| B. |
Superscribed, "Fragment to its own tune.
Melancholy." Against the first line of the
burden is written in the margin, "perhaps
alas-a-day," and this change is adopted in
Herd's printed copy. Scott suggested well-a-day.
42. Manuscripts and ed. 1776 have
ze ... ze'll. |
| b. |
"A fragment [of 5 stanzas] containing the
following verses, which I have often heard
sung in my childhood." Scott, III. 259. No
burden is given.
11. She set her back against,
12. young son born.
21. O smile nae sae.
3, 4, wanting.
51. An when that lady went.
52. She spied a naked boy.
61. O bonnie boy, an ye.
62. I 'd cleed ye in the silks.
72. To me ye were na half.
Cunningham, Songs of Scotland, I, 340, says:
"I remember a verse, and but a verse, of an old ballad which
records a horrible instance of barbarity," and quotes the
first two stanzas of Scott's fragment literally; from which we
may infer that it was Scott's fragment that he partly remembered.
But he goes on: "At this moment a hunter came — one
whose suit the lady had long rejected with scorn — the
brother of her lover:
He took the babe on his spear point,
And threw it upon a thorn:
'Let the wind blow east, the wind blow west,
The cradle will rock alone.'
Cunningham's recollection was evidently much
confused. This last stanza, which is not in
the metre of the others, is perhaps from some
copy of 'Edom o Gordon.' |
| D. a. |
62. I was. |
| b. |
Kinloch makes slight changes in his printed
copy, as usual.
41. until a brier.
51. out she 's tane.
62. She seemd the lealest maiden amang.
81. an thae. |
| E. |
11, 111. Lurk may be a corruption of York,
which is written in pencil (by way of suggestion?) in the
Manuscripts |
| a. |
161. on your. |
| b. |
41, 141. upon a thorn.
52. twind wanting.
61. sattins wanting.
13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are not written out in the
note-book.
181. the heavens.
192. but there is none. |
| F. a. |
9 stands last but one in the Manuscript
142. Here, |
| b. |
42. has her.
72. sweet is omitted.
Printed as from the Manuscript in Dixon's Scottish
Traditional Versions, etc., p. 46. Dixon
has changed baby to babies in 4, 5, 6, 8,
and indulges in other variations. |
| H. |
The ballad had been heard with two different burdens;
besides the one given in the text, this:
Three and three, and three by three
Ah me, some forty three
7 'Lady Mary Ann,' Johnson's Museum, No 377,
begins:
O Lady Mary Ann looks oer the castle wa,
She saw three bonie boys playing at the ba. |
| I. a, b.. |
141, 161. fool,
i.e. fowl spelt phonetically. |
| a. |
31. greenwoods |
| b. |
22. it did.
82. with white.
112. wear'd.
132. maun die. |
| c. |
"Epitomized" from Buchan, II, 217, "and
somewhat changed for this work, some of the
changes being made according to the way the
Editor has heard it sung." Note by Christie, p. 106.
Burden, It 's hey with the rose, etc.
71. As a lady was looking.
72. She spied twa.
112. Nor wore we a.
122. What sort of pain for you I must drie.
132. What sort of pain for us you must drie.
142. And seven.
Printed as from the Manuscript in Dixon's Scottish
Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads,
p. 50, 'The Minister's Dochter o Newarke,'
with a few arbitrary changes. |
| J. a. |
91. You. |
| b. |
has stanzas corresponding to a 1, 3, 4, 6,
and, in place of 2,
She 's taen oot a little pen-knife,
And she 's robbit them o their sweet life.
Burden1. Hey i the rose o Mylindsay O.
11, until a thorn.
12. An syne her twa bonnie boys was born.
31. As she leukit oer her father's.
32. bonnie boys.
41. an ye were mine.
42. bread.
62. claithe ye in. |
| L. |
8 looks like an interpolation, and very probably
the ballad was docked at the beginning in or
der to suit the parlor better. |
