No. 53: Young Beichan (or Young Bekie) also (Lord Bateman)
(Turkish Lady: See Appendix; Child No. 53A.)
[This ballad, despite its length, was popular in the 1800s and 1900s partially due to the large number of print versions. A number of broadsides from the British Isles titled Lord Bateman date back to Johnson in 1815 and begin "Lord Bateman was a noble lord" corresponding to Child L, reportedly from tradition (the informant "Tripe Skewer") by Cruikshank and titled, "The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman." In this broadside Bateman is chained to a tree in prison and it's "Sophia" who crosses the sea. Child adds in Additions and Corrections:
Substitute for L this (Pitts) broadside: 'Lord Bateman,'
suggesting that the traditional version "Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman" is in fact a Cockney version of the broadside (see: Dixon; Child's 2nd footnote; also Logan 1869 "Turkish Lady" notes). Child himself edited out the Cockney dialect (Bronson p. 428). This is one of the fundamental sources of the ballad and has been reprinted a number of times in the US and England.
It is important to note that this online and printed information is incorrect: "a broadside of Lord Bateman was registered in England December 14, 1624 with the Stationers' Company." This 1624 ballad is "Bateman's Tragedy" and has nothing to do with "Lord Bateman/Young Beichan."
In 1966 the notes to Flanders' Ancient Ballads begin:
"This ballad has an extensive Anglo-American tradition and still is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. The American songs all trace back to early broadsides and song books and quite generally refer to the hero as Lord Bateman or Bakeman."
Although it is true that "most" of Flanders texts A-X (24 versions; 69 pages) are based on print sources, other versions in the US are not (See Hick/Harmon versions) and were brought to the US and Canada and spread wholly by oral transmission. There are two influential print forms in North America: 1) The 1810 Coverly Broadside (and other similar reprints) which begin, "in India there lived a noble lord," and 2) Child L, the Pitts broadside "Lord Bateman" which is also "The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman" reportedly taken from an oral source and polished up by Thackeray and Dickens in 1838. Child L begins "Lord Bateman was a noble lord."
The 26 stanza Coverly broadside was printed in Boston as early as 1790 (Harris collection, Barry C) and has been collected in the northeast (Flanders A-F) and Canada (Creighton F, Mackenzie A). In the Coverly, Lord Bakeman (Bateman) travels to India and marries Susannah Fair (Friar). Child L, 'The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman" (1838) began to be printed in the US by the 1850s (Uncle Frank's Series, NY) and was printed by a variety of other printers (Wehman's Universal Songster #7; c. 1882). In Child L Lord Bateman goes to Turkey (Turkish), is chained to a tree growing in prison and Lord Bateman lives in a castle (not a palace as in the Coverly) and the ballad ends: "Since Sophia crossed the sea." It appears the meaning of this tree in Child L was not apparent to the informant and Thackeray and Dickens (the editors) may even have altered it further. It was not understood by Buna Hicks in 1966 who sang an ancient version "Young Behan" to Thomas Burton in Beech Mountain, NC. Here's more about the tree:
When Lord Bateman (Young Beichan) is in prison, a torture technique, where the hole is bored in the shoulder, is found in some US versions (See Hicks/Harmon version also Cf: Sharp A, D, Davis B, E). According to Child in ESPB Volume 2, 1886:
He becomes the slave of a Moor or Turk, A, B, D, E, I, L, N, or a "Prudent," F, who treats him cruelly. They bore his shoulders and put in a "tree," and make him draw carts, like horse or ox, A, B, D, [E], H; draw plough and harrow, F, plough and cart, N; or tread the wine-press, I.
Perhaps Child N the broadside titled "Susan Py, or Young Bichen's Garland" (printed by T. Johnston, 1815), is easiest to understand:
3 In every shoulder they put a pin,
To every pin they put a tree;
They made him draw the plow and cart,
Like horse and oxen in his country.
Here's more from the Brown Collection editors:
"There are certain interesting variations among these many texts. Kittredge, in the note above referred to, remarks that some of the American texts differ from the broadsides in retaining a detail of the Turks' barbarous cruelty: a hole is bored in Beichan's shoulder by means of which he is harnessed and becomes a draft-animal. Thus in Child A:
For thro his shoulder he put a bore.
An thro the bore has pitten a tree,
An he's gard him draw the carts o wine.
Where horse and oxen had wont to be.
Similarly in B D E H I N. The word "tree" here means "draught-tree," the pole of a wagon or cart by which it is attached to the draft animal. "Tree" in this sense was apparently not an acceptable locution, was not understood in America; Henry's Tennessee text and our version E change it to "key," two of the West Virginia texts and the only text in TBV that retains this feature change the word to "rope" and the other West Virginia text to "string." Other American texts that keep the word change the meaning; the "tree" is now that to which the captive is tied (chained, nailed, bound, fastened, sometimes around his middle), giving a quite different picture. So BBM D, TBV E, SharpK A E, JAFL xxviii 150, XXX 295, and our A version."
The transformation of the "draught-tree" into an actual tree, I believe, is one of faulty oral transmission. Certainly you wouldn't imagine a tree growing in a prison, and definitely not in a prison cell.
The social and moral ramifications of the ballad are rarely discussed and Lord Bateman's/Young Beichan's behavior is overlooked. Lord Bateman/Young Beichan and Susan/Sophia make a vow and let it stand. Seven years later Bateman is not worried about waiting for this "spoken" bride and marries without concern for her, apparently believing he has honored their agreement. When he finds out from his porter that Susan/Sophia has come across the sea, he flies into a rage and breaks the table (or sword) into pieces three. Reminded of his promise, he agrees to marry Susan/Sophia but shows little concern for his marriage vows to his "young bride," who he dismisses by saying she's better off now than when she came (leaving with a coach and three).
R. Matteson 2014]
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Appendix: "The Turkish Lady"
Some US and English versions of Lord Bateman are titled "Lord Bateman or The Turkish Lady" or simply, "The Turkish Lady" (See Sharp MS; Raine; Kincaid). These "Turkish Lady" titles are really versions of "Young Beichan/Lord Bateman." A different broadside based on the theme of "Lord Bateman" is also titled, "The Turkish Lady." Of the other broadside Kittredge, editor of the final Child book, says in 1917:
"The Turkish Lady" sometimes appears as the title or sub-title of "Young Beichan." There is, however, another ballad (or song) called "The Turkish Lady,"- in a cheap literary style, - which has often been printed, and has obtained some oral currency. It tells substantially the same tale, but briefly, and names no names. (JOAFL)
Steve Roud, who separates the two ballads, "Young Beichan" and "The Turkish Lady" with two different Round numbers, commented in the liner notes of Topic Records anthology, The Bonny Labouring Boy:
Only collected a few times in England, but several times in Canada, The Turkish Lady is often presumed to be a cut-down version of the very common Young Beichan or Lord Bateman (Roud 40; Child 53), which also has a hero who gets captured by infidels and is set free by a lady. In fact, however, Young Beichan cannot be shown to be earlier than The Turkish Lady, as the latter was certainly known in 1768, when it was transcribed into the journal of the whaling ship Two Brothers (see Gale Huntington, Songs the Whalemen Sang (1964))
Child says below: A broadside ballad, 'The Turkish Lady,', The Turkish Lady and the English Slave,' printed in Logan's Pedlar's Pack, p. 16, Christie, I, 247, from singing, and preserved also in the Kinloch Manuscripts, V, 53, I, 263, from Elizabeth Beattie's recitation, simply relates how a Turkish pirate's daughter fell in love with an Englishman, her slave, offered to release him if he would turn Turk, but chose the better part of flying with him to Bristol, and becoming herself a Christian brave.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (added at the end of Child's Narration)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A-N [An additional version, 'Earl Bichet,' and two fragments were added in Additions and Corrections. D b and L b added from Additions and Corrections. Changes for C b, D b, L b and N b found in End-Notes/Additions and Corrections.]
5. Endnotes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: Young Beichan
A. Roud Number 40; Young Beichan (659 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: Young Beichan (Bronson's texts and some music examples)
3. US & Canadian Versions
4. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A-N and additional notes)]
Lord Bakeman from The Forget Me Not Songster 1840s New York
Woodcut based on an illustration by George Cruikshank, 1839
Child's Narrative
A. 'Young Bicham,' Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, fol. 13, c. 1783.
B. 'Young Brechin,' Glenriddell Manuscripts, XI, 80, 1791.
C. 'Young Bekie.'
a. Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, fol. II, c. 1783.
b. Jamieson's Popular Ballads, II, 127.
D a. 'Young Beachen,' Skene Manuscripts, p. 70, 1802-1803.
b. "The Old Lady's Collection," from which it was copied by Skene: 'Young Beachen,' No. 14
E. 'Young Beichan and Susie Pye,' Jamieson's Popular Ballads, II, 117.
F. 'Susan Pye and Lord Beichan,' Pitcairn's Manuscripts, III, 159.
G. Communicated by Mr. Alex. Laing, of Newburgh-on-Tay.
H. 'Lord Beichan and Susie Pye,' Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 200.
I. Communicated by Mr. David Loudon, Morham, Haddington.
J. Dr. Joseph Robertson's Note-Book, 'Adversaria,' p. 85
K. Communicated by Mr. David Loudon.
L a. The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman. Illustrated by George Cruikshank, 1839.
b. 'Lord Bateman,' broadside printed by Pitts, Seven Dials. The modern street or broadside ballad L (see II, 508) is given from singing by Miss Burne, Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 547
M. 'Young Bondwell,' Buchan's Manuscripts, I, 18. J.H. Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 1.
N. 'Susan Py, or Young Bichen's Garland.'
a. Falkirk, printed by T. Johnston, 1815.
b. Stirling, M. Randall.
Young Beichan
The Pictorial Book of Ancient Ballad Poetry of Great Britain
by Joseph S. Moore - 1853
A, B, D, F, and the fragment G now appear for the first time in print, and the same is true of I, J, K, which are of less account. C a is here given according to the manuscript, without Jamieson's "collations." Of E and C b Jamieson says: This ballad and that which succeeds it are given from copies taken from Mrs. Brown's recitation,[1] collated with two other copies procured from Scotland; one in Manuscript; another, very good, one printed for the stalls; a third, in the possession of the late Reverend Jonathan Boucher, of Epsom, taken from recitation in the north of England; and a fourth, about one third as long as the others, which the editor picked off an old wall in Piccadilly. L, the only English copy, was derived from the singing of a London vagrant. It is, says Dixon, the common English broadsheet "turned into the dialect of Cockaigne."[2] M was probably a broadside or stall copy, and is certainly of that quality, but preserves a very ancient traditional feature.
D and M, besides the name Linne, have in common a repetition of the song, a trait which we also find in one version of 'The Heir of Linne;'[3] see Dixon's Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 30, stanzas 2-6, Percy Society, vol. XVII.
In Bell's Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 68, it is remarked that L, "the only ancient form in which the ballad has existed in print," is one of the publications mentioned in one of Thackeray's catalogues of broadsides. The 'Bateman,' in Thackeray's list, is the title of an entirely different ballad, 'A Warning for Maidens, or Young Bateman,' reprinted from the Roxburghe collection by W. Chappell, III, 193.
"Young Beichan" is a favorite ballad, and most deservedly. There are beautiful repetitions of the story in the ballads of other nations, and it has secondary affinities with the extensive cycle of 'Hind Horn,' the parts of the principal actors in the one being inverted in the other.
The hero's name is mostly Beichan, with slight modifications like Bekie, C, Bicham, A, Brechin, B; in L, Bateman; in M, Bondwell. The heroine is Susan Pye in ten of the fourteen versions; Isbel in C; Essels, evidently a variety of Isbel, in M, which has peculiar relations with C; Sophia in K, L.
Beichan is London born in A, D, [E], H, I, N, English born in B; London city is his own, A 6, B 7, F 7, or he has a hall there, I 7, N 27 f.; half Northumberland belongs to him, L; he is lord of the towers of Line, D 9, C 5, M 5, which are in London, D 15 f, but are transferred by reciters to the water of Tay, M 29, and to Glasgow, or the vicinity, H 20. H, though it starts with calling him London born, speaks of him thereafter as a Scottish lord, 12, 18, 31.[4]
Beichan has an Englishman's desire strange countries for to see, A, D, [E], I, L, N. In C, M he goes abroad, Quentin Durward fashion, not to gratify his taste for travel, but to serve for meat and fee. F makes him go to the Holy Land, without specifying his motive, but we may fairly suppose it religious. C sends him no further than France, and M to an unnamed foreign land. He becomes the slave of a Moor or Turk, A, B, D, E, I, L, N, or a "Prudent," F, who treats him cruelly. They bore his shoulders and put in a "tree," and make him draw carts, like horse or ox, A, B, D, [E], H; draw plough and harrow, F, plough and cart, N; or tread the wine-press, I. This is because he is a staunch Christian, and would never bend a knee to Mahound or Termagant, E, or onie of their stocks, H, or gods, I. They cast him into a dungeon, where he can neither hear nor see, and he is nigh perishing with hunger. This, also, is done in H 5, on account of his perseverance in Christianity; but in C, M he is imprisoned for falling in love with the king's daughter, or other lovely may.
From his prison Beichan makes his moan (not to a stock or a stone, but to the Queen of Heaven, D 4). His hounds go masterless, his hawks flee from tree to tree, his younger brother will heir his lands, and he shall never see home again, E, H. If a lady [earl] would borrow him, he would run at her stirrup [foot, bridle]; if a widow [auld wife] would borrow him, he would become her son; and if a maid would borrow him, he would wed her with a ring, C, D, M, B.[5] The only daughter of the Moor, Turk, or king (of a 'Savoyen,' B 5, perhaps a corruption of Saracen), already interested in the captive, or immediately becoming so upon hearing Beichan's song, asks him if he has lands and means at home to maintain a lady that should set him free, and is told that he has ample estates, all of which he would bestow on such a lady, A, B, E, F, H, L, N. She steals the keys and delivers the prisoner, C, D, E, I, J, L, M, N; refreshes him with bread and wine [wine], A, D, E, F, J 4, K 3, B, H, L; supplies him with money, C 9, H 15, M 12, N 14, and with a ship, F 9, H 18, L 9; to which C, M add a horse and hounds [and hawks, M]. She bids him mind on the lady's love that freed him out of pine, A 8, D 12, [E 13], M 14, N 15, and in E 16 breaks a ring from her finger, and gives half of it to Beichan to assist his memory. There is a solemn vow, or at least a clear understanding, that they are to marry within seven years, A 9, B 9, E 12 f., H 17, 19, L 8, N 11 [three years, C 11].
When seven years are at an end, or even before, Susan Pye feels a longing, or a misgiving, which impels her to go in search of the object of her affections, and she sets her foot on good shipboard, and turns her back on her own country, A 10, B 10, D 15, L 10, N 23.[6] C and M preserve here a highly important feature which is wanting in the other versions. Isbel, or Essels, is roused from her sleep by the Billy Blin, C 14, by a woman in green, a fairy, M 15, who makes known to her that that very day, or the morn, is Bekie's [Bondwell's] wedding day. She is directed to attire herself and her maids very splendidly, and go to the strand; a vessel will come sailing to her, and they are to go on board. The Billy Blin will row her over the sea, C 19; she will stroke the ship with a wand, and take God to be her pilot, M 19. Thus, by miraculons intervention, she arrives at the nick of time.
Beichan's fickleness is not accounted for in most of the versions. He soon forgot his deliverer and courted another, he was young, and thought not upon Susan Pye, say H, N, C, on the contrary, tells us that Beichan had not been a twelvemonth in his own country, when he was forced to marry a duke's daughter or lose all his land. E and K intimate that he acts under constraint; the wedding has lasted three and thirty days, and he will not bed with his bride for love of one beyond the sea, E 21, K 1.[7]
On landing, Susan Pye falls in with a shepherd feeding his flock, E, K [a boy watering his steeds, M]. She asks, 'Whose are these sheep, these kye, these castles? and is told they are Lord Beichan's, G. She asks the news, and is informed that there is a wedding in yonder hall that has lasted thirty days and three, E, K, or that there is to be a wedding on the morn, M; it seems to be a matter generally known, N. In other versions she comes directly to Young Beichan's hall, and is first informed by the porter, A, B, F, H, L, or the fact is confirmed by the porter, E, M, N; she hears the music within, and divines, C. She bribes the porter to bid the bridegroom come and speak to her, A, B, C, D, J, N; send her down bread and wine, and not forget the lady who brought him out. of prison, B, F, H, J, K, L. In E 26 she sends up her half ring to the bridegroom [a ring in N 40, but not till Beichan has declined to come down].
The porter falls on his knee and informs his master that the fairest and richest lady that eyes ever saw is at the gate [ladies, C, M] . The bride, or the bride's mother more commonly, reproves the porter for bis graceless speech; he might have excepted the bride, or her mother, or both: "Gin she be braw without, we's be as braw within." But the porter is compelled by truth to persist in his allegation; fair as they may be, they were never to compare with yon lady, B, D, E, H, M. Beichan takes the table with his foot and makes the cups and cans to flee, B 18, D 23, F 28, G 3, H 47, J 5, N 42;[8] he exclaims that it can be none but Susie Pye, A, B, D, G, H, I [Burd Isbel, C], and clears the stair, fifteen steps, thirty steps, in three bounds, A 19, D 24, N 43. His old love reproaches him for his forgetfulness, A, C, D, M, N;[9] she asks back her faith and troth, B 21. Beichan bids the forenoon bride's mother take back her daughter: he will double her dowry, A 22, D 27, E 39; she came on horseback, she shall go back in chariots, coaches, three, B 22, D 27[10]: [H 49, in chariot free]. He marries Susie Pye, having her baptized by the name of Lady Jean, A, B, D, [E], F, I, J.[11]
This story of Beichan, or Bekie, agrees in the general outline, and also in some details, with a well-known legend about Gilbert Beket, father of St. Thomas. The earlier and more authentic biographies lack this particular bit of romance, but the legend nevertheless goes back to a date not much later than a century after the death of the saint, being found in a poetical narrative preserved in a manuscript of about 1300.[12]
We learn from this legend that Gilbert Beket, in his youth, assumed the cross and went to the Holy Land, accompanied only by one Richard, his servant. They "did their pilgrimage" in holy places, and at last, with other Christians, were made captive by the Saracens and put in strong prison. They suffered great hardship and ignominy in the service of the Saracen prince Admiraud. But Gilbert found more grace than the rest; he was promoted to serve the prince at meat (in his chains), and the prince often would ask him about England and the English faith. Admiraud's only daughter fell in love with Gilbert, and when she saw her time, in turn asked him the like questions. Gilbert told her that he was born in London; told her of the belief of Christians, and of the endless bliss that should be their meed. The maid asked him if he was ready to die for his Lord's love, and Gilbert declared that he would, joyfully. When the maid saw that he was so steadfast, she stood long in thought, and then said, I will quit all for love of thee, and become Christian, if thou wilt marry me. Gilbert feared that this might be a wile; he replied that he was at her disposition, but he must bethink himself. She went on loving him, the longer the more. After this Gilbert and the rest broke prison and made their way to the Christians. The prince's daughter, reduced to desperation by love and grief, left her heritage and her kin, sparing for no sorrow, peril, or contempt that might come to her, not knowing whither to go or whether he would marry her when found, and went in quest of Gilbert. She asked the way to England, and when she had come there had no word but London to assist her further. She roamed through the streets, followed by a noisy and jeering crowd of wild boys and what not, until one day by chance she stopped by the house in which Gilbert lived. The man Richard, hearing a tumult, came out to see what was the matter, recognized the princess, and ran to tell his master.[13] Gilbert bade Richard take the lady to the house of a respectable woman near by, and presently went to see her. She swooned when she saw him. Gilbert was nothing if not discreet: he "held him still," as if he had nothing in mind. But there was a conference of six bishops just then at St. Paul's, and he went and told them his story and asked advice. One of the six prophetically saw a divine indication that the two were meant to be married, and all finally recommended this if the lady would become Christian. Brought before the bishops, she said, Most gladly, if he will espouse me; else I had not left my kin. She was baptized[14] with great ceremony, and the marriage followed.
The very day after the wedding Gilbert was seized with such an overmastering desire to go back to the Holy Land that he wist not what to do. But his wife was thoroughly converted, and after a struggle with herself she consented, on condition that Beket should leave with her the man Richard, who knew her language. Gilbert was gone three years and a half, and when he came back Thomas was a fine boy.
That our ballad has been affected by the legend of Gilbert Beket is altogether likely. The name Bekie is very close to Beket, and several versions, A, D, H, T, N, set out rather formally with the announcement that Bekie was London born, like the Latin biographies and the versified one of Garnier de Pont Sainte Maxence. Our ballad, also, in some versions, has the Moor's daughter baptized, a point which of course could not fail in the legend. More important still is it that the hero of the English ballad goes home and forgets the woman he has left in a foreign land, instead of going away from home and forgetting the love he has left there. But the ballad, for all that, is not derived from the legend. Stories and ballads of the general cast of 'Young Beichan' are extremely frequent.[15] The legend lacks some of the main points of these stories, and the ballad, in one version or another, has them, as will be seen by referring to what has been said under 'Hind Horn,' pp 194 ff. Bekie and Beket go to the East, like Henry and Reinfrit of Brunswick, the Noble Moringer, the good Gerhard, Messer Torello, the Sire de Créqui, Alexander of Metz, and others. Like the larger part of these, they are made prisoners by the Saracens. He will not bow the knee to Mahound; neither will the Sire de Créqui, though he die for it.[16] Beichan is made to draw cart, plough, harrow, like a beast. So Henry of Brunswick in a Swedish and a Danish ballad,[17] and Alexander von Metz, or the Graf von Rom, in his most, beautiful and touching story.[18] Henry of Brunswick is set free by a "heathen" lady in the Danish ballad. In one version of Beichan, E, the lady on parting with her love breaks her ring and gives him one half, as Henry, or his wife, Reinfrit, Gerhard, Créqui, and others do. At this point in the story the woman pursues tbe man, and parts are inverted. Susan Pye is warned that Beichan is to be married the next day, in C by a Billy-Blin, in M by a woman in green, or fairy, and is conveyed to Beichan's castle or hall with miraculous despatch, just as Henry and others are warned, and are transported to their homes by devil, angel, or necromancer. In E and N the old love is identified by a half ring or ring, as in so many of the stories of the class of Henry the Lion.
Norse, Spanish, and Italian ballads preserve a story essentially the same as that of 'Young Beichan.'
Scandinavian.
Danish. 'Stolt Ellensborg,' Grundtvig, IV, 238, No 218, nine versions, A-G, from manuscripts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, H, I, from recent tradition. B is previously printed (with alterations) in Levninger, 'Jomfrue Ellensborg,' I, 66, No 12, Danske Viser, III, 268, No 213; I, 'Stalt Ellen henter sin Fæstemand' is in Kristensen, I, 89, No 36. Of the older texts, A, B, C are absolutely pure and true to tradition, D-G retouched or made over.
Icelandic, of the seventeenth century, Grundtvig, as above, p. 259, M.
Swedish, from Cavallius and Stephens' collection, Grundtvig, p. 255, K.
Färöe, taken down in 1827, Grundtvig, p. 256, L.
Norwegian, 'Herre Per i Riki,' Landstad, p. 596, No 76, N.
The variations of these twelve versions are insignificant. The names Herr Peder den Rige and Ellensborg [Ellen] are found in nearly all. It comes into Sir Peter's mind that he ought to go to Jerusalem to expiate his sins, and he asks his betrothed, Ellensborg, how long she will wait for him. She will wait eight years, and marry no other, though the king should woo her [seven, L; nine, M, "If I do not come then, break the engagement;" eight, and not more, N]. The time passes and Peter does not come back. Ellensborg goes to the strand. Traders come steering in, and she is asked to buy of their ware, — sendal, linen, and silk green as leek. She cares not for these things; have they not seen her sister's son [brother], for whom she is grieving to death? They know nothing of her sister's son, bnt well they know Sir Peter the rich: he has betrothed a lady in the Øster-king's realm;[19] a heathen woman, "and you never came into his mind," E 13; he is to be married to-morrow, K 6. A wee swain tells her, M 14, 16, that he sits in Austurríki drinking the ale of forgetfulness, and will never come home; he shall not drink long, says she. Ellensborg asks her brother to undertake a voyage for her; he will go with her if she will wait till summer; rather than wait till summer she will go alone, A, D, G. She asks fraternal advice about going in search of her lover, A, E, the advice of her uncles, I; asks the loan of a ship, B, C, F, H, N. She is told that such a thing would be a shame; she had better take another lover; the object is not worth the trouble; the voyage is bad for a man and worse for a woman. Her maids give her advice that is more to her mind, E, but are as prudent as the rest in the latter I. She attires herself like a knight, clips her maids' hair, B, H, I, L, M, and puts them into men's clothes, D, L; sets herself to steer and the maids to row, A-G, L. [20]
The voyage is less than two months, B, C, E; less than three months, I; quite three months, L. It is the first day of the bridal when she lands, B 22, E 24, N 14; in B Ellensborg learns this from a boy who is walking on the sand. Sword at side, she enters the hall where Peter is drinking his bridal. Peter, can in hand, rises and says, Bless your eyes, my sister's son; welcome to this strange land. In B he asks, How are my father and mother? and she tells him that his father lies dead on his bier, his mother in sick-bed. In L, waiting for no greeting, she says, Well you sit at the board with your wife! Are all lords wont thus to keep their faith? The bride's mother, D, G, the heathen bride, E, an unnamed person, probably the bride, A, B, F, N, says, That is not your sister's son, but much more like a woman; her hair is like spun gold, and braided up under a silk cap.
A tells us, and so F, G, that it was two months before Ellensborg could speak to Peter privately. Then, on a Yule day, when he was going to church, sbe said, It does not occur to you that you gave me your troth. Sir Peter stood as if women had shorn his hair, and recollected all as if it had been yesterday. In B-E, H, I, L, M, N, this incident has, perhaps, dropped out. In these immediately, as in A, F, G, after this interview, Sir Peter, recalled to his senses or to his fidelity, conceives the purpose of flying with Ellensborg. Good people, he says, knights and swains, ladies and maids, follow my bride to bed, while I take my sister's son over the meads, through the wood, B-E, H, I, N. In A, F, Sir Peter asks the bride how long she will bide while be takes bis nephew across the kingdom; in G begs the boon that, since his sister's son is going, he may ride with him, just accompany him to' the strand and take leave of him; in L, M, hopes she will not be angry if he convoys his nephew three days on his way. (It is at this point in C, H, I, L, that the bride says it is no sister's son, but a woman.) The bride remarks that there are knights and swains enow to escort his sister's son, and that he might more fitly stay where he is, but Sir Peter persists that he will see his nephew off in person.
Sir Peter and Ellensborg go aboard the ship, he crying, You will see me no more! When they are at sea Ellensborg lets out her hair, A, B, C, H; she wishes that the abandoned bride may now feel the grief which she herself had borne for years. The proceeding is less covert in I, L, M than in the other versions.
As Ellensborg and Peter are making for the ship in D 30, 31 (and G 36, 37, borrowed from D), she says, Tell me, Sir Peter, why would you deceive me so? Sir Peter answers that he never meant to deceive her; it was the lady of Østerland that did it; she had changed his mind. A magical change is meant. This agrees with what is said in A 24, 25 (also F, G), that when Ellensborg got Peter alone to herself, and said, You do not remember that you plighted your troth to me, everything came back to him as if it had happened yesterday. And again in the Färöe copy, L 49, Ellensborg, from the prow, cries to Ingibjörg on the strand, Farewell to thee with thy elfways, við títt elvargangi! I have taken to myself my true love that I lent thee so long; implying that Sir Peter had been detained by Circean arts, by a sleepy drench of óminnis öl, or ale of forgetfulness, Icelandic M 14, which, in the light of the other ballads, is to be understood literally, and not figuratively. The feature of a man being made, by magical or other means, to forget a first love who had done and suffered much for him, and being suddenly restored to consciousness and his original predilection, is of the commonest occurrence in traditional tales.[21]
Our English ballad affords no other positive trace of external interference with the hero's will than the far-fetched allegation in C that the choice before him was to accept a duke's daughter or forfeit his lands. The explanation of his inconstancy in H, N, that young men ever were fickle found, is vulgar, and also insufficient, for Beichan returns to his old love per saltum, like one from whose eyes scales have fallen and from whose back a weight has been taken, not tamely, like a facile youth that has swerved. E and K, as already said, distinctly recognize that Beichan was not acting with free mind, and, for myself, I have little doubt that, if we could go back far enough, we should find that he had all along been faithful at heart.
Spanish. A. 'El Conde Sol,' Duran, Romancero, I, 180, No 327, from tradition in Andalusia, by the editor; Wolf and Hofmann, Primavera, II, 48, No 135. In this most beautiful romance the County Sol, named general in great wars between Spain and Portugal, and leaving a young wife dissolved in tears, tells her that she is free to marry if he does not come back in six years. Six pass, and eight, and more than ten, yet the county does not return, nor does there come news of him. His wife implores and obtains leave of her father to go in search of her husband. She traverses France and Italy, land and sea, and is on the point of giving up hope, when one day she sees a herdsman pasturing cows. Whose are these cows? she asks. The County Sol's, is the answer. And whose these wheatfields, these ewes, these gardens, and that palace? whose the horses I hear neigh? The County Sol's, is the answer in each case.[22] And who that lady that a man folds in his arms? The lady is betrothed to him and the county is to marry her. The countess changes her silken robe for the herdsman's sackcloth, and goes to ask an alms at the county's gate. Beyond all hope, the county comes out himself to bring it. "Whence comest thou, pilgrim?" he asks. She was born in Spain. "How didst thou make thy way hither?" She came to seek her husband, footing the thorns by land, risking the perils of the sea; and when she found him he was about to marry, he had forgotten his faithful wife. "Pilgrim, thou art surely the devil, come to try me." "No devil," she said, "but thy wife indeed, and therefore come to seek thee." Upon this, without a moment's tarrying, the county ordered his horse, took up his wife, and made his best speed to his native castle. The bride he would have taken remained unmarried, for those that put on others' robes are sure to be stripped naked.
B. 'Gerineldo,' taken down in Asturias by Amador de los Rios, Jahrbuch für romanische u. englische Literatur, III, 290, 1861, and the same year (Nigra) in Revista Iberica, I, 51; a version far inferior to A, and differing in no important respect as to the story.
C. 'La boda interrumpida,' Milá, Romancerillo Catalan, p. 221, No 244, seven copies, A-G, none good. A, which is about one third Castilian, relates that war is declared between France and Portugal, and the son of Conde Burgos made general. The countess his wife does nothing but weep. The husband tells her to marry again if be does not come back in seven years. More than seven years are gone, and the lady's father asks why she does not marry. "How can I," she replies, "if the count is living? Give me your blessing, and let me go in search of him." She goes a hundred leagues on foot, in the disguise of a pilgrim. Arrived at a palace she sees pages pass, and asks them for whom a horse is intended. It is for Count Burgos's son, who marries that night. She asks to be directed to the young count, is told that she will find him in the hall, enters, and begs an alms, as coming from Italy and without a penny. The young man says, If you come from Italy, what is the news? Is Conde Bueso's wife living? The pilgrim desires some description of the lady. It seems that she wore a very costly petticoat on her wedding-day. The pilgrim takes off her glove and shows her ring; she also takes off and shows the expensive petticoat. There is great weeping in that palace, for first wives never can be forgotten. Don Bueso and the pilgrim clap hands and go home.
Italian: Piedmontese. A. 'Moran d'Inghilterra,' communicated to Rivista Contemporanea, XXXI, 3, 1862, by Nigra, who gives the variations of four other versions. The daughter of the sultan is so handsome that they know not whom to give her to, but decide upon Moran of England. The first day of his marriage he did nothing but kiss her, the second he wished to leave her, and the third he went off to the war. "When shall you return?" asked his wife. "If not in seven years, marry." She waited seven years, but Moran did not come. His wife went all over England on horseback, and came upon a cowherd. "Whose cows are these?" she asked. They were Moran's. "Has Moran a wife?" This is the day when he is to marry, and if she makes haste she will be in time for the wedding. She spurs her horse, and arrives in season. They offer her to drink in a gold cup. She will drink from no cup that is not her own; she will not drink while another woman is there; she will not drink till she is mistress. Moran throws his arms round her neck, saying, Mistress you ever have been and still shall be.
B. 'Morando,' Ferraro, Canti popolari monferrini, p. 42, No 32, from Alessandria. Marando d'Inghilterra, of the king's household, fell in love with the princess, for which the king sent him off. The lady knocked at his door, and asked when he would come back. In seven years, was the answer, and if not she was to marry. The princess stole a bundred scudi from her father, frizzled her hair French fashion, bought a fashionable suit, and rode three days and nights without touching ground, eating, or drinking. She came upon a laundryman, and asked who was in command there. Murando. She knocked at the door, and Murando asked, Have you come to our wedding? She would come to the dance. At the dance she was recognized by the servants. Murando asked, How came you here? "I rode three days and three nights without touching ground, eating, or drinking." This is my wife, said Murando; and the other lady he bade return to her father.
It is possible that this ballad may formerly have been known in France. Nothing is left and known that shows this conclusively, but there is an approach to the Norse form in a fragment which occurs in several widely separated localities. A lover goes off in November, promising his love to return in December, but does not. A messenger comes to bid the lady, in his name, seek another lover, for he has another love. "Is she fairer than I, or more powerful?" She is not fairer, but more powerful: she makes rosemary flower on the edge of her sleeve, changes the sea into wine and fish into flesh. Bujeaud, I, 203. In 'La Femme Abandonnée,' Puymaigre, I, 72, the lover is married to a Fleming:
Elle fait venir le soleil
A minuit dans sa chambre,
Elle fait bouiller la marmite
Sans feu et sans rente.
In a Canadian version, 'Entre Paris et Saint-Denis,' Gagnon, p. 303, the deserted woman is a king's daughter, and the new love,
Ell' fait neiger, ell' fait grêler,
Ell' fait Ie vent qui vente.
Ell' fait reluire le soleil
A minuit dans sa chambre.
Ell' fait pousser le romarin
Sur le bord de la manche.
Puymaigre notes that there is a version very near to the Canadian in the sixth volume of Poésies populaires de la France, cinquième recueil, Ardennes, No 2.[23]
A broadside ballad, 'The Turkish Lady,', The Turkish Lady and the English Slave,' printed in Logan's Pedlar's Pack, p. 16, Christie, I, 247, from singing, and preserved also in the Kinloch Manuscripts, V, 53, I, 263, from Elizabeth Beattie's recitation, simply relates how a Turkish pirate's daughter fell in love with an Englishman, her slave, offered to release him if he would turn Turk, but chose the better part of flying with him to Bristol, and becoming herself a Christian brave.
Sir William Stanley, passing through Constantinople, is condemned to die for his religion. A lady, walking under the prison walls, hears his lament, and begs his life of the Turk. She would make him her husband, and bring him to adore Mahomet. She offers to set the prisoner free if he will marry her, but he has a wife and children on English ground. The lady is sorry, but generously gives Stanley five hundred pounds to carry him to his own country. Sir William Stanley's Garland, Halliwell's Palatine Anthology, pp 277 f.
Two Magyars have been shut up in a dungeon by the sultan, and have not seen sun, moon, or stars for seven years. The sultan's daughter hears their moan, and offers to free them if they will take her to Hungary. This they promise to do. She gets the keys, takes money, opens the doors, and the three make off. They are followed; one of the Magyars kills all the pursuers but one, who is left to carry back the news. It is now proposed that there shall be a duel to determine who shall have the lady. She begs them rather to cut off her head than to fight about her. Szilágyi Niklas says he has a love at home, and leaves the sultan's daughter to his comrade, Hagymási László. Aigner, Ungarische Volksdichtungen, p. 93: see p. 107 of this volume.
C b is translated by Loève-Veimars, p. 330; E by Cesare Cantù, Documenti alla Storia Universale, Torino, 1858, Tomo Vo, Parte IIIa, p. 796; E, as retouched by Allingham, by Knörtz, L. u. R. Alt-Englands, p. 18.
Footnotes:
1. Mr. Macmath has ascertained that Mrs. Brown was born in 1747. She learned most of her ballads before she was twelve years old, or before 1759. 1783, or a litlle earlier, is the date when these copies were taken down from her singing or recitation.
2. The Borderer's Table Book, VII, 21. Dixon says, a little before, that the Stirling broadside of 'Lord Bateman' varies but slightly from the English printed by Hoggett, Durham, and Pitts, Catnach, and others, London. This is not true of the Stirling broadside of 'Young Bichen:' see N b. I did not notice, until too late, that I had not furnished myself with the broadside 'Lord Bateman,' and have been obliged to turn back the Cruikshank copy into ordinary orthography.
3. We have this repetition in two other ballads of the Skene Manuscripts besides D; see p. 316 of this volume, sts 1-9; also in 'The Lord of Learne,' Percy Manuscript, Hales and Furnivall, I, 192 f, vv 269-304.
4. "An old woman who died in Errol, Carse of Gowrie, about twenty years ago, aged nearly ninety years, was wont invariably to sing this ballad: 'Young Lundie was in Brechin born.' Lundie is an estate now belonging to the Earl of Camperdoun, north from Dundee." A. Laing, note to G. That is to say, the old woman's world was Forfarshire.
Mr. Logan had heard in Scotland a version in which the hero was called Lord Bangol: A Pedlar's Pack, p. 15.
5. Cf. 'The Fair Flower of Northumberland,' B 2, E 2, pp 115 f.
6. She does not get away without exciting the solicitude or wrath of her father, F, M, J, N, and in the first two has to use artifice.
7. A point borrowed, it well may be, from 'Hind Horn,' E 5 f, A 10.
8. So Torello's wife upsets the table, in Boccaccio's story: see p. 198. One of her Slavic kinswomen jum ps over four tables and lights on a fifth.
9. In C 34, M 49, she is recognized by one of the hounds which she had given him. So Bos, seigneur de Bénac, who breaks a ring with his wife, goes to the Enst, and is prisoner among the Saracens seven years, on coming back is recognized only by his greyhound: Magasin Pittoresque, VI, 56 b. It is scarcely necessary to scent the Odyssey here.
10. Ridiculously changed in J 6, K 6, L 20, to a coach and three, reminding us of that master-stroke in Thackeray's ballad of 'Little Billee,' "a captain of a seventy-three.", 'Little Billee,' by the way, is really like an old ballad, fallen on evil days and evil tongues; whereas the serious imitations of traditional ballads are not the least like, and yet, in their way, are often not less ludicrous.
11. In M, to make eyerything pleasant, Bondwell offers the bride five hundred pounds to marry his cousin John. She says, Keep your money; John was my first love. So Bondwell is married at early morn, and John in the afternoon
12. Harleian Manuscript 2277, from which the life of Beket, in long couplets, was prillted by Mr. W.H. Black for the Percy Society, in 1845. The story of Gilbert Beket is contained in the first 150 vv. The style of this composition entirely resembles that of Robert of Gloucester, and portions of the life of Beket are identical with the Chronicle; whence Mr. Black plausibly argues that both are by the same hand. The account of Beket's parentage is interpolated into Edward Grim's Life, in Cotton Manuscript Vitellius, C, XII, from which it is printed by Robertson, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, II, 453 ff. It is found in Bromton's Chronicle, Twysden, Scriptores X, columns 1052-55, and in the First Quadrilogus, Paris, 1495, from which it is reprinted by Migne, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, CXC, cols 346 ff. The tale has been accepted by many writers who would have been better historians for a little reading of romances. Augustin Thierry sees in Thomas Beket a Saxon contending in high place, for the interests and with the natural hatred of his race, against Norman Henry, just as he finds in the yeoman Robin Hood a leader of Saxon serfs engaged in irregular war with Norman Richard. But both of St. Thomas's parents were Norman; the father of Rouen, the mother of Caen. The legend was introduced by Lawrence Wade, following John of Exeter, into a metrical life of Beket of about the year 1500: see the poem in Englische Studien, III, 417, edited by Horstmann.
13. Richard, the proud porter of the ballads, is perhaps most like himself in M 32 ff.
14. Neither her old name nor her Christian name is told us in this legend. Gilbert Beket's wife was Matilda, according to most authorities, but Roësa according to one: see Robertson, as above, IV, 81; Migne, cols 278 f. Fox has made Roësa into Rose, Acts and Monuments, I, 267, ed. 1641.
Gilbert and Rose (but Roësa is not Rose) recall to Hippeau, Vie de St. Thomas par Garnier de Pont Sainte Maxence, p. xxiii, Elie de Saint Gille and Rosamonde, whose adventures have thus much resemblance with those of Beket and of Bekie. Elie de Saint Gille, after performing astounding feats of valor in fight with a horde of Saracens who have made a descent on Brittany, is carried off to their land. The amiral Macabré requires Elie to adore Mahomet; Elie refuses in the most insolent terms, and is condemned to the gallows. He effects his escape, and finds himself before Macabré's castle. Here, in another fight, he is desperately wounded, but is restored by the skill of Rosamonde, the amiral's daughter, who is Christian at heart, and loves the Frank. To save her from being forced to marry the king of Bagdad, Elie fights as her champion. In the end she is baptized, as a preparation for her union with Elie, but he, having been present at the ceremony. is adjudged by the archbishop to be gossip to her, and Elie and Rosamonde are otherwise disposed of. So the French romance, but in the Norse, which, as Kölbing maintains, is likely to preserve the original story here, there is no such splitting of cumin, and hero and heroine are united.
15. There is one in the Gesta Romanorum, cap. 5, Österley, p. 278, of about the same age as the Beket legend. It is not particularly important. A young man is captured by a pirate, and his father will not send his ransom. The pirate's daughter often visits the captive, who appeals to her to exert herself for his liberation. She promises to effect his freedom if he will marry her. This he agrees to. She releases him from his chains without her father's knowledge, and fli es with him to his native land.
16. Nor Guarinos in the Spanish ballad, Duran, No 402, I, 265; Wolf and Hofmann, Primavera, II, 321. Guarinos is very cruelly treated, but it is his horse, not he, that has to draw carts. For the Sire de Créqui see also Dinaux, Trouvères, III, 161 ff (Köhler).
17. And in 'Der Herr von Falkenstein,' a variety of the story, Meier, Deutsche Sagen aus Schwaben, p. 319, No 362. A Christian undergoes the same hardship in Schöppner, Sagenbuch, III, 127, No 1076. For other cases of the wonderful deliverance of captive knights, not previously mentioned by me, see Hocker, in Wolf's Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, I, 306
18. A meisterlied of Alexander von Metz, of the second half of the fifteenth century, Körner, Historische Volkslieder, p. 49; the ballad 'Der Graf von Rom,' or 'Der Graf im Pfluge,' Uhland, p. 784, No 299, printed as early as 1493; De Historie van Florentina, Huysvrouwe van Alexander van Mets, 1621, van den Bergh, De nederlandsche Volksromans, p. 52. And see Goedeke, Deutsche Dichtung im Mittelalter, pp 569, 574; Uhland, Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung, IV, 297-309; Danske Viser, V, 67.
19. Øster-kongens rige, Østerige, Østerland, Austrríki, understood by Grundtvig as Garðaríki, the Scandinavian-Russian kingdom of the tenth and eleventh centuries. Austrríki is used vaguely, but especially of the east of Europe, Russia, Austria, sometimes including Turkey (Vigfusson).
20. In Swedish K, as she pushes off from land, she exclaims:
'Gud Fader i Himmelens rike
Skall vara min styresman!'
Cf. M 28:
And she's taen God her pilot to be.
21. See 'The Red Bull of Norroway: Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland, 1870, p. 99; 'Mestermø,' Asbjørnsen og Moe, No 46; 'Hass-Fru,' Cavallius och Stephens, No 14; Powell, Icelandic Legends, Second Series, p. 377; the Grimms, Nos 56, 113, 186, 193; Pentamerone, II, 7, III, 9; Gonzenbach, Nos 14, 54, 55, and Köhler's note; Hahn, Griechische u. Albanesische Märchen, No 54; Carleton, Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, 10th ed., I, 23; Campbell, West Highland Tales, I, 25, No 2, and Köhler's notes in Orient u. Occident, II, 103-114, etc., etc.
22. This passage leads the editors of Primavera to remark, II, 52, that 'El Conde Sol' shows distinct traits of 'Le Chat Botté.' Similar questions are asked in English G, the other Spanish versions, and the Italian, and in nearly all the Greek ballads referred to on pp 199, 200; always under the same circumstances, and to bring about the discovery which gives the turn to the story. The questions in 'Le Chat Botté' are introduced for an entirely different purpose, and cannot rationally suggest a borrowing on either side. The hasty note would certainly bave been erased by the very distinguished editors upon a moment's consideration.
23. Puymaigre finds also some resemblance in his 'Petite Rosalie,' I, 74: see his note.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
Professor Child prints fifteen versions of this ballad, all hut one from Scotland. The story of Beichan agrees in the general outline and also in some details, with a well-known legend about Gilbert Beket, father of St. Thomas. The earlier and more authentic biographies lack this particular bit of romance, but the legend nevertheless goes hack to a date not much later than a century after the death of the saint, being found in a poetical narrative preserved in a manuscript of about 1300. That our ballad has been affected by the legend of Gilbert Beket is altogether likely. But the ballad is not derived from the legend. Stories and ballads of the general cast of 'Young Beichan' are extremely frequent. The legend lacks some of the main points of these stories, and the ballad (in one version or another) has them. A number of heroes, — among them Henry of Brunswick, Alexander von Metz, and the Noble Moringer, go to the East and have adventures similar to Young Beichan's. Just as Susie Pye is warned that Beichan is to be married next day, and is conveyed to Beichan's hall with miraculous dispatch, so are Henry and others warned, and transported to their homes by devil, angel, or necromancer. Norse, Spanish, and Italian ballads likewise preserve a story essentially the same as that of 'Young Beichan' It should also be compared with 'Hind Horn' (No. 17).
Child's Ballad Texts A-N
'Young Bicham'- Version A; Child 53- Young Beichan
Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, fol. 13.
1 In London city was Bicham born,
He longd strange countries for to see,
But he was taen by a savage Moor,
Who handld him right cruely.
2 For thro his shoulder he put a bore,
An thro the bore has pitten a tree,
An he's gard him draw the carts o wine,
Where horse and oxen had wont to be.
3 He's casten [him] in a dungeon deep,
Where he coud neither hear nor see;
He's shut him up in a prison strong,
An he's handld him right cruely.
4 O this Moor he had but ae daughter,
I wot her name was Shusy Pye;
She's doen her to the prison-house,
And she's calld Young Bicham one word by.
5 'O hae ye ony lands or rents,
Or citys in your ain country,
Coud free you out of prison strong,
An coud mantain a lady free?'
6 'O London city is my own,
An other citys twa or three,
Coud loose me out o prison strong,
An coud mantain a lady free.'
7 O she has bribed her father's men
Wi meikle goud and white money,
She's gotten the key o the prison doors,
An she has set Young Bicham free.
8 She's gi'n him a loaf o good white bread,
But an a flask o Spanish wine,
An she bad him mind on the ladie's love
That sae kindly freed him out o pine.
9 'Go set your foot on good ship-board,
An haste you back to your ain country,
An before that seven years has an end,
Come back again, love, and marry me.'
10 It was long or seven years had an end
She longd fu sair her love to see;
She's set her foot on good ship-board,
An turnd her back on her ain country.
11 She's saild up, so has she doun,
Till she came to the other side;
She's landed at Young Bicham's gates,
An I hop this day she sal be his bride.
12 'Is this Young Bicham's gates?' says she,
'Or is that noble prince within?'
'He's up the stairs wi his bonny bride,
An monny a lord and lady wi him.'
13 'O has he taen a bonny bride,
An has he clean forgotten me!'
An sighing said that gay lady,
I wish I were in my ain country!
14 But she's pitten her han in her pocket,
An gin the porter guineas three;
Says, Take ye that, ye proud porter,
An bid the bridegroom speak to me.
15 O whan the porter came up the stair,
He's fa'n low down upon his knee:
'Won up, won up, ye proud porter,
An what makes a' this courtesy?'
16 I've been porter at your gates
This mair nor seven years an three,
But there is a lady at them now
The like of whom I never did see.
17 'For on every finger she has a ring,
An on the mid-finger she has three,
An there's as meikle goud aboon her brow
As woud buy an earldome o lan to me.'
18 Then up it started Young Bicham,
An sware so loud by Our Lady,
'It can be nane but Shusy Pye,
That has come oer the sea to me.'
19 O quickly ran he down the stair,
O fifteen steps he has made but three;
He's tane his bonny love in his arms,
An a wot he kissd her tenderly.
20 'O hae you tane a bonny bride?
An hae you quite forsaken me?
An hae ye quite forgotten her
That gae you life an liberty?'
21 She's lookit oer her left shoulder
To hide the tears stood in her ee;
'Now fare thee well, Young Bicham,' she says,
'I'll strive to think nae mair on thee.'
22 'Take back your daughter, madam,' he says,
'An a double dowry I'll gi her wi;
For I maun marry my first true love,
That's done and suffered so much for me.'
23 He's take his bonny love by the han,
And led her to yon fountain stane;
He's changd her name frae Shusy Pye,
An he's cald her his bonny love, Lady Jane.
--------------
'Young Brechin'- Version B; Child 53 Young Beichan
Glenriddell Manuscripts, XI, 80, 1791
1 In England was Young Brechin born,
Of parents of a high degree;
The selld him to the savage Moor,
Where they abused him maist cruellie.
2 Thro evry shoulder they bord a bore,
And thro evry bore they pat a tree;
They made him draw the carts o wine,
Which horse and owsn were wont to drie.
3 The pat him into prison strong,
Where he could neither hear nor see;
They pat him in a dark dungeon,
Where he was sick and like to die.
4 'Is there neer an auld wife in this town
That'll borrow me to be her son?
Is there neer a young maid in this town
Will take me for her chiefest one?'
5 A Savoyen has an only daughter,
I wat she's called Young Brichen by;
'O sleepst thou, wakest thou, Brichen?' she says,
'Or who is't that does on me cry?
6 'O hast thou any house or lands,
Or hast thou any castles free,
That thou wadst gi to a lady fair
That out o prison wad bring thee?'
7 'O lady, Lundin it is mine,
And other castles twa or three;
These I wad gie to a lady fair
That out of prison wad set me free.'
8 She's taen him by the milk-white hand,
And led him to a towr sae hie,
She's made him drink the wine sae reid,
And sung to him like a mavosie.
9 O these two luvers made a bond,
For seven years, and that is lang,
That he was to marry no other wife,
And she's to marry no other man.
10 n seven years were past and gane,
This young lady began to lang,
And she's awa to Lundin gane,
To see if Brechin's got safe to land.
11 When she came to Young Brechin's yett,
She chappit gently at the gin;
'Is this Young Brechin's yett?' she says,
'Or is this lusty lord within?'
'O yes, this is Lord Brechin's yett,
And I wat this be his bridal een.'
12 She's put her hand in her pocket,
And thrawin the porter guineas three;
'Gang up the stair, young man,' she says,
'And bid your master come down to me.
13 'Bid him bring a bite o his ae best bread,
And a bottle o his ae best wine,
And neer forget that lady fair
That did him out o prison bring.'
14 The porter tripped up the stair,
And fell low down upon his knee:
'Rise up, rise up, ye proud porter,
What mean you by this courtesie?'
15 'O I hae been porter at your yett
This thirty years and a' but three;
There stands the fairest lady thereat
That ever my twa een did see.
16 'On evry finger she has a ring,
On her mid-finger she has three;
She's as much gold on her horse's neck
As wad by a earldom o land to me.
17 'She bids you send o your ae best bread,
And a bottle o your ae best wine,
And neer forget the lady fair
That out o prison did you bring.'
18 He's taen the table wi his foot,
And made the cups and cans to flee:
'I'll wager a' the lands I hae
That Susan Pye's come oer the sea.'
* * * * *
19 Then up and spak the bride's mother:
'And O an ill deid may ye die!
If ye didna except the bonny bride,
Ye might hae ay excepted me.'
20 'O ye are fair, and fair, madam,
And ay the fairer may ye be!
But the fairest day that eer ye saw,
Ye were neer sae fair as yon lady.'
21 O when these lovers two did meet,
The tear it blinded baith their ee;
'Gie me my faith and troth,' she says,
'For now fain hame wad I be.'
22 'Tak hame your daughter, madam,' he says,
'She's neer a bit the war o me;
Except a kiss o her bonny lips,
Of her body I am free;
She came to me on a single horse,
Now I'll send her hame in chariots three.'
23 He's taen her by the milk-white hand,
And he's led her to a yard o stane;
He's changed her name frae Susan Pye,
And calld her lusty Lady Jane.
-------------
'Young Bekie'- Version C; Child 53- Young Beichan
a. Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, fol. 11.
b. Jamieson's Popular Ballads, II, 127.
1 Young Bekie was as brave a knight
As ever saild the sea;
An he's doen him to the court of France,
To serve for meat and fee.
2 He had nae been i the court of France
A twelvemonth nor sae long,
Til he fell in love with the king's daughter,
An was thrown in prison strong.
3 The king he had but ae daughter,
Burd Isbel was her name;
An she has to the prison-house gane,
To hear the prisoner's mane.
4 'O gin a lady woud borrow me,
At her stirrup-foot I wood rin;
Or gin a widow wad borrow me,
I woud swear to be her son.
5 'Or gin a virgin woud borrow me,
I woud wed her wi a ring;
I'd gi her ha's, I'd gie her bowers,
The bonny towrs o Linne.'
6 O barefoot, barefoot gaed she but,
An barefoot came she ben;
It was no for want o hose an shoone,
Nor time to put them on.
7 But a' for fear that her father dear
Had heard her making din:
She's stown the keys o the prison-house dor
An latten the prisoner gang.
8 O whan she saw him, Young Bekie,
Her heart was wondrous sair!
For the mice but an the bold rottons
Had eaten his yallow hair.
9 She's gien him a shaver for his beard,
A comber till his hair,
Five hunder pound in his pocket,
To spen, an nae to spair.
10 She's gien him a steed was good in need,
An a saddle o royal bone,
A leash o hounds o ae litter,
An Hector called one.
11 Atween this twa a vow was made,
'Twas made full solemnly,
That or three years was come an gane,
Well married they should be.
12 He had nae been in's ain country
A twelvemonth till an end,
Till he's forcd to marry a duke's daughter,
Or than lose a' his land.
13 'Ohon, alas!' says Young Beckie,
'I know not what to dee;
For I canno win to Burd Isbel,
And she kensnae to come to me.'
14 O it fell once upon a day
Burd Isbel fell asleep,
An up it starts the Belly Blin,
An stood at her bed-feet.
15 'O waken, waken, Burd Isbel,
How [can] you sleep so soun,
Whan this is Bekie's wedding day,
An the marriage gain on?
16 'Ye do ye to your mither's bowr,
Think neither sin nor shame;
An ye tak twa o your mither's marys,
To keep ye frae thinking lang.
17 'Ye dress yoursel in the red scarlet,
An your marys in dainty green,
An ye pit girdles about your middles
Woud buy an earldome.
18 'O ye gang down by yon sea-side,
An down by yon sea-stran;
Sae bonny will the Hollans boats
Come rowin till your han.
19 'Ye set your milk-white foot abord,
Cry, Hail ye, Domine!
An I shal be the steerer o't,
To row you oer the sea.'
20 She's tane her till her mither's bowr,
Thought neither sin nor shame,
An she took twa o her mither's marys,
To keep her frae thinking lang.
21 She dressd hersel i the red scarlet,
Her marys i dainty green,
And they pat girdles about their middles
Woud buy an earldome.
22 An they gid down by yon sea-side,
An down by yon sea-stran;
Sae bonny did the Hollan boats
Come rowin to their han.
23 She set her milk-white foot on board,
Cried, Hail ye, Domine!
An the Belly Blin was the steerer o't,
To row her oer the sea.
24 Whan she came to Young Bekie's gate,
She heard the music play;
Sae well she kent frae a' she heard,
It was his wedding day.
25 She's pitten her han in her pocket,
Gin the porter guineas three;
'Hae, tak ye that, ye proud porter,
Bid the bride-groom speake to me.'
26 O whan that he cam up the stair,
He fell low down on his knee:
He haild the king, an he haild the queen,
An he haild him, Young Bekie.
27 'O I've been porter at your gates
This thirty years an three;
But there's three ladies at them now,
Their like I never did see.
28 'There's ane o them dressd in red scarlet,
And twa in dainty green,
An they hae girdles about their middles
Woud buy an earldome.'
29 Then out it spake the bierly bride,
Was a' goud to the chin;
'Gin she be braw without,' she says,
'We's be as braw within.'
30 Then up it starts him, Young Bekie,
An the tears was in his ee:
'I'll lay my life it's Burd Isbel,
Come oer the sea to me.'
31 O quickly ran he down the stair,
An whan he saw 'twas shee,
He kindly took her in his arms,
And kissd her tenderly.
32 'O hae ye forgotten, Young Bekie,
The vow ye made to me,
Whan I took you out o the prison strong,
Whan ye was condemnd to die?
33 'I gae you a steed was good in need,
An a saddle o royal bone,
A leash o hounds o ae litter,
An Hector called one.'
34 It was well kent what the lady said,
That it wasnae a lee,
For at ilka word the lady spake,
The hound fell at her knee.
35 'Tak hame, tak hame your daughter dear,
A blessing gae her wi,
For I maun marry my Burd Isbel,
That's come oer the sea to me.'
36 'Is this the custom o your house,
Or the fashion o your lan,
To marry a maid in a May mornin,
An send her back at even?'
-------------
'Young Beachen'- Version D; Child 53- Young Beichan
Skene Manuscripts, p. 70. North of Scotland, 1802-3.
1 Young Beachen was born in fair London,
And foreign lands he langed to see;
He was taen by the savage Moor,
An the used him most cruellie.
2 Through his showlder they pat a bore,
And through the bore the pat a tree;
They made him trail their ousen carts,
And they used him most cruellie.
3 The savage Moor had ae daughter,
I wat her name was Susan Pay;
And she is to the prison house,
To hear the prisoner's moan.
4 He made na his moan to a stocke,
He made na it to a stone,
Bit it was to the Queen of Heaven
That he made his moan.
5 'Gin a lady wad borrow me,
I at her foot wad run;
An a widdow wad borrow me,
I wad become her son.
6 'But an a maid wad borrow me,
I wad wed her wi a ring;
I wad make her lady of haas and bowers,
An of the high towers of Line.'
7 'Sing oer yer sang, Young Beachen,' she says,
'Sing oer yer sang to me;'
'I never sang that sang, lady,
But I wad sing to thee.
8 'Gin a lady wad borrow me,
I at her foot wad run;
An a widdow wad borrow me,
I wad become her son.
9 'But an a maid wad borrow me,
I wad wed her wi a ring;
I wad make her lady of haas and bowers,
An of the high towers of Line.'
10 Saftly, [saftly] gaed she but,
An saftlly gaed she ben,
It was na for want of hose nor shoon,
Nor time to pet them on.
11 . . . . .
. . . . .
An she has staen the keys of the prison,
An latten Young Beachen gang.
12 She gae him a leaf of her white bread,
An a bottle of her wine,
She bad him mind on the lady's love
That freed him out of pine.
13 She gae him a steed was guid in need,
A saddle of the bane,
Five hundred pown in his pocket,
Bad him gae speeding hame.
14 An a leash of guid grayhounds,
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
15 Whan seven lang years were come and gane,
Shusie Pay thought lang,
An she is on to fair London,
As fast as she could gang.
16 Whan she cam to Young Beachen's gate,
. . . . .
'Is Young Beachan at hame,
Or is he in this countrie?'
17 'He is at hame, is hear,' they said,
. . . . .
An sighan says her Susie Pay,
Has he quite forgotten me?
18 On every finger she had a ring,
On the middle finger three;
She gae the porter ane of them:
'Get a word o your lord to me.'
19 He gaed up the stair,
Fell low down on his knee:
'Win up, my proud porter,
What is your will wi me?'
20 'I hae been porter at yer gate
This thirty year and three;
The fairst lady is at yer gate
Mine eyes did ever see.'
21 Out spak the bride's mither,
An a haghty woman was she:
'If ye had na eccepted the bonny bride,
Ye might well ha eccepted me.'
22 'No disparagement to you, madam,
Nor none unto her Grace;
The sole of yonr lady's foot
Is fairer than her face.'
23 He's gaen the table wi his foot,
And couped it wi his knee:
'I wad my head and a' my land
'Tis Susie Pay, come oer the sea.'
24 The stair was thirty steps,
I wat he made them three;
He took her in his arms twa:
'Susie Pay, ye'r welcome to me.'
25 'Gie me a shive of your white bread,
An a bottle of your wine;
Dinna ye mind on the lady's love
That freed ye out of pine?'
26 He took her . . . .
Down to yon garden green,
An changed her name fra Susie Pay,
An called her bonny Lady Jean.
27 'Yer daughter came here on high horse-back,
She sal gae hame in coaches three,
An I sall double her tocher our,
She's nane the war o me.'
28 'It's na the fashion o our countrie,
Nor yet o yer nane,
To wed a maid in the morning,
An send her hame at een.'
29 'It's na the fashion o my countrie,
Nor is it of my nane,
But I man mind on the lady's love
That freed me out of pine.
------------
'Young Beichan and Susie Pye'- Version E; Child 53 Young Beichan
Jamieson's Popular Ballads, II, 117, compounded from A, a manuscript and stall copy from Scotland, a recited copy from the north of England, and a short version picked off a wall in London. (The parts which repeat A are in smaller type.)
1 In London was Young Beichan born,
He longed strange countries for to see,
But he was taen by a savage Moor,
Who handled him right cruellie.
2 For he viewed the fashions of that land,
Their way of worship viewed he,
But to Mahound or Termagant
Would Beichan never bend a knee.
3 So in every shoulder they've putten a bore,
In every bore they've putten a tree,
And they have made him trail the wine
And spices on his fair bodie.
4 They've casten him in a dungeon deep,
Where he could neither hear nor see,
For seven years they kept him there,
Till he for hunger's like to die.
5 This Moor he had but ae daughter,
Her name was called Susie Pye,
And every day as she took the air,
Near Beichan's prison she passed by.
6 O so it fell upon a day
She heard Young Beichan sadly sing:
'My hounds they all go masterless,
My hawks they flee from tree to tree,
My younger brother will heir my land,
Fair England again I'll never see!'
7 All night long no rest she got,
Young Beichan's song for thinking on;
She's stown the keys from her father's head,
And to the prison strong is gone.
8 And she has opend the prison doors,
I wot she opend two or three,
Ere she could come Young Beichan at,
He was locked up so curiouslie.
9 But when she came Young Beichan before,
Sore wonderd he that may to see;
He took her for some fair captive:
'Fair Lady, I pray, of what countrie?'
10 'O have ye any lands,' she said,
'Or castles in your own countrie,
That ye could give to a lady fair,
From prison strong to set you free?'
11 'Near London town I have a hall,
With other castles two or three;
I'll give them all to the lady fair
That out of prison will set me free.'
12 'Give me the truth of your right hand,
The truth of it give unto me,
That for seven years ye'll no lady wed,
Unless it be along with me.'
13 'I'll give thee the truth of my right hand,
The truth of it I'll freely gie,
That for seven years I'll stay unwed,
For the kindness thou dost show to me.'
14 And she has brib'd the proud warder
Wi mickle gold and white monie,
She's gotten the keys of the prison strong,
And she has set Young Beichan free.
15 She's gien him to eat the good spice-cake,
She's gien him to drink the blood-red wine,
She's bidden him sometimes think on her,
That sae kindly freed him out of pine.
16 She's broken a ring from her finger,
And to Beichan half of it gave she:
'Keep it, to mind you of that love
The lady bore that set you free.
17 'And set your foot on good ship-board,
And haste ye back to your own countrie,
And before that seven years have an end,
Come back again, love, and marry me.'
18 But long ere seven years had an end,
She longd full sore her love to see,
For ever a voice within her breast
Said, 'Beichan has broke his vow to thee:'
So she's set her foot on good ship-board,
And turnd her back on her own countrie.
19 She sailed east, she sailed west,
Till to fair England's shore she came,
Where a bonny shepherd she espied,
Feeding his sheep upon the plain.
20 'What news, what news, thou bonny shepherd?
What news hast thou to tell to me?'
'Such news I hear, ladie,' he says,
'The like was never in this countrie.
21 'There is a wedding in yonder hall,
Has lasted these thirty days and three;
Young Beichan will not bed with his bride,
For love of one that's yond the sea.'
22 She's put her hand in her pocket,
Gien him the gold and white monie:
'Hae, take ye that, my bonny boy,
For the good news thou tellst to me.'
23 When she came to Young Beichan's gate,
She tirled softly at the pin;
So ready was the proud porter
To open and let this lady in.
24 'Is this Young Beichan's hall,' she said,
'O is that noble lord within?'
'Yea, he's in the hall among them all,
And this is the day o his weddin.'
25 'And has he wed anither love?
And has he clean forgotten me?'
And sighin said that gay ladie,
I wish I were in my own countrie!
26 And she has taen her gay gold ring,
That with her love she brake so free;
Says, Gie him that, ye proud porter,
And bid the bridegroom speak to me.
27 When the porter came his lord before,
He kneeled down low on his knee:
'What aileth thee, my proud porter,
Thou art so full of courtesie?'
28 'I've been porter at your gates,
It's thirty long years now and three;
But there stands a lady at them now,
The like o her did I never see.
29 'For on every finger she has a ring,
And on her mid-finger she has three,
And as meickle gold aboon her brow
As would buy an earldom to me.'
30 It's out then spak the bride's mother,
Aye and an angry woman was shee:
'Ye might have excepted our bonny bride,
And twa or three of our companie.'
31 'O hold your tongue, thou bride's mother,
Of all your folly let me be;
She's ten times fairer nor the bride,
And all that's in your companie.
32 'She begs one sheave of your white bread,
But and a cup of your red wine,
And to remember the lady's love
That last relievd you out of pine.'
33 'O well-a-day!' said Beichan then,
'That I so soon have married thee!
For it can be none but Susie Pye,
That sailed the sea for love of me.'
34 And quickly hied he down the stair;
Of fifteen steps he made but three;
He's taen his bonny love in his arms,
And kist and kist her tenderlie.
35 'O hae ye taen anither bride?
And hae ye quite forgotten me?
And hae ye quite forgotten her
That gave your life and libertie?'
36 She looked oer her left shoulder,
To hide the tears stood in her ee:
'Now fare thee well, Young Beichan,' she says,
'I'll try to think no more on thee.'
37 'O never, never, Susie Pye,
For surely this can never be,
Nor ever shall I wed but her
That's done and dreed so much for me.'
38 Then out and spak the forenoon bride:
'My lord, your love it changeth soon;
This morning I was made your bride,
And another chose ere it be noon.'
39 O hold thy tongue, thou forenoon bride,
Ye're neer a whit the worse for me,
And whan ye return to your own countrie,
A double dower I'll send with thee.'
40 He's taen Susie Pye by the white hand,
And gently led her up and down,
And ay as he kist her red rosy lips,
'Ye're welcome, jewel, to your own.'
41 He's taen her by the milk-white hand,
And led her to yon fountain stane;
He's changed her name from Susie Pye,
And he's call'd her his bonny love, Lady Jane.
-----------
'Susan Pye and Lord Beichan'- Version F; Child 53 Young Beichan
Pitcairn's Manuscripts, III, 159, 1817-25. From the recitation of Widow Stephenson, aged seventy-three: "East Country."
1 In the lands whre Lord Beichan was born,
Amang the stately steps of stane,
He wore the goud at his left shoulder,
But to the Holy Land he's gane.
2 He was na lang in the Holy Land,
Amang the Prudents that was black,
He was na lang in the Holy Land,
Till the Prudent did Lord Beichan tak.
3 The gard him draw baith pleugh and harrow,
And horse and oxen twa or three;
They cast him in a dark dungeon,
Whare he coud neither hear nor see.
4 The Prudent had a fair daughter,
I wot they ca'd her Susy Pye,
And all the keys in that city
Hang at that lady by and bye.
5 It once fell out upon a day
That into the prison she did gae,
And whan she cam to the prison door,
She kneeled low down on her knee.
6 'O hae ye ony lands, Beichan,
Or hae ye ony castles hie,
Whar ye wad tak a young thing to,
If out of prison I wad let thee?'
7 'Fair London's mine, dear lady,' he said,
'And other places twa or three,
Whar I wad tak a young thing to,
If out of prison ye wad let me.'
8 O she has opened the prison door,
And other places twa or three,
And gien him bread, and wine to drink,
In her own chamber privately.
9 O then she built a bonny ship,
And she has set it on the main,
And she has built a bonny ship,
It's for to tak Lord Beichan hame.
10 O she's gaen murning up and down,
And she's gaen murnin to the sea,
Then to her father she has gane in,
Wha spak to her right angrily.
11 'O do ye mourn for the goud, daughter,
Or do ye mourn for the whyte monie?
Or do ye mourn for the English squire?
I wat I will gar hang him hie.'
12 'I neither mourn for the goud, father,
Nor do I for the whyte monie,
Nor do I for the English squire;
And I care na tho ye hang him hie.
13 'But I hae promised an errand to go,
Seven lang miles ayont the sea,
And blythe and merry I never will be
Untill that errand you let me.'
14 'That errand, daughter, you may gang,
Seven long miles beyond the sea,
Since blythe and merry you'll neer be
Untill that errand I'll let thee.'
15 O she has built a bonny ship,
And she has set it in the sea,
And she has built a bonny ship,
It's all for to tak her a long journie.
16 And she's sailed a' the summer day,
I wat the wind blew wondrous fair;
In sight of fair London she has come,
And till Lord Beichan's yett she walked.
17 Whan she cam till Lord Beichan's yett,
She rappit loudly at the pin:
'Is Beichan lord of this bonny place?
I pray ye open and let me in.
18 'And O is this Lord Beichan's yett,
And is the noble lord within?'
'O yes, it is Lord Beichan's yett,
He's wi his bride and mony a ane.'
19 'If you'll gang up to Lord Beichan,
Tell him the words that I tell thee;
It will put him in mind of Susy Pye,
And the Holy Land, whareer he be.
20 'Tell him to send one bite of bread,
It's and a glass of his gude red wine,
Nor to forget the lady's love
That loosed him out of prison strong.'
* * * * *
21 'I hae been porter at your yett,
I'm sure this therty lang years and three,
But the fairest lady stands thereat
That evir my twa eyes did see.
22 'On ilka finger she has a ring,
And on the foremost she has three;
As muckle goud is on her head
As wad buy an earldom of land to thee.
23 'She bids you send a bite of bread,
It's and a glass of your gude red wine,
Nor to forget the lady's love
That let you out of prison strong.'
24 It's up and spak the bride's mother,
A weight of goud hung at her chin:
'There is no one so fair without
But there are, I wat, as fair within.'
25 It's up and spak the bride hersel,
As she sat by the gude lord's knee:
'Awa, awa, ye proud porter,
This day ye might hae excepted me.'
* * * * *
26 'Tak hence, tak hence your fair daughter,
Tak hame your daughter fair frae me;
For saving one kiss of her bonny lips,
I'm sure of her body I am free.
27 'Awa, awa, ye proud mither,
It's tak your daughter fair frae me;
For I brought her home with chariots six,
And I'll send her back wi coaches three.'
28 It's he's taen the table wi his fit,
And syne he took it wi his knee;
He gard the glasses and wine so red,
He gard them all in flinders flee.
29 O he's gane down the steps of stairs,
And a' the stately steps of stane,
Until he cam to Susy Pye;
I wat the tears blinded baith their eyne.
30 He led her up the steps of stairs,
And a' the stately steps of stane,
And changed her name from Susy Pye,
And ca'd her lusty Lady Jane.
31 'O fye, gar cooks mak ready meat,
O fye, gar cooks the pots supply,
That it may be talked of in fair London,
I've been twice married in ae day.'
----------
'Lord Beekin'- Version G; Child 53 Young Beichan
Communicated by Mr. Alexander Laing, of Newburg-on-Tay, as derived from the recitation of Miss Walker. 1873
1 * * * *
'O wha's aught a' yon flock o sheep,
An wha's aught a' yon flock o kye?
An wha's aught a' yon pretty castles,
That you sae often do pass bye?'
2 'They're a' Lord Beekin's sheep,
They're a' Lord Beekin's kye;
They're a' Lord Beekin's castles,
That you sae often do pass bye.'
* * * * *
3 He's tane [the] table wi his feet,
Made cups an candlesticks to flee:
'I'll lay my life 'tis Susy Pie,
Come owr the seas to marry me.'
-----------
'Lord Beichan and Susie Pye'- Version H; Child 53 Young Beichan
Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 260.
1 Young Beichan was in London born,
He was a man of hie degree;
He past thro monie kingdoms great,
Until he cam unto Grand Turkie.
2 He viewd the fashions of that land,
Their way of worship viewed he,
But unto onie of their stocks
He wadna sae much as bow a knee:
3 Which made him to be taken straight,
And brought afore their hie jurie;
The savage Moor did speak upricht,
And made him meikle ill to dree.
4 In ilka shoulder they've bord a hole,
And in ilka hole they've put a tree;
They've made him to draw carts and wains,
Till he was sick and like to dee.
5 But Young Beichan was a Christian born,
And still a Christian was he;
Which made them put him in prison strang,
And cauld and hunger sair to dree,
And fed on nocht but bread and water,
Until the day that he mot dee.
6 In this prison there grew a tree,
And it was unco stout and strang,
Where he was chained by the middle,
Until his life was almaist gane.
7 The savage Moor had but ae dochter,
And her name it was Susie Pye,
And ilka day as she took the air,
The prison door she passed bye.
8 But it fell ance upon a day,
As she was walking, she heard him sing;
She listend to his tale of woe,
A happy day for Young Beichan!
9 'My hounds they all go masterless,
My hawks they flee frae tree to tree,
My youngest brother will heir my lands,
My native land I'll never see.'
10 'O were I but the prison-keeper,
As I'm a ladie o hie degree,
I soon wad set this youth at large,
And send him to his ain countrie.'
11 She went away into her chamber,
All nicht she never closd her ee;
And when the morning begoud to dawn,
At the prison door alane was she.
12 She gied the keeper a piece of gowd,
And monie pieces o white monie,
To tak her thro the bolts and bars,
The lord frae Scotland she langd to see;
She saw young Beichan at the stake,
Which made her weep maist bitterlie.
13 'O hae ye got onie lands,' she says,
'Or castles in your ain countrie?
It's what wad ye gie to the ladie fair
Wha out o prison wad set you free?'
14 'It's I hae houses, and I hae lands,
Wi monie castles fair to see,
And I wad gie a' to that ladie gay,
Wha out o prison wad set me free.'
15 The keeper syne brak aff his chains,
And set Lord Beichan at libertie;
She filld his pockets baith wi gowd,
To tak him till his ain countrie.
16 She took him frae her father's prison,
And gied to him the best o wine,
And a brave health she drank to him:
'I wish, Lord Beichan, ye were mine!
17 'It's seven lang years I'll mak a vow,
And seven lang years I'll keep it true;
If ye'll wed wi na ither woman,
It's I will wed na man but you.'
18 She's tane him to her father's port,
And gien to him a ship o fame:
'Farewell, farewell, my Scottish lord,
I fear I'll neer see you again.'
19 Lord Beichan turnd him round about,
And lowly, lowly loutit he:
'Ere seven lang years come to an end,
I'll tak you to mine ain countrie.'
* * * * *
20 Then whan he cam to Glosgow town,
A happy, happy man was he;
The ladies a' around him thrangd,
To see him come frae slaverie.
21 His mother she had died o sorrow,
And a' his brothers were dead but he;
His lands they a' were lying waste,
In ruins were his castles free.
22 Na porter there stood at his yett,
Na human creature he could see,
Except the screeching owls and bats,
Had he to bear him companie.
23 But gowd will gar the castles grow,
And he had gowd and jewels free,
And soon the pages around him thrangd,
To serve him on their bended knee.
24 His hall was hung wi silk and satin,
His table rung wi mirth and glee,
He soon forgot the lady fair
That lowsd him out o slaverie.
25 Lord Beichan courted a lady gay,
To heir wi him his lands sae free,
Neer thinking that a lady fair
Was on her way frae Grand Turkie.
26 For Susie Pye could get na rest,
Nor day nor nicht could happy be,
Still thinking on the Scottish lord,
Till she was sick and like to dee.
27 But she has builded a bonnie ship,
Weel mannd wi seamen o hie degree,
And secretly she stept on board,
And bid adieu to her ain countrie.
28 But whan she cam to the Scottish shore,
The bells were ringing sae merrilie;
It was Lord Beichan's wedding day,
Wi a lady fair o hie degree.
29 But sic a vessel was never seen;
The very masts were tappd wi gold,
Her sails were made o the satin fine,
Maist beautiful for to behold.
30 But whan the lady cam on shore,
Attended wi her pages three,
Her shoon were of the beaten gowd,
And she a lady of great beautie.
31 Then to the skipper she did say,
'Can ye this answer gie to me?
Where are Lord Beichan's lands sae braid?
He surely lives in this countrie.'
32 Then up bespak the skipper bold,
For he could speak the Turkish tongue:
'Lord Beichan lives not far away;
This is the day of his wedding.'
33 'If ye will guide me to Beichan's yetts,
I will ye well reward,' said she;
Then she and all her pages went,
A very gallant companie.
34 When she cam to Lord Beichan's yetts,
She tirld gently at the pin;
Sae ready was the proud porter
To let the wedding guests come in.
35 'Is this Lord Beichan's house,' she says,
'Or is that noble lord within?'
'Yes, he is gane into the hall,
With his brave bride and monie ane.'
36 'Ye'll bid him send me a piece of bread,
Bot and a cup of his best wine;
And bid him mind the lady's love
That ance did lowse him out o pyne.'
37 Then in and cam the porter bold,
I wat he gae three shouts and three:
'The fairest lady stands at your yetts
That ever my twa een did see.'
38 Then up bespak the bride's mither,
I wat an angry woman was she:
'You micht hae excepted our bonnie bride,
Tho she'd been three times as fair as she.'
39 'My dame, your daughter's fair enough,
And aye the fairer mot she be!
But the fairest time that eer she was,
She'll na compare wi this ladie.
40 'She has a gowd ring on ilka finger,
And on her mid-finger she has three;
She has as meikle gowd upon her head
As wad buy an earldom o land to thee.
41 'My lord, she begs some o your bread,
Bot and a cup o your best wine,
And bids you mind the lady's love
That ance did lowse ye out o pyne.'
42 Then up and started Lord Beichan,
I wat he made the table flee:
'I wad gie a' my yearlie rent
'Twere Susie Pye come owre the sea.'
43 Syne up bespak the bride's mother,
She was never heard to speak sae free:
'Ye'll no forsake my ae dochter,
Tho Susie Pye has crossd the sea?'
44 'Tak hame, tak hame, your dochter, madam,
For she is neer the waur o me;
She cam to me on horseback riding,
And she sall gang hame in chariot free.'
45 He's tane Susie Pye by the milk-white hand,
And led her thro his halls sae hie:
'Ye're now Lord Beichan's lawful wife,
And thrice ye're welcome unto me.'
46 Lord Beichan prepard for another wedding,
Wi baith their hearts sae fu o glee;
Says, 'I'll range na mair in foreign lands,
Sin Susie Pye has crossd the sea.
47 'Fy! gar a' our cooks mak ready,
And fy! gar a' our pipers play,
And fy! gar trumpets gae thro the toun,
That Lord Beichan's wedded twice in a day!'
--------------
'Young Bechin'- Version I; Child 53 Young Beichan
Communicated by Mr. David Louden, as recited by Mrs. Dodds, Morham, Haddington, the reciter being above seventy in 1873.
1 In London was Young Bechin born,
Foreign nations he longed to see;
He passed through many kingdoms great,
At length he came unto Turkie.
2 He viewed the fashions of that land,
The ways of worship viewed he,
But unto any of their gods
He would not so much as bow the knee.
3 every shoulder they made a bore,
In every bore they put a tree,
Then they made him the winepress tread,
And all in spite of his fair bodie.
4 They put him into a deep dungeon,
Where he could neither hear nor see,
And for seven years they kept him there,
Till for hunger he was like to die.
5 Stephen, their king, had a daughter fair,
Yet never a man to her came nigh;
And every day she took the air,
Near to his prison she passed by.
6 One day she heard Young Bechin sing
A song that pleased her so well,
No rest she got till she came to him,
All in his lonely prison cell.
7 'I have a hall in London town,
With other buildings two or three,
And I'll give them all to the ladye fair
That from this dungeon shall set me free.'
8 She stole the keys from her dad's head,
And if she oped one door ay she opened three,
Till she Young Bechin could find out,
He was locked up so curiouslie.
* * * * *
9 'I've been a porter at your gate
This thirty years now, ay and three;
There stands a ladye at your gate,
The like of her I neer did see.
10 'On every finger she has a ring,
On the mid-finger she has three;
She's as much gold about her brow
As would an earldom buy to me.'
* * * * *
11 He's taen her by the milk-white hand,
He gently led her through the green;
He changed her name from Susie Pie,
An he's called her lovely Ladye Jean.
-----------
'Young Beichan'- Version J; Child 53
Dr. Joseph Robertson's Note-Book, "Adversaria," p. 85. From tradition.
1 * * * *
She's taen the keys frae her fadder's coffer,
Tho he keeps them most sacredlie,
And she has opend the prison strong,
And set Young Beichan at libertie.
* * * * *
2 . . . . . .
. . . . .
'Gae up the countrie, my chile,' she says,
'Till your fadder's wrath be turned from thee.'
* * * * *
3 She's put her han intill her purse,
And gave the porter guineas three;
Says, 'Tak ye that, ye proud porter,
And tell your master to speak wi me.
4 'Ye'll bid him bring a shower o his best love,
But and a bottle o his wine,
And do to me as I did to him in time past,
And brought him out o muckle pine.'
5 He's taen the table wi his foot,
And he has keppit it wi his knee:
'I'll wager my life and a' my lan,
It's Susan Pie come ower the sea.
6 'Rise up, rise up, my bonnie bride,
Ye're neither better nor waur for me;
Ye cam to me on a horse and saddle,
But ye may gang back in a coach and three.'
--------------
'Lord Bechin'- Version K; Child 53 Young Beichan
Communicated by Mr. David Loudon, as obtained from Mrs. Dickson, Rentonhall.
1 * * * *
'There is a marriage in yonder hall,
Has lasted thirty days and three;
The bridegroom winna bed the bride,
For the sake of one that's owre the sea.'
* * * * *
2 'What news, what news, my brave young porter?
What news, what news have ye for me?'
'As beautiful a ladye stands at your gate
As eer my two eyes yet did see.'
3 'A slice of bread to her get ready,
And a bottle of the best of wine;
Not to forget that fair young ladye
Who did release thee out of close confine.'
4 Lord Bechin in a passion flew,
And rent himself like a sword in three,
Saying, 'I would give all my father's riches
If my Sophia was 'cross the sea.'
5 Up spoke the young bride's mother,
Who never was heard to speak so free,
Saying, 'I hope you'll not forget my only daughter,
Though your Sophia be 'cross the sea.'
6 'I own a bride I've wed your daughter,
She's nothing else the worse of me;
She came to me on a horse and saddle,
She may go back in a coach and three.'
--------------
'The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman'- Version L; Child 53 Young Beichan
The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman. Illustrated by George Cruikshank, 1839.
1 Lord Bateman was a noble lord,
A noble lord of high degree;
He shipped himself all aboard of a ship,
Some foreign country for to see.
2 He sailed east, he sailed west,
Until he came to famed Turkey,
Where he was taken and put to prison,
Until his life was quite weary.
3 All in this prison there grew a tree,
O there it grew so stout and strong!
Where he was chained all by the middle,
Until his life was almost gone.
4 This Turk he had one only daughter,
The fairest my two eyes eer see;
She steel the keys of her father's prison,
And swore Lord Bateman she would let go free.
5 O she took him to her father's cellar,
And gave to him the best of wine;
And every health she drank unto him
Was, 'I wish, Lord Bateman, as you was mine.'
6 'O have you got houses, have you got land,
And does Northumberland belong to thee?
And what would you give to the fair young lady
As out of prison would let you go free?'
7 'O I've got houses and I've got land,
And half Northumberland belongs to me;
And I will give it all to the fair young lady
As out of prison would let me go free.'
8 'O in seven long years, I'll make a vow
For seven long years, and keep it strong,
That if you'll wed no other woman,
O I will wed no other man.'
9 O she took him to her father's harbor,
And gave to him a ship of fame,
Saying, Farewell, farewell to you, Lord Bateman,
I fear I never shall see you again.
10 Now seven long years is gone and past,
And fourteen days, well known to me;
She packed up all her gay clothing,
And swore Lord Bateman she would go see.
11 O when she arrived at Lord Bateman's castle,
How boldly then she rang the bell!
'Who's there? who's there?' cries the proud young porter,
'O come unto me pray quickly tell.'
12 'O is this here Lord Bateman's castle,
And is his lordship here within?'
'O yes, O yes,' cries the proud young porter,
'He's just now taking his young bride in.'
13 'O bid him to send me a slice of bread,
And a bottle of the very best wine,
And not forgetting the fair young lady
As did release him when close confine.'
14 O away and away went this proud young porter,
O away and away and away went he,
Until he come to Lord Bateman's chamber,
When he went down on his bended knee.
15 'What news, what news, my proud young porter?
What news, what news? Come tell to me:'
'O there is the fairest young lady
As ever my two eyes did see.
16 'She has got rings on every finger,
And on one finger she has got three;
With as much gay gold about her middle
As would buy half Northumberlee.
17 'O she bids you to send her a slice of bread,
And a bottle of the very best wine,
And not forgetting the fair young lady
As did release you when close confine.'
18 Lord Bateman then in passion flew,
And broke his sword in splinters three,
Saying, I will give half of my father's land,
If so be as Sophia has crossed the sea.
19 Then up and spoke this young bride's mother,
Who never was heard to speak so free;
Saying, You'll not forget my only daughter,
If so be as Sophia has crossed the sea.
20 'O it's true I made a bride of your daughter,
But she's neither the better nor the worse for me;
She came to me with a horse and saddle,
But she may go home in a coach and three.'
21 Lord Bateman then prepared another marriage,
With both their hearts so full of glee,
Saying, I will roam no more to foreign countries,
Now that Sophia has crossed the sea.
--------------
'Young Bondwell'- Version M; Child 53- Young Beichan
Buchan's Manuscripts, I, 18. J.H. Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, p. 1.
1 Young Bondwell was a squire's ae son,
And a squire's ae son was he;
He went abroad to a foreign land,
To serve for meat and fee.
2 He hadna been in that country
A twalmonth and a day,
Till he was cast in prison strong,
For the sake of a lovely may.
3 'O if my father get word of this,
At hame in his ain country,
He'll send red gowd for my relief,
And a bag o white money.
4 'O gin an earl woud borrow me,
At his bridle I woud rin;
Or gin a widow woud borrow me,
I'd swear to be her son.
5 'Or gin a may woud borrow me,
I'd wed her wi a ring,
Infeft her wi the ha's and bowers
O the bonny towers o Linne.'
6 But it fell ance upon a day
Dame Essels she thought lang,
And she is to the jail-house door,
To hear Young Bondwell's sang.
7 'Sing on, sing on, my bonny Bondwell,
The sang ye sang just now:'
'I never sang the sang, lady,
But I woud war't on you.
8 'O gin my father get word o this,
At hame in his ain country,
He'll send red gowd for my relief,
And a bag o white money.
9 'O gin an earl woud borrow me,
At his bridle I woud rin;
Or gin a widow would borrow me,
I'd swear to be her son.
10 'O gin a may woud borrow me,
I woud wed her wi a ring,
Infeft her wi the ha's and bowers
O the bonny towers o Linne.'
11 She's stole the keys o the jail-house door,
Where under the bed they lay;
She's opend to him the jail-house door,
And set Young Bondwell free.
12 She gae'm a steed was swift in need,
A saddle o royal ben,
A hunder pund o pennies round,
Bade him gae roav an spend.
13 A couple o hounds o ae litter,
And Cain they ca'd the one;
Twa gay gos-hawks she gae likeways,
To keep him onthought lang.
14 When mony days were past and gane,
Dame Essels thought fell lang,
And she is to her lonely bower,
To shorten her wi a sang.
15 The sang has such a melody,
It lulld her fast asleep;
Up starts a woman, clad in green,
And stood at her bed-feet.
16 'Win up, win up, Dame Essels,' she says,
'This day ye sleep ower lang;
The morn is the squire's wedding day,
In the bonny towers o Linne.
17 'Ye'll dress yoursell in the robes o green,
Your maids in robes sae fair,
And ye'll put girdles about their middles,
Sae costly, rich and rare.
18 'Ye'll take your maries alang wi you,
Till ye come to yon strand;
There ye'll see a ship, wi sails all up,
Come sailing to dry land.
19 'Ye'll take a wand into your hand,
Ye'll stroke her round about,
And ye'll take God your pilot to be,
To drown ye'll take nae doubt.'
20 Then up it raise her Dame Essels,
Sought water to wash her hands,
But aye the faster that she washd,
The tears they trickling ran.
21 Then in it came her father dear,
And in the floor steps he:
'What ails Dame Essels, my daughter dear,
Ye weep sae bitterlie?
22 'Want ye a small fish frae the flood,
Or turtle frae the sea?
Or is there man in a' my realm
This day has offended thee?'
23 'I want nae small fish frae the flood,
Nor turtle frae the sea;
But Young Bondwell, your ain prisoner,
This day has offended me.'
24 Her father turnd him round about,
A solemn oath sware he:
'If this be true ye tell me now
High hanged he shall be.
25 'To-morrow morning he shall be
Hung high upon a tree:'
Dame Essels whisperd to hersel,
'Father, ye've made a lie.'
26 She dressd hersel in robes o green,
Her maids in robes sae fair,
Wi gowden girdles round their middles,
Sae costly, rich and rare.
27 She's taen her mantle her about,
A maiden in every hand;
They saw a ship, wi sails a' up,
Come sailing to dry land.
28 She's taen a wand intill her hand,
And stroked her round about,
And she's taen God her pilot to be,
To drown she took nae doubt.
29 So they saild on, and further on,
Till to the water o Tay;
There they spied a bonny little boy,
Was watering his steeds sae gay.
30 'What news, what news, my little boy,
What news hae ye to me?
Are there any weddings in this place,
Or any gaun to be?'
31 'There is a wedding in this place,
A wedding very soon;
The morn's the young squire's wedding day,
In the bonny towers of Linne.'
32 O then she walked alang the way
To see what coud be seen,
And there she saw the proud porter,
Drest in a mantle green.
33 'What news, what news, porter?' she said,
'What news hae ye to me?
Are there any weddings in this place,
Or any gaun to be?'
34 'There is a wedding in this place,
A wedding very soon;
The morn is Young Bondwell's wedding day,
The bonny squire o Linne.'
35 'Gae to your master, porter,' she said,
'Gae ye right speedilie;
Bid him come and speak wi a maid
That wishes his face to see.'
36 The porter's up to his master gane,
Fell low down on his knee;
'Win up, win up, my porter,' he said,
'Why bow ye low to me?'
37 hae been porter at your yetts
These thirty years and three,
But fairer maids than's at them now
My eyes did never see.
38 'The foremost she is drest in green,
The rest in fine attire,
Wi gowden girdles round their middles,
Well worth a sheriff's hire.'
39 Then out it speaks Bondwell's own bride,
Was a' gowd to the chin;
'They canno be fairer thereout,' she says,
'Than we that are therein.'
40 'There is a difference, my dame,' he said,
''Tween that ladye's colour and yours;
As much difference as you were a stock,
She o the lily flowers.'
41 Then out it speaks him Young Bondwell,
An angry man was he:
'Cast up the yetts baith wide an braid,
These ladies I may see.'
42 Quickly up stairs Dame Essel's gane,
Her maidens next her wi;
Then said the bride, This lady's face
Shows the porter's tauld nae lie.
43 The lady unto Bondwell spake,
These words pronounced she:
O hearken, hearken, fause Bondwell,
These words that I tell thee.
44 Is this the way ye keep your vows
That ye did make to me,
When your feet were in iron fetters,
Ae foot ye coudna flee?
45 I stole the keys o the jail-house door
Frae under the bed they lay,
And opend up the jail-house door,
Set you at liberty.
46 Gae you a steed was swift in need,
A saddle o royal ben,
A hunder pund o pennies round,
Bade you gae rove an spend.
47 A couple o hounds o ae litter,
Cain they ca'ed the ane,
Twa gay gos-hawks as swift's eer flew,
To keep you onthought lang.
48 But since this day ye've broke your vow,
For which ye're sair to blame,
And since nae mair I'll get o you,
O Cain, will ye gae hame?
49 'O Cain! O Cain!' the lady cried,
And Cain did her ken;
They baith flappd round the lady's knee,
Like a couple o armed men.
50 He's to his bride wi hat in hand,
And haild her courteouslie:
'Sit down by me, my bonny Bondwell,
What makes this courtesie?'
51 'An asking, asking, fair lady,
An asking ye'll grant me;'
'Ask on, ask on, my bonny Bondwell,
What may your askings be?'
52 'Five hundred pounds to you I'll gie,
Of gowd an white monie,
If ye'll wed John, my ain cousin;
He looks as fair as me.'
53 'Keep well your monie, Bondwell,' she said,
'Nae monie I ask o thee;
Your cousin John was my first love,
My husband now he's be.'
54 Bondwell was married at morning ear,
John in the afternoon;
Dame Essels is lady ower a' the bowers
And the high towers o Linne.
-----------
'Susan Py, or Young Bichen's Garland'- Version N; Child 53; Young Beichan
a. Falkirk, printed by T. Johnston, 1815.
b. Stirling, M. randall
1 In London was Young Bichen born,
He longd strange lands to see;
He set his foot on good ship-board,
And he sailed over the sea.
2 He had not been in a foreign land
A day but only three,
Till he was taken by a savage Moor,
And they used him most cruelly.
3 In every shoulder they put a pin,
To every pin they put a tree;
They made him draw the plow and cart,
Like horse and oxen in his country.
4 He had not servd the savage Moor
A week, nay scarcely but only three,
Till he has casten him in prison strong,
Till he with hunger was like to die.
5 It fell out once upon a day
That Young Bichen he made his moan,
As he lay bound in irons strong,
In a dark and deep dungeon.
6 'An I were again in fair England,
As many merry day I have been,
Then I would curb my roving youth
No more to see a strange land.
7 'O an I were free again now,
And my feet well set on the sea,
I would live in peace in my own country,
And a foreign land I no more would see.'
8 The savage Moor had but one daughter,
I wot her name was Susan Py;
She heard Young Bichen make his moan,
At the prison-door as she past by.
9 'O have ye any lands,' she said,
'Or have you any money free,
Or have you any revenues,
To maintain a lady like me?'
10 'O I have land in fair England,
And I have estates two or three,
And likewise I have revenues,
To maintain a lady like thee.'
11 'O will you promise, Young Bichen,' she says,
'And keep your vow faithful to me,
That at the end of seven years
In fair England you'll marry me?
12 'I'll steal the keys from my father dear,
Tho he keeps them most secretly;
I'll risk my life for to save thine,
And set thee safe upon the sea.'
13 She's stolen the keys from her father,
From under the bed where they lay;
She opened the prison strong
And set Young Bichen at liberty.
14 She's gone to her father's coffer,
Where the gold was red and fair to see;
She filled his pockets with good red gold,
And she set him far upon the sea.
15 'O mind you well, Young Bichen,' she says,
'The vows and oaths you made to me;
When you are come to your native land,
O then remember Susan Py!'
16 But when her father he came home
He missd the keys there where they lay;
He went into the prison strong,
But he saw Young Bichen was away.
17 'Go bring your daughter, madam,' he says,
'And bring her here unto me;
Altho I have no more but her,
Tomorrow I'll gar hang her high.'
18 The lady calld on the maiden fair
To come to her most speedily;
'Go up the country, my child,' she says,
'Stay with my brother two years or three.
19 'I have a brother, he lives in the isles,
He will keep thee most courteously
And stay with him, my child,' she says,
'Till thy father's wrath be turnd from thee.'
20 Now will we leave young Susan Py
A while in her own country,
And will return to Young Bichen,
Who is safe arrived in fair England.
21 He had not been in fair England
Above years scarcely three,
Till he has courted another maid,
And so forgot his Susan Py.
22 The youth being young and in his prime,
Of Susan Py thought not upon,
But his love was laid on another maid,
And the marriage-day it did draw on.
23 But eer the seven years were run,
Susan Py she thought full long;
She set her foot on good ship-board,
And she has saild for fair England.
24 On every finger she put a ring,
On her mid-finger she put three;
She filld her pockets with good red gold,
And she has sailed oer the sea.
25 She had not been in fair England
A day, a day, but only three,
Till she heard Young Bichen was a bridegroom,
And the morrow to be the wedding-day.
26 'Since it is so,' said young Susan,
'That he has provd so false to me,
I'll hie me to Young Bichen's gates,
And see if he minds Susan Py.'
27 She has gone up thro London town,
Where many a lady she there did spy;
There was not a lady in all London
Young Susan that could outvie.
28 She has calld upon a waiting-man,
A waiting-man who stood near by:
'Convey me to Young Bichen's gates,
And well rewarded shals thou be.'
29 When she came to Young Bichen's gate
She chapped loudly at the pin,
Till down there came the proud porter;
'Who's there,' he says, 'That would be in?'
30 'Open the gates, porter,' she says,
'Open them to a lady gay,
And tell your master, porter,' she says,
'To speak a word or two with me.'
31 The porter he has opend the gates;
His eyes were dazzled to see
A lady dressd in gold and jewels;
No page nor waiting-man had she.
32 'O pardon me, madam,' he cried,
'This day it is his wedding-day;
He's up the stairs with his lovely bride,
And a sight of him you cannot see.'
33 She put her hand in her pocket,
And therefrom took out guineas three,
And gave to him, saying, Please, kind sir,
Bring down your master straight to me.
34 The porter up again has gone,
And he fell low down on his knee,
Saying, Master, you will please come down
To a lady who wants you to see.
35 A lady gay stands at your gates,
The like of her I neer did see;
She has more gold above her eye
Nor would buy a baron's land to me.
36 Out then spake the bride's mother,
I'm sure an angry woman was she:
'You're impudent and insolent,
For ye might excepted the bride and me.'
37 'Ye lie, ye lie, ye proud woman,
I'm sure sae loud as I hear you lie;
She has more gold on her body
Than would buy the lands, the bride, and thee!'
38 'Go down, go down, porter,' he says,
'And tell the lady gay from me
That I'm up-stairs wi my lovely bride,
And a sight of her I cannot see.'
39 The porter he goes down again,
The lady waited patiently:
'My master's with his lovely bride,
And he'll not win down my dame to see.'
40 From off her finger she's taen a ring;
'Give that your master,' she says, 'From me,
And tell him now, young man,' she says,
'To send down a cup of wine to me.'
41 'Here's ring for you, master,' he says,
'On her mid-finger she has three,
And you are desird, my lord,' he says,
'To send down a cup of wine with me.'
42 He hit the table with his foot,
He kepd it with his right knee:
'I'll wed my life and all my land
That is Susan Py, come o'er the sea!'
43 He has gone unto the stair-head,
A step he took but barely three;
He opend the gates most speedily,
And Susan Py he there could see.
44 'Is this the way, Young Bichen,' she says,
'Is this the way you've guided me?
I relieved you from prison strong,
And ill have you rewarded me.
45 'O mind ye, Young Bichen,' she says,
'The vows and oaths that ye made to me,
When ye lay bound in prison strong,
In a deep dungeon of misery?'
46 He took her by the milk-white hand,
And led her into the palace fine;
There was not a lady in all the palace
But Susan Py did all outshine.
47 The day concluded with joy and mirth,
On every side there might you see;
There was great joy in all England
For the wedding-day of Susan Py.
End-Notes
B. 171. bids me.
225,6. Connected with 23 in Manuscript
226. send he.
C. a. 152. How y you.
b. 33. omits house.
42. omits foot.
71. omits dear.
73. For she's ... of the prison.
74. And gane the dungeon within.
81. And when.
82. Wow but her heart was sair.
91. She's gotten.
111. thir twa.
132. I kenna.
134. kensnae.
141. fell out.
152. How y you,
161. till.
162. As fast as ye can gang.
163. tak three.
164. To haud ye unthocht lang.
181. Syne ye.
183. And bonny.
193. And I will.
202. As fast as she could gang.
203. she's taen.
204. To haud her unthocht lang.
223. And sae bonny did.
224. till.
243. And her mind misgae by.
244. That 't was.
252. markis three.
254. Bid your master.
274. did never.
291. and spak.
293. be fine.
294. as fine.
323. out of.
343. at the first.
352. gang.
364. Send her back a maid.
D. Written throughout without division into stanzas.
7. A like repetition occurs again in the Skene Manuscripts: see No 36, p. 316.
101,2. One line in the Manuscript. The metre, in several places where it is incomplete, was doubtless made full by repetition: see 191,3.
141. This line thus: (an a Leash of guid gray hounds). The reciter evidently could remember only this point in the stanza.
16, 17. Whan she cam to Young Beachens gate
Is Young Beachen at hame
Or is he in this countrie
He is at hame is hearly (?) said
Him an sigh an says her Susie Pay
Has he quite forgotten me.
191,3. Probably sung, the stair, the stair; win up. win up.
223,4. The latter half of the stanza must be supposed to be addressed to Young Beachen.
261,2, He took her down to yon gouden green,
274, Sh's,
292, my name,
After 29 a stanza belonging apparently to some other ballad:
Courtess kind, an generous mind,
An winna ye answer me?
An whan the hard their lady's word,
Well answered was she.
E. 64-6 was introduced, with other metrical passages, into a long tale of 'Young Beichan and Susy Pye,' which Motherwell had heard related, and of which he gives a specimen at p. xv. of his Introduction: "Well, ye must know that in the Moor's castle there was a massymore, which is a dark dungeon for keeping prisoners. It was twenty feet below the ground, and into this hole they closed poor Beichan. There he stood, night and day, up to his waist in puddle water; but night or day it was all one to him, for no ae styme of light ever got in. So he lay there a lang and weary while, and thinking on his heavy weird, he made a murnfu sang to pass the time, and this was the sang that he made, and grat when he sang it, for he never thought of ever escaping from the massymore, or of seeing his ain country again:
'My hounds they all run masterless,
My hawks they flee from tree to tree;
My youngest brother will heir my lands,
And fair England again I'll never see.
'Oh were I free as I hae been,
And my ship swimming once more on sea,
I'd turn my face to fair England,
And sail no more to a strange countrie.'
"Now the cruel Moor had a beautiful daughter, called Susy Pye, who was accustomed to take a walk every morning in her garden, and as she was walking ae day she heard the songh o Beichan's sang, coming as it were from below the ground," etc., etc.
F. 33. dungeon (donjon).
61. only lands.
62. only castles.
81. Oh.
103, ha she has gane in: originally has she gane in.
132, Many, with Seven written over: Seven in 142.
20. After this stanza: Then the porter gaed up the stair and said,
25. After this stanza: Then Lord Beichan gat up, and was in a great wrath, and said.
31. ae: indistinct, but seems to have been one changed to ae or a.
H. 43. carts and wains for carts o wine of A 23, B 23, We have wine in H 43, 133, and wine is in all likelihood original.
Christie, I, 31, abridges this version, making "a few slight alterations from the way he had heard it sung:" these, and one or two more.
24, wadna bend nor bow.
71, The Moor he had.
251. But Beichan courted.
I. 11. Bechin was pronounced Beekin.
K. 1. Before this, as gloss, or remnant of a preceding stanza: She came to a shepherd, and he replied.
2. After this, in explanation: She gave Lord Bechin a slice of bread and a bottle of wine when she released him from prison, hence the following.
31. to him.
4. After this: He had married another lady, not having heard from his Sophia for seven long years.
L. "This affecting legend is given ... precisely as I have frequently heard it sung on Saturday nights, outside a house of general refreshment (familiarly termed a wine-vaults) at Battle-bridge. The singer is a young gentleman who can scarcely have numbered nineteen summers. ... I have taken down the words from his own mouth at different periods, and have been careful to preserve his pronunciation." [Attributed to Charles Dickens.] As there is no reason for indicating pronunciation here, in this more than in other cases, the phonetic spelling is replaced by common orthography. Forms of speech have, however, been preserved, excepting two, with regard to which I may have been too nice.
13. his-self.
52, 92. guv.
M. 103. in for wi (?): wi in 53.
122, 462. bend. Possibly, however, understood to be bend = leather, instead of ben = bane, bone.
134, 474. on thought.
N. a. Susan Py, or Young Bichens Garland. Shewing how he went to a far country, and was taken by a savage Moor and cast into prison, and delivered by the Moor's daughter, on promise of marriage; and how he came to England, and was going to be wedded to another bride; with the happy arrival of Susan Py on the wedding day. Falkirk, Printed by T. Johnston, 1815.
b. 34. his own.
42. A week, a week, but only.
73. own land.
74. And foreign lands no more.
111. young man.
132. he lay.
243. her trunks.
254. was the.
282. that stood hard by.
284. thou shalt.
292. She knocked.
314. waiting-maid.
322. For this is his.
341. up the stairs.
343. will you.
364. Ye might.
372. Sae loud as I hear ye lie.
394. And a sight of him you cannot see.
404. To bring.
423. I'll lay.
442. way that you've used me.
474. wedding of.
Additions and Corrections
P. 463 a, first paragraph. The French ballad in Poésies pop. de la France, Manuscript, IV, fol. 404; printed in Mélusine, II, col. 44. Another copy in Mélusine, I, col. 123.
476. Substitute for L this broadside: 'Lord Bateman.'
1 Lord Bateman was a noble lord,
A noble lord of high degree;
He shipped himself on board a ship,
Some foreign country he would go see.
2 He sailed East, and he sailed West,
Until he came to proud Turkey,
When he was taken and put to prison,
Until his life was almost gone.
3 And in this prison there grew a tree,
It grew so stout and strong,
Where he was chained by the middle,
Until his life was almost gone.
4 This Turk he had one only daughter,
The fairest creature my eyes did see;
She stole the keys of her father's prison,
And swore Lord Bateman she would set free.
5 'Have you got houses? Have you got lands?
Or does Northumberland belong to thee?
What would you give to the fair young lady
That out of prison would set you free?'
6 'I have got houses, I have got lands,
And half Northumberland belongs to me;
I'll give it all to the fair young lady
That out of prison would set me free.'
7 O then she took me to her father's hall,
And gave to me the best of wine,
And every health she drank unto him,
'I wish, Lord Bateman, that you were mine!
8 'Now in seven years I'll make a vow,
And seven years I'll keep it strong,
If you'll wed with no other woman,
I will wed with no other man.'
9 O then she took him to her father's harbour,
And gave to him a ship of fame:
'Farewell, farewell to you, Lord Bateman,
I'm afraid I neer shall see you again.'
10 Now seven long years are gone and past,
And fourteen days, well known to thee;
She packed up all her gay clothing,
And swore Lord Bateman she would go see.
11 But when she came to Lord Bateman's castle,
So boldly she did ring the bell;
'Who's there, who's there?' cried the proud porter,
'Who's there? come unto me tell.'
12 'O is this Lord Bateman's castle?
Or is his Lordship here within?'
'O yes, O yes,' cried the young porter,
'He's just now taken his new bride in.'
13 'O tell him to send me a slice of bread,
And a bottle of the best wine,
And not forgetting the fair young lady
Who did release him when close confined.'
14 Away, away, went this proud young porter,
Away, away, and away went he,
Until he came to Lord Bateman's chamber;
Down on his bended knees fell he.
15 'What news, what news, my proud young porter?
What news hast thou brought unto me?'
'There is the fairest of all young creatures
That eer my two eyes did see.
16 'She has got rings on every finger,
And round one of them she has got three,
And as much gay clothing round her
As would buy all Northumberland free.
17 'She bids you send her a slice of bread,
And a bottle of the best wine,
And not forgetting the fair young lady
Who did release you when close confined.'
18 Lord Bateman he then in a passion flew,
And broke his sword in splinters three,
Saying, I will give all my father's riches,
That if Sophia has crossed the sea.
19 Then up spoke the young bride'[s] mother,
Who never was heard to speak so free:
You'll not forget my only daughter,
That if Sophia has crossed the sea.
20 'I own I made a bride of your daughter;
She's neither the better or worse for me;
She came to me with her horse and saddle,
She may go back in her coach and three.'
21 Lord Bateman prepared another marriage,
With both their hearts so full of glee:
'I'll range no more in foreign countries,
Now since Sophia has crossed the sea.'
Pitts, Seven Dials.
P. 454. The modern street or broadside ballad L (see II, 508) is given from singing by Miss Burne, Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 547.
459 b. The Färöe ballad (of which there are four copies) is printed in Hammershaimb's Færøsk Anthologi, p. 260, No 83, 'Harra Pætur og Elinborg.'
462 a. 'Gerineldo,' also in Pidal, Asturian Romances, p. 90 f.
462 a, b. 'Moran d'Inghilterra,' with a second version, in Nigra, No 42, p. 263.
To be Corrected in the Print.
469 a, 223. Read your for yonr.
To be Corrected in the Print.
482 a, D 16, 17, 5th line. Read Hine.
The following are mostly trivial variations from the spelling of the text.
468 a, 41. Read stock.
102. Read saftly.
b 132. Manuscript has bone.
163. Read Beachen.
481 a, 312. Read dazled.
P. 459 a. Danish. 'Ellen henter sin Fæstemand,' Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 125, No 34, A, B.
462 a, III, 507 b. 'Gerineldo,' again, in Munthe, Folkpoesie från Asturien, No 2, second part, p. 112 b (Upsala Universitets Årsskrift); but imperfect.
462 b, 463 a, H, 508 a. Another version of the French ballad ('Tout au milieu de Paris') in Meyrac, Traditions, etc., des Ardennes, p. 238.
463 ff. 'Earl Bichet,' "Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 83, Abbotsford. Communicated to Scott by Mrs. Christiana Greenwood, London, May 27, 1806 (Letters, I, No 189), as heard by her in her youth at Longnewton, near Jedburgh, "where most of the old women could sing it."
1 Earl Bichet's sworn a mighty aith,
And a solemn vow made he,
That he wad to the Holy Land,
To the Holy Land wad he gae.
2 When he came to the Holy Land,
Amang the Infidels sae black,
They hae consulted them amang
The Earl Bichet for to take.
3 And when they basely him betrayd
They put him into fetters strang,
And threw him in a dungeon dark,
To spend the weary night sae lang.
4 Then in ilka shoulder they bored a hole,
In his right shoulder they bored three,
And they gard him draw the coops o wine,
Till he was sick and like to dee.
5 Then they took him out o their carts and wains,
And put him in a castle of stone;
When the stars shone bright, and the moon gave light,
The sad Earl Bichet he saw none.
6 The king had only ae daughter,
And it was orderd sae to be
That, as she walked up and down,
By the strong-prison-door cam she.
7 Then she heard Earl Bichet sad
Making his pityful mane,
In doolfu sounds and moving sighs
Wad melt a heart o stane.
8 'When I was in my ain countrie,
I drank the wine sae clear;
But now I canna get bare bread;
I wis I had neer come here!
9 'When I was in my ain countrie,
I drank the wine sae red;
But now I canna get a bite o bare bread;
O I wis that I were dead!'
* * *
10 'Gae bring to me the good leaven [bread],
To eat when I do need;
Gae bring to me the good red wine,
To drink when I do dread.'
11 'Gae ask my father for bis leave
To bring them unto me,
And for the keys o the prison-door,
To set Earl Bichet free.'
* * *
12 Then she went into her ain chamber
And prayd most heartilie,
And when that she rose up again
The keys fell at her knee.
* * *
13 Then they hae made a solemn vow
Between themselves alone,
That he was to marry no other woman,
And she no other man.
14 And Earl Bichet's to sail to fair Scotland,
Far oer the roaring faem,
And till seven years were past and gone
This vow was to remain.
15 Then she built him a stately ship,
And set it on the sea,
Wi four-and-twenty mariners,
To bear him companie.
16 'My blessing gae wi ye, Earl Bichet,
My blessing gae wi thee;
My blessing be wi a' the mariners
That are to sail wi thee.'
17 Then they saild east, and they saild wast,
Till they saild to Earl Bichet's yett,
When nane was sae ready as his mother dear
To welcome her ain son back.
18 'Ye 're welcome, welcome, Earl Bichet,
Ye're dearly welcome hame to me!
And ye 're as welcome to Lady Jean,
For she has lang looked for thee.'
19 'What haste, what haste, O mother dear,
To wale a wife for me?
For what will I do wi the bonny bride
That I hae left ayont the sea?'
20 When seven years were past and gone,
Seven years but and a day,
The Saracen lady took a crying in her sleep,
And she has cried sair till day.
21 'O daughter, is it for a man o might?
Or is it for a man o mine?'
'It's neither for a man o might,
Nor is it for a man o thine.
22 'Bat if ye'll build me a ship, father,
And set it on the sea,
I will away to some other land,
To seek a true-love free.'
23 Then he built her a gallant ship,
And set it on the sea,
Wi a hunder and fifty mariners,
To bear her companie.
24 At every corner o the ship
A siller bell did hing,
And at ilka jawing o the faem
The siller bells did ring.
25 Then they saild east, and they saild wast,
Till they cam to Earl Bichet's yett;
Nane was sae ready as the porter
To open and let her in thereat.
26 'O is this Earl Bichet's castle-yett?
Or is that noble knight within?
For I am weary, sad and wet,
And far I've come ayont the faem.'
27 'He's up the stair at supper set,
And mony a noble knight wi him;
He's up the stair wi his bonny bride,
And mony a lady gay wi them.'
28 She's put her hand into her purse
And taen out fifty merks and three:
'If this be the Earl Bichet's castle,
Tell him to speak three words wi me.
29 'Tell him to send me a bit o his bread
But an a bottle o his wine,
And no forget the lady's love
That freed him out o prison strong.'
30 The porter he gaed up the stair,
And mony bow and binge gae he;
'What means, what means,' cried Earl Bichet,
'O what means a' this courtesie?'
31 'O I hae been porter at yere yett
These four-and-twenty years and three;
But the fairest lady now stands thereat
That ever my two eyes did see.
32 'She has a ring on her foremost finger,
And on her middle-finger three;
She has as much gowd about her waist
As wad buy earldoms o land for thee.
33 'She wants to speak three words wi thee,
And a little o yere bread and wine,
And not to forget the lady's love
That freed ye out o prison strong.'
34 'I'll lay my life,' cried Earl Bichet,
'It's my true love come oer the sea!'
Then up and spake the bride's mother,
'It's a bonny time to speak wi thee!'
35 'O your doughter came here on a horse's back,
But I'll set her hame in a chariot free;
For, except a kiss o her bonny mouth,
Of her fair body I am free.'
36 There war thirty cups on the table set,
He gard them a' in flinders flee;
There war thirty steps into the stair,
And he has louped them a' but three.
37 Then he took her saftly in his arms,
And kissed her right tenderlie:
'Ye 're welcome here, my ain true love,
Sae dearly welcome ye 're to me!'
* * *
73. doolfu: 1 struck out.
At the end: "Some verses are wanting at the conclusion."
The following stanza, entered by Scott in the quarto volume "Scottish Songs," 1795, fol. 29 back, Abbotsford library, N. 3, is much too good to be lost.
Young Bechin was in Scotland born,
He longed far countries for to see,
And he bound himself to a savage Moor,
Who used him but indifferently.
P. 454. 'Lord Beichim,' Findlay's Manuscripts, I, 1, from Jeanie Meldrum, Framedrum, Forfarshire, has these verses, found in G and in Spanish and Italian ballads.
("She meets a shepherd and addresses him.")
'Whas are a' thae flocks o sheep?
And whas are a' thae droves o kye?
And whas are a' thae statelie mansions,
That are in the way that I passd bye?'
'O these are a' Lord Beichim's sheep,
And these are a' Lord Beichim's kye,
And these are a' Lord Beichim's castles,
That are in the way that ye passd bye.'
There are three or four stanzas more, but they resemble the English vulgar broadsides. There must have been a printed copy in circulation in Scotland which has not been recovered.
468. D is now given as it stands in "The Old Lady's Collection," from which it was copied by Skene: 'Young Beachen,' No. 14.
1 Young Beachen as born in fair London,
An foiren lands he langed to see,
An he was tean by the savage Mour,
An they used him mast cruely.
2 Throu his shoulder they patt a bore,
An throu the bore they patt a tree,
An they made him tralle ther ousen-carts,
An they used him most cruelly.
3 The savige More had ae doughter,
I wat her name was Susan Pay,
An she is to the prison-house
To hear the prisoner's mone.
4 He made na his mone to a stok,
He made it no to a ston,
But it was to the Quin of Heaven,
That he made his mone.
5 'Gine a lady wad borrou me,
Att her foot I wad rune,
An a widdou wad borrou me,
I wad becom her sone.
6 Bat an a maid wad borrou me,
I wad wed her we a ring,
I wad make her lady of haas an hours,
An of the high tours of Line.'
7 'Sing our yer sang, Young Bichen,' she says,
'Sing our yer sang to me;'
'I never sang that sang, lady,
Bat fat I wad sing to ye.
8 'An a lady wad borrou me,
Att her foot I wad rune,
An a widdou wad borrou me,
I wad becom her son.
9 'Bat an a maid wad borrou me,
I wad wed her we a ring,
I wad mak her lady of haas an hours,
An of the high tours of Line.'
10 Saftly gaid she but,
An saftly gaid she ben;
It was na for want of hose nor shone,
Nor time to pit them on.
11 . . .
. . .
An she has stoun the kees of the prison,
An latten Young Beachen gang.
12 She gae him a lofe of her whit bread,
An a bottel of her wine,
She bad him mind on the leady's love
That fread him out of pine.
13 She gae him a stead was gued in time of nead,
A sadle of the bone,
Five hundred poun in his poket,
Bad him gae speading home.
14 An a lish of gued gray honds,
. . .
. . .
. . .
15 Fan seven lang year wer come an gane,
Shusie Pay thought lang,
An she is on to fair London,
As fast as she could gang.
16 Fan she came to Young Beachen's gate,
. . .
'Is Young Beachen att home,
Or is he in this country?'
17 'He is att home,
[H]is bearly bride him we;'
Sighan says her Suse Pay,
'Was he quit forgoten me?'
18 On every finger she had a ring,
An on the middel finger three;
She gave the porter on of them,
'Gett a word of your lord to me.'
19 He gaed up the stare,
Fell lau doun on his knee:
'Win up, my proud porter,
What is your will we [me]?'
20 'I ha ben porter att your gate
This therty year an three;
The fairest lady is att yer gate
Mine eays did ever see.'
21 Out spak the brid's mother,
An a haghty woman was she;
'If ye had not excepted the bonny brid,
Ye might well ha excepted me.'
22 'No desparegment to you, madam,
Nor non to her grace;
The sol of yon lady's foot
Is fairer then yer face.'
23 He's geen the table we his foot,
An caped it we his knee:
'I wad my head an a' my land
It's Susie Pay come over the sea.'
24 The stare was therty steps,
I wat he made them three;
He toke her in his arms tua,
'Susie Pay, y'er welcom to me!'
25 'Gie me a shive of your whit bread,
An a bottel of your wine;
Dinner ye mind on the lady's love
That freed ye out of pine?'
26 He took her
Doun to yon garden green,
An changed her name fra Shusie Pay,
An called her bonny Lady Jean.
27 'Yer daughter came hear on high hors-back,
She sail gae hame in coaches three,
An I sail dubel her tocher our,
She is nean the war of me.'
28 'It's na the fashon of our country,
Nor yet of our name,
To wed a may in the morning
An send her hame att none.'
29 'It's na the fashon of my country,
Nor of my name,
Bat I man mind on the lady's love
That freed me out of pine.'
52. I att her foot I: cf. 82.
93. tours: cf. 63.
134. spending.
173. Sigh an.
182. niddel.
After 29:
Courtes kind an generse mind,
An winne ye ansur me?
An fan they hard ther lady's word,
Well ansuared was she.
P. 476, II, 508. L. For the modern vulgar ballad, Catnach's is a better copy than that of Pitts. See Kidson, Traditional Tunes, p. 34, for Catnach.
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P. 459 a. For a late German ballad on the Moringer story ('von dem Markgrafen Backenweil') see Bolte, Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, III, 65-7, and for notes of dramas upon the theme, pp. 62-4. I do not observe that I have anywhere referred to the admirably comprehensive treatment of the subject by von Tettau, Ueber einige bis jetzt unbekannte Erfurter Drucke des 15. Jahrhunderts, Ritter Morgeners Wallfahrt, pp. 75-123. The book did not come into my hands till two years after my preface was written.
To be Corrected in the Print.
482 a, D. Insert 132. bone.
Trivial Corrections of Spelling.
461 b, 221. Read But.