E
a. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 51. b. Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 122.
1
'If my love loves me, she lets me not know,
That is a dowie chance;
I wish that I the same could do,
Tho my love were in France, France,
Tho my love were in France.
2
'O lang think I, and very lang,
And lang think I, I true;
But lang and langer will I think
Or my love o me rue.
3
'I will write a broad letter,
And write it sae perfite,
That an she winna o me rue,
I'll bid her come to my lyke.'
4
Then he has written a broad letter,
And seald it wi his hand,
And sent it on to his true love,
As fast as boy could gang.
5
When she looked the letter upon,
A light laugh then gae she;
But ere she read it to an end,
The tear blinded her ee.
6
'O saddle to me a steed, father,
O saddle to me a steed;
For word is come to me this night,
That my true love is dead.'
7
'The steeds are in the stable, daughter,
The keys are casten by;
Ye cannot won to-night, daughter,
To-morrow ye'se won away.'
8
She has cut aff her yellow locks,
A little aboon her ee,
And she is on to Willie's lyke,
As fast as gang could she.
9
As she gaed ower yon high hill head,
She saw a dowie light;
It was the candles at Willie's lyke,
And torches burning bright.
10
Three o Willie's eldest brothers
Were making for him a bier;
One half o it was gude red gowd,
The other siller clear.
11
Three o Willie's eldest sisters
Were making for him a sark;
The one half o it was cambric fine,
The other needle wark.
12
Out spake the youngest o his sisters,
As she stood on the fleer:
How happy would our brother been,
If ye'd been sooner here!
13
She lifted up the green covering,
And gae him kisses three;
Then he lookd up into her face,
The blythe blink in his ee.
14
O then he started to his feet,
And thus to her said he:
Fair Annie, since we're met again,
Parted nae mair we'se be.
b. "Given with some changes from the way the editor has heard it sung."
22. I trow.
31. But I.
33. That gin.
73. the night.
28. Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane.
P. [256]. This ballad is in Pitcairn's MSS, III, 49. It was from the tradition of Mrs Gammel. The last word of the burden is Machey, not May-hay, as in Maidment.
29. The Boy and the Mantle.
P. [270] b. If a girl takes a pot of boiling water off the fire, and the pot ceases to boil, this is a sign of lost modesty. Lammert, Volksmedizin und medizinischer Aberglaube in Bayern, u.s.w., p. 146.
30. King Arthur and King Cornwall.
P. [274]. A Galien in verse has been found in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, at Cheltenham. Romania, XII, 5.
31. The Marriage of Sir Gawain.
P. [292] b, last paragraph but one. Add: 'Gorvömb,' Arnason, II, 375, Powell, Icelandic Legends, Second Series, 366, 'The Paunch.' Gorvömb, a monstrous creature, in reward for great services, asks to have the king's brother for husband, and in bed turns into a beautiful princess. She had been suffering under the spells of a step-mother.
39. Tam Lin.
P. [335]. Add: J. 'Young Tamlane,' Kinloch MSS, V, 391.
335 a. The stanzas introduced into I a were from "Mr Beattie of Meikledale's Tamlane," as appears from a letter of Scott to Laidlaw, January 21, 1803. (W. Macmath.)
[336] b, third paragraph. Add: Aminson, Bidrag, etc., IV, 6, No 27.
Fourth paragraph, line 9. Read: in it which.
[338] a. An old woman is rejuvenated by being burnt to bones, and the bones being thrown into a tub of milk: Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 59, 'The Smith and the Demon;' Afanasief, Legendui, No 31, from Dahl's manuscript collection.
[356]. The following is perhaps the version referred to by Dr Joseph Robertson: see p. 335.