Johnny O' Cockley's Well

The Text is taken almost entirely from a copy which was sent in 1780 to Bishop Percy by a Miss Fisher of Carlisle; in the last half of the first stanza her version gives, unintelligibly:

'But little knew he that his bloody hounds
Were bound in iron bands':

and I have therefore substituted lines from a later text. The correction in 20.1 and 21.1 is also essential.

The Story will be familiar to many as Johnie of Breadislee, a title given by Sir Walter Scott to his version, the first that was published, in the Minstrelsy (1802). In the present version, however, Johnny certainly belongs to Cockley's Well, Bradyslee being only the name of his hunting-ground. In other variants, his name is Johnny Cock, Johnny Cox, Johnny o' Cockis, o' Cockerslee, of Cockielaw, of Cocklesmuir, or Johnny Brad. The name of the hunting-ground varies also, though not so widely; and, as usual, the several editors of the ballad have carefully noted that its topography (though the nomenclature is corrupted) connects it with this district or that--Percy's ballad is Northumbrian, Scott's is of Dumfriesshire.

Percy considered that the mention of wolves (17.1) was an indication of the antiquity of the ballad; whereupon Child quotes Holinshed (1577) as saying that 'though the island is void of wolves south of the Tweed, yet the Scots cannot boast the like, since they have grievous wolves.' Yet how can one reconcile the mention of wolves with the reference to 'American leather' (13.3)?

Professor Child calls this a 'precious specimen of the unspoiled traditional ballad,' and Professor Gummere points out that 'it goes with a burden, this sterling old song, and has traces of an incremental repetition that has been reduced to lowest terms by impatient transcribers' (The Popular Ballad, p. 268). In his Old English Ballads Gummere gives a text very ingeniously compounded of Percy's and Kinloch's; and Professor Brandl has attempted to restore the original text.

JOHNNY O' COCKLEY'S WELL

1.
Johnny he has risen up i' the morn,
Call'd for water to wash his hands;
And he has called for his good grey-hounds
That lay bound in iron bands, bands,
That lay bound in iron bands.

2.
Johnny's mother has gotten word o' that,
And care-bed she has taen.
'O Johnny, for my benison,
I beg you'll stay at hame;
For the wine so red, and the well-baken bread,
My Johnny shall want nane.

3.
'There are seven forsters at Pickeram Side,
At Pickeram where they dwell,
And for a drop of thy heart's bluid
They wad ride the fords of hell.'

4.
Johnny he's gotten word of that,
And he's turned wondrous keen;
He's put off the red scarlet,
And he's put on the Lincoln green.

5.
With a sheaf of arrows by his side,
And a bent bow in his hand,
He's mounted on a prancing steed,
And he has ridden fast o'er the strand.

6.
He's up i' Bradyslee, and down i' Bradyslee,
And under a buss o' broom;
And there he found a good dun deer
Feeding in a buss of ling.

7.
Johnny shot, and the dun deer lap,
And she lap wondrous wide,
Until they came to the wan water,
And he stem'd her of her pride.

8.
He has taen out the little pen-knife,
'Twas full three quarters long,
And he has taen out of that dun deer
The liver but and the tongue.

9.
They eat of the flesh, and they drank of the blood,
And the blood it was so sweet,
Which caused Johnny and his bloody hounds
To fall in a deep sleep.

10.
By then came an old palmer,
And an ill death may he die!
For he's away to Pickeram Side,
As fast as he can drie.

11.
'What news, what news?' says the Seven Forsters,
'What news have ye brought to me?'
'I have no news,' the palmer said,
'But what I saw with my eye.

12.
'High up i' Bradyslee, low down i' Bradyslee,
And under a buss of scroggs,
O there I spied a well-wight man
Sleeping among his dogs.

13.
'His coat it was of the light Lincoln,
And his breeches of the same,
His shoes of the American leather,
And gold buckles tying them.'

14.
Up bespake the Seven Forsters,
Up bespake they ane and a':
'O that is Johnny o' Cockley's Well,
And near him we will draw.'

15.
O the first ae stroke that they gae him,
They struck him off by the knee;
Then up bespake his sister's son:
'O the next'll gar him die!'

16.
'O some they count ye well-wight men,
But I do count ye nane;
For you might well ha' waken'd me,
And ask'd gin I wad be taen.

17.
'The wildest wolf in a' this wood
Wad not ha' done so by me;
She'd ha' wet her foot i' th' wan water,
And sprinkled it o'er my bree,
And if that wad not ha' waken'd me,
She wad ha' gone and let me be.

18.
'O bows of yew, if ye be true,
In London, where ye were bought,
Fingers five, get up belive,
Manhuid shall fail me nought.'

19.
He has kill'd the Seven Forsters,
He has kill'd them all but ane,
And that wan scarce to Pickeram Side,
To carry the bode-words hame.

20.
'Is there never a bird in a' this wood
That will tell what I can say;
That will go to Cockley's Well,
Tell my mither to fetch me away?'

21.
There was a bird into that wood,
That carried the tidings away,
And many ae was the well-wight man
At the fetching o' Johnny away.

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

A Gest Of Robyn Hode - The Sixth Fytte (317-353)

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

The Baron Of Brackley

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

The Laird O' Logie

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Mary Hamilton

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 Bonny Birdy

Text.--From the Jamieson-Brown MS. Jamieson, in printing this ballad, enlarged and rewrote much of it, making the burden part of the dialogue throughout.

The Story is much the same as that of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard; but the ballad as a whole is worthy of comparison with the longer English ballad for the sake of its lyrical setting.


THE BONNY BIRDY

    1.
    There was a knight, in a summer's night,
        Was riding o'er the lee, (diddle)
    An' there he saw a bonny birdy,
        Was singing upon a tree. (diddle)

            O wow for day! (diddle)
            An' dear gin it were day! (diddle)
            Gin it were day, an' gin I were away,
            For I ha' na lang time to stay. (diddle)
...

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

John O' The Side

    'He is weil kend, Johne of the Syde,
    A greater theif did never ryde.'

            Sir Richard Maitland.


The Text is from the Percy Folio, but is given in modernised spelling. It lacks the beginning, probably, and one line in st. 3, which can be easily guessed; but as a whole it is an infinitely fresher and better ballad than that inserted in the Minstrelsy of Sir Walter Scott.


The Story is akin to that of Kinmont Willie (p. 49). John of the Side (on the river Liddel, nearly opposite Mangerton) first appears about 1550 in a list of freebooters against whom complaints were laid before the Bishop of Carlisle. He was, it seems, another of the Armstrong family.

Hobby Noble has a ballad[1] to himself (as the hero of the present ballad deserves), in which mention ...

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

Johnie Armstrong

The Text is taken from Wit Restor'd, 1658, where it is called A Northern Ballet. From the same collection comes the version of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard given in First Series, p. 19. The version popularly known as Johnny Armstrong's Last Good-Night, so dear to Goldsmith, and sung by the Vicar of Wakefield, is a broadside found in most of the well-known collections.


The Story of the ballad has the authority of more than one chronicle, and is attributed to the year 1530. James V., in spite of the promise 'to doe no wrong' in his large and long letter, appears to have been incensed at the splendour of 'Jonnë's' retinue. It seems curious that the outlaw should have been a Westmoreland man; but the Cronicles of Scotland say that 'from the Scots border to Newcastle of England, there was...

Frank Sidgwick

The Laird Of Knottington

The Text was sent to Percy in 1768 by R. Lambe of Norham. The ballad is widely known in Scotland under several titles, but the most usual is The Broom of Cowdenknows, which was the title used by Scott in the Minstrelsy.


The Story is not consistently told in this version, as in 11.3,4 the daughter gives away her secret to her father in an absurd fashion.

An English song, printed as a broadside about 1640, The Lovely Northerne Lasse, is directed to be sung 'to a pleasant Scotch tune, called The broom of Cowden Knowes.' It is a poor variant of our ballad, in the usual broadside style, and cannot have been written by any one fully acquainted with the Scottish ballad. It is in the Roxburghe, Douce, and other collections.


THE LAIRD OF KNOTTINGTON

    1.
    There ...

Frank Sidgwick