[47]
PROUD LADY MARGARET
[A]. 'Proud Lady Margaret,' Scott's Minstrelsy, III, 275, ed. 1803.
[B]. a. 'The Courteous Knight,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 91; Motherwell's MS., p. 591. b. Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. lxxxi.
[C]. 'The Jolly Hind Squire,' Buchan's MSS, II, 95.
[D]. 'The Knicht o Archerdale,' Harris MS., fol. 7, No 3.
[E]. 'Fair Margret,' A. Laing, Ancient Ballads and Songs, MS., 1829, p. 6.
A was communicated to Scott "by Mr Hamilton, music-seller, Edinburgh, with whose mother it had been a favorite." Two stanzas and one line were wanting, and were supplied by Scott "from a different ballad, having a plot somewhat similar." The stanzas were 6 and 9. C was printed from the MS., with a few changes, under the title of 'The Bonny Hind Squire,' by Dixon, in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 42, and from Dixon in Bell's Early Ballads, p. 183. Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 28, says the ballad was called 'Jolly Janet' by the old people in Aberdeenshire.
A-D are plainly compounded of two ballads, the conclusion being derived from E. The lady's looking oer her castle wa, her putting riddles, and her having gard so mony die, make the supposition far from incredible that the Proud Lady Margaret of the first part of the ballad may originally have been one of the cruel princesses spoken of in the preface to '[Captain Wedderburn's Courtship],' p. [417]. But the corrupt condition of the texts of A-D forbids any confident opinion.
A dead mistress similarly admonishes her lover, in a ballad from Brittany, given in Ampère, Instructions relatives aux Poésies populaires de la France, p. 36.