No. 82: The Bonny Birdy
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (There are no footnotes)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A
5. Endnotes
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 82. The Bonny Birdy
A. Roud No. 3972: The Bonny Birdy (1 Listing)
2. Sheet Music: The Bonny Birdy (See Niles: US version)
3. US & Canadian Versions (There is only one version from Niles, which is a different song, Little Birdy, adapted to the theme of 82. The Bonny Birdie. It appears to be a rewrite of "Little Birdie" fashioned with a chorus resembling the chorus of Child 82.)
4. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A with additional notes)]
Child Narrative: The Bonny Birdy
A. Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, fol. 42; Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 162.
Jamieson, in printing this ballad, gave the husband the name Lord Randal, made many changes, and introduced several stanzas, "to fill up chasms." But the chasms, such as they are, are easily leapt by the imagination, and Jamieson's interpolations are mere bridges of carpenter's work. The admirably effective burden is taken into the story at stanza 11. As Jamieson remoulds the ballad, it is no burden, but a part of the dialogue throughout.
The main part of the action is the same as in 'Little Musgrave.' The superior lyrical quality of the Scottish ballad makes up for its inferiority as a story, so that on the whole it cannot be prized much lower than the noble English ballad.
Cunningham has rewritten the ballad in his own style, pretending, as often, to have known another recited copy: 'Sir Hugh,' Songs of Scotland, II, 130.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
Jamieson, in printing this ballad, gave the husband the name Lord Randal, made many changes, and introduced several stanzas, "to fill up chasms." But the chasms, such as they are, are easily leapt by the imagination, and Jamieson's interpolations are mere bridges of carpenter's work. The admirably effective burden is taken into the story at stanza 11.
The main part of the action is the same as in 'Little Musgrave' (No. 81). The superior lyrical quality of the Scottish ballad makes up for its inferiority as a story.
Child's Ballad Text
'The Bonny Birdy'- Version A; Child 82
Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, fol. 42; Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 162.
1 There was a knight, in a summer's night,
Was riding oer the lee, diddle
An there he saw a bonny birdy,
Was singing upon a tree, diddle.
1b O wow for day! diddle,
An dear gin it were day! diddle,
Gin it were day, an gin I were away!
For I ha na lang time to stay, diddle.
2 'Make hast, make hast, ye gentle knight,
What keeps you here so late?
Gin ye kent what was doing at hame,
I fear you woud look blate.'
3 'O what needs I toil day an night,
My fair body to kill,
Whan I hae knights at my comman,
An ladys at my will?'
4 'Ye lee, ye lee, ye gentle knight,
Sa loud's I hear you lee;
Your lady's a knight in her arms twa
That she lees far better nor the.'
5 'Ye lee, you lee, you bonny birdy,
How you lee upo my sweet!
I will tak out my bonny bow,
An in troth I will you sheet.'
6 'But afore ye hae your bow well bent,
An a' your arrows yare,
I will flee till another tree,
Whare I can better fare.'
7 'O whare was you gotten, and whare was ye clecked?
My bonny birdy, tell me:'
'O I was clecked in good green wood,
My bonny birdy, tell me:'
'O I was clecked in good green wood,
Intill a holly tree;
A gentleman my nest herryed,
An ga me to his lady.
8 'Wi good white bread an farrow-cow milk
He bade her feed me aft,
An ga her a little wee simmer-dale wanny,
To ding me sindle and saft.
9 'Wi good white bread an farrow-cow milk
I wot she fed me nought,
But wi a little wee simmer-dale wanny
She dang me sair an aft:
Gin she had deen as ye her bade,
I woudna tell how she has wrought.'
10 The knight he rade, and the birdy flew,
The live-lang simmer's night,
Till he came till his lady's bowr-door,
Then even down he did light:
The birdy sat on the crap of a tree,
An I wot it sang fu dight.
11b 'O wow for day! diddle
An dear gin it were day! diddle
Gin it were day, an gin I were away!
For I ha na lang time to stay.' diddle
12 'What needs ye lang for day, diddle.
An wish that you were away? diddle
Is no your hounds i my cellar,
Eating white meal an gray?' diddle
12b O wow, etc.
13 'Is nae your steed in my stable,
Eating good corn an hay?
An is nae your hawk i my perch-tree,
Just perching for his prey?
An is nae yoursel i my arms twa?
Then how can ye lang for day?'
14b 'O wow for day! diddle
An dear gin it were day! diddle
'O wow for day! diddle
An dear gin it were day! diddle
'O wow for day! diddle
An dear gin it were day! diddle
For he that's in bed wi anither man's wife
Has never lang time to stay.' diddle
15 Then out the knight has drawn his sword,
An straiked it oer a strae,
An thro and thro the fa'se knight's waste
He gard cauld iron gae:
An I hope ilk ane sal sae be servd
That treats ane honest man sae.
End-Notes
The burden stands thus in the manuscript after the first stanza:
O wow for day, diddle
An dear gin it were day, diddle
Gin it were day, diddle
I were away,
For I ha na lang time to stay, diddle.
131. nae you. (?)