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A Scottish Ballad,

Is founded upon the supposed practice of the Jews in crucifying or otherwise murdering Christian children, out of hatred to the religion of their parents: a practice which has been always alledged in excuse for the cruelties exercised upon that wretched people, but which probably never happened in a single instance. For, if we consider, on the one hand, the ignorance and superstition of the times when such stories took their rise, the virulent prejudices of the monks who record them, and the eagerness with which they would be catched up by the barbarous populace as a pretence for plunder; on the other hand, the great danger incurred by the perpetrators, and the inadequate motives they could have to excite them to a crime of so much horror; we may reasonably conclude the whole charge to be groundless and malicious.

The following ballad is probably built upon some Italian legend, and bears a great resemblance to the Prioresse's Tale in Chaucer: the poet seems also to have had an eye to the known story of Hugh of Lincoln, a child said to have been there murdered by the Jews in the reign of Henry III. The conclusion of this ballad appears to be wanting: what it probably contained may be seen in Chaucer. As for Mirry-land Toun, it is probably a corruption of Milan (called by the Dutch Meylandt) Town: the Pa is evidently the river Po; although the Adige, not the Po, runs through Milan.

Printed from a MS. copy sent from Scotland.

[This ballad, which is also known under the title of Sir Hugh of Lincoln, was at one time so widely popular that it is preserved in six different versions, besides fragments, and has originated a literature of its own. Mons. Francisque Michel discovered a Norman-French version in the Royal Library at Paris, which is supposed to date back to the period when the murder of Sir Hugh was to have been committed. This was first published in the year 1834 under the title, "Hugues de Lincoln: Recueil de Ballades Anglo-Normande et Ecossoises relatives au meurtre de cet enfant commis par les Juifs en MCCLV." The Rev. Dr. A. Hume communicated a very full paper on the subject of the tradition to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, on November 13, 1848, which is published in the Proceedings (No. 5), and Mr. J. O. Halliwell printed, in 1849, a small volume containing "Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln." In the Athenæum for Dec. 15, 1849, there is a condemnatory review of Dr. Hume's work, to which the reviewer has added some valuable information of his own. Percy's remark that Mirry-land town is a corruption of Milan town, and Pa of the river Po, seems far-fetched, as there is no reason for supposing that the ballad was in any way connected with Italy. Jamieson's version reads Merry Lincoln, and in Motherwell's the scene is changed to Maitland town. In some parts of England the ballad has degenerated into a sort of nursery rhyme, the Northamptonshire version reading "Merry Scotland," and the Shropshire one, "Merry-cock land." Mr. J. H. Dixon suggests mere-land town, from the mere or fen lakes, and reads wa' for Pa'. (Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, vol. ix. p. 30, note.)

Miss Agnes Strickland communicated the following lines obtained from oral tradition at Godalming, in Surrey, to Mr. Halliwell, who printed them in his tract:—

"He toss'd the ball so high, so high,

He toss'd the ball so low;

He toss'd the ball in the Jew's garden,

And the Jews were all below.

"Oh! then out came the Jew's daughter,

She was dressèd all in green:

'Come hither, come hither, my sweet pretty fellow,

And fetch your ball again.'"

The tradition upon which this ballad is founded—that the Jews use human blood in their preparation for the Passover, and are in the habit of kidnapping and butchering Christian children for the purpose—is very widely spread and of great antiquity. Eisenmenger322 refers to a case which occurred at Inmestar, in Syria, so early as the year 419, but the earliest case recorded as having occurred in Europe is that of William of Norwich, in 1137. The following is a translation from a passage in the Peterborough Chronicle (which ends with the death of Stephen and the accession of Henry the Second), relating to this remarkable superstition:—"Now we will say something of what happened in King Stephen's time. In his time the Jews of Norwich bought a Christian child before Easter, and tortured him with all the same torturing that our Lord was tortured. And on Good Friday (lang fridæi) they hanged him on a cross, for our Lord's love; and afterwards buried him. They thought (wenden) that it should be concealed, but our Lord showed that he was a holy martyr (m̃r), and the monks took him and buried him solemnly in the monastery (minst). And he maketh through our Lord wonderful and manifold miracles. And he was called Saint William." Mr. Earle, in his note to this passage,323 says that "S. William seems to have retained his celebrity down to the time of the Reformation, at least in Norfolk. In Loddon church, which is advanced perpendicular of about 1500, there is a painting of his crucifixion on a panel of the rood-screen, still in fair preservation."

St. William's fame, however, was eclipsed in other parts of England by that of Sir Hugh of Lincoln, whose death was celebrated by historians and poets. Henry III. being often in want of money, was glad to take any opportunity of extorting it from the unfortunate Jews, and in 1255 his exchequer particularly required replenishing on account of the expected arrival in England of his son Edward's newly married wife, Eleanor of Castile. In this year a young boy was murdered, and, opportunely for the king, the crime was charged to the Jews. It was asserted that the child had been stolen, fattened on bread and milk for ten days, and crucified with all the cruelties and insults of Christ's passion, in the presence of all the Jews in England, who had been summoned to Lincoln for the purpose. The supposed criminals were brought to justice, and the king's commission for the trial, and the warrant to sell the goods of the several Jews who were found guilty, are still preserved. The Jew into whose house the child had gone to play, tempted by the promise of his life, made a full confession, and threw the guilt upon his brethren. Ninety-one Jews of Lincoln were sent to London as accomplices, and thrown into dungeons. Eighteen of the richest were hanged on a gallows, and twenty more imprisoned in the Tower of London. The king was enriched by the spoils, and the clergy of Lincoln did not lose their opportunity, for the minster was made famous by the possession of the martyr's tomb. Dean Milman, in relating these circumstances, says: "Great part of the story refutes itself, but I have already admitted the possibility that among the ignorant and fanatic Jews there might be some who, exasperated by the constant repetition of the charge, might brood over it so long, as at length to be tempted to its perpetration."324 Any such explanation as this, however, does not seem necessary, for the wide-spread existence of the superstition goes far to prove the entire falsehood at least of the later cases, and the story of Sir Hugh was but a revival of that of St. William. It is worth mentioning, in passing, that this calumny was in fact a recoil upon the Jews themselves of a weapon they had used against the Christians. As early as the third century they affirmed that Christians in celebrating their mysteries used to kill a child and eat its flesh. Pagans probably learnt the calumny from the Jews, and also charged the Christians with eating children.

The whole proceedings in the case of Sir Hugh are chronicled by Matthew Paris, who was in high favour with Henry III., and from his pages the account is transferred to the Chronicles of Grafton, Fabyan, and Holinshed. Chaucer most probably consulted the same source when he included the story in his Canterbury Tales, although he shifts the scene to Asia, and makes his Prioress say, when ending her tale with a reference to Sir Hugh:—

"O younge Hughe of Lyncoln; slayn also

With cursed Jewes (as it is notable,

For it nys but a litel while ago)."

Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer, notes that he found in the first four months of the Acta Sanctorum of Bollandus the names of five children canonized as having been murdered by the Jews, and he supposes that the remaining eight months would furnish at least as many more. Tyrwhitt accepts Percy's interpretation of Mirry-land as a corruption of the name of Milan, and under this erroneous impression he suggests that the real occasion of the ballad may have been the murder of the boy Simon, at Trent, in 1475.325

The superstition upon which all these stories are founded is said still to prevail among the ignorant members of the Greek Church, and it was revived at Damascus in 1840 in consequence of the disappearance of a priest named Thomaso. Two or three Jews were put to death before a proper judicial examination could be made, and the popular fury was so excited that severe persecution extended through a large part of the Turkish empire. Sir Moses Montefiore visited the various localities with the object of obtaining redress for his people, and he was successful. On November 6, 1840, a firman for the protection of the Jews was given at Constantinople, which contained the following passage:—"An ancient prejudice prevailed against the Jews. The ignorant believed that the Jews were accustomed to sacrifice a human being, to make use of his blood at the Passover. In consequence of this opinion the Jews of Damascus and Rhodes, who are subjects of our empire, have been persecuted by other nations. … But a short time has elapsed since some Jews dwelling in the isle of Rhodes were brought from thence to Constantinople, where they had been tried and judged according to the new regulations, and their innocence of the accusations made against them fully proved." The calumny, however, was again raised in October, 1847, and the Jews were in imminent peril when the missing boy, who had been staying at Baalbec, reappeared in good health.

Within the last few years the Greek Patriarch at Constantinople has issued a pastoral letter, in which he points out the wickedness of the Christian persecution of the Jews. He says: "Superstition is a detestable thing. Almost all the Christian nations of the East have taken up the extravagant idea that the Israelites enjoy shedding Christian blood, either to obtain thereby a blessing from heaven, or to gratify their national rancour against Christ. Hence conflicts and disturbances break out, by which the social harmony between the dwellers in the same land, yea, the same fatherland, is disturbed. Thus a report was lately spread of the abduction of little Christian children in order to give a pretext for suspicion. We on our side abhor such lying fancies; we regard them as the superstitions of men of weak faith and narrow minds; and we disavow them officially."

The superstition, however, still lives on, and according to the Levant Herald (1874), the Mahometans are beginning to fall into the delusion that the sacrificial knife is applied by the Jews to young Turks as well as to young Christians.]

The rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,

Sae dois it doune the Pa:

Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune,

Quhan they play at the ba'.326

Than out and cam the Jewis dochtèr,5

Said, Will ye cum in and dine?

"I winnae cum in, I cannae cum in,

Without my play-feres327 nine."

Scho328 powd329 an apple reid and white To intice the yong thing in:10 Scho powd an apple white and reid, And that the sweit bairne did win.

And scho has taine out a little pen-knife,

And low down by her gair,330 Scho has twin'd331 the yong thing and his life;15 A word he nevir spak mair.

And out and cam the thick thick bluid,

And out and cam the thin;

And out and cam the bonny herts bluid:

Thair was nae life left in.20

Scho laid him on a dressing borde,

And drest him like a swine,

And laughing said, Gae nou and pley

With your sweit play-feres nine.

Scho rowd332 him in a cake of lead,25 Bade him lie stil and sleip. Scho cast him in a deip draw-well, Was fifty fadom deip.

Quhan bells wer rung, and mass was sung,

And every lady went hame:30

Than ilka lady had her yong sonne,

Bot lady Helen had nane.

Scho rowd hir mantil hir about,

And sair sair gan she weip:

And she ran into the Jewis castèl,35

Quhan they wer all asleip.

My bonny sir Hew, my pretty sir Hew,

I pray thee to me speik.

"O lady, rinn to the deip draw-well,

Gin333 ye your sonne wad seik."40

Lady Helen ran to the deip draw-well,

And knelt upon her kne:

My bonny sir Hew, an334 ye be here, I pray thee speik to me.

"The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,45

The well is wondrous deip,

A keen pen-knife sticks in my hert,

A word I dounae335 speik.

Gae hame, gae hame, my mither deir,

Fetch me my windling sheet,50

And at the back o' Mirry-land toun,

Its thair we twa fall meet."

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