The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 2 (of 5)

by Unknown

E is, in all probability, a broadside copy modified by tradition. In E, as in two stanzas appended to B (see notes), and in a rifacimento immediately to be mentioned, the all but too politic maid would certainly seem to be encouraging the knight at first.[182]

'The Politick Maid,' Roxburghe Ballads, I, 306 f, Ballad Society reprint, II, 281, is an edition, after Percy's fashion, of some old form of the ballad, by Richard Climsell (Chappell). It was printed for Thomas Lambert, whose date, according to Mr. Chappell, is 1636-41, and is, therefore, considerably earlier than any known copy of the First Part of C. For the sake of such portions of the original as it preserves, it is given in an Appendix.

There is a Scottish ballad in which the tables are turned upon the maid in the conclusion. This, as being of comparatively recent, and not of popular, but of low literary origin, cannot be admitted here. It can be found in Kinloch's Ballad Book, 'Jock Sheep,' p. 16, and the Kinloch MSS, I, 229, communicated by James Beattie as taken down from the recitation of Miss E. Beattie, Mearnsshire. Other versions are, in the Campbell MSS, 'Dernie Hughie,' II, 233; 'Jock Sheep, or, The Maiden Outwitted,' Buchan MSS, 1, 155. Another ballad, brief and silly, in which a maid ties a gentleman's hands with her apron strings, 'The Abashed Knight,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 131, is rejected on similar grounds.

The important points in A, B, and the first part of C are that a knight, coming upon a damsel at a distance from her home, desires to have his will of her. She asks him to take her to her father's hall, where he shall be gratified. Reaching the house, she slips in and leaves the knight without. She jeers at him for not using his opportunity.

A similar story occurs in many European ballads.

Spanish. A. 'De Francia partió la niña,' "Cancionero de Romances, s. a., fol. 259, Can. de Rom. 1550, fol. 274, Silva de 1550, I, fol. 184;" 'La Infantina,' Duran, I, 152, No 284, Wolf y Hofmann, Primavera, II, 82, No 154. A damsel on the way to Paris has lost the road, and is waiting under a tree for an escort. A knight rides by, and she asks him to take her along. He puts her on the crupper, and, when midway, asks for amores. The damsel tells him that she is a leper (hija de un malato y de una malatía), which frightens the knight to silence. As they are entering Paris the damsel laughs, and the knight asks why; she laughs at the knight's want of spirit. He proposes to go back for something which he has forgotten. She will not turn back; she is daughter to the king of France, and any man who should touch her would pay dearly for it. B. Another copy, from a broadside of the sixteenth century, Duran, I, 152, No 285, Primavera, II, 83, No 154 a, blends the story with that of a princess who has been made to pass seven years in a wood by a fairy's spell, 'A cazar va el caballero,' 'La Infanta encantada,' Duran, I, 159, No 295, Primavera, II, 74, No 151. C. 'El Caballero burlado,' from Asturian tradition, Amador de los Rios, Historia de la Litteratura española, VII, 442.

Portuguese. A. 'A Infeitiçada,' Almeida-Garrett, II, 31. B, C, D. Romances da filha do rei de França, 'O caçador e á donzilla,' 'Donzella encantada,' Braga, Cantos p. do Archipelago açoriano, Nos 1, 2, 3, pp. 183-191. E, F. Romances da Infanta de França, 'A Encantada,' Braga, Romanceiro Geral, Nos 10, 11, pp. 26-29. G. 'Infantina' (defective), Coelho, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, III, 62.[183] In all the Portuguese versions the proper story is mixed with that of the Hunter and the Enchanted Princess ('O Caçador,' Almeida-Garrett, II, 17), and in all but F the lady is discovered to be the sister of the knight, a frequent catastrophe in ballads,[184] certainly a false one in the present instance. In A the damsel represents herself as having been bewitched before baptism, and any man who should come near her would become malato.[185] In B, C, D she says she is daughter of a malato, and any man approaching her would become malato.[186] This feature is wanting in E, F, G.

French. A. Gasté, Chansons normandes du XV^e siècle, p. 72, No 43, 'Et qui vous passera le bois?' Vaux-de-vire d'Olivier Basselin, etc., Du Bois, p. 190, No 30, Le Bibliophile Jacob, p. 225; Wolff, Altfranzösische Volkslieder, p. 81. B. a. 'La Filho doou Ladre,' Arbaud, II, 90. b. 'La Fille du Lepreux,' Poésies pop. de la France, MS., III, fol. 261. C. 'En allant au bois,' Bujeaud, I, 244. D. 'En revenant de Saint-François,' Guillon, p. 103. E. 'Margueridette,' Bladé, Poésies pop. de l'Armagnac, etc., p. 76. A damsel who is afraid to pass a wood is taken through by a knight, B. Midway he makes love to her; she advises him to keep off; she is the daughter of a leper. When out of the wood she laughs, and, the man asking why, says, because she has come out a maid. He proposes to return, which she will not hear of; he should have plucked his bird while he had it in hand. She declares herself daughter of the king, D; of the seigneur, E; of the chief burgher of the city, A. The knight of B is an officer in E, who takes the maid up on his horse, and in E she feigns to be the hangman's daughter, not a leper's. Inferior copies of the same type are given by Legrand, Romania, X, 392, No 43, Lovell, Chansons Canadiennes, p. 30, Gagnon, p. 92 (much corrupted).

In a variation of this story an orange-girl delivers herself from her predicament by feigning an ague-fit: 'La Marchande d'Oranges,' Rolland, p. 258, No 127, d; Poésies pop. de la France, IV, fol. 166, fol. 213 (a fragment at fol. 286 is the latter half of the same copy); Bujeaud, I, 249, and 251 (marchande de pommes). Other copies give the story a different turn.