[678]. It is almost superfluous to mention Gretchen and the recurrent echo of her wheel in the stanza Meine Ruh’ ist hin. But this, of course, is art.
[679]. A version of “The Cruel Brother” (Child, I. 147), from Forfarshire, has along with the common refrain two lines at the end of the stanza which partly echo the refrain of labour:—
Sing Annet, and Marret, and fair Maisrie,
An’ the dew hangs i’ the wood, gay ladie.
[680]. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes, p. 322. See the interesting notes from Southey’s Doctor, xxiv, about Betty Yewdale and the song she and her sister had to sing while learning to knit socks. The song kept time with the work, and had to bring in the names of all the folk in the dale. See on cumulative song above, p. [200].
[681]. Dyer, British Popular Customs, p. 42.
[682]. Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs, London, 1857, pp. 187 f. Greenside is near Manchester.
[683]. Voceri, pp. 244 f., with a specimen song taken from Viale.
[684]. E. H. Meyer, Volkskunde, p. 236.
[685]. Poes. Pop. Gasc., II. 224 ff. See his references for this interesting subject.