141. when or wher.
246
REDESDALE AND WISE WILLIAM
A. ‘Reedisdale and Wise William,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 70; Motherwell’s MS., p. 452; Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 298.
B. ‘Roudesdales,’ Harris MS., fol. 14 b.
C. Kinloch MSS, V, 423, two stanzas.
Redesdale boasts to William that he can win any woman with a blink of his eye. William has a sister who, he maintains, is not to be had so easily. A wager is laid, William’s head against Redesdale’s lands. William is shut up to prevent his warning his sister, but sends her a letter by a carrier-bird. Redesdale rides to the maiden’s bower, and, seeing her at the window, tries to induce her to come down by a series of offers of silk-gowns, jewels, etc. His offers proving bootless, he threatens to fire the house, and does so. The maid and her women don wet mantles and pass the reek and flame unhurt. She sends word to her brother, who claims Redesdale’s lands.
A 1, 2, 5 are substantially a repetition of No 245, A 1, 21,4, 6, etc. The sharp shower in B 16–18, which puts out, and does not put out, the fire, is an inept interpolation.
This ballad may be an offshoot from a widely spread story which is tediously told further on in ‘Twa Knights.’