I
“An old song shewing how Sir Wm Wallace killed thirty Englishmen.” This copy resembles C.
‘Decencey’ in 82 is the reciter’s rendering of the bencite (benedicite) of C 62.
1
‘I wish I had a king,’ brave Wallace he said,
That every brave Scotsman might leave by his oun,
For between me and my sovreign leige
I think I see some ill [seed] sowen.’
2
Brave Wallace out-oer yon river he lap,
And he lighted low down on the plain,
And he came to a gay lady,
As she was at the well washing.
3
‘Some tidings, some tidings,’ brave Wallace he said,
‘Some tidings ye most tell unto me;
Now since we are met here togither on the plain,
Some tidings ye most tell unto me.’
4
‘O go ye down to yon wee ale-house,
And there is fifeteen Englishmen,
And they are seeking for good Wallace,
And him to take and him for to hang.’
5
‘I wish I had a penny in my pocket,’ he says,
‘Or although it were but a bare baubee,
And I wad away to the wee ale-house,
The fifeteen Englishmen to see.’
6
She’s put hir hand in hir left pocket,
And fifeteen shillings to him she told down:
‘If ever I live to come back this way,
The money’s be well paid agein.’
7
He louted twafauld oer a stick,
And he louted threefauld oer a tree,
And he’es gane awa to the wee ale-house,
The fifeteen Englishmen to see.
8
When he came to the wee ale-house,
He walked ben, says, Decencey be there!
The Engilish proud captain he awnsered him,
And he awnsered him with a graid domineer.
9
‘Why, where wast thou born, thou old crooked carle?
Where and of what country?’
‘I am a true Scotsman bred and born,
And an auld crooked carle, just sic as ye may see.’
10
‘I wad gee fifeteen shillings,’ the captain he said,
‘To an auld crooked carle, just sic a ane as thee,
If ye wad tell me of Willie Wallace,
For he’s the man I wad fain see.’
11
‘O hold your hand,’ brave Wallace he said,
‘And let me see if yeer coin be good;
If ye wad give fifeteen shillings more,
Ye never bade a better boad.’
12
He’s tean the captain out-oer the chaft-blade,
Till a bitt of meat he never did eat mair;
He stickit a’ the reste as the sat aroun the table,
And he left them all a spraulling there.
13
‘Get up, get up, goodwife,’ he says,
‘Get up and get me some denner in haste,
For it is now three days and nights
Since a bit of meat my mouth did taste.’
14
The denner was not well made ready,
Nor was it on the table sett,
Till other fifeteen English men
Were a’perading about the yett.
15
‘Come out, come out now, Wallace,’ they crys,
‘For this is the place ye’es sure for [to] die;’
‘I lippen not sae little to good,’ he says,
‘Although I be but ill-wordie.’
16
The goodman ran butt, the goodwife ran ben,
They put the house in such a fever!
Five of them he sticket where they stood,
And other five he smoddered in the gitter.
17
Five of them he folowd to the merry greenwood,
And these five he hangt on a grain,
And gin the morn at ten o’clock
He was wi his mirry men at Lochmaben.
62. 15.
82. Perhaps we should read be here, as in A 102, but other copies have bad ... there, and it is likely enough that there is a confusion of the oblique and the direct form.
144. a.
265 b, note †. ‘Let me see if your money be good, and if it be true and right, you’ll maybe get the downcome of Robinhood,’ from a recited copy, in the preface to Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, XV.]
158. Hugh Spencer’s Feats in France.
P. 276. What is narrated of Walter in the Chronicon Novalese is likewise told of Ogier by Alexander Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, ed. T. Wright, p. 261 ff. (see also the note at p. lvi), in a copy of Turpin’s Chronicle, Ward, Catalogue of Romances, I, 579 f., and (excepting the monastery) in La Chevalerie Ogier, ed. Barrois, v. 10390 ff.; of Heimir, Saga Ðiðriks af Bern, c. 429 ff., Unger, p. 361 ff.; and in part in the ballad of ‘Svend Felding,’ Grundtvig, No 31, I, 398. See Grundtvig’s preface to No 15, I, 216 ff.; Ward, as above; Voretzsch, Ueber die Sage von Ogier dem Dänen, p. 113 ff.
161. The Battle of Otterburn.
P. 289, IV, 499. From C. K. Sharpe’s “first collection,” p. 21. Tradition in this copy, as in Herd’s, B, ascribes the death of Douglas to an offended and treacherous page.
1
It was about the Lammes time,
When moorland men do win their hay,
Brave Earl Douglass, in armer bright,
Marchd to the Border without delay.
2
He hes tean wi him the Lindseys light,
And sae hes he the Gordons gay,
And the Earl of Fife, without all strife,
And Sir Heugh Montgomery upon a day.
3
The hae brunt Northumberland,
And sae have [the] Northumbershire,
And fair Cluddendale they hae brunt it hale,
And he’s left it all in fire fair.
4
Ay till the came to Earl Percy’s castle,
Earl Percey’s castle that stands sae high:
‘Come dowen, come dowen, thou proud Percey,
Come down and talk one hour with me.
5
‘Come down, come down, thou proud Percey,
Come down and talk one hour with me;
For I hae burnt thy heritage,
And sae will I thy building high.’
6
‘If ye hae brunt my heritage,
O dule, O dule, and woe is me!
But will ye stay at the Otter burn
Untill I gather my men to me?’
7
‘O I will stay at the Otter burn
The space of days two or three,
And if ye do not meet me there,
I will talk of thy coardie.’
8
O he hes staid at the Otter burn
The space of days two or three;
He sent his page unto his tent-door,
For to see what ferleys he could see.
9
‘O yonder comes yon gallent knight,
With all bonny banners high;
It wad do ony living good
For to see the bonny coulers fly.’
10
‘If the tale be true,’ Earl Douglass says,
‘The tidings ye have told to me,
The fairest maid in Otterburn
Thy bedfellow sure shall she be.
11
‘If the tale be false,’ Earl Douglass says,
‘The tidings that ye tell to me,
The highest tree in Otterburn,
On it high hangëd shall ye be.’
12
Earl Douglass went to his tent-door,
To see what ferleys he could see;
His little page came him behind,
And ran him through the fair body.
13
‘If I had a little time,’ he says,
‘To set in order my matters high,
Ye Gordons gay, to you I say,
See that ye let not my men away.
14
‘Ye Linseys light, both wise and wight,
Be sure ye carry my coulers high;
Ye Gordons gay, again I say,
See that ye let not my men away.
15
‘Sir Heugh Montgomery, my sistir’s son,
I give you the vangaurd over all;
Let it neer be said into old England
That so little made a true Scot fall.
16
‘O lay me dowen by yon brecken-bush,
That grows upon yon liley lea;
Let it neer be said into old England
That so little made a true Scot die.’
17
At last those two stout knights did meet,
And O but they were wonderous keen!
The foght with sowards of the temperd steel,
Till the drops of blood ran them betwen.
18
‘O yeald thee, Percie,’ Montgomery crys,
‘O yeald ye, or I’ll lay the low;’
‘To whome should I yeald? to whom should I yeald?
To whom should I yeald, since it most be so?’
19
‘O yeald ye to yon breckan-bush,
That grows upon yon lilley lea;
And if ye will not yeald to this,
In truth, Earl Percey, I’ll gar ye die.’
20
‘I will not yeald to a breckan-bush,
Nor yet will I yeald to a brier;
But fain wad I yeald to Earl Douglass,
Or Sir Heugh Montgomery, if he were here.’
21
O then this lord begun to faint,
And let his soward drop to the ground;
Sir Heugh Montgomery, a courtious knight,
He bravely took him by the hand.
22
This deed was done at the Otter burn,
Betwen the sunshine and the day;
Brave Earl Douglass there was slain,
And they carried Percie captive away.
63, 71, 81, 221. Otterburn.
292 b, 2d paragraph, 9th line. C 203,4 may have been supplied by Scott; not in Hogg’s copy. See IV, 500, st. 21.
294, 520 a, IV, 499. St George, Our Lady’s Knight.
O seynt George, oure lady knyght,
To that lady thow pray for me!
Lydgate, Kalendare, vv. 113, 114, ed. Horstmann, in Herrig’s Archiv, LXXX, 121.
O blessyd Lady, Cristes moder dere,
And thou Seynt George, that called art her knyght!
Fabyan’s Chronicles, ed. Ellis, 1811, p. 601. (G. L. K.)
162. The Hunting of the Cheviot.
P. 306, IV, 502. Fighting on stumps. Agolafre, fighting on his knees after his legs were broken, ‘had wyþ ys axe a-slawe an hep of frenschemen:’ Sir Ferumbras, v. 4603 ff., ed. Herrtage, The English Charlemagne Romances, I, 143. (The French text does not represent him as fighting on his knees: Fierabras, ed. Kroeber and Servois, 1860, v. 4878 ff., p. 147.) (G. L. K.)
163. The Battle of Harlaw.
P. 317 a, 2d paragraph. Of course Sir James the Rose and Sir John the Gryme came in from the ballad of ‘Sir James the Rose.’
164. King Henry Fifth’s Conquest of France.
P. 323. There is a copy (‘The Battle of Agincourt’) in C. K. Sharpe’s “first collection,” p. 29, from which some variations may be given.
n. 24. And bring home the tribute that’s due to me.
41-3.
My master the king salutes thee well,
Salutes thee well, most graciously;
You must go send, etc.
52-4.
And darna come to my degree;
Go bid him play with his tenish balls,
For in French lands he dare no me see.
73,4.
Such tidings from the king of France
As I’m sure with him you can ner agree.
83. He bids you play with these tenish balls.
104. They were a jovial good company.
After 10: He counted oer his merry men, Told them by thirty and by three, And when the were all numberd oer He had thirty thousand brave and three.
12 The first that fird, it was the French, Upon our English men so free, But we made ten thousand of them fall, And the rest were forc’d for there lives to flee.
131. Soon we entered Paris gates.
132. trumpets sounding high.
134. Have mercy on [my] men and me.
141,2.
Take home your tribute, the king he says,
And three tons of gold I will give to thee.
There is also a copy in “The Old Lady’s Collection,” No 7, but it is not worth collating.
167. Sir Andrew Barton.
P. 338 b, IV, 502 b. Gold to bury body. Apollonius of Tyre. So in Gower, Confessio Amantis, bk. viii, ed. Pauli, III, 312; in the English prose Kynge Apollyn of Thyre, Wynkyn de Worde, 1510, c. 19, fol. 48, of Ashbee’s fac-simile, 1870; in the German prose Appollonius Tyrus and Appolonius von Tiria, C. Schröder, Griseldis, Apollonius von Tyrus, aus Handschriften herausg., pp. 46, 110, Leipzig, 1873. (G. L. K.)
170. The Death of Queen Jane.
P. 372. Communicated by Rev. S. Baring-Gould, as recited by Samuel Force.