Scott's "Jock of Hazeldean": The Re-Creation of a Traditional Ballad
by Charles G. Zug, III
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 86, No. 340 (Apr. - Jun., 1973), pp. 152-160
[Another US version based on Scott's poem was recovered from Tusla, Oklahoma (Moores 1964) as sung by Mr. Insch, formerly of Scotland. I assume it was not included because it was not known by Zig.]
Scott's "Jock of Hazeldean" The Re-Creation of a Traditional Ballad
THAT FINE OLD SCOTTISH PRACTICE of refurbishing traditional ballads has long been recognized. In the acrid judgment of one eighteenth-century collector and critic, the Englishman Joseph Ritson, "the history of Scottish poetry exhibits a series of fraud, forgery, and imposture, practiced with impunity and success."[1] Strong words, to be sure, but Ritson was by nature a most fastidious and sour tempered individual, whose life was one long battle against the ubiquitous agents of fraud and forgery. Perhaps we should turn to a modern scholar for a truly objective assessment of this Scottish art. In his comprehensive survey of The Ballads, M. J. C. Hodgart notes:
The art of the ballad reached its height in Scotland, and it seems likely that this perfection of form was brought about by a number of talented and anonymous poets. At a time when new ballads were no longer being composed and the practice of ballad singing was probably beginning to decline, they transformed folk-tradition into literature, and gave the ballads
their final form as far as literary criticism is concerned.[2]
Numerous ballads come to mind here, notably "Sir Patrick Spens," "Edward," and "The Twa Corbies." Unfortunately, the assertions of "authorship" usually rest on speculation, and the actual processes of re-creation cannot ordinarily be defined or studied.
One noteworthy exception is the old song generally known as "John of Hazelgreen" (Child 293), which was rewritten by Scotland's greatest literary figure, Sir Walter Scott. Sufficient evidence exists to document Scott's creative efforts and, thereby, to illustrate how an author's temperament, experience, literary preferences, and knowledge of folklore all influence his treatment of traditional materials. The history of "Jock of Hazeldean," as Scott himself apparently renamed it, is of still further interest, for the ballad then returned to oral tradition and was rediscovered in America one hundred years later.
It was in 1816- two years after Waverley and a full fourteen years from the first edition of the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border- that Scott set to work to re-create the ballad. To assist his old music teacher, Alexander Campbell, in preparing a collection of Scottish songs, he wrote to one of the Miss Clephanes of Mull, a member of a very musical family:
I wish you very much to give him your advice and assistance in his labours- that is if you approve of what he has already done. He is a thorough bred musician, and can take down music readily from hearing it sung. Some of his tunes are really very prettily arranged and I am beginning to give him words for them. One tune I am quite engoué about- it is decidedly an old Scottish air but is entirely new to me. The only words which were remembered by the young woman (a Miss Pringle) who sang it were these- I write them down that I may know if you have heard them.
Why weep you by the tide, Ladie,
Why weep you by the tide,
I'll wed you to my youngest son
And you sall be his bride.
And you sall be his bride, Ladie
Sae comely to be seen-
But aye she loot the tears down fa'
For Jock of Hazeldean.[3]
The "Miss Pringle" whom Scott mentions was the sister of Thomas Pringle of Jedburgh, who was the source for the fragmentary E version of "John of Hazelgreen" as listed by Child.[4] Apparently, Campbell himself had obtained this text and tune- "In January Last"[5]-while on a collecting expedition through the Border country.
Ultimately, Scott contributed seven original songs to Campbell's collection, which subsequently appeared in two volumes entitled Albyn's Anthology. Most were composed to the stirring, martial Highland music that he so admired, but the finest was "Jock of Hazeldean," which took shape from the tune and tantalizing single stanza as supplied above. Undoubtedly, Scott took the trouble of sending the stanza to Miss Clephane because he hoped that she--or one of the other members of her family-might be able to provide some of the remaining verses. None were recovered, however, and so Scott resorted to his imagination to complete the song for Campbell:
"Why weep ye by the tide ladie?
Why weep ye by the tide?
I'll wed you to my youngest son,
And ye sall be his bride:
And ye sall be his bride, ladie,
Sae comely to be seen--"
But aye she loot the tears down fa',
For Jock of Hazeldean.
"Now let this wilful grief be done,
And dry that cheek so pale;
Young Frank is chief of Errington,
And lord of Langley-dale;
His step is first in peaceful ha',
His sword in battle keen-"
But aye she loot the tears down fa',
For Jock of Hazeldean.
"O' chain o' gold ye sall not lack,
Nor braid to bind your hair;
Nor mettled hound, nor managed hawk,
Nor palfrey fresh and fair;
And you, the foremost o' them a',
Shall ride our forest queen-"
But aye she loot the tears down fa',
For Jock of Hazeldean.
The kirk was deck'd at morning-tide,
The tapers glimmer'd fair;
The priest and bridegroom wait the bride,
And dame and knight are there.
They sought her baith by bower and ha',
The ladie was not seen!
She's o'er the border, and awa
Wi' Jock of Hazeldean.[6]
Scott's tale of the Borderer who steals a bride from his English rival has deep roots in his earlier work and provides a fascinating contrast to the traditional version. As found in Child, the ballad recounts the rather domestic story of a man who overhears a maid weeping for John of Hazelgreen and offers instead to marry her to one of his sons. She continues weeping but goes along with him to buy clothes for the wedding. When they finally reach the man's home, all ends happily as the son turns out to be none other than John of Hazelgreen. Although they vary considerably in length and detail, the Child versions are very consistent in plot, and the actions are localized in and around Edinburgh. Most probably, Hazelgreen is meant to be a country estate in the environs of the capital city. Scott clearly invented a far more dramatic tale, enlarging the conflict even to the national level and, of course, ensuring that a countryman carried the day. With only the vague opening stanza to work from, he might have developed a number of different traditional plots, for example, a bloody lovers' tragedy along the lines of "Clerk Saunders" or "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" or even a natural catastrophe A la "Sir Patrick Spens." From his extensive editorial labors on the Minstrelsy and his extraordinary memory for old songs and tales, many traditional possibilities must have spurred his imagination. Ultimately, the course he adopted was entirely typical of his work and interests, if not even inevitable.
Scott's very first alteration was to rename his hero, for the letter to Miss Clephane calls him "Jock of Hazeldean." There is the possibility that Miss Pringle was responsible, but the Child E version from her brother twice labels him "John o Hazelgreen." Why would Scott make such a change? The answer lies embedded in his first great narrative poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. In the opening canto, Scott traces the progress of the Border warrior William of Deloraine across Roxburghshire from Branxholme to Melrose:
Soon in his saddle sate he fast,
And soon the steep descent he past,
Soon cross'd the sounding barbican,
And soon the Teviot side he won.
Eastward the wooded path he rode,
Greenhazel so 'er his basnentod;
He passed t he Peel of Goldiland,
And cross'd old Borthwicks' roaring strand;
Dimly he view'd the Moat-hills mound,
Where Druid shades s till flitted round:
In Hawick twinkled m any a light;
Behind him soon they set in night;
And soon he spurr'd his course kreen
Beneath the Tower of Hazeldean.
(StanzaX XV)
Appended to this passage is the important note that "the estate of Hazeldean, corruptly Hassendean, belonged formerly to a family of Scotts, thus commemorated by Satchells:' Hassendean came without a call, The ancientest house among them all.' " From his work on the Minstrelsy through the narrative poems to the Waverley Novels, Scott always labored to verify names and places and to localize them, thus giving his works verisimilitude and evoking his readers' associations with the Scottish countryside. It appears that when he heard Miss Pringle's stanza in x8x6 he instinctively localized the hero, assuming "Hazelgreen" to be yet another corruption of "Hazeldean." It is indeed curious t hat the passage above even contains the phrase" Greenhazels," which may have subconsciously contributed to Scott's act of association. The implications o f this simple change are very important for the ensuing song. Most significant, Jock of Hazeldean becomes a Borderer, in fact, a member of the "ancientest house" of the Scott Clan! As the Minstrelsy and The Lay repeatedly illustrate, Scott loved to portray the heroic feats of his ancestors, and so he must have felt compelled to ensure a similar destiny for the hero of his song. For most of the great heroes of the Scott Clan, this usually entailed a blow against their southern neighbors. Notable examples a re "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead," in which the Duke of Buccleugh and Auld Wat of Harden ride south to chastise the Captain of Bewcastle, or "Kinmont Willie," wherein the Bauld Buccleugh and a small party of Scotts storm the Castle of Carlisle. With the pedigree of Jock thus established, Scott next turned to the problem of finding a "courser keen" for his hero, and here he appears to have recalled the plots of two other early works, the traditional ballad "Katharine Janfarie" and its literary successor, "Lochinvar." Perhaps the furious ride on horseback across the heart of the Border country by William of Deloraine- who is also a Scott-evoked the very appropriate actions of these two ballads. "Katharine Janfarie" appeared in the first edition (1802) of the Minstrelsy as "The Laird of Laminton," but it was so extensively revised for the second (1803) that Scott felt impelled to change even the title.[7] The resulting conflation totals twenty-one stanzas and recounts in detail h ow Lord Lauderdale", Up frae the Lawland Border," invades the wedding of Katharine to the English Lord Lochinvar and after a bloody battle steals the bride. The ballad concludes with a warning to other English lords, a "moral" that applies equally to "Jock of Hazeldean":
Now a' you lords of fair England,
And that dwell by the English Border,
Come never here to seek a wife,
For fear of sic disorder.[8]
In later composing" Lochinvar" for his long narrative poem Marmion (Canto Fifth, Stanza XII), Scott both reduced and reordered the materials of "Katharine Janfarie." First, he made Lochinvar the hero, a wise correction since this is actually a Scottish, not an English, name. The Lochinvars, in fact, hailed from the shire of Kirkcudbright, and so Scott appropriately opened his ballad with 'young Lochinvar is come out of the west."[8] Next, Scott carefully set the wedding in England, at Netherby Hall in northern Cumberland, a mile or two below the Scottish border. Thus, Lochinvar rides in directly from the west and then swims the Eske River, which flows just west of Netherby. Such topographical precision is typical of Scott and clarifies the confused names and places of the traditional ballad, where both men seem to be Scottish and the wedding usually takes place in Scotland. In addition, Scott further localized the ballad with an allusion to the nearby Solway Firth and by having Lochinvar escape due north over the Border through "Cannobie Lee" (Canonbie, in southern Eskdale).
Since he spent so much time and energy on "Katharine Janfarie" and "Lochinvar," it is logical that Scott should recall these two earlier works while seeking an appropriate adventure f or Jock (Scott) of Hazeldean. What he did was to compress even further the already shortened narrative used in "Lochinvar," for the violence and the chase are now merely implied and the increasingly lyric emphasis of the ballad is directed to the situation of the bride. As before, Scott had to find an English suitor and an appropriate location south of the Border. And, once again, he drew on his experience. Some twenty-four years earlier, on September 30, 1792, Scott had written his close friend William Clerk:
I have had an expedition through Hexham and the higher parts of Northumberland, which would have delighted the very cockles of your heart .... Upon the Tyne, about Hexham, . . . I was particularly charmed with the situation of Beaufront, a house belonging to a mad sort of genius, whom, I am sure, I have told you some stories about. He used to call himself the Noble Errington, but of late has assumed the title of Duke of Hexham.[10]
Scott's special interest in Errington is evident in his delight in telling stories about him. No less important, one of the prominent landmarks in this very region is Langley Castle, an imposing fortress that today still stands in excellent repair. Scott's close knowledge of such Border landmarks is well known, and, in fact, it was in 1814 and 1817 that he published his monumental two-volume study, The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland. While Langley Castle is not mentioned, other nearby edifices, such as Hexham Abbey and Thirwall Castle, receive close attention. Is it then too much to assume that Scott's various expeditions into Northumberland fortuitously provided him with Jock's English antagonist, young Frank "the chief of Errington, / And lord of Langley-dale"? Very possibly, the name "Langley-dale" may have been suggested by the earlier "Lauderdale,"o r the even closer "Lamendall" from a version of "Katharine Jaffray" provided by Scott's good friend James Skene." Whatever the precise order in the evolution of the song, there seems little question that the plot of "Jock of Hazeldean" evolved naturally from "Katharine Janfarie" and "Lochinvar," for the actions, characters, locales, and even the patriotic conclusions are similar and reveal a logical process of refinement.
One final characteristic of Scott's earlier work is the romance imagery found in the last two stanzas of the ballad. Just as he did in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, Scott has here elevated his rough Borderers to the status of "dame and knight." Particularly noteworthy are the hound, hawk, and palfrey which he introduced into Stanza 3. These animals always fascinated Scott and a re found in innumerable combinations in one of his first ballad imitations," The Chase,"a s well as in certain ballads in the Minstrelsy on which his handiwork is likely, notably "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" and "The Twa Corbies." Scott, of course, was a leading scholar of the romance as well as the ballad, and at one time he even planned to include his edition of Sir Tristrem (1804) in the Minstrelsy. Although he knew from historical research that his ancestors were hardly knights and ladies, he usually attempted to portray them in this role, undoubtedly to soften their crude manners for his readers. Much the same compromise is evident in the imagery of "Jock of Hazeldean," which gives the song a very different cast from the domestic
love story of "John of Hazelgreen."
Certainly the evolution of Scott's song provides some rare insights into the manner in which an artist remolds his traditional sources. T his reconstruction reveals a delicate but clearly patterned web of associations and a logical progression from the hero's name and its connotations t o an appropriate action, setting, and style. In view of his extraordinary knowledge o f native traditions, it is hardly surprising that Scott would return to his earlier work in search for appropriate materials to develop Miss Pringle's very suggestive opening stanza. No less striking is the subsequent history of "Jock of Hazeldean": a full century later virtually all of Scott's original stanzas were collected from oral tradition in such distant lands as Virginia and New Brunswick. In both instances, they were preceded by the traditional stanza that Scott h ad used to commence his song:
A. Louisa County, Virginia, I915:
1. Traditional stanza
2. "A chain of gold ye shall not lack,
Nor braid to bind your hair,
Nor trusty steed nor silken plaid,
And all that ladies wear.
And ye the fairest of them all
Shall ride a fairie queen."
But a' she loot the tears come down
For Jock o' Hazelgreen.[12]
B. Chamcook, New Brunswick, 1928:
1. Traditional stanza
2. '"O, what na man is Hazeldean?
I pray ye, tell tae me."
"O there is na a finer man
In a' the sooth countree;
His step is first in peaceful ha'
His sword in battle keen."
But aye she loot the tear doon fa'
For Jock o' Hazeldean.
3. Young Frank is chief of Errington
An' lord of Langly Dale.
4. The church was decked at morning tide,
An' dame an' knight were there;
Wi' armour bright an' managed hawk
An' palfrey fresh an' fair;
They sought her baith by bower an' ha',
The ladye wasna seen-
She's ower the borders an' awa
Wi' Jock o' Hazeldean! [13]
There is also a fragmentary version from Florida, which consists of only the traditional first stanza but uses Scott's name "Jock o' Hazeldean." Unfortunately, the informant stated that she never knew any more of the song, and so it is impossible to establish a definite relationship to Scott's creation.[14] A comparisonw ith the first two American ballads reveals some interesting changes, however. Virginia 2 is really Scott 3, except that, as Phillips Barry observes, "the hound and hawk, not inappropriately in a land where hounds are not mettled, and hawks, good or bad, are indiscriminately shot, have disappeared."[15] The other alterations are minor and probably the result of simple verbal errors. The Canadian ballad is more complex.
The second stanza consists of four lines from the traditional ballad and four from the second half of Scott 2, a very logical fusion of elements from both versions in which the description of Errington is transferred to Jock. The fragmentary third stanza is also from Scott 2, and the remaining lines suggest the mnemonic qualities of Scott's very rhythmic names. Finally, the fourth stanza follows Scott 4 quite closely, except that the hound-hawk-palfrey cliche from Scott 3 has been incorporated to further delineate the attending knights and ladies.
It is noteworthy that, if the two American ballads were combined, all but four of Scott's lines would remain, a fact which suggests the appeal of Scott's song on the folk level. Unfortunately, the two American ballads are too short and fragmentary to serve as the basis for any reliable generalizations about the re-creation of Scott's song on the oral level. Barry's remark about the hound and hawk sounds logical enough;b ut why doesn't it also apply to the Canadian ballad, in which the singer not only retained what were essentially Scott's lines but transferred them to Stanza4? Without more texts or supplementary materials- for example, the influence of printed versions of "Jock of Hazeldean," particularly in the southern states where Scott was very popular-it is impossible to make further speculation on why or how Scott's ballad was altered as it was. Barry himself sensed this problem; in discussing the Virginia text he could only conclude that "it shows the folk at its worst."[16] While this is not so true of the New Brunswick version, where the narrative thread is still (barely) intact, both ballads do reveal marked signs of disintegration. What was obviously needed was an American Burns or Scott, who might have had the ability to repair the damage, just as Scott totally restored what, to him, was a mere fragment.
In 1931, Maurice W. Kelley advanced the tenuous theory that Scott had actually employed more than one stanza from the traditional "John of Hazelgreen" as the basis for his song. First, Kelley conveniently assumed that Scott had simply "forgotten" to mention the extra traditional materials that he had used. Although unable to supply Scott's "original," Kelley suggested that it was probably similar to the Virginia text, meaning that this ballad came not from Scott but from some undiscovered Scottish source.[17] Kelley, however, failed to take into account either Scott's letter of 1816 or the New Brunswick version printed by Barry. In short, his theory rests on pure speculation and is counter to Scott's own statements as well as the overwhelming internal and external evidence.
Had "Jock of Hazeldean" been written in 1802 or 1803, however, there would have been solid grounds for suspicion, for it does not appear that Scott could have composed a true folksong at this early date. In their diction, imagery, and complex narrative form, his various ballad imitations in the Minstrelsy can hardly be mistaken for their traditional counterparts. However, in all fairness to Scott, it must be admitted that he knew he was not writing folksongs at this time, for his definition of the ballad imitation clearly stated that it was a compromise between traditional and contemporary poetry. In other words, these early imitations were not written to be sung but were exercises in narrative poetry, which, in their increasing complexity, served as trial runs for The Lay of the Last Minstrel and its successors.
It was only after Scott had written the first of the long narrative poems that he turned his attention to writing songs to traditional tunes. In so doing, he learned to recognize that "emotional core" which lies at the heart of the folksong, a discovery he clearly failed to make while working on the Minstrelsy. This is easily illustrated by comparing "Jock of Hazeldean" and the manner in which he edited such traditional ballads as "Sir Patrick Spens." To the latter, Scott added fifteen extraneous stanzas to fill out the narrative, provide added description, and clarify historical bases for the action. In thus "restoring" the ballad, Scott greatly weakened the compact, allusive, highly emotional version that Percy had earlier given to the world.
Had Scott used the same technique on the fragment of "Jock of Hazeldean" in 1816, the resulting ballad would doubtless have been far longer and would have contained numerous stanzas to firmly localize the event, provide the motives and backgroundf or the action, and ensure a complete, logically constructed narrative. The suggested, three-stage process of refinement from "Katharine Janfarie" through "Lochinvar" to "Jock of Hazeldean" aptly summarizes Scott's increasing ability as a writer of lyric song. From the original twenty-one stanzas (84 lines) in 1803, he skillfully distilled the basic narrative, first to eight stanzas (48 lines) in 1808, and then to only four stanzas (32 lines) in 1816. Inevitably, he drew on his earlier works and antiquarian investigations to complete the song, but he economically selected only the most essential details. As the foregoing analysis demonstrates, much is merely implied in this deceptively simple song: the identities of the suitors, the Border locales, and the very significance of the action. Here, then, is the true art of the traditional song, for "Jock of Hazeldean" tells just enough to stimulate the imaginations and to exercise the powers of association of a wide range of singers and listeners. For Scott, of course, the song had the richest meanings
of all.
In 1825, Scott informed Thomas Shortreed: " 'I refused $500 for the Copyright of Jock o' Hazledean the other day- Miss Stephens has lately brot. it out with some eclat I'm told and I was solicited to sell my right in it- but I wd not take the money They may do as they like with it, though no doubt I might prosecute them.' [18] Five hundred pounds was decidedly a considerable sum for such a small song, and Miss Stephens' offer attests to the appeal of Scott's creation among all levels of society. Clearly, Scott's contemporaries acknowledged that the ballad was truly his. Although he desperately needed money at this time, Scott refused to sell, for he always felt that every man had a free right to re-create traditional song, that is, to exercise and enjoy that fine old Scottish art.
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
1 Joseph Ritson, Scottish Songs (Glasgow, 1869), vol. I, 67.
2 M. J. C. Hodgart, The Ballads (New York, 1962), 1808.
3 Letter of io February 1816, The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. H. J. C. Grierson (London, 1932-1937), vol. 4, 177.
4 Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (New York, 1965), vol. 5, 160, I64.
5 William Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time (New York, 1965), 575. The air appears to have come from a song in Thomas D'Urfey's play The Fond Husband (1676).
6 Alexander Campbell, Albyn's Anthology (Edinburgh, i816-1818), vol. I, 18.
7 For the texts and further details, see Child, vol. 4, 216-222. Such extensive revision was not unusual in the early editions of the Minstrelsy. For a very similar example, note how Scott changed "The Laird of Ochiltrie" (1802) to "The Laird O' Logie" (1803).
8 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ed. J. G. Lockhart (London, 1833), 144-145.
9 The Gordons of Lochinvar lived at Rusco Castle, just north of Gatehouse of Fleet, and there is a ruined castle on an island in Lochinvara, small lake in north central Kirkcudbright.
10 Letters, vol. I, 23-24.
11 Child, vol. 4, 222-223.
12 Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 536.
13 Phillips Barry, "John of Haselgreen," Bulletin of the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast, 3 (193I), 9.
14 Alton C. Morris, Folksongs of Florida (Gainesville, 1950), 330.
15 Barry, 9.
16 Ibid.
17 Maurice W. Kelley, "Jock of Hazeldean and Child 293 E," Modern Language Notes, 46 (93I), 304-306.
18. Thomas Shortreed, Visit to Abbotsford, 6 November 1825, The National Library of Scotland, MS. 8993, f. I15.