JOHNIE SCOT.
The edition of this ballad here printed was prepared by Motherwell from three copies obtained from recitation, (Minstrelsy, p. 204.) Other versions have been published in Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 78, Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, i. 248, and his Gleanings, p. 122. The proper names which occur in the course of the piece vary considerably in the different copies. In two of Motherwell's, the hero's designation was Johnie Scot, in a third, Johnie M'Nauchton. In one of Buchan's he is styled Love John, in the other, Lang Johnny Moir. In Kinloch's copy, "Buneftan is his name," and he is also called "Jack that little Scot," which seems to have been the title of the ballad in an unpublished collection quoted by Ritson in his Dissertation on Scottish Song, p. lxxxi. In like manner, for the King of Aulsberry, (v. 111,) we have the various readings, Duke of Marlborough, Duke of Mulberry, Duke of York, and Duke of Winesberrie, and in the following verse, James the Scottish King, for the King of Spain.
The following passage, illustrative of the feat of arms accomplished by Johnie Scot, was pointed out to Motherwell by Mr. Sharpe:—James Macgill, of Lindores, having killed Sir Robert Balfour, of Denmiln, in a duel, "immediately went up to London in order to procure his pardon, which, it seems, the King (Charles the Second) offered to grant him, upon condition of his fighting an Italian gladiator, or bravo, or, as he was called, a bully, which, it is said, none could be found to do. Accordingly, a large stage was erected for the exhibition before the King and court. Sir James, it is said, stood on the defensive till the bully had spent himself a little; being a taller man than Sir James, in his mighty gasconading and bravadoing, he actually leapt over the knight as if he would swallow him alive; but, in attempting to do this a second time, Sir James ran his sword up through him, and then called out, 'I have spitted him, let them roast him who will.' This not only procured his pardon, but he was also knighted on the spot."—Small's Account of Roman Antiquities recently discovered in Fife, p. 217.
From Buchan's Lang Johnny Moir, [printed in the Appendix], it will be seen that the title of Little Scot is not to be taken literally, but that the doughty champion was a man of huge stature.
O Johnie Scot 's to the hunting gane,
Unto the woods sae wild;
And Earl Percy's ae daughter
To him goes big wi' child.
O word is to the kitchen gane,5
And word is to the ha',
And word is to the highest towers,
Among the nobles a'.
"If she be wi' child," her father said,
"As woe forbid it be!10
I'll put her into a prison strang,
And try the veritie."
"But if she be wi' child," her mother said,
"As woe forbid it be!
I'll put her intill a dungeon dark,15
And hunger her till she die."