THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS

EDITED BY FRANCIS JAMES CHILD

IN FIVE VOLUMES VOLUME II

NEW YORK DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

[Pg iv]

This Dover edition, first published in 1965, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, as follows:

This edition also contains as an appendix to Part X an essay by Walter Morris Hart entitled "Professor Child and the Ballad," reprinted in toto from Vol. XXI, No. 4, 1906 [New Series Vol. XIV, No. 4] of the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-24347

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc. 180 Varick Street New York, N.Y. 10014

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ADVERTISEMENT TO PART IV

NUMBERS 83-113

Upon concluding this Fourth Part, I have to express warm thanks to Mr James Barclay Murdoch for a punctilious recollation of Motherwell's manuscript, and to Mr Malcolm Colquhoun Thomson for again granting the use of the volume. Miss Mary Fraser Tytler, to remove a doubt about a few readings, has generously taken the trouble to make a fac-simile copy of Alexander Fraser Tytler's Brown manuscript. Mr Macmath, whose accuracy is not surpassed by photographic reproduction, has done me favors of a like kind, and of many kinds. Rev. Professor Skeat, with all his engagements, has been prompt to render his peculiarly valuable help at the libraries of Cambridge; and Mr F. H. Stoddard, late of Oxford, now of the University of California, has allowed me to call upon him freely for copies and collations at the Bodleian Library. The notes which Dr Reinhold Köhler, Professor Felix Liebricht, Professor C. R. Lanman, and Mr George Lyman Kittredge have contributed, in the way of Additions and Corrections, will speak for themselves. Miss Isabel Florence Hapgood, translator of the Epic Songs of Russia,

has given me much assistance in Slavic popular poetry, and Lieutenant-Colonel W. F. Prideaux, of Calcutta, Mr Frank Kidson, of Leeds, and Mr P. Z. Round, of London, have made obliging communications as to English ballads.

F. J. C. November, 1886.

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CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

[Pg 1]

54 THE CHERRY-TREE CAROL

A. a. 'Joseph was an old man,' Sandys, Christmas Carols, p. 123. b. Sandys, Christmastide, p. 241.

B. a. 'The Cherry-Tree Carol,' Husk, Songs of the Nativity, p. 59. b. Hone's Ancient Mysteries, p. 90. c. 'The Cherry-Tree Carol,' Sylvester, A Garland of Christmas Carols, p. 45. d. 'The Cherry-Tree,' Birmingham chap-book, of about 1843, in B. Harris Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. xxxviii.

C. 'The Cherry-Tree Carol,' Bramley and Stainer, Christmas Carols, p. 60.

D. Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, XII, 461.

The proper story of this highly popular carol is derived from the Pseudo-Matthew's gospel, chapter xx; Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 82; Thilo, Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti, Historia de Nativitate Mariæ et de Infantia Salvatoris, p. 395. What succeeds, after A 9, B 8, C 7, D 6, is probably founded on the angel's words to the shepherds in Luke ii, and on Jesus's predictions in the authentic gospels. This latter portion is sometimes printed as an independent carol, under the title of 'Joseph and the Angel.'[1]

On the third day of the flight into Egypt, Mary, feeling the heat to be oppressive, tells Joseph that she will rest for a while under a palm-tree. Joseph helps her to light from her beast, and Mary, looking up from under the tree, and seeing it full of fruit, asks for some. Joseph somewhat testily expresses his surprise that she should think of such a thing, considering the height of the tree: he is much more concerned to get a supply of water. Then Jesus, sitting on his mother's lap, bids the palm to bow down and refresh his mother with its fruit. The palm instantly bends its top to Mary's feet.

The truly popular carol would be sure to adapt the fruit to its own soil. In English the tree is always a cherry. We have the story also in the fifteenth of the Coventry Mysteries, ed. Halliwell, p. 146 (not omitting Joseph's quip in A 5, etc.), with the addition of a little more miracle: for it is not the season for cherries, and Mary's wish is anticipated by the tree's blooming before she has uttered it. In Catalan and Provençal the tree is an apple. On the way from Bethlehem to Nazareth, Mary and Joseph come upon a gardener who is climbing an apple-tree, and Mary asks for an apple. He politely gives her leave to pluck for herself. Joseph, who this time has not been disobliging, tries, but the branches go up; Mary tries, and the branches come to her:[2] Milá, Romancerillo, p. 3, No 4. Also p. 63, No 55, where again Joseph is molt felló, very crusty; further, Briz, III, 228; Arbaud, Chants populaires de la Provence, 'Lou premier Miracle,' I, 23, and 'La Fuito en Egypto,' II, 237 f. In other legendary ballads, not so entirely popular, the

palm-tree is preserved: Meinert, p. 262; Böhme, p. 628, No 523=Weinhold, Weihnachtspiele, p. 385; Lexer, Kärntisches Wörterbuch, p. 310; Feifalik, Die Kindheit Jesu, pp 101, 106=Pailler, Weihnachtlieder aus Oberösterreich, No 314, p 338 f; Pailler, p. 332, No 310; Hoffmann, Horæ Belgicæ, Part Ten, p. 59; Alberdingk Thijm, I, 212. In Schmitz, Sitten und Sagen des Eifler Volkes, I, 116, and Pailler, as above, No 311, we have a fig-tree.[Pg 2] Some of these are very imperfect, or have even lost chief points in the story.

There are many narratives of the childhood of Jesus, based on the apocryphal gospels, in which this legend must needs be found: as, Cursor Mundi, ed. Morris, II, 668 f, v. 11,657 ff; Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, 1875, p. 6, 1878, pp 102, 112; Stephens, Fornsvenskt Legendarium, p. 71; Pitré, Canti popolari siciliani, II, 333.[3]

A

a. Sandys, Christmas Carols, p. 123, West of England. b. Sandys, Christmastide, p. 241.

B

a. Husk, Songs of the Nativity, p. 59, from a Worcester broadside of the last century. b. Hone's Ancient Mysteries, p. 90, from various copies, c. Sylvester, A Garland of Christmas Carols, p. 45. d. Birmingham chap-book, of about 1843, in B. Harris Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. xxxviii.

C

Bramley and Stainer, Christmas Carols, p. 60.

D

Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, XII, 461; taken from the mouth of a wandering gypsy girl in Berkshire.

A. b.

3 is wanting.

43. some cherries.

52. so unkind.

53. the cherries.

61,2. bespoke Jesus in.

64. that my mother may.

71,2. tallest tree, it bent to Mary's.

After 8:

9-12 are wanting.

B. b.

22. and his cousin Mary got.

24. by whom Joseph knew not.

31. As Joseph.

32. the garden.

43. Gather me some.

51. O then bespoke.

52. with words most.

133. with the spring.

(my feet in a Warwickshire broadside: Sylvester.)

18 is wanting.

For 9-13 we have, as a separate carol, in Chappell's Christmas Carols, edited by Dr E. F. Rimbault, p. 22, the following verses, traditional in Somersetshire:[4]

c.

13. When he.

2 is omitted.

After 3:

5 is omitted.

172. my uprising.

173. moon, mother.

174. shall both rise.

18 is wanting, and is suspiciously modern.

d.

11. When Joseph.

12. and wanting.

24. by whom Joseph knew not.

31. As Joseph.

32. the garden gay.

61. Then bespoke Jesus.

8 wanting.

10 wanting.

113. But in fine.

133. But cold spring.

13 precedes 12.

143, 4. Come tell me, dear child, how.

The rest is wanting.

D.

32. to the garden school.

The first stanza is said to have this variation in Worcestershire:

Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, III, 75.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A copy of the Cherry-Tree carol in The Guardian, Dec. 27, 1871, is partly compiled "from several ancient sources," and partly composed by the contributor: see Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, X, 73.

[2] Cf. the very naive D 5: 'Mary shall have cherries, and Joseph shall have none.'

[3] Liber de Infantia Mariæ et Christi Salvatoris, O. Schade, 1869, p. 38 f, follows almost word for word the Pseudo-Matthew. In note 234 the editor points out passages where the story occurs in Hróthsvítha, and other mediæval poetry. See, also, Schade, Narrationes de vita et conversatione beatæ Mariæ Virginis, 1870, pp 16, 24.

[4] The same in Christmas and Christmas Carols [by J. F. Russell], p. 26, with an additional modern-sounding stanza.

[Pg 7]

55 THE CARNAL AND THE CRANE

'The Carnal and the Crane.' a. Sandys, Christmas Carols, p. 152, Christmastide, p. 246, from a broadside. b. Husk, Songs of the Nativity, p. 97, apparently from a Worcester broadside, c. Birmingham chap-book, of about 1843, in B. Harris Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. xli.

Mr Husk, who had access to a remarkably good collection of carols, afterwards unfortunately dispersed, had met with no copy of 'The Carnal and the Crane' of earlier date than the middle of the last century. Internal evidence points us much further back. The carol had obviously been transmitted from mouth to mouth before it was fixed in its present incoherent and corrupted form by print.[5]

The well-informed Crane instructs his catechumen, the Crow, in several matters pertaining to the birth and earliest days of Jesus: the Immaculate Conception; the Nativity; the conference of Herod with the Wise Men, including the miracle of the roasted cock; the Flight into Egypt, with the Adoration of the Beasts and the Instantaneous Harvest; the Massacre of the Innocents. Of the apocryphal incidents, the miracle of the cock, sts 10, 11, has been spoken of under No 22. The adoration of the beasts, sts 15, 16, is derived from the Historia de Nativitate Mariæ, etc. (Pseudo-Matthæi Evangelium), c. 19, Thilo, p. 394, Tischendorf, p. 81, and is of course frequent in legendaries of the infancy of the Saviour,[6] but is not remarkable enough to be popular in carols. The miraculous harvest, by which the Holy Family evade Herod's pursuit, is, on the contrary, a favorite subject with popular poetry, as also, like the bowing of the palm-tree, with pictorial art. I do not know where and when this pretty and clever legend was invented. In the Greek Gospel of Thomas, ch.

12, Jesus sows one grain of wheat, in the Latin Gospel of Thomas, ch. 10, and ch. 34 of the Pseudo-Matthew, a very little, and reaps an immense crop at harvest time; Tischendorf, pp 143 f, 165 f, 97: but this passage would hardly even suggest the miracle in question.[7] In a Swedish carol, 'Staffans-Visan,' reprinted from a recent broadside, in Dansk Kirketidende, 1861, cols 35, 36, by Professor George Stephens, and afterwards by Grundtvig, Danmarks Folkeviser, III, 882, the legend of the Cock and that of the Sower are combined, as here. The legend of the Sower is followed by that of the Palm-tree, and others, in La Fuito en Egypto, Arbaud, Chants p. de la Provence, II, 235. Another Provençal version of the Sower is given by Briz, IV, 70; a Catalan at pp 65 and 68, 'Lo rey Herodes;' ten Catalan versions by Milá, 'Herodes,' Romancerillo, pp 6-9, No 10. To these add: 'La Fuite en Égypte,' Poésies p. de la France, MS., I, fol. 226, 'Le roi Hérode,' VI, 192; 'De Vlucht naar Egypten,' Lootens et Feys, p. 32, No 20, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Horæ Belgicæ,

Part Ten, p. 22, No 4; 'Die Flucht Maria's,' Haupt und Schmaler, Volkslieder der Wenden, I, 275, No 283; Bezsonof, Kalyeki Perekhozhie, II, 116, No 319. The legend of the Sower occurs also in Le Geu des Trois Roys,[Pg 8] Jubinal, Mystères inédits du 15e Siècle, II, 117-131.

It is ordinarily Mary, and not Jesus, who operates the miracle; in the French mystery it is perhaps Joseph.[8] In the Provençal and Catalan ballads the Virgin commonly hides behind a sheaf or a stack, and does not pass on.[9]

a.

81. West land.

162. spring; perhaps a preposition has been dropped.

b.

12. did rein.

22. Sure all the world will turn.

31. Whence does the Son come from.

33. Out of the land of Egypt.

42. goest.

52. all sin.

53. of the.

74. slept in.

81. East land.

94. No prince should.

102. tellest me.

124. Now slaughtered shall be.

131. aye and.

133. Egypt land.

134. find most.

141. Egypt.

142. Among some.

143. Mary grown quite.

153. see that these.

154. Will come.

162. did bring.

164. be king.

173. every nation of the world.

181. aye and.

183. passed by.

184. As he his seed had.

194. hath sown.

223. must shed.

234. seed had sown.

242. train most.

251. spoken.

254. As I my seed had sown.

261. And now.

263. The other you see is fit to carry.

264. barns.

271. said the Captain of the guard.

291. There were.

292. Who for.

293. these little.

303. Thus the.

304. Brought forth our Lord the Son.

c.

1-7. not given.

124. Now shall destroyed be.

21, 22. not given.

254. When I my seed had sown.

29, 30. not given.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Carnal, cornicula, corneille, might be thought to have been long obsolete from the word not occurring in ordinary dictionaries, if in any: but it is hazardous to build conclusions on the omissions of dictionaries.

[6] As, Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, 1875, p. 4, 1878, pp 101, 112; Cursor Mundi, 11, 629 ff, Morris, II, 660; Fornsvenskt Legendarium, p. 71; Feifalik, Kindheit Jesu, p. 103; Schade, Liber de Infantia, etc., p. 38, and note 226; etc.

[7] In Cursor Mundi, v. 12, 323 ff, II, 707, the sowing is according to the Apocrypha. In Luzel's Breton Ballads, I, 80/81, the Virgin, to keep a poor widow from killing one of her children to feed two others, makes corn sown at Christmas in early morning ripen before day.

[8] Joseph stops a moment to speak to the sower, asks the direct road to Egypt, and begs that if any inquiry is made he will say that nobody has passed that way. The sower is not punctilious, and answers, Je le feray très volontiers, que je voy bien qu'estez prodoms. The Swede is scrupulous. When the Virgin says, If anybody asks after us, say that you have seen nobody, he replies, I have promised my God never to tell a lie, "thinking she was only a lady." In the Wendish ballad the Virgin's demand is simply, If the Jews pass, conceal me not, reveal me not.

[9] In one Provençal version, Arbaud, II, 245 f, Joseph and Mary ask a man at work in the fields to save them from Herod, and he tells them to hide under mint. The mint depresses its leaves so as to afford no concealment. For this the mint is cursed; though it flower, it shall not seed. The good man then tells them to hide under sage; the sage stretches itself out to cover them. The mint betrays the Virgin in many of the Catalan ballads: She is under the stack! The salvia answers in Milá, C, 'ment la menta y mentirá.' In D parsley is the good plant: the mint is cursed with barrenness as before. In Milá, J, the partridge (one symbol of the devil) sings: Catxacatatxá! Sota la garbera la Mare de Deu está! for which its head is cursed, never to be eaten. So Briz, IV, 69.

56 DIVES AND LAZARUS

A. 'Dives and Lazarus.' a. Sylvester's Christmas Carols, p. 50. b. Husk, Songs of the Nativity, p. 94.

B. 'Diverus and Lazarus,' F. S. L., in Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, III, 76.

A ballet "of the Ryche man and poor Lazarus" was licensed to Master John Wallye and Mistress Toye, 19 July, 1557-9 July, 1558. W. Pekerynge pays his license for printing "of a ballett, Dyves and Lazarus," 22 July, 1570-22 July, 1571. Arber, Registers of the Company of Stationers, I, 76, 436. A fiddler in Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, printed 1639, says he can sing The merry ballad of Diverus and Lazarus: Act 3, Scene 3, Dyce, VII, 364. The name Diverus is preserved in C, and F. S. L., who contributed this copy to Notes and Queries, had heard only Diverus, never Dives. Dr Rimbault, Notes and Queries, as above, p. 157, had never met with Diverus. Hone cites two stanzas, a 10, b 11, nearly, in his Ancient Mysteries, p. 95, and Sandys the last three stanzas, nearly as in a, in Notes and Queries, p. 157, as above. A copy in Bramley and Stainer's Christmas Carols, p. 85, seems to have been made up from Sylvester's and another copy. The few variations are probably arbitrary.

The subject could not escape the popular muse: e. g., Socard, Noëls et Cantiques imprimés à Troyes, Histoire de Lazare et du Mauvais Riche, p. 118 ff; 'El mal rico,' Milá, Romancerillo, p. 16, No 16, A-F; 'Lazarus,' Des Dülkener Fiedlers Liederbuch, p. 53, No 63; 'Lazar a bohatec,' Sušil, Moravské Národní Písnĕ, p. 19, No 18, Wenzig, Bibliothek Slavischer Poesien, p. 114; Bezsonof, Kalyeki Perekhozhie, I, 43-97, Nos 19-27.

There is a very beautiful ballad, in which the Madonna takes the place of Lazarus, in Roadside Songs of Tuscany, Francesca Alexander and John Ruskin, 'La Madonna e il Riccone,' p. 82.

[Pg 11]

A

a. Sylvester, A Garland of Christmas Carols, p. 50, from an old Birmingham broadside. b. Husk, Songs of the Nativity, p. 94, from a Worcestershire broadside of the last century.

B

From memory, as sung by carol-singers at Christmas, in Worcestershire, at Hagley and Hartlebury, 1829-39: F. S. L., in Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, III, 76.

A. a.

14-16. There are only these trifling variations in the stanzas cited by Sandys:

162. of an.

163. I'd made my peace.

b.

13. his guests.

73. I'll give to thee.

83. But they.

84. And flung.

93. But they.

94. So licked.

103. came an angel.

104. there for.

112. come along.

113. For there's a place in heaven provided.

123. There came a serpent.

124. there for.

141. lifting his eyes to heaven.

142. And seeing.

B.

13, 14 differ but slightly in Hone:

131. As it.

132. Rich Dives.

134. therein.

141. Dives.

143. For you've a place provided.

144. To sit.

[Pg 13]

57 BROWN ROBYN´S CONFESSION

Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 110. Motherwell's MS., p. 580.

The only known version of 'Brown Robyn's Confession' is the one printed in Ballads of the North of Scotland, the copy in Motherwell's MS. having been derived from Buchan.

The ballad, as we have it in English, celebrates a miracle of the Virgin, and is our only example of that extensive class of legends, unless we choose to include 'The Jew's Daughter,' and to take Robin Hood's view of the restoration of his loan, in the fourth Fit of the Little Gest. Of rescues on the sea, by which Mary "vere maris stella indiciis evidentissimis comprobatur," we have two in most of the collections of the Virgin's miracles, e. g., Vincent of Beauvais, 1. VII, cc 88,89, Gautier de Coincy, ed. Poquet, pp 515, 605. The deliverance, however, is for honor done to Mary, and not for a fair confession.

A fine ballad, very common in Sweden, and preserved by tradition also in Denmark and Norway, has the same story with a tragical termination for the hero, saving a single instance, in which there is also a supernatural interference in his behalf.

Swedish. 'Herr Peders Sjöresa.' A, Afzelius, II, 31, No 36, new ed. No 30, from oral traditions, compared with a printed copy of the date 1787. B, Atterbom's Poetisk Kalender, 1816, p. 52, apparently from Gyllenmärs' Visbok, after which it is given by Bergström, Afzelius, II, 158. C, Arwidsson, II, 5, No 67, one of three closely resembling copies. D, 'Herr Peder,' Wigström, Folkdiktning, I, 43, No 21. E, Fagerlund, p. 194, No 4. F, G, Aminson, IV, 20, 22.

Norwegian. 'Unge herr Peder pá sjöen,' Landstad, p. 617, No 82.

Danish. A, manuscript of the fifteenth century, in a copy communicated by Professor Grundtvig. B, 'Jon Rimaardssøns Skriftemaal,' Vedel, 1591, It Hundrede udvaalde Danske Viser, p. 3, No 2 (Bergström); Danske Viser, II, 220, No 92. C, 'Lodkastningen,' Kristensen, I, 16, No 6. D, 'Sejladsen,' the same, p. 322, No 119.

Swedish C-E, the Norwegian version, Danish C, D, are all from recent oral tradition.