"O staye, my deare and onlye lord,
For mee, thy faithfulle feere;
'Tis meet that I shold followe thee,
Who hast bought my love so deare."
Then fayntinge in a deadlye swoune,200
And with a deep-fette sighe
That burst her gentle heart in twayne,
Fayre Christabelle did dye.
[69]. "Syr Cauline here acts up to the genuine spirit of perfect chivalry. In old romances no incident is of more frequent occurrence than this, of knights already distinguished for feats of arms laying aside their wonted cognizances, and, under the semblance of stranger knights, manfully performing right worshipful and valiant deeds. How often is the renowned Arthur, in such exhibitions, obliged to exclaim, "O Jhesu, what knight is that arrayed all in grene (or as the case may be)? he justeth myghtily!" The Emperor of Almaine, in like manner, after the timely succor afforded him by Syr Gowghter, is anxious to learn the name of his modest but unknown deliverer." [So in the romance of Roswall and Lillian, &c.]—Motherwell.
FAIR ANNIE.
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 252.
The story of Fair Annie is widely disseminated. The substance of it is found in the beautiful romance of Marie de France, the Lai le Frein, of which an ancient English translation is printed in Weber's Metrical Romances, i. 357. The Swedish and Danish ballads go under the same name of Fair Anna, and may be seen in Arwidsson's Svenska Fornsånger, i. 291; Geijer's Svenska Folk-Visor, i. 24; and Nyerup's Danske Viser, iv. 59. Jamieson has rendered the Danish ballad very skilfully, in the Scottish dialect, from Syv's edition of the Kæmpe Viser. In Dutch, the characters are Maid Adelhaid and King Alewijn (Hoffmann's Holländische Volkslieder, 164.) The story as we have found it in German is considerably changed. See Die wiedergefundene Königstochter, in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, ii. 274, and Südeli, Uhland's Volkslieder, i. 273.
The Scottish versions of Fair Annie are quite numerous. A fragment of eight stanzas was published in Herd's collection, (Wha will bake my bridal bread, ed. 1776, i. 167.) Sir Walter Scott gave a
complete copy, from recitation in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Two other copies, also from oral tradition, were inserted by Jamieson in the Appendix to his Popular Ballads, (Lady Jane, ii. 371, Burd Helen, ii. 376,) and from these he constructed the edition of Lady Jane, printed at p. 73 of the same volume. Motherwell (Minstrelsy) affords still another variety, and Chambers has compiled a ballad from all these sources and a manuscript furnished by Mr. Kinloch, (Scottish Ballads, p. 186.)