TH E M I N STR ELSY O F T H E SCO T T I SH BOR DER ’ A for the sake o f t hei r tru e lo v e : ’ Fo r the m the y ll see n ac ma i r 5 See 1 . 4 . Tbe Jfimtrelfy of tb e 5 6017i Border COLLECTED BY SIR WALTER SCOTT EDITED AN D ARRANGED WITH INTRODU CTION AN D NOTES BY ALFRED NOYES A N D SI ! I L L U ST RAT I O N S BY JOHN MACFARLANE N EW YORK KE P FRED ER ICK A . STO S COM ANY P U BLI SHER S M i nstrelfy 0f Smi th/3 Barder COLLECTED BY SIR WALTER SCOTT EDITED AN D ARRANGED WITH INTRODU CTION AND NOTES BY ALFRED NOYES A N D SI ! I L L U ST R A T I O N S BY JOHN MACFARLANE N EW YOR K D A S OKES PANY FR E ER ICK . T COM P U BLI SHERS MARGARE T AN D KAT HAR I N E BR U CE T HIS EDI T IO N OF A F AMO US BOO K OF T H E IR CO U N T RY I S D EDICA TED ! V I T H TH E BEST WISH ES O F I TS EDI TOR C O N T E N T S Si r Pa tri c k Sp en s ’ The Wife of U s h er s W ell C l erk Sa un d ers The Twa C orbi es ’ Ba rthra m s D irge The Broom of C owden kn ow s The Flowe rs of the Fores t The La ird of M u irh ea d Hobbi e Noble Grae me a n d Bewi c k The Dou gla s Tra ge dy The La men t of the Bord er Widow Fa ir H elen Fa u s e Foo dra ge The G a y Gos s -Hawk The Silly Bli n d H a rp er Ki n mon t W illi e ’ Lord M a xwell s Good -n ight The Ba ttl e of Ott erbou rn e 0 Tell M e how to W oo Th ee ' The Queen s M a ri e A Lyke-Wa k e D irge The La s s of Lochroya n The Youn g Ta mla n e vi i CO NTEN TS The C ruel Si s ter Thoma s the R hymer ’ Arms t rong s Good -n ight A P P E N D I ! Jellon Gra me R os e the R ed a n d Whit e Lilly O G i n My Love were Y on R ed An n a n W a t er The Dowi e D en s of Ya rrow ' Archi e of C a field ’ Jock o the Sid e The Ba ttl e of Bothwell Bridge The D a mon - Lover Joh n i e of Breadi s lee v iii LI ST O F I LLU STRATI O NS ’ A for the sa k e of th eir tru e loves ’ ” For th em th ey ll s ee n a e ma i r An d ou b e s o n a r ma will y ki d , f i y, ” F d cmg 15 age I 6 As come out a n d poi n t my w a y ? 0 e a e on a n d on e a e th y r d , th y r d , ’ An d a by the light of the moon “ ! ’ ’ s un out um e s ! uo Now o d , tr p t q Buc c l eu c h ; ’ Let s wa k en Lord Sc roop e right merril ee The G n s d i n E n li sh ordo goo , g blood , ’ Th ey s teep d th eir hose a n d s hoon ! But fa st s he gript the milk -white s ee t d , ’ An d p u d the rid er down I N T R O D U C T I O N ’ FE W books can give more deli ght by the wi nter s sea - a an d fire, when the Wind sh kes the windows roars in the chimney ; few are better to rea d a mong the summer woods or the blowing heather ; fewer still can bring a fresher breath of nature across the minds of those whose windows are only Shaken b y the traffi c of modern cities ; an d a da a a perh ps, in this y of sm ll dec dent subtleties “ ” an d a m lodorous morbidities of Art , no book in the world can be of better service to the cause of true poetry than the famous M i n strelsy of the tti h Border a Sco s . Here, cert inly, turning from - flowers as the lotus of most modern verse, from “ a an d the g rdens of Circe her swine , we feel the ” brine salt on our lips an d the large Homeric “ ai a a are a r g in . The poets here trumpets th t ” a an d sing to b ttle ; , in their simple truth of a a speech , the un cknowledged legisl tors of the ” world . The present edition seeks to remove two serious obstacles which have hitherto interfered with —first the complete enj oyment of the book , the x1 INTROD UCTION a a a a a ad bsurdly l rge m ss of pref ces , ppendices , ” verti semen ts a an d a - , footnotes , he dnotes wh t not, wherein Sir Walter Scott saw fit to bury the had an d gems he j ust discovered collected . The bulk of these notes really does become on examina tion quite ludicrous . It not only prevents the a printing of the book in convenient form , but we have our unwilling eyes dragged down from a a a a i n glorious b ll d to footnote wherein , for a are a a hostelri e a st nce , we informed th t me ns “ ” an SO a inn . huge is the m ss of these notes a an d a hundreds of them quite irrelev nt, r nging over all the literatures of the world in order to find the most remote parallels to some extremely — simple verse so huge i s the mass of these dis ui si ti on s a a a a q th t, fter cutting the b ll ds bodily out of the edition before us , its four bulky vol a a a a an umes rem in pp rently int ct d undiminished . The second obstacle to the complete efficiency of the book was the curious intermixture of a certain amount of thoroughly b ad an d paltry work which ff a a a an d blurred the e ect of the gre t b ll ds poems, ’ and was certainly a serious blot on Scott s achieve ment in collecting these latter ; for it does indicate a lack of the artistic conscience an d also of a right respect for some of the greatest things a a a in our gre t poetic liter ture . Sir W lter Scott was of an amiable nature where ladies were con a a a far cerned ; but he c rried his mi bility too when , amongst such minstrelsy as the grand old ballad ” Pa a of Sir trick Spens, he included the f tuous x i i I NT ROD UCTION a n d a c c to the re ding of the poems onse utively . a a wa They h ve been grouped , therefore , in such y as to make the transitions from balla d to ballad a an d ff a n d a a e sy e ective, to displ y e ch poem in i ts an d best setting light . A few of these poems have been saved from an d a a a at their friends , m de f mili r to the world a a a al a l rge by nthologies . The gr nd old b l d of Pa as a Sir trick Spens ! , Coleridge c lled it in one of his poems) is known wherever English poetry is a loved , though not perh ps in the full form given I ts an d here . opening is one of the simplest a a an d a all gr ndest, perh ps the simplest gr ndest, in at a heroic poetry . The openings of le st two of the ’ world s immortal epics are less maj estic than the two first lines of that rude an d simple ballad The Ki n g s its i n D un fermli n e town n k n the l u e -red n e D ri i g b d wi . “ Twa a A few others , like the Corbies , F ir ” “ an d F a Helen , The lowers of the Forest, h ve a olden Tr asur re ched the wide public of the G e y. “ ” The Twa Corbies is one of the grimmest s an a a an d all lyric in y l ngu ge , the Every line is transfused with the a a very essence rom nce , from the mel ncholy loneliness of the opening line an d the bitter tragic suggestion of ’ ’ Hi s l a dy s ta en a n oth er ma te to the final verses whose wild music seems to be xi v INTR ODU CTION caught up into the cry of the wind over desolate a raw - moorl nds .