[E]. Communicated by Mr J. F. Campbell, of Islay, as learned about 1850.
[F]. 'Lord Lovel,' communicated by Mr Robert White, of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
[G]. 'Lord Revel,' Harris MS., fol. 28b.
[H]. 'Lord Lovel.' a. Broadside in Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 78, Percy Society, vol. XIX. b. Davidson's Universal Melodist, I, 148.
[I]. Percy Papers, communicated by Principal Robertson.
I is made up of portions of several ballads. The first stanza is derived from 'Sweet William's Ghost,' the second and third possibly from some form of 'Death and the Lady,' 4-11 from '[Lady Maisry].' The eighth stanza of E should, perhaps, be considered as taken from '[Lord Thomas and Fair Annet],' since in no other copy of 'Lord Lovel' and in none of '[Fair Margaret and Sweet William]' does the hero die by his own hand.
In '[Fair Margaret and Sweet William],' as also in '[Lord Thomas and Fair Annet],' a lover sacrifices his inclination to make a marriage of interest. In 'Lord Lovel' the woman dies, not of affection betrayed, but of hope too long deferred, and her laggard but not unfaithful lover sinks under his remorse and grief. 'Lord Lovel' is peculiarly such a ballad as Orsino likes and praises: it is silly sooth, like the old age. Therefore a gross taste has taken pleasure in parodying it, and the same with 'Young Beichan.' But there are people in this world who are amused even with a burlesque of Othello.[120]
There are several sets of ballads, very common in Germany and in Scandinavia, which, whether they are or are not variations of the same original, at least have a great deal in common with 'Lord Lovel' and '[Fair Margaret and Sweet William].'
Of these, one which more closely resembles the English is 'Der Ritter und die Maid,' of German origin, but found also further north.[121]
A knight and maid have been together till morning. She weeps; he tells her that he will pay for her honor, will give her an underling and money. She will have none but him, and will go home to her mother. The mother, on seeing her, asks why her gown is long behind and short before, and offers her meat and drink. The daughter refuses them, goes to bed, and dies. So far there is no dallying with the innocence of love, as in the English ballad; the German knight is simply a brutal man of pleasure. But now the knight has a dream, as in 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William;' it is that his love has died. He bids his squire or groom to saddle, and rides to find out what has happened. On his way he hears an ominous bell; further on he sees a grave digging; then he meets men carrying a bier. Set down the bier, he cries, that I may see my love. He turns back the cloth and looks at the dead. She has suffered for him, he will suffer for her. He draws his sword and runs it through his heart. They are buried in one coffin, or in the same grave. In some of the ballads lilies rise from the grave; in a Swedish version ('Jungfruns död'), a linden, the leaves of which intermingle.