Lord Ingram And Chiel Wyet

The Text is taken from Motherwell's Minstrelsy, a similar version being given in Maidment's North Countrie Garland. A few alterations from the latter version are incorporated.

The Story bears tokens of confusion with Lady Maisry in some of the variants of either, but here the tragedy is that the bridegroom is brother to the lover. The end of this ballad in all its forms is highly unnatural in its style: why should Maisery's remorse at having been such an expense to Lord Ingram be three times as great as her grief for the loss of her lover? It is by no means romantic.

LORD INGRAM AND CHIEL WYET

1.
Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet
Was baith born in one bower;
Laid baith their hearts on one lady,
The less was their honour.

2.
Chiel Wyet and Lord Ingram
Was baith born in one hall;
Laid baith their hearts on one lady,
The worse did them befall.

3.
Lord Ingram woo'd her Lady Maisery
From father and from mother;
Lord Ingram woo'd her Lady Maisery
From sister and from brother.

4.
Lord Ingram woo'd her Lady Maisery
With leave of a' her kin;
And every one gave full consent,
But she said no to him.

5.
Lord Ingram woo'd her Lady Maisery
Into her father's ha';
Chiel Wyet woo'd her Lady Maisery
Amang the sheets so sma'.

6.
Now it fell out upon a day
She was dressing her head,
That ben did come her father dear,
Wearing the gold so red.

7.
He said, 'Get up now, Lady Maisery,
Put on your wedding gown;
For Lord Ingram he will be here,
Your wedding must be done.'

8.
'I'd rather be Chiel Wyet's wife,
The white fish for to sell,
Before I were Lord Ingram's wife,
To wear the silk so well.

9.
'I'd rather be Chiel Wyet's wife,
With him to beg my bread,
Before I were Lord Ingram's wife,
To wear the gold so red.

10.
'Where will I get a bonny boy,
Will win gold to his fee,
And will run unto Chiel Wyet's,
With this letter from me?'

11.
'O here I am, the boy,' says one,
'Will win gold to my fee,
And carry away any letter
To Chiel Wyet from thee.'

12.
And when he found the bridges broke
He bent his bow and swam;
And when he found the grass growing,
He hastened and he ran.

13.
And when he came to Chiel Wyet's castle,
He did not knock nor call,
But set his bent bow to his breast,
And lightly leaped the wall;
And ere the porter open'd the gate,
The boy was in the hall.

14.
The first line he looked on,
A grieved man was he;
The next line he looked on,
A tear blinded his ee:
Says, 'I wonder what ails my one brother,
He'll not let my love be!

15.
'But I'll send to my brother's bridal--
The bacon shall be mine--
Full four and twenty buck and roe,
And ten tun of the wine;
And bid my love be blythe and glad,
And I will follow syne.'

16.
There was not a groom about that castle,
But got a gown of green,
And all was blythe, and all was glad,
But Lady Maisery she was neen.

17.
There was no cook about that kitchen,
But got a gown of gray;
And all was blythe, and all was glad,
But Lady Maisery was wae.

18.
Between Mary Kirk and that castle
Was all spread ower with garl,
To keep Lady Maisery and her maidens
From tramping on the marl.

19.
From Mary Kirk to that castle
Was spread a cloth of gold,
To keep Lady Maisery and her maidens
From treading on the mold.

20.
When mass was sung, and bells was rung,
And all men bound for bed;
Then Lord Ingram and Lady Maisery
In one bed they were laid.

21.
When they were laid into their bed,
It was baith saft and warm,
He laid his hand over her side,
Says, 'I think you are with bairn.'

22.
'I told you once, so did I twice,
When ye came me to woo,
That Chiel Wyet, your only brother,
One night lay in my bower.

23.
'I told you twice, I told you thrice,
Ere ye came me to wed,
That Chiel Wyet, your one brother,
One night lay in my bed.'

24.
'O will you father your bairn on me,
And on no other man?
And I'll give him to his dowry
Full fifty ploughs of land.'

25.
'I will not father my bairn on you,
Nor on no wrongeous man,
Though ye would give him to his dowry
Five thousand ploughs of land.'

26.
Then up did start him Chiel Wyet,
Shed by his yellow hair,
And gave Lord Ingram to the heart
A deep wound and a sair.

27.
Then up did start him Lord Ingram,
Shed by his yellow hair,
And gave Chiel Wyet to the heart,
A deep wound and a sair.

28.
There was no pity for that two lords,
Where they were lying slain;
But all was for her Lady Maisery,
In that bower she gaed brain.

29.
There was no pity for that two lords,
When they were lying dead;
But all was for her Lady Maisery,
In that bower she went mad.

30.
Said, 'Get to me a cloak of cloth,
A staff of good hard tree;
If I have been an evil woman,
I shall beg till I dee.

31.
'For a bit I'll beg for Chiel Wyet,
For Lord Ingram I'll beg three;
All for the good and honourable marriage,
At Mary Kirk he gave me.'

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

Earl Bothwell

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Robin Hood's Death

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

A Gest Of Robyn Hode - The Third Fytte (144-204)

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Child Waters

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.

Lady Maisry

The Text.--From the Jamieson-Brown MS. All the other variants agree as to the main outline of the ballad.

The Story.--Lady Maisry, refusing the young lords of the north country, and saying that her love is given to an English lord, is suspected by her father's kitchy-boy, who goes to tell her brother. He charges her with her fault, reviles her for 'drawing up with an English lord,' and commands her to renounce him. She refuses, and is condemned to be burned. A bonny boy bears news of her plight to Lord William, who leaps to boot and saddle; but he arrives too late to save her, though he vows vengeance on all her kin, and promises to burn himself last of all.

Burning was the penalty usually allotted in the romances to a girl convicted of unchastity.


LADY MAISRY

    1.
    The young lor...

Frank Sidgwick

Fair Janet

The Text.--Of seven or eight variants of this ballad, only three preserve the full form of the story. On the whole, the one here given--from Sharp's Ballad Book, as sung by an old woman in Perthshire--is the best, as the other two--from Herd's Scots Songs, and the Kinloch MSS.--are slightly contaminated by extraneous matter.

The Story is a simple ballad-tale of 'true-love twinned'; but the episode of the dancing forms a link with a number of German and Scandinavian ballads, in which compulsory dancing and horse-riding is made a test of the guilt of an accused maiden. In the Scotch ballad the horse-riding has shrunk almost to nothing, and the dancing is not compulsory. The resemblance is faint, and the barbarities of the Continental versions are happily wanting in our ballad.


FAIR JANET

...

Frank Sidgwick

Lord Thomas And Fair Annet

The Text is from Percy's Reliques (vol. ii., 1765: vol. iii., 1767). In the latter edition he also gives the English version of the ballad earlier in the same volume.

The Story.--This ballad, as it is one of the most beautiful, is also one of the most popular. It should be compared with Fair Margaret and Sweet William, in which the forlorn maid dies of grief, not by the hand of her rival.

    A series of Norse ballads tell much the same tale, but in none is the 'friends' will' a crucial point. Chansons from Burgundy, Bretagne, Provence, and northern Italy, faintly echo the story.

    Lord Thomas his mither says that Fair Annet has no 'gowd and gear'; yet later on we find that Annet's father can provide her with a horse shod with silver and gold, and four-and-twenty silver bells in his mane; s...

Frank Sidgwick

Young Bekie

The Text is that of the Jamieson-Brown MS., taken down from the recitation of Mrs. Brown about 1783. In printing the ballad, Jamieson collated with the above two other Scottish copies, one in MS., another a stall-copy, a third from recitation in the north of England, a fourth 'picked off an old wall in Piccadilly' by the editor.

The Story has several variations of detail in the numerous versions known (Young Bicham, Brechin, Bekie, Beachen, Beichan, Bichen, Lord Beichan, Lord Bateman, Young Bondwell, etc.), but the text here given is one of the most complete and vivid, and contains besides one feature (the 'Belly Blin') lost in all other versions but one.

A similar story is current in the ballad-literature of Scandinavia, Spain, and Italy; but the English tale has undoubtedly been affected by the charming legend of G...

Frank Sidgwick

Cospatrick

The Text is that of Scott's Minstrelsy (1802). It was 'taken down from the recitation of a lady' (his mother's sister, Miss Christian Rutherford), and collated with a copy in the Tytler-Brown MS. The ballad is also called Gil Brenton, Lord Dingwall, Bangwell, Bengwill, or Brangwill, Bothwell, etc.

The Story is a great favourite, not only in Scandinavian ballads, but also in all northern literature. The magical agency of bed, blankets, sheets, and sword, is elsewhere extended to a chair, a stepping-stone by the bedside (see the Boy and the Mantle, First Series, p. 119), or the Billie Blin (see Young Bekie, First Series, pp. 6, 7, and Willie's Lady, p. 19). The Norwegian tale of Aase and the Prince is known to English readers in Dasent's Annie the Goosegirl<...

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...
Frank Sidgwick