A. ‘The Shipherd Boy,’ “Old Lady’s Collection,” No 35.
B. ‘The Beggar’s Dawtie,’ Murison MS., p. 85.
C. ‘The Beggar-Laddie,’ Motherwell’s MS., p. 249.
D. ‘The Gaberlunzie Laddie, or, The Beggar’s Bride,’ Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 100.
E. ‘The Shepherd’s Bonny Lassy,’ Kinloch MSS, V, 249, II, 17.
This is a sort of ‘Gaberlunyie-Man’ with a romantic conclusion, resembling that of ‘Lizie Lindsay.’ A pretended beggar, who is for the time acting as shepherd’s swain, induces a young lady, or young woman of good standing, to follow him as his beggar-lassie. They come to a hall (his father’s, A, D, E, brother’s, C), he knocks loudly, four and twenty gentlemen welcome him in, and as many ladies the lassie, and she is thenceforth a knight’s or squire’s lady.
There is corruption in all the copies,[97] and the rhyme is frequently lost. A 2 (B 3, C 3, D 7, E 5) is taken almost bodily from ‘The Gaberlunyie-Man,’ 10. D is not the better for being a mixture of three copies. D 4 anticipates the conclusion, and it is inconceivable that any meddler should not have seen this. D 14 is caught from ‘The Jolly Beggar.’
A
The “Old Lady’s Collection,” No 35; north of Scotland.
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