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
#A.# 'Monchisa,' sixty-four short verses, Bernoni, Canti popolari
veneziani, Puntata v, No 2. A count's son asks Monchesa, a knight's
daughter, in marriage in the evening, espouses her in the morning, and
immediately carries her off. When they are "half-way," she heaves a
sigh, which she says is for father and mother, whom she shall no more
see. The count points out his castle; he has taken thirty-six maids
there, robbed them of their honor, and cut off their heads. "So will I
do with you when we are there." The lady says no word till she is asked
why she is silent; then requests the count to lend her his sword; she
wishes to cut a branch to shade her horse. The moment she gets the sword
in her hand, she plunges it into his heart; then throws the body into a
ditch. On her way back, she meets her brother, whom she tells that she
is looking after the assassins who have killed her husband. He fears it
was she; this she denies, but afterwards says she must go to Rome to
confess a great sin. There she obtains prompt absolution.
#B.# 'La Figlia del Conte,' Adolf Wolf, Volkslieder aus Venetien, No 73,
#a#, 34 vv, #b#, 48 vv. Here it is the daughter of a count that marries
Malpreso, the son of a knight. He takes her to France immediately. She
goes sixty miles (#b#) without speaking. She confesses to her brother
what she has done.
#C.# Righi, Canti popolari veronesi, 58 vv, No 94*, p. 30. The count's
son marries Mampresa, a knight's daughter. For thirty-six miles she does
not speak; after five more she sighs. She denies to her brother having
killed her husband, but still says she must go to the pope to confess an
old sin; then owns what she has done.
#D.# 'La Monferrina,' 48 vv, Nigra, Canzoni popolari del Piemonte, in
Rivista Contemporanea, XXIV, 76. The lady is a Monferrina, daughter of a
knight. After the marriage they travel fifty miles without speaking to
one another. Fifty-two Monferrine have lost their heads; the bridegroom
does not say why. She goes to the Pope to confess.
#E.# 'La Vendicatrice,' an incomplete copy from Alexandria, 18 vv only,
Marcoaldi, Canti popolari, No 12, p. 166, like #D#, as far as it goes.
Thirty-three have been beheaded before.
#F.# 'La Inglese,' 40 vv, Ferraro, Canti popolari di Ferrara, Cento e
Pontelagoscuro, No 2, p. 14. The count's son marries an English girl,
daughter of a knight. She never speaks for more than three hundred
miles; after two hundred more she sighs. She denies having killed her
husband; has not a heart of that kind.
#G.# 'La Liberatrice,' 24 vv, Ferraro, Canti popolari monferrini, No 3,
p. 4. Gianfleisa is the lady's name. When invited to go off, she says,
If you wish me to go, lend me a horse. Not a word is spoken for five
hundred miles. The man (Gilardu) points out his castle, and says that no
one he has taken there has ever come back. Gianfleisa goes home without
meeting anybody.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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