"O mother dear, when we were thine," _All alone, and alonie_; "We neither wore the silks nor the sabelline"-- 35 _Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie_. "But out ye took a little penknife"-- _All alone, and alonie_; "An ye parted us and our sweet life"-- _Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie_. 40 "But now we're in the heavens hie"-- _All alone, and alonie_; "And ye have the pains o' hell to dree"-- _Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie_. MAY COLVIN, OR FALSE SIR JOHN. In the very ancient though corrupted ballads of _Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight_, and _The Water o' Wearie's Well_ (vol. i. p. 195, 198), an Elf or a Merman occupies the place here assigned to False Sir John. Perhaps _May Colvin_ is the result of the same modernizing process by which _Hynde Etin_ has been converted into _Young Hastings the Groom_ (vol. i. p. 294, 189). The coincidence of the name with _Clerk Colvill_, in vol. i. p. 192, may have some significance. This, however, would not be the opinion of Grundtvig, who regards the Norse and German ballads resembling _Lady Isabel_, &c., as compounded of two independent stories. If this be so, then we should rather say that a ballad similar to _May Colvin_ has been made to furnish the conclusion to the pieces referred to. The story of this ballad has apparently some connection with _Bluebeard_, but it is hard to say what the connection is. (See _Fitchers Vogel_ in the Grimms' _K. u. H.-Märchen_, No. 46, and notes.) The versions of the ballad in other languages are all but innumerable: e. g. _Röfvaren Rymer_, _Röfvaren Brun_, _Svenska F.-V._, No. 82, 83; _Den Falske Riddaren_, Arwidsson, No. 44; _Ulrich und Aennchen_, _Schön Ulrich u. Roth-Aennchen_, _Schön Ulrich und Rautendelein_, _Ulinger_, _Herr Halewyn_, etc., in _Wunderhorn_, i. 274; Uhland, 141-157 (four copies); Erk, _Liederhort_, 91, 93; Erlach, iii. 450; Zuccalmaglio, _Deutsche Volkslieder_, No. 15; Hoffmann, _Schlesische Volkslieder_, No. 12, 13, and _Niederländische Volkslieder_, No. 9, 10; etc. etc. A very brief Italian ballad will be found in the Appendix, p. 391, which seems to have the same theme. In some of the ballads the treacherous seducer is an enchanter, who prevails upon the maid to go with him by the power of a spell. _May Colvin_ was first published in Herd's Collection, vol. i. 153. The copy here given is one obtained from recitation by Motherwell, (_Minstrelsy_, p. 67,) collated by him with that of Herd. It is defective at the end. The other versions in Sharpe's _Ballad Book_, p. 45, and Buchan's _Ballads of the North of Scotland_, ii. 45, though they are provided with some sort of conclusion, are not worth reprinting. A modernized version, styled _The Outlandish Knight_, is inserted in the Notes to _Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads_, Percy Society, vol. xvii. 101.