'The Gay Goshawk' first appeared in print in the second volume of Scott's Minstrelsy, in 1802. Scott's copy was formed partly from Mrs. Brown's version (A) and partly from E*.
A ballad widely known in France has the central idea of 'The Gay Goshawk,' but in the development of the story there is no likeness. In a version of this ballad, 'Belle Isambourg,' printed as early as 1607, the king- wishes to give Fair Isambourg a husband, but her heart is fixed on a handsome knight, whom she loves more than all her kin together, though he is poor. The king shuts her up in a dark tower, thinking that this treatment will bring about a change, but it does not. Isambourg sees her lover riding towards or by the tower at full speed. She calls to him to stop, and says:
Mai ad e et morte m'y feray, Porter en terre m'y lairray, Pourtant morte je ne seray.
Puis apres je vous prie amy, Qu'à ma chapelle à Sainct-Denis Ne m'y laissez pas enfouir.
Isambourg is now proclaimed to be dead, and is carried to burial by three princes and a knight. Her lover, hearing the knelling and chanting, puts himself in the way and bids the bearers stop. Since she has died for loving him too well, he wishes to say a De Profundis. He rips open a little of the shroud, and she darts a loving smile at him. Everybody is astonished.
In 'Willie's Lyke-Wake' (No. 25) a man feigns death in order to capture a coy maid, or a maid refused him by her parents.
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