P. 372-6. Appendix. The Duke of Bedford,' Longman's Magazine, XVII, 217, 1890, "sent from Suffolk," is one half (sts 5-8) a plagiarism from 'The Death of Queen Jane.' Compare A, 5, 6, B, 8, C, 5, 6, D 6 of Queen Jane with what follows. The remainder of 'The Duke of Bedford' is so trivial that it is not worth the while at present to assign that piece its own place. I have not attempted to identify this duke of Bedford; any other duke would probably answer as well. THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. 1 Six lords went a-hunting down by the seaside, And they spied a dead body washed away by the tide. P. 382. The passages following relate to the affair of the Frenchwoman and the apothecary. Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth, 1563. (Indicated to me by Mr Andrew Lang.) The Queen's apothecary got one of her maidens, a French woman, with child. Thinking to have covered his fault with medicine, the child was slain. They are both in prison, and she is so much offended that it is thought they shall both die. Randolph to Cecil, Edinburgh, 21 Dec., 1563, p. 637. The apothecary and the woman he got with child were both hanged this Friday. Randolph to Cecil, Dec. 31, 1563, p. 650. one. The heroine of this ballad is Mary Hamilton in all copies in which she has a full name, that is, twelve out of the twenty-four which have any name; Mary simply, or Mary mild, is found in eleven copies, and Maisry in Finding in the history of the court of Peter the Great an exact counterpart of the story of the ballad with a maid of honor named Mary Hamilton filling the tragic rôle, and "no trace of an admixture of the Russian story with that of the Frenchwoman and the queen's apothecary," I felt compelled to admit that Sharpe's * Mild Mary is an appellation which occurs elsewhere (as in No 91 E), and Mary Hamilton and Mary mild are interchangeable in X. It is barely worth remarking that Myle, Moil, in C, S, are merely varieties of pronunciation, and Miles in W, an ordinary kind of corruption. suggestion of the Russian origin of the ballad was, however surprising, the only tenable opinion (III, 382 f.). Somewhat later a version of the ballad (U) was found at Abbotsford in which there is mention of the apothecary and of the practices for which he suffered in 1563, and this fact furnished ground for reopening the question (which, nevertheless, was deferred). Mr Andrew Lang has recently subjected the matter of the origin of the ballad to a searching review (in Blackwood's Magazine, September, 1895, p. 381 ff.). Against the improbability that an historical event of 1718-9 should by simple chance coincide, very minutely and even to the inclusion of the name of the principal actor, with what is related in a ballad ostensibly recounting an event in the reign of Mary Stuart, he sets the improbability that a ballad, older and superior in style to anything which we can show to have been produced in the 18th, or even the 17th century,* should have been composed after 1719, a ballad in which a contemporary occurrence in a foreign and remote country would be transferred to Scotland and Queen Mary's day, and so treated as to fit perfectly into the circumstances of the time: and this while the ballad might entirely well have been evolved from a notorious domestic occurrence of the date 1563, the adventure of Queen Mary's French maid and the apothecary—which has now turned out to be introduced into one version of the ballad.† I wish to avow that the latter improbability, as put by Mr Lang, has come to seem to me considerably greater than the former. The coincidence of the name of the heroine is indeed at first staggering; but it will be granted that of all the "honorable houses" no one might more plausibly supply a forgotten maid of honor than the house of Hamilton. The Christian name is a matter of course for a Queen's Mary. 384 ff., IV, 507 ff., V, 246 f. 2 Oh little did my mither think, At nicht when she cradled me, That I wad sleep in a nameless grave And hang on the gallows-tree. Yestreen, etc. 3 They'll tie a kerchief round my een, 4 I wish I micht sleep in the auld kirkyard, Beneath the hazel tree, Where aft we played in the long simmer nichts, My brithers and sisters and me. 176. Northumberland betrayed by P. 411 a. Looking through a ring. "The Dul Dauna put a ring to his eye, and he saw his grandfather on the deck walking." Larminie, West Irish Folk-Tales, p. 9. G. L. K. 177. The Earl of Westmoreland. P. 417. Dr W. H. Schofield suggests that the romance imitated in the second part of this ballad is, Libeaus Desconus. There the hero, who is but a child in years (in the ballad he has a child's voice), comes to a fair city by a river side, the lady of which is besieged by a giant, black as pitch. Libeaus undertakes to fight the giant, and is received by him with disdainful language. The fight is "beside the water brim." They break their spears at the first encounter; then fight on foot with swords. Libeaus strikes off the giant's head and carries it into the town; the people come out to meet him" with a fair procession," and the lady invites him to be her lord in city and castle. Compare the ballad, etc., 54-78, and Libeaus Desconus, v. 1321 ff. [See Dr Schofield's Studies on the Libeaus Desconus, p. 242, in Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature published under the direction of the Modern Language Departments of Harvard University, Vol. IV.] 196. The Fire of Frendraught. P. 41, note . Read: The peerage of Aboyne was first created in 1626, in favor of John Gordon, fifth son of the first Marquis of Huntly (Viscount of Aboyne and Melgum in 1627). He married Sophia Hay, a daughter of Francis, Earl of Errol, The Records of Aboyne, edited by the Marquis of Huntly, New Spalding Club; 1894, pp. 325, 526. V, 251 b, P. 44. In "But Rothiemay lie," may seems to have been accidentally omitted. The "Turn" in Scott was probably meant for Twin, the dot of i being omitted. 200. The Gypsy Laddie. P. 61 ff., V, 252. The three stanzas which follow are given in H. A. Kennedy's "Professor Blackie: his Sayings and Doings, London, 1895" as they were sung by Marion Stodart, Professor Blackie's aunt, to her sister's children. P. 12 f. (Communicated by Mr David MacRitchie, of Edinburgh.) There were seven gypsies all in a row, And they were brisk and bonny; O They sang till they came to the Earl o Cassilis' gate, And there they sang sae sweetly. O They sang sae sweet and sae complete So she's taen off her high-heeled shoes, That are made o the Spanish leather, And she's put on her Highland brogues, To skip amang the heather. "On the discovery of which the earl 'saddled to him his milk-white steed,' and rested not till he had hanged the seven gypsies on a tree." O at the end of the second and the fourth verse of each stanza. 216. The Mother's Malison, etc. P. 186 f. In 'Majčina kletva,' Hrvatske Pjesme iz "Naše Sloge," II, 22, No 18, two lovers go off in a boat, under a mother's curse, and are both drowned. 229. Earl Crawford. P. 280 a, A, b. b was written down March 25, 1890. 234. Charlie MacPherson. P. 310. Mr Walker of Aberdeen suggests that Billy Beg in 3 should be Bellabeg, a small property in Strath don. It will be observed that two other men in the same stanza are named by their estates. 235. The Earl of Aboyne. P. 311 b, omit the paragraph beginning J, and say: Charles, first Earl of Aboyne, married for his first wife Margaret Irvine of Drum, who died in December, 1662. (The Records of Aboyne, edited by the Marquis of Huntly, New Spalding Club, 1894, p. 552.) The story of the ballad, so far as is known, is an absolute fiction. In vol. ii of Retours or Services of Heirs, No 4906 (Aberdeen), 17 June, 1665, there is the entry: Domina Anna Gordoun, hæres Dominæ Margaretæ Irving, sponsæ Comitis de Aboyne matris. (Mr Walker of Aberdeen.) 311, V, 270. Mr Macmath has sent me this stallcopy, printed by J. Morren, Cowgate, Edinburgh. PEGGY IRVINE. 1 Our lady stands in her chamber-door, viewing the Grahams are a coming; She knew by the light of their livery so red they were new come down from London. 2 She called on her chambermaid, and Jeany her gentlewoman: You'll dress my body in some fine dress, for yon is my good lord a coming. 3 Her smock was of the holland so fine, her body round with busting; Her shoes were of the small corded twine, and her stockings silk and twisting. 4 Her petticoats was of the silk so fine, set out with the silver and scolloping; Her gown was of the red damask silk so fine, trimmed with the red gold gold mounting. 5 You guildery maids, come trim up my gauze, and make them silver shining; With strawberry flowers cover all my bowers, and hang them round with the linen. 6 'Ye minstrels all, be on our call when you see his horses coming; With music spring, spare not your string when you hear his bridles ringing.' 7 She called on Meg her chamber-maid, and Jeanny her gentlewoman: 'Go bring me a bottle of the good Spanish wine, for to drink his health that's coming.' 8 She gently tripped down the stair, and away to the gate to meet him : |