FOOTNOTES:

[150] Of boiling to death see Ducange, Caldariis decoquere, and other places cited by Robertson, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, I, xxxii, note, and 128. This was especially a punishment for coiners, and was sanctioned as the penalty for poisoners by a statute of 22 Henry VIII, c. 29, repealed 1 Edward VI.

[151] More about the locality in Notes and Queries, First Series, II, 270.

[152] "Balcanquel is an ancient Scottish surname, and is sometimes corrupted, for the more agreeable sound, into Beluncan. All reciters agree that Lammikin, or Lambkin, is not the name of the hero, but merely an epithet." Finlay, Scottish Ballads, II. 56.

[94]
YOUNG WATERS

Percy's Reliques, 1765, II, 172.

Percy took this ballad "from a copy printed not long since at Glasgow, in one sheet 8vo," and he informs us that the world was indebted for its publication to the Lady Jean Hume, sister to the Earl of Hume. Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary, II, 62, gives the title of the first edition as follows: Young Waters, an Ancient Scotish Poem, never before printed. Glasgow: printed and sold by Robert and Andrew Foulis. MDCCLV. Small 4to, pp. 8. He does not say whether he prints from the original edition. The ballad was repeated in Herd's Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 238; in Ritson's Scotish Song, 1794, II, 181, with the variation of a word or two; and in Pinkerton's Select Scotish Ballads, 1783, I, 72, with arbitrary changes.

Motherwell, Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. lxviii, note 16, says he had never met with any traditionary version of this ballad. There is a copy in the Skene MSS, p. 23, which in all likelihood was learned by the writer from print. Buchan, who may generally be relied upon to produce a longer ballad than anybody else, has 'Young Waters' in thirty-nine stanzas, "the only complete version which he had ever met." Of this copy I will only say that everything which is not in the edition of 1755 (itself a little the worse for editing) is a counterfeit of the lowest description. Nevertheless it is given in an appendix; for much the same reason that thieves are photographed.

It is possible, and Aytoun, I, 93, thinks highly probable, that this ballad may have been founded on some real event in Scottish history; but Aytoun shows a commendable discretion in his conclusion that, "though various conjectures have been hazarded as to its origin, none appear sufficiently plausible to warrant their adoption," an opinion in which Maidment fully concurs. Chambers, who unhesitatingly accepted Buchan's ballad, did not, in 1829, entertain the least doubt that Young Waters was one of the Scottish nobles executed by James I after his return from his captivity in England, and very probably Walter Stuart, second son of the Duke of Albany: The Scottish Ballads, p. 34. Thirty years later he had no more doubt that the ballad was composed by Lady Wardlaw.

A Scandinavian ballad, historical to the extent that one version has historical names, exhibits the principal incidents of the short story of 'Young Waters.' Danish. 'Folke Lovmandsøn og Dronning Helvig,' texts of the 16th century, Grundtvig, III, 691, No 178, A-D.[153] Swedish. A, 'Falkvard Lagermanson,' tradition of this century, Arwidsson, II, 62, No 80. B, manuscript of the last century, Grundtvig, III, 697. The king and queen, Danish B, are Magnus I of Sweden and his wife Helvig (died 1290, 1325). Folke Lovmandsøn is in high favor with dames and maids, but especially with the queen, to whose service he is devoted. A little wee page plays the part of the wily lord of 'Young Waters' in exciting the king's jealousy. The innocent young knight is rolled down hill in a tun set with knives.

Translated by Grundtvig, No 7, p. 48; Herder, II, 68; Döring, p. 383; Allingham's copy by Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, No 8, p. 33; Buchan's by Gerhard, p. 8.

1 About Yule, when the wind blew cule,
And the round tables began,
A there is cum to our king's court
Mony a well-favourd man.

2 The queen luikt owre the castle-wa,
Beheld baith dale and down,
And then she saw Young Waters
Cum riding to the town.

3 His footmen they did rin before,
His horsemen rade behind;
Ane mantel of the burning gowd
Did keip him frae the wind.

4 Gowden-graithd his horse before,
And siller-shod behind;
The horse Young Waters rade upon
Was fleeter than the wind.

5 Out then spake a wylie lord,
Unto the queen said he,
'O tell me wha's the fairest face
Rides in the company?'

6 'I've sene lord, and I've sene laird,
And knights of high degree,
But a fairer face than Young Waters
Mine eyne did never see.'

7 Out then spack the jealous king,
And an angry man was he:
'O if he had been twice as fair,
You micht have excepted me.'

8 'You 're neither laird nor lord,' she says,
'Bot the king that wears the crown;
There is not a knight in fair Scotland
But to thee maun bow down.'

9 For a' that she could do or say,
Appeasd he wad nae bee,
Bot for the words which she had said,
Young Waters he maun dee.

10 They hae taen Young Waters,
And put fetters to his feet;
They hae taen Young Waters,
And thrown him in dungeon deep.

11 'Aft I have ridden thro Stirling town
In the wind bot and the weit;
Bot I neir rade thro Stirling town
Wi fetters at my feet.

12 'Aft have I ridden thro Stirling town
In the wind bot and the rain;
Bot I neir rade thro Stirling town
Neir to return again.'

13 They hae taen to the heiding-hill
His young son in his craddle,
And they hae taen to the heiding-hill
His horse bot and his saddle.

14 They hae taen to the heiding-hill
His lady fair to see,
And for the words the queen had spoke
Young Waters he did dee.

Quhen, zoung, etc., are printed when, young.

33. And corrected to Ane in the second edition of the Reliques.

51. But. Ritson, Maidment, Out.

101, 3. Waters and: and is carried on to the following line.