A b is in the first volume of the editions of 1698, 1707: Chappell, Popular Music, p. 62. B is in the third volume of the edition of 1707, and is also printed in A Complete Collection of Old and New English and Scotch Songs, 8vo, 1735, which I have not seen: Chappell, p. 520.
The original story, represented by A, B, and C 1-17, appears to have been revived at the end of the seventeenth century, and to have been so much relished as to encourage the addition of a Second, Third, and Fourth Part, all of which were afterwards combined, as in C a, c, d.[foot-note]
Percy inserted a version of C, abridged to forty-five stanzas, in his Reliques, 1765, III, 238, 1767, II, 339, which was "given, with some corrections,[foot-note] from a Manuscript copy, and collated with two printed ones in Roman character in the Pepys collection." Although "Manuscript copy" in Percy's case may mean nothing, while "some corrections" may signify much, it has been thought best to reprint Percy's ballad in an Appendix.
D is repeated in Johnson's Museum, p. 490, No 477, with a slight change in the first line. It probably belongs to the first half of the eighteenth century.
E is, in all probability, a broadside copy modified by tradition. In B, as in two stanzas appended to B (see notes), and in a rifacimento immediately to be mentioned, the all but too politic maid would certainly seem to be encouraging the knight at first.[foot-note]
'The Politick Maid,' Roxburghe Ballads, I, 306 f, Ballad Society reprint, II, 281, is an edition, after Percy's fashion, of some old form of the ballad, by Richard Climsell (Chappell). It was printed for Thomas Lambert, whose date, according to Mr. Chappell, is 1636-41, and is, therefore, considerably earlier than any known copy of the First Part of C. For the sake of such portions of the original as it preserves, it is given in an Appendix.'
There is a Scottish ballad in which the tables are turned upon the maid in the conclusion. This, as being of comparatively recent, and not of popular, but of low literary origin, cannot be admitted here. It can be found in Kinloch's Ballad Book, 'Jock Sheep,' p. 16, and the Kinloch Manuscripts, I, 229, communicated by James Beattie as taken down from the recitation of Miss E. Beattie, Mearnsshire. Other versions are, in the Campbell Manuscripts, 'Dernie Hughie,' II, 233; 'Jock Sheep, or, The Maiden Outwitted,' Buchan Manuscripts, 1, 155. Another ballad, brief and silly, in which a maid ties a gentleman's hands with her apron strings, 'The Abashed Knight,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 131, is rejected on similar grounds.
The important points in A, B, and the first part of C are that a knight, coming upon a damsel at a distance from her home, desires to have his will of her. She asks him to take her to her father's hall, where he shall be gratified. Reaching the house, she slips in and leaves the knight without. She jeers at him for not using his opportunity.
A similar story occurs in many European ballads.
Spanish. A. 'De Francia partió la niña,' "Cancionero de Romances, s. a., fol. 259, Can. de Rom. 1550, fol. 274, Silva de 1550, I, fol. 184;" 'La Infantina,' Duran, I, 152, No 284, Wolf y Hofmann, Primavera, II, 82, No 154. A damsel on the way to Paris has lost the road, and is waiting under a tree for an escort. A knight rides by, and she asks him to take, her along. He puts her on the crupper, and, when midway, asks for amores. The damsel tells him that she is a leper (hija de un malato y de una malatía), which frightens the knight to silence. As they are entering Paris the damsel laughs, and the knight asks why; she laughs at the knight's want of spirit. He proposes to go back for something which he has forgotten. She will not turn back; she is daughter to the king of France, and any man who should touch her would pay dearly for it. B. Another copy, from a broadside of the sixteenth century, Duran, I, 152, No 285, Primavera, II, 83, No 154 a, blends the story with that of a princess who has been made to pass seven years in a wood by a fairy's spell, 'A cazar va el caballero,' 'La Infanta encantada,' Duran, I, 159, No 295, Primavera, II, 74, No 151. C. 'El Caballero burlado,' from Asturian tradition, Amador de los Rios, Historia de la Litteratura española, VII, 442.
Portuguese. A. 'A Infeitiç,ada,' Almeida-Garrett, II, 31. B, C, D. Romances da filha do rei de França, 'O cagador e a donzilla,' 'Donzella encantada,' Braga, Cantos p. do Archipelago acoriano, Nos 1, 2, 3, pp. 183-191. E, F. Romances da Infanta de França, 'A Encantada,' Braga, Romanceiro Geral, Nos 10, 11, pp. 26-29. G. 'Infantina ' (defective), Coellio, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, III, 62.[foot-note] In all the Portuguese versions the proper story is mixed with that of the Hunter and the Enchanted Princess ('O Cagador,' Almeida-Garrett, II, 17), and in all but F the lady is discovered to be the sister of the knight, a frequent catastrophe in ballads,[foot-note] certainly a false one in the present instance. In A the damsel represents herself as having been bewitched before baptism, and any man who should come near her would become malato.[foot-note] In B, C, D she says she is daughter of a malato, and any man approaching her would become malato.[foot-note] This feature is wanting in E, F, G.
French. A. Gasté, Chansons normandes du XV e siecle, p. 72, No 43, 'Et qui vous passera le bois?' Vaux-de-vire d'Olivier Basselin, etc., Du Bois, p. 190, No 30, Le Bibliophile Jacob, p. 225; Wolff, Altfranzösische Volkslieder, p. 81. B. a. 'La Filho doou Ladre,' Arbaud, II, 90. b. 'La Fille du Lepreux,' Poésies pop. de la France, Manuscript, Ill, fol. 261. C. 'En allant au bois,' Bujeaud, I, 244. D. 'En revenant de Saint-François,' Guillon, p. 103. E. ' Margueridette,' Bladé, Poésies pop. de l'Armagnac, etc., p. 76. A damsel who is afraid to pass a wood is taken through by a knight, B. Midway he makes love to her; she advises him to keep off; she is the daughter of a leper. When out of the wood she laughs, and, the man asking why, says, because she has come out a maid. He proposes to return, which she will not hear of; he should have plucked his bird while he had it in hand. She declares herself daughter of the king, D; of the seigneur, B; of the chief burgher of the city, A. The knight of B is an officer in B, who takes the maid up on his horse, and in B she feigns to be the hangman's daughter, not a leper's. Inferior copies of the same type are given by Legrand, Romania, X, 392, No 43, Lovell, Chansons Canadiennes, p. 30, Gagnon, p. 92 (much corrupted).
In a variation of this story an orange-girl delivers herself from her predicament by feigning an ague-fit: 'La Marchande d'Oranges,' Holland, p. 258, No 127, d; Poésies pop. de la France, IV, fol. 166, fol. 213 (a fragment at fol. 286 is the latter half of the same copy); Bujeaud, I, 249, and 251 (marchande de pommes). Other copies give the story a different turn.
In another version the man yields to the girl's tears, and is laughed at in the conclusion: 'Le galant maladroit,' Poésies pop. de la France, Manuscript, Ill, fol. 139, fol. 141; 'La fille bien avisée,' fol. 524; IV, fol. 350, 'Il était un chasseur;' VI, 119 = Rolland, I, 23, No 4, c; Gerard de Nerval, La Bohème Galante, p. 96, ed. 1866= Les Faux Saulniers, Œuvres complètes, 1868, IV, 398; Buchon, p. 76, No 2; Beaurepaire, p. 33 f; Guillon, p. 101; Tarb´, 'L'honnête Garçon,' II, 137; Rolland, 'L'Occasion manquée,' I, 23, No 4 b; Puymaigre, 'La Rencontre,' p. 113, 2d ed. I, 154. The "moral" is wanting in very few of these.
Still other varieties, with omissions, additions, or changes which need not be particularized, are: 'L'Amant discret,' Puymaigre, p. 112, I, 153; Guillon, pp. 29, 273; ' L'autre jour,' Bladé, P. p. de l'Armagnac, p. 114; 'Praube Moussu,' Bladé, Poésies pop. de la Gascogne, II, 66, Moncaut, p. 356; Rolland, I, 23, No 4, a; 'Lou Pastre,' Bladé, II, 114; Bujeaud, I, 254; 'Lou Pastour et la Pastouro,' Daymard, Collection de vieilles chansons recueillies a Serignac, p. 16, which last I have not seen.
Italian. 'La figlia del re,' Ferraro, Canti p. monferrini, p. 76, No 55. A damsel lost in a wood asks a cavalier to show her the way. He takes her on his horse. She, for a reason not given, but to be gathered from the other southern ballads, tells him that she is daughter of a poor man who has had seven years of sickness. Get down from the horse, he says, and I will show you the way. At the end of the wood she tells him she is daughter of a rich merchant, proprietor of many farms. He solicits her to mount again. No; he has had the quail and let it fly; yonder is the castle of her father the king.
Danish. 'I Rosenslund,' Grundtvig, IV, 357, No 230, four copies: A, previously in Levninger, II, 51, No 9, C, "Tragica, No 14," 1657, Danske Viser, III, 94, No 122. D has a false conclusion. In A, the best copy, from Manuscripts of the seventeenth century, a knight who is hawking and hunting finds a damsel in a wood. She has been there all night, she says, listening to the birds. He says, Not so, it is a tryst with a knight; and she owns that this is the case. He proposes that she shall throw over this lover and accept him. She will not give her faith to two, and asks him for his honor's sake to convey her to her bower. She rides, he walks; and when they come to the bower she locks him out, wishing him ill night and laughing as he rides away.
'Den dyre Kaabe,' Grundtvig, IV, 362, No 231, two copies, from Manuscripts of the seventeenth century. A maid and a young man meet in a wood or mead. She invites him to spread both of their cloaks on the ground for a bed. His new scarlet cloak cost him fifteen mark in Stockholm, and he will not spoil it by laying it in the dew. If he will wait, she will go home to her mother's, not far, and bring a bolster. She goes off laughing and leaves him expecting her all that day and the next, but she does not come back. Eight weeks after he meets her at the church door and asks an explanation. He may thank his cloak of scarlet new for his disappointment; had she been a young man and met a maid, she would not have spared her cloak though it were cloth of gold. The reference to Stockholm points to a Swedish origin for this ballad, but it is not, says Grundtvig, extant in Swedish.
German. 'Das Mantelein,' "Frankfurter Liederbuch 1584, No 150," Uhland, p. 245, No 106, Mittler, No 32. A young man and maid go out into the green three hours before day. After rebuffing him, she strangely asks him, as if she knew that he would not consent, to spread his cloak on the grass. His cloak cost him fifty pound, and would be spoiled. In the evening, as she stands in her tower, the young man passes and greets her. She answers, The angels above will requite your cloak for my coming off a maid.
The artifice by which the lady disembarrasses herself in the Third Part of the broadside ballad, by pulling off the knight's boots half-way, is a very familiar story, found also in a modern German ballad, Walter, p. 94, No 64. See Les cent nouvelles Nouvelles, 1432 and earlier, No 24, ed. Wright, Paris, 1858, I, 128; Hondorff, Promptuarium Exemplorum, "1572, fol. 310," 1586, 362 b; Kirchhof, Wendunmuth, 1562, ed. Oesterley, III, 228, and other places, besides these, cited by Oesterley, IV, 101.
A modern French ballad, attributed to Favart, which may very probably have had a basis in popular tradition, celebrates the fille d'honneur who escapes from the importunity of her seigneur by distracting his attention (as the lady does in the second adventure in English C), and leaping on to the horse from which he had dismounted to make love to her, in some versions taking his valise with her: 'La villageoise avisée,' from Recueil de romances historiques, tendres et burlesques, tant anciennes et modernes, par M. D. L**, 1767, I, 299, in Hoffmann und Richter, Schlesische Volkslieder, p. 354; 'La Bergère rusée,' Puymaigre, pp. 119, 121, or I, 160, 162; Poésies pop. de la France, Manuscript, Ill, fol. 37, 284, 294, 522, VI, 472; Wolff, Altfranzösische Volkslieder, p. 142; Tarbé, 'La Fille d'Honneur,' II, 147; ' Le Cavalier,' Guillon, p. 175. On this French ballad is founded 'Junkernlust und Mädchenlist,' Hoffmann u. Richter, p. 156, No 132, 'Der Junker und das Mädchen,' Erk u. Irmer, iv, 66, No 60, 'Die Verschmitzte,' Zuccalmaglio, p. 195, No 93. Some what similar are 'List der Bedrukte,' Willems, Oude vlaemsche Liederen, p. 215, No 88; 'The Scotchman Outwitted,' Old Ballads, 1723, I, 211, and Ritson's Select Collection of English Songs, 1783, II, 286; 'The Courtier and Country Maid,' Pills to Purge Melancholy, I, 128, ed. 1719.
In a Romaic ballad a maid makes a youngster who solicits her carry her over a river, then holds him off by promises while they cross field and meadow, and when they reach a liamlet sets the dogs at him: 'Ἡ Ὰπάτη,' "Xanthopoulos, Trapezountia, in Φιλολογικὸς Συνέδημος, 1849, p. 436;" Kind, Anthologie, 1861, p. 86, Passow, No 481. (Without the dogs, in Ioannidis, p. 276, No 4.)
There is a French ballad in which a maid who is rowing a man over a piece of water receives amorous proposals from him, exacts a large sum of money, lands the gallant, and pushes off: 'La Bateliere,' 'La jolie Batelière,' 'La Batelière rusée,' Puymaigre, p. 145, or I, 186, p. 147; Fleury, Literature orale de la Basse-Normandie, p. 808; Poésies pop. de la France, Manuscript, Ill, 137; Bujeaud, II, 307; Decombe, p. 323.
Percy's copy is translated by Bodmer, I, 94; by Bothe, 425.
This page most recently updated on 03-Jun-2011, 16:39:35. Return to main index
