No. 169: Johnie Armstrong
[There are no known US or Canadian versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A-C (Changes for A b and B b, B c found in End-Notes)
5. Endnotes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 169. Johnie Armstrong
A. Roud No. 76: Johnie Armstrong (41 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 169. Johnie Armstrong (including Bronson's music examples)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A-C with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: 169. Johnie Armstrong
A. a. 'A Northern Ballet,' Wit Restord in sererall Select Poems not formerly published, London, 1658, p. 30, in Facetiæ, London, 1817, I, 132.
b. 'A Northern Ballad,' Wit and Drollery, London, 1682, p. 57.
B. a. 'John Arm-strongs last Good - Night,' etc., Wood, 401, fol. 93 b, Bodleian Library.
b. Pepys Ballads, II, 183, No 117.
c. 'Johnny Armstrongs last Good-Night,' Old Ballads, 1723, I, 170.
C. 'Johnie Armstrang,' The Ever Green, 1724, II, 190.
A b is not found in Wit and Drollery, 1661; it is literally repeated in Dryden's Miscellanies, 1716, III, 307. B is in the Roxburghe collection, III, 513, the Bagford, I, 64, II, 94, and no doubt in others. It was printed by Evans, 1777, II, 64, and by Ritson, English Songs, 1783, II, 322. C was printed by Herd, 1769, p. 260, 1776 (with spelling changed), I, 13; by Ritson, Scotish Songs, 1794, II, 7; by Scott, 1802, I, 49, 1833, I, 407 (with a slight change or two).
'Ihonne Ermistrangis dance' is mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland, 1549, ed. Murray, p. 66. The tune of C is No 356 of Johnson's Museum; see further Stenhouse, in the I edition of 1853, IV, 335 f.
Of his copy C, Ramsay says: "This is the true old ballad, never printed before. . . This I copied from a gentleman's mouth of the name of Armstrang, who is the sixth generation from this John. He tells me this was ever esteemd the genuine ballad, the common one false." Motherwell remarks, Minstrelsy, p. lxii, note 3: "The common ballad alluded to by Ramsay [A, B] is the one, however, which is in the mouths of the people. His set I never heard sung or recited; but the other frequently." A manuscript copy of B, entitled Gillnokie, communicated to Percy by G. Paton, Edinburgh, December 4, 1778, which has some of the peculiar readings of B a, introduces the 27th stanza of C [1] in place of 12, and has 'Away, away, thou traitor strong' for 121. A copy in Buchan's Manuscripts, I, 61, 'The Death of John Armstrong,' has the first half of C 18 and also of C 19 (with very slight variations). Another Scottish copy, which was evidently taken from recitation, introduces C 23 after 14.[2]
Both forms of the ballad had been too long printed to allow validity to any known recited copy. Besides the three already mentioned, there is one in Kinloch's Manuscripts, V, 263, which intermixes two stanzas from Johnie Scot. The Scottish copies naturally do not allow 'Scot' to stand in 173. Paton's substitutes 'chiell'; the others 'man,' and so a broadside reprinted by Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary, I, 130.
The Armstrongs were people of consideration in Liddesdale from the end, or perhaps from the middle, of the fourteenth century, and by the sixteenth had become the most important sept, as to numbers, in that region, not only extending themselves over a large part of the Debateable Land,[3] but spreading also into Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchopedale, and Annandale. The Earl of Northumberland, in 1528, puts the power of the Armstrongs, with their adherents, above three thousand horsemen. Mangerton, in Liddesdale, on the east bank of the Liddel, a little north of its junction with the Kersope, was the seat of the chief. John Armstrong, known later as Gilnockie, a brother of Thomas, laird of Mangerton, is first heard of in 1525. Removing from Liddesdale early in the century, as it is thought, he settled on the church lands of Canonby, and at a place called The Hollows, on the west side of the Esk, built a tower, which still remains.[4]
Others of the Armstrongs erected strong houses in the neighborhood. Lord Dacre, the English warden of the West Marches, essayed to surprise these strengths in the early part of 1528, but was foiled by John and Sym Armstrong, though he had a force of two thousand men. The Armstrongs, if nominally Scots, were so far from being "in due obeysaunce" that, at a conference of commissioners of both realms in November of the year last named, the representatives of the Scottish king could not undertake to oblige them to make redress for injuries done the English, though a peace depended upon this condition. Perhaps the English border suffered more than the Scottish from their forays (and the English border, we are informed, was not nearly so strong as the Scottish, neither in "capetayns nor the commynnaltie"), but how little Scotland was spared appears from what Sym Armstrong, the laird of Whitlaugh, in the same year again, told the Earl of Northumberland: that himself and his adherents had laid waste in the said realm sixty miles, and laid down thirty parish churches, and that there was not one in the realm of Scotland dare remedy the same. Indeed, our John, Thomas of Mangerton, Sym of Whitlaugh, and the rest, seem to be fairly enough described in an English indictment as " enemies of the king of England, and traitors, fugitives, and felons of the king of Scots."[5]
Other measures having failed, King James the Fifth, in the summer of 1530, took the pacifying of his borders into his own hand, and for this purpose levied an army of from eight to twelve thousand men. The particulars of this noted expedition are thus given by Lindsay of Pitscottie.[6]
"The king ... made a convention at Edinburgh with all the lords and barons, to consult how he might best stanch theiff and river within his realm, and to cause the commons to live in peace and rest, which long time had been perturbed before. To this effect he gave charge to all earls, lords, barons, freeholders and gentlemen, to compeir at Edinburgh with a month's victual, to pass with the king to daunton the thieves of Teviotdale and Annandale, with all other parts of the realm; also the king desired all gentlemen that had dogs that were good to bring them with them to hunt in the said bounds, which the most part of the noblemen of the Highlands did, such as the earls of Huntly, Argyle, and Athol, who brought their deer-hounds with them and hunted with his majesty. These lords, with many other lords and gentlemen, to the number of twelve thousand men, assembled at Edinburgh, and therefrom went with the king's grace to Meggat-land, in the which bounds were slain at that time eighteen score of deer. After this hunting the king hanged John Armstrong, laird of Kilnokie; which many a Scotsman heavily lamented, for he was a doubtit man, and as good a chieftain as ever was upon the borders, either of Scotland or of England. And albeit he was a loose-living man, and sustained the number of twenty-four well-horsed able gentlemen with him, yet he never molested no Scotsman.[7] But it is said, from the Scots border to Newcastle of England, there was not one, of whatsoever estate, but paid to this John Armstrong a tribute, to be free of his cumber, he was so doubtit in England. So when he entered in before the king, he came very reverently, with his foresaid number very richly appareled, trusting that in respect he had come to the king's grace willingly and voluntarily, not being taken nor apprehended by the king, he should obtain the more favor. But when the king saw him and his men so gorgeous in their apparel, and so many braw men under a tyrant's commandment, throwardlie he turned about his face, and bade take that tyrant out of his sight, saying, What wants yon knave that a king should have? But when John Armstrong perceived that the king kindled in a fury against him, and had no hope of his life, notwithstanding of many great and fair offers which he offered to the king that is, that he should sustain himself, with forty gentlemen, ever ready to await upon his majesty's service, and never to take a penny of Scotland nor Scotsmen; secondly, that there was not a subject in England, duke, earl, lord, or baron, but within a certain day he should bring any of them to his majesty, quick or dead he, seeing no hope of the king's favor towards him, said very proudly, I am but a fool to seek grace at a graceless face. But had I known, sir, that ye would have taken my life this day, I should have lived upon the borders in despite of King Harry and you both; for I know King Harry would down weigh my best horse with gold to know that I were condemned to die this day. So he was led to the scaffold, and he and all his men hanged."
Buchanan's account is, that the king undertook an expedition for the suppressing of freebooters in July, 1530, with an army of about eight thousand men, and encamped at Ewes water, near which was the hold of John Armstrong, a chief of a band of thieves, who had struck such terror into the parts adjacent that even the English for many miles about paid him tribute. Under enticement of the king's officers, John set out to pay a visit to the king with about fifty horsemen, both unarmed and without a safe-conduct, and on his way fell in with a body of scouts, who took him to their master as a pretended prisoner, and he and most of his men were hanged. The authors of his death averred that Armstrong had promised the English to put the neighboring Scots territory under their sway, if they would make it for his interest; whereas the English were extremely pleased at his death, because they were rid of a redoubtable enemy.[8]
Bishop Lesley says simply that in the month of June (apparently 1529) the king passed to the borders with a great army, where he caused forty-eight of the most noble thieves, with John Armstrong, their captain, to be taken, who being convict of theft, reiff, slaughter, and treason, were all hanged upon growing trees.[9]
Another account gives us positively and definitely to understand that the Armstrongs were not secured without artifice. "On the eighth of June the principals of all the surnames of the clans on the borders came to the king, upon hope of a proclamation proclaimed in the king's name that they should all get their lives if they would come in and submit themselves in the king's will. And so, upon this hope, John Armstrong, who kept the castle of Langholm (a brother of the laird of Manger ton's, a great thief and oppressor, and one that kept still with him four and twenty well-horsed men), came in to the king; and another called Will Armstrong, another stark thief, with sundry of the Scotts and Elliotts, came all forward to the camp where the king was, in hope to get their pardons. But no sooner did the king perceive them, and that they were come afar off, when direction was given presently to enclose them round about; the which was done, accordingly, and were all apprehended, to the number of thirty-five persons, and at a place called Carlaverock Chapel were all committed to the gallows... The English people was exceeding glad when they understood that John Armstrong was executed, for he did great robberies and stealing in England, maintaining twenty-four men in household every day upon reiff and oppression."[10]
The place of execution is mentioned by no other historian than Anderson, just quoted, and he gives it as Carlaverock Chapel. But this must be a mistake for Carlenrig Chapel, Carlaverock not being in the line of the king's progress. James is known to have been at Carlenrig[11] on the 5th of July, and Johnie Armstrong not to have been alive on the eighth. It has been popularly believed that Johnie and his band were buried in Carlenrig churchyard (where the graves used to be shown), and their execution made so deep an impression on the people[12] that it is not unplausible that the fact should be remembered, and that the ballad C, in saying that John was murdered at Carlenrig, has followed tradition rather than given rise to it.
It appears from Lindsay's narrative that Johnie Armstrong came to the king voluntarily, and that he was not "taken or apprehended." Buchanan says that he was enticed by the king's officers, and Anderson that the heads of the border-clans were induced to come in by a proclamation that their lives should be safe. It is but too likely, therefore, that the capture was not effected by honorable means, and this is the representation of the ballads. There is no record of a trial,[13] and the execution was probably as summary as the arrest was perfidious.
The ballads treat facts with the customary freedom and improve upon them greatly. In A, B, English ballads, Johnie is oddly enough a Westmorland man,[14] though in B 11 he admits himself to be a subject of the Scots king. The king writes John a long letter promising to do him no wrong, A 4; a loving letter, to come and speak with him speedily, B 4, C 2. Johnie goes to Edinburgh with the eight-score men that he keeps in his hall, all in a splendid uniform, asks grace, and is told that he and his eight-score shall be hanged the next morning. They are not unarmed, and resolve to fight it out rather than be hanged. They kill all the king's guard but three, B 16, but all Edinburgh rises; four-score and ten of Johnie's men lie gasping on the ground, A 14. A cowardly Scot comes behind Johnie and runs him through; like Sir Andrew Barton, he bids his men fight on; he will bleed awhile, then rise and fight again. Most of his company are killed, but his foot-page escapes and carries the bad news to Giltnock Hall. His little son, by or on the nurse's knee, vows to revenge his father's death.
C differs extensively from A, B, indeed resembles or repeats the English ballad only in a few places: C 2 = A 4, B 4; C 6 = B 10; C 7 = A g, B 11; C 223,4 = A 113,4, B 133,4. The Eliots go with the Armstrongs according to C 3, and it is the intention to bring the king to dine at Gilnockie. In C 9-17 Johnie offers twenty-four steeds, four of them laden with as much gold as they can carry, twenty-four mills, and as much wheat as their hoppers can hold, twenty-four sisters-sons, who will fight to the utterance, tribute from all the land between 'here' and Newcastle, all this for his life. The king replies to each successive offer that he never has granted a traitor's life, and will not begin with him. Johnie gives the king the lie as to his being a traitor; he could make England find him in meal and malt for a hundred years, and no Scot's wife could say that he had ever hurt her the value of a fly. Had he known how the king would treat him, he would have kept the border in spite of all his army. England's king would be a blithe man to hear of his capture. At this point the king is attracted by Johnie's splendid girdle and hat, and exclaims, What wants that knave that a king should have! Johnie bids farewell to his brother, Laird of Mangerton (Thomas, here called Kirsty), and to his son Kirsty, and to Gilnock-Hall, and is murdered at Carlenrig with all his band.
It will be observed that the substance, or at least the hint, of C 213,4, 173,4, 26, 15, 223,4, 23, 241,2, is to be found in Lindsay's narrative.
In the last stanza of A and of B, Johnie Armstrong's son (afterwards known as Johnie's Christy) sitting on his nurse's knee, B (cf. 30), or standing by his nurse's knee, A, vows, if he lives to be a man, to have revenge for his father's death.[15] Not infrequently, in popular ballads, a very young (even unborn) child speaks, by miracle, to save a life, vindicate innocence, or for some other kindly occasion;[16] sometimes again to threaten revenge, as here. So a child in the cradle in 'Frændehævn,' Grundtvig, I, 28, No 4, B 34 (= C 63), and in 'Hævnersværdet,' I, 351, No 25, sts 29, 30; and Kullervo in his third month, Kalevala, Rune 31, Schiefner, p. 194, w. 109-112.[17]
Johnie's plain speech to the king in C 19, 'Ye lied, ye lied, now, king!' is such as we have often heard before in these ballads: see I, 427, No 47, A 14; I, 446, No 50, A 8, 9; I, 452 f, No 52, C 10, D 7; II, 25 f, No 58, G 7, H 10; II, 269 ff, No 83, D 13, B 16, F 22; II, 282, No 86, A 6; III, 62, 67, No 117, sts 114, 222. It is not unexampled elsewhere. So Sthenelus to Agamemnon, II. iv, 204; Ἀτπείδη, μὴ ψεύδἐ, ἐπιστάμενος σάφα εἰπεῖν; and Bernardo del Carpio, on much the same occasion as here,
Mentides, buen rey, mentides,
que no decides verdad,
que nunca yo fuí traidor,
Wolf & Hofmann, Primavera, I, 38 and 41; see also I, 186, II, 100, 376.
This ballad was an early favorite of Goldsmith's: "The music of the finest singer is dissonance to what I felt when our old dairy-maid sung me into tears with Johnny Armstrong's Last Good Night, or the Cruelty of Barbara Allen." Essays, 1765, p. 14.
C is translated by Talvi, Versuch, u.s.w., p. 543; by Schubart, p. 179; by Loève-Veimars, p. 270.
Footnotes:
1. 'Where got thou these targits, Jony,
That hings so low down by thy knee?'
'I got them, cukel king, in the field,
Where thow and thy men durst not come see.'
2. This copy I have in Manuscript and have not noted, neither can I remember, how I came by it, but it is probably a transcript from recent print. It diverges from the ordinary text more than any that I have seen. After 17 comes this stanza (cf. 'Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires,' No 140, B 29):
They took the gallows frae the slack,
An there they set it on a plain,
An there they hanged Johnnie Armstrong,
Wi fifty of his warlike men.
18-20, 23 are wanting. A "pretty little boy," in what corresponds to 21, 22, says, 'Johnnie Armstrong you'll never see,' and the lady ends the ballad with:
If that be true, my pretty little boy,
Aye the news you tell to me,
You'll be the heir to a' my lands,
You an your young son after thee.
3. A tract on the extreme western border, beginning between the mouths of the Sark and Esk and stretching north and east eight miles, with a greatest breadth of four miles. The particulars of the boundaries are given from an old roll in Nicolson and Burn's Westmorland and Cumberland, I, xvi, and as follows by Mr. T. J. Carlyle, The Debateable Land, Dumfries, 1868, p. 1: "bounded on the west by the Sark and Pingleburn, on the north by the Irvine burn, Tarras, and Reygill, on the east by the Mereburn, Liddal, and Esk, and on the south by the Solway Frith." The land was parted between England and Scotland in 1552, with no great gain to good order for the half century succeeding.
4. It has been maintained that there was a Gilnockie tower on the eastern side of the Esk, a very little lower than the Hollows tower. "We can also inform our readers that Giltknock Hall was situate on a small rocky island on the river Esk below the Langholm, the remains of which are to be seen:" Crito in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, March 8, 1773. "Many vestiges of strongholds can be traced within the parish, although there is only one, near the new bridge already described, that makes an appearance at this point, its walls being yet entire:" Statistical Account of Canoby, Sinclair, XIV, 420.
Sir John Sinclair, 1795; says, in a note to this last passage, that the spot of ground at the east end of "the new bridge" is, "indeed, called to this day, Gill-knocky, but it does not exhibit the smallest vestige of mason-work." Mr. T. J. Carlyle, The Debateable Land, p. 17, gives us to understand that the foundations of the tower were excavated and removed when the bridge was built; but this does not appear to be convincingly made out.
5. The History of Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchopedale, and The Debateable Land, by Robert Bruce Armstrong, 1883, pp 177 f, 227 f, 245, 259 f; Appendix, pp. xxvi, xxxi.
6. The Cronicles of Scotland, etc., edited by J.G. Daiyell, 1814, II, 341 ff. (partially modernized, for more comfortable reading).
7. Wherein, if this be true, John differed much from Sym.
8. Rerum Scoticarum Historia, 1582, fol. 163 b, 164.
9. History of Scotland, Bannatyne Club, 1830, p. 143.
10. Anderson's History, Manuscript, Advocates Library, I, fol. 153f. Anderson flourished about 1618-35. He gives the year both as 1527 and 1528. Cited by Armstrong:, History of Liddesdale, etc., p. 274 f. For what immediately follows, Armstrong, pp. 273, 279.
11. A place two miles north of Mosspaul, on the road from Langholm to Hawick.
12. Scott remarks that the "common people of the high parts of Teviotdale, Liddesdale, and the country adjacent, hold the memory of Johnie Armstrong in very high respect." "They affirm, also," he adds, "that one of his attendants broke through the king's guard, and carried to Gilnockie Tower the news of the bloody catastrophe:" but that is in the English ballad, B 20.
13. Dr. Hill Burton has made a slight slip here, III, 146, ed. 1863; compare Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, I, 154.
14. He lived in the West March, if that helps to an explanation
15. Found also in one copy of Hugh the Graeme, Buchan's Manuscripts, I, 63, st. 15. Borrowed by Sir Walter Scott in The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto I, ix.
16. See many cases in Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 210 f, to which may be added: Milà, Romancerillo, No 243, pp. 219-21; Briz, II, 222; Amador de los Rios, Historia de la Lit. Esp., VII, 449; El Folk-Lore Andaluz, 1882, pp. 41, 77; Almeida-Garrett, II, 56, note; Nigra, C. P. del Piemonte, No 1, E-I, N, O; 'Le serpent vert,' Poésies p. de la France, Manuscript, III, fol. 126, 508, now printed by Holland, III, 10; Kolberg, Pieśni ludu polskiego, No 18, p. 208; Luzel, I, 81, II, 357, 515; Brewer, Dictionary of Miracles, pp. 205, 355 f.; Gaidoz, and others, Mélusine, IV, 228 ff., 272 ff., 298, 323 f., 405.
17. Grundtvig, No 84, 'Hustru og Mands Moder,' is not so good a case, though a boy just born announces that he will revenge his mother, because the boy is born nine years old; II, 412, D 30, E 18. This again in Kristensen, I, 202 f, No 74, B 12, C 11, and II, 113 ff, No 35, A 18, B 14, C 11. The stanza cited by Dr. Prior, I, 37, from 'Hammen von Reystett,' Wunderhorn, 1808, II, 179, is hardly to the purpose.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
'Ihonne Ermistrangis dance' is mentioned in The Complaynt of (Scotland, 1549 (ed. Murray, p. 66). The ballad is known in two forms, — one represented by A and B, the other by C. It was an early favorite of Goldsmith's: "The music of the finest singer is dissonance to what I felt when our old dairy-maid sung me into tears with Johnny Armstrong's Last Good-Night, or the Cruelty of Barbara Allen" (Essays, 1765, p. 14).
The Armstrongs were people of consideration in Liddesdale from the end, or perhaps from the middle, of the fourteenth century, and hy the sixteenth had become the most important sept, as to numbers, in that region, not only extending themselves over a large part of the Debateable Land, but spreading also into Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchopedale, and Annandale The Earl of Northumberland, in 1528, puts the power of the Armstrongs, with their adherents, above three thousand horsemen. Mangerton, in Liddesdale, on the east bank of the Liddel, a little north of its junction with the Kersope, was the seat of the chief. John Armstrong, known later as Gilnockie, a brother of Thomas, laird of Mangerton, is first heard of in 1525. Removing from Liddesdale early in the century, as it is thought, he settled on the church lands of Canonby, and at a place called The Hollows, on the west side of the Esk, built a tower, which still remains. The Armstrongs, if nominally Scots, were so far from being "in due obeysaunce" that, at a conference of commissioners of both realms in November of the year 1528, the representatives of the Scottish king could not undertake to oblige them to make a redress for injuries done the English, though a peace depended upon this condition. Both the English and the Scottish border suffered from their forays. Other measures having failed, King James V, in 1530, took the pacifying of his borders into his own hand, and for this purpose levied an army of from eight to twelve thousand men. Among the reivers who suffered death was John Armstrong of Gilnockie, the hero of the present ballad. It appears from various accounts that his capture was not effected by honorable means. There is no record of a trial, and the execution was probably as summary as the arrest was perfidious.
Child's Ballad Texts
'A Northern Ballet'- Version A a; Child 169 Johnie Armstrong
a. Wit Restord in severall Select Poems not formerly publisht, London, 1658, p. 30, in Facetiae, London, 1871, I, 132.
b. Wit and Drollery, London, 1682, p. 57.
1 There dwelt a man in faire Westmerland,
Ionn Armestrong men did him call,
He had nither lands nor rents coming in,
Yet he kept eight score men in his hall.
2 He had horse and harness for them all,
Goodly steeds were all milke-white;
O the golden bands an about their necks,
And their weapons, they were all alike.
3 Newes then was brought unto the king
That there was sicke a won as hee,
That liv'd lyke a bold out-law,
And robb d all the north country.
4 The king he writt an a letter then,
A letter which was large and long;
He sign d it with his owne hand,
And he promised to doe him no wrong.
5 When this letter came Ionn untill,
His heart it was as blythe as birds on the tree:
'Never was I sent for before any king,
My father, my grandfather, nor none but mee.
6 'And if wee goe the king before,
I would we went most orderly;
Every man of you shall have his scarlet cloak,
Laced with silver laces three.
7 'Every won of you shall have his velvett coat,
Laced with silver lace so white;
O the golden bands an about your necks,
Black hatts, white feathers, all alyke.'
8 By the morrow morninge at ten of the clock,
Towards Edenburough gon was hee,
And with him all his eight score men;
Good lord, it was a goodly sight for to see!
9 When Ionn came befower the king,
He fell downe on his knee;
'O pardon, my soveraigne leige,' he said,
'O pardon my eight score men and mee!'
10 'Thou shalt have no pardon, thou traytor strong,
For thy eight score men nor thee;
For to-morrow morning by ten of the clock,
Both thou and them shall hang on the gallow-tree.'
11 But Ionn looke'd over his left shoulder,
Good Lord, what a grevious look looked hee!
Saying, Asking grace of a graceles face —
Why there is none for you nor me.
12 But Ionn had a bright sword by his side,
And it was made of the mettle so free,
That had not the king, stept his foot aside,
He had smitten his head from his faire boddee.
13 Saying, Fight on, my merry men all,
And see that none of you be taine;
For rather then men shall say we were hange'd,
Let them report how we were slaine.
14 Then, God wott, faire Eddenburrough rose,
And so besett poore Ionn rounde,
That fowerscore and tenn of Ionn s best men
Lay gasping all upon the ground.
15 Then like a mad man Ionn laide about,
And like a mad man then fought hee,
Untill a falce Scot came Ionn behinde,
And runn him through the faire boddee.
16 Saying, Fight on, my merry men all,
And see that none of you be taine;
For I will stand by and bleed but awhile,
And then will I come and fight againe.
17 Newes then was brought to young Ionn Armestrong,
As he stood by his nurses knee,
Who vowed if ere he live'd for to be a man,
O the treacherous Scots revengd hee'd be.
----------
'Iohn Arm-strongs last Good Night,' etc.- Version B a; Child 169 Johnie Armstrong
a. Wood, 401, fol. 93 b, London, printed for Francis Grove (1620-557).
b. Pepys, II, 133, No 117, London, printed for W. Thackeray and T. Passenger (1660-82?).
c. A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723, I, 170.
1 Is there never a man in all Scotland,
From the highest state to the lowest degree,
That can shew himself now before the king?
Scotland is so full of their traitery.
2 Yes, there is a man in Westmerland,
And John Armstrong some do him call;
He has no lands nor rents coming in,
Yet he keeps eightscore men within his hall.
3 He has horse and harness for them all,
And goodly steeds that be milk-white,
With their goodly belts about their necks,
With hats and feathers all alike.
4 The king he writ a lovely letter,
With his own hand so tenderly,
And has sent it unto John Armstrong,
To come and speak with him speedily.
5 When John he looked the letter upon,
Then, Lord! he was as blithe as a bird in a tree:
'I was never before no king in my life,
My father, my grandfather, nor none of us three.
6 'But seeing we must [go] before the king,
Lord! we will go most valiantly;
You shall every one have a velvet coat,
Laid down with golden laces three.
7 'And you shall every one have a scarlet cloak,
Laid down with silver laces five,
With your golden belts about your necks,
With hats [and] brave feathers all alike.'
8 But when John he went from Guiltknock Hall!
The wind it blew hard, and full sore it did rain:
'Now fare you well, brave Guiltknock Hall!
I fear I shall never see thee again.'
9 Now John he is to Edenborough gone,
And his eightscore men so gallantly,
And every one of them on a milk-white steed,
With their bucklers and swords hanging down to the knee.
10 But when John he came the king before,
With his eightscore men so gallant to see,
The king he moved his bonnet to him;
He thought he had been a king as well as he.
11 'O pardon, pardon, my soveraign leige,
Pardon for my eightscore men and me!
For my name it is John Armstrong,
And a subject of yours, my leige,' said he.
12 'Away with thee, thou false traitor!
No pardon I will grant to thee,
But, to-morrow before eight of the clock,
I will hang thy eightscore men and thee.'
13 O how John looked over his left shoulder!
And to his merry men thus said he:
I have asked grace of a graceless face,
No pardon here is for you nor me.
14 Then John pulld out a nut-brown sword,
And it was made of mettle so free;
Had not the king moved his foot as he did,
John had taken his head from his body.
15 'Come, follow me, my merry men all,
We will scorn one foot away to fly;
It never shall be said we were hung like doggs;
No, wee'l fight it out most manfully.'
16 Then they fought on like champions bold —
For their hearts was sturdy, stout, and free —
Till they had killed all the kings good guard;
There was none left alive but onely three.
17 But then rise up all Edenborough,
They rise up by thousands three;
Then a cowardly Scot came John behind,
And run him thorow the fair body.
18 Said John, Fight on, my merry men all,
I am a little hurt, but I am not slain;
I will lay me down for to bleed a while,
Then I'le rise and fight with you again.
19 Then they fought on like mad men all,
Till many a man lay dead on the plain;
For they were resolved, before they would yield,
That every man would there be slain.
20 So there they fought couragiously,
'Till most of them lay dead there and slain,
But little Musgrave, that was his foot-page,
With his bonny grissell got away untain.
21 But when he came up to Guiltknock Hall,
The lady spyed him presently:
'What news, what news, thou little foot-page?
What news from thy master and his company?'
22 'My news is bad, lady,' he said,
'Which I do bring, as you may see;
My master, John Armstrong, he is slain,
And all his gallant company.
23 'Yet thou are welcome home, my bonny grisel!
Full oft thou hast fed at the corn and hay,
But now thou shalt be fed with bread and wine,
And thy sides shall be spurred no more, I say.'
24 O then bespoke his little son,
As he was set on his nurses knee:
'If ever I live for to be a man,
My fathers blood revenged shall be.'
----------
'Johnie Armstrang'- Version C; Child 169 Johnie Armstrong
Allan Ramsay, The Ever Green, II, 190, "copied from a gentleman's mouth of the name of Armstrang, who is the 6th generation from this John."
1 Sum speiks of lords, sum speiks of lairds,
And siclyke men of hie degrie;
Of a gentleman I sing a sang,
Sumtyme calld Laird of Gilnockie.
2 The king he wrytes a luving letter,
With his ain hand sae tenderly:
And he hath sent it to Johny Armstrang,
To cum and speik with him speidily.
3 The Eliots and Armstrangs did convene,
They were a gallant company:
'We'ill ryde and meit our lawful king,
And bring him safe to Gilnockie.
4 'Make kinnen and capon ready, then,
And venison in great plenty;
We'ill welcome hame our royal king;
I hope he'ill dyne at Gilnockie!'
5 They ran their horse on the Langum howm,
And brake their speirs with mekle main;
The ladys lukit frae their loft-windows,
'God bring our men weil back again!'
6 When Johny came before the king,
With all his men sae brave to see,
The king he movit his bonnet to him;
He weind he was a king as well as he.
7 'May I find grace, my sovereign liege,
Grace for my loyal men and me?
For my name it is Johny Armstrang,
And subject of yours, my liege,' said he.
8 'Away, away, thou traytor, strang!
Out of my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit never a traytors lyfe,
And now I'll not begin with thee.'
9 'Grant me my lyfe, my liege, my king,
And a bony gift I will give to thee;
Full four-and-twenty milk-whyt steids,
Were a' foald in a yeir to me.
10 'I'll gie thee all these milk-whyt steids,
That prance and nicher at a speir,
With as mekle gude Inglis gilt
As four of their braid backs dow beir.'
11 'Away, away, thou traytor strang!
Out o' my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit never a traytors lyfe,
And now I'll not begin with thee.'
12 'Grant me my lyfe, my liege, my king,
And a bony gift I'll gie to thee;
Gude four-and-twenty ganging mills,
That gang throw a' the yeir to me.
13 'These four-and-twenty mills complete
Sall gang for thee throw all the yeir,
And as mekle of gude reid wheit
As all their happers dow to bear.'
14 'Away, away, thou traytor, strang!
Out of my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit never a traytors lyfe,
And now I'll not begin with thee.'
15 'Grant me my lyfe, my liege, my king,
And a great gift I'll gie to thee;
Bauld four-and-twenty sisters sons,
Sall for the fecht, tho all sould flee.'
16 'Away, away, thou traytor, strang!
Out of my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit nevir a traytors lyfe,
And now I'll not begin with thee.'
17 'Grant me my lyfe, my liege, my king,
And a brave gift I'll gie to thee;
All betwene heir and Newcastle town
Sall pay thair yeirly rent to thee.'
18 'Away, away, thou traytor, strang!
Out of my sicht thou mayst sune be!
I grantit nevir a traytors lyfe,
And now I'll not begin with thee.'
19 'Ye lied, ye lied, now, king,' he says,
'Althocht a king and prince ye be,
For I luid naithing in all my lyfe,
I dare well say it, but honesty;
20 'But a fat horse, and a fair woman,
Twa bony dogs to kill a deir:
But Ingland suld haif found me meil and malt,
Gif I had livd this hundred yeir!
21 'Scho suld haif found me meil and malt,
And beif and mutton in all plentie;
But neir a Scots wyfe could haif said
That eir I skaithd her a pure flie.
22 'To seik het water beneth cauld yce,
Surely it is a great folie;
I haif asked grace at a graceless face,
But there is nane for my men and me.
23 'But had I kend, or I came frae hame,
How thou unkynd wadst bene to me,
I wad haif kept the border-syde,
In spyte of all thy force and thee.
24 'Wist Englands king that I was tane,
O gin a blyth man wald he be!
For anes I slew his sisters son,
And on his breist-bane brak a tree.'
25 John wore a girdle about his midle,
Imbroiderd owre with burning gold,
Bespangled with the same mettle,
Maist beautifull was to behold.
26 Ther hang nine targats at Johnys hat,
And ilk an worth three hundred pound:
'What wants that knave that a king suld haif,
But the sword of honour and the crown!
27 'O whair gat thou these targats, Johnie,
That blink sae brawly abune thy brie?'
'I gat them in the field fechting,
Wher, cruel king, thou durst not be.
28 'Had I my horse, and my harness gude,
And ryding as I wont to be,
It sould haif bene tald this hundred yeir
The meiting of my king and me.
29 'God be withee, Kirsty, my brither,
Lang live thou Laird of Mangertoun!
Lang mayst thou live on the border-syde
Or thou se thy brither ryde up and doun.
30 'And God be withee, Kirsty, my son,
Whair thou sits on thy nurses knee!
But and thou live this hundred yeir,
Thy fathers better thoult never be.
31 'Farweil, my bonny Gilnock-Hall,
Whair on Esk-syde thou standest stout!
Gif I had lived but seven yeirs mair,
I wald haif gilt thee round about.'
32 John murdred was at Carlinrigg,
And all his galant companie;
But Scotlands heart was never sae wae,
To see sae mony brave men die.
33 Because they savd their country deir
Frae Englishmen; nane were sae bauld,
Whyle Johnie livd on the border-syde,
Nane of them durst cum neir his hald.
End-Notes
A. a. 33. syke a.
174. O th' the.
b. 32. sick a man.
52. it wanting.
61. And therefore if.
74. and white.
84. an it: for wanting.
91. Johnnee.
102. Ne for.
11. There Johnne.
113. Said he.
114. yee.
122. the wanting.
134. that we.
143. Johnnee's.
154. thorough.
B. a. Iohn Arm-strongs last good night. Declaring How John Arm-strong and his eightscore men fought a bloody bout with a Scottish king at Edenborough.
To a pretty northern tune called, Fare you well, guilt Knockhall.
61. we must before; perhaps rightly.
81,3, 211. guilt Knock-hall.
Signed T. R.
London, Printed for Francis Grove on S[n]owhill.
Entered according to order.
b. Title: with the Scottish. To a pretty new northern tune: called, &c., omitted.
12. estate.
14. of treachery.
22. Jonny: they do.
41. writes a loving.
42. And with.
43. hath.
51. this letter.
51. Good Lord.
52. he lookt.
53. a king.
61. must go.
62. most gallantly.
71. And ye.
74. hats and.
81,3, 211. guilt Knock-hall.
82. full fast.
83. fare thee well thou guilt.
91. Johnny.
94. to their.
101. he wanting.
123. to morrow morning by eight.
124. hang up.
131. Johnny.
141. out his.
153. It shall ne'r.
154. We will.
162. were.
164. but two or.
171,2. rose.
173. Then wanting.
182. little wounded but am.
192. up on.
202. Musgrove.
211. up wanting.
223. Johnny Armstrong is.
232. been fed with.
241. bespake.
243. for wanting.
244. father's death.
Signed T.R.
London, Printed for W. Thackeray and T. Passenger.
c. Johnny Armstrongs, last Good-night, shewing how John Armstrong, with his Eightscore Men, fought a bloody Battle with the Scotch King at Edenborough. To a Northern Tune.
11. ever.
12. estate.
13. our king.
14. full of treachery.
22. Johnny: they do.
31. horses.
41. writes a loving.
42. And with.
43. hath: Johnny.
51. this letter.
52. He lokd as blith.
53. a king.
61. must go.
62. most gallantly.
63. Ye.
71. And every one shall.
64. hats and feathers.
81. Johnny went: Giltnock.
32. full fast.
83. fare thee well thou Giltnock.
91. Johnny.
92. With his.
94. hanging to their.
101. he wanting.
113. Johnny.
114. a wanting.
123. will I.
123. to-morrow morning by eight.
124. hangup.
131. Then Johnny.
134. there is: you and.
141. his good broad sword.
142. That was made of the.
144. his fair.
152. foot for to.
153. shall never be: hangd.
154. We will.
162. were.
164. were: but one, two or three.
171,2. rose.
173. Then wanting.
174. through.
182. little wounded but am.
183. for wanting.
211. up wanting.
211. Giltnock.
223. lohnny Armstrong is.
232. hast been fed with corn.
241. bespake.
242. he sat on.
243. for wanting.
244. fathers death.
C. Printed in stanzas of eight lines.
Zours, zeir, etc., are here printed yours, yeir, etc.; quhnir, quheit, here, whair, wheit.
51. hown.
11, 14, 16, 18, only Away, away thou traytor, etc., is printed.
194. sayit
Additions and Corrections
P. 371 f. B a, b are signed T. R., the initials of a purveyor or editor of ballads for the popular press. B a of 'Robin Hood and the Butcher,' No 122, and a of 'Robin Hood and the Beggar,' I, No 133, bear the same signature: see pp. 116, 156 of this volume. No such rhymster as T. R. shows himself to be in these two last pieces could have made 'Johnie Armstrong,' one of the best ballads in English.
P. 367, note †. A new-born child thrown into the water by its mother tells her that she has lost Paradise: 'L'Enfant noyé,' La Tradition, V, 116.
[P. 367. Johnie's plain speech to the king. So in Li Charrois de Nymes, v. 283, in Jonkbloet, Guillaume d'Orange, I, 80: "Et dit Guillaumes, 'Dans rois, vos i mentez.'"]
367, and note. The Baron of Brackley's son (No 203), set on the nurse's knee, uses nearly the same words as Johnie Armstrong's in B, 24. M. Gaidoz, Mélusine, VII, 70, cites from Hone the passage in No 54 (B, 5, 6 see also A, 5, 6, D, 4, 5), in which Jesus speaks from his mother's womb. See further Mélusine, IV, 447, V, 36, 257, VI, 92.