Ballads of Romance and Chivalry: Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - First SeriesSidgwick, Frank
General
Ballads of Romance and Chivalry: Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - First Series
Sidgwick, Frank
Ballads, English -- Texts
27.
Then up did start him Lord Ingram,
Shed by his yellow hair,
And gave Chiel Wyet to the heart,
A deep wound and a sair.
28.
There was no pity for that two lords,
Where they were lying slain;
But all was for her Lady Maisery,
In that bower she gaed brain.
29.
There was no pity for that two lords,
When they were lying dead;
But all was for her Lady Maisery,
In that bower she went mad.
30.
Said, ‘Get to me a cloak of cloth,
A staff of good hard tree;
If I have been an evil woman,
I shall beg till I dee.
31.
‘For a bit I’ll beg for Chiel Wyet,
For Lord Ingram I’ll beg three;
All for the good and honourable marriage,
At Mary Kirk he gave me.’
[Annotations:
1.4: ‘honour’: Motherwell printed _bonheur_.
6.3: ‘ben,’ in.
8.2: ‘sell’: Motherwell gave _kill_.
12: Cp. _Lady Maisry_, 21.
16.4: ‘neen,’ none, not.
18.2: ‘garl,’ gravel.
26.1: Motherwell gives _did stand_.
28.4: ‘brain,’ mad.
30.2: ‘tree,’ wood.
31.1: ‘a’ = ae, each.]
THE TWA SISTERS O’ BINNORIE
+Texts.+--The version here given is compounded from two different
sources, almost of necessity. Stanzas 1-19 were given by Scott,
compounded from W. Tytler’s Brown MS. and the recitation of an old
woman. But at stanza 20 Scott’s version becomes eccentric, and he prints
such verses as:--
‘A famous harper passing by
The sweet pale face he chanced to spy ...
The strings he framed of her yellow hair,
Whose notes made sad the listening air.’
Stanzas 20-25, therefore, have been supplied from the Jamieson-Brown
MS., which after this point does not descend from the high level of
ballad-poetry.
+The Story.+--This is a very old and a very popular story. An early
broadside exists, dated 1656, and the same version is printed in _Wit
Restor’d_, 1658. Of Scandinavian ballads on the same subject, nine are
Danish, two Icelandic, twelve Norwegian, four Färöe, and eight or nine
Swedish.
THE TWA SISTERS O’ BINNORIE
1.
There were twa sisters sat in a bour,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
There came a knight to be their wooer,
_By the bonny mill-dams o’ Binnorie._
2.
He courted the eldest wi’ glove and ring,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
But he lo’ed the youngest aboon a’ thing,
_By the bonny mill-dams o’ Binnorie._
3.
He courted the eldest with broach and knife,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
But he lo’ed the youngest aboon his life,
_By the bonny mill-dams o’ Binnorie._
4.
The eldest she was vexed sair,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
And sair envìed her sister fair,
_By the bonny mill-dams o’ Binnorie._
5.
The eldest said to the youngest ane,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
‘Will ye go and see our father’s ships come in?’
_By the bonny mill-dams o’ Binnorie._
6.
She’s ta’en her by the lilly hand,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
And led her down to the river-strand,
_By the bonny mill-dams o’ Binnorie._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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