MAY COLVIN, OR FALSE SIR JOHN.
In the very ancient though corrupted ballads of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, and The Water o' Wearie's Well (vol. i. p. 195, 198), an Elf or a Merman occupies the place here assigned to False Sir John. Perhaps May Colvin is the result of the same modernizing process by which Hynde Etin has been converted into Young Hastings the Groom (vol. i. p. 294, 189). The coincidence of the name with Clerk Colvill, in vol. i. p. 192, may have some significance. This, however, would not be the opinion of Grundtvig, who regards the Norse and German ballads resembling Lady Isabel, &c., as compounded of two independent stories. If this be so, then we should rather say that a ballad similar to May Colvin has been made to furnish the conclusion to the pieces referred to.
The story of this ballad has apparently some connection with Bluebeard, but it is hard to say what the connection is. (See Fitchers Vogel in the Grimms' K. u. H.-Märchen, No. 46, and notes.) The versions of the ballad in other languages are all but innumerable: e. g. Röfvaren Rymer, Röfvaren Brun, Svenska F.-V., No. 82, 83; Den Falske Riddaren, Arwidsson, No. 44; Ulrich und Aennchen, Schön Ulrich u. Roth-Aennchen, Schön Ulrich und Rautendelein, Ulinger, Herr Halewyn, etc., in Wunderhorn, i. 274; Uhland, 141-157 (four copies); Erk, Liederhort, 91, 93; Erlach, iii. 450; Zuccalmaglio, Deutsche Volkslieder, No. 15; Hoffmann, Schlesische Volkslieder, No. 12, 13, and Niederländische Volkslieder, No. 9, 10; etc. etc. A very brief Italian ballad will be found in the Appendix, p. 391, which seems to have the same theme. In some of the ballads the treacherous seducer is an enchanter, who prevails upon the maid to go with him by the power of a spell.
May Colvin was first published in Herd's Collection, vol. i. 153. The copy here given is one obtained from recitation by Motherwell, (Minstrelsy, p. 67,) collated by him with that of Herd. It is defective at the end. The other versions in Sharpe's Ballad Book, p. 45, and Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, ii. 45, though they are provided with some sort of conclusion, are not worth reprinting. A modernized version, styled The Outlandish Knight, is inserted in the Notes to Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, Percy Society, vol. xvii. 101.
Carlton Castle, on the coast of Carrick, is affirmed by the country people, according to Mr. Chambers, to have been the residence of the perfidious knight, and
a precipice overhanging the sea, called "Fause Sir John's Loup," is pointed out as the place where he was wont to drown his wives. May Colvin is equally well ascertained to have been "a daughter of the family of Kennedy of Colzean, now represented by the Earl of Cassilis." Buchan's version assigns a different locality to the transaction—that of "Binyan's Bay," which, says the editor, is the old name of the mouth of the river Ugie.
False Sir John a wooing came
To a maid of beauty fair;
May Colvin was the lady's name,
Her father's only heir.
He's courted her butt, and he's courted her ben,5
And he's courted her into the ha',
Till once he got this lady's consent
To mount and ride awa'.
She's gane to her father's coffers,
Where all his money lay;10
And she's taken the red, and she's left the white,
And so lightly as she tripped away.