"takes out a little penknife
That hung low by his gare,"
or—
"Lifts up a gilt dagger
Hung low down by his knee."
The mother or lady, awaiting her son or lover, always
"Looks over tower and town,"
or—
"Looks over Castle Doune."
After a death it is always
"Bells were rung and mass was sung."
"'A grave, a grave,' Lord Bernard cryd,
'To put these lovers in.'"
"'A bed, a bed,' Clark Saunders cried,
'A bed for you and me.'"
Motherwell, who wrote without Homer in his mind, seems to state the case of the ballads very clearly. "There is not an action, not an occurrence of any sort, but what has its appropriate phraseology; and to enumerate all these would, in effect, be to give the principal portion of all our ancient ballads. For in all cases where there is an identity of interest, of circumstance, of action, each ballad varies not from the established mode of clothing these in language.... They were the general outlines of every class of human incidents...."