The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)
General
The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)
Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts
(3.) A Flemish broadside, which may originally have been of the 15th
century, relates the adventures of the Duke of Brunswick in sixty-five
stanzas of four long lines: reprinted in von der Hagen's Germania, VIII,
359, and Hoffmann's Niederländische Volkslieder, No 2, p. 6;
Coussemaker, No 47, p. 152; abridged and made over, in Willems, O. v.
L., p. 251, No 107. The duke, going to war, tells his wife to marry
again if he stays away seven years. She gives him half of her ring.
Seven years pass, and the duke, being then in desperate plight in a
wilderness, is taken off by a ship; by providential direction, no doubt,
though at first it does not so appear. For the fiend is aboard, who
tells him that his wife is to be married to-morrow, and offers, for his
soul, to carry him to his palace in his sleep before day. The duke,
relying on heaven and his lion, professes to accept the terms: he is to
be taken to his palace _in his sleep_. The lion rouses his master at the
right time, and the fiend is baffled. The duke goes to the marriage
feast, and sends a message to the bride that he desires a drink from her
in memory of her lord. They take him for a beggar, but the lady orders
him wine in a gold cup. The cup goes back to her with the duke's half
ring in it. She cries, "It is my husband!" joins her half to the one in
the cup, and the two adhere firmly.
(4.) A German poem of the 15th century, by Michel Wyssenhere, in
ninety-eight stanzas of seven lines, first printed by Massmann,
Denkmæler deutscher Sprache und Literatur, p. 122, and afterwards by
Erlach, II, 290, and elsewhere. The Lord of Brunswick receives an
impression in a dream that he ought to go to the Holy Sepulchre. He cuts
a ring in two, and gives his wife one half for a souvenir, but fixes no
time for his absence, and so naturally says nothing about her taking
another husband. He has the adventures which are usual in other versions
of the story, and at last finds himself among the Wild Hunt (das wöden
her), and obliges one of the company, by conjurations, to tell him how
it is with his wife and children. The spirit informs him that his wife
is about to marry another man. He then constrains the spirit to
transport him and his lion to his castle. This is done on the same terms
as in the Flemish poem, and the lion wakes his master. His wife offers
him drink; he lets his half ring drop in the glass, and, upon the glass
being returned to the lady, she takes out the token, finds it like her
half, and cries out that she has recovered her dear husband and lord.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account