| A. |
Divided in the Museum into 45 1/2
four-line stanzas, without heed to rhyme or reason,
35,6 making a stanza with 41,2, etc.
31. has belted.
42. Tom, elsewhere Tam.
174. brie.
342. burning lead. |
| B. |
"An Old Song called Young Tom Line."4
Written in twenty-six stanzas of four [three, two] long,
or double, lines.
193. yon bonny babes.
262. and do right sae.
264. and let them gae, See 36.
26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 stand in Manuscript
31, 26, 27, 32, 28, 29, 33, 30. |
| D. |
b has 26 stanzas, c has 12.
The first 12 stanzas of a and
b and the 12 of c,
and again the first 22 stanzas of a
and b, are almost verbally the same, and
a 23 = b 24. b has but 26 stanzas. |
| a. |
15 stands 24 in Manuscript
171. Miles Cross: b, Moss.
173. the holy.
192. So (?) clad: b, is clad.
221. twa.
251. ride. |
| b. |
44. let abeene.
64. I'll ask no.
73. her down.
104. gotten in.
111. to me.
113. at a.
124. his land.
153. and through.
165. if that.
166. Rides Cross, as in a.
173. Take holy.
204. next the.
After 23:
'I'll grow into your arms two
Like ice on frozen lake;
But hold me fast, let me not go,
Or from your goupen break.'
25. And it's next night into Miles Moss
Fair Margaret has gone,
When lo she stands beside Rides Cross,
Between twelve hours and one.
26. There's holy water in her hand,
She casts a compass round,
And presently a fairy band
Comes riding oer the mound. |
| c. |
13, and always, Chester's wood.
31. the seam.
44. let alane.
61. will pluck.
64. ask no.
94. has been.
111. me, Tom o Lin.
124. his land. |
| E. |
18, 19, 20 are not written out.
We are directed to understand them to be
"as in preceding stanzas, making the necessary grammatical changes." |
| F. |
112, 152. ass,
somebody's blunder for ask. |
| G. |
212. elfin gray, Motherwell, but see
H, 72.
261. Ay.
311. began.
582. Motherwell: far 's the river Tay.
584. Motherwell: she gained.
Motherwell, as usttal, seems to have made
some slight changes in copying. |
| I. |
Scott's copy having been
"prepared from a collation of the printed copies,"
namely, those in Johnson's Museum and Herd's Scottish Songs,
"with a very accurate one in Glenriddell's Manuscript,
and with several recitals from tradition,"
what was not derived from tradition, but from the Museum,
Glenriddell, and Herd, is printed in smaller type. |
| a. |
3, 20,not in b.
After 31 are omitted five stanzas of the copy
obtained by Scott "from a gentleman residing near Langholm,"
and others, of the same origin, after 46 and 47,
32 'But we that live in Fairy-land
No sickness know nor pain;
I quit my body when I will,
And take to it again.
33 'I quit my body when I please,
Or unto it repair;
We can inhabit at our ease
In either earth or air,
34 'Our shapes and size we can convert
To either large or small;
An old nut-shell's the same to us
As is the lofty hall.
35 'We sleep in rose-buds soft and sweet,
We revel in the stream;
We wanton lightly on the wind
Or glide on a sunbeam.
36 'And all our wants are well supplied
From every rich man's store,
Who thankless sins the gifts he gets,
And vainly grasps for more.'
404. buy me maik, a plain misprint for the
be my maik of b 57.
46. After this stanza are omitted:
52 The heavens were black, the night was dark,
And dreary was the place,
But Janet stood with eager wish
Her lover to embrace.
53 Betwixt the hours of twelve and one
A north wind tore the bent,
And straight she heard strange elritch sounds
Upon that wind which went.
47. After this stanza are omitted:
55 Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill,
The hemlock small blew clear,
And louder notes from hemlock large,
And bog-reed, struck the ear;
But solemn sounds, or sober thoughts,
The fairies cannot bear.
56 They sing, inspired with love and joy,
Like skylarks in the air;
Of solid sense, or thought that 's grave,
You'll find no traces there.
57 Fair Janet stood, with mind unmoved,
The dreary heath upon,
And louder, louder waxd the sound
As they came riding on.
58 Will o Wisp before them went,
Sent forth a twinkling light,
And soon she saw the fairy bands
All riding in her sight. |
| b. |
6-12 is a fragment of 'The Broomfield Hill,'
introduced by a stanza formed on the sixth, as here given:
5. And she's away to Carterhaugh,
And gaed beside the wood,
And there was sleeping young Tamlane,
And his steed beside him stood.
After the fragment of 'The Broomfield-Hill'
follows:
13. Fair Janet, in her green cleiding,
Returned upon the morn,
And she met her father's ae brother,
The laird of Abercorn.
And then these two stanzas, the first altered from
Herd's fragment of 'The Broomfield Hill,'
'I'll wager, I'll wager,' p. 310, ed. 1769,
and the second from Herd's fragment,
'Kertonha.' or version C of this ballad:
14. I'll wager, I'll wager, I'll wager wi you
Five hunder merk and ten,
I'll maiden gang to Carterhaugh,
And maiden come again.
15. She princked hersell, and prin'd hersell,
By the ae light of the moon,
And she's away to Carterhaugh
As fast as she could win.
Instead of a 10, 11, b has:
He 's taen her by the milk-white hand,
And by the grass-green sleeve,
He's led her to the fairy ground,
And spierd at her nae leave.
Instead of 14 of a, b
has something nearer to A, B 9:
23. It's four and twenty ladies fair
Were in her father's ha,
Whan in there came the fair Janet,
The flower amang them a'.
After 21 of a follows in
b a copy of 'The Wee Wee Man,' 32-39,
attached by these two stanzas, which had been
"introduced in one recital only:"
30. 'Is it to a man of might, Janet,
Or is it to a man o mean?
Or is it unto young Tamlane,
That's wi the fairies gane?'
31. ''T was down by Carterhaugh, father,
I walked beside the wa,
And there I saw a wee, wee man,
The least that eer I saw.'
Instead of 22, which had been used before,
we have in b;
40. Janet's put on her green cleiding,
Whan near nine months were gane
And she's awa to Carterhaugh,
To speak wi young Tamlane.
b has in place of a 28-30:
46. Roxburgh was my grandfather,
Took me with him to bide,
And as we frae the hunting came
This harm did me betide.
47. Roxburgh was a hunting knight,
And loved hunting well,
And on a cauld and frosty day
Down frae my horse I fell.
b 49 has A 24 instead of
a 37, I 32.
b 612 = a 492 = I 442
has toad, and so has C 92,
from which the stanza is taken.
Tod is an improvement, but probably an editorial improvement. |
