Popular British Ballads : Ancient and Modern
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11 3 A! LA ' ! I I VICTORIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SHELF NUMBER V STUDIA IN / SOURCE: The bequest of the late Sir Joseph Flavelle, 1939. Popular British Ballads BRioky Johnson rcuvsrKAceo BY CVBICt COOKe LONDON w J- M. DENT 5" CO. Aldine House 69 Great Eastern Street E.G. PHILADELPHIA w J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY MDCCCXCIV Dedication Life is all sunshine, dear, If you are here : Loss cannot daunt me, sweet, If we may meet. As you have smiled on all my hours of play, Now take the tribute of my working-day. Aug. 3, 1894. eooccoc PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxvii THE PREFACE /. Melismata : Musical/ Phansies, Fitting the Court, Cittie, and Countrey Humours. London, 1 6 1 i . THE THREE RAVENS [MelisMtata, No. 20.] This ballad has retained its hold on the country people for many centuries, and is still known in some parts. I have received a version from a gentleman in Lincolnshire, which his father (born Dec. 1793) had heard as a boy from an old labouring man, " who could not read and had learnt it from his " fore-elders." Here the " fallow doe has become " a lady full of woe." See also The Tiua Corbies. II. Wit Restored. 1658. LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD . \Wit Restored, reprint Facetix, I. 293.] Percy notices that this ballad was quoted in many old plays viz., Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the xi xii -^ Popular British Ballads v. The a Act IV. Burning Pestle, 3 ; Varietie, Comedy, (1649); anc^ Sir William Davenant's The Wits, Act in. Prof. Child also suggests that some stanzas in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca (v. 2) and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas (iv. n) may be parodies or reminiscences of the same. THE TWA SISTERS 8 [Jamieson-Brown MS., fol. 39.] This is one of the very few old ballads which, is still known and sung in country neighbourhoods 1 though it is not sold by Mr Such. It goes by a variety of names e.g., Binnorie, The Miller and the King's Daughter, The Cruel Sister, The Miller's Melody, &c. Judge Hughes has a version The Droivned Lady in his Scouring of the White Horse, with a ludicrous ending, which he tells me was learnt in his "one or of verses nursery ; two the were patched by his father." The refrain varies much in the different versions. In the earliest printed copy (Wit Restored) it is With a hie down down a down a. In Scott's Minstrelsy Binnorie, O Binnorie, By the bonnie mill-dams of binnorie. In Motherwell's manuscript (printed by Prof. Child) Hey with the gay and the grandeur O, At the bonnie bows o' London town ; or in another part of the MS. Hech, hey my Nannie O, And the swans swim bonnie O. In Notes and Queries, from Lancashire Bow down, bow down, bow down, I'll be true to my love and my love'll be true to me. 1 Of 123 Union Street, Borough. He keeps a good stock of the old broadsides, probably the largest in England. The Contents ^ xiii PAGE ///. Miscellany Poems, containing a variety of new translations of the Ancient Poets, together with eminent several original poems. By the most hands. Edited by DryJen. 1684-1708 and 1716. THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT .... 12 [MS. Ashmole, Bodleian Library; reprinted by Prof. Skeat in his Specimens of English Literature, 3rd edition, 1880, p. 67.] In his interesting paper on Chevy-Chase (Gentleman's Magazine, April 1889) Prof. Hales pointed out that this ballad and The Battle of Otterbourne, though confounded from an early date, "are connected with different localities, are based upon different in- cidents, and represent different features in the old Border life." The Hunting of the Cheviot probably does not relate to any particular historical event, though Percy's suggestion that it was partially founded on the battle of Piperden (1435 or 1436), "appears to be well worth consideration." Such hunting expedi- tions, in which a Percy defied the March law and crossed the border to the Douglas territory, were doubtless of common occurrence and the ; geography of this ballad is so vague, its chronology is so con- fused, that we cannot expect to identify it. The old men, quoted in the ballad, who knew the ground well, and call it the Battle of Otterburn, are no authorities. The later version of this ballad, generally known as Chevy-Chase, was probably produced in the seven- teenth century. xiv <= Popular British Ballads PAGE IV. A Collection of Old Ballads. Correctedfrom the best and most ancient copies extant, 'with intro- ductions historical^ critical, or humorous, 3 *vols. 1723-1725. THE BLIND BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER OF BEDNALL GREEN 26 [Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. Edited by J. H. Dixon, Percy Society, p. 60.] Dixon printed this ballad from a modern broadside carefully collated with a copy in the Bagford Collection. Pepys (Diary, June 25, 1663) visited Sir W. Riders at Bednall Green: "This very house was built by the Blind Beggar of Bednall so much talked of and in ballads Green, sung ; but they say it was only some outhouses of it.'' SIR ANDREW BARTON 38 [Percy Folio, III. 399.] The events on which this ballad is founded began in 1476, when a richly loaded ship, under the com- mand of John Barton, was seized by the Portuguese. Letters of reprisal were accordingly granted, and renewed in 1506, to John Barton's sons, Andrew, Robert, and John, who somewhat abused their " rights, and converted this retaliation into a kind of piracy against the Portuguese trade." LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET .... 52 [Percy's Rcliques, 1767, III. 240.] This ballad, perhaps better known under its titles of Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor or The Nutbrcnvn Bride, exists in many forms. See further, Fair Margaret and Siueet William. LEOFFRICUS 58 [Percy Folio, III. 473.] Tennyson's Goa'/Wwas founded, of course, on the episode here related. The Contents =^ xv PAGE V. The Tea-Table Miscellany. A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English, 4 vots. 1724. Edited by A. Ramsay. WILLIAM AND MARJORIE 61 [Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 186.] A more poetical version of Sweet William's Ghost, which was obtained by Motherwell from recita- tion. THE GIPSY LADDIE . 64 [Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, Vol. IV.] These verses, or a recomposed version thereof, are still sung to a very spirited tune in some parts of and the romantic little ballad of which England ; they now form a part, may be found in the Songs of the West, under the title of The Gipsey Countess. WALY, WALY, BUT LOVE BE BONNY ... 67 [Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, 1729, p. 176.] These extremely beautiful verses are altogether superior to the ballad of Jamie Douglas, in which they are sometimes included, and it is better to accept them gratefully as a fragment. THE BONNY EARL OF MURRAY .... 69 [Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, 1763, p. 356.] " This Bonny Earl of Murray" was one James Stewart, husband of the Regent Murray's eldest daughter, and cousin-german of the notorious Bothwell. James VI. issued a commission against him on suspicion of treason, and entrusted the arrest to his deadly enemy, the Earl of Huntly, who murdered the man he was ordered to take captive February 1592. Murray was a favourite with the people, and (v. 5) with the queen, so that the outrage made a good deal of stir. xvi ^~ Popular British Ballads PAGE VI. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ; consisting of old heroic ballads, songs, and other pieces of our earlier poets ; together with some feiv of later date. By Thomas Percy, Lord Bishop of Dromore, 3 vo/s. 1765 and 1794. GLASGERION 70 [Percy Folio, I. 248.] This is one of the ballads to which Percy did little. There is a Scotch version called Glenkindie. FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM . 75 [Percy's Reliques, 1767, III. 119.] This ballad begins like Lord Thomas aud Fair Annet, and has the same catastrophe as Lord Lvu4. It is prob- " " ably the old song quoted in Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, Acts u. and in. "The elegant production of David Mallet, Esq." viz., Margaret's Ghost, which purported to be founded on the stanzas quoted by Fletcher, and was regarded by " Percy as one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any language," has since been proved a fraud. A refined (!) version of our ballad, dated 1711, with the title of William and Margaret, an old Ballad, has been discovered, which Mr Mallet evidently touched up and published as his own. EDWARD, EDWARD 79 [Percy's Reliques, 1765, I. 53.] This ballad is sometimes regarded as a part of The Ttva Brothers, with which it has considerable affinities. Motherwell printed a Scotch Version in 4-line stanzas, the second line being alternately the " " refrains : Son Davie, son Davie," and Mother lady, mother lady." I have entirely dropped the affectedly antiquated spelling adopted by Percy, which has only served to raise suspicions of the ballad's authenticity. The Contents ^ xvii PAGE YOUNG WATERS 8z [Percy's Reliques, 1765, II. 172.] This ballad has been associated by different editors with various historical events, but there is no con- clusive evidence on the subject. THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD .... 84 [Percy's Reliques, 1765, III. 218.] There is an old English play (1601) "of a young child murthered in a wood by two ruffians, with the consent of his uncle," which was derived from the Italian, and may have given some hints to the author of this ballad.