This ridiculous ballad is a seedling from the ancient and widespread story of King Solomon and his wife. A typical version, preserved in a Russian prose tale, may be summarized as follows: The wife of Solomon is stolen from him by his brother Kitovras, through the agency of a magician, who, in the character of a merchant, excites Solomon's admiration for a magnificent purple robe. Solomon buys the robe, and invites the seeming merchant to his table. During the repast the magician envelops the king and his people in darkness, brings a heavy slumber upon the queen and her people, and carries her off in his arms to his ship. Solomon proceeds against Kitovras with an army, which he orders to come to his help when they shall hear his horn sound the third time.
Clad as an old pilgrim or beggar, lie enters Kitovras's garden, where he comes upon a girl with a gold cup, who is about to draw water. He asks to drink from the king's cup. The girl objects, but the gift of a gold ring induces her to consent. The queen sees the ring on the girl's hand, and asks who gave it to her. 'An old pilgrim,' she replies. 'No pilgrim,' says the queen, 'but my husband, Solomon.' Solomon is brought before the queen, and asked what he has come for. 'To take off your head,' he answers. 'To your own death!' rejoins the queen. 'You shall be hanged.' Kitovras is sent for, and pronounces this doom. Solomon reminds Kitovras that they are brothers, and asks that he may die in regal style; that Kitovras and the queen shall attend the execution, with all the people of the city; and that there shall be ample provision of food and drink: all which is granted. At the gallows he finds a noose of bast; he begs that two other nooses may be provided, one of red silk, one of yellow, so that he may have a choice, and this whim is complied with. Always urging their brotherhood, Solomon, at three successive stages, asks the privilege of blowing his horn. The army is at hand upon the third blast, and is ordered to kill everybody. Kitovras and the queen are hanged in the silken nooses, the magician in the bast. (Jagié, Archiv fur slavische Philologie, 1, 107 f.; Vesselofsky, the same, vi, 406.)
Other versions of the Solomon story are found in the old German poems of Salman und Morolf, Salomon undMorolf,and Kduig Rother, in the Cliges of Crestien de Troies, in the romance of Li Bastars de Buillon, in the Portuguese legem! of Don Ramiro, and elsewhere.
Two versions of the Scottish ballad are known, A and B, the latter a fragment of four stanzas. Leyden, to whom we owe B, says that he "had heard the whole song when very young.
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