"Had I but kenn'd, Tamlane," she says,
"Before ye came frae hame—
I wad ta'en out your heart o' flesh,
235 "Had I but had the wit yestreen
That I hae coft the day—
I'd paid my kane seven times to hell
Ere you'd been won away!"
[130]. See Thomas of Ersseldoune, (p. [107],) v. 225, 226.
V. 157-168, v. 208-214. The same process of disenchantment is found in the Danish ballad Nattergalen, st. 20-22, Grundtvig, No. 57 (also Svenska Folk-visor, No. 41). The comparison with the transformations of Proteus is curious.
ἀμφὶ δὲ χεῖρας
βάλλομεν· οὐδ' ὁ γέρων δολίης ἐπελήθετο τέχνης·
ἀλλ' ἤτοι πρώτιστα λέων γένετ' ἠϋγένειος,
αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα δράκων καὶ πόρδαλις ἠδὲ μέγας σῦς·
γίγνετο δ' ὑγρὸν ὕδωρ καὶ δένδρεον ὑψιπέτηλον.
ἡμεῖς δ' ἀστεμφέως ἔχομεν τετληότι θυμῷ.
Odyssey, iv. 454-59.
Verum ubi correptum manibus vinclisque tenebis,
Tum variæ eludent species atque ora ferarum:
Fiet enim subito sus horridus atraque tigris,
Squamosusque draco, et fulva cervice leæna,
Aut acrem flammæ sonitum dabit, atque ita vinclis
Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit.
Sed quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes,
Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla.
Georgics, iv. 405-12.