A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded

The Text is from a broadside of the seventeenth century from the press of Coles, Vere, Wright, and Clarke, now preserved in the Rawlinson collection in the Bodleian Library.

The Story of this ballad is one of the common class of riddle-ballads. Some of these riddles are found also in Captain Wedderburn.

It is not clear why in 18.1 'poyson is greener than the grass.' In Captain Wedderburn (17.1) it is 'death' that is greener than the grass, which is equally inexplicable. A variant of the latter gives 'virgus' [= verjuice], a kind of vinegar, which obviously means 'green juice.' It is possible that this might come to be regarded as a synonym for 'poyson'; and the next step is to substitute 'death' for 'poyson.'

A NOBLE RIDDLE WISELY EXPOUNDED

1.
There was a lady of the North Country,
Lay the bent to the bonny broom
And she had lovely daughters three.
Fa la la la, fa la la la ra re

2.
There was a knight of noble worth
Which also lived in the North.

3.
The knight, of courage stout and brave,
A wife he did desire to have.

4.
He knocked at the ladie's gate
One evening when it was late.

5.
The eldest sister let him in,
And pin'd the door with a silver pin.

6.
The second sister she made his bed,
And laid soft pillows under his head.

7.
The youngest daughter that same night,
She went to bed with this young knight.

8.
And in the morning, when it was day,
These words unto him she did say:

9.
'Now you have had your will,' quoth she,
'I pray, sir knight, will you marry me?'

10.
The young brave knight to her replyed,
'Thy suit, fair maid, shall not be deny'd:

11.
'If thou canst answer me questions three,
This very day will I marry thee.'

12.
'Kind sir, in love, O then,' quoth she,
'Tell me what your three questions be.'

13.
'O what is longer than the way,
Or what is deeper than the sea?

14.
'Or what is louder than the horn,
Or what is sharper than a thorn?

15.
'Or what is greener than the grass,
Or what is worse than a woman was?'

16.
'O love is longer than the way,
And hell is deeper than the sea.

17.
'And thunder is louder than the horn,
And hunger is sharper than a thorn.

18.
'And poyson is greener than the grass,
And the Devil is worse than woman was.'

19.
When she these questions answered had,
The knight became exceeding glad.

20.
And having truly try'd her wit,
He much commended her for it.

21.
And after, as it is verifi'd,
He made of her his lovely bride.

22.
So now, fair maidens all, adieu,
This song I dedicate to you.

23.
I wish that you may constant prove
Vnto the man that you do love.

Frank Sidgwick

Frank Sidgwick was an English writer, publisher, and scholarly editor. He was instrumental in popularizing ballad and folklore studies in the early 20th century. Sidgwick co-founded the publishing company Sidgwick & Jackson, which became known for its contributions to literature and scholarship. Though not primarily known as a poet, his editorial and publishing efforts significantly impacted the literary culture of his time, emphasizing the academic study of traditional songs and verses.

Frank Sidgwick

Barbara Allan

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

King John And The Abbot

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

The Battle Of Harlaw

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Little Musgrave And Lady Barnard

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

The Baffled Knight

The Text is from Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia (1609), reprinted almost verbatim in Tom Durfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy.


The Story was sufficiently popular not only to have been revived, at the end of the seventeenth century, but to have had three other 'Parts' added to it, the whole four afterwards being combined into one broadside.

In similar Spanish, Portuguese, and French ballads, the damsel escapes by saying she is a leper, or the daughter of a leper, or otherwise diseased. Much the same story is told in Danish and German ballads.


THE BAFFLED KNIGHT

    1.
    Yonder comes a courteous knight,
        Lustely raking over the lay;
    He was well ware of a bonny lasse,
        As she came wand'ring over the way.
    Then she sang do...

Frank Sidgwick

Little Musgrave And Lady Barnard
The Text here given is the version printed, with very few variations, in Wit Restor'd, 1658, Wit and Drollery, 1682, Dryden's Miscellany, 1716, etc. The Percy Folio contains a fragmentary version, consisting of some dozen stanzas. Child says that all the Scottish versions are late, and probably derived, though taken down from oral tradition, from printed copies. As recompense, we have the Scotch Bonny Birdy.

The Story would seem to be purely English. That it was popular long before the earliest known text is proved by quotations from it in old plays: as from Fair Margaret and Sweet William. Merrythought in The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1611) sings from this ballad a version of stanza 14, and Beaumont and Fletcher also put quotations into the mouths of characters in Bonduca (c...
Frank Sidgwick

The Cruel Brother
The Text is that obtained in 1800 by Alexander Fraser Tytler from Mrs. Brown of Falkland, and by him committed to writing. The first ten and the last two stanzas show corruption, but the rest of the ballad is in the best style.

The Story emphasises the necessity of asking the consent of a brother to the marriage of his sister, and therefore the title The Cruel Brother is a misnomer. In ballad-times, the brother would have been well within his rights; it was rather a fatal oversight of the bridegroom that caused the tragedy.

Danish and German ballads echo the story, though in the commonest German ballad, Graf Friedrich, the bride receives an accidental wound, and that from the bridegroom's own hand.

The testament of the bride, by which she benefits her friends and leaves curses on her e...
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Fair Mary Of Wallington
The Text is from Lovely Jenny's Garland, as given with emendations by Professor Child. There is also a curiously perverted version in Herd's manuscript, in which the verses require rearrangement before becoming intelligible.

The Story can be gathered from the version here given without much difficulty. It turns on the marriage of Fair Mary, who is one of seven sisters fated to die of their first child. Fair Mary seems to be a fatalist, and, after vowing never to marry, accepts as her destiny the hand of Sir William Fenwick of Wallington. Three-quarters of a year later she sends to fair Pudlington for her mother. Her mother is much affected at the news (st. 22), and goes to Wallington. Her daughter, in travail, lays the blame on her, cuts open her side to give birth to an heir, and dies.

In a Breton ballad Pont...
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Captain Wedderburn
The Text is from Kinloch's MSS., where it was written down from the recitation of Mary Barr: it is entitled 'The Earl of Rosslyn's Daughter.'

The Story is the converse of A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded, in which the maid wins a husband by riddles; in the present one the captain out-riddles the maid. Similar tales are very popular in many lands, being found in Persia, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Lithuania, East Siberia, etc.

Most of the lady's riddles are found in an old English song, and its traditional derivatives. The song, which is given below, is found in Sloane MS. 2593, which contains other carols and ballads (see pp. 123-8)[A]. From this is derived the nursery song beginning--

'I had four brothers over the sea'

(with many variations:-- 'four sisters,' 'six l...
Frank Sidgwick

Willie's Lady
The Text is from the lost Fraser-Tytler-Brown MS., this ballad luckily having been transcribed before the MS. disappeared. Mrs. Brown recited another and a fuller version to Jamieson.

The Story.--Willie's mother, a witch, displeased at her son's choice, maliciously arrests by witchcraft the birth of Willie's son. Willie's travailing wife sends him again and again to bribe the witch, who refuses cup, steed, and girdle. Here our version makes such abrupt transitions, that it will be well to explain what takes place. The Belly Blind or Billie Blin (see Young Bekie, First Series, pp. 6, 7) advises Willie to make a sham baby of wax, and invite his witch-mother to the christening. Willie does so (in stanzas lost between our 33 and 34); the witch, believing the wax-baby to be flesh and blood, betrays all her craft by aski...
Frank Sidgwick