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 enemies, is very characteristic of the ballad-style, and is found in other ballads, as Lord Ronald and Edward, Edward. In the present case, 'sister Grace' obtains what would seem to be a very doubtful benefit.

THE CRUEL BROTHER

1.
There was three ladies play'd at the ba',
With a hey ho and a lillie gay
There came a knight and played o'er them a',
As the primrose spreads so sweetly.

2.
The eldest was baith tall and fair,
But the youngest was beyond compare.

3.
The midmost had a graceful mien,
But the youngest look'd like beautie's queen.

4.
The knight bow'd low to a' the three,
But to the youngest he bent his knee.

5.
The ladie turned her head aside;
The knight he woo'd her to be his bride.

6.
The ladie blush'd a rosy red,
And say'd, 'Sir knight, I'm too young to wed.'

7.
'O ladie fair, give me your hand,
And I'll make you ladie of a' my land.'

8.
'Sir knight, ere ye my favour win,
You maun get consent frae a' my kin.'

9.
He's got consent frae her parents dear,
And likewise frae her sisters fair.

10.
He's got consent frae her kin each one,
But forgot to spiek to her brother John.

11.
Now, when the wedding day was come,
The knight would take his bonny bride home.

12.
And many a lord and many a knight
Came to behold that ladie bright.

13.
And there was nae man that did her see,
But wish'd himself bridegroom to be.

14.
Her father dear led her down the stair,
And her sisters twain they kiss'd her there.

15.
Her mother dear led her thro' the closs,
And her brother John set her on her horse.

16.
She lean'd her o'er the saddle-bow,
To give him a kiss ere she did go.

17.
He has ta'en a knife, baith lang and sharp,
And stabb'd that bonny bride to the heart.

18.
She hadno ridden half thro' the town,
Until her heart's blude stain'd her gown.

19.
'Ride softly on,' says the best young man,
'For I think our bonny bride looks pale and wan.'

20.
'O lead me gently up yon hill,
And I'll there sit down, and make my will.'

21.
'O what will you leave to your father dear?'
'The silver-shod steed that brought me here.'

22.
'What will you leave to your mother dear?'
'My velvet pall and my silken gear.'

23.
'What will you leave to your sister Anne?'
'My silken scarf and my gowden fan.'

24.
'What will you leave to your sister Grace?'
'My bloody cloaths to wash and dress.'

25.
'What will you leave to your brother John?'
'The gallows-tree to hang him on.'

26.
'What will you leave to your brother John's wife?'
'The wilderness to end her life.'

27.
This ladie fair in her grave was laid,
And many a mass was o'er her said.

28.
But it would have made your heart right sair,
To see the bridegroom rive his hair.

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

The Knight And The Shepherd's Daughter

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Lord Ingram And Chiel Wyet

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Dives And Lazarus

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Sir James The Rose

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 Gay Goshawk

The Text is from the Jamieson-Brown MS., on which version Scott drew partly for his ballad in the Minstrelsy. Mrs. Brown recited the ballad again to William Tytler in 1783, but the result is now lost, with most of the other Tytler-Brown versions.

The Story.--One point, the maid's feint of death to escape from her father to her lover, is the subject of a ballad very popular in France; a version entitled Belle Isambourg is printed in a collection called Airs de Cour, 1607. Feigning death to escape various threats is a common feature in many European ballads.

It is perhaps needless to remark that no goshawk sings sweetly, much less talks. In Buchan's version (of forty-nine stanzas) the goshawk is exchanged for a parrot.


THE GAY GOSHAWK

    1.
    'O well's me o' my g...

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

The Twa Sisters O' Binnorie

Texts.--The version here given is compounded from two different sources, almost of necessity. Stanzas 1-19 were given by Scott, compounded from W. Tytler's Brown MS. and the recitation of an old woman. But at stanza 20 Scott's version becomes eccentric, and he prints such verses as:--

    'A famous harper passing by
    The sweet pale face he chanced to spy ...

    The strings he framed of her yellow hair,
    Whose notes made sad the listening air.'

Stanzas 20-25, therefore, have been supplied from the Jamieson-Brown MS., which after this point does not descend from the high level of ballad-poetry.

The Story.--This is a very old and a very popular story. An early broadside exists, dated 1656, and the same version is printed in Wit Restor'd, 1658. Of Scandinavian ballads on the ...

Frank Sidgwick

Katharine Jaffray

The Text is from Herd's MSS., two copies showing a difference of one word and a few spellings. Stt. 3 and 5 are interchanged for the sake of the sense.

Many copies of this ballad exist (Child prints a dozen), but this one is both the shortest and simplest.


The Story.--In The Cruel Brother (First Series, p. 76) it was shown that a lover must 'speak to the brother' of his lady. Here the lesson, it seems, is that he must 'tell the lass herself' before her wedding-day. Katharine, however, not only proves her faith to her first lover (her 'grass-green' dress, 10.2, shows an ill-omened marriage), but prefers the Scot to the Southron. This lesson the ballad drives home in the last two verses.

Presumably Scott founded Young Lochinvar on the story of this ballad, as in six versions the Scots lai...

Frank Sidgwick

Clerk Colven

The Text.--This ballad was one of two transcribed from the now lost Tytler-Brown MS., and the transcript is given here. A considerable portion of the story is lost between stanzas 6 and 7.


The Story in its full form is found in a German poem of the twelfth or thirteenth century (Der Ritter von Stauffenberg) as well as in many Scandinavian ballads.

In the German tale, the fairy bound the knight to marry no one; on that condition she would come to him whenever he wished, if he were alone, and would bestow endless gifts upon him: if ever he did marry, he would die within three days. Eventually he was forced to marry, and died as he had been warned.

In seventy Scandinavian ballads, the story remains much the same. The hero's name is Oluf or Ole, or some modification of this, of which 'Colvill,' or...

Frank Sidgwick