| B. |
171. bids me.
225,6. Connected with 23 in Manuscript
226. send he. |
| C. a. |
152. How y you. |
| b. |
33. omits house.
42. omits foot.
71. omits dear.
73. For she's ... of the prison.
74. And gane the dungeon within.
81. And when.
82. Wow but her heart was sair.
91. She's gotten.
111. thir twa.
132. I kenna.
134. kensnae.
141. fell out.
152. How y you,
161, till.
162. As fast as ye can gang.
163. tak three.
164. To haud ye unthocht lang.
181. Syne ye.
183. And bonny.
193. And I will.
202. As fast as she could gang.
203. she's taen.
204. To haud her unthocht lang.
223. And sae bonny did.
224. till.
243. And her mind misgae by.
244. That 't was.
252. markis three.
254. Bid your master.
274. did never.
291. and spak.
293. be fine.
294. as fine.
323. out of.
343. at the first.
352. gang.
364. Send her back a maid. |
| D. |
Written throughout without division into stanzas.
7. A like repetition occurs again in the Skene Manuscripts:
see No 36, p. 316.
101,2. One line in the Manuscript.
The metre, in several places where it is incomplete,
was doubtless made full by repetition: see 191,3.
141. This line thus:
(an a Leash of guid gray hounds).
The reciter evidently could remember only this point in the stanza.
16, 17. Whan she cam to Young Beachens gate
Is Young Beachen at hame
Or is he in this countrie
He is at hame is hearly (?) said
Him an sigh an says her Susie Pay
Has he quite forgotten me
191,3. Probably sung,
the stair, the stair; win up. win up.
223,4. The latter half of the stanza must be
supposed to be addressed to Young Beachen.
261,2, He took her down to yon gouden green,
274, Sh's,
292, my name,
After 29 a stanza belonging apparently to
some other ballad:
Courtess kind, an generous mind,
An winna ye answer me?
An whan the hard their lady's word,
Well answered was she. |
| E. |
64-6 was introduced, with other metrical passages,
into a long tale of 'Young Beichan and Susy Pye,'
which Motherwell had heard related, and of which he gives
a specimen at p. xv. of his Introduction:
"Well, ye must know that in the Moor's castle there was a
massymore, which is a dark dungeon for keeping prisoners. It was
twenty feet below the ground, and into this hole they closed poor
Beichan. There he stood, night and day, up to his waist in puddle
water; but night or day it was all one to him, for no ae styme of
light ever got in. So he lay there a lang and weary while, and
thinking on his heavy weird, he made a murnfu sang to pass the
time, and this was the sang that he made, and grat when he sang
it, for he never thought of ever escaping from the massymore, or
of seeing his ain country again:
'My hounds they all run masterless,
My hawks they flee from tree to tree;
My youngest brother will heir my lands,
And fair England again I'll never see.
'Oh were I free as I hae been,
And my ship swimming once more on sea,
I'd turn my face to fair England,
And sail no more to a strange countrie.'
"Now the cruel Moor had a beautiful daughter, called Susy Pye,
who was accustomed to take a walk every morning in her garden,
and as she was walking ae day she heard the songh o Beichan's
sang, coming as it were from below the ground," etc.,
etc. |
| F. |
33. dungeon (donjon).
61. only lands.
62. only castles.
81. Oh.
103, ha she has gane in:
originally has she gane in.
132, Many, with Seven written over:
Seven in 142.
20. After this stanza:
Then the porter gaed up the stair and said,
25. After this stanza:
Then Lord Beichan gat up, and was in a great wrath, and
said.
31. ae: indistinct, but seems to have been
one changed to ae or a. |
| H. |
43. carts and wains for
carts o wine of A 23, B
23,
We have wine in H 43,
133, and wine is in all likelihood
original.
Christie, I, 31, abridges this version, making
"a few slight alterations from the way he had heard it sung:"
these, and one or two more.
24, wadna bend nor bow.
71, The Moor he had.
251. But Beichan courted. |
| I. |
11. Bechin was pronounced Beekin. |
| K. |
1. Before this, as gloss, or remnant of a preceding stanza:
She came to a shepherd, and he replied.
2. After this, in explanation:
She gave Lord Bechin a slice of bread and a bottle of wine
when she released him from prison, hence the following.
31. to him.
4. After this:
He had married another lady, not having heard from his Sophia
for seven long years. |
| L. |
"This affecting legend is given ... precisely as I have
frequently heard it sung on Saturday nights, outside a house of
general refreshment (familiarly termed a wine-vaults) at
Battle-bridge. The singer is a young gentleman who can scarcely
have numbered nineteen summers. ... I have taken down the words
from his own mouth at different periods, and have been careful to
preserve his pronunciation."
[Attributed to Charles Dickens.] As there is no reason for
indicating pronunciation here, in this more than in other cases,
the phonetic spelling is replaced by common orthography. Forms of
speech have, however, been preserved, excepting two, with regard
to which I may have been too nice.
13. his-self.
52, 92. guv. |
| M. |
103. in for wi (?): wi in
53.
122, 462. bend. Possibly, however,
understood to be bend = leather,
instead of ben = bane, bone.
134, 474. on thought. |
| N. a.. |
Susan Py, or Young Bichens Garland. Shewing how he went to a
far country, and was taken by a savage Moor and cast into prison,
and delivered by the Moor's daughter, on promise of marriage; and
how he came to England, and was going to be wedded to another
bride; with the happy arrival of Susan Py on the wedding day.
Falkirk, Printed by T. Johnston, 1815. |
| d. |
34. his own.
42. A week, a week, but only.
73. own land.
74. And foreign lands no more.
111. young man.
132. he lay.
243. her trunks.
254. was the.
282. that stood hard by.
284. thou shalt.
292. She knocked.
314. waiting-maid.
322. For this is his.
341. up the stairs.
343. will you.
364. Ye might.
372. Sae loud as I hear ye lie.
394. And a sight of him you cannot see.
404. To bring.
423. I'll lay.
442. way that you've used me.
474. wedding of. |
