eagle, Lord Strange,
his eldest son, is a hostage in the hands of
the white boar. At the battle Oxford has the
van; Lord Stanley follows ‘fast’! The Talbot-dog
(Sir Gilbert Talbot) bites sore; the
unicorn (Sir John Savage) quits himself well;
then comes in the hart’s head (Sir William
Stanley), the field is fought, the white boar
slain, and the young eagle saved as by fire.[204]
How the Earl of Richmond compassed the
crown of England is told at more length in
two histories in the ballad-stanza, ‘Bosworth
Field’ and ‘Lady Bessy.’ The first of these
(656 verses) occurs only in the Percy MS.,
Hales and Furnivall, III, 235. It is on the
whole a tame performance. Richmond is kept
quite subordinate to the Stanleys, kneeling to
Sir William, v. 371, and “desiring” the van
of Lord Stanley, who grants his request, 449–51.
The second exists in two versions: (1)
Harleian MS. 367, printed by Mr Halliwell-Phillipps,
Percy Society, vol. xx, 1847, p. 43,
and Palatine Anthology, 1850, p. 60; Percy
MS., Hales and Furnivall, III, 321 (each of
about 1100 verses); (2) Percy Society and
332Palatine Anthology again, p. 1, p. 6, and previously
by Thomas Heywood, 1829 (about
1250 vv). In this second poem the love, ambition,
and energy of Elizabeth of York sets
all the instruments at work, and the Stanleys
are not so extravagantly prominent. It is a
remarkably lively narrative, with many curious
details, and in its original form (which
we cannot suppose we have) must have been
nearly contemporary. ‘Bosworth Field’ borrows
some verses from it.
172, 224. This affirmation of the trustworthiness
of the chronicle occurs in ‘The Battle
of Otterburn,’ No 161, 352, and again in
‘Flodden Field,’ No 178, appendix, 1214.
1
Throughout a garden greene and gay,
A seemlye sight itt was to see
How fflowers did flourish fresh and gay,
And birds doe sing melodiouslye.
2
In the midst of a garden there sprange a tree,
Which tree was of a mickle price,
And there vppon sprang the rose soe redd,
The goodlyest that euer sprange on rise.
3
This rose was ffaire, ffresh to behold,
Springing with many a royall lance;
A crowned king, with a crowne of gold,
Ouer England, Ireland, and of Ffrance.
4
Then came in a beast men call a bore,
And he rooted this garden vpp and downe;
By the seede of the rose he sett noe store,
But afterwards itt wore the crowne.
5
Hee tooke the branches of this rose away,
And all in sunder did them teare,
And he buryed them vnder a clodd of clay,
Swore they shold neuer bloome nor beare.
6
Then came in an egle gleaming gay,
Of all ffaire birds well worth the best;
He took the branche of the rose away,
And bore itt to Latham to his nest.
7
But now is this rose out of England exiled,
This certaine truth I will not laine;
But if itt please you to sitt a while,
I’le tell you how the rose came in againe.
8
Att Milford Hauen he entered in;
To claime his right, was his delight;
He brought the blew bore in with him,
To encounter with the bore soe white.
9
The[n] a messenger the rose did send
To the egles nest, and bidd him hye:
‘To my ffather, the old egle, I doe [me] commend,
His aide and helpe I craue speedylye.’
10
Saies, I desire my father att my cominge
Of men and mony att my need,
And alsoe my mother of her deer blessing;
The better then I hope to speede.
11
And when the messenger came before thold egle,
He kneeled him downe vpon his knee;
Saith, Well greeteth you my lord the rose,
He hath sent you greetings here by me.
12
Safe ffrom the seas Christ hath him sent,
Now he is entered England within:
‘Let vs thanke God,’ the old egle did say,
‘He shall be the fflower of all his kine.
13
‘Wend away, messenger, with might and maine;
Itt’s hard to know who a man may trust;
I hope the rose shall fflourish againe,
And haue all things att his owne lust.’
14
Then Sir Rice ap Thomas drawes Wales with him;
A worthy sight itt was to see,
How the Welchmen rose wholy with him,
And shogged them to Shrewsburye.
15
Att that time was baylye in Shrewsburye
One Master Mitton, in the towne;
The gates were strong, and he mad them ffast,
And the portcullis he lett downe.
16
And throug a garrett of the walls,
Ouer Severne these words said hee;
‘Att these gates no man enter shall;’
But he kept him out a night and a day.
33317
These words Mitton did Erle Richmond tell
(I am sure the chronicles of this will not lye);
But when lettres came from Sir William Stanley of the Holt castle,
Then the gates were opened presentlye.
18
Then entred this towne the noble lord,
The Erle Richmond, the rose soe redd;
The Erle of Oxford, with a sword,
Wold haue smitt of the bailiffes head.
19
‘But hold your hand,’ saies Erle Richmond,
‘Ffor his loue that dyed vpon a tree!
Ffor if wee begin to head so soone,
In England wee shall beare no degree.’
20
‘What offence haue I made thee,’ sayd Erle Richmonde,
‘That thou kept me out of my towne?’
‘I know no king,’ sayd Mitton then,
‘But Richard now, that weares the crowne.’
21
‘Why, what wilt thou say,’ said Erle Richmonde,
‘When I haue put King Richard downe?’
‘Why, then Ile be as true to you, my lord,
After the time that I am sworne.’
22
‘Were itt not great pitty,’ sayd Erle Richmond,
‘That such a man as this shold dye,
Such loyall service by him done?
(The cronickles of this will not lye.)
23
‘Thou shalt not be harmed in any case;’
He pardone[d] him presentlye;
They stayd not past a night and a day,
But towards Newport did they hye.
24
But [at] Attherston these lords did meete;
A worthy sight itt was to see,
How Erle Richmond tooke his hatt in his hand,
And said, Cheshire and Lancashire, welcome to me!
25
But now is a bird of the egle taken;
Ffrom the white bore he cannot fflee;
Therfore the old egle makes great moane,
And prayes to God most certainly.
26
‘O stedfast God, verament,’ he did say,
‘Thre persons in one god in Trinytye,
Saue my sonne, the young egle, this day
Ffrom all ffalse craft and trecherye!’
27
Then the blew bore the vanward had;
He was both warry and wise of witt;
The right hand of them he tooke,
The sunn and wind of them to gett.
28
Then the egle ffollowed fast vpon his pray,
With sore dints he did them smyte;
The talbott he bitt wonderous sore,
Soe well the vnicorne did him quite.
29
And then came in the harts head;
A worthy sight itt was to see,
The iacketts that were of white and redd,
How they laid about them lustilye.
30
But now is the ffeirce ffeeld foughten and ended,
And the white bore there lyeth slaine,
And the young egle is preserued,
And come to his nest againe.
31
But now this garden fflourishes ffreshly and gay,
With ffragrant fflowers comely of hew,
And gardners itt doth maintaine;
I hope they will proue iust and true.
32
Our king, he is the rose soe redd,
That now does fflourish ffresh and gay:
Confound his ffoes, Lord, wee beseeche,
And loue His Grace both night and day!
104. Then better.
121. him is apparently altered from mim in
the MS.: Furnivall.
144. shogged him.
173. cane for came.
262. 3.
293. They.
167 SIR ANDREW BARTON — A — B
334
A. ‘Sir Andrew Bartton,’ Percy MS. p. 490; Hales
and Furnivall, III, 399.
B. ‘The Life and Death of Sir Andrew Barton,’ etc.
a. Douce Ballads, I, 18 b. b. Pepys Ballads, I, 484,
No 249. c. Wood Ballads, 401, 55. d. Roxburghe
Ballads, I, 2; reprinted by the Ballad Society,
I, 10. e. Bagford Ballads, 643, m. 9. (61).
f. Bagford Ballads, 643, m. 10 (77). g. Wood Ballads,
402, 37. h. ‘Sir Andrew Barton,’ Glenriddell
MSS, XI, 20.
Given in Old Ballads, 1723, I, 159; in
Percy’s Reliques, 1765, II, 177, a copy made
up from the Folio MS. and B b, with editorial
emendations; Ritson’s Select Collection
of English Songs, 1783, I, 313. B f is reprinted
by Halliwell, Early Naval Ballads,
Percy Society, vol. ii, p. 4, 1841; by Moore,
Pictorial Book of Ancient Ballad Poetry, p.
256, 1853. There is a Bow-Churchyard
copy, of no value, in the Roxburghe collection,
III, 726, 727, dated in the Museum catalogue
1710.
A collation of A and B will show how
ballads were retrenched and marred in the
process of preparing them for the vulgar
press.[205]B a-g clearly lack two stanzas after
11 (12, 13, of A). This omission is perhaps
to be attributed to careless printing rather
than to reckless cutting down, for the stanzas
wanted are found in h. h is a transcript,
apparently from recitation or dictation, of a
Scottish broadside. It has but fifty-six stanzas,
against the sixty-four of B a and the
eighty-two of A, and is extremely corrupted.
Besides the two stanzas not found in the
English broadside, it has one more, after 50,
which is perhaps borrowed from ‘Adam Bell’:
A has a regrettable gap after 35, and is
corrupted at 292[207], 472.
In the year 1476 a Portuguese squadron
seized a richly loaded ship commanded by
John Barton, in consequence of which letters
of reprisal were granted to Andrew, Robert,
and John Barton, sons of John, and these
letters were renewed in 1506,[208] “as no opportunity
had occurred of effectuating a retaliation;”
that is to say, as the Scots, up to the
later date, had not been supplied with the
proper vessels. The king of Portugal remonstrated
against reprisals for so old an offence,
but he had put himself in the wrong four
335years before by refusing to deal with a herald
sent by the Scottish king for the arrangement
of the matter in dispute. It is probable that
there was justice on the Scottish side, “yet
there is some reason to believe that the Bartons
abused the royal favor, and the distance
and impunity of the sea, to convert this retaliation
into a kind of piracy against the
Portuguese trade, at that time, by the discoveries
and acquisitions in India, rendered the
richest in the world.” All three of the brothers
were men of note in the naval history
of Scotland. Andrew is called Sir Andrew,
perhaps, in imitation of Sir Andrew Wood;
but his brother attained to be called Sir
Robert.[209]
We may now hear what the writers who
are nearest to the time have to say of the
subject-matter of our ballad.
Hall’s Chronicle, 1548. In June [1511],
the king being at Leicester, tidings were
brought to him that Andrew Barton, a Scottish
man and a pirate of the sea, saying that
the king of Scots had war with the Portingales,
did rob every nation, and so stopped
the king’s streams that no merchants almost
could pass, and when he took the Englishmen’s
goods, he said they were Portingales’
goods, and thus he haunted and robbed at
every haven’s mouth. The king, moved
greatly with this crafty pirate, sent Sir Edmund
Howard, Lord Admiral of England,[210]
and Lord Thomas Howard, son and heir to
the Earl of Surrey, in all the haste to the
sea, which hastily made ready two ships, and
without any more abode took the sea, and by
chance of weather were severed. The Lord
Howard, lying in the Downs, perceived where
Andrew was making toward Scotland, and so
fast the said lord chased him that he overtook
him, and there was a sore battle. The
Englishmen were fierce, and the Scots defended
them manfully, and ever Andrew blew
his whistle to encourage his men, yet for all
that, the Lord Howard and his men, by clean
strength, entered the main deck; then the
Englishmen entered on all sides, and the
Scots fought sore on the hatches, but in conclusion
Andrew was taken, which was so sore
wounded that he died there; then all the remnant
of the Scots were taken, with their ship,
called The Lion. All this while was the
Lord Admiral in chase of the bark of Scotland
called Jenny Pirwyn, which was wont
to sail with The Lion in company, and so
much did he with other that he laid him on
board and fiercely assailed him, and the Scots,
as hardy and well stomached men, them defended;
but the Lord Admiral so encouraged
his men that they entered the bark and slew
many, and took all the other. Then were
these two ships taken, and brought to Blackwall
the second day of August, and all the
Scots were sent to the Bishop’s place of York,
and there remained, at the king’s charge, till
other direction was taken for them. [They
were released upon their owning that they
deserved death for piracy, and appealing to
the king’s mercy, says Hall.] The king of
Scots, hearing of the death of Andrew of Barton
and taking of his two ships, was wonderful
wroth, and sent letters to the king requiring
restitution according to the league and
amity. The king wrote with brotherly salutations
to the king of Scots of the robberies
and evil doings of Andrew Barton, and that
it became not one prince to lay a breach of a
league to another prince in doing justice upon
a pirate or thief, and that all the other Scots
that were taken had deserved to die by justice
if he had not extended his mercy. (Ed.
of 1809, p. 525.)
Buchanan, about twenty years later, writes
to this effect. Andrew Breton[211] was a Scots
trader whose father had been cruelly put to
death by the Portuguese, after they had plundered
his ship. This outrage was committed
within the dominion of Flanders, and the
336Flemish admiralty, upon suit of the son, gave
judgment against the Portuguese; but the offending
parties would not pay the indemnity,
nor would their king compel them, though
the king of Scots sent a herald to make the
demand. The Scot procured from his master
a letter of marque, to warrant him against
charges of piracy and freebooting while prosecuting
open war against the Portuguese for
their violation of the law of nations, and in
the course of a few months inflicted great
loss on them. Portuguese envoys went to the
English king and told him that this Andrew
was a man of such courage and enterprise as
would make him a dangerous enemy in the
war then impending with the French, and
that he could now be conveniently cut off,
under cover of piracy, to the advantage of
English subjects and the gratification of a
friendly sovereign. Henry was easily persuaded,
and dispatched his admiral, Thomas
Howard,[212] with two of the strongest ships of
the royal navy, to lie in wait at the Downs
for Andrew, then on his way home from
Flanders. They soon had sight of the Scot,
in a small vessel, with a still smaller in company.
Howard attacked Andrew’s ship, but,
though the superior in all respects, was barely
able to take it after the master and most of
his men had been killed. The Scots captain,
though several times wounded and with one
leg broken by a cannon-ball, seized a drum
and beat a charge to inspirit his men to fight
until breath and life failed. The smaller
ship was surrendered with less resistance, and
the survivors of both vessels, by begging their
lives of the king (as they were instructed to
do by the English), obtained a discharge without
punishment. The Scottish king made
formal complaint of this breach of peace, but
the answer was ready: the killing of pirates
broke no leagues and furnished no decent
ground for war. (Rer. Scot. Historia, 1582,
fol. 149 b, 150.)
Bishop Lesley, writing at about the same
time as Buchanan, openly accuses the English
of fraud. “In the month of June,” he says,
“Andrew Barton, being on the sea in warfare
contrar the Portingals, against whom he had
a letter of mark, Sir Edmund Howard, Lord
Admiral of England, and Lord Thomas Howard,
son and heir to the Earl of Surrey, past
forth at the king of England’s command, with
certain of his best ships; and the said Andrew,
being in his voyage sailing toward Scotland,
having only but one ship and a bark, they set
upon at the Downs, and at the first entry did
make sign unto them that there was friendship
standing betwix the two realms, and therefore
thought them to be friends; wherewith
they, nothing moved, did cruelly invade, and
he manfully and courageously defended, where
there was many slain, and Andrew himself
sore wounded, that he died shortly; and his
ship, called The Lion, and the bark, called
Jenny Pirrvyne, which, with the Scots men
that was living, were had to London, and
kept there as prisoners in the Bishop of Yorks
house, and after was sent home in Scotland.
When that the knowledge hereof came to the
king, he sent incontinent a herald to the king
of England, with letters requiring dress for
the slaughter of Andrew Barton, with the
ships to be rendered again; otherwise it
might be an occasion to break the league
and peace contracted between them. To the
which it was answered by the king of England
that the slaughter being a pirate, as he
alleged, should be no break to the peace; yet
not the less he should cause commissioners
meet upon the borders, where they should
treat upon that and all other enormities betwix
the two realms.”[213] (History of Scotland,
Edinburgh, 1830, p. 82 f.)
337The ballad displaces Sir Thomas and Sir
Edward Howard, and puts in their place
Lord Charles Howard, who was not born till
twenty-five years after the fight. Lord
Charles Howard, son of William, a younger
half-brother of Thomas and Edward, was, in
his time, like them, Lord High Admiral, and
had the honor of commanding the fleet which
served against the Armada. He was created
Earl of Nottingham in 1596, and this circumstance,
adopted into A 78,[214] puts this excellent
ballad later than one would have said, unless,
as is quite possible, the name of the English
commander has been changed. There is but
one ship in the ballad, as there is but a single
captain, but Henry Hunt makes up for the
other when we come to the engagement. The
dates are much deranged in A. The merchants
make their complaint at midsummer,
the summer solstice (in May, B 1), and here
there is agreement with Hall and Lesley.
The English ship sails the day before midsummer-even,
A 17; the fight occurs not
more than four days after (A 18, 33, 34; B
16, 31); four days is a large allowance for
returning, but the ship sails into Thames
mouth on the day before New Year’s even,
A 71, 72, 74.[215] In B the English do not sail
till winter, and although the interval from
May is long for fitting out a ship, inconsistency
is avoided. According to Hall, the English
ships brought in their prizes August 2d.
A. King Henry Eighth, having been informed
by eighty London merchants that
navigation is stopped by a Scot who would
rob them were they twenty ships to his one,
asks if there is never a lord who will fetch
him that traitor, and Lord Charles Howard
volunteers for the service, he to be the only
man. The king offers him six hundred fighting
men, his choice of all the realm. Howard
engages two noble marksmen, Peter Simon
to be the head of a hundred gunners,
and William Horsley to be the head of a
hundred bowmen, and sails, resolved to bring
in Sir Andrew and his ship, or never again
come near his prince. On the third day he
falls in with a fine ship commanded by Henry
Hunt, and asks whether they have heard of
Barton. Henry Hunt had been Barton’s prisoner
the day before, and can give the best intelligence
and advice. Barton is a terrible
fellow; his ship is brass within and steel
without; and although there is a deficiency at
A 36, there is enough to show that it was not
less magnificent than strong, 362, 752. He
has a pinnace of thirty guns, and the voluble
and not too coherent Hunt makes it a main
point to sink this pinnace first. But above
all, Barton carries beams in his topcastle, and
with these, if he can drop them, his own ship
is a match for twenty;[216] therefore, let no
man go to his topcastle. Hunt borrows some
guns from Lord Howard, trusting to be forgiven
for breaking the oath upon which he
had been released by his captor the day before,
and sets a ‘glass’ (lantern?) to guide
Howard’s ship to Barton’s, which they see
the next day. Barton is lying at anchor, 453,
461; the English ship, feigning to be a merchantman,
passes him without striking topsails
or topmast, ‘stirring neither top nor
338mast.’ Sir Andrew has been admiral on the
sea for more than three years, and no Englishman
or Portingal passes without his leave:
he orders his pinnace to bring the pedlars
back; they shall hang at his main-mast tree.
The pinnace fires on Lord Howard and brings
down his foremast and fifteen of his men,
but Simon sinks the pinnace with one discharge,
which, to be sure, includes nine yards
of chain besides other great shot, less and
more. Sir Andrew cuts his ropes to go for
the pedlar himself. Lord Howard throws off
disguise, sounds drums and trumpets, and
spreads his ensign. Simon’s son shoots and
kills sixty; the perjured Henry Hunt comes
in on the other side, brings down the foremast,
and kills eighty. One wonders that
Barton’s guns do not reply; in fact he never
fires a shot; but then he has that wonderful
apparatus of the beams, which, whether
mechanically perfect or not, is worked well
by the poet, for not many better passages are
met with in ballad poetry than that which
tells of the three gallant attempts on the
main-mast tree, 52–66. Sir Andrew had not
taken the English archery into his reckoning.
Gordon, the first man to mount, is struck
through the brain; so is James Hamilton,
Barton’s sister’s son. Sir Andrew dons his
armor of proof and goes up himself. Horsley
hits him under his arm; Barton will not
loose his hold, but a second mortal wound
forces him to come down. He calls on his
men to fight on; he will lie and bleed awhile,
and then rise and fight again; “fight on for
Scotland and St Andrew, while you hear my
whistle blow!” Soon the whistle is mute,
and they know that Barton is dead; the English
board; Howard strikes off Sir Andrew’s
head, while the Scots stand by weeping, and
throws the body over the side, with three
hundred crowns about the middle to secure it
a burial. So Jon Rimaardssøn binds three
bags about his body when he jumps into the
sea, saying, He shall not die poor that will
bury my body: Danske Viser, II, 225, st. 30.
Lord Howard sails back to England, and is
royally welcomed. England before had but
one ship of war, and Sir Andrew’s made the
second, says the ballad, but therein seems to
be less than historically accurate: see Southey’s
Lives of the British Admirals, 1833, II,
171, note. Hunt, Horsley, and Simon are
generously rewarded, and Howard is made
Earl of Nottingham. When King Henry
sees Barton’s ghastly head, he exclaims that
he would give a hundred pounds if the man
were alive as he is dead: ambiguous words,
which one would prefer not to interpret by
the later version of the ballad, in which
Henry is eager himself to give the doom, B
58; nor need we, for in the concluding stanza
the king, in recognition of the manful part
that he hath played, both here and beyond the
sea, says that each of Barton’s men shall have
half a crown a day to take them home.
The variations of B, as to the story, are of
slight importance. There is no pinnace in
B. Horsley’s shots are somewhat better arranged:
Gordon is shot under the collar-bone,
the nephew through the heart; the first arrow
rebounds from Barton’s armor, the second
smites him to the heart. ‘Until you hear
my whistle blow,’ in 534, is a misconception,
coming from not understanding that till (as
in A 664) may mean while.
The copy in Percy’s Reliques is translated
by Von Marées, p. 88.
Percy MS., p. 490; Hales and Furnivall, III, 399.
1
As itt beffell in m[i]dsumer-time,
When burds singe sweetlye on euery tree,
Our noble king, King Henery the Eighth,
Ouer the riuer of Thames past hee.
2
Hee was no sooner ouer the riuer,
Downe in a fforrest to take the ayre,
But eighty merchants of London cittye
Came kneeling before King Henery there.
3
‘O yee are welcome, rich merchants,
[Good saylers, welcome unto me!’]
339They swore by the rood the were saylers good,
But rich merchants they cold not bee.
4
‘To Ffrance nor Fflanders dare we nott passe,
Nor Burdeaux voyage wee dare not ffare,
And all ffor a ffalse robber that lyes on the seas,
And robb[s] vs of our merchants-ware.’
5
King Henery was stout, and he turned him about,
And swore by the Lord that was mickle of might,
‘I thought he had not beene in the world throughout
That durst haue wrought England such vnright.’
6
But euer they sighed, and said, alas!
Vnto King Harry this answere againe:
‘He is a proud Scott that will robb vs all
If wee were twenty shipps and hee but one.’
7
The king looket ouer his left shoulder,
Amongst his lords and barrons soe ffree:
‘Haue I neuer lord in all my realme
Will ffeitch yond traitor vnto mee?’
8
‘Yes, that dare I!’ sayes my lord Chareles Howard,
Neere to the king wheras hee did stand;
‘If that Your Grace will giue me leaue,
My selfe wilbe the only man.’
9
‘Thou shalt haue six hundred men,’ saith our king,
‘And chuse them out of my realme soe ffree;
Besids marriners and boyes,
To guide the great shipp on the sea.’
10
‘I’le goe speake with Sir Andrew,’ sais Charles, my lord Haward;
‘Vpon the sea, if hee be there;
I will bring him and his shipp to shore,
Or before my prince I will neuer come neere.’
11
The ffirst of all my lord did call,
A noble gunner hee was one;
This man was three score yeeres and ten,
And Peeter Simon was his name.
12
‘Peeter,’ sais hee, ‘I must sayle to the sea,
To seeke out an enemye; God be my speed!’
Before all others I haue chosen thee;
Of a hundred guners thoust be my head.’
13
‘My lord,’ sais hee, ‘if you haue chosen mee
Of a hundred gunners to be the head,
Hange me att your maine-mast tree
If I misse my marke past three pence bread.’
14
The next of all my lord he did call,
A noble bowman hee was one;
In Yorekeshire was this gentleman borne,
And William Horsley was his name.
15
‘Horsley,’ sayes hee, ‘I must sayle to the sea,
To seeke out an enemye; God be my speede!
Before all others I haue chosen thee;
Of a hundred bowemen thoust be my head.’
16
‘My lord,’ sais hee, ‘if you haue chosen mee
Of a hundred bowemen to be the head,
Hang me att your mainemast-tree
If I misse my marke past twelue pence bread.’
17
With pikes, and gunnes, and bowemen bold,
This noble Howard is gone to the sea
On the day before midsummer-euen,
And out att Thames mouth sayled they.
18
They had not sayled dayes three
Vpon their iourney they tooke in hand,
But there they mett with a noble shipp,
And stoutely made itt both stay and stand.
19
‘Thou must tell me thy name,’ sais Charles, my lord Haward,
‘Or who thou art, or ffrom whence thou came,
Yea, and where thy dwelling is,
To whom and where thy shipp does belong.’
20
‘My name,’ sayes hee, ‘is Henery Hunt,
With a pure hart and a penitent mind;
I and my shipp they doe belong
Vnto the New-castle that stands vpon Tine.’
21
‘Now thou must tell me, Harry Hunt,
As thou hast sayled by day and by night,
Hast thou not heard of a stout robber?
Men calls him Sir Andrew Bartton, knight.’
34022
But euer he sighed, and sayd, Alas!
Ffull well, my lord, I know that wight;
He robd me of my merchants ware,
And I was his prisoner but yesternight.
23
As I was sayling vppon the sea,
And [a] Burdeaux voyage as I did ffare,
He clasped me to his archborde,
And robd me of all my merchants-ware.
24
And I am a man both poore and bare,
And euery man will haue his owne of me,
And I am bound towards London to ffare,
To complaine to my prince Henerye.
25
‘That shall not need,’ sais my lord Haward;
‘If thou canst lett me this robber see,
Ffor euery peny he hath taken thee ffroe,
Thou shalt be rewarded a shilling,’ quoth hee.
26
‘Now God fforefend,’ saies Henery Hunt,
‘My lord, you shold worke soe ffarr amisse!
God keepe you out of that traitors hands!
For you wott ffull litle what a man hee is.
27
‘Hee is brasse within, and steele without,
And beames hee beares in his topcastle stronge;
His shipp hath ordinance cleane round about;
Besids, my lord, hee is verry well mand.
28
‘He hath a pinnace, is deerlye dight,
Saint Andrews crosse, that is his guide;
His pinnace beares nine score men and more,
Besids fifteen cannons on euery side.
29
‘If you were twenty shippes, and he but one,
Either in archbord or in hall,
He wold ouercome you euerye one,
And if his beames they doe downe ffall.’
30
‘This is cold comfort,’ sais my Lord Haward,
‘To wellcome a stranger thus to the sea;
I’le bring him and his shipp to shore,
Or else into Scottland hee shall carrye mee.’
31
‘Then you must gett a noble gunner, my lord,
That can sett well with his eye,
And sinke his pinnace into the sea,
And soone then ouercome will hee bee.
32
‘And when that you haue done this,
If you chance Sir Andrew for to bord,
Lett no man to his topcastle goe;
And I will giue you a glasse, my lord,
33
‘And then you need to ffeare no Scott,
Whether you sayle by day or by night;
And to-morrow, by seuen of the clocke,
You shall meete with Sir Andrew Bartton, knight.
34
‘I was his prisoner but yester night,
And he hath taken mee sworne,’ quoth hee;
‘I trust my L[ord] God will me fforgiue
And if that oath then broken bee.
35
‘You must lend me sixe peeces, my lord,’ quoth hee,
‘Into my shipp, to sayle the sea,
And to-morrow, by nine of the clocke,
Your Honour againe then will I see.’
* * * * *
36
And the hache-bord where Sir Andrew lay
Is hached with gold deerlye dight:
‘Now by my ffaith,’ sais Charles, my lord Haward,
‘Then yonder Scott is a worthye wight!
37
‘Take in your ancyents and your standards,
Yea that no man shall them see,
And put me fforth a white willow wand,
As merchants vse to sayle the sea.’
38
But they stirred neither top nor mast,
But Sir Andrew they passed by:
‘Whatt English are yonder,’ said Sir Andrew,
‘That can so litle curtesye?
39
‘I haue beene admirall ouer the sea
More then these yeeres three;
There is neuer an English dog, nor Portingall,
Can passe this way without leaue of mee.
40
‘But now yonder pedlers, they are past,
Which is no litle greffe to me:
Ffeich them backe,’ sayes Sir Andrew Bartton,
‘They shall all hang att my maine-mast tree.’
41
With that the pinnace itt shott of,
That my Lord Haward might itt well ken;
Itt stroke downe my lords fforemast,
And killed fourteen of my lord his men.
34142
‘Come hither, Simon!’ sayes my lord Haward,
‘Looke that thy words be true thou sayd;
I’le hang thee att my maine-mast tree
If thou misse thy marke past twelue pence bread.’
43
Simon was old, but his hart itt was bold;
Hee tooke downe a peece, and layd itt ffull lowe;
He put in chaine yeards nine,
Besids other great shott lesse and more.
44
With that hee lett his gun-shott goe;
Soe well hee settled itt with his eye,
The ffirst sight that Sir Andrew sawe,
Hee see his pinnace sunke in the sea.
45
When hee saw his pinace sunke,
Lord! in his hart hee was not well:
‘Cutt my ropes! itt is time to be gon!
I’le goe ffeitch yond pedlers backe my selfe!’
46
When my lord Haward saw Sir Andrew loose,
Lord! in his hart that hee was ffaine:
‘Strike on your drummes! spread out your ancyents!
Sound out your trumpetts! sound out amaine!’
47
‘Ffight on, my men!’ sais Sir Andrew Bartton;
‘Weate, howsoeuer this geere will sway,
Itt is my lord Adm[i]rall of England
Is come to seeke mee on the sea.’
48
Simon had a sonne; with shott of a gunn—
Well Sir Andrew might itt ken—
He shott itt in att a priuye place,
And killed sixty more of Sir Andrews men.
49
Harry Hunt came in att the other syde,
And att Sir Andrew hee shott then;
He droue downe his fformast-tree,
And killed eighty more of Sir Andriwes men.
50
‘I haue done a good turne,’ sayes Harry Hunt;
‘Sir Andrew is not our kings ffreind;
He hoped to haue vndone me yesternight,
But I hope I haue quitt him well in the end.’
51
‘Euer alas!’ sayd Sir Andrew Barton,
‘What shold a man either thinke or say?
Yonder ffalse theeffe is my strongest enemye,
Who was my prisoner but yesterday.
52
‘Come hither to me, thou Gourden good,
And be thou readye att my call,
And I will giue thee three hundred pound
If thou wilt lett my beames downe ffall.’
53
With that hee swarued the maine-mast tree,
Soe did he itt with might and maine;
Horseley, with a bearing arrow,
Stroke the Gourden through the braine.
54
And he ffell into the haches againe,
And sore of this wound that he did bleed;
Then word went throug Sir Andrews men,
That the Gourden hee was dead.
55
‘Come hither to me, Iames Hambliton,
Thou art my sisters sonne, I haue no more;
I will giue [thee] six hundred pound
If thou will lett my beames downe ffall.’
56
With that hee swarued the maine-mast tree,
Soe did hee itt with might and maine:
Horseley, with another broad arrow,
Strake the yeaman through the braine.
57
That hee ffell downe to the haches againe;
Sore of his wound that hee did bleed;
Couetousness getts no gaine,
Itt is verry true, as the Welchman sayd.
58
But when hee saw his sisters sonne slaine,
Lord! in his heart hee was not well:
‘Goe ffeitch me downe my armour of proue,
Ffor I will to the topcastle my-selfe.
59
‘Goe ffeitch me downe my armour of prooffe,
For itt is guilded with gold soe cleere;
God be with my brother, Iohn of Bartton!
Amongst the Portingalls hee did itt weare.’
60
But when hee had his armour of prooffe,
And on his body hee had itt on,
Euery man that looked att him
Sayd, Gunn nor arrow hee neede feare none.
61
‘Come hither, Horsley!’ sayes my lord Haward,
‘And looke your shaft that itt goe right;
Shoot a good shoote in the time of need,
And ffor thy shooting thoust be made a knight.’
62
‘I’le doe my best,’ sayes Horslay then,
‘Your Honor shall see beffore I goe;
342If I shold be hanged att your mainemast,
I haue in my shipp but arrowes tow.’
63
But att Sir Andrew hee shott then;
Hee made sure to hitt his marke;
Vnder the spole of his right arme
Hee smote Sir Andrew quite throw the hart.
64
Yett ffrom the tree hee wold not start,
But hee clinged to itt with might and maine;
Vnder the coller then of his iacke,
He stroke Sir Andrew thorrow the braine.
65
‘Ffight on my men,’ sayes Sir Andrew Bartton,
‘I am hurt, but I am not slaine;
I’le lay mee downe and bleed a-while,
And then I’le rise and ffight againe.
66
‘Ffight on my men,’ sayes Sir Andrew Bartton,
‘These English doggs they bite soe lowe;
Ffight on ffor Scottland and Saint Andrew
Till you heare my whistle blowe!’
67
But when the cold not heare his whistle blow,
Sayes Harry Hunt, I’le lay my head
You may bord yonder noble shipp, my lord,
For I know Sir Andrew hee is dead.
68
With that they borded this noble shipp,
Soe did they itt with might and maine;
The ffound eighteen score Scotts aliue,
Besids the rest were maimed and slaine.
69
My lord Haward tooke a sword in his hand,
And smote of Sir Andrews head;
The Scotts stood by did weepe and mourne,
But neuer a word durst speake or say.
70
He caused his body to be taken downe,
And ouer the hatch-bord cast into the sea,
And about his middle three hundred crownes:
‘Whersoeuer thou lands, itt will bury thee.’
71
With his head they sayled into England againe,
With right good will, and fforce and main,
And the day beffore Newyeeres euen
Into Thames mouth they came againe.
72
My lord Haward wrote to King Heneryes grace,
With all the newes hee cold him bring:
‘Such a Newyeeres gifft I haue brought to your Gr[ace]
As neuer did subiect to any king.
73
‘Ffor merchandyes and manhood,
The like is nott to be ffound;
The sight of these wold doe you good,
Ffor you haue not the like in your English ground.’
74
But when hee heard tell that they were come,
Full royally hee welcomed them home;
Sir Andrews shipp was the kings Newyeeres guifft;
A brauer shipp you neuer saw none.
75
Now hath our king Sir Andrews shipp,
Besett with pearles and precyous stones;
Now hath England two shipps of warr,
Two shipps of warr, before but one.
76
‘Who holpe to this?’ sayes King Henerye,
‘That I may reward him ffor his paine:’
‘Harry Hunt, and Peeter Simon,
William Horseleay, and I the same.’
77
‘Harry Hunt shall haue his whistle and chaine,
And all his iewells, whatsoeuer they bee,
And other rich giffts that I will not name,
For his good service he hath done mee.
78
‘Horslay, right thoust be a knight,
Lands and liuings thou shalt haue store;
Howard shalbe erle of Nottingham,
And soe was neuer Haward before.
79
‘Now, Peeter Simon, thou art old;
I will maintaine thee and thy sonne;
Thou shalt haue fiue hundred pound all in gold
Ffor the good service that thou hast done.’
80
Then King Henerye shiffted his roome;
In came the Queene and ladyes bright;
Other arrands they had none
But to see Sir Andrew Bartton, knight.
81
But when they see his deadly fface,
His eyes were hollow in his head;
‘I wold giue a hundred pound,’ sais King Henerye,
‘The man were aliue as hee is dead!
82
‘Yett ffor the manfull part that hee hath playd,
Both heere and beyond the sea,
His men shall haue halfe a crowne a day
To bring them to my brother, King Iamye.’
343
a. Douce Ballads, I, 18 b. b. Pepys Ballads, I, 484, No
249. c. Wood Ballads, 401, 55. d. Roxburghe Ballads,
I, 2. e. Bagford Ballads, 643, m. 9 (61). f. Bagford Ballads,
643, m. 10 (77). g. Wood Ballads, 402, 37. h. Glenriddell
MSS, XI, 20.
1
When Flora, with her fragrant flowers,
Bedeckt the earth so trim and gay,
And Neptune, with his dainty showers,
Came to present the month of May,
2
King Henry would a progress ride;
Over the river of Thames past he,
Unto a mountain-top also
Did walk, some pleasure for to see.
3
Where forty merchants he espy’d,
With fifty sail, come towards him,
Who then no sooner were arriv’d,
But on their knees did thus complain.
4
‘An’t please Your Grace, we cannot sail
To France no voyage, to be sure,
But Sir Andrew Barton makes us quail,
And robs us of our merchant-ware.’
5
Vext was the king, and turned him,
Said to the lords of high degree,
Have I ner a lord within my realm
Dare fetch that traytor unto me?
6
To him repli’d Lord Charles Howard:
I will, my liege, with heart and hand;
If it please you grant me leave, he said,
I will perform what you command.
7
To him then spake King Henry:
I fear, my lord, you are too young.
‘No whit at all, my liege,’ quoth he;
‘I hope to prove in valour strong.
8
‘The Scottish knight I vow to seek,
In what place soever he be,
And bring a shore, with all his might,
Or into Scotland he shall carry me.’
9
‘A hundred men,’ the king then said,
‘Out of my realm shall chosen be,
Besides saylors and ship-boys
To guide a great ship on the sea.
10
‘Bow-men and gunners of good skill
Shall for this service chosen be,
And they at thy command and will
In all affairs shall wait on thee.’
11
Lord Howard calld a gunner then
Who was the best in all the realm;
His age was threescore years and ten,
And Peter Simon was his name.
12
My lord calld then a bow-man rare,
Whose active hands had gained fame,
A gentleman born in Yorkshire,
And William Horsly was his name.
13
‘Horsly,’ quoth he, ‘I must to sea,
To seek a traytor, with great speed;
Of a hundred bow-men brave,’ quoth he,
‘I have chosen thee to be the head.’
14
‘If you, my lord, have chosen me
Of a hundred men to be the head,
Upon the main-mast I’le hanged be,
If twelve-score I miss one shillings breadth.’
15
Lord Howard then, of courage bold,
Went to the sea with pleasant chear,
Not curbd with winters piercing cold,
Though it was the stormy time of the year.
16
Not long he had been on the sea,
No more in days then number three,
Till one Henry Hunt he there espied,
A merchant of Newcastle was he.
17
To him Lord Howard cald out amain,
And strictly charged him to stand;
Demanding then from whence he came,
Or where he did intend to land.
18
The merchant then made him answer soon,
With heavy heart and careful mind,
‘My lord, my ship it doth belong
Unto Newcastle upon Tine.’
19
‘Canst thou shew me,’ the lord did say,
‘As thou didst sail by day and night,
A Scottish rover on the sea,
His name is Andrew Barton, knight? ’
20
Then to him the merchant sighd and said,
With grieved mind and well a way,
‘But over well I know that wight,
I was his prisoner but yesterday.
34421
‘As I, my lord, did pass from France,
A Burdeaux voyage to take so far,
I met with Sir Andrew Barton thence,
Who robd me of my merchant-ware.
22
‘And mickle debts, God knows, I owe,
And every man did crave his own;
And I am bound to London now,
Of our gracious king to beg a boon.’
23
‘Shew me him,’ said [Lord] Howard then,
‘Let me but once the villain see,
And one penny he hath from the tane,
I’le double the same with shillings three.’
24
‘Now, God forbid,’ the merchant said;
‘I fear your aim that you will miss;
God bless you from his tyranny,
For little you know what man he is.
25
‘He is brass within and steel without,
His ship most huge and mighty strong,
With eighteen pieces strong and stout,
He carrieth on each side along.
26
‘With beams for his top-castle,
As also being huge and high,
That neither English nor Portugal
Can pass Sir Andrew Barton by.’
27
‘Hard news thou shewst,’ then said the lord,
‘To welcome strangers to the sea;
But, as I said, I’le bring him aboard,
Or into Scotland he shall carry me.’
28
The merchant said, If you will do so,
Take counsel, then, I pray withal:
Let no man to his top-castle go,
Nor strive to let his beam[s] down fall.
29
‘Lend me seven pieces of ordnance then,
Of each side of my ship,’ quoth he,
‘And to-morrow, my lord, twixt six and seven,
Again I will Your Honour see.
30
‘A glass I’le set that may be seen
Whether you sail by day or night;
And to-morrow, be sure, before seven,
You shall see Sir Andrew Barton, knight.’
31
The merchant set my lord a glass,
So well apparent in his sight
That on the morrow, as his promise was,
He saw Sir Andrew Barton, knight.
32
The lord then swore a mighty oath,
‘Now by the heavens that be of might,
By faith, believe me, and by troth,
I think he is a worthy knight.
33
‘Fetch me my lyon out of hand,’
Saith the lord, ‘with rose and streamer high;
Set up withal a willow-wand,
That merchant-like I [may] pass by.’
34
Thus bravely did Lord Howard pass,
And did on anchor rise so high;
No top-sail at all he cast,
But as his foe he did him defie.
35
Sir Andrew Barton seeing him
Thus scornfully to pass by,
As though he cared not a pin
For him and all his company,
36
Then called he his men amain,
‘Fetch back yon pedler now,’ quoth he,
‘And against this way he comes again
I’le teach him well his courtesie.’
37
A piece of ordnance soon was shot
By this proud pirate fiercely then
Into Lord Howards middle deck,
Which cruel shot killd fourteen men.
38
He calld then Peter Simon, he:
‘Look now thy word do stand in stead,
For thou shalt be hanged on main-mast
If thou miss twelve score one penny breadth.’
39
Then Peter Simon gave a shot
Which did Sir Andrew mickle scare,
In at his deck it came so hot,
Killd fifteen of his men of war.
40
‘Alas!’ then said the pyrate stout,
‘I am in danger now, I see;
This is some lord, I greatly doubt,
That is set on to conquer me.’
41
Then Henry Hunt, with rigor hot,
Came bravely on the other side,
Who likewise shot in at his deck,
And kild fifty of his men beside.
42
Then ‘Out, alas!’ Sir Andrew cri’d,
‘What may a man now think or say!
Yon merchant thief that pierceth me,
He was my prisoner yesterday.’
34543
Then did he on Gordion call,
Unto top-castle for to go,
And bid his beams he should let fall,
‘For I greatly fear an overthrow.’
44
The lord cald Horsly now in hast:
‘Look that thy word stand now in stead,
For thou shalt be hanged on main-mast
If thou miss twelve score one shillings breadth.’
45
Then up [the] mast-tree swarved he,
This stout and mighty Gordion;
But Horsly, he most happily
Shot him under the collar-bone.
46
Then calld he on his nephew then,
Said, Sisters sons I have no mo;
Three hundred pound I will give thee,
If thou wilt to top-castle go.
47
Then stoutly he began to climb,
From off the mast scornd to depart;
But Horsly soon prevented him,
And deadly piercd him to the heart.
48
His men being slain, then up amain
Did this proud pyrate climb with speed,
For armour of proof he had put on,
And did not dint of arrow dread.
49
‘Come hither, Horsly,’ said the lord,
‘See thine arrow aim aright;
Great means to thee I will afford,
And if you speed, I’le make you a knight.’
50
Sir Andrew did climb up the tree,
With right good will and all his main;
Then upon the breast hit Horsly he,
Till the arrow did return again.
51
Then Horsly spied a private place,
With a perfect eye, in a secret part;
His arrow swiftly flew apace,
And smote Sir Andrew to the heart.
52
‘Fight on, fight on, my merry men all,
A little I am hurt, yet not slain;
I’le but lie down and bleed a while,
And come and fight with you again.
53
‘And do not,’ he said, ‘fear English rogues,
And of your foes stand not in awe,
But stand fast by St Andrews cross,
Until you hear my whistle blow.’
54
They never heard his whistle blow,
Which made them [all] sore afraid:
Then Horsly said, My lord, aboard,
For now Sir Andrew Barton’s dead.
55
Thus boarded they this gallant ship,
With right good will and all their main,
Eighteen score Scots alive in it,
Besides as many more were slain.
56
The lord went where Sir Andrew lay,
And quickly thence cut off his head:
‘I should forsake England many a day,
If thou wert alive as thou art dead.’
57
Thus from the wars Lord Howard came,
With mickle joy and triumphing;
The pyrates head he brought along
For to present unto our king:
58
Who briefly then to him did say,
Before he knew well what was done,
‘Where is the knight and pyrate gay?
That I my self may give the doom.’
59
You may thank God,’ then said the lord,
‘And four men in the ship,’ quoth he,
‘That we are safely come ashore,
Sith you had never such an enemy:
60
‘That is Henry Hunt, and Peter Simon,
William Horsly, and Peters son;
Therefore reward them for their pains,
For they did service at their turn.’
61
To the merchant then the king did say,
‘In lue of what he hath from the tane,
I give to the a noble a day,
Sir Andrews whistle and his chain:
62
‘To Peter Simon a crown a day,
And half-a-crown a day to Peters son,
And that was for a shot so gay,
Which bravely brought Sir Andrew down.
63
‘Horsly, I will make thee a knight,
And in Yorkshire thou shalt dwell:
Lord Howard shall Earl Bury hight,
For this title he deserveth well.
34664
‘Seven shillings to our English men,
Who in this fight did stoutly stand,
And twelve pence a-day to the Scots, till they
Come to my brother kings high land.’
All the copies in stanzas of eight lines.
A.
13. 8th ..
23. 80.
32. MS. pared away. From the Reliques.
Percy’s marginal reading is For sailors
good are welcome to me. The tops of letters
left do not suit either of Percy’s lines, says
Furnivall.
33. swore: MS. pared away. Percy’s reading.
64. 20.
91. 600.
113. 60: B, three score.
124, 132, 154, 162. 100ḍ, 100.
134, 181. 3.
162. they for the.
164, 424. 12[d:].
151. sayes, a letter blotted out before a: Furnivall.
202. poor would read better than pure (cf.B,
182, heavy heart), but is not satisfactory.
233. archborde for hachborde?: cf. 361, 702.
272, 294, 524, 554. beanes, or beaues.
283. 9.
284. 15.
291. 20.
292. charke-bord: should perhaps be hachbord.
331. fferae.
333. 7.
353, 433. 9.
36 is perhaps out of place.
361. lies for lay?
37. Part II.
411. they for the.
413. strokes.
444. sumke.
472. Weate I cannot emend.
484. 60.
493. fformost.
494. 80: Andirwes.
523. 300li :.
531, 561. perhaps swarned: Furnivall.
553. 600li ..
573,4. three follows four: transposed for
rhyme.
644. they for the.
654. Only half the n of againe in the MS.:
Furnivall.
683. 18.
703. 300.
712. meanye for main.
714. againe they came.
753,4. 2.
762. paime.
793. 500li ..
813. 100li :.
B. a.
The Relation of the life and death of Sir
Andrew Barton, a Pyrate and Rover on the
Seas.
The tune is, Come follow my love.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright
[1655–80].
131. ly in Horsly is worn or torn away, and
so is to in the next line.
203. But ever.
241. the Lord he: c, g, my Lord he: the
others, the merchant.
264. Can S. A. B. pass by. So all buth.
284. beam.
33, 34 follow 36.
382. to for do.
452. Thus.
473. Cut off: supplied fromb, c.
533. Sir Andrews, and sob, c, d.
542. all supplied fromc.
633. bright for hight.
643. ey of they cut off, and land in the following
line.
b.
A True Relation, etc. Tune is, etc.
Printed for J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray,
and T. Passinger [1670–82?].
From a transcript made for Bishop Percy,
who has in a few places made corrections
which are not always easily distinguished
from those of the copyist.
52. to his.
101. great changed to good.
132. To seek: good speed.
144. Of: I wanting.
154. was stormy.
163. But one: there he ‘spy’d.
174. did inserted by Percy, but perhaps in the
text.
181. him wanting.
203. over well.
204. but wanting.
211. did sail.
221. deps.
231. [Lord] wanting.
241. the merchant.
253. pieces of ordnance.
284. beams.
293. twix.
33, 34 follow 36.
334. [may] wanting.
361. is men.
363. And again.
382. to for do.
384, 444. breath.
444. a shilling.
473. But Horsly soon prevented him.
494. if thou.
531. said he.
533. Sir: corrected by Percy to St.
541. hear.
542. [all] wanting.
574. unto the.
594. never wanting.
612. lieu.
632. shall.
633. hight.
643. they.
644. land.
c.
A true Relation, etc. The tune is, etc.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson.
[1648–80. Coles, Vere, Wright,
and Gilbertson are found together as early
as 1655.]
41. An’t like.
53. lord in all.
82. In place wheresoever.
83. on shore.
113. year.
132. To see.
143. the wanting.
181. him wanting.
203. ever: knew.
213. with wanting.
214. wares.
232. that villain.
241. my Lord he.
244. you little know.
261. for her.
347312. to his.
33, 34 follow 36.
332. streamers.
342. ride for rise.
353. Although.
361. he on.
363. come.
382. do stand.
392. care for scare.
394. fifty.
413. shot it.
414. five for fifty.
424. but yesterday.
444. shilling bred.
451. then swarded he.
462. son: no more.
473. As in b.
492. that thine.
494. a wanting.
533. Sir Andrews.
542. them all sore.
573. he wanting.
593. are come safely to the shore.
622. half crown.
632. there shalt thou.
633. hight.
634. he hath deserved.
642. to this.
d, e, f.
Title as inb. Tune, Come follow my
love, etc.
d.
Printed by and for W. O[nley], and sold by
the Booksellers of Pye-corner and London-Bridge.
[1650–1702.]
e.
Printed by and for W. O., and sold by C.
Bates at the Sun and Bible in Pye-corner.
f.
Printed by and for W. O., and sold by the
booksellers.
dandeare dated in the Museum Catalogue
1670; f. 1672.
21. a hunting.
51. turning.
52. d, e. to his.
61. Charles Lord Howard.
71. d, e. speak, f. spoke.
81. Scotch.
132. with good.
154. the wanting.
161. f. the wanting.
162. f. no wanting.
163. But one: there he.
181. him wanting.
201. to him wanting.
203. over well.
204. but wanting.
211. did sail.
222. doth: but And means if.
231. Lord Howard.
232. but wanting.
233. And e’ry.
241. the merchant.
244. you think.
253. pieces of ordnance.
272. stranger.
284. beams.
293. twixt six and seven wanting.
301. d, e. set as. f. I set as.
33, 34 follow 36.
334. I may.
342. did wanting.
343. at last.
344. as a foe did.
363. And ere.
372. e. By his.
382. how thy word do.
383. shall.
384. f. breath.
403. greatly fear.
432. Unto the.
434. For he: feard.
442. d, e. now stand. f. now wanting.
444. d, e. a shilling, f. shilling’s breath.
451. swerved.
454. f. under his.
473. As in b, c.
484. arrows.
492. See thou thy arrows.
494. if thou speedst: make the[e] knight.
524. f. with wanting.
531. he said.
532. e. inwe.
533. Sir Andrews.
542. all full sore.
564. were.
581. unto for then to.
594. never had.
611. f. merchant therefore the king he said.
633. hight.
634. e. this girle. f. this act.
641. f. Ninety pound.
g.
A true Relation, etc. To the tune of Come
follow me, love.
London, Printed for E. W.
This copy has been considerably corrected,
and only a part of the variations is given.
22. of wanting.
23. mountaines.
32. with swiftest.
41. An’t like.
52. to his.
53. in all my.
114. One for And.
144. shilling.
162. No more then dayes in number three.
181. him wanting.
201. said and sighd.
202. a g. m. and a w.
203. over.
204. For I.
213. with wanting.
231. Lord Howard.
232. that for the.
233. for one.
241. my Lord, quoth he.
261. beams from her.
284. beames.
324. weight (that is, wight) for knight.
332. streamers.
334. I may.
342. ride.
344. he wanting.
35, 36 wanting.
382. do stand.
384. bred.
394. fifty.
414. five.
424. but yesterday.
431. on one Gordion.
451. then swarmed.
482. this stout.
492. See that thy arrow.
494. if thou: thee knight.
532. stand in no awe.
533. S. Andrew’s.
542. them all full sore.
554. moe.
563. I would forsweare.
574. the king.
592. in this ship with me.
593. to shore.
594. never had.
603. paine.
632. there shalt thou.
634. his title he hath deserved.
642. to this.
644. king his land.
Old Ballads, 1723, and Roxburghe, III, 726,
have Iris for the Neptune ofB, in 13;
Charles Lord Howard in 61; Ninety pounds
in 641.
h.
This being a Scottish copy, and the variations
also numerous, it seems advisable to
give the whole text rather than only the divergent
readings. The transcript may be
inferred, from passages phonetically misrendered,
to have been made from recitation
or reading, more probably from recitation,
since many of the differences from the
printed copies are of the sort which are
made by reciters; that is, immaterial expressions
are imperfectly remembered; and
348again, 162 is adopted from popular ballad
phraseology, and, as already observed, the
stanza following 50 is borrowed from ‘Adam
Bell.’ Cases of writing sound for sense are
43, makes us squails for makes us quail;
73, I quitted all for No whit at all; 482, The
spirit for This pĭrate; 613, A nobler day for
A noble a day. Verses of 25, 26 have been
interchanged. 8, 93,4, 101,2, 21, 28, 29, 30,
32, 36, 44, 49, 522,3,4, 531 are wanting.
33, 34 are in the right order. It is a little
surprising that a Scottish copy should
have Sir Andrew Cross for St Andrew’s
cross, 533. a-dhave Sir Andrews Cross.
1
When Febus, with her fragrant flours,
bedect the earth so trim and gay,
And Neptan, with his denty shours,
came to present the month o May,
2
King Hendry would a hunting ride,
and over the river Thames past he,
Unto a mountain-top also
he walkd, some pleasures to espy.
3
There fortie merchants he espy’d,
with fiftie sail, come towards him;
No sooner there they were arrived
but on their knees they did complain.
4
‘My lodge,’ said they, ‘we cannot sail
to France nor Spain, for to be sure;
Sir Andrew Barton makes us squails,
and berubs (?) us of our merchant-wair.’
5
The king was grievd and turnd him,
said to his lords of high degree,
Is there not a lord in my realm
can fetch yon traitor unto me?
6
Then out bespoke Lord Charles Howard,
and says, My ludge, with heart and hand,
If that you’l give me leave, said he,
I will perform what you command.
7
But out bespoke King Hendrie:
‘I fear, my lord, you are too young;’
‘I quitted all, my lodge,’ said he,
‘for I think to prove one valient strong.’
91,2
‘A hundred men out of my realm
shall for this service chosen be,
103,4
And they, at thy command and will,
in all affairs, shall wait on thee.’
11
The king calld on a gunner then,
whose age was ‘bove three score and ten;
He was the best in that realm,
and Petter Simon height his name.
[A 12]
‘Now Peter,’ said he, ‘wee’r bound to sea,
to fetch a traitor with good speed,
And over a hundred gunners good
I’ve chosen thee to be the head.’
[A 13]
‘My lodge,’ says he, ‘if he have chosen me
oer a hundred men to be the head,
Upon mine mast I hangd shall be,
if I mess twelve score on a shilling breadth.’
12
My lord calld on a bow-man then,
whose hands and acts had gained fame;
He was the best in that realm,
and William Horsley height his name.
13
‘Now Horsley,’ says he, ‘wee’r bound to sea,
to fetch a traitor wi good speed,
And over a hundred archers good
I’ve chosen thee to be the head.’
14
‘My lord,’ sais he, ‘if ye hae chosen me
oer a hundred men to be the head,
Upon my mast I hangd shall be,
if I mess twelve score a shilling breadth.’
15
Lord Howard he’s gone to the wars,
wi muckle mirth and merrie cheer;
He was not curbd with winters cold,
tho it was the stormy time a year.
16
He had not been upon the seas,
no not a day but only three,
Till he espy’d Sir Hendry Hunt,
a merchant of Newcastle he.
17
A peice of ordinance was shot,
which straitly charged him to stand;
Demanding of him from whence he came,
and where he was intend to land.
18
The merchant he made answer then,
with a heavy heart and carefull mind,
349‘If it please Your Grace, my ship belongs
unto Newcastle upon Tine.’
19
‘Canst thou but show me,’ said the lord,
’as those did sail by day or night,
A Scotish rubber on the seas,
whose name’s Sir Andrew Burton, knight?’
20
The merchant sighd, and said, Alas!
full over well I do him know;
Good keep you frae his tiranie!
for I was his prisoner yesterday.
22
And muckle debt, God knows, I owe,
if every man would crave his oun;
But I am bound for London nou,
of our gracious king to beg a bon.
23
‘Wilt you go with me,’ said the lord,
‘and once that villain let me see,
For every pennie he’s from thee taen
I double the same wi shillings three.’
24
But the merchant sighd, and said, Alas!
I fear, my lord, your aims you miss;
Good keep you frae his tiranie!
for little you ken what a man he is.
251
For he’s brass within and steel without,
262
and his great ship’s mighty hugie high,
So that neither English nor Portugees
can pass Sir Andrew Burton by.
261
And he has beams for his top-castle
252
which is both mighty huge and strong;
He has eighteen peice of ordinance
he carries on each side along.
27
‘Bad news thou tells,’ then said the lord,
‘to welcome strangers to the sea;
But as I have said, I’ll bring him abord,
or into Scotland he’s carry me.’
31
So the merchant set my lord a glass,
that well appeared in his eye,
And the morning, as his promise was,
he did Sir Andrew Burton see.
33
‘Fetch me my lyon out of hand,
set up our rose on streamers high;
Set up likewise a willie wand,
that merchant like we may pass by.’
34
Thus bravely did Lord Howard pass,
upon an anchor rose so high;
No topsail at last he did upcast,
but like a foe did him defie.
35
Sir Andrew Barton, seeing him
thus scornfull-like for to pass by,
As tho he cared not a pin
for him and all his company,
37
Sir Andrew Barton gave a shott
which did Lord Howard muckle dear;
For it came so hotly in at his deck
killd fifteen of his men a ware.
38
My lord calld on o’ Petter Seymore,
says, See thy words does stand in steed;
For upon main-mast thou hangd shall be,
if thou miss twelve score a shilling breed.
39
Then Petter Symore gave a shot
which did Sir Andrew muckle scarr;
It came so hotly in his deck
killd fifty of his men a ware.
40
Then ‘Out, alas!’ Sir Andrew cryes,
‘and aye alas, and woe’s me!
This is some lord, I greatly fear,
that is set out to conquer me.’
41
Then Hendry Hunt, with rigor hot,
came bravely on the other side;
He shot so hotly in at his deck
killd fiftie of his men beside.
42
Then ‘Out, alas!’ Sir Andrew cryes,
‘what can a man now do or say?
This merchant thief it percies me,
he was my prisoner yesterday.’
43
Sir Andrew calld on Gordon then,
and bad him to top-castle go
And strive to let his beems doun fall,
for he greatly feard an overthrow.
45
Then up mass’-tree then climed he,
that stout and mighty Gordon;
But Horsley soon prevented him,
and shot him in at collar-bone.
46
Sir Andrew calld his nephew then;
says, Sisters son I hi nè mae;
350A hundred pounds I’ll to thee give
if thou’l up to top-castle gae.
47
Then up mast-tree then climed he,
from of the deck for to depart;
But Horsley soon prevented him,
and deadly peirced him to the heart.
48
His men being slain, then up amain
the spirit proud did climb wi speed;
Armour of proof he did put on,
and of arrows dint he had nè dread.
50
Then up mast-tree then climbed he,
the spirit proud did climb amain;
But Horsley hat him upon the breast,
till his arrow did return again.
‘Foul fà the hands,’ says Horsley then,
‘this day that did that coat put on!
For had it been as thin as mine,
thy last days had been at an end.’
51
But Horsley spy’d a private part,
with a canie hand and secret art,
And his arrows swiftly flew amain,
and pierced Sir Andrew to the heart.
521
‘Fight on, fight on, my mirrie men all,
532
and of English rogues stand ye nè aw;
But stand fast by Sir Andrew cross
till that ye hear my whistle blà.’
54
But they never heard his whistle blà,
which made them mightyly to dread;
Say Horsley, My lord, we’ll go abord,
for now I know Sir Andrew’s dead.
55
Then boarded they this great ship then,
with muckle might and a’ their main,
And in her was eighteen score o Scots alive,
besides there mony maē were slain.
56
My lord went where Sir Andrew lay,
and hastely cut of his head:
‘I’d forsake England this mony a day,
if thou were alive as thou art dead.’
57
So Lord Howard he’s come from the wars,
with muckle mirth and triumphing,
And the pirot’s head he brought along,
for to present unto their king.
58
But out bespoke King Hendry,
before he knew well what was done:
‘Bring here to me that villain strong,
that I mysell may give the doom.’
59
‘Ye may be thankfà,’ said the lord,
‘at what is done, my ludge,’ said he,
‘That we’r returned alive again;
for ye’d never such an enemy.
60
‘There’s Hendry Hunt, and Petter Symore,
and William Horsley, and Petter’s son;
Therefore reward them for their pain,
for they did service at their turn.’
61
The king he said to Hendry Hunt,
‘For every pennie he’s from the tane,
A nobler day I’l to thee give,
and Sir Andrew’s whistle and his chain.
62
‘A croun a day to Petter Symore,
and half a croun to Petter’s son;
And that was for the shots they gave,
which bravely brought Sir Andrew doun.
63
‘Horsley, I’l make of thee a knight,
and in Yorkshire thou shall dwell;
Lord Howard shall Earl Bewry height,
for the tittle he deserves full well.
64
‘Seven rosenobles to our English men,
which in the feight did stoutly stand,
And twelve pence a day unto the Scots,
till they come to my brother king’s land.’
381. on O’. o’ may mean old.
62 follows 63.
168 FLODDEN FIELD — APPENDIX FLODDEN FIELD
351
From Deloney’s Pleasant History of John Winchcomb,
in his younger yeares called Jacke of Newberie, etc.,
London, 1633; reprinted by J. O. Halliwell, London,
1859, p. 48.
Printed in Ritson’s Ancient Songs, 1790,
p. 115; Evans’s Old Ballads, 1810, III, 55.
A booke called Jack of Newbery was entered
to Thomas Millington, March 7, 1597:
Arber, Stationers’ Registers, III, 81. The
edition of 1633, the earliest which Mr Halliwell-Phillipps
had met with, was the ninth,
published by Cuthbert Wright. The author
has introduced several pieces of verse into his
tale, two of them popular ballads, ‘The Fair
Flower of Northumberland’ and this of Flodden,
of which Deloney says, “in disgrace of
the Scots, and in remembrance of the famous
atchieved historie, the commons of England
made this song, which to this day is not forgotten
of many:” p. 47.
King James has made a vow to be in London
on St James’s day. Queen Margaret
begs him to keep faith with her brother
Henry, and reminds him that England is
hard to win; for which James says she shall
die. Lord Thomas Howard, the queen’s
chamberlain, comes to the defence of his mistress,
but the king in his rage declares that he
shall be hanged and she burned as soon as
he comes back. But James never came back;
he was slain at Bramstone Green with twelve
thousand of his men.
1, 2. St James’s day is selected, as being
the king’s. King James’s letter to King
Henry is dated the 26th of July, the day following
St James’s day, and the Scottish herald
delivered it in France, and announced war to
the king of England, in consequence of the
unsatisfactory answer, on the 12th of August,
or shortly before.
3–5. Queen Margaret’s remonstrance is
historical. James, says Lindsay, would “give
no credence to no counsel, sign nor token that
made against his purpose, but refused all
godly counsel which was for the weal of his
crown and country; neither would he use any
counsel of his wise and prudent wife, Margaret,
queen of Scotland, for no prayer nor
supplication that she could make him....
She assured him, if he past in England at
that time, that he would get battle. Yet this
wise and loving counsel could not be taken in
good part by him, because she was the king
of England’s sister.” Cronicles, 1814, p. 267 f.
6. The Earl of Surrey, uncle by marriage
to Margaret Tudor, had the charge of escorting
her to Scotland in 1503, and this is
ground enough for the ballad’s making him
her chamberlain ten years later.
8. “This battle was called the Field of
Flodden by the Scotsmen and Brankston
[Bramstone] by the Englishmen, because it
was stricken on the hills of Flodden beside a
town called Brankston; and was stricken the
ninth day of September, 1513.” Lesley, History,
1830, p. 96.
10. Hall says that the English slew
“twelve thousand, at the least, of the best
gentlemen and flower of Scotland.” The gazette
of the battle (Pinkerton’s History, II,
457), Polydore Vergil, and modern Scottish
historians, say ten thousand. Among these
were twelve earls, thirteen lords, and many
other persons of high rank.
12. ‘Iack with a feather’ is said in contempt
of the Scottish king’s levity or foolhardiness.
“Then was the body bowelled,
embawmed and cered:” Hall, p. 564, ed. 1809.
“His body was bowelled, rebowelled, and
enclosed in lead,” “lapped in lead:” Stowe,
352Chronicle, p. 494 b, ed. 1631; Survey, Book
III, p. 81 a, ed. 1710. Fair Rosamond’s bones,
when they were exhumed at Godstow, says
Leland, were closed in lead and within that
closed in leather: Dugdale’s Monasticon, ed.
1823, IV, 365, No VIII.
In the letter sent to Henry VIII in France
James included the slaughter of Andrew
Barton among the unredressed grievances of
which he had to complain. A few days before
the battle of Flodden, Lord Thomas
Howard, then admiral, used the occasion of
his father’s dispatching a herald to the King
of Scots to say that “inasmuch as the said
king had divers and many times caused the
said lord to be called at days of true to make
redress for Andrew Barton, a pirate of the
sea long before that vanquished by the same
Lord Admiral, he was now come, in his own
proper person, to be in the vanguard of the
field, to justify the death of the said Andrew
against him and all his people, and would see
what could be laid to his charge the said
day:” Hall’s Chronicle, ed. 1809, p. 558.
There is a slight resemblance in one or two
particulars, such as might be expected from
similarity of circumstances, between this ballad
and ‘Durham Field.’ In the latter the
King of Scots swears that he will hold his
parliament in leeve London, st. 6. A squire
warns him that there are bold yeomen in
England; the king is angry, draws his sword,
and kills the squire, 7–9. In ‘Scotish Ffeilde,’
Percy Folio, Hales and Furnivall, I, 217,[217] the
French king says there is nothing left in
England save millers and mass-priests, v. 109;
and in the poem on Flodden, reprinted by
Weber, and recently by Federer,[218] Lord
Home makes this same assertion, Weber, p.
10, 187–92; Federer, p. 8, sts 46, 47. Cf.
‘Durham Field,’ p. 282.
The forged manuscript formerly in the possession
of J. Payne Collier, containing thirty
ballads alleged to be of the early part of the
seventeenth century, has for the second piece
in the volume a transcript of this ballad, with
variations.
The battle of Flodden called out a great
deal of verse. The most notable pieces are
two already referred to, and a third which
will be given here in an appendix; the less
important will be found in Weber’s volume.
1
King Jamie hath made a vow,
Keepe it well if he may!
That he will be at lovely London
Upon Saint James his day.
2
‘Upon Saint James his day at noone,
At faire London will I be,
And all the lords in merrie Scotland,
They shall dine there with me.’
3
Then bespake good Queene Margaret,
The teares fell from her eye:
‘Leave off these warres, most noble king,
Keepe your fidelitie.
4
‘The water runnes swift and wondrous deepe,
From bottome unto the brimme;
My brother Henry hath men good enough;
England is hard to winne.’
5
‘Away,’ quoth he, ‘with this silly foole!
In prison fast let her lie:
For she is come of the English bloud,
And for these words she shall dye.’
6
With that bespake Lord Thomas Howard,
The queenes chamberlaine that day:
‘If that you put Queene Margaret to death,
Scotland shall rue it alway.’
7
Then in a rage King Jamie did say,
‘Away with this foolish mome!
He shall be hanged, and the other be burned,
So soone as I come home.’
8
At Flodden Field the Scots came in,
Which made our English men faine;
At Bramstone Greene this battaile was seene,
There was King Jamie slaine.
3539
Then presently the Scots did flie,
Their cannons they left behind;
Their ensignes gay were won all away,
Our souldiers did beate them blinde.
10
To tell you plaine, twelve thousand were slaine
That to the fight did stand,
And many prisoners tooke that day,
The best in all Scotland.
11
That day made many [a] fatherlesse child,
And many a widow poore,
And many a Scottish gay lady
Sate weeping in her bower.
12
Jack with a feather was lapt all in leather,
His boastings were all in vaine;
He had such a chance, with a new morrice-dance,
He never went home againe.
31. he spake.
The copy followed by Ritson puts st. 11 after
5. The principal variations of the Collier
copy may be given, though they are without
authority or merit.
After 2:
March out, march out, my merry men,
Of hie or low degree;
I’le weare the crowne in London towne,
And that you soone shall see.
44. To venture life and limme.
Then doe not goe from faire Scotland,
But stay thy realm within;
Your power, I weene, is all to weake,
And England hard to winne.
51. this sillie mome.
72. this other mome.
After 8:
His bodie never could be found,
When he was over throwne,
And he that wore faire Scotlands crowne
That day could not be knowne.
For 12, to adapt the piece to the seventeenth century:
Now heaven we laude that never more
Such tiding shall come to hand;
Our king, by othe, is king of both
England and faire Scotland.
a. ‘Flodden Ffeilde,’ Percy MS., p. 117; Hales and Furnivall,
I, 313. b. Harleian MS. 293, fol. 55. c. Harleian
MS. 367, fol. 120.
A text made from b and c is printed by Weber,
Flodden Field, p. 366, and by R. H. Evans, Old
Ballads, 1810, III, 58. b, c lack all that follows
102 except 103, with which all three copies alike
end. This stanza makes a natural conclusion to
the vindication of Lancashire, Cheshire and the
Earl of Derby, and what intervenes in a, after 102,
seems to be an interpolation. Nevertheless I have
preferred to give the Percy text (though the others
are not inferior to it, and possess the unity which
has to be brought about in this case by transferring
the last stanza), on account of the pleasing story
How Rowland Egerton came to the lordship of
Ridley, 107–119, which would make no bad ballad
by itself.
At the battle of Flodden, the right wing of the
van, commanded by Sir Edmund Howard, the third
son of the Earl of Surrey, was routed by the Scots
under Lord Home, Chamberlain of Scotland, and
the Earl of Huntly. “Edmund Howard had with
him a thousand Cheshire men, and five hundred
Lancashire men, and many gentlemen of Yorkshire,
on the right wing of the lord Howard; and the
Lord Chamberlain of Scotland, with many lords,
did set on him, and the Cheshire and Lancashire
men never abode stroke, and few of the gentlemen
of Yorkshire abode, but fled.... And the said
Edmund Howard was thrice felled, and to his relief
354the lord Dacre came, with fifteen hundred men.”[219]
On the other hand, the Cheshire and Lancashire
men of the extreme left, under command of Sir
Edward Stanley, discomfited the Scottish division
of Lennox and Argyle. King Henry received the
news of the victory while he was lying before Tournay,
“and highly praised the Earl, and the Lord
Admiral and his son, and all the gentlemen and
commons that were at that valiant enterprise; howbeit,
the king had a secret letter that the Cheshire
men fled from Sir Edmund Howard, which letter
caused great heart-burning and many words; but
the king thankfully accepted all thing, and would
no man to be dispraised.”[220]
This poem, a history in the ballad style, was composed
to vindicate the behavior of Lancashire and
Cheshire at Flodden, and to glorify the Stanleys;[221]
in the accomplishment of which objects it becomes
incumbent upon the minstrel to expose the malice of
the Earl of Surrey, to whom he imputes the “wrong
writing” which caused such heart-burning.
The Earl of Surrey sends a letter by a herald to
King Henry, then at Tournay. The king asks the
news before he breaks the seal, and who fought and
who fled. The herald answers that King James is
slain, and that Lancashire and Cheshire fled; no
man of the Earl of Derby’s durst face the foe.
The king opens the letter, which confirms the herald’s
report, and calls for the Earl of Derby. Sir
Ralph Egerton suggests that if Lancashire and Cheshire
fled, it must have been because they had a
Howard, and not a Stanley, for their captain. The
Earl of Derby comes before the king, and says the
same; let him have Lancashire and Cheshire, and
he will burn up all Scotland and conquer to Paris
gate. The king says cowards will fight to retrieve
what they have lost. We were never cowards, rejoins
Derby; who brought in your father at Milford
Haven? (It was not precisely the Stanleys.)
The king turns away; the Duke of Buckingham is
ready to lay his life that all this comes from a false
writing of the Earl of Surrey.[222] Derby is not to be
comforted, and breaks out in farewells to all his
kith and kin, Edward Stanley, John Stanley, and
many more; they must be slain, for they never
would flee. The Earl of Shrewsbury bids him
take heart; Derby goes on with farewells to Lancaster,
Latham, and all familiar places. In the
midst of his exclamations, James Garsed, “Long
Jamie,” a yeoman of the guard, comes flying to the
Earl of Derby for protection: he had killed two
men, and wounded three. Derby’s intercession can
do only harm now, but he will ask friends to speak
for Jamie. A messenger arrives from the king
ordering Long Jamie to be delivered up; he is to
be hanged. Buckingham takes Jamie by one arm
and Shrewsbury takes him by the other, and with
Derby in front and many gentlemen following, they
go to the king. Welcome, dukes and earls, says
the king, but most welcome of all our traitor, Long
Jamie! Jamie, how durst thou show thyself in our
presence after slaying thy brethren? Jamie explains
that his fellows had called him coward, and bidden
him flee to that coward the Earl of Derby. The
Earl of Derby had befriended him when he was little
and maintained him till he was able to shoot. Then
one day a Scottish minstrel brought King Henry a
bow which none of his guard could bend. Jamie
shot seven times with it, and the eighth time broke
it; then told the Scot to pick up the pieces and
take them to his king; upon which Henry had
made him yeoman of the guard, thanks to His
Grace and to the Earl of Derby who had brought
him up. And now, to have the earl taunted, to be
false to the man who had been true to him—he
had rather die. Stand up, Jamie, says the King;
have here my charter; but let there be no more
fighting while you are in France. Then you must
grant me one thing, says Jamie—that he that
abuses Lancashire or Cheshire shall die; and the
king commands proclamation to be made that any
man abusing Lancashire or Cheshire shall have his
judgment on the next tree. The next morning
comes a messenger from the queen wishing the
king joy, for his brother-in-law, King Jamie, is slain.
Henry asks again, Who fought and who fled?
“Lancashire and Cheshire have done the deed,” is
the reply; “had not the Earl of Derby been true
to thee, England had been in great hazard.” The
king on the moment promotes Edward and John
Stanley and ‘Rowland’ Egerton, who had fought
with Edward. Buckingham runs for Derby, and
the king welcomes the earl, and returns to him
all that he had taken from him. But one thing
355grieveth me still, says Derby—to have been called
coward yesterday. “It was a wrong writing that
came from the Earl of Surrey,” says the king, “but
I shall teach him to know his prince.” Derby asks
no more than to be judge over Surrey, and the
king makes him so; as he says, so it shall be.
“Then his life is saved,” says the earl; “if my
uncle slew his father” (but, as before said, there
was no occasion for uneasiness on that score), “he
would have taken vengeance on me.” And so the
glory is all shifted to Derby, and nothing remains
for Surrey.
The minstrel goes on to speak of the surrender
of Tournay, and then of an essay of the king’s to
reward an Egerton for good service done.[223] Egerton
would be glad to have his reward in Cheshire.
The king has nothing there to give but five mills
at Chester; Egerton does not wish to be called a
miller. The king offers the forest of Snowdon;
Egerton, always kneeling on his knee, does not
wish to be called a ranger. Nothing will please
thee, Egerton, says the king; but Egerton asks for
Ridley in Cheshire, and gets it.
The last twelve verses profess to enumerate
Henry Eighth’s victories in France: ‘Hans and
Gynye’ (neither of which I recognize, unless Gynye
stands for Guinegatte, the Battle of the Spurs),
Tournay and Thérouanne, these in the campaign of
1513, and Boulogne and Montreuil[224] during the
invasion of 1544.
1
Now let vss talke of [the] Mount of Flodden,
Fforsooth such is our chance,
And let vs tell what tydings the Ear[l]e of Surrey
Sent to our king into France.
2
The earle he hath a writting made,
And sealed it with his owne hand;
From the Newcastle vpon Tine
The herald passed from the land.
3
And after to Callice hee arriued,
Like a noble leed of high degree,
And then to Turwin soone he hyed,
There he thought to haue found King Henery.
4
But there the walls were beaten downe,
And our English soldiers therin laine;
Sith to Turnay the way hee nume,
Wheras lay the emperour of Almaine,
And there he found the king of England,
Blessed Iesus, preserve that name!
5
When the herald came before our king,
Lowlye he fell downe on his knee,
And said, Christ, christen king, that on the cross dyed,
Noble King Henery, this day thy speed may bee!
6
The first word that the prince did minge,
Said, Welcome, herald, out of England, to me!
How fares my leeds? how fares my lords?
My knights, my esquiers, in their degree?
7
‘Heere greeteth you well your owne leaetenant,
The Honorable Erle of Surrey;
He bidds you in Ffrance to venter your chance,
For slaine is your brother, King Iamye,
And att louelie London you shall him finde,
My comelye prince, in the presence of thee.’
8
Then bespake our comlye king,
Said, Who did fight and who did flee?
And who bore him best of the Mount of Fflodden?
And who was false, and who was true to me?
9
‘Lancashire and Cheshire,’ sayd the messenger,
‘Cleane they be fled and gone;
There was nere a man that longd to the Erle of Darby
That durst looke his enemyes vpon.’
10
S[t]ill in a study stood our noble king,
And tooke the writting in his hand;
Shortlye the seale he did vnclose,
And readilye he read as he found.
11
Then bespake our comlye king,
And called vpon his chiualree,
And said, Who will feitch me the King of Man,
The Honnorable Thomas Erle of Darbye?
12
He may take Lancashire and Cheshire,
That he hath called the cheefe of chiualree;
Now falsely are they fled and gone,
Neuer a one of them is true to mee!
13
Then bespake Sir Raphe Egerton, the knight,
And lowlye kneeled vpon his knee,
And said, My soueraigne lord, King Henery,
If it like your Grace to pardon mee,
14
If Lancashire and Cheshire be fled and gone,
Of those tydings wee may be vnfaine;
356But I dare lay my life and lande
It was for want of their captaine.
15
For if the Erle of Derby our captaine had beene,
And vs to lead in our arraye,
Then noe Lancashire man nor Cheshire
That euer wold haue fled awaye.
16
‘Soe it prooued well,’ said our noble king,
‘By him that deerlye dyed vpon a tree!
Now when wee had the most neede,
Falslye they serued then to mee.’
17
Then spake William Brewerton, knight,
And lowlye kneeled his prince before,
And sayd, My soueraigne king, Henery the Eighth,
If your Grace sett by vs soe little store,
18
Wheresoeuer you come in any feild to fight,
Set the Earle of Darby and vs before;
Then shall you see wether wee fight or flee,
Trew or false whether we be borne.
19
Compton rowned with our king,
And said, Goe wee and leaue the cowards right;
‘Heere is my gloue to thee,’ quoth Egerton,
‘Compton, if thou be a knight.
20
‘Take my gloue, and with me fight,
Man to man, if thou wilt turne againe;
For if our prince were not present right,
The one of vs two shold be slaine,
21
‘And neuer foote beside the ground gone
Vntill the one dead shold bee.’
Our prince was moued theratt anon,
And returned him right teenouslye.
22
And to him came on the other hand
The Honnorable Erle of Darbye;
And when he before our prince came,
He lowlye kneeled vpon his knee,
23
And said, Iesu Christ, that on the crosse dyed,
This day, noble Henery, thy speed may bee!
The first word that the king did speake,
Sayd, Welcome, King of Man and Erle of Darbye!
24
How likest thou Cheshire and Lancashire both,
Which were counted cheefe of chiualree?
Falslye are they fled and gone,
And neuer a one is trew to mee.
25
‘If that be soe,’ said the erle free,
‘My leege, therof I am not faine;
My comlye prince, rebuke not mee,
I was not there to be there captaine.
26
‘If I had beene their captaine,’ the erle said then,
‘I durst haue layd both liffe and land
He neuer came out of Lancashire nor Cheshire
That wold haue fledd beside the ground.
27
‘But if it like your noble Grace
A litle boone to grant itt mee,
Lett me haue Lancashire and Cheshire both,
I desire noe more helpe trulye;
28
‘If I ffayle to burne vp all Scottland,
Take me and hang me vpon a tree!
I, I shall conquer to Paris gate,
Both comlye castles and towers hye.
29
‘Wheras the walls beene soe stronge,
Lancashire and Cheshire shall beate them downe.’
‘By my fathers soule,’ sayd our king,
‘And by him that dyed on the roode,
30
‘Thou shalt neuer haue Lancashire nor Cheshire right
Att thy owne obedyence for to bee!
Cowards in a feild felly will fight
Againe to win the victorye.’
31
‘Wee were neuer cowards,’ said the erle,
‘By him that deerlye dyed on tree!
Who brought in your father att Milford Hauen?
King Henery the Seuenth forsooth was hee.
32
‘Thorow the towne of Fortune wee did him bring,
And soe convayd him to Shrewsburye,
And soe crowned him a noble king;
And Richardthat day wee deemed to dye.’
33
Our prince was greatlye moued at that worde,
And returned him hastilye againe;
To comfort the erle came on the other hande
The doughtye Edward, Duk of Buckingam.
34
‘Plucke vp thy hart, brother Stanlye,
And lett nothing greeiue thee!
For I dare lay my liffe to wedd
It is a false writing of the Erle of Surrey.
35
‘Sith King Richard felle, he neuer loued thee,
For thy vnckle slue his father deere,
And deerlye deemed him to dye;
Sir Christopher Savage his standard away did beare.’
36
‘Alas, brother,’ sayd the Erle of Darbye,
‘Woe be the time that I was made knight,
Or were ruler of any lande,
Or euer had manhood in feild to fight!
35737
‘Soe bold men in battle as were they,
Forsooth had neither lord nor swaine;
Ffarwell my vnckle, Sir Edward Stanley!
For well I wott that thou art slaine.
38
‘Surelye whiles thy liffe wold last
Thou woldest neuer shrinke beside the plaine;
Nor Iohn Stanley, that child soe younge;
Well I wott that thou art slaine.
39
‘Ffarwell Kighlye! coward was thou neuer;
Old Sir Henery, the good knight,
I left the[e] ruler of Latham,
To be [my] deputye both day and night.
40
‘Ffarwell Townlye, that was soe true!
And that noble Ashton of Middelton!
And the sad Southwarke, that euer was sure!
For well I wott that thou art gone.
41
‘Farwell Ashton vnde[r] Line!
And manlye Mullenax! for thou art slaine;
For doubtlesse while your liues wold last
You wold never shun beside the plaine.
42
‘Ffarwell Adderton with the leaden mall!
Well I know thow art deemed to dye;
I may take my leaue att you all;
The flower of manhoode is gone from mee.
43
‘Ffarwell Sir John Booth of Barton, knight!
Well I know that thou art slaine;
While thy liffe wold last to fight,
Thou wold neuer be-sids the plaine.
44
‘Ffarwell Butler, and Sir Bode!
Sure you haue beene euer to mee;
And soe I know that [still] you wold,
If that vnslaine you bee.
45
‘Ffarwell Christopher Savage, the wighte!
Well I know that thou art slaine;
For whiles thy life wold last to fight,
Thou wold neuer besids the plaine.
46
‘Ffarwell Dutton, and Sir Dane!
You haue beene euer trew to mee;
Ffarwell the Baron of Kinderton!
Beside the feild thou wold not flee.
47
‘Ffarwell Ffitton of Gawsworth!
Either thou art taken or slaine;
Doubtelesse while thy life wold last,
Thou wold neuer beside the plaine.’
48
As they stood talkinge together there,
The duke and the erle trulye,
Came ffor to comfort him th[e] trew Talbott,
And the noble Erle of Shrewsburye.
49
‘Plucke vp thy hart, sonne Thomas, and be merry,
And let noe tydings greeve thee!
Am not I godfather to our king?
My owne god-sonne forsooth is hee.’
50
He tooke the Duke of Buckingam by the arme,
And the Erle of Sh[r]ewsburye by the other:
‘To part with you it is my harme;
Farwell, my father and my brother!
51
‘Farwell Lancaster, that litle towne!
Farwell now for euer and aye!
Many pore men may pray for my soule
When they lye weeping in the lane.
52
‘Ffarwell Latham, that bright bower!
Nine towers thou beares on hye,
And other nine thou beares on the outer walls;
Within thee may be lodged kings three.
53
‘Ffarwell Knowsley, that litle tower
Vnderneth the holtes soe hore!
Euer when I thinke on that bright bower,
Wite me not though my hart be sore.
54
‘Ffarwell Tocstaffe, that trustye parke,
And the fayre riuer that runes there beside,
There I was wont to chase the hinde and hart!
Now therin will I neuer abide.
55
‘Ffarwell bold Birkhead! there was I boorne,
Within the abbey and that monesterye;
The sweet covent for mee may mourne;
I gaue to you the tythe of Beeston, trulye.
56
‘Ffarwell Westchester for euermore!
And the Watter Gate! it is my owne;
I gaue a mace for the serieant to weare,
To waite on the maior, as it is knowne.
57
‘Will I neuer come that citye within;
But, sonne Edward, thou may clayme it of right:
Ffarwell Westhardin! I may thee [call] myn,
Knight and lord I was of great might.
58
‘Sweete sonne Edward, white bookes thou make,
And euer haue pittye on the pore cominaltye!
Ffarwell Hope and Hopedale!
Mould and Moulesdale, God be with thee!
I may take leaue with a sorry cheere,
For within thee will I neuer bee.’
59
As they stoode talking together there,
The duke and the lords trulye,
Came Iamie Garsed, a yeman of the guard,
That had beene brought vp with the Erle of Derbye;
Like the devill with his fellowes he had fared,
He s[t]icked two, and wounded three.
35860
After, with his sword drawen in his hand,
He fled to the noble Earle of Derbye:
‘Stand vp, Iamye!’ the erle said,
‘These tydings nothing liketh mee.
61
‘I haue seene the day I cold haue saued thee,
Such thirty men if thou hads slaine,
And now if I shold speake for thee,
Sure thow weret to be slaine.
62
‘I will once desire my bretheren eche one
That they will speake for thee.’
He prayd the Duke of Buckingam,
And alsoe the Erle of Shrewsburye,
63
Alsoe my lord Fitzwater soe wise,
And the good Lord Willowbye,
Sir Rice Ap Thomas, a knight of price;
They all spoke for Long Iamye.
64
They had not stayd but a litle while there,
The duke and the erles in their talkinge,
But straight to the erle came a messenger,
That came latelye from the king,
65
And bad that Long Iamie shold be sent;
There shold neither be grith nor grace,
But on a boughe he shold be hanged,
In middest the feild, before the erles face.
66
‘If that be soe,’ said the Erle of Derbye,
‘I trust our prince will better bee;
Such tydings maketh my hart full heavye
Afore his Grace when that wee bee.’
67
The Duke of Buckingam tooke Iamie by the one arme,
And the Erle of Shrewsburye by the other;
Afore them they put the King of Man,
It was the Erle of Darbye and noe other.
68
The lord Fitzwater followed fast,
And soe did the lord Willowbyghe;
The comfortable Cobham mad great hast;
All went with the noble Erle of Derbye.
69
The hind Hassall hoved on fast,
With the lusty Lealand trulye;
Soe did Sir Alexander Osbaston,
Came in with the Erle of Derbye.
70
The royall Ratcliffe, that rude was neuer,
And the trustye Trafford, keene to trye,
And wight Warburton, out of Cheshire,
All came with the Erle of Darbye.
71
Sir Rice ap Thomas, a knight of Wales,
Came with a feirce menye;
He bent his bowes on the bent to abyde,
And cleane vnsett the gallow-tree.
72
When they came afore our king,
Lowlye they kneeled vpon their knees;
The first word that our prince did myn,
‘Welcome, dukes and erles, to mee!
73
‘The most welcome hither of all
Is our owne traitor, Long Iamie:
Iamie, how durst thou be soe bold
As in our presence for to bee?
74
‘To slay thy bretheren within their hold!
Thou was sworne to them, and they to thee.’
Then began Long Iamie to speake bold:
‘My leege, if it please your Grace to pardon mee,
75
‘When I was to my supper sett,
They called me coward to my face,
And of their talking they wold not lett,
And thus with them I vpbrayded was.
76
‘The bade me flee from them apace
To that coward the Erle of Derbye!
When I was litle, and had small grace,
He was my helpe and succour trulye.
77
‘He tooke [me] from my father deere,
And keeped me within his woone
Till I was able of my selfe
Both to shoote and picke the stone.
78
‘Then after, vnder Grenwich, vpon a day
A Scottish minstrell came to thee,
And brought a bow of yew to drawe,
And all the guard might not stirr that tree.
79
‘Then the bow was giuen to the Erle of Derbye,
And the erle deliuered it to mee;
Seven shoots before your face I shott,
And att the eighth in sunder it did flee.
80
‘Then I bad the Scott bow downe his face,
And gather vp the bow, and bring it to his king;
Then it liked your noble Grace
Into your guard for me to bring.
81
‘Sithen I haue liued a merry liffe,
I thanke your Grace and the Erle of Darbye;
But to haue the erle rebuked thus,
That my bringer-vp forsooth was hee,
82
‘I had rather suffer death,’ he said,
‘Then be false to the erle that was true to me.’
‘Stand vp Iamie!’ said our king,
‘Haue heere my charter, I giue it thee.
83
‘Let me haue noe more fighting of thee
Whilest thou art within Ffrance lande.’
‘Then one thing you must grant,’ said Iamie,
‘That your word theron may stand:
35984
‘Whosoe rebuketh Lancashire or Chesshire
Shortlye shall be deemed to dye.’
Our king comanded a cry i-wis
To be proclaimed hastilye.
85
‘If the dukes and erles kneele on their knees,
Itt getteth on sturr the comonaltye;
If wee be vpbrayded thus,
Manye a man is like to dye.’
The king said, He that rebuket Lancashire or Cheshire
Shall haue his iudgment on the next tree.
86
Then soe they were in rest
For the space of a night, as I weene,
And on the other day, without leasinge,
There came a messenger from the queene.
87
And when he came before our king,
Lowlye he kneeled vpon his knee,
And said, Chr[i]st thee saue, our noble king,
And thy speed this day may bee!
Heere greeteth thee well thy loue and liking,
And our honorable queene and ladye,
88
And biddeth you in Ffrance to be glad,
For slaine is your brother-in-law King Iamie,
And att louelye London he shalbe found,
My comlye prince, in the presence of thee.
89
Then bespake our comlye prince,
Saiinge, Who did fight and who did flee?
And who bare them best of the Mount of Fflodden?
And who is false, and who is true to mee?
90
‘Lancashire and Cheshire,’ said the messenger,
‘They haue done the deed with their hand;
Had not the Erle of Derbye beene to thee true,
In great aduenture had beene all England.’
91
Then bespake our prince on hye,
‘Sir Raphe Egertton, my marshall I make thee;
Sir Edward Stanley, thou shalt be a lord,
Lord Mounteagle thou shalt bee.
92
‘Yonge Iohn Stanley shalbe a knight,
And he is well worthy for to bee.’
The Duke of Buckingham the tydings hard,
And shortlye ran to the Erle of Darbye:
93
‘Brother, plucke vp thy hart and be merrye,
And let noe tydings greeve thee!
Yesterday, thy men called cowerds were,
And this day they haue woone the victorye.’
94
The duke tooke the erle by the arme,
And thus they ledden to the prince [trulye].
Seven roods of ground the king he came,
And sayd, ‘Welcome, King of Man and Erle of Derbye!
The thing that I haue taken from thee,
I geeve it to thee againe whollye.
95
‘The manrydden of Lancashire and Cheshire both,
Att thy bidding euer to bee;
Ffor those men beene true, Thomas, indeed;
They beene trew both to thee and mee.’
96
‘Yett one thing greeveth me,’ said the erle,
‘And in my hart maketh me heavye,
This day to heare the wan the feild,
And yesterday cowards to bee.’
97
‘It was a wronge wryting,’ sayd our king,
‘That came ffrom the Erle of Surrey;
But I shall him teach his prince to know,
If euer wee come in our countrye.’
98
‘I aske noe more,’ sayd the noble erle,
‘Ffor all that my men haue done trulye,
But that I may be iudge my selfe
Of that noble Erle of Surreye.’
99
‘Stand vp, Thomas!’ sayd our prince,
‘Lord Marshall I make thee,
And thou shalt be iudge thy selfe,
And as thou saiest, soe shall it bee.’
100
‘Then is his liffe saued,’ sayd the erle,
‘I thanke Iesu and your Grace trulye;
If my vnckle slew his father deere,
He wold haue venged him on mee.’
101
‘Thou art verry patient,’ sayd our king;
‘The Holy Ghost remaines, I thinke, in thee;
On the south side of Turnay thou shalt stande,
With my godfather the Erle of Shrewsburye.’
102
And soe to that seege forth the went,
The noble Shrewsburye and the Erle of Derbye,
And the laid seege vnto the walls,
And wan the towne in dayes three.
103
Thus was Lancashire and Cheshire rebuked
Thorow the pollicye of the Erle of Surrey.
Now God, that was in Bethlem borne,
And for vs dyed vpon a tree,
Saue our noble prince that wereth the crowne,
And haue mercy on the Erles soule of Derbye!
.tb
104
And then bespake our noble king,
These were the words said hee;
Sayes, Come, Alexander Ratcliffe, knight,
Come hither now vnto mee,
360Ffor them shalt goe on the south side of Tournay,
And with thee thou shalt haue thousands three.
105
Then forth is gone Alexander Ratcliffe, knight;
With him he leads men thousand three;
But or ere three dayes were come to an end,
The Ffrenchmen away did flee.
106
Then King Henery planted three hundred Englishmen
That in the citye shold abyde and bee:
Alexander Ratcliffe, he wold haue mad him gouernour there,
But he forsooke it certainelye,
And made great intreatye to our king
That he might come into England in his compa[n]ye.
.tb
107
And then bespake noble King Henery,
And these were the words said hee:
Sayes, Come hither, Rowland Egerton, knight,
And come thou hither vnto mee;
108
For the good service that thou hast done,
Well rewarded shalt thou bee.
Then forth came Rowland Egerton,
And kneeled downe vpon his knee.
109
Saies, If it like your Grace, my gracious king,
The reward that you will bestow on mee,
I wold verry gladlye haue it in Cheshire,
Ffor that’s att home in my owne country.
110
And then bespake him noble King Henery,
And these were the words said hee;
‘I haue nothing, Egerton, in all Cheshire
That wilbe any pleasure for thee
But fiue mills stands att Chester townes end;
The gone all ouer the water of Dee.’
111
Still kneeled Rowland Egerton,
And did not rise beside his knee;
Sayes, If it like your Highnesse, my gracious king,
A milner called I wold neuer bee.
112
And then bespake him noble King Harrye,
These were the words said hee;
Saith, I’le make mine avow to God,
And alsoe to the Trinitye,
There shall neuer be king of England
But the shalbe miller of the mills of Dee!
113
I haue noe other thing, Egerton,
That wilbe for thy delight;
I will giue thee the forrest of Snoden in Wales,
Wherby thou may giue the horne and lease;
In siluer it wilbe verry white,
And meethinkes shold thee well please.
114
. . . . . . . . .
Still kneeled Rowland Egerton on his knee;
He sayes, If itt like your Highnes, my gracious king,
A ranger called wold I neuer bee.
115
Then our king was wrathe, and rose away,
Sayes, I thinke, Egerton, nothing will please thee.
And then bespake him, Rowland Egerton,
Kneeling yet still on his knee:
116
Sayes, If itt like your Highnesse, my gracious king,
That your Highnes pleasure will now heer mee,
In Cheshire there lyes a litle grange-house,
In the lordsh[i]ppe of Rydeley it doth lyee.
117
A tanner there in it did dwell;
My leege, it is but a cote with one eye,
And if your Grace wold bestow this on mee,
Ffull well it wold pleasure me.
118
Then bespake our noble King Harrye,
And these were the words saith hee;
Saies, Take thee that grange-house, Egerton,
And the lordshippe of Rydley, faire and free.
119
For the good service thou hast to me done,
I will giue it vnto thy heyres and thee:
And thus came Row[land] Egertton
To the lordshippe of Rydley, faire and free.
.tb
120
This noble King Harry wan great victoryes in France,
Thorrow the might that Christ Jesus did him send.
First our king wan Hans and Gynye,
And [two] walled townes, the truth to say;
And afterwards wan other two townes,
The names of them were called Turwin and Turnay.
121
High Bullen and Base Bullen he wan alsoe,
And other village-townes many a one,
And Muttrell he wan alsoe—
The cronicles of this will not lye—
And kept to Calleis, plainsht with Englishmen,
Vnto the death that he did dye.
361a.
42. soliders.
164. them.
173. 8th.
203. wright.
204. vs 2.
314. 7th ..
351. feele.
354. xopher Savage, and again 451: always for away.
411. vndeline.
451. Knight for wighte.
522,3. 9.
524. 3.
532. whore.
534. white.
563. giue: profor for.
572. wright.
581. Lookes for bookes. 2d Parte at 593.
596. 2: 3.
612. 30.
651. Ianie.
793. 7.
794. 8th: breake for flee, cf.b, c.
834. ward: cf.b.
843. I cry for a cry: a inb, c.
894. who his for the first who is.
943. 7.
951. Maurydden.
1024, 1044. 3.
103. 121 in the MS.
1046. 1000s : 3.
1052. 1000d : 3.
1061. 300d :.
1105. 5.
1126. he for the?
1174. me pleasure.
1205. 2.
And for & always.
b, c.
In stanzas of eight lines.b. A ballate of the
Battalle of Ffloden Ffeeld betweene the Earle
of Surrey and the King of Scots. c. Flowden
Feilde.
Trivial variations of spelling are not regarded.
11. of the.
12. our fortune and chaunce.
13. tell of. b. tythandes. c. tythance.
22. surly after And: his wanting.
31. at for to.
32. b. lorde for leed. b, c. great for high.
34. b. found Henry our kynge.
45–76. Two stanzas, the first ending at 62.
45. the prince.
46. c. Iesu.
52. he kneeled vppon.
54. King wanting.
64. and for the second my.
73. biddethe.
75. ye.
82. Prefix And.
83. bare: uppon, upon, for of. b. them for him.
92. they bene both.
93. non for nere. b. belonged.
101. b. a stand.
102. And he.
104. First he wanting. b. tould (corrected from
coulde?) for found.
111. b. noble for comlye.
112. And he.
121. b. C. and L. b, cadd bothe.
122. the wanting.
124. Not a.
133. King wanting.
134. b, And it, c, Yf it, like you my souereigne lord.
141. c. bene.
142. c. tythandes.
153. b. L. nor C. mene.
154. b. wold euer.
162. on for vpon a.
163. For now: greatest for most.
164. then served they for they serued then.
174. And for If.
181. ye: any wanting.
183. c. ye.
184. b. whether (altered from wher) that wee are.
191. b. rounded. b, c. anon added to king.
192. And wanting. b. Sayenge.
193. to thee wanting.
211. b. neuer a: besydes.
214. b. right angerly.
221. other syde.
224. lowly he.
233. b. our king sayde. c. speake.
234. b. Was for Sayd.
241. c. L. and C.
242. was for were.
243. nowe inserted before are.
244. b. Neuer a one of them. c. Neuer one of
them ys (but are, in a later hand).
251. c. then for free.
264. b. fled a foote.
272. b. to for itt.
281. to brene, bren.
282. First me wanting.
283. First I wanting: all to. b. gates.
284. b. Bothe the.
291. walles they.
293. then sayd.
301. and for nor.
302. c. thyne.
303. b. freely for felly.
312. for me for on tree.
322. b. To the towne of.
323. we after soe.
332. b. vppon the same for againe. c. in same, but
on the for in, in a later hand.
333. side, syde, for hande.
344. b. duke for erle.
351. Synce: feelde, feylde.
352. c. thyne: theare, there for deere.
354. awaye for always.
363. c. therby added by a later hand.
373. c. myne.
374. c. art altered to weart.
381. whileste that, whiles that.
382. schunte besides.
384. nowe before that.
391. b. for before coward, b, c. none for neuer.
394. be my.
402. the for that.
403. b. Sotheworthe. c. Sothewarke altered to Sotheworthe.
413. c. whilest.
414. schunte.
421. b. Anderton.
423. leaue nowe. b. at altered to of.
433. For whileste, For whiles.
434. wouldeste (c woulde) neuer beside the playne.
441. b. Bolde.
442. ye.
443. stylle, still.
444. Vnslayne nowe yf, (b) that you bee, (c) you had bee.
451. weighte, wighte.
453. b. whileste.
454. woldeste, wouldest: beside.
461. Done, Downe.
462. Ye.
464. b. woldeste.
471. b. Seton altered to Fitton.
472. Other.
473. Prefix For: whiles.
474. woldeste, wouldest.
483. ffor wanting.
492. c. tythands.
494. myne.
514. c. lawne.
522. beareste, bearest.
523. in the vtter.
532. whore.
534. Wyte.
542. ronnethe, renneth. b. besydes.
543. b. was I.
544. b. I will.
551. Berkenhede, Byrkhead altered to Byrkenhead.
554. c. the wanting.
562. myn, myne.
563. gaue: pro (or for) wanting.
572. mayeste, maiest. c. yt clayme.
573. c. call after may, in a later hand.
581. bookes, bokes.
582. comentye, comyntie.
583. Hopesdalle.
584. Mouldesdalle, Mouldesdale.
585. take my: hevie, heavie for sorry.
593. Iames: Garsye, Garsyde.
596. stycked, sticked.
601. b. And after.
603. b. Iames.
604, 663. c. tythandes.
612. hadeste, had.
614. wearte for, were for.
622. will nowe.
631. b. Fitzwaters. c. Feighwater altered to Fitzwater.
633, 711. c. vp for ap.
634. And all they spake.
641. standen.
643. But wanting.
651, 733, 743, 823. b. Iames.
651. c. send.
654. Amydeste.
661. c. soe wanting.
362663. b. makes.
674. non.
681. c. Feighwater. b. he followed.
691. b. hied for hoved.
693. b. Osboldstone.
694. b. come.
703. b. wighty.
712. came forthe even with.
713. c. bend.
714. gallowes.
721. When as. b. the king.
723. b. minge.
724. Prefix Said: vnto.
731. Prefix But.
732. c. our owne altered to yondere.
742. c. waste.
744. lyke, like, for please.
754. vpbrayded that I for I vpbrayded.
771. tooke me.
772. b. kepte.
783. of vewe.
794. b. did flee. c. be altered to flie.
801,2. b. Then I layd the bowe one his face, and
bade him gather vpe the bowe, etc.c. geder.
804. for wanting.
821. had lyuer, leaver.
832. c. whiles, b. Frenche.
833. ye.
834. b. word.
843. Our prince: a cry.
852. b. settethe one and.
853. Yf that.
855. rebuketh. b. and for or.
861. stylle at rest.
862. b. as wanting.
871. b. prince for king.
872. b. kneene, rhyming with 862,4.
873. prince for king.
874. This owere (c our) noble kynge this (c thy)
speede may be.
875. greetes (c gretteth) yow well your lyffe and
spouse (c liking).
876. Your honorable: fair ladye.
881. for to.
882. b. in-law wanting.
892. And sayd.
893. vppon, vpon, the for of the.
894. And who weare, were, bis.
911. b. on highe, originally; altered in the same
hand to with ane highe word.
914. Ye, yea, prefixed: shalt thou.
922. As for And.
923. b. thes for the. c. tythands. b.adds righte
at the end.
931. Brother after hart.
932. c. tythandes.
933. b. this (written upon thy) men cowards were
they. c. cowardes called for called cowerds.
934. they wanting.
941. b. him for the erle.
942. adds trulye at the end. b. and lede him for
thus they ledden.
945. haue from the taken.
946. agayne to thee.
951. b. marshallynge. c. manratten. b. men for
both.
952. for to. bomits euer.
953. these. b. be.
954. b. be.
961. b. the earle saide.
964. for to.
971. b. our kinge sayd.
974. And for If.
981. b. the earle nowe.
983. b. That I my selfe his iudgmente maye pronounce,
c. But that I gyve iudgment my selfe.
992. b. will I. c. that I shall.
993. shalt geue (gyue) the iudgment.
1001. b. Then sayd the earle, saved is his lyfe.
1003. If wanting.
1011. b. our kyng sware.
1012. remayneth: I thinke wanting.
1014. c. the wanting.
1021. b. they ganged.
1023. badds batled at the end.
1024. b. toweres. c. townes. b, c. within.
1035. b. weres.
1036. b. And shewe thie mersye one the Earle of
Derby.
104–121 wanting.
169 JOHNIE ARMSTRONG — A — B — C
A. a. ‘A Northern Ballet,’ Wit Restord in severall
Select Poems not formerly publisht, London, 1658,
p. 30, in Facetiæ, London, 1817, I, 132. b. ‘A
Northern Ballad,’ Wit and Drollery, London, 1682,
p. 57.
B. a. ‘John Arm-strongs last Good - Night,’ etc.,
Wood, 401, fol. 93 b, Bodleian Library. b. Pepys
Ballads, II, 133, No 117. c. ‘Johnny Armstrongs
last Good-Night,’ Old Ballads, 1723, I, 170.
C. ‘Johnie Armstrang,’ The Ever Green, 1724, II, 190.
A b is not found in Wit and Drollery,
1661; it is literally repeated in Dryden’s
Miscellanies, 1716, III, 307. B is in the
Roxburghe collection, III, 513, the Bagford,
I, 64, II, 94, and no doubt in others. It was
printed by Evans, 1777, II, 64, and by Ritson,
English Songs, 1783, II, 322. C was
printed by Herd, 1769, p. 260, 1776 (with
spelling changed), I, 13; by Ritson, Scotish
Songs, 1794, II, 7; by Scott, 1802, I, 49,
1833, I, 407 (with a slight change or two).
‘Ihonne Ermistrangis dance’ is mentioned
363in The Complaynt of Scotland, 1549, ed. Murray,
p. 66. The tune of C is No 356 of Johnson’s
Museum; see further Stenhouse, in the
edition of 1853, IV, 335 f.
Of his copy C, Ramsay says: “This is the
true old ballad, never printed before....
This I copied from a gentleman’s mouth of
the name of Armstrang, who is the sixth generation
from this John. He tells me this was
ever esteemd the genuine ballad, the common
one false.” Motherwell remarks, Minstrelsy,
p. lxii, note 3: “The common ballad
alluded to by Ramsay [A, B] is the one,
however, which is in the mouths of the people.
His set I never heard sung or recited;
but the other frequently.” A manuscript
copy of B, entitled Gillnokie, communicated
to Percy by G. Paton, Edinburgh, December
4, 1778, which has some of the peculiar readings
of B a, introduces the 27th stanza of C[225]
in place of 12, and has ‘Away, away, thou
traitor strong’ for 121. A copy in Buchan’s
MSS, I, 61, ‘The Death of John Armstrong,’
has the first half of C 18 and also of C 19
(with very slight variations). Another Scottish
copy, which was evidently taken from
recitation, introduces C 23 after 14.[226]
Both forms of the ballad had been too
long printed to allow validity to any known
recited copy. Besides the three already mentioned,
there is one in Kinloch’s MSS, V, 263,
which intermixes two stanzas from Johnie
Scot. The Scottish copies naturally do not
allow ‘Scot’ to stand in 173. Paton’s substitutes
‘chiell’; the others ‘man,’ and so a
broadside reprinted by Maidment, Scotish
Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary,
I, 130.
The Armstrongs were people of consideration
in Liddesdale from the end, or perhaps
from the middle, of the fourteenth century,
and by the sixteenth had become the most important
sept, as to numbers, in that region, not
only extending themselves over a large part
of the Debateable Land,[227] but spreading also
into Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchopedale, and
Annandale. The Earl of Northumberland,
in 1528, puts the power of the Armstrongs,
with their adherents, above three thousand
horsemen. Mangerton, in Liddesdale, on the
east bank of the Liddel, a little north of its
junction with the Kersope, was the seat of
the chief. John Armstrong, known later as
Gilnockie, a brother of Thomas, laird of Mangerton,
is first heard of in 1525. Removing
from Liddesdale early in the century, as it is
thought, he settled on the church lands of
Canonby, and at a place called The Hollows,
on the west side of the Esk, built a tower,
which still remains.[228]
364Others of the Armstrongs erected strong
houses in the neighborhood. Lord Dacre, the
English warden of the West Marches, essayed
to surprise these strengths in the early part
of 1528, but was foiled by John and Sym
Armstrong, though he had a force of two
thousand men. The Armstrongs, if nominally
Scots, were so far from being “in due
obeysaunce” that, at a conference of commissioners
of both realms in November of the
year last named, the representatives of the
Scottish king could not undertake to oblige
them to make redress for injuries done the
English, though a peace depended upon this
condition. Perhaps the English border suffered
more than the Scottish from their forays
(and the English border, we are informed,
was not nearly so strong as the Scottish,
neither in “capetayns nor the commynnaltie”),
but how little Scotland was spared
appears from what Sym Armstrong, the laird
of Whitlaugh, in the same year again, told
the Earl of Northumberland: that himself
and his adherents had laid waste in the said
realm sixty miles, and laid down thirty parish
churches, and that there was not one in the
realm of Scotland dare remedy the same. Indeed,
our John, Thomas of Mangerton, Sym
of Whitlaugh, and the rest, seem to be fairly
enough described in an English indictment
as “enemies of the king of England, and traitors,
fugitives, and felons of the king of
Scots.[229]
Other measures having failed, King James
the Fifth, in the summer of 1530, took the
pacifying of his borders into his own hand,
and for this purpose levied an army of from
eight to twelve thousand men. The particulars
of this noted expedition are thus given
by Lindsay of Pitscottie.[230]
“The king ... made a convention at Edinburgh
with all the lords and barons, to consult
how he might best stanch theiff and river
within his realm, and to cause the commons
to live in peace and rest, which long time had
been perturbed before. To this effect he
gave charge to all earls, lords, barons, freeholders
and gentlemen, to compeir at Edinburgh
with a month’s victual, to pass with
the king to daunton the thieves of Teviotdale
and Annandale, with all other parts of the
realm; also the king desired all gentlemen
that had dogs that were good to bring them
with them to hunt in the said bounds, which
the most part of the noblemen of the Highlands
did, such as the earls of Huntly, Argyle,
and Athol, who brought their deer-hounds
with them and hunted with his majesty.
These lords, with many other lords and gentlemen,
to the number of twelve thousand
men, assembled at Edinburgh, and therefrom
went with the king’s grace to Meggat-land,
in the which bounds were slain at that time
eighteen score of deer. After this hunting the
king hanged John Armstrong, laird of Kilnokie;
which many a Scotsman heavily lamented,
for he was a doubtit man, and as good a chieftain
as ever was upon the borders, either of
Scotland or of England. And albeit he was
a loose-living man, and sustained the number
of twenty-four well-horsed able gentlemen
with him, yet he never molested no Scotsman.[231]
But it is said, from the Scots border to Newcastle
of England, there was not one, of whatsoever
estate, but paid to this John Armstrong
a tribute, to be free of his cumber, he was so
doubtit in England. So when he entered in
before the king, he came very reverently,
with his foresaid number very richly appareled,
trusting that in respect he had come to
the king’s grace willingly and voluntarily,
not being taken nor apprehended by the king,
he should obtain the more favor. But when
the king saw him and his men so gorgeous
365in their apparel, and so many braw men under
a tyrant’s commandment, throwardlie he
turned about his face, and bade take that tyrant
out of his sight, saying, What wants
yon knave that a king should have? But
when John Armstrong perceived that the
king kindled in a fury against him, and had
no hope of his life, notwithstanding of many
great and fair offers which he offered to the
king—that is, that he should sustain himself,
with forty gentlemen, ever ready to
await upon his majesty’s service, and never
to take a penny of Scotland nor Scotsmen;
secondly, that there was not a subject in England,
duke, earl, lord, or baron, but within a
certain day he should bring any of them to
his majesty, quick or dead—he, seeing no
hope of the king’s favor towards him, said
very proudly, I am but a fool to seek grace
at a graceless face. But had I known, sir,
that ye would have taken my life this day, I
should have lived upon the borders in despite
of King Harry and you both; for I know
King Harry would down weigh my best horse
with gold to know that I were condemned to
die this day. So he was led to the scaffold,
and he and all his men hanged.”
Buchanan’s account is, that the king undertook
an expedition for the suppressing of
freebooters in July, 1530, with an army of
about eight thousand men, and encamped at
Ewes water, near which was the hold of John
Armstrong, a chief of a band of thieves, who
had struck such terror into the parts adjacent
that even the English for many miles about
paid him tribute. Under enticement of the
king’s officers, John set out to pay a visit to
the king with about fifty horsemen, both unarmed
and without a safe-conduct, and on his
way fell in with a body of scouts, who took
him to their master as a pretended prisoner,
and he and most of his men were hanged.
The authors of his death averred that Armstrong
had promised the English to put the
neighboring Scots territory under their sway,
if they would make it for his interest; whereas
the English were extremely pleased at his
death, because they were rid of a redoubtable
enemy.[232]
Bishop Lesley says simply that in the
month of June (apparently 1529) the king
passed to the borders with a great army,
where he caused forty-eight of the most noble
thieves, with John Armstrong, their captain,
to be taken, who being convict of theft, reiff,
slaughter, and treason, were all hanged upon
growing trees.[233]
Another account gives us positively and
definitely to understand that the Armstrongs
were not secured without artifice. “On the
eighth of June the principals of all the surnames
of the clans on the borders came to
the king, upon hope of a proclamation proclaimed
in the king’s name that they should
all get their lives if they would come in and
submit themselves in the king’s will. And
so, upon this hope, John Armstrong, who
kept the castle of Langholm (a brother of the
laird of Mangerton’s, a great thief and oppressor,
and one that kept still with him four
and twenty well-horsed men), came in to the
king; and another called Ill Will Armstrong,
another stark thief, with sundry of the Scotts
and Elliotts, came all forward to the camp
where the king was, in hope to get their pardons.
But no sooner did the king perceive
them, and that they were come afar off, when
direction was given presently to enclose them
round about; the which was done, accordingly,
and were all apprehended, to the number
of thirty-five persons, and at a place
called Carlaverock Chapel were all committed
to the gallows.... The English people
was exceeding glad when they understood
that John Armstrong was executed, for he
did great robberies and stealing in England,
maintaining twenty-four men in household
every day upon reiff and oppression.”[234]
The place of execution is mentioned by no
other historian than Anderson, just quoted,
366and he gives it as Carlaverock Chapel. But
this must be a mistake for Carlenrig Chapel,
Carlaverock not being in the line of the king’s
progress. James is known to have been at Carlenrig[235]
on the 5th of July, and Johnie Armstrong
not to have been alive on the eighth.
It has been popularly believed that Johnie and
his band were buried in Carlenrig churchyard
(where the graves used to be shown), and
their execution made so deep an impression
on the people[236] that it is not unplausible that
the fact should be remembered, and that the
ballad C, in saying that John was murdered
at Carlenrig, has followed tradition rather
than given rise to it.
It appears from Lindsay’s narrative that
Johnie Armstrong came to the king voluntarily,
and that he was not “taken or apprehended.”
Buchanan says that he was enticed
by the king’s officers, and Anderson that the
heads of the border-clans were induced to
come in by a proclamation that their lives
should be safe. It is but too likely, therefore,
that the capture was not effected by
honorable means, and this is the representation
of the ballads. There is no record of a
trial,[237] and the execution was probably as
summary as the arrest was perfidious.
The ballads treat facts with the customary
freedom and improve upon them greatly. In
A, B, English ballads, Johnie is oddly enough
a Westmorland man,[238] though in B 11 he
admits himself to be a subject of the Scots
king. The king writes John a long letter
promising to do him no wrong, A 4; a loving
letter, to come and speak with him speedily,
B 4, C 2. Johnie goes to Edinburgh with the
eight-score men that he keeps in his hall, all
in a splendid uniform, asks grace, and is told
that he and his eight-score shall be hanged the
next morning. They are not unarmed, and
resolve to fight it out rather than be hanged.
They kill all the king’s guard but three, B
16, but all Edinburgh rises; four-score and
ten of Johnie’s men lie gasping on the ground,
A 14. A cowardly Scot comes behind Johnie
and runs him through; like Sir Andrew Barton,
he bids his men fight on; he will bleed
awhile, then rise and fight again. Most of
his company are killed, but his foot-page escapes
and carries the bad news to Giltnock
Hall. His little son, by or on the nurse’s
knee, vows to revenge his father’s death.
C differs extensively from A, B, indeed resembles
or repeats the English ballad only
in a few places: C 2==A 4, B 4; C 6==B 10;
C 7==A g, B 11; C 223,4==A 113,4, B 133,4.
The Eliots go with the Armstrongs according
to C 3, and it is the intention to bring the
king to dine at Gilnockie. In C 9–17 Johnie
offers twenty-four steeds, four of them laden
with as much gold as they can carry, twenty-four
mills, and as much wheat as their hoppers
can hold, twenty-four sisters-sons, who
will fight to the utterance, tribute from all
the land between ‘here’ and Newcastle,—all
this for his life. The king replies to each
successive offer that he never has granted a
traitor’s life, and will not begin with him.
Johnie gives the king the lie as to his being
a traitor; he could make England find him in
meal and malt for a hundred years, and no
Scot’s wife could say that he had ever hurt
her the value of a fly. Had he known how
the king would treat him, he would have kept
the border in spite of all his army. England’s
king would be a blithe man to hear of
his capture. At this point the king is attracted
by Johnie’s splendid girdle and hat,
and exclaims, What wants that knave that a
king should have! Johnie bids farewell to
his brother, Laird of Mangerton (Thomas,
here called Kirsty), and to his son Kirsty, and
to Gilnock-Hall, and is murdered at Carlenrig
with all his band.
It will be observed that the substance, or
367at least the hint, of C 213,4, 173,4, 26, 15, 223,4,
23, 241,2, is to be found in Lindsay’s narrative.
In the last stanza of A and of B, Johnie
Armstrong’s son (afterwards known as Johnie’s
Christy) sitting on his nurse’s knee, B
(cf. C 30), or standing by his nurse’s knee,
A, vows, if he lives to be a man, to have
revenge for his father’s death.[239] Not infrequently,
in popular ballads, a very young (even
unborn) child speaks, by miracle, to save a
life, vindicate innocence, or for some other
kindly occasion;[240] sometimes again to threaten
revenge, as here. So a child in the cradle in
‘Frændehævn,’ Grundtvig, I, 28, No 4, B 34
(==C 63), and in ‘Hævnersværdet,’ I, 351,
No 25, sts 29, 30; and Kullervo in his third
month, Kalevala, Rune 31, Schiefner, p. 194,
vv. 109–112.[241]
Johnie’s plain speech to the king in C 19,
‘Ye lied, ye lied, now, king!’ is such as we
have often heard before in these ballads: see
I, 427, No 47, A 14; I, 446, No 50, A 8, 9; I,
452 f, No 52, C 10, D 7; II, 25 f, No 58, G
7, H 10; II, 269 ff, No 83, D 13, E 16, F 22;
II, 282, No 86, A 6; III, 62, 67, No 117, sts
114, 222. It is not unexampled elsewhere. So
Sthenelus to Agamemnon, II. iv, 204; Ἀτρεΐδη, μὴ ψεύδε’, ἐπιστάμενος σάφα εἰπεῖν; and Bernardo
del Carpio, on much the same occasion as
here,
Mentides, buen rey, mentides,
que no decides verdad,
que nunca yo fuí traidor,
Wolf & Hofmann, Primavera, I, 38 and 41; see
also I, 186, II, 100, 376.
This ballad was an early favorite of Goldsmith’s:
“The music of the finest singer is
dissonance to what I felt when our old dairymaid
sung me into tears with Johnny Armstrong’s
Last Good Night, or the Cruelty of
Barbara Allen.” Essays, 1765, p. 14.
C is translated by Talvi, Versuch, u. s. w.,
p. 543; by Schubart, p. 179; by Loève-Veimars,
p. 270.
a. Wit Restord in severall Select Poems not formerly
publisht, London, 1658, p. 30, in Facetiæ, London, 1871, I,
132.
b. Wit and Drollery, London, 1682, p. 57.
1
There dwelt a man in faire Westmerland,
Ionnë Armestrong men did him call,
He had nither lands nor rents coming in,
Yet he kept eight score men in his hall.
2
He had horse and harness for them all,
Goodly steeds were all milke-white;
O the golden bands an about their necks,
And their weapons, they were all alike.
3
Newes then was brought unto the king
That there was sicke a won as hee,
That livëd lyke a bold out-law,
And robbëd all the north country.
4
The king he writt an a letter then,
A letter which was large and long;
He signëd it with his owne hand,
And he promised to doe him no wrong.
3685
When this letter came Ionnë untill,
His heart it was as blythe as birds on the tree:
‘Never was I sent for before any king,
My father, my grandfather, nor none but mee.
6
‘And if wee goe the king before,
I would we went most orderly;
Every man of you shall have his scarlet cloak,
Laced with silver laces three.
7
‘Every won of you shall have his velvett coat,
Laced with sillver lace so white;
O the golden bands an about your necks,
Black hatts, white feathers, all alyke.’
8
By the morrow morninge at ten of the clock,
Towards Edenburough gon was hee,
And with him all his eight score men;
Good lord, it was a goodly sight for to see!
9
When Ionnë came befower the king,
He fell downe on his knee;
‘O pardon, my soveraine leige,’ he said,
‘O pardon my eight score men and mee!’
10
‘Thou shalt have no pardon, thou traytor strong,
For thy eight score men nor thee;
For to-morrow morning by ten of the clock,
Both thou and them shall hang on the gallow-tree.’
11
But Ionnë looke’d over his left shoulder,
Good Lord, what a grevious look looked hee!
Saying, Asking grace of a graceles face—
Why there is none for you nor me.
12
But Ionnë had a bright sword by his side,
And it was made of the mettle so free,
That had not the king stept his foot aside,
He had smitten his head from his faire boddë.
13
Saying, Fight on, my merry men all,
And see that none of you be taine;
For rather then men shall say we were hange’d,
Let them report how we were slaine.
14
Then, God wott, faire Eddenburrough rose,
And so besett poore Ionnë rounde,
That fowerscore and tenn of Ionnës best men
Lay gasping all upon the ground.
15
Then like a mad man Ionnë laide about,
And like a mad man then fought hee,
Untill a falce Scot came Ionnë behinde,
And runn him through the faire boddee.
16
Saying, Fight on, my merry men all,
And see that none of you be taine;
For I will stand by and bleed but awhile,
And then will I come and fight againe.
17
Newes then was brought to young Ionnë Armestrong,
As he stood by his nurses knee,
Who vowed if ere he live’d for to be a man,
O the treacherous Scots revengd hee’d be.
a. Wood, 401, fol. 93 b, London, printed for Francis
Grove (1620–55?).
b. Pepys, II, 133, No 117, London, printed for W. Thackeray
and T. Passenger (1660–82?).
c. A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723, I, 170.
1
Is there never a man in all Scotland,
From the highest state to the lowest degree,
That can shew himself now before the king?
Scotland is so full of their traitery.
2
Yes, there is a man in Westmerland,
And John Armstrong some do him call;
He has no lands nor rents coming in,
Yet he keeps eightscore men within his hall.
3
He has horse and harness for them all,
And goodly steeds that be milk-white,
With their goodly belts about their necks,
With hats and feathers all alike.
4
The king he writ a lovely letter,
With his own hand so tenderly,
And has sent it unto John Armstrong,
To come and speak with him speedily.
5
When John he looked the letter upon,
Then, Lord! he was as blithe as a bird in a tree:
‘I was never before no king in my life,
My father, my grandfather, nor none of us three.
3696
‘But seeing we must [go] before the king,
Lord! we will go most valiantly;
You shall every one have a velvet coat,
Laid down with golden laces three.
7
‘And you shall every one have a scarlet cloak,
Laid down with silver laces five,
With your golden belts about your necks,
With hats [and] brave feathers all alike.’
8
But when John he went from Guiltknock Hall!
The wind it blew hard, and full sore it did rain:
‘Now fare you well, brave Guiltknock Hall!
I fear I shall never see thee again.’
9
Now John he is to Edenborough gone,
And his eightscore men so gallantly,
And every one of them on a milk-white steed,
With their bucklers and swords hanging down to the knee.
10
But when John he came the king before,
With his eightscore men so gallant to see,
The king he moved his bonnet to him;
He thought he had been a king as well as he.
11
‘O pardon, pardon, my soveraign leige,
Pardon for my eightscore men and me!
For my name it is John Armstrong,
And a subject of yours, my leige,’ said he.
12
‘Away with thee, thou false traitor!
No pardon I will grant to thee,
But, to-morrow before eight of the clock,
I will hang thy eightscore men and thee.’
13
O how John looked over his left shoulder!
And to his merry men thus said he:
I have asked grace of a graceless face,
No pardon here is for you nor me.
14
Then John pulld out a nut-brown sword,
And it was made of mettle so free;
Had not the king moved his foot as he did,
John had taken his head from his body.
15
‘Come, follow me, my merry men all,
We will scorn one foot away to fly;
It never shall be said we were hung like doggs;
No, wee’l fight it out most manfully.’
16
Then they fought on like champions bold—
For their hearts was sturdy, stout, and free—
Till they had killed all the kings good guard;
There was none left alive but onely three.
17
But then rise up all Edenborough,
They rise up by thousands three;
Then a cowardly Scot came John behind,
And run him thorow the fair body.
18
Said John, Fight on, my merry men all,
I am a little hurt, but I am not slain;
I will lay me down for to bleed a while,
Then I’le rise and fight with you again.
19
Then they fought on like mad men all,
Till many a man lay dead on the plain;
For they were resolved, before they would yield,
That every man would there be slain.
20
So there they fought couragiously,
‘Till most of them lay dead there and slain,
But little Musgrave, that was his foot-page,
With his bonny grissell got away untain.
21
But when he came up to Guiltknock Hall,
The lady spyed him presently:
‘What news, what news, thou little foot-page?
What news from thy master and his company?’
22
‘My news is bad, lady,’ he said,
‘Which I do bring, as you may see;
My master, John Armstrong, he is slain,
And all his gallant company.
23
‘Yet thou are welcome home, my bonny grisel!
Full oft thou hast fed at the corn and hay,
But now thou shalt be fed with bread and wine,
And thy sides shall be spurred no more, I say.’
24
O then bespoke his little son,
As he was set on his nurses knee:
‘If ever I live for to be a man,
My fathers blood revenged shall be.’
370
Allan Ramsay, The Ever Green, II, 190, “copied from a
gentleman’s mouth of the name of Armstrang, who is the
6th generation from this John.”
1
Sum speiks of lords, sum speiks of lairds,
And siclyke men of hie degrie;
Of a gentleman I sing a sang,
Sumtyme calld Laird of Gilnockie.
2
The king he wrytes a luving letter,
With his ain hand sae tenderly:
And he hath sent it to Johny Armstrang,
To cum and speik with him speidily.
3
The Eliots and Armstrongs did convene,
They were a gallant company:
‘We’ill ryde and meit our lawful king,
And bring him safe to Gilnockie.
4
‘Make kinnen and capon ready, then,
And venison in great plenty;
We’ill welcome hame our royal king;
I hope he’ill dyne at Gilnockie!’
5
They ran their horse on the Langum howm,
And brake their speirs with mekle main;
The ladys lukit frae their loft-windows,
‘God bring our men weil back again!’
6
When Johny came before the king,
With all his men sae brave to see,
The king he movit his bonnet to him;
He weind he was a king as well as he.
7
‘May I find grace, my sovereign liege,
Grace for my loyal men and me?
For my name it is Johny Armstrang,
And subject of yours, my liege,’ said he.
8
‘Away, away, thou traytor, strang!
Out of my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit nevir a traytors lyfe,
And now I’ll not begin with thee.’
9
‘Grant me my lyfe, my liege, my king,
And a bony gift I will give to thee;
Full four-and-twenty milk-whyt steids,
Were a’ foald in a yeir to me.
10
‘I’ll gie thee all these milk-whyt steids,
That prance and nicher at a speir,
With as mekle gude Inglis gilt
As four of their braid backs dow beir.’
11
‘Away, away, thou traytor strang!
Out o’ my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit nevir a traytors lyfe,
And now I’ll not begin with thee.’
12
‘Grant me my lyfe, my liege, my king,
And a bony gift I’ll gie to thee;
Gude four-and-twenty ganging mills,
That gang throw a’ the yeir to me.
13
‘These four-and-twenty mills complete
Sall gang for thee throw all the yeir,
And as mekle of gude reid wheit
As all their happers dow to bear.’
14
‘Away, away, thou traytor, strang!
Out of my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit nevir a traytors lyfe,
And now I’ll not begin with thee.’
15
‘Grant me my lyfe, my liege, my king,
And a great gift I’ll gie to thee;
Bauld four-and-twenty sisters sons,
Sall for the fecht, tho all sould flee.’
16
‘Away, away, thou traytor, strang!
Out of my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit nevir a traytors lyfe,
And now I’ll not begin with thee.’
17
‘Grant me my lyfe, my liege, my king,
And a brave gift I’ll gie to thee;
All betwene heir and Newcastle town
Sall pay thair yeirly rent to thee.’
18
‘Away, away, thou traytor, strang!
Out of my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit nevir a traytors lyfe,
And now I’ll not begin with thee.’
19
‘Ye lied, ye lied, now, king,’ he says,
‘Althocht a king and prince ye be,
For I luid naithing in all my lyfe,
I dare well say it, but honesty;
20
‘But a fat horse, and a fair woman,
Twa bony dogs to kill a deir:
But Ingland suld haif found me meil and malt,
Gif I had livd this hundred yeir!
37121
‘Scho suld half found me meil and malt,
And beif and mutton in all plentie;
But neir a Scots wyfe could haif said
That eir I skaithd her a pure flie.
22
‘To seik het water beneth cauld yce,
Surely it is a great folie;
I haif asked grace at a graceless face,
But there is nane for my men and me.
23
‘But had I kend, or I came frae hame,
How thou unkynd wadst bene to me,
I wad haif kept the border-syde,
In spyte of all thy force and thee.
24
‘Wist Englands king that I was tane,
O gin a blyth man wald he be!
For anes I slew his sisters son,
And on his breist-bane brak a tree.’
25
John wore a girdle about his midle,
Imbroiderd owre with burning gold,
Bespangled with the same mettle,
Maist beautifull was to behold.
26
Ther hang nine targats at Johnys hat,
And ilk an worth three hundred pound:
‘What wants that knave that a king suld haif,
But the sword of honour and the crown!
27
‘O whair gat thou these targats, Johnie,
That blink sae brawly abune thy brie? ’
‘I gat them in the field fechting,
Wher, cruel king, thou durst not be.
28
‘Had I my horse, and my harness gude,
And ryding as I wont to be,
It sould haif bene tald this hundred yeir
The meiting of my king and me.
29
‘God be withee, Kirsty, my brither,
Lang live thou Laird of Mangertoun!
Lang mayst thou live on the border-syde
Or thou se thy brither ryde up and doun.
30
‘And God be withee, Kirsty, my son,
Whair thou sits on thy nurses knee!
But and thou live this hundred yeir,
Thy fathers better thoult never be.
31
‘Farweil, my bonny Gilnock-Hall.
Whair on Esk-syde thou standest stout!
Gif I had lived but seven yeirs mair,
I wald haif gilt thee round about.’
32
John murdred was at Carlinrigg,
And all his galant companie:
But Scotlands heart was never sae wae,
To see sae mony brave men die.
33
Because they savd their country deir
Frae Englishmen; nane were sae bauld,
Whyle Johnie livd on the border-syde,
Nane of them durst cum neir his hald.
A. a.
33. syke a.
174. O th’ the.
b.
32. sick a man.
52. it wanting.
61. And therefore if.
74. and white.
84. an it: for wanting.
91. Johnnee.
102. Ne for.
11. There Johnne.
113. Said he.
114. yee.
122. the wanting.
134. that we.
143. Johnnee’s.
154. thorough.
B. a.
Iohn Arm-strongs last good night. Declaring
How John Arm-strong and his eightscore
men fought a bloody bout with a Scottish
king at Edenborough. To a pretty northern
tune called, Fare you well, guilt Knock-hall.
61. we must before; perhaps rightly.
81,3, 211. guilt Knock-hall.
Signed T. R.
London, Printed for Francis Grove on S[n]owhill.
Entered according to order.
b.
Title: with the Scottish. To a pretty new
northern tune: called, &c., omitted.
12. estate.
14. of treachery.
22. Jonny: they do.
41. writes a loving.
42. And with.
43. hath.
51. this letter.
51. Good Lord.
52. he lookt.
53. a king.
61. must go.
62. most gallantly.
71. And ye.
74. hats and.
81,3, 211. guilt Knock-hall.
82. full fast.
83. fare thee well thou guilt.
91. Johnny.
94. to their.
101. he wanting.
123. to morrow morning by eight.
124. hang up.
131. Johnny.
141. out his.
153. It shall ne’r.
154. We will.
372162. were.
164. but two or.
171,2. rose.
173. Then wanting.
182. little wounded but am.
192. up on.
203. Musgrove.
211. up wanting.
223. Johnny Armstrong is.
232. been fed with.
241. bespake.
243. for wanting.
244. father’s death.
Signed T. R.
London, Printed for W. Thackeray and T.
Passenger.
c.
Johnny Armstrongs, last Good-night, shewing
how John Armstrong, with his Eightscore
Men, fought a bloody Battle with the Scotch
King at Edenborough. To a Northern Tune.
11. ever.
12. estate.
13. our king.
14. full of treachery.
22. Johnny: they do.
31. horses.
41. writes a loving.
42. And with.
43. hath: Johnny.
51. this letter.
52. He lokd as blith.
53. a king.
61. must go.
62. most gallantly.
63. Ye.
71. And every one shall.
64. hats and feathers.
81. Johnny went: Giltnock.
82. full fast.
83. fare thee well thou Giltnock.
91. Johnny.
92. With his.
94. hanging to their.
101. he wanting.
113. Johnny.
114. a wanting.
122. will I.
123. to-morrow morning by eight.
124. hang up.
131. Then Johnny.
134. there is: you and.
141. his good broad sword.
142. That was made of the.
144. his fair.
152. foot for to.
153. shall never be: hangd.
154. We will.
162. were.
164. were: but one, two or three.
171,2. rose.
173. Then wanting.
174. through.
182. little wounded but am.
183. for wanting.
211. up wanting.
211. Giltnock.
223. Iohnny Armstrong is.
232. hast been fed with corn.
241. bespake.
242. he sat on.
243. for wanting.
244. fathers death.
C.
Printed in stanzas of eight lines.
Zours, zeir, etc., are here printed yours, yeir,
etc.; quhair, quheit, here, whair, wheit.
51. hown.
11, 14, 16, 18, only Away, away thou traytor,
etc., is printed.
194. sayit.
170 THE DEATH OF QUEEN JANE — A — B — C — D — E — F — G
A. Percy papers, 1776. B. ‘Queen Jeanie,’ Kinloch’s
Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 116. C. a. Jamieson’s
Popular Ballads, I, 182.[242]b. Herd’s MSS, I, 103.
D. ‘The Death of Queen Jane,’ Bell’s Ancient
Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England,
p. 113. E. ‘Queen Jeanie,’ Macmath MS., p.
68. F. Notes and Queries, Second Series, XI, 131.
G. A fragment from William Motherwell’s papers.
This threnody is said to have been current
throughout Scotland. There is another,
not in the popular style, in the Crowne Garland
of Golden Roses, 1612, Percy Society,
vol. vi, p. 29: The Wofull Death of Queene
Jane, wife to King Henry the Eight, and
how King Edward was cut out of his mother’s
belly. This is reprinted in Old Ballads, 1723,
II, 115, and Evans’s Collection, 1777, 1784,
II, 54, and is among Pepys’s Penny Merriments,
vol. iii. ‘A ballett called The Lady
Jane’ and another piece entitled The Lamentation
of Quene Jane were licensed in 1560;
Stationers’ Registers, Arber, I, 151 f.
Jane Seymour gave birth to Prince Edward
October 12, 1537, and by a natural process,
but, in consequence of imprudent management,
died twelve days after. There was a
373belief that severe surgery had been required,
under which the queen sank. The editor of
Old Ballads, II, 116 f, cites Sir John Hayward
as saying: “All reports do constantly
run that he [Prince Edward] was not by
natural passage delivered into the world, but
that his mother’s belly was opened for his
birth, and that she died of the incision the
fourth day following.” And Du Chesne:
“Quand ce vint au terme de l’accouchement,
elle eut tant de tourment et de peine qu’il
lui fallut fendre le costé, par lequel on tira
son fruit, le douzième jour d’Octobre. Elle
mourut douze jours après.” But Echard
again: “Contrary to the opinion of many
writers,” the queen “died twelve days after
the birth of this prince, having been well delivered,
and without any incision, as others
have maliciously reported.”
Communicated to Percy by the Dean of Derry, as written
from memory by his mother, Mrs. Bernard, February, 1776.
1
Queen Jane was in labour full six weeks and more,
And the women were weary, and fain would give oer:
‘O women, O women, as women ye be,
Rip open my two sides, and save my baby!’
2
‘O royal Queen Jane, that thing may not be;
We’ll send for King Henry to come unto thee.’
King Henry came to her, and sate on her bed:
‘What ails my dear lady, her eyes look so red?’
3
‘O royal King Henry, do one thing for me:
Rip open my two sides, and save my baby!’
‘O royal Queen Jane, that thing will not do;
If I lose your fair body, I’ll lose your baby too.’
4
She wept and she waild, and she wrung her hands sore;
O the flour of England must flurish no more!
She wept and she waild till she fell in a swoond,
They opend her two sides, and the baby was found.
5
The baby was christened with joy and much mirth,
Whilst poor Queen Jane’s body lay cold under earth:
There was ringing and singing and mourning all day,
The princess Eliz[abeth] went weeping away.
6
The trumpets in mourning so sadly did sound,
And the pikes and the muskets did trail on the ground.
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 116.
1
Queen Jeanie, Queen Jeanie, traveld six weeks and more,
Till women and midwives had quite gien her oer:
‘O if ye were women as women should be,
Ye would send for a doctor, a doctor to me.’
2
The doctor was called for and set by her bedside:
‘What aileth thee, my ladie, thine eyes seem so red?’
‘O doctor, O doctor, will ye do this for me,
To rip up my two sides, and save my babie?’
3
‘Queen Jeanie, Queen Jeanie, that’s the thing I’ll neer do,
To rip up your two sides to save your babie:’
Queen Jeanie, Queen Jeanie, traveld six weeks and more,
Till midwives and doctors had quite gien her oer.
4
‘O if ye were doctors as doctors should be,
Ye would send for King Henry, King Henry to me:’
374King Henry was called for, and sat by her bedside,
‘What aileth thee, Jeanie? what aileth my bride?’
5
‘King Henry, King Henry, will ye do this for me,
To rip up my two sides, and save my babie?’
‘Queen Jeanie, Queen Jeanie, that’s what I’ll never do,
To rip up your two sides to save your babie.’
6
But with sighing and sobbing she’s fallen in a swoon,
Her side it was ript up, and her babie was found;
At this bonie babie’s christning there was meikle joy and mirth,
But bonnie Queen Jeanie lies cold in the earth.
7
Six and six coaches, and six and six more,
And royal King Henry went mourning before;
O two and two gentlemen carried her away,
But royal King Henry went weeping away.
8
O black were their stockings, and black were their bands,
And black were the weapons they held in their hands;
O black were their mufflers, and black were their shoes,
And black were the cheverons they drew on their luves.
9
They mourned in the kitchen, and they mournd in the ha,
But royal King Henry mournd langest of a’:
Farewell to fair England, farewell for evermore!
For the fair flower of England will never shine more.
a. Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, I, 182; “from two fragments,
one transmitted from Arbroath and another from
Edinburgh.” b. Herd’s MSS, I, 103.
1
Queen Jeany has traveld for three days and more,
Till the ladies were weary, and quite gave her oer:
‘O ladies, O ladies, do this thing for me,
To send for King Henry, to come and see me.’
2
King Henry was sent for, and sat by her bedside:
‘Why weep you, Queen Jeany? your eyes are so red.’
‘O Henry, O Henry, do this one thing for me,
Let my side straight be opend, and save my babie!’
3
‘O Jeany, O Jeany, this never will do,
It will leese thy sweet life, and thy young babie too.’
She wept and she wailed, till she fell in a swoon:
Her side it was opened, the babie was found.
4
Prince Edward was christened with joy and with mirth,
But the flower of fair England lies cold in the earth.
O black was King Henry, and black were his men,
And black was the steed that King Henry rode on.
5
And black were the ladies, and black were their fans,
And black were the gloves that they wore on their hands,
And black were the ribbands they wore on their heads,
And black were the pages, and black were the maids.
* * * * *
6
The trumpets they sounded, the cannons did roar,
But the flower of fair England shall flourish no more.
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
375
Robert Bell’s Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the
Peasantry of England, p. 113; “taken down from the singing
of a young gipsy girl, to whom it had descended orally
through two generations.”
1
Queen Jane was in travail for six weeks or more,
Till the women grew tired and fain would give oer:
‘O women, O women, good wives if ye be,
Go send for King Henrie, and bring him to me!’
2
King Henrie was sent for, he came with all speed,
In a gownd of green velvet from heel to the head:
‘King Henrie, King Henrie, if kind Henrie you be,
Send for a surgeon, and bring him to me!’
3
The surgeon was sent for, he came with all speed,
In a gownd of black velvet from heel to the head;
He gave her rich caudle, but the death-sleep slept she,
Then her right side was opened, and the babe was set free.
4
The babe it was christened, and put out and nursed,
While the royal Queen Jane she lay cold in the dust.
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
5
So black was the mourning, and white were the wands,
Yellow, yellow the torches they bore in their hands;
The bells they were muffled, and mournful did play,
While the royal Queen Jane she lay cold in the clay.
6
Six knights and six lords bore her corpse through the grounds,
Six dukes followed after, in black mourning gownds;
The flower of Old England was laid in cold clay,
Whilst the royal King Henrie came weeping away.
Macmath MS., p. 68. “From my aunt, Miss Jane Webster,
1886–1887. She learned it at Airds of Kells, Kirkcudbrightshire,
over fifty years ago, from the singing of James
Smith.”
1
‘Ye midwives and women-kind, do one thing for me;
Send for my mother, to come and see me.’
2
Her mother was sent for, who came speedilie:
‘O Jeanie, Queen Jeanie, are ye gaun to dee?’
3
‘O mother, dear mother, do one thing for me;
O send for King Henry, to come and see me.’
4
King Henry was sent for, who came speedilie:
‘O Jeanie, Queen Jeanie, are ye gaun to dee?’
5
‘King Henry, King Henry, do one thing for me;
O send for a doctor, to come and see me.’
6
The doctor was sent for, who came speedilie:
‘O Jeanie, Queen Jeanie, are ye gaun to dee?’
7
‘O doctor, oh doctor, do one thing for me;
Open my left side, and let my babe free.’
8
He opened her left side, and then all was oer,
And the best flower in England will flourish no more.
376
Notes and Queries, Second Series, XI, 131; sung by an
illiterate nursemaid “some forty years since” (1861).
1
Queen Jane lies in labour six weeks or more,
Till the women were tired, go see her no more:
‘Oh women, oh women, if women you be,
You’ll send for King Henry, to come and see me.
2
‘Oh King Henry, King Henry, if King Henry you be,
You’ll send for the doctor, to come and see me:
Oh doctor, oh doctor, if a doctor you be,
You’ll open my right side, and save my baby.’
3
They churchd her, they chimed her, they dug her her grave,
They buried her body, and christend her babe.
In pencil, in Motherwell’s handwriting, inside of the
cover of what appears to be a sketch of his Introduction to
his Minstrelsy; communicated by Mr Macmath.
1
Queen Jeanie was in labour full three days and more,
Till a’the good women was forced to gie her oer:
‘O guide women, gude women, gude women,’ quo she,
‘Will ye send for King Henry, to come and see me?’
Wi weeping and wailing, lamenting full sore,
That the flower of all England should flourish no more.
2
King Henry was sent for, who came in great speed,
Standing weeping and wailing at Queen Jeanie’s bedside;
Standing weeping and wailing, etc.
3
‘O King Henry, King Henry, King Henry,’ quo she,
‘Will ye send for my mother....
B.
31, 53. do is to be pronounced dee.
C. b.
Only six lines: 23,4, 41,2, 51,2
23. This thing.
24. Straight open my two sides: save your.
41. The babie was.
42. But royal Queen Jeany lay low.
51. Then black were their mournings.
E.
The first seven stanzas taken down October
15, 1886, and the last sent on February 3,
1887.
24th March, 1887. “I can never remember them, sitting thinking about them. Yesterday I was humming away, not knowing what I was singing, until I sung this:
8
He opened her left side, Queen Jeanie’s life’s oer,
And the last rose of England will flourish no more.”
171 THOMAS CROMWELL
377
Percy MS., p. 55; Hales and Furnivall, I, 129.
June 10, 1540, Thomas Lord Cromwell,
“when he least expected it,” was arrested at
the council-table by the Duke of Norfolk for
high-treason, and on the 28th of July following
he was executed. Cromwell, says Lord
Herbert of Cherbury, judged “his perdition
more certain that the duke was uncle to the
Lady Katherine Howard, whom the king began
now to affect.” Later writers[243] have asserted
that Katherine Howard exerted herself
to procure Cromwell’s death, and we can
understand nobody else but her to be doing
this in the third stanza of this fragment;
nevertheless there is no authority for such a
representation. The king had no personal
interview with the minister whom he so suddenly
struck down, but he did send the Duke
of Norfolk and two others to visit Cromwell
in prison, for the purpose of extracting confessions
pertaining to Anne of Cleves. Cromwell
wrote a letter to the king, imploring the
mercy which, as well as confession, he refuses
in stanza five.
Percy inserted in the Reliques, 1765, II,
58, a song against Cromwell, printed in 1540,
and apparently before his death, and he observes,
1767, II, 86, that there was a succession
of seven or eight more, for and against,
which were then preserved, and of course are
still existing, in the archives of the Antiquarian
Society.
* * * * *
1
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
‘Ffor if your boone be askeable,
Soone granted it shalbe:
2
‘If it be not touching my crowne,’ he said,
‘Nor hurting poore comminaltye.’
‘Nay, it is not touching your crowne,’ shee sayes,
‘Nor hurting poore cominaltye,
3
‘But I begg the death of Thomas Cromwell,
For a false traitor to you is hee.’
‘Then feitch me hither the Earle of Darby
And the Earle of Shrewsbury,
4
‘And bidde them bring Thomas Cromawell;
Let’s see what he can say to mee;’
For Thomas had woont to haue carryed his head vp,
But now he hanges it vppon his knee.
5
‘How now? How now?’ the king did say,
‘Thomas, how is it with thee?’
‘Hanging and drawing, O king!’ he saide;
‘You shall neuer gett more from mee.’
Half of the page is gone before the beginning.
23. it it is.
172 MUSSELBURGH FIELD
378
‘Musleboorrowe ffeild,’ Percy MS., p. 54; Hales and Furnivall, I, 123.
The Protector Somerset, to overcome or to
punish the opposition of the Scots to the marriage
of Mary Stuart with Edward VI, invaded
Scotland at the end of the summer of 1547
with eighteen thousand men, supported by a
fleet. The Scots mustered at Musselburgh,
a town on the water five or six miles east
of Edinburgh, under the Earls of Arran, Angus,
and Huntly, each of whom, according to
Buchanan, had ten thousand men, and there
the issue was tried on the 10th of September.
The northern army abandoned an impregnable
position, and their superior, but ill-managed,
and partly ill-composed, force, after
successfully resisting a cavalry charge, was
put to flight by the English, who had an advantage
in cannon and cavalry as well as generalship.
A hideous slaughter followed; Leslie
admits that, in the chase and battle, there
were slain above ten thousand of his countrymen.
Patten, a Londoner who saw and described
the fight, says that the one anxiety of
the Scots was lest the English should get
away, and that they were so sure of victory
that, the night before the battle, they fell
“to playing at dice for certain of our noblemen
and captains of fame” (cf. stanza 3), as
the French diced for prisoners on the eve of
Agincourt. The dates are wrong in 11,2, 51;
Huntly is rightly said to have been made
prisoner, 71.
6, 8. When the Scots were once turned, says
Patten, “it was a wonder to see how soon
and in how sundry sorts they were scattered;
the place they stood on like a wood of staves,
strewed on the ground as rushes in a chamber,
unpassable, they lay so thick, for either
horse or man.” Some made their course
along the sands by the Frith, towards Leith;
some straight toward Edinburgh; “and the
residue, and (as we noted then) the most, of
them toward Dalkeith, which way, by means
of the marsh, our horsemen were worst able
to follow.”[244]
The battle is known also by the name of
Pinkie or Pinkie Cleuch, appellations of an
estate, a burn and a hill (“a hill called
Pinkincleuche,” Leslie), near or within the
field of operations.
Percy remarks upon 33: “It should seem
from hence that there was somewhat of a
uniform among our soldiers even then.”
There are jackets white and red in No 166,
293. Sir William Stanley has ten thousand
red coats at his order in ‘Lady Bessy,’ vv
593, 809–11, 937 f, Percy MS., III, 344, 352,
358; Sir John Savage has fifteen hundred
white hoods in the same piece, v. 815.
1
On the tenth day of December,
And the fourth yeere of King Edwards raigne,
Att Musleboorrowe, as I remember,
Two goodly hosts there mett on a plaine.
2
All that night they camped there,
Soe did the Scotts, both stout and stubborne;
379But “wellaway,” it was their song,
For wee haue taken them in their owne turne.
3
Over night they carded for our English mens coates;
They fished before their netts were spunn;
A white for sixpence, a red for two groates;
Now wisdome wold haue stayed till they had been woone.
4
Wee feared not but that they wold fight,
Yett itt was turned vnto their owne paine;
Thoe against one of vs that they were eight,
Yett with their owne weapons wee did them beat.
5
On the twelfth day in the morne
The made a face as the wold fight,
But many a proud Scott there was downe borne,
And many a ranke coward was put to flight.
6
But when they heard our great gunnes cracke,
Then was their harts turned into their hose;
They cast down their weapons, and turned their backes,
They ran soe fast that the fell on their nose.
7
The Lord Huntley, wee had him there;
With him hee brought ten thousand men,
Yett, God bee thanked, wee made them such a banquett
That none of them returned againe.
8
Wee chased them to D[alkeith]
* * * * *
11. 10th.
12. 4th :.
14. 2.
21. all night that.
24. horne may be the reading, instead of turne.
33. 6d : pro 2.
43. 8t :.
51. 12th :.
72. 10000.
81. Half a page gone.
173 MARY HAMILTON — A — B — C — D — E — F — G — H — I — J — K — L — M — N — O — P — Q — R
A. a. ‘Marie Hamilton,’ Sharp’s Ballad Book, 1824,
p. 18. b. Communicated by the late John Francis
Campbell. c. Aungervyle Society’s publications, No
V, p. 18.
B. ‘Mary Hamilton,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 337;
printed in part in Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 313 ff.
C. ‘Mary Myles,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 265.
D. ‘Mary Hamilton,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 267; Motherwell’s
Minstrelsy, p. 316.
E. ‘Lady Maisry,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 186; Buchan’s
Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 190.
F. Skene MS., p. 61.
G. ‘Mary Hamilton,’ MS. of Scottish Songs and Ballads
copied by a granddaughter of Lord Woodhouselee,
p. 51.
H. ‘Mary Hamilton,’ Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads,
p. 252.
I. a. ‘The Queen’s Marie,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833,
III, 294. b. Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1802, II, 154, three
stanzas.
J. ‘Marie Hamilton,’ Harris MS., fol. 10 b.
K. ‘The Queen’s Mary,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 96.
L. ‘Mary Hamilton,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 280.
M. ‘Mary Hamilton,’ Maidment’s North Countrie
Garland, p. 19. Repeated in Buchan’s Gleanings,
p. 164.
N. ‘The Queen’s Maries,’ Murison MS., p. 33.
O. ‘The Queen’s Marie,’ Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I,
xix.
380P. Kinloch MSS, VII, 95, 97; Kinloch’s Ancient
Scottish Ballads, p. 252.
Q. ‘Queen’s Marie,’ Letters from and to Charles
Kirkpatrick Sharpe, ed. Allardyce, II, 272, two
stanzas.
R. Burns, Letter to Mrs Dunlop, 25 January, 1790,
Currie, II, 290, 1800, one stanza.
The scene is at the court of Mary Stuart,
A-N, Q. The unhappy heroine is one of the
queen’s Four Maries, A a 18, b 14, c 1, 18,
23, B 19, D 21, F 3, 12, G 16, H 18, I 19,
J 8, 10, K 8, M 7, N 1; Mary Hamilton, A
a 1, b 2, c 2, B 3, D 8, G 1, H 4, I 1, J 6;
Lady Mary, F 5, 6; Mary Mild, Myle, C 5,
M 1, N 1, also A c 6, Moil, O, but Lady Maisry,
E 6. She gangs wi bairn; it is to the highest
Stewart of a’, A a 1, A c 2, B 3, C 5; cf. D 3,
G 1–3, I 1–6, L 9, P 1. She goes to the garden
to pull the leaf off the tree, in a vain hope
to be free of the babe, C 3; it is the savin-tree,
D 4, the deceivin-tree, N 3, the Abbey-tree
(and pulled by the king), I 6.[245] She rolls
the bairn in her apron, handkerchief, and
throws it in the sea, A a 3, A b 3, A c 4,
C 4, D 5, 9, I 7, K 2, 4, L 5 (inconsistently),
O 3; cf. B 7. The queen asks where the babe
is that she has heard greet, A a 4, b 4, c 6,
B 4, 6, C 6, D 6, 8, E 6, 7, F 6, G 5, H 5, I 9,
J 3, L 1, M 1; there is no babe, it was a stitch
in the side, colic, A a 5, b 5, c 7, B 5, C 7, D 7,
E 8, F 7, G 6, H 6, I 10, J 4, L 2, M 2;
search is made and the child found in the
bed, dead, E 9, F 9, H 7, J 5, L 4, M 4 (and
A c 8 inconsistently). The queen bids Mary
make ready to go to Edinburgh (i. e., from
Holyrood), A a 6, A b 6, A c 10, C 8, D 11,
E 10, F 12, H 8, I 11. The purpose is concealed
in A, a, b, c, and for the best effect
should be concealed, or at least simulated, as
in B, D, G, I, where a wedding is the pretence,
Mary Hamilton’s own wedding in D. The
queen directs Mary to put on black or brown,
A a 6, A b 6, A c 10; she will not put on
black or brown, but white, gold, red, to shine
through Edinburgh town, A a 7, A b 7, A c
11, B 9, C 9, D 13, E 11, H 10, K 6, N 5,
O 5. When she went up the Canongate,
A a 8, b 8, c 13, L 6, up the Parliament
stair, A a 9, b 9, c 14, D 16, up the Tolbooth
stair, C 12, E 14, H 15, I 17, came to the
Netherbow Port, G 10, I 18, M 6, she laughed
loudly or lightly, A a 8, b 8, c 13, D 16, E 14,
G 10, H 15, I 18, L 6, M 6; the heel, lap,
came off her shoe, A a 9, b 9, c 14, C 12, the
corks from her heels did flee, I 17; but ere
she came down again she was condemned to
die, A a 9, b 9, c 14, C 12, D 16, E 14, H 15,
I 17; but when she reached the gallows-foot,
G 10, I 18, M 6, ere she came to the Cowgate
Head, L 6, when she came down the
Canongate, A a 8, b 8, c 13, the tears blinded
her eyes. She calls for a bottle of wine,
that she may drink to her well-wishers and
they may drink to her, A a 12, b 10, c 17, B
14; cf. D 19, 20, G 13. She adjures sailors,
travellers, not to let her father and mother
get wit what death she is to die, A a 14,
b 12, c 19, B 15, C 13, D 20, F 15, G 13,
H 21, I 23, L 7, M 8, or know but that she
is coming home, A a 13, b 11, B 16, C 14,
D 19, E 15, F 16, G 14, H 20, I 22, L 8.
Little did her mother think when she cradled
her (brought her from home, F 18) what
lands she would travel and what end she
would come to, A a 15, c 21, B 17, 18, C 15,
D 17, G 15, I 25, J 9, N 9, R; as little her
father, when he held her up, A a 16, c 22,
C 16, brought her over the sea, F 17. Yestreen
the queen had four Maries, to-night
she’ll have but three (see above); yestreen
she washed Queen Mary’s feet, etc., and the
gallows is her reward to-day, A a 17, b 13,
B 20, C 17, G 11, 12, H 19, I 20, 21, N 8.
It is impossible to weave all the versions
into an intelligible and harmonious story. In
E 10, F 12, H 8 the intention to bring Mary
to trial is avowed, and in A c 9, B 85,6, F 10,
K 5, M 5 she is threatened with death. In
381D 12, H 9, J 7, N 4, the queen is made to
favor, and not inhibit, gay colors. Mary may
laugh when she goes up the Parliament stair,
but not when she goes up the Tolbooth stair.
She goes up the Canongate to the Parliament
House to be tried, but she would not go down
the Canongate again, the Tolbooth being in
the High Street, an extension of the Canongate,
and the Parliament House in the rear.
The tears and alaces and ohones as Mary
goes by, A a 10, c 15, B 10, C 10, D 14, E 12,
F 13, H 11, I 16, are a sufficiently effective
incident as long as Mary is represented to be
unsuspicious of her doom, as she is in D 15,
G 9, I 15, 16; but in A a 11, c 16, B 11,
C 11, H 12, 22, she forbids condolement, because
she deserves to die for killing her babe,
which reduces this passage to commonplace.
Much better, if properly introduced, would be
the desperate ejaculation, Seek never grace at
a graceless face! which we find in E 13, F 14,
H 13, N 7.
At the end of B the king tells Mary Hamilton
to come down from the scaffold, but she
scorns life after having been put to public
shame. So in D, with queen for king.
In A a 4, b 4, 13, G 5 the queen is “the
auld queen,” and yet Mary Stuart.
E, from 16, F, from 19, are borrowed from
No 95, ‘The Maid freed from the Gallows:’
see II, 346. G 8 (and I 13, taken from G)
is derived from ‘Lord Thomas and Fair
Annet,’ D a 11, e 10, g 11: see II, 187, 196,
197. The rejection of black and brown, A 7,
C 9, D 13, etc., or of green, K 6, is found in
the same ballad, C 10, E 16, F 12, 15, etc.,
B 20. B 21 is perhaps from ‘The Laird of
Waristoun:’ see further on, A 9, B 10, C 4.
I 12, 14 look like a souvenir of ‘Fair Janet,’
No 64.
There are not a few spurious passages.
Among these are the extravagance of the
queen’s bursting in the door, F 8; the platitude,
of menial stamp, that the child, if saved,
might have been an honor to the mother,
D 10, L 3, O 4; the sentimentality of H 3,
16.
Allan Cunningham has put the essential
incidents of the story into a rational order,
that of A, for example, with less than usual
of his glistering and saccharine phraseology:
Songs of Scotland, I, 348. Aytoun’s language
is not quite definite with regard to the
copy which he gives at II, 45, ed. 1859: it is,
however, made up from versions previously
printed.
When Mary Stuart was sent to France in
1548, she being then between five and six, she
had for companions “sundry gentlewomen
and noblemen’s sons and daughters, almost of
her own age, of the which there were four in
special of whom every one of them bore the
same name of Mary, being of four sundry
honorable houses, to wit, Fleming, Livingston,
Seton, and Beaton of Creich; who remained
all four with the queen in France
during her residence there, and returned
again in Scotland with her Majesty in the
year of our Lord 1561:” Lesley, History of
Scotland, 1830, p. 209. We still hear of the
Four Maries in 1564, Calendar of State
Papers (Foreign), VII, 213, 230; cited by
Burton, IV, 107. The ballad substitutes
Mary Hamilton and Mary Carmichael for
Mary Livingston and Mary Fleming; but F 3,
12 has Livingston. N, of late recitation, has
Heaton for Seton and Michel for Carmichael.
D 4, etc. In ‘Tam Lin,’ No 39, Janet
pulls the rose to kill or scathe away her babe;
A 19, 20, F 8, I 24, 25 (probably repeated
from A). In G 18, 19, the herb of 15 and the
rose of 17 becomes the pile of the gravil green,
or of the gravil gray; in H 5, 6 Janet pulls
an unspecified flower or herb (I, 341 ff).
We have had in ‘The Twa Brothers,’ No
49, a passage like that in which Mary begs
sailors and travellers not to let her parents
know that she is not coming home; and other
ballads, Norse, Breton, Romaic, and Slavic,
which present a similar trait, are noted at
I, 436 f, II, 14. To these may be added
Passow, p. 400, No 523; Jeannaraki, p. 116,
No 118; Sakellarios, p. 98, No 31; Puymaigre,
1865, p. 62, Bujeaud, II, 210 (Liebrecht); also
Guillon, p. 107, Nigra, No 27, A, B, pp. 164,
166, and many copies of ‘Le Déserteur,’ and
some of ‘Le Plongeur,’ ‘La ronde du Battoir.’
Scott thought that the ballad took its rise
382from an incident related by Knox as occurring
in “the beginning of the regiment of
Mary, Queen of Scots.” “In the very time
of the General Assembly,” says Knox, “there
comes to public knowledge a heinous murder
committed in the court, yea, not far from the
queen’s own lap; for a French woman that
served in the queen’s chamber had played the
whore with the queen’s own apothecary. The
woman conceived and bare a child, whom, with
common consent, the father and the mother
murdered. Yet were the cries of a new-born
bairn heard; search was made, the child and
mother was both deprehended, and so were
both the man and the woman damned to be
hanged upon the public street of Edinburgh.”[246]
“It will readily strike the reader,” says Scott,
“that the tale has suffered great alterations,
as handed down by tradition; the French
waiting-woman being changed into Mary
Hamilton, and the queen’s apothecary[247] into
Henry Darnley. Yet this is less surprising
when we recollect that one of the heaviest of
the queen’s complaints against her ill-fated
husband was his infidelity, and that even with
her personal attendants.” This General Assembly,
however, met December 25, 1563,
and since Darnley did not come to Scotland
until 1565, a tale of 1563, or of 1563–4, leaves
him unscathed.
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in his preface
to A, Ballad Book, 1824, p. 18, observes: “It
is singular that during the reign of the Czar
Peter, one of his empress’s attendants, a Miss
Hamilton, was executed for the murder of a
natural child.... I cannot help thinking
that the two stories have been confused in
the ballad, for if Marie Hamilton was executed
in Scotland, it is not likely that her
relations resided beyond seas; and we have
no proof that Hamilton was really the name
of the woman who made a slip with the
queen’s apothecary.” Sharpe afterwards communicated
details of the story[248] to Scott,
who found in them “a very odd coincidence
in name, crime and catastrophe;” Minstrelsy,
1833, III, 296, note. But Sharpe became
convinced “that the Russian tragedy must
be the original” (note in Laing’s edition of
the Ballad Book, 1880, p. 129); and this
opinion is the only tenable one, however surprising
it may be or seem that, as late as
the eighteenth century, the popular genius,
helped by nothing but a name, should have
been able so to fashion and color an episode
in the history of a distant country as to make
it fit very plausibly into the times of Mary
Stuart.
The published accounts of the affair of the
Russian Mary Hamilton differ to much the
same degree as some versions of the Scottish
ballad. The subject has fortunately been
reviewed in a recent article founded on original
and authentic documents.[249]
When the Hamiltons first came to Russia
does not appear. Artemon Sergheievitch
Matveief, a distinguished personage, minister
and friend of the father of Peter the Great,
married a Hamilton, of a Scottish family
settled at Moscow, after which the Hamilton
family ranked with the aristocracy. The
name of Mary’s father, whether William
or Daniel, is uncertain, but it is considered
safe to say that she was niece to Andrei
Artemonovitch Matveief, son of the Tsar
Alexei’s friend. Mary Hamilton was created
383maid-of-honor to the Empress Catharine
chiefly on account of her beauty. Many of
Catharine’s attendants were foreigners; not
all were of conspicuous families, but Peter
required that they should all be remarkably
handsome. Mary had enjoyed the special
favor of the Tsar, but incurred his anger by
setting afloat a report that Catharine had a
habit of eating wax, which produced pimples
on her face. The empress spoke to her about
this slander; Mary denied that she was the
author of it; Catharine boxed her ears, and
she acknowledged the offence. Mary Hamilton
had been having an amour with Ivan
Orlof, a handsome aide-de-camp of Tsar
Peter, and while she was under the displeasure
of her master and mistress, the body of a
child was found in a well, wrapped in a court-napkin.
Orlof, being sent for by Peter on
account of a missing paper, thought that his
connection with Mary had been discovered,
and in his confusion let words escape him
which Peter put to use in tracing the origin
of the child. The guilt was laid at Mary’s
door; she at first denied the accusation, but
afterwards made a confession, exonerating
Orlof, however, from all participation in the
death of the babe; and indeed it was proved
that he had not even known of its birth till
the information came to him in the way of
court-gossip. Both were sent to the Petropaulovsk
fortress, Orlof on April 4, Mary on
April 10, 1718. Orlof was afterwards discharged
without punishment. Mary, after
being twice subjected to torture, under which
she confessed to having previously destroyed
two children,[250] was condemned to death November
27, 1718, and executed on March 14,
1719, the Tsar attending. She had attired
herself in white silk, with black ribbons, hoping
thereby to touch Peter’s heart. She fell
on her knees and implored a pardon. But a
law against the murder of illegitimate children
had recently been promulgated afresh
and in terms of extreme severity. Peter
turned aside and whispered something to the
executioner; those present thought he meant
to show grace, but it was an order to the
headsman to do his office. The Tsar picked
up Mary’s head and kissed it, made a little
discourse on the anatomy of it to the spectators,
kissed it again, and threw it down.
That beautiful head is said to have been kept
in spirits for some sixty years at the Academy
of Sciences in St Petersburg.
It will be observed that this adventure at
the Russian court presents every material
feature in the Scottish ballad, and even some
subordinate ones which may or may not have
been derived from report, may or may not
have been the fancy-work of singers or reciters.
We have the very name, Mary Hamilton;
she is a maid-of-honor; she has, as
some versions run, an intrigue with the king,
and has a child, which she destroys; she rolls
the child in a napkin and throws it into a
well (rolls the child in her handkerchief,
apron, and throws it in the sea); she is
charged with the fact and denies; according
to some versions, search is made and overwhelming
proof discovered;[251] she is tried and
condemned to die; she finds no grace. The
appeal to sailors and travellers in the ballad
shows that Mary Hamilton dies in a foreign
land—not that of her ancestors. The king’s
coming by in B 22 (cf. D 22, 23) may possibly
be a reminiscence of the Tsar’s presence at
the execution, and Mary’s dressing herself in
white, etc., to shine through Edinburgh town
a transformation of Mary’s dressing herself in
white to move the Tsar’s pity at the last moment;
but neither of these points need be
insisted on.
There is no trace of an admixture of the
Russian story with that of the French woman
and the queen’s apothecary, and no ballad
about the French woman is known to have
existed.
384We first hear of the Scottish ballad in 1790,
when a stanza is quoted in a letter of Robert
Burns (see R). So far as I know, but one
date can be deduced from the subject-matter
of the ballad; the Netherbow Port is standing
in G, I, M, and this gate was demolished
in 1764. The ballad must therefore have
arisen between 1719 and 1764. It is remarkable
that one of the very latest of the Scottish
popular ballads should be one of the very
best.
I a is translated by Gerhard, p. 149; Aytoun’s
ballad by Knortz, Schottische Balladen,
p. 76, No 24.
a. Sharpe’s Ballad Book, 1824, p. 18. b. Communicated
by the late John Francis Campbell, as learned from his father
about 1840. c. Aungervyle Society’s publications, No V,
p. 5 (First Series, p. 85); “taken down early in the present
century from the lips of an old lady in Annandale.”
1
Word’s gane to the kitchen,
And word’s gane to the ha,
That Marie Hamilton gangs wi bairn
To the hichest Stewart of a’.
2
He’s courted her in the kitchen,
He’s courted her in the ha,
He’s courted her in the laigh cellar,
And that was warst of a’.
3
She’s tyed it in her apron
And she’s thrown it in the sea;
Says, Sink ye, swim ye, bonny wee babe!
You’l neer get mair o me.
4
Down then cam the auld queen,
Goud tassels tying her hair:
‘O Marie, where’s the bonny wee babe
That I heard greet sae sair?’
5
‘There never was a babe intill my room,
As little designs to be;
It was but a touch o my sair side,
Come oer my fair bodie.’
6
‘O Marie, put on your robes o black,
Or else your robes o brown,
For ye maun gang wi me the night,
To see fair Edinbro town.’
7
‘I winna put on my robes o black,
Nor yet my robes o brown;
But I’ll put on my robes o white,
To shine through Edinbro town.’
8
When she gaed up the Cannogate,
She laughd loud laughters three;
But whan she cam down the Cannogate
The tear blinded her ee.
9
When she gaed up the Parliament stair,
The heel cam aff her shee;
And lang or she cam down again
She was condemnd to dee.
10
When she cam down the Cannogate,
The Cannogate sae free,
Many a ladie lookd oer her window,
Weeping for this ladie.
11
‘Ye need nae weep for me,’ she says,
‘Ye need nae weep for me;
For had I not slain mine own sweet babe,
This death I wadna dee.
12
‘Bring me a bottle of wine,’ she says,
‘The best that eer ye hae,
That I may drink to my weil-wishers,
And they may drink to me.
13
‘Here’s a health to the jolly sailors,
That sail upon the main;
Let them never let on to my father and mother
But what I’m coming hame.
14
‘Here’s a health to the jolly sailors,
That sail upon the sea;
Let them never let on to my father and mother
That I cam here to dee.
15
‘Oh little did my mother think,
The day she cradled me,
What lands I was to travel through,
What death I was to dee.
38516
‘Oh little did my father think,
The day he held up me,
What lands I was to travel through,
What death I was to dee.
17
‘Last night I washd the queen’s feet,
And gently laid her down;
And a’the thanks I’ve gotten the nicht
To be hangd in Edinbro town!
18
‘Last nicht there was four Maries,
The nicht there’l be but three;
There was Marie Seton, and Marie Beton,
And Marie Carmichael, and me.’
Motherwell’s MS., p. 337.
1
There were ladies, they lived in a bower,
And oh but they were fair!
The youngest o them is to the king’s court,
To learn some unco lair.
2
She hadna been in the king’s court
A twelve month and a day,
Till of her they could get na wark,
For wantonness and play.
3
Word is to the kitchen gane,
And word is to the ha,
And word is up to Madame the Queen,
And that is warst of a’,
That Mary Hamilton has born a bairn,
To the hichest Stewart of a’.
4
‘O rise, O rise, Mary Hamilton,
O rise, and tell to me
What thou did with thy sweet babe
We sair heard weep by thee.’
5
‘Hold your tongue, madame,’ she said,
‘And let your folly be;
It was a shouir o sad sickness
Made me weep sae bitterlie.’
6
‘O rise, O rise, Mary Hamilton,
O rise, and tell to me
What thou did with thy sweet babe
We sair heard weep by thee.’
7
‘I put it in a piner-pig,
And set it on the sea;
I bade it sink, or it might swim,
It should neer come hame to me.’
8
‘O rise, O rise, Mary Hamilton,
Arise, and go with me;
There is a wedding in Glasgow town
This day we’ll go and see.’
9
She put not on her black clothing,
She put not on her brown,
But she put on the glistering gold,
To shine thro Edinburgh town.
10
As they came into Edinburgh town,
The city for to see,
The bailie’s wife and the provost’s wife
Said, Och an alace for thee!
11
‘Gie never alace for me,’ she said,
‘Gie never alace for me;
It’s all for the sake of my poor babe,
This death that I maun die.’
12
As they gaed up the Tolbuith stair,
The stair it was sae hie,
The bailie’s son and the provost’s son
Said, Och an alace for thee!
13
‘Gie never alace for me,’ she said,
‘Gie never alace for me!
It’s all for the sake of my puir babe,
This death that I maun die.
14
‘But bring to me a cup,’ she says,
‘A cup bot and a can,
And I will drink to all my friends,
And they ll drink to me again.
15
‘Here’s to you all, travellers,
Who travels by land or sea;
Let na wit to my father nor mother
The death that I must die.
16
‘Here’s to you all, travellers,
That travels on dry land;
Let na wit to my father nor mother
But I am coming hame.
38617
‘Little did my mother think,
First time she cradled me,
What land I was to travel on,
Or what death I would die.
18
‘Little did my mother think,
First time she tied my head,
What land I was to tread upon,
Or whare I would win my bread.
19
‘Yestreen Queen Mary had four Maries,
This night she’ll hae but three;
She had Mary Seaton, and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Carmichael, and me.
20
‘Yestreen I wush Queen Mary’s feet,
And bore her till her bed;
This day she’s given me my reward,
This gallows-tree to tread.
21
‘Cast off, cast off my goun,’ she said.
‘But let my petticoat be,
And tye a napkin on my face,
For that gallows I downa see.’
22
By and cum the king himsell,
Lookd up with a pitiful ee:
‘Come down, come down, Mary Hamilton,
This day thou wilt dine with me.’
23
‘Hold your tongue, my sovereign leige,
And let your folly be;
An ye had a mind to save my life,
Ye should na shamed me here.’
Motherwell’s MS. p. 265; from Mrs Crum, Dumbarton,
7 April, 1825.
1
There lived a lord into the west,
And he had dochters three,
And the youngest o them is to the king’s court,
To learn some courtesie.
2
She was not in the king’s court
A twelvemonth and a day,
Till she was neither able to sit nor gang,
Wi the gaining o some play.
3
She went to the garden,
To pull the leaf aff the tree,
To tak this bonnie babe frae her breast,
But alas it would na do!
4
She rowed it in her handkerchief,
And threw it in the sea:
‘O sink ye, swim ye, wee wee babe!
Ye’ll get nae mair o me.’
5
Word is to the kitchen gane,
And word is to the ha,
That Mary Myle she goes wi child
To the highest Steward of a’.
6
Down and came the queen hersell,
The queen hersell so free:
‘O Mary Myle, whare is the child
That I heard weep for thee?’
7
‘O hold your tongue now, Queen,’ she says,
‘O hold your tongue so free!
For it was but a shower o the sharp sickness,
I was almost like to die.’
8
‘O busk ye, busk ye, Mary Myle,
O busk, and go wi me;
O busk ye, busk ye, Mary Mile,
It’s Edinburgh town to see.’
9
‘I’ll no put on my robes o black,
No nor yet my robes [o] brown;
But I’ll put on my golden weed,
To shine thro Edinburgh town.’
10
When she went up the Cannongate-side,
The Cannongate-side so free,
Oh there she spied some ministers’ lads,
Crying Och and alace for me!
11
‘Dinna cry och and alace for me!
Dinna cry o[c]h and alace for me!
For it’s all for the sake of my innocent babe
That I come here to die.’
12
When she went up the Tolbooth-stair,
The lap cam aff her shoe;
Before that she came down again,
She was condemned to die.
38713
‘O all you gallant sailors,
That sail upon the sea,
Let neither my father nor mother know
The death I am to die!
14
‘O all you gallant sailors,
That sail upon the faem,
Let neither my father nor mother know
But I am coming hame!
15
‘Little did my mother know,
The hour that she bore me,
What lands I was to travel in,
What death I was to die.
16
‘Little did my father know,
When he held up my head,
What lands I was to travel in,
What was to be my deid.
17
‘Yestreen I made Queen Mary’s bed,
Kembed doun her yellow hair;
Is this the reward I am to get,
To tread this gallows-stair!’
Motherwell’s MS., p. 267; from the recitation of Miss
Nancy Hamilton and Mrs Gentles, January, 1825.
1
There lives a knight into the north,
And he had daughters three;
The ane of them was a barber’s wife,
The other a gay ladie.
2
And the youngest of them is to Scotland gane,
The queen’s Mary to be,
And a’that they could say or do,
Forbidden she woudna be.
3
The prince’s bed it was sae saft,
The spices they were sae fine,
That out of it she couldna lye
While she was scarse fifteen.
4
She’s gane to the garden gay
To pu of the savin tree;
But for a’that she could say or do,
The babie it would not die.
5
She’s rowed it in her handkerchief,
She threw it in the sea;
Says, Sink ye, swim ye, my bonnie babe!
For ye’ll get nae mair of me.
6
Queen Mary came tripping down the stair,
Wi the gold strings in her hair:
‘O whare’s the little babie,’ she says,
‘That I heard greet sae sair? ’
7
‘O hold your tongue, Queen Mary, my dame,
Let all those words go free!
It was mysell wi a fit o the sair colic,
I was sick just like to die.’
8
‘O hold your tongue, Mary Hamilton,
Let all those words go free!
O where is the little babie
That I heard weep by thee?’
9
‘I rowed it in my handkerchief,
And threw it in the sea;
I bade it sink, I bade it swim,
It would get nae mair o me.’
10
‘O wae be to thee, Marie Hamilton,
And an ill deid may you die!
For if ye had saved the babie’s life
It might hae been an honour to thee.
11
‘Busk ye, busk ye, Marie Hamilton,
O busk ye to be a bride!
For I am going to Edinburgh toun,
Your gay wedding to bide.
12
‘You must not put on your robes of black,
Nor yet your robes of brown;
But you must put on your yellow gold stuffs,
To shine thro Edinburgh town.’
13
‘I will not put on my robes of black,
Nor yet my robes of brown;
But I will put on my yellow gold stuffs,
To shine thro Edinburgh town.’
14
As she went up the Parliament Close,
A riding on her horse,
There she saw many a cobler’s lady,
Sat greeting at the cross.
38815
‘O what means a’ this greeting?
I’m sure its nae for me;
For I’m come this day to Edinburgh town
Weel wedded for to be.’
16
When she gade up the Parliament stair,
She gied loud lauchters three;
But ere that she came down again,
She was condemned to die.
17
‘O little did my mother think,
The day that she prinned my gown,
That I was to come sae far frae hame
To be hangid in Edinburgh town.
18
‘O what’ll my poor father think,
As he comes thro the town,
To see the face of his Molly fair
Hanging on the gallows-pin!
19
‘Here’s a health to the marineres,
That plough the raging main!
Let neither my mother nor father know
But I’m coming hame again!
20
‘Here’s a health to the sailors,
That sail upon the sea!
Let neither my mother nor father ken
That I came here to die!
21
‘Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
This night she’ll hae but three;
There was Mary Beaton, and Mary Seaton,
And Mary Carmichael, and me.’
22
‘O hald your tongue, Mary Hamilton,
Let all those words go free!
This night eer ye be hanged
Ye shall gang hame wi me.’
23
‘O hald your tongue, Queen Mary, my dame,
Let all those words go free!
For since I have come to Edinburgh toun,
It’s hanged I shall be,
And it shall neer be said that in your court
I was condemned to die.’
Buchan’s MSS, II, 186.
1
‘My father was the Duke of York,
My mother a lady free,
Mysell a dainty damsell,
Queen Mary sent for me.
2
‘Yestreen I washd Queen Mary’s feet,
Kam’d down her yellow hair,
And lay a’night in the young man’s bed,
And I’ll rue t for evermair.
3
The queen’s kale was aye sae het,
Her spice was aye sae fell,
Till they gart me gang to the young man’s bed,
And I’d a’the wyte mysell.
4
‘I was not in the queen’s service
A twelvemonth but barely ane,
Ere I grew as big wi bairn
As ae woman could gang.
5
‘But it fell ance upon a day,
Was aye to be it lane,
I did take strong travilling
As ever yet was seen.’
6
Ben it came the queen hersell,
Was a’ gowd to the hair;
‘O where’s the bairn, Lady Maisry,
That I heard greeting sair?’
7
Ben it came the queen hersell,
Was a’ gowd to the chin:
‘O where’s the bairn, Lady Maisry,
That I heard late yestreen.’
8
‘There is no bairn here,’ she says,
‘Nor never thinks to be;
’Twas but a stoun o sair sickness
That ye heard seizing me.’
9
They sought it out, they sought it in,
They sought it but and ben,
But between the bolster and the bed
They got the baby slain.
10
‘Come busk ye, busk ye, Lady Maisdry,
Come busk, an go with me;
389For I will on to Edinburgh,
And try the verity.’
11
She woud not put on the black, the black,
Nor yet wad she the brown,
But the white silk and the red scarlet,
That shin’d frae town to town.
12
As she gaed down thro Edinburgh town
The burghers’ wives made meen,
That sic a dainty damsel
Sud ever hae died for sin.
13
‘Make never meen for me,’ she says,
‘Make never meen for me;
Seek never grace frae a graceless face,
For that ye’ll never see.’
14
As she gaed up the Tolbooth stair,
A light laugh she did gie;
But lang ere she came down again
She was condemned to die.
15
‘A’ you that are in merchants-ships,
And cross the roaring faem,
Hae nae word to my father and mother,
But that I’m coming hame.
16
‘Hold your hands, ye justice o peace,
Hold them a little while!
For yonder comes my father and mother,
That’s travelld mony a mile.
17
‘Gie me some o your gowd, parents,
Some o your white monie,
To save me frae the head o yon hill,
Yon greenwood gallows-tree.’
18
‘Ye’ll get nane o our gowd, daughter,
Nor nane o our white monie;
For we hae travelld mony a mile,
This day to see you die.’
19
‘Hold your hands, ye justice o peace,
Hold them a little while!
For yonder comes him Warenston,
The father of my chile.
20
‘Give me some o your gowd, Warenston,
Some o your white monie,
To save me frae the head o yon hill,
Yon greenwood gallows-tree.’
21
‘I bade you nurse my bairn well,
And nurse it carefullie,
And gowd shoud been your hire, Maisry,
And my body your fee.’
22
He’s taen out a purse o gowd,
Another o white monie,
And he’s tauld down ten thousand crowns,
Says, True love, gang wi me.
Skene MS., p. 61.
1
My father was the Duke of York,
My mother a lady free,
Mysel a dainty demosell,
Queen Mary sent for me.
2
The queen’s meat, it was sae sweet,
Her clothing was sae rare,
It made me lang for Sweet Willie’s bed,
An I’ll rue it ever maer.
3
Mary Beaton, and Mary Seaton,
And Lady Livinston, three,
We’ll never meet in Queen Mary’s bower,
Now Maries tho ye be.
4
Queen Mary sat in her bower,
Sewing her silver seam;
She thought she heard a baby greet,
But an a lady meen.
5
She threw her needle frae her,
Her seam out of her hand,
An she is on to Lady Mary’s bower,
As fast as she could gang.
6
‘Open yer door, Lady Mary,’ she says,
‘And lat me come in;
For I hear a baby greet,
But an a lady meen.’
7
‘There is na bab in my bower, madam,
Nor never thinks to be,
390But the strong pains of gravel
This night has seized me.’
8
She pat her fit to the door,
But an her knee,
Baith of brass and iron bands
In flinders she gard flee.
9
She pat a hand to her bed-head,
An ither to her bed-feet,
An bonny was the bab
Was blabbering in its bleed.
10
‘Wae worth ye, Lady Mary,
An ill dead sall ye die!
For an ye widna kept the bonny bab,
Ye might ha sen’t to me.’
11
‘Lay na the wate on me, madam,
Lay na the wate on me!
For my fas love bare the brand at his side
That gared my barrine die.’
12
‘Get up, Lady Beaton, get up, Lady Seton,
And Lady Livinstone three,
An we will on to Edinburgh,
An try this gay lady.’
13
As she came to the Cannongate,
The burgers’ wives they cryed
Hon ohon, ochree! . . .
. . . . . . .
14
‘O had you still, ye burgers’ wives,
An make na meen for me;
Seek never grace of a graceless face,
For they hae nane to gie.
15
‘Ye merchants and ye mariners,
That trade upon the sea,
O dinna tell in my country
The dead I’m gaen to die!
16
‘Ye merchants and ye mariners,
That sail upo the faeme,
O dinna tell in my country
But that I’m comin hame!
17
‘Little did my father think,
Whan he brought me our the sea,
That he wad see me yellow locks
Hang on a gallow’s tree.
18
‘Little did my mither think
Whan she brought me fra hame,
That she maught see my yellow loks
Han[g] on a gallow-pin.
19
‘O had your hand a while!
. . . . . . .
For yonder comes my father,
I’m sure he’l borrow me.
20
‘O some of your goud, father,
An of your well won fee,
To save me [frae the high hill]
[And] frae the gallow-tree!’
21
‘Ye’s get nane of my goud,
Nor of my well won fee,
For I would gie five hundred pown
To see ye hangit hie.’
22
‘O had yer hand a while!
. . . . . . .
Yonder is my love Willie,
Sure he will borrow me.
23
‘O some o your goud, my love Willie,
An some o yer well won fee,
To save me frae the high hill,
And fra the gallow-tree!’
24
‘Ye’s get a’ my goud,
And a’ my well won fee,
To save ye fra the headin-hill,
And frae the gallow-tree.’
Manuscript of Scottish Songs and Ballads, copied by a
granddaughter of Lord Woodhouselee, 1840–50, p. 51.
1
O Mary Hamilton to the kirk is gane,
Wi ribbons in her hair;
An the king thoct mair o Marie
Then onie that were there.
2
Mary Hamilton’s to the preaching gane,
Wi ribbons on her breast;
An the king thocht mair o Marie
Than he thocht o the priest.
3913
Syne word is thro the palace gane,
I heard it tauld yestreen,
The king loes Mary Hamilton
Mair than he loes his queen.
4
A sad tale thro the town is gaen,
A sad tale on the morrow;
Oh Mary Hamilton has born a babe,
An slain it in her sorrow!
5
And down then cam the auld queen,
Goud tassels tied her hair:
‘What did ye wi the wee wee bairn
That I heard greet sae sair?’
6
‘There neer was a bairn into my room,
An as little designs to be;
’Twas but a stitch o my sair side,
Cam owre my fair bodie.’
7
‘Rise up now, Marie,’ quo the queen,
‘Rise up, an come wi me,
For we maun ride to Holyrood,
A gay wedding to see.’
8
The queen was drest in scarlet fine,
Her maidens all in green;
An every town that they cam thro
Took Marie for the queen.
9
But little wist Marie Hamilton,
As she rode oure the lea,
That she was gaun to Edinbro town
Her doom to hear and dree.
10
When she cam to the Netherbow Port,
She laughed loud laughters three;
But when she reached the gallows-tree,
The tears blinded her ee.
11
‘Oh aften have I dressed my queen,
An put gowd in her hair;
The gallows-tree is my reward,
An shame maun be my share!
12
‘Oh aften hae I dressed my queen,
An saft saft made her bed;
An now I’ve got for my reward
The gallows-tree to tread!
13
‘There’s a health to all gallant sailors,
That sail upon the sea!
Oh never let on to my father and mither
The death that I maun dee!
14
‘An I charge ye, all ye mariners,
When ye sail owre the main,
Let neither my father nor mither know
But that I’m comin hame.
15
‘Oh little did my mither ken,
That day she cradled me,
What lands I was to tread in,
Or what death I should dee.
16
‘Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she’ll hae but three;
There’s Marie Seaton, an Marie Beaton,
An Marie Carmichael, an me.’
Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 252; a North
Country version.
1
‘Whan I was a babe, and a very little babe,
And stood at my mither’s knee,
Nae witch nor warlock did unfauld
The death I was to dree.
2
‘But my mither was a proud woman,
A proud woman and a bauld;
And she hired me to Queen Mary’s bouer,
When scarce eleven years auld.
3
‘O happy, happy is the maid,
That’s born of beauty free!
It was my dimpling rosy cheeks
That’s been the dule o me;
And wae be to that weirdless wicht,
And a’ his witcherie!‘
4
Word’s gane up and word’s gane doun,
An word’s gane to the ha,
That Mary Hamilton was wi bairn,
An na body kend to wha.
5
But in and cam the queen hersel,
Wi gowd plait on her hair:
Says, Mary Hamilton, whare is the babe
That I heard greet sae sair?
3926
‘There is na babe within my bouer,
And I hope there neer will be;
But it’s me wi a sair and sick colic,
And I’m just like to dee.’
7
But they looked up, they looked down,
Atween the bowsters and the wa,
It’s there they got a bonnie lad-bairn,
But its life it was awa.
8
Rise up, rise up, Mary Hamilton,
Rise up, and dress ye fine,
For you maun gang to Edinbruch,
And stand afore the nine.
9
‘Ye’ll no put on the dowie black,
Nor yet the dowie brown;
But ye’ll put on the robes o red,
To sheen thro Edinbruch town.’
10
‘I’ll no put on the dowie black,
Nor yet the dowie brown;
But I’ll put on the robes o red,
To sheen thro Edinbruch town.’
11
As they gaed thro Edinbruch town,
And down by the Nether-bow,
There war monie a lady fair
Siching and crying, Och how!
12
‘O weep na mair for me, ladies,
Weep na mair for me!
Yestreen I killed my ain bairn,
The day I deserve to dee.
13
‘What need ye hech and how, ladies?
What need ye how for me?
Ye never saw grace at a graceless face,
Queen Mary has nane to gie.’
14
‘Gae forward, gae forward,’ the queen she said,
‘Gae forward, that ye may see;
For the very same words that ye hae said
Sall hang ye on the gallows-tree.’
15
As she gaed up the Tolbooth stairs,
She gied loud lauchters three;
But or ever she cam down again,
She was condemnd to dee.
16
‘O tak example frae me, Maries,
O tak example frae me,
Nor gie your luve to courtly lords,
Nor heed their witchin’ ee.
17
‘But wae be to the Queen hersel,
She micht hae pardond me;
But sair she’s striven for me to hang
Upon the gallows-tree.
18
‘Yestreen the Queen had four Maries,
The nicht she’ll hae but three;
There was Mary Beatoun, Mary Seaton,
And Mary Carmichael, and me.
19
‘Aft hae I set pearls in her hair,
Aft hae I lac’d her gown,
And this is the reward I now get,
To be hangd in Edinbruch town!
20
‘O a’ye mariners, far and near,
That sail ayont the faem,
O dinna let my father and mither ken
But what I am coming hame!
21
‘O a’ye mariners, far and near,
That sail ayont the sea,
Let na my father and mither ken
The death I am to dee!
22
‘Sae, weep na mair for me, ladies,
Weep na mair for me;
The mither that kills her ain bairn
Deserves weel for to dee.’
a. Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, III, 294, made up from
various copies. b. Three stanzas (23, 18, 19) in the first
edition of the Minstrelsy, 1802, II, 154, from recitation.
1
Marie Hamilton’s to the kirk gane,
Wi ribbons in her hair;
The king thought mair o Marie Hamilton
Than ony that were there.
2
Marie Hamilton’s to the kirk gane,
Wi ribbons on her breast;
The king thought mair o Marie Hamilton
Then he listend to the priest.
3933
Marie Hamilton’s to the kirk gane,
Wi gloves upon her hands;
The king thought mair o Marie Hamilton,
Than the queen and a’her lands.
4
She hadna been about the king’s court
A month, but barely one,
Till she was beloved by a’the king’s court,
And the king the only man.
5
She hadna been about the king’s court
A month, but barely three,
Till frae the king’s court Marie Hamilton,
Marie Hamilton durstna be.
6
The king is to the Abbey gane,
To pu the Abbey-tree,
To scale the babe frae Marie’s heart,
But the thing it wadna be.
7
O she has rowd it in her apron,
And set it on the sea:
‘Gae sink ye, or swim ye, bonny babe!
Ye’s get nae mair o me.’
8
Word is to the kitchen gane,
And word is to the ha,
And word is to the noble room,
Amang the ladyes a’,
That Marie Hamilton’s brought to bed,
And the bonny babe’s mist and awa.
9
Scarcely had she lain down again,
And scarcely fa’en asleep,
When up then started our gude queen,
Just at her bed-feet,
Saying, Marie Hamilton, where’s your babe?
For I am sure I heard it greet.
10
‘O no, O no, my noble queen,
Think no such thing to be!
’Twas but a stitch into my side,
And sair it troubles me.’
11
‘Get up, get up, Marie Hamilton,
Get up and follow me;
For I am going to Edinburgh town,
A rich wedding for to see.’
12
O slowly, slowly raise she up,
And slowly put she on,
And slowly rode she out the way,
Wi mony a weary groan.
13
The queen was clad in scarlet,
Her merry maids all in green,
And every town that they cam to,
They took Marie for the queen.
14
‘Ride hooly, hooly, gentlemen,
Ride hooly now wi me!
For never, I am sure, a wearier burd
Rade in your cumpanie.’
15
But little wist Marie Hamilton,
When she rade on the brown,
That she was gaen to Edinburgh town,
And a’to be put down.
16
‘Why weep ye so, ye burgess-wives,
Why look ye so on me?
O I am going to Edinburgh town
A rich wedding for to see!’
17
When she gaed up the Tolbooth stairs,
The corks frae her heels did flee;
And lang or eer she cam down again
She was condemnd to die.
18
When she cam to the Netherbow Port,
She laughed loud laughters three;
But when she cam to the gallows-foot,
The tears blinded her ee.
19
‘Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The night she’ll hae but three;
There was Marie Seaton, and Marie Beaton,
And Marie Carmichael, and me.
20
‘O often have I dressd my queen,
And put gold upon her hair;
But now I’ve gotten for my reward
The gallows to be my share.
21
‘Often have I dressd my queen,
And often made her bed;
But now I’ve gotten for my reward
The gallows-tree to tread.
22
‘I charge ye all, ye mariners,
When ye sail ower the faem,
Let neither my father nor mother get wit
But that I’m coming hame!
23
‘I charge ye all, ye mariners,
That sail upon the sea,
Let neither my father nor mother get wit
This dog’s death I’m to die!
39424
‘For if my father and mother got wit,
And my bold brethren three,
O mickle wad be the gude red blude
This day wad be spilt for me!
25
‘O little did my mother ken,
That day she cradled me,
The lands I was to travel in,
Or the death I was to die!’
Harris MS., fol. 10 b; “Mrs Harris and others.”
1
My mother was a proud, proud woman,
A proud, proud woman and a bold;
She sent me to Queen Marie’s bour,
When scarcely eleven years old.
2
Queen Marie’s bread it was sae sweet,
An her wine it was sae fine,
That I hae lien in a young man’s arms,
An I rued it aye synsyne.
3
Queen Marie she cam doon the stair,
Wi the goud kamis in her hair:
‘Oh whare, oh whare is the wee wee babe
I heard greetin sae sair?’
4
‘It’s no a babe, a babie fair,
Nor ever intends to be;
But I mysel, wi a sair colic,
Was seek an like to dee.’
5
They socht the bed baith up an doon,
Frae the pillow to the straw,
An there they got the wee wee babe,
But its life was far awa.
6
‘Come doon, come doon, Marie Hamilton,
Come doon an speak to me;
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
7
‘You’ll no put on your dowie black,
Nor yet your dowie broun;
But you’ll put on your ried, ried silk,
To shine through Edinborough toun.’
* * * * *
8
‘Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she’ll hae but three;
There was Marie Bethune, an Marie Seaton,
An Marie Carmichael, an me.
9
‘Ah, little did my mother ken,
The day she cradled me,
The lands that I sud travel in,
An the death that I suld dee.’
10
Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she has but three;
For the bonniest Marie amang them a’
Was hanged upon a tree.
Motherwell’s MS., p. 96; from Jean Macqueen, Largs.
1
Queen Mary had four serving-maids,
As braw as braw could be,
But ane o them has fa’n wi bairn,
And for it she maun die.
2
But whan the babie it was born,
A troubled woman was she;
She rowed it up in a handkerchief,
And flang it in the sea.
3
Out then spoke a bonnie wee burd,
And it spak sharp and keen:
‘O what did ye do wi your wee babie,
Ye had in your arms yestreen?’
4
‘O I tyed it up in a napkin,
And flang it in the sea;
I bade it sink, I bade it soom,
‘Twad get nae mair o me.’
5
Out and spak King Henrie,
And an angry man was he:
‘A’for the drowning o that wee babe
High hanged ye shall be.’
* * * * *
6
‘I’ll no put on a goun o black,
Nor yet a goun o green,
But I’ll put on a goun o gowd,
To glance in young men’s een.
3957
‘O gin ye meet my father or mother,
Ye may tell them frae me,
’Twas for the sake o a wee wee bairn
That I came here to die.
8
‘Yestreen four Maries made Queen Mary’s bed,
This nicht there’ll be but three,
A Mary Beaton, a Mary Seaton,
A Mary Carmichael, and me.
9
‘O what will my three brithers say,
When they come hame frae see,
When they see three locks o my yellow hair
Hinging under a gallows-tree!’
Motherwell’s MS., p. 280; from the recitation of Mrs
Trail of Paisley.
1
Doun and cam the queen hersell,
Wi the goud links in her hair:
‘O what did you do wi the braw lad bairn
That I heard greet sae sair?’
2
‘There was never a babe into my room,
Nor ever intends to be;
It was but a fit o the sair colic,
That was like to gar me die.’
3
Doun and cam the king himsell,
And an angry man was he:
‘If ye had saved that braw child’s life,
It might hae been an honour to thee.’
4
They socht the chamer up and doun,
And in below the bed,
And there they fand a braw lad-bairn
Lying lapperin in his blood.
5
She rowed it up in her apron green,
And threw it in the sea:
‘Een sink or swim, you braw lad bairn!
Ye’ll neer get mair o me.’
* * * * *
6
When she gaed up the Cannogate,
She gied loud lauchters three;
But or she cam to the Cowgate Head
The tears did blind her ee.
7
‘Come a’ye jovial sailors,
That sail upon the sea,
Tell neither my father nor mother
The death that I’m to die!
8
‘Come a’ye jovial sailors,
That sail upon the main,
See that ye tell baith my father and mother
That I’m coming sailing hame!
9
‘My father he’s the Duke of York,
And my mother’s a gay ladie,
And I mysell a pretty fair lady,
And the king fell in love with me.’
Maidment’s North Countrie Garland, p. 19.
1
Then down cam Queen Marie,
Wi gold links in her hair,
Saying, Marie Mild, where is the child,
That I heard greet sae sair?
2
‘There was nae child wi me, madam,
There was nae child wi me;
It was but me in a sair cholic,
When I was like to die.’
3
‘I’m not deceived,’ Queen Marie said,
‘No, no, indeed not I!
So Marie Mild, where is the child?
For sure I heard it cry.’
4
She turned down the blankets fine,
Likewise the Holland sheet,
And underneath, there strangled lay
A lovely baby sweet.
5
‘O cruel mother,’ said the queen,
‘Some fiend possessed thee;
396But I will hang thee for this deed,
My Marie tho thou be!’
* * * * *
6
When she cam to the Netherbow Port
She laught loud laughters three;
But when she cam to the gallows-foot,
The saut tear blinded her ee.
7
‘Yestreen the Queen had four Maries,
The night she’ll hae but three;
There was Marie Seton, and Marie Beaton,
And Marie Carmichael, and me.
8
‘Ye mariners, ye mariners,
That sail upon the sea,
Let not my father or mother wit
The death that I maun die!
9
‘I was my parents’ only hope,
They neer had ane but me;
They little thought when I left hame,
They should nae mair me see!’
Murison MS., p. 33; from recitation at Old Deer, 1876.
1
The streen the queen had four Maries,
This nicht she’ll hae but three;
There’s Mary Heaton, an Mary Beaton,
An Mary Michel, an me,
An I mysel was Mary Mild,
An flower oer a’the three.
2
Mary’s middle was aye sae neat,
An her clothing aye sae fine,
It caused her lie in a young man’s airms,
An she’s ruet it aye sin syne.
3
She done her doon yon garden green,
To pull the deceivin tree,
For to keep back that young man’s bairn,
But forward it would be.
4
‘Ye winna put on the dowie black,
Nor yet will ye the broon,
But ye’ll put on the robes o red,
To shine through Edinburgh toon.’
5
She hasna pitten on the dowie black,
Nor yet has she the broon,
But she’s pitten on the robes o red,
To shine thro Edinburgh toon.
6
When she came to the mariners’ toon,
The mariners they were playin,
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
7
‘Ye needna play for me, mariners,
Ye needna play for me;
Ye never saw grace in a graceless face,
For there’s nane therein to be.
8
‘Seven years an I made Queen Mary’s bed,
Seven years an I combed her hair,
An a hansome reward noo she’s gien to me,
Gien me the gallows-tows to wear!
9
‘Oh little did my mither think,
The day she cradled me,
What road I’d hae to travel in,
Or what death I’d hae to dee!’
Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xix, from recitation.
1
There lived a lord into the south,
And he had dochters three,
And the youngest o them went to the king’s court,
To learn some courtesie.
2
She rowd it in a wee wee clout
. . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
3
She rowd it in a wee wee clout
And flang’t into the faem,
Saying, Sink ye soon, my bonny babe!
I’ll go a maiden hame.
4
‘O woe be to you, ye ill woman,
An ill death may ye die!
Gin ye had spared the sweet baby’s life,
It might hae been an honour to thee.’
3975
She wadna put on her gowns o black,
Nor yet wad she o brown,
But she wad put on her gowns o gowd,
To glance through Embro town.
6
‘Come saddle not to me the black,’ she says,
‘Nor yet to me the brown,
But come saddle to me the milk-white steed,
That I may ride in renown.’
Kinloch’s MSS, VII, 95, 97.
My father’s the Duke of Argyll,
My mither’s a lady gay,
And I mysel am a dainty dame,
And the king desired me.
He schawd [me] up, he shawed me doun,
He schawd me to the ha;
He schawd me to the low cellars,
And that was waurst of a’.
Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, ed.
Allardyce, 1888, II, 272, in a letter from Sharpe to W.
Scott [1823].
1
The Duke of York was my father,
My mother a lady free,
Myself a dainty damosell,
Queen Marie sent for me.
2
The queen’s meat it was sae sweet,
Her cleiding was sae rare,
It gart me grien for sweet Willie,
And I’ll rue it evermair.
Burns, in a letter to Mrs Dunlop, January 25, 1790;
Currie, II, 290, 1800.
Little did my mother think,
That day she cradled me,
What land I was to travel in,
Or what death I should die!
A. b.
1.
There’s news is gaen in the kitchen,
There’s news is gaen in the ha,
There’s news is gaen in the laigh cellar,
And that was warst of a’.
2.
There’s news is gaen in the kitchen,
There’s news is gaen in the ha’,
That Mary Hamilton’s gotten a wean,
And that was warst of a’.
31. She’s rowed.
32. She’s cuist it.
33. My bonnie bairn ga sink or swim.
34. Ye’s no hear mair.
41. Then doon.
42. Wi tasslets.
43. Cri’n, M. H., whaur’s the bairn.
44. That wanting.
51. There’s no a bairn in a’ the toon.
52. Nor yet.
53. ’Twas but a steek in.
61. And ye maun.
64. And ye maun awa wi me the morn.
71. I’se no.
74. To see fair.
81. And when.
83. And when.
84. tear stood in.
91. And when.
92. heel slipped off.
93. And when she cam doon the Parliament
stair.
10, 11 wanting.
121. But bring: she cried.
131, 141. And here’s to the jolly sailor lad.
132, 142. sails: faem.
133. And let not my father nor mother get wit.
134. that I shall come again.
143. But let, as in 133.
144. O the death that I maun dee.
15, 16 wanting.
171. auld queen’s.
172. And I laid her gently.
173. I hae gotten the day.
174. Is to.
181. night the queen had.
182. This night she’ll hae.
184. M. Beton and M. Seton.
398c.
Begins:
This nicht the queen has four Maries,
Each fair as she can be;
There’s Marie Seton, etc.
31. The bairn’s tyed.
32. And thrown intill.
43. O sink.
After 3:
Oh I have born this bonnie wee babe
Wi mickle toil and pain;
Gae hame, gae hame, you bonnie wee babe!
For nurse I dare be nane.
41. Then down cam Queen Marie.
43. Saying, Marie mild, where is the babe.
51. There was nae babe.
52. There was na babe wi me.
53. o a sair cholic.
After 5 (mostly spurious):
The queen turned down the blankets fine,
Likewise the snae-white sheet,
And what she saw caused her many a tear,
And made her sair to greet.
O cruel mither, said the queen,
A fiend possessed thee:
But I will hang thee for this deed,
My Marie though thou be.
After 7:
And some they mounted the black steed,
And some mounted the brown,
But Marie mounted her milk-white steed,
And rode foremost thro the town.
83. But when.
After 12:
Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she’ll hae but three;
There was M. S., and M. B.
And M. C., and me.
13 wanting.
141. Ye mariners, ye mariners.
143. L[et] not my father and mother wit.
144. The death that I maun dee.
After 14:
I was my parents’ only hope,
They neer had ane but me;
They little thought, when I left hame,
They should nae mair me see.
17 wanting.
181. there were.
Largely taken from a, 1, 2, 6–12, 15, 16 being
literally repeated.
B.
33. us up.
85,6. wrongly:
And we’ll ride into Edinburgh town,
High hanged thou shalt be.
C.
92. Altered from I’ll put on my brown. Var. between 92and 93:
Nor I’ll no put on my suddling silks,
That I wear up and down.
up and down altered from ilka day.
101. went altered from gaed.
131, 141. Oh.
D.
From two reciters, which accounts for the
alterations and insertions.
11. Altered from There was a lord lived in
the north.
21. Altered from And the third.
23. Altered from that he.
41. gay added later.
42. Altered from And pued the saving tree.
43. for inserted later.
44. it inserted later.
73. a fit o inserted later.
74. Altered from I am just.
9. After 9, Motherwell wrote A stanza wanting,
and subsequently added 10, 11.
123. Originally, gold stars.
13. Originally,
She did not put on her robes of black,
Nor yet her robes of brown,
But she put on her yellow gold stars (stays?).
14. Originally,
And when she came into Edinborugh, (bad reading)
And standing at the cross,
There she saw all the coblers’ wifes,
Sat greeting at the cross.
153,4. Originally, For I am come to, etc.,
Weeded for to be.
A marginal note by Motherwell, opposite the
last line, but erased, has A rich wedding to
sie.
161. stair altered from close.
19, 20. Written in the margin, after those
which follow.
233,4and And, 235, are of later insertion.
E.
For the seven stanzas after 15, see No 95, II,
346.
399F.
3.
Mary Beaton & Mary Seaton & Lady Livinston
Three we’ll [or will] never meet
In queen Mary’s bower
Now Maries tho ye be.
132. then cryed.
141. had your.
184. pine.
For the six stanzas after 18, see No 95, II,
346.
G.
11. Oh.
H.
3, 16, 17, 22 are put into smaller type as
being evidently spurious.
I. a.
24 is certainly spurious, and reduces the
pathos exceedingly.
b.
184. tear.
23.
O ye mariners, mariners, mariners,
That sail upon the sea,
Let not my father nor mother to wit
The death that I maun die!
K.
From Jean Macqueen, Largo, in the MS.
“More likely to be Largs, which is on the
Clyde, than Largo, on the east coast”: note
of Mr J. B. Murdoch.
41. Oh.
6 is the last stanza but one in the MS.
L.
9 might better be 1.
N.
Variations.
13–6.
There’s Mary Beaton, an Mary Seaton,
An Mary Carmichael, an me;
An I mysel, Queen Mary’s maid,
Was flower oer a’ the three.
21. sae jimp.
23. She loved to lie.
32. the savin tree.
33,4.
But the little wee babe came to her back,
An forward it would be.
8 is4 in the MS.
O.
“The unfortunate heroine’s name is Mary
Moil”: Finlay, p. xix.
174 EARL BOTHWELL
‘Earle Bodwell,’ Percy MS., p. 272; Hales and Furnivall, II, 260.
Printed in Percy’s Reliques, with changes,
1765, II, 197, ‘The Murder of the King of
Scots;’ with some restorations of the original
readings, 1794, II, 200.
This ballad represents, 8, 13, that the
murder of Darnley was done in revenge for
his complicity in the murder of Riccio; in
which there may be as much truth as this,
that the queen’s resentment of Darnley’s participation
in that horrible transaction may
have been operative in inducing her assent—such
assent as she gave—to the conspiracy
against the life of her husband.
2. Darnley came to Scotland in February,
1565 (being then but just turned of nineteen),
not sent for, but very possibly with
some hope of pleasing his cousin, ‘the queen
[dowager] of France,’ to whom he was married
in the following July. His inglorious
career was closed in February, 1567.
5. On the fatal evening of the ninth of
March, 1566, Riccio was sitting in the queen’s
cabinet with his cap on; “and this sight was
perhaps the more offensive that a few Scotsmen
of good rank seem to have been in attendance
as domestics.”[252]
6. The ballad should not be greatly in
excess as to the number of the daggers, since
Riccio had fifty-six [fifty-two] wounds.
4007. After Riccio had been dragged out of the
queen’s cabinet, Darnley fell to charging the
queen with change in her ways with him
since “yon fellow Davie fell in credit and
familiarity” with her. In answer to his reproaches
and interpellations her Majesty said
to him that he was to blame for all the shame
that was done to her; “for the which I shall
never be your wife nor lie with you, nor shall
never like well till I gar you have as sore a
heart as I have presently.”[253]
9–14. A large quantity of powder was fired
in the room below that in which “the worthy
king” slept, but the body of Darnley and
that of his servant were found lying at a considerable
distance from the house, without any
marks of having been subject to the explosion.
One theory of the circumstances was
that the two had been strangled in their beds,
and removed before the train was lighted;
another account is that Darnley, who would
naturally hear some stir in the house, made his
escape with his page, but “was intercepted
and strangled after a desperate resistance,
his cries for mercy being heard by some
women in the nearest house.”[254] Bothwell,
though the author of all these proceedings
and personally superintending the execution
of them, did not openly appear.
It will be observed that King James says
that his father [MS. mother] was hanged on
a tree, in ‘King James and Brown,’ No 180,
82.
Bothwell and Huntly, who by virtue of
their offices had apartments in the palace,
not being in sympathy with the conspirators,
are said in the Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 90,
to have broken through a window, in fear of
their lives, and to have let themselves down
by a cord. Bothwell, as the champion of the
queen against the confederate lords, might
naturally be supposed by the minstrel to take
a personal interest in revenging Riccio.
15, 16. The Regent Murray is here described
as ‘bitterly banishing’ Mary, wherefore
she durst not remain in Scotland, but fled
to England. The queen escaped from Lochleven
Castle on the second of May, 1568, and
took refuge in England on the sixteenth.
We must suppose the ballad to have been
made not long after.
Translated by Bodmer, II, 51, from Percy’s
Reliques.
1
Woe worth thee, woe worth thee, false Scottlande!
Ffor thou hast euer wrought by a sleight;
For the worthyest prince that euer was borne,
You hanged vnder a cloud by night.
2
The Queene of France a letter wrote,
And sealed itt with hart and ringe,
And bade him come Scottland within,
And shee wold marry him and crowne him king.
3
To be a king, itt is a pleasant thing,
To bee a prince vnto a peere;
But you haue heard, and so haue I too,
A man may well by gold to deere.
4
There was an Italyan in that place,
Was as wel beloued as euer was hee;
Lord David was his name,
Chamberlaine vnto the queene was hee.
5
Ffor if the king had risen forth of his place,
He wold haue sitt him downe in the cheare,
And tho itt beseemed him not soe well,
Altho the king had beene present there.
6
Some lords in Scottland waxed wonderous wroth,
And quarrelld with him for the nonce;
I shall you tell how itt beffell,
Twelue daggers were in him all att once.
4017
When this queene see the chamberlaine was slaine,
For him her cheeks shee did weete,
And made a vow for a twelue month and a day
The king and shee wold not come in one sheete.
8
Then some of the lords of Scottland waxed wrothe,
And made their vow vehementlye,
‘For death of the queenes chamberlaine
The king himselfe he shall dye.’
9
They strowed his chamber ouer with gunpowder,
And layd greene rushes in his way;
Ffor the traitors thought that night
The worthy king for to betray.
10
To bedd the worthy king made him bowne,
To take his rest, that was his desire;
He was noe sooner cast on sleepe,
But his chamber was on a blasing fyer.
11
Vp he lope, and a glasse window broke,
He had thirty foote for to ffall;
Lord Bodwell kept a priuy wach
Vnderneath his castle-wall:
‘Who haue wee heere?’ sayd Lord Bodwell;
‘Answer me, now I doe call.’
12
‘King Henery the Eighth my vnckle was;
Some pitty show for his sweet sake!
Ah, Lord Bodwell, I know thee well;
Some pitty on me I pray thee take!’
13
‘I’le pitty thee as much,’ he sayd,
‘And as much favor I’le show to thee
As thou had on the queene’s chamberlaine
That day thou deemedst him to dye.’
14
Through halls and towers this king they ledd,
Through castles and towers that were hye,
Through an arbor into an orchard,
And there hanged him in a peare tree.
15
When the gouernor of Scottland he heard tell
That the worthye king he was slaine,
He hath banished the queene soe bitterlye
That in Scottland shee dare not remaine.
16
But shee is ffled into merry England,
And Scottland to a side hath laine,
And through the Queene of Englands good grace
Now in England shee doth remaine.
62. noncett, with tt blotted out. (?) Furnivall.
64, 73. 12. 103. sleepee.
112. 30.
121. 8th ..
131. Partly pared away. Furnivall.
162. to aside.
175 THE RISING IN THE NORTH
‘Risinge in the Northe,’ Percy MS., p. 256; Hales and Furnivall, II, 210.
Printed in Percy’s Reliques, 1765, I, 250,
“from two MS. copies, one of them in the editor’s
folio collection. They contained considerable
variations, out of which such readings
were chosen as seemed most poetical and
consonant to history.” Bearing in mind Percy’s
express avowal that he “must plead
guilty to the charge of concealing his own
share in amendments under some such general
title as a modern copy, or the like,” one
402would conclude without hesitation that there
was but a single authentic text in this case,
as in others. Percy notes on the margin of
his manuscript: “N.B. To correct this by my
other copy, which seems more modern. The
other copy in many parts preferable to this.”
But this note would seem to be a private
memorandum. Or are we to suppose that
Percy might employ, from habit perhaps, the
same formula, not to say artifice, with himself
as with the public? In notes in the Folio to
‘Northumberland betrayed by Douglas’ (No
176), Percy speaks of a second copy of that
ballad also as being in his possession, and describes
it as containing much which is omitted
in the other, and as beginning like ‘The Earl
of Westmoreland,’ (No 177). Of the beginning
of this last he says, in a note in the Folio,
“these lines are given in one of my old copies
to Lord Northumberland.” “Old copies”
is staggering; for any one who examines the
variations of the texts in the Reliques from
the texts in the Folio will find them of the
same character and style as Percy’s acknowledged
improvements of other ballads, and
will be compelled to impute them to the
editor or his double.[255]
The earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland,
having for a time succeeded, by exuberant
professions, in allaying very sufficiently
grounded suspicions of their loyal dealing, at
last, upon receiving the Queen’s summons to
London, found compliance unsafe, and went
into rebellion. They took this step with but
half a heart and against their judgment,
overcome by the clamor and urgency of a
portion of their fellow-conspirators. The intent
of the insurgents was, in Northumberland’s
own words, “the reformation of religion,
and the preservation of the Queen of
Scots, whom they accounted by God’s law
and man’s law to be right heir, if want
should be of issue of the Queen’s Majesty’s
body.” These two causes, they were confident,
were favored by the larger number of
noblemen within the realm.[256] Protestantism
had no hold in the north, and the Queen’s
officers in those parts were, for the moment,
not strong enough to make opposition. With
leaders of energy and military skill, and a
good chest to draw upon,[257] the rising would
have been highly dangerous. As things were,
it collapsed in five weeks without the shedding
of a drop of blood; but hundreds of
simple people were subsequently hanged.
The earls, with others, among whom Richard
Norton, then sheriff of York, was the
most conspicuous, entered Durham in arms on
Sunday, the fourteenth of November (1569).
They went to the minster, overthrew the
communion-table, tore the Bible and service-books,
replaced the old altar (which had been
thrown into a rubbish-heap), and had mass
said. The next day they turned southwards,
with nobody to molest or stop them in their
rear or in front. The Earl of Sussex was collecting
a force at York, but it came in slowly,
and it could not be trusted. “To get the more
credit among the favorers of the old Romish
religion, they had a cross, with a banner of
the five wounds, borne after them, sometime
by old Norton, sometime by others” (Holinshed).
They proceeded to Ripon, Wetherby,
and Clifford Moor (Bramham Moor) near
Tadcaster. “Their main body was at Wetherby
and Tadcaster, their advanced horse
were far down across the Ouse.” Their numbers,
according to Holinshed, never exceeded
about two thousand horse and five thousand
foot. Tutbury, where Mary Stuart was confined,
was but a little more than fifty miles
from their advance; they proposed to release
the Queen of Scots, and then to move on
London, or wait for a rising in the south.
403Mary Stuart, at the nick of time, was removed
to Coventry. On the twenty-fourth
we hear that the rebels were drawn back to
Knaresborough and Boroughbridge; on the
thirtieth, that they are returned into the
Bishopric. There they laid siege to Barnard
Castle, which Sir George Bowes was
obliged to surrender on December twelfth;
on the fifteenth the earls were still at Durham.
On the thirteenth the earls of Warwick
and Clinton, commanders of the Army
of the South, met at Wetherby with a combined
force of eleven thousand foot and above
twelve hundred horse, “eager to encounter
the rebels, if they would abide.” But on
the sixteenth the “lords rebels” warned
their footmen to shift for themselves, and
fled with such horse as they had left into
Northumberland. The twenty-second of December,
the Earl of Sussex, qui cunctando
restituit rem, Lord Hunsdon, who had been
joined with him in command, and Sir Ralph
Sadler, who had been deputed to watch him,
write to the Queen: “The earls rebels, with
their principal confederates and the Countess
of Northumberland, did the twentieth of this
present in the night, flee into Liddesdale with
about a hundred horse; and there remain
under the conduction of Black Ormiston, one
of the murtherers of the Lord Darnley, and
John of the Side and the Lord’s Jock, two
notable thieves of Liddesdale, and the rest of
the rebels be utterly scaled.”[258]
The ballad, which is the work of a loyal
but not unsympathetic minstrel, gives but a
cursory and imperfect account of “this geere.”
Earl Percy has come to the conclusion that
he must fight or flee; his lady urges him
thrice over to go to the court, and right himself,
but he tells her that his treason is known
well enough; if he follows her advice she
will never see him again. He sends a letter
to Master Norton, urging that gentleman to
ride with him. Norton asks counsel of his
son Christopher, who advises him not to go
back from the word he has spoken, and much
pleases his father thereby. He asks his nine
sons how many of them will take part with
him. All but the eldest at once answer that
they will stand by him till death: Francis
Norton, the eldest, will not advise acting
against the crown. Coward Francis, thou
never tookest that of me! says the father.
Francis will go with his father, but unarmed,
and he wishes an ill death to them that strike
the first stroke against the crown. There
is a muster at Wetherby, and Westmoreland
and Northumberland are there with their
proper banners,[259] and with another setting
forth the Lord on the cross. Sir George
Bowes “rising to make a spoil,” they besiege
him in a castle to which he retires, easily win
the outer walls, but cannot win the inner.
Word comes to the Queen of the rebels in
the north; she sends thirty thousand men
against them, under the “false” Earl of Warwick,
and they never stop till they reach
York. (A gap occurs here, which need not be
a large one, considering the leaps taken already.)
Northumberland is gone, Westmoreland
vanished, and Norton and his eight sons
fled.
5–10. The Countess of Northumberland
would have been the last person to give such
advice as is attributed to her. “His wife,
being the stouter of the two, doth encourage
him to persevere, and rideth up and down
with the army, so as the grey mare is the
better horse.” Hunsdon to Cecil, November
twenty-sixth, MS. cited by Froude.
11–27. Richard Norton, miscalled Francis
in 40, was a man of seventy-one when he
engaged in the rising, and the father of
eleven sons and eight daughters. Seven of
the sons were involved in the rebellion.
Francis, the eldest son, so far from standing
out, took a prominent part with his father.
But what is said of Francis is true of William,
the fourth son. Sir George Bowes says
of him: “I neither heard or could perceive
William Norton to deal with any office or
charge amongst the rebels, but, as I have heard
404it affirmed, he both refused the taking charge
of horsemen when it was offered unto him,
and also would wear no armor. Farther,
upon my departure from the castle [Barnard
Castle], he came to me, and in the way as he
rode with me, he entered to declare that he
greatly misliked of all their doings and practices,
saying that he was there amongst them
for his father’s sake, and to accompany him,
and otherways he never had been with them,”
etc. MS. cited by Sharp, p. 284.
Christopher Norton deserves the distinction
accorded him in the ballad. “Christopher
had been among the first to enroll himself a
knight of Mary Stuart. His religion had
taught him to combine subtlety with courage,
and through carelessness or treachery, or his
own address, he had been admitted into Lord
Scrope’s guard at Bolton Castle. There he
was allowed to assist his lady’s escape, should
escape prove possible; there he was able to
receive messages and carry them; there, to
throw the castellan off his guard, he pretended
to flirt with her attendants, and twice
at least, by his own confession, closely as the
prisoner was watched, he contrived to hold
private communications with her.” (Froude,
Reign of Elizabeth, III, 505, where follow
lively particulars of these two encounters.)
Christopher was the only one of the Nortons
who is known to have suffered the death-penalty
of treason; it was “after he had beheld
the death of his uncle, as well his quartering
as otherwise, knowing and being well assured
that he himself must follow the same way.”
(Sharp, p. 286.) Richard Norton, the father,
fled to Flanders with his sons Francis
and Sampson, and all three seem to have died
there.
33 f. Sussex to Cecil: Dec. 6. “The rebels
have shot three days together at the wall of
the outer ward, but they have done no hurt.”
Dec. 8. “The rebels have won the first
ward.” Sir George Bowes’ men leaped the
walls, one day some eighty at a time, and the
next day seven or eight score of the best disposed,
who had been appointed to guard the
gates, suddenly set them open, and went to
the rebels; whereupon Sir George was driven
to composition, and there was no need to take
the inner walls.[260]
A considerable number of “balletts” were
called forth by the northern rebellion, and
a few of these have been preserved. See
Arber, Stationers’ Registers, I, 404–6, 407–9,
413–15; A Collection of Seventy-Nine
Blackletter Ballads, etc., 1870, pp. xxv, 1,
56, 231, 239.
The copy in the Reliques is translated by
Seckendorf, Musenalmanach, 1807, p. 103;
by Doenniges, p. 102.
1
Listen, liuely lordings all,
And all that beene this place within:
If you’le giue eare vnto my songe,
I will tell you how this geere did begin.
2
It was the good Erle of Westmorlande,
A noble erle was callëd hee,
And he wrought treason against the crowne;
Alas, itt was the more pittye!
3
And soe itt was the Erle of Northumberland,
Another good noble erle was hee;
They tooken both vpon one part,
Against the crowne they wolden bee.
4
Earle Pearcy is into his garden gone,
And after walkes his awne ladye:
‘I heare a bird sing in my eare
That I must either ffight or fflee.’
5
‘God fforbidd,’ shee sayd, ‘good my lord,
That euer soe that it shalbee!
But goe to London to the court,
And faire ffall truth and honestye!’
6
‘But nay, now nay, my ladye gay,
That euer it shold soe bee;
My treason is knowen well enoughe;
Att the court I must not bee.’
4057
‘But goe to the court yet, good my lord,
Take men enowe with thee;
If any man will doe you wronge,
Your warrant they may bee.’
8
‘But nay, now nay, my lady gay,
For soe itt must not bee;
If I goe to the court, ladye,
Death will strike me, and I must dye.’
9
‘But goe to the court yett, [good] my lord,
I my-selfe will ryde with thee;
If any man will doe you wronge,
Your borrow I shalbee.’
10
‘But nay, now nay, my lady gay,
For soe it must not bee;
For if I goe to the court, ladye,
Thou must me neuer see.
11
‘But come hither, thou litle foot-page,
Come thou hither vnto mee,
For thou shalt goe a message to Master Norton,
In all the hast that euer may bee.
12
‘Comend me to that gentleman;
Bring him here this letter from mee,
And say, I pray him earnestlye
That hee will ryde in my companye.’
13
But one while the foote-page went,
Another while he rann;
Vntill he came to Master Norton,
The ffoot-page neuer blanne.
14
And when he came to Master Nortton,
He kneeled on his knee,
And tooke the letter betwixt his hands,
And lett the gentleman it see.
15
And when the letter itt was reade,
Affore all his companye,
I-wis, if you wold know the truth,
There was many a weeping eye.
16
He said, Come hither, Kester Nortton,
A ffine ffellow thou seemes to bee;
Some good councell, Kester Nortton,
This day doe thou giue to mee.
17
‘Marry, I’le giue you councell, ffather,
If you’le take councell att me,
That if you haue spoken the word, father,
That backe againe you doe not flee.’
18
‘God a mercy! Christopher Nortton,
I say, God a mercye!
If I doe liue and scape with liffe,
Well advanced shalt thou bee.
19
‘But come you hither, my nine good sonnes,
In mens estate I thinke you bee;
How many of you, my children deare,
On my part that wilbe?’
20
But eight of them did answer soone,
And spake ffull hastilye;
Sayes, We wilbe on your part, ffather,
Till the day that we doe dye.
21
‘But God a mercy! my children deare,
And euer I say God a mercy!
And yett my blessing you shall haue,
Whether-soeuer I liue or dye.
22
‘But what sayst thou, thou Ffrancis Nortton,
Mine eldest sonne and mine heyre trulye?
Some good councell, Ffrancis Nortton,
This day thou giue to me.’
23
‘But I will giue you councell, ffather,
If you will take councell att mee;
For if you wold take my councell, father,
Against the crowne you shold not bee.’
24
‘But ffye vpon thee, Ffrancis Nortton!
I say ffye vpon thee!
When thou was younge and tender of age
I made ffull much of thee.’
25
‘But your head is white, ffather,’ he sayes,
‘And your beard is wonderous gray;
Itt were shame ffor your countrye
If you shold rise and fflee away.’
26
‘But ffye vpon thee, thou coward Ffrancis!
Thou neuer tookest that of mee!
When thou was younge and tender of age
I made too much of thee.’
27
‘But I will goe with you, father,’ quoth hee;
‘Like a naked man will I bee;
He that strikes the first stroake against the crowne,
An ill death may hee dye!’
40628
But then rose vpp Master Nortton, that esquier,
With him a ffull great companye;
And then the erles they comen downe
To ryde in his companye.
29
Att Whethersbye the mustered their men,
Vpon a ffull fayre day;
Thirteen thousand there were seene
To stand in battel ray.
30
The Erle of Westmoreland, he had in his ancyent
The dunn bull in sight most hye,
And three doggs with golden collers
Were sett out royallye.
31
The Erle of Northumberland, he had in his ancyent
The halfe moone in sight soe hye,
As the Lord was crucifyed on the crosse,
And set forthe pleasantlye.
32
And after them did rise good Sir George Bowes,
After them a spoyle to make;
The erles returned backe againe,
Thought euerthat knight to take.
33
This barron did take a castle then,
Was made of lime and stone;
The vttermost walls were ese to be woon;
The erles haue woon them anon.
34
But tho they woone the vttermost walls,
Quickly and anon,
The innermust walles the cold not winn;
The were made of a rocke of stone.
35
But newes itt came to leeue London,
In all the speede that euer might bee;
And word it came to our royall queene
Of all the rebells in the north countrye.
36
Shee turned her grace then once about,
And like a royall queene shee sware;
Sayes, I will ordaine them such a breake-fast
As was not in the north this thousand yeere!
37
Shee caused thirty thousand men to be made,
With horsse and harneis all quicklye;
And shee caused thirty thousand men to be made,
To take the rebells in the north countrye.
38
They tooke with them the false Erle of Warwicke,
Soe did they many another man;
Vntill they came to Yorke castle,
I-wis they neuer stinted nor blan.
* * * * *
39
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
‘Spread thy ancyent, Erle of Westmoreland!
The halfe-moone ffaine wold wee see!’
40
But the halfe-moone is fled and gone,
And the dun bull vanished awaye;
And Ffrancis Nortton and his eight sonnes
Are ffled away most cowardlye.
41
Ladds with mony are counted men,
Men without mony are counted none;
But hold your tounge! why say you soe?
Men wilbe men when mony is gone.
34. their for the.
74. they altered in MS. from them.
181. amercy: and afterwards.
191. 9.
201. 8th.
212. godamercy.
293. 13000.
302. Dum̄: m for nn. Furnivall.
303. 3.
343. imermust.
352. all they.
364. 1000.
371,3. 30000.
382. Only half the n in many. Furnivall.
And for & throughout.
Variations of the copy in Percy’s Reliques,
1765, I, 250.
12–4.
Lithe and listen unto mee,
And I will sing of a noble earle,
The noblest earle in the north countrie.
2, 3 wanting.
42. after him walkes his faire.
43. mine.
40751,2.
Now heaven forefend, my dearest lord,
That eer such harm should hap to thee.
61, 81, 101, 241. Now for But.
62,3.
Alas thy counsell suits not mee;
Mine enemies prevail so fast.
64. That at: I may.
71. O goe.
72. And take thy gallant men.
73. any dare to doe.
74. Then your warrant.
81. thou lady faire.
82. The court is full of subtiltie.
83. And if.
84. Never more I may thee see.
91. Yet goe to the court, my lord, she sayes.
92. And I: will goe wi. ryde in ed. 1794.
93. At court then for my dearest lord.
94. His faithfull borrowe I will.
101. lady deare.
102–4.
Far lever had I lose my life,
Than leave among my cruell foes
My love in jeopardy and strife.
111. come thou: my little.
113. To maister Norton thou must goe.
122. And beare this letter here fro mee.
123. And say that earnestly I praye.
124. That wanting.
131. But wanting: little footpage.
132. And another.
133. to his journeys end.
134. little footpage.
141. When to that gentleman he came.
142. Down he knelt upon.
143,4.
Quoth he, My lord commendeth him,
And sends this letter unto thee.
The reading of the Folio is restored in ed.
1794.
152. Affore that goodlye.
153. you the truthe wold know.
161. thither, Christopher.
162. A gallant youth thou seemst.
163,4.
What doest thou counsell me, my sonne,
Now that good earle’s in jeopardy.
17.
Father, my counselle’s fair and free;
That earle he is a noble lord,
And whatsoever to him you hight,
I wold not have you breake your word.
181–3.
Gramercy, Christopher, my sonne,
Thy counsell well it liketh mee,
And if we speed, and
184. thou shalt.
191. But wanting.
192. Gallant men I trowe.
194. Will stand by that good earle and mee.
201. But wanting: answer make.
202. Eight of them spake hastilie.
203,4.
O father, till the daye we dye,
We’ll stand by that good earle and thee.
211.
Gramercy now, my children deare,
You showe yourselves right bold and brave;
And whethersoeer I live or dye,
A fathers blessing you shal have.
221. O Francis.
222–4.
Thou art mine eldest sonn and heire;
Somewhat lyes brooding in thy breast,
Whatever it bee, to mee declare.
23 wanting, and instead, this stanza, like 25:
Father, you are an aged man,
Your head is white, your bearde is gray;
It were a shame, at these your yeares,
For you to ryse in such a fray.
24, 26. For these:
Now fye upon thee, coward Francis,
Thou never learnedst this of mee;
When thou wert yong and tender of age,
Why did I make soe much of thee?
271,2.
But, father, I will wend with you,
Unarmd and naked will I bee.
273. And he: the first stroake wanting.
274. Ever an.
28.
Then rose that reverend gentleman,
And with him came a goodlye band,
To join with the brave Earl Percy,
And all the flower o Northumberland.
29.
With them the noble Nevill came,
The earle of Westmorland was hee;
At Wetherbye they mustred their host,
Thirteen thousand faire to see.
408301,2.
Lord Westmorland his ancyent raisde,
The dun bull he raysd on hye.
303. And wanting: collars brave.
304. Were there sett out most.
31.
Earl Percy there his ancyent spred,
The half moone shining all soe faire;
The Nortons ancyent had the crosse,
And the five wounds our Lord did beare.
321. Then Sir George Bowes he straitwaye
rose.
322. some spoyle.
323. Those noble earles turnd.
324. And aye they vowed that.
33.
That baron he to his castle fled,
To Barnard castle then fled hee;
The uttermost walles were eathe to win,
The earles have wonne them presentlie.
34.
The uttermost walles were lime and bricke;
But thoughe they won them soon anone,
Long eer they wan the innermost walles,
For they were cut in rocke of stone.
351. Then newes unto leeve London came.
352. ever may.
353. word is brought.
354. Of the rysing in.
361. Her grace she turned her round about.
362. swore.
363. Sayes wanting.
364. As never was in the North before.
371. be raysd.
372. harneis faire to see.
373. And wanting: be raised.
374. the earles i th’.
381,2.
Wi them the false Earle Warwick went,
Th’ earle Sussex and the lord Hunsdèn.
383. to Yorke castle came.
384. stint ne.
39.
Now spread thy ancyent, Westmorland,
Thy dun bull faine would we spye;
And thou, the Earl o Northumberland,
Now rayse thy half moone up on hye.
401. the dun bulle is.
402. the half moone vanished.
403,4.
The Earles, though they were brave and bold,
Against soe many could not stay.
41.
Thee, Norton, wi thine eight good sonnes,
They doomd to dye, alas! for ruth!
Thy reverend lockes thee could not save,
Nor them their faire and blooming youthe.
Wi them full many a gallant wight
They cruellye bereavd of life,
And many a childe made fatherlesse,
And widowed many a tender wife.
176 NORTHUMBERLAND BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS
‘Northumberland betrayd by Dowglas,’ Percy MS., p. 259; Hales and Furnivall, II, 217.
Printed in Percy’s Reliques, 1765, I, 257,
“from two copies [which contained great variations,
1794, I, 297], one of them in the
Editor’s folio MS.” In this manuscript Percy
makes these notes. “N. B. My other copy
is more correct than this, and contains much
which is omitted here. N. B. The other
copy begins with lines the same as that in
page 112 [that is, the ‘Earl of Westmoreland’].
The minstrels often made such
changes.”
See the preface to the foregoing ballad as
to the probable character of the copy, which
“contains much that is omitted here.”
409The Earl of Sussex writes on December
22d that, the next morning after Northumberland
and Westmorland took refuge in
Liddesdale, Martin Eliot and others of the
principal men of the dale raised a force
against the earls, Black Ormiston, and the
rest of their company, and offered fight; but
in the end, Eliot, wishing to avoid a feud,
said to Ormiston that “he would charge him
and the rest before the Regent for keeping of
the rebels of England, if he did not put them
out of the country, and that if they [the earls]
were in the country after the next day, he
would do his worst against them and all that
maintained them.” Whereupon the earls were
driven to quit Liddesdale and to fly to one of
the Armstrongs in the Debateable Land, leaving
the Countess of Northumberland “at John
of the Sydes house, a cottage not to be compared
to any dog-kennel in England.” Three
days later Sussex and Sadler write that “the
Earl of Northumberland was yesterday [the
24th], at one in the afternoon, delivered by
one Hector, of Harlaw wood, of the surname
of the Armstrongs, to Alexander Hume, to be
carried to the Regent.”[261] The Regent took
Northumberland to Edinburgh, and on the
second of January, 1570, committed him to
the castle of Lochleven, attended by two
servants.[262]
The sentiment of Scotsmen, and especially
of borderers, was outraged by this proceeding:
“for generally, all sorts, both men and
women, cry out for the liberty of their country;
which is, to succor banisht men, as themselves
have been received in England not long
since, and is the freedom of all countries, as
they allege.”[263]
Northumberland remained in confinement
at Lochleven until June, 1572. Meanwhile
the Countess of Northumberland, who had escaped
to Flanders, had been begging money
to buy her husband of the Scots, and had
been negotiating with Douglas of Lochleven
to that effect. She was ready to give the
sum demanded, which seems to have been
two thousand pounds, as soon as sufficient assurance
could be had that her husband would
be liberated upon payment of the money.
Lord Hunsdon discussed the surrender of
Northumberland with the Earl of Morton and
the Commendator of Dunfermling, on the
occasion of their coming to Berwick to treat
about the pacification of the troubles in Scotland.
“They made recital of the charges
that the lord of Lochleven hath been at with
the said earl, and how the earl hath offered
the lord of Lochleven four thousand marks
sterling, to be paid presently to him in hand, to
let him go. Notwithstanding, both he and the
rest shall be delivered to her Majesty upon
reasonable consideration of their charges.”
(November 22, 1571.) Political considerations
turned the scale, and on the seventh of
June Lord Hunsdon paid the two thousand
pounds which the countess had offered, and
Northumberland was put into his hands.
Hunsdon had the earl in custody at Berwick
until the following August. He was then
made over to Sir John Forster, Warden of
the Middle Marches, taken to York and there
beheaded (August 27th, 1572).[264]
410The ballad-minstrel acquaints us with
circumstances concerning the surrender of
Northumberland which are not known to any
of the historians. One night, when many
gentlemen are supping at Lochleven Castle,
William Douglas, the laird of the castle, rallies
the earl on account of his sadness; there
is to be a shooting in the north of Scotland
the next day, and to this Douglas has engaged
his word that Percy shall go. Percy is
ready to ride to the world’s end in Douglas’s
company. Mary Douglas, William’s sister,
interposes: her brother is a traitor, and has
taken money from the Earl [Morton?] to deliver
Percy to England. Northumberland
will not believe this; the surrender of a banisht
man would break friendship forever between
England and Scotland. Mary Douglas
persists; he had best let her brother ride
his own way, and he can tell the English
lords that he cannot be of the party because
he is in an isle of the sea (an obstacle which
must appear to us not greater for one than for
the other); and while her brother is away she
will carry Percy to Edinburgh Castle, and
deliver him to Lord Hume, who has already
suffered loss in his behalf. But if he will not
give credence to her, let him come on her
right hand, and she will shew him something.
Percy never loved witchcraft, but permits his
chamberlain to go with the lady. Mary
Douglas’s mother was a witch-woman, and
had taught her daughter something of her
art. She shows the chamberlain through the
belly of a ring many Englishmen who are on
the await for his master, among them Lord
Hunsdon, Sir William Drury, and Sir John
Forster, though at that moment they are
thrice fifty mile distant. The chamberlain
goes back to his lord weeping, but the relation
of what he has seen produces no effect.
Percy says he has been in Lochleven almost
three years and has never had an ‘outrake’
(outing); he will not hear a word to hinder
him from going to the shooting. He twists
from his finger a gold ring—left him when he
was in Harlaw wood—and gives it to Mary
Douglas, with an assurance that, though he
may drink, he will never eat, till he is in Lochleven
again. Mary faints when she sees him
in the boat, and Percy once and again proposes
to go back to see how she fares; but
William Douglas treats the fainting very
lightly; his sister is crafty enough to beguile
thousands like them. When they have sailed
the first fifty mile (it will be borne in mind
that the Douglas castle is described as being
on an isle of the sea), James Swynard, the
chamberlain,[265] asks how far it is to the shooting,
and gets an alarming answer: fair words
make fools fain; whenever they come to the
shooting, they will think they have come soon
enough! Jamie carries this answer to his
master, who finds nothing discouraging in it;
it was meant only to try his mettle. But
after sailing fifty miles more, Percy himself
calls to Douglas and asks what his purpose is.
“Look that your bridle be strong and your
spurs be sharp,” says Douglas (but 491 is
probably corrupted). “This is mere flouting,”
replies Percy; “one Armstrong has my
horse, another my spurs and all my gear.”
Fifty miles more of the sea, and they land
Lord Percy at Berwick, a deported, “extradited”
man!
14. The Countess of Northumberland was
sheltered for some time at Hume Castle (Sir
C. Sharp’s Memorials, pp. 143, 146, 150, 344,
ff). The castle was invested, and by direction
of Lord Hume, then absent in Edinburgh,
was surrendered without resistance, in the
course of Sussex’s destructive raid in April,
1570. Cabala, ed. 1663, p. 175. See also
Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 170.
19. Witchcraft was rife at the epoch of this
ballad, nor was the imputation of it confined
to hags of humble life. The Lady Buccleuch,
the Countess of Athole, and the Lady Foullis
were all accused of practising the black art.
Nothing in that way was charged upon Lady
411Douglas of Lochleven, the mother of William
Douglas and of the Regent Murray; but Lady
Janet Douglas, sister of the Earl of Angus,
had been burnt in 1537 for meditating the
death of James V by poison or witchcraft,
and it is possible, as Percy has suggested, that
this occurrence may have led to the attribution
of sorcery to Lady Douglas of Lochleven.[266]
Mary Douglas shows Northumberland’s
chamberlain, through the hollow of her ring,
the English lords who are waiting for his
master “thrice fifty mile” distant, at Berwick.
In a Swiss popular song the infidelity
of a lover is revealed by a look through
a finger-ring. People on the Odenberg hear
a drum-beat, but see nothing. A wizard
makes one after another look through a ring
made by bowing the arm against the side;
they see armed men going into and coming
out of the hill. So Biarco is enabled to see
Odin on his white horse by looking through
Ruta’s bent arm.[267]
32, 33. The day after Northumberland was
put into his hands, Hunsdon writes to Burghley:
“For the earl, I have had no great talk
with him; but truly he seems to follow his
old humours, readier to talk of hawks and
hounds than anything else.” (Sharp, p. 330.)
51. It was their old manner, as Robin
Hood says, to leave but little behind; but
what is recorded is that, when “the earls
were driven to leave Liddesdale and to fly to
one of the Armstrongs upon the Bateable, ...
the Liddesdale men stole my lady of Northumberland’s
horse, and her two women’s
horses, and ten other horses.” Sussex to
Cecil, Sharp, p. 114 f.
52. Percy “left Lochleven with joy, under
the assurance that he should be conveyed in
a Scottish vessel to Antwerp. To his surprise
and dismay he found himself, after a
short voyage, at Coldingham.” Lingard’s
History, VI, 137, London, 1854.
The copy in the Reliques is translated by
Doenniges, p. 111.
1
Now list and lithe, you gentlemen,
And I’st tell you the veretye,
How they haue dealt with a banished man,
Driuen out of his countrye.
2
When as hee came on Scottish ground,
As woe and wonder be them amonge!
Ffull much was there traitorye
The wrought the Erle of Northumberland.
3
When they were att the supper sett,
Beffore many goodly gentlemen,
The ffell a fflouting and mocking both,
And said to the Erle of Northumberland:
4
‘What makes you be soe sad, my lord,
And in your mind soe sorrowffullye?
In the north of Scottland to-morrow there’s a shooting,
And thither thou’st goe, my Lord Percye.
5
‘The buttes are sett, and the shooting is made,
And there is like to be great royaltye,
And I am sworne into my bill
Thither to bring my Lord Pearcy.’
6
‘I’le giue thee my hand, Douglas,’ he sayes,
‘And be the faith in my bodye,
If that thou wilt ryde to the worlds end,
I’le ryde in thy companye.’
7
And then bespake the good ladye,
Marry a Douglas was her name:
‘You shall byde here, good English lord;
My brother is a traiterous man.
8
‘He is a traitor stout and stronge,
As I’st tell you the veretye;
For he hath tane liuerance of the Erle,
And into England he will liuor thee.’
4129
‘Now hold thy tounge, thou goodlye ladye,
And let all this talking bee;
Ffor all the gold that’s in Loug Leuen,
William wold not liuor mee.
10
‘It wold breake truce betweene England and Scottland,
And freinds againe they wold neuer bee,
If he shold liuor a bani[s]ht erle,
Was driuen out of his owne countrye.’
11
‘Hold your tounge, my lord,’ shee sayes,
‘There is much ffalsehood them amonge;
When you are dead, then they are done,
Soone they will part them freinds againe.
12
‘If you will giue me any trust, my lord,
I’le tell you how you best may bee;
You’st lett my brother ryde his wayes,
And tell those English lords, trulye,
13
‘How that you cannot with them ryde,
Because you are in an ile of the sea;
Then, ere my brother come againe,
To Edenborrow castle I’le carry thee.
14
‘I’le liuor you vnto the Lord Hume,
And you know a trew Scothe lord is hee,
For he hath lost both land and goods
In ayding of your good bodye,’
15
‘Marry, I am woe, woman,’ he sayes,
‘That any freind fares worse for mee;
For where one saith it is a true tale,
Then two will say it is a lye.
16
‘When I was att home in my [realme],
Amonge my tennants all trulye,
In my time of losse, wherin my need stoode,
They came to ayd me honestlye.
17
‘Therfore I left a many a child ffatherlese,
And many a widdow to looke wanne;
And therfore blame nothing, ladye,
But the woeffull warres which I began.’
18
‘If you will giue me noe trust, my lord,
Nor noe credence you will give mee,
And you’le come hither to my right hand,
Indeed, my lorid, I’le lett you see.’
19
Saies, I neuer loued noe witchcraft,
Nor neuer dealt with treacherye,
But euermore held the hye way;
Alas, that may be seene by mee!
20
‘If you will not come your selfe, my lord,
You’le lett your chamberlaine goe with mee,
Three words that I may to him speake,
And soone he shall come againe to thee.’
21
When Iames Swynard came that lady before,
Shee let him see thorrow the weme of her ring
How many there was of English lords
To wayte there for his master and him.
22
‘But who beene yonder, my good ladye,
That walkes soe royallye on yonder greene?’
‘Yonder is Lord Hunsden, Iamye,’ she saye[d],
‘Alas, hee’le doe you both tree and teene!’
23
‘And who beene yonder, thou gay ladye,
That walkes soe royallye him beside?’
‘Yond is Sir William Drurye, Iamy,’ shee sayd,
‘And a keene captain hee is, and tryde.’
24
‘How many miles is itt, thou good ladye,
Betwixt yond English lord and mee?’
‘Marry, thrise fifty mile, Iamy,’ shee sayd,
‘And euen to seale and by the sea.
25
‘I neuer was on English ground,
Nor neuer see itt with mine eye,
But as my witt and wisedome serues,
And as [the] booke it telleth mee.
26
‘My mother, shee was a witch woman,
And part of itt shee learned mee;
Shee wold let me see out of Lough Leuen
What they dyd in London cytye.’
27
‘But who is yonde, thou good laydye,
That comes yonder with an osterne fface?’
‘Yond’s Sir Iohn Forster, Iamye,’ shee sayd;
‘Methinkes thou sholdest better know him then I.’
‘Euen soe I doe, my goodlye ladye,
And euer alas, soe woe am I!’
28
He pulled his hatt ouer his eyes,
And, Lord, he wept soe tenderlye!
He is gone to his master againe,
And euen to tell him the veretye.
41329
‘Now hast thou beene with Marry, Iamy,’ he sayd,
‘Euen as thy tounge will tell to mee;
But if thou trust in any womans words,
Thou must refraine good companye.’
30
‘It is noe words, my lord,’ he sayes;
‘Yonder the men shee letts me see,
How many English lords there is
Is wayting there for you and mee.
31
‘Yonder I see the Lord Hunsden,
And hee and you is of the third degree;
A greater enemye, indeed, my Lord,
In England none haue yee.’
32
‘And I haue beene in Lough Leven
The most part of these yeeres three:
Yett had I neuer noe out-rake,
Nor good games that I cold see.
33
‘And I am thus bidden to yonder shooting
By William Douglas all trulye;
Therfore speake neuer a word out of thy mouth
That thou thinkes will hinder mee.’
34
Then he writhe the gold ring of his ffingar
And gaue itt to that ladye gay;
Sayes, That was a legacye left vnto mee
In Harley woods where I cold bee.
35
‘Then ffarewell hart, and farewell hand,
And ffarwell all good companye!
That woman shall neuer beare a sonne
Shall know soe much of your priuitye.’
36
‘Now hold thy tounge, ladye,’ hee sayde,
‘And make not all this dole for mee,
For I may well drinke, but I’st neuer eate,
Till againe in Lough Leuen I bee.’
37
He tooke his boate att the Lough Leuen,
For to sayle now ouer the sea,
And he hath cast vpp a siluer wand,
Saies, Fare thou well, my good ladye!
The ladye looked ouer her left sholder;
In a dead swoone there fell shee.
38
‘Goe backe againe, Douglas!’ he sayd,
‘And I will goe in thy companye,
For sudden sicknesse yonder lady has tane,
And euer, alas, shee will but dye!
39
‘If ought come to yonder ladye but good,
Then blamed sore that I shall bee,
Because a banished man I am,
And driuen out of my owne countrye.’
40
‘Come on, come on, my lord,’ he sayes,
‘And lett all such talking bee;
There’s ladyes enow in Lough Leuen
And for to cheere yonder gay ladye.’
41
‘And you will not goe your selfe, my lord,
You will lett my chamberlaine go with mee;
Wee shall now take our boate againe,
And soone wee shall ouertake thee.’
42
‘Come on, come on, my lord,’ he sayes,
‘And lett now all this talking bee;
Ffor my sister is craftye enoughe
For to beguile thousands such as you and mee.’
43
When they had sayled fifty myle,
Now fifty mile vpon the sea,
Hee had fforgotten a message that hee
Shold doe in Lough Leuen trulye:
Hee asked, how ffarr it was to that shooting
That William Douglas promised mee.
44
‘Now faire words makes fooles faine,
And that may be seene by thy master and thee;
Ffor you may happen think itt soone enoughe
When-euer you that shooting see.’
45
Iamye pulled his hatt now ouer his browe,
I wott the teares fell in his eye;
And he is to his master againe,
And ffor to tell him the veretye.
46
‘He sayes fayre words makes fooles faine,
And that may be seene by you and mee,
Ffor wee may happen thinke itt soone enoughe
When-euer wee that shooting see.
47
‘Hold vpp thy head, Iamye,’ the erle sayd,
‘And neuer lett thy hart fayle thee;
He did itt but to proue thee with,
And see how thow wold take with death trulye.’
48
When they had sayled other fifty mile,
Other fifty mile vpon the sea,
414Lord Peercy called to him, himselfe,
And sayd, Douglas, what wilt thou doe with mee?
49
‘Looke that your brydle be wight, my lord,
That you may goe as a shipp att sea;
Looke that your spurres be bright and sharpe,
That you may pricke her while shee’le awaye.’
50
‘What needeth this, Douglas,’ he sayth,
‘That thou needest to ffloute mee?
For I was counted a horsseman good
Before that euer I mett with thee.
51
‘A ffalse Hector hath my horsse,
And euer an euill death may hee dye!
And Willye Armestronge hath my spurres
And all the geere belongs to mee.’
52
When the had sayled other fifty mile,
Other fifty mile vpon the sea,
The landed low by Barwicke-side;
A deputed lord landed Lord Percye.
61. my Land.
154. 2.
161. This line is partly pared away. Furnivall.
184. Lorid, or Louerd; or Lord, with one
stroke too many. Furnivall.
203. 3.
221. ny for my.
243. 3se 50.
312. 3d.
322. 3.
334. Partly cut away by the binder. Furnivall.
431,2, 481,2, 521,2. 50.
524. land for lord.
And for & throughout.
Variations of Percy’s Reliques, 1765, I, 258.
1–3. Cf. the next ballad, 1–3.
How long shall fortune faile me nowe,
And harrowe me with fear and dread?
How long shall I in bale abide,
In misery my life to lead?
To fall from my bliss, alas the while!
It was my sore and heavye lott;
And I must leave my native land,
And I must live a man forgot.
One gentle Armstrong I doe ken,
A Scot he is much bound to mee;
He dwelleth on the border-side,
To him I’ll goe right privilie.
Thus did the noble Percy ‘plaine,
With a heavy heart and wel-away,
When he with all his gallant men
On Bramham moor had lost the day.
But when he to the Armstrongs came,
They dealt with him all treacherouslye;
For they did strip that noble earle,
And ever an ill death may they dye!
False Hector to Earl Murray sent,
To shew him where his guest did hide,
Who sent him to the Lough-levèn,
With William Douglas to abide.
And when he to the Douglas came,
He halched him right courteouslie;
Sayd, Welcome, welcome, noble earle,
Here thou shalt safelye bide with mee.
When he had in Lough-leven been
Many a month and many a day,
To the regent the lord-warden sent,
That bannisht earle for to betray.
He offered him great store of gold,
And wrote a letter fair to see,
Saying, Good my lord, grant me my boon,
And yield that banisht man to mee.
Earle Percy at the supper sate,
With many a goodly gentleman;
The wylie Douglas then bespake,
And thus to flyte with him began.
43 4.
To-morrow a shootinge will bee held
Among the lords of the North countrye.
51. sett, the shooting’s.
52. there will be.
61. hand, thou gentle Douglas: he sayes wanting.
62. And here by my true faith, quoth hee.
63. If thou: worldes.
64. I will.
71. bespake a lady faire.
82. As I tell you in privitie.
83. he has. hath, 1794.
84. Into England nowe to ‘liver.
4159.
Now nay, now nay, thou goodly lady,
The regent is a noble lord;
Ne for the gold in all Englànd
The Douglas wold not break his word.
When the regent was a banisht man,
With me he did faire welcome find;
And whether weal or woe betide,
I still shall find him true and kind.
101. Tween England and Scotland ‘twold break
truce. Betweene: it, 1794.
103. If they.
11, 12.
Alas! alas! my lord, she sayes,
Nowe mickle is their traitorìe;
Then let my brother ride his ways,
And tell those English lords from thee.
131. with him.
14–17.
‘To the Lord Hume I will thee bring;
He is well knowne a true Scots lord,
And he will lose both land and life
Ere he with thee will break his word.’
‘Much is my woe,’ Lord Percy sayd,
‘When I thinke on my own countrìe;
When I thinke on the heavye happe
My friends have suffered there for mee.
‘Much is my woe,’ Lord Percy sayd,
‘And sore those wars my minde distresse;
Where many a widow lost her mate,
And many a child was fatherlesse.
‘And now that I, a banisht man,
Shold bring such evil happe with mee,
To cause my faire and noble friends
To be suspect of treacherie,
‘This rives my heart with double woe;
And lever had I dye this day
Then thinke a Douglas can be false,
Or ever will his guest betray.’ he will, 1794.
18.
‘If you’ll give me no trust, my lord,
Nor unto mee no credence yield,
Yet step one moment here aside,
Ile showe you all your foes in field.’
191,2.
Lady, I never loved witchcraft,
Never dealt in privy wyle.
194. Of truth and honoure, free from guile.
201. If you’ll.
202. Yet send your chamberlaine with.
203. Let me but speak three words with him.
204. And he.
211. James Swynard with that lady went.
213. She showed him through.
213. many English lords there were.
214. Waiting for.
221. And who walkes yonder.
222. That walkes wanting.
223. O yonder is the lord Hunsdèn.
224. you drie and teene.
231. who beth.
232. so proudly.
233. That is: Iamy wanting.
234. And wanting.
241. itt, madàme.
242. lords.
243,4.
Marry, it is thrice fifty miles,
To sayl to them upon the sea.
252. Ne never sawe.
253,4.
But as my book it sheweth mee,
And through my ring I may descrye.
261. witch ladye.
262. And of her skille she.
271. thou lady faire.
272. That looketh with sic an.
273,4.
Yonder is Sir John Foster, quoth shee,
Alas! he’ll do ye sore disgrace.
275,6wanting.
281. downe over his browe.
282.
And in his heart he was full woe. He
wept; his heart he was full of woe, 1794.
283,4.
And he is gone to his noble lord,
Those sorrowfull tidings him to show.
29.
Now nay, now nay, good James Swynàrd,
I may not believe that witch ladìe;
The Douglasses were ever true,
And they can neer prove false to mee.
30, 31 wanting.
321. I have now in Lough-leven been.
323. And I have never had. Yett have I never
had, 1794.
324. Ne no good.
33.
Therefore I’ll to yond shooting wend,
As to the Douglas I have hight;
Betide me weale, betide me woe,
He neer shall find my promise light.
341. He writhe a gold ring from.
342. that faire ladìe. that gay ladìe, 1794.
343. Sayes, It was all that I cold save.
41635.
And wilt thou goe, thou noble lord?
Then farewell truth and honestìe!
And farewell heart, and farewell hand!
For never more I shall thee see.
36 wanting.
371,2.
The wind was faire, the boatmen calld,
And all the saylors were on borde;
Then William Douglas took to his boat,
And with him went that noble lord.
373–6.
Then he cast up a silver wand,
Says, Gentle lady, fare thee well!
The lady fett a sigh soe deepe,
And in a dead swoone down shee fell.
38, 39.
Now let us goe back, Douglas, he sayd,
A sickness hath taken yond faire ladìe;
If ought befall yond lady but good,
Then blamed for ever I shall bee.
402. Come on, come on, and let her bee.
404. For to: that gay.
41.
‘If you’ll not turne yourself, my lord,
Let me goe with my chamberlaine;
We will but comfort that faire lady,
And wee will return to you againe.
422–4.
‘Come on, come on, and let her bee;
My sister is crafty, and wold beguile
A thousand such as you and mee.
432. Now wanting: restored, 1794.
433,4wanting.
435–6.
Hee sent his man to ask the Douglas
When they shold that shooting see.
441. Faire words, quoth he, they make.
442. And that by thee and thy lord is seen.
443. You may hap to.
444. Ere you that shooting reach, I ween.
451. his hatt pulled over.
452–4.
He thought his lord then was betrayd;
And he is to Earle Percy againe,
To tell him what the Douglas sayd.
46 wanting.
471. head, man, quoth his lord,
472–4.
Nor therfore let thy courage fail;
He did it but to prove thy heart,
To see if he cold make it quail.
481. had other fifty sayld.
483. calld to the Douglas himselfe. to D., 1794.
484. Sayd, What wilt thou nowe doe.
492. And your horse goe swift as ship.
501. sayd. sayth, 1794.
502. What needest thou to flyte with mee.
511. he hath. hath, 1794.
512. Who dealt with mee so treacherouslìe.
513. A false Armstrong he hath. hath, 1794.
514. geere that. geere, 1794.
523. landed him at Berwick towne. MS. reading
restored, 1794.
524. The Douglas landed Lord Percie.
MS. reading restored with ‘laird’ for land.
Then he at Yorke was doomde to dye,
It was, alas! a sorrowful sight;
Thus they betrayed that noble earle,
Who ever was a gallant wight.
177 THE EARL OF WESTMORELAND
‘Earle of Westmorlande,’ Percy MS., p. 112; Hales and Furnivall, I, 292.
“These lines,” says Percy in a note in his
MS. to 11, “are given in one of my old copies
to Lord Northumberland; they seem here corrupted.”
The first three stanzas, with extensive
variations, begin ‘Northumberland betrayed
by Douglas,’ as printed in the Reliques,
417I, 258, 1765. It will be remarked that Percy
does not allege that he has an old copy of
this ballad, though he implies he has one of
the other, ‘Northumberland betrayed by
Douglas.’
The earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland,
as has been seen, upon being forced
to leave Liddesdale, took refuge for a short
time with one of the Armstrongs, John of
the Side (cf. st. 3). They parted company,
and Westmoreland, Lady Northumberland,
Francis Norton, and others, were received by
Sir Thomas Ker at Fernihurst, near Jedburgh;
Old Norton, Markenfield, and others,
by Buccleuch at Branxholm. Lady Northumberland
shortly after removed to Hume
Castle. The Regent Murray sent a secret
messenger to persuade Fernihurst and Buccleuch
to render into his hands the “Earl of
Westmoreland and the other her Majesty’s
principal rebels being in their bounds,” Jan.
14, 1570 (cf. st. 9). Westmoreland escaped
to Flanders in the autumn of 1570, “with
very slight means.” He was very desirous to
make his peace with Elizabeth, but the efforts
he made were unsuccessful, and he wore out
thirty-one years in the Low Countries, a pensioner
of Spain, dying at Newport in November,
1601. The countess, his wife, daughter
of the poet Surrey, a highly educated and in
every way admirable woman, was treated by
Elizabeth as innocent of treason (she was a
zealous Protestant), and was granted a decent
annuity for the support of herself and her
three daughters. The Countess of Northumberland
fled to Flanders in 1570, and lived on
the King of Spain’s bounty, separated from
her children, and with no consolation but
such as she derived from her intense religious
and theological convictions, until 1596.[268]
The ballad-story is that after the flight (as
it is described) from Bramham (‘Bramaball’)
Moor, Westmoreland sought refuge with Jock
Armstrong on the west border, who also
“took”[269] or sheltered Old Norton and other
of the rebels. Neville does not think the
Debateable Land safe, and goes to Scotland,
to Hume Castle, where all the banished men
find welcome. The Regent is minded to
write to Lord Hume to see whether he can
be brought to surrender the fugitives, but on
second thoughts, being at deadly feud with
Hume, he concludes that writing will serve
no purpose. (104 is not very intelligible.)
He will rather send for troops from Berwick,
and take the men by force. Lord Hume gets
knowledge of the Regent’s intention, and removes
his guests to the castle of ‘Camelye.’
But still Neville sees that there is no biding
even in Scotland, and he and his comrades
take a noble ship, to be mariners on the sea.
So far the ballad, it will be perceived, has
an historical substratum, though details are
incorrect; what follows is pure fancy work,
or rather an imitation of stale old romance.
After cruising three months, a large ship is
sighted. Neville calls Markenfield to council.
The latter, who knows every banner that is
borne, knows whether any man that he has
once laid eyes on is friend or foe, knows
every language that is spoken, and who has
besides (st. 39) a gift of prophecy. By the
serpent and the serpent’s head and the mole
in the midst, Markenfield is able to say that
the ship is Don John of Austria’s, and he
advises flight. This counsel (which would
have lost Neville much glory and a hundred
pounds a day) does not please the earl; he
orders his own standard of the Dun Bull to
be displayed. Don John sends a pinnace,
with a herald, to fetch the name of the master
of the ship he has met. Neville refuses
to give up his name until he knows the master
of the other vessel; the herald informs him
that it is Duke John of Austria, who lives in
Seville; then says the Briton, Charles Neville
is my name, and in England I was Earl of
Westmoreland. The herald makes his report,
and is sent back to invite the nobleman to Don
John’s ship; for Don John had read in the
‘Book of Mable’ that a Briton, Charles Neville,
‘with a child’s voice,’ should come over
418the sea. Neville is courteously received; Don
John desires to see his men; it is but a small
company, says the earl, and calls in Markenfield
the prophet, Dacres, Master Norton and
four sons, and John of Carnabye. These are
all my company, says Neville; when we were
in England, our prince and we could not agree.
The duke says Norton and his sons shall go
to France, and also Dacres, who shall be a
captain; Neville and Markenfield shall go to
Seville, and the two others (there is but one
other, John of Carnabye) are to go with
Dacres. Neville will not part with men who
have known him in weal and woe, and the
duke says that, seeing he has so much manhood,
he shall part with none of them. Both
ships land at Seville, where the duke recommends
Neville to the queen as one who
wished to serve her as captain. The queen,
first acquainting herself with his name, makes
Neville captain over forty thousand men, to
keep watch and ward in Seville, and to war
against the heathen soldan. The soldan,
learning in Barbary that a venturesome man
is in Seville, sends him, through the queen, a
challenge to single combat, both lands to be
joined in one according to the issue of the
fight. The queen declines this particular
challenge, but promises the soldan a fight
every day for three weeks, if he wishes it.
Neville overhears all this and offers the
queen to fight the soldan; she thinks it great
pity that Neville should die, though he is a
banished man. Don John informs the queen
that he has read in the Book of Mable that
a Briton was to come over the sea, Charles
Neville by name, with a child’s voice, and
that this man there present hath heart and
hand. (62 is corrupted.) The queen’s council
put their heads together, and it is determined
that Neville shall fight with the soldan.
The battle is to come off at the Headless
Cross. Neville wishes to see the queen’s
ensign. In the ensign is a broken sword,
with bloody hands and a headless cross. The
all-knowing Markenfield pronounces that
these are a token that the prince has suffered
a sore overthrow. Neville orders his Dun
Bull to be set up and trumpets to blow, makes
Markenfield captain over his host during his
absence, and rides to the headless cross, where
he finds the soldan, a foul man to see. The
soldan cries out, Is it some kitchen-boy that
comes to fight with me? Neville replies with
a commonplace: thou makest[270] so little of
God’s might, the less I care for thee. After
a fierce but indecisive fight of an hour, the
soldan, with a glance at his antagonist, says,
No man shall overcome me except it be
Charles Neville. Neville, without avowing
his name, waxes bold, and presently strikes
off the soldan’s head. The queen comes out
of the city with a procession, takes the crown
from her head, and wishes to make him king
on the spot, but Neville informs her that he
has a wife in England. So the queen calls
for a penman and writes Neville down for a
hundred pound a day, for which he returns
thanks, and proffers his services as champion
if ever her Grace shall stand in need.
4. Martinfield is Thomas Markenfield of
York, one of the most active promoters of the
rising. He had been long a voluntary exile
on account of religion, but returned to England
the year before the rebellion. He fled
to the continent with Westmoreland and the
Nortons, and had a pension of thirty-six
florins a month from Spain.
By Lord Dakers should be meant Edward,
son of William, Lord Dacre, for he is in the
list of fugitive rebels demanded of the Regent
Murray by Lord Sussex. He fled to Flanders.
But Leonard Dacre may be intended,
who, though he did not take part with the
earls, engaged in a rebellion of his own in
February, 1570, fought and lost a battle, and
like the rest fled to Flanders.
5. Only two of Richard Norton’s sons went
to the Low Countries with their father, Francis
and Sampson. John Carnaby of Langley
is in a list of persons indicted for rebellion.
(Sharp, p. 230.) No reason appears why he
should be distinguished.
11. Captain Reed, one of the captains of
Berwick, was suspected of having to do with
the rebels, and on one occasion was observed
419to be in company with some of the Nortons,
in arms. He was committed to ward, but
Lord Hunsdon stood his friend and brought
him through safely. Sharp, p. 15 f.
21 ff. Don John’s sole connection with the
rebels seems to have been the paying of their
pensions for the short time during which he
was governor of the Netherlands, 1576–78.
Westmoreland’s pension was two hundred
florins a month. (Sharp, p. 223, note.)
1
‘How long shall fortune faile me now,
And keepe me heare in deadlye dreade?
How long shall I in bale abide,
In misery my life to leade?
2
‘To ffall from my rose, it was my chance;
Such was the Queene of England free;
I tooke a lake, and turned my backe,
On Bramaball More shee caused me flye.
3
‘One gentle Armstrong that I doe ken,
Alas, with thee I dare not mocke!
Thou dwellest soe far on the west border,
Thy name is called the Lord Iocke.’
4
Now hath Armstrong taken noble Nevill,
And as one Martinfield did profecye;
He hath taken the Lord Dakers,
A lords sonne of great degree.
5
He hath taken old Master Nortton,
And sonnes four in his companye;
Hee hath taken another gentleman,
Called Iohn of Carnabie.
6
Then bespake him Charles Nevill;
To all his men, I wott, sayd hee,
Sayes, I must into Scottland fare;
Soe nie the borders is noe biding for me.
7
When he came to Humes Castle,
And all his noble companye;
The Lord Hume halched them right soone,
Saying, Banished men, welcome to mee!
8
They had not beene in Humes Castle
Not a month and dayes three,
But the regent of Scottland and he got witt
That banished men there shold be.
9
‘I’le write a letter,’ sayd the regent then,
‘And send to Humes Castle hastilye,
To see whether Lord Hume wilbe soe good
To bring the banished men vnto mee.
10
‘That lord and I haue beene att deadlye fuyde,
And hee and I cold neuer agree;
Writting a letter, that will not serue;
The banished men must not speake with me.
11
‘But I will send for the garrison of Barwicke,
That they will come all with speede,
And with them will come a noble captaine,
Which is called Captain Reade.’
12
Then the Lord Hume he got witt
They wold seeke vnto Nevill, where he did lye;
He tooke them out of the castle of Hume,
And brought them into the castle of Camelye.
13
Then bespake him Charles Nevill,
To all his men, I wott, spoke hee,
Sayes, I must goe take a noble shippe,
And wee’le be marriners vpon the sea.
14
I’le seeke out fortune where it doth lye;
In Scottland there is noe byding for mee;
Then the tooke leaue with fayre Scottland,
For they are sealing vpon the sea.
15
They had not sayled vpon the sea
Not one day and monthes three,
But they were ware of a Noble shippe,
That fiue topps bare all soe hye.
16
Then Nevill called to Martinfeeld,
Sayd, Martinffeeld, come hither to mee;
Some good councell, Martinfeeld,
I pray thee giue it vnto mee.
17
Thou told me when I was in England fayre,
Before that I did take the sea,
Thou neuer sawst noe banner borne
But thou wold ken it with thine eye.
42018
Thou neuer saw noe man in the face,
Iff thou had seene before with thine eye,
[But] thou coldest haue kend thy freind by thy foe,
And then haue told it vnto mee.
19
Thou neuer heard noe speeche spoken,
Neither in Greeke nor Hebrewe,
[But] thou coldest haue answered them in any language,
And then haue told it vnto mee.
20
‘Master, master, see you yonder faire ancyent?
Yonder is the serpent and the serpents head,
The mould-warpe in the middest of itt,
And itt all shines with gold soe redde.
21
‘Yonder is Duke Iohn of Austria,
A noble warryour on the sea,
Whose dwelling is in Ciuill land,
And many men, God wot, hath hee.’
22
Then bespake him Martinfeelde,
To all his fellowes, I wot, said hee,
Turne our noble shipp about,
And that’s a token that wee will flee.
23
‘Thy councell is not good, Martinfeeld;
Itt falleth not out fitting for mee;
I rue the last time I turnd my backe;
I did displease my prince and the countrye.’
24
Then bespake him noble Nevill,
To all his men, I wott, sayd hee,
Sett me vp my faire Dun Bull,
With gilden hornes hee beares all soe hye.
25
And I will passe yonder noble Duke,
By the leaue of mild Marye;
For yonder is the Duke of Austria,
That trauells now vpon the sea.
26
And then bespake this noble Duke,
Vnto his men then sayd hee,
Yonder is sure some nobleman,
Or else some youth that will not flee.
27
I will put out a pinace fayre,
A harold of armes vpon the sea,
And goe thy way to yonder noble shippe,
And bring the masters name to mee.
28
When the herald of armes came before noble Nevill,
He fell downe low vpon his knee:
‘You must tell me true what is your name,
And in what countrye your dwelling may bee.’
29
‘That will I not doe,’ sayd noble Nevill,
‘By Mary mild, that mayden ffree,
Except I first know thy masters name,
And in what country his dwelling may bee.’
30
Then bespake the herald of armes,
O that he spoke soe curteouslye!
Duke Iohn of Austria is my masters name,
He will neuer lene it vpon the sea.
31
He hath beene in the citye of Rome,
His dwelling is in Ciuillee:
‘Then wee are poore Brittons,’ the Nevill can say,
‘Where wee trauell vpon the sea.
32
‘And Charles Nevill itt is my name,
I will neuer lene it vpon the sea;
When I was att home in England faire,
I was the Erle of Westmoreland,’ sayd hee.
33
Then backe is gone this herald of armes
Whereas this noble duke did lye;
‘Loe, yonder are poore Brittons,’ can he say,
‘Where the trauell vpon the sea.
34
‘And Charles Nevill is their masters name,
He will neuer lene it vpon the sea;
When he was at home in England fayre,
He was the Erle of Westmoreland, said hee.’
35
Then bespake this noble duke,
And euer he spake soe hastilye,
And said, Goe backe to yonder noble-man,
And bid him come and speake with me.
36
For I haue read in the Booke of Mable,
There shold a Brittaine come ouer the sea,
Charles Nevill with a childs voice:
I pray God that it may be hee.
37
When these two nobles they didden meete,
They halched eche other right curteouslye;
Yett Nevill halched Iohn the sooner
Because a banished man, alas! was hee.
42138
‘Call in your men,’ sayd this noble duke,
‘Faine your men that I wold see;’
‘Euer alas!’ said noble Nevill,
‘They are but a litle small companye.’
39
First he called in Martinfield,
That Martinffeeld that cold prophecye;
He call[ed] in then Lord Dakers,
A lords sonne of high degree.
40
Then called he in old Master Nortton,
And sonnes four in his companye;
He called in one other gentleman,
Called Iohn of Carnabye.
41
‘Loe! these be all my men,’ said noble Nevill,
‘And all that’s in my companye;
When we were att home in England fayre,
Our prince and wee cold not agree.’
42
Then bespake this noble duke:
To try your manhood on the sea,
Old Master Nortton shall goe ouer into France,
And his sonnes four in his companye.
43
And my lord Dakers shall goe over into Ffrance,
There a captaine ffor to bee;
And those two other gentlemen wold goe with him,
And for to fare in his companye.
44
And you your-selfe shall goe into Ciuill land,
And Marttinffeild that can prophecye;
‘That will I not doe,’ sayd noble Nevill,
‘By Mary mild, that mayden free.
45
‘For the haue knowen me in wele and woe,
In neede, scar[s]nesse and pouertye;
Before I’le part with the worst of them,
I’le rather part with my liffe,’ sayd hee.
46
And then bespake this noble duke,
And euer he spake soe curteouslye;
Sayes, You shall part with none of them,
There is soe much manhood in your bodye.
47
Then these two noblemen labored together,
Pleasantlye vpon the sea;
Their landing was in Ciuill land,
In Ciuilee that ffaire citye.
48
Three nights att this dukes Nevill did lye,
And serued like a nobleman was hee;
Then the duke made a supplication,
And sent it to the queene of Ciuilee.
49
Saying, Such a man is your citye within,
I mett him pleasantlye vpon the sea;
He seemes to be a noble man,
And captaine to your Grace he faine wold bee.
50
Then the queene sent for [these] noble men
For to come into her companye;
When Nevill came before the queene,
Hee kneeled downe vpon his knee.
51
Shee tooke him vp by the lilly-white hand,
Said, Welcome, my lord, hither to me;
You must first tell me your name,
And in what countrye thy dwelling may bee.
52
He said, Charles Nevill is my name;
I will neuer lene it in noe countrye;
When I was att home in England fayre,
I was the Erle of Westmorland trulye.
53
The queene made him captaine ouer forty thousand,
Watch and ward within Ciuill land to keepe,
And for to warr against the heathen soldan,
And for to helpe her in her neede.
54
When the heathen soldan he gott witt,
In Barbarye where he did lye,
Sainge, Such a man is in yonder citye within,
And a bold venturer by sea is hee.
55
Then the heathen soldan made a letter,
And sent it to the queene instantlye,
And all that heard this letter reade
Where it was rehersed in Ciuillee.
56
Saying, Haue you any man your land within
Man to man dare fight with mee?
And both our lands shalbe ioyned in one,
And cristened lands they both shalbe.
57
Shee said, I haue noe man my land within
Man to man dare fight with thee;
But euery day thou shalt haue a battell,
If it be for these weekes three.
58
All beheard him Charles Nevill,
In his bedd where he did lye,
And when he came the queene before,
He fell downe low vpon his knee.
42259
‘Grant me a boone, my noble dame,
For Chrissts loue that dyed on tree;
Ffor I will goe fight with yond heathen soldan,
If you will bestowe the manhood on mee.’
60
Then bespake this curteous queene,
And euer shee spoke soe curteouslye:
Though you be a banished man out of your realme,
It is great pitye that thou shold dye.
61
Then bespake this noble duke,
As hee stood hard by the queenes knee:
As I haue read in the Booke of Mable,
There shall a Brittone come ouer the sea,
62
And Charles Nevill shold be his name;
But a childs voyce, I wott, hath hee,
And if he be in Christendome;
For hart and hand this man hath hee.
63
Then the queenes councell cast their heads together,
. . . . . . .
That Nevill shold fight with the heathen soldan
That dwelt in the citye of Barbarye.
64
The battell and place appointed was
In a fayre greene, hard by the sea,
And they shood meete att the Headless Crosse,
And there to fight right manfullye.
65
Then Nevill cald for the queenes ancient,
And faine that ancient he wold see;
The brought him forth the broken sword,
With bloodye hands therein trulye.
66
The brought him forth the headless crosse,
In that ancyent it was seene;
‘O this is a token,’ sayd Martinfeeld,
‘That sore ouerthrowen this prince hath beene.
67
‘O sett me vp my fayre Dun Bull,
And trumpetts blow me farr and nee,
Vntill I come within a mile of the Headlesse Crosse,
That the Headlesse Crosse I may see.’
68
Then lighted downe noble Nevill,
And sayd, Marttinffeeld, come hither to me;
Heere I make thee choice captain over my host
Vntill againe I may thee see.
69
Then Nevill rode to the Headless Crosse,
Which stands soe fayre vpon the sea;
There was he ware of the heathen soldan,
Both fowle and vglye for to see.
70
Then the soldan began for to call;
Twise he called lowd and hye,
And sayd, What is this? Some kitchin boy
That comes hither to fight with mee?
71
Then bespake him Charles Nevill,
But a childs voice, I wott, had hee:
‘Thou spekest soe litle of Gods might,
Much more lesse I doe care for thee.’
72
Att the first meeting that these two mett,
The heathen soldan and the christen man,
The broke their speares quite in sunder,
And after that on foote did stand.
73
The next meeting that these two mett,
The swapt together with swords soe fine;
The fought together till they both swett,
Of blowes that were both derf and dire.
74
They fought an houre in battell strong;
The soldan marke[d] Nevill with his eye;
‘There shall neuer man me ouercome
Except it be Charles Nevill,’ sayd hee.
75
Then Nevill he waxed bold,
And cunning in fight, I wott, was hee;
Euen att the gorgett of the soldans iacke
He stroke his head of presentlye.
76
Then kneeled downe noble Nevill,
And thanked God for his great grace,
That he shold come soe farr into a strang[e] land,
To ouercome the soldan in place.
77
Hee tooke the head vpon his sword-poynt,
And carryed it amongst his host soe fayre;
When the saw the soldans head,
They thanked God on their knees there.
78
Seuen miles from the citye the queene him mett,
With procession that was soe fayre;
Shee tooke the crowne beside her heade,
And wold haue crowned him king there.
79
‘Now nay! Now nay! my noble dame,
For soe, I wott, itt cannott bee;
423I haue a ladye in England fayre,
And wedded againe I wold not bee.’
80
The queene shee called for her penman,
I wot shee called him lowd and hye,
Saying, Write him downe a hundred pound a day,
To keepe his men more merrylye.
81
‘I thanke your Grace,’ sayd noble Nevill,
‘For this worthy gift you haue giuen to me;
If euer your Grace doe stand in neede,
Champion to your Highnesse again I’le bee.’
11. feare for dreade.
22. fayre for free.
24. my for me.
52, 402, 424. 4.
54. Carnakie: cf. 404.
82, 152, 481, 574. 3.
83. he & god.
141. fortume.
154. 5.
203. middest ffitt.
35. The Second Part.
371, 433, 471, 721, 731. 2.
484. Ciuilee. In
this and the like names following, the u
has only one stroke in the MS., as often
happens. The letter is not meant for c,
clearly, as it has not the accent or beak of
a c. Furnivall.
531. 40000.
553. all they? all these?
623. ben.
702. 2se :.
781. 7.
802. 100li :.
And for & always.
178 CAPTAIN CAR, OR, EDOM O GORDON — A — B — C — D — E — F — G
A. Cotton MS. Vespasian, A. xxv, No 67, fol. 187, of
the last quarter of the 16th century,[271] British Museum;
Ritson’s Ancient Songs, 1790, p. 137; Böddeker, in
Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Sprache und
Literatur, XV, 126, 1876 (very incorrectly); Transactions
of the New Shakspere Society, 1880–86, Appendix,
p. 52[B], edited by F. J. Furnivall.
B. Percy MS., p. 34; Hales and Furnivall, I, 79.
C. Percy Papers, from a servant of Rev. Robert
Lambe’s, 1766.
D. ‘Edom of Gordon,’ an ancient Scottish Poem. Never
before printed. Glasgow, printed and sold by
Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1755, small 4º, 12 pages.
Ritson, Scotish Songs, II, 17.
E. ‘Edom o Gordon,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 384.
F. The New Statistical Account of Scotland, V, 846,
1845; ‘Loudoun Castle,’ The Ballads and Songs of
Ayrshire, J. Paterson and C. Gray, 1st Series, p. 74,
Ayr, 1846.
G. ‘The Burning o Loudon Castle,’ Motherwell’s MS.,
p. 543.
First printed by the Foulises, Glasgow,
1755, after a copy furnished by Sir David
Dalrymple, “who gave it as it was preserved
in the memory of a lady.” This information
we derive from Percy, who inserted the Dalrymple
ballad in his Reliques, 1765, I, 99,
“improved, and enlarged with several fine
stanzas recovered from a fragment ... in the
Editor’s folio MS.” Seven stanzas of the enlarged
copy were adopted from this MS., with
changes; 162,4, 30, 35, 36, are Percy’s own;
the last three of the Glasgow edition are
dropped. Herd’s copy, The Ancient and
Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 234, is from
424Percy’s Reliques; so is Pinkerton’s, Scottish
Tragic Ballads, 1781, p. 43, with the omission
of the seventh stanza and many alterations.
Ritson, Scotish Songs, 1794, II, 17, repeats
the Glasgow copy; so the Campbell MSS, I,
155, and Finlay, I, 85. The copy in Buchan’s
Gleanings, p. 180, is Percy’s, with one stanza
from Ritson. Of twelve stanzas given in
Burton’s History of Scotland, V, 70 f., 3–6 are
from Percy’s Reliques (modified by E, a fragment
obtained by Burton), the rest from D,
During the three wretched and bloody years
which followed the assassination of the regent
Murray, the Catholic Earl of Huntly, George
Gordon, was one of the most eminent and
active of the partisans of the queen. Mary
created him her lieutenant-governor, and his
brother, Adam Gordon, a remarkably gallant
and able soldier, whether so created or not, is
sometimes called the queen’s deputy-lieutenant
in the north. Our ballad is concerned
with a minor incident of the hostilities in
Aberdeenshire between the Gordons and the
Forbeses, a rival but much less powerful clan,
who supported the Reformed faith and the
regency or king’s party.[272]
“The queen’s lieutenant-deputy in the
north, called Sir Adam Gordon of Auchindown,
knight, was very vigilant in his function;
for suppressing of whom the Master of
Forbes was directed, with the regent’s commission.
But the first encounter, which was
upon the ninth day of October [1571], Auchindown
obtained such victory that he slew of
the Forbeses a hundred and twenty persons,
and lost very few of his own.” This was the
battle of Tulliangus, on the northern slope of
the hills of Coreen, some thirty miles northwest
of Aberdeen. Both parties having been
reinforced, an issue was tried again on the
twentieth of November at Crabstane, in the
vicinity of Aberdeen, where Adam Gordon
inflicted a severe defeat on the Forbeses.[273]
“But what glory and renown,” says the
contemporary History of King James the
Sixth, “he [Gordon] obtained of these two
victories 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.”
Another account, reported by a contemporary
who lived in Edinburgh, is that “Adam
Gordon sent Captain Ker to the place of
Toway, requiring the lady thereof to render
the place of Carrigill to him in the queen’s
name, which she would noways do; whereof
the said Adam having knowledge, moved in
ire towards her, caused raise fire thereintill,
wherein she, her daughters, and other persons
were destroyed, to the number of twenty-seven
or thereby.”[274] This was in November,
1571.
We have a third report of this outrage
from Richard Bannatyne, also a contemporary,
a man, it may be observed, bitterly
hostile to the queen’s party. “Adam of
Gordon ... went to the house of Towie,
which he burnt and twenty four persons in
the same, never one escaping but one woman
that came through the corns and hather
which was cast to the house-sides, whereby
they were smothered. This was done under
assurance; for the laird of Towie’s wife, being
sister to the lady Crawfurd (and also died
within the house), sent a boy to the laird in
time of the truce (which was for the space of
twelve hours) to see on what conditions they
should render the house. In the mean time,
Adam Gordon’s men laid the corns and timbers
425and hather about the house, and set all
on fire.”[275]
Buchanan puts the incident which mainly
concerns us between the fights of Tulliangus
and Crabstone; so does Archbishop Spottiswood.
“Not long after” the former, says the
archbishop, who was a child of six when the
affair occurred, Adam Gordon “sent to summon
the house of Tavoy, pertaining to Alexander
Forbes. The lady refusing to yield
without direction from her husband, he put
fire unto it and burnt her therein with children
and servants, being twenty-seven persons
in all. This inhuman and barbarous
cruelty made his name odious, and stained all
his former doings; otherwise he was held
both active and fortunate in his enterprises.”[276]
Buchanan dispatches the burning of the
house in a line: Domus Alexandri Forbosii,
cum uxore pregnante, liberis et ministris, cremata.
Ed. 1582, fol. 248 b.
Towie was a place of no particular importance;
judging both by the square keep that
remains, which is described as insignificant,
and by the number of people that the house
contained, it must have been a small place.
It is therefore more probable that Captain
Ker burnt Towie while executing a general
commission to harry the Forbeses than that
this house should have been made a special
object. But whether this were so or not, it
is evident from the terms in which the transaction
is spoken of by contemporaries, who
were familiarized to a ferocious kind of warfare,[277]
that there must have been something
quite beyond the common in Captain Ker’s
proceedings on this occasion, for they are denounced
even in those days as infamous, inhuman,
and barbarously cruel, and the name
of Adam Gordon is said to have been made
odious by them.
It is not to be disguised that the language
employed by Spottiswood might be so interpreted
as to signify that Ker did not act in
this dreadful business entirely upon his own
responsibility; and the second of the four
writers who speak circumstantially of the
affair even intimates that Ker applied to
his superior for instructions. On the other
hand, the author of the History of James
the Sixth says distinctly that the house was
fired by the command of Ker, whose soldiers
were rendered impatient by an obstinate refusal
to surrender, accompanied with opprobrious
words. The oldest of the ballads, also,
which is nearly coeval with the occurrence,
speaks only of Captain Car, knows nothing of
Adam Gordon. On the other hand, Bannatyne
knows nothing, or chooses to say nothing,
of Captain Car: Adam Gordon burns
the house, and even does this during a truce.
It may be said that, even if the act were
done without the orders or knowledge of
Adam Gordon, he deserves all the ill fame
which has fallen to him, for not punishing, or
at least discharging, the perpetrator of such
an outrage. But this would be applying the
standards of the nineteenth century (and its
very best standards) to the conduct of the
sixteenth. It may be doubted whether there
was at that time a man in Scotland, nay, even
a man in Europe, who would have turned
away a valuable servant because he had
cruelly exceeded his instructions.[278]
A favorable construction, where the direct
evidence is conflicting, is due to Adam Gordon
because of his behavior on two other occasions,
one immediately preceding, and the
other soon following, the burning of the
house of Towie. We are told that he used
his victory at Crabstone “very moderately,
and suffered no man to be killed after the
fury of the fight was past. Alexander Forbes
of Strath-gar-neck, author of all these troubles
426betwixt these two families, was taken at this
battle, and as they were going to behead him
Auchindown caused stay his execution. He
entertained the Master of Forbes and the rest
of the prisoners with great kindness and
courtesy, he carried the Master of Forbes
along with him to Strathbogie, and in end
gave him and all the rest leave to depart.”[279]
And again, after another success in a fight
called The Bourd of Brechin, in the ensuing
July, he caused all the prisoners to be brought
before him, they expecting nothing but death,
and said to them: “My friends and brethren,
have in remembrance how God has granted
to me victory and the upper hand of you,
granting me the same vantage [‘vand and
sching’] to punish you wherewith my late
father and brother were punished at the Bank
of Fair; and since, of the great slaughter
made on the Queen’s Grace’s true subjects,
and most filthily of the hanging of my soldiers
here by the Earl of Lennox; and since, by the
hanging of ten men in Leith, with other unlawful
acts done contrary to the laws of arms;
and I doubt not, if I were under their dominion,
as you are under mine, that I should die
the death most cruelly. Yet notwithstanding,
my good brethren and countrymen, be
not afraid nor fear not, for at this present ye
shall incur no danger of your bodies, but shall
be treated as brethren, and I shall do to you
after the commandment of God, in doing good
for evil, forgetting the cruelty done to the
queen and her faithful subjects, and receiving
you as her faithful subjects in time coming.
Who promised to do the same, and for assurance
hereof each found surety. After which
the Regent past hastily out of Sterling to
Dundee, charging all manner of man to follow
him, with twenty days victuals, against the
said Adam Gordon. But there would never a
man in those parts obey the charge, by reason
of the bond made before and of the great
gentleness of the said Adam.”[280]
After the Pacification of February, 1573,
Adam Gordon obtained license to go to
France and other parts beyond sea, for certain
years, on condition of doing or procuring
nothing to the hurt of the realm of
Scotland; but for private practices of his,
contrary to his promise, in conjunction with
Captain Ker and others, he was ordered to
return home, 12th May, 1574. His brother,
the Earl of Huntly, upon information of these
unlawful practices in France, was committed
to ward, and when released from ward had
to give security to the amount of £20,000.
Adam Gordon returned in July, 1575, “at
the command of the regent,” with twenty gentlemen
who had gone to France with him, and
was in ward in 1576. He died at St. Johnston
in October, 1580, “of a bleeding.” As
he was of tender age in 1562, he must still
have been a young man.[281]
Thomas Ker was a captain “of men of
war”; that is, a professional soldier. As such
he is mentioned in one of the articles of the
Pacification, where it is declared that Captain
Thomas Ker, Captain James Bruce, and Captain
Gilbert Wauchop, with their respective
lieutenants and ensigns, and two other persons,
“shall be comprehended in this present
pacification, as also all the soldiers who served
under their charges, for deeds of hostility and
crimes committed during the present troubles.”
He was accused of being engaged in
practices against the regency, as we have already
seen, in 1574. He was released from
ward upon caution in February, 1575. 1578,
26th July, he was summoned to appear before
427the king and council to answer to such
things as should be inquired of him. He is
mentioned as a burgher of Aberdeen 1588,
1591. 1593, 3d March, he is required to
give caution to the amount of 1000 merks
that he will not assist the earls of Huntly
and Errol. His “counsail and convoy was
chiefly usit” in an important matter at Balrinnes
in 1594, at which battle he “behavit
himself so valiantly” that he was knighted on
the field. November 4, 1594, Captain Thomas
Ker and James Ker, his brother, are ordered
to be denounced as rebels, having failed to
appear to answer touching their treasonable
assistance to George, sometime Earl of Huntly;
and this seems to be the latest notice of him
that has been recovered.[282]
In the Genealogy of the family of Forbes
drawn up by Matthew Lumsden in 1580, and
continued to 1667 by William Forbes, p. 43 f.,
ed. 1819, we read: “John Forbes of Towie
married —— Grant, daughter to John Grant
of Bandallach, who did bear to him a son
who was unmercifullie murdered in the castle
of Corgaffe; and after the decease of Bandallach’s
daughter, the said John Forbes married
Margaret Campbell, daughter to Sir John
Campbell of Calder, knight, who did bear
him three sons, Alex. Forbes of Towie, John
Forbes, thereafter of Towie, and William
Forbes.... The said John Forbes of Towie,
after the murder of Margaret Campbell, married —— Forbes,
a daughter to the Reires,” by
whom he had a son, who, as also a son of his
own, died in Germany. Alexander and William,
sons of Margaret Campbell, died without
succession, and by the death of an only
son of John, junior, the house of Towie became
extinct. “The rest of the said Margaret
Campbell’s bairns, with herself, were unmercifullie
murdered in the castle of Corgaffe.”[283]
According to the Lumsden genealogy, then,
Margaret Campbell, with her younger children,
and also a son of her husband, John
Forbes of Towie, by a former marriage, were
murdered at the castle of Corgaffe. Corgarf
is a place “exigui nominis,” some fifteen
miles west of Towie, and, so far as is known,
there is nothing to connect this place with the
Forbes family.[284] Three sixteenth-century accounts,
and a fourth by an historian who was
born before the event, make Towie to be the
scene of the “murder,” and Towie we know
to have been in the possession of a member
of the house of Forbes for several generations.
Since Lumsden wrote only nine years after
the event, and was more particularly concerned
with the Forbes family than any of
the other writers referred to, his statement
cannot be peremptorily set aside. But we
428may owe Corgarf to the reviser of 1667, although
he professes not to have altered the
substance of his predecessor’s work.
Reverting now to the ballad, we observe
that none of the seven versions, of which one is
put towards the end of the sixteenth century,
one is of the seventeenth century, two are of
the eighteenth, and the remainder from tradition
of the present century, lay the scene at
Towie. E, which is of this century, has Cargarf.
A, B, the oldest copies (both English),
give no name to the castle. Crecrynbroghe in
A, Bittonsborrow in B, are not the name of the
castle that is burned, but of a castle suggested
for a winter retirement by one of Car’s men,
and rejected by the captain. The fragment
C (English again) also names no place. D
transfers the scene from the north to the
house of Rodes, near Dunse, in Berwickshire,
and F, G to Loudoun castle in Ayrshire; the
name of Gordon probably helping to the
localizing of the ballad in the former case,
and that of Campbell, possibly, in the other.
Captain Car is the leader of the bloody
band in A, B; he is lord of Eastertown A 6,
13, of Westertown B 5, 9; but ‘Adam’ is
said to fire the house in B 14. Adam Gordon
is the captain in C-G. The sufferers are in
A Hamiltons,[285] in F, G, Campbells. The
name Forbes is not preserved in any version.
A, B. Martinmas weather forces Captain
Car to look for a hold. Crecrynbroghe, A,
Bittonsborrow, B, is proposed, but he knows
of a castle where there is a fair lady whose
lord is away, and makes for that. The lady
sees from the wall a host of men riding towards
the castle, and thinks her lord is coming
home, but it was the traitor Captain Car.
By supper-time he and his men have lighted
about the place. Car calls to the lady to
give up the house; she shall lie in his arms
that night, and the morrow heir his land.
She will not give up the house, but fires on
Car and his men. [Orders are given to burn
the house.] The lady entreats Car to save
her eldest son. Lap him in a sheet and let
him down, says Car; and when this is done,
cuts out tongue and heart, ties them in a
handkerchief, and throws them over the wall.
The youngest son begs his mother to surrender,
for the smoke is smothering him.
She would give all her gold and fee for a
wind to blow the smoke away; but the fire
falls about her head, and she and her children
are burned to death. Captain Car rides
away, A. The lord of the castle dreams,
learns by a letter, at London, that his house
has been fired, and hurries home. He finds
the hall still burning, and breaks out into
expressions of grief, A. In B, half of which
has been torn from the manuscript, after
reading the letter he says he will find Car
wherever Car may be, and, long ere day, comes
to Dractonsborrow, where the miscreant is.
If nine or ten stanzas were not lost at this
point, we should no doubt learn of the revenge
that was taken.
In the short fragment C, upon surrender
being demanded, reply is made by a shot
which kills seven of the beleaguerers. An
only daughter, smothered by the reek, asks
her mother to give up the house. Rather
would I see you burnt to ashes, says the
mother. The boy on the nurse’s knee makes
the same appeal; her mother would sooner
see him burnt than give up her house to be
Adam of Gordon’s whore.
D makes the lady try fair speeches with
Gordon, and the lady does not reply with
firearms to the proposal that she shall lie by
his side. Nevertheless she has spirit enough
to say, when her youngest son beseeches her
to give up the house, Come weal, come woe,
you must take share with me. The daughter,
and not the eldest son, is wrapped in sheets
and let down the wall; she gets a fall on the
429point of Gordon’s spear. Then follow deplorable
interpolations, beginning with st. 19.
Edom o Gordon, having turned the girl over
with his spear, and wished her alive, turns
her owr and owr again! He orders his men
to busk and away, for he cannot look on the
bonnie face. One of his men hopes he will
not be daunted with a dame, and certainly
three successive utterances in the way of sentiment
show that the captain needs a little
toning up. At this point the lord of the
castle is coming over the lea, and sees that
his castle is in flames. He and his men put
on at their best rate; lady and babes are
dead ere the foremost arrives; they go at
the Gordons, and but five of fifty of these
get away.
And round and round the wae’s he went,
Their ashes for to view:
At last into the flames he flew,
And bad the world adieu.
This is superior to turning her owr and owr
again, and indeed, in its way, not to be improved.
Nothing need be said of the fragment E
further than that the last stanza is modern.
F is purely traditional, and has one fine
stanza not found in any of the foregoing:
Out then spake the lady Margaret,
As she stood on the stair;
The fire was at her goud garters,
The lowe was at her hair.
There is no firing at the assailants (though
the lady wishes that her only son could charge
a gun). Lady Margaret, with the flame in
her hair, would give the black and the brown
for a drink of the stream that she sees below.
Anne asks to be rowed in a pair of sheets
and let down the wall; her mother says that
she must stay and die with her. Lord
Thomas, on the nurse’s knee, says, Give up,
or the reek will choke me. The mother
would rather be burned to small ashes than
give up the castle, her lord away. And
burnt she is with her children nine.
G has the eighteen stanzas of F,[286] neglecting
slight variations, and twenty more (among
them the bad D 21), nearly all superfluous,
and one very disagreeable. Lady Campbell,
having refused to “come down” and be
“kept” (caught) on a feather-bed, 5, 6, is
ironically asked by Gordon to come down
and be kept on the point of his sword, 7.
Since you will not come down, says Gordon,
fire your death shall be. The lady had liefer
be burnt to small ashes than give up the
castle while her lord is from home, 10. Fire
is set. The oldest daughter asks to be rolled
in a pair of sheets and flung over the wall.
She gets a deadly fall on the point of Gordon’s
sword, and is turned over and over
again, 18, over and over again, 19. Lady
Margaret cries that the fire is at her garters
and the flame in her hair. Lady Ann, from
childbed where she lies, asks her mother to
give up the castle, and is told that she must
stay and dree her death with the rest. The
youngest son asks his mother to go down,
and has the answer that was given Gordon in
10. The waiting-maid begs to have a baby
of hers saved; her lady’s long hair is burnt
to her brow, and how can she take it? So
the babe is rolled in a feather-bed and flung
over the wall, and gets a deadly fall on the
point of Gordon’s ever-ready sword. Several
ill-connected stanzas succeed, three of which
are clearly recent, and then pity for Lady
Ann Campbell, who was burnt with her nine
bairns. Lord Loudon comes home a “sorry”
man, but comforts himself with tearing Gordon
with wild horses.
A slight episode has been passed over. It
is a former servant of the family that breaks
through the house-wall and kindles the fire,
A 21, D 12–14, F 5, 6, G 13, 14. In all but
A he makes the excuse that he is now Gordon’s
man, and must do or die.
There is a Danish ballad of about 1600
(communicated to me by Svend Grundtvig,
and, I think, not yet printed) in which Karl
grevens søn, an unsuccessful suitor of Lady
Linild, burns Lady Linild in her bower, and
taking refuge in Maribo church, is there
burned himself by Karl kejserens søn, Lady
430Linild’s preferred lover. See also ‘Liden Engel,’
under ‘Fause Foodrage,’ No 89, II, 298.
The copy in Percy’s Reliques is translated
by Bodmer, I, 126, and by Doenninges, p. 69;
Pinkerton’s copy by Grundtvig, No 9, and by
Loève-Veimars, p. 307; Knortz, Schottische
Balladen, No 13, apparently translates Allingham’s.
Cotton MS. Vespasian, A. xxv, No 67, fol. 187; Furnivall,
in Transactions of the New Shakspere Society, 1880–86,
Appendix, p. 52†.
1
It befell at Martynmas,
When wether waxed colde,
Captaine Care said to his men,
We must go take a holde.
Syck, sike, and to-towe sike,
And sike and like to die;
The sikest nighte that euer I abode,
God lord haue mercy on me!
2
‘Haille, master, and wether you will,
And wether ye like it best;’
‘To the castle of Crecrynbroghe,
And there we will take our reste.’
3
‘I knowe wher is a gay castle,
Is builded of lyme and stone;
Within their is a gay ladie,
Her lord is riden and gone.’
4
The ladie she lend on her castle-walle,
She loked vpp and downe;
There was she ware of an host of men,
Come riding to the towne.
5
‘Se yow, my meri men all,
And se yow what I see?
Yonder I see an host of men,
I muse who they bee.’
6
She thought he had ben her wed lord,
As he comd riding home;
Then was it traitur Captaine Care
The lord of Ester-towne.
7
They wer no soner at supper sett,
Then after said the grace,
Or Captaine Care and all his men
Wer lighte aboute the place.
8
‘Gyue ouer thi howsse, thou lady gay,
And I will make the a bande;
To-nighte thou shall ly within my armes,
To-morrowe thou shall ere my lande.’
9
Then bespacke the eldest sonne,
That was both whitt and redde:
O mother dere, geue ouer your howsse,
Or elles we shalbe deade.
10
‘I will not geue ouer my hous,’ she saithe,
‘Not for feare of my lyffe;
It shalbe talked throughout the land,
The slaughter of a wyffe.
11
‘Fetch me my pestilett,
And charge me my gonne,
That I may shott at yonder bloddy butcher,
The lord of Easter-towne.’
12
Styfly vpon her wall she stode,
And lett the pellettes flee;
But then she myst the blody bucher,
And she slew other three.
13
‘[I will] not geue ouer my hous,’ she saithe,
‘Netheir for lord nor lowne;
Nor yet for traitour Captaine Care,
The lord of Easter-towne.
14
‘I desire of Captine Care,
And all his bloddye band,
That he would saue my eldest sonne,
The eare of all my lande.’
15
‘Lap him in a shete,’ he sayth,
‘And let him downe to me,
And I shall take him in my armes,
His waran shall I be.’
16
The captayne sayd unto him selfe:
Wyth sped, before the rest,
He cut his tonge out of his head,
His hart out of his brest.
43117
He lapt them in a handkerchef,
And knet it of knotes three,
And cast them ouer the castell-wall,
At that gay ladye.
18
‘Fye vpon the, Captayne Care,
And all thy bloddy band!
For thou hast slayne my eldest sonne,
The ayre of all my land.’
19
Then bespake the yongest sonne,
That sat on the nurses knee,
Sayth, Mother gay, geue ouer your house;
It smoldereth me.
20
‘I wold geue my gold,’ she saith,
‘And so I wolde my ffee,
For a blaste of the westryn wind,
To dryue the smoke from thee.
21
‘Fy vpon the, John Hamleton,
That euer I paid the hyre!
For thou hast broken my castle-wall,
And kyndled in the ffyre.’
22
The lady gate to her close parler,
The fire fell aboute her head;
She toke vp her children thre,
Seth, Babes, we are all dead.
23
Then bespake the hye steward,
That is of hye degree;
Saith, Ladie gay, you are in close,
Wether ye fighte or flee.
24
Lord Hamleton dremd in his dream,
In Caruall where he laye,
His halle were all of fyre,
His ladie slayne or daye.
25
‘Busk and bowne, my mery men all,
Even and go ye with me;
For I dremd that my haal was on fyre,
My lady slayne or day.’
26
He buskt him and bownd hym,
And like a worthi knighte;
And when he saw his hall burning,
His harte was no dele lighte.
27
He sett a trumpett till his mouth,
He blew as it plesd his grace;
Twenty score of Hamlentons
Was light aboute the place.
28
‘Had I knowne as much yesternighte
As I do to-daye,
Captaine Care and all his men
Should not haue gone so quite.
29
‘Fye vpon the, Captaine Care,
And all thy blody bande!
Thou haste slayne my lady gay,
More wurth then all thy lande.
30
‘If thou had ought eny ill will,’ he saith,
‘Thou shoulde haue taken my lyffe,
And haue saved my children thre,
All and my louesome wyffe.’
Percy MS., p. 34; Hales and Furnivall, I, 79.
1
‘Ffaith, master, whither you will,
Whereas you like the best;
Vnto the castle of Bittons-borrow,
And there to take your rest.’
2
‘But yonder stands a castle faire,
Is made of lyme and stone;
Yonder is in it a fayre lady,
Her lord is ridden and gone.’
3
The lady stood on her castle-wall,
She looked vpp and downe;
She was ware of an hoast of men,
Came rydinge towards the towne.
4
‘See you not, my merry men all,
And see you not what I doe see?
Methinks I see a hoast of men;
I muse who they shold be.’
5
She thought it had beene her louly lord,
He had come ryding home;
It was the traitor, Captaine Carre,
The lord of Westerton-towne.
6
They had noe sooner super sett,
And after said the grace,
But the traitor, Captaine Carre,
Was light about the place.
7
‘Giue over thy house, thou lady gay,
I will make thee a band;
432All night with-in mine armes thou’st lye,
To-morrow be the heyre of my land.’
8
‘I’le not giue over my house,’ shee said,
‘Neither for ladds nor man,
Nor yet for traitor Captaine Carre,
Vntill my lord come home.
9
‘But reach me my pistoll pe[c]e,
And charge you well my gunne;
I’le shoote at the bloody bucher,
The lord of Westerton.’
10
She stood vppon her castle-wall
And let the bulletts flee,
And where shee mist . .
. . . . . .
11
But then bespake the litle child,
That sate on the nurses knee;
Saies, Mother deere, giue ore this house,
For the smoake it smoothers me.
12
‘I wold giue all my gold, my childe,
Soe wold I doe all my fee,
For one blast of the westerne wind
To blow the smoke from thee.’
13
But when shee saw the fier
Came flaming ore her head,
Shee tooke then vpp her children two,
Sayes, Babes, we all beene dead!
14
But Adam then he fired the house,
A sorrowfull sight to see;
Now hath he burned this lady faire
And eke her children three.
15
Then Captaine Carre he rode away,
He staid noe longer at that tide;
He thought that place it was to warme
Soe neere for to abide.
16
He calld vnto his merry men all,
Bidd them make hast away;
‘For we haue slaine his children three,
All and his lady gay.’
17
Worde came to louly London,
To London wheras her lord lay,
His castle and his hall was burned,
All and his lady gay.
18
‘Soe hath he done his children three,
More dearer vnto him
Then either the siluer or the gold,
That men soe faine wold win.
19
But when he looket this writing on,
Lord, in is hart he was woe!
Saies, I will find thee, Captaine Carre,
Wether thou ryde or goe!
20
Buske yee, bowne yee, my merrymen all,
With tempered swords of steele,
For till I haue found out Captaine Carre,
My hart it is nothing weele.
21
But when he came to Dractons-borrow,
Soe long ere it was day,
And ther he found him Captaine Carre;
That night he ment to stay.
* * * * *
Communicated to Percy by Robert Lambe, Norham, October
4, 1766, being all that a servant of Lambe’s could
remember.
* * * * *
1
‘Luk ye to yon hie castel,
Yon hie castel we see;
A woman’s wit’s sun oercum,
She’ll gie up her house to me.’
2
She ca’d to her merry men a’,
‘Bring me my five pistols and my lang gun;’
The first shot the fair lady shot,
She shot seven of Gordon’s men.
3
He turned round about his back,
And sware he woud ha his desire,
And if that castel was built of gowd,
It should gang a’to fire.
4
Up then spak her doughter deere,
She had nae mair than she:
433‘Gie up your house, now, mither deere,
The reek it skomfishes me.’
5
‘I d rather see you birnt,’ said she,
‘And doun to-ashes fa,
Ere I gie up my house to Adam of Gordon,
And to his merry men a’.
6
‘I’ve four and twenty kye
Gaing upo the muir;
I’d gie em for a blast of wind,
The reek it blaws sae sour.’
7
Up then spak her little young son,
Sits on the nourrice knee:
‘Gie up your house, now, mither deere,
The reek it skomfishes me.’
8
‘I’ve twenty four ships
A sailing on the sea;
I’ll gie em for a blast of southern wind,
To blaw the reek frae thee.
9
‘I’d rather see you birnt,’ said she,
‘And grund as sma as flour,
Eer I gie up my noble house,
To be Adam of Gordon’s hure.’
* * * * *
Robert and Andrew Foulis, Glasgow, 1755; “as preserved
in the memory of a lady.”
1
It fell about the Martinmas,
When the wind blew schrile and cauld,
Said Edom o Gordon to his men,
We maun draw to a hald.
2
‘And what an a hald sall we draw to,
My merry men and me?
We will gae to the house of the Rhodes,
To see that fair lady.’
3
She had nae sooner busket her sell,
Nor putten on her gown,
Till Edom o Gordon and his men
Were round about the town.
4
They had nae sooner sitten down,
Nor sooner said the grace,
Till Edom o Gordon and his men
Were closed about the place.
5
The lady ran up to her tower-head,
As fast as she could drie,
To see if by her fair speeches
She could with him agree.
6
As soon he saw the lady fair,
And hir yates all locked fast,
He fell into a rage of wrath,
And his heart was aghast.
7
‘Cum down to me, ye lady fair,
Cum down to me; let’s see;
This night ye’s ly by my ain side,
The morn my bride sall be.’
8
‘I winnae cum down, ye fals Gordon,
I winnae cum down to thee;
I winnae forsake my ane dear lord,
That is sae far frae me.’
9
‘Gi up your house, ye fair lady,
Gi up your house to me,
Or I will burn yoursel therein,
Bot and your babies three.’
10
‘I winnae gie up, you fals Gordon,
To nae sik traitor as thee,
Tho you should burn mysel therein,
Bot and my babies three.’
11
‘Set fire to the house,’ quoth fals Gordon,
‘Sin better may nae bee;
And I will burn hersel therein,
Bot and her babies three.’
12
‘And ein wae worth ye, Jock my man!
I paid ye weil your fee;
Why pow ye out my ground-wa-stane,
Lets in the reek to me?
13
‘And ein wae worth ye, Jock my man!
For I paid you weil your hire;
Why pow ye out my ground-wa-stane,
To me lets in the fire?’
14
‘Ye paid me weil my hire, lady,
Ye paid me weil my fee,
434But now I’m Edom of Gordon’s man,
Maun either do or die.’
15
O then bespake her youngest son,
Sat on the nurses knee,
‘Dear mother, gie owre your house,’ he says,
‘For the reek it worries me.’
16
‘I winnae gie up my house, my dear,
To nae sik traitor as he;
Cum weil, cum wae, my jewels fair,
Ye maun tak share wi me.’
17
O then bespake her dochter dear,
She was baith jimp and sma;
‘O row me in a pair o shiets,
And tow me owre the wa.’
18
They rowd her in a pair of shiets,
And towd her owre the wa,
But on the point of Edom’s speir
She gat a deadly fa.
19
O bonny, bonny was hir mouth,
And chirry were her cheiks,
And clear, clear was hir yellow hair,
Whereon the reid bluid dreips!
20
Then wi his speir he turnd hir owr;
O gin hir face was wan!
He said, You are the first that eer
I wist alive again.
21
He turned hir owr and owr again;
O gin hir skin was whyte!
He said, I might ha spard thy life
To been some mans delyte.
22
‘Busk and boon, my merry men all,
For ill dooms I do guess;
I cannae luik in that bonny face,
As it lyes on the grass.’
23
‘Them luiks to freits, my master deir,
Then freits will follow them;
Let it neir be said brave Edom o Gordon
Was daunted with a dame.’
24
O then he spied hir ain deir lord,
As he came owr the lee;
He saw his castle in a fire,
As far as he could see.
25
‘Put on, put on, my mighty men,
As fast as ye can drie!
For he that’s hindmost of my men
Sall neir get guid o me.’
26
And some they raid, and some they ran,
Fu fast out-owr the plain,
But lang, lang eer he coud get up
They were a’deid and slain.
27
But mony were the mudie men
Lay gasping on the grien;
For o fifty men that Edom brought out
There were but five ged heme.
28
And mony were the mudie men
Lay gasping on the grien,
And mony were the fair ladys
Lay lemanless at heme.
29
And round and round the waes he went,
Their ashes for to view;
At last into the flames he flew,
And bad the world adieu.
Kinloch MSS, V, 384, in the handwriting of John Hill
Burton.
1
It fell about the Martinmas time,
When the wind blew shrill and cauld,
Said Captain Gordon to his men,
We’ll a’draw to som hauld.
2
‘And whatena hauld shall we draw to,
To be the nearest hame?’
‘We will draw to the ha o bonny Cargarff;
The laird is na at hame.’
3
The lady sat on her castle-wa,
Beheld both dale and down;
And she beheld the fause Gordon
Come halycon to the town.
4
‘Now, Lady Cargarff, gie ower yer house,
Gie ower yer house to me;
435Now, Lady Cargarff, gie ower yer house,
Or in it you shall die.’
5
‘I’ll no gie ower my bonny house,
To lord nor yet to loun;
I’ll no gie ower my bonny house
To the traitors of Auchindown.’
* * * * *
6
Then up and spak her youngest son,
Sat at the nourice’s knee:
‘O mother dear, gie ower yer house,
For the reek o’t smothers me.’
7
‘I would gie a’my goud, my child,
Sae would I a’my fee,
For ae blast o the westlan win,
To blaw the reek frae thee.’
8
Then up and spak her eldest heir,
He spak wi muckle pride:
‘Now mother dear, keep weel yer house,
And I’ll fight by yer side.’
The New Statistical Account of Scotland, V, 846, Parish
of Loudoun, by Rev. Norman Macleod: “known among the
peasantry from time immemorial.”
1
It fell about the Martinmas time,
When the wind blew snell and cauld,
That Adam o Gordon said to his men,
Where will we get a hold?
2
See [ye] not where yonder fair castle
Stands on yon lily lee?
The laird and I hae a deadly feud,
The lady fain would I see.
3
As she was up on the househead,
Behold, on looking down,
She saw Adam o Gordon and his men,
Coming riding to the town.
4
The dinner was not well set down,
Nor the grace was scarcely said,
Till Adam o Gordon and his men
About the walls were laid.
5
‘It’s fause now fa thee, Jock my man!
Thou might a let me be;
Yon man has lifted the pavement-stone,
An let in the low unto me.’
6
‘Seven years I served thee, fair ladie,
You gave me meat and fee;
But now I am Adam o Gordon’s man,
An maun either do it or die.’
7
‘Come down, come down, my lady Loudoun,
Come down thou unto me!
I’ll wrap thee on a feather-bed,
Thy warrand I shall be.’
8
‘I’ll no come down, I’ll no come down,
For neither laird no[r] loun;
Nor yet for any bloody butcher
That lives in Altringham town.
9
‘I would give the black,’ she says,
‘And so would I the brown,
If that Thomas, my only son,
Could charge to me a gun.’
10
Out then spake the lady Margaret,
As she stood on the stair;
The fire was at her goud garters,
The lowe was at her hair.
11
‘I would give the black,’ she says,
‘And so would I the brown,
For a drink of yon water,
That runs by Galston Town.’
12
Out then spake fair Annie,
She was baith jimp and sma
‘O row me in a pair o sheets,
And tow me down the wa!’
13
‘O hold thy tongue, thou fair Annie,
And let thy talkin be;
For thou must stay in this fair castle,
And bear thy death with me.’
14
‘O mother,’ spoke the lord Thomas,
As he sat on the nurse’s knee,
‘O mother, give up this fair castle,
Or the reek will worrie me.’
43615
‘I would rather be burnt to ashes sma,
And be cast on yon sea-foam,
Before I’d give up this fair castle,
And my lord so far from home.
16
‘My good lord has an army strong,
He’s now gone oer the sea;
He bad me keep this gay castle,
As long as it would keep me.
17
‘I’ve four-and-twenty brave milk kye,
Gangs on yon lily-lee;
I’d give them a’ for a blast of wind,
To blaw the reek from me.’
18
O pittie on yon fair castle,
That’s built with stone and lime!
But far mair pittie on Lady Loudoun,
And all her children nine!
Motherwell’s MS., p. 543, from the recitation of May
Richmond, at the Old Kirk of Loudon.
1
It was in and about the Martinmas time,
When the wind blew schill and cauld,
That Adam o Gordon said to his men,
Whare will we get a hauld?
2
‘Do ye not see yon bonnie castell,
That stands on Loudon lee?
The lord and I hae a deadlie feed,
And his lady fain wuld I see.’
3
Lady Campbell was standing in the close,
A preenin o her goun,
Whan Adam o Gordon and his men
Cam riding thro Galston toun.
4
The dinner was na weel set doun,
Nor yet the grace weel said,
Till Adam o Gordon and a’his men
Around the wa’s war laid.
5
‘Come doun, come down, Ladie Campbell,’ he said,
‘Come doun and speak to me;
I’ll kep thee in a feather bed,
And thy warraner I will be.’
6
‘I winna come doun and speak to thee,
Nor to ony lord nor loun;
Nor yet to thee, thou bloody butcher,
The laird o Auchruglen toun.’
7
‘Come doun, come doun, Ladye Campbell,’ he said,
‘Cum doun and speak to me;
I’ll kep thee on the point o my sword,
And thy warraner I will be.’
8
‘I winna come doun and speak to thee,
Nor to ony lord or loun,
Nor yet to thee, thou bludie butcher,
The laird o Auchruglen toun.’
9
‘Syne gin ye winna come doun,’ he said,
‘A’ for to speak to me,
I’ll tye the bands around my waist,
And fire thy death sall be.’
10
‘I’d leifer be burnt in ashes sma,
And cuist in yon sea-faem,
Or I’d gie up this bonnie castell,
And my gude lord frae hame.
11
‘For my gude lord’s in the army strong,
He’s new gane ower the sea;
He bade me keep this bonnie castell,
As lang’s it wuld keep me.’
12
‘Set fire to the house,’ said bauld Gordon,
‘Set fire to the house, my men;
We’ll gar Lady Campbell come for to rew
As she burns in the flame.’
13
‘O wae be to thee, Carmichael,’ she said,
‘And an ill death may ye die!
For ye hae lifted the pavement-stane,
And loot up the lowe to me.
14
‘Seven years ye war about my house,
And received both meat and fee:’
‘And now I’m Adam o Gordon’s man,
I maun either do or dee.’
15
‘Oh I wad gie the black,’ she said,
‘And I wuld gie the brown,
All for ae cup o the cauld water
That rins to Galstoun toun.’
43716
Syne out and spak the auld dochter,
She was baith jimp and sma:
‘O row me in a pair o sheets,
And fling me ower the wa!’
17
They row’t her in a pair o sheets,
And flang her ower the wa,
And on the point o Gordon’s sword
She gat a deadlie fa.
18
He turned her ower, and ower again,
And oh but she looked wan!
‘I think I’ve killed as bonnie a face
As ere the sun shined on.’
19
He turned her ower, and ower again,
And oh but she lookt white!
‘I micht hae spared this bonnie face,
To hae been some man’s delight!’
20
Syne out and spak Lady Margaret,
As she stood on the stair:
‘The fire is at my gowd garters,
And the lowe is at my hair.’
21
Syne out and spak fair Ladie Ann,
Frae childbed whare she lay:
‘Gie up this bonnie castell, mother,
And let us win away.’
22
‘Lye still, lye still, my fair Annie,
And let your talking be;
For ye maun stay in this bonnie castell
And dree your death wi me.’
23
‘Whatever death I am to dree,
I winna die my lane:
I’ll tak a bairn in ilka arm
And the third is in my wame.’
24
Syne out and spak her youngest son,
A bonnie wee boy was he:
‘Gae doun, gae doun, mother,’ he said,
‘Or the lowe will worry me.’
25
‘I’d leifer be brent in ashes sma
And cuist in yon sea-faem,
Or I’d gie up this bonnie castell,
And my guid lord frae hame.
26
‘For my gude lord’s in the army strong,
He’s new gane ower the sea;
But gin he eer returns again,
Revenged my death sall be.’
27
Syne out and spak her waitin-maid:
Receive this babe frae me,
And save the saikless babie’s life,
And I’ll neer seek mair fee.
28
‘How can I tak the bairn?’ she said,
‘How can I tak’t?’ said she,
‘For my hair was ance five quarters lang,
And ’tis now brent to my bree.’
29
She rowit it in a feather-bed,
And flang it ower the wa,
But on the point o Gordon’s sword
It gat a deidlie fa.
30
‘I wuld gie Loudon’s bonnie castell,
And Loudon’s bonnie lee,
All gin my youngest son Johnnie
Could charge a gun to me.
31
‘Oh, I wuld gie the black,’ she said,
‘And sae wuld I the bay,
Gin young Sir George could take a steed
And quickly ride away.’
32
Syne out and spak her auldest son,
As he was gaun to die:
‘Send doun your chamber-maid, mother,
She gaes wi bairn to me.’
33
‘Gin ye were not my eldest son,
And heir o a’ my land,
I’d tye a sheet around thy neck,
And hang thee with my hand.
34
‘I would gie my twenty gude milk-kye,
That feed on Shallow lee,
A’for ae blast o the norland wind,
To blaw the lowe frae me.’
35
Oh was na it a pitie o yon bonnie castell,
That was biggit wi stane and lime!
But far mair pity o Lady Ann Campbell,
That was brunt wi her bairns nine.
36
Three o them war married wives,
And three o them were bairns,
And three o them were leal maidens,
That neer lay in men’s arms.
43837
And now Lord Loudon he’s come hame,
And a sorry man was he:
‘He micht hae spared my lady’s life,
And wreakit himsell on me!
38
‘But sin we’ve got thee, bauld Gordon,
Wild horses shall thee tear,
For murdering o my ladie bricht,
Besides my children dear.’
A.
Stanzas 1–15 have been revised, or altered,
in another hand.
21. master in my copy: mary, Furnivall.
31. wher is is inserted.
32. ed in builded has been run through with
a line.
34. riden & gone struck out, and ryd from
hom written over.
41. she struck out.
51. Se yow changed to Com yow hether:
merimen in MS.
52. Changed to And look what I do see.
And (&), both in the original text and in
the revised, is rendered O in my copy.
53. Changed to Yonder is ther.
54. musen, as a correction: Furnivall.
61. own wed, as a correction: Furnivall.
62. yt had for As he.
83. thou shall ly in altered to thoust ly
wtin.
102. Not is a correction: Furnivall. My
copy has no.
113. this substituted for yonder.
121. Changed to She styfly stod on her castle
wall.
123. but then struck out.
124. she struck out.
131. I will: MS. torn.
153. arme, Furnivall: my copy, armes.
154. wyll substituted for shall.
194. Editors supply The smoke at the beginning
of the line.
203. westeyn: Furnivall.
214. MS. has thee.
233. Saith: no close, Furnivall. South: in
close, my copy. to chose, Böddeker.
242. Perhaps carnall: Furnivall.
251. Bush in my copy: merymen in MS.
253. dreme, hall in my copy: Furnivall as
printed.
261. busht in my copy: buskt, Furnivall.
262,3. My copy renders And (&) O: Furnivall
as printed.
284. Editors supply awaye at the end of the
line. Böddeker reads so gai.
292. bande looks like baides, one stroke of
the n wanting.
301. Should we not read me for eny? she for
he in my copy: he, Furnivall.
And for & throughout.
Finis per me Willelmum Asheton, clericum.
By my copy is meant a collation made for me
by Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith.
B.
133. 2.
144, 163, 181. 3.
103, 214. Half a page gone.
And for &.
D.
271, 281. Mudiemen, Mudie men.
Quhen, ze, zour, etc., are here spelled when,
ye, your, etc.
F.
54. the loun to: cf.G 134.
G.
64. Another recitation gave Auchindown.
179 ROOKHOPE RYDE
439
The Bishopric Garland, or Durham Minstrel [edited by
Joseph Ritson], 2d ed., Newcastle, 1792; here, from
the reprint by Joseph Haslewood, 1809, p. 54, in
Northern Garlands, London, 1810. “Taken down
from the chanting of George Collingood the elder,
late of Boltsburn, in the neighborhood of Ryhope,”
who died in 1785.
Printed in Bell’s Rhymes of Northern
Bards, 1812, p. 276; Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border, 1833, II, 101; [Sir Cuthbert
Sharp’s] Bishoprick Garland, 1834, p. 14.
The date of this ryde, or raid, may be precisely
ascertained from the ballad itself; it is
shown by 134, 11 to be December 6, 1569.
The thieves of Thirlwall (Northumberland)
and Williehaver, or Willeva (Cumberland),
avail themselves of the confusion incident
to the Rising in the North and of the
absence of a part of the fencible men (some of
whom were with the earls, others with Bowes
in Barnard castle) to make a foray into Rookhope,
in Weardale, Durham. In four hours
they get together six hundred sheep. But
the alarm is given by a man whose horses
they have taken; the cry spreads through the
dale; word comes to the bailiff, who instantly
arms, and is joined by his neighbors to the
number of forty or fifty. The thieves are a
hundred, the stoutest men and best in gear.
When the Weardale men come up with them,
the marauders get fighting enough. The
fray lasts an hour; four of the robbers are
killed, a handsome number wounded, and
eleven taken prisoners, with the loss of only
one of those who fought for the right.
Rookhope is the name of a valley, about
five miles in length, at the termination of
which Rookhope burn empties itself into the
river Wear. Rookhope-head is the top of
the vale. (Ritson.)
The Weardale man who was killed was
Rowland Emerson, perhaps a kinsman of the
bailiff. The family of Emerson of Eastgate,
says Surtees, long exercised the offices of bailiff
of Wolsingham (the chief town and borough
of Weardale) and of forester, etc., etc.,
under successive prelates. (Surtees to Scott,
Memoir by Taylor and Raine, p. 33.)
34. The thieves bare ‘three banners’
against the Weardale men. They choose
three captains in 9.
1
Rookhope stands in a pleasant place,
If the false thieves wad let it be;
But away they steal our goods apace,
And ever an ill death may they die!
2
And so is the men of Thirlwa ‘nd Williehaver,
And all their companies thereabout,
That is minded to do mischief,
And at their stealing stands not out.
3
But yet we will not slander them all,
For there is of them good enough;
It is a sore consumed tree
That on it bears not one fresh bough.
4
Lord God! is not this a pitiful case,
That men dare not drive their goods to t’fell,
But limmer thieves drives them away,
That fears neither heaven nor hell?
5
Lord, send us peace into the realm,
That every man may live on his own!
I trust to God, if it be his will,
That Weardale men may never be overthrown.
4406
For great troubles they’ve had in hand,
With borderers pricking hither and thither,
But the greatest fray that eer they had
Was with the ‘men’ of Thirlwa’nd Williehaver.
7
They gatherd together so royally,
The stoutest men and the best in gear,
And he that rade not on a horse,
I wat he rade on a weil-fed mear.
8
So in the morning, before they came out,
So well, I wot, they broke their fast;
In the [forenoon they came] unto a bye fell,
Where some of them did eat their last.
9
When they had eaten aye and done,
They sayd some captains here needs must be:
Then they choosed forth Harry Corbyl,
And ‘Symon Fell,’ and Martin Ridley.
10
Then oer the moss, where as they came,
With many a brank and whew,
One of them could to another say,
‘I think this day we are men enew.
11
‘For Weardale men is a journey taen;
They are so far out-oer yon fell
That some of them’s with the two earls,
And others fast in Barnard castell.
12
‘There we shal get gear enough,
For there is nane but women at hame;
The sorrowful fend that they can make
Is loudly cries as they were slain.’
13
Then in at Rookhope-head they came,
And there they thought tul a had their prey,
But they were spy’d coming over the Dry Rig,
Soon upon Saint Nicholas’ day.
14
Then in at Rookhope-head they came,
They ran the forest but a mile;
They gatherd together in four hours
Six hundred sheep within a while.
15
And horses I trow they gat
But either ane or twa,
And they gat them all but ane
That belanged to great Rowley.
16
That Rowley was the first man that did them spy;
With that he raised a mighty cry;
The cry it came down Rookhope burn,
And spread through Weardale hasteyly.
17
Then word came to the bailif’s house,
At the East Gate, where he did dwell;
He was walkd out to the Smale Burns,
Which stands above the Hanging Well.
18
His wife was wae when she heard tell,
So well she wist her husband wanted gear;
She gard saddle him his horse in haste,
And neither forgot sword, jack, nor spear.
19
The bailif got wit before his gear came
That such news was in the land;
He was sore troubled in his heart,
That on no earth that he could stand.
20
His brother was hurt three days before,
With limmer thieves that did him prick;
Nineteen bloody wounds lay him upon;
What ferly was’t that he lay sick?
21
But yet the bailif shrinked nought,
But fast after them he did hye,
And so did all his neighbours near,
That went to bear him company.
22
But when the bailiff was gathered,
And all his company,
They were numberd to never a man
But forty [or] under fifty.
23
The thieves was numberd a hundred men,
I wat they were not of the worst
That could be choosed out of Thirlwa’nd Williehaver,
. . . . . . . .
24
But all that was in Rookhope-head,
And all that was i Nuketon Cleugh,
Where Weardale men oertook the thieves,
And there they gave them fighting eneugh.
25
So sore they made them fain to flee,
As many was ‘a’’ out of hand,
And, for tul have been at home again,
They would have been in iron bands;
44126
And for the space of long seven years,
As sore they mighten a had their lives;
But there was never one of them
That ever thought to have seen their ‘wives.’
27
About the time the fray began,
I trow it lasted but an hour,
Till many a man lay weaponless,
And was sore wounded in that stour.
28
Also before that hour was done,
Four of the thieves were slain,
Besides all those that wounded were,
And eleven prisoners there was taen.
29
George Carrick and his brother Edie,
Them two, I wot, they were both slain;
Harry Corbyl and Lennie Carrick
Bore them company in their pain.
30
One of our Weardale men was slain,
Rowland Emerson his name hight;
I trust to God his soul is well,
Because he ‘fought’ unto the right.
31
But thus they sayd: ‘We’ll not depart
While we have one; speed back again!’
And when they came amongst the dead men,
There they found George Carrick slain.
32
And when they found George Carrick slain,
I wot it went well near their ‘heart;’
Lord, let them never make a better end
That comes to play them sicken a ‘part!’
33
I trust to God, no more they shal,
Except it be one for a great chance;
For God wil punish all those
With a great heavy pestilence.
34
Thir limmer thieves, they have good hearts,
They nevir think to be oerthrown;
Three banners against Weardale men they bare,
As if the world had been all their own.
36
Thir Weardale men, they have good hearts,
They are as stif as any tree;
For, if they’d every one been slain,
Never a foot back man would flee.
36
And such a storm amongst them fell
As I think you never heard the like,
For he that bears his head so high,
He oft-times falls into the dyke.
37
And now I do entreat you all,
As many as are present here,
To pray for [the] singer of this song,
For he sings to make blithe your cheer.
23. mischief hither in Bell, who, however,
prints from Ritson.
24. as: at in Scott, who had his copy, as
printed in 1792, from Ritson’s nephew. at
also in Bell.
93, 293. Corbyl, it is thought, should be Corbyt,
which is a northern name. Both Corbyl
and Carrick were new to Surtees.
103. Bell reads would, not understanding that
could means did.
111. Scott, wrongly, have for is: Bell, who
aims at grammar, are.
173. He had, Bell, for improvement again.
234. The reciter, from his advanced age,
could not recollect this line: Ritson.
252. Bell, land for hand.
303. Bell, in for to.
Ritson’s emendations, indicated by ’ ‘, have
necessarily been allowed to stand.
180 KING JAMES AND BROWN — APPENDIX THE KING OF SCOTS AND ANDREW BROWNE
442
‘Kinge James and Browne,’ Percy MS., p. 58; Hales and Furnivall, I, 135.
As the minstrel is walking by himself, he
hears a young prince lamenting. The prince
says to him, Yonder comes a Scot who will do
me wrong. Douglas comes with armed men,
who beset the king with swords and spears.
Are you lords of Scotland, come for council,
asks the king, or are you traitors, come for
my blood? They say that they are traitors,
come for his blood. Fie on you, false Scots!
exclaims the king; you have slain my grandfather,
caused my mother to flee, and hanged
my father. [About nine stanzas are lost
here.] Douglas offers Brown his daughter
in marriage to betray the king; Brown will
never be a traitor. Douglas is making off
fast, but Brown takes him prisoner and conducts
him to the king. Douglas prays for
pardon. The king replies that Douglas has
sought to kill him ever since he was born.
Douglas swears to be a true subject if pardoned.
The king pardons him freely, and all
traitors in Scotland, great and small. Douglas
mutters to himself (we may suppose), If I
live a twelvemonth you shall die, and I will
burn Edinburgh to-morrow. This irredeemable
traitor hies to Edinburgh with his men,
but the people shut the gates against him.
Brown is always where he is wanted, and
takes Douglas prisoner again; the report that
Douglas is secured goes to the king, who
demands his taker to be brought into his
presence, and promises him a thousand pound
a year. So they call Brown; we may imagine
that the distance is no greater than
Holyrood. How often hast thou fought for
me, Brown? asks James. Brown’s first service
was in Edinburgh; had he not stood
stoutly there, James had never been king.
The second was his killing the sheriff of
Carlisle’s son, who was on the point of slaying
his Grace. The third was when he killed
the Bishop of St Andrews, who had undertaken
to poison the king. James had already
made the faithful Englishman (for such he
is) knight; now he makes him an earl, with
professions of fidelity to the English queen.
This third service of Brown is the subject
of a poem by William Elderton, here given in
an appendix. The bishop is about to give
the king (then a child) a poisoned posset.
The lady nurse calls for aid. Brown, an
Englishman, hears, goes to help, meets the
bishop hurrying off with the posset in his
hand, and forces him to drink it, though the
bishop makes him handsome offers not to interfere.
The venom works swiftly, the bishop’s
belly bursts. The king knights Brown, and
gives him lands and livings.
John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews,
must be the person whom Brown slays
in the ballad for an attempt to poison the
young king. He was, however, hanged by his
political enemies, April 7, 1571. This prelate
was credited with being an accomplice to
the murder of Darnley and to that of the
Regent Murray. His elder brother was heir
to the throne after the progeny of Mary
Stuart, and both of these persons were more
or less in the way. Mary Stuart’s son was
a step on which the Hamiltons must “fall
down or else oerleap,” and the archbishop is
said to have sneered at the Duke of Chatelheraut
for letting an infant live between him
and the throne. A report that the archbishop
had undertaken to poison this infant
would readily be believed. Sir William
443Drury thought it worth his while to write to
Cecil that Queen Mary had done the same
before her son was a year old.[287]
Of Browne’s two previous performances,
his standing stoutly for the king at Edinburgh,
st. 26, and his killing the son of the
sheriff of Carlisle, st. 27, we are permitted
to know only that, since these preceded the
killing of the bishop, they occurred at some
time before James was five years old. The
epoch of the adventure with Douglas, which
is the principal subject of the ballad, could
be determined beyond question if we could
ascertain when Brown was made an earl.
It falls after the murder of the Regent Lennox,
81, that is, later than September, 1571,
and the king is old enough to know something
of the unhappy occurrences in his family,
to forget and forgive, and to make knights
and earls. There are correspondences between
the ballad and the proceedings by
which the Earl of Morton, after his resignation
of the regency, obtained possession of
the young king’s person and virtually reëstablished
himself in his former power. This was
in April, 1578, when James was not quite
twelve years old. Morton was living at
Lochleven “for policie, devysing the situation
of a fayre gardene with allayis, to remove all
suspicion of his consavit treason.” James
was in the keeping of Alexander Erskine, his
guardian, at Stirling Castle, of which Erskine
was governor; and the young Earl of Mar,
nephew of the governor, was residing there.
This young man became persuaded, perhaps
through Morton’s representations, that he himself
was entitled to the custody of the castle,
and incidentally of the king. Early in the
morning of the 26th of April, before the
garrison were astir, Mar (who was risen under
pretence of a hunting-party), supported
by two Abbot Erskines, his uncles, and a
retinue of his own, demanded the castle-keys
of the governor. An affray followed, in
which a son of Alexander Erskine lost his
life. The young king, wakened by the noise,
rushed in terror from his chamber, tearing
his hair. Mar overpowered resistance and
seized the keys. Shortly after this, he and
his uncle the governor came to terms at the
instance of the king, Mar retaining Stirling
Castle and the wardenship of the king, and
the uncle being made keeper of the castle of
Edinburgh. Morton was received into Stirling
Castle, and resumed his sway. All this
did not pass without opposition. The citizens
of Edinburgh rose in arms against Morton
(cf. sts 21, 22), and large forces collected
from other parts of the country for the liberation
of the king. A civil war was imminent,
and was avoided, it would seem, chiefly
through the influence of the English minister,
Bowes, who offered himself as peacemaker, in
the name of his queen (cf. sts 31, 32).[288]
The Douglas of this ballad is clearly William
Douglas of Lochleven, who joined Mar
at Stirling as Morton’s intermediary. He
was afterwards engaged in the Raid of Ruthven.
It may be added that Robert Brown, a servant
of the king’s, played a very humble part,
for the defence of his master, in the Gowrie
Conspiracy, but that was nearly twenty years
after Andrew Brown was celebrated by Elderton,
and when James was no young prince,
but in his thirty-fifth year.
1
As I did walke my selfe alone,
And by one garden greene,
I heard a yonge prince make great moane,
Which did turne my hart to teene.
2
‘O Lord!’ he then said vntou me,
‘Why haue I liued soe long?
For yonder comes a cruell Scott,’
Quoth hee, ‘that will doe me some ronge.’
4443
And then came traitor Douglas there,
He came for to betray his king;
Some they brought bills, and some they brought bowes,
And some the brought other things.
4
The king was aboue in a gallery,
With a heauy heart;
Vnto his body was sett about
With swords and speares soe sharpe.
5
‘Be you the lordes of Scotland,’ he said,
‘That hither for councell seeke to me?
Or bee yoe traitors to my crowne,
My blood that you wold see?’
6
‘Wee are the lords of Scottland,’ they said,
‘Nothing we come to craue of thee;
But wee be traitors to thy crowne,
Thy blood that wee will see.’
7
‘O fye vpon you, you false Scotts!
For you neuer all trew wilbe;
My grandfather you haue slaine,
And caused my mother to flee.
8
‘My grandfather you haue slaine,
And my owne father you hanged on a tree;
And now,’ quoth he, ‘the like treason
You haue now wrought for me.
9
‘Ffarwell hart, and farwell hand!
Farwell all pleasures alsoe!
Farwell th . . . my head
. . . . . . .
10
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
‘If thou wilt . . . .
And soe goe away with mee.’
11
‘Goe marry thy daughter to whome thou wilt,’
Quoth Browne; ‘thou marrys none to me;
For I’le not be a traitor,’ quoth Browne,
‘For all the gold that euer I see.’
12
This Douglas, hearing Browne soe say,
Began to flee away full fast;
‘But tarry a while,’ saies lusty Browne,
‘I’le make you to pay before you passe.’
13
He hath taken the Douglas prisoner,
And hath brought him before the king;
He kneeled low vpon his knee,
For pardon there prainge.
14
‘How shold I pardon thee,’ saith the king,
‘And thou’le remaine a traitor still?
For euer since that I was borne,’
Quoth he, ‘thou hast sought my blood to spill.’
15
‘For if you will grant me my pardon,’ he said,
‘Out of this place soe free,
I wilbe sworne before your Grace
A trew subiect to bee.’
16
‘God for-gaue his death,’ said the king,
‘When he was nayled vpon a tree;
And as free as euer God forgaue his death,
Douglas,’ quoth he, ‘I’le forgiue thee.
17
‘And all the traitors in Scottland,’
Quoth he, ‘both great and small;
As free as euer God forgaue his death,
Soe free I will forgiue them all.’
18
‘I thanke you for your pardon, king,
That you haue granted forth soe plaine;
If I liue a twelue month to an end,
You shall not aliue remaine.
19
‘Tomorrow yet, or ere I dine,
I meane to doo thee one good turne;
For Edenborrow, that is thine owne,’
Quoth he, ‘I will both h[arry] and [burne].’
20
Thus Douglas hied towards Edenborrow,
And many of his men were gone beffore;
And after him on euery side,
With him there went some twenty score.
21
But when that they did see him come,
They cryed lowd with voices, saying,
‘Yonder comes a false traitor,
That wold haue slaine our king.’
22
They chaynd vp the gates of Edenborrow,
And there the made them wonderous fast,
And there Browne sett on Douglas againe,
And quicklye did him ouer cast.
23
But worde came backe againe to the king,
With all the speed that euer might bee,
That traitor Douglas there was taken,
And his body was there to see.
44524
‘Bring me his taker,’ quoth the king,
‘Come, quickly bring him vnto me!
I’le giue a thousand pound a yeere,
What man soeuer he bee.’
25
But then they called lusty Browne;
Sayes, ‘Browne, come thou hither to mee.
How oft hast thou foughten for my sake,
And alwayes woone the victory?’
26
‘The first time that I fought for you,
It was in Edenborrow, king;
If there I had not stoutly stood,
My leege, you neuer had beene king.
27
‘The second time I fought for you,
Here I will tell you in this place;
I killd the sheriffs sonne of Carlile,’
Quoth he, ‘that wold haue slaine your Grace.
28
‘The third time that I fought for you,
Here for to let you vnderstand,
I slew the Bishopp of St Andrew[s],’
Quoth he, ‘with a possat in [his hand].’
29
. . . . . quoth hee,
‘That euer my manhood I did trye;
I’le make a vow for Englands sake
That I will neuer battell flee.’
30
‘God amercy, Browne,’ then said the king,
‘And God amercy heartilye!
Before I made thee but a knight,
But now an earle I will make thee.
31
‘God saue the queene of England,’ he said,
‘For her blood is verry neshe;
As neere vnto her I am
As a colloppe shorne from the fleshe.
32
‘If I be false to England,’ he said,
‘Either in earnest or in iest,
I might be likened to a bird,’
Quoth he, ‘that did defile it nest.’
53. yoe bee.
54. by my: cf. 64.
61. are they.
82. mother for father.
94. Half a page torn away.
183. a 12.
204. 20 score.
243. a 1000.
281. the 3d :.
284. possat? MS. rubbed: Hales.
A new Ballad, declaring the great treason conspired
against the young King of Scots, and how
one Andrew Browne, an Englishman, which was
the king’s chamberlaine, preuented the same. To
the tune of Milfield, or els to Greenesleeues.
This piece, which is contained in a collection of
ballads and proclamations in the library of the Society
of Antiquaries, London, is signed W. Elderton,
and was “imprinted at London for Yarathe Iames,
dvvelling in Nevvgate Market, ouer against Christes
Church.” It was licensed to James, May 30, 1581:
Arber II, 393. Reprinted by Percy, Reliques,
1765, II, 204; here from the original. There is
an imperfect and incorrect copy in the Percy MS.,
p. 273; Hales and Furnivall, II, 265.
Morton was beheaded only three days after these
verses were licensed, and had been in durance for
several months before at the castle of Edinburgh.
Elderton cannot be supposed to have the last news
from Scotland, and he was not a man to keep his
compositions by him nine years. The exhortation
of Morton to his confederate, Douglas, in the last
stanza but one is divertingly misplaced. The fictions
of the privie banket and the selling of the
king beyond seas are of the same mint as those in
the ballad.
Jesus, God! what a griefe is this,
That princes subiects cannot be true,
But still the deuill hath some of his
Will play their parts, whatsoeuer ensue;
Forgetting what a greeuous thing
It is to offend the annointed kinge.
446Alas for woe! why should it be so?
This makes a sorowfull heigh ho.
In Scotland is a bonie kinge,
As proper a youthe as neede to be,
Well giuen to euery happy thing
That can be in a kinge to see;
Yet that vnluckie countrie still
Hath people giuen to craftie will.
Alas for woe! etc.
On Whitson eue it so befell
A posset was made to give the kinge,
Whereof his ladie-nurse hard tell,
And that it was a poysoned thing.
She cryed, and called piteouslie,
‘Now helpe, or els the king shall die!’
Alas for woe! etc.
One Browne, that was an English man,
And hard the ladies piteous crye,
Out with his sword, and besturd him than
Out of the doores in haste to flie;
But all the doores were made so fast,
Out of a window he got at last.
Alas for woe! etc.
He met the bishop comming fast,
Hauing the posset in his hande;
The sight of Browne made him agast,
Who bad him stoutly staie and stand.
With him were two that ranne away,
For feare that Browne would make a fray.
Alas for woe! etc.
‘Bishop,’ quoth Browne, ‘what hast thou there?’
‘Nothing at all, my freend,’ sayde he,
‘But a posset to make the king good cheere.’
‘Is it so?’ sayd Browne, ‘that will I see.
First I will haue thy selfe begin,
Before thou goe any further in;
Be it weale or woe, it shall be so.’
This makes a sorrowfull heigh ho.
The bishop saide, Browne, I doo know
Thou art a young man poore and bare;
Liuings on thee I will bestowe;
Let me go on, take thee no care.
‘No, no,’ quoth Browne, ‘I will not be
A traitour for all Christiantie.
Happe weal or woe, it shall be so:
Drinke now, with a sorrowfull heigh ho.’
The bishop dranke, and by and by
His belly burst and he fell downe:
A iust reward for his traytery.
‘This was a posset in deede!’ quoth Browne.
He serched the bishop, and found the keyes
To come to the kinge when he did please.
Alas for woe! etc.
As soone as the king gat word of this,
He humbly fell vppon his knee,
And praysed God that he did misse
To tast of that extremity:
For that he did perceaue and know
His clergie would betray him so.
Alas for woe! etc.
‘Alas,’ he said, ‘vnhappy realme!
My father and godfather slaine,
My mother banished, O extreame
Vnhappy fate, and bitter bayne!
And now like treason wrought for me.
What more vnhappy realme can be!’
Alas for woe! etc.
The king did call his nurse to his grace,
And gave her twentie pound a yeere;
And trustie Browne to, in like case,
He knighted him, with gallant geere,
And gaue him . . . liuings great,
For dooing such a manly feat
As he did sho[w]e, to the bishops woe,
Which made, etc.
When all this treason don and past
Tooke not effect of traytery,
Another treason at the last
They sought against his Maiestie;
How they might make their kinge away
By a priuie banket on a daye.
Alas for woe! etc.
Wherat they ment to sell the king
Beyonde the seas, it was decreede:
Three noble earles heard of this thing,
And did preuent the same with speede.
For a letter came, with such a charme,
That they should doo they[r] king no harme,
For further woe, if they did so;
Which made a sorrowfull heigh ho.
The Earle Mourton told the Douglas then,
‘Take heede you doo not offend the kinge:
But shew your selues like honest men,
Obediently in euery thing;
For his godmother will not see
Her noble childe misvsde to be
With any woe; for if it be so,
She will make a sorrowfull heigh ho’
God graunt all subiects may be true,
In England, Scotland, and euerie where,
That no such daunger may ensue,
To put the prince or state in feare;
That God, the highest king, may see
Obedience as it ought to be.
In wealth or woe, God graunt it be so!
To auoide the sorrowfull heigh ho.
181 THE BONNY EARL OF MURRAY — A — B
447
A. ‘The Bonny Earl of Murray,’ Ramsay’s Tea-Table
Miscellany, 11th ed., London, 1750, p. 356 (vol. iv).
B. ‘The Bonnie Earl o Murray,’ Finlay’s Scottish
Ballads, II, 11.
A is not in the ninth edition of the Tea-Table
Miscellany, 1733, but may be in the
tenth (1736? 1740?), which I have not seen.
It is printed in Percy’s Reliques, 1765, II, 210,
and in many subsequent collections: Herd’s
Scots Songs, 1769, p. 32; Ritson’s Scottish
Songs, 1794, II, 29; Johnson’s Museum, No
177; etc.
James Stewart, son of Sir James Stewart
of Doune, became Earl of Murray in consequence
of his marriage with the oldest
daughter and heiress of the Regent Murray.
“He was a comely personage, of a great
stature, and strong of body like a kemp.”[289]
There was a violent hostility between Murray
and the Earl of Huntly. The occurrence
which is the subject of the ballad may be
narrated in the least space by citing the account
given by Spottiswood. After his assault
on Holyrood House in December (or
September), 1591, “Bothwell went into the
north, looking to be supplied by the Earl of
Murray, his cousin-german; which the king
suspecting, Andrew Lord Ochiltrie was sent
to bring Murray unto the south, of purpose to
work a reconcilement betwixt him and Huntly.
But a rumor being raised in the mean
while that the Earl of Murray was seen in
the palace with Bothwell on the night of the
enterprise, the same was entertained by Huntly
(who waited then at court) to make him suspected
of the king, and prevailed so far as he
did purchase a commission to apprehend and
bring Murray to his trial. The nobleman, not
fearing that any such course should be used,
was come to Donibristle, a house situated on
the north side of Forth, and belonging to his
mother the lady Doune. Huntly, being advertised
of his coming, and how he lay there
secure, accompanied only with the Sheriff of
Murray and a few of his own retinue, went
thither and beset the house, requiring him to
render. The Earl of Murray refusing to put
himself in the hands of his enemy, after some
defence made, wherein the sheriff was killed,
fire was set to the house, and they within
forced by the violence of the smoke and flame
to come forth. The earl staid a great space
after the rest, and, the night falling down,
ventured among his enemies, and, breaking
through the midst of them, did so far outrun
them all as they supposed he was escaped;
yet searching him among the rocks, he was
discovered by the tip of his head-piece, which
had taken fire before he left the house, and
unmercifully slain. The report went that
Huntly’s friends, fearing he should disclaim
the fact (for he desired rather to have taken
him alive), made him light from his horse and
give some strokes to the dead corpse....
The death of the nobleman was universally
lamented, and the clamors of the people so
great ... that the king, not esteeming it
safe to abide at Edinburgh, removed with the
council to Glasgow, where he remained until
Huntly did enter himself in ward in Blackness,
as he was charged. But he staid not
there many days, being dimitted, upon caution,
to answer before the justice whensoever
he should be called. The corpses of the Earl
and Sheriff of Murray were brought to the
church of Leith in two coffins, and there lay
divers months unburied, their friends refusing
to commit their bodies to the earth till
the slaughter was punished. Nor did any
448man think himself so much interested in that
fact as the Lord Ochiltrie, who had persuaded
the Earl of Murray to come south; whereupon
he fell afterwards away to Bothwell,
and joined with him for revenge of the murder.”
This outrage was done in the month of
February, 1592. Huntly sheltered himself
under the king’s commission, and was not
punished. He was no doubt a dangerous
man to discipline, but the king, perhaps because
he believed Murray to be an abettor of
Bothwell, showed no disposition that way.
According to Sir James Balfour, “the queen,
more rashly than wisely, some few days before
had commended” Murray, “in the king’s
hearing, with too many epithets of a proper
and gallant man.” Balfour may have had
gossip, or he may have had a ballad, for his
authority (see A 5); the suggestion deserves
no attention.[290]
In B the Countess of Murray is treated as
the sister of Huntly.
A is translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og
skotske Folkeviser, No 8, p. 52; by Herder,
II, 71. B by Arndt, Blütenlese, p. 196.
Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany, 1763, p. 356.
1
Ye Highlands, and ye Lawlands,
Oh where have you been?
They have slain the Earl of Murray,
And they layd him on the green.
2
‘Now wae be to thee, Huntly!
And wherefore did you sae?
I bade you bring him wi you,
But forbade you him to slay.’
3
He was a braw gallant,
And he rid at the ring;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
Oh he might have been a king!
4
He was a braw gallant,
And he playd at the ba;
And the bonny Earl of Murray
Was the flower amang them a’.
5
He was a braw gallant,
And he playd at the glove;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
Oh he was the Queen’s love!
6
Oh lang will his lady
Look oer the castle Down,
Eer she see the Earl of Murray
Come sounding thro the town!
Eer she, etc.
Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, II, 11; from recitation.
1
‘Open the gates,
and let him come in;
He is my brother Huntly,
he’ll do him nae harm.’
2
The gates they were opent,
they let him come in,
But fause traitor Huntly,
he did him great harm.
3
He’s ben and ben,
and ben to his bed,
And with a sharp rapier
he stabbed him dead.
4
The lady came down the stair,
wringing her hands:
‘He has slain the Earl o Murray,
the flower o Scotland.’
5
But Huntly lap on his horse,
rade to the king:
‘Ye’re welcome hame, Huntly,
and whare hae ye been?
4496
‘Whare hae ye been?
and how hae ye sped?’
‘I’ve killed the Earl o Murray,
dead in his bed.’
7
‘Foul fa you, Huntly!
and why did ye so?
You might have taen the Earl o Murray,
and saved his life too.’
8
‘Her bread it’s to bake,
her yill is to brew;
My sister’s a widow,
and sair do I rue.
9
‘Her corn grows ripe,
her meadows grow green,
But in bonny Dinnibristle
I darena be seen.’
182 THE LAIRD O LOGIE — A — B — C — D — E
A. ‘The Laird o Logie,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, III,
128. The same, with the insertion of one stanza from
recitation, Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 56.
B. ‘The young Laird of Ochiltrie,’ Herd, The Ancient
and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 240; ed.
1776, I, 21. Repeated in Campbell MSS, I, 142.
C. ‘The Laird of Logie,’ a stall-copy printed by M.
Randall, Stirling. The same in Motherwell’s MS.,
p. 504, and in Maidment’s Scotish Ballads and
Songs, p. 8, ‘The young Laird of Logie.’
D. ‘Young Logie,’ Harris MS., fol. 16.
E. ‘The Laird o Logie, or, May Margaret,’ Motherwell’s
Minstrelsy, p. 56, one stanza.
Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, a
madcap cousin of the king, had been guilty
of a violent assault upon Holyrood House
in December (or September), 1591, and in
June, 1592, had “conspired the apprehension
of the king’s person” while James was residing
at Falkland. In August following he
attempted to force himself into the king’s
presence to “make his reconciliation.”
“The lairds of Burlie and Logie, delated to
[have] had intelligence with the Earl Bothwell,
were taken and apprehended by the
Duke of Lennox the ninth day of August,
1592, and committed to ward within Dalkeith;
where being examined they both confessed
the same. Burley gat his life for telling
the truth, but Logie, being a great courtier
with the king, and dealer with the Earl Bothwell
in Bothwell’s enterprise which should
[have] been done at Dalkeith, to wit, that
they should come in at the back gate through
the yard and [have] gotten the king in their
hands, the said laird of Logie was ordained
to be tried by an assize and executed to the
death. But the same night that he was examined,
he escaped out by the means of a
gentlewoman whom he loved, a Dane, who
conveyed him out of his keepers’ hands,
through the queen’s chamber, where his Majesty
and the queen were lying in their beds,
to a window in the backside of the place,
where he went down upon a tow [rope], and
shot three pistols in token of his onlouping
[mounting his horse] where some of his servants,
with the laird of Niddry, were awaiting
him.” (Moysie’s Memoirs, p. 95.)
Another account may be added, from The
Historie of King James the Sext (p. 253 f.):
“It fortuned that a gentleman called Wemyss
of Logie, being also in credence at court,
was delated as a trafficker with Francis Earl
Bothwell; and he, being examined before king
and council, confessed his accusation to be of
verity; that sundry times he had spoken with
450him, expressly against the king’s inhibition
proclaimed in the contrary; which confession
he subscribed with his hand....
“Queen Anne, our noble princess, was served
with divers gentlewomen of her own country,
and namely with one called Mistress Margaret
Twynstoun, to whom this gentleman, Wemyss
of Logie, bore great honest affection, tending
to the godly band of marriage; the which was
honestly requited by the said gentlewoman,
yea, even in his greatest mister (need). For
how soon she understood the said gentleman
to be in distress, and apparently by his confession,
to be punisht to the death, and she
having privilege to lie in the queen’s chamber
that same very night of his accusation, where
the king was also reposing that same night,
she came forth of the door privily, both the
princes being then at quiet rest, and past to
the chamber where the said gentleman was
put in custody to certain of the guard, and
commanded them that immediately he should
be brought to the king and queen; whereunto
they giving sure credence obeyed. But
how soon she was come back to the chamber-door,
she desired the watches to stay till he
should come forth again; and so she closed
the door and conveyed the gentleman to a
window, where she ministered a long cord
unto him to convey himself down upon, and
so, by her good charitable help, he happily
escaped, by the subtlety of love.”
Calderwood gives the following account:
“Upon Monday the seventh of August, the
king being in Dalkeith, the young laird of
Logie and Burlie promised to Bothwell to
bring him in before the king to seek his pardon.
The king was forewarned, and Bothwell,
howbeit brought in quietly within the
castle, was conveyed out again. Burlie was
accused and confessed; Logie denied, and
therefore would have suffered trial. The
night before, one of the queen’s dames, Mistress
Margaret, a Dutchwoman, came to the
guard and desired that he might be suffered to
come to the queen, who had something to inquire
of him. Two of the guard brought him
to the king’s chamber-door, and staid upon his
coming forth, but she conveyed him in the
mean time out at a window in a pair of sheets....
Logie married the gentlewoman after,
when he was received into the king’s favor
again.”[291] Logie, according to Calderwood,
was “a varlet of the king’s chamber.”
Spottiswood says: John Weymis younger
of Logie, gentleman of his Majesty’s chamber,
and in great favor both with the king and
queen, was discovered to have the like dealing
with Bothwell, and, being committed to the
keeping of the guard, escaped by the policy of
one of the Dutch maids, with whom he entertained
a secret love. The gentlewoman,
named Mistress Margaret Twinslace, coming
one night, whilst the king and queen were
in bed, to his keepers, shewed that the king
called for the prisoner, to ask of him some
question. The keepers, suspecting nothing,
for they knew her to be the principal maid
in the chamber, conveyed him to the door of
the bed-chamber, and making a stay without,
as they were commanded, the gentlewoman
did let him down at a window, by a cord
that she had prepared. The keepers, waiting
upon his return, staid there till the morning,
and then found themselves deceived. This,
with the manner of the escape, ministered
great occasion of laughter; and not many
days after, the king being pacified by the
queen’s means, he was pardoned, and took to
wife the gentlewoman who had in this sort
hazarded her credit for his safety.[292]
The lady, called by Calderwood and Spottiswood
a Dutchwoman, but rightly by Moysie
a Dane, was one of a train of her countrywomen
who attended Queen Anne when she
came to Scotland in May, 1590. She is
called Mistress Margaret Vinstar in a letter
of Robert Bowes to Lord Burghley of August
12, 1592;[293] Margaret Weiksterne in a charter
dated 25th December, 1594.[294]
451Young Logie cannot have received a complete
pardon within a few days of his escape.
At a council meeting, September 14, 1592,
it is ordered that Wemyss of Logie the
younger, having failed to appear this day to
answer touching the ‘intercommuning and
having intelligence with Francis, sometime
Earl Bothwell,’ be denounced rebel.[295]
A. Young Logie is a prisoner, in Carmichael’s[296]
keeping, and May Margaret, who
is enamored of him, is weeping for his expected
death. The queen can do nothing, and
tells her that she must go to the king himself
to beg the life of her lover. She goes, accordingly,
but gets an ill answer: all the gold
in Scotland shall not save Young Logie. In
this strait she steals the king’s comb and the
queen’s knife, and sends them to Carmichael
as tokens that Logie is to be discharged. She
provides the young man with money, and
gives him a pair of pistols, which he is to fire
in sign that he is at liberty. The king hears
the ‘volley’ from his bed, and by his peculiar
sagacity recognizes the shot of Young Logie.
He sends for Carmichael, and learning that
the prisoner was set free in virtue of a royal
token, says, You will make his place good tomorrow.
Carmichael hurries to Margaret, and
wants a word with Logie. Margaret, with a
laugh, tells him that the bird is flown. The
young pair severally take ship and are married.
In B, the queen, instead of referring Margaret
to the king as the only resource, herself
undertakes to save the young man’s life. She
asks it of her consort as her first boon; the
king makes her the same answer which he
gives Margaret in A, All the gold in Scotland
will not buy mercy. Margaret, in desperation,
wishes to kill herself, but the queen will
put her in a better way to save her lover.
The queen steals the prison-keys, and the
story proceeds as before. The king threatens
to hang all his gaolers, to the number of
thirty and three. The gaolers plead that
they received the keys (which are also thirty
and three) with a strict command to enlarge
the prisoner. The queen says that, if the
gaolers are to hang, a beginning must be made
with her.
B substitutes Ochiltrie for Logie. Andrew
Stewart, Lord of Ochiltrie, was an active
partisan of Bothwell (see the preceding ballad),
and at a council-meeting on May 2, 1594
(the same meeting at which a caution of
three hundred merks was required for Young
Logie), was ordered to be denounced rebel for
not appearing to answer touching his “tressounable
attemptattis”; that is, for having
been Bothwell’s main helper in the Raid of
Leith, April 3 preceding.[297] So far his case resembles
Young Logie’s, and it may be that the
two became confounded in tradition earlier
than the middle of the eighteenth century,
about which time B was taken down. But
an interchange of names is of the commonest
occurrence in traditional ballads, and perhaps
Ochiltrie’s appearance here no more requires
to be accounted for than his figuring, as he
does, in one of the versions of ‘The Broom of
Cowdenknows.’
Although the queen had no hand in the
freeing of Young Logie, and is not known
even to have winked at it, she stood by Mistress
Margaret, and refused to give her up
when requested.[298]
452C agrees with B as to the part taken by the
queen in the rescue. There are but three
keepers, and presumably but three keys to
steal from under the king’s head, and the
queen sends her wedding-ring with the keys,
as a warrant to the keepers. In 5, Anne is
queen of England as well as queen of Scotland;
but we cannot expect that a stall-ballad
of this century should be nice about a matter
of eleven years.
The offence for which Young Logie is to
die in D is the stealing of a kiss “from the
queen’s marie,” which shows a high appreciation
of the discipline at James’s court.
The queen counterfeits the king’s hand and
steals his right glove, and sends the forged
paper and the glove to “Pitcairn’s walls” as
authority for the liberation of the prisoner.
The king, looking over his castle-wall, sees
Young Logie approaching, and his exclamation
at the sight brings the queen to an instantaneous
confession of what she has done.
The king very good-naturedly overlooks the
offence and absolves the lover for whom it
was committed.
Translated from Motherwell by Wolff,
Halle der Völker, I, 73.
Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, III, 128, “as recited by a gentleman
residing near Biggar.”
1
I will sing, if ye will hearken,
If ye will hearken unto me;
The king has taen a poor prisoner,
The wanton laird o Young Logie.
2
Young Logie’s laid in Edinburgh chapel,
Carmichael’s the keeper o the key;
And May Margaret’s lamenting sair,
A’ for the love of Young Logie.
3
‘Lament, lament na, May Margaret,
And of your weeping let me be;
For ye maun to the king himsell,
To seek the life of Young Logie.’
4
May Margaret has kilted her green cleiding,
And she has curld back her yellow hair:
‘If I canna get Young Logie’s life,
Farewell to Scotland for evermair!’
5
When she came before the king,
She knelit lowly on her knee:
‘O what’s the matter, May Margaret?
And what needs a’ this courtesie?’
6
‘A boon, a boon, my noble liege,
A boon, a boon, I beg o thee,
And the first boon that I come to crave
Is to grant me the life of Young Logie.’
7
‘O na, O na, May Margaret,
Forsooth, and so it mauna be;
For a’ the gowd o fair Scotland
Shall not save the life of Young Logie.’
8
But she has stown the king’s redding-kaim,
Likewise the queen her wedding knife,
And sent the tokens to Carmichael,
To cause Young Logie get his life.
9
She sent him a purse o the red gowd,
Another o the white monie;
She sent him a pistol for each hand,
And bade him shoot when he gat free.
10
When he came to the Tolbooth stair,
There he let his volley flee;
It made the king in his chamber start,
Een in the bed where he might be.
11
‘Gae out, gae out, my merrymen a’,
And bid Carmichael come speak to me;
For I’ll lay my life the pledge o that
That yon’s the shot o Young Logie.’
12
When Carmichael came before the king,
He fell low down upon his knee;
The very first word that the king spake
Was, Where’s the laird of Young Logie?
13
Carmichael turnd him round about,
I wot the tear blinded his ee:
‘There came a token frae your Grace
Has taen away the laird frae me.’
45314
‘Hast thou playd me that, Carmichael?
And hast thou playd me that?’ quoth he;
‘The morn the Justice Court’s to stand,
And Logie’s place ye maun supplie.’
15
Carmichael’s awa to Margaret’s bower,
Even as fast as he may dree:
‘O if Young Logie be within,
Tell him to come and speak with me.’
16
May Margaret turnd her round about,
I wot a loud laugh laughed she:
‘The egg is chippd, the bird is flown,
Ye’ll see nae mair of Young Logie.’
17
The tane is shipped at the pier of Leith,
The tother at the Queen’s Ferrie,
And she’s gotten a father to her bairn,
The wanton laird of Young Logie.
Herd, The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 240.
1
O listen, gude peopell, to my tale,
Listen to what I tel to thee;
The king has taiken a poor prisoner,
The wanton laird of Ochiltrie.
2
When news came to our guidly queen,
Sche sicht, and said right mournfullie,
‘O what will cum of Lady Margret!
Wha beirs sick luve to Ochiltrie.’
3
Lady Margret tore hir yellow hair
When as the queen tald hir the saim:
‘I wis that I had neir bin born,
Nor neir had knawn Ochiltrie’s naim!’
4
‘Fie, na!’ quoth the queen, ‘that maunna be;
Fie, na! that maunna be;
I’ll fynd ye out a better way
To saif the lyfe of Ochiltrie.’
5
The queen sche trippit up the stair,
And lowlie knielt upon hir knie:
‘The first boon which I cum to craive
Is the life of gentel Ochiltrie.’
6
‘O iff you had askd me castels or towirs,
I wad hae gin thaim, twa or thrie;
Bot a’ the monie in fair Scotland
Winna buy the lyfe of Ochiltrie.’
7
The queen sche trippit down the stair,
And down she gade richt mournfullie:
‘It’s a’ the monie in fair Scotland
Winna buy the lyfe of Ochiltrie!’
8
Lady Margaret tore her yellow hair
When as the queen tald hir the saim:
‘I’ll tak a knife and end my lyfe,
And be in the grave as soon as him!’
9
‘Ah, na! Fie, na!’ quoth the queen,
‘Fie, na! Fie, na! this maunna be;
I’ll set ye on a better way
To loose and set Ochiltrie frie.’
10
The queen sche slippit up the stair,
And sche gaid up richt privatlie,
And sche has stoun the prison-keys,
And gane and set Ochiltrie frie.
11
And sche’s gien him a purse of gowd,
And another of whyt monie;
Sche’s gien him twa pistoles by ’s syde,
Saying to him, Shute, when ye win frie.
12
And when he cam to the queen’s window,
Whaten a joyfou shute gae he!
‘Peace be to our royal queen,
And peace be in hir companie!’
13
‘O whaten a voyce is that?’ quoth the king,
‘Whaten a voyce is that?’ quoth he;
‘Whaten a voyce is that?’ quoth the king;
‘I think it’s the voyce of Ochiltrie.
14
‘Call to me a’ my gaolours,
Call thaim by thirtie and by thrie;
Whairfoir the morn, at twelve a clock,
It’s hangit schall they ilk ane be.’
15
‘O didna ye send your keyis to us?
Ye sent thaim be thirtie and be thrie,
And wi thaim sent a strait command
To set at lairge young Ochiltrie.’
45416
‘Ah, na! Fie, na!’ quoth the queen,
‘Fie, my dear luve, this maunna be!
And iff ye’re gawn to hang thaim a’,
Indeed ye maun begin wi me.’
17
The tane was schippit at the pier of Leith,
The ither at the Queen’s Ferrie,
And now the lady has gotten hir luve,
The winsom laird of Ochiltrie.
A stall-copy, printed by M. Randall, Stirling.
1
The young laird of Logie is to prison cast;
Carmichael’s the keeper of the key;
Lady Margaret, the queen’s cousin, is very sick,
And it’s all for love of Young Logie.
2
She’s into the queen’s chamber gone,
She has kneeld low down on her knee;
Says she, You must go to the king yourself;
It’s all for a pardon to Young Logie.
3
The queen is unto the king’s chamber gone,
She has kneeld low down on her knee:
‘O what is the matter, my gracious queen?
And what means all this courtesie?
4
‘Have I not made thee queen of fair Scotland?
The queen of England I trow thou be;
Have not I made thee my wedded wife?
Then what needs all this courtesie?’
5
‘You have made me queen of [fair] Scotland,
The queen of England I surely be;
Since you have made me your wedded wife,
Will you grant a pardon for Young Logie?’
6
The king he turned him right round about,
I think an angry man was he:
‘The morrow, before it is twelve o’clock,
O hangd shall the laird of Logie be.’
7
The queen she’s into her chamber gone,
Amongst her maries, so frank and free;
‘You may weep, you may weep, Margaret,’ she says,
‘For hanged must the laird of Logie be.’
8
She has torn her silken scarf and hood,
And so has she her yellow hair:
‘Now fare you well, both king and queen,
And adieu to Scotland for ever mair!’
9
She has put off her goun of silk,
And so has she her gay clothing:
‘Go fetch me a knife, and I’ll kill myself,
Since the laird of Logie is not mine.’
10
Then out bespoke our gracious queen,
And she spoke words most tenderlie;
‘Now hold your hand, Lady Margaret,’ she said,
‘And I’ll try to set Young Logie free.’
11
She’s up into the king’s chamber gone,
And among his nobles so free;
‘Hold away, hold away!’ says our gracious king,
‘No more of your pardons for Young Logie.
12
‘Had you but askd me for houses and land,
I would have given you castles three;
Or anything else shall be at your command,
But only a pardon for Young Logie.’
13
‘Hold your hand now, my sovereign liege,
And of your anger let it be;
For the innocent blood of Lady Margret
It will rest on the head of thee and me.’
14
The king and queen are gone to their bed,
But as he was sleeping so quietly,
She has stole the keys from below his head,
And has sent to set Young Logie free.
15
Young Logie he’s on horseback got,
Of chains and fetters he’s got free;
As he passd by the king’s window,
There he has fired vollies three.
16
The king he awakend out of his sleep,
Out of his bed came hastilie;
Says, I’ll lay all my lands and rents
That yonder’s the laird of Logie free.’
17
The king has sent to the prison strong,
He has calld for his keepers three;
Says, How does all your prisoners?
And how does the young laird of Logie?
45518
‘Your Majesty sent me your wedding-ring,
With your high command to set him free;’
‘Then tomorrow, before that I eat or drink,
I surely will hang you keepers three.’
19
Then out bespoke our gracious queen,
And she spoke words most tenderlie;
‘If ever you begin to hang a man for this,
Your Majesty must begin with me.’
20
The one took shipping at [the pier of] Leith,
The other at the Queen’s Ferrie;
Lady Margaret has gotten the man she loves,
I mean the young laird of Logie.
Harris MS., fol. 16; from Mrs Harris’s recitation.
1
Pretty is the story I hae to tell,
Pretty is the praisin o itsel,
An pretty is the prisner oor king’s tane,
The rantin young laird o Logie.
2
Has he brunt? or has he slain?
Or has he done any injurie?
Oh no, no, he’s done nothing at all,
But stown a kiss frae the queen’s marie.
3
Ladie Margaret cam doon the stair,
Wringin her hands an tearin her hair;
Cryin, Oh, that ever I to Scotland cam,
Aye to see Young Logie dee!
4
‘Had your tongue noo, Lady Margaret,
An a’ your weepin lat a bee!
For I’ll gae to the king my sell,
An plead for life to Young Logie.’
5
‘First whan I to Scotland cam,
You promised to gie me askens three;
The first then o these askens is
Life for the young laird o Logie.’
6
‘If you had asked house or lands,
They suld hae been at your command;
But the morn, ere I taste meat or drink,
High hanged sall Young Logie be.’
7
Lady Margaret cam doon the stair,
Wringin her hands an tearin her hair;
Cryin, Oh, that ever I to Scotland cam,
A’ to see Young Logie dee!
8
‘Haud your tongue noo, Lady Margaret,
An a’ your weepin lat a bee!
For I’ll counterfiet the king’s hand-write,
An steal frae him his richt hand gloe,
An send them to Pitcairn’s wa’s,
A’ to lat Young Logie free.’
9
She counterfieted the king’s hand-write,
An stole frae him his richt hand gloe,
An sent them to Pitcairn’s wa’s,
A’ to let Young Logie free.
10
The king luikit owre his castle-wa,
Was luikin to see what he cald see:
‘My life to wad an my land to pawn,
Yonder comes the young laird o Logie!’
11
‘Pardon, oh pardon! my lord the king,
Aye I pray you pardon me;
For I counterfieted your hand-write,
An stole frae you your richt hand gloe,
An sent them to Pitcairn’s wa’s,
A’ to set Young Logie free.’
12
‘If this had been done by laird or lord,
Or by baron of high degree,
I’se mak it sure, upon my word,
His life suld hae gane for Young Logie.
13
‘But since it is my gracious queen,
A hearty pardon we will gie,
An for her sake we’ll free the loon,
The rantin young laird o Logie.’
Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 56, the third stanza; from
recitation.
May Margaret sits in the queen’s bouir,
Knicking her fingers ane be ane,
Cursing the day that she ere was born,
Or that she ere heard o Logie’s name.
456B.
61. and towirs in ed. 1776.
Qu in what, etc., is rendered by w, and z in
ze, etc., by y.
C.
Maidment’s copy has some slight variations,
such as often occur in different issues of
stall-prints.
13. very very.
14. the love.
31. into.
42. you be.
64. It’s hanged.
71. her own.
72. and so free.
73. Lady Margret.
81. tore.
82, 92. she has.
83. ye.
111. up to.
142. beds.
182. commands.
193. you do hang.
201. at the pier of.
D.
21. Perhaps brent.
61. Perhaps houses.
102. Perhaps culd.
183 WILLIE MACINTOSH — A — B
A. ‘Burning of Auchindown.’ a. The Thistle of
Scotland, p. 106. b. Whitelaw, The Book of Scottish
Ballads, p. 248.
B. ‘Willie Mackintosh,’ Finlay’s Scottish Ballads,
II, 89.
The murder of the “Bonny Earl of Murray”
was the occasion of serious commotions
in the North Highlands. Towards the end
of the year 1592, the Macintoshes of the
Clan Chattan, who of all the faction of Murray
“most eagerly endeavored to revenge his
death,” invaded the estates of the Earl of
Huntly, and killed four gentlemen of the surname
of Gordon. Huntly retaliated, “and
rade into Pettie (which was then in the possession
of the Clan Chattan), where he wasted
and spoiled all the Clan Chattan’s lands, and
killed divers of them. But as the Earl of
Huntly had returned home from Pettie, he
was advertised that William Macintosh with
eight hundred of Clan Chattan were spoiling
his lands of Cabrach: whereupon Huntly and
his uncle Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchindown,
with some few horsemen, made speed towards
the enemy, desiring the rest of his company
to follow him with all possible diligence, knowing
that if once he were within sight of them
they would desist from spoiling the country.
Huntly overtook the Clan Chattan before
they left the bounds of Cabrach, upon the
head of a hill called Stapliegate, where, without
staying for the rest of his men, he invaded
them with these few he then had. After a
sharp conflict he overthrew them, chased
them, killed sixty of their ablest men, and
hurt William Macintosh with divers others of
his company.”[299]
Two William Macintoshes are confounded
in the ballad. The burning of Auchindown
is attributed, rightly or wrongly, to an earlier
William, captain of the clan, who, in August,
1550, was formally convicted of conspiracy
against the life of the Earl of Huntly, then
lieutenant in the north, sentenced to lose his
life and lands, and, despite a pledge to the
contrary, executed shortly after by the Countess
of Huntly.[300]
Auchindown castle is on the banks of the
Fiddich, B 1. By Cairn Croom, A 4, is meant,
I suppose, the noted Cairngorm mountain, at
the southern extremity of Banffshire.
457
a. The Thistle of Scotland, p. 106, 1823. b. Whitelaw,
The Book of Scottish Ballads, p. 248; from an Aberdeen
newspaper of about 1815.
1
‘Turn, Willie Macintosh,
Turn, I bid you;
Gin ye burn Auchindown,
Huntly will head you.’
2
‘Head me or hang me,
That canna fley me;
I’ll burn Auchendown,
Ere the life lea me.’
3
Coming down Deeside,
In a clear morning,
Auchindown was in flame,
Ere the cock-crawing.
4
But coming oer Cairn Croom,
And looking down, man,
I saw Willie Macintosh
Burn Auchindown, man.
5
‘Bonny Willie Macintosh,
Whare left ye your men?’
‘I left them in the Stapler,
But they’ll never come hame.’
6
‘Bonny Willie Macintosh,
Whare now is your men?’
‘I left them in the Stapler,
Sleeping in their sheen.’
Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, II, 89, 1808, as recollected by
a lady and communicated by Walter Scott.
1
As I came in by Fiddich-side,
In a May morning,
I met Willie Mackintosh,
An hour before the dawning.
2
‘Turn again, turn again,
Turn again, I bid ye;
If ye burn Auchindown,
Huntly he will head ye.’
3
‘Head me, hang me,
That sall never fear me;
I’ll burn Auchindown
Before the life leaves me.’
4
As I came in by Auchindown,
In a May morning,
Auchindown was in a bleeze,
An hour before the dawning.
* * * * *
5
Crawing, crawing,
For my crowse crawing,
I lost the best feather i my wing
For my crowse crawing.
A. b.
12. Turn, turn.
13. If you.
22. That winna.
3 wanting.
41. But wanting.
After 4:
Light was the mirk hour
At the day-dawing,
For Auchindoun was in flames
Ere the cock-crawing.
5, 6 wanting.
184 THE LADS OF WAMPHRAY
458
Glenriddell MSS, XI, 34, 1791.
‘Lads of Wamphray, ane old ballad, sometimes
called The Galiard,’ is the superscription
in the manuscript. Printed in Scott’s
Minstrelsy, I, 208, 1802, II, 148, 1833; with
the omission of 4 and 36, the insertion of four
verses after 8, two transpositions, and some
changes of language.
“The following song celebrates the skirmish,
in 1593, betwixt the Johnstones and
Crichtons, which led to the revival of the ancient
quarrel betwixt Johnstone and Maxwell,
and finally to the battle of Dryffe Sands, in
which the latter lost his life. Wamphray is
the name of a parish in Annandale. Lethenhall
was the abode of Johnstone of Wamphray,
and continued to be so till of late years.
William Johnstone of Wamphray, called the
Galliard, was a noted freebooter. A place
near the head of Teviotdale retains the name
of the Galliard’s Faulds (folds), being a valley,
where he used to secrete and divide his
spoil with his Liddesdale and Eskdale associates.
His nom de guerre seems to have been
derived from the dance called the galliard.
The word is still used in Scotland to express
an active, gay, dissipated character. Willie
of the Kirkhill, nephew to the Galliard, and
his avenger, was also a noted Border robber.”
“Leverhay, Stefenbiggen, Girth-head, etc.,
are all situated in the parish of Wamphray.
The Biddes-burn, where the skirmish took
place betwixt the Johnstones and their pursuers,
is a rivulet which takes its course
among the mountains on the confines of
Nithesdale and Annandale. The Wellpath
is a pass by which the Johnstones were retreating
to their fastnesses in Annandale.
Ricklaw-holm is a place upon the Evan water,
which falls into the Annan below Moffat.
Wamphray-gate was in these days an alehouse.”
Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 208 ff., ed.
1802.
This affair is briefly noticed in the Historie
of King James the Sext in the following
terms: “Sum unbrydlit men of Johnestons ... hapnit
to ryd a steiling in the moneth of Julij
this present yeir of God 1593, in the lands
and territoreis pertening to the Lord Sanquhar
and the knyghtis of Drumlanryg, Lag
and Closburne, upon the watter of Nyth;
whare, attoure the great reaf and spulye that
thay tuik away with violent hand, thay slew
and mutilat a great nomber of men wha stude
for defence of thair awin geir and to reskew
the same from the hands of sik vicious revers.”[301]
P. 297.
It is hard to determine whether the first
eight stanzas of the ballad are anything more
than a prelude, and whether 5, 7 note the customary
practice of the Lads of Wamphray, or
anticipate, as is done in 3, certain points in
the story which follows. The gap after 8 is
filled by Scott with verses which describe the
Galliard as incapable of keeping his hands
from another man’s horse, and as having gone
to Nithsdale to steal Sim Crichton’s dun. The
Galliard makes an unlucky selection from the
Crichton stable, and takes a blind horse instead
of the coveted dun. Under the impression
that he has the right beast, he calls out
to Sim to come out and see a Johnstone ride.
The Crichtons mount for pursuit; the Galliard
459sees that they will be up with him, and
tries to hide behind a willow-bush. Resistance
is vain, for there is no other man by but
Will of Kirkhill; entreaties and promises are
bootless; the Crichtons hang the Galliard
high. Will of Kirkhill vows to avenge his
uncle’s death, and to this end goes back to
Wamphray and raises a large band of riders,
who proceed to Nithsdale and drive off the
Crichtons’ cattle. On the return the Johnstones
are followed or intercepted by the
Crichtons; a fight ensues, and the Crichtons
suffer severely. Will of Kirkhill boasts that
he has killed a man for every finger of the
Galliard. The Johnstones drive the Crichtons’
nout to Wamphray.[302]
There is a story, not sufficiently authenticated,
that Lord Maxwell, while engaged in
single combat with Johnstone, at the battle of
Dryfesands, “was slain behind his back by the
cowardly hands of Will of Kirkhill.” The
New Statistical Account of Scotland, IV, 148,
note[B].
1
Twixt the Girthhead and Langwood-end
Livd the Galiard and Galiard’s men.
2
It is the lads of Lethenha,
The greatest rogues among them a’.
3
It is the lads of Leverhay,
That drove the Crichtons’ gier away.
4
It is the lads o the Kirkhill,
The gay Galiard and Will o Kirkhill,
5
But and the lads o Stefenbiggin,
They broke the house in at the riggin.
6
The lads o Fingland and Hellbackhill,
They were neer for good, but aye for ill.
7
Twixt the Staywood Bass and Langside Hill,
They stelld the broked cow and branded bull.
8
It is the lads o the Girthhead,
The diel’s in them for pride and greed.
9
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
10
The Galiard is to the stable gane;
Instead of the Dun, the Blind he’s taen.
11
‘Come out now, Simmy o the Side,
Come out and see a Johnston ride!
12
‘Here’s the boniest horse in a’Nithside,
And a gentle Johnston aboon his hide.’
13
Simmy Crichton’s mounted then,
And Crichtons has raised mony a ane.
14
The Galiard thought his horse had been fleet,
But they did outstrip him quite out o sight.
15
As soon as the Galiard the Crichton he saw,
Beyond the saugh-bush he did draw.
16
The Crichtons there the Galiard hae taen,
And nane wi him but Willy alane.
17
‘O Simmy, Simmy, now let me gang,
And I vow I’ll neer do a Crichton wrang!
18
‘O Simmy, Simmy, now let me be,
And a peck o goud I’ll gie to thee!
19
‘O Simmy, Simmy, let me gang,
And my wife shall heap it wi her hand!’
20
But the Crichtons wadna let Willy bee,
But they hanged him high upon a tree.
21
O think then Will he was right wae,
When he saw his uncle guided sae.
22
‘But if ever I live Wamphray to see,
My uncle’s death revenged shall be!’
46023
Back to Wamphray Willy’s gane,
And riders has raised mony a ane.
24
Saying, My lads, if ye’ll be true,
Ye’s a’be clad in the noble blue.
25
Back to Nidsdale they are gane,
And away the Crichtons’ nout they hae taen.
26
As they came out at the Wallpath-head,
The Crichtons bad them light and lead.
27
And when they came to the Biddess-burn,
The Crichtons bad them stand and turn.
28
And when they came to the Biddess-strand,
The Crichtons they were hard at hand.
29
But when they cam to the Biddess-law,
The Johnstons bad them stand and draw.
30
Out then spake then Willy Kirkhill:
‘Of fighting, lads, ye’s hae your fill.’
31
Then off his horse Willy he lap,
And a burnishd brand in his hand he took.
32
And through the Crichtons Willy he ran,
And dang them down both horse and man.
33
O but these lads were wondrous rude,
When the Biddess-burn ran three days blood!
34
‘I think, my lads, we’ve done a noble deed;
We have revengd the Galiard’s blood.
35
‘For every finger o the Galiard’s hand,
I vow this day I’ve killed a man.’
36
And hame for Wamphray they are gane,
And away the Crichtons’ nout they’ve taen.
37
‘Sin we’ve done na hurt, nor we’ll take na wrang,
But back to Wamphray we will gang.’
38
As they came in at Evanhead,
At Reaklaw-holm they spred abread.
39
‘Drive on, my lads, it will be late;
We’ll have a pint at Wamphray Gate.
40
‘For where eer I gang, or eer I ride,
The lads o Wamphr[a]y’s on my side.
41
‘For of a’the lads that I do ken,
The lads o Wamphr[a]y’s king o men.’
Not divided into stanzas in the MS. Scott
makes stanzas of four lines.
31. Leuerhay.
After 8 Scott inserts:
For the Galliard, and the gay Galliard’s men,
They neer saw a horse but they made it their ain.
The Galliard to Nithside is gane,
To steal Sim Crichton’s winsome dun.
201. let Willy bee, in the text: or the Galiard,
in the margin.
211. In the margin: Will of Kirkhill.
382. Breaklaw: changed in the MS. to Reaklaw.
185 DICK O THE COW
461
a. ‘An excelent old song cald Dick of the Cow.’ Percy Papers, 1775. b. Caw’s Poetical Museum, p. 22, 1784.
c. Campbell, Albyn’s Anthology, II, 31, 1818.
a seems to have been communicated to
Percy by Roger Halt in 1775. b was contributed
to Caw’s Museum by John Elliot
of Reidheugh, a gentleman, says Scott, well
skilled in the antiquities of the western border.
c was taken down “from the singing
and recitation of a Liddesdale-man, namely,
Robert Shortreed, sheriff-substitute of Roxburghshire,
in the autumn of 1816;” but it
differs from b in no important respect except
the omission of thirteen stanzas, 17, 18, 24,
32, 35–38, 51, 52, 56–58.
Scott’s copy, I, 137, 1802, II, 63, 1833, is
c with the deficient stanzas supplied from b.
A copy in the Campbell MSS, I, 204, is b.
Ritson pointed out to Scott a passage in
Nashe’s Have with you to Saffren Walden
which shows that this ballad was popular before
the end of the sixteenth century: “Dick
of the Cow, that mad demi-lance northren
borderer, who plaied his prizes with the lord
Jockey so bravely,” 1596, in Grosart’s Nashe,
III, 6.
An allusion to it likewise occurs in Parrot’s
Laquei Ridiculosi, or Springes for Woodcocks,
London, 1613, Epigr. 76.
Owenus wondreth, since he came to Wales,
What the description of this isle should be,
That nere had seen but mountains, hills, and dales;
Yet would he boast, and stand on pedigree
From Rice ap Richard, sprung from Dick a Cow;
Be cod, was right gud gentleman, look ye now!
Scott’s Minstrelsy, II, 62, 1833.
In a list of books printed for and sold by
P. Brooksby, 1688, occurs Dick-a-the-Cow,
containing north-country songs: Ritson, in
Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 223, 1833.
Two stanzas are cited in Pennant’s Tour in
Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides in 1772,
Part II, p. 276, ed. 1776.
Then Johnie Armstrong to Willie gan say,
‘Billie, a riding then will we;
England and us have been long at feud;
Perhaps we may hit on some bootie.’
Then they’re come on to Hutton-Ha;
They rade that proper place about;
But the laird he was the wiser man,
For he had left na geir without.
Fair Johnie Armstrong[303] and Willie his
brother, having lain long in, ride out on the
chance of some booty. They come to Hutton
Hall, but find no gear left without by the experienced
laird, except six sheep, which they
scorn to take. Johnie asks Willie who the
man was that they last met, and learning that
it was Dick o the Cow, a fool whom he knows
to have three as good kine as are in Cumberland,
says, These kine shall go with me to Liddesdale.
They carry off Dick’s three kine,
and also three coverlets from his wife’s bed.
When daylight reveals the theft, Dick’s wife
raises a wail; he bids her be still, he will
bring her three cows for one. Dick goes to
his master and makes his loss known, and asks
462leave to go to Liddesdale to steal; his troth
is required that he will steal from none but
those who have stolen from him. Dickie goes
on to Puddingburn, where there are three
and thirty Armstrongs, and complains to the
Laird’s Jock of the wrong which Fair Johnie
Armstrong and Willie have done him. Fair
Johnie is for hanging Dick, Willie for slaying
him, and another young man for tossing him
in a sheet, beating him, and letting him go.
The Laird’s Jock, who is a better fellow than
the rest, tells Dick that if he will sit down he
shall have a bit of his own cow. Dick observes
that a key has been flung over the doorhead
by lads who have come in late. With
this key he opens the stable where are the
Armstrongs’ three and thirty horses. He ties
all but three with a triple knot,[304] leaps on
one, takes another in his hand, and makes
off. Fair Johnie discovers in the morning
that his own horse and Willie’s have been
stolen, borrows the Laird’s-Jock’s, which Dick
(for improvement of the story) happens not
to have tied, arms himself, and sets out in
pursuit. Overtaking Dick on Canoby lee,
Johnie sends a spear at him, which only
pierces the innocent’s jerkin. Dick turns on
Johnie, and has the good fortune to fell him
with the pommel of his sword. He strips
Johnie of armor and sword, takes the third
horse, and goes home to his master, who
threatens to hang him for his thieving. The
fool plants himself upon the terms his master
had made with him: he had stolen from none
but those that had stolen from him. His having
the Laird Jock’s horse requires explanation;
but Dick is able to give such satisfaction
on that point that his master offers twenty
pound and one of his best milk-kye for the
horse. Dick exacts and gets thirty, and
makes the same bargain with his master’s
brother for Fair Johnie Armstrong’s horse.
So he goes back to his wife, and gives her threescore
pound for her three coverlets, two kye
as good as her three, and has the third horse
over and above. But Dick sees that he cannot
safely remain on the border after this
reprisal upon the Armstrongs, and removes
to Burgh (Brough) under Stainmoor, in the
extreme south of Cumberland.[305]
Henry Lord Scroop of Bolton was warden
of the West Marches for thirty years from
1563, and his son Thomas for the next ten
years, down to the union of the crowns.
Which of the two is intended in this ballad
might be settled beyond question by identifying
my lord’s brother, Ralph Scroop, Bailif
Glazenberrie, or Glozenburrie, st. 54 f.; but
the former is altogether more probable.
The Laird’s Jock, in the opinion of Mr R.
B. Armstrong, was a son of Thomas of Mangerton,
the elder brother of Gilnockie. There
are notices of him from 1569 to 1599. In
1569 Archibald Armstrong of Mangerton declined
to be pledge for John Armstrong, called
the Lardis Jok, Reg. P. Council; in 1599 he
and other principal Armstrongs executed a
bond,[306] and he is mentioned (in what fashion
will presently appear) at various intermediate
dates.
Jock, the Laird’s son, an Armstrong of Liddesdale,
had a brother called John,[307] MS.
General Register House, 1569. (He is not
called Fair John in any document besides the
ballad.) In a later MS. there is an entry of
the marriage of John Armstrong, called the
Lord’s John. John Armstrong, son to the
laird of Mangerton, is witness to two bonds
in which John of the Syde is a party, in 1562,
1563: R. B. Armstrong, History of Liddesdale,
463etc., Appendix, pp. ciii, civ. In a London
MS. the Lord’s John is said to have been
executed.
The Laird’s Jock, his father the laird of
Mangerton, Sim’s Thom, and their accomplices,
are complained of in November, 1582,
by Sir Simon Musgrave for burning of his
barns, wheat, etc., worth £1,000 sterling:
Nicolson and Burn, History of Westmoreland
and Cumberland, I, xxxi. The commendation
of the Laird’s Jock’s honesty in st. 47,
as Scott says, seems but indifferently founded;
“for in July, 1586, a bill was fouled against
him, Dick of Dryup, and others, by the deputy
of Bewcastle, at a warden-meeting, for
four hundred head of cattle taken in open
foray from the Drysike in Bewcastle; and in
September, 1587, another complaint appears,
at the instance of one Andrew Rutledge of the
Nook, against the Laird’s Jock and his accomplices,
for fifty kine and oxen, besides furniture
to the amount of one hundred merks sterling:”
Nicolson and Burn, as above. To be
sure, we find the laird of Mangerton, on the
next page, making complaints of the same
kind against various persons, but it is to be
feared that the Laird’s Jock, at least, did not
keep to the innocent’s golden rule, ‘to steal
frae nane but them that sta from thee.’ Sir
Richard Maitland gives him his character:
Thay spuilye puire men of thair pakis,
Thay leife tham nocht on bed nor bakis;
Baith henne and cok,
With reill and rok,
The Lairdis Jok all with him takis. (MS.)
Hutton Hall, 3, being more than twenty
miles from the border, seems remote for the
Armstrongs’ first reconnaissance, and it is no
wonder that Fair Johnie stickled at driving
six sheep to such a distance. We might ask
how Dick, who evidently lives near Carlisle
(for, besides other reasons, he is intimately
acquainted with the Armstrongs), should have
been met so far from home.
Harribie, 14, mentioned also in ‘Kinmont
Willie,’ was the place of execution at Carlisle.
Puddingburn House, 16, according to
Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 48, was a
strong place on the side of the Tinnis Hill,
about three miles westward from the Syde
(and therefore a very little further from the
house of Mangerton), of which the ruins now
serve for a sheepfold. A MS. cited by Mr
R. B. Armstrong says: “Joke Armestronge,
called the Lord’s Joke, dwelleth under Denys
Hill besides Kyrsoppe in Tenisborne;” and
in another MS. the Lord Jock of Tennesborne
is stated to have lived a mile west from Kersopp-foote.
The name Puddingburn has not
been found on any map.[308]
Cannobei, 34, is on the east of the Esk, just
above its juncture with the Liddel. Mattan,
52, 58 (Morton in b), is perhaps the small
town a few miles east of Whitehaven. There
were cattle-fairs at Arlochden, which is very
nigh, in the early part of this century: Lysons,
Cumberland, p. 10.
The Cow in Dick’s name can have no reference
to his cattle, for then his style would
have been Dick o the Kye. Cow may possibly
denote the hut in which he lived; or
bush, or broom.
Translated by Knortz, Schottische Balladen,
No 15, p. 42.
4641
Now Liddisdale has lain long in,
Fa la
There is no rideing there a ta;
Fa la
Their horse is growing so lidder and fatt
That are lazie in the sta.
Fa la la didle
2
Then Johnë Armstrang to Willie can say,
Billie, a rideing then will we;
England and us has been long at a feed;
Perhaps we may hitt of some bootie.
3
Then they’r comd on to Hutton Hall,
They rade that proper place about;
But the laird he was the wiser man,
For he had left nae gear without.
4
Then he had left nae gear to steal,
Except six sheep upon a lee;
Says Johnie, I’de rather in England die
Before their six sheep good to Liddisdale with me.
5
‘But how cald they the man we last with mett,
Billie, as we came over the know?’
‘That same he is an innocent fool,
And some men calls him Dick o the Cow.’
6
‘That fool has three as good kyne of his own
As is in a’ Cumberland, billíe,’ quoth he:
‘Betide my life, betide my death,
These three kyne shal go to Liddisdaile with me.’
7
Then they’re comd on to the poor fool’s house,
And they have broken his wals so wide;
They have loosd out Dick o the Cow’s kyne three,
And tane three coerlets off his wife’s bed.
8
Then on the morn, when the day grew light,
The shouts and crys rose loud and high:
‘Hold thy tongue, my wife,’ he says,
‘And of thy crying let me bee.
9
‘Hald thy tongue, my wife,’ he says,
‘And of thy crying let me bee,
And ay that where thou wants a kow,
Good sooth that I shal bring the three.’
10
Then Dick’s comd on to lord and master,
And I wate a drerie fool [was] he:
‘Hald thy tongue, my fool,’ he says,
‘For I may not stand to jest with thee.’
11
‘Shame speed a your jesting, my lord,’ quo Dickie,
‘For nae such jesting grees with me;
Liddesdaile has been in my house this last night,
And they have tane my three kyne from me.
12
‘But I may nae langer in Cumberland dwel,
To be your poor fool and your leel,
Unless ye give me leave, my lord,
To go to Liddisdale and steal.’
13
‘To give thee leave, my fool,’ he says,
‘Thou speaks against mine honour and me;
Unless thou give me thy trouth and thy right hand
Thou’l steal frae nane but them that sta from thee.’
14
‘There is my trouth and my right hand;
My head shal hing on Hairibie,
I’le never crose Carlele sands again,
If I steal frae a man but them that sta frae me.’
15
Dickie has tane leave at lord and master,
And I wate a merrie fool was he;
He has bought a bridle and a pair of new spurs,
And has packed them up in his breek-thigh.
16
Then Dickie’s come on for Puddinburn,
Even as fast as he may drie;
Dickie’s come on for Puddinburn,
Where there was thirty Armstrongs and three.
17
‘What’s this comd on me!’ quo Dickë,
‘What meakle wae’s this happend on me,’ quo he,
‘Where here is but ae innocent fool,
And there is thirty Armstrongs and three!’
18
Yet he’s comd up to the hall among them all;
So wel he became his courtisie:
‘Well may ye be, my good Laird’s Jock!
But the deil bless all your companie.
19
‘I’m come to plain of your man Fair Johnie Armstrong,
And syne his billie Willie,’ quo he;
465‘How they have been in my house this last night,
And they have tane my three ky frae me.’
20
Quo Johnie Armstrong, We’ll him hang;
‘Nay,’ thain quo Willie, ‘we’ll him slae;’
But up bespake another young man, We’le nit him in a four-nooked sheet,
Give him his burden of batts, and lett him gae.
21
Then up bespake the good Laird’s Jock,
The best falla in the companie:
Fitt thy way down a little while, Dickë,
And a peice of thine own cow’s hough I’l give to thee.
22
But Dicki’s heart it grew so great
That never a bitt of it he dought to eat;
But Dickie was warr of ane auld peat-house,
Where there al the night he thought for to sleep.
23
Then Dickie was warr of that auld peat-house,
Where there al the night he thought for to ly;
And a’the prayers the poor fool prayd was,
‘I wish I had a mense for my own three kye!’
24
Then it was the use of Puddinburn,
And the house of Mangertoun, all haile!
These that came not at the first call
They gott no more meat till the next meall.
25
The lads, that hungry and aevery was,
Above the door-head they flang the key;
Dickie took good notice to that;
Says, There’s a bootie younder for me.
26
Then Dickie’s gane into the stable,
Where there stood thirty horse and three;
He has ty’d them a’with St Mary knot,
All these horse but barely three.
27
He has ty’d them a’with St Mary knott,
All these horse but barely three;
He has loupen on one, taken another in his hand,
And out at the door and gane is Dickie.
28
Then on the morn, when the day grew light,
The shouts and cryes rose loud and high;
‘What’s that theife?’ quo the good Laird’s Jock;
‘Tel me the truth and the verity.
29
‘What’s that theife?’ quo the good Laird’s Jock;
‘See unto me ye do not lie:’
‘Dick o the Cow has been in the stable this last night,
And has my brother’s horse and mine frae me.’
30
‘Ye wad never be teld it,’ quo the Laird’s Jock;
‘Have ye not found my tales fu leel?
Ye wade never out of England bide,
Till crooked and blind and a’wad steal.’
31
‘But will thou lend me thy bay?’ Fair Johnë Armstrong can say,
‘There’s nae mae horse loose in the stable but he;
And I’le either bring ye Dick o the Kow again,
Or the day is come that he must die.’
32
‘To lend thee my bay,’ the Laird’s Jock can say,
‘He’s both worth gold and good monie;
Dick o the Kow has away twa horse,
I wish no thou should no make him three.’
33
He has tane the Laird’s jack on his back,
The twa-handed sword that hang lieugh by his thigh;
He has tane the steel cap on his head,
And on is he to follow Dickie.
34
Then Dickie was not a mile off the town,
I wate a mile but barely three,
Till John Armstrang has oertane Dick o the Kow,
Hand for hand on Cannobei lee.
35
‘Abide th[e], bide now, Dickie than,
The day is come that thow must die;’
Dickie looked oer his left shoulder;
‘Johnie, has thow any mo in thy company?
36
‘There is a preacher in owr chapell,
And a’the lee-lang day teaches he;
When day is gane, and night is come,
There’s never a word I mark but three.
46637
‘The first and second’s Faith and Conscience;
The third is, Johnie, Take head of thee;
But what faith and conscience had thow, traitor,
When thou took my three kye frae me?
38
‘And when thou had tane my three kye,
Thou thought in thy heart thou was no wel sped;
But thou sent thi billie Willie oer the know,
And he took three coerlets of my wife’s bed.’
39
Then Johne lett a spear fa leaugh by his thigh,
Thought well to run the innocent through;
But the powers above was more than his,
He ran but the poor fool’s jerkin through.
40
Together they ran or ever they blan—
This was Dickie, the fool, and hee—
Dickie could not win to him with the blade of the sword,
But he feld [him] with the plummet under the eye.
41
Now Dickie has [feld] Fair Johnë Armstrong,
The prettiest man in the south countrey;
‘Gramercie,’ then can Dickie say,
‘I had twa horse, thou has made me three.’
42
He has tane the laird’s jack off his back,
The twa-handed sword that hang leiugh by his thigh;
He has tane the steel cape off his head:
‘Johnie, I’le tel my master I met with thee.’
43
When Johnë wakend out of his dream,
I wate a dreiry man was he:
‘Is thou gane now, Dickie, than?
The shame gae in thy company!
44
‘Is thou gane now, Dickie, than?
The shame go in thy companie!
For if I should live this hundred year,
I shal never fight with a fool after thee.’
45
Then Dickie comed home to lord and master,
Even as fast as he may driee:
‘Now Dickie, I shal neither eat meat nor drink
Till high hanged that thou shall be!’
46
‘The shame speed the liars, my lord!’ quo Dickie,
‘That was no the promise ye made to me;
For I’d never gane to Liddesdale to steal
Till that I sought my leave at thee.’
47
‘But what gart thow steal the Laird’s-Jock’s horse?
And, limmer, what gart thou steal him?’ quo he;
‘For lang might thow in Cumberland dwelt
Or the Laird’s Jock had stoln ought frae thee.’
48
‘Indeed I wate ye leed, my lord,
And even so loud as I hear ye lie;
I wan him frae his man, Fair Johnë Armstrong,
Hand for hand on Cannobie lee.
49
‘There’s the jack was on his back,
The twa-handed sword that hung lewgh by his thigh;
There’s the steel cap was on his head;
I have a’these takens to lett you see.’
50
‘If that be true thou to me tels—
I trow thou dare not tel a lie—
I’le give thee twenty pound for the good horse,
Wel teld in thy cloke-lap shall be.
51
‘And I’le give thee one of my best milk-kye,
To maintain thy wife and children three;
[And that may be as good, I think,
As ony twa o thine might be.’]
52
‘The shame speed the liars, my lord!’ quo Dicke,
‘Trow ye ay to make a fool of me?
I’le either have thirty pound for the good horse,
Or els he’s gae to Mattan fair wi me:’
53
Then he has given him thirty pound for the good horse,
All in gold and good monie;
He has given him one of his best milk-kye,
To maintain his wife and children three.
54
Then Dickie’s come down through Carlile town,
Even as fast as he may drie:
The first of men that he with mett
Was my lord’s brother, Bailife Glazenberrie.
46755
‘Well may ye be, my good Ralph Scrupe!’
‘Welcome, my brother’s fool!’ quo he;
‘Where did thou gett Fair Johnie Armstrong’s horse?’
‘Where did I get him but steall him,’ quo he.
56
‘But will thou sell me Fair Johnie Armstrongś horse?
And, billie, will thou sel him to me?’ quo he:
‘Ay, and tel me the monie on my cloke-lap,
For there’s not one fathing I’le trust thee.’
57
‘I’le give thee fifteen pound for the good horse,
Wel teld on thy cloke-lap shal be;
And I’le give [thee] one of my best milk-kye,
To maintain thy wife and thy children three.’
58
‘The shame speed the liars, my lord!’ quo Dickë,
‘Trow ye ay to make a fool of me?’ quo he:
‘I’le either have thirty pound for the good horse,
Or else he’s to Mattan Fair with me.’
59
He has given him thirty pound for the good horse,
All in gold and good monie;
He has given him one of his best milk-kye,
To maintain his wife and children three.
60
Then Dickie lap a loup on high,
And I wate a loud laughter leugh he:
‘I wish the neck of the third horse were browken,
For I have a better of my own, and onie better can be.’
61
Then Dickie comd hame to his wife again;
Judge ye how the poor fool he sped;
He has given her three score of English pounds
For the three auld coerlets was tane of her bed.
62
‘Hae, take thee there twa as good kye,
I trow, as al thy three might be;
And yet here is a white-footed naigg;
I think he’le carry booth thee and me.
63
‘But I may no langer in Cumberland dwell;
The Armstrongs the’le hang me high:’
But Dickie has tane leave at lord and master,
And Burgh under Stanemuir there dwels Dickie.
a.
44. Over good is written went.
102. I wats: cf. 152, 342, 432.
213. Fitt: Caw, Sit. I take fitt in the sense
of fettle.
234. a mense.
383. Sent ye.
472. steal the Laird Jock horse erroneously
repeated from the line above: corrected
from Caw.
513,4wanting: supplied from b.
551. Srcupe.
622. for thy, thyee, corrected from three.
b.
Burden, after the first and fourth line, Fala,
fala, fala, faliddle.
13. horses are grown sae lidder fat.
14. They downa stur out o the sta.
22. then we’ll gae.
24. Ablins we’ll hit on.
32. rade the.
43. Quo J.
44. Ere thir: gae.
51. with wanting.
54. men ca.
61,4, 114, 194. ky.
62. As there’s.
63. me for my, twice.
73. three ky.
81. day was.
83, 91. O had.
94. In good sooth I’ll.
101. on for ’s.
102. was he.
103. Now had.
113. this wanting.
131. I gi.
132. speakest: my.
133. right wanting.
134. but wha sta frae.
142. hang.
144. but wha sta.
162. might.
163. Now Dickie’s.
164. were.
171. O what’s this comd o me now.
182. Sae weil’s.
192. o his.
193. the last.
203, 211. up and.
203. We’ll nit him in a four-nooked sheet
wanting.
204. We’ll gie im his batts.
212. in a’the.
213. Sit thy ways: Dickie.
214. thy: gi thee.
223. Then Dickie.
224, 232. there wanting.
231. o an auld.
233. was wanting.
234. a mense.
243. came na.
244. t’the.
251. weary for aevery: were.
252. Aboon: hang for flang.
253. Dickie he.
261. Then D. into the stable is gane.
262, 272. horses.
263, 271. Mary’s.
273. tane: his wanting.
283, 291. O where’s.
292. dinna.
293. Dickie’s been: this wanting.
468301. it wanting.
311. But lend me thy bay, Johnie.
312. mae wanting.
313. ye wanting.
314. he shall.
322. worth baith.
324. na thou may make.
332. lieugh wanting.
334. he gane.
341. was na.
343. Till he’s oertane by Johnie A.
351. Abide, abide.
352. maun die.
353. Then wanting.
354. thy wanting.
364. neer ae.
372. third, neer let a traitor free.
373. But Johnie: hadst: traitor wanting.
381. tane away.
383. But sent thy.
392. to hae slain the innocent, I trow.
393. were mair than he.
394. For he.
404. But feld ’im.
411. has feld.
422. leiugh wanting.
431. Johnie.
433, 441. And is.
443. years.
444. I neer shall.
451. come.
453. I’ll neither eat nor.
454. hanged thou shalt.
464. Till I had got my.
472. gard thou steal him, quo he.
474. Ere: stawn frae.
483. Johnie.
493. And there’s.
494. let thee.
502. dare na.
503, 523, 531, 571, 583, 591. punds.
513,4. And that may be as good, I think, As
ony twa o thine might be.
524. els wanting: Mortan.
531. He’s gien.
541. Dickie came.
542. he might.
543. met with.
544. Glozenburrie.
561,2. wilt.
564. no ae fardin.
573. gi thee.
574. thy wanting.
584. Or he’s gae: Mortan.
601. fu hie.
602. laugh laughed.
604. if better can be.
611. Dickie’s.
612. fool sped.
621. these for there.
623. a accidentally wanting: nagie.
631. bide for dwell.
634. dwells he.
Simple Scotticisms and ordinary contractions
have generally not been noted.
c.
Reading of b are not repeated.
Burden: after the first and the second verse, Lal de ral, thrice, la lal de; at the end of the stanza:
Lal lal de ridle la di, fal lal de ridle la di,
Fal lal di lal la, fal lal di ridle la.
21. Fair Johnie.
22. riding we will.
23. have been: at feid.
24. we’ll light.
31. they are come.
32. that proper, asa.
41. For he.
51. ca.
54. And men they call.
62. there are.
71. they have come.
74. frae his.
82. rase.
92. ay where thou hast lost ae.
94. suith I shall.
101. Now Dickie’s gane to the gude Lord
Scroop.
111. Shame fa your.
114. hae awa.
123. you.
134. Thou’lt.
151. leave o.
152. And wanting.
161. on to Pudding-burn house.
163. Then: on to.
17, 18 wanting.
193. house last.
201. Ha quo fair.
202. then wanting.
203. Then up and spak: young Armstrang.
211. But up and spak.
213. down thy ways.
214. gie ye.
222. the neer.
223. Then was he aware.
234. Were I: amends: my gude.
24 wanting.
252. they threw.
253. o that.
254. There will be a bootie for.
261. has into the stable gane.
274. And away as fast as he can hie.
281. But.
282. raise.
283. Ah, whae has done this.
291. Whae has done this deed.
292. See that to me.
294. has taen.
311. But lend me thy bay, Fair Johnie can say.
312. save he.
313. either fetch.
32 wanting.
332. A: to hang by.
333. a for the.
334. And galloped on to.
341. Then wanting: frae aff.
343. When he was: Fair J. A.
35–38 wanting.
391. fu for fa: misprint?
403. at him.
411. Thus.
414. hast.
421. the steil-jack aff Johnie’s back.
422. hang low.
434. The shame and dule is left wi me.
442. The deil.
443. these h. years.
451. hame to the good Lord Scroop.
452. he might hie.
464. Had I not got my leave frae.
471. garrd thee.
472. garrd ye.
473. thou mightst.
483. wan the horse frae Fair.
484. Hand to.
492. This: sword hang.
494. brought a’.
502. And I think thou dares.
503. fifteen pounds for the horse.
504. on thy.
51, 52 wanting.
531. twenty pounds.
542. could drie.
551. Well be ye met.
553. didst.
56, 57, 58 wanting.
591. twenty punds.
592. Baith in.
604. If ony of the twa were better than he.
611. Dickie’s come.
612. had sped.
613. twa score.
614. was wanting.
621. And tak.
632. they would.
633. So D.
634. And at.
186 KINMONT WILLIE
469
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, I, 111, 1802; II, 32, 1833.
This ballad celebrates a bold and masterly
exploit of Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm,
laird of Buccleuch, which is narrated as follows
by a contemporary, Archbishop Spotiswood:[309]
“The Lord Scroop being then Warden of
the West-Marches of England, and the Laird
of Bacleugh having the charge of Lidisdale,
they sent their deputies to keep a day of
truce for redress of some ordinary matters.
The place of meeting was at the Dayholme
of Kershop, where a small brook divideth
England from Scotland, and Lidisdale from
Bawcastle. There met, as deputy for the
Laird of Bacleugh, Robert Scott of Hayninge,
and for the Lord Scroop, a gentleman within
the West-Wardenry called Mr Salkeld.
These two, after truce taken and proclaimed,
as the custom was, by sound of trumpet, met
friendly, and, upon mutual redress of such
wrongs as were then complained of, parted in
good terms, each of them taking his way
homewards. Meanwhile it happened one
William Armstrong, commonly called Will
of Kinmouth, to be in company with the
Scottish deputy; against whom the English
had a quarrel for many wrongs he had committed,
as he was indeed a notorious thief.
This man having taken his leave of the Scots
deputy, and riding down the river of Liddell
on the Scottish side, towards his own house,
was pursued by the English that espied him
from the other side of the river, and after a
chase of three or four miles taken prisoner,
and brought back to the English deputy, who
carried him away to the castle of Carlile.
“The Laird of Bacleugh complaining of the
breach of truce (which was always taken
from the time of meeting unto the next day
at sun-rising) wrote to Mr Salkeld and craved
redress. He excused himself by the absence
of the Lord Scroop. Whereupon Bacleugh
sent to the Lord Scroop, and desired the
prisoner might be set at liberty, without any
bond or condition, seeing he was unlawfully
taken. Scroop answered that he could do
nothing in the matter, it having so happened,
without a direction from the queen and
council of England, considering the man was
such a malefactor. Bacleugh, loath to inform
the king of what was done, lest it might
have bred some misliking betwixt the princes,
dealt with Mr Bowes, the resident ambassador
of England, for the prisoner’s liberty:
who wrote very seriously to the Lord Scroop
in that business, advising him to set the man
free, and not to bring the matter to a farther
hearing. But no answer was returned; the
matter thereupon was imparted to the king,
and the queen of England solicited by letters
to give direction for his liberty; yet nothing
was obtained. Which Bacleugh perceiving,
and apprehending both the king, and himself
as the king’s officer, to be touched in honor,
he resolved to work the prisoner’s relief by
the best means he could.
“And upon intelligence that the castle of
Carlile, wherein the prisoner was kept, was
surprisable, he employed some trusty persons
to take a view of the postern-gate, and measure
the height of the wall, which he meant
to scale by ladders; and if those failed, to
470break through the wall with some iron instruments,
and force the gates. This done
so closely as he could, he drew together some
two hundred horse, assigning the place of
meeting at the tower of Morton,[310] some ten
miles from Carlile, an hour before sun-set.
With this company passing the water of Esk
about the falling, two hours before day he
crossed Eden beneath Carlile bridge (the
water through the rain that had fallen being
thick), and came to the Sacery [Sacray], a
plain under the castle. There making a little
halt at the side of a small bourn which they
call Cadage [Caday, Caldew], he caused
eighty of the company to light from their
horses, and take the ladders and other instruments
which he had prepared with them.
He himself, accompanying them to the foot
of the wall, caused the ladders to be set to it;
which proving too short, he gave order to use
the other instruments for opening the wall,
nigh the postern, and finding the business
like to succeed, retired to the rest whom he
had left on horseback, for assuring those that
entered upon the castle against any eruption
from the town. With some little labor a
breach was made for single men to enter, and
they who first went in brake open the postern
for the rest. The watchmen and some few
the noise awaked made a little restraint, but
they were quickly repressed and taken captive.
After which they passed to the chamber
wherein the prisoner was kept, and having
brought him forth, sounded a trumpet,
which was a signal to them without that the
enterprise was performed. My Lord Scroop
and Mr Salkeld were both within the house,
and to them the prisoner cried a good-night.
The captives taken in the first encounter
were brought to Bacleugh, who presently returned
them to their master, and would not
suffer any spoil, or booty, as they term it, to be
carried away. He had straightly forbidden to
break open any door but that where the prisoner
was kept, though he might have made
prey of all the goods within the castle and
taken the warden himself captive; for he would
have it seen that he did intend nothing but
the reparation of his Majesty’s honor. By
this time the prisoner was brought forth, the
town had taken the alarm, the drums were
beating, the bells ringing, and a beacon put
on the top of the castle to give warning to
the country. Whereupon Bacleugh commanded
those that entered the castle, and the
prisoner, to horse, and marching again by the
Sacery, made to the river at the Stony bank,
on the other side whereof certain were assembled
to stop his passage; but he, causing
sound the trumpet, took the river, day being
then broken; and they choosing to give him
way, he retired in order through the Grahams
of Esk (men at that time of great power
and his unfriends) and came back into Scottish
ground two hours after sun-rising, and so
homewards. This fell out the thirteenth of
April, 1596.” (History of the Church of
Scotland, 1639, in the second edition, 1666,
p. 413 ff.)
Lord Scroope, on the morning after, wrote
thus to the Privy Council of England:
“Yesternight, in the dead time thereof,
Walter Scott of Hardinge and Walter Scott
of Goldylands, the chief men about Buclughe,
accompanied with five hundred horsemen of
Buclughe and Kinmont’s friends, did come,
armed and appointed with gavlocks and crows
of iron, hand-picks, axes, and scaling-ladders,
unto an outward corner of the base-court of
this castle, and to the postern-door of the
same, which they undermined speedily and
quickly, and made themselves possessors of
the base-court, brake into the chamber where
Will of Kinmont was, carried him away, and,
in their discovery by the watch, left for dead
two of the watchmen, hurt a servant of mine,
one of Kinmont’s keepers, and were issued
again out of the postern before they were
descried by the watch of the inner ward, and
ere resistance could be made. The watch,
as it should seem, by reason of the stormy
night, were either on sleep or gotten under
some covert to defend themselves from the
violence of the weather, by means whereof
471the Scots achieved their enterprise with less
difficulty.... If Buclughe himself have been
thereat in person, the captain of this proud
attempt, as some of my servants tell me they
heard his name called upon (the truth whereof
I shall shortly advertise) then I humbly
beseech that her Majesty may be pleased to
send unto the king to call for and effectually
to press his delivery, that he may receive punishment
as her Majesty shall find that the
quality of his offence shall demerit.”[311] MS.
of the State Paper Office, in Tytler’s History,
IX, 436.
Kinmont’s rapacity made his very name proverbial.
“Mas James Melvine, in urging
reasons against subscribing the act of supremacy,
in 1584, asks ironically, Who shall take
order with vice and wickedness? The court
and bishops? As well as Martine Elliot and
Will of Kinmont with stealing upon the borders!”
Scott, Minstrelsy, 1833, II, 46.
Accordingly, when James was taking measures
for bringing the refractory ministers and
citizens of Edinburgh into some proper subjection,
at the end of the year 1596, a report
that Kinmont Willie was to be let loose upon
the city caused a lively consternation; “but
too well grounded,” says Scott, “considering
what had happened in Stirling ten years before,
when the Earl of Angus, attended by
Home, Buccleuch, and other border chieftains,
marched thither to remove the Earl of
Arran from the king’s councils: the town
was miserably pillaged by the borderers, particularly
by a party of Armstrongs, under
this very Kinmont Willie, who not only made
prey of horses and cattle, but even of the very
iron grating of the windows.” Minstrelsy,
II, 45.
The ballad gives Buccleuch only forty men,
and they are all of the name of Scott except
Sir Gilbert Elliot of Stobs: st. 16. A partial
list of the men who forced the castle was
obtained by Lord Scroope. It includes, as
might be expected, not a few Armstrongs,
and among them the laird of Mangerton,
Christy of Barngleish (son of Gilnockie), and
four sons of Kinmont Willie (he had at least
seven); two Elliots, but not Sir Gilbert; four
Bells.[312] Scott of Satchells, in his History of
the Name of Scott, 1688, makes Sir Gilbert
Elliot one of the party, but may have taken
this name from the ballad. (Scott’s Minstrelsy,
1833, II, 43.) Dick of Dryhope, 24,
25, was an Armstrong.[313] The ballad, again,
after cutting down Buccleuch’s men to thirty
(st. 33) or forty (18, 19), assigns the very liberal
garrison of a thousand to the castle, 33;
the ladders are long enough, Buccleuch
mounts the first,[314] the castle is won, and Kinmont
Willie, in his irons, is borne down the
ladder on Red Rowan’s[315] shoulders: all of
472which is as it should be in a ballad. And so
with the death of the fause Sakelde, though
not a life seems to have been lost in the whole
course of the affair.
“This ballad,” says Scott, “is preserved
by tradition in the West Borders, but much
mangled by reciters, so that some conjectural
emendations have been absolutely necessary
to render it intelligible. In particular, the
Eden has been substituted for the Esk [in
262], the latter name being inconsistent with
geography.” It is to be suspected that a
great deal more emendation was done than
the mangling of reciters rendered absolutely
necessary. One would like, for example, to
see stanzas 10–12 and 31 in their mangled
condition.[316]
1. William Armstrong, called Will of Kinmonth,
lived in Morton Tower, a little above
the Marchdike-foot. He appears, says Mr R.
B. Armstrong, to have been a son of Sandy,
alias Ill Will’s Sandy. Haribee is the place
of execution outside of Carlisle. 3. The Liddel-rack
is a ford in that river, which, for a
few miles before it empties into the Esk, is
the boundary of England and Scotland. 8.
Branxholm, or Branksome, is three miles
southwest, and Stobs, 16, some four miles
southeast, of Hawick. 19. Woodhouselee was
a house on the Scottish border, a little west of
the junction of the Esk and Liddel, “belonging
to Buccleuch,” says Scott.
1
O have ye na heard o the fause Sakelde?
O have ye na heard o the keen Lord Scroop?
How they hae taen bauld Kinmont Willie,
On Hairibee to hang him up?
2
Had Willie had but twenty men,
But twenty men as stout as he,
Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont taen,
Wi eight score in his companie.
3
They band his legs beneath the steed,
They tied his hands behind his back;
They guarded him, fivesome on each side,
And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack.
4
They led him thro the Liddel-rack,
And also thro the Carlisle sands;
They brought him to Carlisle castell,
To be at my Lord Scroope’s commands.
5
‘My hands are tied, but my tongue is free,
And whae will dare this deed avow?
Or answer by the border law?
Or answer to the bauld Buccleuch?’
6
‘Now haud thy tongue, thou rank reiver!
There’s never a Scot shall set ye free;
Before ye cross my castle-yate,
I trow ye shall take farewell o me.’
7
‘Fear na ye that, my lord,’ quo Willie;
‘By the faith o my bodie, Lord Scroop,’ he said,
‘I never yet lodged in a hostelrie
But I paid my lawing before I gaed.’
8
Now word is gane to the bauld Keeper,
In Branksome Ha where that he lay,
That Lord Scroope has taen the Kinmont Willie,
Between the hours of night and day.
9
He has taen the table wi his hand,
He garrd the red wine spring on hie;
‘Now Christ’s curse on my head,’ he said,
‘But avenged of Lord Scroop I’ll be!
10
‘O is my basnet a widow’s curch?
Or my lance a wand of the willow-tree?
Or my arm a ladye’s lilye hand?
That an English lord should lightly me.
47311
‘And have they taen him Kinmont Willie,
Against the truce of Border tide,
And forgotten that the bauld Bacleuch
Is keeper here on the Scottish side?
12
‘And have they een taen him Kinmont Willie,
Withouten either dread or fear,
And forgotten that the bauld Bacleuch
Can back a steed, or shake a spear?
13
‘O were there war between the lands,
As well I wot that there is none,
I would slight Carlisle castell high,
Tho it were builded of marble-stone.
14
‘I would set that castell in a low,
And sloken it with English blood;
There’s nevir a man in Cumberland
Should ken where Carlisle castell stood.
15
‘But since nae war’s between the lands,
And there is peace, and peace should be,
I’ll neither harm English lad or lass,
And yet the Kinmont freed shall be!’
16
He has calld him forty marchmen bauld,
I trow they were of his ain name,
Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, calld
The Laird of Stobs, I mean the same.
17
He has calld him forty marchmen bauld,
Were kinsmen to the bauld Buccleuch,
With spur on heel, and splent on spauld,
And gleuves of green, and feathers blue.
18
There were five and five before them a’,
Wi hunting-horns and bugles bright;
And five and five came wi Buccleuch,
Like Warden’s men, arrayed for fight.
19
And five and five like a mason-gang,
That carried the ladders lang and hie;
And five and five like broken men;
And so they reached the Woodhouselee.
20
And as we crossd the Bateable Land,
When to the English side we held,
The first o men that we met wi,
Whae sould it be but fause Sakelde!
21
‘Where be ye gaun, ye hunters keen?’
Quo fause Sakelde; ‘come tell to me!’
‘We go to hunt an English stag,
Has trespassd on the Scots countrie.’
22
‘Where be ye gaun, ye marshal-men?’
Quo fause Sakelde; ‘come tell me true!’
‘We go to catch a rank reiver,
Has broken faith wi the bauld Buccleuch.’
23
‘Where are ye gaun, ye mason-lads,
Wi a’your ladders lang and hie?’
‘We gang to herry a corbie’s nest,
That wons not far frae Woodhouselee.’
24
‘Where be ye gaun, ye broken men?’
Quo fause Sakelde; ‘come tell to me!’
Now Dickie of Dryhope led that band,
And the nevir a word o lear had he.
25
‘Why trespass ye on the English side?
Row-footed outlaws, stand!’ quo he;
The neer a word had Dickie to say,
Sae he thrust the lance thro his fause bodie.
26
Then on we held for Carlisle toun,
And at Staneshaw-bank the Eden we crossd;
The water was great, and meikle of spait,
But the nevir a horse nor man we lost.
27
And when we reachd the Staneshaw-bank,
The wind was rising loud and hie;
And there the laird garrd leave our steeds,
For fear that they should stamp and nie.
28
And when we left the Staneshaw-bank,
The wind began full loud to blaw;
But ’twas wind and weet, and fire and sleet,
When we came beneath the castel-wa.
29
We crept on knees, and held our breath,
Till we placed the ladders against the wa;
And sae ready was Buccleuch himsell
To mount the first before us a’.
30
He has taen the watchman by the throat,
He flung him down upon the lead:
‘Had there not been peace between our lands,
Upon the other side thou hadst gaed.
31
‘Now sound out, trumpets!’ quo Buccleuch;
‘Let’s waken Lord Scroope right merrilie!’
Then loud the Warden’s trumpets blew
‘O whae dare meddle wi me?’
47432
Then speedilie to wark we gaed,
And raised the slogan ane and a’,
And cut a hole thro a sheet of lead,
And so we wan to the castel-ha.
33
They thought King James and a’ his men
Had won the house wi bow and speir;
It was but twenty Scots and ten
That put a thousand in sic a stear!
34
Wi coulters and wi forehammers,
We garrd the bars bang merrilie,
Untill we came to the inner prison,
Where Willie o Kinmont he did lie.
35
And when we cam to the lower prison,
Where Willie o Kinmont he did lie,
‘O sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie,
Upon the morn that thou’s to die?’
36
‘O I sleep saft, and I wake aft,
It’s lang since sleeping was fleyd frae me;
Gie my service back to my wyfe and bairns,
And a’gude fellows that speer for me.’
37
Then Red Rowan has hente him up,
The starkest men in Teviotdale:
‘Abide, abide now, Red Rowan,
Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell.
38
‘Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope!
My gude Lord Scroope, farewell!’ he cried;
‘I’ll pay you for my lodging-maill
When first we meet on the border-side.’
39
Then shoulder high, with shout and cry,
We bore him down the ladder lang;
At every stride Red Rowan made,
I wot the Kinmont’s airns playd clang.
40
‘O mony a time,’ quo Kinmont Willie,
‘I have ridden horse baith wild and wood;
But a rougher beast than Red Rowan
I ween my legs have neer bestrode.
41
‘And mony a time,’ quo Kinmont Willie,
‘I’ve pricked a horse out oure the furs;
But since the day I backed a steed
I nevir wore sic cumbrous spurs.’
42
We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
When a’the Carlisle bells were rung,
And a thousand men, in horse and foot,
Cam wi the keen Lord Scroope along.
43
Buccleuch has turned to Eden Water,
Even where it flowd frae bank to brim,
And he has plunged in wi a’his band,
And safely swam them thro the stream.
44
He turned him on the other side,
And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he:
‘If ye like na my visit in merry England,
In fair Scotland come visit me!’
45
All sore astonished stood Lord Scroope,
He stood as still as rock of stane;
He scarcely dared to trew his eyes
When thro the water they had gane.
46
‘He is either himsell a devil frae hell,
Or else his mother a witch maun be;
I wad na have ridden that wan water
For a’the gowd in Christentie.’
187 JOCK O THE SIDE — A — B — C — D
475
A. ‘John a Side,’ Percy MS., p. 254; Hales and
Furnivall, II, 203.
B. ‘Jock o the Side.’ a. Caw’s Poetical Museum,
1784, p. 145. b. Campbell, Albyn’s Anthology,
II, 28, 1818.
C. ‘John o the Side,’ Percy Papers, as collected from
the memory of an old person in 1775.
D. Percy Papers, fragment from recitation, 1774.
The copy in Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1802, I,
154, 1833, II, 76, is B b, with the insertion
of three stanzas (6, 7, 23) from B a. Neither
Campbell nor Scott has the last stanza of B a.
Campbell says, in a note to his copy: The
melody and particularly the words of this
Liddesdale song were taken down by the
editor from the singing and recitation of Mr
Thomas Shortreed, who learnt it from his
father. As to the words (except in the omission
of four stanzas), b does not differ significantly
from a, and it may, with little hesitation,
be said to have been derived from a.
Campbell seems to have given this copy to
Scott, who published it sixteen years before
it appeared in the Anthology, with the addition
already mentioned.[317] The copy in the
Campbell MSS, I, 220, is B a.
The earliest appearance of John o the Side
is, perhaps, in the list of the marauders
against whom complaint was made to the
Bishop of Carlisle “presently after” Queen
Mary Stuart’s departure for France; not far,
therefore, from 1550: “John of the Side
(Gleed John).”
Mr R. B. Armstrong has printed two
bonds in which John Armstrong of the Syde
is a party, with others, of the date 1562 and
1563. History of Liddesdale, etc., Appendix,
pp ciii, civ, Nos LXV, LXVI.
The earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland,
after the failure of the Rising in
the North, fled first to Liddesdale, and thence
“to one of the Armstrongs,” in the Debateable
Land. The Liddesdale men stole
the Countess of Northumberland’s horses,
and the earls, continuing their flight, left her
“on foot, at John of the Syde’s house, a cottage
not to be compared to any dog-kennel in
England.” At his departing, “my lord of
Westmoreland changed his coat of plate and
sword with John of the Syde, to be the more
unknown:” Sussex to Cecil, December 22,
1569, printed in Sharp’s Memorials of the
Rebellion, p. 114 f.
John is nephew to the laird of Mangerton
in B 1, 3, 4, C 1, 3, and therefore cousin to
the Laird’s Jock and the Laird’s Wat:[318] but
this does not appear in A.
Sir Richard Maitland commemorates both
John of the Syde and the Laird’s Jock in his
verses on the thieves of Liddesdale:
He is weill kend, Johne of Syde,
A greater theife did never ryd:
He never tyres
For to brek byres,
Our muire and myres our guid ane gyde.
(MS., fol. 4, back, line 13.)
An Archie Armstrang in Syde is complained
of, with others, in 1596, for burning
eleven houses (Register of the Privy Council
of Scotland, V, 294), and Christie of the Syde
476is “mentioned in the list of border clans,
1597” (Scott).
In Blaeu’s map of Liddesdale, “Syid” is
on the right bank of the Liddel, nearly opposite
Mangerton, but a little higher up the
stream.
A. John a Side has been taken in a raid[319]
and carried prisoner to Newcastle. Sybill o
the Side (his mother, 20) runs by the water
with the news to Mangerton, where lords and
ladies are ready to sell all their cattle and
sheep for John’s ransom. But Hobby Noble
says that with five men he would fetch John
back. The laird offers five thousand, but
Hobby will take only five. They will not go
like men of war, but like poor corn-dealers,
and their steeds must be barefoot. When
they come to Chollerton, on the Tyne, the
water is up. Hobby asks an old man the
way over the ford. The old man in threescore
years and three has never seen horse go
over except a horse of tree; meaning, we may
suppose, a foot-bridge. In spite of the old
man they find a way where they can cross
in pairs. In Howbram wood they cut a tree
of three-and-thirty foot, and with help of this,
or without it, they climb to the top of the
castle, where John is making his farewells to
his mother, the lord of Mangerton, Much the
Miller’s son, and “Lord Clough.” Hobby
Noble calls to John to say that he has come
to loose him;[320] John fears that it will not be
done. Two men keep the horses, and four
break the outer door (John himself breaking
five doors within) and come to the iron door.
The bell strikes twelve. Much the Miller
fears they will be taken, and even John despairs
of success. Hobby is not daunted; he
files down the iron door and takes John out.
John in his bolts can neither sit nor stride;
Hobby ties the chains to John’s feet, and says
John rides like a bride. As they go through
Howbram town John’s horse stumbles, and
Much is again in a panic, which seems to show
that John’s commendation of him in 22 applies
rather to his capacity as a thief than to
his mettle. In Howbram wood they file off
John’s bolts at the feet. Now, says Hobby,
leap over a horse! and John leaps over five.
They have no difficulty in fording the Tyne
on their return, and bring John home to
Mangerton without further trouble.
It is Hobby Noble, then, that looses John in
A, as he is said to have done in his own ballad,
st. 27; but in B, C the Laird’s Jock takes
the lead, and Hobie plays a subordinate part.
The Laird’s Wat replaces the faint-hearted
Much (who, however, is again found in the
fragment D); Sybil of the Side becomes
Downie (in D Dinah); the liberating party is
but three instead of six.
The laird in B orders the horses to be
shod the wrong way,[321] whereas in A the shoes
were taken off; and the party must not seem
to be gentlemen, Heaven save the mark! but
look like corn-cadgers, as in A. At Cholerford
they cut a tree with fifteen nags, B
11, C with fifty nags, on each side, D twenty
snags, and three long ones on the top; but
when they come to Newcastle it proves to
be too short, as the ladders are in the historical
account of the release of Kinmont Willie.
The Laird’s Jock says they must force the
gate. A proud porter withstands them; they
wring his neck, and take his keys, B 13, 14,
C 10 (cf. No 116, st. 65, No 119, 70, 71, and
III, 95 note [86]). When they come to the jail,
they let Jock know that they mean to free
him; he is hopeless; the day is come he is to
die; fifteen stone of iron (fifty, C) is laid on
him. Work thou within and we without,
says the Laird’s Jock. One door they open
and one they break. The Laird’s Jock gets
John o the Side on his back and takes him
down the stair, declining help from Hobie.
They put the prisoner on a horse, with the
477same jest as before; the night is wet, as it
was when Kinmont Willie was loosed, but
they hie on merrily. They had no trouble in
crossing the Tyne when they were coming,
but now it is running like a sea. The old
man had never seen it so big; the Laird Wat
says they are all dead men. Set the prisoner
on behind me, cries the gallant Laird’s Jock,
and they all swim through. Hardly have
they won the other side when twenty Englishmen
who are pursuing them reach the river.
The land-sergeant says that the water will
not ride, and calls to them to throw him the
irons; they may have the rogue. The Laird’s
Jock answers that he will keep the irons to
shoe his grey mare.[322] They bring John to
Liddesdale, and there they free him of his
irons, B. Now, John, they say, ‘the day
was come thou wast to die;’ but thou’rt as
well at thy own fireside.
In D 5 they cut their mares’ tails before
starting, and never stop running till they
come to Hathery Haugh. Tyne is running
like a sea when they come to Chollerton, on
their way to the rescue, as in A. They cut
their tree in Swinburn wood. When they are
to re-cross the river, Much says his mare is
young and will not swim; the Laird’s Jock (?)
says, Take thou mine, and I’ll take thine.
The ballad is one of the best in the world,
and enough to make a horse-trooper of any
young borderer, had he lacked the impulse.
In deference to history, it is put after Kinmont
Willie, for it may be a free version of
his story.
Percy MS., p. 254; Hales and Furnivall, II, 203.
* * * * *
1
Peeter a Whifeild he hath slaine,
And Iohn a Side, he is tane,
And Iohn is bound both hand and foote,
And to the New-castle he is gone.
2
But tydinges came to the Sybill o the Side,
By the water-side as shee rann;
Shee tooke her kirtle by the hem,
And fast shee runn to Mangerton.
3
. . . . . . . .
The lord was sett downe at his meate;
When these tydings shee did him tell,
Neuer a morsell might he eate.
4
But lords, the wrunge their fingars white,
Ladyes did pull themselues by the haire,
Crying, Alas and weladay!
For Iohn o the Side wee shall neuer see more.
5
‘But wee’le goe sell our droues of kine,
And after them our oxen sell,
And after them our troopes of sheepe,
But wee will loose him out of the New Castell.’
6
But then bespake him Hobby Noble,
And spoke these words wonderous hye;
Sayes, Giue me fiue men to my selfe,
And I’le feitch Iohn o the Side to thee.
7
‘Yea, thou’st haue fiue, Hobby Noble,
Of the best that are in this countrye;
I’le giue thee fiue thousand, Hobby Noble,
That walke in Tyuidale trulye.’
8
‘Nay, I’le haue but fiue,’ saies Hobby Noble,
‘That shall walke away with mee;
Wee will ryde like noe men of warr;
But like poore badgers wee wilbe.’
9
They stuffet vp all their baggs with straw,
And their steeds barefoot must bee;
‘Come on, my bretheren,’ sayes Hobby Noble,
‘Come on your wayes, and goe with mee.’
10
And when they came to Culerton ford,
The water was vp, they cold it not goe;
And then they were ware of a good old man,
How his boy and hee were at the plowe.
11
‘But stand you still,’ sayes Hobby Noble,
‘Stand you still heere at this shore,
And I will ryde to yonder old man,
And see w[h]ere the gate it lyes ore.
47812
‘But Christ you saue, father!’ quoth hee,
‘Crist both you saue and see!
Where is the way ouer this fford?
For Christ’s sake tell itt mee!’
13
‘But I haue dwelled heere three score yeere,
Soe haue I done three score and three;
I neuer sawe man nor horsse goe ore,
Except itt were a horse of tree.’
14
‘But fare thou well, thou good old man!
The devill in hell I leave with thee,
Noe better comfort heere this night
Thow giues my bretheren heere and me.’
15
But when he came to his brether againe,
And told this tydings full of woe,
And then they found a well good gate
They might ryde ore by two and two.
16
And when they were come ouer the fforde,
All safe gotten att the last,
‘Thankes be to God!’ sayes Hobby Nobble,
‘The worst of our perill is past.’
17
And then they came into Howbrame wood,
And there then they found a tree,
And cutt itt downe then by the roote;
The lenght was thirty ffoote and three.
18
And four of them did take the planke,
As light as it had beene a fflee,
And carryed itt to the New Castle,
Where as Iohn a Side did lye.
19
And some did climbe vp by the walls,
And some did climbe vp by the tree,
Vntill they came vpp to the top of the castle,
Where Iohn made his moane trulye.
20
He sayd, God be with thee, Sybill o the Side!
My owne mother thou art, quoth hee;
If thou knew this night I were here,
A woe woman then woldest thou bee.
21
And fare you well, Lord Mangerton!
And euer I say God be with thee!
For if you knew this night I were heere,
You wold sell your land for to loose mee.
22
And fare thou well, Much, Millers sonne!
Much, Millars sonne, I say;
Thou has beene better att merke midnight
Then euer thou was att noone o the day.
23
And fare thou well, my good Lord Clough!
Thou art thy ffathers sonne and heire;
Thou neuer saw him in all thy liffe
But with him durst thou breake a speare.
24
‘Wee are brothers childer nine or ten,
And sisters children ten or eleven.
We neuer came to the feild to fight,
But the worst of us was counted a man.’
25
But then bespake him Hoby Noble,
And spake these words vnto him;
Saies, Sleepest thou, wakest thou, Iohn o the Side,
Or art thou this castle within?
26
‘But who is there,’ quoth Iohn oth Side,
‘That knowes my name soe right and free?’
‘I am a bastard-brother of thine;
This night I am comen for to loose thee.’
27
‘Now nay, now nay,’ quoth Iohn o the Side;
‘Itt ffeares me sore that will not bee;
Ffor a pecke of gold and silver,’ Iohn sayd,
‘In faith this night will not loose mee.’
28
But then bespake him Hobby Noble,
And till his brother thus sayd hee;
Sayes, Four shall take this matter in hand,
And two shall tent our geldings ffree.
29
Four did breake one dore without,
Then Iohn brake fiue himsell;
But when they came to the iron dore,
It smote twelue vpon the bell.
30
‘Itt ffeares me sore,’ sayd Much, the Miller,
‘That heere taken wee all shalbee;’
‘But goe away, bretheren,’ sayd Iohn a Side,
‘For euer alas! this will not bee.’
31
‘But ffye vpon thee!’ sayd Hobby Noble;
‘Much, the Miller, fye vpon thee!
‘It sore feares me,’ said Hobby Noble,
‘Man that thou wilt neuer bee.’
32
But then he had Fflanders files two or three,
And hee fyled downe that iron dore,
479And tooke Iohn out of the New Castle,
And sayd, Looke thou neuer come heere more!
33
When he had him fforth of the New Castle,
‘Away with me, Iohn, thou shalt ryde:’
But euer alas! itt cold not bee;
For Iohn cold neither sitt nor stryde.
34
But then he had sheets two or three,
And bound Iohns boults fast to his ffeete,
And sett him on a well good steede,
Himselfe on another by him seete.
35
Then Hobby Noble smiled and loug[h]e,
And spoke these worde in mickle pryde:
Thou sitts soe finely on thy geldinge
That, Iohn, thou rydes like a bryde.
36
And when they came thorrow Howbrame towne,
Iohns horsse there stumbled at a stone;
‘Out and alas!’ cryed Much, the Miller,
‘Iohn, thou’le make vs all be tane.’
37
‘But fye vpon thee!’ saies Hobby Noble,
‘Much, the Millar, fye on thee!
I know full well,’ sayes Hobby Noble,
‘Man that thou wilt neuer bee.’
38
And when the came into Howbrame wood,
He had Fflanders files two or three
To file Iohns bolts beside his ffeete,
That hee might ryde more easilye.
39
Sayes, ‘Iohn, now leape ouer a steede!’
And Iohn then hee lope ouer fiue:
‘I know well,’ sayes Hobby Noble,
‘Iohn, thy ffellow is not aliue.’
40
Then he brought him home to Mangerton;
The lord then he was att his meate;
But when Iohn o the Side he there did see,
For faine hee cold noe more eate.
41
He sayes, Blest be thou, Hobby Noble,
That euer thou wast man borne!
Thou hast feitched vs home good Iohn oth Side,
That was now cleane ffrom vs gone.
a. Caw’s Poetical Museum, 1784, p. 145; “from an old
manuscript copy.” b. Campbell’s Albyn’s Anthology, II,
28; “taken down from the recitation of Mr Thomas Shortreed,”
of Jedburgh, “who learnt it from his father.”
1
‘Now Liddisdale has ridden a raid,
But I wat they had better staid at hame;
For Mitchel o Winfield he is dead,
And my son Johnie is prisner tane.’
With my fa ding diddle, la la dow diddle.
2
For Mangerton House auld Downie is gane;
Her coats she has kilted up to her knee,
And down the water wi speed she rins,
While tears in spaits fa fast frae her eie.
3
Then up and bespake the lord Mangerton:
‘What news, what news, sister Downie, to me?’
‘Bad news, bad news, my lord Mangerton;
Mitchel is killd, and tane they hae my son Johnie.’
4
‘Neer fear, sister Downie,’ quo Mangerton;
‘I hae yokes of oxen four and twentie,
My barns, my byres, and my faulds, a’weel filld,
And I’ll part wi them a’ere Johnie shall die.
5
‘Three men I’ll take to set him free,
Weel harnessd a’wi best o steel;
The English rogues may hear, and drie
The weight o their braid swords to feel.
6
‘The Laird’s Jock ane, the Laird’s Wat twa,
Oh, Hobie Noble, thou ane maun be;
Thy coat is blue, thou has been true,
Since England banishd thee, to me.’
7
Now Hobie was an English man,
In Bewcastle-dale was bred and born;
But his misdeeds they were sae great,
They banishd him neer to return.
8
Lord Mangerton them orders gave,
‘Your horses the wrang way maun a’ be shod;
Like gentlemen ye must not seem,
But look like corn-caugers gawn ae road.
4809
‘Your armour gude ye maunna shaw,
Nor ance appear like men o weir;
As country lads be all arrayd,
Wi branks and brecham on ilk mare.’
10
Sae now a’their horses are shod the wrang way,
And Hobie has mounted his grey sae fine,
Jock his lively bay, Wat’s on his white horse behind,
And on they rode for the water o Tyne.
11
At the Choler-ford they a’light down,
And there, wi the help o the light o the moon,
A tree they cut, wi fifteen naggs upo ilk side,
To climb up the wa o Newcastle town.
12
But when they cam to Newcastle town,
And were alighted at the wa,
They fand their tree three ells oer laigh,
They fand their stick baith short and sma.
13
Then up and spake the Laird’s ain Jock,
‘There’s naething for’t, the gates we maun force;’
But when they cam the gates unto,
A proud porter withstood baith men and horse.
14
His neck in twa I wat they hae wrung,
Wi hand or foot he neer playd paw;
His life and his keys at anes they hae tane,
And cast his body ahind the wa.
15
Now soon they reach Newcastle jail,
And to the prisner thus they call:
‘Sleips thou, wakes thou, Jock o the Side?
Or is thou wearied o thy thrall?’
16
Jock answers thus, wi dolefu tone:
Aft, aft I wake, I seldom sleip;
But wha’s this kens my name sae weel,
And thus to hear my waes do[es] seik?
17
Then up and spake the good Laird’s Jock,
‘Neer fear ye now, my billie,’ quo he;
‘For here’s the Laird’s Jock, the Laird’s Wat,
And Hobie Noble, come to set thee free.’
18
‘Oh, had thy tongue, and speak nae mair,
And o thy tawk now let me be!
For if a’Liddisdale were here the night,
The morn’s the day that I maun die.
19
‘Full fifteen stane o Spanish iron
They hae laid a’right sair on me;
Wi locks and keys I am fast bound
Into this dungeon mirk and drearie.’
20
‘Fear ye no that,’ quo the Laird’s Jock;
‘A faint heart neer wan a fair ladie;
Work thou within, we’ll work without,
And I’ll be bound we set thee free.’
21
The first strong dore that they came at,
They loosed it without a key;
The next chaind dore that they cam at,
They gard it a’in flinders flee.
22
The prisner now, upo his back,
The Laird’s Jock’s gotten up fu hie;
And down the stair him, irons and a’,
Wi nae sma speed and joy brings he.
23
‘Now, Jock, I wat,’ quo Hobie Noble,
‘Part o the weight ye may lay on me;’
‘I wat weel no,’ quo the Laird’s Jock,
‘I count him lighter than a flee.’
24
Sae out at the gates they a’ are gane,
The prisner’s set on horseback hie;
And now wi speed they’ve tane the gate,
While ilk ane jokes fu wantonlie.
25
‘O Jock, sae winsomely’s ye ride,
Wi baith your feet upo ae side!
Sae weel’s ye’re harnessd, and sae trig!
In troth ye sit like ony bride.’
26
The night, tho wat, they didna mind,
But hied them on fu mirrilie,
Until they cam to Cholerford brae,
Where the water ran like mountains hie.
27
But when they came to Cholerford,
There they met with an auld man;
Says, Honest man, will the water ride?
Tell us in haste, if that ye can.
28
‘I wat weel no,’ quo the good auld man;
‘Here I hae livd this threty yeirs and three,
And I neer yet saw the Tyne sae big,
Nor rinning ance sae like a sea.’
48129 Then up and spake the Laird’s saft Wat,
The greatest coward in the company;
‘Now halt, now halt, we needna try’t;
The day is comd we a’maun die!’
30
‘Poor faint-hearted thief!’ quo the Laird’s Jock,
‘There’ll nae man die but he that’s fie;
I’ll lead ye a’right safely through;
Lift ye the prisner on ahint me.’
31
Sae now the water they a’hae tane,
By anes and twas they a’swam through;
‘Here are we a’safe,’ says the Laird’s Jock,
‘And, poor faint Wat, what think ye now?’
32
They scarce the ither side had won,
When twenty men they saw pursue;
Frae Newcastle town they had been sent,
A’English lads, right good and true.
33
But when the land-sergeant the water saw,
‘It winna ride, my lads,’ quo he;
Then out he cries, Ye the prisner may take,
But leave the irons, I pray, to me.
34
‘I wat weel no,’ cryd the Laird’s Jock,
‘I’ll keep them a’, shoon to my mare they’ll be;
My good grey mare, for I am sure.
She’s bought them a’ fu dear frae thee.’
35
Sae now they’re away for Liddisdale,
Een as fast as they coud them hie;
The prisner’s brought to his ain fire-side,
And there o’s aims they make him free.
36
‘Now, Jock, my billie,’ quo a’the three,
‘The day was comd thou was to die;
But thou’s as weel at thy ain fire-side,
Now sitting, I think, tween thee and me.’
37
They hae gard fill up ae punch-bowl,
And after it they maun hae anither,
And thus the night they a’hae spent,
Just as they had been brither and brither.
Percy Papers. “The imperfect copy sent me from Keelder,
as collected from the memory of an old person by Mr
William Hadley, in 1775.”
1
‘Now Liddisdale has ridden a rade,
But I wat they had a better staid at home;
For Michel of Windfield he is slain,
And my son Jonny, they have him tane.’
With my fa dow diddle, lal la dow didle
2
Now Downy’s down the water gone,
With all her cots unto her arms,
And she gave never over swift running
Untill she came to Mengertown.
3
Up spack Lord Mengertown and says,
What news, what news now, sister Downy? what news hast thou to me?
‘Bad news, bad news, Lord Mengertown,
For Michal of Windfield he is slain, and my son Jonny they have him tain.’
4
Up speaks Lord Mengertown and says, I have four and twenty yoke of oxen,
And four and twenty good milk-ky,
And three times as mony sheep,
And I’ll gie them a’before my son Jonny die.
5
I will tak three men unto myself;
The Laird’s Jack he shall be ane,
The Laird’s Wat another,
For, Hobbie Noble, thow must be ane.
6
. . . . . . . .
. . thy cot is of the blue;
For ever since thou cam to Liddisdale
To Mengertown thou hast been true.
7
Now Hobbie hath mounted his frienged gray,
And the Laird’s Jack his lively bey,
And Watt with the ald horse behind,
And they are away as fast as they can ride.
8
Till they are come to the Cholar foord,
And there they lighted down;
And there they cut a tree with fifty nags upo each side,
For to clim Newcastle wall.
9
And when they came there . . .
It wad not reach by ellish three;
482‘There’s nothing for’t,’ says the Laird’s Jack,
‘But forceing o New Castle gate.’
10
And when they came there,
There was a proud porter standing,
And I wat they were obliged to wring his neck in twa.
11
Now they are come to New Castle gile:
Says they, Sleep thou, wakes thou, John o the Side?
12
Says he, Whiles I wake, but seldom sleep;
Who is there that knows my name so well?
13
Up speaks the Laird’s Jack and says,
. . . . . . . .
Here is Jack and Watt and Hobby Noble,
Come this night to set thee free.
14
Up speaks John of the Side and says,
O hold thy tongue now, billy, and of thy talk now let me be;
For if a’Liddisdale were here this night,
The morn is the day that I must die.
15
For their is fifty stone of Spanish iron
Laid on me fast wee lock and key,
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
16
Then up speaks the Laird’s Jack and says,
A faint heart neer wan a fair lady;
Work thou within and we without,
And this night we’el set the free.
17
The first door that they came at
They lowsed without either lock or key,
. . . . . . . .
And the next they brock in flinders three.
18
Till now Jack has got the prisner on his back,
And down the tolbooth stair came he;
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
19
Up spack Hobby Noble and says,
O man, I think thou may lay some weight o the prisner upo me;
‘I wat weel no,’ says the Laird’s Jack,
‘For I do not count him as havy as ane poor flee.’
20
So now they have set him upo horse back,
And says, O now so winsomly as thou dost ride,
Just like a bride, wee beth thy feet
Unto a side.
21
Now they are away wee him as fast as they can heye,
Till they are come to the Cholar foord brae head;
And they met an ald man,
And says, Will the water ride?
22
‘I wat well no,’ says the ald man,
‘For I have lived here this thirty years and three,
. . . . . . . .
And I think I never saw Tyne running so like a sea.’
23
Up speaks the Laird’s Watt and says—
The greatest coward of the companie—
. . . . . . . .
‘Now, dear billies, the day is come that we must a’die.’
24
Up speaks the Laird’s Jack and says, Poor cowardly thief,
They will never one die but him that’s fee;
. . . . . . . .
Set the prisner on behind me.
25
So they have tain the water by ane and two,
Till they have got safe swumd through.
26
Be they wan safe a’through,
There were twenty men pursueing them from New Castle town.
27
Up speaks the land-sergant and says,
If you be gone with the rog, cast me my irons.
28
‘I wat weel no,’ says the Laird’s Jack,
‘For I will keep them to shew my good grey mere;
. . . . . . . .
For I am sure she has bought them dear.’
29
‘Good sooth,’ says the Laird’s Jack,
‘The worst perel is now past.’
30
So now they have set him upo hoseback,
And away as fast as they could hye,
483Till they brought him into Liddisdale,
And now they have set him down at his own fireside.
31
And says, now John,
The day was come that thou was to die,
But thou is full as weel sitting at thy own fireside.
. . . . . . . .
32
And now they are falln to drink,
And they drank a whole week one day after another,
And if they be not given over,
They are all drinking on yet.
Percy Papers. “These are scraps of the old song repeated
to me by Mr Leadbeater, from the neighborhood of
Hexham, 1774.”
1
Liddisdaill has ridden a raid,
But they had better ha staid at hame;
For Michael a Wingfield he is slain,
And Jock o the Side they hae taen.
2
Dinah’s down the water gane,
Wi a’her coats untill her knes,
. . . . . . . .
To Mangerton came she.
3
. . . . . . . . .
How now? how now? What’s your will wi me?
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
4
To the New Castle h[e] is gane.
5
They have cuttin their yad’s tailes,
They’ve cut them a little abune the hough,
And they nevir gave oer s....d running
Till they came to Hathery Haugh.
6
And when they came to Chollerton ford
Tyne was mair running like a sea.
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
7
And when they came to Swinburne wood,
Quickly they ha fellen a tree;
Twenty snags on either side,
And on the top it had lang three.
8
‘My mare is young, she wul na swim,’
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
9
. . . . . . .
‘Now Mudge the Miller, fie on thee!
Tak thou mine, and I’ll tak thine,
And the deel hang down thy yad and thee.’
A.
11. whifeild: the first i may be t: Furnivall.
63, 71, 81. 5.
73. 5000.
131, 132. 3.
134. 3: Percy queries, tree?
154. 2 and 2.
174. 30: 3.
181. 4.
192. by. MS. eaten through by ink: Furnivall.
203. knight for night.
241. 9: or: 10:.
242. 10: or: 11:. The first and the second
line might be transposed to the advantage
of the rhyme.
251. hobynoble.
274. infaith.
283. 4.
284. 2.
291. for 4.
292. 5.
294. 12.
321, 341, 382. 2 or 3.
392. 5.
B. a.
132. wi’maun.
164. do seik (==dos seik).
343. grey mare, but bay in 103. b has bay in
both.
b.
Burden after the first and the fourth line:
Wi my fa ding diddle, lal low dow diddle.
12. hae staid.
13, 34. Michael.
14. And Jock o the Side.
21. Lady Downie has.
24. the wanting.
31. and spoke our gude auld lord.
34. and they hae taen.
42. ousen eighty and three.
51. I’ll send.
52. A’harneist wi the.
53. louns for rogues.
6, 7 wanting.
48481. then for them.
82. maun be.
83. ye mauna.
84. the road.
91. you.
92. yet for ance.
94. on each.
101. a’ wanting: the wrang way shod.
103. Jock’s on his.
113. nogs on each.
133. the gate untill.
141. twa the Armstrangs wrang.
142. Wi fute or hand.
144. cast the.
154. Art thou weary.
164. to mese my waes does.
171. out and.
172. Now fear ye na.
173. here are.
181. Now haud thy tongue, my gude Laird’s
Jock.
182. For ever alas this canna be.
183. was.
194. dark and.
204. be sworn we’ll.
214. a’ to.
222. Jock has.
23 wanting.
282. I hae lived here threty.
291. out and.
294. come.
301. cried the Laird’s ane Jock.
302. but him.
303. I’ll guide thee.
311. Wi that: they hae.
313. quo the.
321. the other brae.
324. lads baith stout.
332. says he.
333. Then cried aloud, The prisoner take.
334. the fetters.
341. quo the.
343. bay mare.
344. She has: right dear.
351. are onto.
362. is comd.
363. ingle side.
364. twixt thee.
37 wanting.
Scott changes Campbell’s readings for Caw’s
now and then, and Caw’s for his own.
C.
Written continuously after the first stanza,
and mostly without punctuation. The end
of a stanza is indicated after 3 by the insertion
of the burden. Some one, probably
Percy, has attempted to show the proper
separation by marks between the lines. B
has been taken as a guide for the divisions
here adopted.
91. And when they came there ends 84in the
MS.
112. Jnº for John.
142. And of thy talk, etc., is a line by itself in
the MS.
163. And me.
192. Two lines in the MS.
202. Perhaps dos’.
203. Unto ℰ.
212,3, 24, 28. The lines are run together.
31. And says now John the day continues 304in the MS.
D.
53. s....d, illegible.
71. Perhaps Swinburin.
93. gang has been changed to hang, or hang
to gang: neither is quite intelligible.
1, 2, 3 are in the MS. 2, 3, 1.
188 ARCHIE O CAWFIELD — A — B — C — D — E — F
A. ‘Archie of the Cawfield,’ communicated to Percy
by Miss Fisher of Carlisle, 1780.
B. a. ‘Archie of Cafield,’[323] Glenriddell MSS, XI, 14,
1791; Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1802, I, 177. b. ‘Archie
of Ca’field,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, II, 116.
C. ‘The Three Brothers,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the
North of Scotland, I, 111.
D. ‘Billie Archie,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 467, communicated
by Buchan, and by him derived from James
Nicol of Strichen; Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 335.
E. Macmath MS., p. 76, fragments.
F. Communicated by Mr J. M. Watson, of Clark’s
Island, Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts.
B a was printed by Scott in the first edition
of his Minstrelsy, with the omission of
stanzas 11, 13, 153–6 (153,4, 161,2, of the MS.),
173,4 (181,2 of the MS.), 27, 28, and with many
editorial improvements, besides Scotticising
of the spelling. Of B b, the form in which
the ballad appears in the later edition of the
Minstrelsy, the editor says that he has been
enabled to add several stanzas obtained from
recitation, of which he remarks that, “as they
contrast the brutal indifference of the elder
485brother with the zeal and spirit of his associates,
they add considerably to the dramatic
effect of the whole.” The new stanzas are
ten, and partly displace some of a. None of
the omitted stanzas are restored, and the other
changes previously made are retained, except
of course where new stanzas have been introduced.
This ballad is in all the salient features a
repetition of ‘Jock o the Side,’ Halls playing
the parts of Armstrongs. The Halls are
several times complained of for reif and away-taking
of ky, oxen, etc., in 1579. There is a
Jok Hall of the Sykis, Jok Hall, called Paitti’s
Jok, a Jokie Hall in the Clintis, and the
name Archie Hall occurs, which is, to be sure,
a matter of very slight consequence. See the
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland,
III, 236 f., 354 f. Cafield is about a mile west
of Langholm, in Wauchopedale. The Armstrongs
had spread into Wauchopedale in the
sixteenth century, and Jock Armstrong of the
Caffeild appears in the Registers of the Privy
Council, III, 43, 85, 133, 535. I have not
found Halls of Caffeild, and hope not to do
them injustice by holding that some friend or
member of that sept has substituted their
name, for the glory of the family.[324]
From a passage in A History of Dumfries,
by William Bennet, in The Dumfries Monthly
Magazine, III, 9 f., July, 1826 (kindly brought
to my attention by Mr Macmath), there appears
to have been a version of this ballad in
which the Johnstones played the part of the
Halls, or Armstrongs; but against their enemies
the Maxwells, not against the public authority.
A gentleman of Dumfries informed
Bennet that he had “often, in early life, listened
to an interesting ballad, sung by an
old female chronicle of the town, which was
founded upon the following circumstance. In
some fray between the Maxwells and Johnstones,
the former had taken the chief of the
latter prisoner, and shut him up in the jail of
Dumfries, in Lochmaben gate; for in Dumfries
they possessed almost the same power as
in the Stewartry of Annandale, Crichton of
Sanquhar, who was then hereditary sheriff
of Nithsdale, being their retainer. In a dark
night shortly afterwards, a trusty band of the
Johnstones marched secretly into Dumfries,
and, surprising the jail-keepers, bore off their
chief, manacled as he then was, and, placing
him behind one of their troopers, galloped off
towards the head of Locher, there to regain
the Tinwald side and strike into the mountains
of Moffat before their enemies should
have leisure to start in pursuit. A band of
the Maxwells, happening to be in town, and
instantly receiving the alarm, started in pursuit
of the fugitives, and overtook them about
the dawn of morning, just as they had suddenly
halted upon the banks of the Locher,
and seemed to hesitate about risking its passage;
for the stream was much swollen by a
heavy rain which had lately fallen, and
seemed to threaten destruction to any who
should dare to enter it. On seeing the Maxwells,
however, and reflecting upon the comparative
smallness of their own party, they
plunged in, and, by dextrous management,
reached in safety the opposite bank at the
moment their pursuers drew up on the brink
of that which they had left. The Johnstones
had now the decided advantage, for, had their
enemies ventured to cross, they could, while
struggling against the current, have been
easily destroyed. The bloodthirsty warriors
raged and shook their weapons at each other
across the stream; but the flood rolled on as
if in mockery of their threatenings, and the
one party at length galloped off in triumph,
while the other was compelled to return in
disgrace.”
There are three Halls in A, B, C, brothers,
of whom Archie is a prisoner, condemned to
die. The actors in D are not said to be
brothers or Halls; the prisoner is Archie, as
before. In A, Jock the laird and Dickie
effect the rescue, assisted by Jocky Ha, a
cousin. Dick is the leader, Jocky Ha subordinate,
and Jock the laird is the despondent and
repining personage, corresponding to Much
in Jock o the Side, A, D, and to the Laird’s
Wat, B, C. In B, Dick is the only brother
named; he and Jokie Hall from Teviotdale
486effect the rescue; Jokie Hall is prominent,
and Dickie has the second place; Archie the
prisoner is faint-hearted, but, properly speaking,
that part is omitted. Jokie Hall represents
Hobie Noble, who is the leader in A of
the other ballad, as Jokie is here in B, and
also C; whereas Dick is the leader in A, D
of the ballad before us, and represents the
Laird’s Jock, who is principal in B, C of the
other. In B, C, only two are concerned in
breaking the jail. In C, Dick loses heart, or
has the place of Much; in D, Caff o Lin.
In A 38, Jock the laird says his colt will
drown him if he attempts to cross the river; so
Dick in B 23 (for it can be no other, though
Dick is not named) and in C 24, and Caff o
Lin in D 14. They have not two attacks of
panic, as Much has in ‘Jock o the Side,’ A,
with such excellent effect in bringing out
Hobie Noble’s steadiness. To make up for
this, however, the laird has an unheroic qualm
after all is well over, in A 44: the dearsome
night has cost him Cawfield! It is a fine-spirited
answer that Dick makes: ‘Light o
thy lands! we should not have been three
brothers.’ In one of the stanzas which Scott
added in B b, “coarse Ca’field,” that is, the
laird again, is addressed (inconsecutively, as
the verses stand) with the like reproach:
‘Wad ye even your lands to your born billy!’
Archie is prisoner at Dumfries in A, B, at
Annan in C; in D no place is mentioned.
The route followed in A is Barnglish,[325] only
two or three miles westward, where the horseshoes
are turned, 8; Bonshaw wood, where
they take counsel, 10; over the Annan at
Hoddam, 12, to Dumfries, 13; back by Bonshaw
Shield, where they again take counsel,
29; over the Annan at Annan Holm (Annan
Bank?), opposite Wamphray (where the
Johnstones would be friendly), 31, to Cafield.
Bonshaw Shield would have to be somewhere
between Dumfries and Annan Water; it
seems to be an erroneous repetition of the
Bonshaw on the left of the Annan.
The route in B is The Murraywhat, where
shoes are turned, 6; Dumfries, 8; back by
Lochmaben, 17; The Murraywhat, where
they file off the shackles, 18; to and across
the Annan. Here we may ask why the shoes
are not changed earlier; for The Murraywhat
is on the west side of the Annan. The route
in C is not described; there is no reason, if
they start from Cafield (see 23), why they
should cross the Annan, the town being on
the eastern side. All difficulties are escaped
in D by giving no names.
The New England copy, F, naturally
enough, names no places. There are three
brothers, as in A, B, C, and Dickie is the
leader. The prisoner, here called Archer,
gives up hope when he comes to the river; his
horse is lame and cannot swim; but horses
are shifted, and he gets over. His spirits are
again dashed when he sees the sheriff in pursuit.
A, 62, 142, 164, ‘for leugh o Liddesdale
cracked he,’ is explained by B a, 102, ‘fra the
laigh of Tiviotdale was he;’ he bragged for
lower Liddesdale, was from lower Liddesdale;
it seems to be a sort of εὔχετο εἶναι. B b reads
(that is, Scott corrects), ‘The luve of Teviotdale
was he.’ B a, 164, ‘And her girth was the
gold-twist to be,’ is unintelligible to me, and
appears to be corrupt, b reads, And that was
her gold-twist to be, an emendation of Scott’s,
gold-twist meaning “the small gilded chains
drawn across the chest of a war-horse.” The
three stanzas introduced in B b after 7 (the
colloquy with the smith) are indifferent modern
stuff. This and something worse are C
14, where Johnny Ha takes the prisoner on
his back and leads the mare, the refreshments
in 16, 17, and the sheriff in 19–21, 28, 29.
487
Communicated to Percy by Miss Fisher of Carlisle, 1780.
1
Late in an evening forth as I went,
’Twas on the dawning of the day;
I heard two brothers make their moan,
I listend well what they did say.
2
. . . . . . .
. . . . . .
We were three born brethren,
There[s] one of us condemnd to die.
3
Then up bespake Jock the laird:
‘If I had but a hundre men,
A hundred o th best i Christenty,
I wad go on to fair Dumfries, I wad loose
my brother and set him free.’
4
So up bespak then Dicky Ha,
He was the wisest o the three:
‘A hundre men we’ll never get,
Neither for gold nor fee,
But some of them will us betray;
They’l neither fight for gold nor fee.
5
‘Had I but ten well-wight men,
Ten o the best i Christenty,
I wad gae on to fair Dumfries,
I wad loose my brother and set him free.
6
‘Jocky Ha, our cousin, ’s be the first man’
(For leugh o Liddesdale cracked he);
‘An ever we come till a pinch,
He’ll be as good as ony three.’
7
They mounted ten well-wight men,
Ten o the best i Christenty;
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
8
There was horsing and horsing of haste,
And cracking o whips out oer the lee,
Till they came to fair Barngliss,
And they ca’d the smith right quietly.
9
He has shod them a’ their horse,
He’s shod them siccer and honestly,
And he as turnd the cawkers backwards oer,
Where foremost they were wont to be.
10
And there was horsing, horsing of haste,
And cracking of whips out oer the lee,
Until they came to the Bonshaw wood,
Where they held their council privately.
11
Some says, We’ll gang the Annan road,
It is the better road, said they;
Up bespak then Dicky Ha,
The wisest of that company.
12
‘Annan road’s a publick road,
It’s no the road that makes for me;
But we will through at Hoddam ford,
It is the better road,’ said he.
13
And there was horsing, horsing o haste,
And cracking of whips out oer the lea,
Until they came to fair Dumfries,
And it was newly strucken three.
14
Up bespake then Jocky Ha,
For leugh o Liddesdale cracked he:
‘I have a mare, they ca her Meg,
She is the best i Christenty;
An ever we come till a pinch,
She’ll bring awa both thee and me.’
15
‘But five we’ll leave to had our horse,
And five will watch, guard for to be;
Who is the man,’ said Dicky then,
‘To the prison-door will go with me?’
16
Up bespak then Jocky Ha,
For leugh o Liddesdale cracked he:
‘I am the man,’ said Jocky than,
‘To the prison-door I’ll go with thee.’
17
They are up the jail-stair,
They stepped it right soberly,
Until they came to the jail-door;
They ca’d the prisoner quietly.
18
‘O sleeps thou, wakest thou, Archie, my billy?
O sleeps thou, wakes thou, dear billy?’
‘Sometimes I sleep, sometimes I wake;
But who’s that knows my name so well?’ [said he.]
‘I am thy brother Dicky,’ he says;
‘This night I’m come to borrow thee.’
19
But up bespake the prisoner then,
And O but he spake woefully!
‘Today has been a justice-court,
. . . . . . .
488And a’ Liddesdale were here the night,
The morn’s the day at I’se to die.’
20
‘What is thy crime, Archie, my billy?
What is the crime they lay to thee?’
‘I brake a spear i the warden’s breast,
For saving my master’s land,’ said he.
21
‘If that be a’ the crime they lay to thee, Archie, my billy,
If that be the crime they lay to thee,
Work thou within, and me without,
And thro good strength I’ll borrow thee.’
22
‘I cannot work, billy,’ he says,
‘I cannot work, billy, with thee,
For fifteen stone of Spanish iron
Lyes fast to me with lock and key.’
23
When Dicky he heard that,
‘Away, thou crabby chiel!’ cried he;
He’s taen the door aye with his foot,
And fast he followd it with his knee.
Till a’ the bolts the door hung on,
O th’ prison-floor he made them flee.
24
‘Thou’s welcome, welcome, Archy, my billy,
Thou’s aye right dear welcome to me;
There shall be straiks this day,’ he said,
‘This day or thou be taen from me.’
25
He’s got the prisoner on o his back,
He’s gotten him irons and aw,
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
26
Up bespake then Jocky Ha,
‘Let some o th’ prisoner lean on me;’
‘The diel o there,’ quo Dicky than,
‘He’s no the wightdom of a flea.’
27
They are on o that gray mare,
And they are on o her aw three,
And they linked the irons about her neck,
And galloped the street right wantonly.
28
‘To horse, to horse,’ then, ‘all,’ he says,
‘Horse ye with all the might ye may,
For the jailor he will waken next;
And the prisoners had a’ wan away.’
29
There was horsing, horsing of haste,
And cracking o whips out oer the lea,
Until they came to the Bonshaw Shield;
There they held their council privately.
30
Some says, ‘We’ll gang the Annan road;
It is the better road,’ said they;
But up bespak than Dicky Ha,
The wisest of that company:
31
‘Annan road’s a publick road,
It’s not the road that makes for me;
But we will through at Annan Holme,
It is the better road,’ said he;
‘An we were in at Wamfrey Gate,
The Johnstones they will a’ help me.’
32
But Dicky lookd oer his left shoulder,
I wait a wiley look gave he;
He spied the leiutenant coming,
And a hundre men of his company.
33
‘So horse ye, horse ye, lads!’ he said,
‘O horse ye, sure and siccerly!
For yonder is the lieutenant,
With a hundred men of his company.’
34
There was horsing, horsing of haste,
And cracking o whips out oer the lea,
Until they came to Annan Holme,
And it was running like a sea.
35
But up bespake the lieutenant,
Until a bonny lad said he,
‘Who is the man,’ said the leiutenant,
‘Rides foremost of yon company?’
36
Then up bespake the bonny lad,
Until the lieutenant said he,
‘Some men do ca him Dicky Ha,
Rides foremost of yon company.’
37
‘O haste ye, haste ye!’ said the leiutenant,
‘Pursue with a’ the might ye may!
For the man had needs to be well saint
That comes thro the hands o Dicky Ha.’
38
But up bespak Jock the laird,
‘This has been a dearsome night to me;
I’ve a colt of four years old,
I wait he wannelld like the wind;
If ever he come to the deep,
He will plump down, leave me behind.’
48939
‘Wae light o thee and thy horse baith, Jock,
And even so thy horse and thee!
Take thou mine, and I’ll take thine,
Foul fa the warst horse i th’ company!
I’ll cast the prisoner me behind;
There’ll no man die but him that’s fee.’
40
There they’ve a’taen the flood,
And they have taen it hastily;
Dicky was the hindmost took the flood,
And foremost on the land stood he.
41
Dicky’s turnd his horse about,
And he has turnd it hastilly:
‘Come through, come thro, my lieutenant,
Come thro this day, and drink wi me,
And thy dinner’s be dressd in Annan Holme,
It sall not cost thee one penny.’
42
‘I think some witch has bore the, Dicky,
Or some devil in hell been thy daddy;
I woud not swum that wan water double-horsed,
For a’ the gold in Christenty.
43
‘But throw me thro my irons, Dicky,
I wait they cost me full dear;’
‘O devil be there,’ quo Jocky Hall,
‘They’l be good shoon to my gray mare.’
44
O up bespoke then Jock the laird,
‘This has been a dearsome night to me;
For yesternight the Cawfield was my ain,
Landsman again I neer sall be.’
45
‘Now wae light o thee and thy lands baith, Jock,
And even so baith the land and thee!
For gear will come and gear will gang,
But three brothers again we never were to be.’
a. Glenriddell MSS, XI, 14, 1791, “an old West Border
ballad.” b. Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, II, 116.
1
As I was walking mine alane,
It was by the dawning o the day,
I heard twa brothers make their maine,
And I listned well what they did say.
2
The eldest to the youngest said,
‘O dear brother, how can this be!
There was three brethren of us born,
And one of us is condemnd to die.’
3
‘O chuse ye out a hundred men,
A hundred men in Christ[e]ndie,
And we’ll away to Dumfries town,
And set our billie Archie free.’
4
‘A hundred men you cannot get,
Nor yet sixteen in Christendie;
For some of them will us betray,
And other some will work for fee.
5
‘But chuse ye out eleven men,
And we ourselves thirteen will be,
And we’ill away to Dumfries town,
And borrow bony billie Archie.’
6
There was horsing, horsing in haste,
And there was marching upon the lee,
Untill they came to the Murraywhat,
And they lighted a’ right speedylie.
7
‘A smith, a smith!’ Dickie he crys,
‘A smith, a smith, right speedily,
To turn back the cakers of our horses feet!
For it is forward we woud be.’
8
There was a horsing, horsing in haste,
There was marching on the lee,
Untill they came to Dumfries port,
And there they lighted right manfulie.
9
‘Thereś six of us will hold the horse,
And other five watchmen will be;
But who is the man among you a’
Will go to the Tolbooth door wi me?’
10
O up then spake Jokie Hall
(Fra the laigh of Tiviotdale was he),
‘If it should cost my life this very night,
I’ll ga to the Tollbooth door wi thee.’
11
‘O sleepst thou, wakest thow, Archie laddie?
O sleepst thou, wakest thow, dear billie?’
‘I sleep but saft, I waken oft,
For the morn’s the day that I man die.’
49012
‘Be o good cheer now, Archie lad,
Be o good cheer now, dear billie;
Work thow within and I without,
And the morn thou’s dine at Cafield wi me.’
13
‘O work, O work, Archie?’ he cries,
‘O work, O work? ther’s na working for me;
For ther’s fifteen stane o Spanish iron,
And it lys fow sair on my body.’
14
O Jokie Hall stept to the door,
And he bended it back upon his knee,
And he made the bolts that the door hang on
Jump to the wa right wantonlie.
15
He took the prisoner on his back,
And down the Tollbooth stairs came he;
Out then spak Dickie and said,
Let some o the weight fa on me;
‘O shame a ma!’ co Jokie Ha,
‘For he’s no the weight of a poor flee.’
16
The gray mare stands at the door,
And I wat neer a foot stirt she,
Till they laid the links out oer her neck,
And her girth was the gold-twist to be.
17
And they came down thro Dumfries town,
And O but they came bonily!
Untill they came to Lochmaben port,
And they leugh a’ the night manfulie.
18
There was horsing, horsing in haste,
And there was marching on the lee,
Untill they came to the Murraywhat,
And they lighted a’ right speedilie.
19
‘A smith, a smith!’ Dickie he cries,
‘A smith, a smith, right speedilie,
To file off the shakles fra my dear brother!
For it is forward we wad be.’
20
They had not filtt a shakle of iron,
A shakle of iron but barely three,
Till out then spake young Simon brave,
‘Ye do na see what I do see.
21
‘Lo yonder comes Liewtenant Gordon,
And a hundred men in his company:’
‘O wo is me!’ then Archie cries,
‘For I’m the prisoner, and I must die.’
22
O there was horsing, horsing in haste,
And there was marching upon the lee,
Untill they came to Annan side,
And it was flowing like the sea.
23
‘I have a colt, and he’s four years old,
And he can amble like the wind,
But when he comes to the belly deep,
He lays himself down on the ground.’
24
‘But I have a mare, and they call her Meg.
And she’s the best in Christendie;
Set ye the prisoner me behind;
Ther’ll na man die but he that’s fae!’
25
Now they did swim that wan water,
And O but they swam bonilie!
Untill they came to the other side,
And they wrang their cloathes right drunk[i]lie.
26
‘Come through, come through, Lieutenant Gordon!
Come through, and drink some wine wi me!
For ther’s a ale-house neer hard by,
And it shall not cost thee one penny.’
27
‘Throw me my irons, Dickie!’ he cries,
‘For I wat they cost me right dear;’
‘O shame a ma!’ cries Jokie Ha,
‘For they’ll be good shoon to my gray mare.’
28
‘Surely thy minnie has been some witch,
Or thy dad some warlock has been;
Else thow had never attempted such,
Or to the bottom thow had gone.
29
‘Throw me my irons, Dickie!’ he cries,
‘For I wot they cost me dear enough;’
‘O shame a ma!’ cries Jokie Ha,
‘They’ll be good shakles to my plough.’
30
‘Come through, come through, Liewtenant Gordon!
Come throw, and drink some wine wi me!
For yesterday I was your prisoner,
But now the night I am set free.’
491
Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 111.
1
As I walked on a pleasant green—
’Twas on the first morning of May—
I heard twa brothers make their moan,
And hearkend well what they did say.
2
The first he gave a grievous sigh,
And said, Alas, and wae is me!
We hae a brother condemned to death,
And the very morn must hanged be.
3
Then out it speaks him Little Dick,
I wat a gude fellow was he:
‘Had I three men unto mysell,
Well borrowed shoud Bell Archie be.’
4
Out it speaks him Johnny Ha,
A better fellow by far was he:
‘Ye shall hae six men and yoursell,
And me to bear you companie.
5
‘Twa for keepers o the guard,
See that to keep it sickerlie,
And twa to come, and twa to gang,
And twa to speak wi Bell Archie.
6
‘But we winna gang like men o weir,
Nor yet will we like cavalliers;
But we will gang like corn-buyers,
And we’ll put brechens on our mares.’
7
Then they are to the jail-house doors,
And they hae tirled at the pin:
‘Ye sleep ye, wake ye, Bell Archie?
Quickly rise, lat us come in.’
8
‘I sleep not aft, I lie not saft;
Wha’s there that knocks and kens my name?’
‘It is your brothers Dick and John;
Ye’ll open the door, lat us come in.’
9
‘Awa, awa, my brethren dear,
And ye’ll had far awa frae me;
If ye be found at jail-house door,
I fear like dogs they’ll gar ye die.’
10
‘Ohon, alas! my brother dear,
Is this the hearkning ye gie to me?
If ye’ll work therein as we thereout,
Well borrowd shoud your body be.’
11
‘How can I work therein, therein,
Or yet how can I work thereout,
When fifty tons o Spanish iron
Are my fair body round about?’
12
He put his fingers to the lock,
I wat he handled them sickerlie,
And doors of deal, and bands of steel,
He gart them all in flinders flee.
13
He’s taen the prisoner in his arms,
And he has kissd him cheek and chin:
‘Now since we’ve met, my brother dear,
There shall be dunts ere we twa twine.’
14
He’s taen the prisoner on his back,
And a’ his heavy irons tee,
But and his marie in his hand,
And straight to Annan gate went he.
15
But when they came to Annan water,
It was roaring like the sea:
‘O stay a little, Johnny Ha,
Here we can neither fecht nor flee.
16
‘O a refreshment we maun hae,
We are baith dry and hungry tee;
We’ll gang to Robert’s at the mill,
It stands upon yon lily lee.’
17
Up in the morning the jailor raise,
As soon’s ’twas light that he coud see;
Wi a pint o wine and a mess sae fine,
Into the prison-house went he.
18
When he came to the prison-door,
A dreary sight he had to see;
The locks were shot, the doors were broke,
And a’ the prisoners won free.
19
‘Ye’ll gae and waken Annan town,
Raise up five hundred men and three;
And if these rascals may be found,
I vow like dogs I’ll gar them die.
20
‘O dinna ye hear proud Annan roar,
Mair loud than ever roard the sea?
We’ll get the rascals on this side,
Sure they can neither fecht nor flee.
49221
‘Some gar ride, and some gar rin,
Wi a’ the haste that ye can make;
We’ll get them in some tavern-house,
For Annan water they winna take.’
22
As Little Dick was looking round,
All for to see what he could see,
Saw the proud sheriff trip the plain,
Five hundred men his companie.
23
‘O fare ye well, my bonny wife,
Likewise farewell, my children three!
Fare ye well, ye lands o Cafield!
For you again I neer will see.
24
‘For well I kent, ere I came here,
That Annan water woud ruin me;
My horse is young, he’ll nae lat ride,
And in this water I maun die.’
25
Out it speaks him Johnny Ha,
I wat a gude fellow was he:
‘O plague upo your cowardly face!
The bluntest man I eer did see.
26
‘Gie me your horse, take ye my mare,
The devil drown my mare and thee!
Gie me the prisoner on behind,
And nane will die but he that’s fay.’
27
He quickly lap upo the horse,
And strait the stirrups siccarlie,
And jumpd upo the other side,
Wi the prisoner and his irons tee.
28
The sheriff then came to the bank,
And heard its roaring like the sea;
Says, How these men they hae got ower,
It is a marvel unto me.
29
‘I wadna venture after them,
For a’ the criminals that I see;
Nevertheless now, Johnny Ha,
Throw ower the fetters unto me.’
30
‘Deil part you and the fetters,’ he said,
‘As lang as my mare needs a shee;
If she gang barefoot ere they be done,
I wish an ill death mat ye die.’
31
‘Awa, awa, now Johnny Ha,
Your talk to me seems very snell;
Your mither’s been some wild rank witch,
And you yoursell an imp o hell.’
Motherwell’s MS., p. 467, “received in MS. by Buchan
from Mr Nicol, of Strichen, who wrote as he had learned
early in life from old people:” Motherwell’s Minstrelsy,
p. 335.
1
‘Seven years have I loved my love,
And seven years my love’s loved me,
But now to-morrow is the day
That billy Archie, my love, must die.’
2
O then out spoke him Little Dickie,
And still the best fellow was he:
‘Had I but five men and my self,
Then we would borrow billy Archie.’
3
Out it spoke him Caff o Lin,
And still the worst fellow was he:
‘You shall have five men and yourself,
And I will bear you companye.’
4
‘We will not go like to dragoons,
Nor yet will we like grenadiers,
But we will go like corn-dealers,
And lay our brechams on our meares.
5
‘And twa of us will watch the road,
And other twa will go between,
And I will go to jail-house door,
And hold the prisoner unthought lang.’
6
‘Who is this at jail-house door,
So well as they do know the gin?’
‘It’s I myself,’ [said] him Little Dickie,
‘And oh sae fain ’s I would be in!’
7
‘Away, away, now, Little Dickie!
Away, let all your folly be!
If the Lord Lieutenant come on you,
Like unto dogs he’ll cause you die.’
8
‘Hold you, hold you, billy Archie,
And now let all your folly be!
Tho I die without, you’ll not die within,
For borrowed shall your body be.’
4939
‘Away, away, now, Little Dickie!
Away, let all this folly be!
An hundred pounds of Spanish irons
Is all bound on my fair bodie.’
10
Wi plough-culters and gavellocks
They made the jail-house door to flee;
‘And in God’s name,’ said Little Dickie,
‘Cast you the prisoner behind me!’
11
They had not rode a great way off,
With all the haste that ever could be,
Till they espied the Lord Lieutenant,
With a hundred men in’s companie.
12
But when they came to wan water,
It now was rumbling like the sea;
Then were they got into a strait,
As great a strait as well could be.
13
Then out did speak him Caff o Lin,
And aye the warst fellow was he:
‘Now God be with my wife and bairns!
For fatherless my babes will be.
14
‘My horse is young, he cannot swim;
The water’s deep, and will not wade;
My children must be fatherless,
My wife a widow, whateer betide.’
15
O then cried out him Little Dickie,
And still the best fellow was he:
‘Take you my mare, I’ll take your horse,
And Devil drown my mare and thee!’
16
Now they have taken the wan water,
Tho it was roaring like the sea,
And whan they got to the other side,
I wot they bragged right crouselie.
17
‘Come thro, come thro now, Lord Lieutenant!
O do come thro, I pray of thee!
There is an alehouse not far off,
We’ll dine you and your companye.’
18
‘Away, away, now, Little Dickie!
O now let all your taunting be!
There’s not a man in the king’s army
That would have tried what’s done by thee.
19
‘Cast back, cast back my fetters again!
Cast back my fetters! I say to thee;
And get you gane the way you came,
I wish no prisoners like to thee.’
20
‘I have a mare, she’s called Meg,
The best in all our low countrie;
If she gang barefoot till they are done,
An ill death may your lordship die!’
Macmath MS, p. 76. “Taken down by me, September,
1886, from my aunt, Miss Jane Webster: heard by her in
her youth, at Airds.”
1
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
‘We’ll awa to bonnie Dundee,
And set our brither Archie free.’
* * * * *
2
They broke through locks, and they broke through bars,
And they broke through everything that cam in their way,
Until they cam to a big iron gate,
And that’s where brother Archie lay.
[Little John says]
3
. . . . . . .
‘O brither Archie speak to me,
. . . . . . .
For we are come to set ye free.’
4
. . . . . . .
‘Such a thing it canna be,
For there’s fifty pund o gude Spanish airn
Atween my neckbane and my knee.’
494
Communicated by Mr J. M. Watson, of Clark’s Island,
Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, April 10, 1889, as remembered
by him from the singing of his father.
1
As I walked out one morning in May,
Just before the break of day,
I heard two brothers a making their moan,
And I listened a while to what they did say.
I heard, etc.
2
‘We have a brother in prison,’ said they,
‘Oh in prison lieth he!
If we had but ten men just like ourselves,
The prisoner we would soon set free.’
3
‘Oh no, no, no!’ Bold Dickie said he,
‘Oh no, no, no, that never can be!
For forty men is full little enough
And I for to ride in their companie.
4
‘Ten to hold the horses in,
Ten to guard the city about,
Ten for to stand at the prison-door,
And ten to fetch poor Archer out.’
5
They mounted their horses, and so rode they,
Who but they so merrilie!
They rode till they came to a broad river’s side,
And there they alighted so manfullie.
6
They mounted their horses, and so swam they,
Who but they so merrilie!
They swam till they came to the other side,
And there they alighted so manfullie.
7
They mounted their horses, and so rode they,
Who but they so merrilie!
They rode till they came to that prison-door,
And then they alighted so manfullie.
8
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
‘For I have forty men in my companie,
And I have come to set you free.’
9
‘Oh no, no, no!’ poor Archer says he,
‘Oh no, no, no, that never can be!
For I have forty pounds of good Spanish iron
Betwixt my ankle and my knee.’
10
Bold Dickie broke lock, Bold Dickie broke key,
Bold Dickie broke everything that he could see;
He took poor Archer under one arm,
And carried him out so manfullie.
11
They mounted their horses, and so rode they,
Who but they so merrilie!
They rode till they came to that broad river’s side,
And there they alighted so manfullie.
12
‘Bold Dickie, Bold Dickie,’ poor Archer says he,
‘Take my love home to my wife and children three;
For my horse grows lame, he cannot swim,
And here I see that I must die.’
13
They shifted their horses, and so swam they,
Who but they so merrilie!
They swam till they came to the other side,
And there they alighted so manfullie.
14
‘Bold Dickie, Bold Dickie,’ poor Archer says he,
‘Look you yonder there and see;
For the high-sheriff he is a coming,
With an hundred men in his companie.’
15
‘Bold Dickie, Bold Dickie,’ High-sheriff said he,
‘You’re the damndest rascal that ever I see!
Go bring me back the iron you’ve stole,
And I will set the prisoner free.’
16
‘Oh no, no, no!’ Bold Dickie said he,
‘Oh no, no, no, that never can be!
For the iron ‘twill do to shoe the horses,
The blacksmith rides in our companie.’
17
‘Bold Dickie, Bold Dickie,’ High-sheriff says he,
‘You’re the damndest rascal that ever I see!’
‘I thank ye for nothing,’ Bold Dickie says he,
‘And you’re a damned fool for following me.’
495A.
Written in long lines, without division into
stanzas, excepting a few instances.
11. folk I saw went.
132. And cracking, etc.
134. 3.
292. o whips, etc.
423. one water.
424. Xtenty.
431. Perhaps we should read, But throw me,
throw me.
21,2. The youngest to the eldest said, Blythe
and merrie how can we be.
23. were.
3–5.
‘An ye wad be merrie, an ye wad be sad,
What the better wad billy Archie be?
Unless I had thirty men to mysell,
And a’to ride in my cumpanie.
‘Ten to hald the horses’ heads,
And other ten the watch to be,
And ten to break up the strong prison
Where billy Archie he does lie.’
Then up and spak him mettled John Hall
(The luve of Teviotdale aye was he);
‘An I had eleven men to mysell,
It’s aye the twalt man I wad be.’
Then up bespak him coarse Ca’field
(I wot and little gude worth was he);
‘Thirty men is few anew,
And a’ to ride in our companie.’
62. on the.
63. the wanting.
64, 184. there for a’.
73. shoon for feet.
74. it’s unkensome.
After 7:
‘There lives a smith on the water-side
Will shoe my little black mare for me,
And I’ve a crown in my pocket,
And every groat of it I wad gie.’
‘The night is mirk, and it’s very mirk,
And by candle-light I canna weel see;
The night is mirk, and it’s very pit mirk,
And there will never a nail ca right for me.’
‘Shame fa you and your trade baith!
Canna beet a good fellow by your mystery;
But leeze me on thee, my little black mare!
Thou’s worth thy weight in gold to me.’
81. a wanting.
82. And there: upon.
84. And they lighted there right speedilie.
91. There’s five.
92. will watchmen be.
93. ye a’.
101. spak him mettled John Hall.
102. of wanting.
11 wanting.
123. and we.
124. Ca’field.
13 wanting.
142. bended low back his knee.
143. that wanting.
144. Loup frae the.
152. stair.
153–6wanting.
161. The black mare stood ready at.
162. And wanting: I wot a foot neer stirred she.
163. Till wanting.
164. And that was her gold.
172. And wow: speedilie.
173,4wanting.
181,2. The live-lang night these twelve men
rade, And aye till they were right wearie.
184. lighted there right.
191. then Dickie.
193. file the irons frae.
194. For forward, forward.
201. hadna filed.
203. When out and spak.
204. O dinna you see.
212. Wi a.
213,4.
This night will be our lyke-wake night,
The morn the day we a’ maun die.
221. was mounting, mounting.
223. Annan water.
23, 24.
‘My mare is young and very skeigh,
And in o the weil she will drown me;’
‘But ye’ll take mine, and I’ll take thine,
And sune through the water we sall be.’
Then up and spak him coarse Ca’field
(I wot and little gude worth was he):
‘We had better lose ane than lose a’ the lave;
We’ll lose the prisoner, we’ll gae free.’
‘Shame fa you and your lands baith!
Wad ye een your lands to your born billy?
But hey! bear up, my bonnie black mare,
And yet thro the water we sall be.’
252. And wow.
254. drunkily.
263. there is an ale-house here.
264. thee ae.
27, 28 wanting.
291. irons, quo Lieutenant Gordon.
292. For wanting.
293. The shame a ma, quo mettled John Ha.
303. Yestreen I was.
304. now this morning am I free.
C.
52. Sae that?
D.
Slightly changed by Motherwell in printing.
21, 151, 182. Oh.
E.
The ancient and veritable ballad of ‘Bold Dickie,’
as sung by A. M. Watson, and remembered
and rendered by his son, J. M. Watson.
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS — VOL. I. — 1. Riddles Wisely Expounded. — 2. The Elfin Knight. — 3. The Fause Knight upon the Road. — 4. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight. — 5. Gil Brenton. — 6. Willie’s Lady. — 7. Earl Brand. — 8. Erlinton. — 9. The Fair Flower of Northumberland. — 10. The Twa Sisters. — 11. The Cruel Brother. — 12. Lord Randal. — 13. Edward. — 14. Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie. — 15. Leesome Brand. — 16. Sheath and Knife. — 17. Hind Horn. — 19. King Orfeo. — 20. The Cruel Mother. — 21. The Maid and the Palmer. — 22. St Stephen and Herod. — 25. Willie’s Lyke-Wake. — 28. Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane. — 29. The Boy and the Mantle. — 30. King Arthur and King Cornwall. — 34. Kemp Owyne. — 35. Allison Gross. — 37. Thomas Rymer. — 39. Tam Lin. — 40. The Queen of Elfan’s Nourice. — 41. Hind Etin. — 42. Clerk Colvill. — 43. The Broomfield Hill. — 44. The Twa Magicians. — 46. Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship. — 49. The Twa Brothers. — 53. Young Beichan. — VOL. II. — 56. Dives and Lazarus. — 57. Brown Robyn’s Confession. — 59. Sir Aldingar. — 60. King Estmere. — 61. Sir Cawline. — 63. Child Waters. — 64. Fair Janet. — 65. Lady Maisry. — 66. Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet. — 67. Glasgerion. — 68. Young Hunting. — 69. Clerk Saunders. — 71. The Bent Sae Brown. — 72. The Clerk’s Twa Sons o Owsenford. — 73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet. — 75. Lord Lovel. — 76. The Lass of Roch Royal. — 78. The Unquiet Grave. — 79. The Wife of Usher’s Well. — 80. Old Robin of Portingale. — 83. Child Maurice. — 84. Bonny Barbara Allen. — 85. Lady Alice. — 89. Fause Foodrage. — 90. Jellon Grame. — 91. Fair Mary of Wallington. — 93. Lamkin. — 94. Young Waters. — 95. The Maid Freed from the Gallows. — 96. The Gay Goshawk. — 100. Willie o Winsbury. — 101. Willie o Douglas Dale. — 102. Willie and Earl Richard’s Daughter. — 105. The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington. — 106. The Famous Flower of Serving-Men. — 109. Tom Potts. — 112. The Baffled Knight. — 113. The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry. — VOL. III. — 116. Adam Bell, etc. — 117. A Gest of Robyn Hode. — 147. Robin Hood’s Golden Prize. — 150. Robin Hood and Maid Marian. — 155. Sir Hugh, or, The Jew’s Daughter. — 161. The Battle of Otterburn. — 169. Johnie Armstrong. — 178. Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon. — 182. The Laird o Logie. — 184. The Lads of Wamphray. — To be Corrected in the Print.
496
P. 1 a. Guess or die. A grim kemp, an unco knicht,
asks nine riddles of a young man; all are guessed;
wherefore the kemp says it shall go well with him.
Kristensen, Skattegraveren, II, 97 ff., 154 f., Nos 457,
458, 724; V, 49, No 454.
P. 6. Nigra, No 118, p. 483, ‘Che mestiere è il vostro?’
A sempstress to make a shirt without stitch
or seam; a mason to make a room without bricks and
mortar.
7 b, second paragraph. Add: ‘Store Fordringer,’
Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 8, No 6.
P. 20. ‘Kall og svein ungi,’ Hammershaimb, Færøsk
Anthologi, p. 283, No 36 (three versions), is another
piece of this kind. The boat is in all the copies, Scottish,
Swedish, and Färöe.
M. Gaidoz, Mélusine, IV, 207, cites a passage from
Plutarch’s life of Numa, c. 15, which is curiously like
this ballad. The question being what is the proper
expiatory sacrifice when divine displeasure has been
indicated by thunderbolts, Zeus instructs Numa that
it must be made with heads. Onions’? interposes
Numa. With men’s—says Zeus. Hairs? suggests
Numa. With LIVE—says Zeus. Sardines? puts in
Numa.
P. 22. E is given from singing and recitation in
Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte Sophia
Burne, 1883–86, p. 548.
Mr W. H. Babcock has recently printed the following
version, as sung in a Virginian family from “the
corner between the Potomac and the Blue Ridge:”
The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 28.
WILSON.
1
Wilson, sitting in his room one day,
With his true-love on his knee,
Just as happy as happy could be, be, be,
Just as happy as happy could be,
2
‘Do you want for fee?’ said she,
‘Or do you want for gold?
Or do you want a handsome ladye,
More handsomer than me?’
3
‘I do want for fee,’ said he,
‘And I do want for gold;
But I don’t want a handsomer ladye,
More handsomer than thee.
4
‘Go get some of your father’s fee,
And some of your father’s gold,
And two of the finest horses he has,
And married we will be, be, be,
And married we will be.’
5
She mounted on the milk-white steed,
And he the iron-grey,
And when they got to the broad waterside
It was six hours and a half till day.
6
‘Get down, get down! my pretty fair maid,
Get down, get down!’ said he;
‘For it’s nine of the king’s daughters I’ve drowned here,
And the tenth one you shall be.
7
‘Take off, take off that costly silk,
For it is a costly thing;
It cost your father too much bright gold
To drown your fair body in.
8
‘In stooping down to cut the cords round,
Sing, Turn your back on me;’
And with all the strength this lady had,
She pushed him right into the sea.
9
‘Help me out! my pretty fair miss,
O help me out!’ said he,
‘And we’ll go down to the Catholic church,
And married we will be.’
10
‘Lie there, lie there! you false-hearted man,
Lie there, lie there!’ said she,
‘For it’s nine of the king’s daughters you’ve drowned here,
But the tenth one’s drowned thee.’
11
She mounted on the milk-white steed,
And led the iron-grey,
And when she got to her own father’s house
It was three hours and a half till day.
49712
While she was walking in the room,
Which caused the parrot to wake,
Said he, What’s the matter, my pretty fair miss,
That you’re up so long before day?
13
‘Hush up, hush up! my pretty little parrot,
Don’t tell no tales on me;
Your cage shall be lined with sweet may gold,
And the doors of ivorie.’
14
While they were talking all of this,
Which caused the old man to wake,
Said, What’s the matter, my pretty little parrot,
That you chatter so long before day?
15
‘The cat she sprung against my cage,
And surely frightened me,
And I called for the pretty fair miss
To drive the cat away.’
(1 lacks the third verse; in 21,2, 31,2, 41,2, fee and gold
should be exchanged; in 122, 142, wake should perhaps
be say.)
26 b. Add these Danish copies: Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
I, 210 ff., Nos 1198, 1199. (Some stanzas of
‘Kvindemorderen’ are inserted in No 932, III, 177.)
29, 34 f. O, P. O is repeated in Lütolf, Sagen,
Bräuche u. Legenden, u. s. w., p. 71, No 29, ‘Schön
Anneli;’P in Kurz, Aeltere Dichter, u. s. w., der
Schweizer, I, 117. ‘Schön Anneli,’ Töbler, Schweizerische
Volkslieder, II, 170, No 6, is an edited copy,
mainly O, with use of P.
42. A variety of A in Revue des Traditions populaires,
II, 293, communicated by A. Gittée, Chanson
wallonne, de Bliquy, environs d’Ath.
42 f. A robber has his hand cut off by a girl. Later
he marries her. The day after the marriage they go
on horseback to see his relations. On coming to a wood
he says, Do you remember the night when you cut off
my hand? It is now my turn. He orders her to strip,
threatening her with his dagger. When she is in her
shift, she begs him to turn away his eyes, seizes the
dagger, and cuts his throat. ‘Le Voleur des Crêpes,’
Sébillot, Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 341, No
62. (G. L. K.)
43 b. ‘La Fille de Saint-Martin,’ etc. Add: Roland,
II, 171, obtained by Nérée Quépat.
44 a. Nigra, Canti popolari del Piemonte, 1888, p.
90 ff., No 13, ‘Un’ Eroina,’ gives five unpublished versions
(B-F), ‘La Monferrina,’ D, being A of this large
and beautiful collection.
Add also: Giannini, Canti p. della Montagna Lucchese,
1889, p. 143, ‘La Liberatrice;’ Finamore,
Storie p. abruzzesi, in Archivio, I, 207, ‘Lu Pringepe
de Meláne.’
44 b. ‘Il Corsaro,’ in Nigra’s collection, No 14, p.
106 ff., with the addition of another version. For ‘La
Monferrina incontaminata,’ see Nigra again, ‘La
Fuga,’ No 15, pp. 111 ff.; Finamore, in Archivio,
I, 87, ‘La Fandell’ e lu Cavaljiere’ (mixed).
Spanish, Nos 38–41, ‘Venganza de Honor,’ No 42,
‘La Hija de la Viudina,’ Pidal, Asturian Romances,
have the incident of the girl’s killing with his own
sword or dagger a caballero who offers her violence.
The weapon is dropped in the course of a struggle in
all but No 40; in this the damsel says, Give me your
sword, and see how I would wear it.
It is a commonplace for a pair on horseback to go
a long way without speaking. So Pidal, pp. 114, 115,
130, 133, 135, 159:
Siete leguas anduvieron
sin hablar una palabra.
60 a. A. Burden. The song in the Tea-Table Miscellany
and the music are found in John Squair’s
MS., fol. 22, Laing collection, library of the University
of Edinburgh, handwriting about 1700. (W. Macmath.)
P. 65 b. A ballad from Normandy, published by Legrand,
Romania, X, 367, III, which I am surprised to
find that I have not mentioned, is a very interesting
variety of ‘Gil Brenton,’ more particularly of the Danish
‘Peder og Malfred.’ It has the attempt at substitution
(a sister); the wife acknowledges that she had
been forced (par ses laquais les bras il me bandit); the
husband reveals, and proves, that he was the ravisher.
The beginning of the Norman ballad, which is lost,
would probably have had the feature of the information
given the husband by the shepherdess. Another
French ballad, corrupted (environs de Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine),
has this and the attempt to pass off the sister;
the husband kills his wife. Music is ordered in the last
stanza. Rolland, IV, 70. An Italian and a Breton
ballad which begin like the Danish, but proceed differently,
are spoken of under ‘Fair Janet,’ No 64, II,
102 f.. See now Nigra’s ‘Fidanzata infedele’ in his
collection, No 34, p. 197.
P. 82. ‘Hustru og mands moder,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
I, 73, No 436, VII, 97, No 651; ‘Barselkvinden,’
the same, II, 10, No 7. (The tale, p. 83 b,
is reprinted by inadvertence, I, 73, No 234.)
P. 88 a. B. “The copy principally used in this edition
of the ballad was supplied by Mr Sharpe.” Scott.
“The Douglas Tragedy was taught me by a nurserymaid,
and was so great a favorite that I committed it
to paper as soon as I was able to write.” Sharpe’s
498Letters, ed. Allardyce, I, 135, August 5, 1802. Sharpe
was born in 1781.
88 b. ‘Hr. Kibolt,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
VI, 17, No 257, is a good copy of ‘Ribold og Guldborg.’
It has the testaments at the end, like several
others (see I, 144 b).
89–91 a. ‘Stolt Hedelil,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
I, 68, No 231, is another version of ‘Hildebrand og
Hilde,’ closely resembling G. So is ‘Den mislykkede
flugt,’ the same, VIII, 17, No 24, with the proper
tragic conclusion. Both are inferior copies.
92 a and 489 b. Add: K, ‘Kung Vallemo ock liten
Kerstin,’ Bergström ock Nordlander, Nyare Bidrag,
o. s. v., p. 101.
95 b, 96, 489. I have omitted to mention the effect
of naming on ‘Clootie’ in No 1, C 19, I, 5:
As sune as she the fiend did name,
He flew awa in a blazing flame.
The Alpthier loses its power to harm and appears in
its proper shape, as this or that person, if called by
name: Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart,
2d ed., p. 257. Were-wolves appear in their
proper human shape on being addressed by their name:
Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf, pp. 61, 84, Ulrich Jahn,
Volkssagen aus Pommern u. Rügen, pp. 386–7. An enchanted
prince is freed when his name is pronounced:
Meier, No 53, p. 188 and n., p. 311. “There was in
the engagement a man [on the side of Hades] who
could not be vanquished unless his name could be discovered:”
Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, I, 167, as
quoted by Rhys, Celtic Mythology, Hibbert Lectures,
p. 244. (G. L. K.)
96 ff., 489, II, 498. Plants from lovers’ graves.
Add: Portuguese, Roméro, II, 157, two pines.
Italian, Nigra, No 18, ‘Le due Tombe,’ p. 125 ff.
A. The lovers are buried apart, one in the church,
one outside, a pomegranate springs from the man’s
grave, an almond-tree from the maid’s; they grow large
enough to shade three cities! B. A pomegranate is
planted on the man’s grave, a hazel on the maid’s;
they shade the city, and interlock. C. An almond-tree
is planted on the maid’s grave, and is cut down. D.
The lovers are buried as in A (and C), an almond-tree
grows from the grave of the man, a jessamine from the
maid’s. See also No 19, ‘Fior di Tomba,’ where, however,
there is but one grave, which is to contain the
maid’s parents as well as her lover. The same phenomenon
in the fragments E, F. ‘Il Castello d’Oviglio,’
Ferraro, Canti p. monferrini, No 45, p. 64, is
another version of this ballad. A pomegranate springs
up at the maid’s feet, and shades three cities. Cf. ‘La
Mort des deux Amants,’ Rolland, I, 247, No 125.
Roumanian. ‘Ring and Handkerchief’ also in
Marienescu, Balade, p. 50: cited in Mélusine, IV.
142.
97 b and 489 f., II, 498 a. Bulgarian, Miladinof,
Bùlgarski narodni pěsni, p. 455, No 497, translated
by Krauss, Sagen u. Märchen der Südslaven, II, 427;
the youth as rose-tree, the maid as grape-vine. Cited
by G. Meyer in Mélusine, IV, 87. Little-Russian,
plane-trees of the two sexes; cited by J. Karlowicz,
ib., 87 f. Ruthenian (mother attempting to poison her
son’s wife poisons both wife and son), Herrmann, Ethnologische
Mittheilungen, 205 f.; buried on different
sides of the church, plants meet over the roof of the
church, the mother tries to cut them down, and while so
engaged is turned into a pillar.
Servian. Vuk, I, No 342, II, No 30; youth, pine,
maid, grape-vine. Krasić, p. 105, No 21, p. 114, No
26; vine and pine, vine twines round pine. Bulgarian,
Miladinof, p. 375, No 288, rose and vine. Magyar-Croat,
Kurelac, p. 147, No 444, grape-vine and
rose; No 445, youth behind the church, maid before,
grape-vine and rose; p. 154, No 454, rosemary and a
white flower (aleluja?). (W. W.)
Breton. Mélusine, III, 453 f. A tree springs from
over the young man’s heart (but this is an insertion,
and not quite beyond suspicion), a rose from the
maid’s. There is another version of the ballad at p.
182 f., in which une fleur dorée grows over the man’s
grave, nothing being said of his mistress’s grave, or
even of her death.
Italo-Albanian. Also in Vigo, Canti p. siciliani,
1857, p. 345, V, and the edition of 1870–74, p. 698:
cited in Mélusine, IV, 87.
Gaelic. Of Naisi (Naois) and Deirdre. King
Conor caused them to be buried far apart, but for some
days the graves would be found open in the morning
and the lovers found together. The king ordered
stakes of yew to be driven through the bodies, so that
they might be kept asunder. Yew trees grew from the
stakes, and so high as to embrace each other over the
cathedral of Armagh. Transactions of the Gaelic Society
of Dublin, I, 133, 1808.
In a Scotch-Gaelic version recently obtained, after
Naois is put into his grave, Deirdre jumps in, lies down
by his side and dies. The bad king orders her body
to be taken out and buried on the other side of a loch.
Firs shoot out of the two graves and unite over the
loch. The king has the trees cut down twice, but
the third time his wife makes him desist from his vengeance
on the dead. The original in Transactions of
the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XIII, 257; a translation
in The Celtic Magazine, XIII, 138. (All of
these cited by Gaidoz, Mélusine, IV, 12, and 62, note.)
107 b, and also No 53, ‘Young Beichan,’ I, 463 b.
For the Magyar ballads of Szilágyi and Hagymási, see
Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen, cols 65–66;
also col. 215. (A Transylvanian-Saxon ballad, a Roumanian
tale, and a Transylvanian-Gipsy ballad, which
follow, are of more or less questionable authenticity:
Herrmann, col. 216.)
499109. C, as well as ‘Robin Hood and the Pedlars,’ III,
170, are found in a manuscript pretended to be of about
1650, but are written in a forged hand of this century.
I do not feel certain that the ballads themselves,
bad as they are, are forgeries, and accordingly
give the variations of Gutch’s Robin Hood from the
manuscript, not regarding spelling.
32. hold good.
34. thou will.
71. thus he.
101. Thorough: I run.
111. [kine?]
163. while.
191. Ile.
213. he lent.
243. be not.
253. eldest.
281. leant.
292. wield. No “Finis” at the end.
P. 113. The Servian hero Marko Kraljević is guilty
of the same ingratitude. The daughter of the Moorish
king releases him from a long captivity and makes him
rich gifts. He promises to marry her and they go off
together. During a halt the princess embraces him,
and he finds her black face and white teeth so repulsive
that he strikes off her head. He seeks to atone
for his sin by pious foundations. Servian, Vuk, II,
No 44 [Bowring, p. 86]; Croat, Bogišić, p. 16; Bulgarian,
Miladinof, No 54, Kačanofskij, No 132. (W. W.)
P. 119. A Danish fragment of nine stanzas in Kristensen’s
Skattegraveren, IV, 161, No 509.
119 b. Three copies of the Swedish ballad are
printed by Wahlfisk, Bidrag till Södermanlands äldere
Kulturhistoria, No VI, p. 33 f.
124 b, 493 b, II, 498 b.
Rudchenko, South Russian Popular Tales, I, No 55:
murder of brother revealed by a flute made from a reed
that grows from his grave (No 56, flute from a willow).
II, No 14, murder of a boy killed and eaten by his
parents revealed by a bird that rises from his bones.
(W. W.)
In a Flemish tale reported in the Revue des Traditions
populaires, II, 125, Janneken is killed by Milken
for the sake of a golden basket. The murder is disclosed
by a singing rose. In ‘Les Roseaux qui chantent’
a sister kills her brother in a dispute over a
bush covered with pain-prunelle. Roses grow from his
grave. A shepherd, hearing them sing, cuts a stem of
the rose-bush and whistles in it. The usual words follow.
Revue des Traditions populaires, II, 365 ff.; cf.
Sébillot’s long note, p. 366 ff. Das Flötenrohr (two
prose versions), U. Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern
und Rügen, No 510, pp. 399–401. (G. L. K.)
Pp. 142 b, 496 a. ‘Rizzardo bello,’ E, ‘Ruggiero,’
in Mazzatinti, Canti p. umbri, p. 286, Bologna, 1883.
143 b. ‘Hr. Adelbrant og jomfru Lindelil,’ with a
testament, again in Skattegraveren, I, 5, No I, and V,
17, No 12.
144 a, 496 b. Testaments. A wife who has been
gone from home in pursuit of her pleasure is so beaten
by her husband on her return that she dies. She
leaves valuable legacies to her children and a rope to
him. Nigra, No 25, ‘Testamento della Moglie,’ p.
159.
144 b. ‘Rævens Arvegods,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
II, 192 ff, Nos 774–78, and VIII, 209, No
810.
Pp. 152, 498. Italian. Add G, H, I, Nigra, No
26, A, B, C, ‘Testamento dell’ Avvelenato.’ J.
‘L’Amante avvelenato,’ Giannini, No 27, p. 199. K.
‘Mamma e Figghiolo,’ Nerucci, in Archivio, II, 526.
154 b, 498 b. ‘A megetétt János’ in Arany and
Gyulai, III, 7, Kriza.
156 a. ‘Donna Lombarda’ is now No 1 of Nigra’s
collection, where it is given in sixteen versions.
156 b, 499 a, II, 499 a. Slavic ballads of the sister
that poisons her brother, etc. Add: Servian, Rajkowić,
No 251. Compare, Bulgarian, Miladinof, No 262;
Croat, Mažuranić, p. 152, Sammlung der Zeitschrift
‘Naša Sloga,’ II, No 158; Slovenian, Koritko, IV,
No 47.—In Golovatsky, II, 584, a mother asks her
son whether he supped with the widow. He supped
with her, the witch. What did she cook for him? A
small fish. Where did she catch it, dress it? Did she
eat any of it? No, her head ached. Did the children?
No, they went to bed.—In Verković, No 317,
p. 350, the fair Stana is poisoned by her husband’s
parents with a snake given as a fish. (W. W.)
A Ruthenian ballad of a mother attempting to poison
her son’s wife, and poisoning the pair, Herrmann, in
Ethnologische Mittheilungen, col. 205 f.
A Slovak ballad of this sort in Kollár, Narodnie
Zpiewanky, II, 32, translated by Herrmann, 91 f., No
3; and another version of the same col. 204 f., No 7.
Roumanian versions, cols 206, 207 f., 209 f., Nos 9, 10,
12, the last with another story prefixed. See also
Herrmann, col. 90, No 1, 92 f., Nos 4, 5, 208 f., No
11, for poisoning-ballads, and his references at the top
of col. 211.
Pp. 167 b, 501 b. Another copy of ‘Sven i Rosengård,’
F, is printed by Aminson in Bidrag till Södermanlands
äldere Kulturhistoria, No V, p. 12, eleven
stanzas. The swain has killed his sister.
168 b. Danish. Four concluding stanzas (When?)
in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 100, No 459.
P. 170. Add:
500
F
“In Gipsy Tents,” by Francis Hindes Groome, p. 143.
1
There were three sisters going from home,
All in a lea and alony, oh
They met a man, and he made them stand,
Down by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh.
2
He took the first one by the hand,
He turned her round, and he made her stand.
3
Saying, Will you be a robber’s wife?
Or will you die by my penknife?
4
‘Oh, I wont be a robber’s wife,
But I will die by your penknife.’
5
Then he took the second by her hand,
He turned her round, and he made her stand.
6
Saying, Will you be a robber’s wife?
Or will you die by my penknife?
7
‘Oh, I wont be a robber’s wife,
But I will die by your penknife.’
8
He took the third one by the hand,
He turned her round, and he made her stand.
9
Saying, Will you be a robber’s wife?
Or will you die by my penknife?
10
‘Oh, I wont be a robber’s wife,
And I wont die by your penknife.
11
‘If my two brothers had been here,
You would not have killed my sisters two.’
12
‘What was your two brothers’ names?’
‘One was John, and the other was James.’
13
‘Oh, what did your two brothers do?’
‘One was a minister, the other such as you.’
14
‘Oh, what is this that I have done?
I have killed my sisters, all but one.
15
‘And now I’ll take out my penknife,
And here I’ll end my own sweet life.’
P. 173, II, 499. Add to the French ballad: ‘Le
Passage du Bois,’ V. Smith, Chants p. du Velay et du
Forez, Romania, X, 205; ‘La Doulento,’ Arbaud, I,
120; Poésies p. de la France, MS., IV, fol. 442, printed
in Rolland, III, 55. With these belong ‘La Ragazza
assassinata,’ Nigra, No 12, three versions, p. 85 ff.;
‘La Vergine uccisa,’ Ferraro, Canti p. monferrini, p. 17.
P. 179 a. Danish, II. ‘Rosenelle og hr. Agervold,’
Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 65, No 230, is an important
variety of Redselille og Medelvold. Another
version, III, 82, No 260, ‘Rosenelle og hr. Medervold.’
In both of these the knight is the lady’s brother.
Swedish, II. A copy of ‘Lilla Lisa och Herr Nedervall’
is printed by Aminson, Bidrag, o. s. v., No 5,
p. 17.
P. 185. Mr Macmath has found the following ballad
in Motherwell’s handwriting, on a half-sheet of
paper. It is not completely intelligible (why should
Lady Ann be left in the death-throe, to bury herself?),
but undoubtedly belongs here. The first stanza
agrees with D.
E
1
One king’s daughter said to anither,
Brume blumes bonnie and grows sae fair
‘We’ll gae ride like sister and brither.’
And we’ll neer gae down to the brume nae mair
2
‘We’ll ride doun into yonder valley,
Whare the greene green trees are budding sae gaily.
3
‘Wi hawke and hounde we will hunt sae rarely,
And we’ll come back in the morning early.’
4
They rade on like sister and brither,
And they hunted and hawket in the valley thegether.
5
‘Now, lady, hauld my horse and my hawk,
For I maun na ride, and I downa walk.
6
‘But set me doun be the rute o this tree,
For there hae I dreamt that my bed sall be.’
7
The ae king’s dochter did lift doun the ither,
And she was licht in her armis like ony fether.
8
Bonnie Lady Ann sat doun be the tree,
And a wide grave was houkit whare nane suld be.
5019
The hawk had nae lure, and the horse had nae master,
And the faithless hounds thro the woods ran faster.
10
The one king’s dochter has ridden awa,
But bonnie Lady Ann lay in the deed-thraw.
Some words are difficult to read.
2. sae wanting in burden 1.
31. hunt? growis fair in burden 1.
51. Originally Oh hauld my bridle and stirrup.
Ann, or come, is written over Oh.
92. faithless?
The lost knife here in A 8–10, B 5, and in ‘Leesome
Brand,’ No 15, 36–41, appears in ‘The
Squire of Low Degree,’ Percy Folio, III, 267, vv.
117–126 (not in the version printed by Ritson and
by Hazlitt).
‘Daughter,’ he sais, ‘ffor whose sake
Is that sorrow that still thou makes?’
‘Ffather,’ shee sais, ’as I doe see,
Itt is ffor no man in Christentye;
Ffather,’ shee sayes, ’as I doe thriue,
Itt is ffor noe man this day aliue.
Ffor yesterday I lost my kniffe;
Much rather had I haue lost my liffe!’
‘My daughter,’ he sayes, ‘if itt be but a blade,
I can gett another as good made.’
‘Ffather,’ shee sais, ‘there is neuer a smith but one
That [can] smith you such a one.’
(G. L. K.)
P. 193 (2). ‘Hr. Lovmand’ in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren,
VIII, 49, No 115.
194 ff., 502 f., II, 499 b.
According to a Devonshire tradition given by Mrs
Bray, Traditions of Devonshire, II, 172 (II, 32, of the
new ed. of 1879, which has a fresh title, The Borders
of the Tamar and the Tavy), Sir Francis Drake, having
been abroad seven years, was apprised by one of
his devils that his wife was about to marry again.
He immediately discharged one of his great guns up
through the earth. The cannon-ball “fell with a loud
explosion between the lady and her intended bridegroom,”
who were before the altar. In another version,
known to Southey and communicated by him to
Mrs Bray (as above, II, 174; new ed., II, 33, 34), the
marriage is broken off by a large stone (no doubt a gun-stone)
which falls on the lady’s train as she is on her
way to church. Drake, in this version, returns in disguise,
but is recognized by his smile. See for various
stories of the same kind, ‘Iouenn Kerménou,’ Luzel,
Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, I, 416; ‘Der todte
Schuldner,’ Zingerle, Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie,
II, 367; ‘De witte Swâne,’ Woeste, the same,
III, 46, translated from the Markish dialect by Simrock,
‘Der gute Gerhard,’ u. s. w., p. 75; Vernaleken,
Mythen u. Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich, p. 372;
Vernaleken, Kinder- u. Hausmärchen, No 54, p. 315 f.;
J. H. Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, p. 184 f.; Prym
u. Socin, Syrische Sagen u. Märchen, No 20, II, 72.
(G. L. K.)
Pp. 198 b, 502 b, II, 499 b. An Italian form of ‘Le
Retour du Mari’ is ‘Il Ritorno del Soldato,’ Nigra, No
28b, p. 174.
Another Italian ballad has some of the points in the
story of Horn. A man goes off for seven years immediately
after marriage; the woman looking out towards
the sea perceives a pilgrim approaching; he asks
for charity, and makes what seems an impudent suggestion,
for which she threatens him with punishment. But
how if I were your husband? Then you would give me
some token. He pulls out his wedding-ring from under
his cloak. ‘Il finto [falso] Pellegrino,’ Bernoni, ix, no
7, Ferraro, C. p. monferrini, p. 33, Giannini, p. 151
(nearly the same in Archivio, VI, 361); ‘La Moglie
fedele,’ Wolf, p. 59, No 81, Ive, p. 334; ‘Bennardo,’
Nerucci, in Archivio, III, 44.
To the Portuguese ballads, I, 502 b, add ‘A bella Infanta,’
Bellermann, p. 100.
Add to the Polish ballads, p. 502 b: Roger, p. 13,
Nos 25, 26.
With the Slavic ballads belong: Servian, Vuk, III,
No 25; Bulgarian, Miladinof, Nos 65, 66, 111, 573, Kačanovskiy,
Nos 68–73, 112. (W. W.)
202 a. The three singing laverocks in B 3, F 4, (cf.
A 3,) are to be taken as curiosities of art. Artificial
singing-birds are often mentioned in the earlier times,
(by Sir John Mandeville for instance): see Liebrecht,
Volkskunde, p. 89 f., No 5. Such birds, and artificially
hissing snakes, occur in the Great-Russian bylina of
Djuk Stepanović; cf. Wollner, Untersuchungen ü. d.
grossr. Volksepik, p. 134 f. (W. W.)
205. G would have been printed as it stands in
Kinloch MSS VII, 117, had the volume been in my
possession. The copy principally used in Kinloch’s
Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 138, was derived from the
editor’s niece, M. Kinnear. Readings of another copy
are written in pencil over the transcript of the first in
places, and as the name “Christy Smith” is also written
at the beginning in pencil, it may be supposed that
these readings were furnished by this Christy Smith.
Kinloch adopted some of these readings into the copy
which appears in his book, and he introduced others
which seem to be his own. The readings of the Kinnear
copy not retained by Kinloch will now be given
under a, and those supplied (as may be supposed) by
Christy Smith under b.
a.
12. Whare was ye born? or frae what cuntrie?
31. a gay gowd wand.
41. a silver ring.
51. Whan that ring.
61. Whan that ring.
50272. Till he cam.
81. Whan he lookit to.
82. Says, I wish.
92. Until he cam till.
101. met with.
102. It was with.
111. my puir auld man.
131. to me.
132. I’ll lend you.
151. He has changed wi the puir auld.
161. What is the way that ye use.
162. words that.
181, 221. to yon town end.
192. your Hynde (your struck out).
232. his Hynde (his struck out).
241. he took na frae ane.
271. But he drank his glass.
272. Into it he dropt.
302. to your.
342. him evermair.
361. The red: oure them aw.
b.
12. in what.
21. greenwud’s.
22. have left.
31. a silver wand.
41. And my love gave me a gay gowd ring.
51. As lang as that ring.
72. Till that he cam.
92. Until that.
102. a jolly beggar man.
151. struck out in pencil.
181. And whan: yonder down.
202. Unless it be frae.
221. yonder down.
241. But he wad tak frae nane.
342. for evermair.
P. 217. The first half of the Norse burden is more
likely to have been, originally, what would correspond
to the Danish Skoven [er] herlig grön, or, Skoven
herlig grönnes. In the other half, grün forbids us to
look for hjort in giorten, where we are rather to see
Danish urt (English wort), Icelandic jurt: so that this
would be, in Danish, Hvor urten hun grönnes herlig.
(Note of Mr. Axel Olrik.)
P. 218 b. Danish. ‘I dølgsmål,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
V, 98, No 644; corrupted.
(N, O should be O, P, II, 500: see I, 504.)
Q
‘The Cruel Mother,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by
Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1883–86, p. 540; “sung by Eliza
Wharton and brothers, children of gipsies, habitually travelling
in North Shropshire and Staffordshire, 13th July,
1885.”
1
There was a lady, a lady of York,
Ri fol i diddle i gee wo
She fell a-courting in her own father’s park.
Down by the greenwood side, O
2
She leaned her back against the stile,
There she had two pretty babes born.
3
And she had nothing to lap ’em in,
But she had a penknife sharp and keen.
4
. . . . . . . .
There she stabbed them right through the heart.
5
She wiped the penknife in the sludge;
The more she wiped it, the more the blood showed.
6
As she was walking in her own father’s park,
She saw two pretty babes playing with a ball.
7
‘Pretty babes, pretty babes, if you were mine,
I’d dress you up in silks so fine.’
8
‘Dear mother, dear mother, [when we were thine,]
You dressed us not in silks so fine.
9
‘Here we go to the heavens so high,
You’ll go to bad when you do die.’
219 b, 504 a, II, 500 a. (M at this last place should
be O.) Add: P, ‘Die Schäferstochter,’ as sung in the
neighborhood of Köslin, Ulrich Jahn, Volkssagen aus
Pommern u. Rügen, No 393, p. 310 f. (G. L. K.)
A Magyar-Croat ballad of the same tenor as the
German, Kurelac, p. 150, No 451. (W. W.)
P. 228 a. Danish. Another copy of ‘Synderinden ’
in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, VII, 81, No 505.
230 b. Slavic. Sušil, No 3, p. 2, closely resembles
Moravian A; the woman is turned to stone. In a
variant, p. 3, she has had fifty paramours, and again in
a Little-Russian ballad, Golovatsky, I, 235, No 68,
seventy. In this last, after shrift, the sinner is dissipated
in dust. (W. W.)
231. French. Add: Victor Smith, Chants du Velay
et du Forez, Romania IV, 439 (the conversion, p. 438);
Chabaneau, Revue des Langues Romanes, XXIX,
265, 267, 268.
Catalan. ‘Santa Magdalena,’ conversion and penance,
Miscelánea Folk-Lórica, 1887, p. 119, No 8. The
Samaritan Woman, simply, p. 118, No 7.
P. 234 a. ‘Rudisar vísa’ is now No 11 of Hammershaimb’s
Færøsk Anthologi, p. 39. There are two
other copies.
237. ‘Skuin over de groenelands heide,’ Dykstra
en van der Meulen, p. 121, resembles the Breton stories,
but lacks the miracle of the capon.
239. Miracle of the roasted cock. Jesus visits a Jew
on Easter Sunday and reproaches him with not believing
in the resurrection. The Jew replies that Jesus
503having been put to death it was as impossible for him
to come to life again as it would be for a roast chicken
which lies before them. Faith can do anything, says
Jesus. The fowl comes to life and lays eggs; the Jew
has himself baptized. Kostomarof, Monuments of the
older Russian Literature, I, 217. In a note, a Red-Russian
ballad is mentioned which seems to be identical
with Golovatsky, II, 6, No 8. A young Jewess,
who was carrying water, was the first to see Jesus after
his resurrection. She tells her father, as he sits at
meat, that the God of the Russians is risen from the
dead. “If you were not my daughter, I would have
you drowned,” says the father. “The God of the
Russians will not rise again till that capon flies up and
crows.” The capon does both; the Jew is turned to
stone. (W. W.)
Pp. 247–49 a. Danish. Add: ‘Vågestuen,’ in Kristensen’s
Skattegraveren, II, 17, No 17; IV, 17, 115,
Nos 26, 285.
249 b and 506 a. Swedish. Bröms Gyllenmärs’
visbok has been printed in Nyare Bidrag, o. s. v., 1887,
and the ballad of Herr Carl is No 77, p. 252. There
is an imperfect copy in Bergström ock Nordlander, Nyare
Bidrag, p. 102, No 9.
250. ‘Il Genovese’ is given in eight versions, one a
fragment, by Nigra, No 41, p. 257.
250, 506 a, II, 502 a. Bulgarian. Stojan, who
wants to carry off Bojana, does, at his mother’s advice,
everything to bring her within his reach. He builds a
church, digs a well, plants a garden. All the maids
come but her. He then feigns death; she comes with
flowers and mourns over him; he seizes her; the priest
blesses their union. Miladinof, p. 294, No 185. An
old woman, in a like case, advises a young man to
feign death, and brings Bojana to see the body.
“Why,” asks Bojana, “do his eyes look as if they had
sight, his arms as if they would lay hold of me, his feet
as if ready to jump up?” “That is because he died
so suddenly,” says the beldam. The youth springs up
and embraces Bojana. Verković, p. 334, No 304. A
Magyar-Croat version begins like this last, but has suffered
corruption: Kurelac, p. 148, No. 447. (W. W.)
P. 256. The first paragraph was occasioned by a
misprint in Motherwell (corrected at p. cv of his Introduction),
and may be dropped. In Pitcairn’s MS. it is
noted that this fragment was obtained from Mrs Gammell.
Pp. 268 ff., 507, II, 502.
On going to war a king gives each of his two daughters
a rose. “Si vous tombez en faute, quoi que ce soit,”
says he, “vos roses flétriront.” Both princesses yield
to the solicitations of their lovers, so that the king, on
returning, finds both roses withered, and is grieved
thereat. Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays Basque, p. 102.
Wer ein ausgelöschtes Licht wieder anblasen kann
ist noch Jungfrau oder Junggeselle. Wer ein ganz
volles Glas zum Munde führen kann, ohne einen Tropfen
su verschütten, ist Junggeselle. Zingerle, Sitten
der Tiroler, p. 35.
There is a shield in Perceval le Gallois which no
knight can wear with safety in a tournament if he is
not all that a knight should be, and if he has not, also,
“bele amie qui soit loiaus sans trecerie.” Several of
Arthur’s knights try the shield with disastrous results;
Perceval is more fortunate. (See 31805–31, 31865,
32023–48, 32410 ff., Potvin, IV, 45 ff..)
“Vpon the various earth’s embrodered gowne
There is a weed vpon whose head growes downe;
Sow-thistle ’tis ycleepd; whose downy wreath
If any one can blow off at a breath,
We deeme her for a maid.”
(William Browne, Britannia’s Pastorals, Book I, Song 4, Works, ed. Hazlitt, p. 103.)
Eodem auxilii genere, Tucciae virginis Vestalis, incesti
criminis reae, castitas infamiae nube obscurata emersit.
Quae conscientia certae sinceritatis suae spem salutis
ancipiti argumento ausa petere est. Arrepto enim
cribro, ‘Vesta,’ inquit, ‘si sacris tuis castas semper
admovi manus, effice ut hoc hauriam e Tiberi aquam
et in aedem tuam perferam.’ Audaciter et temere
iactis votis sacerdotis rerum ipsa natura cessit. Valerius
Maximus, viii, 1, 5. Cf. also Pliny, Hist. Nat.,
xxviii, 2 (3), and the commentators.
There was a (qualified) test of priestesses of Ge at
Æegæ by drinking bull’s blood, according to Pausanias,
VIII, xxv, 8; cited by H. C. Lea, Superstition
and Force, 3d ed., 1878, p. 236 f. (All the above by
G. L. K.)
A spring in Apollonius Heinrichs von Neustadt blackens
the hand of the more serious offender, but in a
milder case only the ring-finger, “der die geringste
Befleckung nicht erträgt.” W. Grimm’s Kleinere
Schriften, III, 446. (C. R. Lanman.)
P. 274. That this ballad is a traditional variation of
Charlemagne’s Journey to Jerusalem and Constantinople,
was, I am convinced, too hastily said. See M.
Gaston Paris’s remarks at p. 110 f. of his paper, Les
romans en vers du cycle de la Table Ronde (Extrait du
tome xxx de l’Histoire Littéraire de la France). The
king who thinks himself the best king in the world,
etc., occurs (it is Arthur) also in the romance of Rigomer:
the same, p. 92.
504
P. 307 b. Add ‘Linden,’ Kristensen’s Skattegraveren,
V, 50, No 455.
A princess in the form of a toad is kissed three times
and so disenchanted: Revue des Traditions populaires,
III, 475–6. A princess in the form of a black
wolf must be kissed thrice to be disenchanted: Vernaleken,
Alpensagen, p. 123. A princess persuades a
man to attempt her release from enchantment. Three
successive kisses are necessary. On the first occasion
she appears as a serpent; he can kiss her but once.
The second attempt is also unsuccessful; she appears
as a salamander and is kissed twice. The third time
she takes the form of a toad, and the three kisses are
happily given. Luzel, in the Annuaire de la Soc. des
Traditions populaires, II, 53. (G. L. K.)
P. 314 a. Hill-maid’s promises. Add: ‘Bjærgjomfruens
frieri,’ Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 100, No
460.
P. 319 b, last paragraph. In a Breton story, ‘La
Fleur du Rocher,’ Sébillot, Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne,
II, 31, Jean Cate addresses the fairy, when
he first sees her, as the Virgin Mary. (G. L. K.)
P. 335. Mr Macmath has found an earlier transcript
of B in Glenriddel’s MSS, VIII, 106, 1789. The variations
(except those of spelling, which are numerous)
are as follows:
12. that wears.
13. go.
33. has snoded.
35. is gaen.
51. had not.
63. comes.
72. give.
82,4, 162,4, 352,4. above.
111. Out then: gray-head.
113. And ever alas, fair Janet, he says.
133. fair Janet.
134. thow gaes.
141. If I.
143. Ther’e not.
144, 344. bairns.
154. ye nae, wrongly.
165. she is on.
192. groves green.
201. Thomas.
202. for his.
203. Whether ever.
223. from the.
224. Then from.
233. The Queen o Fairies has.
234. do dwell.
236. Fiend, wrongly.
241. is a Hallow-een.
243. And them.
253. Amongst.
271. ride on.
276. gave.
304. wardly.
313. Hald me.
342. then in.
374. And there.
383. Them that hes.
384. Has.
403,4. eyes.
411. I kend.
413. I’d.
J.
‘The Queen of the Fairies,’ Macmath MS., p. 57.
“Taken down by me 14th October, 1886, from the recitation
of Mr Alexander Kirk, Inspector of Poor, Dalry,
in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, who learned it about
fifty years ago from the singing of David Ray, Barlay,
Balmaclellan.”
This copy has been considerably made over, and was
very likely learned from print. The cane in the maid’s
hand, already sufficiently occupied, either with the
Bible or with holy water, is an imbecility such as only
the “makers” of latter days are capable of. (There
is a cane in another ballad which I cannot at this moment
recall.)
1
The maid that sits in Katherine’s Hall,
Clad in her robes so black,
She has to yon garden gone,
For flowers to flower her hat.
2
She had not pulled the red, red rose,
A double rose but three,
When up there starts a gentleman,
Just at this lady’s knee.
3
Says, Who’s this pulls the red, red rose?
Breaks branches off the tree?
Or who’s this treads my garden-grass,
Without the leave of me?
4
‘Yes, I will pull the red, red rose,
Break branches off the tree,
This garden in Moorcartney wood,
Without the leave o thee.’
5
He took her by the milk-white hand
And gently laid her down,
Just in below some shady trees
Where the green leaves hung down.
6
‘Come tell to me, kind sir,’ she said,
‘What before you never told;
Are you an earthly man?’ said she,
‘A knight or a baron bold?’
7
‘I’ll tell to you, fair lady,’ he said,
‘What before I neer did tell;
I’m Earl Douglas’s second son,
With the queen of the fairies I dwell.
8
‘When riding through yon forest-wood,
And by yon grass-green well,
A sudden sleep me overtook,
And off my steed I fell.
9
‘The queen of the fairies, being there,
Made me with her to dwell,
And still once in the seven years
We pay a teind to hell.
10
‘And because I am an earthly man,
Myself doth greatly fear,
505For the cleverest man in all our train
To Pluto must go this year.
11
‘This night is Halloween, lady,
And the fairies they will ride;
The maid that will her true-love win
At Miles Cross she may bide.’
12
‘But how shall I thee ken, though, sir?
Or how shall I thee know,
Amang a pack o hellish wraiths,
Before I never saw?’
13
‘Some rides upon a black horse, lady,
And some upon a brown,
But I myself on a milk-white steed,
And I aye nearest the toun.
14
‘My right hand shall be covered, lady,
My left hand shall be bare,
And that’s a token good enough
That you will find me there.
15
‘Take the Bible in your right hand,
With God for to be your guide,
Take holy water in thy left hand,
And throw it on every side.’
16
She’s taen her mantle her about,
A cane into her hand,
And she has unto Miles Cross gone,
As hard as she can gang.
17
First she has letten the black pass by,
And then she has letten the brown,
But she’s taen a fast hold o the milk-white steed,
And she’s pulled Earl Thomas doun.
18
The queen of the fairies being there,
Sae loud she’s letten a cry,
‘The maid that sits in Katherine’s Hall
This night has gotten her prey.
19
‘But hadst thou waited, fair lady,
Till about this time the morn,
He would hae been as far from thee or me
As the wind that blew when he was born.’
20
They turned him in this lady’s arms
Like the adder and the snake;
She held him fast; why should she not?
Though her poor heart was like to break.
21
They turned him in this lady’s arms
Like two red gads of airn;
She held him fast; why should she not?
She knew they could do her no harm.
22
They turned him in this lady’s arms
Like to all things that was vile;
She held him fast; why should she not?
The father of her child.
23
They turned him in this lady’s arms
Like to a naked knight;
She’s taen him hame to her ain bower,
And clothed him in armour bright.
338 a, 507, II, 505 b.
A king transformed into a nightingale being plunged
three times into water resumes his shape: Vernaleken,
K.-u. H. Märchen, No 15, p. 79. In Guillaume de
Palerne, ed. Michelant, v. 7770 ff., pp. 225, 226, the
queen who changes the werewolf back into a man takes
care that he shall have a warm bath as soon as the
transformation is over; but this may be merely the
bath preliminary to his being dubbed knight (as in Li
Chevaliers as Deus Espees, ed. Förster, vv. 1547–49,
p. 50, and L’Ordene de Chevalerie, vv. 111–124, Barbazan-Méon,
I, 63, 64). A fairy maiden is turned into
a wooden statue. This is burned and the ashes thrown
into a pond, whence she immediately emerges in her
proper shape. She is next doomed to take the form of
a snake. Her lover, acting under advice, cuts up a
good part of the snake into little bits, and throws these
into a pond. She emerges again. J. H. Knowles,
Folk-Tales of Kashmir, p. 468 ff.. (G. L. K.)
339 b, II, 505 b.
Fairy salve and indiscreet users of it. See also Sébillot,
Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, II, 41, 42, cf.
I, 122–3; the same, Traditions et Superstitions de la
Haute-Bretagne, I, 89, 109; the same, Litt. orale de la
Haute-B., pp. 19–23, 24–27, and note; Mrs Bray, Traditions
of Devonshire, 1838, I, 184–188, I, 175 ff. of the
new ed. called The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy;
“Lageniensis” [J. O’Hanlon], Irish Folk-Lore, Glasgow,
n. d., pp. 48–49. In a Breton story a fairy gives
a one-eyed woman an eye of crystal, warning her not to
speak of what she may see with it. Disregarding this
injunction, the woman is deprived of the gift. Sébillot,
Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, II, 24–25.
(G. L. K.)
340. The danger of lying under trees at noon. “Is
not this connected with the belief in a δαιμονιόν μεσημβρινόν
(LXX, Psalm xci, 6)? as to which see Rochholz,
Deutscher Unsterblichkeitsglaube, pp. 62 ff., 67 ff., and
cf. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, pp. 1092–3.” Kittredge,
Sir Orfeo, in the American Journal of Philology, VII,
190, where also there is something about the dangerous
character of orchards. Of processions of fairy knights,
see p. 189 of the same.
Tam o Lin. Add: Tom a Lin, Robert Mylne’s MS.
Collection of Scots Poems, Part I, 8, 1707. (W. Macmath.)
P. 358 f., II, 505 b.
Mortal women as midwives to fairies, elves, water-sprites,
506etc. Further examples are: Sébillot, Littérature
orale de la Haute-Bretagne, pp. 19–23; the same,
Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 89,
109; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays Basque, pp. 40, 41;
Meier, Deutsche Sagen, u. s. w., aus Schwaben, pp.
16–18, 59, 62; Mrs Bray, Traditions of Devonshire,
1838, I, 184–188 (in the new ed., which is called The
Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy, I, 174 ff.); “Lageniensis”
[J. O’Hanlon], Irish Folk Lore, Glasgow,
n. d., pp. 48, 49; U. Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern
und Rügen, pp. 50, 72; Vonbun, Die Sagen Vorarlbergs,
p. 16, cf. p. 6; Vernaleken, Alpensagen, p. 183.—Mortal
woman as nurse for fairy child. Sébillot,
Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 121.
(G. L. K.)
P. 361 f. Danish. Add: ‘Jomfruen og dværgen,’
Kristensen, Skattegraveren, III, 98, No 393. A fragment
of four stanzas, IV, 193, No 570.
364. Danish. Add: ‘Angenede og havmanden,’
Kristensen, Skattegraveren, III, 17, No 34.
P. 379 a, II, 506. Breton F is now printed entire
(twenty-one stanzas instead of eleven) by Gaidoz, in
Mélusine, IV, 301 ff. (The language appears to be
Cornish.)
380, II, 506. A is printed by Rolland, III, 39; P,
Q, ib., p. 41, p. 37; T, ib., p. 32, and in Revue des
Traditions pop., I, 33; X, by Rolland, III, 45; GG,
in Revue des T. p., III, 195. The five stanzas in
Poés. pop. de la F., MS., VI, 491 (MM), by Rolland,
III, 36.
Add: NN, 38 verses, without indication of place, by
C. de Sivry in Rev. des T. p., II, 24; OO, ‘Le roi
Léouis,’ Haute-Bretagne, 60 verses, P. Sébillot, in the
same, III, 196.
A Basque version, with a translation, in Rev. des
Trad. pop., III, 198.
382 a. Italian.C-F, H-K now in Nigra’s collection,
‘Morte Occulta,’ A-G, No 21, p. 142, in a different
order. C, D, E, F, H, I, K are in Nigra now A, C, D,
E, G, F, B. The fragment spoken of p. 383 b is now
Nigra’s No 22, p. 149, ‘Mal ferito.’ The tale which
follows this is given p. 148 f.
384 a. There are two good Asturian versions in
Pidal, ‘Doña Alda,’ Nos 46, 47, pp. 181, 183. The
editor mentions a copy in the second number of Folk-Lore
Betico-Extremeño, much injured by tradition,
which is more like the Catalan than the Asturian versions.
P. 392 b. Sleep-thorns.
Sleep-thorns, or something similar, occur in the West
Highland tales. In a story partly reported by Campbell,
I, xci, “the sister put gath nimh, a poisonous sting
or thorn, into the bed, and the prince was as though
he were dead for three days, and he was buried. But
Knowledge told the other two dogs what to do, and they
scraped up the prince and took out the thorn, and he
came alive again and went home.” So in “The Widow’s
Son,” Campbell, II, 296: “On the morrow he went,
but the carlin stuck a bior nimh, spike of hurt, in
the outside of the door post, and when he came to the
church he fell asleep.” In another version of The
Widow’s Son, II, 297, a “big pin” serves as the
“spike of hurt.” Cf. the needle in Haltrich, Deutsche
Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen,
3d ed., p. 141, No 32. (G. L. K.)
393. Italian ballad. Add: Righi, p. 33, No 96;
Nigra, No 77, p. 393, ‘La Bevanda sonnifera,’ A-H;
Giannini, ‘Il Cavaliere ingannato,’ p. 157; Ferrari,
Biblioteca di Lett. pop. italiana, I, 218, ‘La bella Brunetta;’
Finamore, in Archivio, I, 89, La Fandell’ e lu
Cavaljiere (mixed); Nerucci, in Archivio, II, 524, ‘La
Ragazza Fantina;’ Julia, in Archivio, VI, 244, ‘La
‘nfantina e lu Cavalieri;’ Rondini, in Archivio, VII,
189.
Ricordi, Canti p. Lombardi, No 9, ‘La Moraschina,’
gives the first half of the story, with a slight alteration
for propriety’s sake.
P. 400 a, II, 506 b. E, F, partly, in Revue des Traditions
populaires, I, 104 f. (Q was previously cited as
J.) Q. ‘Les Transformations,’ Avenay, Marne, Gaston
Paris, in Rev. des Trad. pop., I, 98; R, Haute-Bretagne,
Sébillot, the same, p. 100; S, Le Morvan, Tiersot,
p. 102; T, Tarn-et-Garonne, the same, II, 208.
U. ‘Les Métamorphoses,’ Finistère, Rolland, IV, 32, c;
V, environs de Brest, the same, p. 33, d. E is printed
by Rolland, IV, 30, b.
Italian. A ballad in Nigra, No 59, p. 329, ‘Amore
inevitabile.’
401 a. Vuk, I, No 602, is translated in Bowring’s
Servian Popular Poetry, p. 195.
In a Magyar-Croat ballad the lover advises the maid,
who has been chidden by her mother on his account, if
her mother repeats the scolding, to turn herself into a
fish, then he will be a fisherman, etc. Kurelac, p. 309,
XV, 2. (W. W.)
401 b, last two paragraphs.
Other specimens of the first kind (not in Köhler’s
note to Gonzenbach, II, 214) are:
Luzel, Annuaire de la Société des Traditions populaires,
II, 56; Baissac, Folk-Lore de l’Île Maurice, p.
88 ff.; Wigström, Sagor ock Äfventyr uppt. i Skåne,
p. 37; Luzel, Revue des Traditions populaires, I, 287,
288; Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, II, 13, 41 ff.,
cf. 64–66; Vernaleken, Kinder- u. Hausmärchen, No
49, p. 277; Bladé, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, II,
26–36; Carnoy, Contes populaires picards, Romania,
VIII, 227. Cf. also Ortoli, Contes pop. de l’Île de
507Corse, pp. 27–29, and Cosquin’s notes (which do not
cite any of the above-mentioned places), Contes pop. de
Lorraine, I, 105 ff.
Other specimens of the second kind:
Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, II, 92–95, and
note; Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem
Sachsenlande, u. s. w., 3d ed., 1882, No 14, p. 52 f..
(G. L. K.)
402 a, last paragraph. “The pursuit in various
forms by the witch lady has an exact counterpart in a
story of which I have many versions and which I had
intended to give if I had room. It is called ‘The
Fuller’s Son,’ ‘The Cotter’s Son,’ and other names, and
it bears a strong resemblance to the end of the Norse
tale of ‘Farmer Weathersky.’” Campbell, Pop. Tales
of the West Highlands, IV, 297. (G. L. K.)
P. 415, note [391]. A version from Scotland has been
printed in the Folk-Lore Journal, III, 272, ‘I had six
lovers over the sea.’ (G. L. K.)
The one stake with no head on it occurs also in Wolfdietrich
B. The heathen, whom Wolfdietrich afterwards
overcomes at knife-throwing, threatens him thus:
“Sihstu dort an den zinnen fünf hundert houbet stân,
Diu ich mit mînen henden alle verderbet hân?
Noch stât ein zinne lære an mînem türnlîn:
Dâ muoz dîn werdez houbet ze einem phande sîn.”
(St. 595, Jänicke, Deutsches Heldenbuch, III, 256.)
Two cases in Campbell’s Pop. T. of the West Highlands.
“Many a leech has come, said the porter.
There is not a spike on the town without a leech’s head
but one, and may be it is for thy head that one is.”
(The Ceabharnach, I, 312.) Conall “saw the very
finest castle that ever was seen from the beginning of
the universe till the end of eternity, and a great wall
at the back of the fortress, and iron spikes within a
foot of each other, about and around it; and a man’s
head upon every spike but the one spike. Fear struck
him and he fell a-shaking. He thought that it was
his own head that would go on the headless spike.”
(The Story of Conall Gulban, III, 202.) In Crestien’s
Erec et Enide, Erec overcomes a knight in an
orchard. There are many stakes crowned with heads,
but one stake is empty. Erec is informed that this is
for his head, and that it is customary thus to keep a
stake waiting for a new-comer, a fresh one being set up
as often as a head is taken. Ed. by Bekker in Haupt’s
Ztschr., X, 520, 521, vv. 5732–66. (G. L. K.)
P. 435. There is a copy in Nimmo, Songs and Ballads
of Clydesdale, p. 131, made from D, E, with half
a dozen lines for connection.
437 b. It is E (not A) that is translated by Grundtvig;
and D by Afzelius, Grimm, Talvj, Rosa Warrens.
436 f. In one of the older Croat ballads Marko
Kraljević and his brother Andrija, who have made
booty of three horses, quarrel about the third when
they come to dividing, and Marko fells Andrija with a
stab. Andrija charges Marko not to tell their mother
what took place, but to say that he is not coming home,
because he has become enamored of a girl in a foreign
country. Bogišić p. 18, No 6. There is a Magyar-Croat
variant of this, in which two brothers returning from
war fall out about a girl, and the older (who, by the
way, is a married man) stabs the younger. The dying
brother wishes the mother to be told that he has staid
behind to buy presents for her and his sisters. The
mother asks when her son will come home. The elder
brother answers, When a crow turns white and a withered
maple greens. The (simple) mother gets a crow
and bathes it daily in milk, and irrigates the tree with
wine; but in vain. Other Slavic examples of these
hopeless eventualities: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I,
74, No 30, 97, No 7, 164, No 12, 173, No 23, 229, No
59; II, 41, No 61, 585, No 18, 592, No 27; III, 12,
No 9, 136, No 256, 212, No 78; Bohemian, Erben, p.
182, No 340; Polish, Roger, p. 3, No 2; Servian, Vuk,
I, No 364, Herzegovine, p. 209, No 176, p. 322, No
332; Bulgarian, Verković, No 226; Dozon, p. 95; Magyar-Croat,
Kurelac, p. 11, No 61, p. 130, No 430, p.
156, No 457 (and note), p. 157, No 459, p. 244, No
557. (W. W.)
P. 454. The modern street or broadside ballad L
(see II, 508) is given from singing by Miss Burne,
Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 547.
459 b. The Färöe ballad (of which there are four
copies) is printed in Hammershaimb’s Færøsk Anthologi,
p. 260, No 33, ‘Harra Pætur og Elinborg.’
462 a. ‘Gerineldo,’ also in Pidal, Asturian Romances,
p. 90 f.
462 a, b. ‘Moran d’ Inghilterra,’ with a second version,
in Nigra, No 42, p. 263.
55. The Carnal and the Crane.
P. 7 f., 510 a. Legend of the Sower. Catalan (with
the partridge), Miscelánea Folk-Lórica, 1887, p. 115,
No 6.
Moravian, Sušil, p. 19, No 16; Little-Russian, Golovatsky,
II, 9, No 13. (W. W.)
P. 10 b. ‘Il ricco Epulone,’ Nigra, No 159, p. 543,
with Jesus and the Madonna for Lazarus.
508Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 737, No 5; III, 263,
No 1, and 267, No 2. Lazarus and the rich man are
represented as brothers. (W. W.)
P. 13 b, 5th line. A is not a manuscript of the ‘fifteenth’
century, but of the date 1590 or 1591. (Note
of Mr Axel Olrik.)
Pp. 37–43. The first adventure of the fragmentary
romance of Joufrois affords this story. Count Richard
of Poitiers has a son Joufrois. The boy begs his
father to send him to the English court, that King
Henry may knight him. The English king receives
him well, but he remains a vaslet for some time. The
seneschal of the court endeavors to win the queen’s
amisté, but fails. He tells the king that he has seen the
queen in bed with a kitchen-boy, and Henry swears
that she shall hang or burn. The vaslet Joufrois offers
to prove the seneschal a liar, and begs to be knighted
for that purpose. Everybody thinks him mad to undertake
battle with the seneschal, who is an unmatched
man-at-arms: li biaus vaslet estoit enfens. The fight
takes place at Winchester. Joufrois’ sword is broken,
but he picks up a piece of a huge lance and disables
his adversary with a blow on the arm. Joufrois then
threatens to cut off the felon’s head if he does not retract,
and as the seneschal prefers death to eating his
words, this is done. Joufrois, Altfranzösisches Rittergedicht,
ed. Hofmann und Muncker, vv. 91–631, pp. 3–18.
(G. L. K.)
Pp. 51, 510 b. Mr Kittredge has noted for me some
twenty other cases in metrical romances of knights riding
into hall.
Aiol’s steed is stabled in the hall, Aiol et Mirabel,
ed. Förster, vv. 1758–61, p. 51. So Gawain’s horse in
the ‘Chevalier à l’Espée,’ vv. 224–236, Méon, Nouveau
Recueil, I, 134. Cf. ‘Perceval le Gallois,’ ed.
Potvin, II, 255 ff., vv. 16803–42. In ‘Richars li Biaus,’
the hero evidently has his horse with him while at dinner
in the hall of the robber-castle: ed. Förster, v. 3396,
p. 93; cf. the editor’s note, p. 182. In ‘Perceval le
Gallois,’ a knight takes his horse with him into a bedchamber
and ties him to a bed-post: ed. Potvin, III,
34, v. 21169 f.. Cf. Elie de Saint Gille, ed. Förster,
pp. 377, 379, 380, vv. 2050–55, 2105, 2129–42. (G. L. K.)
P. 56 b. Amadas, while watching at the tomb of
Ydoine, has a terrific combat with a highly mysterious
stranger knight, whom he vanquishes. The stranger
then informs Amadas that Ydoine is not really dead,
etc., etc. He gives sufficient evidence of his elritch
character, and the author clinches the matter by speaking
of him as “the maufé” (v. 6709). Amadas et
Ydoine, ed. Hippeau, vv. 5465 ff., p. 189 ff.. (G. L. K.)
60. Stanzas 42 ff.. It might have been remarked that
this feat of tearing out a lion’s heart belongs to King
Richard (see Weber’s Romances, II, 44), hence, according
to the romance, named Cœur de Lion, and that
it has also been assigned to an humbler hero, in a well-known
broadside ballad, ‘The Honour of a London
Prentice,’ Old Ballads, 1723, I, 199 (where there are
two lions for one).
P. 83. Italian. ‘Ambrogio e Lietta,’ Nigra, No
35, p. 201. The Piedmontese ballad, though incomplete,
has the rough behavior of the man to the woman, the
crossing of the water, the castle and the mother, the
stable, and twins brought forth in a manger.
84 b. Danish. ‘Hr. Peders stalddreng,’ Kristensen,
Skattegraveren, I, 121, No 441; ‘Liden Kirsten
som stalddreng,’ V, 98, No 645.
‘Hr. Grönnevold,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VII,
49, No 177, is an imperfect copy of the second sort of
Scandinavian ballads.
P. 103, note. ‘La Fidanzata Infedele’ is now No
34 of Nigra’s collection. See above the addition to No
5, I, 65 b.
P. 113 a, last paragraph. Burning, etc. See Amis
e Amiloun (the French text), v. 364, p. 134, ed. Kölbing;
Elie de St Gille, ed. Förster, vv. 2163–69, p. 381.
Amadis de Gaule, Nicolas de Herberay, Anvers, 1573,
I, 8 f., book 1, chap. 2, maid or wife; but Venice, 1552,
I, 6 b, and Gayangos, Libros de Caballerias, p. 4, wife.
(G. L. K.)
113 b. Only certain copies, and those perverted, of
Grundtvig Nos 108, 109 have the punishment of burning
for simple incontinence. This is rather the penalty
for incest: cf. Syv, No 16,==Kristensen, I, No 70, II,
No 49,==Grundtvig, No 292, and many other ballads.
(Note of Mr Axel Olrik.)
Note §. ‘Galanzuca,’ ‘Galancina,’ Pidal, Asturian
Romance, Nos 6, 7, pp. 92, 94, belong here. They
have much of the story of ‘Lady Maisry,’ with a happy
ending.
P. 127 a, 9th line of the second paragraph. A copy
of ‘Fru Margaretha’ in Harald Oluffsons Visbok. Nyare
Bidrag, o. s. v., p. 36, No 16, stanzas 21, 22.
509127 b, 511 b. In a Breton ballad, Mélusine, III, 350 f.,
a priest jumps a table, at the cry of his sister, who is
in a desperate extremity.
But the greatest achievements in this way are in
Slavic ballads. A bride, on learning of her bridegroom’s
death, jumps over four tables and lights on the
fifth, rushes to her chamber and stabs herself: Moravian,
Sušil, p. 83. According to a variant, p. 84, note,
she jumps over nine. A repentant husband who had
projected the death of his wife, on hearing that she
is still living, leaps nine tables without touching the
glasses on them: Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 184, No
479. (W. W.)
Mr Kittredge has given me many cases from romances.
127 b, note. Sword reduced to a straw: add Nigra,
No 113, etc. ‘Gerineldo:’ add Pidal, Asturian Romances,
Nos 3, 4, 5.
P. 137 b. ‘Poter del Canto’ is now No 47, p. 284, of
Nigra’s collection.
P. 142. A copy in A. Nimmo’s Songs and Ballads
of Clydesdale, ‘Young Hyndford,’ p. 155, is made up
(with changes) from Scott, Kinloch, Buchan, Motherwell
and Herd, E, J, B, K, F, G.
143, 512 a. Discovery of drowned bodies. See
Revue des Traditions populaires, I, 56; Mélusine, III,
141.
P. 157. There are four copies of the Färöe ‘Faðir og
dóttir,’ and Hammershaimb has printed a second (with
but slight variations) in his Færøsk Anthologi: p. 253,
No 31.
158. Spanish. Add: ‘La Esposa infiel,’ Pidal, Asturian
Romances, No 33, p. 154.
P. 170. Nine versions of ‘Jomfruens Brødre’ in Kristensen’s
Skattegraveren, II, 145 ff., Nos 717–23, V, 81
ff., Nos 633, 634.
Pp. 174, 512. Add to the French ballads one from
Carcassonne, first published in a newspaper of that
place, Le Bon Sens, August 10, 1878, and reprinted in
Mélusine, II, 212. The occurrence which gave rise to
the ballad is narrated by Nigra, C. p. del Piemonte, p.
54 f., after Mary Lafon, and the Italian version is No 4
of that collection, ‘Gli Scolari di Tolosa.’ The ballad
is originally French, the scene Toulouse.
P. 179 f. D. The Roxburghe copy of ‘Lord Thomas
and Fair Eleanor,’ III, 554, is printed by Mr J. W.
Ebsworth in the Ballad Society’s edition of the Roxburghe
Ballads, VI, 647. (Mr Ebsworth notes that the
broadside occurs in the Bagford Ballads, II, 127;
Douce, I, 120 v., III, 58 v., IV, 36; Ouvry, II, 38;
Jersey, III, 88.) ‘The Unfortunate Forrester,’ Roxburghe,
II, 553, is printed at p. 645 of the same volume.
A copy from singing is given (with omissions)
in Miss Burne’s Shropshire Folk-Lore, 1883–86, p.
545; another, originally from recitation, in Mr G. R.
Tomson’s Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888, p. 82.
Both came, traditionally, from print. Still another,
from the singing of a Virginian nurse-maid (helped out
by her mother), was communicated by Mr W. H. Babcock
to the Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 33, 1889, and
may be repeated here, both because it is American and
also because of its amusing perversions.
THE BROWN GIRL
1
‘O mother, O mother, come read this to me,
And regulate all as one,
Whether I shall wed fair Ellinter or no,
Or fetch you the brown girl home.’
2
‘Fair Ellinter she has houses and wealth,
The brown girl she has none;
But before I am charged with that blessing,
Go fetch me the brown girl home.’
3
He dressed himself in skylight green,
His groomsmen all in red;
And every town as he rode through
They took him to be some king.
4
He rode and he rode until he came to fair Ellinter’s door;
He knocked so loud at the ring;
There was none so ready as fair Ellinter herself
To rise and let him in.
5
‘O what is the news, Lord Thomas?’ she said,
‘O what is the news to thee?’
‘I’ve come to invite you to my wedding,
And that is bad news to thee.’
6
‘God forbid, Lord Thomas,’ she said,
‘That any such thing should be!
For I should have been the bride myself,
And you should the bridegroom be.
7
‘O mother, O mother, come read this to me,
And regulate all as one,
Whether I shall go to Lord Thomas’ wed,
Or stay with you at home.’
5108
‘Here you have one thousand friends,
Where there you would but one;
So I will invite you, with my blessing,
To stay with me at home.’
9
But she dressed herself in skylight red,
Her waiting-maids all in green,
And every town as she rode through
They took her to be some queen.
10
She rode and she rode till she came to Lord Thomas’s door;
She knocked so loud at the ring;
There was none so ready as Lord Thomas himself
To rise and let her in.
11
He took her by her lily-white hand,
He led her across the hall;
Sing, ‘Here are five and twenty gay maids,
She is the flower of you all.’
12
He took her by her lily-white hand,
He led her across the hall,
He sat her down in a big arm-chair,
And kissed her before them all.
13
The wedding was gotten, the table was set,
. . . . . . .
The first to sit down was Lord Thomas himself,
His bride, fair Ellinter, by his side.
14
‘Is this your bride, Lord Thomas?’ she said;
‘If this is your bride, Lord Thomas, she looks most wonderfully dark,
When you could have gotten a fairer
As ever the sun shone on.’
15
‘O don’t you despise her,’ Lord Thomas said he,
‘O don’t you despise her to me;
Yes, I like the end of your little finger
Better than her whole body.’
16
The brown girl, having a little penknife,
And being both keen and sharp,
Right between the long and short ribs,
She pierced poor Ellinter’s heart.
17
‘O what is the matter, fair Ellinter,’ said he,
‘That you look so very dark,
When your cheeks used to have been so red and rosy
As ever the sun shined on?’
18
‘Are you blind, or don’t you see,
My heart-blood come trickling down to my knee?’
31,2. green and red should be interchanged: cf. 9.
13, 14. Rearranged.
151. said she.
181. Add to the French ballads, ‘La Délaissée,’ V.
Smith, Romania, VII, 82; Legrand, Romania, X, 386,
No 32; ‘La triste Noce,’ Thiriat, Mélusine, I, 189; and
to the Italian ballad, Nigra, No 20, p. 139, ‘Danze e
Funerali.’
P. 205 b. Other copies of ‘Den elskedes Død’
(‘Kjærestens Død’), Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VII,
1, 2, Nos 1, 2; Bergström ock Nordlander, in Nyare
Bidrag, o. s. v., pp. 92, 100; and ‘Olof Adelen,’ p. 98,
may be added, in which a linden grows from the common
grave, with two boughs which embrace.
Note. With the Scandinavian-German ballads belongs
‘Greven og lille Lise,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
V, 20, No 14.
206, 512 b. To the southern ballads which have a
partial resemblance may be added: French, Beaurepaire,
p. 52, Combes, Chants p. du Pays castrais, p.
139, Arbaud, I, 117, Victor Smith, Romania, VII, 83,
No. 32; Italian, Nigra, ‘La Sposa morta,’ No 17, p.
120 ff. (especially D).
215. I ought not to have omitted the σήματα by which
Ulysses convinces Penelope, Odyssey, xxiii, 181–208;
to which might be added those which convince Laertes,
xxiv, 328 ff. See also the romance of Don Bueso, Duran,
I, lxv:
¿Qué señas me dabas
Por ser conocida? et cét.
II, 213. There is a version of this ballad in the Roxburghe
collection, III, 488, a folio slip without imprint,
dated in the Museum Catalogue 1740. I was not aware
of the existence of this copy till it was printed by Mr
Ebsworth in the Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 609. He puts
the date of issue circa 1765. It is here given from the
original. Compare H.
THE LASS OF OCRAM
1
I built my love a gallant ship,
And a ship of Northern fame,
And such a ship as I did build,
Sure there never was seen.
2
For her sides were of the beaten gold,
And the doors were of block-tin,
And sure such a ship as I built
There sure never was seen.
3
And as she was a sailing,
By herself all alone,
She spied a proud merchant-man,
Come plowing oer the main.
5114
‘Thou fairest of all creatures
Under the heavens,’ said she,
‘I am the Lass of Ocram,
Seeking for Lord Gregory.’
5
‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,
As I take you for to be,
You must go to yonder island,
There Lord Gregory you’ll see.’
6
‘It rains upon my yellow locks,
And the dew falls on my skin;
Open the gates, Lord Gregory,
And let your true-love in!’
7
‘If you’re the Lass of Ocram,
As I take you not to be,
You must mention the three tokens
Which passd between you and me.’
8
‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,
One night on my father’s hill,
With you I swaft my linen fine?
It was sore against my will.
9
‘For mine was of the Holland fine,
And yours but Scotch cloth;
For mine cost a guinea a yard,
And yours but five groats.’
10
‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,
As I think you not to be,
You must mention the second token
That passd between you and me.’
11
‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,
One night in my father’s park,
We swaffed our two rings?
It was all in the dark.
12
‘For mine was of the beaten gold,
And yours was of block-tin;
And mine was true love without,
And yours all false within.’
13
‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,
As I take you not to be,
You must mention the third token
Which past between you and me.’
14
‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,
One night in my father’s hall,
Where you stole my maidenhead?
Which was the worst of all.’
15
‘Begone, you base creature!
Begone from out of the hall!
Or else in the deep seas
You and your babe shall fall.’
16
‘Then who will shoe my bonny feet?
And who will close my hands?
And who will lace my waste so small,
Into a landen span?
17
‘And who will comb my yellow locks,
With a brown berry comb?
And who’s to be father of my child
If Lord Gregory is none?’
18
‘Let your brother shoe your bonny feet,
Let your sister close your hands,
Let your mother lace your waist so small,
Into a landen span.
19
‘Let your father comb your yellow locks,
With a brown berry comb,
And let God be father of your child,
For Lord Gregory is none.’
20
‘I dreamt a dream, dear mother,
I could wish to have it read;
I saw the Lass of Ocram
A floating on the flood.’
21
‘Lie still, my dearest son,
And take thy sweet rest;
It is not half an hour ago,
The maid passd this place.’
22
‘Ah! cursed be you, mother!
And cursed may you be,
That you did not awake me,
When the maid passd this way!
23
‘I will go down into some silent grove,
My sad moan for to make;
It is for the Lass of Ocram
My poor heart now will break.’
(41. Perhaps the reading was: The fairest, etc.)
Mr W. H. Babcock has printed a little ballad as
sung in Virginia, in which are two stanzas that belong
to ‘The Lass of Roch Royal:’ The Folk-Lore
Journal, VII, 31.
‘Come along, come along, my pretty little miss,
Come along, come along,’ said he,
‘And seat yourself by me.’
512‘Neither will I come, and neither sit down,
For I have not a moment’s time;
For I heard that you had a new sweetheart,
And your heart is no more mine.’
‘It never was, and it never shall be,
And it never was any such a thing;
For yonder she stands, in her own father’s garden,
The garden of the vine,
Mourning for her own true love,
Just like I’ve mourned for mine.’
I laid my head in a little closet-door,
To hear what my true love had to say,
So that I might know a little of his mind
Before he went away.
I laid my head on the side of his bed,
My arms across his breast;
I made him believe, for the fall of the year,
The sun rose in the west.
‘I’m going away, I’m coming back again,
If it is ten thousand miles;
It’s who will shoe your pretty little feet?
And who will glove your hand?
And who will kiss your red, rosy lips,
While I’m in a foreign land?’
‘My father will shoe my pretty little feet,
My mother glove my hand,
My babe will kiss my red, rosy lips,
While you’re in a foreign land.’
Mr James Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology,
obtained two very similar stanzas in the ‘Carolina
Mountains.’
‘O who will shoe your feet, my dear?
Or who will glove your hands?
Or who will kiss your red rosy cheeks,
When I’m in the foreign lands?’
‘My father will shoe my feet, my dear,
My mother will glove my hands,
And you may kiss my red rosy cheeks
When you come from the foreign lands.’
P. 234.
E
‘In Gipsy Tents,’ by Francis Hindes Groome, 1880, p.
141, as sung by an old woman.
1
‘Cold blows the wind over my true love,
Cold blows the drops of rain;
I never, never had but one sweet-heart,
In the green wood he was slain.
2
‘But I’ll do as much for my true love
As any young girl can do;
I’ll sit and I’ll weep by his grave-side
For a twelvemonth and one day.’
3
When the twelvemonth’s end and one day was past,
This young man he arose:
‘What makes you weep by my grave-side
For twelve months and one day?’
4
‘Only one kiss from your lily cold lips,
One kiss is all I crave;
Only one kiss from your lily cold lips,
And return back to your grave.’
5
‘My lip is cold as the clay, sweet-heart,
My breath is earthly strong;
If you should have a kiss from my cold lip,
Your days will not be long.’
6
‘Go fetch me a note from the dungeon dark,
Cold water from a stone;
There I’ll sit and weep for my true love
For a twelvemonth and one day.
7
‘Go dig me a grave both long, wide and deep;
I will lay down in it and take one sleep,
For a twelvemonth and one day;
I will lay down in it and take a long sleep,
For a twelvemonth and a day.’
F
‘Cold blows the wind,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by
Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1883–86, p. 542; “sung by Jane
Butler, Edgmond, 1870–80.”
‘Cold blows the wind over my true love,
Cold blow the drops of rain;
I never, never had but one true love,
And in Camvile he was slain.
‘I’ll do as much for my true love
As any young girl may;
I’ll sit and weep down by his grave
For twelve months and one day.’
But when twelve months were come and gone,
This young man he arose:
513‘What makes you weep down by my grave?
I can’t take my repose.’
‘One kiss, one kiss, of your lily-white lips,
One kiss is all I crave;
One kiss, one kiss, of your lily-white lips,
And return back to your grave.’
‘My lips they are as cold as my clay,
My breath is heavy and strong;
If thou wast to kiss my lily-white lips,
Thy days would not be long.
‘O don’t you remember the garden-grove
Where we was used to walk?
Pluck the finest flower of them all,
‘Twill wither to a stalk.’
‘Go fetch me a nut from a dungeon deep,
And water from a stone,
And white milk from a maiden’s breast
[That babe bare never none].’
G
From the singing of a wandering minstrel and story-teller
of the parish of Cury, Cornwall. After the last stanza followed
“a stormy kind of duet between the maiden and her
lover’s ghost, who tries to persuade the maid to accompany
him to the world of shadows.” Hunt, Popular Romances
of the West of England, First Series, 1865, p. xvi.
1
‘Cold blows the wind to-day, sweetheart,
Cold are the drops of rain;
The first truelove that ever I had
In the green wood he was slain.
2
‘’Twas down in the garden-green, sweetheart,
Where you and I did walk;
The fairest flower that in the garden grew
Is witherd to a stalk.
3
‘The stalk will bear no leaves, sweetheart,
The flowers will neer return,
And since my truelove is dead and gone,
What can I do but mourn?’
4
A twelvemonth and a day being gone,
The spirit rose and spoke:
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
5
‘My body is clay-cold, sweetheart,
My breath smells heavy and strong,
And if you kiss my lily-white lips
Your time will not be long.’
235 f. Add: Gaspé, Les anciens Canadiens, Québec,
1877, I, 220 ff.; cited by Sébillot, Annuaire des Traditions
populaires, 1887, p. 38 ff..
236. A 5, etc. So Nigra, ‘La Sposa morta,’ p. 122,
No 17, D 12: ‘Mia buca morta l’à odur di terra, ch’a
l’era, viva, di roze e fiur.’
Little-Russian tale, Trudy, II, 416, No 122. A
girl who is inconsolable for the death of her mother
is advised to hide herself in the church after vespers
on Thursday of the first week in Lent, and does so.
At midnight the bells ring, and a dead priest performs
the service for a congregation all of whom are dead.
Among them is the girl’s godmother, who bids her begone
before her mother remarks her. But the mother
has already seen her daughter, and calls out, You here
too? Weep no more for me. My coffin and my grave
are filled with your tears; wretched it is to bathe in
them! (W. W.) After this the mother’s behavior is
not quite what we should expect. Cf. the tale in Gaspé,
just cited.
II, 238.
C
‘The Widow-Woman,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by
Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1883–86, p. 541; “taken down by
Mr Hubert Smith, 24th March, 1883, from the recitation of
an elderly fisherman at Bridgworth, who could neither read
nor write, and had learnt it some forty years before from
his grandmother in Corve Dale.”
“The West and South Shropshire folk say far for fair.”
1
There was a widow-woman lived in far Scotland,
And in far Scotland she did live,
And all her cry was upon sweet Jesus,
Sweet Jesus so meek and mild.
2
Then Jesus arose one morning quite soon,
And arose one morning betime,
And away he went to far Scotland,
And to see what the good woman want.
3
And when he came to far Scotland,
. . . . . . .
Crying, What, O what, does the good woman want,
That is calling so much on me?
4
‘It’s you go rise up my three sons,
Their names, Joe, Peter, and John,
And put breath in their breast,
And clothing on their backs,
And immediately send them to far Scotland,
That their mother may take some rest.’
5145
Then he went and rose up her three sons,
Their names, Joe, Peter, and John,
And did immediately send them to far Scotland,
That their mother may take some rest.
6
Then she made up a supper so neat,
As small, as small, as a yew-tree leaf,
But never one bit they could eat.
7
Then she made up a bed so soft,
The softest that ever was seen,
And the widow-woman and her three sons
They went to bed to sleep.
8
There they lay; about the middle of the night,
Bespeaks the youngest son:
‘The white cock he has crowed once,
The second has, so has the red.’
9
And then bespeaks the eldest son:
‘I think, I think it is high time
For the wicked to part from their dead,’
10
Then they laid [==led] her along a green road,
The greenest that ever was seen,
Until they came to some far chaperine,
Which was builded of lime and sand;
Until they came to some far chaperine,
Which was builded with lime and stone.
11
And then he opened the door so big,
And the door so very wide;
Said he to her three sons, Walk in!
But told her to stay outside.
12
‘Go back, go back!’ sweet Jesus replied,
‘Go back, go back!’ says he;
‘For thou hast nine days to repent
For the wickedness that thou hast done.’
13
Nine days then was past and gone,
And nine days then was spent,
Sweet Jesus called her once again,
And took her to heaven with him.
P. 240 a. ‘Sleep you, wake you.’ Add: ‘Young
Beichan,’ No 53, B 5; Duran, Romancero, I, 488, Nos
742, 743.
240 a, II, 513 a.
The very wicked knight Owen, after coming out of
St Patrick’s Purgatory, lay in his orisons fifteen days
and nights before the high altar,
“And suþþe in is bare flech þe holi crois he nom,
And wende to þe holi lond, and holi mon bicom.”
Horstmann, Altengl. Legenden, 1875, p. 174, vv. 611–612;
also p. 208, v. 697, and p. 209, v. 658. In a mediæval
traveller’s tale the Abyssinians are said to burn
the cross in their children’s foreheads. “Vort wonent
da andere snoide kirsten in deme lande ind die heischent
Ysini; wan man yr kinder douft ind kirsten macht,
dan broet der priester yn eyn cruce vor dat houft.”
Ein niederrheinischer Bericht über den Orient, ed.
Röhricht u. Meier, in Zacher’s Zeitschrift, XIX, 15.
(G. L. K.)
P. 272. F.
Mr Macmath has found the edition of 1755, and has
favored me with a copy. Substitute for F. a., p. 263:
Gill Morice, An Ancient Scottish Poem. Second Edition.
Glasgow, Printed and sold by Robert and Andrew
Foulis, 1755. (Small 4º, 15 pages.) The copy
mentioned p. 263 b, note, is a reprint of this or of the
first edition; it has but two variations of reading. The
deviations from the text of 1755 will be put in the list
of things to be corrected in the print.
P. 276. In Miss Burne’s Shropshire Folk-Lore, 1883–86,
p. 543, there is a copy, taken from singing, which
I must suppose to be derived ultimately from print.
P. 279. The following version is printed by Mr G.
R. Tomson in his Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888,
p. 434, from a MS. of Mrs Rider Haggard.
GILES COLLINS AND LADY ANNICE
1
Giles Collins said to his own mother,
‘Mother, come bind up my head,
And send for the parson of our parish,
For to-morrow I shall be dead.
2
‘And if that I be dead,
As I verily believe I shall,
O bury me not in our churchyard,
But under Lady Annice’s wall.’
3
Lady Annice sat at her bower-window,
Mending of her night-coif,
When passing she saw as lovely a corpse
As ever she saw in her life.
4
‘Set down, set down, ye six tall men,
Set down upon the plain,
515That I may kiss those clay-cold lips
I neer shall kiss again.
5
‘Set down, set down, ye six tall men,
That I may look thereon;
For to-morrow, before the cock it has crowd,
Giles Collins and I shall be one.
6
‘What had you at Giles Collins’s burying?
Very good ale and wine?
You shall have the same to-morrow night,
Much about the same time.’
7
Giles Collins died upon the eve,
This fair lady on the morrow;
Thus may you all now very well know
This couple died for sorrow.
Lt-Col. Prideaux has sent me this copy, from Fly-Leaves,
London, John Miller, 1854, Second Series, p. 98.
GILES COLLINS
1
Lady Annis she sat in her bay-window,
A-mending of her night-coif;
As she sat, she saw the handsomest corpse
That ever she saw in her life.
2
‘Who bear ye there, ye four tall men?
Who bear ye on your shouldyers?’
‘It is the body of Giles Collins,
An old true lovyer of yours.’
3
‘Set’n down, set’n down,’ Lady Annis she said,
‘Set’n down on the grass so trim;
Before the clock it strikes twelve this night,
My body shall lie beside him.’
4
Lady Annis then fitted on her night-coif,
Which fitted her wondrous well;
She then pierced her throat with a sharp-edgd knife,
As the four pall-bearers can tell.
5
Lady Annis was buried in the east church-yard,
Giles Collins was laid in the west,
And a lily grew out from Giles Collins’s grave
Which touched Lady Annis’s breast.
6
There blew a cold north-westerly wind,
And cut this lily in twain;
Which never there was seen before,
And it never will again.
P. 298 a. Add, ‘Sönnens hævn,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
IV, 113, No 284; a fragment.
Pp. 303 b, 513 b. Marvellous growth, etc. Ormr
Stórólfsson very early attained to a great size, and at
seven was a match for the strongest men: Flateyjarbok,
I, 521, Fornmanna Sögur, III, 205, cited by Bugge
in Paul u. Braune’s Beiträge, XII, 58. Wolfdietrich
gains one man’s strength every year, and amazes everybody
in his infancy even. Wolfdietrich A, ed. Amelung,
sts 31, 38–41, 45, 233, 234, pp. 84, 85, 86, 108.
(Some striking resemblances to Robert le Diable.)
Cf. also Wigalois, ed. Pfeiffer, 36, 2 f.,==Benecke,
1226 f.:
In einem jâre wuchs ez mêr
dan ein anderz in zwein tuo.
Elias (afterwards the Knight of the Swan), who is to
avenge his mother, astonishes by his rapid growth the
old hermit who brings him up:
“A! Dieu! dist ly preudons, à qui est cest enfant?
Il est sy jouènes d’âge et s’a le corps sy grant:
S’il croist sy faitement, ce sera ung gaiant.”
Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Reiffenberg, vv. 960–963, I, 45.
“The little Malbrouk grew fast, and at seven years old
he was as tall as a tall man.” Webster, basque Legends,
2d ed., p. 78; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays basque,
p. 81. The Ynca Mayta Ccapac “a few months after
his birth began to talk, and at ten years of age fought
valiantly and defeated his enemies.” Markham, Narratives
of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas, Hakluyt
Society, p. 83. A Tête-Rasée infant in four days grows
to the full size of man. Petitot, Traditions Indiennes
du Canada Nord-Ouest, pp. 241–243. (G. L. K.)
P. 310. Danish. Another copy of ‘Malfreds Død,’
Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, VI, 195, No 804.
P. 320. The negroes of Dumfries, Prince William
County, Virginia, have this ballad, orally transmitted
from the original Scottish settlers of that region, with
the stanza found in F (19) and T (15):
Mr Lammikin, Mr Lammikin,
oh, spare me my life,
And I’ll give you my daughter Betsy,
and she shall be your wife.
“They sang it to a monotonous measure.” (Mrs Dulany.)
516
P. 343. By the kindness of Mr Macmath, I have now
a copy of the original edition.
Young Waters, an Ancient Scottish Poem, never before
printed. Glasgow, Printed and sold by Robert and
Andrew Foulis, 1755. (Small 4º, 8 pages.) The few
differences of reading will be given with corrections to
be made in the print.
P. 346. Mr Alfred Nutt has communicated to the
Folk-Lore Journal, VI, 144, 1888, the outline of a ballad
in which, as in some versions of the European continent,
the man has the place of the maid. But this
may be a modern turn to the story, arising from the
disposition to mitigate a tragic tale. The ballad was
obtained “from a relative of Dr Birbeck Hill’s, in
whose family it is traditional. Mother, father, and
brethren all refuse him aid, but his sweetheart is
kinder, and buys him off.” For the burden see C 6,
which, as well as B 12, might better have been printed
as such.
1
‘Hold up, hold up your hands so high!
Hold up your hands so high!
For I think I see my own mother coming
Oer yonder stile to me.
Oh the briars, the prickly briars,
They prick my heart full sore;
If ever I get free from the gallows-tree,
I’[ll] never get there any more.
2
‘Oh mother hast thou any gold for me,
Any money to buy me free,
To save my body from the cold clay ground,
And my head from the gallows-tree?’
3
‘Oh no, I have no gold for thee,
No money to buy thee free,
For I have come to see thee hanged,
And hangëd thou shalt be.’
Struppa’s text of ‘Scibilia Nobili’ is repeated in
Salomone-Marino’s Leggende p. siciliane in Poesia, p.
160, No 29. The editor supplies defects and gives some
varying readings from another version, in which Scibilia
is the love, not the wife, of a cavalier.—Mango,
Calabria, in Archivio, I, 394, No 75 (wife).—‘La Prigioniera,’
Giannini, No 25, p. 195, two copies, reduces
the story to four or five stanzas. The sequel, No 26,
p. 197, is likely to have been originally an independent
ballad. It is attached to ‘Scibilia Nobili,’ but is found
separately in Bernoni, XI, No 3, ‘La Figlia snaturata,’
Finamore, Archivio, I, 212, ‘Catarine.’
347 b. ‘Frísa vísa’ is reprinted by Hammershaimb,
Færøsk Anthologi, p. 268, No 34. The editor expressly
says that the ballad is used as a children’s
game, like the English F. So also are Danish A,
and a Magyar ballad of like purport, to be mentioned
presently.
348 b. Danish.A, in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren,
‘Jomfruens udløsning,’ II, 49, No 279, 1884; B, III,
5, No 3, 1885. From tradition. Both versions agree
with the Swedish in all important points, and the language
of B points to a Swedish derivation.
349 a. Ransom for maid refused by father, mother,
brother, sister, and paid by lover: Little-Russian, Golovatsky,
I, 50, No 11; II, 245, No 7. (W. W.)
349 b, 514 a. Man redeemed by maid when abandoned
by his own blood: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I,
250, No 26; Servian, Vuk, III, 547, No 83; Magyar-Croat,
Kurelac, p. 254, No 61, p. 352, No 96. (W. W.)
In a Slovak ballad in Kollár, Národnie Zpiewanky,
II, 13, translated by Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen,
col. 42 f., John, in prison, writes to his father
to ransom him; the father asks how much would have
to be paid; four hundred pieces of gold and as many
of silver; the father replies that he has not so much,
and his son must perish. An ineffectual letter to
mother, brother, sister, follows; then one to his sweetheart.
She brings a long rope, with which he is to let
himself down from his dungeon. If the rope proves
too short, he is to add his long hair (cf. I, 40 b, line 2,
486 b); and if it be still too short, he may light upon
her shoulders. John escapes. Nearly the same is the
Polish ballad translated in Waldbrühl’s Balalaika,
which is referred to II, 350 b.
A fragment of a Székler ransom-ballad is found in
Arany and Gyulai’s collection, III, 42: Herrmann, as
above, col. 49. Another form of love-test is very
popular in Hungary, of which Herrmann gives eight
versions. In one of these, from a collection made in
1813, Arany and Gyulai, I, 189 (Herrmann’s IV), the
story is told with the conciseness of the English ballad.
A snake has crept into a girl’s bosom: she entreats her
father to take it out; he dares not, and sends her to her
mother; the mother has as little devotion and courage
as the father, and sends her to her brother; she is
successively passed on to sister-in-law, brother-in-law,
sister; then appeals to her lover, who instantly does
the service. This is the kernel, and perhaps all that is
original, in versions, I (of Herrmann), col. 34 f., contributed
by Kálmány; II, 36 f., contributed by Szabó;
V, col. 38, Kálmány, Koszorúk az Alföld vad Virágaiból,
I, 21, translated into German by Wlislocki, Ungarische
Revue, 1884, p. 344; VIII, col. 39, Kálmány,
Szeged Népe, II, 13. In Herrmann, VI, col. 38, Kálmány,
Koszorúk, II, 62; VII, col. 38 f., Kálmány, Szeged
Népe, II, 12; and III, col. 37 (a fragment), young man
and maid change parts. In I, III, V (?), VI, VII, the
father says he can better do without a daughter (son)
than without one of his hands, and the youth (maid)
would rather lose one of his (her) hands than his (her)
517beloved.[326] In I the snake has been turned to a purse
of gold when the maid attempts to take it out; in II,
according to a prose and prosaic comment of the reciter,
there was no snake, but the girl had put a piece of
gold in her bosom, and calls it a yellow adder to experiment
upon her family; in VII, again, there is no snake,
but a rouleau of gold, and the snake is explained away
in like manner in a comment to VIII. Even the transformation
in I is to be deprecated; the money in the
others is a modern depravation.
A brief ballad of the Transylvania Gipsies, communicated
and translated by Wlislocki, Ungarische Revue,
1884, p. 345 f., agrees with the second series of
those above. A youth summons mother and sister to
take a reptile from his breast; they are afraid; his
sweetheart will do it if she dies. A very pretty popular
Gipsy tale to the same effect is given by Herrmann,
col. 40 f.
A Roumanian ballad, ‘Giurgiu,’ closely resembling
the Magyar I, VII, from Pompiliu Miron’s Balade populare
române, p. 41, is given in translation by Herrmann,
col. 106 ff.; a fragment of another, with parts
reversed, col. 213.
A man, to make trial of his blood-relations, begs
father, mother, etc., to take out a snake from his breast,
and is refused by all. His wife puts in her hand and
takes out a pearl necklace, which she receives as her
reward: Servian, Vuk, I, No 289, Herzegovine, No 136,
Petranović, Serajevo, 1867, p. 191, No 20; Slavonian,
Stojanović, No 20. (W. W.)
There are many variations on this theme, of which
one more may be specified. A drowning girl given
over by her family is saved by her lover: Little-Russian,
Golovatsky, II, 80, No 14, 104, No 18, 161, No
15, 726, No 11; Servian, Vuk, I, Nos 290, 291; Bulgarian,
Dozon, p. 98, No 61; Polish, Kolberg, Lud, 1857,
I, 151, 12a. Again, man is saved by maid: Little-Russian,
Golovatsky, I, 114, No 28; Waclaw z Oleska, p.
226. (W. W.)
P. 356 a. (1.) (2.) (4.) are now printed in Mélusine,
II, 342, III, 1, II, 341. (15.) (16.) ‘La Fille
dans la Tour,’ Victor Smith, Chansons du Velay et du
Forez, Romania, VII, 76, 78. (17.) Bladé, Poésies p.
rec. dans l’Armagnac, etc., p. 23, ‘La Prisonnière.’
There is an Italian form of ‘Belle Isambourg’ in
Nigra, No 45, p. 277, ‘Amor costante.’
356 b. For other forms of ‘Les trois Capitaines,’
see, French, Puymaigre, I, 131, 134 and note; Tiersot,
in Revue des Traditions populaires, III, 501, 502; Rolland,
III, 58 ff., a, b, d; Italian, Marcoaldi, p. 162, ‘La
Fuga e il Pentimento;’ Nigra, No 53, p. 309, ‘L’Onore
salvato.’
357 b, second paragraph.
On messenger-birds, see Nigra, p. 339 f., and note.
A girl feigns death simply to avoid a disagreeable
suitor. Proof by fire, etc.; cf. C 23 f., D 7 f., E 27 f.,
F 1–3, G 36–38. Servian. (1.) Mara, promised to
the Herzog Stephen, and wishing for good reasons to
escape him, pretends death. Stephen is incredulous;
puts live coals into her bosom, then a snake; she does
not flinch. He then tickles her face with his beard;
she does not stir. Stephen is convinced and retires;
Mara springs from the bier. Her mother asks her what
had given her most trouble. She had not minded the
coals or the snake, but could hardly keep from laughing
when tickled with the beard. Vuk, I, 551, No
727. (2.) The suitor tests the case by thrusting his
hands into the girl’s bosom, fire, snake. The first is
the worst. Vuk, Herzegovine, No 133. (3.) The same
probation, with the same verdict (in this case the girl
loves another), Petranović, Srpske n. pjesme, Serajevo,
1867, No 362. Cf. Rajković, p. 176, No 211.—Bulgarian.
Proofs by snow and ice laid on the heart; a
snake. She stands both. Miladinof, No 68, cf. No
468. In the same, No 660, the girl holds out under ice
and snake, but when kissed between the eyes wakes
up.—Bohemian, Erben, p. 485, No 20, ‘The Turk
duped,’ and Moravian, Sušil, No 128, the tests are
lacking. (W. W.)
Three physicians from Salerno pour melted lead in
the hands of Fenice, who is apparently dead. (She
has taken a drug which makes her unconscious for a
certain time. Her object is to escape from her husband
to her lover, Cligés.) The lead has no effect in
rousing Fenice. Crestien de Troies, Cligés, ed. Förster,
vv. 6000–6009, pp. 246, 247. Förster cites Solomon
and Morolf (Salman und Morolf, st. 133, ed. F. Vogt,
Die deutschen Dichtungen v. Salomon und Markolf,
I, 27, molten gold), and other parallels. Einleitung,
pp. xix-xx. Cf. Revue de Traditions pop., II, 519.
(G. L. K.)
P. 398. There is a ‘Lord Thomas of Wynnesbury ’
in the Murison MS., p. 17, which was derived from recitation
in Aberdeenshire, but it seems to me to have
had its origin in the stalls, resembling I, which is of
that source.
Pp. 407, 409, A 142, B 122, ‘An lions gaed to their
dens,’ ‘And the lions took the hill.’ “Lions we have
had verie manie in the north parts of Scotland, and
those with maines of no less force than they of Mauritania
are sometimes reported to be; but how and when
they were destroied as yet I doo not read:” Holinshed,
I, 379.
518
P. 412 b. A is translated by Anastasius Grün, Robin
Hood, p. 57; Doenniges, p. 166; Knortz, L. u. R. Altenglands,
No 18; Loève-Veimars, p. 252.
II, 426 b, 428. The tune of 105 b is, I have a good
old woman at home: of f, I have a good old wife at
home.
Italian. ‘La Prova,’ Nigra, No 54, p. 314, A-D.
‘Il Ritorno,’ Giannini, p. 154.
P. 428. The Roxburghe copy, III, 762, Aldermary
Church-Yard, is in the Ballad Society’s edition, VI,
567. The Euing copy, printed for John Andrews, is
signed L. P., for Laurence Price: Mr J. W. Ebsworth,
at p. 570.
P. 441 b. B. b. Ritson’s copy was “compared with
another impression, for the same partners, without
date.”
I have failed to mention, but am now reminded by
Mr Macmath, that the ballad of ‘Jamie o Lee’ is
given, under the title ‘James Hatelie,’ by Robert
Chambers in the Romantic Scottish Ballads, their
Epoch and Authorship, 1859, p. 37, Lord Phenix appearing
as simple Fenwick.
P. 480 b. Spanish C, ‘El Caballero burlado,’ is now
printed in full in Pidal, Asturian Romances, No 34, p.
156.
481 b. Add: ‘La Marchande d’Oranges’ in Rolland,
V, 10. (Say Rolland, I, 258.)
Tears. Add: Rolland, II, 29, e, g, h.
Varieties. There may be added: Mélusine I, 483==Revue
des Traditions pop., III, 634 f.; Romania, X, 379
f., No 18; Bladé, Poésies p. de la Gascogne, II, 208.
482 a. Italian. Nigra, No 71, p. 375, ‘Occasione
mancata,’ A-F. See also ‘La Monacella salvata,’ No
72, p. 381, and ‘Il Galante burlato,’ No 75, p. 388.
482 b. The ballad, it seems, is by Madame Favart:
see Rolland, II, 33, k. Add: l, ib., p. 34, and Poésies
pop. de la France, MS., III, 493.
483 b. Danish A is translated by Prior, III, 182, No
126.
P. 494.
“On the west coast of Ireland the fishermen are
loth to kill the seals, which once abounded in some
localities, owing to a popular superstition that they
enshrined ‘the souls of thim that were drowned at the
flood.’ They were supposed to possess the power of
casting aside their external skins and disporting themselves
in human form on the sea-shore. If a mortal
contrived to become possessed of one of these outer
coverings belonging to a female, he might claim her and
keep her as his bride.” Charles Hardwick, Traditions,
Superstitions, and Folk-Lore, chiefly Lancashire and
the North of England, p. 231. (G. L. K.)
506 a, last paragraph but one. So in Douns Lioð,
Strengleikar, ed. Kayser and Unger, p. 52 ff. (G. L. K.)
P. 17 b. I have omitted to mention the Norwegian
ballad ‘Hemingjen aa Harald kungen’ in Bugge’s
Gamle Norske Folkeviser, No 1, p. 1.
44. ‘A Robynhode,’ etc.
In the Convocation Books of the Corporation of
Wells, Somerset, vol. ii, “under the 13th Henry 7,
Nicholas Trappe being master, there is the following
curious entry, relative, apparently, to a play of Robin
Hood, exhibitions of dancing girls, and church ales,
provided for at the public expense.
“‘Et insuper in eadem Convocatione omnes et singuli
burgenses unanimi assensu ad tunc et ibidem dederunt
Magistro Nicolao Trappe potestatem generalem
ad inquirendum in quorum manibus pecuniæ ecclesiæ
ac communitatis Welliæ sunt injuste detentæ; videlicet,
provenientes ante hoc tempus de Robynhode,
puellis tripudiantibus, communi cervisia ecclesiæ, et
hujusmodi. Atque de bonis et pecuniis dictæ communitati
qualitercunque detentis, et in quorumcunque manibus
existentibus. Et desuper, eorum nomina scribere qui
habent hujusmodi bona, cum summis, etc.’” H. T.
Riley in the First Report of the Historical MSS Commission,
1874, Appendix, p. 107.
The passage in the Wells Convocation Records is
perhaps illustrated by an entry in the Churchwardens’
Accounts of the Parish of Kingston-upon-Thames, cited
by Ritson, Robin Hood, 2d ed., I, cxviii, from Lysons,
Environs of London, 1792, I, 228:
“16 Hen. 8. Recd at the church-ale and Robynhode
all things deducted
3 10 6.”
With this may be compared the following:
“Anno MDLXVI, or 9 of Eliz., payde for setting up
Robin Hoodes bower
0 18”
(Churchwardens’ Accompts of St. Helen’s [at Abingdon,
Berks], Archæologia, I, 18). This latter entry is
loosely cited by Ritson, I, cxiv, 2d ed., as dating from
1556. Ibidem may be found his opinion as to R. H.’s
bower (n. *). Hampson, Medii Ævi Kalendarium, I,
519265, quotes this entry, also with the wrong year. He
has no doubt about the Bower: “An arbour, called
Robin Hood’s Bower, was erected in the church-yard,
and here maidens stood gathering contributions.” I,
283. (All the above by G. L. K.)
P. 46 b, note. The Sloane MS. cited by Ritson as
No 715 is No 780 (which is bound up with 715) and is
“paper, early xviith century:” Ward, Catalogue of
Romances, etc., I, 517. This correction is also to be
made at p. 121 b, note; pp. 129 a, 173 b, 175 b.
51 b, sts 62–66.
The late Miss Hamilton McKie, New Galloway, told
me this story:
A sturdy beggar, or luscan, came to a farm-house
among the hills and asked quarters for the night. The
gudewife, before entrusting him with the bedclothes
in which to sleep in one of the outhouses, required a
pledge or security for their return. He said he had
none to offer but his Maker, and got his night’s lodging.
In the morning he walked off with the bedclothes,
but, becoming bewildered in a mist, he wandered
about the whole day, and in the evening, seeing
the light of a house, made towards it and knocked at
the door. A woman opened it and said, “Your Cautioner
has proved gude!” He had come back to the
same house.
Mactaggart gives the story in his Gallovidian Encyclopedia,
p. 325, but without the trait of the security.
(W. Macmath.)
P. 210. The signature to a, L. P., is for Laurence
Price: Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 64.
P. 218 (and 43–46).
Mr H. L. D. Ward, in his invaluable Catalogue
of Romances, etc., while treating of Fulk Fitz-Warine,
has made the following important remarks concerning
the literary history of Maid Marian (p. 506 f.).
“There were three Matildas who were popularly
supposed to have been persecuted by King John. The
most historical of these was Matilda de Braose. She
was imprisoned, with her son and her son’s wife, in
1210, some (Matthew Paris and others) say at Windsor,
but another chronicler says at Corfe Castle (see a
volume published by the Soc. de l’Hist. de France in
1840), and they were all starved to death. The second
was Fulk’s wife Mahaud, who was the widow of Theobald
Walter. The third was the daughter of Robert
Fitz-Walter. The only authority that can be quoted for
the story of the third Matilda is the Chronicle of Dunmow,
of which one copy of the 16th century remains, in
the Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iii. (ff. 281–7), but which
was probably begun by Nicholas de Brumfeld, a canon
of Dunmow in the latter part of the 13th century. It
is there stated that, when Robert Fitz-Walter fled to
France in 1213, his daughter took refuge in Dunmow
Priory, where John, after a vain attempt at seduction,
poisoned her. Now all these three Matildas may be
said to appear in the two plays known as The Downfall
and The Death of Robert Earle of Huntington, by
Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, which are first
mentioned in Henslowe’s Diary in February and November,
1598. Two of them indeed appear in their
own names, Matilda de Braose (or Bruce) and Matilda
Fitz-Walter; and the one is starved at Windsor and
the other is poisoned at Dunmow in the second play.
But in the first play Matilda Fitz-Walter escapes the
solicitations of John by joining her newly-married husband
in Sherwood, where they are called Robin Hood
and Maid Marian. This is clearly owing to a combination
of the second and third Matildas. It may have
been effected by the course of tradition, or it may have
been the arbitrary work of a single author. But if the
romance of Fulk Fitz-Warin had been known to either
Munday or Chettle, other portions of it would almost
certainly have appeared in plays or novels or ballads.
Now Munday introduces the piece as a rehearsal, conducted
by John Skelton the poet, who himself plays
Friar Tuck, with a view to performing it before Henry
VIII. And it is not at all unlikely that it was really
founded upon a May-day pageant devised by Skelton,
but not important enough to be specified in the list of
his works in his Garlande of Laurell. We know that
Skelton did write Interludes, of which one still remains,
Magnyfycence: and Anthony Wood tells us
that at Diss in Norfolk, where Skelton was rector, he
was ‘esteemed more fit for the stage than the pew
or pulpit.’ Thus there was no man more likely than
Skelton to devise a new Robin Hood pageant for his
old pupil, Henry VIII. And again, there was no man
more likely to celebrate the story of Matilda Fitz-Walter,
for the patron of his living was Robert Lord Fitz-Walter,
who was himself a Ratcliffe, but who had inherited
the lordship of Diss through his grandmother, the
last of the old Fitz-Walters.[327] But whether Skelton
may have read the then accessible poem about Fulk,
afterwards described by Leland, or whether either he or
Munday may have received the story in its composite
form, it is pretty evident that the two reputed objects
of King John’s desire, Matilda Walter and Matilda
Fitz-Walter, have become blended together into the
Maid Marian of the play.”
P. 235 a. Bells ringing of themselves (in ballads).
520Pidal, Asturian Romances, ‘Il Penitente,’ Nos 1, 2, pp.
82, 84; Nigra, ‘Sant’ Alessio,’ No 148, A, B, p. 538 ff.,
and see p. 541.
P. 294. St George our Lady’s knight.
A nemnede sein Gorge our leuedi kniȝt:
Sir Beues of Hamtoun, ed. Kölbing, v. 2817, p. 129;
Maitland Club ed., v. 2640. (G. L. K., who also gave
me the case in Roister Doister.)
“Now holy St George, myne only avower,
In whom I trust for my protection,
O very Chevalier of the stourished Flower,
By whose Hands thy Sword and Shield hast wone,
Be mediator, that she may to her Sone
Cause me to hear Rex splendens songen on hye,
Before the Trinitye, when that I shall dye.”
Poem on the Willoughbies of Eresby, in the form of a
prayer to St George put into the mouth of one of the
Willoughby family, Dugdale, Baronage of England,
1676, II, 85, 86. Dugdale does not date the MS. The
male line of the Willoughbies became extinct in 1525.
(3. flourished? 4. thou thy?) (G. L. K.)
P. 371 f. Ba, b are signed T. R., the initials of a
purveyor or editor of ballads for the popular press.
Ba of ‘Robin Hood and the Butcher,’ No 122, and a
of ‘Robin Hood and the Beggar,’ I, No 133, bear the
same signature: see pp. 116, 156 of this volume. No
such rhymster as T. R. shows himself to be in these
two last pieces could have made ‘Johnie Armstrong,’
one of the best ballads in English.
P. 423. “The Donean Tourist,” by Alexander
Laing, Aberdeen, 1828, p. 100, has a very bad copy,
extended to fifty-nine stanzas.
P. 449. ‘Young Logie’ is among the ballads taken
down by Mrs Murison in Aberdeenshire, p. 88 of the
collection. The copy is imperfect, and extremely corrupted.
Lady Margaret is the daughter of the king
(who is not called by that name), but is confused with
her mother, who counterfeits her consort’s han-write and
steals his right-han glove, as is done in D. Three ships
at the pier of Leith, and three again at Queen’s Ferry.
P. 458. Mr Macmath has pointed out to me a case
in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, I, 397 f., in which “Jok
Johnstoun, callit the Galzeart, Jok J., bruþer to
Wille of Kirkhill,” with a Grahame, a couple of
Armstrangs, and their accomplices, are accused of the
theft of twelve score sheep from James Johnstoune,
in February, 1557. We can make no inference as to
the relation of Jok the Galliard to the Galliard of our
ballad. There were generations of Jocks and Wills in
these families, and the sobriquet of The Galliard, as
Pitcairn has remarked, “was very prevalent.” He
cites a “Gilbert Ellote, callit Gib the Galzart,” III,
441, under the date 1618.
I, 7 b, last line but three of text. Read Fordringer.
71 a, 332. tell thee, ed. 1802; tell to thee, ed. 1833.
275 a, last line but three. Read Wi, pearce.
L. l. but one, naithing, heid. Last line, coud.
b, v. 3. day[s]. 7. been. 8. me.
15. teirs, wensom. 18. bluid. 22. comly.
25. driry.
478. Read: 12, on for an. 41. sir. 62. do.
141. a[t] London. 151. medans. 171. leyne.
483, 13. Read wel. 64. Read beene.
III, 2 a, note, line 5. Read Bennet.
5 a, D 52. Read Lincolm. b, 101. Read there.
8 b, 241. Read betide.
253 b, R, v. 3. Read dochter.
1. This manuscript, which Fry bought in Glasgow in
1810, contained several other ballads, “but written so corruptly
as to be of little or no authority.” It did not occur
to Fry that the illiteracy of the drummer gave his ballads
the best of authority. I have done what I could to recover
the manuscript, but in vain, though I had the kindest assistance
in Bristol from the Rev. J. Percivall, Mr Francis
Fry, and Mr J. F. Nicholls.
2. See Motherwell’s apt remarks, Minstrelsy, p. 1.
3. “It is sometimes said that this outlaw possessed the old
Castle of Morton in Dumfriesshire, now ruinous.... The
mention of Durisdeer, a neighboring parish, adds weight to
the tradition.” Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, III,
114 f. Mr W. Bennett, writing in 1826 in The Dumfries
Monthly Magazine, III, 250, of which he was editor, speaks
of a field a little to the southwest of Lochmaben as still showing
the trace of a circular tower, which was “called Cockiesfield,
from one John Cock, or O’Cock, who had there his residence,
and who during his lifetime was one of the most
renowned freebooters in Annandale.” Mr Macmath, who
pointed out the passage to me, observes that in Thomson’s
map of Dumfriesshire, 1828, the name is given “Cocketfield,”
and that there is also a Cocket Hill.
4. Colophon: [P]rynted at London, in Fletestrete, at [the
si]gne of the Sonne, by me Iohn [By]ddell. In the yere
of our lord god m.ccccc.xxxvj. The seconde daye of June.
Iohn̄ Byddell.
Eight lines wanting: 1203,4; 121; 1683,4. Mutilated at
the beginning: 169; 170. Mutilated at the end: 1641;
1653; 1671.
5. Eleven lines wanting: 602,3,4; 674; 681,2; 1003; 1044;
1051,2; 1104. Mutilated at the beginning: 61–641; 643–673;
754–831; 904,5,6; 964; 1053–1103; 1111,2. Mutilated at the
end: 601; 1013; 1023; 1031; 1042,3. Elsewhere: 972,3; 1041.
6. Colophon. Imprinted at London, in Lothburye, by
Wyllyam Copeland.
7. “Two leaves, discovered in the pasteboard or fly-leaves
of a book received from abroad.”
8. b was kindly copied for me by Mr J. P. Collier in 1857.
Mr Collier described his fragment as “a scrap which once
formed the fly-leaf of a book.” Hazlitt says that the type is
clearly older than Copland’s, and very like Wynkyn de
Worde’s.
9. This old woman gives the title ‘Auld Matrons’ to a ballad
in Buchan’s larger collection, II, 238, in which kitchen-tradition
has made over some of the incidents in the First
Fit of Adam Bell.
10. Vischer, Die Sage von der Befreiung der Waldstädte,
pp 33, 36 f; Rochholz, Germania, XIII, 56 f. “Wa er das
nit hette gethan, so hette er selbs müssen darumb sterben:”
Russ’s Chronicle, 1482, Vischer, p. 50.
11. Liliencron, Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen,
II, 109, No 147; Böhme, p. 47, No 10; Vischer, p. 46; Rochholz,
Tell u. Gessler, p. 180; Tobler, p. 3. This or a like
song was known to Russ, 1482. Tschudi, about a hundred
years later, c. 1570, says that the child was five or six,
not more than six, years old: Vischer, p. 122. There is
another, but later and even worse, “song” about William
Tell and the confederacy: Böhme, No 11, p. 49; Wunderhorn,
1808, II, 129; etc.
12. Müllenhoff, Sagen, u. s. w., der Herzogthümer Schleswig
Holstein u. Lauenburg, p. 57, No 66. The story is localized
at another place in Holstein, with the change of apple
to pear: Lütolf, Germania, VIII, 213.
13. Torfæus, in his history of Norway, III, 371, speaks of
a ballad about Heming sung in his time, c. 1700, which
would seem to have been the same as this, only somewhat
fuller. Landstad, p. 187.
These ballads represent the king as regarding himself as
quite unapproachable in athletic exercises. The little boy
of ballads, smádrengin, kongins lítil svein, Norwegian B,
Färöe A, or, in a Färöe variation (Hammershaimb, p. 161),
Harald’s queen, intimates knowledge of an equal or superior.
Harald answers, in true ballad style, in Färöe A 6,
If he is not my better, you shall burn for it. In Norwegian B, Färöe A, the king immediately sets out to find his
rival. Cf. Charlemagne and King Arthur, I, 275, 279, and
the beginning of ‘King Estmere,’ II, 51, and Landstad, p.
177, note 1.
14. The Witches’ Hammer was composed in 1486, and Punker
is there recorded to have exercised his devil’s craft sixty
years before. Elsewhere Punker [Pumper] is said to have
been torn to pieces by oppressed peasants in 1420. The name
is spelled Puncler in the edition of 1620, pp 248 f, and Puncher
in the edition followed by Grimm. See Rochholz in
Germania, XIII, 48–51.
15. The Tell story, complete, Apfelschuss, Felsensprung
und Tyrannenmord, is said to occur among the Finns and
the Lapps: E. Pabst, cited by Pfannenschmid, Germania,
IX, 5. Particulars’, which are very desirable, are not given.
This would not add much to the range of the story.
16. In the prose Hemings Ðáttr, the intent to take vengeance
appears from Hemingr’s wish that the king should
stand close to the mark; in the ballads he reserves an arrow.
In the Ólafs Saga, Eindriði openly announces his purpose;
in all but this version (treating the prose Hemings
Ðáttr and the ballads as one), the archer provides himself
with two arrows, or three.
17. Such as the penalty for missing, as above said; or Tell’s
shooting at a hundred and twenty paces, and bearing
Cloudesly’s name, William. If the coincidence as to the
distance should be held to be very important, I, for one,
should have no objection to admitting that this part of the
ballad may be derived from the Tell story.
J. Grimm remarked in 1813, Gedanken über Mythos, Epos
und Geschichte (Kleinere Schriften, IV, 77), that the similarity
of the names Tell, Bell, Velent, Bellerophon (see a
little further on, p. 21), could hardly fail to strike even a
superficial observer, and also pointed to the identity of Tell’s
and Cloudesly’s Christian name. In his Deutsche Mythologie,
I, 317, ed. 1875, it is simply said that the surname Bell,
as well as Cloudesly’s Christian name, is suggestive of William
Tell.
18. The poet is Mohammed ben Ibrahim, 1119–c. 1230, and
he bore the honorary title of Furîd Uddîn (Pearl of Religion),
and the sobriquet of Attâr, perfumer. The title of
the poem is The Language of Birds. Garcin de Tassy, La
Poésie Philosophique et Religieuse chez les Persans, Extrait
de la Revue Contemporaine, t. xxiv, pp. 4, 35. “Nur den
Apfel treffen wir hier.... Es bleibt also weiter nichts übrig
als anzunehmen dass die persische Sage ... in die grauesten
Urzeiten des arischen Alterthums hinaufreichen muss.”
(Pfannenschmid, in Germania, X, 26 f.) A rapid inference.
19. Eindriði also had accomplished a harder shot before he
tried the chessman. But Hemingr, having done what was
thought a masterly thing in cleaving a nut, is compelled to
knock the same nut, shooting at the same distance, from his
brother’s head.
20. Das Inland, No 39, p. 630, cited by Rochholz, Tell und
Gessler, p. 40 f. Gerhard’s Wila, I, 147 f, cited by Rochholz,
p. 39 f. Eustathius to Iliad, xii, 101, first cited by
Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie (who says, “Es stimmt auch
theilweise,” p. 317, ed. 1875); by others later.
21. To Virgil, Ecl. v, 11, cited by Ideler, Die Sage von
dem Schuss des Tell, p. 59, note 3.
22. Hisely, Recherches Critiques sur l’Histoire de Guillaume
Tell, p. 590.
23. Pfannenschmid, in Germania, X, 25; Rochholz, Tell
und Gessler, p. 41 f.
24. T. B. Thorpe, Reminiscences of the Mississippi, in Harper’s
New Monthly Magazine, XII, 30. A story is there
related of a famous Mike Fink’s striking an apple from a
man’s head by shooting between it and the skull, like the
Scandinavian marksmen. In Captain Mayne Reid’s Scalp
Hunters, or Romantic Adventures in Northern Mexico, ch.
22, we are told of an Indian’s shooting a prairie-gourd from
the head of his sister, which may or may not be an invention.
The title of the chapter is A Feat à la Tell, and
this may perhaps be the only foundation for an assertion
that the Tell story had been found in Mexico; at least, inquiries
have not brought to light any other.
25. For the interpretation which has been put upon the Tell
story, see, among many, Pfannenschmid, in Germania,
X, 1–40; Rochholz, Tell und Gessler, in Sage und Geschichte.
The mildew of myth spreads, of course, from William to
his comrades. J. Grimm, in his Gedanken über Mythos,
etc., 1813, interprets Clim, Cloudesly, and Clough all in
the sense of nail, sharp point, arrow; and as Bell is βέλος,
Tell is telum, Toko τόξον, and Egil is igel, hedgehog, and
therefore the spine of the hedgehog, and therefore dart, the
names are all one as to meaning. But Grimm appears to
have been less confident about these etymologies in later
days. Sir G. W. Cox, on the other hand, says that Cloudesly’s
name marks him as an inhabitant of Cloudland. (Meanwhile,
every likelihood favors the derivation of Cloudesly
from clúd, rock, and leáh, lea, and the interpretation of
Clim as Clem and of Clough as ravine.) Cloudesly and his
mates are all the more mythical because they are three, and
because, as it is asserted, Robin Hood is mythical, with
whom they are, one and all, assumed to be identical.
26. Camden, Britannia, II, 175, ed. 1772. King Edward the
First, when hunting in this forest, is said to have killed two
hundred bucks in one day. For Arthur’s hunting there,
see Robson, Three Early English Metrical Romances, p.
26, LV7, p. 59, V1; Madden’s Syr Gawayne, p. 298, v. 16;
this book, I, 294, st. 9, etc.
27. Cronykil of Scotland, Book vii, v. 3523 f, ed. Laing,
II, 263.
28. John Bell robbed the Chamberlain’s men of cattle, 1337:
Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, II, 437. The Bells are included
with the Grahams, Armstrongs, and others, among
the bad and more vagrant of the great surnames of the border,
by the Lord Warden of the Marches of England, 1593
(Rymer’s Fœdera, XVI, 183, ed. 1727, cited by Bishop
Percy), and had no better estimation in Scotland.
29. a preserves stanzas 1–834, 1184–2083, 3142–3493; with
defects at 22,3, 71, 1234–1273, 133–1363. It has therefore
about 200 stanzas out of 456.
c preserves 264–603; d, 280–350, very much mutilated;
e, 4354–4501, very much mutilated. e, inserted among the
Douce fragments, was presented by Mr Halliwell-Phillips.
30. Dr Farmer considered these leaves to be of Rastell’s
printing, and older by some years than b; which is not
quite intelligible, since Rastell’s work is put at 1517–38.
c is cited under Rastell’s name in Ritson’s second edition
as well as his first.
31. 94, a, allther moste: b, all other moste. (f, g, of all
other; b, 2833, all ther best; 2841, all theyre best; f, g, al
of the best.) 614, a, Muche in fere: b, Much also. 684, a,
By xxviii (eight and twenty) score: b (f, g), By eyghtene
score, which gives no meaning. 1383, a, frembde bested:
b (f, g), frend. 1734, a, same nyght: b, same day. 1764, a,
wode hore: b (f, g), wode tre. 3332, a, on rode: b (f, g),
on a tre. 3432, a, The sherif: b (f, g), The knyght.
32. 133, a, b, husbonde: f, g, husbandeman. 2561, b, in
yonder other corser: f, on the other courser: g, in the other
coffer. 2744, 2862, 3874, 4122, b, trystell-tre: f, g, trusty
tre. 3851, b, “tarpe”: f, g, seale. 3714, b, blyve: f, g,
blythe, etc.
33. 1112, That all this worldë wrought; 1632, The whilë
that he wolde; 3164, To metë can they gone; 724, But his
bowë tree; 291, They brought hym to the lodgë dore.
2554, To seke a monkës male; 3603, He shall haue the
knyghtës londys; 3691, And I wyll be your ledës man;
3761, Robyn toke the kyngës hors; 3663, 3672, 3684, etc.
3363, For our derë lady loue.
311, With wordës fayre and fre; 344, Of all these wekÿs
thre; 2102, Or a man that myrthës can; 3184, The wallës
all aboute; 602, 3314, 3322, 3712, etc. 4334, And all his
mennës fe.
212, By a dernë strete; 251, Welcome be thou to grenë
wode; 2981, But had I the in grenë wode; 3273, 3733, 3743.
564, Ouer the saltë see; 1734, That ylkë samë nyght;
2132, By the hyë way; 2352, Of all this longë day; 2411,
2924, 3032, 3051, 3932, 4554, etc. 252, Hendë knyght & fre;
1133, Out, he sayd, thou falsë knyght; 2423, Therfore I
cun the morë thanke.
472, 1002, By God that madë me; 804, To walkë by his
syde; 2222, And that shall rewë the; 2974, Other wyse
thou behotë me; 4261, So God me helpë, sayd our kynge.
d, 2822, 3172, herkeneth.
34. Ritson had seen, among Peck’s collections for the history
of Premonstratensian monasteries, a Latin poem with
the title Prioris Alnwicensis de bello Scotico apud Dunbar,
tempore regis Edwardi I, dictamen, sive rithmus
Latinus, quo de Willielmo Wallace, Scotico illo Robin
Whood, plura sed invidiose canit, and in the margin the
date 22 Julii, 1304; whence he concluded that Robin Hood
was both mentioned, and compared with Wallace, in 1304.
The date refers to matters in the poem. The MS. (Sloane,
4934, pars II, ff 103–106) is of the eighteenth century, Hardy,
Descriptive Catalogue, etc., III, 279, No 503. The title
was supplied by Peck, one of whose marks is the spelling
Whood.
35. Either Randle the second, earl from 1128 to 1153, or
Randle the third, earl from 1181 and for fifty years, would
be likely to be the subject of ballads, but especially the latter.
He figures in the story of Fulk Fitz Warine: Wright,
p. 149.
37. Cited in the Edinburgh Review, 1847, LXXXVI, 134,
note; and by Hunter, 1852, The Ballad-Hero, Robin Hood,
p. 58 (where the year is wrongly given as 1432). It appears
from many cases that the name was very often pronounced
Róbinhode.
38. “Robertus Hode et Litill-Johanne, cum eorum complicibus,
de quibus stolidum vulgus hianter in comœdiis et
in tragœdiis prurienter festum faciunt, et præ ceteris romanciis
mimos et bardanos cantitare delectantur.”
“Of whom the foolish vulgar in comedies and tragedies
make lewd entertainment, and are delighted to hear the
jesters and minstrels sing them above all other ballads:”
Ritson, whose translation may pass. Ritson rightly observes
that comedies and tragedies here are not to be understood
as plays. Then follows this abstract of one of the
‘tragedies.’
“De quo etiam quædam commendabilia recitantur, sicut
patuit in hoc, quod cum ipse quondam in Barnisdale, iram
regis et fremitum principis declinans, missam, ut solitus
erat, devotissime audiret, nec aliqua necessitate volebat interrumpere
officium, quadam die, cum audiret missam, a
quodam vicecomite et ministris regis, eum sæpius perprius
infestantibus, in illo secretissimo loco nemorali ubi missæ
interfuit exploratus, venientes ad eum qui hoc de suis perceperunt
ut omni annisu fugeret suggesserunt. Quod, ob
reverentiam sacramenti, quod tunc devotissime venerabatur,
omnino facere recusavit. Sed, ceteris suis ob metum mortis
trepidantibus, Robertus, in tantum confisus in eum quem
coluit, inveritus, cum paucis qui tunc forte ei affuerunt inimicos
congressus eos de facili devicit, et, de eorum spoliis
ac redemptione ditatus, ministros ecclesiæ et missas in majore
veneratione semper et de post habere præelegit, attendens
quod vulgariter dictum est:
Hunc deus exaudit qui missam sæpius audit.”
Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, II, 104.
39. Major was in extreme old age in 1524: see Moir’s Wallace,
I, iv. “Robertus Hudus Anglus et Paruus Ioannes,
latrones famatissimi in nemoribus latuerunt, solum opulentorum
virorum bona diripientes. Nullum nisi eos inuadentem,
vel resistentem pro suarum rerum tuitione, occiderunt
Centum sagittarios ad pugnam aptissimos Robertus latrociniis
aluit, quos 400 viri fortissimi inuadere non audebant.
Rebus huius Roberti gestis tota Britannia in cantibus utitur.
Fœminam nullam opprimi permisit, nec pauperum bona
surripuit, verum eos ex abbatum bonis ablatis opipare
pauit.” Historia Maioris Britanniæ, fol. 55 b.
It will be observed that Wyntoun, Bower, and Mair are
Scots.
40. Because comic and not heroic, and because Robin is
put at a disadvantage. In the other ballads Robin Hood is
“evermore the best.” Though there is humor in the Gest,
it is kept well under, and never lowers Robin’s dignity.
41. The only one of these ballads entered in the Stationers’
Registers, or known to have been printed, at a date earlier
than the seventeenth century is No 124, ‘Of Wakefylde
and a Grene,’ 1557–58.
The earliest known copy of Robin Hood’s Garland is one
in the Bodleian Library, Wood, 79, printed for W. Gilbertson,
1663. This contains seventeen ballads. An edition
of 1670, in the same library, Douce, H. 80, for Coles, Vere
and Wright, omits the first of these, a version of Robin Hood
and Queen Katherine which is found nowhere else. There
is an edition, printed by J. M. for J. Clarke, W. Thackeray,
and T. Passinger, among Pepys’s Penny Merriments, vol.
iii, and Gutch had a copy, printed for the same, to which
he gives the date 1686. Garlands of the eighteenth century
increase the number of ballads to twenty-seven.
42. In the Stationers’ Registers, 1562–63, Arber, I, 204, ‘a
ballett of Robyn Hod’ is licensed to John Alde. The best
one would expect of this would be a better copy of some later
broadside. ‘Robyn Hode in Barnysdale stode’ is the first
line of a mock-song introduced into the Morality of the Four
Elements (which alludes to the discovery of America “within
this xx. yere”): Halliwell, Percy Society, vol. xxii, p. 51.
It is mentioned (“As R. H.,” etc.) in Udall’s translation of
Erasmi Apothegmata, 1542: Hazlitt, Handbook, pp 513 f.
This line, Ritson observes, has been repeatedly cited, singularly
enough, in law-cases (and always misquoted: in
Barnwood stood, in Barnwell stood, upon Greendale stood):
Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1832, I, lxxxix ff. We find “Robyn
stode in Bernesdale,” Gest, 31; also, “As Robin Hood in the
forest stood,” No 138, 21; “When Robin Hood in the greenwood
stood,” No 141, 11, both texts very much later than the
interlude. It is not strictly necessary to assume, as Ritson
does, that the line belongs to a lost ballad; it may be from
some older text of one that we have.
43. Knights and squires are exempted in the Gest, 14, inconsistently
with 7, and, as to knights, with the tenor of
what follows.
44. Bower, as above. The writer in the L. & W. Review
does not distinguish Fordun and Bower.
45. Lieut.-Col. Prideaux states the resemblances between
the story of Fulk Fitz Warine and that of Robin Hood, in
an interesting article in Notes and Queries, 7th series, II,
421 ff, and suggests that the latter has borrowed from the
former. Undoubtedly this might be, but both may have
borrowed from the common stock of tradition.
46. The Pinder of Wakefield became, according to his ballad,
one of Robin Hood’s men, but is not heard of in any
other. Will Stutly is also one in No 141; Clifton, No
145; David of Doncaster, No 152. Robin Hood assumes
the name Locksley in No 145, and by a blunder Locksley is
made one of his men in 147 and 153. Scarlet and Scathlock
are made two in the Earl of Huntington plays. Grafton
says that the name of William of Goldesborough was
graven, among others, with that of Robin Hood on Robin’s
tombstone: Chronicle, I, 222, ed. 1809. Ritson says that
Munday makes Right-hitting Brand one of the band: I
have not observed this.
47. Robin Hood presents the friar with a “lady free,” not
named, who may be meant for a degraded Maid Marian,
such as Falstaff refers to in 1 Henry IV, III, iii, 129.
48. Stow, Survay of London, 1598, p. 72, in Ritson’s excellent
note EE, Robin Hood, I, cix ff, ed. 1832, which contains
almost all the important information relative to the
subject. Stow adds that in consequence of a riot on Mayday,
1517, the great Mayings and May-games were not after
that time “so freely used as afore.”
49. These are the people’s sports. Hall, fol. lvi, b, cited
by Ritson, gives an account of a Maying devised by the
guards for the entertainment of Henry VIII and his queen,
in 1516. The king and queen, while riding with a great
company, come upon a troop of two hundred yeomen in
green. One of these, calling himself Robin Hood, invites
the king to see his men shoot, and then to an outlaws-breakfast
of venison. The royal party, on their return home,
were met by a chariot drawn by five horses, in which sat
“the Lady May accompanied with Lady Flora,” who saluted
the king with divers songs.
51. The last two lines are to be understood, I apprehend,
exclusively of the May, and the lord and lady mean Lord
and Lady of the May. The Lord of Misrule, “with his
hobby-horses, dragons, and other ántiques,” used to go to
church: Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses, ed. Furnivall, p. 147.
Myselfe remembreth of a childe, in contreye native mine,
A Maygame was of Robyn Hood, and of his traine, that time,
To traine up young men, stripplings, and eche other younger childe,
In shooting; yearely this with solempne feast was by the guylde
Or brotherhood of townsmen don, etc.
Richard Robinson, 1553, in Ritson, p. cxii f, ed. 1832.
53. A Christmas game of very modern date is described in
The Mirror, XXVI, 42, in which there was a troop of morris-dancers
with Robin Hood and Maid Marian; and also Beelzebub
and his wife. Cited by Kuhn, Haupt’s Zeitschrift, V,
481.
54. The entries in the Kingston accounts for 28 and 29
Henry VIII, if they refer to the morris-dance only, would
show the morris to be constituted as follows:
(28 Henry VIII.) Four dancers, fool, Maid Marian, friar,
and piper. A minstrel is also mentioned.
(29 Henry VIII.) Friar, Maid Marian, Morian (Moor?),
four dancers, fool. This entry refers to the costume of the
characters, which may account for the omission of the piper.
Lysons, Environs of London, I, 228 f.
55. It need hardly be remarked that the morris was neither
an exclusively English dance nor exclusively a May-game
dance. A Flemish morris, delineated in an engraving dated
1460–70, has for personages a lady, fool, piper, and six
dancers: Douce, p. 446 f. In Robert Laneham’s description
of a bride-ale at Kenilworth, 1575, there is a morris-dance,
“according to the ancient manner,” in the which the parties
are Maid Marian, the fool, and six dancers: Furnivall,
Captain Cox, p. 22 f. A painting of about 1625 has a morris-dance
of seven figures, a Maid Marian, fool, piper, hobby-horse,
and three dancers. A tract, of Elizabeth’s time, speaks
of “a quintessence, beside the fool and the Maid Marian,
of all the picked youth, footing the morris about a Maypole,”
to the pipe and tabor, and other music; and a poem of 1614
describes a country morris-dance of a fool, Maid Marian,
hobby-horse, and piper: Ellis’s Brand, p. 206 f.
56. The well-to-do Codrus says to the starving Menalcas,
who has been venting his spleen against “rascolde” rivals,
‘Yet would I gladly heare some mery fit
Of Maide Marian, or els of Robin Hood.’
Codrus is here only suggesting themes which would be
agreeable to him. We are not to deduce from his words
that there were ballads about Maid Marian. But if there
had been, they would have been distinct from ballads about
Robin Hood.
57. See Monmerqué et Michel, Théatre Français au Moyen
Age, 1842, Notice sur Adam de la Halle, pp 27 ff, the songs,
pp 31 ff, the play, pp 102 ff; Ducange, Robinetus. Henryson’s
Robin and Ma’kyne was undoubtedly suggested by
the French pastorals.
58. I must invoke the spirit of Ritson to pardon the taking
of no very serious notice of Robin Hood’s noble extraction.
The first mention of this seems to be in Grafton’s Chronicle,
1569. Grafton says: In an olde and auncient pamphlet I
finde this written of the sayd Robert Hood. This man,
sayth he, discended of a noble parentage; or rather, beyng
of a base stocke and linage, was for his manhoode and chiualry
aduaunced to the noble dignitie of an erle.... But afterwardes
he so prodigally exceeded in charges and expences
that he fell into great debt, by reason whereof so many
actions and sutes were commenced against him, wherevnto
he aunswered not, that by order of lawe he was outlawed,
etc.: I, 221, ed. 1809. (Some such account furnished a
starting-point for Munday.) Leland also, Ritson adds, has
expressly termed him “nobilis” (Ro: Hood, nobilis ille
exlex), Collectanea, I, 54, ed. 1770, and Warner, in Albion’s
England (1586), p. 132, ed. 1612, calls him a “county”:
Those daies begot some mal-contents, the principall of whom
A countie was, that with a troop of yeomandry did roam.
Ritson also cites the Sloane MS., 715, “written, as it
seems, toward the end of the sixteenth century;” and Harleian
MS., 1233, which he does not date, but which is of the
middle of the seventeenth century. Against the sixteenth-century
testimony, so to call it, we put in that of the early
ballads, all of which describe Robin as a yeoman, the Gest
emphasizing the point.
59. The Edinburgh Review, LXXXVI, 123 (with a slight
correction in one instance), mostly from Ritson, I, cix,
cxxvi ff, 1832, and from Wright’s Essays, etc., II, 209 f,
1846. Of course the list might be extended: there are some
additions in The Academy, XXIV, 231, 1883, and four Robin
Hood’s wells in Yorkshire alone are there noted.
60. A Robin Hood’s Stone, near Barnsdale, of what description
we are not told, is mentioned in an account of a progress
made by Henry VII, and Robin Hood’s Well, in the
same region, in an account of a tour made in 1634: Hunter’s
Robin Hood, p. 61. The well is also mentioned by
Drunken Barnaby. A Robin Hood’s Hill is referred to in
Vicars’ account of the siege of Gloucester in 1643: The
Academy, XXIV, 231.
61. Gough, in the Gentleman’s Magazine, March 8, 1793,
cited by Gutch. Wright has, somewhat naively, furnished
his own refutation: “A large tumulus we know well in our
own county, near Ludlow in Shropshire, which is also called
Robin Hood’s But, and which affords us a curious instance
how new stories were often invented to account for a name
whose original import was forgotten. The circumstances,
too, in this case, prove that the story was of late invention.
The barrow, as regarded superstitiously, had borne the name
of Robin Hood. On the roof of one of the chancels of the
church of Ludlow, which is called Fletchers’ chancel, as having
been, when ‘the strength of England stood upon archery,’
the place where the fletchers held their meetings, and
which is distant from the aforesaid barrow two miles, or two
miles and a half, there stands an iron arrow, as the sign of
their craft. The imagination of the people of the place,
after archery and fletchers had been forgotten, and when
Robin Hood was known only as an outlaw and a bowman,
made a connection between the barrow (from its name) and
the chancel (from the arrow on its roof), and a tale was invented
how the outlaw once stood upon the former and took
aim at the weathercock on the church steeple; but the distance
being a little too great, the arrow fell short of its
mark, and remained up to the present day on the roof of the
chancel.” (Essays, I, 209 f.)
A correspondent of The Academy, XXIV, 181, remarks
that one of the Anglo-Saxon charters in Kemble’s Codex
Diplomaticus mentions a “place” in Worcestershire called
Hódes ác (now Hodsoak), that there is a village in Nottinghamshire
called Hodsock, that it is improbable that two men
living in districts so widely apart should each have given
his name to an oak-tree, and that therefore we may safely
conclude Hód to be a mythical personage. Somebody’s tree
is given as a boundary mark more than thirty times in these
charters, somebody’s thorn at least ten times, somebody’s oak
at least five times. How often such a mark might occur in
connection with any particular name would depend upon the
frequency of the name. Hód or Hóde is cited thirteen
times by Kemble, and few names occur oftener. The name,
we may infer, was relatively as common then as it is in
our century, which has seen three Admiral Hoods (who, by
virtue of being three, may be adjudged as mythical by and
by) and one poet Hood alive together. Why may not three
retired wícings and one scóp, of the name, have been living
in Berks, Hants, Wilts, and Worcestershire in the tenth century?
62. Plot’s History of Staffordshire, p. 434, cited in Ellis’s
Brand, I, 383; The Mirror, XX, 419, cited by Kuhn, Haupt’s
Zeitschrift, V, 474 f. The Kentish sport is also described
in the Rev. W. D. Parish’s Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect,
p. 77, under Hoodening.
63. In West Worcestershire h is put for w, “by an emphatic
speaker,” in such words as wood, wool: Mrs Chamberlain’s
Glossary. Hood for wood occurs in East Sussex;
also in Somerset, according to Halliwell’s Dictionary.
The derivation of Hood from wood has often been suggested:
as by Peele, in his Edward I, “Robin of the Wood,
alias Robin Hood,” Works, Dyce, I, 162. The inventive
Peck was pleased always to write Robin Whood.
64. The Hobby-Horse, Schimmel, Fastnachtspferd, Herbstpferd,
Adventspferd, Chevalet, Cheval Mallet, is maintained
by Mannhardt to be figurative of the Corn-Sprite, Korndämon;
nichts anderes als das Kornross, Vegetationsross, nicht
aber eine Darstellung Wodans, wie man nach Kuhns Vorgang
jetzt allgemein annimmt: Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschungen, in Quellen u. Forschungen, LI, p. 165. “Man
sieht den Ungrund der bei deutschen Mythologen so beliebten
Identifizierung von Robin Hood und Wodan:” Mannhardt,
Wald- u. Feldkulte, I, 546, note 3.
65. The reasoning, in the instance of Robin Hood, has been
signally loose and incautious; still, the general conclusion
finds ready acceptance with mythologists, on one ground or
another, and deductions are made with the steadiness of a
geometer. Robin Hood, being one of the “solar heroes,”
“has his faint reflection in Little John, who stands to him
in the same relation as Patroclus to Achilles,” etc. “Maid
Marian will therefore be the dawn-maiden, to be identified
with Briseis,” etc. “Friar Tuck is one of the triumvirate
who appear also in the Cloudesly and Tell legends,” etc.
And again, by an interpreter of somewhat different views:
“though a considerable portion of this story is ultimately
derived from the great Aryan sun-myth, there is the strongest reason for believing that the Anglian Hód was not originally
a solar personage, but a degraded form of the God of
the Wind, Hermes-Woden. The thievish character of this
divinity explains at once why his name should have been
chosen as the popular appellation of an outlaw chief.” (The
Academy, XXIV, 250, 384.)
The Potter in the later Play of Robin Hood (not in the
corresponding ballad) wears a rose garland on his head. So
does a messenger in the history of Fulk Fitz Warine,
Wright, p. 78, not to mention other cases referred to by Ritson,
Robin Hood, II, 200, ed. 1832. Fricke, Die Robin-Hood
Balladen, p. 55, surmises that the rose garland worn by the
Potter may be a relic of the strife between Summer and
Winter; and this view, he suggests, would tend to confirm
“the otherwise well-grounded hypothesis” that Robin Hood
is a mythological personage.
66. “Desde la última década del siglo xvi hasta pocos años
hace, no eran ya los héroes del pueblo ni los Bernardos, ni
los Cides, ni los Pulgares, ni los Garcilasos, ni los Céspedes,
ni los Paredes, porque su pueblo estaba muerto ó trasformado
en vulgo, y este habia sustituido á aquellos los guapos
Francisco Estéban, los Correas, los Merinos, los Salinas, los
Pedrajas, los Montijos.” (Duran, p. 389, note.)
67. Bernardo del Montijo, Duran, No 1342, kills an alcalde
at the age of eighteen, “con bastante causa:” upon which
phrase Duran observes, “para el vulgo era bastante causa, sin
duda, el ser alcalde.” Beginning with so much promise of
spirit, he afterwards, in carrying off his mistress, who was
about to be wedded against her will, kills six constables, a
corregidor, the bridegroom, and a captain of the guard. For
differences, compare the English broadside R. H. and Allen-a-Dale,
No 138.
68. “Doch sind sie meist ohne grossen poetischen Werth,
nur als Zeugniss für die Denkweise des Volkes über die ‘armen
Bursche,’ die es lange nicht für so grosse Verbrecher
hält als der Staat, und die es, ihre Vorurtheile theilend, im
Gegentheile oft als kühne Freiheitshelden betrachtet, die
gegen grössere oder kleinere Tyrannen sich zu erheben und
denselben zu trotzen wagen, und als ungerecht verfolgte
Söhne seines Stammes in Schutz nimmt gegen die fremden
Gesetzvollstrecker.” (Aigner, Ungarische Volksdichtungen,
p. xxvi f.)
69. J. Hunter (Critical and Historical Tracts, No IV),
whom I follow here, shows that Barnsdale was peculiarly
unsafe for travellers in Edward the First’s time. Three ecclesiastics,
conveyed from Scotland to Winchester, had a
guard, sometimes of eight archers, sometimes of twelve, or,
further south, none at all; but when they passed from
Pontefract to Tickhill, the number was increased to twenty,
propter Barnsdale: p. 14.
70. Hunter suspects that the Nottinghamshire knight, Sir
Richard at the Lee, in the latter half of the Gest, was originally
a different person from the knight in the former half,
“the knight of the Barnsdale ballads,” p. 25. Fricke makes
the same suggestion, Die Robin-Hood Balladen, p. 19. This
may be, but the reasons offered are not quite conclusive.
71. And so, as to Nottingham and Barnsdale, in No 118;
and perhaps No 121, for the reference to Wentbridge, st. 6,
would imply that Robin Hood is in Barnsdale rather than
Sherwood.
72. I say Barnsdale, though the place is not specified, and
though Sherwood would remove or reduce the difficulty as
to distance. We have nothing to do with Sherwood in the
Gest: a rational topography is out of the question. In the
seventh fit the king starts from Nottingham, 365, walks
“down by yon abbey,” 368, and ere he comes to Nottingham,
370, falls in with Robin, 375.
73. This was a custom of Arthur’s only upon certain holidays,
according to the earlier representation, but in later
accounts is made general. For romances, besides these
mentioned at I, 257, in which this way of Arthur’s is noted
(Rigomer, Jaufré, etc.), see Gaston Paris, Les Romans en
vers du Cycle de la Table Ronde, Histoire Litt. de la
France, XXX, 49.
74. Pothouis Liber de Miraculis S. D. G. Mariæ, c. 33, p.
377; Vincentius B., Speculum Hist., vii. c. 82.Mussafia,
Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akad., Phil.-Hist. Classe,
CXIII, 960–91, notes nine Latin copies, besides that attributed
to Potho, in MSS mostly of the 13th century. Gautier
de Coincy, ed. Poquet, cols. 543–52; Adgar’s Marienlegenden,
Neuhaus, p. 176, No 29; Miracles de Nostre Dame par
Personnages, G. Paris et U. Robert, VI, 171–223, No 35;
Romania, VIII, 16, No 3 (Provençal). Berceo, in Sanchez,
II, 367, No 23. Unger, Mariu Saga, No 15, pp. 87–92, 1064–67.
Mone’s Anzeiger, VIII, col. 355, No 8, as a broadside
ballad. Afanasief, Skazki, vii, No 49, as a popular tale,
the Jew changed to a Tartar, and the Cross taken as surety,
Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 27. “God-borg” in Alfred’s
Laws, c. 33, Schmid, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, p.
88 f., was perhaps only an asseveration with an invocation of
the Deity, like the Welsh “briduw.” And so “Ich wil dir
got ze bürgen geben,” “Got den wil ich ze bürgen han,”
in the Ritter v. Staufenberg, vv. 403, 405, Jänicke, Altdeutsche
Studien.
75. Le Doctrinal de Sapience, fol. 67 b, cited by Legrand,
is not to the purpose. Scala Celi refers to a Speculum
Exemplorum.
In Peele’s Edward I, the friar, having lost five nobles at
dice to St Francis, pays them to St Francis’ receiver; but
presently wins a hundred marks of the saint, and makes the
receiver pay. (The story has in one point a touch of the
French fabliau.) Peele’s Works, ed. Dyce, I, 157–61.
77. 435. The three in 433, as in 416, is for rhyme, and
need not be taken strictly.
78. Critical and Historical Tracts, No IV, Robin Hood, p.
28 ff.
79. Think of Robin as light porter,—Robin who had been
giving and taking buffets that might fell an ox. Think of
him as worn out with the work in eleven months, and
dropped for disability. Think of his being put on threepence
a day, after paying his yeomen at thrice the rate, 171,
not to speak of such casual gratuities as we hear of in 382.
“There is in all this, perhaps, as much correspondency as
we can reasonably expect between the record and the ballad,”
says Hunter, p. 38.
80. Hunter asks if it is not possible to find in this Robert
Hood of Wakefield, near Barnsdale, “the identical person
whose name has been so strangely perpetuated.” This Robert
Hood would be a person of some consideration, and he
would thus be qualified “for his station among the vadlets
of the crown,”—three-penny vadlets, Great Hob, Little
Coll, Robert Trash, and their fellows. The Wakefield
Robert’s wife was named Matilda, “and the ballad testimony
is—not the Little Gest, but other ballads of uncertain
antiquity,—that the outlaw’s wife was named Matilda,
which name she exchanged for Marian when she joined him
in the green-wood.” (Pp 46–48.) Hunter has made a trivial
mistake about Matilda: she belongs to Munday’s play, and
not to the ballads (ballad) he has in mind.
81. The sheriff flees from Barnsdale “towards his house
in Nottingham,” in stanza 57. In fact, though these places
are fifty miles apart, this ballad treats them as adjacent.
See p. 50 f.
82. Formerly among Sir John Fenn’s papers (for the history
of which see Gairdner, Paston Letters, I, vii. ff); now
in the possession of Mr William Aldis Wright, of Trinity
College, Cambridge. The fragment, Mr Wright informs
me, is written on a paper which was evidently the last half-leaf
of a folio MS. On the back are various memoranda,
and among them this: Itm. Rd of Rechard Wytway, penter
[or peuter], for hes hosse rent, in full payment, lx [ix?] s’,
the vij day of November, aº Ed. iiijti xv \[1475]. The grammatical
forms of themselves warrant our putting the composition
further back. This interesting relic has already been
printed in Notes and Queries, First Series, XII, 321, from
a very incorrect copy made by Dr Stukely. It is given here
from a transcript made for me by Henry Bradshaw, of honored
memory. Mr Wright has compared this with the
original, and given me the history of the paper, so far as
known.
This paper, as far as we can see, came into Sir John
Fenn’s hands in company with the Paston Letters. In a letter
of the date 1473, Sir John Paston writes: W. Woode,
whyche promysed ... he wold never goo fro me, and ther
uppon I have kepyd hym thys iii yer to pleye Seynt Jorge,
and Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Nottyngham, and now,
when I wolde have good horse, he is gone into Bernysdale,
and I without a keeper. Fenn, Original Letters, etc., 1787,
II, 134, cited by Ritson; Gairdner, Paston Letters, III, 89.
The play cited above might be called one of Robin Hood
and the Sheriff of Nottingham, and may possibly have been
the very one in which William Wood was used to perform,
before he went “into Barnysdale,” that is, ran away from
service.
83. The [d]oo in the last line is not quite certain. I am
not sure that the parts are always rightly assigned in the
third dialogue.
84. Norray should be Nornee, or Norny, the name of a
court fool. He is mentioned in James IV’s Treasurer’s Accounts,
1503–12. See Laing’s Dunbar, II, 307 f. Allan
Bell being sly at shot, it is probable that Allan is miswritten
in the MS. for Adam.
85. The gap at 302 occurs between two pages, and is peculiarly
regrettable. The former reading of “Robyns men” in
301 made matters much worse, since there was no way of accounting
for the appearance of his men at this point. We
must suppose that some one of Robin’s many friends carries
the news of his capture to his band, and not simply that;
with this there must have come information that their leader
was to be held to await knowledge of the king’s pleasure,
otherwise delay would be dangerous, and summary measures
for his deliverance be required.
86. The porter or warden, in such cases, may commonly
look to have his neck wrung, to be thrown over the wall,
into a well, etc.: compare Adam Bell, st. 65; Jock o the
Side, sts 13, 14; the Tale of Gamelyn, Skeat, v. 303–05;
Fulk Fitz Warine, Wright, pp 44, 82 f; King Horn. ed.
Wissmann, vv 1097–99; Romance de don Gaiferos, F. Wolf,
Ueber eine Sammlung spanischer Romanzen, p. 76, Wolf y
Hofmann, Primavera, II, 148, No 174; etc.
87. En le temps de Averyl e May, quant les prees e les
herbes reverdissent, et chescune chose vivaunte recovre vertue, beaute e force, les mountz e les valeys retentissent des
douce chauntz des oseylouns, e les cuers de chescune gent,
pur la beaute du temps e la sesone, mountent en haut e
s’enjolyvent, etc.: Wright, Warton Club, 1855, p. 1; Stevenson,
Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum, etc.,
p. 277.
88. Already cited at p. 41. Bower wrote 1441–47, and died
1449: Skene, Johannis de Fordun Chronica, pp xv, xli.
‘Du chevalier qui ooit la messe, et Notre-Dame estoit
pour lui au tournoiement,’ Barbazan et Méon, Fabliaux,
1808, I, 86.
90. These resemblances are noted by Fricke, Die Robin
Hood Balladen, a dissertation, reprinted in Archiv für das
Studium der neueren Sprachen (vol. 69), in which the relations
of the ballads in question are discussed with sagacity
and vigilance.
91. “You shall never hear more of me” might mean something
stronger, but it is unlikely that Will is so touchy as
to throw up fealty for a testy word from a sick man. A
stanza or more seems to be lost here. Arthur is equally
hasty with Gawain. He makes his vow to be the bane of
Cornwall King. It is an unadvised vow, says Gawain.
And then bespake him noble Arthur,
And these were the words said he:
Why, if thou be afraid, Sir Gawaine the gay,
Goe home, and drink wine in thine own country.
I, 285, sts 33–35.
92. John is again his sole companion when Robin goes in
search of Guy of Gisborne. The yeoman in stanza 3 should
be Red Roger; but a suspicion has more than once come
over me that the beginning of this ballad has been affected
by some version of Guy of Gisborne.
93. I can make nothing of “give me mood,” in 231,2. ‘Give
me God’ or ‘Give me my God,’ seems too bold a suggestion:
at any rate I have no example of God used simply for housel.
94. A few verses are wanting at the end. The “met-yard”
of the last line is one of the last things we should think
Robin would care for.
95. It seemed to me at one time that there was a direction
to shoot an arrow to determine the place of a grave also in
No 16, A 3, I, 185.
Now when that ye hear me gie a loud cry,
Shoot frae thy bow an arrow, and there let me lye.
But upon considering the corresponding passage in 16 B,
C, and in 15 B, the idea seems rather to be, that the arrow
is to leave the bow at the moment when the soul shoots
from the body.
96. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 46, who cites
B 17, 18. Mr Ralston observes that most of the so-styled
Robber Songs of the Russians are reminiscences of the revolt
of the Don Cossacks against Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich.
Stenka Razín, the chief of the insurgents, after setting for
several years the forces of the Tsar at defiance, was put to a
cruel death in 1672: p. 45, as above.
97. The personage may have been varied in the broadside
ballads to catch the pence of tanners, tinkers, and the
rest; or possibly some member of the respective fraternities
might do this for the glory of his craft. A parallel case
seems to be afforded by the well-known German ballad,
‘Der Zimmergesell und die junge Markgräfin,’ which is
also sung of a journeyman shoemaker, tailor, locksmith,
etc.; as remarked by A. Grün, Robin Hood, Ein Balladenkranz,
p. 47 f.
98. Fricke, Die Robin-Hood-Balladen, p. 20 f, suggests a
ballad of Robin Hood and the Sheriff (How Robin took revenge
for the sheriff’s setting a price on his head), which
may have been blended with another, of the Rescue of a
Knight, to form the sixth fit of The Gest; and points to
st. 329 of the Gest, ‘Robyn Hode walked in the forest,’ etc.,
as the probable beginning of such a ballad.
99. b would have taken precedence of a, having been
printed earlier (1607–41), but I am at liberty only to collate
Pepys copies. The Wood copies of Robin Hood ballads are
generally preferable to the Pepys.
100. “A wet weary man,” A 71, should probably be “wel
weary.” Why should R. H. be wet? And if wet, he may
as well be a little wetter.
101. Like terms are assured the cook by John in the Gest,
sts 170, 171, and offered the Tanner by Robin Hood, R. H.
and the Tanner, st. 26. Cf. Adam Bell, sts 163–65.
The ‘Life’ in the Sloane MS., which is put not much before
1600, says: He procurd the Pynner of Wakefeyld to
become one of his company, and a freyr called Muchel;
though some say he was an other kynd of religious man, for
that the order of freyrs was not yet sprung up.
102. Curtilarius (Old English curtiler) qui curtile curat aut
incolit: Ducange.
103. I suppose that it must already have been pointed out
that the story of King Ramiro, versified by Southey from
the Portuguese, Poetical Works, 1838, VI, 122, is a variety
of that of Solomon. There are curious points of resemblance
between ‘R. H. rescuing Three Squires’ and the conclusion
of the story of Solomon.
104. Dodsley’s Old Plays, 4th ed., by W. C. Hazlitt, VIII,
195, 232.
105. A very serious offence: see E. Peacock, Hales and
Furnivall, Percy Folio Manuscript, I, lxii, note to p. 34.
106. Further on, Brathwayte alludes to a difference between
Robin Hood and the Shoemaker of Bradford, which had
been treated of by stage-poets. This refers to the fight
that Robin Hood and George a Green have with the shoemakers,
in chap. xii of the History (Thoms, p. 52 f), which
is introduced into Robert Greene’s play (Dyce, p. 199 f),
but only George does the fighting there. It is mere carelessness
when Munday, ‘Downfall,’ etc., applies the name
of George a Greene to the Shoemaker of Bradford (Hazlitt,
as above, p. 151). In the same play and the same scene
he makes Scathlock and Scarlet two persons.
107. Robin Hood Newly Revived (which, by the way, is in the
same bad style as Robin Hood and Little John) is directed
to be sung ‘to a delightful new Tune.’ The tune, as is seen
from the burden, was that of Arthur a Bland, etc., called in
Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon (the Second Part of
Robin Hood Newly Revived) Robin Hood, or Hey down,
down a down. The earliest printed copy of the air is preserved
in the ballad-opera of The Jovial Crew, 1731 (Rimbault,
in Gutch’s Robin Hood, II, 433, Chappell’s Popular
Music, p. 391), and the song which is there sung to it
has middle rhyme in the first line as well as the third, which
is the case with no Robin Hood ballad except Robin Hood
and the Peddlers.
Robin Hood and Maid Marian, which has the middle
rhyme in the third line, is directed to be sung to Robin Hood
Revived. Robin Hood and the Scotchman, as already said,
has middle rhyme in the third line; so have The King’s
Disguise, etc., R. H. and the Golden Arrow, R. H. and the
Valiant Knight; but the tune assigned to the last is Robin
Hood and the Fifteen Foresters, that is, Robin Hood’s Progress
to Nottingham.
It ought to be added that Robin Hood Newly Revived is
found in the Garland of 1663, in company with R. H. and
the Bishop, R. H. and the Butcher, etc., and that Robin
Hood and Little John is not there; but I do not consider
this circumstance sufficient to offset the probability in favor
of the supposition, that by Robin Hood and the Stranger
is meant Robin Hood and Little John.
108. Fourteen foot, as proved by his bones, preserved, according
to Hector Boece, in the kirk of Pette, in Murrayland.
See Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1832, I, cxxxii f; and Gutch,
II, 112, note *.
109. The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood, No 132, is a traditional
variation of Robin Hood Revived.
110. Though Mr W. C. Hazlitt, in his Handbook to the Popular,
Poetical, and Dramatic Literature of Great Britain, p.
514, No 25, has: “Robin Hood and the Stranger. In two
parts. [Col.] London: printed by and for W. O., and to be
sold at the booksellers. Roxb. and Wood Colls.” This
colophon belongs only to Robin Hood, Will Scadlock, and
Little John, otherwise Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon,
which see. The title Robin Hood and the Stranger
is adopted from Ritson.
111. ‘Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon,’ in Thackeray’s
list, Ballad Society, I, xxiv, and in the late Garlands,
1749, etc.
113. Mr E. Maunde Thompson, Keeper of the Manuscripts
in the British Museum, in an obliging letter to Harvard College
Library, and in The Academy, 1885, March 7, p. 170.
No 8 C of this collection is in this manuscript.
114. A verse in the passage from Drayton’s Polyolbion,
Song xxvi, cited by Ritson, I, viii of Robin Hood, 1795,
may refer to this version of the ballad: “The widow in
distress he graciously relievd.”
115. In st. 2 Robin is in his proper Lincoln green. He wears
scarlet red again in No. 141, st. 6 and in No 145, st. 18, his
men being in green.
116. Fricke has observed this, pp 59, 69, and at p. 58 the
resemblance to Wallace.
117. Even the author of A seems not to be aware that
Much, the Miller’s Son, is the standing name of one of
Robin Hood’s men, and therefore would not answer for a
disguise. In B, C, nothing is expressly said about the
change of names, and in fact this arrangement seems not
to be understood, since in B 211 Clifton is spoken of as one
Clifton. Comparing B 33, 34, 37, we see that Clifton
should be Little John, but Midge, the Miller’s Son, himself,
not Scathlock, still less John.
118. Also says Ritson, Robin Hood, II, 97, by Francis Coule,
13th June, 1631; but the ballad there entered is The Noble
Fisherman.
119. Robin Hood, ed. 1832, p. xxxvi, note, p. lxxxvii.
120. The mutilated parts are supplied, to a slight extent,
from a copy in the Bodleian Library (L. 78. Art., 5th
tract), which happens to be injured on the right side of the
title-page in nearly the same places as the Museum copy,
and also has the lower portion cut off, to the loss of the
printer’s name; the rest from an edition printed for J.
Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1686. Mr J. P.
Collier possessed a copy with the same imprint as that of
the Museum, which he lent Gutch, and which Gutch says
he used for his text. If Gutch followed the Collier copy,
then that was not identical with the Museum copy. Ritson
reprinted the text of 1686.
121. “Now, under this precise gentleman’s favor, one would
be glad to know what these same superstitious words were;
there not being anything of the kind in Dr Gale’s copy,
which seems to be the original, and which is shorter by two
lines than the above. Thirteen should be thirty.” Ritson,
Robin Hood, ed. 1832, II, 127 f. For the epitaph and the
gravestone, see the same volume, pp. liv-lvii.
122. Percy: “As for Mirryland Town, it is probably a corruption
of Milan (called by the Dutch Meylandt) town; the
Pa is evidently the river Po, although the Adige, not the
Po, runs through Milan.” B, 1 is unintelligible. Do the
lads run down the Pa?
123. In J, 4, he will be beaten for losing his ball. In the Irish
F, 8, the mother takes a little rod in her hand, meaning to
bate him for staying so long: cf. J 10, N 4, 12,and the
last verse of T. Hood’s ‘Lost Heir.’
124. Dem Volke war die Glocke nicht herzlos; sie war ihm
eine beseelte Persönlichkeit, und stand als solche mit dem
Menschen in lebendigem Verkehr.... Die Glocken ...
scheinen auch von höheren Mächten berührt zu werden;
sie sprechen wie Gottesstimmen, ertönen oft von selbst, als
Mahnung von oben, als Botschaft vom Tode bedeutender
Personen, als Wahrzeichen der Unschuld eines Angeklagten,
zur Bewährung der Heiligkeit eines von Gott erwählten
Rüstzeugs. Uhland, Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung
u. Sage, VIII, 588 f.
125. Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, II, 346 ff. “From 1219
to 1266 the MS. was written contemporaneously with the
events described, from year to year:” p. xxxvi.
126. Chronica Majora, ed. Luard, V, 516–19. Matthew
Paris died in 1259.
127. Seventy-one were thus reserved, but escaped, by the use
of money or by the intercession of the Franciscans, or both.
See the same volume, p. 546; but also the account which
follows, from the Annals of Burton.
128. Annales de Burton, in Annales Monastici, Luard, I,
340–48. Hugh of Lincoln is commemorated in the Acta
Sanctorum, July (27), VI, 494.
129. Michel, Hugues de Lincoln, etc., from a MS. in the
“Bibliothèque royale, No 7268, 3. 3. A. Colb. 3745, fol.
135, rº, col. 1.” Reprinted by Halliwell, Ballads and
Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln, p. 1, and from Halliwell
by Hume, Sir Hugh of Lincoln, etc., p. 43 ff. In
stanzas 13, 75, there is an invocation in behalf of King
Henry (Qui Deu gard et tenge sa vie!), which implies that
he is living. The ballad shows an acquaintance with the
localities.
130. “A la gule de aust.” The day, according to the Annals
of Burton, was the vigil of St Peter ad vincula. We
find in Henschel’s Ducange, “ad festum S. Petri, in gula
Augusti,” and “le jour de feste S. Pere, en goule Aoust.”
Strictly taken, goule should be the first day, Lammas.
Peitevin was actually resident in Lincoln at the time.
“He was called Peitevin the Great, to distinguish him from
another person who bore the appellation of Peitevin the
Little. The Royal Commission issued in 1256 directs an
inquisition to be taken of the names of all those who belonged
to the school of Peytevin Magnus, who had fled on
account of his implication in the crucifixion of a Christian
boy.” London Athenæum, 1849, p. 1270 f.
131. The site of the Jewry was on the hill and about the
castle: London Athenæum, 1849, p. 1271.
132. These renegades play a like part in many similar
cases.
133. Les Jus, 821; but this is impossible, and we have li
justis in 911.
134. “Canwick is pleasantly situated on a bold eminence,
about a mile northward of Lincoln.” Allen, History of the
County of Lincoln, I, 208.
135. I do not find this story in the Basel edition of c. 1475.
136. A case cited by Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum,
2r Theil, p. 220, from Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, l.
vii, 16, differs from later ones by being a simple extravagance
of drunkenness. Some Jews in Syria, “A. D. 419,” who
were making merry after their fashion, and indulging in a
good deal of tomfoolery, began, as they felt the influence of
wine, to jeer at Christ and Christians; from which they
proceeded to the seizing of a Christian boy and tying him
to a cross. At first they were contented to make game of
him, but, growing crazy with drink, they fell to beating him,
and even beat him to death; for which they were properly
punished.
137. See the ballads ‘Vom Judenmord zu Deggendorf,’ 1337,
‘Von den Juden zu Passau,’ 1478, in Liliencron, I, 45, No
12, II, 142, No 153.
138. Nothing could be more just than these words of Percy:
“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.” Reliques,
1795, I, 32.
139. Read the indictment against Christians filed by Zunz,
Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters, pp 19–58, covering
the time from the eleventh century to the middle of the
sixteenth. It is regrettable that Zunz has not generally
cited his authorities. See also Stobbe, Die Juden in
Deutschland, p. 183 ff., and notes, p. 280 ff., where the authorities
are given.
140. In vol. viii, pp 225, 344, 476, 598, 730, vol. ix, 107, 219,
353, 472, 605, the confessions of the defendants are given
from the original minutes of the trial; and it fully appears
from these confessions that blood is requisite for a proper
performance of the Paschal ceremonies, and also that the
blood must be got from a boy, and from a boy while he is
undergoing torment. Only it is to be remembered that the
inducements to these confessions were the same as those
which led the Jews of Passau to acknowledge that blood exuded
from the Host when it was stabbed, and that when two
bits of the wafer were thrown into an oven two doves flew
out: Train, as above, p. 116, note 57.
141. For other pictures of these martyrdoms, see the Nuremberg
Chronicle, 1493, fol. ccliiii, vº, for Simon of Trent;
Lacroix, Mœurs, Usages, etc., 1875, p. 473, for Richard of
Pontoise, p. 475, for Simon, repeated from the N. Chron.;
that of Munich, 1285, and the children of Ratisbon, reproduced
in Cosmos, March 30, 1885 (according to Drumont,
II, 418, note). See also Michel, Hugues de Lincoln, p. 54,
note 41.
142. The extraordinary occurrence in Damascus in the same
year, 1840, which excited the indignation, sympathy, and
active interposition of nearly all the civilized world, requires
but the briefest allusion. A capuchin friar was in this instance
the victim immolated, and for blood to mix with the
Paschal bread. The most frightful torture was used, under
the direction of the Turkish pacha, assisted by the French
consul, under which three unhappy men succumbed. See
Illgen’s detailed account of this persecution in the periodical
and article above cited, pp. 153 ff. Drumont is of the same
mind as he would have been four or five hundred years
ago: “les faits étaient prouvés, démontrés, indiscutables”
(La France Juive, II, 411).
143. The threat implied in E 34 has no motive; and the
phrase “haly spark” in 54 is an unadvised anticipation.
144. Found also in the ballad, A Warning-Piece to England
against Pride and Wickedness: Being the Fall of Queen
Eleanor, Wife to Edward the First, King of England, who,
for her Pride, by God’s Judgments, sunk into the Ground
at Charing-Cross and rose at Queen-Hithe. A Collection of
Old Ballads, I, 97.
145. There attributed to Jacques de Vitry, but not found
in his Exempla. Professor Crane informs me that, though
the Scala Celi cites Jacques de Vitry sixty-two times, only
fourteen of such exempla occur among J. de V.’s.
146. The story does not occur in Doni’s Marmi, iii, 27, as
has been said. What is there found is somewhat after the
fashion of ‘The Baffled Knight,’ No 112.
147. Cunningham, in his loose way, talks of several fragments
which he had endeavored to combine, but can spare
room for only one couplet:
Though lame of a leg and blind of an ee,
You’re as like William Wallace as ever I did see.
But this is the William of ‘The Knight and the Shepherd’s
Daughter,’ No 110.
148. A 15, B 12, D 12, are somewhat corrupted. In F 14
Wallace says he never had a better bode. In E 10 Wallace’s
reply is, Pay down, for if your answer be not good
you shall have the downfall of Robin Hood; and in G 30,
Tell down, and ye shall see William Wallace with the downcome
of Robin Hood; that is, I suppose, you shall be knocked
down as if by Robin Hood.
149. Post enim conflictum de Roslyn, Wallace, ascensa navi,
Franciam petit, ubi quanta probitate refulsit, tam super
mare a piratis quam in Francia ab Anglis perpessus est discrimina,
et viriliter se habuit, nonnulla carmina, tam in ipsa
Francia quam Scotia, attestantur. Scotichronicon, Goodall,
II, 176, note.
150. “Thou hadst twenty ships hither, thou’st have twenty
away,” B 37. It would be more in the ballad-way were
the second twenty doubled.
151. In the London Athenæum, about twenty-five years ago,
there was (I think) a story of an Englishman in Russia
resembling Hugh Spencer’s. I have wrongly noted the
number as 1871, and have not recovered the story after
much rummaging. This ballad is not very unlike Russian
bylinas.
152. Presbyteri, fratres et clerici, sutores et mechanici,
Bower; agricolæ ac pastores, et capellani imbecilles et decrepiti,
Knyghton; miseri monachi, improbi presbyteri, porcorum
pastores, sutores et pelliparii, Chronicon de Lanercost;
clericos et pastores, Walsingham, Hist. Angl.
153. It is very doubtful whether there was an Earl of Buchan
in 1346. Henry de Beaumont, according to the peerages,
died in 1341. He was an Englishman, had fought against
the Scots at Duplin, 1332, and was after that in the service
of Edward III.
154. ‘Famous,’ the MS. reading in 141, may probably be an
error for James, which occurs so often in 28–33. William
Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, had a brother James,
but this James had been killed in 1335. He had also a
brother John, Scotichronicon and Chronicon de Lanercoste,
and the latter, as has been mentioned, puts John in Murray’s
division. Knyghton, col. 2590, gives as among the prisoners
dominus Willielmus Duglas et frater ejusdem Willielmi.
155. When William Douglas, in the Chronicle of Lanercost,
tells the king that the English are at hand, and David replies,
there is nothing in England but monks, priests, swineherds,
etc., Douglas says, ‘aliter invenietis; sunt varii validi
viri.’
156. Froissart says that the English force was in four battalions:
the first commanded by the Bishop of Durham and
Lord Percy; the second by the Archbishop of York and
Lord Neville; the third by the Bishop of Lincoln and Lord
Mowbray; the fourth by Edward Balliol and the Archbishop
of Canterbury.
158. “Froissart describes a Scottish host of the same period
as consisting of ‘.iiii. M. of armes, knightis and squiers,
mounted on good horses, and other .x. M. men of warre,
armed after their gyse, right hardy and firse, mounted on
lytle hackeneys, the whiche were never tyed nor kept at
hard meate, but lette go to pasture in the feldis and busshes.’”
Happily cited by Scott, in illustration of C 16: Lord
Berners’ translation, cap. xvii, Pynson, 1523, fol. viii.
159. A consolation as old as wise. So Paris, for himself:
νίκη δ’ ἐπαμείβεται ἄνδρας, Iliad, vi, 339.
160. Buchanan has these numbers, with the exception of
1840, for 1860, killed: ed. 1582, fol. 101. “That there was
a memorable slaughter in this affair, a slaughter far beyond
the usual proportion to the numbers engaged, cannot
be doubted; nor was there ever bloodshed more useless for
the practical ends of war. It all came of the capture of the
Percy’s pennon. The Scots might have got clear off with
all their booty; the English forgot all the precautions of
war when they made a midnight rush on a fortified camp
without knowledge of the ground or the arrangements of
their enemy. It was for these specialties that Froissart admired
it so. He saw in it a fight for fighting’s sake, a great
passage at arms in which no bow was drawn, but each man
fought hand to hand; in fact, about the greatest and bloodiest
tournament he had to record. Hence his narrative is
ever interrupted with bursts of admiration as his fancy
contemplates the delightful scene raised before it.” Burton,
History of Scotland, II, 364, ed. 1873 (who, perhaps by an
error of the press, makes the losses of the English in killed
eight hundred and forty, in place of Buchanan’s eighteen
hundred and forty).
161. Bower and Barry say St Oswald’s day, Wednesday, the
5th, Scotichronicon, II, 405, 407; Knyghton also; the continuator
of Higden’s Polychronicon, August 12, Wednesday.
The ballad, A 184, gives the day as Wednesday. There
was a full moon August 20, which makes the 19th of itself
far more probable, and Froissart says the moon was shining.
See White, Battle of Otterburn, p. 133.
162. Walsingham writes in the vein of Froissart: “Erat ibidem
cernere pulchrum spectaculum, duos tam præclaros
juvenes manus conserere et pro gloria decertare.” Walsingham
says that the English were few. Malverne puts the
Scots at 30,000, and here, as in the ballad A 35, the cronykle
does not layne (indeed, the ballad is all but accurate), if
the main body of the Scots be included, which was at first
supposed to be supporting Douglas.
163. ‘The perssee and the mongumrye met, that day, that
day, that gentil day,’ which I suppose to be either a different
reading from any that has come down, or a blending of a
line from Otterburn with one from The Hunting of the
Cheviot, A 241; indicating in either case the present ballad
only, for The Hunttis of Cheuet had been cited before.
Furnivall holds that the second line means another ballad:
Captain Cox, p. clix.
164. The History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, 1644,
p. 104.
165. For Motherwell’s views, see his Minstrelsy, li, lii, and
lxxi, note 30.
167. The burden is ‘O kiennicheinn Maria’ in the first, ‘Hilf
Maria’ in the second; in both George declines the king’s
daughter, and orders a church to be built ‘mit Mariabeild,’
or to himself and Mary. This, and perhaps the hint for
St George’s addiction to Mary altogether, is from the Golden
Legend, where the king “in honorem beatæ Mariæ et beati
Georgii ecclesiam miræ magnitudinis construxit”: Grässe,
p. 261.
168. Following in part Buchanan, who, however, says nothing
of Melrose, or of the prophecy, which is the point here.
Illa vero a vobis postrema peto: primum, vt mortem meam
et nostros et hostes cœletis; deinde, ne vexillum meum dejectum
sinatis; demum, vt meam cædem vlciscamini. Hæc
si sperem ita fore, cætera æquo animo feram. Fol. 101, ed.
1582.
169. I have not resorted to the MS. in this case, for the reason
that I could not expect to get a transcript which would
merit the confidence which must attach to one made by the
hand of Professor Skeat.
170. British Bibliographer, IV, 99 f; Wright, Songs and
Ballads, p. viii; etc.
171. The grammatical forms of the Hunting of the Cheviot
are, however, older than those of the particular copy of Otterburn
which has been preserved. The plural of the noun
is very often in -ës or -ys, as lordës, 231; longës, 371;
handdës, 601; sydis, 82; bowys, 132, 251, 291, etc., at least
sixteen cases. We find, also, sydë at 62, and possibly should
read fayllë at 93. The plural in -ës is rare in The Battle of
Otterburn: starrës, 454; swordës, 542; Skottës, 591, 621.
Probably we are to read swordës length in 553.
172. See the passage in the Memoirs of Carey, Earl of Monmouth,
referred to in Percy’s Reliques, 1765, I, 235, and
given at length in Hales and Furnivall, II, 3 f.
173. The minstrel was not too nice as to topography either:
Otterburn is not in Cheviot.
174. Tytler, History of Scotland, III, 293, though citing
only the Scotichronicon, says Sir Robert Ogle, and also
Scott, I, 270; for reasons which do not appear.
175. An Apologie for Poetrie, p. 46 of Arber’s reprint of the
first edition, 1595. For the date of the writing, 1581–85,
see Arber, p. 7 f.
176. The courtly poet deserves much of ballad-lovers for
avowing his barbarousness (one doubts whether he seriously
believed that the gorgeous Pindar could have improved
upon the ballad), but what would he not have deserved if
he had written the blind crowder’s song down!
177. Popular Music, I, 198. Chevy Chase is entered in the
Stationers’ Registers, among a large parcel of ballads, in
1624, and clearly was no novelty: Arber, IV, 131. “Had it
been printed even so early as Queen Elizabeth’s reign,” says
Percy, “I think I should have met with some copy wherein
the first line would have been, God prosper long our noble
queen.” “That it could not be much later than that time
appears from the phrase doleful dumps, which in that age
carried no ill sound with it, but to the next generation became
ridiculous. We have seen it pass uncensured in a
sonnet that was at that time in request, and where it could
not fail to have been taken notice of had it been in the least
exceptionable; see above, Book ii, song v, ver. 2 [by Richard
Edwards, 1596?]. Yet, in about half a century after, it was
become burlesque. Vide Hudibras, Pt. I, c. 3, v. 95.” Reliques,
1794, I, 268, note, 269.
The copy in the Percy MS., B a, though carelessly
made, retains, where the broadsides do not, two of the readings
of A: bade on the bent, 282; to the hard head haled
he, 454.
178. Addison was not behind any of us in his regard for traditional
songs and tales. No 70 begins: “When I travelled,
I took a particular delight in hearing the songs and fables
that are come from father to son and are most in vogue
among the common people of the countries through which
I passed; for it is impossible that anything should be universally
tasted and approved by a multitude, tho they are
only the rabble of a nation, which hath not in it some
peculiar aptness to please and gratify the mind of man.
Human nature is the same in all reasonable creatures, and
whatever falls in with it will meet with admirers amongst
readers of all qualities and conditions.”
179. A Description of the Parish of Melrose [by the Revd.
Adam Milne], Edinburgh, 1743, p. 21. Scott cites the
epitaph, with some slight variations (as “English louns”),
Appendix to The Eve of St. John, Minstrelsy, IV, 199, ed.
1833. The monument was “all broken in pieces” in
Milne’s time; seems to have been renewed and again broken
up (The Scotsman, November 12, 1873); but, judging from
Murray’s Handbook of Scotland, has again been restored.
Squire Meldrum’s valor was inferior to nobody’s, but as
his fortune was happier than Witherington’s and Lilliard’s,
a note may suffice for him. “Quhen his schankis wer
schorne in sunder, vpon his knees he wrocht greit wounder:”
Lindsay, ed. 1594, Cv. recto, v. 30 f, Hall, p. 358, v.
1349 f. But really he was only “hackit on his hochis and
theis,” or as Pittscottie says, Dalyell, p. 306, “his hochis war
cutted and the knoppis of his elbowis war strikin aff,”
and by and by he is “haill and sound” again, according to
the poet, and according to the chronicler he “leived fyftie
yeires thairefter.”
180. As stanch as some of these was a Highlander at the
battle of Gasklune, 1392, who, though nailed to the ground
by a horseman’s spear, held fast to his sword, writhed himself
up, and with a last stroke cut his foeman above the foot
to the bone, “through sterap-lethire and the bute, thre
ply or foure”: Wyntoun’s Chronicle, B. ix, ch. 14, Laing,
III, 59.
181. Legally just: Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs,
Historical and Traditionary, I, 349 ff.
182. And afterwards, 1748, by Robert Foulis, Glasgow:
“Two old Historical Scots Poems, giving an account of the
Battles of Harlaw and the Reid-Squair.”
183. Ane Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts and Pamphlets
Belonging to Robert Mylne, Wryter in Edr ., 1709:
Advocates Library. Mr Macmath, who has come to my
aid here, writes: “So far as I can make out, this catalogue
contains no MSS. It is in two divisions: 1st, Printed Books;
2d, Pamphlets. The following is in the second division,
and I understand the reference to be, year of publication,
volume, or bundle of pamphlets, number of piece in bundle
or volume:
“Harlaw The Battle yrof An: 1411 ... 1668, 79, 5.”
Mylne died in 1747, at the age, it is said, of 103 or 105:
[Maidment], A Book of Scotish Pasquils, p. 423.
185. So with The Battle of Balrinnes and The Haughs of
Cromdale. The first line of The Battle of Balrinnes is,
‘Betuixt Dunother and Aberdein.’
186. Not only were these long and affectionately remembered,
but their heirs were exempted from certain feudal
taxes, because the defeat of the Celts was regarded as a
national deliverance: Burton’s History, II, 394.
187. A macaronic ascribed to Drummond of Hawthornden.
Interea ante alios dux piperlarius heros
Præcedens, magnamque gestans cum burdine pipam,
Incipit Harlai cunctis sonare Batellum.
(Poems, Maitland Club, p. 413, after the first
dated edition of 1684.)
188. 32. Away and away and away, e, f, i, k. 121. The
first that fired it was the French, f, g, h. 124. were forced
to flee, f, i, m (first to flee, e). 143. in all French land, e,
f, g, (in our) h, m. Etc.
189. English balls again in m, tennis-balls in i, k.
190. Whose work was printed in 1850, ed. Benjamin Williams.
I am for the most part using Sir Harris Nicolas’s
excellent History of the Battle of Agincourt, 2d ed., 1832,
here; see pp. 8–13, 301 f.
191. Nicolas, p. 302 f, slightly corrected; much the same in
another copy of the poem, ib., Appendix, p. 69 f. The jest
in Henry’s reply is carried out in detail when he comes to
Harfleur, ib., pp. 308–310.
192. Nicolas, p. 10, as corrected by Hales and Furnivall, II,
161, and in one word emended by me. By several of the
above writers the Dauphin Louis is called Charles, through
confusion with his father or his younger brother.
193. The gifts are a whip (σκῦτος), a ball, and a casket of
gold. In Julius Valerius’s version, Müller, as above,
σκῦτος is rendered habena, whip or reins; in Leo’s Historia
de Preliis, ed. Landgraf, p. 54, we have virga for habena;
in Lamprecht’s Alexander, Weismann, I, 74, 1296–1301,
the habena is a pair of shoe-strings. The French romance,
Michelant, p. 52, 25 ff, to make sure, gives us both rod
(verge) and reins; the English Alexander, Weber, I, 75,
1726–28, has a top, a scourge, and a small purse of gold.
Weber has noticed the similarity of the stories, Romances,
III, 299, and he remarks that in ‘The Famous Victories of
Henry Fifth’ a carpet is sent with the tun of tennis-balls,
to intimate that the prince is fitter for carpet than camp.
194. Cheshire, Lancashire, and the Earl of Derby are made
to carry off the honors in ballad-histories of Bosworth and
Flodden: see the appendix to No 168. Perhaps the hand of
some minstrel of the same clan as the author or authors of
those eulogies may be seen in this passage.
195. Henry of Monmouth, or Memoirs of the Life and Character
of Henry the Fifth, II, 121, 197. Jewitt, Derbyshire
Ballads, p. 2, says that there is a tradition in the Peak of
Derby that Henry V would take no married man or widow’s
son, when recruiting for Agincourt; but he goes on to say
that the ballad is not unfrequently sung by the hardy sons
of the Peak, which adequately accounts for the tradition.
197. Vol. cxiii, fol. 14, Bodleian Library: cited (p. 303 f.)
in Beamont’s Annals of the Lords of Warrington, Chetham
Society, 1872, where may be found the fullest investigation
yet attempted of this obscure matter. I have freely and
thankfully used chapters 17–19 of that highly interesting
work.
198. For Lord Grey’s making the suit void, and his lady’s
resolution to be buried near Sir John, see Beamont, p. 319 f,
pp. 297–99.
200. Pennant, in the second half of the last century, heard
that both Sir Thomas and his lady were murdered in his
house by assassins, who, in the night, crossed the moat in
leathern boats. Again, Sir Peter Legh, simply, was said to
have slain Sir Thomas Butler. Sir Thomas died quietly in
his bed, and Sir Peter, who had turned priest, administered
ghostly consolations to him not long before his decease.
201. See Beamont, p. 308; and also p. 296 for another hypothesis.
203. These are duly interpreted in Hales and Furnivall.
204. Lord Strange’s hair-breadth escape is, however, perhaps
apocryphal: see Croston, County Families of Lancashire
and Cheshire, 1887, p. 25 f.
205. B begins vilely, but does not go on so ill. The forty
merchants coming ‘with fifty sail’ to King Henry on a
mountain top, 31,2, requires to be taken indulgently.
207. An approach to sense may be had by reading ‘either in
hach-bord or in hull,’ that is, by striking with his beam
either the side or the body of the vessel; but I do not think
so well of this change as to venture it.
208. The letters granted to the Bartons authorized them to
seize all Portuguese ships till repaid 12,000 ducats of Portugal.
Pinkerton, whose excellent account, everywhere
justified by documents, I have been indebted to above, remarks:
“The justice of letters of reprisal after an interval
of thirty years may be much doubted. At any rate, one
prize was sufficient for the injury, and the continuance of
their captures, and the repeated demands of our kings,
even so late as 1540, cannot be vindicated. Nay, these reprisals
on Portugal were found so lucrative that, in 1543,
Arran, the regent, gave similar letters to John Barton,
grandson of the first John. In 1563 Mary formally revoked
the letters of marque to the Bartons, because they had been
abused into piracy.” Pinkerton’s History of Scotland, II,
60 f, 70.
209. Robert was skipper of the Great Michael, a ship two
hundred and forty feet long, with sides ten feet thick, and
said to be larger and stronger than any vessel in the navy
of England or of France.
210. A mistake of Edmund for Edward and an anticipation.
Sir Edward Howard was not made admiral till the next
year. Edmund was his younger brother. Lesley has Edmund
again; Stowe has Edward.
211. Britanus. “Breton, whom our chroniclers call Barton,”
says Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Life of Henry VIII,
1649, p. 15.
212. Another anticipation. Sir Thomas Howard became
admiral only after his brother Edward’s death, in 1513.
The expedition of the Howards against Barton appears to
have been a private one, though with the consent of the
king.
213. The commissioners met, and “the wrongs done unto
Scotland many ways, specially of the slaughter of Andrew
Barton and taking of his ships, were conferred,” but the
commissioners of England would not consent to make any
redress or restitution till after a certain date when they expected
to know the issue of their king’s invasion of France.
Hereupon a herald was sent to King Henry in France, with
a letter from King James, rehearsing the great wrongs and
unkindnesses done to himself and his lieges, and among
these the slaughter of Andrew Barton by Henry’s own command,
though he had done no offence to him or his lieges;
and no satisfaction being obtained, the herald, according to
his instructions, “denounced war to the king of England,”
August, 1513. (Lesley, pp. 87–91.)
214. B 633, “Lord Howard shall Earl Bury hight.” Admiral
Thomas Howard, for his good service at Flodden and
elsewhere, was created Earl of Surrey in 1514. Bury is,
one would suppose, a corruption of Surrey, and if so, Surrey
may have been the reading of earlier copies, and perhaps
Thomas again, instead of Charles.
215. By reading midwinter in A 173 this difficulty would be
removed.
216. These beams, Henry Hunt intimates in 32, would be
dangerous to boarders, which is conceivable should they
chance to hit the right heads; but they are evidently meant
to be dropped on the adversary’s vessel, and this by a process
which is not distinctly described, and was, I fear, not
perfectly grasped by the minstrel. The veriest landsman
must think that a magazine of heavy timbers stowed in
either castle (there is an upper and a lower in the pictures
of Henry VII’s Great Harry and of Henry VIII’s Grace
de Dieu, and the lower is well up the mast) would not be
favorable to sailing; but this is a minor difficulty. Stones
and fire-balls were sometimes thrown from the topcastle,
which, properly, should be a stage at the very tip of the
mast, as we find it in old prints: see Nicolas’s History of
the Royal Navy, II, 170. Stones and iron bars thrown
from the high decks of Spanish ships did much harm to
the English in a fight in 1372: Froissart, Buchon, V,
276. An intelligible way of operating the ancient “dolphins,”
heavy masses of metal dropped from the end of a
yard, is suggested in Graser, De veterum re navali, 1864,
p. 82 f.
217. A better, but defective, copy is in the second volume of
Chetham Miscellanies, edited by Dr J. Robson, 1855.
218. Harleian MS. No 3526, date of about 1636; a printed
copy of 1664, from which the poem was edited by Weber,
Edinburgh, 1808; a printed copy of 1755–62, from a different
source, excellently edited by Charles A. Federer, Manchester,
1884. See further this last, pp. 134–37.
219. Articles of the bataill betwix the Kinge of Scottes and
the Erle of Surrey in Brankstone Feld, the 9 day of September:
State Papers, vol. iv, King Henry the Eighth,
Part iv, p. 2, 1836.
221. Who are celebrated also in three other pieces, ‘Scottish
Field,’ ‘Bosworth Field,’ and ‘Lady Bessie:’ Percy MS.,
Hales and Furnivall, I, 212, III, 235, 321.
222. “He never loved thee, for thy uncle [that is, Sir William
Stanley] slew his father” [the Duke of Norfolk];
which, however, is not true.
223. Sir Ralph Egerton is made marshal in st. 91; but this
Rowland is really Ralph over again. Ralph was knighted
at Tournay, and was granted the manor of Ridley in February
of the next year.
224. “Where they lay a long time, and left the town as they
found it:” Hall, p. 861.
226. This copy I have in MS. and have not noted, neither
can I remember, how I came by it, but it is probably a
transcript from recent print. It diverges from the ordinary
text more than any that I have seen. After 17 comes this
stanza (cf. ‘Robin Hood rescuing Three Squires,’ No 140,
B 29):
They took the gallows frae the slack,
An there they set it on a plain,
An there they hanged Johnnie Armstrong,
Wi fifty of his warlike men.
18–20, 23 are wanting. A “pretty little boy,” in what corresponds
to 21, 22, says, ‘Johnnie Armstrong you’ll never
see,’ and the lady ends the ballad with:
If that be true, my pretty little boy,
Aye the news you tell to me,
You’ll be the heir to a’my lands,
You an your young son after thee.
227. A tract on the extreme western border, beginning between
the mouths of the Sark and Esk and stretching north
and east eight miles, with a greatest breadth of four miles.
The particulars of the boundaries are given from an old
roll in Nicolson and Burn’s Westmorland and Cumberland,
I, xvi, and as follows by Mr T. J. Carlyle, The Debateable
Land, Dumfries, 1868, p. 1: “bounded on the west by the
Sark and Pingleburn, on the north by the Irvine burn,
Tarras, and Reygill, on the east by the Mereburn, Liddal,
and Esk, and on the south by the Solway Frith.” The
land was parted between England and Scotland in 1552,
with no great gain to good order for the half century succeeding.
228. It has been maintained that there was a Gilnockie
tower on the eastern side of the Esk, a very little lower
than the Hollows tower. “We can also inform our readers
that Giltknock Hall was situate on a small rocky island on
the river Esk below the Langholm, the remains of which
are to be seen:” Crito in the Edinburgh Evening Courant,
March 8, 1773. “Many vestiges of strongholds can be
traced within the parish, although there is only one, near
the new bridge already described, that makes an appearance
at this point, its walls being yet entire:” Statistical Account
of Canoby, Sinclair, XIV, 420.
Sir John Sinclair, 1795, says, in a note to this last passage, that the spot of ground at the east end of “the new
bridge” is, “indeed, called to this day, Gill-knocky, but it
does not exhibit the smallest vestige of mason-work.” Mr.
T. J. Carlyle, The Debateable Land, p. 17, gives us to
understand that the foundations of the tower were excavated
and removed when the bridge was built; but this
does not appear to be convincingly made out.
229. The History of Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchopedale,
and The Debateable Land, by Robert Bruce
Armstrong, 1883, pp 177 f, 227 f, 245, 259 f; Appendix,
pp. xxvi, xxxi.
230. The Cronicles of Scotland, etc., edited by J. G. Dalyell,
1814, II, 341 ff. (partially modernized, for more comfortable
reading).
231. Wherein, if this be true, John differed much from Sym.
232. Rerum Scoticarum Historia, 1582, fol. 163 b, 164.
233. History of Scotland, Bannatyne Club, 1830, p. 143.
234. Anderson’s History, MS., Advocates Library, I, fol.
153 f. Anderson flourished about 1618–35. He gives the
year both as 1527 and 1528. Cited by Armstrong, History
of Liddesdale, etc., p. 274 f. For what immediately follows,
Armstrong, pp. 273, 279.
235. A place two miles north of Mosspaul, on the road from
Langholm to Hawick.
236. Scott remarks that the “common people of the high
parts of Teviotdale, Liddesdale, and the country adjacent,
hold the memory of Johnie Armstrong in very high respect.”
“They affirm, also,” he adds, “that one of his attendants
broke through the king’s guard, and carried to
Gilnockie Tower the news of the bloody catastrophe:” but
that is in the English ballad, B 20.
237. Dr Hill Burton has made a slight slip here, III, 146, ed.
1863; compare Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, I, 154.
238. He lived in the West March, if that helps to an explanation.
239. Found also in one copy of Hugh the Græme, Buchan’s
MSS, I, 63, st. 15. Borrowed by Sir Walter Scott in The
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto I, ix.
240. See many cases in Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 210 f,
to which may be added: Milà, Romancerillo, No 243, pp.
219–21; Briz, II, 222; Amador de los Rios, Historia de la
Lit. Esp., VII, 449; El Folk-Lore Andaluz, 1882, pp. 41,
77; Almeida-Garrett, II, 56, note; Nigra, C. P. del Piemonte,
No I, E-I, N, O; ‘Le serpent vert,’ Poésies p. de la
France, MS., III, fol. 126, 508, now printed by Rolland, III,
10; Kolberg, Pieśni ludu polskiego, No 18, p. 208; Luzel,
I, 81, II, 357, 515; Brewer, Dictionary of Miracles, pp. 205,
355 f.; Gaidoz, and others, Mélusine, IV, 228 ff., 272 ff.,
298, 323 f., 405.
241. Grundtvig, No 84, ‘Hustru og Mands Moder,’ is not so
good a case, though a boy just born announces that he will
revenge his mother, because the boy is born nine years old;
II, 412, D 30, E 18. This again in Kristensen, I, 202 f, No
74, B 12, C 11, and II, 113 ff, No 35, A 18, B 14, C 11.
The stanza cited by Dr Prior, I, 37, from ‘Hammen von
Reystett,’ Wunderhorn, 1808, II, 179, is hardly to the purpose.
242. Jamieson cites the first two verses in The Scots Magazine,
October, 1803, and says: Of this affecting composition
I have two copies, both imperfect, but they will make a
pretty good and consistent whole between them.
244. W. Patten, The Expedicion into Scotlande, etc., reprinted
in Dalyell’s Fragments of Scottish History, pp. 51,
66.
245. Deceivin, Abbey, are of course savin misunderstood.
One of the reciters of D (42) gave ‘saving.’
246. History of the Reformation, Knox’s Works, ed. Laing,
II, 415 f. Knox continues: “But yet was not the court
purged of whores and whoredom, which was the fountain of
such enormities; for it was well known that shame hasted
marriage betwix John Semple, called the Dancer, and Mary
Livingston, surnamed the Lusty. What bruit the Maries
and the rest of the dancers of the court had, the ballads of
that age did witness, which we for modesty’s sake omit.”
This Mary Livingston is one of the Four Marys, but, as already
said, is mentioned in version F only of our ballad.
247. “In this set of the ballad” [D], says Motherwell, “from
its direct allusion to the use of the savin tree, a clue is perhaps
afforded for tracing how the poor mediciner mentioned
by Knox should be implicated in the crime of Mary
Hamilton.” Maidment goes further: “The reference to
the use of the savin tree in Motherwell induces a strong
suspicion that the lover was a mediciner.” Maidment
should have remembered that there is a popular pharmacopœia
quite independent of the professional. No apothecary
prescribes in ‘Tam Lin.’
248. In an extract from Gordon’s History of Peter the Great,
Aberdeen, 1755, II, 308 f.
249. ‘Maid-of-Honor Hamilton,’ by M. I. Semefsky, in
Slovo i Dyelo (Word and Deed), 1885, St Petersburg, 3d
edition, p. 187. I am indebted to Professor Vinogradof, of
the University of Moscow, for pointing out this paper, and
to Miss Isabel Florence Hapgood for a summary of its contents.
250. The parentage of these was not ascertained. Some accounts
make Mary Hamilton to have been Peter’s mistress:
for example [J. B. Schérer’s], Anecdotes intéressantes et
secrètes de la cour de Russie, London, 1792, II, 272 ff. See
also Mélanges de Littérature, etc., par François-Louis,
comte d’Escherny, Paris, 1811, I, 7 f. (The white gown
with black ribbons is here.)
251. “Hamilton, imperturbable, niait. Menzikoff engagea
l’empereur à faire une perquisition dans les coffres d’Hamilton,
ou l’on trouva le corps du délit, l’arrière-faix et du
linge ensanglanté.” Schérer, Anecdotes, p. 274.
252. Bedford and Randolph to the Council, Wright’s Queen
Elizabeth, etc., p. 227; Burton, History of Scotland, IV,
145.
254. The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 6; Diurnal of
Occurrents, p. 105 f; Tytler’s History, VII, 83.
255. To save appearances, we may understand “old copies”
to mean copies restored or brought nearer to what is imagined
to have been the original form. The variations will
be given in notes as pièces justificatives.
256. Sir Cuthbert Sharp, Memorials of the Rebellion of
1569, p. 202; a collection of many original papers pertaining
to this rising, with much subsidiary information. But
the story should be read in the eighteenth chapter of Mr
Froude’s Reign of Elizabeth. Both works have been used
here passim; Froude in the edition of New York, 1870.
257. Northumberland, on being asked how much money he
spent in the quarrel, says, “about one hundred and twenty
pound.” The Queen’s proclamation, Nov. 24, declares that
the earls were two persons as ill chosen for the reformation
of any great matters as any could lie in the realm, for they
were both in poverty, etc. Sharp, pp. 208, 66; also 290.
259. The dun-bull of the Nevilles is given in Sharp, p. 87,
and one greyhound’s head, with what may pass for a golden
collar, at p. 316; the three dogs are not warranted. Percy’s
half-moon is improperly mixed up with the banner of the
five wounds in 31.
261. Sharp, pp. 114 f, 118. “My lord Regent convened
with Martin Eliot that he should betray Thomas, Earl of
Northumberland, who was fled in Liddesdale out of England
for refuge, in this manner: that is to say, the said
Martin caused Heckie Armstrong desire my lord of Northumberland
to come and speak with him under trust, and
caused the said earl believe that, after speaking, if my lord
Regent would pursue him, that he and his friends should
take plain part with the Earl of Northumberland. And
when the said earl came with the same Heckie Armstrong
to speak the said Martin, he caused certain light-horsemen
of my lord Regent’s, with others his friends, to lie at await,
and when they should see the said earl and the said Martin
speaking together, that they should come and take the said
earl; and so as was devised, so came to pass.” Diurnal of
Occurrents, p. 154.
262. From a letter of January 6, we learn that the Earl of
Northumberland was then in Edinburgh, attended by James
Swyno, William Burton, and others. James Swyno is apparently
the chamberlain of the ballad. Sharp, p. 139.
264. Sharp, pp. 324–29. To whom the money went, if to
anybody besides William Douglas, we are not distinctly
told. Tytler intimates that Morton had a share: “this
base and avaricious man sold his unhappy prisoner to Elizabeth,”
VII, 395. There was baseness enough without the
addition of avarice: “The Earl of Northumberland was rendered
to the Queen of England, forth of the castle of Lochleven,
by a certain condition made betwix her and the Earl
of Morton for gold.... And indeed this was unthankfully
remembered, for when Morton was banisht from Scotland
he found no such kind man to him in England as this earl
was.” Historie of King James the Sext, p. 106 f. Sir
Richard Maitland, who spares Morton and Lochleven no
epithets in his spirited invective against those who delivered
the Earl of Northumberland, says that they “of his bluide
resavit the pygrall pryce,” but does not charge Morton with
an act of ingratitude.
266. Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s Historical Account of Witchcraft
in Scotland, pp. 38–54, ed. 1884.
267. Rochholz, Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau, II, 162;
Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 783 f, ed. 1876, and Saxo
Grammaticus (p. 34, ed 1576, Holder, p. 66), quoted by
Grimm. These citations are furnished by Liebrecht, Göttingen
Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1868, p. 1899, who finds hydromancy
in st. 26, where, however, all that seems to be meant is that
the mother would let her daughter see from Lochleven what
was doing in London. Of dactyliomancy proper there is
something in Delrio, IV, ii, 6, 4, 5, p. 547, ed. 1624.
268. Sharp’s Memorials, pp. 138, 142, 298 ff, 346 ff.
269. The most favorable interpretation has been given to
‘Now hath Armstrong taken.’ The meaning is rather, perhaps,
that Armstrong has detained Neville and his followers.
271. This is the date given me. It is very near to that of
the event.
272. Lieut.-Col. H. W. Lumsden has very kindly allowed
me a discretional use of an unpublished paper of his upon
the historical basis of this ballad, and I freely avail myself
of his aid, all responsibility remaining, of course, with
me.
273. The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 95 ff. The
History of the Feuds and Conflicts among the Clans, etc.,
p. 51 ff, in Miscellanea Scotica, vol. I. Diurnal of Occurrents,
pp. 251, 253, 255.
274. Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 255. What place is meant by
Carrigill here is of no present consequence, since it was
Towie that was burnt. Many writers, as Tytler, VII, 367,
following Crawfurd’s spurious Memoirs, p. 240, 1706, make
the number that perished in the house thirty-seven.
275. Journal of the Transactions in Scotland during the
contest between the adherents of Queen Mary and those of
her son, 1570, 1571, 1572, 1573, p. 302 f., Edinburgh, 1806.
276. History of the Church of Scotland, ed. 1666, p. 259.
277. “For many miserable months Scotland presented a
sight which might have drawn pity from the hardest heart:
her sons engaged in a furious and constant butchery of each
other; ... nothing seen but villages in flames, towns beleagured
by armed men, women and children flying from the
cottages where their fathers or husbands had been massacred; ... prisoners
tortured, or massacred in cold blood,
or hung by forties and fifties at a time.” Tytler, VII, 370.
278. These are nearly the words of Lieut.-Col. Lumsden,
upon whom I am very glad to lean. That Ker was a valuable
officer is well known.
279. The History of the Feuds and Conflicts among the
Clans, p. 54 f.
280. Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 304 f. Also The Historie of
King James the Sext, p. 111.
As to the ‘Bank of Fair,’ otherwise called Corrichie, the
Earl of Huntly and two of his sons, John and Adam, were
made prisoners at the battle there in 1562. The father, a
corpulent man, “by reason of the throng that pressed him,
expired in the hands of his takers.” John was executed,
but Adam was spared because of his tender age. (Spottiswood,
p. 187.)
Tytler observes of Adam Gordon: “In his character we
find a singular mixture of knightly chivalry with the ferocity
of the highland freebooter.... Such a combination as
that exhibited by Gordon was no infrequent production in
these dark and sanguinary times.” VII, 367. But it would
have been a good thing to cite other instances.
281. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, II, 355 f.,
420, 480, 720. Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 350. Chronicle
of Aberdeen, in The Miscellany of the Spalding Club, II,
53.
282. Register of the Privy Council, II, 199, 725; III, 10;
V, 46, 187. Register of the Great Seal, No 1554, vol. V.
Miscellany of the Spalding Club, III, 163. Historie of
King James the Sext, pp 339 f., 342. The so-called ballad
in Dalzell’s Scotish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, II, 347,
which was in circulation as a broadside.
283. That a Margaret Campbell was the wife of John Forbes
of Towie in 1556–63 appears from the Register of the Great
Seal of Scotland, Nos 1124, 1404, 1469. But Lieut.-Col.
Lumsden remarks that Sir John Campbell of Calder had no
daughter of the name of Margaret, and that there is no
record of such a marriage in the Cawdor papers. It may
be observed in passing that Buchanan’s and Spottiswood’s
error (as it seems to be) of substituting Alexander Forbes
for John might easily arise, since, according to the Genealogy,
John’s father, one of his brothers, a son, and a grandson,
all bore the name Alexander.
284. “After making considerable researches upon the subject,
I am come to the conclusion that it was Towie House
that was burnt. Cargarf never was in possession of a
Forbes.” (Joseph Robertson, Kinloch MSS, VI, 28.) What
is said of Corgarf in the View of the Diocese of Aberdeen,
1732, Robertson, Collections for a History of the Shires of
Aberdeen and Banff, pp. 611, 616, is derived from Lumsden.
Robert Gordon, writing about 1654, says, “Non procul a
fontibus [Donæ] jacet Corgarf, exigui nominis.” A description
of the parish of Strathdon, written about 1725, in
Macfarlane’s Geographical Collections, MS., says of Curgarf,
“This is an old castle belonging to the earls of Mar,
but nothing remarkable about it:” pp. 26, 616, of the work
last cited. The Statistical Accounts of Scotland give no
light; the older tells the story of Corgarf, the later of both
Corgarf and Towie, and the one is as uncritical as the
other.
John Forbes of Towie (Tolleis) is one of a long list of
that name in an order of the Lords of Council concerning
an action of the Forbes clan against the Earl of Huntly in
1573; and in another paper, dated July, 1578, which has
reference to the same action, the Forbeses complain that
“sum of thair housiss, wyiffis and bairnis being thairin,
were all uterlie wraikit and brount.” (Robertson, Illustrations,
etc., IV, 762, 765.) Bearing in mind the latitude of
phraseology customary in indictments, we are perhaps under
no necessity of thinking that the atrocity of Towie was but
one of several instances of houses burnt, wives (women) and
bairns being therein. There may be those who will think
it plausible that “Carrigill” in the Diurnal of Occurrents
should be Corgarf, and that both were burnt.
285. The making Gordon burn a house of the Hamiltons,
who were of the queen’s party, is a heedless perversion of
history such as is to be found only in ‘historical’ ballads.
The castle of Hamilton had been burnt in 1570, “and the
toun and palice of Hamiltoun thairwith,” more than a year
before the burning of Towie, but by Lennox and his English
allies. (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 177.)
“The old castle of Loudoun,” says the Rev. Norman
Macleod, “was destroyed by fire about 350 years ago [that
is, about 1500]. The current tradition regarding the burning
of the old castle ascribes that event to the clan Kennedy
at the period above mentioned, and the remains of an old
tower at Achruglen, on the Galston side of the valley, is still
pointed out as having been their residence.”
287. “At the queen last being at Stirling, the prince being
brought unto her, she offered to kiss him, but he would not,
but put her away, and did to his strength scratch her. She
offered him an apple, but it would not be received of him,
and to a greyhound bitch having whelps was thrown, who
eat it, and she and her whelps died presently. A sugar-loaf
also for the prince was brought at the same time; it is
judged to be very ill compounded.” Calendar of State
Papers, Foreign, May 20, 1567, p. 235: cited by Burton.
Considering that the prince had only just passed his eleventh
month, it would seem that the apple or the sugar-loaf
might have served without any compounding.
288. Historie of King James the Sext, p. 165 ff; Tytler’s
History, VIII, 35 ff; Burton, V, 163 ff.
290. Spottiswood’s History, ed. 1666, p. 387. See also The
Historie of King James the Sext, p. 246 ff.; Moysie’s Memoirs,
p. 88 ff.; Birrel’s Diary, p. 26 f.
291. History of the Church of Scotland, published by the
Wodrow Society, Edinburgh, 1844, V, 173; in Maidment’s
Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 8.
292. History of the Church of Scotland, ed. 1666, p. 389.
293. Calendar of the State Papers relating to Scotland,
Thorpe, II, 611.
294. Carta Ioanni, filio natu maximo et heredi Andreæ
Weymis de Myrecarny, et Margarete Weiksterne, sue
sponse, Terrarum de Myrecarny, etc. Fife, 25 Decrs, 1594.
Weymis de Myrecarny and Wemys de Logy are one, as appears
by a charter of July 25, 1564. Register of the Great
Seal of Scotland, Index, in the Signet Library, noted for me
by Mr Macmath.
295. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, V, 11. And
again: 1594, April 13. Caution in £2000 by ——Wemys,
apparent of that Ilk, for Johnne Wemyss, apparent of Logy,
that he shall remain in ward with David Wemys of that Ilk
till relieved.
May 2. Caution in 300 merks by Johnne Wemys, younger
of that Ilk, for Johnne Wemys of Logy, that he shall answer
before the Privy Council at Edinburgh upon 22d instant
“to sic thingis as salbe inquirit of him.”
September 27. Sir Johnne Wemys of Tullibrek, Michaell
Balfour of Monquhaine, and Andro Wemyss of Myrecairny,
for Johnne Wemyss, son and apparent heir of Andro,
£20,000, to go abroad by the 15th October next and not
return without licence. Deleted by warrant subscribed by
the king and treasurer-depute at Haliruidhous 20th February,
1594. Ib., pp 141 f., 144, 638. The entries in 1594
may have reference to later offences.
296. Sir John Carmichael was appointed captain of the
king’s guard in 1588, and usually had the keeping of state
criminals of rank. Scott.
297. The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 303 f.; Register
of the Privy Council of Scotland, V, 144.
298. Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, Thorpe,
II, 611, No 6.
299. The History of the Feuds and Conflicts among the
Clans, etc., p. 41 f, in Miscellanea Scotica, Spottiswood, ed.
1666, p. 390.
300. Lesley, History of Scotland, p. 235; Gregory, History
of the Western Highlands, ed. 1881, p. 184; Browne, History
of the Highlands, IV, 476. For the traditional story,
Finlay, II, 95, note; Laing’s Thistle of Scotland, p. 107 f.;
Whitelaw, p. 248.
301. “In the end of this year [1593] there fell out great
troubles in the west marches. Some of the surname of
Johnston having in the July preceding made a great depredation
upon the lands of Sanwhare and Drumlanrig, and
killed eighteen persons that followed for rescue of their
goods,” etc. Spottiswood, p. 400, ed. 1666.
302. 37 does not come in happily. Scott put this stanza
after 29, omitting ‘Sin’; but there is no rational sense
gained, unless the Johnstones are supposed to deny the cattle-lifting.
Admitting a bold anacoluthon in the first verse
(a mixture of since—so and neither—nor), 37 might stand
as and where it is. The Johnstones have done no wanton
injury; they have only revenged in a proper way the death
of the Galliard. But even then the Johnstones would be
made to blink the Galliard’s horse-stealing.
303. As there was no great “routh” of Christian names
among the clansmen of the borders, to-names became necessary
for the distinction of the numerous Jocks, Christies,
Watties and Archies. The name of parent, or of parent and
grandparent, was sometimes prefixed, as John’s Christie,
Agnes’ Christie, Peggie’s Wattie, Gibb’s Jack’s Johnie, Pattie’s
Geordie’s Johnie; sometimes the place of abode was
added, as Jock o the Side; sometimes there was distinction
by personal peculiarities, dress, or arms, as Fair Johnie,
Red Cloak, John with the Jack, etc., etc. See lists of all
varieties in Mr R. B. Armstrong’s History of Liddesdale,
etc., p. 78 f.
304. Ties them with St Mary’s knot: hamstrings them, says
Caw, and say others after him. A St John’s knot is double,
a St Mary’s triple. Observe that in 31 it is simply said that
there is only one horse loose in the stable.
305. “The Armstrongs at length got Dick o the Cow in their
clutches, and, out of revenge, they tore his flesh from his
bones with red-hot pincers:” note in Caw’s Museum, p. 35.
“At the conclusion of the ballad, the singer used invariably
to add that Dickie’s removal to Burgh under Stainmuir did
not save him from the clutches of the Armstrongs. Having
fallen into their power, several years after this exploit, he
was plunged into a large boiling pot, and so put to death.
The scene of this cruel transaction is pointed out somewhere
in Cumberland.” Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 55, note.
No well-wisher of Dick has the least occasion to be troubled
by these puerile supplements of the singers.
306. I am indebted to Mr R. B. Armstrong for all information
not hitherto published.
307. “It was not unusual to call two sons by a favorite name,
and the brother of Gilnockie would have probably called his
sons by that name:” R. B. A.
308. “The place which is alluded to by Scott was pointed
out to me about thirty years since. There then were the
remains of a tower which stood on a small plateau where
the Dow Sike and the Blaik Grain join the Stanygillburn,
a tributary of the Tinnisburn. Some remains of the building
may still be traced at the northern angle of the sheepfold
of which it forms part. The walls that remain are 4
feet 3 inches thick, and measured on the inside about 6
feet high. They extend about 18 feet 6 inches in one
direction and 14 feet in another, forming portions of two
sides with the angle of the tower.... There must have
been a considerable building of a rude kind.... This
place, as the crow flies, is quite two miles and a quarter
from Kershope-foot, and by the burn two miles and a half.... The
Laird’s Jock’s residence is marked on a sketch
map of Liddesdale by Lord Burleigh, drawn when Simon
was laird of Mangerton. (Simon, son of Thomas, was laird
in 1578–9.) It is also marked at the mouth of the Tinnisburn
on a ‘platt’ of the country, of 1590.” R. B. A.
309. The Archbishop’s account is apparently based upon a
more minute “relation of the maner of surprizeing of the
Castell of Cairlell by the lord of Buccleugh,” given, from a
manuscript of the period, in the later edition of the Minstrelsy,
II, 32. There is another account of the rescue in
The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 366 ff.
310. Near the water of Sark, in the Debateable Land, and
belonging to Kinmont Willie: “William Armstrong, in
Morton Tower, called Will of Kinmouth, 1569.” Register
of the Privy Council of Scotland, II, 44.
311. “The queen of England, having notice sent her of what
was done, stormed not a little,” and her ambassador was instructed
to say that peace could not continue between the
two realms unless Buccleuch were delivered to England, to
be punished at the queen’s pleasure. Buccleuch professed
himself willing to be tried, according to ancient treaties, by
commissioners of the respective kingdoms, and the Scots
made the proposal, but Elizabeth did not immediately consent
to this arrangement. At last, to satisfy the queen,
Buccleuch was put in ward at the castle of St Andrews.
Spotiswood adds that he was “afterwards entered in England,
where he remained not long” (and Tytler to the same
effect, IX, 226). According to one of the MSS of The Historie
of King James the Sext, the king, to please and pleasure
her Majesty, entered Buccleuch in ward at Berwick
with all expedition possible, and the queen, of her courtesy,
released him back in due and sufficient time: p. 421. But
Buccleuch seems to have been entered in England only
once, and that in 1597, and not for the assault on Carlisle
castle, or for a raid which he made in the next year, but
because he did not deliver his pledges, as he was under obligation
to do according to a treaty made by a joint commission
in 1597. See Ridpath’s Border History, 1848, pp.
473, 477.
312. Tytler’s History, IX, 437. “The greatest nomber
whareof war ordinar nycht-walkers” (H. of K. J. the Sext,
p. 369).
313. “Dike Armestronge of Dryup dwelleth neare High
Morgarton” (Mangerton). Dike Armestronge of Dryup
appears in a list of the principal men in Liddesdale, drawn
up when Simon Armstrong was laird of Mangerton, among
Simon’s uncles or uncles’ sons. Dick of Dryup is complained
of, with others, for reif and burning, in 1583, 1586, 1587,
1603, and his name is among the outlaws proclaimed at
Carlisle July 23, 1603. (Notes of Mr R. B. Armstrong.)
314. “The informer saith that Buclughe was the fifth man
which entered the castle:” Lord Scroop’s letter, Tytler,
IX, 437. But the MS. used by Scott, Spotiswood’s account
(founded chiefly or altogether upon that MS.), and The Historie
of King James the Sext agree in saying that Buccleuch
remained outside, “to assure the retreat of his awin
from the castell againe.”
315. “Red Rowy Forster” is one of the list complained of to
the Bishop of Carlisle, about 1550 (see ‘Hughie Grame’),
and he is in company with Jock of Kinmont, one of Will’s
four sons, Archie of Gingles, Jock of Gingles, and George of
the Gingles, who may represent “The Chingles” in the informer’s
list already cited. Nicolson and Burn, I, lxxxii.
316. This is also to be observed: “There are in this collection
no fewer than three poems on the rescue of prisoners,
the incidents in which nearly resemble each other, though
the poetical description is so different that the editor did
not think himself at liberty to reject any one of them, as
borrowed from the others. As, however, there are several
verses which, in recitation, are common to all these three
songs, the editor, to prevent unnecessary and disagreeable
repetition, has used the freedom of appropriating them to
that in which they seem to have the best poetic effect.”
‘Jock o the Side,’ Minstrelsy, II, 76, ed. 1833.
317. Campbell “projected” his work as early as 1790, and
he intimates in his preface, p. viii (if I have rightly understood
him), that he gave help to Scott.
318. For the Laird’s Jock, see ‘Dick o the Cow,’ No 185.
“I do not say there never was a Laird’s Wat, but I do not
recollect having met with an Armstrong called Walter during
the sixteenth century:” Mr R. B. Armstrong.
319. If the text is right, John (or was it Hobbie Noble?) had
killed Peeter a Whifeild. See ‘Hobbie Noble,’ 94.
320. “I am a bastard brother of thine,” says Hobby in 263;
cf. 282. But in B 7 and ‘Hobie Noble,’ 3, he is an Englishman,
born in Bewcastle, and banished to Liddesdale.
321. This device, whether of great practical use or not, has
much authority to favor it: Hereward, De Gestis Herwardi,
Michel, Chroniques A. Normandes, p. 81; Fulk Fitz-Warin,
Wright, p. 92; Eustache le Moine, Michel, p. 55, vv. 1505 ff.
(see Michel’s note, p. 104 f.); Robert Bruce, Scotichronicon,
Goodall, II, 226; other cases in Miss Burne’s Shropshire
Folk-Lore, pp. 16, 20, 93 note. It is repeated in ‘Archie
o Cawfield.’
322. Bay and grey should be exchanged in B 10, C 7.
324. “Tradition says that his [Archie’s] name was Archibald
Armstrong.” (Note at the end of the MS.)
325. Belonging to John’s Christie, son of Johnie Armstrong.
Christie of Barnglish was in Kinmont Willie’s rescue. R.
B. Armstrong, Appendix, p. cii, No LXIV; T. J. Carlyle,
The Debateable Land, p. 22. Tytler, IX, 437.
326. The “white hand” in the Slovenian ballad, II, 350, is
hard to explain unless there is a mixture of a prison-ballad
and a snake-ballad.
327. “The earldom of Huntingdon was vacant from about 1487
to 1529, and, as the Fitz-Walters were lineally descended from
the daughter of the first Simon de St Liz, Earl of Huntingdon,
this may have suggested to Skelton the idea of giving that title
to the husband of Matilda Fitz-Walter.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
P. 204, changed "3. unto her lovely." to "33. unto her lovely.".