Roxburghe Ballads, I, 306 f; Ballad Society's reprint, II, 281.
The Politick Maid,
or,
A dainty new ditty,
Both pleasant and witty,
Wherein you may see
The maide's policie.
R. C.
Printed at London for Thomas Lambert, at the signe of the Hors-shoo in Smithfield.
Percy's Reliques, III, 238, 1765.
[180] Pepys, V, 169, No 162. An Excellent New Song, calld The Lady's Policy, or, The Baffled Knight. London, printed and sold by T. Moore, 1693. T. Moore printed 1689-93: Chappell.
Pepys, V, 170, No 163. An Answer to The Baffld Knight, or, The beautiful Lady's Second piece of policy, by which she preserved her Virginity and left the brisk Knight in Pickle. Printed for C. Bate, next the Crown Tavern in West Smithfield. C. Bates printed 1690-1702: Chappell.
Pepys, V, 171, No 164. The Third Part of the Baffld Knight, or, The Witty Lady's new Intreague, by which she left him fetterd in his Boots. Where he lay all Night in her Father's Park, Cursing his woful Misfortune. Printed for I. Deacon, at the Angel in Guilt Spur Street, without Newgate. Jonah Deacon printed 1684-95: Chappell.
I do not know that the Fourth Part was ever separately printed.
The Pepys copy is not at my disposal except for collation.
[181] "Bishop Percy found the subject worthy of his best improvements," says Ritson, for once with French neatness: Ancient Songs, p. 159.
[182] See, further on, the second Danish and the German ballad.
[183] A, E, F in Hardung's Romanceiro, I, 49-55, B, C, D, the same, pp. 59-67.
[184] As in 'Don Bueso,' Duran, I, lxv, A. de los Rios, in Jahrbuch für romanische u. englische Literatur, III, 282, two copies.
[185] "Curse women, and still more him that trusts them," says the knight at the end of Portuguese A, and so in English A.
[186] It has been contended that malato signifies a peasant of low condition: see Braga, C. p. do Arch. açor., p. 399; but, on the other hand, Amador de los Rios, as above, VII, 433. Sense requires, if not the specific meaning leprous, at least something contagious, and sufficiently serious to make the knight tremble in his saddle, as he does in Portuguese A. Hardung aptly cites from Spanish B: "Fija soy de un malato que tiene la malatia." Compare the French ballads.
Proceedings of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, I, 86, 1852. Communicated by the late Captain F. W. L. Thomas, R. N.; written down by him from the dictation of a venerable lady of Snarra Voe, Shetland.
This Shetland ballad[187] was reprinted in Colburn's New Monthly Magazine, April, 1864, with spelling Scotticized, and two or three other uncalled-for changes.
"Finns," as they are for the most part called, denizens of a region below the depths of the ocean, are able to ascend to the land above by donning a seal-skin, which then they are wont to lay off, and, having divested themselves of it, they "act just like men and women." If this integument be taken away from them, they cannot pass through the sea again and return to their proper abode, and they become subject to the power of man, like the swan-maidens and mer-wives of Scandinavian and German tradition: Grimm's Mythologie, I, 354f. Female Finns, under these circumstances, have been fain to accept of human partners. The Great Selchie, or Big Seal, of Shul Skerry, had had commerce with a woman during an excursion to the upper world. See Hibbert's Description of the Shetland Islands, pp. 566-571, and Karl Blind in the Contemporary Review, XL, 404, 1881. A correspondent of Blind gives stanza 3 with a slight variation, thus:
62. Quhen.
[187] The ballad was pointed out to me by Mr Macmath, and would have followed No 40 had I known of it earlier.
I, 2 b. Russian riddle-songs: Trudy, III, 314, No 44; V, 1073, No 208, 1190, No 6.
The Russian riddle-ballad of the merchant's son. Add: Shein, Russkiya Narodnuiya Pyesni, Plyasovuiya, Dance Songs, Nos 88, 87, 89, p. 233 f.
P. 8 a, second paragraph. Russian ballad of Impossibilities propounded reciprocally by youth and maid (including a shirt): Shein, Russkiya N. P., Plyasovuiya, Nos 85, 86, p. 231 f.
13. Another Clever Wench, in Hurwitz's Hebrew Tales, New York, 1847, p. 154, Nos 61, 62; or Sagen der Hebräer aus dem Englischen, u. s. w., Leipzig, 1828, p. 129, Nos 56, 57.
14 a, line 16. The Rusalka ballad, also in Trudy, III, 190, No 7.
14 a, the first paragraph. In the third or "Forest" book of the Mahā-bhārata, chapters 311-313, is a story that bears marks of being an ancient part of the compilation. Yudhishthira and his four younger brothers are distressed with thirst. The eldest sends these one after another in quest of water. Each reaches a lake and hears a voice of a sprite in the air, "I have the first claim on this lake. Do not drink till you have answered my questions," drinks notwithstanding, and falls as if dead. At last Yudhishthira goes himself, answers the questions, and is offered boons by the sprite. He is very modest, and asks the life of one of his two half-brothers only, not that of either of his full brothers. Whereupon the sprite rewards his virtue by bringing all four to life.
The riddles and questions are spun out at great length, and many are palpable interpolations. A few examples may be given. What is weightier (more reverend) than the earth? One's mother. What is loftier than the heavens? One's father. What is fleeter than the wind? The mind. What are more numerous than the blades of grass? Thoughts. What does not close its eyes while asleep? A fish. What is that which does not move after birth? An egg. What is that which is without heart? A stone. And so on. A paraphrase of parts of these chapters is given by Ed. Arnold, Indian Idylls, Boston, 1883, pp. 212-235.
Similarly, in the Kathā-sarit-sāgara, chapter v, a man escapes death by resolving an ogre's riddle. See Tawney's translation, I, 26, and especially the note, where Benfey is cited as comparing Mahā-bhārata, XIII, 5883 ff.
14 b. Legend of St Andrew: Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, 1881, p. 8.
18. A variety of F, G, Bruce and Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy, p. 79. 'Whittingham Fair,' popular in the north and west of the county of Northumberland; usually sung as a nursery-ballad.
Another variety of F, G, communicated by Mr Frank Kidson, Leeds, 1884; from tradition.
Variations in a fragment of the same, remembered by another person: F. Kidson.
P. 21, note, and p. 485. "Die Windsbraut soil man brav schelten, sich selber aber bekreuzigen, dann weicht sie. Sie ist des Teufels Braut. Wo eine Windsbraut auffährt, ist eine Hexe aufgesprungen." Birlinger u. Buck, Volksthümliches aus Schwaben, I, 192, No 304. G. L. K.
21. Finnur is a trold in a corresponding Icelandic story, Árnason, Íslenzkar Þjóðsögur, I, 58. G. L. K.
See, for Finn and Finns, Karl Blind in The Contemporary Review, XL, 402ff., 1881; also, 'The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry,' No 113, II, 494.
P. 24. May Colvin in Ireland. According to a Connemara story given briefly in Once a Week, II, 53 f, July 2, 1864, one Captain Webb was wont to ill-use young women, and then strip them and throw them into the Murthering Hole, not far from Maarn. At last a girl induced him to turn his back, and then thrust him into the Hole. P. Z. Round.
24 b. The Flemish ballad is given by Fétis, Histoire Générale de la Musique, V, 59, "d'après un texte ancien qui a deux strophes de plus que celui de Willems." G. L. K.
28 b. 'Ásu kvaeði' in Íslenzk fornkvæði, II, 226, No 60, A-M: this copy D (E-M). Published in 1885.
41, and p. 487 f. Russian form, corrupted.
On the oaken bridge stood Galya, there Galya stood and drew water, she drew water and spoke with Marko. "O Marko mine, what dost thou say to me? Come wander with me, youth; let us wander on foot through the dark night." One field traversed, a second they crossed, and in the third lay down on the grass to sleep. The rain began to sprinkle, the fierce rain to fall, and Marko began to slumber. "O Marko mine, sleep not while with me; bare your sword and fight with me." Young Galya vanquished Marko; she conquered Marko, and rode, she mounted and rode over the level field. Galya arrives at the new gate; there stands Marko's mother, more beautiful than gold. "Young Galya, what can I say? Have you seen Marko near my house?" "Oh, hush, mother; weep not, mourn not. Thy Marko has married in the field; he has taken to himself a fine young lady, a grave in the meadow." Trudy, V, 425, No 816.
A man beguiles a girl with tales of a land where the rivers are of honey, where pears grow on willows, and maidens are clothed in gold. Trudy, V, 335, No 660.
In one version of this ballad a cuckoo flies up and bids the maid not listen to the Cossack's tales: "I have flown all over the world, and I have never seen golden mountains, nor eaten pears from willow-trees, nor beheld maidens clad in gold."
41 a, and 487 a. A maid going to the ford for water meets Marko, and suggests that he should propose for her; if her mother will not consent, they will roam. They cross one field and two, and lie down on the grass in a third. He is falling asleep, when she wakes him with a cry that they are pursued. Marko is overtaken and his head cut off. Trudy, V, 226, No 454. No 548, p. 278, is nearly the same. No 690, p. 352, resembles in part No 454, and partly Golovatsky, I, 116.
42 a and 488 a, A. A lover takes his love by her white hands, leads her to the Danube, seizes her by the white sides, and flings her in. She asks whether she is ugly, or whether it is her ill fate. Trudy, V, 166, No 339.
In Poésies pop. de la France, MS., VI, 278, Poésies pop. de la Corrèze, a ballad called 'Chanson du brave Altizar' is mentioned as a variant of 'Dion et la Fille du Roi,' and, fol. 321 of the same volume, a version from Mortain, Basse Normandie, is said to have been communicated, which, however, I have not found. These may both belong with the French ballads at II, 356.
43 a. E. Another copy in Guillon, Chansons pop. de l'Ain, p. 85.
Add I: 'Monsieur de Savigna,' Decombe, Chansons pop. d'Ille-et-Vilaine, p. 264, No 92. The ballad begins like A, B, but the conclusion is inverted. The fair one is thrown into a pond; M. Savigna cuts away with his sword the plant she seizes when she comes up from the bottom the fourth time; she asks, If you ever go back, where will you say you left me? and he answers, In the big wood full of robbers.
59. F. In the catalogue of the British Museum, "London? 1710?"
60.
British Museum, MS. Addit. 20094. 'The Knight and the Chief's Daughter,' communicated to Mr T. Crofton Croker in 1829, as remembered by Mr W. Pigott Rogers, and believed by Mr Rogers to have been learned by him from an Irish nursery-maid.
P. 67 a, line 14. Add the Icelandic versions of 'Torkild Trundesøn' recently printed: Íslenzk fornkvæði, II, 281, No 62, A 42 f, B 42, C 29.
P. 85 b, the third paragraph. "Bei der Entbindung... muss man alle Schlösser im Hause an Thüren und Kisten aufmachen: so gebiert die Frau leichter." Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube, p. 355, No 574, ed. 1869. G. L. K.
P. 96 b, line 1. In England the north side of the burial-ground is appropriated to unbaptized children, suicides, etc. Brand's Antiquities, ed. Hazlitt, II, 214-218.
97 b. Add: Portuguese. Roméro, Cantos pop. do Brazil, No 4, 'D. Duarte e Donzilha,' I, 9: sicupira and collar.
Romaic. Chasiotis, p. 169, No 5, lemon and cypress; Aravandinos, p. 284 f, Nos 471, 472, cypress and reed.
97 b, and 489 b. Russian. Bezsonof, Kalyeki Perekhozhie, I, 697-700, Nos 167, 168 (Ruibnikof): Vasily is laid on the right, Sophia on the left; golden willow and cypress. The hostile mother pulls up, breaks down, the willow; cuts down, pulls up, the cypress.
Trudy, V, 711, No 309, A, man buried under church, wife under belfry; green maple and white birch. B-J, other copies with variations. V, 1208, No 50, a Cossack blossoms into a thorn, a maid into an elder; his mother goes to pull up the thorn, hers to pluck up the elder. "Lo, this is no thorn! it is my son!" "Lo, this is no elder! it is my daughter!"
489 b, eighth line from below, read, for laburnum, silver willow, and golden willow in the next line but one; and also for No 285.
98 a. Magyar. In Ungarische Revue, 1883, pp. 756-59, these three and one more.
Chinese. Hanpang has a young and pretty wife named Ho, whom he tenderly loves. The king, becoming enamored of her, puts her husband in prison, where he kills himself. Ho throws herself from a high place, leaving a letter to the king, in which she begs that she may be buried in the same tomb as her husband; but the king orders them to be put in separate graves. In the night cedars spring up from their tombs, which thrive so extraordinarily that in ten days their branches and their roots are interlocked. A. de Gubernatis, La Mythologie des Plantes, II, 53, from Schlegel, Uranographie chinoise, p. 679. (Already cited by Braga.)
P. 116 a, C 51. Bed-head should certainly be bed-stock: cf. B 31.
P. 119 b. Färöe versions. Seven are now known, and one is printed, from the manuscript collection of Färöe ballads made by Svend Grundtvig and Jørgen Bloch, in Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, No 7, p. 23, 'Harpu rima.'
124 b. Waldau, Böhmische Granaten, II, 97. R. Köhler. (I have never been able to get the second volume.)
125 a.