"An ye parted us and our sweet life "Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie. "But now we're in the heavens hie "All alone, and alonie ; "And ye have the pains o' hell to dree "Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie. 48 MAY COLVIN. IN the more ancient forms of this story, an Elf or a Merman represents the "false Sir John." (See vol. i. p. 313, p. 316.) May Colvin is the result of the same process by which Hynde Etin has been converted into Young Hastings the Groom. (Vol. i. p. 399, p. 307.) 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. The most prudent way of adjudicating the claims of conflicting traditions, in this and many similar instances which come under the notice of the student of romantic poetry, is to concede an equal proba bility to all. Time spent in discussing the present question would be as well laid out as in fixing the exact site of the chateau of Blue Beard. A Swedish ballad, (The False Knight,) exhibiting the same story, may be seen in Arwidsson's Svenska Fornsånger, i. 298: two others in Svenska Folk-Visor, iii. 94, 97. The corresponding German ballad is Ulrich und Aennchen, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, i. 284. (translated in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, 349,) given in a variety of forms by Erk, 91, 93, and Uhland, Volkslieder, i. 141–157. 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. Other sets have been printed in Sharpe's Ballad Book, and in Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, ii. 45. The ballad is very common, and is known under many titles. A modernized version, styled The Outlandish Knight, is inserted in the Notes to Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, Percy Society, vol. xvii. 101. 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, And he's courted her into the ha', Till once he got this lady's consent 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, And she's taken the best, and she's left the warst, That was in her father's land. 15 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. "Loup off the steed," says false Sir John; "Your bridal bed you see; 20 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, And lay them on a stone, For they are o'er good and o'er costly To rot in the salt sea foam. 25 "Cast off, cast off your Holland smock, And lay it on this stone, 30 For it is too fine and o'er costly "O turn you about, thou false Sir John, A naked woman to see." He's turn'd himself straight round about, She's twined her arms about his waist, And thrown him into the sea. "O hold a grip of me, May Colvin, I'll take you hame to your father's gates, "O lie you there, thou false Sir John, 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, 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? |