F
a. Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 23. b. Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 80.
1
As I gaed in yon greenwood-side,
I heard a fair maid singing;
Her voice was sweet, she sang sae complete
That all the woods were ringing.
2
‘O I’m the Duke o Athole’s nurse,
My post is well becoming;
But I woud gie a’ my half-year’s fee
For ae sight o my leman.’
3
‘Ye say, ye’re the Duke o Athole’s nurse,
Your post is well becoming;
Keep well, keep well your half-year’s fee,
Ye’se hae twa sights o your leman.’
4
He leand him ower his saddle-bow
And cannilie kissd his dearie:
‘Ohon and alake! anither has my heart,
And I darena mair come near thee.’
5
‘Ohon and alake! if anither hae your heart,
These words hae fairly undone me;
But let us set a time, tryst to meet again,
Then in gude friends you will twine me.
6
‘Ye will do you down to yon tavern-house
And drink till the day be dawing,
And, as sure as I ance had a love for you,
I’ll come there and clear your lawing.
7
‘Ye’ll spare not the wine, altho it be fine,
Nae Malago, tho it be rarely,
But ye’ll aye drink the bonnie lassie’s health
That’s to clear your lawing fairly.’
8
Then he’s done him down to yon tavern-house
And drank till day was dawing,
And aye he drank the bonny lassie’s health
That was coming to clear his lawing.
9
And aye as he birled, and aye as he drank,
The gude beer and the brandy,
He spar’d not the wine, altho it was fine,
The sack nor the sugar candy.
10
‘It’s a wonder to me,’ the knight he did say,
‘My bonnie lassie’s sae delaying;
She promisd, as sure as she loved me ance,
She woud be here by the dawing.’
11
He’s done him to a shott-window,
A little before the dawing,
And there he spied her nine brothers bauld,
Were coming to betray him.
12
‘Where shall I rin? where shall I gang?
Or where shall I gang hide me?
She that was to meet me in friendship this day
Has sent nine men to slay me!’
13
He’s gane to the landlady o the house,
Says, ‘O can you supply me?
For she that was to meet me in friendship this day
Has sent nine men to slay me.’
14
She gae him a suit o her ain female claise
And set him to the baking;
The bird never sang mair sweet on the bush
Nor the knight sung at the baking.
15
As they came in at the ha-door,
Sae loudly as they rappit!
And when they came upon the floor,
Sae loudly as they chappit!
16
‘O had ye a stranger here last night,
Who drank till the day was dawing?
Come show us the chamber where he lyes in,
We’ll shortly clear his lawing.’
17
‘I had nae stranger here last night
That drank till the day was dawing;
But ane that took a pint, and paid it ere he went,
And there’s naething to clear o his lawing.’
18
A lad amang the rest, being o a merry mood,
To the young knight fell a-talking;
The wife took her foot and gae him a kick,
Says, Be busy, ye jilt, at your baking.
19
They stabbed the house baith but and ben,
The curtains they spared nae riving,
And for a’ that they did search and ca,
For a kiss o the knight they were striving.
E. a.
11. nurse altered to nurice.
33. drink the bonnie out, originally.
41. drank struck out for sang.
72. and struck out before gin.
82. callit changed in pencil to were calling.
b.
The printed copy seems to have been made up from a and Kinloch’s other versions.
1. Preceded by these two lines, taken from D:
As I cam in by Athol’s yetts,
I heard a fair maid singing.
12. And I wat it weel does set me.
32. ye’ll omitted. 33. drink the lass’ health.
34. That’s coming to pay the. (This stanza occurs in Motherwell’s Note-Book, p. 46, where it is credited to a MS.)
After 3:
He hied him doun to yon change-house,
And he drank till the day was dawing,
And at ilka pint’s end he drank the lass’ health
That was coming to pay for his lawing.
41. and aye.
62. see gin she war.
63. There he saw the duke and a’ his merry men.
64. the hill. 71. doun omitted.
73. She buskit: woman’s.
82. they war calling.
83. Had ye a young man here yestreen.
After 8:
‘He drank but ae pint, and he paid it or he went,
And ye’ve na mair to do wi the lawing.’
They searchit the house a’ round and round,
And they spared na the curtains to tear them,
While the landlady stood upo the stair-head,
Crying, ‘Maid, be busy at your baking!’
They gaed as they cam, and left a’ undone,
And left the bonnie maid at her baking.
F. b.
“Some alterations made from the way it was sung” by the editor’s maternal grandfather.
42. And kindly said, My dearie.
63. as you ance had a love for me.
114. That were.
122. Where shall I gang to hide me.
144. Than the.
213
SIR JAMES THE ROSE
‘Sir James the Rose.’ a. From a stall-tract of about 1780, Abbotsford library. b. Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 321. c. Sir James the Rose’s Garland, one of a volume of the like from Heber’s library. d. Motherwell’s MS., p. 281; from the recitation of Mrs Gentles, of Paisley. e. Herd’s MSS, I, 82. f. The same, II, 42. g. ‘Sir James the Rose,’ Pinkerton’s Scottish Tragic Ballads, 1781, p. 61.
b, says Motherwell, “is given as it occurs in early stall-prints, and as it is to be obtained from the recitations of elderly people.” Most of the variations are derived from d. c may have been printed earlier than a, but is astonishingly faulty. d, well remembered from print, is what Motherwell meant by “the recitations of elderly people.” e was obtained by Herd, probably from recitation, as early as 1776, but must have been learned from print. f is e with a few missing lines supplied. g, says Pinkerton, “is given from a modern edition in one sheet 12mo,” but was beyond question considerably manipulated by the editor. All the important variations are certainly his work.
The copy in Buchan’s Gleanings, p. 9, is g. Whitelaw, in his Book of Scotish Ballads, p. 39, has combined b and g.
Half a dozen lines preserved by Burns, Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, II, 196 (see the preface to No 212), seem to belong to this ballad.
‘Sir James the Ross, A Historical Ballad’ (sometimes called ‘The Buchanshire Tragedy’), was composed by the youthful Michael Bruce ([+] 1767) upon the story of the popular ballad, and has perhaps enjoyed more favor with “the general” than the original.[[93]] ‘Elfrida and Sir James of Perth,’ Caw’s Poetical Museum, 1784, p. 290 (probably taken, as most of the pieces are by the collector said to be, from some periodical publication), looks more like an imitation of Bruce’s ballad than of its prototype. It is in fact a stark plagiarism.
Sir James the Rose has killed a squire, and men are out to take him. A nurse at the house of Marr is his leman, and he resorts to her in the hope that she may befriend him. She advises him to go to an ale-house for the night, promising to meet him there in the morning; he says he will do so, but, perhaps from distrust, which proves to be well grounded, prefers to wrap himself in his plaid and sleep under the sky. The party sent out to take him question the nurse, who at first makes a deceptive answer, then gives them a direction to his hiding-place. They find James the Rose asleep and take away his arms; he wakes and begs for mercy, and is told that he shall have such as he has given. He appeals to his servant to stay by him till death, and then to take his body to Loch Largan (Loughargan), for which service the man shall have his clothes and valuables. The avengers cut out his heart and take it to his leman at the house of Marr; she raves over her treachery, and is ‘born away’ bodily, to be seen no more.
e, f, it may be by accident, lack the vulgar passage 18, 19, which may be a later addition, for nothing is said of a man being in attendance when Sir James goes to his lair. The leader of the band that takes Sir James the Rose is Sir James the Graham, Sir James Graham, in c, e, f; a simple error, evidently. No motive is furnished in a-f for the woman’s betraying her leman. g makes her offer information on condition of getting a proper reward, and she is promised Sir James’s purse and brechan, but in the end is tendered his bleeding heart and his bleeding tartan, whatever that may be other than his brechan. This must be one of Pinkerton’s improvements. The moral tag, st. 24, is dropped, or wanting, in c, e, f, g.
The topography of traditional ballads frequently presents difficulties, both because it is liable to be changed, wholly, or, what is more embarrassing, partially, to suit a locality to which a ballad has been transported, and again because unfamiliar names, when not exchanged, are exposed to corruption. Some of the places, also, have not a dignity which entitles them to notice in gazetteers. The first point, in the case before us, would be to settle the whereabouts of the House of Marr, in the vicinity of which the scene is laid. This I am unable to do. There is a Ballechin in Logierait Parish, Perthshire. There is said to be a Baleichan in Forfarshire.[[94]] It is not easy to see why the heir of either of these places (Buleighan and the rest may stand for either) should wish to have his body taken to Loch Largon in Invernesshire, if Loch Largon means Loch Laggan, as seems likely.[[95]]
Translated by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p. 79, after Aytoun.
1
O heard ye of Sir James the Rose,
The young heir of Buleighen?
For he has killd a gallant squire,
An ‘s friends are out to take him.
2
Now he’s gone to the House of Marr,
Where the nourrice was his leman;
To see his dear he did repair,
Thinking she would befriend him.
3
‘Where are you going, Sir James?’ she says,
‘Or where now are you riding?’
‘O I am bound to a foreign land,
For now I’m under hiding.
4
‘Where shall I go? Where shall I run?
Where shall I go to hide me?
For I have killd a gallant squire,
And they’re seeking to slay me.’
5
‘O go ye down to yon ale-house,
And I’ll pay there your lawing;
And, if I be a woman true,
I’ll meet you in the dawing.’
6
‘I’ll not go down to yon ale-house,
For you to pay my lawing;
There’s forty shillings for one supper,
I’ll stay in ‘t till the dawing.’
7
He’s turnd him right and round about
And rowd him in his brechan,
And he has gone to take a sleep,
In the lowlands of Buleighen.
8
He was not well gone out of sight,
Nor was he past Milstrethen,
Till four and twenty belted knights
Came riding oer the Leathen.
9
‘O have you seen Sir James the Rose,
The young heir of Buleighen?
For he has killd a gallant squire,
And we’re sent out to take him.’
10
‘O I have seen Sir James,’ she says,
‘For he past here on Monday;
If the steed be swift that he rides on,
He’s past the gates of London.’
11
But as they were going away,
Then she calld out behind them;
‘If you do seek Sir James,’ she says,
‘I’ll tell you where you’ll find him.
12
‘You’ll seek the bank above the mill,
In the lowlands of Buleighen,
And there you’ll find Sir James the Rose,
Lying sleeping in his brechan.
13
‘You must not wake him out of sleep,
Nor yet must you affright him,
Till you run a dart quite thro his heart,
And thro the body pierce him.’
14
They sought the bank above the mill,
In the lowlands of Buleighan,
And there they found Sir James the Rose,
A sleeping in his brechan.
15
Then out bespoke Sir John the Græme,
Who had the charge a keeping;
‘It’s neer be said, dear gentlemen,
We’ll kill him when he’s sleeping.’
16
They seizd his broadsword and his targe,
And closely him surrounded;
But when he wak’d out of his sleep,
His senses were confounded.
17
‘O pardon, pardon, gentlemen!
Have mercy now upon me!’
‘Such as you gave, such you shall have,
And so we’ll fall upon thee.’
18
‘Donald my man, wait me upon,
And I’ll give you my brechan,
And, if you stay here till I die,
You’ll get my trews of tartan.
19
‘There is fifty pounds in my pocket,
Besides my trews and brechan;
You’ll get my watch and diamond ring;
And take me to Loch Largon.’
20
Now they have taken out his heart
And stuck it on a spear,
Then took it to the House of Marr,
And gave it to his dear.
21
But when she saw his bleeding heart
She was like one distracted;
She smote her breast, and wrung her hands,
Crying, ‘What now have I acted!
22
‘Sir James the Rose, now for thy sake
O but my heart’s a breaking!
Curst be the day I did thee betray,
Thou brave knight of Buleighen.’
23
Then up she rose, and forth she goes,
All in that fatal hour,
And bodily was born away,
And never was seen more.
24
But where she went was never kend,
And so, to end the matter,
A traitor’s end, you may depend,
Can be expect’d no better.
a.
From “A collection of Popular Ballads and Tales,” in six volumes, “formed by me,” says Sir W. Scott, “when a boy, from the baskets of the travelling pedlars.... It contains most of the pieces that were popular about thirty years since.” (“1810.”) Vol. IV, No 21. In stanzas of eight lines.
b.
12. Buleighan, and always.
23. To seek (d).
52. there pay.
53. maiden true (d).
111. As they rode on, man after man.
112. she cried.
113. James the Rose.
121. Seek ye the bank abune.
133. you drive (d).
134. through his (d).
141. abune (d).
144. Lying sleeping (d).
151. Up then spake (d).
153. It shall (d).
154. We killed: when a (d).
163. And (d).
174. we fall (d).
201. they’ve taen out his bleeding heart (d).
213. wrung her hands and tore her hair (d).
214. Oh, what have I.
221. It’s for your sake, Sir J. the R. (d).
222. That my poor heart’s (d).
233. She bodily.
244. Can never be no.
c.
11. Did you hear.
12. That young.
12, 74, 92. Belichan.
13. For wanting.
14. Who was sent out.
21. Now wanting.
22. nurse she was his layman.
32. where are you a.
33. I am going to some land.
34. For I am.
41. Where must: I turn.
42. I run.
43, 93. esquire.
44. And my friends are out to take me.
51. Go you.
52. There you’ll stay till the dawning.
54. I’ll come and pay your lawing.
61. down wanting.
62. To stay unto the dawning.
63. Now if you be a woman true.
64. [D] o (?) come and pay the lawning.
71. himself quite round.
73. he is.
81. not quite out.
82. Wanting.
84. ore Beligham.
91. did you see.
92. That.
93. For wanting.
94. Who was sent.
101. Oh yes, I seed S. J. the R.
102. He passed by here.
103. His steed was: rid.
104. And past.
111. Just as.
112. They thought no more upon him.
113. Oh if you want S. J. the R.
122. And the: Belighan.
123. And wanting.
13 as 14.
131. him from his.
132. you wanting.
133. But in his breast must run a dart.
14 as 13.
142. And lowlands.
144. Lying sleeping.
151. up bespoke Sir James the Graham.
152. charge in.
153. Let it neer: gentleman.
154. We killd a man a sleeping.
161. They have taken from him his sword and target.
163. wakened out of sleep.
164. was.
171. O wanting.
172. And now have mercy on.
173. Which as.
174. And so shall fall upon you.
182. Until I be a dead man.
183. You’ll get my hose, likewise my shoes.
184. Likewise my Highland brichan.
191,2. Wanting.
193,4 with 201,2: 203,4 with 211,2: 213,4 with 223,4: 221,2 wanting.
193. You shall have my.
194. If you’ll carry me to Loughargan.
201. tane out his bleeding heart.
202. And fetched it on a spear man.
203. And locked it to the Marr.
204. A present to. 212. She ran.
213. She wrung her hands and smote her breast.
214. Oh what have I done, what have I acted.
223. day I you betrayd.
224. of Brichan.
231. Then wanting.
232. And in.
233. Her body by.
234. never was heard tell of: more wanting.
24. Wanting.
d.
12. Buleichan, and always.
14. And his.
21. Now wanting.
23. To seek.
3. Wanting.
44. They’re seeking for to.
52. there I’ll pay.
53. a maiden.
61. no gae.
63. thirty shillings for your.
64. And stay until the.
81. He had.
82. And past the Mill strethan.
101. S. J. the Rose.
111. But wanting.
112. She cried out.
113. S. J. the Rose.
121. Search the.
133. you drive.
134. through his.
141. They searched: abune.
144. Lying sleeping.
151. Up then spoke.
153. It shall.
154. We killed him when a.
163. And.
174. we fall.
191. There is wanting.
201. They’ve taen out his bleeding.
203. And they’ve gone to.
204. And gien.
211. But wanting.
213. She wrung her hands and tore her hair.
214. Crying, Now what.
221. It’s for your sake, S. J. the R.
222. That my poor heart’s.
231. Then wanting.
232. And in.
233. Bodily: She prefixed later.
241. kent.
244. Cannot expect no.
e, f.
e. Another song of Sir James the Ross; this following Bruce’s ballad, which has the title (p. 73) Sir James the Rose or de Ross. f. Another song of Sir James de Ross.
11. O did ye na ken Sir.
12. e. Ballachen, and always.
f. 12, 74, 92, Ballachen;
122. Ballichan;
142. Ballichin;
224. Ballichen.
14. e. And they seeking, f. And they’re seeking.
21. He’s hy’d him: Moor.
22–4, 3. e. Wanting.
32. f. O where away are.
33. f. to some.
41. O where.
42. O whither shall I hide me.
44. to kill.
51. e. gan ye. f. gang you.
52. I will pay your.
53. And gin there be.
61. gang.
63. shillings in my purse.
64. We’l stake it in the.
71. He turnd.
73. is gone.
82. Mill Strechin.
83. Ere.
84. the Rechin.
91. O saw ye.
101. O yes, I saw S. J. the R.
103. And gif: swift he: on wanting.
104. He’s near.
111. They were not well gane out o sight.
112. Ere she.
113. O gin ye seek S. J. the R.
114. ye where to.
121. Ye’ll search the bush aboon the know.
131. him from his sleep.
132. Neither man you
141. the bush aboon the know.
144. Lying sleeping.
151. O then spake up Sir James Graham.
153. Let it not be.
154. We killd: while.
161. They’ve tane his broadsword from his side.
162. him they have for closely him.
163. o for of his.
172. O pardon me, I pray ye.
178. ye gae, such shall ye hae.
174. There is no pardon for ye.
18, 19. Wanting.
201. they’ve tane out his bleeding heart.
202. f. stickt it.
203. Then carried, e. Mure, f. Moor.
204. And shewd.
211. But wanting.
212. She rav’d.
213. And cried, Alake, a weel (well) a day.
214. Alas what have.
222. My heart it is a.
223. Wae to the day I thee betrayd.
224. Thou bold.
232. In that unhappy hour.
234. neer was heard of more.
24. Wanting.
g.
12. Buleighan, and always.
14. Whase friends.
21. has gane.
22. Whar nane might seek to find him.
24. Weining.
31. said.
32. O whar awa are ye.
33. I maun be bound.
34. And now.
42. I rin to lay.
44. And his friends seek.
51. yon laigh.
52. I sall pay there.
53. And as I am your leman trew.
54. at the.
6. Wanting.
71. He turnd.
72. And laid him doun to.
83. Whan.
94. sent to.
101. Yea, I: said.
102. He past by here.
103. Gin.
104. the Hichts of Lundie.
111. as wi speid they rade awa.
112. She leudly cryd.
113. Gin ye’ll gie me a worthy meid.
114. whar to.
12.
‘O tell, fair maid, and, on our band,
Ye’se get his purse and brechan:’
‘He’s in the bank aboon the mill,
In the lawlands o Buleighan.’
13, 14. Wanting.
151. out and spak.
153. said, my stalwart feres.
154. We killd him whan a.
163,4.
O pardon, mercy, gentlemen!
He then fou loudly sounded.
173,4–19.
‘Sic as ye gae sic ye sall hae,
Nae grace we shaw to thee can.’
‘Donald my man, wait till I fa,
And ye shall hae my brechan;
Ye’ll get my purse, thouch fou o gowd,
To tak me to Loch Lagan.’
201. Syne they tuke out his bleeding heart.
202. And set.
204. And shawd.
21.
We cold nae gie Sir James’s purse,
We cold nae gie his brechan,
But ye sall ha his bleeding heart,
Bot and his bleeding tartan.
221. O for.
222. My heart is now.
223. day I wrocht thy wae.
224. brave heir.
232,3. And in that hour o tein, She wanderd to the dowie glen.
234. never mair was sein.
24. Wanting.
214
THE BRAES O YARROW
A. ‘The Braes of Yarrow,’ communicated to Percy by Dr Robertson, Principal of Edinburgh.
B. ‘The Braes o Yarrow,’ Murison MS., p. 105.
C. ‘The Dowie Downs o Yarrow,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 334; Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 252.
D. ‘The Bonny Braes of Yarrow,’ communicated to Percy by Robert Lambe, of Norham, 1768.
E. a. ‘The Dowy Houms o Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford. b. ‘The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,’ Scott’s Minstrelsy III, 72, 1803, III, 143, 1833.
F. ‘The Dowie Dens o Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford.
G. ‘The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford.
H. ‘The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,’ Campbell MSS, II, 55.
I. ‘Braes of Yarrow,’ Buchan’s MSS, II, 161; Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 203; Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 68, Percy Society, vol. xvii.
J. ‘The Dowie Glens of Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford.
K. ‘The Dowie Den in Yarrow,’ Campbell MSS, I, 8.
L. ‘The Dowie Dens,’ Blackwood’s Magazine, CXLVII, 741, June, 1890.
M. ‘Dowie Banks of Yarrow,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford.
N. ‘The Yetts of Gowrie,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” Abbotsford.
O. Herd’s MSS, I, 35, II, 181; Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 145; four stanzas.
P. Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196; two stanzas.
First published in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1803 (E b). Scott remarks that he “found it easy to collect a variety of copies, but very difficult indeed to select from them such a collated edition as might in any degree suit the taste of ‘these more light and giddy-paced times.’” The copy principally used was E a. St. 12 of Scott, which suited the taste of the last century, but does not suit with a popular ballad, is from O, and also st. 13, and there are traces of F, G, M, but 5–7 have lines which do not occur in any version that I have seen.
A had been somewhat edited before it was communicated to Percy; the places were, however, indicated by commas. Several copies besides O, already referred to, have slight passages that never came from the unsophisticated people; as J 2, in which a page “runs with sorrow,” for rhyme and without reason, L 23, and L 123,4, which is manifestly taken from Logan’s Braes of Yarrow.[[96]] N has been interpolated with artificial nonsense,[[97]] and is an almost worthless copy; the last stanza may defy competition for silliness.
M 1, 3, and N 4, 6, 7, belong to ‘The Duke of Athole’s Nurse.’ So also does one half of a fragment sent by Burns in a letter to William Tytler, Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 194–8, which, however, has two stanzas of this ballad (P) and two of ‘Rare Willie’s drowned in Yarrow,’ No 215.
The fragment in Ritson’s Scotish Songs, 1794, I, lxvii, is O.
Herd’s MSS, I, 36, II, 182, have the following couplets, evidently from a piece treating the story of this ballad:
O when I look east my heart is sair,
But when I look west it’s mair and mair,
For there I see the braes of Yarrow,
And there I lost for ay my marrow.
The groups A-I and J-P are distinguished by the circumstance, of no importance to the story, that the hero and heroine in the former are man and wife, in the other unmarried lovers. In all the versions (leaving out of account the fragments O, P) the family of the woman are at variance with the man. Her brothers think him an unfit match for their sister, A 8, B 2.[[98]] In C 2 the brothers have taken offence because their sister was not regarded as his equal by her husband, which is perhaps too much of a refinement for ballads, and may be a perversion. She was worth stealing in C as in B. The dispute in two or three copies appears to take the form who is the flower, or rose, of Yarrow, that is the best man, C 8, 9, 17, B 1, 12, D 1, 14; but this matter is muddled, cf. C 2, 3, D 2. We hear nothing about the unequal match in D-I, but in J-L a young lady displeases her father by refusing nine gentlemen in favor of a servant-lad.
Men who are drinking together fall out and set a combat for the next day, B-F, H, I. It is three lords that drink and quarrel in B-D (ten (?) in I). The lady fears that her three brothers will slay her husband, B 5, C 5. The lord in D 2 seems not to be one of the three in D 1, and we are probably to understand that three brothers get into a brawl with a man who has surreptitiously married their sister. Only one brother is spoken of in A (6), from whom treachery is looked for, E 2.
In I-L the father makes the servant-lad fight with the nine high-born suitors.
The wife tries to keep her husband at home, A-E, I; but he is confident that all will go well, and that he shall come back to her early, A, B, C, I. She kisses (washes) and combs him, and helps to arm him, B, C, E, F, G, I; so J, K.[[99]] He finds nine armed men awaiting him on the braes or houms of Yarrow, A, E-G, I-M, ten B, D.[[100]] They ask if he has come to hawk, hunt (drink), or fight; he replies that he has come to fight, C, E, I; cf. A 5, 6. Five (four) he slays and four (five) he wounds, A, B, D, E, I, J, K; in F he kills all the nine; in L he gets no further than the seventh; in G he kills all but one.
These nine, after the way of ballads, should be the lady’s brothers, and such they are in A 7, 8. Three of them, but only three, should be the lady’s brothers according to B 1–5, C 1–5. Three brethren are charged by the husband with a message to his lady in D 8, and these might be his brothers-in-law. The message is sent in E 9 by a good-brother, or wife’s brother, John, who clearly was not in the fight in E, though the husband says he is going to meet this brother John in A 6. This brother-in-law of E is probably intended by brother in I 8.
After the hero has successively disposed of his nine or ten antagonists (he takes them ‘man for man’), he is stabbed from behind in a cowardly way, A, B, C, E, I, L, N, by somebody. The tradition is much blurred here; it is a squire out of the bush, a cowardly man, a fause lord. An Englishman shoots him with an arrow out of a bush in D. But other reports are distinct. The lady’s father runs him through (not from behind) in J, K. Her brother springs from a bush behind and runs him through, L. Her brother John comes behind him and slays him, N. Up and rose her brother James and slew him, M. In E “that stubborn knight” comes behind him and runs his body through, and that (a) “stubborn lord” is the author of his death in G, F. Taking E 2, 8, 9 together, the stubborn knight, at least in E, may be interpreted as good-brother John, whose treachery is feared in E 2, who is prominent in A 6, and who is expressly said to slay his sister’s true-love in N. On the whole, the preponderance of tradition is to the effect that the hero was treacherously slain by his wife’s (love’s) brother.
Word of her husband’s death is sent or carried to the wife by her brother, brother John, A, E, L, N; her or his three brothers, D 8; her or his brother, I 8; his man John, C 12, by mistake; her father (?), J, K; her sister Anne, F, G, H. The wife has had a dream that she, her lord or true-love and she, had been pulling green heather (birk) in Yarrow, A, C-F, I-M, O.[[101]] The dream is explained to signify her lord’s death, and she is enjoined to fetch him home. In A, the dream occurs before the fight and is double, of pulling green heather and of her love coming headless home; in B, the lady dreams that her lord was sleeping sound in Yarrow, and in the highly vitiated N that ‘he had lost his life.’
The wife hurries to Yarrow;[[102]] up a high, high hill and down into the valley, where she sees nine (ten) dead men, E, F, G, M (nine well-armed men, wrongly, H).[[103]] She sees her true-love lying slain, finds him sleeping sound, in Yarrow, A, B, J, K. She kisses him and combs his hair, A, E, F, G, I, L, M; she drinks the blood that runs from him, E 12, F 11, G 7, M 9.[[104]]
Her hair is five quarters long; she twists it round his hand and draws him home, C; ties it round his middle and carries him home, D. She takes three lachters of her hair, ties them tight round his middle and carries him home, B. His hair is five quarters long! she ties it to her horse’s mane and trails him home, K.[[105]] The carrying strikes one as unpractical, the trailing as barbarous. In L, after the lover is slain, the surviving lords and her brother trail him by the heels to Yarrow water and throw him into a whirlpool. The lady, searching for him, sees him ‘deeply drowned.’ His hair, which we must suppose to float, is five quarters long; she twines it round her hand and draws him out. Raising no petty questions, it appears enough to say that this is the only version of fourteen in which the drowning occurs, and that the drowning of the lover is the characteristic of No 215, the next following ballad, which has otherwise been partly confused with this.[[106]]
The lady’s father urges her to restrain her grief; he will wed her with as good a lord as she has lost, or a better; she rejects his suggestions. Her heart breaks, B, I; she dies in her father’s arms, D, F-H, J-L, being at the time big with child, B, D, F-H, J.
The lady tells her father to wed his sons, B 12; his seven sons, J 18. So ‘Clerk Saunders’ (of which this may be a reminiscence, for we do not hear of seven sons in this ballad), No 69, G 28; cf. A 26, E 19.
She bids him take home his ousen and his kye, E 15, F 12, G 8, H 9. This I conceive to be an interpolation by a reciter who followed the tradition cited from Hogg further on.
The message to the mother to come take up her son in I 8 may possibly be a reminiscence from ‘Johnie Cock,’ No 114. It occurs in no other copy, and comes in awkwardly.
‘The Braes of Yarrow’ (‘Busk ye, busk ye, my bony, bony bride’), written by William Hamilton of Bangour “in imitation of the ancient Scottish manner,’ was suggested by this ballad.[[107]]
‘The Dowy Dens,’ Evans’s Old Ballads, 1810, III, 342, has the same foundation. ‘The Haughs o Yarrow,’ a modern piece in Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 211, repeats with a slight change the third stanza of O, and has further on half a stanza from ‘Willie’s rare,’ No 215.
James Hogg, in sending E a to Sir Walter Scott, wrote as follows: “Tradition placeth the event on which this song is founded very early. That the song hath been written near the time of the transaction appears quite evident, although, like others, by frequent singing the language is become adapted to an age not so far distant. The bard does not at all relate particulars, but only mentions some striking features of a tragical event which everybody knew. This is observable in many of the productions of early times; at least the secondary bards seem to have regarded their songs as purely temporary.
“The hero of the ballad is said to have been of the name of Scott, and is called a knight of great bravery. He lived in Ettrick, some say at Oakwood, others Kirkhope; but was treacherously slain by his brother-in-law, as related in the ballad, who had him at ill will because his father had parted with the half of all his goods and gear to his sister on her marriage with such a respectable man. The name of the murderer is said to be Annand, a name I believe merely conjectural from the name of the place where they are said both to be buried, which at this day is called Annan’s Treat, a low muir lying to the west of Yarrow church, where two huge tall stones are erected, below which the least child that can walk the road will tell you the two lords are buried that were slain in a duel.”
Sir Walter Scott, in the revised edition of his Minstrelsy, expressed a conviction that this ballad referred to a duel fought between John Scott of Tushielaw and his brother-in-law Walter Scott of Thirlestane, in which the latter was slain.[[108]] Contemporary entries in the records of the Presbytery of Selkirk show that John Scott, son to Walter of Tushielaw, killed Walter Scott, brother of Sir Robert of Thirlestane, in 1609. The slain Walter Scott was not, however, the brother-in-law of John of Tushielaw, for his wife was a daughter of Sir Patrick Porteous. A violent feud ensued, as might be expected, between the Scotts of Thirlestane and of Tushielaw. Seven years later, in 1616, a Walter Scott of Tushielaw made “an informal and inordinat marriage with Grizel Scott of Thirlestane without consent of her father.” The record of the elopement is three months after followed by an entry of a summons to Simeon Scott of Bonytoun (an adherent of Thirlestane) and three other Scotts “to compear in Melrose to hear themselves excommunicat for the horrible slaughter of Walter Scott” [of Tushielaw]. Disregarding the so-called duel, we have a Walter Scott of Tushielaw carrying off a wife from the Scotts of Thirlestane, with which family he was at feud; and a Walter Scott of Tushielaw horribly slaughtered by Scotts of Thirlestane. These facts correspond rather closely with the incidents of the ballad. We do not know, to be sure, that the two Walter Scotts of Tushielaw were the same person. There were Walter Scotts many; but tradition is capable of confounding the two or the three connected with this series of events. On the other hand, there is nothing in the ballad to connect it preferably with the Scotts; the facts are such as are likely to have occurred often in history, and a similar story is found in other ballads.
In the Scandinavian ballad ‘Herr Helmer,’ Helmer has married a lady whose family are at feud with him for the unatoned slaughter of her uncle; he meets her seven brothers, who will now hear of no satisfaction; there is a fight; Helmer kills six, but spares the seventh, who treacherously kills him: Afzelius, ed. Bergström, I, 264, Arwidsson, I, 155 (etc., see II, 170 of this collection, note ‡). Other forms make the last of the brothers willing to accept an arrangement: ‘Herr Helmer Blau,’ Danske Viser, IV, 251, No 209, ‘Herr Hjælm,’ Grundtvig, Danske Folkeminder, 1861, p. 81. ‘Jomfruen i Skoven,’ Danske Viser, III, 99, No 123, has also several features of our ballad. The hero, on parting from a lady with whom he has passed the night in a wood, is warned by her to avoid her seven brothers. This he is too brave to do, and he meets them. They ask him where are his hawk and his hound. He tries, unsuccessfully, to induce them to give him their sister for wife; they fight; he kills all the seven brothers, and is slain himself, in some way not explained. (These ballads are translated in Prior, III, 371, 230.)
The next ballad has been partially confused with this.
E b, Scott’s ballad, is translated by Doenniges, p. 237; by Loève-Veimars, p. 347. Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, p. 92, translates Allingham’s ballad.