2. The Brother Avenged. [I stood before my master’s board]
Reprinted, with some textual variations, in The Brother Avenged and Other Ballads, 1913, pp. 5–8.
3. Aager and Eliza. [’Twas the valiant knight, Sir Aager]
Previously printed, but with endless variations in the text, in Romantic Ballads, 1826, pp. 47–52, where the first line reads, “Have ye heard of bold Sir Aager.”
As an example of the differences of text to be observed in the two versions, I give three stanzas of each:
1826.
Up his mighty limbs he gather’d,
Took the coffin on his back;
And to fair Eliza’s bower
Hasten’d, by the well-known track.On her chamber’s lowly portal,
With his fingers long and thin,
Thrice he tapp’d, and bade Eliza
Straightway let her bridegroom in!Straightway answer’d fair Eliza,
“I will not undo my door
Till I hear thee name sweet Jesus,
As thou oft hast done before.”
1830.
Up Sir Aager rose, his coffin
Bore he on his bended back.
Tow’ds the bower of sweet Eliza
Was his sad and silent track.He the door tapp’d with his coffin,
For his fingers had no skin;
“Rise, O rise, my sweet Eliza!
Rise, and let thy bridegroom in.”Straightway answer’d fair Eliza:
“I will not undo my door
’Till thou name the name of Jesus,
Even as thou could’st before.”