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 asking who has loosed the knots, ta'en out the kaims, ta'en down the woodbine, etc., these being the magic rites by which she has suspended birth. Willie instantly looses the knots and takes out the kaims, and his wife presents him with a bonny young son.

The story is common in Danish ballads, and occasional in Swedish. In the classics, Juno (Hera) on two occasions delayed childbirth and cheated Ilithyia, the sufferers being Latona and Alcmene. But the latest version of the story is said to have occurred in Arran in the nineteenth century. A young man, forsaking his sweetheart, married another maiden, who when her time came suffered exceedingly. A packman who chanced to be passing heard the tale and suspected the cause. Going to the discarded sweetheart, he told her that her rival had given birth to a fine child; thereupon she sprang up, pulled a large nail out of the beam, and called to her mother, 'Muckle good your craft has done!' The labouring wife was delivered forthwith. (See The Folklore Record, vol. ii. p. 117.)


WILLIE'S LADY

    1.
    Willie has taen him o'er the fame,
    He's woo'd a wife and brought her hame.

    2.
    He's woo'd her for her yellow hair,
    But his mother wrought her mickle care,

    3.
    And mickle dolour gard her dree,
    For lighter she can never be.

    4.
    But in her bower she sits wi' pain,
    And Willie mourns o'er her in vain.

    5.
    And to his mother he has gone,
    That vile rank witch of vilest kind.

    6.
    He says: 'My ladie has a cup
    Wi' gowd and silver set about.

    7.
    'This goodlie gift shall be your ain,
    And let her be lighter o' her young bairn.'

    8.
    'Of her young bairn she'll ne'er be lighter,
    Nor in her bower to shine the brighter.

    9.
    'But she shall die and turn to clay,
    And you shall wed another may.'

    10.
    'Another may I'll never wed,
    Another may I'll ne'er bring home.'

    11.
    But sighing says that weary wight,
    'I wish my life were at an end.'

    12.
    'Ye doe [ye] unto your mother again,
    That vile rank witch of vilest kind.

    13.
    'And say your ladie has a steed,
    The like o' 'm's no in the lands of Leed.

    14.
    'For he's golden shod before,
    And he's golden shod behind.

    15.
    'And at ilka tet of that horse's main
    There's a golden chess and a bell ringing.

    16.
    'This goodlie gift shall be your ain,
    And let me be lighter of my young bairn.'

    17.
    'O' her young bairn she'll ne'er be lighter,
    Nor in her bower to shine the brighter.

    18.
    'But she shall die and turn to clay,
    And ye shall wed another may.'

    19.
    'Another may I'll never wed,
    Another may I'll neer bring hame.'

    20.
    But sighing said that weary wight,
    'I wish my life were at an end.'

    21.
    'Ye doe [ye] unto your mother again,
    That vile rank witch of vilest kind.

    22.
    'And say your ladie has a girdle,
    It's red gowd unto the middle.

    23.
    'And ay at every silver hem
    Hangs fifty silver bells and ten.

    24.
    'That goodlie gift sall be her ain,
    And let me be lighter of my young bairn.'

    25.
    'O' her young bairn she's ne'er be lighter,
    Nor in her bower to shine the brighter.

    26.
    'But she shall die and turn to clay,
    And you shall wed another may.'

    27.
    'Another may I'll never wed,
    Another may I'll ne'er bring hame.'

    28.
    But sighing says that weary wight,
    'I wish my life were at an end.'

    29.
    Then out and spake the Belly Blind;
    He spake aye in good time.

    30.
    'Ye doe ye to the market place,
    And there ye buy a loaf o' wax.

    31.
    'Ye shape it bairn and bairnly like,
    And in twa glassen een ye pit;

    32.
    'And bid her come to your boy's christening;
    Then notice weel what she shall do.

    33.
    'And do you stand a little forebye,
    And listen weel what she shall say.'

        ***    ***    ***

    34.
    'O wha has loosed the nine witch knots
    That was amo' that ladie's locks?

    35.
    'And wha has taen out the kaims of care
    That hangs amo' that ladie's hair?

    36.
    'And wha's taen down the bush o' woodbine
    That hang atween her bower and mine?

    37.
    'And wha has kill'd the master kid
    That ran beneath that ladie's bed?

    38.
    'And wha has loosed her left-foot shee,
    And lotten that lady lighter be?'

    39.
    O Willie has loosed the nine witch knots
    That was amo' that ladie's locks.

    40.
    And Willie's taen out the kaims o' care
    That hang amo' that ladie's hair.

    41.
    And Willie's taen down the bush o' woodbine
    That hang atween her bower and thine.

    42.
    And Willie has killed the master kid
    That ran beneath that ladie's bed.

    43.
    And Willie has loosed her left-foot shee,
    And letten his ladie lighter be.

    44.
    And now he's gotten a bonny young son,
    And mickle grace be him upon.

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.

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English

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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.


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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.

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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.

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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.

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1.
'Twas on an evening fair I went to take the air,
I heard a maid making her moan;
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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.

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