In this version, a man is expressly delivered by a maid, contrary to the general course of tradition. So apparently in J, IV, 481, as understood by Dr. Birkbeck Hill.
96. The Gay Goshawk.
P. 355. M. G. Lewis, in a letter of May 29, 1800 (Letters at Abbotsford, I, No 30), refers to a copy of this ballad (and one of ‘Brown Adam’) which he had furnished Scott. This might perhaps be the “MS. of some antiquity” (printed, IV, 482).
As to the bird’s part in this ballad, compare the following passage. A son, in prison, sending a letter to his mother by a bird, gives this charge:
Quando giugnerete alla porta mia,
Là sta un ulivo.
Posati su quell’ ulivo,
V’agita e dibatti l’ali,
Ché di te caderà il foglio di carta.
De Rada, Rapsodie d’un poema Albanese, I, canto xvi, p. 29.