THE KNIGHT AND THE SHEPHERD’S DAUGHTER
The Text is given here from Kinloch’s MSS. He gives also three other versions and various fragments. The tale is also found amongst the Roxburghe Ballads, as The Beautifull Shepherdesse of Arcadia, in two broadsides printed about 1655 and 1680. This is the only English version extant. But earlier than any text of the ballad is a quotation from it in John Fletcher’s The Pilgrim, iv. 2 (1621). The Scots versions, about a dozen in number, are far more lively than the broadside. Buchan printed two, of sixty and sixty-three stanzas respectively. Another text is delightfully inconsequent:—
‘“Some ca’ me Jack, some ca’ me John,
Some ca’ me Jing-ga-lee,
But when I am in the queen’s court
Earl Hitchcock they ca’ me.”
“Hitchcock, Hitchcock,” Jo Janet she said,
An’ spelled it ower agane,
“Hitchcock it’s a Latin word;
Earl Richard is your name.”
But when he saw she was book-learned,
Fast to his horse hied he....’
Both this version (from the Gibb MS.) and one of Buchan’s introduce the domestic genius known as the ‘Billy-Blin,’ for whom see Young Bekie, First Series, p. 6, ff.; Willie’s Lady, [p. 19] of this volume; and Cospatrick, [p. 26].
The Story .—The King of France’s auld dochter, disguised as a shepherdess, is accosted by Sweet William, brother to the Queen of Scotland, who gives his name as Wilfu’ Will, varied by Jack and John. He attempts to escape, but she follows him to court, and claims him in marriage from the king. He tries to avoid discovery by pretending to be a cripple, but she knows him, refuses to be bribed, marries him, and finally reveals herself to him.
The dénouement of the story is reminiscent of The Marriage of Sir Gawain (First Series, pp. 107-118). A Danish ballad, Ebbe Galt, has similar incidents.