Читать книгу English and Scottish Ballads (Vol. 1-8) - Various Authors - Страница 171

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In the very ancient though corrupted ballads of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, and The Water o' Wearie's Well (vol. i. p. 195, 198), an Elf or a Merman occupies the place here assigned to False Sir John. Perhaps May Colvin is the result of the same modernizing process by which Hynde Etin has been converted into Young Hastings the Groom (vol. i. p. 294, 189). The coincidence of the name with Clerk Colvill, in vol. i. p. 192, may have some significance. This, however, would not be the opinion of Grundtvig, who regards the Norse and German ballads resembling Lady Isabel, &c., as compounded of two independent stories. If this be so, then we should rather say that a ballad similar to May Colvin has been made to furnish the conclusion to the pieces referred to.

The story of this ballad has apparently some connection with Bluebeard, but it is hard to say what the connection is. (See Fitchers Vogel in the Grimms' K. u. H.-Märchen, No. 46, and notes.) The versions of the ballad in other languages are all but innumerable: e.g. Röfvaren Rymer, Röfvaren Brun, Svenska F.-V., No. 82, 83; Den Falske Riddaren, Arwidsson, No. 44; Ulrich und Aennchen, Schön Ulrich u. Roth-Aennchen, Schön Ulrich und Rautendelein, Ulinger, Herr Halewyn, etc., in Wunderhorn, i. 274; Uhland, 141–157 (four copies); Erk, Liederhort, 91, 93; Erlach, iii. 450; Zuccalmaglio, Deutsche Volkslieder, No. 15; Hoffmann, Schlesische Volkslieder, No. 12, 13, and Niederländische Volkslieder, No. 9, 10; etc. etc. A very brief Italian ballad will be found in the Appendix, p. 391, which seems to have the same theme. In some of the ballads the treacherous seducer is an enchanter, who prevails upon the maid to go with him by the power of a spell.

May Colvin was first published in Herd's Collection, vol. i. 153. The copy here given is one obtained from recitation by Motherwell, (Minstrelsy, p. 67,) collated by him with that of Herd. It is defective at the end. The other versions in Sharpe's Ballad Book, p. 45, and Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, ii. 45, though they are provided with some sort of conclusion, are not worth reprinting. A modernized version, styled The Outlandish Knight, is inserted in the Notes to Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, Percy Society, vol. xvii. 101.

Carlton Castle, on the coast of Carrick, is affirmed by the country people, according to Mr. Chambers, to have been the residence of the perfidious knight, and a precipice overhanging the sea, called "Fause Sir John's Loup," is pointed out as the place where he was wont to drown his wives. May Colvin is equally well ascertained to have been "a daughter of the family of Kennedy of Colzean, now represented by the Earl of Cassilis." Buchan's version assigns a different locality to the transaction—that of "Binyan's Bay," which, says the editor, is the old name of the mouth of the river Ugie.

False Sir John a wooing came

To a maid of beauty fair;

May Colvin was the lady's name,

Her father's only heir.

He's courted her butt, and he's courted her ben,5

And he's courted her into the ha',

Till once he got this lady's consent

To mount and ride awa'.

She's gane to her father's coffers,

Where all his money lay;10

And she's taken the red, and she's left the white,

And so lightly as she tripped away.

She's gane down to her father's stable,

Where all his steeds did stand;

And she's taken the best, and she's left the warst,15

That was in her father's land.

He rode on, and she rode on,

They rode a lang simmer's day,

Until they came to a broad river,

An arm of a lonesome sea.20

"Loup off the steed," says false Sir John;

"Your bridal bed you see;

For it's seven king's daughters I have drowned here,

And the eighth I'll out make with thee.

"Cast off, cast off your silks so fine,25

And lay them on a stone,

For they are o'er good and o'er costly

To rot in the salt sea foam.

"Cast off, cast off your Holland smock,

And lay it on this stone,30

For it is too fine and o'er costly

To rot in the salt sea foam."

"O turn you about, thou false Sir John,

And look to the leaf o' the tree;

For it never became a gentleman35

A naked woman to see."

He's turn'd himself straight round about,

To look to the leaf o' the tree;

She's twined her arms about his waist,

And thrown him into the sea.40

"O hold a grip of me, May Colvin,

For fear that I should drown;

I'll take you hame to your father's gates,

And safely I'll set you down."

"O lie you there, thou false Sir John,45

O lie you there," said she;

"For you lie not in a caulder bed

Than the ane you intended for me."

So she went on her father's steed,

As swift as she could flee,50

And she came hame to her father's gates

At the breaking of the day.

Up then spake the pretty parrot:

"May Colvin, where have you been?

What has become of false Sir John,55

That wooed you so late yestreen?"

Up then spake the pretty parrot,

In the bonnie cage where it lay:

"O what hae ye done with the false Sir John,

That he behind you does stay?60

"He wooed you butt, he wooed you ben,

He wooed you into the ha',

Until he got your own consent

For to mount and gang awa'."

"O hold your tongue, my pretty parrot,65

Lay not the blame upon me;

Your cage will be made of the beaten gold,

And the spakes of ivorie."

Up then spake the king himself,

In the chamber where he lay:70

"O what ails the pretty parrot,

That prattles so long ere day?"

"It was a cat cam to my cage door;

I thought 't would have worried me;

And I was calling on fair May Colvin75

To take the cat from me."