Bluegrass Messengers

Wit Combats with Ballad Revenants: "Proud Lady Margaret" and "The Unquiet Grave"- Atkinson 1991

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

[Footnotes moved to the end.]

Wit Combats with Ballad Revenants: "Proud Lady Margaret" and "The Unquiet Grave"
DAVID ATKINSON

The application in several studies by David Buchan (1982, 1985, 1986) of Vladimir Propp's concept of the tale role in folk narrative to the English language ballad repertoire strongly reinforces and occasionally redefines the division of the ballads into various sub-generic groupings. The notion that on one level the different constituent ballad types of a sub-generic grouping represent the insertion of variable characters into a stable set of tale roles provides a structural basis for such divisions, and is even suggestive about the process of ballad composition. The method therefore gives weight to the description of characteristic forms and cultural concerns for individual sub-generic groupings, as well as the scope for variation within them. It emphasizes, too, that there exist hybrid ballad versions belonging to more than one sub-generic grouping. Thus "Proud Lady Margaret" (Child 47) in the majority of extant versions and "The Unquiet Grave" (Child 78) in a small minority of extant versions combine wit combats, or riddling episodes, with the return from the grave of a deceased mortal being (for the numbering of ballads, see Child 1882-1898). Each of these types has been studied both as a wit combat ballad and as a revenant ballad (Buchan 1985, 1986). They involve the interaction of just two different characters, occupying the tale roles of Poser (who sets problems in cleverness) and Matcher (who tries to match or solve those problems) if the type is considered as a wit combat ballad, or else  those of Revenant and Visited if the type is considered as a revenant ballad. The overall effects of the hybrid versions are rather different from those which are characteristic of either individual sub-genre. Nevertheless, separating these versions into their constituent tale roles allows for comparisons to be made with the appropriate subgeneric groupings. The norms of those groupings and the scope for variation within them may then be considered as providing a context for the interpretation of the hybrid ballad versions. Indeed, if the structural basis for the different groupings is as fundamental as it seems, the establishment of their norms may even represent a precondition for the existence of hybrid versions. At the least, the existence of different ballad types belonging to the wit combat and to the revenant sub-genres in texts which significantly pre-date the known hybrid versions of either "Proud Lady Margaret" or "The Unquiet Grave" can be cited in support of this contextual method.

The wit combat ballads all involve the interaction of just two tale roles. They fall into a supernatural and a secular grouping. The former includes most, and certainly the earliest, versions of "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (Child 1) and "The Elfin Knight" (Child 2), "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (Child 3), and at least one version of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (Child 46). The latter includes "Riddles Wisely Expounded" in some versions and "The Elfin Knight" in some versions, the majority of versions of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship," and also "King John and the Bishop" (Child 45). This last is rather atypical, having probably existed as a novella before being recreated in ballad form, and so it may be discounted in summarizing the norms of this grouping (Buchan 1985:392). The recurrent thematic elements among the ballads of the supernatural grouping are a confrontation between a human and a supernatural being, and an ensuing wit combat, the outcome of which determines whether the unmortal can lay claim to the mortal. Among the ballads of the secular grouping a man comes to court a woman, and again a wit combat ensues, the outcome of which determines whether or not the man attains the woman. Evidently, a major type of variation is that between the groupings, whereby a supernatural encounter is adaptable into one of human courtship, and vice versa. The interaction is further emphasized by the tendency of the ballads of the supernatural grouping to draw on the courtship scenario of the secular grouping in order to establish a setting (see also Toelken 1966). This occurs even in the earliest of all the extant wit combat ballads, the version of "Riddles Wisely Expounded" known as "Inter diabolus et virgo," which is found in a manuscript of the mid fifteenth century (Child 1882-1898: V, 283-284). Here the Devil addresses a maid, "Mayd, mote y thi leman be, / Wyssedom y wolle teche the," before posing a series of questions to her. The Devil appears to be the most characteristic of the unmortals of the supernatural grouping. He occurs in "Riddles Wisely Expounded," and is generally recognized as being the false knight of "The Fause Knight Upon the Road." The one unquestionably supernatural version of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship," collected in Labrador, has the Devil confront the Blessed Virgin Mary (Leach 1965:26-29). The inference of the supernatural in two more versions, collected in Newfoundland, also depends on allusions to the Devil (Karpeles 1971:39-40, 40-41; see Coffin 1977:224). The pagan elf of most of the supernatural versions of "The Elfin Knight" may be simply a regular predecessor of the Devil of Christian theology (Child 1882-1898: I, 14). The elf is replaced by the Devil in person in a version collected in Newfoundland (Peacock 1965: I, 6). The hybrid ballad versions of "Proud Lady Margaret" and "The Unquiet Grave" apart, the unmortal character is only a revenant human corpse in a single, Cornish text of "The Elfin Knight" (Child 1882-1898: IV, 439-440). The human character in this grouping is usually female, except in "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" where it is a child who may be either male or female. More straightforwardly, in the secular grouping the characters are a man, who may appear either desirable or undesirable as a suitor, and a woman.

Further variation is possible both in the assignment of the characters to the tale roles of Poser and Matcher, and in the success or failure of the Poser and the Matcher in the wit combat. Among the ballads of the supernatural grouping the Poser is characteristically the unmortal and the Matcher the mortal. The Matcher is usually successful in the wit combat, answering questions, fulfilling or countering commands, or countering assertions set by the Poser. In one of the Newfoundland versions of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" both of these generalities are reversed, so that if this is indeed a supernatural ballad a diabolical Matcher admits defeat in the wit combat to a human, female Poser (Karpeles 1971:40-41). Throughout the supernatural grouping the wit combat operates to ensure that a mortal woman, or child, is not claimed by a diabolical being. In just a single version of "Riddles Wisely Expounded," collected in North Carolina, the mortal Matcher defeats the diabolical Poser in the wit combat, but the Devil simply claims the woman anyway (Niles 1961:2-5). Among the ballads of the secular grouping Poser or Matcher may be male or female. The Matcher is again usually successful in the wit combat, regardless of sex. If the Newfoundland version of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" in which the Matcher admits defeat is considered merely as a secular ballad, the generality is once again reversed, but the result is that the man does not attain the woman (Karpeles 1971: 40-41). Similarly, if the other Newfoundland version of the same ballad is also considered as secular, the female Matcher is successful in the wit combat and rejects the male Poser (Karpeles 1971: 39-40). A version collected in Oklahoma has the woman effectively succeed as both Poser and Matcher at different points, and the old man who is defeated in this way will have no more to do with her (Moore and Moore 1964: 36). More generally, in "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" the man, who is a desirable suitor, also proves a successful Matcher to the woman as Poser, and so attains her. In "Riddles Wisely Expounded" and "The Elfin Knight" the woman is a successful Matcher to the man as Poser and accepts or rejects him according to his desirability as a suitor. Throughout the secular grouping the wit combat operates to ensure that a woman is not won by an undesirable suitor. The predominant cultural concern of the supernatural wit combat ballads is with the knowledge and intellect required in order to counter supernatural forces of evil, while that of the secular wit combat ballads is with the knowledge and intellect required to demonstrate ability in courtship and make an appropriate match. In most types and versions, both of these concerns may be understood to uphold particularly the position of women. Moreover, the variation within the sub-genre of wit combat ballads is such as to link the kinds of knowledge and intellect which safeguard women either in supernatural encounters or in courtship as being very much the same.

The grouping of revenant ballads involving the interaction of just two tale roles, readily defined as Revenant and Visited, includes "The Cruel Mother" (Child 20), "Sweet William's Ghost" (Child 77), "The Wife of Usher's Well" (Child 79), and "The Unquiet Grave" in the many versions which do not include evidence of a wit combat. The thematic elements which are recurrent among these types are a familial or amatory relationship between the characters which has been dislocated by death, a wrong reaction to death on the part of the survivor, and the return of the revenant(s) to correct that reaction. The characters are fairly constant, usually comprising a woman on the one hand, and a male figure or figures on the other, although the revenant children of "The Cruel Mother" may be designated either as boys or simply as babes. The tale roles of Revenant and Visited are then generally occupied by the males and the females respectively. The major source of variation comes in a significant number of versions of "The Unquiet Grave" in which the sexes are reversed. The predominant cultural concern is with the conduct in the context of death of the Visited, which is rectified by the Revenant. In some types and versions at least, the concern may be understood as being specifically with female conduct which is regulated, albeit most often in a rather benign way, by a male figure or figures even from beyond the grave. This is in some contrast to the cultural alignment of the wit combat ballads, although versions of "The Unquiet Grave" in which the sexes are reversed clearly indicate that it is not an inviolable arrangement. Ballad versions which are hybrids between the wit combat and the revenant sub-genres are rare. "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). This observation is equally upheld by the existence of versions of "The Unquiet Grave" which include evidence of wit combat episodes. Here, though, the sheer preponderance of versions without them is sufficient to indicate a near certainty that the basic type is the simple ballad of the revenant lover.

This basic type of "The Unquiet Grave," represented by 78A and paralleled in numerous versions, is that a mortal weeps at the grave of a dead lover for a twelvemonth and a day, after which time the corpse arises to complain that such mourning renders rest in the grave impossible. The mortal then craves a kiss from the unmortal's lips, but the request is refused because it would prove fatal to the mortal within a short time. One or another character tells how the flower is withered where the lovers used to walk, before the revenant counsels the mortal to mourn no more since in time all must die. Variation among the collected versions of "The Unquiet Grave" results particularly from the sexes of the characters being reversed, although the more common situation is for the Revenant to be male and the Visited female. This accords with the context suggested by the lover's death in the "greenwood," which is frequently specified in the opening stanza (Harvey 1941:56-57). Otherwise, stanzas may occur in a different order or be differently allotted to the characters, and there is also a good deal of apparent corruption in collected versions. The type, however, basically conforms to the norms of the grouping of revenant ballads involving the interaction of two tale roles.

Of the numerous extant texts of "The Unquiet Grave," relatively few contain stanzas providing evidence of a wit combat between revenant and mortal (Burne 1883: 542-543 [= Child 78F]; Groome 1880: 141-142 [= Child 78E]; Halpert 1956:74-75, 98; Leather 1912:202-203; Peacock 1965:II, 410-411; Reeves 1960:272-273, 274; Sharp 1916:56-57; [Sharp] 1974:I, 86; I, 87-88; Williams 1923:76). [1] Corruptions tend particularly to affect the wit combat stanzas where they do occur, but the usual sequence is that after the mortal craves a kiss from the revenant, one of the characters sets the other a series of apparently impossible tasks. These are comparable with those which must either be fulfilled or else countered in other wit combat ballads such as "The Elfin Knight" or "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship." The situation is further complicated by the fact that the only one of these texts in which the Poser's commands are met by the Matcher, who is therefore successful in the general manner of the wit combat ballads, is one mediated by Sabine Baring-Gould. Baring- Gould was not a reliable collector of the words to folk songs, and he omitted the wit combat stanzas as well as altering others and even composing altogether new stanzas in the song which was published under the title of "Cold Blows the Wind, Sweetheart" (Baring-Gould and Sheppard [1889-1891]: Pt I, 13; Pt IV, xv; Baring Gould, Sheppard, and Bussell [1905]:13; Notes on the Songs, 3, 14-15). Even Baring-Gould's surviving nianuscripts are not wholly trustworthy, being fair copies which in some instances hold indications of alterations made by the collector (Reeves 1960:5-8). In this particular case, though, the appearance in other, more reliable versions of "The Unquiet Grave" of evidence of a wit combat lends credence to the wit combat stanzas found in Baring-Gould's manuscript text. Moreover, the very fact that the published song is such a radical reworking of the material which appears in the manuscript may argue for the authenticity of the latter. The manuscript text, given the title "Cold Blows the Wind," is itself a composite of similar versions from two different sources. Baring-Gould supplies the information, "Sent first by Mrs. Gibbons, daughter of late Sir W. P. Trelawny Bart, as she remembered it sung to her by the nurse Elizabeth Doidge, in about 1828. She did not recall verses 5, 6, 10, 11. These supplied by [another source illegible]" (Reeves 1960:274). [2]

This text, hereafter referred to as "the Baring-Gould manuscript text," may with due caution be accepted as the primary instance of the introduction of a wit combat into the revenant ballad of "The Unquiet Grave":

[1] Cold blows the wind tonight, sweetheart,
Cold are the drops of rain.
The very first love that ever I had
In greenwood he was slain.

[2] I'll do as much for my true love
As any young woman may.
I'll sit and mourn above his grave
A twelvemonth and a day.

[3] A twelvemonth and a day being up
The ghost began to speak.
Why sit you here by my graveside
And will not let me sleep?

[4] 0 think upon the garden, love,
Where you and I did walk.
The fairest flower that blossomed there
Is withered on the stalk.

[5] The stalk will bear no leaves, sweetheart,
The flowers will never return,
And my true love is dead, is dead,
And I do nought but mourn.

[6] What is it that you want of me
And will not let me sleep?
Your salten tears they trickle down
And wet my winding sheet.

[7] What is it that I want of thee,
O what of thee in thy grave?
A kiss from off thy clay cold lips,
And that is all I crave.

[8] Cold are my lips in death, sweetheart,
My breath is earthy strong.
If you do touch my clay cold lips
Your time will not be long.

[9] Cold though your lips in death, sweetheart,
One kiss is all I crave.
I care not, if I kiss but thee,
That I should share thy grave.

[10] Go fetch me a light from dungeon deep,
Wring water from a stone,
And likewise milk from a maiden's breast
Which never babe had none.

[11] She stroke a light from out a flint,
An ice-bell pressed she,
She pressed the milk from a Johnnis wort
And so she did all three.

[12] Now if you were not true in word
As now I know you be
I'd tear you as the withered leaves
Are torn from off the tree.
.   .   .
.   .   .
.   .   .
.   .   .

[13] Now I have mourned upon his grave
A twelve month and a day,
I'll set my sail before the wind
To waft me far away (Reeves 1960:272-273; see also 274).

In stanza 11 an "ice-bell" is an icicle (Baring Gould, Sheppard, and Bussell [1905]: Notes on the Songs, 15). St. John's Wort is the common name for plants of the genus Hypericum, the petals of which when pressed produce an oil which has medicinal uses. [3] Other extant versions of the first stanza of the wit combat, corresponding to stanza 10, include commands to fetch a "note," a "nut," or "water" from a dungeon or dungeons, all of which seem to be corruptions of the task found in the Baring-Gould manuscript text (Burne 1883: 542-543; Groome 1880: 141-142; Halpert 1956: 74-75, 98; Leather 1912: 202- 203; [Sharp] 1974:1, 86). Another has "naught," and the whole series of commands is posed in the negative (Williams 1923: 76). A less characteristic form of the stanza begins, "Go fetch me water from the desert, / And blood from out of a stone," and elsewhere this is apparently corrupted to a "letter" from the deserts (Sharp 1916: 56-57; [Sharp] 1974: I, 87-88). An even more unusual version commences, "Go fetch me an egg from the billows so deep,/Or water out of a stone" (Peacock 1965:11, 410-411). In some of the versions a stanza follows in which the other character simply admits the impossibility of the commands, repeating them in the form of a question beginning "How can I .. .?" (Leather 1912: 202-203; Peacock 1965: II, 410-411; [Sharp], 1974: I, 86; I, 87-88). The Matcher is therefore defeated by the poser in a manner which occurs occasionally among the wit combat ballads, as in one of the Newfoundland versions of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (Karpeles 1971:40-41). Elsewhere, there is no response to the commands at all, and the stanza in which the tasks are set is isolated from the sense of the rest of the ballad (Burne 1883: 542-543; Groome 1880: 141-142; Halpert 1956: 74-75, 98; Sharp 1916: 56-57; Williams 1923: 76).

In the Baring-Gould manuscript text the Revenant is male and the Visited female, and once the wit combat develops the male revenant occupies the tale role of Poser with the female mortal as successful Matcher. It therefore accords with the norms of the relevant subgeneric ballad groupings, and may consequently have a certain characteristic quality for the introduction of a wit combat into this particular supernatural ballad. The usual explanation of the hybrid versions takes the line that once a woman has plighted her troth to a man she remains bound to him even after he is dead, and he may compel her to follow him into the spirit world unless she can redeem her "troth-plight" by solving riddles which he sets her (Baring Gould, Sheppard, and Bussell [1905]: Notes on the Songs, 3; Wimberly 1928: 306-307; Harvey 1941: 54-55). [4] In fact, the return of the trothplight as a symbolic means of cancelling the bond between lovers after the death of one of them is only known as a piece of ballad folklore from "Sweet William's Ghost." [5] There the dead man cannot rest in the grave until the troth-plight has been returned, most commonly by means of the woman touching the revenant upon the breast. The revenant, however, does not generally return specifically in order to take away the woman. In some versions of "Sweet William's Ghost," such as 77B, 77D, and 77E, the troth-plight is not returned until the revenant has answered questions posed by the mortal. Yet these are not riddles or the kind of trick questions associated with the wit combat ballads, but fairly orthodox enquiries into Christian eschatology which arise logically enough out of the supernatural encounter. There are therefore significant differences between both the form and the function of the idea of the return of the troth-plight as found in "Sweet William's Ghost" and as posited to explain the wit combat in "The Unquiet Grave."

An alternative explanation may, then, be sought in the context provided by the norms of the ballad groupings with which the Baring- Gould manuscript text belongs. First and foremost, "The Unquiet Grave" is a revenant ballad involving the interaction of two tale roles, and its cultural concern lies in the usually rather benign rectifying by the Revenant of a wrong reaction to the fact of death on the part of the Visited. In the Baring-Gould manuscript text, however, the revenant as Poser also occupies a tale role which in the supernatural wit combat ballads is most characteristically associated with the Devil, confronting a mortal woman as Matcher. Without turning the revenant of "The Unquiet Grave" into the Devil, this gives a diabolical aura to the encounter. That there is a potential threat in the situation of "The Unquiet Grave" is evident enough when the mortal craves a kiss from the unmortal's lips, which would prove fatal to the mortal within a short time, although for this reason the request is usually refused. In the Baring-Gould manuscript text, however, in the stanza which follows this warning and immediately precedes the wit combat the woman expresses her readiness to go to the grave so long as she may kiss the revenant form of her lover. When on occasion the mortal and the revenant of "The Unquiet Grave" apparently do kiss one another, as in a version collected in Kentucky, the consequences do indeed promise to be fatal to the mortal:

My lips are cold as coldest clay,
My breath is earthy strong,
Now you have kissed me once again,
Your days will not be long,
Your days will not be long (Niles 1961:178-180; see also Child 78B).

The diabolical aspect to the revenant of the Baring-Gould manuscript text is then confirmed by the disclosure that his intention was to have torn the mortal to pieces, which comes in the stanza which follows the wit combat. Thus it appears as if the revenant follows up the mortal's declaration of her readiness to accompany him to the grave by taking on the role of diabolical Poser and setting the apparently impossible tasks, with the implication that he may claim her should she fail to complete them. However, the woman is now placed in the role of Matcher and rises to the challenge, in the manner most characteristic of the supernatural wit combat ballads, thus avoiding her fate. The effect is to shift the cultural emphasis of "The Unquiet Grave" from
the benign to the potentially more threatening consequences of a mortal's wrong reaction to the death of a lover. Translated into psychological terms, there may be only a thin dividing line between excessive grief and a morbid obsession.

The revenant of the Baring-Gould manuscript text threatens that he would have torn the mortal to pieces had she not proved "true in word." This sounds as if it refers to her success in the wit combat, and the sequence of the stanzas reinforces this reading. However, it is conceivable that the phrase could relate simply to the fidelity which she has displayed towards her lover in mourning for a twelvemonth and a day and in craving a kiss from his revenant form. The final stanza does appear to indicate that she is free to depart after having mourned for the conventional period of a twelvemonth and a day. In a version of "The Unquiet Grave" collected in Dorset, in which the mortal again expresses a readiness to die for a kiss from the revenant, there is the same averted threat to tear the mortal to pieces, but in this case it is not related to a wit combat:

Oh! don't you see the fire, sweetheart,
The fire that burns so blue
Where my poor soul tormented is
While I stay here with you.

And if you wasn't my own sweetheart,
As I know well you be,
I'd rend you up in pieces small
As the leaves upon the tree (Brocklebank and Kindersley 1948: 10).
 
Though not a diabolical being as such, the revenant here is a soul in torment. The mortal is saved from being torn to pieces by virtue of an amatory relationship to the revenant, which has again been confirmed by the fidelity displayed in mourning for a twelvemonth and a day and in craving a kiss.

The possible confusion as to how the specific threat to tear the mortal to pieces is averted in the Baring-Gould manuscript text may, however, be resolved in the light of the close integration and variation between the supernatural and the secular wit combat ballads. Although in "The Unquiet Grave" the nature of the revenant is evident from the beginning, there is still a sense in which the notion of courtship is especially relevant, because the characters were lovers in life. This application becomes clearer from a comparison with the Cornish text of "The Elfin Knight" in which the elf is replaced by the mortal woman's dead lover (Child 1882-1898:IV, 439-440). [6] At first, she wishes he were with her again, and the revenant then appears and sets her a series of impossible tasks. These are specifically presented as preconditions for their eventual marriage, which would represent the culmination of the relationship begun in life, "And when that these tasks are finished and done/ I'll take thee and marry thee under the sun." The mortal, however, successfully matches the revenant's commands by setting impossible tasks of her own. In this way, at one and the same time she turns down a suitor who was desirable in life but is now undesirable in death, and avoids being claimed by a supernatural being, "'Now thou hast answered me well,' he said,/'Or thou must have gone away with the dead.'" The woman's success in the wit combat therefore links the knowledge and intellect necessary to counter supernatural forces of evil with those required to demonstrate ability in courtship and make an appropriate match. In the Baring-Gould manuscript text of "The Unquiet Grave," then, the woman's success in the wit combat may imply similar qualities. Those involved in courtship and matchmaking are, of course, already evident in a rather different way by virtue of the fidelity which she has displayed towards her lover in mourning for a twelvemonth and a day and in craving a kiss from his revenant form. However faithful to a desirable suitor, though, she proves able to avoid an undesirable one when an unmortal appears in that guise. If success in the wit combat and the fidelity displayed towards her lover can represent just different facets of the qualities involved in courtship and matchmaking, they may be not readily separable in averting the revenant's threat to tear the mortal to pieces. Thus the more ambiguous mode of expression, "Now if you were not true in word," rather than the more precise "And if you wasn't my own sweetheart" of the Dorset version of "The Unquiet Grave," may be quite deliberate. There might be, too, a pang of emotional complication at the climax of the mortal's success in the wit combat as a consequence of the awareness that in life the revenant was a desirable suitor, in both the Baring-Gould manuscript text of "The Unquiet Grave" and the Cornish text of "The Elfin Knight."

The Dorset version of "The Unquiet Grave," in which the revenant's threat is only averted by the amatory relationship between mortal and unmortal, indicates a rather strict concern with the control of human conduct from beyond the grave. In fact, there is here a slight confusion over the sexes of mortal and revenant, but the mortal is probably intended to be a woman, and so the emphasis is on the control of female conduct. A woman is apparently expected to remain faithful to a dead lover at least for the conventional period of a twelvemonth and a day. The basic type of "The Unquiet Grave," though, involves a more benign influence upon female conduct, in line with versions of other revenant ballads involving the interaction of two tale roles. In contrast, in the Baring-Gould manuscript text the wit combat allows the woman to demonstrate an independent resourcefulness. This has the effect of reducing the emphasis on the control of female conduct, although the text may still imply the importance for a woman of such things as ability in courtship and the making of an appropriate match, as well as a degree of fidelity to a desirable suitor. Once again, though, the more general cultural import of a hybrid ballad version can be formulated in terms of a combination of the concerns of the groupings with which it belongs. The wrong reaction of a woman when courtship is dislocated by death is nevertheless one aspect of her ability in courtship and matchmaking, and that also implies a kind of knowledge and intellect, which are equally necessary in a confrontation with the world beyond the grave, which in turn will serve to correct the initial reaction to the fact of death.

The attraction of a wit combat into a supernatural ballad with two tale roles alters the overall effect of the ballad, and its cultural concern is rather more complicated than that of the basic type of "The Unquiet Grave." The type is, however, particularly prone to textual alterations and consequent shifts of cultural meaning, and these continue to arise among other versions which contain evidence of a wit combat. In particular, variations arise with regard to the characters occupying the tale roles, although in some cases the designation of Poser and Matcher especially is dependent upon the punctuation of the editors who printed the texts (see Table 1). Some of the texts are also uninformative in that there is no response at all to the tasks set by one of the characters. All the same, evidence of a wit combat in versions of "The Unquiet Grave" which span virtually the whole period since the early nineteenth century during which the ballad has been collected does suggest that the logic of the hybrid versions has to some extent recommended itself to singers, perhaps carried by the flourishing tradition of the basic type of "The Unquiet Grave." It is therefore noteworthy that the logic of the Baring-Gould manuscript text appears to persist in at least one of the two subsequent versions which are extant in texts amenable to analysis. In this version, collected in Herefordshire, a female mortal as Poser defeats a male revenant as Matcher, so that in spite of variation the cultural concern is maintained (Leather 1912:202-203). In the other of these versions, collected in Newfoundland, a female revenant as Poser defeats a male mortal as Matcher, although the revenant remains a somewhat benign figure in line with versions of other revenant ballads involving the interaction of two tale roles (Peacock 1965:II, 410-411). Here, then, variation may provide an indication that the dominant cultural concern in hybrid versions of "The Unquiet Grave" is that which upholds female characters, rather than that which preserves mortals in supernatural encounters. This in turn accords with a reduced emphasis on the control of female conduct. The same shift of emphasis might also underlie the existence of a substantial minority of versions of "The Unquiet Grave" without the wit combat stanzas in which the usual sexes of the characters are reversed, in contrast to the comparative stability which is usual among the grouping of revenant ballads involving the interaction of two tale roles.


*Character uncertain in Sharp's text, role assigned by later editors (Friedman 1956: 32-34; Hodgart 1965: 146-147).

The description of norms and variations for the sub-generic groupings with which hybrid versions of "Proud Lady Margaret" and "The Unquiet Grave" are structurally connected provides a context for understanding how the constituent parts of those versions are integrated. Wit combat and revenant episodes do not superficially appear to have much in common, but the presence of both these plot elements allows the hybrid versions to share in the general cultural concerns of the different sub-generic ballad groupings, which all involve the conduct of women in particular in specific situations. These groupings are defined by their tale roles, which means that there is scope for the introduction of variations of differing cultural import within the framework they provide. However, a dynamic of variations is operative so that the predominant cultural concerns are maintained. Similarly, in hybrid versions of "Proud Lady Margaret" and "The Unquiet Grave" variations can again be balanced so as to promote coherent cultural concerns, which need not be precisely those of any single one of the relevant sub-generic groupings. The result is the maintaining of an integrated logic within ballad versions which are made up of disparate plot elements.

Birkbeck College
University of London

Footnotes:

1. In another version a "stormy kind of duet between the maiden and her lover's ghost, who tries to persuade the maid to accompany him to the world of shadows" is described as having followed the last of the extant stanzas (Hunt 1865: xvi-xvii [= Child 78G]).

2. The other source was almost certainly John Woodrich, a blacksmith (see Palmer 1980:242). The text apparently bears a close relationship to the three texts supplied by Baring-Gould and printed by Child: 78Ha from Mrs. Gibbons as remembered from Elizabeth Doidge about 1828; 78Hb from John Woodrich as heard from his grandmother about 1848, which as printed contains the first stanza of the wit combat; and 78Hc from Anne Roberts, described as almost exactly the same as 78Hb but not printed in full (Child 1882-1898:IV, 474).

3. Alternatively, "Johnnis wort" could perhaps be a local name for Milkwort or Sun Spurge, also known as Mamma's Milk or Virgin Mary's Nipple, which exudes a poisonous milky fluid (Palmer 1980: 49).

4. The stanza cited by Harvey (1941:54) as referring explicitly to the troth-plight occurs in the song published as "Cold Blows the Wind, Sweet-Heart" (Baring-Gould and Sheppard [1889- 1891]:Pt I, 13; Baring-Gould, Sheppard, and Bussell [1905]:13), but is not included in the Baring- Gould manuscript text and is in fact of Baring-Gould's own composition (Baring-Gould and Sheppard [1889-1891]:Pt IV, xv):

Oh I will now redeem the pledge
The pledge that once I gave;
A kiss from off thy lily white lips
Is all of you I crave.

5. The episode also occurs in "The Brown Girl" (Child 295), but the return of the troth-plight takes place before the man has died. There is the suggestion of a similar idea in "The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford" (Child 72C: 35-38). The conclusion of a garland text of "The Brown Girl" (295 A:8) verbally recalls "The Unquiet Grave." "The Brown Girl" (295B) was also collected by Baring-Gould from the same source as one of the texts of "The Unquiet Grave" supplied to Child (78Hb). These connections may therefore have contributed t o this interpretation of "The Unquiet Grave."

6. This text was also communicated to Child by Baring-Gould, and must therefore be considered with due caution, although it is not the song published under the title of "The Lover's Tasks" (Baring-Gould, Sheppard, and Bussell [1905]:97). It may be the ballad collected in Cornwall and described as being "about the ghost visiting the damsel and demanding that she should keep her engagement" (Baring-Gould, Sheppard, and Bussell [1905]:Notes on the Songs, 15).


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