Chapter XII: Part 12

5
'I'll set my foot where thou sets thine:'
The old sister dang the youngest in,
At, etc.

6
'O sister dear, come tak my hand,
Take my life safe to dry land,'
At, etc.

7
'It's neer by my hand thy hand sall come in,
It's neer by my hand thy hand sall come in,
At, etc.

8
'It's thy cherry cheeks and thy white briest bane
Gars me set a maid owre lang at hame.'

9
She clasped her hand[s] about a brume rute,
But her cruel sister she lowsed them out.

10
Sometimes she sank, and sometimes she swam,
Till she cam to the miller's dam.

11
The miller's bairns has muckle need,
They were bearing in water to bake some breid.

12
Says, 'Father, dear father, in our mill-dam,
It's either a fair maid or a milk-white swan.'

13
The miller he's spared nae his hose nor his shoon
Till he brocht this lady till dry land.

14
I wad he saw na a bit o her feet,
Her silver slippers were made so neat.

15
I wad he saw na a bit o her skin,
For ribbons there was mony a ane.

16
He laid her on a brume buss to dry,
To see wha was the first wad pass her by.

17
Her ain father's herd was the first man
That by this lady gay did gang.

18
He's taen three links of her yellow hair,
And made it a string to his fiddle there.

19
He's cut her fingers long and small
To be fiddle-pins that neer might fail.

20
The very first spring that the fiddle did play,
'Hang my auld sister,' I wad it did say.

21
'For she drowned me in yonder sea,
God neer let her rest till she shall die,'
At the bonny bows o London.

G

Motherwell's MS., p. 104. From Mrs King, Kilbarchan.

1
There were three sisters lived in a bouir,
Hech, hey, my Nannie O
And the youngest was the fairest flouir.
And the swan swims bonnie O

2
'O sister, sister, gang down to yon sand,
And see your father's ships coming to dry land.'

3
O they have gane down to yonder sand,
To see their father's ships coming to dry land.

4
'Gae set your fit on yonder stane,
Till I tye up your silken goun.'

5
She set her fit on yonder stane,
And the auldest drave the youngest in.

6
'O sister, sister, tak me by the hand,
And ye'll get a' my father's land.

7
'O sister, sister, tak me by the gluve,
An ye'll get Willy, my true luve.'

8
She had a switch into her hand,
And ay she drave her frae the land.

9
O whiles she sunk, and whiles she swam,
Until she swam to the miller's dam.

10
The miller's daughter gade doun to Tweed,
To carry water to bake her bread.

11
'O father, O father, what's yon in the dam?
It's either a maid or a milk-white swan.'

12
They have tane her out till yonder thorn,
And she has lain till Monday morn.

13
She hadna, hadna twa days lain,
Till by there came a harper fine.

14
He made a harp o her breast-bane,
That he might play forever thereon.

H

Motherwell's MS., p. 147. From I. Goldie, March, 1825.

1
There were three sisters lived in a hall,
Hey with the gay and the grandeur O
And there came a lord to court them all.
At the bonnie bows o London town

2
He courted the eldest with a penknife,
And he vowed that he would take her life.

3
He courted the youngest with a glove,
And he said that he'd be her true love.

4
'O sister, O sister, will you go and take a walk,
And see our father's ships how they float?

5
'O lean your foot upon the stone,
And wash your hand in that sea-foam.'

6
She leaned her foot upon the stone,
But her eldest sister has tumbled her down.

7
'O sister, sister, give me your hand,
And I'll make you lady of all my land.'

8
'O I'll not lend to you my hand,
But I'll be lady of your land.'

9
'O sister, sister, give me your glove,
And I'll make you lady of my true love.'

10
'It's I'll not lend to you my glove,
But I'll be lady of your true love.'

11
Sometimes she sank, and sometimes she swam,
Until she came to a miller's dam.

12
The miller's daughter was coming out wi speed,
For water for to bake some bread.

13
'O father, father, stop the dam,
For it's either a lady or a milk-white swan.'

14
He dragged her out unto the shore,
And stripped her of all she wore.

15
By cam a fiddler, and he was fair,
And he buskit his bow in her bonnie yellow hair.

16
By cam her father's harper, and he was fine,
And he made a harp o her bonny breast-bone.

17
When they came to her father's court,
The harp [and fiddle these words] spoke:

18
'O God bless my father the king,
And I wish the same to my mother the queen.

19
'My sister Jane she tumbled me in,
. . . . . . .

* * * * * * *

I

Kinloch MSS, V, 425. From the recitation of M. Kinnear,
23d August, 1826.

1
There war twa sisters lived in a bouer,
Binnorie and Binnorie
There cam a squire to court them baith.
At the bonnie mill-streams o Binnorie

2
He courted the eldest with jewels and rings,
But he lovd the youngest the best of all things.

3
He courted the eldest with a penknife,
He lovd the youngest as dear as his life.

4
It fell ance upon a day
That these twa sisters hae gane astray.

5
It was for to meet their father's ships that had come in.
. . . . . . .

6
As they walked up the linn,
The eldest dang the youngest in.

7
'O sister, sister, tak my hand,
And ye'll hae Lud John and aw his land.'

8
With a silver wand she pushd her in,
. . . . . . .

9
'O sister, sister, tak my glove,
And ye sall hae my ain true love.'

10
The miller's dochter cam out wi speed.
It was for a water to bake her bread.

11
'O father, father, gae slack your dam;
There's either a white fish or a swan.'

* * * * * * *

12
Bye cam a blind fiddler that way,
And he took three tets o her bonnie yellow hair.

13
And the first spring that he playd,
It said, 'It was my sister threw me in.'

J

Notes and Queries, 4th S., V, 23, from the north of
Ireland.

1
There were two ladies playing ball,
Hey, ho, my Nannie O
A great lord came to court them all.
The swan she does swim bonnie O

2
He gave to the first a golden ring,
He gave to the second a far better thing.

* * * * * * *

3
He made a harp of her breast-bone
. . . . . . .

4
He set it down upon a stone,
And it began to play its lone.

K

Mr G.R. Kinloch's papers, Kinloch MSS, II, 59. From Mrs
Lindores.

1
'O sister, sister, gie me your hand,
Binnorie and Binnorie
And I'll give the half of my fallow-land,
By the bonnie mill-dams of Binnorie.'

* * * * * * *

2
The first time the bonnie fiddle played,
'Hang my sister, Alison,' it said,
'At the bonnie mill-dams of Binnorie.'

L

#a.# From oral tradition, Notes and Queries, 1st S., V,
316. #b.# The Scouring of the White Horse, p. 161. From
North Wales.

1
O was it eke a pheasant cock,
Or eke a pheasant hen,
Or was it the bodye of a fair ladye,
Come swimming down the stream?

2
O it was not a pheasant cock,
Nor eke a pheasant hen,
But it was the bodye of a fair ladye
Came swimming down the stream.

* * * * * * *

3
And what did he do with her fair bodye?
Fal the lal the lal laral lody
He made it a case for his melodye.
Fal, etc.

4
And what did he do with her legs so strong?
He made them a stand for his violon.

5
And what did he do with her hair so fine?
He made of it strings for his violine.

6
And what did he do with her arms so long?
He made them bows for his violon.

7
And what did he do with her nose so thin?
He made it a bridge for his violin.

8
And what did he do with her eyes so bright?
He made them spectacles to put to his sight.

9
And what did he do with her petty toes?
He made them a nosegay to put to his nose.

M

Taken down from recitation at Old Deir, 1876, by Mrs A.F.
Murison. MS., p. 79.

1
There lived twa sisters in yonder ha,
Binórie O an Binórie
They hadna but ae lad atween them twa,
He's the bonnie miller lad o Binórie.

2
It fell oot upon a day,
The auldest ane to the youngest did say,
At the bonnie mill-dams o Binórie,

3
'O sister, O sister, will ye go to the dams,
To hear the blackbird thrashin oer his songs?
At the,' etc.

4
'O sister, O sister, will ye go to the dams,
To see oor father's fish-boats come safe to dry lan?
An the bonnie miller lad o Binorie.'

5
They hadna been an oor at the dams,
Till they heard the blackbird thrashin oer his tune,
At the, etc.

6
They hadna been an oor at the dams
Till they saw their father's fish-boats come safe to dry lan,
Bat they sawna the bonnie miller laddie.

7
They stood baith up upon a stane,
An the eldest ane dang the youngest in,
I the, etc.

8
She swam up, an she swam doon,
An she swam back to her sister again,
I the, etc.

9
'O sister, O sister, len me your han,
An yes be heir to my true love,
He's the bonnie miller lad o Binorie.'

10
'It was not for that love at I dang you in,
But ye was fair and I was din,
And yes droon i the dams o Binorie.'

11
The miller's daughter she cam oot,
For water to wash her father's hans,
Frae the, etc.

12
'O father, O father, ye will fish your dams,
An ye'll get a white fish or a swan,
I the,' etc.

13
They fished up and they fished doon,
But they got nothing but a droonet woman,
I the, etc.

14
Some o them kent by her skin sae fair,
But weel kent he by her bonnie yallow hair
She's the bonnie miller's lass o Binorie.

15
Some o them kent by her goons o silk,
But weel kent he by her middle sae jimp,
She's the bonnie miller's lass o Binorie.

16
Mony ane was at her oot-takin,
But mony ane mair at her green grave makin,
At the bonny mill-dams o Binorie.

N

[Pinkerton's] Scottish Tragic Ballads, p. 72.

1
There were twa sisters livd in a bouir,
Binnorie, O Binnorie
Their father was a baron of pouir.
By the bonnie mildams of Binnorie

2
The youngest was meek, and fair as the may
Whan she springs in the east wi the gowden day.

3
The eldest austerne as the winter cauld,
Ferce was her saul, and her seiming was bauld.

4
A gallant squire cam sweet Isabel to wooe;
Her sister had naething to luve I trow.

5
But filld was she wi dolour and ire,
To see that to her the comlie squire

6
Preferd the debonair Isabel:
Their hevin of luve of spyte was her hell.

7
Till ae ein she to her sister can say,
'Sweit sister, cum let us wauk and play.'

8
They wauked up, and they wauked down,
Sweit sang the birdis in the vallie loun.

9
Whan they cam to the roaring lin,
She drave unweiting Isabel in.

10
'O sister, sister, tak my hand,
And ye sall hae my silver fan.

11
'O sister, sister, tak my middle,
And ye sall hae my gowden girdle.'

12
Sumtimes she sank, sumtimes she swam,
Till she cam to the miller's dam.

13
The miller's dochtor was out that ein,
And saw her rowing down the streim.

14
'O father deir, in your mil-dam
There is either a lady or a milk-white swan!'

15
Twa days were gane, whan to her deir
Her wraith at deid of nicht cold appeir.

16
'My luve, my deir, how can ye sleip,
Whan your Isabel lyes in the deip!

17
'My deir, how can ye sleip bot pain
Whan she by her cruel sister is slain!'

18
Up raise he sune, in frichtfu mude:
'Busk ye, my meiny, and seik the flude.'

19
They socht her up and they socht her doun,
And spyd at last her glisterin gown.

20
They raisd her wi richt meikle care;
Pale was her cheik and grein was her hair.

O

#a.# Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 128.
#b.# Traditional Ballad Airs, edited by W. Christie, I,
42.

1
There were twa sisters in a bower,
Hey wi the gay and the grinding
And ae king's son has courted them baith.
At the bonny bonny bows o London

2
He courted the youngest wi broach and ring,
He courted the eldest wi some other thing.

3
It fell ance upon a day
The eldest to the youngest did say,

4
'Will ye gae to yon Tweed mill-dam,
And see our father's ships come to land?'

5
They baith stood up upon a stane,
The eldest dang the youngest in.

6
She swimmed up, sae did she down,
Till she came to the Tweed mill-dam.

7
The miller's servant he came out,
And saw the lady floating about.

8
'O master, master, set your mill,
There is a fish, or a milk-white swan.'

9
They could not ken her yellow hair,
[For] the scales o gowd that were laid there.

10
They could not ken her fingers sae white,
The rings o gowd they were sae bright.

11
They could not ken her middle sae jimp,
The stays o gowd were so well laced.

12
They could not ken her foot sae fair,
The shoes o gowd they were so rare.

13
Her father's fiddler he came by,
Upstarted her ghaist before his eye.

14
'Ye'll take a lock o my yellow hair,
Ye'll make a string to your fiddle there.

15
'Ye'll take a lith o my little finger bane,
And ye'll make a pin to your fiddle then.'

16
He's taen a lock o her yellow hair,
And made a string to his fiddle there.

17
He's taen a lith o her little finger bane,
And he's made a pin to his fiddle then.

18
The firstand spring the fiddle did play,
Said, 'Ye'll drown my sister, as she's dune me.'

P

#a.# Motherwell's MS., p. 245. #b.# Motherwell's
Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xx, xx.

1
There were twa ladies in a bower,
Hey my bonnie Nannie O
The old was black and the young ane fair.
And the swan swims bonnie O

2
Once it happened on a day
The auld ane to the young did say,

3
The auld ane to the young did say,
'Will you gae to the green and play?'

4
'O sister, sister, I daurna gang,
For fear I file my silver shoon.'

5
It was not to the green they gaed,
But it was to the water of Tweed.

6
She bowed her back and she's taen her on,
And she's tumbled her in Tweed mill-dam.

7
'O sister, O sister, O tak my hand,
And I'll mak you heir of a' my land.'

8
'O sister, O sister, I'll no take your hand,
And I'll be heir of a' your land.'

9
'O sister, O sister, O tak my thumb,
And I'll give you my true-love John.'

10
'O sister, O sister, I'll no tak your thumb,
And I will get your true-love John.'

11
Aye she swattered and aye she swam,
Until she came to the mouth of the dam.

12
The miller's daughter went out to Tweed,
To get some water to bake her bread.

13
In again she quickly ran:
'Here's a lady or a swan in our mill-dam.'

14
Out went the miller and his man
And took the lady out of the dam.

15
They laid her on the brae to dry;
Her father's fiddler then rode by.

16
When he this lady did come near,
Her ghost to him then did appear.

17
'When you go to my father the king,
You'll tell him to burn my sister Jean.

18
'When you go to my father's gate,
You'll play a spring for fair Ellen's sake.

19
'You'll tak three links of my yellow hair,
And play a spring for evermair.'

Q

Copied Oct. 26, 1861, by J.F. Campbell, Esq., from a
collection made by Lady Caroline Murray; traced by her to
an old nurse, and beyond the beginning of this century.

1
There dwelt twa sisters in a bower,
Oh and ohone, and ohone and aree!
And the youngest she was the fairest flower.
On the banks of the Banna, ohone and aree!

2
There cam a knight to court the twa,
But on the youngest his love did fa.

3
He courted the eldest with ring and wi glove,
But he gave the youngest all his love.

4
He courted the eldest with brooch and wi knife,
But he loved the youngest as his life.

5
'O sister, O sister, will ye come to the stream,
To see our father's ships come in?'

6
The youngest stood upon a stane,
Her sister came and pusht her in.

7
'O sister, O sister, come reach me your hand,
And ye shall hae all our father's land.

8
'O sister, O sister, come reach me your glove,
And you shall hae William to be your true love.'

9
'I did not put you in with the design
Just for to pull you out again.'

10
Some time she sank, some time she swam,
Until she came to a miller's dam.

11
The miller's daughter dwelt on the Tweed,
She went for water to bake her bread.

12
'O faither, faither, come drag me your dam,
For there's aither a lady in't, or a milk-white swan.'

13
The miller went, and he dragd his dam,
And he brought her fair body to lan.

14
They couldna see her waist sae sma
For the goud and silk about it a'.

15
They couldna see her yallow hair
For the pearls and jewels that were there.

16
Then up and spak her ghaist sae green,
'Do ye no ken the king's dochter Jean?

17
'Tak my respects to my father the king,
And likewise to my mother the queen.

18
'Tak my respects to my true love William,
Tell him I deid for the love of him.

19
'Carry him a lock of my yallow hair,
To bind his heart for evermair.'

R

#a.# Notes and Queries, 1st S., VI, 102, from Lancashire.
#b.# Written down for J.F. Campbell, Esq., Nov. 7, 1861,
at Wishaw House, Lancashire, by Lady Louisa Primrose, #c.#
'The Scouring of the White Horse,' p. 158, from Berkshire,
as heard by Mr Hughes from his father.

1
There was a king of the north countree,
Bow down, bow down, bow down
There was a king of the north countree,
And he had daughters one, two, three.
I'll be true to my love, and my love'll be true to me

2
To the eldest he gave a beaver hat,
And the youngest she thought much of that.

3
To the youngest he gave a gay gold chain,
And the eldest she thought much of the same.

4
These sisters were walking on the bryn,
And the elder pushed the younger in.

5
'Oh sister, oh sister, oh lend me your hand,
And I will give you both houses and land.'

6
'I'll neither give you my hand nor glove,
Unless you give me your true love.'

7
Away she sank, away she swam,
Until she came to a miller's dam.

8
The miller and daughter stood at the door,
And watched her floating down the shore.

9
'Oh father, oh father, I see a white swan,
Or else it is a fair woman.'

10
The miller he took up his long crook,
And the maiden up from the stream he took.

11
'I'll give to thee this gay gold chain,
If you'll take me back to my father again.'

12
The miller he took the gay gold chain,
And he pushed her into the water again.

13
The miller was hanged on his high gate
For drowning our poor sister Kate.

14
The cat's behind the buttery shelf,
If you want any more, you may sing it yourself.

S

Kinloch MSS, VI, 89, in Kinloch's hand.

* * * * * * *

1
'O father, father, swims a swan,'
This story I'll vent to thee
'O father, father, swims a swan,
Unless it be some dead woman.'
I'll prove true to my true love,
If my love prove true to me

2
The miller he held out his long fish hook,
And hooked this fair maid from the brook.

3
She offered the miller a gold ring stane
To throw her into the river again.

4
Down she sunk, and away she swam,
Until she came to her father's brook.

5
The miller was hung at his mill-gate,
For drowning of my sister Kate.

T

Allingham's Ballad Book, p. xxxiii. From Ireland.

'Sister, dear sister, where shall we go play?'
Cold blows the wind, and the wind blows low
'We shall go to the salt sea's brim.'
And the wind blows cheerily around us, high ho

U

Communicated by Mr W.W. Newell, as repeated by an ignorant
woman in her dotage, who learned it at Huntington, Long
Island, N.Y.

1
There was a man lived in the mist,
Bow down, bow down
He loved his youngest daughter best.
The bow is bent to me,
So you be true to your own true love,
And I'll be true to thee.

2
These two sisters went out to swim;
The oldest pushed the youngest in.

3
First she sank and then she swam,
First she sank and then she swam.

4
The miller, with his rake and hook,
He caught her by the petticoat.

* * * * * * *

* * * * *

#A. b.#

1^1, went a-playing.

_Burden^2._ a downe-o.

#c.#

1^1. went a-playing.

_Burden^{1,2}._ With a hey down, down, a down, down-a.

4^2. Till oat-meal and salt grow both on a tree.

6^1. ran hastily down the clift.

6^2. And up he took her without any life.

13^2. Moll Symns.

14^1, 15^1. Then he bespake.

17^2. And let him go i the devil's name.

#d.#

1^1, went a-playing.

1^2, ships sailing in.

2^1. into.

3^2. me up on.

6^2. withouten life.

#B. a.#

26, 27, 28. _An_ it _has been written in as a conjectural
emendation by Jamieson, ~he did it play, {it/he} playd~;
and ~it~ is adopted by Jamieson in his printed copy: see
below, #d# 26, 27, 28._

#b.#

_The first stanza only, agreeing with #a# 1, is given by
Anderson, Nichols's Illustrations, VII, 178._

#c.#

_Evidently a copy of Mrs Brown's version, and in Scott's
MS. it has the air, as all the Tytler-Brown ballads had.
Still it has but twenty-three stanzas, whereas Dr Anderson
gives fifty-eight lines as the extent of the Tytler-Brown
copy of 'The Cruel Sister' (Nichols, Illus. Lit. Hist.,
VII, 178). This, counting the first stanza, with the
burden, as four lines, according to the arrangement in
Scott's MS., would tally exactly with the Jamieson-Brown
MS., #B a#._

_It would seem that #B c# had been altered by somebody in
order to remove the absurd combination of sea and
mill-dam; the invitation to go see the ships come to land,
#B a# 7, is omitted, and "~the deep mill-dam~"
substituted, in 8, for "~yon sea-stran~." Stanza 17 of
#c#, "~They raisd her~," etc., cited below, occurs in
Pinkerton, #N# 20, and is more likely to be his than
anybody's._

2^1. brooch and ring.

2^2. abune a' thing.

3^1. wooed ... with glove and knife.

3^2. looed the second.

5^2. she well nigh brist.

7. _wanting._

8^2. led her to the deep mill-dam.

9^2. Her cruel sister pushd her in.

11^2. And Ise mak ye.

12. _wanting._

14^1. Shame fa the hand that I shall tak.

15^1. gowden hair.

15^2. gar ... maiden ever mair.

16. _wanting._

17^1. Then out and cam.

17^2. swimming down.

18^1. O father, haste and draw.

19^1. his dam.

19^2. And then. (?)

_Instead of 20-22_:

They raisd her wi meikle dule and care,
Pale was her cheek and green was her hair.

24^1. that corpse upon.

25^2. he's strung.

26^1, 27^1, 28^1, _for ~tune~, ~line~, if the copy be
right._

27^1. The next.

28^1. The last.

28^2. fause Ellen.

"Note by Ritson. 'The fragment of a very different copy of
this ballad has been communicated to J.R. by a friend at
Dublin.'" [_J.C. Walker, no doubt._]

#d.#

_Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs, I, 48, says that he
gives his text verbatim as it was taken from the
recitation of the lady in Fifeshire (Mrs Brown), to whom
both he and Scott were so much indebted. That this is not
to be understood with absolute strictness will appear from
the variations which are subjoined. Jamieson adds that he
had received another copy from Mrs Arrott of Aberbrothick,
"~but as it furnished no readings by which the text could
have been materially improved~," it was not used. Both
Jamieson and Scott substitute the "~Binnorie~" burden,
"~the most common and popular~," says Scott, for the one
given by Mrs Brown, with which Mrs Arrott's agreed. It may
be added that Jamieson's interpolations are stanzas 20,
21, 27, etc., and not, as he says (I, 49), 19, 20, 27,
etc. These interpolations also occur as such in the
manuscript._

1^1. sisters livd.

2^2. aboon.

3^2. he loved.

4^2. and sair envied.

5^1. Intill her bower she coudna.

5^2. maistly brast.

11^2. mak ye.

14^2. me o.

16^1. _omits ~an~._

16^2. came to the mouth o yon mill-dam.

18^2. There's.

20^2. that was.

22^2. that were.

26^1. it did.

27^1. it playd seen.

28^1. thirden tune that it.

_A copy in Motherwell's MS., p. 239, is derived from
Jamieson's printed edition. It omits the interpolated
stanzas, and makes a few very slight changes._

#C.#

_Scott's account of his edition is as follows (II, 143,
later ed., III, 287)_:

"It is compiled from a copy in Mrs Brown's MS., intermixed
with a beautiful fragment, of fourteen verses, transmitted
to the editor by J.C. Walker, Esq., the ingenious
historian of the Irish bards. Mr Walker, at the same time,
favored the editor with the following note: 'I am indebted
to my departed friend, Miss Brooke, for the foregoing
pathetic fragment. Her account of it was as follows: This
song was transcribed, several years ago, from the memory
of an old woman, who had no recollection of the concluding
verses; probably the beginning may also be lost, as it
seems to commence abruptly.' The first verse and burden of
the fragment run thus:

"'O sister, sister, reach thy hand!
Hey ho, my Nanny, O
And you shall be heir of all my land.
While the swan swims bonny, O'"

_Out of this stanza, or the corresponding one in Mrs
Brown's copy, Scott seems to have made his 9, 10._

#E.#

"My mother used to sing this song." Sharpe's Ballad Book,
ed. of 1880, note, p. 129.

#F.#

2^2. An wooer.

#G.#

2^1. _~strand~, with ~sand~ written above: ~sand~ in 3^1._

#I.#

1^2. _var. in MS._ There was a knicht and he loved them
bath.

7. _The following stanza was subsequently written on an
opposite blank page,--perhaps derived from #D# 8_:

Foul fa the hand that I wad take,
To twin me and my warld's make.

10^2. _~a~ was, perhaps, meant to be expunged, but is only
a little blotted._

11^2. _var._ a lady or a milk-white swan.

12, 13 _were written in later than the rest; at the same
time, apparently, as the stanza above (7)._

#K.#

_Found among Mr Kinloch's papers by Mr Macmath, and
inserted by him as a note on p. 59, vol. II, of Kinloch's
MSS. The order of the stanzas is there, wrongly,
inverted._

1^2. _var._ I wad give you.

#L. a.#

_These fragments were communicated to Notes and Queries,
April 3, 1852, by "~G. A. C.~," who had heard '~The
Miller's Melody~' sung by an old lady in his childhood,
and who represents himself as probably the last survivor
of those who had enjoyed the privilege of listening to her
ballads. We may, therefore, assign this version to the
latter part of the 18th century. The two four-line stanzas
were sung to "~a slow, quaint strain~." Two others which
followed were not remembered, "~but their purport was that
the body 'stopped hard by a miller's mill,' and that this
'miller chanced to come by,' and took it out of the water
'to make a melodye.'~" G.A.C. goes on to say_: "My
venerable friend's tune here became a more lively one, and
the time quicker; but I can only recollect a few of the
couplets, and these not correctly nor in order of
sequence, in which the transformation of the lady into a
viol is described."

#b.#

_Some stanzas of this four-line version, with a ludicrous
modern supplement, are given in '~The Scouring of the
White Horse~,' p. 161, as from the Welsh marshes. Five out
of the first six verses are there said to be very old
indeed, "~the rest all patchwork by different hands~." Mr
Hughes has kindly informed me that he derived the ballad
from his father, who had originally learned it at Ruthyn
when a boy. What is material here follows_:

1
O it was not a pheasant cock,
Nor yet a pheasant hen,
But O it was a lady fair
Came swimming down the stream.

2
An ancient harper passing by
Found this poor lady's body,
To which his pains he did apply
To make a sweet melódy.

3
To cat-gut dried he her inside,
He drew out her back-bone,
And made thereof a fiddle sweet
All for to play upon.

4
And all her hair, so long and fair,
That down her back did flow,
O he did lay it up with care,
To string his fiddle bow.

5
And what did he with her fingers,
Which were so straight and small?
O he did cut them into pegs,
To screw up his fiddoll.

6
Then forth went he, as it might be,
Upon a summer's day,
And met a goodly company,
Who asked him in to play.

| 7
| Then from her bones he drew such tones
| As made their bones to ache,
| They sounded so like human groans
| Their hearts began to quake.

| 8
| They ordered him in ale to swim,--
| For sorrow's mighty dry,--
| And he to share their wassail fare
| Essayd right willingly.

9
He laid his fiddle on a shelf
In that old manor-hall,
It played and sung all by itself,
And thus sung this fiddoll:

| 10
| 'There sits the squire, my worthy sire,
| A-drinking hisself drunk,' etc., etc.

#N.#

_Pinkerton tells us, in the Preface to his ~Ancient
Scottish Poems~, p. cxxxi, that "~Binnorie is one half
from tradition, one half by the editor~." One fourth and
three fourths would have been a more exact apportionment.
The remainder of his text, which is wholly of his
invention, is as follows_:

'Gae saddle to me my swiftest steid;
Her fere, by my fae, for her dethe sall bleid.'
A page cam rinning out owr the lie:
'O heavie tydings I bring,' quoth he.
'My luvely lady is far awa gane;
We weit the fairy hae her tane.
Her sister gaed wood wi dule and rage;
Nocht cold we do her mind to suage.
"O Isabel, my sister," she wold cry,
"For thee will I weip, for thee will I die."
Till late yestrene, in an elric hour,
She lap frae aft the hichest touir.'
'Now sleip she in peace,' quoth the gallant squire;
'Her dethe was the maist that I cold require.
But I'll main for the, my Isabel deir,
Full mony a dreiry day, hot weir.'

20. _This stanza occurs also in #B c# (17), and was
perhaps borrowed from Pinkerton by the reviser of that
copy._

#O. a#.

_Buchan's note, II, 320_: "I have seen four or five
different versions of this ballad, but none in this dress,
nor with the same chorus.... The old woman from whose
recitation I took it down says she had heard another way
of it, quite local, whose burden runs thus:

'Ever into Buchanshire, vari vari O.'"

1^2. hae courted.

#b.#

_Mr Christie has "~epitomized~" Buchan's copy (omitting
stanzas 9-12), with these few slight alterations from the
singing of a Banffshire woman, who died in 1860, at the
age of nearly eighty_:

_Burden_: It's hey, etc.

2^2. And he courted the eldest wi mony other thing.

3^1. But it fell.

5^2. And the eldest.

#P. b.#

_This stanza only_:

There livd twa sisters in a bower,
Hey my bonnie Annie O
There cam a lover them to woo.
And the swan swims bonnie O,
And the swan swims bonnie O

#Q.#

_The burden is given thus in ~Pop. Tales of the West
Highlands~, IV, 125_:

Oh ochone, ochone a rie,
On the banks of the Banna, ochone a rie.

#R. a.#

_The title '~The Three Sisters,~' and perhaps the first
stanza, belongs rather to ~No 1 #A#, #B#, p. 3f.~_

#b.#

1.
A farmer there lived in the north countree,
Bo down
And he had daughters one, two, three.
And I'll be true unto my love, if he'll be true unto me

(_The burden is given as ~Bo down, bo down~, etc., in
~Popular Tales of the West Highlands~, IV, 125._)

_Between 1 and 2 #b# has_:

The eldest she had a lover come,
And he fell in love with the younger one.

He bought the younger a ...
The elder she thought ...

3. _wanting._

4^1. The sisters they walkt by the river brim.

6^2. my true love.

8.
The miller's daughter was at the door,
As sweet as any gillyflower.

9.
O father, O father, there swims a swain,
And he looks like a gentleman.

10.
The miller he fetcht his line and hook,
And he fisht the fair maiden out of the brook.

11^1. O miller, I'll give you guineas ten,

12.
The miller he took her guineas ten,
And then he popt her in again.

13^1. ... behind his back gate,

13^2. the farmer's daughter Kate.

_Instead of 14_:

The sister she sailed over the sea,
And died an old maid of a hundred and three.

The lover became a beggar man,
And he drank out of a rusty tin can.

#b# _8, 11, 12, 14, 15 are cited in ~Popular Tales of the
West Highlands~, IV, 127._

#c.#

1.
A varmer he lived in the west countree,
Hey-down, bow-down
A varmer he lived in the west countree,
And he had daughters one, two, and dree.
And I'll be true to my love,
If my love'll be true to me.

2, 3. _wanting._

4^1. As thay wur walking by the river's brim.

5^1. pray gee me thy hand.

7^1. So down she sank and away she swam.

8.
The miller's daughter stood by the door,
As fair as any gilly-flower.

9.
here swims a swan,
Very much like a drownded gentlewoman.

10.
The miller he fot his pole and hook,
And he fished the fair maid out of the brook.

11^1. O miller, I'll gee thee guineas ten.

12^2. pushed the fair maid in again.

_Between 12 and 13 #c# has_,

But the crowner he cum and the justice too,
With a hue and a cry and a hullaballoo.

They hanged the miller beside his own gate
For drowning the varmer's daughter, Kate.

_Instead of 14_:

The sister she fled beyond the seas,
And died an old maid among black savagees.

So I've ended my tale of the west countree,
And they calls it the Barkshire Tragedee.

#S.#

1^2. _MS._ Or less (?).

#T.#

"Sung to a peculiar and beautiful air." _Allingham, p.
xxxiii._

[126] Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands, IV, 126, 1862.

[127] Jamieson, in his Popular Ballads, II, 315, prints the ballad, with five inconsiderable variations from the broadside, as from Musarum Deliciæ, 2d edition, 1656. The careful reprint of this book, and of the same edition, in "Facetiæ," etc., 1817, does not contain this piece, and the first edition, of 1655, differed in no respect as to contents, according to the editor of "Facetiæ." Still it is hardly credible that Jamieson has blundered, and we may suppose that copies, ostensibly of the same edition, varied as to contents, a thing common enough with old books.

[128] Cunningham has re-written Scott's version, Songs of Scotland, II, 109, 'The Two Fair Sisters.' He says, "I was once deeply touched with the singing of this romantic and mournful song.... I have ventured to print it in the manner I heard it sung." There is, to be sure, no reason why he should not have heard his own song sung, _once_, and still less why he should not have been deeply touched with his own pathos. Cunningham adds one genuine stanza, resembling the first of #G#, #J#, #P#:

Two fair sisters lived in a bower,
Hey ho my nonnie O
There came a knight to be their wooer.
While the swan swims bonnie O

[129] English #M# is confused on this point. The sisters live in a hall. The burden in st. 1 makes them love a miller-lad; but in 14, 15, calls the drowned girl "the bonnie miller's-lass o Binorie."

[130] The sisters, #D#, #I#, walk by, up, a linn; #G#, go to a sand [strand]; #Q#, go to the stream; #R a#, walk on the bryn.

[131] Swedish #H# begins, "Dear sister, come follow me to the clapping-stone:" "Nay, I have no foul clothes." So #F# 6, 7, #G# 4, 5, Färöe #A# 6, nearly; and then follows the suggestion that they should wash themselves. Another of Rancken's copies begins, "Two sisters went to the bucking-stone, to buck their clothes snow-white," #H#; and so Rancken's #S# nearly.

[132] There are, besides the two fishermen, in Norwegian #A#, two "twaddere," i.e., landloupers, possibly (Bugge) a corruption of the word rendered pilgrims, Färöe vallarar, Swedish vallare. The vallarar in these ballads are perhaps more respectable than those whose acquaintance we shall make through the Norse versions of 'Babylon,' and may be allowed to be harmless vagrants, but scarcely better, seeing that they are ranked with "staff-carls" in Norges Gamle Love, cited by Cleasby and Vigfusson at 'vallari.'

[133] A harp in the Icelandic and Norwegian ballads, Färöe #A#, #B#, #C#, Swedish #A#, #B#, #D#, #G#, #H#; a harp in English #B#, #C#, #G#, #J#. A harp is not named in any of the Danish versions, but a fiddle is mentioned in #C#, #E#, #H#, is plainly meant in #A#, and may always be intended; or perhaps _two_ fiddles in all but #H# (which has only one fiddler), and the corrupted #G#. #D# begins with two fiddlers, but concludes with only one. We have a fiddle in Swedish #C#, and in English #A#, #D#, #E#, #F#, #I#, #J#, #K#, #L#, #O#, #P#; both harp and fiddle in #H#.

[134] Some of the unprinted Norwegian ballads are not completely described, but a departure from the rule of the major part would probably have been alluded to.

[135] The stanza, 9, in which this is said is no doubt as to its form entirely modern, but not so the idea. #I# has "the first spring that he playd, _it_ said," etc.

[136] The fourth string is _said_ to speak in Färöe #A# 30, but no utterance is recorded, and this is likely to be a mistake. In many of the versions, and in this, after the strings have spoken individually, they unite in a powerful but inarticulate concord.

[137] #I# has lost the terminal stanzas.

[138] Not #M#, and apparently not #D#, which ends:

When he kissed the harp upon the mouth, his heart broke.

[139] So the traitor John pushes away Catherine's hands in 'Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight,' Polish #Q# 25 (see p. 40). In the French versions #A#, #C#, #E# of the same, the knight catches at a branch to save himself, and the lady cuts it off with his sword.

[140] The miller begins to lose character in #H#:

14
He dragged her out unto the shore,
And stripped her of all she wore.

[141] Neus also refers to an Esthonian saga of Rögutaja's wife, and to 'Die Pfeiferin,' a tale, in Das Inland, 1846, No 48, Beilage, col. 1246 ff, 1851, No 14, col. 230 ff; and to a Slovenian ballad in Tielemann, Livona, ein historisch-poetisches Taschenbuch, 1812, p. 187.

[142] All these are cited in Köhler's note, Gonzenbach, II, 235.

11

THE CRUEL BROTHER

#A.# '[The] Cruel Brother, or the Bride's Testament.' #a.#
Alex. Fraser Tytler's Brown MS. #b.# Jamieson's Popular
Ballads, I, 66.

#B.# The Kinloch MSS, I, 21.

#C.# 'Ther waur three ladies,' Harris MS., p. 11 b.

#D. a.# Notes and Queries, 1st S., VI, 53. #b.# 2d S., V,
171.

#E.# Notes and Queries, 4th S., V, 105.

#F.# 'The Three Knights,' Gilbert's Ancient Christmas
Carols, 2d ed., p. 68.

#G.# 'Fine Flowers of the Valley.' #a.# Herd's MSS, I, 41.
#b.# Herd's Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 88.

#H.# Fragment appended to #G#.

#I.# The Kinloch MSS, I, 27.

#J.# As current in County Meath, Ireland, about 1860.

#K.# Notes and Queries, 4th S., IV, 517.

#A a# was obtained directly from Mrs Brown of Falkland, in 1800, by Alexander Fraser Tytler. Jamieson says that he gives #b# verbatim from the recitation of Mrs Arrott; but it would seem that this must have been a slip of memory, for the two agree except in half a dozen words. #B#, #C#, #I#, #J# are now for the first time printed. #G# only was taken down earlier than the present century.

Aytoun remarks (1858): "This is, perhaps, the most popular of all the Scottish ballads, being commonly recited and sung even at the present day." The copy which he gives, I, 232, was "taken down from recitation," but is nevertheless a compound of #G# and #A b#, with a few unimportant variations, proceeding, no doubt, from imperfect recollection.[143] The copy in Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs, p. 56, repeated in Bell's volume of the same title, p. 50, is Gilbert's #F#. Dixon informs us that the ballad was (in 1846) still popular amongst the peasantry in the west of England. Cunningham gives us a piece called 'The Three Ladies of Leithan Ha,' Songs of Scotland, II, 87, which he would fain have us believe that he did not know he had written himself. "The common copies of this tragic lyric," he truly says, "differ very much from this; not so much in the story itself as in the way it is told."

All versions but #K#, which has pretty nearly lost all point, agree after the opening stanzas. #A-E# have three ladies and only one knight; #F# has three knights and one lady; #G#, #I#, #J#, #K# have three ladies and three knights [lords in #G#, "bonny boys" in #I#, the first line being caught from 'Sir Hugh.'] Three knights are to no purpose; only one knight has anything to do. The reason for three ladies is, of course, that the youngest may be preferred to the others,--an intention somewhat obscured in #B#. The ladies are in colors in #B#, #C#, #I#, #J#, and this seems to be the better interpretation in the case of #G#, though a strict construction of the language would rather point to the other. The colors are transferred to the knights in #F# because there is only one lady. In #K# this is a part of the general depravation of the ballad.

'Rizzardo bello,' Wolf, Volkslieder aus Venetien, No 83, seems to be the same story, with a change of relations such as we often find in ballad poetry. Rizzardo is conducting his bride home, and on the way embraces and kisses her. Her brother witnesses "questo onore," and thrusts his sword into the happy bridegroom's heart. Rizzardo tells his bride to come on slowly; he will go before to make preparation. He begs his mother to open the doors, for his bride is without, and he is wounded to death. They try to make the bride eat. She says she can neither eat nor drink: she must put her husband to bed. He gives her a ring, saying, Your brother has been the death of me; then another ring, in sign that she is to be wife of two brothers. She answers him as Guldborg answers Ribold, that she would die rather: "Rather die between two knives than be wife of two brothers." This ballad was obtained from a peasant woman of Castagnero. Another version, which unfortunately is not printed, was sung by a woman at Ostiglia on the Po.

Dr Prior remarks that the offence given by not asking a brother's assent to his sister's marriage was in ballad-times regarded as unpardonable. Other cases which show the importance of this preliminary, and the sometimes fatal consequences of omitting it, are: 'Hr. Peder og Mettelille,' Grundtvig, No 78, II, 325, sts 4, 6; 'Jomfruen i Skoven,' Danske Viser, III, 99, st. 15; 'Jomfru Ellensborg og Hr. Olof,' ib., III, 316, st. 16; 'Iver Lang og hans Søster,' ib., IV, 87, st. 116; 'Herr Helmer Blaa,' ib., IV, 251, st. 8; 'Jomfru Giselmaar,' ib., IV, 309, st. 13. See Prior's Ancient Danish Ballads, III, 112, 232 f, 416.

There is a very common German ballad, 'Graf Friedrich,' in which a bride receives a mortal wound during the bringing-home, but accidentally, and from the bridegroom's hand. The marriage train is going up a hill; the way is narrow; they are crowded; Graf Friedrich's sword shoots from its sheath and wounds the bride. The bridegroom is exceedingly distressed; he tries to stop the bleeding with his shirt; she begs that they may ride slowly. When they reach the house there is a splendid feast, and everything is set before the bride; but she can neither eat nor drink, and only wishes to lie down. She dies in the night. Her father comes in the morning, and, learning what has happened, runs Graf Friedrich through, then drags his body at a horse's heels, and buries it in a bog. Three lilies sprang from the spot, with an inscription announcing that Graf Friedrich was in heaven, and a voice came from the sky commanding that the body should be disinterred. The bridegroom was then buried with his bride, and this act of reparation was attended with other miraculous manifestations. As the ballads stand now, the kinship of 'Graf Friedrich' with 'The Cruel Brother' is not close and cannot be insisted on; still an early connection is not improbable.

The versions of 'Graf Friedrich' are somewhat numerous, and there is a general agreement as to all essentials. They are: #A#, a Nuremberg broadside "of about 1535," which has not been made accessible by a reprint. #B#, a Swiss broadside of 1647, without place, "printed in Seckendorf's Musenalmanach für 1808, p. 19;" Uhland, No 122, p. 277; Mittler, No 108; Wunderhorn, II, 293 (1857); Erk's Liederhort, No 15^a, p. 42; Böhme, No 79, p. 166: also, in Wunderhorn, 1808, II, 289, with omission of five stanzas and with many changes; Simrock, No 11, p. 28, omitting four stanzas and with changes; as written down by Goethe for Herder, Düntzer u. Herder, Briefe Goethes, u.s.w., Aus Herder's Nachlass, I, 167, with the omission of eight stanzas and with some variations. #C#, Wunderhorn (1857), II, 299, from the Schwarzwald,==Erlach, IV, 291, Mittler, No 113. #D#, Taschenbuch für Dichter, u.s.w., Theil VIII, 122, from Upper Lusatia,==Erlach, III, 448, Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 421. #E#, from the Kuhländchen, Meinert, p. 23,==Mittler, No 109. #F#, Hoffmann u. Richter, Schlesische V. L., No 19, p. 35,==Mittler, No 112, Erk's Liederhort, No 15, p. 40. #G#, Zingerle, in Wolf's Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, I, 341, from Meran. #H#, from Uckermark, Brandenburg, Mittler, No 114. #I#, Hesse, from oral tradition, Mittler, No 111. #J#, Erk u. Irmer, II, 54, No 54, from the neighborhood of Halle,==Mittler, No 110. #K#, from Estedt, district of Magdeburg, Parisius, p. 31, No 9.

A Danish ballad, 'Den saarede Jomfru,' Grundtvig, No 244, IV, 474, has this slight resemblance with 'Graf Friedrich:' While a knight is dancing with a princess, his sword glides from the scabbard and cuts her hand. To save her partner from blame, she represents to her father that she had cut herself with her brother's sword. This considerateness so touches the knight (who is, of course, her equal in rank) that he offers her his hand. The Danish story is found also in Norwegian and in Färöe ballads.