Clyde's Water

The Text is from the Skene MS., but I have omitted the three final lines, which do not make a complete stanza, and, when compared with Scott's 'Old Lady's' version, are obviously corrupt. The last verse should signify that the mothers of Willie and Meggie went up and down the bank saying, 'Clyde's water has done us wrong!'

The ballad is better known as Willie and May Margaret.

The Story.--Willie refuses his mother's request to stay at home, as he wishes to visit his true-love. The mother puts her malison, or curse, upon him, but he rides off. Clyde is roaring, but Willie says, 'Drown me as I come back, but spare me as I go,' which is Martial's

'Parcite dum propero, mergite cum redeo,'

and occurs in other English broadsides. Meggie will not admit Willie, and he rides away. Meggie awakes, and learns that she has dismissed her true-love in her sleep. Our ballad is deficient here, but it is obvious from st. 19 that both lovers are drowned. We must understand, therefore, that Meggie follows Willie across Clyde. A variant of the ballad explains that she found him 'in the deepest pot' in all Clyde's water, and drowned herself.

Child notes that there is a very popular Italian ballad of much the same story, except that the mother's curse is on the girl and not the man.

There is a curious change in the style of spelling from stanza 15 to the end.

CLYDE'S WATER

1.
'Ye gie corn unto my horse,
An' meat unto my man,
For I will gae to my true-love's gates
This night, gin that I can.'

2.
'O stay at hame this ae night, Willie,
This ae bare night wi' me;
The best bed in a' my house
Sall be well made to thee.'

3.
'I carena for your beds, mither,
I carena ae pin,
For I'll gae to my love's gates
This night, gin I can win.'

4.
'O stay, my son Willie, this night,
This ae night wi' me;
The best hen in a' my roost
Sall be well made ready for thee.'

5.
'I carena for your hens, mither,
I carena ae pin;
I sall gae to my love's gates
This night, gin I can win.'

6.
'Gin ye winna stay, my son Willie,
This ae bare night wi' me,
Gin Clyde's water be deep and fu' o' flood,
My malisen drown ye!'

7.
He rode up yon high hill,
An' down yon dowie glen;
The roaring o' Clyde's water
Wad hae fleyt ten thousand men.

8.
'O spare me, Clyde's water,
O spare me as I gae!
Mak me your wrack as I come back,
But spare me as I gae!'

9.
He rade in, and farther in,
Till he came to the chin;
And he rade in, and farther in,
Till he came to dry lan'.

10.
And whan he came to his love's gates,
He tirled at the pin.
'Open your gates, Meggie,
Open your gates to me,
For my beets are fu' o' Clyde's water,
And the rain rains oure my chin.'

11.
'I hae nae lovers therout,' she says,
'I hae nae love within;
My true-love is in my arms twa,
An' nane will I lat in.'

12.
'Open your gates, Meggie, this ae night,
Open your gates to me;
For Clyde's water is fu' o' flood,
An' my mither's malison'll drown me.'

13.
'Ane o' my chamers is fu' o' corn,' she says,
'An' ane is fu' o' hay;
Anither is fu' o' gentlemen,
An' they winna move till day.'

14.
Out waked her May Meggie,
Out o' her drousy dream:
'I dreamed a dream sin the yestreen,
(God read a' dreams to guid!)
That my true-love Willie
Was standing at my bed-feet.'

15.
'Now lay ye still, my ae dochter,
An' keep my back fra the call',
For it's na the space of hafe an hour
Sen he gad fra yer hall'.'

16.
'An' hey, Willie, an' hoa, Willie,
Winne ye turn agen?'
But ay the louder that she crayed
He rod agenst the wind.

17.
He rod up yon high hill,
An' doun yon douey den;
The roring that was in Clide's water
Wad ha' flayed ten thousand men.

18.
He road in, an' farder in,
Till he came to the chine;
An' he road in, an' farder in,
Bat never mare was seen.

... ... ...

19.
Ther was na mare seen of that guid lord
Bat his hat frae his head;
There was na mare seen of that lady
Bat her comb an' her sneed.

... ... ...

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

Captain Ward And The Rainbow

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

The Elphin Knight

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Bonny Bee Ho'M And The Lowlands Of Holland

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Robin And Gandeleyn

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.

Willie's Fatal Visit

The Text is taken from Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland. It consists largely of familiar fragments. Stanzas 9-11 can be found in The Grey Cock.


The Story is a trivial piece in Buchan's usual style; but the smiling ghost, which is female (17.1), is a delightful novelty. She assumes the position of guardian of Willie's morals, then tears him in pieces, and hangs a piece on every seat in the church, and his head over Meggie's pew!


WILLIE'S FATAL VISIT

    1.
    'Twas on an evening fair I went to take the air,
        I heard a maid making her moan;
    Said, 'Saw ye my father? Or saw ye my mother?
        Or saw ye my brother John?
    Or saw ye the lad that I love best,
        And his name it is Sweet William?'

    2.
    'I s...

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

Jamie Douglas And Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny

The Text of the ballad is here given from Kinloch's MSS., where it is in the handwriting of John Hill Burton when a youth. The text of the song Waly, waly, I take from Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany. The song and the ballad have become inextricably confused, and the many variants of the former contain a greater or a smaller proportion of verses apparently taken from the latter.


The Story of the ballad as here told is nevertheless quite simple and straightforward. It is spoken in the first person by the daughter of the Earl of Mar. (She also says she is sister to the Duke of York, 7.4, a person often introduced into ballads.) Blacklaywood, the lady complains, has spoken calumniously of her to her lord, and she leaves him, saying farewell to her children, and taking her youngest son with her.

The bal...

Frank Sidgwick

Fair Annie Of Rough Royal

'Ouvre ta port', Germin', c'est moi qu'est ton mari.'
'Donnez-moi des indic's de la première nuit,
    Et par là je croirai que vous et's mon mari.'

        --Germaine.


The Text is Fraser Tytler's, taken down from the recitation of Mrs. Brown in 1800, who had previously (1783) recited a similar version to Jamieson. The later recitation, which was used by Scott, with others, seems to contain certain improvisations of Mrs. Brown's which do not appear in the earlier form.

The Story.--A mother, who feigns to be her own son and demands tokens of the girl outside the gate, turns her son's love away, and is cursed by him. Similar ballads exist in France, Germany, and Greece.

There is an early eighteenth-century MS. (Elizabeth Cochrane's Song-Book) of this ballad, which giv...

Frank Sidgwick

Kinmont Willie

The Text.--There is only one text of this ballad, and that was printed by Scott in the Minstrelsy from 'tradition in the West Borders'; he adds that 'some conjectural emendations have been absolutely necessary,' a remark suspicious in itself; and such modernities as the double rhymes in 26.3, 28.3, etc., do not restore confidence.


The Story.--The forcible entry into Carlisle Castle and the rescue of William Armstrong, called Will of Kinmouth, took place on April 13, 1596; but Kinmont Willie was notorious as a border thief at least as early as 1584.

The events leading up to the beginning of the ballad were as follow: 'The keen Lord Scroop' was Warden of the West-Marches of England, and 'the bauld Buccleuch' (Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm, or 'Branksome Ha',' 8.2) was the Keeper of Liddesdale. To keep a pe...

Frank Sidgwick

The Clerk's Twa Sons O' Owsenford, And The Wife Of Usher's Well

These two ballads must be considered together, as the last six verses (18-23) of The Clerk's Twa Sons, as here given, are a variant of The Wife of Usher's Well.


Texts.--The Clerk's Twa Sons is taken from Kinloch's MSS., in the handwriting of James Chambers, as it was sung to his grandmother by an old woman.

The Wife of Usher's Well is from Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and however incomplete, may well stand alone.


The Story has a fairly close parallel in the well-known German ballad, 'Das Schloss in Oesterreich'; and a ballad found both in Spain and Italy has resemblances to each. But in these two ballads, especially in The Wife of Usher's Well, the interest lies rather in the impressiveness of the verses than in the story.

Frank Sidgwick