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POPULAR BALLADS OF THE OLDEN TIME

First Series. Ballads of Romance and Chivalry.

‘It forms an excellent introduction to a sadly neglected source of poetry.... We ... hope that it will receive ample encouragement.’—Athenæum.

‘It will certainly, if carried out as it is begun, constitute a boon to the lover of poetry.... We shall look with anxiety for the following volumes of what will surely be the best popular edition in existence.’—Notes and Queries.

‘There can be nothing but praise for the selection, editing, and notes, which are all excellent and adequate. It is, in fine, a valuable volume of what bids fair to be a very valuable series.’—Academy.

‘The most serviceable edition of the ballads yet published in England.’—Manchester Guardian.

Second Series. Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth.

‘Even more interesting than the first.’—Athenæum.

‘The augmenting series will prove an inestimable boon.’—Notes and Queries.

‘It includes many beautiful and well-known ballads, and no pains have been spared by the editor in producing them, so far as may be, in their entirety.’—World.

‘The second volume ... carries out the promise of the first.... Even after Professor Kittredge’s compressed edition of Child, ... Mr. Sidgwick’s work abundantly justifies its existence.’—Manchester Guardian.

The “First Series” is available from Project Gutenberg as [e-text #20469]. The “Second Series” is in preparation as of February 2007.

Sidgwick’s ‘Popular Ballads,’ Series III., 1906.

Colored for clarity:

Rivers Tweed, Tyne (blue)
Cities Edinburgh, Newcastle, Carlyle (red)
Border (brown)

[ Larger Map (uncolored)]

POPULAR BALLADS

OF THE OLDEN TIME

SELECTED AND EDITED
BY FRANK SIDGWICK

Third Series. Ballads of
Scottish Tradition and
Romance

‘I wadna gi’e ae wheeple of a whaup for a’ the nichtingales in England.’

A. H. BULLEN

47 Great Russell Street
London. MCMIII

‘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.’

Addison.

CONTENTS

[ PREFACE]

Although a certain number of the ballads in this volume belong to England as much as to Scotland, the greater number are so intimately connected with Scottish history and tradition, that it would have been rash (to say the least) for a Southron to have ventured across the border unaided. It is therefore more than a pleasure to record my thanks to my friend Mr. A. Francis Steuart of Edinburgh, to whom I have submitted the proofs of these ballads. His extensive and peculiar knowledge of Scottish history and genealogy has been of the greatest service throughout.

I must also thank Mr. C. G. Tennant for assistance with the map given as frontispiece; and my unknown friend, Messrs. Constable’s reader, has supplied valuable help in detail.

My self-imposed scheme of classification by subject-matter becomes no easier as the end of my task approaches. The Fourth Series will consist mainly of ballads of Robin Hood and other outlaws, including a few pirates. The projected class of ‘Sea Ballads’ has thus been split; Sir Patrick Spence, for example, appears in this volume. A few ballads defy classification, and will have to appear, if at all, in a miscellaneous section.

The labour of reducing to modern spelling several ballads from the seventeenth-century orthography of the Percy Folio is compensated, I hope, by the quaint and spirited result. These lively ballads are now presented for the first time in this popular form.

In The Jolly Juggler, given in the Appendix, I claim to have discovered a new ballad, which has not yet been treated as such, though I make bold to think Professor Child would have included it in his collection had he known of it. I trust that the publicity thus given to it will attract the attention of experts more competent than myself to annotate and illustrate it as it deserves.

F. S.

[ BALLADS IN THE THIRD SERIES]

I have hesitated to use the term ‘historical’ in choosing a general title for the ballads in this volume, although, if the word can be applied to any popular ballads, it would be applied with most justification to a large number of these ballads of Scottish and Border tradition. ‘Some ballads are historical, or at least are founded on actual occurrences. In such cases, we have a manifest point of departure for our chronological investigation. The ballad is likely to have sprung up shortly after the event, and to represent the common rumor of the time. Accuracy is not to be expected, and indeed too great historical fidelity in detail is rather a ground of suspicion than a certificate of the genuinely popular character of the piece.... Two cautionary observations are necessary. Since history repeats itself, the possibility and even the probability must be entertained that every now and then a ballad which had been in circulation for some time was adapted to the circumstances of a recent occurrence, and has come down to us only in such an adaptation. It is also far from improbable that many ballads which appear to have no definite localization or historical antecedents may be founded on fact, since one of the marked tendencies of popular narrative poetry is to alter or eliminate specific names of persons and places in the course of oral tradition.’[1]

Warned by these wise words, we may, perhaps, select the following ballads from the present volume as ‘historical, or at least founded on actual occurrences.’

(i) This section, which we may call ‘Historical,’ includes The Hunting of the Cheviot, The Battle of Otterburn, Mary Hamilton, The Laird o’ Logie, Captain Car, Flodden Field, The Fire of Frendraught, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, Jamie Douglas, Earl Bothwell, Durham Field, The Battle of Harlaw, and Lord Maxwell’s Last Goodnight. Probably we should add The Death of Parcy Reed; possibly Geordie and The Gipsy Laddie. More doubtful still is Sir Patrick Spence; and The Baron of Brackley confuses two historical events.

(ii) From the above section I have eliminated those which may be separately classified as ‘Border Ballads.’ Sir Hugh in the Grime’s Downfall seems to have some historical foundation, but Bewick and Grahame has none. A sub-section of ‘Armstrong Ballads’ forms a good quartet; Johnie Armstrong, Kinmont Willie, Dick o’ the Cow, and John o’ the Side.

(iii) In the purely ‘Romantic’ class we may place The Braes of Yarrow, The Twa Brothers, The Outlyer Bold, Clyde’s Water, Katharine Jaffray, Lizie Lindsay, The Heir of Linne, and The Laird of Knottington.

(iv) There remain a lyrical ballad, The Gardener; a song, Waly, waly, gin love be bonny; and the nondescript Whummil Bore. The Appendix contains a ballad, The Jolly Juggler, which would have come more fittingly in the First Series, had I known of it in time.

In the general arrangement, however, the above classes have been mixed, in order that the reader may browse as he pleases.

[1.] Introduction (p. xvi) to English and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited from the Collection of Francis James Child, by Helen Child Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge, 1905. This admirable condensation of Child’s five volumes, issued since my Second Series, is enhanced by Professor Kittredge’s Introduction, the best possible substitute for the gap left in the larger book by the death of Child before the completion of his task.

I

A comparison of the first two ballads in this volume will show the latitude with which it is possible for an historical incident to be treated by tradition. The Battle of Otterburn was fought in 1388; but our two versions belong to the middle of the sixteenth century. The English Battle of Otterburn is the more faithful to history, and refers (35.²) to ‘the cronykle’ as authority. The Hunting of the Cheviot was in the repertory of Richard Sheale (see First Series, Introduction, xxvii), who ends his version in the regular manner traditional amongst minstrels. Also, we have the broadside Chevy Chase, which well illustrates the degradation of a ballad in the hands of the hack-writers; this may be seen in many collections of ballads.

Mary Hamilton has a very curious literary history. If, pendente lite, we may assume the facts to be as suggested, pp. 44-46, it illustrates admirably Professor Kittredge’s warning, quoted above, that ballads already in circulation may be adapted to the circumstances of a recent occurrence. But the incidents—betrayal, child-murder, and consequent execution—cannot have been uncommon in courts, at least in days of old; and it is quite probable that an early story was adapted, first to the incident of 1563, and again to the Russian story of 1718. Perhaps we may remark in passing that it is a pity that so repugnant a story should be attached to a ballad containing such beautiful stanzas as the last four.

Captain Car is an English ballad almost contemporary with the Scottish incident which it records; and, from the fact of its including a popular burden, we may presume it was adapted to the tune. Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, which records a piece of Scottish news of no importance whatever, has become an English nursery rhyme. In Jamie Douglas an historical fact has been interwoven with a beautiful lyric. Indeed, the chances of corruption and contamination are infinite.

II

The long pathetic ballad of Bewick and Grahame is a link between the romantic ballads and the ballads of the Border, Sir Hugh in the Grime’s Downfall connecting the Border ballads with the ‘historical’ ballads. The four splendid ‘Armstrong ballads’ also are mainly ‘historical,’ though Dick o’ the Cow requires further elucidation. Kinmont Willie is under suspicion of being the work of Sir Walter Scott, who alone of all ballad-editors, perhaps, could have compiled a ballad good enough to deceive posterity. We cannot doubt the excellence of Kinmont Willie; but it would be tedious, as well as unprofitable, to collect the hundred details of manner, choice of words, and expression, which discredit the authenticity of the ballad.

John o’ the Side has not, I believe, been presented to readers in its present shape before. It is one of the few instances in which the English version of a ballad is better than the Scottish.

III

The Braes o’ Yarrow is a good example of the Scottish lyrical ballad, the continued rhyme being very effective. The Twa Brothers has become a game, and Lizie Lindsay a song. The Outlyer Bold is a title I have been forced to give to a version of the ballad best known as The Bonnie Banks o’ Fordie; this, it is true, might have come more aptly in the First Series. So also Katharine Jaffray, which enlarges the lesson taught in The Cruel Brother (First Series, p. 76), and adds one of its own.

The Heir of Linne is another of the naïve, delightful ballads from the Percy Folio, and in general style may be compared with The Lord of Learne in the Second Series (p. 182).

IV

Little is to be said of The Gardener or The Whummil Bore, the former being almost a lyric, and the latter presumably a fragment. Waly, waly, is not a ballad at all, and is only included because it has become confused with Jamie Douglas.

The Jolly Juggler seems to be a discovery, and I commend it to the notice of those better qualified to deal with it. The curious fifth line added to each verse may be the work of some minstrel—a humorous addition to, or comment upon, the foregoing stanza. Certain Danish ballads exhibit this peculiarity, but I cannot find any Danish counterpart to the ballad in Prior’s three volumes.

THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT

The Text here given is that of a MS. in the Bodleian Library (Ashmole 48) of about the latter half of the sixteenth century. It was printed by Hearne, and by Percy in the Reliques, and the whole MS. was edited by Thomas Wright for the Roxburghe Club in 1860. In this MS. The Hunting of the Cheviot is No. viii., and is subscribed ‘Expliceth, quod Rychard Sheale.’ Sheale is known to have been a minstrel of Tamworth, and it would appear that much of this MS. (including certain poems, no doubt his own) is in his handwriting—probably the book belonged to him. But the supposition that he was author of the Hunting of the Cheviot, Child dismisses as ‘preposterous in the extreme.’

The other version, far better known as Chevy Chase, is that of the Percy Folio, published in the Reliques, and among the Pepys, Douce, Roxburghe, and Bagford collections of ballads. For the sake of differentiation this may be called the broadside form of the ballad, as it forms a striking example of the impairment of a traditional ballad when re-written for the broadside press. Doubtless it is the one known and commented on by Addison in his famous papers (Nos. 70 and 74) in the Spectator (1711), but it is not the one referred to by Sir Philip Sidney in his Apologie. Professor Child doubts if Sidney’s ballad, ‘being so evill apparelled in the dust and cobwebbes of that uncivill age,’ is the traditional one here printed, which is scarcely the product of an uncivil age; more probably Sidney had heard it in a rough and ancient form, ‘sung,’ as he says, ‘but by some blind crouder, with no rougher voyce than rude stile.’ ‘The Hunttis of the Chevet’ is mentioned as one of the ‘sangis of natural music of the antiquite’ sung by the shepherds in The Complaynt of Scotland, a book assigned to 1549.

The Story.—The Hunting of the Cheviot is a later version of the Battle of Otterburn, and a less conscientious account thereof. Attempts have been made to identify the Hunting with the Battle of Piperden (or Pepperden) fought in 1436 between a Percy and a Douglas. But the present ballad is rather an unauthenticated account of an historical event, which made a great impression on the public mind. Of that, its unfailing popularity on both sides of the Border, its constant appearance in broadside form, and its inclusion in every ballad-book, give the best witness.

The notable deed of Witherington (stanza 54) has many parallels. All will remember the warrior who

‘... when his legs were smitten off

He fought upon his stumps.’

Tradition tells an identical story of ‘fair maiden Lilliard’ at the Battle of Ancrum Muir in 1545. Seneca mentions the feat. It occurs in the Percy Folio, Sir Graysteel (in Eger and Grine) fighting on one leg. Johnie Armstrong and Sir Andrew Barton both retire to ‘bleed awhile’ after being transfixed through the body. Finally, in an early saga, King Starkathr (Starkad) fights on after his head is cut off.

THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT

1.

1.⁵ ‘magger’ = maugre; i.e. in spite of.

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 ever with him be.

2.

2.⁴ ‘let,’ hinder.

The fattiste hartes in all Cheviat

he sayd he wold kyll, and cary them away:

‘Be my feth,’ sayd the dougheti Doglas agayn,

‘I wyll let that hontyng yf that I may.’

3.

3.² ‘meany,’ band, company.

3.⁴ ‘the’ = they; so constantly, ‘shyars thre’; the districts (still called shires) of Holy Island, Norham, and Bamborough.

Then the Persë owt off Banborowe 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 on a Monday at morn,

in Cheviat the hillys so he;

The chylde may rue that ys vn-born,

it wos the mor pittë.

5.

5.³ ‘byckarte,’ i.e. bickered, attacked the deer.

The dryvars thorowe the woodës went,

for to reas the dear;

Bomen byckarte vppone the bent

with ther browd aros cleare.

6.

6.¹ ‘wyld,’ deer.

6.³ i.e. through the groves darted.

Then the wyld thorowe the woodës went,

on every sydë shear;

Greahondës thorowe the grevis glent,

for to kyll thear dear.

7.

7.³ ‘oware,’ hour.

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.

8.¹ ‘mort,’ note of the bugle.

8.⁴ ‘bryttlynge,’ cutting up.

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 wolde faylle, verament;’

a great oth the Persë swear.

10.

10.² shaded his eyes with his hand.

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 hart nor hande,

wear not in Cristiantë.

12.

12.² ‘feale,’ fail.

12.⁴ ‘yth,’ in the.

The wear twenti hondrith spear-men good,

withoute any feale;

The wear borne along be the watter a Twyde,

yth bowndës of Tividale.

13.

13.² ‘boÿs,’ bows.

‘Leave of the brytlyng of the dear,’ he sayd,

‘and to your boÿs lock ye tayk good hede;

For never sithe ye wear on your mothars borne

had ye never so mickle nede.’

14.

14.³ ‘glede,’ glowing coal.

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.

17.⁴ ‘the ton,’ one or other.

‘The fattiste hartës in all Chyviat

we have kyld, and cast to carry them away:’

‘Be my troth,’ sayd the doughetë Dogglas agayn,

‘therfor the ton of us 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.

20.¹ ‘cors,’ curse.

‘Nowe Cristes cors on his crowne,’ sayd the lord Persë,

‘who-so-ever ther-to says nay!

Be my troth, doughttë Doglas,’ he says,

‘thow shalt never se that day.

21.

21.⁴ ‘on,’ one.

‘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 his nam:

‘It shall never 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 never 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.

24.³ ‘And,’ If.

That day, that day, that dredfull day!

the first fit here I fynde;

And youe wyll here any mor a the hountyng a the Chyviat,

yet ys ther mor behynde.

.....

25.

25.⁴ ‘sloughe,’ slew.

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.

26.⁴ ‘wouche,’ evil.

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 every 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.

29.⁴ ‘basnites,’ light helmets or skull-caps.

The Ynglyshe men let ther boÿs be,

and pulde owt brandes that wer brighte;

It was a hevy syght to se

bryght swordes on basnites lyght.

30.

30.¹ ‘myneyeple,’ = manople, a kind of long gauntlet.

30.³ ‘freyke,’ man. So 32.¹, 47.¹, etc.

Thorowe ryche male and myneyeple,

many sterne the strocke done streght;

Many a freyke that was fulle fre,

ther undar foot dyd lyght.

31.

31.⁴ ‘myllan,’ Milan steel. Cp. ‘collayne,’ Battle of Otterburn, 54.⁴

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 ever dyd heal or rayn.

33.

‘Yelde the, Persë,’ sayde the Doglas,

‘and i feth I shalle the brynge

Wher thowe shalte have a yerls wagis

of Jamy our Skottish kynge.

34.

‘Thou shalte have thy ransom fre,

I hight the hear this thinge;

For the manfullyste man yet art thowe

that ever I conqueryd in filde fighttynge.’

35.

‘Nay,’ sayd the lord Persë,

‘I tolde it the beforne,

That I wolde never yeldyde be

to no man of a woman born.’

36.

36.² ‘wane.’ One arrow out of a large number.—Skeat.

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 never 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.

38.³ Addison compared (Vergil, Aen. x. 823):—
‘Ingemuit miserans graviter dextramque tetendit,’ etc.