59
The Dark Knight
This poses something of a problem. The fact that in the Col-
lection the manuscript is anonymous does not necessarily mean that
it is not genuine. Sometimes Dr. Brown, or his informer, would
write out the text of a ballad and then would forget to set down
the informant's name and the time and place at which the text was
secured. This is what happened in the case of some texts of 'A
Pretty Fair Maid down in the Garden,' 'Common Bill,' 'The Pale
OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH 219
Wildwood Flower,' and several other ballads and songs. Moreover,
the text itself — the imperfect rhymes in stanzas 4 and 12, the indica-
tion of lines and stanzas not recalled, and the bald way it tells its
story — speaks pretty strongly for its traditional character. But the
editor's best efforts have failed to find this ballad recorded anywhere
else.^ It seemed on first reading to carry a vague resemblance to
something half-remembered in Danmarks gamlc Folkcviscr, but a
careful rereading of that great collection failed to reveal it. One
feature of the text, the Scotticisms in stanzas 3, 10, 11, 13, are
suspiciously literary in a North Carolina text. But all things con-
sidered it seems best to retain it here. If it is an artifact, it is
uncommonly well done.
No title. An anonymous and undated sheet. It has an intercalated
refrain, given here for the first stanza only.
1 There was a lass all neat and fair —
Oh runny ba ho
With middle small and golden hair —
Oh runny bunny ba ho
2 She's married a knight all dark and tall
And she has left her father's hall.
3 Her mother gret full woeful sair,
'Oh, I'll not see my daughter mair.'
4 He's placed her on his milk-white steed,
And they have gone full many a mile.
5 They had not gone but forty mile,
And they came on a golden stile.
6 'Light down, fair Alice, for you have come home ;
For I am sick and will no more roam.'
[Stanza or stanzas missing]
7 Ten years they lived in the castle fine,
And she has born him children nine.
8
They will not live another dawn.
9 He's killed the sons all tall and good ;
He's taken his daughters to the wood,
10 And there he's hanged his daughters three:
'And oh, your sorrows you must dree.'
1 1 The lady saw her bairns were gone.
She did not live another dawn.
' Professor Gordon Hall Gerould, to whom I sent a copy of it, tells
me that he has checked through the Buchan manuscripts in the Widener
Library without finding it.
12 He's mounted on his milk-white steed
And he's gone out across the sea
13 To seek another maiden fair
Who'll never see her mother mair.