Recordings & Info 47. Proud Lady Margaret
[There are no tradtional US or Canadian versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection
4) Excerpt: Wit Combats with Ballad Revenants: "Proud Lady Margaret" and "The Unquiet Grave" (The entire article is attached to Unquiet Grave; Recordings & Info page)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud Number 37 Proud Lady Margaret (32 Listings)
Alternative Titles
The Bonny Hind Squire
Archerdale
Traditional Ballad Index: Proud Lady Margaret [Child 47]
DESCRIPTION: Knight comes to court Margaret; he will have her or die. She says better men than he have died for her. She asks riddles; he answers and asks more. She agrees to wed, and lists her wealth. He calls her a liar; he is her dead brother come to humble her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: death courting riddle ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 47, "Proud Lady Margaret" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 47, "Proud Lady Margaret" (3 versions)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 115-118, "Archerdale" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 336, "Proud Lady Margaret" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Dixon V, pp. 42-45, "The Bonny Hind Squire" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 162-164, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 text)
OBB 26, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 text)
DBuchan 49, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Child Collection
047 Cammi Vaughan Proud Lady Margaret Lass of Roch Royal 2005 No
047 Ewan MacColl Proud Lady Margaret The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Child Ballads) - Vol. 2 1964 2:14 Yes
047 Katherine Campbell The Knicht O Archerdale The Songs of Amelia and Jane Harris - Scots Songs and Ballads from Perthshire Tradition 2004 4:51 Yes
047 Lizzie Higgins Proud Lady Margaret In Memory of Lizzie Higgins - 1929-1993 2006 No
047 Pete & Chris Coe Proud Lady Margaret Out of Season Out of Rhyme 1976 5:54 Yes
047 Phil Cooper & Margaret Nelson Proud Lady Margaret Across the Water 1991 3:23 Yes
Excerpt: Wit Combats with Ballad Revenants: "Proud Lady Margaret" and "The Unquiet Grave"
by David Atkinson
Western Folklore, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Jul., 1991), pp. 231-254
(The entire article is attached to Unquiet Grave; Recordings & Info page)
"Proud Lady Margaret" was apparently last collected by Gavin Greig (1925: 37, 254), and it is only known in a small number of versions. A majority, though, include evidence of a wit combat episode. Three of these, 474-C, are very similar. A knight (or squire) comes to court Lady Margaret (or Janet), who claims that many others have already died for her sake. Nevertheless, she poses him a series of questions, and when he answers them she grants him her love, boasting of the numerous castles which she alone stands to inherit from her father and also from her mother (in 47A and 47B). In response to this, the knight discloses that he is her brother Willie (or William), and in 47C he reveals at this point that he is dead. The Lady Margaret figure now responds by saying that she is ready to go along with him, but he tells her that her unwashed hands and feet render her unfit to accompany him, for his body belongs with the worms in the grave. At this point 47A ends, after the revenant has told her, "I came to humble your haughty heart, / Has gard sae mony die" (47A: 16). In 47B the revenant specifically states that he could not rest in the grave on account of her pride. In both 47B and 47C the revenant warns her that she must forego her wonted pride, which is manifest in her going to the church with gold in her hair, or else she will sorely regret it when she comes where he has been. In 47B he adds that unless she amends her ways she will find herself in "The lowest seat o hell" (47B:31). He then simply disappears in 47B, but 47C specifies that she is left in a state of sorrow. All three of these versions are somewhat defective in the area of the wit combat, with lacunae indicated in the texts printed by Child.
In another version, 47D, the knight does not come as a suitor, but the lady still poses some questions to him, which he answers correctly. She then recognizes him as very like her brother who is dead, but she does not 6ffer to accompany him. Her revenant brother tells her that he cannot rest in his grave because of her pride, which is displayed once again in the gold she wears in her hair and her dress in the church, which she will have to leave behind when she dies. He finally leaves her mourning for her sins. Child's last version, 47E, begins by describing Fair Margret, who is young, noble, rich, and inordinately proud. She is visited by a knight, who again does not come as a suitor, and whom she recognizes straightaway as being very like her dead brother, although she does not say that she will go along with him. This time she does not pose any questions to him. Her revenant brother again tells her that he cannot rest in the grave on account of her pride, which is manifest in the usual way. He then warns her that she would forego such displays if she had seen what he has seen, before leaving her on her sickbed. Finally, of the two versions collected by Gavin Greig only that contributed by Bell Robertson, although still apparently incomplete, is more than a fragment (Greig 1925: 37). A young man comes as a suitor to a fair maid, who claims to have slighted many others who are now dead, and she boasts of her father's and mother's castles and of all their gold and property which she alone stands to inherit. He then reveals himself as her dead brother William, who cannot rest in the grave because of her pride. There follow two stanzas in which she asks whether there is room for her to lie along with him, and he refuses because the worms creep around him in the grave, but these may more rightly belong to "Sweet William's Ghost" (Greig 1925: 37).
The questions posed and answered in 47A-C are typical of ballad wit combats in general, involving the naming of primacies and superlatives:
"What's the first thing in flower," she said,
"That springs in mire or dale?
What's the next bird that sings," she says,
"Unto the nightingale?
Or what is the finest thing," she says,
"That king or queen can wile?"
"The primrose is the first in flower
That springs in mire or dale;
The thristle-throat is the next that sings
Unto the nightingale;
And yellow gold is the finest thing
That king or queen can wile" (47C:7-8).
Subsequently, defects in the texts of 47A-C render the wit combat difficult to analyze, but some rather less characteristic questions seem to be posed and somewhat cryptically answered:
"Ye hae asked many questions, lady,
I've you as many told;"
"But how many pennies round
Make a hundred pounds in gold?
"How many of the small fishes
Do swim the salt seas round?
Or what's the seemliest sight you'll see
Into a May morning?"
* * * *
"Berry-brown ale and a birken speal,
And wine in a horn green;
A milk-white lace in a fair maid's dress
Looks gay in a May morning" (47B:15-17).
In spite of the lacuna, it is apparent that the ale, wine, and lace do in part answer the question about "the seemliest sight." A lacuna is marked at the same point in the text of 47C, and the stanza which follows it is similar to that in 47B:
"There's ale into the birken scale,
Wine in the horn green;
There's gold in the king's banner
When he is fighting keen" (47C:11).
Two stanzas belonging to 47A but detached from the body of the text cover somewhat similar material:
"O wherein leems the beer?" she said,
"Or wherein leems the wine?
O wherein leems the gold?" she said,
"Or wherein leems the twine?"
"The beer is put in a drinking-horn,
The wine in glasses fine,
There's gold in store between two kings,
When they are fighting keen,
And the twine is between a lady's two hands
When they are washen clean" (Child 1882-1898:IV, 460).
The "twine" is a towel, and the knight's reply to this apparently innocuous question conceivably involves a perception which is elucidated later in 47A-C when the revenant brother, as he turns out to be, tells the Lady Margaret figure that her unwashed hands and feet render her unfit to accompany him to the grave. This observation, perhaps suggesting a kind of ritual purification, appears to symbolize his more general recognition of her impure spiritual condition, tainted by pride. Thus it may be that in 47A the innocent questions about beer and wine lead up to a sort of trick question, the reply to which indirectly discloses the knight's insight into Lady Margaret's spiritual state. If this is so, then the comparable replies in 47B: 17 and 47C: 11 may conceal a similar perception, dependent upon the contrast between the seemliness of white lace in a maid's dress, or of gold in the king's banner, and the vanity of the gold (including "gowd lace" in 47B: 27) worn by the Lady Margaret figure. The Matcher's success over the Poser in the wit combat would therefore involve, and perhaps even derive from, the revelation of a degree of spiritual understanding along with the knowledge and intellect necessary to demonstrate ability in courtship. The subtlety with which this is achieved, however, might easily have been lost in the course of ballad transmission. Interestingly, though, it remains possible to infer the same kind of idea from the very brief and apparently rather mundane wit combat of 47D:
"What gaes in a speal?" she said,
"What in a horn green?
An what gaes on a lady's head,
Whan it is washen clean?"
"Ale gaes in a speal," he said,
"Wine in a horn green;
An silk gaes on a lady's head,
Whan it is washen clean" (47D: 6-7).
The Lady Margaret figure is initially scornful of the knight who comes to her as a suitor in 47A-C because she believes him to be false and of low degree. Much the same may be deduced from Bell Robertson's version, and in 47D she similarly disdains the knight even though he does not come to court her. However, once he answers her questions correctly and wins the wit combat she is bound in 47A-C to consider him as fit to be her husband. His status seems to define him as a desirable suitor, and there is as yet no indication of his unmortal nature. It appears as if the haughty Poser is deflated by the success of the clever Matcher and their marriage will provide a comic outcome in accordance with the norms of the secular wit combat ballads. All of the other wit combat ballads, secular or supernatural, end at a point like this. Here, though, the wit combat builds up to a moment of sudden reversal when the successful Matcher turns out to be the Poser's brother. Central to this unique departure from the norms of the secular wit combat ballads is a familial relationship, which is also a recurrent element in the relevant grouping of revenant ballads, and its revelation helps impel the piece forward into the revenant ballad sub-genre. The further disclosure that the brother is a revenant from the grave places the mortal Lady Margaret figure in the tale role of Poser in confrontation with an unmortal in that of Matcher. Consequently, the Matcher's success in the wit combat represents a virtually unprecedented variation for the wit combat ballad sub-genre, carrying the implication that the unmortal might claim the mortal. Nevertheless, the immediate threat is averted because the unmortal is a revenant human corpse, and such a being, although conceivably interchangeable with the Devil in the wit combat ballads, is usually a somewhat more benign figure in the grouping of revenant ballads involving the interaction of two tale roles. In fact, in this instance the woman as unsuccessful Poser fills a position most usually occupied by a diabolical being in the supernatural wit combat ballads, and in view of the subject of "Proud Lady Margaret" it may be feasible to connect this with the overarching sin of pride normally associated with the Devil.
Child considered 47A-D, which involve wit combats, to be compounded of two separate ballads, so that 47E would represent an unadulterated revenant ballad, describing Fair Margret's vanity and then having her dead brother simply appear to her, disclose his identity, and admonish her for her pride (Child 1882-1898: I, 425). Certainly, there are revenant ballads such as "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (Child 243) and "Willie's Fatal Visit" (Child 255) in which the revenant does return to address a perceived sin. These, however, belong to a diverse grouping of revenant ballads involving three tale roles, which may usefully be considered as hybrids of the revenant and the tragic, or tragic-revenge, sub-genres. A ballad along the lines of 47E, however, would also stand out as less than characteristic of the grouping of revenant ballads involving the interaction of two tale roles. The familial relationship between Revenant and Visited is less than crucial, and Fair Margret's pride is not at all evidently a reaction to her brother's death. The connection can only be made by inference or supposition, if excessive pride is assumed to be a consequence of the dislocation caused by the removal by death of her brother's moderating influence.
There are, though, some features of the material found in most other versions of the ballad which serve to bring the type more closely into line with the norms of the grouping of revenant ballads involving the interaction of two tale roles. Thus when in 47A-C and Bell Robertson's version the Lady Margaret figure boasts of her father's and mother's castles and property to which she alone is the heiress, this is presumably in consequence of the absence or death of her brother, who would otherwise normally be expected to inherit. She effectively concedes as much in 47B; while in 47A and 47C the revenant contests the number of castles to which she is the heiress, perhaps with an implication that she could only expect to inherit those belonging to her mother. Not only does this episode provide another description of the nature of the Lady Margaret figure's pride, but it also indicates that it does indeed arise out of the familial relationship of Revenant and Visited which has been dislocated by death. It is, moreover, the result of a conflict of male and female cultural interests as they are embodied in the customary mode of inheritance. This conflict finds expression in the ballad through the appearance of a male Revenant to exert influence over the female Visited, even if the rather benign intention is only to restore a balance to her conduct, much as it is in versions of other revenant ballads involving the interaction of two tale roles. Then again, in 47A-C and Bell Robertson's version the Lady Margaret figure expresses her readiness to go along with her brother once he has revealed his identity, and in 47C she does so immediately after he has disclosed that he is dead. Such a statement may provide further evidence of a wrong reaction to the fact of death on the part of the survivor, in the manner of other relevant ballad types. In "Sweet William's Ghost" and "The Unquiet Grave" the mortal craves from the revenant a kiss, which would prove fatal, and in "Sweet William's Ghost" she also expresses her willingness to follow him into the grave; while in "The Cruel Mother" and "The Wife of Usher's Well" the mortal refuses to acknowledge that death has occurred.
These features which help to bring "Proud Lady Margaret" more into line with the other types of the grouping are missing not only from 47E but also from 47D, in which the wit combat is very perfunctory. Thus although "Proud Lady Margaret" may remain less clearly formulated than other revenant ballads, it makes more sense in the versions which most evidently belong to the wit combat sub-genre as well. This rather surprising observation points towards a high degree of integration of all the material in the form represented by 47A-C. The modulation of "Proud Lady Margaret" from wit combat ballad to revenant ballad is assisted by the Lady Margaret figure's sin of pride. It can be traced in her approach to courtship and perhaps even her association by tale role with the Devil, and in her attitude towards familial inheritance. Finally, it is described in 47B-E and in a fragment collected by Gavin Greig (1925: 254) in terms of her flaunting her wealth and vanity in the church,which provides a visual correlative for the way in which her sin cuts her off from things spiritual. Her unfitness for the realm beyond mortality is stated explicitly in 47A-C, and seems to be symbolized by her unwashed hands and feet. Here is in large part a specifically female pride, expressed through conventional notions of vanity, and is countered from beyond the grave by a male figure, so there is some indication of a particular concern with female conduct in areas such as courtship, inheritance, and the public display of wealth. The more general cultural import of the ballad, however, can be formulated in terms of a combination of the concerns of the groupings with which it belongs. The failure of a woman to demonstrate ability in courtship reveals a lack of knowledge and intellect which is indicative of a deeper spiritual vulnerability, which can be benignly redressed by a confrontation with the world beyond the grave. Thus a ballad which crosses sub-generic boundaries has a logic of its own, which may nevertheless be better understood in relation to the groupings with which the piece is connected when broken down into its constituent tale roles.
This kind of analysis cannot produce firm conclusions about the genesis of "Proud Lady Margaret." A ballad like 47A-C might have become attenuated in the course of transmission into versions like 47D and 47E, perhaps because its overall logic was not sufficiently evident in performance to persist intact. The alternative is that a ballad along the lines of 47E developed during transmission by an association of ideas into a fuller version of the kind of 47A-C. The time scale, whereby the versions printed by Child were collected during the last years of the eighteenth century and the first thirty years of the nineteenth century, with Bell Robertson's version dating from the mid-nineteenth century, is insufficient to allow any deduction about primacy on the basis of date. However, the fact that "Proud Lady Margaret" appears to be unknown in more recent tradition may indicate that its rather convoluted logic has presented problems for singers. It is, moreover, possible that the defective nature of the wit combat material in 47A-C supports the hypothesis of attenuation during transmission. Speculation aside, "Proud Lady Margaret" does bear out the general formulation that wit combats tend to attract supernatural characters and that supernatural ballads involving the interaction of just two tale roles tend to attract wit combats (Buchan 1985: 394).