O make it saft and narrow!
Since my love died for me to-day,
I’ll die for him to-morrow.’
THE GAY GOSHAWK
The Text is from the Jamieson-Brown MS., on which version Scott drew partly for his ballad in the Minstrelsy. Mrs. Brown recited the ballad again to William Tytler in 1783, but the result is now lost, with most of the other Tytler-Brown versions.
The Story.—One point, the maid’s feint of death to escape from her father to her lover, is the subject of a ballad very popular in France; a version entitled Belle Isambourg is printed in a collection called Airs de Cour, 1607. Feigning death to escape various threats is a common feature in many European ballads.
It is perhaps needless to remark that no goshawk sings sweetly, much less talks. In Buchan’s version (of forty-nine stanzas) the goshawk is exchanged for a parrot.
THE GAY GOSHAWK
1.