E
1
There was a lady in the West,
Lay the bank with the bonny broom
She had three daughters of the best.
Fa lang the dillo
Fa lang the dillo dillo dee
2
There came a stranger to the gate,
And he three days and nights did wait.
3
The eldest daughter did ope the door,
The second set him on the floor.
4
The third daughter she brought a chair,
And placed it that he might sit there.
(To first daughter.)
5
‘Now answer me these questions three,
Or you shall surely go with me.
(To second daughter.)
6
‘Now answer me these questions six,
Or you shall surely be Old Nick’s.
(To all three.)
7
‘Now answer me these questions nine,
Or you shall surely all be mine.
8
‘What is greener than the grass?
What is smoother than crystal glass?
9
‘What is louder than a horn?
What is sharper than a thorn?
10
‘What is brighter than the light?
What is darker than the night?
11
‘What is keener than an axe?
What is softer than melting wax?
12
‘What is rounder than a ring?’
‘To you we thus our answers bring.
13
‘Envy is greener than the grass,
Flattery smoother than crystal glass.
14
‘Rumour is louder than a horn,
Hunger is sharper than a thorn.
15
‘Truth is brighter than the light,
Falsehood is darker than the night.
16
‘Revenge is keener than an axe,
Love is softer than melting wax.
17
‘The world is rounder than a ring,
To you we thus our answers bring.
18
‘Thus you have our answers nine,
And we never shall be thine.’
Findlay’s MSS, I, 151, from J. Milne.
‘What’s greener than the grass?
What’s higher than the clouds?
What is worse than women’s tongues?
What’s deeper than the floods?’
‘Hollin’s greener than the grass,
Heaven’s higher than the clouds,
The devil’s worse than women’s tongues,
Hell’s deeper than the floods.’
2. The Elfin Knight.
P. 7 b, III, 496 a, IV, 439 a. ‘Store Fordringer,’ Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, XI, 175, No 66 (three copies), 294, No 4. ‘Umulige Fordringer,’ Kristensen, Efterslæt til Skattegraveren, p. 20, No 16.
14 a, II, 495. After the note to 14 a at II, 495, add: C. R. Lanman.
17. Communicated by Mr Walker, of Aberdeen, as sung, 1893, by John Walker, Portlethen; learned by him from his father, above fifty years before.
1
There was a knight on the head o yon hill
Blowing his horn lood and shrill.
Blow, blow, blow the wind, blow
2
‘Ye’se get to me a camrick sark
Without ae steek o needlewark.
3
‘An ye will wash it in a wall
Where rain never fell nor water sprang.
4
‘An ye sall dry it on a thorn
That never wis sprung sin Adam was born.’
5
‘Ye’se gie me an acre o red lan
Atween the see an the watery san.
6
‘An ye will plough it wi yer horn,
An sa it a’ wi ae pick o corn.
7
‘. . . . . . . .
An cut it doon wi a sheepshank bone.
8
‘An ye will big it in the sea,
An bring the foonshief dry to me.
9
‘An when ye have done and finished yer wark,
Come in, Jock Sheep, an ye’ll get yer sark.’
As delivered, 5-8 precede 2-4.
17, 484 b. M. Findlay’s MSS, I, 21, from the recitation of Jeany Meldrum, Framedrum, Forfarshire.
17, II, 495 b. In The Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend, III, 7, ‘Whittingham Fair’ is given by Mr Stokoe with a few variations.
1. Second line of refrain,
For once she was a true lover of mine.
2, 4. Second line of refrain,
Then she shall be a true lover.
3. Second line of refrain,
And she shall be a true lover.
5. Second line of refrain,
Before he shall be a true lover.
6. Second line of refrain,
Then he shall be a true lover.
7, 8, 9. Second line of refrain,
And he shall be a true lover.
61. to buy.
81. to sheer’t.
After 8:
Tell him to thrash it on yonder wall,
And never let one corn of it fall.
Then he shall be a true lover of mine.
17, 484 f., II, 495 f., IV, 439 f.
‘Scarborough Fair,’ taken down by H. M. Bower, December, 1891, from William Moat, a Whitby fisherman. English County Songs, by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland, 1893, p. 12.
1
‘Is any of you going to Scarborough Fair?
Remember me to a lad as lives there;
Remember me to a lad as lives there;
For once he was a true lover of mine.
(Second line always twice.)
2
‘Tell him to bring me an acre of land
Betwixt the wild ocean and yonder sea sand;
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
3
‘Tell him to plough it with one ram’s horn,
And sow it all over with one pepper corn;
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
4
‘Tell him to reap it with sickle of leather,
And bind it together with one peacock-feather;
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
5
‘And now I have answered your questions three,
I hope you’ll answer as many for me;
And then thou shalt be a true lover of mine.’
6
‘Is any of you going to Scarborough Fair?
Remember me to a lass as lives there;
For once she was a true lover of mine.
7
‘Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Without any needles or thread, or owt through’t;
And then she shall be a true lover of mine.
8
‘Tell her to wash it by yonder wall,
Where water neer sprung, nor a drop o rain fall;
And then she shall be a true lover of mine.
9
‘Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Where blossom neer grew sin Adam was born;
And then she shall be a true lover of mine.
10
‘And now I have answered your questions three,
And I hope you’ll answer as many for me;
And then thou shalt be a true lover of mine.’
Rev. S. Baring-Gould gives me these variations, from the West of England:
‘O tell her to bleach it on yonder fresh grass,
Where never a foot or a hoof did pass.’
‘O tell him to thresh it in yonder barn,
That hangs to the sky by a thread of yarn.’
(Dartmoor.)
‘Pray take it up in a bottomless sack,
And every leaf grows merry in time
And bear it to the mill on a butterfly’s back.
O thus you shall be a true lover of mine’
(Cornwall.)
4. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight.
P. 26 b. Danish. ‘Kvindemorderen,’ two fragments; Kristensen, Folkeminder, XI, 62, No 33.
29-37, 486 a, IV, 441 a. FF. ‘Schön Hannchen,’ Frischbier und Sembrzycki, Hundert Ostpreussische Volkslieder, 1893, p. 35, No 22, from Angerburg, 51 vv. The ballad is of the third class. Hannchen walks in the wood, and Ulrich advances to meet her. The birds are all singing, and the maid asks why. ‘Every bird has its song,’ says Ulrich; ‘go you your gait.’ He takes her under a briar where there is a pretty damsel (who is quite superfluous). Hannchen lays her head in the damsel’s lap and begins to weep. The damsel asks whether her weeping is for her father’s gear, or because Ulrich is not good enough for her. It is not for her father’s gear, and Ulrich is good enough. ‘Is it, then,’ says the damsel or Ulrich, ‘for the stakes on which the eleven maidens are hanging? Rely upon it, you shall be the twelfth.’ She begs for three cries, which are addressed to God, her parents, and her brothers. The brothers hear, hasten to the wood, and encounter Ulrich, who pretends to know nothing of their sister. His shoes are red with blood. ‘Why not?’ says Ulrich, ‘I have shot a dove.’ They know who the dove is. Hannchen is borne to the churchyard, Ulrich is strung up on the gallows. No 23 of the same collection is X.
‘Die schöne Anna,’ Böckel, Deutsche Volkslieder aus Oberhessen, p. 86, No 103, ‘Als die wunderschöne Anna,’ Lewalter, Deutsche V. l. in Niederhessen gesammelt, 15 Heft, No 24, p. 51, and also No 25, are fragmentary pieces, varieties of DD, I, 486 a.
37 b, 3d paragraph. A variety of A is printed in Altpreussische Monatschrift, N. F., XXVIII, 632, 1892, without indication of local derivation, ‘Der Ritter und die Königstochter.’ The knight takes measures (not very summary ones) to drown himself.
43 b (or 44 a), 488 a, III, 497 a, IV, 441 b. Italian. Add: Canti popolari Emiliani by Maria Carmi, Archivio, XII, 178, No 2.
44 b, 1st paragraph. Add: ‘El Mariner’ and ‘Giovanina,’ Villanis, Canzoni p. Zaratine, in Archivio XI, 33, 34, Nos 2, 3.
58. E. A copy of ‘The Outlandish Knight,’ with unimportant verbal variations, is given in English County Songs, by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland, p. 164.
III, 497 b. A pair on horseback go a long way without speaking. A trait in Polish, French, and Italian versions of No 4. Add: Munthe, Folkpoesi från Asturien, p. 118 f., VII, A, 76 f., B, 70 f. (‘Don Bueso,’ Duran, I, lxv, no hablara la niña.) Dead lover and maid in Bartoš, Nové národne pisnĕ moravské, p. 150. Lagus, Nyländske F. visor, ‘Kung Valdemo’ (==Ribold), No 1, a, 28, b, 18, ‘Kämpen Grimborg,’ No 3, a, 21, b, 19.
5. Gil Brenton.
P. 62. In Traditionary Stories of Old Families, by Andrew Picken, 1833, I, 289, ‘The Three Maids of Loudon,’ occur the following stanzas:
Seven pretty sisters dwelt in a bower,
With a hey-down, and a ho-down
And they twined the silk, and they workd the flower.
Sing a hey-down and a ho-down
And they began for seven years’ wark,
With a hey-down and a ho-down
All for to make their dear loves a sark.
With a hey down and a ho-down
O three long years were passd and gone,
And they had not finishd a sleeve but one.
‘O we’ll to the woods, and we’ll pull a rose,’
And up they sprang all at this propose.
(W. Macmath.)
6. Willie’s Lady.
P. 82 a. ‘Barselkvinden,’ three fragments, Kristensen, Folkeminder, XI, 42, No 23.
85 b, 3d paragraph. Say, of the parish of Logierait.
7. Earl Brand.
P. 88, III, 498 b, IV, 443 a. ‘Hr. Ribolt.’ Danish. Add: Skattegraveren, VI, 17, No 257, ‘Nævnet til døde,’ Kristensen, Efterslæt til Skattegraveren, p. 81, No 76; Folkeminder, XI, 36, No 22, A-D.
91 f. 489 b, III,498 b, IV, 443 a. Swedish. [‘Ridborg,’] Thomasson, Visor från Bleking, Nyare Bidrag, etc., VII, No 6, p. 12, No 7.
96 b. Danish. ‘Hertug Frydenborg,’ Danmarks g. Folkeviser, No 305, V, II, 216. A a, b, h, n, o; B b, c; E k, l; F b, c, e, f; with diversities, the plant nearly always lilies. (A few of these, from Kristensen, have been already cited.)
9. The Fair Flower of Northumberland.
P. 116. D. In a copy sent by Motherwell to C. K. Sharpe with a letter, October 8, 1825, this version is said to have been obtained from Mrs Nicol, of Paisley.
117, 493 a.