YOUNG REDIN. After Allingham's collated copy. There are many versions of this ballad, the hero being variously known as Young Hunting, Earl Richard, Lord William, Lord John and Young Redin. Birl'd, plied. Douk, dive. Weil-head, eddy. Linn, the pool beneath a cataract. Brin, burn. Balefire, bonfire.
WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET. After Allingham's copy framed by collating Jamieson's fragmentary version with Buchan's ballad of The Drowned Lovers. Stour, wild. Pot, a pool in a river. Dowie den, doleful hollow. Tirled, rattled. Sleeked, fastened. Brae, hillside. _Sowm, swim. Minnie, affectionate term for mother.
YOUNG BEICHAN. Mainly after Jamieson, his version being based upon a copy taken down from the recitation of the indefatigable Mrs. Brown and collated with a manuscript and stall copy, both from Scotland, a recited copy from the North of England, and a short version "picked off an old wall in Piccadilly." Of this ballad of Young Beichan there are numerous renderings, the name of the hero undergoing many variations,—Bicham, Brechin, Beachen, Bekie, Bateman, Bondwell—and the heroine, although Susie Pye or Susan Pye in ten of the fourteen versions, figuring also as Isbel, Essels, and Sophia. It was probably an English ballad at the start, but bears the traces of the Scottish minstrels who were doubtless prompt to borrow it. There is likelihood enough that the ballad was originally suggested by the legend of Gilbert Becket, father of the great archbishop; the story running that Becket, while a captive in Holy Land, plighted his troth to the daughter of a Saracenic prince. When the crusader had made good his escape, the lady followed him, inquiring her way to "England" and to "London," where she wandered up and down the streets, constantly repeating her lover's name, "Gilbert," the third and last word of English that she knew, until finally she found him, and all her woes were put to flight by the peal of wedding bells. Termagant, the name given in the old romances to the God of the Saracens. Pine, pain. Sheave, slice. But and, and also. Dreed, endured.
GILDEROY. After the current version adapted from the original by Sir Alexander Halket or his sister, Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw, the composer of Hardyknute. There is extant a black-letter broadside printed in England as early as 1650, and the ballad appears in several miscellanies of later date. The reviser added the sixth, seventh, and eighth stanzas. It is mortifying to learn that this "winsome Gilderoy "—the name, properly Gillie roy, signifying in Gaelic "the red-haired lad"—was in reality one Patrick Mac-Gregor, who was hanged at the cross of Edinburgh, 1638, as a common cateran or free-booter. That the romantic element in the ballad so outweighs the historical, must account for its classification here. Soy, silk. Cess, black-mail. Gear, property.
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN. After the version given in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany and followed by Herd, Ritson, and others. Percy prints with this in the Reliques a longer, but poorer copy. In Pepys's Diary, Jan. 2,1666, occurs an allusion to the "little Scotch song of Barbary Alien." Gin, if. Hooly, slowly. Jow, knell.
THE GARDENER. After Kinloch. Buchan gives a longer, but less valuable version. Jimp, slender. Weed, dress. Camorine, camomile. Kail-blade, cabbage-leaf. Cute, ankle. Brawn, calf. Blaewort, witch bells.
ETIN THE FORESTER. Collated. No single version of this ballad is satisfactory, not Kinloch's fine fragment, Hynde Etin, nor Buchan's complete but inferior version, Young Akin, nor the modernized copy, Young Hastings, communicated by Buchan to Motherwell. Earlier and better renderings of the ballad have doubtless been lost. In the old Scottish speech, an Etin signified an ogre or giant, and although the existing versions show but faint traces of a supernatural element, it is probable that the original character of the story has been changed by the accidents of tradition, and that the Etin was at the outset in line with such personages as Arnold's Forsaken Merman. In the beautiful kindred ballads which abound in the Norse and German literatures, the Etin is sometimes represented by a merman, though usually by an elf-king, dwarf-king, or hill-king. Hind chiel, young stripling. Spier, ask. Bigg, build. Their lane, alone. Brae, hillside. Gars, makes. Greet, weep. Stown, stolen. Laverock, lark. Lift, air. Buntin', blackbird. Christendame, christening. Ben, in. Shaw, forest. Louted, bowed. Boun', go.
LAMKIN. After Jamieson. The many versions of this ballad show an unusually small number of variations. The name, though occurring in the several forms of Lambert Linkin, Lamerlinkin, Rankin, Belinkin, Lankyn, Lonkin, Balcanqual, most often appears as Lamkin or Lammikin or Lambkin, being perhaps a nick-name given to the mason for the meekness with which he had borne his injuries. This would explain the resentful tone of his inquiries on entering the house. Nourice, nurse. Limmer, wretch. Shot-window, projecting window. Gaire, edge of frock. Ilka, each. Bore, crevice. Greeting, crying. Dowie, doleful. Chamer, chamber. Lamer, amber. Ava', of all.
HUGH OF LINCOLN. Mainly after Jamieson. Percy gives a version of this famous ballad under title of The Jew's Daughter, and Herd and Motherwell, as well as Jamieson, have secured copies from recitation. The general view that this ballad rests upon an historical basis has but slender authority behind it. Matthew Paris, never too reliable as a chronicler, says that in 1255 the Jews of Lincoln, after their yearly custom, stole a little Christian boy, tortured and crucified him, and flung him into a pit, where his mother found the body. This is in all probability one of the many cruel slanders circulated against the Jews during the Middle Ages, to reconcile the Christian conscience to the Christian maltreatment of that long-suffering race. Such stories are related of various mediaeval innocents, in various lands and centuries, and may be classed together, until better evidence to the contrary presents itself, as malicious falsehood. This ballad should be compared, of course, with Chaucer's Prioresses Tale. Keppit, caught. Gart, made. Twinn'd, deprived. Row'd, rolled. Ilka, each. Gin, it.
FAIR ANNIE. Mainly after Jamieson's version entitled Lady Jane. Jamieson gives another copy, where the heroic lady is known as Burd Helen, but Scott, Motherwell, Kinloch, Buchan, and others agree on the name Fair Annie. The pathetic beauty of the ballad has secured it a wide popularity. There are Danish, Swedish, Dutch, and German versions. "But Fair Annie's fortunes have not only been charmingly sung," says Professor Child. "They have also been exquisitely told in a favorite lay of Marie de France, 'Le Lai del Freisne.' This tale of Breton origin is three hundred years older than any manuscript of the ballad. Comparison will, however, quickly show that it is not the source either of the English or of the Low German and Scandinavian ballad. The tale and the ballads have a common source, which lies further back, and too far for us to find." Your lane, alone. Braw, finely dressed. Gear, goods. But and, and also. Stown, stolen. Leugh, laughed. Loot, let. Gars, makes. Greet, weep.