Chapter XIX: Part 19

8
Saies, 'Peace, ffaire mayd, you are fforsworne!
Nine children you haue borne.

9
'Three were buryed vnder thy bed's head,
Other three vnder thy brewing leade.

10
'Other three on yon play greene;
Count, maid, and there be 9.'

11
'But I hope you are the good old man
That all the world beleeues vpon.

12
'Old palmer, I pray thee,
Pennaunce _tha_t thou wilt giue to me.'

13
'Penance I can giue thee none,
But 7 yeere to be a stepping-stone.

14
'Other seaven a clapper in a bell,
Other 7 to lead an ape in hell.

15
'When thou hast thy penance done,
Then thoust come a mayden home.'

B

A Ballad Book, by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, edited by
David Laing, p. 157 f, VII; from Sir W. Scott's
recollection.

1
'Seven years ye shall be a stone,
. . . . . . .
For many a poor palmer to rest him upon.
And you the fair maiden of Gowden-gane

2
'Seven years ye'll be porter of hell,
And then I'll take you to mysell.'

* * * * * * *

3
'Weel may I be a' the other three,
But porter of hell I never will be.'
And I, etc.

* * * * *

#A.#

2^1. White shee washee & white.

2^2. White.

9^1. They were.

10^1. on won.

10^2. maids

#B.#

_Note by Scott_: "There is or was a curious song with this
burthen to the verse,

'And I the fair maiden of Gowden-gane.'

Said maiden is, I think, courted by the devil in human
shape, but I only recollect imperfectly the concluding
stanzas [1, 2]:

'Seven years ye shall be a stone,'

(here a chorus line which I have forgot), etc. The lady
answers, in allusion to a former word which I have
forgotten,

"Weel may I be [etc., st. 3]."

[182] The Magdalen's food is to be dry apple in Danish #B# 9.

[183] Swedish #F#:

14
'And tell me how has it been with thy meat?'
'O I have eaten of almonds sweet.'

15
'And tell me how it has been with thy drink?'
'I have drunk both mead and wine, I think.'

16
'And tell me how was that bed of thine?'
'Oh I have rested on ermeline.'

Norwegian #G#:

13
'I have fed as well on herbage wild
As others have fed on roast and broiled.

14
'I have rested as well on the hard, hard stone
As others have rested on beds of down.

15
'I have drunk as well from the rippling rill
As others that drank both wine and ale.'

22

ST STEPHEN AND HEROD

Sloane MS., 2593, fol. 22 b; British Museum.

The manuscript which preserves this delightful little legend has been judged by the handwriting to be of the age of Henry VI. It was printed entire by Mr T. Wright, in 1856, for the Warton Club, under the title, Songs and Carols, from a manuscript in the British Museum of the fifteenth century, the ballad at p. 63. Ritson gave the piece as 'A Carol for St Stephen's Day,' in Ancient Songs, 1790, p. 83, and it has often been repeated; e. g., in Sandys' Christmas Carols, p. 4, Sylvester's, p. 1.

The story, with the Wise Men replacing Stephen, is also found in the carol, still current, of 'The Carnal and the Crane,' Sandys, p. 152, in conjunction with other legends and in this order: the Nativity, the Wise Men's passage with Herod, the Massacre of the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt, Herod and the Sower.

The legend of Stephen and Herod occurs, and is even still living, in Scandinavian tradition, combined, as in English, with others relating to the infancy of Jesus.

#Danish.# 'Jesusbarnet, Stefan og Herodes:' #A#, Grundtvig, No 96, II, 525. First printed in Erik Pontoppidan's little book on the reliques of Paganism and Papistry among the Danish People, 1736, p. 70, as taken down from the singing of an old beggar-woman before the author's door.[184] Syv alludes to the ballad in 1695, and cites one stanza. The first five of eleven stanzas are devoted to the beauty of the Virgin, the Annunciation, and the birth of the Saviour. The song then goes on thus:

6
Saint Stephen leads the foals to water,
All by the star so gleaming:
'Of a truth the prophet now is born
That all the world shall ransom.'

7
King Herod answered thus to him:
'I'll not believe this story,
Till the roasted cock that is on the board
Claps his wings and crows before me.'

8
The cock he clapped his wings and crew,
'Our Lord, this is his birthday!'
Herod fell off from his kingly seat,
For grief he fell a swooning.

9
King Herod bade saddle his courser gray,
He listed to ride to Bethlem;
Fain would he slay the little child
That to cope with him pretended.

10
Mary took the child in her arms,
And Joseph the ass took also,
So they traversed the Jewish land,
To Egypt, as God them guided.

11
The little children whose blood was shed,
They were full fourteen thousand,
But Jesus was thirty miles away
Before the sun was setting.

#B.# A broadside of fourteen four-line stanzas, in two copies, #a# of the middle, #b# from the latter part, of the last century. #b# was printed "in the Dansk Kirketidende for 1862, No 43," by Professor George Stephens: #a# is given by Grundtvig, III, 881. The first three stanzas correspond to #A# 1-5, the next three to #A# 6-8: the visit of the Wise Men to Herod is then intercalated, 7-10, and the story concludes as in #A# 9-11.

#C.# 'Sankt Steffan,' Kristensen, II, 123, No 36, from recitation about 1870, eight four-line stanzas, 1-3 agreeing with #A# 3-6, 4-6 with #A# 6-9, 7, 8 with #A# 9, 11. The verbal resemblance with the copy sung by the old beggar-woman more than a hundred and thirty years before is often close.

A #Färöe# version, 'Rudisar vísa,' was communicated to the Dansk Kirketidende for 1852, p. 293, by Hammershaimb, twenty-six two-line stanzas (Grundtvig, II, 519). Stephen is in Herod's service. He goes out and sees the star in the east, whereby he knows that the Saviour of the world, "the great king," is born. He comes in and makes this announcement. Herod orders his eyes to be put out: so, he says, it will appear whether this "king" will help him. They put out Stephen's eyes, but now he sees as well by night as before by day. At this moment a cock, roast and carved, is put on the board before Herod, who cries out:

'If this cock would stand up and crow,
Then in Stephen's tale should I trow.'

Herod he stood, and Herod did wait,
The cock came together that lay in the plate.

The cock flew up on the red gold chair,
He clapped his wings, and he crew so fair.

Herod orders his horse and rides to Bethlehem, to find the new-born king. As he comes in, Mary greets him, and tells him there is still mead and wine. He answers that she need not be so mild with him: he will have her son and nail him on the cross. "Then you must go to heaven for him," says Mary. Herod makes an attempt on Jesus, but is seized by twelve angels and thrown into the Jordan, where the Evil One takes charge of him.

#Swedish.# A single stanza, corresponding to Danish #A# 6, #B# 4, #C# 4, is preserved in a carol, 'Staffans Visa,' which was wont to be sung all over Sweden on St Stephen's day, in the Christmas sport, not yet given up, called Staffansskede; which consisted in young fellows riding about from house to house early in the morning of the second day of Yule, and levying refreshments.[185] One of the party carried at the end of a pole a lighted lantern, made of hoops and oiled paper, which was sometimes in the shape of a six-cornered star. Much of the chant was improvised, and both the good wishes and the suggestions as to the expected treat would naturally be suited to particular cases; but the first stanza, with but slight variations, was (Afzelius, III, 208, 210):

Stephen was a stable-groom,
We thank you now so kindly!
He watered the five foals all and some,
Ere the morning star was shining.
No daylight's to be seen,
The stars in the sky
Are gleaming.

or,

Stephen was a stable-groom,
Bear thee well my foal!
He watered the five foals all and some,
God help us and Saint Stephen!
The sun is not a-shining,
But the stars in the sky
Are gleaming.

There is also a Swedish ballad which has the substance of the story of Danish #A# 6-8, but without any allusion to Stephen. It occurs as a broadside, in two copies, dated 1848, 1851, and was communicated by Professor Stephens to the Dansk Kirketidende, 1861, Nos 3, 4, and is reprinted by Grundtvig, III, 882 f, and in Bergström's Afzelius, II, 360 f. There are eleven four-line stanzas, of which the last six relate how Mary was saved from Herod by the miracle of the Sower (see 'The Carnal and the Crane,' stanzas 18-28). The first five cover the matter of our ballad. The first runs:

In Bethlem of Judah a star there rose,
At the time of the birth of Christ Jesus:
'Now a child is born into the world
That shall suffer for us death and torment.'

Herod then calls his court and council, and says to them, as he says to Stephen in the Danish ballad, "I cannot believe your story unless the cock on this table claps his wings and crows." This comes to pass, and Herod exclaims that he can never thrive till he has made that child feel the effects of his wrath. He then steeps his hands in the blood of the Innocents, and falls off his throne in a marvellous swoon. Mary is warned to fly to Egypt. It is altogether likely that the person who speaks in the first stanza was originally the same as the one who says nearly the same thing in the three Danish ballads, that is, Stephen, and altogether unlikely that Herod's words, which are addressed to Stephen in the Danish ballads, were addressed to his court and council rather than to Stephen here.

#Norwegian.# Two stanzas, much corrupted, of what may have been a ballad like the foregoing, have been recovered by Professor Bugge, and are given by Grundtvig, III, 883.

St Stephen's appearance as a stable-groom, expressly in the Swedish carol and by implication in the Danish ballads, is to be explained by his being the patron of horses among the northern nations.[186] On his day, December 26, which is even called in Germany the great Horse Day, it was the custom for horses to be let blood to keep them well during the year following, or raced to protect them from witches. In Sweden they were watered "ad alienos fontes" (which, perhaps, is what Stephen is engaged in in the carol), and treated to the ale which had been left in the cups on St Stephen's eve; etc., etc.[187] This way of observing St Stephen's day is presumed to be confined to the north of Europe, or at least to be derived from that quarter. Other saints are patrons of horses in the south, as St Eloi, St Antony, and we must seek the explanation of St Stephen's having that office in Scandinavia, Germany, and England in the earlier history of these regions. It was suggested as long ago as the middle of the sixteenth century by the Archbishop Olaus Magnus, that the horseracing, which was universal in Sweden on December 26, was a remnant of heathen customs. The horse was sacred to Frey, and Yule was Frey's festival. There can hardly be a doubt that the customs connected with St Stephen's day are a continuation, under Christian auspices, of old rites and habits which, as in so many other cases, the church found it easier to consecrate than to abolish.[188]

The miracle of the cock is met with in other ballads, which, for the most part, relate the wide-spread legend of the Pilgrims of St James.

#French.# In three versions, Chants de Pauvres en Forez et en Velay, collected by M. Victor Smith, Romania, II, 473 ff. Three pilgrims, father, mother, and son, on their way to St James, stop at an inn, at St Dominic. A maid-servant, enamored of the youth (qui ressemble une image, que semblavo-z-un ange) is repelled by him, and in revenge puts a silver cup [cups] belonging to the house into his knapsack. The party is pursued and brought back, and the young pilgrim is hanged. He exhorts his father to accomplish his vow, and to come that way when he returns. When the father returns, after three [six] months, the boy is found to be alive; his feet have been supported, and he has been nourished, by God and the saints. The father tells the judge that his son is alive; the judge replies, I will believe that when this roast fowl crows. The bird crows: #A#, le poulet se mit a chanter sur la table; #B#, le poulet vole au ciel, trois fois n'a battu l'aile; #C#, trois fois il a chanté, trois fois l'a battu l'aile. The boy is taken down and the maid hanged.

#Spanish.# #A#, Milá, Observaciones sobre la Poesia Popular, p. 106, No 7, 'El Romero;' #B#, Briz, Cansons de la Terra, I, 71, 'S. Jaume de Galicia,' two copies essentially agreeing. The course of the story is nearly as in the French. The son does not ask his father to come back. It is a touch of nature that the mother cannot be prevented from going back by all that her husband can say. The boy is more than well. St James has been sustaining his feet, the Virgin his head. He directs his mother to go to the alcalde (Milá), who will be dining on a cock and a hen, and to request him politely to release her son, who is still alive. The alcalde replies: "Off with you! Your son is as much alive as this cock and hen." The cock began to crow, the hen laid an egg in the dish!

#Dutch.# 'Een liedeken van sint Jacob,' Antwerpener Liederbuch, 1544, No 20, Hoffmann, p. 26; Uhland, p. 803, No 303; Willems, p. 318, No 133. The pilgrims here are only father and son. The host's daughter avows her love to her father, and desires to detain the young pilgrim. The older pilgrim, hearing of this, says, My son with me and I with him. We will seek St James, as pilgrims good and true. The girl puts the cup in the father's sack. The son offers himself in his father's place, and is hanged. The father finds that St James and the Virgin have not been unmindful of the pious, and tells the host that his son is alive. The host, in a rage, exclaims, "That's as true as that these roast fowls shall fly out at the door!"

But ere the host could utter the words,
One by one from the spit brake the birds,
And into the street went flitting;
They flew on the roof of St Dominic's house,
Where all the brothers were sitting.

The brothers resolve unanimously to go to the judicial authority in procession; the innocent youth is taken down, the host hanged, and his daughter buried alive.

#Wendish.# Haupt und Schmaler, I, 285, No 289, 'Der gehenkte Schenkwirth.' There are two pilgrims, father and son. The host himself puts his gold key into the boy's basket. The boy is hanged: the father bids him hang a year and a day, till he returns. The Virgin has put a stool under the boy's feet, and the angels have fed him. The father announces to the host that his son is living. The host will not believe this till three dry staves which he has in the house shall put out green shoots. This comes to pass. The host will not believe till three fowls that are roasting shall recover their feathers and fly out of the window. This also comes to pass. The host is hanged.

A #Breton# ballad, 'Marguerite Laurent,' Luzel, I, #A#, p. 211, #B#, p. 215, inverts a principal circumstance in the story of the pilgrims: a maid is hanged on a false accusation of having stolen a piece of plate. This may be an independent tradition or a corrupt form of the other. Marguerite has, by the grace of St Anne and of the Virgin, suffered no harm. A young clerk, her lover, having ascertained this, reports the case to the seneschal, who will not believe till the roasted capon on the dish crows. The capon crows. Marguerite goes on her bare knees to St Anne and to Notre-Dame du Folgoat, and dies in the church of the latter (first version).

'Notre-Dame du Folgoat,' Villemarqué, Barzaz Breiz, p. 272, No 38, 6th ed., is of a different tenor. Marie Fanchonik, wrongly condemned to be executed for child murder, though hanged, does not die. The executioner reports to the seneschal. "Burn her," says the seneschal. "Though in fire up to her breast," says the executioner, "she is laughing heartily." "Sooner shall this capon crow than I will believe you." The capon crows: a roast capon on the dish, all eaten but the feet.

Religious writers of the 13th century have their version of the story of the pilgrims, but without the prodigy of the cock. Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, 1. 26, c. 33, who bases his narrative on a collection of the miracles of St James incorrectly attributed to Pope Callixtus II,[189] has but two pilgrims, Germans, father and son. On their way to Compostella they pass a night in an inn at Toulouse. The host, having an eye to the forfeiture of their effects, makes them drunk and hides a silver cup in their wallet. Son wishes to die for father, and father for son. The son is hanged, and St James interposes to preserve his life.[190] With Vincent agree the author of the Golden Legend, following Callixtus, Graesse, 2d ed., p. 426, c. 99 (94), § 5,[191] and Cæsarius Heisterbacensis, Dialogus Miraculorum, c. 58, II, 130, ed. Strange, who, however, does not profess to remember every particular, and omits to specify Toulouse as the place. Nicolas Bertrand, who published in 1515 a history of Toulouse, places the miracle there.[192] He has three pilgrims, like the French and Spanish ballads, and the roast fowl flying from the spit to convince a doubting official, like the Dutch and Wendish ballads.

But, much earlier than the last date, this miracle of St James had become connected with the town of San Domingo de la Calzada, one of the stations on the way to Compostella,[193] some hours east of Burgos. Roig, the Valencian poet, on arriving there in the course of his pilgrimage, tells the tale briefly, with two roasted fowls, cock and hen: Lo Libre de les Dones e de Conçells, 1460, as printed by Briz from the edition of 1735, p. 42, Book 2, vv. 135-183. Lucio Marineo, whose work, De las cosas memorables de España, appeared in 1530, had been at San Domingo, and is able to make some addition to the miracle of the cock. Up to the revivification, his account agrees very well with the Spanish ballad. A roast cock and hen are lying before the mayor, and when he expresses his incredulity, they jump from the dish on to the table, in feathers whiter than snow. After the pilgrims had set out a second time on their way to Compostella, to return thanks to St James, the mayor returned to his house with the priests and all the people, and took the cock and hen to the church, where they lived seven years, and then died, leaving behind them a pair of the same snowy whiteness, who in turn, after seven years, left their successors, and so on to Marineo's day; and though of the infinite number of pilgrims who resorted to the tomb each took away a feather, the plumage was always full, and Marineo speaks as an eye-witness. (Edition of 1539, fol. xliii.) Dr Andrew Borde gives nearly the same account as Marineo, in the First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge, 1544, p. 202 ff, ed. Furnivall.[194]

Early in the sixteenth century the subject was treated in at least two miracle-plays, for which it is very well adapted: Un miracolo di tre Pellegrini, printed at Florence early in the sixteenth century, D'Ancona, Sacre Rappresentazioni, III, 465; Ludus Sancti Jacobi, fragment de mystère provençale, Camille Arnaud, 1858.[195]

Nicolas Bertrand, before referred to, speaks of the miracle as depicted in churches and chapels of St James. It was, for example, painted by Pietro Antonio of Foligno, in the fifteenth century, in SS. Antonio e Jacopo at Assisi, and by Pisanello in the old church of the Tempio at Florence, and, in the next century, by Palmezzano in S. Biagio di S. Girolamo at Forlì, and by Lo Spagna in a small chapel or tribune dedicated to St James, about four miles from Spoleto, on the way to Foligno. The same legend is painted on one of the lower windows of St Ouen, and again on a window of St Vincent, at Rouen. Many more cases might, no doubt, be easily collected.[196]

It is not at all surprising that a miracle performed at San Domingo de la Calzada should, in the course of time, be at that place attributed to the patron of the locality; and we actually find Luis de la Vega, in a life of this San Domingo published at Burgos in 1606, repeating Marineo's story, very nearly, with a substitution of Dominic for James.[197] More than this, this author claims for this saint, who, saving reverence, is decidedly _minorum gentium_, the merit and glory of delivering a captive from the Moors, wherein he, or tradition, makes free again with St James's rightful honors. The Moor, when told that the captive will some day be missing, rejoins, If you keep him as close as when I last saw him, he will as soon escape as this roast cock will fly and crow. It is obvious that this anecdote is a simple jumble of two miracles of St James, the freeing of the captives, recounted in Acta Sanctorum, VI Julii, p. 47, § 190f, and the saving the life of the young pilgrim.[198]

The restoration of a roasted fowl to life is also narrated in Acta Sanctorum, I Septembris, p. 529, § 289, as occurring early in the eleventh century (the date assigned to the story of the pilgrims), at the table of St Stephen, the first king of Hungary. St Gunther was sitting with the king while he was dining. The king pressed Gunther to partake of a roast peacock, but Gunther, as he was bound by his rule to do, declined. The king then ordered him to eat. Gunther bent his head and implored the divine mercy; the bird flew up from the dish; the king no longer persisted. The author of the article, without questioning the reality of the miracle, well remarks that there seems to be something wrong in the story, since it is impossible that the holy king should have commanded the saint to break his vow.

But the prime circumstances in the legend, the resuscitation of the cock, does not belong in the eleventh century, where Vincent and others have put it, but in the first, where it is put by the English and Scandinavian ballads. A French romance somewhat older than Vincent, Ogier le Danois, agrees with the later English ballad in making the occasion to be the visit of the Wise Men to Herod. Herod will not believe what they say,

'Se cis capon que ci m'est en présant
N'en est plumeus com il estoit devant,
Et se redrece à la perche en cantant.'

vv 11621-23.

And what he exacts is performed for his conviction.[199] Nevertheless, as we shall now see, the true epoch of the event is not the Nativity, but the Passion.

The ultimate source of the miracle of the reanimated cock is an interpolation in two late Greek manuscripts of the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus: Thilo, Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti, p. cxxix f; Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 269, note 3. After Judas had tried to induce the Jews to take back the thirty pieces, he went to his house to hang himself, and found his wife sitting there, and a cock roasting on a spit before the coals. He said to his wife, Get me a rope, for I mean to hang myself, as I deserve. His wife said to him, Why do you say such things? And Judas said to her, Know in truth that I have betrayed my master Jesus to evil-doers, who will put him to death. But he will rise on the third day, and woe to us. His wife said, Do not talk so nor believe it; for this cock that is roasting before the coals will as soon crow as Jesus rise again as you say. And even while she was speaking the words, the cock flapped his wings and crew thrice. Then Judas was still more persuaded, and straightway made a noose of the rope and hanged himself.[200]

The Cursor Mundi gives its own turn to this relation, with the intent to blacken Judas a little more.[201] When Judas had betrayed Jesus, he went to his mother with his pence, boasting of the act. "Hast thou sold thy master?" said she. "Shame shall be thy lot, for they will put him to death; but he shall rise again." "Rise, mother?" said Judas, "sooner shall this cock rise up that was scalded yesternight."

Hardly had he said the word,
The cock leapt up and flew,
Feathered fairer than before,
And by God's grace he crew;
The traitor false began to fear,
His peril well he knew.
This cock it was the self-same cock
Which Peter made to rue,
When he had thrice denied his lord
And proved to him untrue.

A still different version existed among the Copts, who had their copies of the apocryphal writings, and among them the gospel of Nicodemus.

The Copts say, according to Thévenot, "that on the day of the Supper a roasted cock was served to our Lord, and that when Judas went out to sell Jesus to the Jews, the Saviour commanded the cock to get up and follow him; which the cock did, and brought back his report to our Lord that Judas had sold him, for which service this cock shall be admitted to paradise."[202]

The herald of the morn is described in other carols as making known the birth of the Saviour to the animal creation, or the more familiar members of it.

"There is a sheet of carols headed thus: 'CHRISTUS NATUS EST, Christ is born,' with a wood-cut ten inches high by eight and one half inches wide, representing the stable at Bethlehem; Christ in the crib, watched by the Virgin and Joseph; shepherds kneeling; angels attending; a man playing on the bagpipes; a woman with a basket of fruit on her head; a sheep bleating and an ox lowing on the ground; a raven croaking and a crow cawing on the hay-rack; a cock crowing above them; and angels singing in the sky. The animals have labels from their mouths, bearing Latin inscriptions. Down the side of the wood-cut is the following account and explanation: 'A religious man, inventing the conceits of both birds and beasts, drawn in the picture of our Saviour's birth, doth thus express them. The cock croweth _Christus natus est_, Christ is born. The raven asked _Quando_, When? The crow replied, _Hac nocte_, This night. The ox cryeth out, _Ubi, ubi?_ Where, where? The sheep bleated out, _Bethlehem_, Bethlehem. A voice from heaven sounded, _Gloria in excelsis_, Glory be on high!'" London, 1701. Hone's Every-Day Book, I, col. 1600 f.

So in Vieux Noëls français, in Les Noëls Bressans, etc., par Philibert Le Duc, p. 145.

Joie des Bestes

à la nouvelle de la naissance du Sauveur.

Comme les Bestes autrefois
Parloient mieux latin que françois,
Le Coq, de loin voyant le faict,
S'écria: _Christus natus est_;
Le Bœuf, d'un air tout ébaubi,
Demande: _Ubi, ubi, ubi_?
La Chèvre, se torchant le groin,
Respond que c'est à _Bethleem_;
Maistre Baudet, _curiosus_
De l'aller voir, dit: _Eamus_;
Et, droit sur ses pattes, le Veau
Beugle deux fois: _Volo, volo_.[203]

And again, in Italian, Bolza, Canzoni popolari comasche, p. 654, No 30:

Il Gallo. È nato Gesù!
Il Bue. In dôva?
La Pecora. Betlèm! Betlèm!
L'Asino. Andèm! Andèm! Andèm!

A little Greek ballad, 'The Taking of Constantinople,' only seven lines long, relates a miracle entirely like that of the cock, which was operated for the conviction of incredulity. A nun, frying fish, hears a voice from above, saying, Cease your frying, the city will fall into the hands of the Turks. "When the fish fly out of the pan alive," she says, "then shall the Turks take the city." The fish fly out of the pan alive, and the Turkish admiraud comes riding into the city. Zambelios, p. 600, No 2; Passow, p. 147, No 197. (Liebrecht, Volkskunde, p. 179.)

With Herod's questions and Stephen's answers in stanzas 5-8, we may compare a passage in some of the Greek ballads cited under No 17, p. 199.

Σκλαβε, πανας· σκλαβε, διψας· μη το ψωμι σου λειπει·
Σκλαβε, πανας· σκλαβε, διψας· σκλαβε, κρασιν σου λειπει·
Lakkyt þe eyþer mete or drynk?
Μητε πεινω, μητε διψω, μητε ψωμι [κρασιν] μου λειπει.
Lakit me neyþer mete ne drynk.

Jeannaraki, p. 203, No 265:
Sakellarios, p. 37, No 13.

Σκλαβε, πεινας· σκλαβε, διψας· σκλαβε, ῥογα σου λειπει·
Σκλαβε, πεινας· σκλαβε, διψας· σκλαβε μου ῥουχα θελεις·
Lakkyt þe eyþer gold or fe,
Or ony ryche wede?
Ουτε πεινω, ουτε διψω, ουτε ῥογα μου λειπει.
Μητε πεινω, μητε διψω, μητε και ῥουχα θελω.
Lakyt me neyþer gold ne fe,
Ne non ryche wede.

Tommaseo, III, 154; Passow, p. 330, No 449:
Tommaseo, III, 152; Zambelios, p. 678, No 103; Passow, No 448.

A Danish translation of the English ballad is printed in Dansk Kirketidende for 1852, p. 254 (Grundtvig). Danish #A# is translated by Dr Prior, I, 398.

* * * * *

Sloane MS., 2593, fol. 22 b, British Museum.

1
Sey_n_t Steuene was a clerk i_n_ ky_n_g Herowd_e_s halle,
_And_ seruyd hi_m_ of bred _and_ cloþ, as euery ky_n_g befalle.

2
Steuy_n_ out of kechon_e_ ca_m_, w_y_t_h_ boris hed o_n_ honde;
He saw a sterr_e_ was fayr _and_ bryȝt ou_er_ Bedle_m_ sto_n_de.

3
He kyst adoun þe boris hed _and_ went in to þe halle:
'I forsak þe, ky_n_g Herowd_e_s, _and_ þi werk_e_s alle.

4
'I forsak þe, ky_n_g Herowd_es_, _and_ þi werk_e_s alle;
Þ_er_ is a chyld in Bedle_m_ born is bet_er_ þa_n_ we alle.'

5
'Q_uat_ eylyt þe, Steuene? q_uat_ is þe befalle?
Lakkyt þe eyþ_er_ mete or drynk in kyng Herowd_es_ h_alle_?'

6
'Lakit me neyþ_er_ mete ne drynk i_n_ ky_n_g Herowd_es_ halle;
Þ_er_ is a chyld in Bedle_m_ born is bet_er_ þa_n_ we alle.'

7
Q_uat_ eylyt þe, Steuyn? art þu wod, or þu gy_n_nyst to brede?
Lakkyt þe eyþ_er_ gold or fe, or ony ryche wede?'

8
'Lakyt me neyþ_er_ gold ne fe, ne no_n_ ryche wede;
Þ_er_ is a chyld in Bedle_m_ born xal helpy_n_ vs at _our_ nede.'

9
'Þ_a_t is al so soþ, Steuy_n_, al so soþ, iwys,
As þis capou_n_ crowe xal þ_a_t lyp her_e_ in my_n_ dysh.'

10
Þ_a_t word was not so sone seyd, þ_a_t word i_n_ þ_a_t halle,
Þe capou_n_ crew C_ristus_ nat_us_ est! among þe lord_es_ alle.

11
Rysyt vp, my_n_ turme_n_towr_es_, be to _and_ al be on,
_And_ led_y_t Steuy_n_ out of þis town, _and_ sto_n_yt hy_m_ w_y_t_h_
ston!'

12
Toky_n_ he Steuene, _and_ stonyd hy_m_ in the way,
_And_ þ_e_rfor_e_ is his euy_n_ on Cryst_es_ owy_n_ day.

* * * * *

1^2, 5^1. be falle.

3^1. a dou_n_.

3^2, 4^1. for sak.

5^2. _There is room only for the ~h~ at the end of the
line._

9^1. also ... also ... I wys.

9^2. dych.

10^2. a mong.

[184] Everriculum fermenti veteris, seu residuæ in Danico orbe cum paganismi tum papismi reliquiæ in apricum prolatæ. "Rogata anus num vera esse crederet quæ canebat, respondit: Me illa in dubium vocaturam averruncet Deus!" Grundtvig, II, 518.

[185] "Staffans-skede, lusus, vel, ut rectius dicam, licentia puerorum agrestium, qui in Festo S. Stephani, equis vecti per villas discurrunt, et cerevisiam in lagenis, ad hoc ipsum præparatis, mendicando ostiatim colligunt:" a dissertation, Upsala, 1734, cited by Bergström in his edition of Afzelius, II, 358, note 28. Skede is gallop, or run, Icelandic skeið (Bergström), Norwegian skeid, skjei. Many copies of the Staffansvisa have been collected: see Bergström's Afzelius, II, 356: and for a description of the custom as practised among Swedes in Finland, with links and lanterns, but no foals, Fagerlund, Anteckningar om Korpo och Houtskärs Socknar, p. 39 ff. Something very similar was known in Holstein: see Schütze, Holsteinsches Idioticon, III, 200, as quoted by Grundtvig, II, 521, note **. From Chambers' Book of Days, II, 763 f, it appears that a custom, called a Stephening, was still existing at the beginning of this century, of the inhabitants of the parish of Drayton Beauchamp, Bucks, paying a visit to the rector on December 26, and lightening his stores of all the bread, cheese and ale they wanted. Chambers, again, in his Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 168 f, gives a song closely resembling the Staffansvisa, which was sung before every house on New Year's eve, in Deerness, Orkney, with the same object of stimulating hospitality. Similar practices are known in the Scottish Highlands: see Campbell, Tales of the West Highlands, III, 19, and Chambers, at p. 167 of the Popular Rhymes.

[186] Stephen in all the ballads can be none other than the first martyr, though Ihre, and other Swedes since his day, choose, for their part, to understand a "Stephanum primum Helsingorum apostolum," who certainly did not see the star in the east. The peasantry in Helsingland, we are told, make their saints' day December 26, too, and their St Stephen is a great patron of horses. The misappropriation of the glories of the protomartyr is somewhat transparent.

[187] Grundtvig, whom I chiefly follow here, II, 521-24. In a note on page 521, supplemented at III, 883 e, Grundtvig has collected much interesting evidence of December 26 being the great Horse Day. J. W. Wolf, cited by Grundtvig, II, 524, had said previously: "Nichts im leben des ersten christlichen blutzeugen erinnert auch nur fern an pferde; trotzdem machte das volk ihn zum patron der pferde, und setzte ihn also an die stelle des Fro, dem im Norden, und nicht weniger bei uns, die pferde heilig waren." Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie, I, 124.

[188] Jean Baptiste Thiers, Traité des Superstitions, etc., 2d ed., Paris, 1697, as cited by Liebrecht, Gervasius von Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, p. 233, No 169, condemns the belief, "qu'il vaut bien mieux ...saigner des chevaux le jour de la fête de S. Estienne qu'à tout autre jour." This may be one of the practices which Thiers had learned of from his reading (see Liebrecht's preface, p. xvii f), but might also have migrated from the east or north into France. Superstitions, like new fashions, are always sure of a hospitable reception, even though they impose a servitude.

[189] From a copy of this collection the story is given in Acta Sanctorum, VI Julii, p. 50, § 202 ff.

[190] Vincent, as pointed out by Professor George Stephens, knew of the miracle of the cock, and tells it at l. 25, c. 64, on the authority of Pietro Damiani. Two Bolognese dining together, one of them carved a cock and dressed it with pepper and sauce. "Gossip," says the other, "you have 'fixed' that cock so that Peter himself could not put him on his legs again." "Peter? No, not Christ himself." At this the cock jumped up, in all his feathers, clapped his wings, crow, and threw the sauce all over the blasphemous pair, whereby they were smitten with leprosy.

[191] So, naturally, the Fornsvenskt Legendarium, I, 170, and the Catalan Recull de Eximplis e Miracles, etc., Barcelona, 1880, I, 298.

[192] Opus de Tholosanorum gestis, fol. 49 verso, according to Acta S., p. 46, of the volume last cited. Toulouse rivalled with Compostella in the possession of relics of St James, and was amply entitled to the honor of the miracle. Dr Andrew Borde, in his First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge, says that an ancient doctor of divinity at Compostella told him, "We have not one hair nor bone of St. James; for St James the More and St James the Less, St Bartholomew and St Philip, St Simon and Jude, St Bernard and St George, with divers other saints, Carolus Magnus brought them to Toulouse." Ed. Furnivall, p. 204 f. I do not know where the splenetic old divine got his information, but certainly from no source so trustworthy as the chronicle of Turpin. Besides other places in France, the body, or at least the head, of St James was claimed by churches in Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries. But the author of an old Itinerary of the Pilgrims to Compostella asserts that James the Greater is one of four saints who never changed his burial-place. See Victor Le Clerc in Hist. Litt. de la France, xxi, 283.

[193] See 'La grande Chanson des Pélerins de Saint-Jacques,' in Socard, Noëls et Cantiques, etc., p. 76, last stanza, p. 80, third stanza, p. 89, fifth stanza; the last==Romancero de Champagne, I, 165, stanza 5.

[194] Southey follows Marineo in his Christmas Tale of "The Pilgrim to Compostella."

[195] "Auch eine deutsche Jesuitenkomödie, Peregrinus Compostellanus, Innsbruck, 1624, behandelt diesen Stoff. F. Liebrecht, in Serapeum, 1864, S. 235."

[196] Vasari, V, 184, Milan, 1809; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, III, 124, II, 566 ff, ed. 1866; Mrs Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, I, 241, ed. 1857. Professor N. Høyen indicated to Grundtvig the picture of Pietro Antonio, and d'Ancona refers to Pisanello's.

[197] He denies the perpetual multiplication of the feathers, and adds that the very gallows on which the pilgrim was hanged is erected in the upper part of the church, where everybody can see it. It is diverting to find Grossenhain, in Saxony, claiming the miracle on the ground of a big cock in an altar picture in a chapel of St James: Grässe, Sagenschatz des Königreichs Sachsen, 2d ed., I, 80, No 82, from Chladenius, Materialien zu Grossenhayner Stadtchronik, I, 2, Pirna, 1788; in verse by Ziehnert, Volkssagen, p. 99, No 14, ed. 1851.

[198] For Luis de la Vega, see Acta Sanctorum, III Maii, p. 171 f, §§ 6, 7, 8, VI Julii, p. 46, § 187. The Spanish and the Dutch ballad give due glory to St James and the Virgin; French #C# to God and St James. The Wendish ballad can hardly be expected to celebrate St James, and refers the justification and saving of the boy to the Virgin and the saints. French #A# has St Michas; #B#, God and the Virgin.

Luis de la Vega, with what seems an excess of caution, says, p. 172, as above, § 8: appositique erant ad comedendum gallus et gallina, _assati nescio an elixi_. Of boiled fowl we have not heard so far. But we find in a song in Fletcher's play of 'The Spanish Curate,' this stanza:

The stewd cock shall crow, cock-a-loodle-loo,
A loud cock-a-loodle shall he crow;
The duck and the drake shall swim in a lake
Of onions and claret below.

Act III, Sc. 2; Dyce, viii, 436.

In Father Merolla's Voyage to Congo, 1682, a reference to which I owe to Liebrecht, there is a story of a stewed cock, which, on the whole, justifies Luis de la Vega's scruple. This must have been introduced into Africa by some missioner, and, when so introduced, the miracle must have had an object, which it had lost before the tale came to Father Merolla.

One of two parties at feud having marched upon the chief city of his antagonist, and found all the inhabitants fled, the soldiers fell to rifling the houses and killing all the living creatures they met, to satisfy their hunger. "Amongst the rest they found a cock of a larger size than ordinary, with a great ring of iron about one of his legs, which occasioned one of the wisest among them to cry out, Surely this cock must be bewitched, and it is not at all proper for us to meddle with. To which the rest answered, Be it what it will, we are resolved to eat it. For this end they immediately killed and tore it to pieces after the manner of the negroes, and afterwards put it into a pot to boil. When it was enough, they took it out into a platter, and two, according to the custom, having said grace, five of them sat down to it with great greediness. But before they had touched a bit, to their great wonder and amazement, the boiled pieces of the cock, though sodden, and near dissolved, began to move about and unite into the form they were in before, and, being so united, the restored cock immediately raised himself up, and jumped out of the platter upon the ground, where he walked about as well as when he was first taken. Afterwards he leaped upon an adjoining wall, where he became new feathered all of a sudden, and then took his flight to a tree hard by, where fixing himself, he, after three claps of his wings, made a most hideous noise, and then disappeared. Every one may easily imagine what a terrible fright the spectators were in at this sight, who, leaping with a thousand Ave Marias in their mouths from the place where this had happened, were contented to observe most of the particulars at a distance." It appears that the brother of one of the two contending parties was said to have had a very large cock, from whose crowing he took auguries, but whether this was the same as the one restored to life is not known. Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1704, I, 682, Pinkerton's Collection, XVI, 229.

[199] La Chevalerie Ogier de Danemarche, par Raimbert de Paris, Poëme du xii siècle, etc., II, 485, vv 11606-627.

[200] The gospel of Nicodemus was introduced into the French and the Italian romance of Perceforest, but unfortunately this "narratio ab inepto Græculo pessime interpolata" (Thilo) seems to be lacking.

[201] Cursor Mundi, a Northumbrian poem of the 14th century, in four versions, ed. by R. Morris, p. 912 f, vv 15961-998. This passage was kindly pointed out to me by Professor George Stephens.

[202] Rélation d'un Voyage fait au Levant par Monsieur De Thévenot, Paris, 1665, I, 502. Cited by Thilo, p. xxxvii, and by Victor Smith, Romania, II, 474, who adds: "Parmi les manuscrits rapportés d'Éthiopie par M. d'Abbadie, il se trouve un volume dont le titre a pour équivalent, Actes de la passion. Un chapitre de ce volume, intitulé Le livre du coq, développe la légende indiquée par Thévenot. Catalogue raisonné des manuscrits éthiopiens, appartenant à M. A. T. d'Abbadie, in 4^o, imp. impériale, Paris, 1859."

[203] "Ce couplet se débite en imitant successivement le chant du coq, le mugissement du bœuf, le cri de la chèvre, le braiment de l'âne, et le beuglement du veau." Bolza makes a similar explanation with regard to the Italian colloquy.

23

JUDAS

MS. B. 14, 39, of the thirteenth century, library of
Trinity College, Cambridge, as printed in Wright &
Halliwell's Reliquiæ Antiquæ, I, 144.

This legend, which has not been heretofore recognized as a ballad, is, so far as is known, unique in several particulars. The common tradition gives Judas an extraordinary domestic history,[204] but does not endow him with a sister as perfidious as himself. Neither is his selling his Master for thirty pieces accounted for elsewhere as it is here, if it may be strictly said to be accounted for here.

A popular explanation, founded upon John xii, 3-6, and current for six centuries and more, is that Judas, bearing the bag, was accustomed to take tithes of all moneys that came into his hands, and that he considered he had lost thirty pence on the precious ointment which had not been sold for three hundred pence, and took this way of indemnifying himself.

A Wendish ballad, Haupt und Schmaler, I, 276, No 284, has the following story. Jesus besought hospitality for himself and his disciples of a poor widow. She could give a lodging, but had no bread. Jesus said he would care for that, and asked which of his disciples would go and buy bread for thirty pieces of silver. Judas offered himself eagerly, and went to the Jews' street to do his errand. Jews were gaming, under a tub, and they challenged Judas to play. The first time he won the stake, and the second. The third time he lost everything. "Why so sad, Judas?" they say: "go sell your Master for thirty pieces." We are to suppose Judas to have rejoined his company. Jesus then asks who has sold him. John says, Is it I? and Peter, and then Judas, to whom Jesus replies, Thou knowest best. Judas, in remorse, runs to hang himself. The Lord bids him turn, for his sin is forgiven. But Judas keeps on till he comes to a fir: "Soft wood, thou fir, thou wilt not bear me." Further on, till he comes to an aspen. "Hard wood, thou aspen, thou wilt bear me." So he hanged himself on the aspen; and still the aspen shakes and trembles for fear of the judgment day.

According to the ballads, then, Judas lost the thirty pieces at play, or was robbed of them, with collusion of his sister. But his passionate behavior in the English ballad, st. 9, goes beyond all apparent occasion. Surely it was not for his tithe of the thirty pieces.

And why does he insist to Pilate on the very thirty pieces he had lost, rejecting every other form of payment? The ballad-singer might answer, So it was, and rest contented. Or perhaps he might have heard, and might tell us by way of comment, that these pieces had for long ages been destined to be "the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;" had been coined by Abraham's father for Ninus, and been given by Terah to his son; had passed through various hands to the Ishmaelites, had been paid by them as the price of Joseph, and been repaid to Joseph by his brethren for corn in Egypt; thence were transferred to Sheba, and in the course of events were brought by the Queen of the South as an offering to Solomon's temple; when the temple was despoiled by Nebuchadnezzar, were given by him to the king of Godolia, and after the kingdom of Godolia had been fused in that of Nubia, were brought as his tribute to the infant Jesus by Melchior, king of the same, etc.[205]

It is much to be regretted that the manuscript from which this piece was taken has been for some years lost from Trinity College Library, so that a collation of Wright's text has not been possible.

1
Hit wes upon a Scere-thorsday that ure loverd aros;
Ful milde were the wordes he spec to Judas.

2
'Judas, thou most to Jurselem, oure mete for to bugge;
Thritti platen of selver thou bere up othi rugge.

3
'Thou comest fer ithe brode stret, fer ithe brode strete;
Summe of thine tunesmen ther thou meiht imete.'

4
. . . . . . .
Imette wid is soster, the swikele wimon.

5
'Judas, thou were wrthe me stende the wid ston,
For the false prophete that tou bilevest upon.'

6
'Be stille, leve soster, thin herte the tobreke!
Wiste min loverd Crist, ful wel he wolde be wreke.'

7
'Judas, go thou on the roc, heie upon the ston;
Lei thin heved imy barm, slep thou the anon.'

8
Sone so Judas of slepe was awake,
Thritti platen of selver from hym weren itake.

9
He drou hymselve bi the cop, that al it lavede a blode;
The Jewes out of Jurselem awenden he were wode.

10
Foret hym com the riche Jeu that heihte Pilatus:
'Wolte sulle thi loverd, that hette Jesus?'

11
'I nul sulle my loverd [for] nones cunnes eihte,
Bote hit be for the thritti platen that he me bitaihte.'

12
'Wolte sulle thi lord Crist for enes cunnes golde?'
'Nay, bote hit be for the platen that he habben wolde.'

13
In him com ur lord Crist gon, as is postles seten at mete:
'Wou sitte ye, postles, ant wi nule ye ete?

14
['Wou sitte ye, postles, ant wi nule ye ete?]
Ic am ibouht ant isold today for oure mete.'

15
Up stod him Judas: 'Lord, am I that ...?
'I nas never othe stude ther me the evel spec.'

16
Up him stod Peter, and spec wid al is mihte,
. . . . . . .

17
'Thau Pilatus him come wid ten hundred cnihtes,
Yet ic wolde, loverd, for thi love fihte.'

18
'Still thou be, Peter, wel I the icnowe;
Thou wolt fursake me thrien ar the coc him crowe.'

* * * * *

_Not divided into stanzas in Reliquiæ Antiquæ._

3^2. meist.

10^1. heiste.

11^1. eiste.

11^2. bitaiste.

14^2. i-boust.

16^1. miste.

17^1. cnistes.

17^2. fiste.

_In the absence of the original manuscript, I have thought
it better to change Wright's ~s~ in the above instances
(3-17) to ~h~. In this substitution I follow Mätzner's
Altenglische Sprachproben, I, 114._

[204] Legenda Aurea, Grässe, 2d ed., p. 184 ff; Mone's Anzeiger, VII, col. 532 f, and du Méril, Poésies populaires latines du Moyen Age, p. 326 ff; Furnivall, Early English Poems and Lives of Saints, p. 107 ff; Douhet, Dictionnaire des Légendes, col. 714 ff; Das alte Passional, ed. K.A. Hahn, p. 312 ff; Bäckström, Svenska Folkböcker, II, 198 ff; etc.

[205] See Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, II, 79; Godfrey of Viterbo (who derives his information from a lost writing of the apostle Bartholomew) in his Pantheon, Pistorius, German. Script., ed. Struve, II, 243, or E. du Méril, Poésies pop. latines du Moyen Age, p. 321; Genesi de Scriptura, Biblioteca Catalana, p. 20, etc.

24

BONNIE ANNIE

#A.# 'Bonnie Annie,' Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads,
p. 123.

#B.# 'The High Banks o Yarrow,' Motherwell's MS., p. 652.

Had an old copy of this still pretty and touching, but much disordered, ballad been saved, we should perhaps have had a story like this. Bonnie Annie, having stolen her father's gold and her mother's fee, and fled with her paramour (like the maid in No 4), the ship in which she is sailing encounters a storm and cannot get on. Annie is seized with the pangs of travail, and deplores the absence of women (#B# 6, 7, #A# 9, 10; compare No 15, 21-26). The sailors say there is somebody on board who is marked for death, or flying from a just doom. They cast lots, and the lot falls on Annie,--a result which strikes us as having more semblance of the "corrupted currents of this world" than of a pure judgment of God. Annie, conscious only of her own guilt, asks to be thrown overboard. Her paramour offers great sums to the crew to save her, but their efforts prove useless, and Annie again begs, or they now insist, that she shall be cast into the sea with her babe. This done, the ship is able to sail on; Annie floats to shore and is buried there.

The captain of the ship is the guilty man in #A#, in #B# a rich squire. #A# may exhibit the original plot, but it is just as likely that the captain was substituted for a passenger, under the influence of another ballad, in which there is no Annie, but a ship-master stained with many crimes, whom the lot points out as endangering or obstructing the vessel. See 'Brown Robyn's Confession,' further on.

If the narrative in Jonah, i, is the ultimate source of this and similar stories, it must be owned that the tradition has maintained its principal traits in this ballad remarkably well. Jonah flies from the presence of the Lord in a ship; the ship is overtaken by a tempest;[206] the sailors cast lots to know who is the guilty cause, and the lot falls on Jonah; he bids the sailors take him up and cast him into the sea; nevertheless the men row hard to bring the ship to land, but cannot succeed; they throw Jonah into the water, and the storm ceases.[207]

Translated in Grundtvig's Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. 199, No 31.

#A#

Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 123.

1
There was a rich lord, and he lived in Forfar,
He had a fair lady, and one only dochter.

2
O she was fair, O dear, she was bonnie!
A ship's captain courted her to be his honey.

3
There cam a ship's captain out owre the sea sailing,
He courted this young thing till he got her wi bairn.