Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth. Sidgwick Frank
knots
That was amo’ that ladie’s locks?
35.
‘And wha has taen out the kaims of care
That hangs amo’ that ladie’s hair?
36.
‘And wha’s taen down the bush o’ woodbine
That hang atween her bower and mine?
37.
‘And wha has kill’d the master kid
That ran beneath that ladie’s bed?
38.
‘And wha has loosed her left-foot shee,
And lotten that lady lighter be?’
39.
O Willie has loosed the nine witch knots
That was amo’ that ladie’s locks.
40.
And Willie’s taen out the kaims o’ care
That hang amo’ that ladie’s hair.
41.
And Willie’s taen down the bush o’ woodbine
That hang atween her bower and thine.
42.
And Willie has killed the master kid
That ran beneath that ladie’s bed.
43.
And Willie has loosed her left-foot shee,
And letten his ladie lighter be.
44.
And now he’s gotten a bonny young son,
And mickle grace be him upon.
THE WEE WEE MAN
The Text is that of Herd’s MS. and his Scots Songs. Other versions vary very slightly, and this is the oldest of them.
There is a fourteenth-century MS. (in the Cotton collection) containing a poem not unlike The Wee Wee Man; but there is no justification in deriving the ballad from the poem, which may be found in Ritson’s Ancient Songs (1829), i. p. 40.
Scott incorporates the story with The Young Tamlane.
THE WEE WEE MAN
1.
1.4 ‘ere,’ i.e. e’er.
As I was wa’king all alone,
Between a water and a wa’,
And there I spy’d a wee wee man,
And he was the least that ere I saw.
2.
2.1 ‘shathmont,’ a span.
2.2 ‘thimber,’ gross.
His legs were scarce a shathmont’s length,
And thick and thimber was his thigh;
Between his brows there was a span,
And between his shoulders there was three.
3.
He took up a meikle stane,
And he flang ’t as far as I could see;
Though I had been a Wallace wight,
I couldna liften’t to my knee.
4.
‘O wee wee man, but thou be strang!
O tell me where thy dwelling be?’
‘My dwelling’s down at yon bonny bower;
O will you go with me and see?’
5.
On we lap, and awa’ we rade,
Till we came to yon bonny green;
We lighted down for to bait our horse,
And out there came a lady fine.
6.
Four and twenty at her back,
And they were a’ clad out in green;
Though the King of Scotland had been there,
The warst o’ them might hae been his queen.
7.
On we lap, and awa’ we rade,
Till we came to yon bonny ha’,
Whare the roof was o’ the beaten gould,
And the floor was o’ the cristal a’.
8.
When we came to the stair-foot,
Ladies were dancing, jimp and sma’,
But in the twinkling of an eye,
My wee wee man was clean awa’.
COSPATRICK
The Text is that of Scott’s Minstrelsy (1802). It was ‘taken down from the recitation of a lady’ (his mother’s sister, Miss Christian Rutherford), and collated with a copy in the Tytler-Brown MS. The ballad is also called Gil Brenton, Lord Dingwall, Bangwell, Bengwill, or Brangwill, Bothwell, etc.
The Story is a great favourite, not only in Scandinavian ballads, but also in all northern literature. The magical agency of bed, blankets, sheets, and sword, is elsewhere extended to a chair, a stepping-stone by the bedside (see the Boy and the Mantle, First Series, p. 119), or the Billie Blin (see Young Bekie, First Series, pp. 6, 7, and Willie’s Lady, p. 19). The Norwegian tale of Aase and the Prince is known to English readers in Dasent’s Annie the Goosegirl. The Prince is possessed of a stepping-stone by his bedside, which answers his question night and morning, and enables him to detect the supposititious bride. See also Jamieson’s translation of Ingefred and Gudrunè, in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 340.
COSPATRICK
1.
Cospatrick has sent o’er the faem,
Cospatrick brought his ladye hame.
2.
And fourscore ships have come her wi’,
The ladye by the grenewood tree.
3.
There were twal’ and twal’ wi’ baken bread,
And twal’ and twal’ wi’ gowd sae reid:
4.
And twal’ and twal’ wi’ bouted flour,
And twal’ and twal’ wi’ the paramour.
5.
Sweet Willy was a widow’s son,
And at her stirrup he did run.
6.
And she was clad in the finest pall,
But aye she let the tears down fall.
7.
‘O is your saddle set awrye?
Or rides your steed for you owre high?
8.