William Motherwell as Field Collector
by William B. McCarthy
Folk Music Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1987), pp. 295-316
William Motherwell as Field Collector
WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
WILLIAMM OTHERWELL (I797-I835) has attracted considerable attention for the editorial integrity of his Minstelsy: Ancient and Modern.[1] Gordon Hall Gerould, for example, in The Ballad of Tradition, says that 'Motherwell showed by precept and example that editorial tampering with texts was wrong in principle and useless in practice'.[2] M. J. C. Hodgart, in The Ballads, calls Motherwell one of the first editors 'to approach modern standards of integrity', and traces his influence - both directly and through Grundtvig - on the editorial practices of Child.[3] More recently David Buchan, in The Ballad and the Folk, has praised the 'enlightening insight' of the introductory essay Motherwell provided for his Minstrelsy.[4]
Evelyn Wells, however, in The Ballad Tree, calls attention to another side of Motherwell's ballad activity, his fieldwork:
Motherwell's Minstrelsy is the result o f the most c areful recording, and in addition to his energy a nd scholarship he is humanly alive to the relation between s inger and song, and between singer and collector. His notebooks, even his expense accounts,
are touched w ith the selfless amateur's delight in treasure f ound, o r depression over time lost - as when he writes of one day's expenses, 'So much for a hobby horse, in the riding of which there is neither fame nor thanks'.[5]
Twenty years earlier, in Ballad Books and Ballad Men, Sigurd Hustvedt wrote:
In the case of WilliamM otherwell,t oo, it is possiblet hrought he preservationo f a
considerableb ody of manuscripmt aterialst o arrivea t assurancew ith referenceto
his methods of collecting and editing.6
The fruit of Motherwell's collecting and editing was his anthology of
Scottish ballads, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern. The Minstrelsy is
distinguished by:
i. An introduction exhibiting unexpected insight into the oral
process in ballad composition.
Folk Music Journal, Volume 5, Number 3, I987
ISSN 053 I-9684
296 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
z. Texts remarkablefo r theirf idelityt o the oral tradition.
3. An appendixw hich includest hirty-threeb alladt unes, not idealized
but matched to the specific stanzas to which they were sung.
4. Sounds cholarshipt hroughout.
Motherwell's exemplary editorial practice demonstrates a keen understanding
of balladry as a living art. As the passages cited from Wells and
Hustvedt suggest, the editor's field experience was decisive in developing
that understanding.
Two documents survive from William Motherwell's ballad-collecting
days in Renfrewshire in i8z2 and i88z6. These two documents, the
MotherwellM anuscripta nd the MotherwellN otebook, cast considerable
light on his developmenta s a folklorista nd fieldworkere, speciallyo n his
growing awareness of the importance of the individual performer. This
essay will examine each document in turn to show the stages of that
development,a nd then to show the developingf ieldworkerin action. It
will also look briefly to the Minstrelsy to see to what extent that work
reflectsa n understandingo f balladryd evelopedt hroughf ielde xperience.
William Motherwell was born on I3 October 1797 and died on
i NovemberI 8 3 5. The yearso f his life correspondr atherc loselyw ith the
years of the Romantic Movement in the British Isles. He devoted himself to
Scottish literature from his youth, composing the first draft of 'Jeannie
Morrison', his most popular lyric, when he was fourteen. At the age of
fifteen, however, he took a post in the Sheriff-Clerk'os ffice in Paisley,
apparently in order to begin study of law; in time he became Sheriff-
Depute. By i8z5 Motherwell was collecting ballads with a view to
publication.F ascicleso f a balladb ook had beguna ppearinga t the end of
i82z4. At firstM otherwellw as only a contributorb, ut in time he became
the editor as well. The completew ork, Minstrelsy:A ncienta nd Modern,
was published in I 8z7.
After completing the Minstrelsy, Motherwell went on to publish the
work of an earlier Renfrewshirep oet and Sheriff-ClerkD epute, James
M'Alpie,7 and to found Paisley Magazine. From there he turned to more
traditionalj ournalisticp ursuits,f inallyb ecominge ditor of the Glasgow
Courier. He did not desert Scottish literature during these years, but
continued to write - or at least revise - his own poetry. In addition, at the
time of his death he was collaboratingw ith JamesH ogg on an editiono f
Burns's poetry.
William Motherwell as Field Collector 2.97
By i8z5 the Celtic Revival was moribund. The ballad revival, too,
seemed to have run its course. The Bishop, Percy, was dead. The Baronet,
Scott, had turned his attention to novels. But in Scotland there was still a
coterie of active collector-editors. They were a close-knit group.
Motherwell and Buchan corresponded (and gossiped about Cunningham).
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe did editorial work for Buchan and sent
texts to Motherwell. Most knew Scott and looked to him for leadership,
nominal if not actual. Motherwell was an exception in not knowing Scott
personally, but he wrote to him for editorial advice.
It is not entirely clear how ballads passed into the hands of these
collectors. Of course, the collectors themselves recalled songs from
childhood and encountered them casually among servants, inn employees,
and other working-class people with whom they came into contact.
Friends and relatives who knew of a collector's interest sent items likewise
remembered or casually encountered. New discoveries and unusually
complete versions were proudly shared around and entered into the great
folio manuscripts in which these gentlemen housed their collections.
But, as a general rule, these gentlemen did not go out into the highways
and byways (or, in Renfrewshire, the factories and weaving rooms), to find
the objects with which they were so fascinated. Like genteel collectors of
rural artefacts today, these editor-collectors relied to a great extent on
middlemen, or pickers as they are now called in the antique trade. The
bookseller, David Webster of Edinburgh, was one such middleman. So
too, apparently, was James Nicol, of whom David Buchan writes at some
length.8 Nicol's texts were especially appealing. The twenty-one texts that
can be traced with any certainty to him make a total of some sixty
appearances in the ballad collections of Motherwell, Buchan, Maidment,
Sharpe, Scott, and Pitcairn.9 Some of these copies were acquired from
Nicol directly, some through Webster, and some through exchanges
among the collectors themselves. 'Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet' (Child 66)
provides an example of the way ballads were handed around. James Nicol
apparently sold the ballad to David Webster, who in turn passed it on to
his client, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. Sharpe secured its publication,
privately, in Maidment's North Country Garland (thirty copies printed),
and then communicated it to Motherwell, who gave it wider distribution
in the Minstrelsy. As a result of this kind of reliance on intermediaries,
compounded by friendly exchange, the ballad collections of Motherwell's
contemporaries, and the books based on them, contained largely
second-hand and third-hand materials at best. In this respect they were no
11
z98 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
different from the earlier collections of Percy, Herd, Ritson, Scott, and
others. Only John Bell and Robert Burns had done any extensive collecting
from oral sources.
William Motherwell, too, relied to some extent on correspondents,
such as Peter Buchan, and friends, such as J. Goldie. But, for reasons
unknown, he early on gave himself to gathering ballads from oral sources.
Of approximately 27o ballad texts in the manuscript collection, no more
than seventy come from second-hand or third-hand sources. A few of these
seventy texts come from assorted friends and aquaintances. The great
majority, however, come from his correspondent Buchan, or his protege in
collecting, Andrew Crawfurd. Their texts were admitted to the manuscript
because Motherwell trusted them to send him materials gathered from
oral sources. The other two hundred and more texts Motherwell collected
himself.
As Motherwell gained experience collecting ballads in the field he
became increasingly skilful and systematic. He entered in his notebooks
lists of potential singers of ballads and lists of pieces that the individual
singers might be expected to sing. He developed such techniques as
preparing ahead of time a schedule for the collecting session, returning to
fruitful sources again and again, taking texts down exactly and checking
back with sources to assure accuracy, keeping precise records of performers,
dates, and places, making fair copies of fieldnotes as soon as
possible after each session, keeping the benefits of supposedly superior
education to himself, and especially, learning from mistakes. Motherwell
did learn. His book, the Minstrelsy, is the first published collection of
ballads to be erected on such a foundation of systematic field collecting.
A great deal about Motherwell's fieldwork can be learned from
examining the two documents referred to already, the Motherwell
Manuscript and the Motherwell Notebook. Each document survives in
two versions, Motherwell's autograph original and the copy commissioned
by Francis James Child. The autograph manuscript is part of the
Glasgow University Collection and the autograph notebook is at Pollok
House, Glasgow.10 The copies are part of the Houghton Collection of
Harvard University." The notebook is a small volume of I78 numbered
pages, while the manuscript is a hefty folio, its pages numbered slightly
irregularly through to 697. The Harvard copy of the notebook is a
facsimile, reproducing the approximate size, the original pagination, and
even the use of pencil or ink of the autograph. The Harvard copy of the
manuscript is not a facsimile. It consists, for instance, of two quarto
William Motherwell as Field Collector 299
volumes instead of one folio. But it provides in the margin the pagination
of the autograph copy, and it has been collated with the original at least
twice by later readers.
The manuscript constitutes Motherwell's folksong collection. The
early pages are heterogeneous in character but the last six hundred and
more pages are devoted almost entirely to ballad material. Each text is
written out with great care. The new texts which Motherwell included in
the Minstrelsy were drawn largely from this manuscript. The notebook is a
much more informal document than the manuscript. Scattered through its
pages are ballad texts, lists of singers and their repertoires, statements of
cash outlays and loans, outlines and notes for the 'Introduction' to the
Minstrelsy, and antiquarian matters. Page I 76, to take an extreme
example, contains on the one page brief journal entries for a week in
August of I825 and for a weekend in July of i8z6, followed by the
detached and unexplained name 'O Boone'. Obviously Motherwell, like
many people, used notebooks in a rather casual and unorganized way,
writing notes relative to different matters in different sections of the same
book. The manuscript provides the clearer documentation of
Motherwell's development as a ballad collector, while the notebook
provides the clearer picture of the collector in action.
The first document, the manuscript, contains in its early pages the
work of a hobbyist. Apparently Motherwell, like many an enthusiast
before and since, began by writing down the lyrics of all the old songs he
liked, particularly the bawdy ones. Like many good collectors, however,
he matured in his hobby. He developed greater sophistication and clearer
focus in his collecting activities. The manuscript reveals five stages in this
maturing process:
i. Random but variant-oriented collecting of folk and folk-like songs
from manuscript and printed as well as oral sources.
2. Focus on the ballad.
3. Awareness of the importance of first-hand field collecting of oral
texts.
4. Attention to circumstances of performance - singer, time, and
place.
5. A performer-repertoire approach to collecting and organizing the
materials.
Motherwell, then, started with the idea of gathering in one folio the
texts of songs that he personally collected or that friends such as Peter
300 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
Buchan sent to him. The first sixty pages of the manuscript contain songs
of every description: true ballads from old women, the bawdy songs of the
Paisley Garland, children's songs such as 'The Frog and the Mouse',
sentimental songs such as 'Somebody', and historical songs such as
'Captain Kidd'. By the time he had finished copying the last Paisley
Garland song onto page 6o, however, he seems to have realized what he
really wanted to collect. The remaining six hundred pages or so are
devoted almost exclusively to true ballad material. These pages constitute
one of the monuments of ballad-collecting in the English-speaking world.
Approximately twelve per cent of the texts in Child's compilation come
from this one manuscript volume.
Furthermore, after page 6o Motherwell confined himself to what he
considered oral texts. More than zoo of them he collected himself. He
gives the names of some z5 informants. To many of these he paid repeated
visits. In other words, at the same time he was focusing his interest on the
ballad, he was transforming himself from a culler of old volumes to a
cultivator of old singers (and some not so old).
Motherwell's attempts to organize the early pages of the manuscript
are largely variant-orientated. Pages 9-zo, for example, contain three
versions of 'Lamkin' (Child 93). Similarly, Agnes Lyle's version of 'The
Wee Wee Man' (Child 38) follows two versions of 'Kempy Kay' (Child
33), another ballad about a creature of strange physiognomy. Seldom in
the first z5 I pages does he give more than one song at a time from a singer,
and never more than two songs in succession.
In the early stages of his development Motherwell concentrated on the
texts themselves. He was not always careful to record sources. Pages
I-z I5 of the manuscript contain seventeen ballad texts and a number of
other songs without any kind of ascription. As the collection grew,
however, he finally came to realize the importance of indicating at least
singer, date, and place. One ballad, 'Child Noryce' ('Child Maurice', Child
83), was especially important in bringing him to this realization.
On i9 January i8z5 Motherwell collected 'Child Noryce' from
Widow M'Cormick of Paisley. The ballad is related to the theme of
Home's popular Scottish tragedy The Douglas and Motherwell was
fascinated by its history. Widow M'Cormick's version was quite complete,
and quite different from 'Gil Morice', the broadside version printed in
Percy, which was still a popular stall ballad in Motherwell's own day.
On z8 April i8z5 he wrote to Sir Walter Scott to ask about variants
which could supply corrections and better readings. He indicated his
William Motherwell as Field Collector 301
intention to have the ballad 'inserted' into the Minstrelsy, which was
already being issued in separate numbers in Glasgow, but not yet under
Motherwell's personal editorship.
He had apparently had one result of his collecting inserted in the
Minstrelsy already. The second number opens (page 3 5) with a composite
version of 'Hind Horn' (Child I 7) based on the version in Cromeck's Select
Scottish Songs with additions from other versions 'which, joined to the
stanzas preserved by Mr Cromeck, have enabled us to present it to the
public in its present complete state'. It seems safe to assume that
Motherwell was responsible for the composite. The versions from which
the additions come are contained in the manuscript. The headnote, in tone
and style, sounds like Motherwell, and it promises an 'Intoduction' to the
Minstrelsy, which Motherwell wrote, and a tune for the text, which
Motherwell provided in the musical appendix.
The implications of the headnote are clear, and indicate Motherwell's
attitude toward ballads in early i8z5. There is only one correct text of a
ballad, the headnote implies, and that text is often corrupted in printed
sources. While fieldwork may turn up something of value to correct a text,
the great contribution that an editor can make is to take the versions with
significant variants and from them print a better composite, a more
complete and more 'correct' version than any previous text. That sort of
composite is what Motherwell is obviously proud to have produced with
'Hind Horn'. He considers 'Hind Horn' important because it illustrates
clearly the connection between balladry (Minstrelsy Modern) and
romance (Minstrelsy Ancient, in this case 'King Horn').
'Child Noryce' seemed such another important text because of the
connection with The Douglas, which Motherwell and his contemporaries
considered a major Scottish masterpiece. But in the present case it was not
so simple to construct a composite text. The Widow M'Cormick text had
many characteristics, notably a more unadorned style, which suggested
greater antiquity than the common text. According to the letter to Scott,
Motherwell had first consulted old acquaintances Jamieson and Kirkpatrick
Sharpe. These, however, were unable to supply much of anything
like the 'Child Noryce' text. The letter is worth quoting in full as it has not
hitherto been printed.
Paisley z8 April 18z5
Sir
The above balladt aken fromt he recitationo f an old womani n this town and
which I look upon as the only pure traditional version of the beautiful ballad
302 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
usually printed under the title of 'Gil Morice' or 'Child Morice' I have taken the
libertyo f communicatingto you in the hope that you will be so kind as to inform
me whethera ny copy of it everc amei nto yourh andss ubsequento thep ublication
of yourv eryv aluablew ork 'TheM instrelsyo f the Border'f or as it doesn ot appear
there and as no allusion is made to it I presume that previous to that period it was
unknown to you. My reason for troubling you in this little matter is, that if
perchancea ny such copy may be now in yourp ossessioni t would in all likelihood
serve to correct some evident errors which occur in this one, and which though
triflingI would ratherw ish to have it is my power to amendb y the assistanceo f
other recited copies than trust to my own judgment in doing so. Other copies too
may possiblys upplyp referabler eadingsi n manyp laces,a nd containa dditionso f
material moment.
I suspect however that the ballad is but rarely to be met with; for tho' I have
knowns everalp eoplew ho remembero f hearingi t sungi n theiry outh,I was never
fortunate enough to know more than one person who could recite it from
beginningt o end;t he modernb allado f Gil Morriceh aving,b y its superiorb eauty,
apparentlya bsorbeda ll memoryo f its eldera nd more rudelyf ashionedb rother,
Child Noryce.
Of this ballad neither Mr Jamieson nor Mr KirkpatrickS harpeh as ever
succeeded in obtaining a copy, nor am I aware that in its present shape it has
anywhere been printed. I am also inclined to think that it retains the right name of
the ballad; Noryce and Nory signifying I believe a foster child, which its hero,
consideringt he peculiarc ircumstanceso f his birth, must unquestionablyh ave
been, a fact too, which receivesa furtherc orroborationb y thesel ines of a recited
copy of Gil Morris, mentioned by Mr Jamieson:
He's ca'd his fosterb ritherW illie;
Come win ye hose and shoon;
And gae unto LordB arnard'hs a'
And bid his Lady come.
As it is of somei mportancet o preservet heser emnantso f ancientt raditionaryso ng
in the exact state in which they pass from mouth to mouth among the vulgar I mean
to get this ballad inserted in a small 4to collection of Ballads now in the course of
publication by John Wylie & Co. of Glasgow. Before doing so however I am
anxioust o learnw hethery ou weree vera cquaintedw itht he ballado r had anyc opy
of it which could rectify the text of the version now sent; also whether you think the
opinion I have ventured to express of its being the most ancient and genuine set of
the ballad of 'Gil Morris' is well or ill founded. And if at any leisure moment you
would be good enough as [sic] give me information on these points I would feel
singularlyo bligedb y yourp oliteness& attention.
I have the Honor to be,
Sir,
Your very respectful
and obedt Servt.
W. Motherwell
Sir Walter Scott Bart.
Edinr1. 2
William Motherwell as Field Collector 303
Scott replied most promptly.
Abbotsford, 3d May i825
Sir,
I am honoured with your letter covering the curious old version of the ballad of
Gil Morrice, which seems, according to your copy, to be a corruption of Child
Noryce, or Child Nursling, as we would say. As I presume the ballad to be genuine,
and, indeed, see no reason to suspect the contrary, the style being simple and
ancient, I think you should print it exactly as you have taken it down, and with a
reference to the person by whom it is preserved so special as to enable any one to
ascertain its authenticity who may think it worth while. I have asked, at different
times, the late Mr John Home, concerning the ballad on which he was supposed to
have founded 'Douglas', but his memory was too imperfect when I knew him to
admit of his giving me any information. I have heard my mother, who was fond of
the ballad, say that when Douglas was in its height of popularity, GIL MORRICE
was, to a certain extent, re-written, which renovated copy, of course, includes all
the new stanzas about 'Minerva's Loom', and so forth. Yet there are so many fine
old verses in the common set, that I cannot agree to have them mixed up even with
your set, though more ancient, but would like to see them kept quite separate, like
different sets of the same melody. In fact, I think I did wrong myself in
endeavouring to make the best possible set of an ancient ballad out of several
copies obtained from different quarters, and that, in many respects, if I improved
the poetry, I spoiled the simplicity of the old song. There is no wonder this should
be the case when one considers that the singers or reciters by whom these ballads
were preserved and handed down, must, in general, have had a facility, from
memory at least, if not from genius (which they might often possess), of filling up
verses which they had forgotten, or altering such as they might think they could
improve. Passing through this process in different parts of the country, the ballads,
admitting that they had one common poetical original (which is not to be inferred
merely from the similitude of the story), became, in progress of time, totally
different productions, so far as the tone and spirit of each is concerned. In such
cases, perhaps, it is as well to keep them separate, as giving in their original state a
more accurate idea of our ancient poetry, which is the point most important in such
collections. There is room for a very curious essay on the relation which the
popular poetry of the north of Europe bears to that of the south, and even to that of
Asia; and the varieties of some of our ballads might be accounted for by showing
that one edition had been derived from the French or Norman, another from the
Danish and so on, so that, though the substance of the dish be the same, the
cookery is that of foreign and distant cuisiniersT. his reasoning certainly does not
apply to mere brief alterations and corruptions, which do not, as it were, change
the tone and form of the original.
You will observe that I have no information to give respecting GIL MORRICE,
so I might as well, perhaps, have saved you the trouble of this long letter.
I am, Sir,
Your obliged humble servt.,
WALTER SCOTT13
WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
Hustvedt, in Ballad Books and Ballad Men, 14 cautions against giving
unduec reditt o this letter.B ute xaminationo f the manuscripst uggestst hat
the letter did have a strong impact. The occasional dates provided in the
early pages of the manuscript indicate that when Motherwell received
Scott's letter, sometime in May of 1825, he had filled in most of the first
251 pages, leaving only a page or two blank now and then in hopes of
finding further variants of particular ballads. The difference in the
remaining four hundred pages of the manuscript is modest but notable. In
the first 251 pages, dates and names are scattered with a cavalier
casualness. But Scott's letter and Motherwell's own meditations seem to
have shown the collector that a ballad is the product of a certain singer at a
certain time and place. In the remaining four hundred pages of the
manuscript he occasionally errs in an ascription, but he omits ascription
only twice. In each of these two cases the text comes next after a text sent
Motherwell by Peter Buchan, and in each case the unascribed text is
probably to be understood as from the same source.15
This attention to details of ascription brought about a gradual shift of
emphasis from variants to performers. As has been pointed out, the first
251 pages of the manuscript are organized, when at all, according to
variants. Pages 255-64, however, contain three texts from Widow
M'Cormick, the first of which is 'Child Noryce'. Pages 271-79 contain
three texts from Marjery Johnston. Page 433 begins a long section of
ballads from James Nicol. Page 55o begins yet another section of texts
which seem to represent a single singer.
Motherwell's handling of the ballads of Agnes Lyle of Kilbarchan, his
most prolific informant, provides an interesting demonstration of how
gradual was this shift from a variant to a performer orientation.
Apparently Motherwell started out by inserting Agnes Lyle's ballads
among related texts from other singers, hence the placing of 'The Wee Wee
Man' following 'Kempy Kay', and the placing of 'Babylon' (Child I4)
following John Goldie's text of the same song (beginning on manuscript
page 74). Shortly after Motherwell received Scott's letter, presumably, he
entered the Widow M'Cormick texts together. But three months later,
when he collected these two texts from Agnes Lyle, he entered them in the
manuscript beside variants collected from other singers. Though he had,
by then, a number of Agnes Lyle texts, he did not immediately enter these
texts as a group. Eventually, however, the sheer number of songs that
Agnes Lyle knew and the uniqueness of so many of her texts made an
impression on him, deciding him to enter the rest of her repertoire as a unit.
304
William Motherwell as Field Collector 305
This unit begins on page 33I and runs, with but one interruption, to
page 397.
Motherwell was not entirely unique among Scottish ballad collectors
in his interest in repertoires. Jamieson before him had set about collecting
the ballads of Mrs Brown of Falkland. Peter Buchan showed a similar
interest and awareness with regard to the ballads of James Nicol. And
Andrew Crawfurd, Motherwell's protege, returned again and again to
Mary Macqueen (Mrs Storie) to collect as much as possible from her.
Motherwell, however, collected the repertoires of a significant number of
singers. In these repertoires, as Dave Harker says, he had 'noted matters of
performance style, and seen the importance of particular texts to
particular singers'.16 He likewise understood the significance of differences
in a given ballad as sung by different singers. And he recognized,
influenced perhaps by Scott, that the record of a singer's full repertoire
serves to authenticate individual items in that repertoire: when the
repertoire as a whole shows that the singer is representative of a singing
tradition, each item in that repertoire demands consideration and respect.
The preceding pages have attempted to show the importance of field
experience in the development of William Motherwell as a ballad
collector. At first a dilettante antiquarian especially devoted to song, in
time he recognized the traditionality, interest, and importance of certain
versions of ballads with literary connections. At the same time he came to
consider that versions with quite ancient characteristics were being sung
all around him by traditional singers. Scott's letter confirmed his
understanding of the importance of refraining from doctoring these
versions and of attending to circumstances of performance. Finally, his
experience with the singers of these versions led him to focus, in his
collecting, not on the diachronic issue of how variants reflect the history of
a ballad, but on the synchronic issue of what songs compose a singer's
repertoire and how those songs differ from versions by other singers. He
became interested, in other words, in the individual singers and the
distinctive characteristics of their repertoires. The Motherwell manuscript
documents these five stages in the transformation of Motherwell from a
haphazard collector of popular song to a serious student of traditional
ballad repertoires.
The notebook in turn provides fascinating glimpses of how
Motherwell the student set about collecting those ballad repertoires from
the individual singers. Pages I 7-5 I of the notebook, in particular, provide
valuable evidence about Motherwell's field practice. These pages served as
306 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
a field notebook for nine days in August of i8z5. They open with Mrs
Rule's text of 'Geordie' (Child zog), collected on i6 August, and close
with Agnes Lyle's text of 'Turkish Galley' ('The Sweet Trinity', Child 286),
collected on 24 August. Among other items included in these pages are lists
of songs in the repertoires of Agnes Lyle and Agnes Laird (another
Kilbarchan singer), and the rest of the songs collected from Agnes Lyle on
z4 August. The entries on pages 3 I-5 z enable us to reconstruct in some
detail that z4 August session with Agnes Lyle. The material begins with the
following:
Memorandumto take fromA gnesL yleK ilbarchanth e ballads he has beginning
There was a lady she liv'd in Luke
Sing hey alone & alonie 0
She fell in love with her fathers clerk
Down by yon green wood sidie 0
also
FairM argareto f Craignargatg. ot
also
Her copy of Johnie Scot. Do.
Turkish Galley. Do.
JohnieA rmstrang[s ic].
Slippings o yarn, - a song.
But sixteen years of age she was
Poor soul when she began to love
But pray good people now but mind
How soon it did her ruin prove.
He had so far her favour gaind
She did consent with him to lye
Butt his navishu nthinkfula ct
Did prove her fatal destiny.
William Motherwell as Field Collector 307
The week before Easter the day long and clear
The sun shining bright & cold frost in the air
I went to the forest some flowers to pull there
But the forest could yield me no pleasure
A fair maid walking in a garden
A young man there did her espy
And for to woo her he came unto her
And said fair maid can you fancy me.
There were two sailors were lonely walking
All for to take the cauler air
As they were walking together talking
A woman then did to them appear
It was in the middle of fair July
Before the sun did pierce the sky
I saw a glint and a glancing eye
Abroad as I was walking
As I went out on a May morning
I heard a haloo so clearly
It was some gentlemenw ho belongt o Buckingham
Who was going a hunting so early. 17
This memorandum provides the first real glimpse of William
Motherwell the fieldworker. Motherwell had already made several visits
to Agnes Lyle. Sometime late in the summer of i825 (probably when he
was in Kilbarchan to collect from Agnes Laird on i 8 August), he dropped
in on Agnes Lyle to find out what other songs she knew. In a bit of a hurry,
apparently, he wrote only the titles of familiar songs, but wrote out the first
stanzas of six less familiar broadside ballads. On Z4 August he returned to
Kilbarchan to collect full texts. The first item on his list, 'There was a Lady
livd in Luke' ('Cruel Mother', Child zo), was the first song he collected
from her that day. He entered it beginning on page 33 of the notebook,
immediately following the memorandum. But the second song he collected,
'Johnie Scot' (Child 99), was the third song on the list. After that,
singer and collector abandoned the list altogether for 'The Wee Wee Man',
'Hind Horn' (Child I7), and 'The Baffled Knight' (Child iiz). After
308 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
singing five stanzas of 'The Baffled Knight', Agnes Lyle stopped. In all
probability she was unable to finish at that time, but promised Motherwell
that she would work up the song for a later performance, for Motherwell
left three pages blank to allow room to add the remaining stanzas, and
returned to his list. The next song, 'The Turkish Galley', was the last song
collected that day. As Agnes Lyle completed this song, Motherwell
discovered he had no more room for songs in that section of the notebook.
Beginning on page 5 z was another group of notes, entered previously, on
singers and repertoires, beginning with a list of 'old singing women'. The
repertoire list on pages 3 I-3 z would seem to indicate that he collected no
more songs from Agnes Lyle that day. 'Turkish Galley' is the last song
marked 'Do.' (that is, 'Ditto: Got'). The fact that he never collected- or at
least never entered into his manuscript - the broadside pieces indicates
how clearly he now distinguished between the older ballads and broadside
texts such as these.
Fieldnotes from other sessions with Agnes Lyle, and indeed from the
rest of Motherwell's collecting career, have disappeared. Yet these few
pages provide a fascinating glimpse of the great collector. Like a good
fieldworker he prepared the ground carefully and made preliminary notes.
In the midst of the collecting session he could abandon those notes to let
the singer sing the songs as inspiration inclined her. When inspiration
failed, as it finally did, he had the list to fall back on. The notebook reveals
that in field technique as in critical understanding, Motherwell was a
folklorist ahead of his time.
Expert though he became in field technique, Motherwell left no
systematic description of his collecting. In the margin opposite stanza io
of a copy of 'Sheath and Knife' (Child I5, Child I6 appendix) sent to
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, he did provide a vignette of his experience
with Agnes Lyle: 'The poor old woman while singing this verse absolutely
wept and the "Adam Scrivener" who wrote and listened did all but evince
similar emotion'.18 He has provided a more extended description of field
collecting in the 'Introduction' to the Minstrelsy, recreating there part of a
performance of 'Young Beichan' (Child 53) to show how a ballad is
sometimes expanded into a sort of cante fable:
Thus I have heard the ancient Ballad of 'Young Beichan and Susy Pye', dilated by
a Story-telleirn to a taleo f veryr emarkablde imensions- a paragrapho f prosea nd
then a screed of rhyme alternately given. From this ballad I may give a short
specimena ftert he fashiono f the venerablea uthorityf romw hom I quote:' Welly e
must know that in the Moor's Castle there was a Massymore, which is a deep
William Motherwell as Field Collector 309
dungeonf or keepingp risonersI. t was twentyf eet below the ground,a nd 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 long 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
gratw henh e sangi t, for he nevert houghto f evere scapingf romt he Massymoreo, r
of seeing his amn 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.
'O 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
accustomedt o take a walk everym orningi n herg arden,a nda s she was walkinga e
day she heard the sough o' Beichan's Sang, coming as it were from below the
ground', &c., &c.'9
A final reference to field experience occurs in the 'Introduction' in a
rather rueful footnote appended to an account of how ballad singers tend
to regard their songs as true accounts, identifying for the collector the very
castle, river, or oak where ballad events transpired:
I have, unfortunatelyf or myself, once or twice notably affrontedc ertaina ged
virginsb y impertinendt ubitationst ouchingt he veracityo f theirs ongs,a n offence
which bitter experience will teach me to avoid repeating, as it has long ere this,
made me rue the day of its commission.20
These affronted virgins taught Motherwell a hard lesson, but he learned it
well. The Minstrelsy makes no further mention of fieldwork, but
Motherwell's editing reflects the understanding of balladry which the
collector reached through his field experience.
Dave Harker's Fakesong has been a helpful handbook in revising this
paper for publication. In Fakesong Harker devotes two pages to a
discussion of Motherwell's fieldwork.21 Helpful though much of the book
is, in assessing that fieldwork Harker seems to have confused some of the
evidence. Harker considers the Minstrelsy predominantly a print-oriented
volume, with oral texts playing only a supporting role. 'It is not until Dr
Andrew Crawfurd of Lochwinnoch began collecting songs for his friend in
i8z6 that Motherwell's view of oral sources changed.' I have indicated
above that the change of view toward oral sources began at least as early as
3 10 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
January of i8z5, when Motherwell collected 'Child Noryce', and was
confirmed by the Scott-Motherwell letter exchange of April-May i 8z5.
But what of Harker's view of the Crawfurd-Motherwell relationship?
In the first place, it seems far more likely that Crawfurd was the student
and Motherwell the guide. When Crawfurd began collecting from oral
sources in November i 8 z6, Motherwell had been doing so for nearly two
years. Moreover, Crawfurd described his manuscript as prepared 'in
aiding my friend Mr Motherwell for his Minstrelsy, I 8z7.'22 Harker says,
'The poet Thomas Macqueen.. was sent by Crawfurd "to Ayr in quest of
Ballads", with half a guinea for expenses'. He does not mention that the
half guinea, another two guineas mentioned in the same paragraph, and
the pound and eighteen shillings mentioned as given to Mary Macqueen all
came from Motherwell, who was thus paying the expenses of Crawfurd's
fieldwork.23 Crawfurd himself, being a cripple, had to rely on Macqueen
to find and bring singers. Harker next implies that Andrew Blaikie took
down tunes for Crawfurd. But Andrew Blaikie was a Paisley man like
Motherwell, and Motherwell arranged the singing sessions and paid
Blaikie and the singers.24 In fact, on 8 October I825, a year before
Crawfurd began collecting, Motherwell wrote to Charles Kirkpatrick
Sharpe, discussing among other things Blaikie's work for him. He
concluded:
I called on him this morning and dragged him once more with me to the woman's
house where I got him to prick down the tunes of Kempy Kane, Johnie Scot, and
Lord Aboyne or Peggy Irwine.25
Harker goes on, 'In the Minstrelsy most of Crawfurd's sources remain
unrecognized or merely recorded as an "old women" of Kilbarchan or of
Bonhill in Dumbartonshire'. Crawfurd's sources for texts in the Minstrelsy
remain unrecognized because they are non-existent. Nor could there be
any Crawfurd texts in the Minstrelsy. The Motherwell-Buchan
correspondence indicates that Motherwell had sent Buchan the first ten
numbers of the book (pages I-3zo) by July of i8z6.26 A letter from
Motherwell to Crawfurd late in i 8z6 indicates that the final two numbers
of the body of the book were now completed, but not yet distributed.27 At
this time Crawfurd was just beginning his work. As Emily Lyle points out,
he did send Mary Macqueen to Motherwell in time to get at least ten of her
tunes into the musical appendix.28 He also sent Motherwell material for
the 'Introduction'. But none of the texts or informants in the body of the
book came from Crawfurd. Indeed, one of the old women of Kilbarchan
was Agnes Lyle, discussed above.
William Motherwell as Field Collector 311
Apparently Harker did not realize the full implications of
Motherwell's assurance, in the letter to Crawfurd, that he took over
editorship only after three or four numbers of the Minstrelsy had been
published. Confusion in the collation suggests that the editorial change of
hands in fact took place during the publication of the fifth number or
fascicle. This number runs to five signatures instead of four, and there are
two signatures Q. Once the fifth number went to press, Motherwell would
have to get out a new number promptly on his own. There would not be
time to institute a complete editorial change of policy, nor to prepare his
own texts for publication. Nevertheless, in the sixth and seventh numbers
Motherwell accomplished things that indicate a change of direction and fit
with his later policy. He gave wider circulation to some Sharpe texts
privately printed in I823 and i8z4. He suggested relationships between a
Jamieson text and a Scott text of 'Clerk Saunders' (Child 69). He
discontinued the printing of contemporary ballad imitations. Finally, he
prepared the first of his own texts for publication. 'William and Marjorie'
(Child 77; pages I 86-89) is the penultimate text of the seventh number of
the Minstrelsy. It is the first complete new text in the book that can be
traced to the Motherwell Manuscript. Motherwell had collected it from
Widow M'Cormick the week after she gave him 'Child Noryce'. From this
point in the book on, Motherwell relied on his own fieldwork with
occasional assistance from friend Peter Buchan. In the remaining two
hundred pages all but two of the previously unpublished texts are found in
the manuscript. The exceptions are 'Young Johnstone' (Child 88) and
'Andrew Lammie' (Child z3 3). 'Young Johnstone' occurs early enough in
the book (page 193) to have been a final text left over from the previous
editorship. Child, however, identifies it as 'undoubtedly' the copy of
'Young Johnstone' which the notebook says was collected from Mrs
Gentles.29 In that case it would be a Motherwell text. 'Andrew Lammie' is
identified as printed from a broadside collated with a recited copy
(probably the one in Buchan's Gleanings, i825).30 Apparently broadside
texts did not merit the respectful treatment accorded oral texts.
In the early pages of the Minstrelsy (I-I8 5), on the other hand, only
the new stanzas of 'Hind Horn' used to create the composite discussed
above are to be found in the Manuscript. In addition to 'Hind Horn' there
are, in the first four numbers, four full texts and four partial texts for which
Minstrelsy is the sole source. Since these texts are not in the manuscript,
there is no way of associating them with Motherwell. Indeed, the
presumption is that they came from some other source. It is likely though
31I WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
not certain that Motherwell wrote headnotes for these texts and for some
of the reprintedt exts.
The passages referred to from Harker suggest the following chronology.
Motherwell's attitude toward oral sources changed when Andrew
Crawfurd began collecting, late in i 8 z6.
By i8z7, he pronounced it 'of the first importance to collect these songs with
scrupulousa nd unshrinkingf idelity'. . . But this was beforet he structureo f his
book had been settledb y the privilegingo f printedm aterialt o which 'traditional'
texts werea ccretedi n the formo f footnotes,a s sourceso f 'variantso' r as the test of
others' editing ... The very sequence of his song-texts was based on the
chronologyo f the kindo f song-booksa nalyzedi n this book. [Harker'sI talics]
Harkerh erep rovidesa moderatelya ccurated escriptiono f the Minstrelsy
before Motherwell took over, that is to say, of pages I-1 3 8. All texts are
related to texts in known publications, though sometimes, as in the case of
'Two Brothers' (Child 49; page 6o) or 'Babylon' (Child I4; page 88), that
relationship is not noted. The classic ballad books to which the Minstrelsy
texts relate or from which they are reprinted, are drawn on in the following
more or less chronological order:
Percy (I765): page i
Scott (I803): page I7
Cromeck (i 8 io): page 3 5
Finlay (I8o8): page 44
Jamieson (i8o6): page 5I
Percy, Scott, Jamieson, and Finlay texts are intermingled freely after
page 5 I. This sequence, however, if sequence it can be called, was set in
i8z5, before Motherwell took over editorship. It was not set after
Crawfurd began fieldwork, as Harker suggests. In fact, as soon as
Motherwell took over he began to get away from reprinting Percy and
Scott texts unless they could serve as footnotes to the orally collected texts.
The 'Introduction' which Motherwell wrote does give a careful summary
of the first appearance in print of ballad types. But this list does not
correspond with the order in which texts of ballads are printed anywhere
in the Minstrelsy.
In brief, then, Crawfurd had no part ih gathering or selecting texts for
the Minstrelsy, and while Motherwell gives the name of only one
informant, Widow M'Cormick (at Scott's insistence), he is suppressing, if
that is the right word, the names of his own sources not Crawfurd's. In this
William Motherwell as Field Collector 3I3
case, however, what is probably at issue is not suppression but a point of
nineteenth-century etiquette: an editor should respect the anonymity of his
sources. He should not invade the privacy of any person who has not put
himself forward, by name, in print. Thus, Scott, Jamieson, or Sharpe may
be identified by name, but other sources should be referred to as 'a
gentleman', 'a genteel lady', 'an old woman', 'Perthshire', or simply,
'recitation'. Harker reminds us that Mrs Brown of Falkland resented
having her name in print, though his interpretation of her resentment
differs from that suggested here.31 Even Motherwell himself, who had
previously edited a volume, but anonymously, was identified by the editor
of the early part of the Minstrelsy only as an 'ingenious friend'.32
By the time Motherwell took over the editorship of the Minstrelsy he
had already gathered a great many ballads from traditional singers. This
field experience had begun to mature him in his understanding of balladry.
He was evidently determined to make the Minstrelsy a different kind of
book from any previously published. His new editorial policy could not be
effected overnight. His own collection probably needed work before it was
ready to draw on for publication. In the meantime, subscribers were
expecting numbers of the book to be issued at regular intervals. At first, he
seems to have adhered to the publishing schedule. But after the seventh
number, when he was finally relying on his own fieldwork, the book
became more of a unit and not so much a set of separate numbers. There
was less tailoring of the contents to make them fit neatly into 3z-page
fascicles. In fact, both the ninth and tenth numbers end with a stanza or so
to carry over to the next fascicle. All the main entries in this section of the
Minstrelsy are previously unpublished texts. Previously published texts
are reprinted only to cast light on these new texts (or, in the case of 'Willie
Wallace' ('Gude Wallace', Child I57), to give publicity to friend Peter
Buchan's Gleanings). This is the part of the Minstrelsy which the critics
quoted at the beginning of this paper seem to have had in mind when they
spoke so warmly of Motherwell's editorial acumen.
Motherwell's ballad manuscript took at least until the end of i8z6 to
complete. The transformation of Motherwell from dilettante to
repertoire-oriented ballad scholar, documented by the manuscript, took
nearly as long. It would be a mistake, therefore, to look in the Minstrelsy
for the full confirmation of this transformation, since the Minstrelsy came
under Motherwell's hand some time in i8z5. Nevertheless it is helpful to
look at the Minstrelsy in the light of the five stages of development of
Motherwell's concept of balladry, as outlined above. What follows applies
3I4 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
to the book as edited by Motherwell, particularly pages I 86-390, but also,
mutatis mutandis, from page 139 on.
i. While still somewhat variant-oriented, presenting, for instance,
four versions of 'Child Maurice', the book, now organized around
contemporary texts, is no longer heterogeneous and unfocused.
z. It includes only ballads as primary texts. (All of these ballads have
been included in Child's collection.)
3. All of these primary texts are such as Motherwell would have
deemed orally collected. Most are from his own fieldwork. The
rest come from Buchan. About some of these Buchan texts
Motherwell may have been mistaken: they may have been
collected in writing rather than orally. The two possible exceptions
to this third statement have been noted in the discussion
above.
4. There is some attention to singer, time, and place, though only in
the case of 'Child Noryce' does Motherwell provide the sort of
note that a modern reader would like to see: 'Taken down from
the singing of widow M'Cormick, who, at this date, (January,
i8z5,) resides in Westbrae Street of Paisley.'33 For the rest, he is
reluctant to expose to print the names of private persons, whether
genteel or working class.
5. Even the performer-repertoire approach is clear enough in the
Minstrelsy for Harker to remark upon it (see above). Of course
this approach, never more than implicit in the manuscript, could
hardly be explicit in the book. The most notable expression of this
approach in the Minstrelsy is the relatively limited number of
singers represented, and the relatively extensive representation
from each singer. Agnes Lyle, Motherwell's most prolific informant,
is represented by six texts, half of a seventh, and two tunes.
James Nicol, via Buchan and Sharpe, is represented by eight texts.
Mrs Thompson is represented by six texts, Mrs Gentles by two or
three, Widow M'Cormick and Mrs King by two apiece, and only
six or seven singers by single items. Motherwell seems to have felt
that by sampling repertoires of a relatively few singers he would
give a truer picture of balladry in Scotland than by representing a
large number of singers by single items from each. The tunes too
seem to have come from a relatively limited number of singers:
Mary Macqueen, for instance, provided ten.
William Motherwell as Field Collector 3 I 5
In summary, then, Motherwell's field experience taught him the stern
discipline behind the popular piety among editors of fidelity to sources.
The result was a set of printed texts that were models of reliability for over
a century. As Harker says, 'through the work of John Bell and William
Motherwell, the scholarly standards set by Ritson were not only continued
but in some ways improved.'34 Because of the circumstances under which
it was published, however, the Minstrelsy reflects but does not fully
express Motherwell's final conception of the ballad as a living art in the
field setting. To see that full conception one must turn to the documents
behind the Minstrelsy, the notebook and the manuscript. The manuscript,
in particular, because of the texts which it contains and because of the
concept of balladry which it embodies, is Motherwell's ultimate monument.
Part of the fascination of Motherwell is the paradox of the man, a High
Church Tory Sheriff-Depute so faithful in recording the ballads of
covenanters, radicals, and revolutionaries. What did these working-class
singers from the weaving villages of Renfrew make of the young gentleman
who came to visit again and again? They must have been aware of the
political, social, and religious gulf that separated them from him.
Nevertheless they came to trust him with their songs. Nor did they
expurgate for his benefit. Agnes Lyle wept openly as she sang of tragic
incest, and her repertoire of songs is bitterly subversive and antiestablishment.
35
Harker's summary of the work of Herd, Ritson, and Burns applies
even more to Motherwell: 'Their contribution was crucial. Without their
collecting, and irrespective of their mediations and their motives, we
would not have had hundreds of songs recorded and published for
posterity.'36
Notes
1 William Motherwell, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern (Glasgow: John Wylie, i8z7);
henceforth referred to as Minstrelsy.
2 Gordon Hall Gerould, TheB allado f Tradition( Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932), p. Z54.
3M. J. C. Hodgart, The Ballads (New York: W. W. Norton, i96z), pp. I 5 I-5 2.
4 David Buchan, The Ballad and the Folk (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 197z), p. 6o.
5Evelyn K. Wells, The Ballad Tree (New York: Ronald Press, I950), p. zo50.
6 Sigurd Bernhard Hustvedt, Ballad Books and Ballad Men (Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press, I930), p. 75.
7James M'Alpie, CertainC uriousP oems Writtena t the Close of the Seventeentha nd
Beginning of the Eighteenth Century [edited by William Motherwell] (Paisley: J. Neilson,
I82z8).
3 I6 WILLIAM B. McCARTHY
8 Buchan, pp. Z23-43.
9 Buchan, pp. 308-09.
10 E. B. Lyle, editor, Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs, Volumei
(EdinburghS: cottishT exts Society, 1975), p. xii. The Manuscripti s GlasgowU niversity
Library Manuscript Murray 501.
11H arvardU niversityL ibraryM. anuscrip2t5 z4l.z0. Copy of the MotherwelMl anuscript;
henceforthr eferredt o in the notes as ManuscriptH. arvardU niversityL ibraryM, anuscript
25z42.i6. A BalladN ote-Book,i 824-i827; henceforthr eferredto as Notebook.
12 Harvard University Library, Manuscript FMS Eng 86z. Matter from Abbotsford,
Letters xiv, number 94, folio z8o.
13 William Motherwell, Poems, with a memoir by James M'Conechy, third edition
(Glasgow, i865), pp. xxxii-xxxiv.
14 Hustvedt, pp. 76-77.
15 Manuscriptp, age 472 (Motherwell'ps agination;t he text is Child6 5C, 'LadyM aisry');
page 49z (the text is Child zE, 'The Elfin Knight').
16 Dave Harker,F akesong( MiltonK eynes:O penU niversityP ress,i 985), p. 65.
17 Notebook, pp. 3 1-3 .
18 HarvardU niversityL ibraryM, anuscrip2t 5z41.5 6F. Letterf romW illiamM otherweltl o
CharlesK irkpatricSkh arpe,8 OctoberI 8z5.
19 Minstrelsy, p. xv.
20 Minstrelsyp, . xvii.
21 Harker, pp. 65-67.
22 Cited in Lyle, p. xv.
23 Notebook, p . 5 7.
24 Notebook, pp- I 5 6-5 8.
25 Thel ettera ccompaniedth e ballada s citedi n note i 8.
26 Harvard University Library, Manuscript z5 z63.I9.6F. Peter Buchan: A Collection of I7
Letters.
27 Cited in Lyle, p. xvii.
28 Lyle, pp. xxii-xxiv.
29 The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited by Francis James Child, s vols
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, I882-98), reprinted
edition, S vols (New York: Dover, I965), II, z88.
30 Peter Buchan, Gleanings of Scotch, English, and Irish Scarce Old Ballads (Peterhead:
Peter Buchan, i8z5), p. 98.
31 Harker, p. 59, citing Buchan, pp. 7z-73.
32 Minstrelsyp, . I 4.
33 Minstrelsyp, . 28z. 'Thisd ate'r eferst o the dateo f singing,n ot the dateo f publication.
34 Harker, p. 77.
35 WilliamB . McCarthy', CreativityT, radition,a nd History:T he Balladso f AgnesL yleo f
Kilbarchan' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1978), pp. i8i-8 .
36 Harker, p. 37-