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 same subject, nine are Danish, two Icelandic, twelve Norwegian, four Färöe, and eight or nine Swedish.


THE TWA SISTERS O' BINNORIE

    1.
    There were twa sisters sat in a bour,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    There came a knight to be their wooer,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    2.
    He courted the eldest wi' glove and ring,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    But he lo'ed the youngest aboon a' thing,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    3.
    He courted the eldest with broach and knife,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    But he lo'ed the youngest aboon his life,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    4.
    The eldest she was vexed sair,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    And sair envìed her sister fair,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    5.
    The eldest said to the youngest ane,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    'Will ye go and see our father's ships come in?'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    6.
    She's ta'en her by the lilly hand,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    And led her down to the river-strand,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    7.
    The youngest stude upon a stane,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    The eldest came and pushed her in,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    8.
    She took her by the middle sma',
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    And dashed her bonnie back to the jaw,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie/

    9.
    'O sister, sister, reach your hand!'
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    'And ye shall be heir of half my land,'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    10.
    'O sister, I'll not reach my hand,'
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    'And I'll be heir of all your land,'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    11.
    'Shame fa' the hand that I should take,'
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    'It's twin'd me and my world's make,'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    12.
    'O sister, reach me but your glove,'
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    'And sweet William shall be your love,'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    13.
    'Sink on, nor hope for hand or glove,'
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    'And sweet William shall better be my love,'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    14.
    'Your cherry cheeks and your yellow hair,'
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    'Garr'd me gang maiden evermair,'
        By the bonnie mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    15.
    Sometimes she sunk, and sometimes she swam,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    Until she came to the miller's dam,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    16.
    'O father, father, draw your dam!'
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    'There's either a mermaid or a milk-white swan,'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    17.
    The miller hasted and drew his dam,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    And there he found a drowned woman,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    18.
    You could not see her yellow hair,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    For gowd and pearls that were sae rare,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    19.
    You could na see her middle sma',
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    Her gowden girdle was sae bra',
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    20.
    An' by there came a harper fine,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    That harped to the king at dine,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    21.
    When he did look that lady upon,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    He sigh'd and made a heavy moan,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    22.
    He's ta'en three locks o' her yallow hair,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    And wi' them strung his harp sae fair,
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    23.
    The first tune he did play and sing,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    Was, 'Farewell to my father the king,'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    24.
    The nextin tune that he play'd syne,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    Was, 'Farewell to my mother the queen,'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

    25.
    The lasten tune that he play'd then,
        Binnorie, O Binnorie!
    Was, 'Wae to my sister, fair Ellen!'
        By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.

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

Lizie Lindsay

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

The Gipsy Laddie

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

The Knight And The Shepherd's Daughter

Frank Sidgwick, Simple Poetry

Johnny O' Cockley's Well

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

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

The Knight And The Shepherd's Daughter

The Text is given here from Kinloch's MSS. He gives also three other versions and various fragments. The tale is also found amongst the Roxburghe Ballads, as The Beautifull Shepherdesse of Arcadia, in two broadsides printed about 1655 and 1680. This is the only English version extant. But earlier than any text of the ballad is a quotation from it in John Fletcher's The Pilgrim, iv. 2 (1621). The Scots versions, about a dozen in number, are far more lively than the broadside. Buchan printed two, of sixty and sixty-three stanzas respectively. Another text is delightfully inconsequent:--

    '"Some ca' me Jack, some ca' me John,
        Some ca' me Jing-ga-lee,
    But when I am in the queen's court
        Earl Hitchcock they ca' me."

    "Hitchcock, Hitchcock," Jo Janet she said,
        ...

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

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

Fair Annie
The Text is that of Scott's Minstrelsy, 'chiefly from the recitation of an old woman.' Scott names the ballad 'Lord Thomas and Fair Annie,' adding to the confusion already existing with 'Lord Thomas and Fair Annet.'

The Story.--Fair Annie, stolen from the home of her father, the Earl of Wemyss, by 'a knight out o'er the sea,' has borne seven sons to him. He now bids her prepare to welcome home his real bride, and she meekly obeys, suppressing her tears with difficulty. Lord Thomas and his new-come bride hear, through the wall of their bridal chamber, Annie bewailing her lot, and wishing her seven sons had never been born. The bride goes to comfort her, discovers in her a long-lost sister, and departs, thanking heaven she goes a maiden home.

Of this ballad, Herd printed a fragment in 1769, some stanzas being in...
Frank Sidgwick