A, B are nearer to 'Lord Randal,' and have even the name Henry which we find in English C. C-F are like J-O, 'The Croodlin Doo.'
Dutch. 'Isabelle,' Snellaert, p. 73, No 67, seven four-line stanzas, the first and fourth lines repeated in each. Isabel has been sewing at her aunt's, and has eaten of a fish with yellow stripes that had been caught with tongs in the cellar. The broth, poured into the street, caused the dogs to burst. She wishes her aunt a red-hot furnace, herself a spade to bury her, her brother a wife like his mother.
Swedish. A, 'Den lillas Testamente,' ten five-line stanzas, three lines burden, Afzelius, III, 13, No 68; ed. Bergström, I, 291, No 55. A girl, interrogated by her step-mother, says she has been at her aunt's, and has eaten two wee striped fishes. The bones she gave the dog; the stanza which should describe the effect is wanting. She wishes heaven for her father and mother, a ship for her brother, a jewel-box and chests for her sister, and hell for her step-mother and her nurse. B, Arwidsson, II, 90, No 88, nine five-line stanzas, two lines burden. In the first stanza, evidently corrupt, the girl says she has been at her brother's. She has had eels cooked with pepper, and the bones, given to the dogs, made them burst. She gives her father good corn in his barns, her brother and sister a ship, etc., hell to her step-mother and nurse.
Danish. Communicated by Prof. Grundtvig, as obtained for the first time from tradition in 1877; five stanzas of five lines, three lines repeating. Elselille, in answer to her mother, says she has been in the meadow, where she got twelve small snakes. She wishes heavenly joy to her father, a grave to her brother, hell torment to her sister.
Magyar. 'Der vergiftete Knabe,' Aigner, Ungarische Volksdichtungen, 2e Auflage, p. 127, in nine six-line stanzas, four being a burden. Johnnie, in answer to his mother, says he has been at his sister-in-law's, and has eaten a speckled toad, served on her handsomest plate, of which he is dying. He bequeaths to his father his best carriage, to his brothers his finest horses, to his sister his house furniture, to his sister-in-law everlasting damnation, to his mother pain and sorrow.
Wendish. 'Der vergiftete Knabe,' Haupt u. Schmaler, I, 110, No 77, twelve four-line stanzas, combining question and answer, the first and last line repeating. Henry has been at the neighbor's, has eaten part of a fish caught in the stable with a dung-fork; his dog ate the rest, and burst. There is no testament. His mother asks him where she shall make his bed; he replies, In the churchyard; turn my head westward, and cover me with green turf.
The numerous forms of this story show a general agreement, with but little difference except as to the persons who are the object and the agent of the crime. These are, according to the Italian tradition,—which is 250 years old, while no other goes back more than a hundred years, and far the larger part have been obtained in recent years,—a young man and his true-love; and in this account unite two of the three modern Italian versions, English A-G, German A, B. Scott suggests that the handsome young sportsman (whom we find in English A, C, D, E, F, H) may have been exchanged for a little child poisoned by a step-mother, to excite greater interest in the nursery. This seems very reasonable. What girl with a lover, singing the ballad, would not be tempted to put off the treacherous act on so popular, though most unjustly popular, an object of aversion? A mother, again, would scarcely allow "mother" to stand, as is the case in Italian C and German F, and a singer who considered that all blood relations should be treated as sacred would ascribe the wickedness to somebody beyond that pale, say a neighbor, as the Wendish ballad does, and Zuccalmaglio's reading of German C. The step-mother is expressly named only in English J, K c, L, M, N, O, and in four of these, J, K c, M, O, the child has a mammie,[147] which certainly proves an alibi for the step-mother, and confirms what Scott says. There is a step-aunt in German E and Swedish A, and the aunt in German D and the Dutch ballad, and the grandmother in English I, K a, b, German C, are perhaps meant (as the brother in Swedish B certainly is) to be step-relations and accommodating instruments.
The poisoning is shifted to a wife in English H, to an uncle in English I d, and to a sister-in-law in the Magyar version.
There is all but universal consent that the poisoning was done by serving up snakes for fish. The Magyar says a toad, English M a four-footed fish,[148] German D a well-peppered broth and a glass of red wine. English L adds a drink of hemlock stocks to the speckled trout; F, H have simply poison. The fish are distinctively eels in the Italian versions, and in English A, D, E, G, I, Swedish B. English A, J, K, M, N, O, German A-D, the Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Wendish versions, and by implication English C, D, E also, concur in saying that a part of the fish was given to a dog [dogs, cat, cats], and that death was the consequence. Bursting or swelling is characteristic of this kind of poisoning: German A, B, C, F, English D, E, and the Dutch and Wendish versions.
The dying youth or child in many cases makes a nuncupative will, or declares his last wishes, upon a suggestion proceeding from the person who is by him, commonly from the mother: English A, B, C, H, I: German A, D, E, F: the Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Magyar versions. The bequest to the poisoner is the gallows in English B, C, H, I, Italian A, B, C; hell, English A, German A, D, F, Swedish A, B, Danish; and an equivalent in German E, the Dutch and the Magyar copy. 'The Cruel Brother,' No 11, and 'Edward,' No 13, have a will of this same fashion.