No. 263: The New-Slain Knight
[There are no known US or Canadian traditional versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (There are no footnotes for this ballad)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A
5. End-Notes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 263. The New-Slain Knight
A. Roud No. 3887: The New-Slain Knight (4 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 263. The New-Slain Knight (Bronson gives no music examples and texts)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A)
Child's Narrative: 263. The New-Slain Knight
A. 'The New-Slain Knight,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 197.
A knight (who twaddles in the first person at the beginning) finds a maid sleeping under a hedge, wakes her, and tells her that he has seen a dead man in her father's garden. She asks about the dead man's hawk, hound, sword. His hawk and hound were gone, his horse was tied to a tree, a bloody sword lay under his head. She asks about his clothes, and receives a description, with the addition that his hair was bonny and new combed. 'I combed it late yesterday!' says the lady. 'Who now will shoe my foot, and glove my hand, and father my bairn?' The knight offers himself for all these, but the lady will commit herself only to Heaven. The knight, after knacking his fingers quite superfluously, unmasks; he has only been making a trial of her truth.
A large part of this piece is imitated or taken outright from very well known ballads (as has already been pointed out by the editor of the Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland, 1871, p. 345): 5-8 from 'Young Johnstone,' No 88; 10, 11 from 'The Lass of Roch Royal,' No 76 (see particularly E 1-4, and compare No 66, A 24, etc.); for 131,2 see No 91, B 51, 61, 71, D 71,2, No 257, A 7.
Grundtvig notes that this piece is of the same description as the Danish 'Troskabsproven,' Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, IV, 553, No 252, one version of which is translated by Prior, III, 289, No 146. Naturally, the fidelity of maid or wife is celebrated in the ballads of every tongue and people. This particular ballad, so far as it is original, is of very ordinary quality. The ninth stanza is pretty, but not quite artless.
Translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. 294, No 46.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
A large part of this piece is imitated or taken outright from very well known ballads (Nos. 76, 88, etc.)- The ninth stanza is pretty, but not quite artless.
Child's Ballad Text
'The New-Slain Knight'- Version A; Child 263 The New-Slain Knight
'The New-Slain Knight,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 197.
1 My heart is lighter than the poll;
My folly made me glad,
As on my rambles I went out,
Near by a garden-side.
2 I walked on, and father on,
Love did my heart engage;
There I spied a well-faird maid,
Lay sleeping near a hedge.
3 Then I kissd her with my lips
And stroked her with my hand:
'Win up, win up, ye well-faird maid,
This day ye sleep oer lang.
4 'This dreary sight that I hae seen
Unto my heart gives pain;
At the south side o your father's garden,
I see a knight lies slain.'
5 'O what like was his hawk, his hawk?
Or what like was his hound?
And what like was the trusty brand
This new-slain knight had on?'
6 'His hawk and hound were from him gone,
His steed tied to a tree;
A bloody brand beneath his head,
And on the ground lies he.'
7 'O what like was his hose, his hose?
And what like was his shoon?
And what like was the gay clothing
This new-slain knight had on?'
8 'His coat was of the red scarlet,
His waistcoat of the same;
His hose were of the bonny black,
And shoon laced with cordin.
9 'Bonny was his yellow hair,
For it was new combd down;'
Then, sighing sair, said the lady fair,
'I combd it late yestreen.
10 'O wha will shoe my fu fair foot?
Or wha will glove my hand?
Or wha will father my dear bairn,
Since my love's dead and gane?'
11 'O I will shoe your fu fair foot,
And I will glove your hand;
And I'll be father to your bairn,
Since your love's dead and gane.'
12 'I winna father my bairn,' she said,
'Upon an unkent man;
I'll father it on the King of Heaven,
Since my love's dead and gane.'
13 The knight he knackd his white fingers,
The lady tore her hair;
He's drawn the mask from off his face,
Says, Lady, mourn nae mair.
14 'For ye are mine, and I am thine,
I see your love is true;
And if I live and brook my life
Ye'se never hae cause to rue.'
End-Notes
101, 111. fair fu.
Additions and Corrections
P. 434 b. Translated also by Gerhard, p. 168.