99 JOHNIE SCOT

A. 'Jack, the Little Scot,' Jamieson-Brown MS., fol. 5.

B. 'McNaughtan,' Glenriddell MSS, XI, 78.

C. 'Johnie Scot,' Motherwell's MS., p. 213.

D. 'Johnnie Scot,' Motherwell's MS., p. 205.

E. 'McNachton,' Motherwell's MS., p. 113.

F. 'Bonnie Johnie Scot,' Motherwell's MS., p. 211.

G. 'Johnie Scott,' Motherwell's Note-Book, p. 35; Motherwell's MS., p. 394.

H. 'Love Johny,' Kinloch MSS, VI, 53.

I. 'Johnie Buneftan,' Kinloch MSS, VII, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49.

J. Kinloch MSS, VII, 40, 42, 46, 49.

K. 'Johnie, the Little Scot,' Kinloch MSS, I, 311.

L. 'Johnnie Scott,' Campbell MSS, I, 57.

M. 'Lord Johnnie Scott,' Campbell MSS, II, 335.

N. 'Lord John,' Buchan's Gleanings, p. 122.

O. 'Johnie Scot,' communicated by Mr Macmath.

P. Motherwell's Note-Book, p. 11.

A was No 2 of the fifteen ballads in William Tytler's lost Brown MS.: Nichols's Illustrations, VII, 176. There is a copy of A in the Abbotsford MS., "Scottish Songs," fol. 24, with many wilful alterations and a few readings from tradition. The ballad printed in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 204, is a compound of C, D, E, and the one in Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 77, is made up from I, J, "recited versions obtained in the north and west" of Scotland, with some slight changes.

The story of 'Willie o Winsbury,' No 100, has considerable resemblance to that of 'Johnie Scot,' but Willie's extreme beauty moves the king, the lady's father, to offer his daughter to him in marriage, without a combat. Mrs Brown's version of 'Willie o Douglas Dale,' No 101, A, begins with the first stanza of her version of 'Johnie Scot,' A. So does 'Young Betrice,' another ballad of hers, No 5 of William Tytler's MS.:

Young Betrice was as brave a knight
As ever saild the sea,
And he's taen him to the court of France,
To serve for meat and fee.

Anderson, who cites this stanza, Nichols's Illustrations, as above, remarks: "The conduct of the story is different from that of No 2 ['Jack, the Little Scot'], which it resembles. Some of the lines are in 'Gil Morrice.'" 'Young Betrice' may possibly be a variety of 'Hugh Spencer:' see 'Hugh Spencer,' C.

There is resemblance to 'Child Maurice,' No 83, besides the commonplace of the messenger-boy, in the sending of a token to the lady, A 12, 13, D 6, E 2, H 4, 5, J 4, M 8, N 11, 12; 'Child Maurice,' A 7, 8, B 3, 4, C 3, 4, 5, D, E 6, 7, F 17, 18. In the present ballad the token is a sark of silk (M 8, simply shirt); so in 'Child Maurice,' D 7, F 18. The blessing on the errand-boy, A 8, is found in 'Fair Mary of Wallington,' No 91, B 9.

While John, the Scot, is in service at the English court, the king's daughter becomes with child to him. She is thrown into prison. Johnie, who has fled to Scotland, sends a messenger to her with a token which she will recognize, urging her to come to him. An answer is returned that she is in chains. Johnie resolves to go to the rescue. He is warned of the danger, but a body of Scots attends him, five hundred men, A-D, O, twenty-four, E, G, I; all unmarried, B, D, E, G, H, I, O. When he arrives at the English court, the king asks his name. His name is Pitnachton, A 26; McNaughtan, B 17, E 14, cf. C 16; Auchney, H 21; Buneftan, I 14; Johnie Scot, Love John, C 17, K 12, L 13, N 26; Earl Hector, D 18. The king will hang the Scot on his daughter's account. Resistance is threatened by Johnie's friends. The king has a champion who will fight them three by three, A 29, B 20, E 18, F 17, N 30. This champion is an Italian, A 29, I 17, L 16, N 31, O 8; an Itilian, H 27; Talliant, Tailliant, C 22, D 23, F 17, G 16. The Scot kills the Italian in a duel. In C 24, D 25, F 19, G 18, the Italian jumps over Johnie's head, skims over it like a swallow, and is apparently run through while so doing. Johnie calls for a priest to marry his love and him, the king for a clerk to write the tocher. But tocher is refused by the Scot, who wants only his dearly won lady.

The champion is described in A 31 as a gurious (grugous, gruous?) ghost; in H 27 as a greecy (frightful) ghost; in L 18 he is a fearsome sight, with three women's-spans between his brows and three yards between his shoulders; in the Abbotsford copy of A, 29, 30, a grisly sight, with a span between his eyes, between his shoulders three and three, and Johnie scarcely reaching his knee. These points are probably taken from another and a later ballad, which is perhaps an imitation, and might almost be called a parody, of Johnie Scot, 'Lang Johnny Moir:' see Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 248.

The process of striping a sword oer a stane or to the stran, N 28, H 28, striking it across the plain, A 32, K 14, is that of whetting or wiping, already noted under No 81, II, 243 f. To the places cited there may be added 'Child Maurice,' F 30, 'Jellon Grame,' No 90, B 8, 21, C 14, 'The Baffled Knight,' No 112, A 10. G 20² is a manifest corruption, a repetition of 17²; K 14 has been corrected, in conformity with A 32.

The Rev. Andrew Hall, in his Interesting Roman Antiquities recently discovered in Fife, 1823, p. 216, relates the following story, on traditional authority.[164] James Macgill, of Lindores, had killed Sir Robert Balfour, of Denmiln, in a duel which he had wished to avoid, about the year 1679. Macgill "immediately went up to London in order to procure his pardon, which it seems the king, Charles the Second, offered to grant him upon condition of his fighting an Italian gladiator or bravo, or, as he was then called, a bully; which, it is said, none could be found to do.... Accordingly a large stage was erected for the exhibition before the king and court.... Sir James, it is said, stood on the defensive till the bully had spent himself a little, being a taller man than Sir James. In his mighty gasconading and bravadoing he actually leaped over the knight as if he would swallow him alive, but in attempting to do this a second time Sir James run his sword up through him, and then called out, 'I have spitted him; let them roast him who will.' This not only procured his pardon, but he was also knighted on the spot."

The exploit of Johnie Scot, and, if you please, of Sir James Macgill, has been achieved as well on the south side of the English Channel. The Breton seigneur Les Aubrays, or Lizandré, of St Brieux, is ordered by the French king to undertake a combat with his wild Moor. Les Aubrays asks a page, who brings the king's command, about the Moor's fashion of fighting. The Moor is master of devilish magic, and has herbs about him by virtue of which any wounds he may get are soon healed. The Breton is told, among other things, that he must throw holy water at the Moor the moment the savage draws, and when the Moor makes a leap in the air he must receive him on the point of his sword. These instructions are followed with perfect success. When the Moor is "swimming" in the air, Lizandré so disposes his sword as to take him on it. Luzel, 'Lezobre,' etc., 'Les Aubrays et le More du Roi,' second and third versions, I, 300-03, 294, 295; 'Le Géant Lizandré II, 568-71, 'Le Géant Les Aubrays,' 576-79; Poésies populaires de la France, MS., vol. i, near the beginning. Though the brave Breton is called giant in the title of Luzel's last two versions, nothing is said in the ballads of his being of unusual proportions. He is victorious in nineteen fights, but it is because of his profuse liberality to St Anne; it borders on the irreligious, therefore, to call him a giant.[165]

The copy in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 204, is translated by Wolff, Halle der Völker, I, 15, Hausschatz, p. 210.

1 O Johney was as brave a knight
As ever saild the sea,
An he's done him to the English court,
To serve for meat and fee.

2 He had nae been in fair England
But yet a little while,
Untill the kingis ae daughter
To Johney proves wi chil.

3 O word's come to the king himsel,
In his chair where he sat,
That his ae daughter was wi bairn
To Jack, the Little Scott.

4 'Gin this be true that I do hear,
As I trust well it be,
Ye pit her into prison strong,
An starve her till she die.'

5 O Johney's on to fair Scotland,
A wot he went wi speed,
An he has left the kingis court,
A wot good was his need.

6 O it fell once upon a day
That Johney he thought lang,
An he's gane to the good green wood,
As fast as he coud gang.

7 'O whare will I get a bonny boy,
To rin my errand soon,
That will rin into fair England,
An haste him back again?'

8 O up it starts a bonny boy,
Gold yallow was his hair,
I wish his mither meickle joy,
His bonny love mieckle mair.

9 'O here am I, a bonny boy,
Will rin your errand soon;
I will gang into fair England,
An come right soon again.'

10 O whan he came to broken briggs,
He bent his bow and swam;
An whan he came to the green grass growan,
He slaikid his shoone an ran.

11 Whan he came to yon high castèl,
He ran it roun about,
An there he saw the king's daughter,
At the window looking out.

12 'O here's a sark o silk, lady,
Your ain han sewd the sleeve;
You'r bidden come to fair Scotlan,
Speer nane o your parents leave.

13 'Ha, take this sark o silk, lady,
Your ain han sewd the gare;
You're bidden come to good green wood,
Love Johney waits you there.'

14 She's turnd her right and roun about,
The tear was in her ee:
'How can I come to my true-love,
Except I had wings to flee?

15 'Here am I kept wi bars and bolts,
Most grievous to behold;
My breast-plate's o the sturdy steel,
Instead of the beaten gold.

16 'But tak this purse, my bonny boy,
Ye well deserve a fee,
An bear this letter to my love,
An tell him what you see.'

17 Then quickly ran the bonny boy
Again to Scotlan fair,
An soon he reachd Pitnachton's towrs,
An soon found Johney there.

18 He pat the letter in his han
An taul him what he sa,
But eer he half the letter read,
He loote the tears doun fa.

19 'O I will gae back to fair Englan,
Tho death shoud me betide,
An I will relieve the damesel
That lay last by my side.'

20 Then out it spake his father dear,
My son, you are to blame;
An gin you'r catchd on English groun,
I fear you'll neer win hame.

21 Then out it spake a valiant knight,
Johny's best friend was he;
I can commaun five hunder men,
An I'll his surety be.

22 The firstin town that they came till,
They gard the bells be rung;
An the nextin town that they came till,
They gard the mess be sung.

23 The thirdin town that they came till,
They gard the drums beat roun;
The king but an his nobles a'
Was startld at the soun.

24 Whan they came to the king's palace
They rade it roun about,
An there they saw the king himsel,
At the window looking out.

25 'Is this the Duke o Albany,
Or James, the Scottish king?
Or are ye some great foreign lord,
That's come a visiting?'

26 'I'm nae the Duke of Albany,
Nor James, the Scottish king;
But I'm a valiant Scottish knight,
Pitnachton is my name.'

27 'O if Pitnachton be your name,
As I trust well it be,
The morn, or I tast meat or drink,
You shall be hanged hi.'

28 Then out it spake the valiant knight
That came brave Johney wi;
Behold five hunder bowmen bold,
Will die to set him free.

29 Then out it spake the king again,
An a scornfu laugh laugh he;
I have an Italian i my house
Will fight you three by three.

30 'O grant me a boon,' brave Johney cried;
'Bring your Italian here;
Then if he fall beneath my sword,
I've won your daughter dear.'

31 Then out it came that Italian,
An a gurious ghost was he;
Upo the point o Johney's sword
This Italian did die.

32 Out has he drawn his lang, lang bran,
Struck it across the plain:
'Is there any more o your English dogs
That you want to be slain?'

33 'A clark, a clark,' the king then cried,
'To write her tocher free;'
'A priest, a priest,' says Love Johney,
'To marry my love and me.

34 'I'm seeking nane o your gold,' he says,
'Nor of your silver clear;
I only seek your daughter fair,
Whose love has cost her dear.'

1 Johnny's into England gane,
Three quarters of a year;
Johnny's into England gane,
The king's banner to bear.

2 He had na been in England lang,
But and a little while,
Untill the king's daughter
To Johnny gaes wi child.

3 Word is to the kitchin gane,
And word is to the ha,
And word is to the king's palace,
Amang the nobles a'.

4 Word's gane to the king's palace,
The palace where she sat,
That his ae daughter gaes wi child
To Jock, the Little Scot.

5 'If she be wi child,' he says,
'As I trow well she be,
I'll put her into strang prison,
And hang her till she die.'

6 But up and spak young Johnny,
And O he spake in time:
Is there never a bony boy here
Will rin my errand soon?

7 That will gae to yon castle,
And look it round about?
And there he'll see a fair lady,
The window looking out.

8 Up then spak a bony boy,
And a bony boy was he:
I'll run thy errand, Johnny, he said,
Untill the day I die.

9 'Put on your gown o silk, madam,
And on your hand a glove,
And gang into the good green-wood,
To Johnny, your true-love.'

10 'The fetters they are on my feet,
And O but they are cauld!
My bracelets they are sturdy steel,
Instead of beaten gold.

11 'But I will write a lang letter,
And seal it tenderlie,
And I will send to my true-love,
Before that I do die.'

12 The first look that Johnny lookd,
A loud laughter gae he;
But the next look that Johnny gae,
The tear blinded his ee.

13 He says, I'll into England gae,
Whatever may betide,
And a' to seek a fair woman
That sud hae been my bride.

14 But up and speaks his father,
And O he spak in time:
If that ye into England gae,
I'm feerd ye neer come hame.

15 But up then speaks our gude Scotch king,
And a brisk young man was he:
He's hae five hunder o my life-guard,
To bear him companie.

16 When Johnny was on saddle set,
And seemly for to see,
There was not a married man
Into his companie.

17 When Johnny sat on saddle-seat,
And seemly to behold,
The hair that hang on Johnny's head
Was like the threads o gold.

18 When he cam to ...
He gard the bells a' ring,
Untill the king and a' his court
Did marvel at the thing.

19 'Is this the brave Argyle,' he said,
'That's landed and come hame?
Is this the brave Argyle,' he said,
'Or James, our Scottish king?'

20 'It's no the brave Argyle,' they said,
'That's landed and come hame;
But it is a brave young Scottish knight,
M^cNaughtan is his name.'

21 'If M^cNaughtan be his name,' he says,
'As I trow weel it be,
The fairest lady in a' my court
Gangs wi child to thee.'

22 'If that she be wi child,' he says,
'As I wat weel she be,
I'll mak it lord o a' my land,
And her my gay lady.'

23 'I have a champion in my court
Will fight you a' by three;'
But up then speaks a brisk young man,
And a brisk young man was he:
I will fight to my life's end,
Before poor Johnny die.

24 The king but and his nobles a'
Went out into the plain,
The queen but and her maidens a',
To see young Johnny slain.

25 The first wound that Johnny gae the champion
Was a deep wound and sair;
The next wound that he gae the champion,
He never spak mair.

26 'A priest, a priest,' young Johnny cries,
'To wed me and my love;'
'A clerk, a clerk,' the king he cries,
'To sign her tocher gude.'

27 'I'll hae nane o your goud,' he says,
'I'll hae nane o your gear,
But a' I want is my true-love,
For I hae bought her dear.'

28 He took out a little goat-horn,
And blew baith loud and shill;
The victry's into Scotland gane,
Tho sair against their will.

1 O Johnie's to the hunting gone,
Unto the woods sae wild,
And Earl Percy's old daughter
To Johnie goes with child.

2 O word is to the kitchen gone,
And word is to the ha,
And word is to the highest towers,
Amang the nobles a'.

3 'If she be with child,' her father said,
'As woe forbid it be,
I'll put her into a prison strong,
And try the veritie.'

4 'But if she be with child,' her mother said,
'As woe forbid it be,
I'll put her intil a dungeon dark,
And hunger her till she die.'

5 Then she has wrote a braid letter,
And sealed it wi her hand,
And sent it to the merry green wood,
Wi her own boy at command.

6 The first line of the letter he read,
His heart was full of joy;
But he had not read a line past two
Till the salt tears blind his eye.

7 'O I must up to England go,
What ever me betide,
For to relieve that fair ladie
That lay last by my side.'

8 Out and spak his father then,
And he spak all in time:
Johnie, if ye to England go,
I fear ye'll neer return.

9 But out and spak his uncle then,
And he spak bitterlie:
Five hundred of my good life-guards
Shall go along with thee.

10 When they were mounted on their steeds,
They were comely to behold;
The hair that hung owre Johnie's shoulders
Was like the yellow gold.

11 The first town that they came to,
They made the bells to ring;
And when they rode the town all owre,
They made the trumpets sound.

12 When they came to Earl Percy's gates,
They rode them round about,
And who saw he but his own true-love,
At a window looking out!

13 'The doors they are bolted with iron and steel,
The windows round about;
My feet they are in fetters strong;
And how can I get out?

14 'My garters they are of the lead,
And oh but they be cold!
My breast-plate's of the beaten steel,
Instead of beaten gold.'

15 But when they came to Earl Percy's yett,
They tirled at the pin;
None was so ready as Earl Percy
To open and let them in.

16 'Art thou the King of Aulsberry,
Or art thou the King of Spain?
Or art thou one of our gay Scots lords,
M^cNachtan by thy name?'

17 'I'm not the King of Aulsberry,
Nor yet the King of Spain;
But I am one of our gay Scots lords,
Johnie Scot I am called by name.'

18 'If Johnie Scot be thy name,' he said,
'As I trow weel it be,
The fairest lady in a' our court
Gaes big with child to thee.'

19 'If she be with child,' fair Johnie said,
'As I trow weel she be,
I'll make it heir owre a' my land,
And her my gay ladie.'

20 'But if she be with child,' her father said,
'As I trow weel she be,
Tomorrow morn again eight o clock
High hanged thou shalt be.'

21 But out and spak his uncle then,
And he spak bitterlie:
Before that we see Johnie Scot slain,
We'll a' fight till we die.

22 'But is there ever a Tailliant about your court,
That will fight duels three?
Before that I be hanged or slain,
On the Tailliant's sword I'll die.'

23 But some is to the good green wood,
And some is to the plain,
Either to see fair Johnie hanged,
Or else to see him slain.

24 And they began at eight o clock of the morning,
And they fought on till three,
Till the Tailliant, like a swallow swift,
Owre Johnie's head did flee.

25 But Johnie being a clever young boy,
He wheeled him round about,
And on the point of Johnie's broad sword
The Tailliant he slew out.

26 'A priest, a priest,' fair Johnie cried,
'To wed my love and me;'
'A clerk, a clerk,' her father cried,
'To sum the tocher free.'

27 'I'll have none of your gold,' fair Johnie said,
'Nor none of your white monie;
But I will have my own fair bride,
For I vow that I've bought her dear.'

28 He's taen his true-love by the hand,
He led her up the plain:
'Have you any more of your English dogs
You want for to have slain?'

29 He took a little horn out of his pocket,
He blew it baith loud and shill,
And honour's into Scotland gone,
In spite of England's skill.