The three following ballads are exhibited in connection with Mr. Kittredge’s opinion that neither poet nor poetaster can imitate, to-day, the traditional ballad. Of course, not one of my three could now take in an expert, for he would ask for documentary evidence of their antiquity. But I doubt if Mr. Kittredge can find any points in my three imitations which infallibly betray their modernity.
The first, Simmy o’ Whythaugh, is based on facts in the Border despatches. Historically the attempt to escape from York Castle failed; after the prisoners had got out they were recaptured.
The second ballad, The Young Ruthven, gives the traditional view of the slaying of the Ruthvens in their own house in Perth, on 5th August 1600.
The third, The Dead Man’s Dance, combines the horror of the ballads of Lizzy Wan and The Bonny Hind, with that of the Romaic ballad, in English, The Suffolk Miracle (Child, No. 272).
I—SIMMY O’ WHYTHAUGH
O, will ye hear o’ the Bishop o’ York,
O, will ye hear o’ the Armstrongs true,
How they hae broken the Bishop’s castle,
And carried himsel’ to the bauld Buccleuch?
They were but four o’ the Lariston kin,
They were but four o’ the Armstrong name,
Wi’ stout Sim Armstrong to lead the band,
The Laird o’ Whythaugh, I mean the same.
They had done nae man an injury,
They had na robbed, they had na slain,
In pledge were they laid for the Border peace,
In the Bishop’s castle to dree their pain.
The Bishop he was a crafty carle,
He has ta’en their red and their white monie,
But the muddy water was a’ their drink,
And dry was the bread their meat maun be.
“Wi’ a ged o’ airn,” did Simmy say,
“And ilka man wi’ a horse to ride,
We aucht wad break the Bishop’s castle,
And carry himsel’ to the Liddel side.