The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 5 (of 5)
General
The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 5 (of 5)
Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts
The copies in Pinkerton’s Select Scotish Ballads, II, 35, 1783,
Johnson’s Museum, p. 274, No 266, 1790, Ritson’s Scotish Songs, I,
168, 1794, etc., are all from Herd’s second edition, 1776. In this we
have, instead of the Fa la la burden, the following, presumably later
(see Herd’s MSS, I, 5):
And we’ll gang nae mair a roving,
Sae late into the night,
And we’ll gang nae mair a roving, boys,
Let the moon shine neer sae bright,
And we’ll gang nae mair a roving.
Motherwell’s MS., p. 124, has a recited copy which seems to be =B
a= as in Herd, 1776, corrupted by oral transmission. It does not
seriously differ from the original until we come to the end, where we
find an absurd stanza which is derived from =B b=.
The variations of =B b= are not the accidents of tradition, but
deliberate alterations. ‘The Jovial Beggarman,’ in The Forsaken
Lover’s Garland, No 15 of a collection of garlands, British Museum,
11621. e. 1 (“Newcastle? 1750?”), is a _rifacimento_, and a very
inferior piece. Of this Rev. S. Baring-Gould took down a copy from the
singing of a laborer on Dartmoor, in 1889.[94]
‘The Jovial Tinker and Farmer’s Daughter,’ British Museum, 1346.
m. 7 (31), ‘The Tinker and Farmer’s Daughter’s Garland,’ British
Museum, 11621. a. 6 (34), is another _rifacimento_, with less of the
original in it. The tinker, we are told at the outset, is a noble lord
disguised.
An English broadside ballad of the second half of the seventeenth
century, Pepys, III, 73, No 71, has the same story as the Scottish
popular ballad, and may have been the foundation of it, but the
Scottish ballad is a far superior piece of work. The English broadside
is given, substantially, in the notes.
‘Der Bettelman,’ Hoffmann u. Richter, Schlesische Volkslieder,
p. 45, No 24, has a generic resemblance to this ballad.[95] So,
more remotely, a Flemish ballad, ‘Ein schöner Krüppel,’ Hoffmann,
Niederländische Volkslieder, p. 129 and elsewhere. Again, a very
pretty and innocent Portuguese ballad, ‘O Cego,’ Almeida-Garrett, III,
191, No 35, Braga, Romanceiro Geral, p. 147, No 55, and Cantos pop.
do Archipelago Açoriano, p. 372, No 76 (all in Hartung, II, 103 ff.),
which Almeida-Garrett, quite extravagantly, supposed might be derived
from ‘The Gaberlunyie-Man,’ brought home from Scotland by Portuguese
sailors. There is an accidental similarity in one or two points with
the Spanish ballad ‘Tiempo es, el caballero,’ Duran, I, 163, No 307,
Primavera, II, 91, No 158.
‘The Gaberlunyie-Man’ is given in an appendix.
* * * * *
A
“Old Lady’s Collection,” No 36.
1
‘Ther is a wife in yone toun-end, an she has dothers three,
An I wad be a beager for ony of a’ the three.’
2
He touk his clouty clok him about, his peak-staff in his hand,
An he is awa to yon toun-end, leak ony peare man.
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