[151] Every person who went on a Croisade to the Holy Land, usually wore a cross on his upper garment, on the right shoulder, as a badge of his profession. Different nations were distinguished by crosses of different colours: The English wore white; the French red; &c. This circumstance seems to be confounded in the ballad. (V. Spelman, Gloss.)
IX.
CHILD WATERS.
Child is frequently used by our old writers, as a Title. It is repeatedly given to Prince Arthur in the Fairie Queen: and the son of a king is in the same poem called "Child Tristram." (B. 5. c. 11. st. 8. 13.—B. 6. c. 2. st. 36.—Ibid. c. 8. st. 15.) In an old ballad quoted in Shakespeare's K. Lear, the hero of Ariosto is called Child Roland. Mr. Theobald supposes this use of the word was received along with their romances from the Spaniards, with whom Infante signifies a "Prince." A more eminent critic tells us, that "in the old times of chivalry, the noble youth, who were candidates for knighthood, during the time of their probation were called Infans, Varlets, Damoysels, Bacheliers. The most noble of the youth were particularly called Infans." (Vid. Warb. Shakesp.) A late commentator on Spenser observes, that the Saxon word cniht, knight, signifies also a "child." (See Upton's gloss to the F. Q.)
The Editor's folio MS. whence the following piece is taken (with some corrections), affords several other ballads, wherein the word Child occurs as a title: but in none of these it signifies "Prince." See the song intitled Gil Morrice, in this volume.
It ought to be observed, that the Word Child or Chield is still used in North Britain to denominate a Man, commonly with some contemptuous character affixed to him, but sometimes to denote Man in general.
[This ballad gives us a curious insight into ancient manners, and shows what were our forefathers' notions of the perfection of female character. They would have agreed with the propounder of the question—What is woman's mission? answer, sub-mission. Like patient Grissel, Ellen bears worse sufferings than the Nut-Brown Maid has to hear of, and in spite of the worst usage she never swerves from her devotion. This English version was the first published, but the story is the same as Lai le Frêne, preserved in English in the Auchinleck MS. and in Norman in the Lais of Marie, which were written about the year 1250.
Jamieson (Popular Ballads and Songs, 1806, vol. i. p. 113) published his Scottish version under the more appropriate name of Burd Ellen, who is the real heroine rather than the ruffian Waters is the hero. Adopting the idea of Mrs. Hampden Pye, who wrote a ballad on the same subject, he changes the character of the catastrophe by adding three concluding stanzas to wind up the story in an unhappy manner. Another version of the ballad, which ends happily, is given in Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads under the title of Lady Margaret. A German version of this ballad was made by the poet Bürger.]