"O weel is me!" says King Henry;
"How lang'll this last wi' me?"
85 Then out it spake that fair lady,—
"E'en till the day you die.
"For I've met wi' mony a gentle knicht,
That gae me sic a fill;
But never before wi' a curteis knicht,
90 That gae me a' my will."
COSPATRICK.
(Border Minstrelsy, iii. 263.)
This ballad, which is still very popular, is known under various other names, as Bothwell, Child Brenton, Lord Dingwall, We were Sisters, We were Seven, &c. Scott's version was derived principally from recitation, but some of the concluding stanzas were taken from Herd's. Herd's copy, which must be regarded as a fragment, is given in connection with the present, and Buchan's in the Appendix to this volume. Another edition, of a suspicious character, may be seen in Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (p. 205.) All the principal incidents of the story are found in Ingefred og Gudrune, Danske Viser, No. 194, translated by Jamieson, Illustrations p. 340. More or less imperfect versions of the same are Riddar Olle, Svenska Folk-Visor, ii. p. 217, 59, 56, 215, and Herr Äster och Fröken Sissa, p. 50. The substitution of the maid-servant for the bride, occurs also in Torkild Trundesön, Danske V., No. 200, or Thorkil Troneson, Arwidsson, No. 36. This idea was perhaps derived from Tristan and Isold: see Scott's Sir Tristrem, II. 54, 55.
Cospatrick has sent o'er the faem;
Cospatrick brought his ladye hame;
And fourscore ships have come her wi',
The ladye by the grene-wood tree.