章节正文
AND THE BEAST is a late, courtly, French adaptation and
amplification of the original popular "wild growth" which first
appears (in literary form) as CUPID AND PSYCHE, in Apuleius.
Except for the metamorphosis, however, there is little analogy in
this case. The friendly act of the Fairy Queen is without parallel
in British Folklore, but Mr. Child points out that the Nereid
Queen, in Greece, is still as kind as Thetis of old, not a
sepulchral siren, the shadow of the pagan "Fairy Queen Proserpina,"
as Campion calls her.
THE HEIR OF LYNNE
From Percy's Folio Manuscript. There is a cognate Greek epigram -
[Greek text which cannot be reproduced]
GORDON OF BRACKLEY
This, though probably not the most authentic, is decidedly the most
pleasing version; it is from Mackay's collection, perhaps from his
pen.
EDWARD
Percy got this piece from Lord Hailes, with pseudo-antiquated
spelling. Mr. Swinburne has published a parallelballad "From the
Finnish." There are a number of parallelballads on Cruel
Brothers, and Cruel Sisters, such as SON DAVIE, which may be
compared. Fratricides and unconscious incests were motives dear to
popular poetry.
YOUNG BENJIE
From the BORDER MINSTRELSY. That corpses MIGHT begin to "thraw,"
if carelessly watched, was a prevalentsuperstition. Scott gives
an example: the following may be added, as less well known. The
watchers had left the corpse alone, and were dining in the
adjoining room, when a terrible noise was heard in the chamber of
death. None dared enter; the minister was sent for, and passed
into the room. He emerged, asked for a pair of tongs, and
returned, bearing in the tongs A BLOODY GLOVE, and the noise
ceased. He always declined to say what he had witnessed.
Ministers were exorcists in the last century, and the father of
James Thomson, the poet, died suddenly in an interview with a
guest, in a haunted house. The house was pulled down, as being
uninhabitable.
AULD MAITLAND
From THE BORDER MINSTRELSY. This ballad is inserted, not for its
merit, still less for its authenticity, but for the problem of its
puzzling history. Scott certainly got it from the mother of the
Ettrick Shepherd, in 1801. The Shepherd's father had been a grown-
up man in 1745, and his mother was also of a great age, and
unlikely to be able to learn a new-forged ballad by heart. The
Shepherd himself (then a most unsophisticated person) said, in a
letter of June 30, 1801, that he was "surprized to hear this song
is suspected by some to be a modern forgery; the contrary will be
best proved by most of the old people, here about, having a great
part of it by heart." The two last lines of verse seven were,
confessedly, added by Hogg, to fill a LACUNA. They are especially
modern in style. Now thus to fill up sham LACUNAE in sham ballads
of his own, with lines manifestly modern, was a favourite trick of
Surtees of Mainsforth. He used the device in "Barthram's Dirge,"
which entirely took in Sir Walter, and was guilty of many other
SUPERCHERIES, especially of the "Fray of Suport Mill." Could the
unlettered Shepherd, fond of hoaxes as he was, have invented this
stratagem, sixteen years before he joined the BLACKWOOD set? And
is it conceivable that his old mother, entering into the joke,
would commit her son's fraudulent verses to memory, and recite them
to Sir Walter as genuinetradition? She said to Scott, that the
ballad "never was printed i' the world, for my brothers and me
learned it and many mae frae auld Andrew Moore, and he learned it
frae auld Baby Mettlin" (Maitland?) "wha was housekeeper to the
first laird o' Tushilaw." (On Ettrick, near Thirlestane. She
doubtless meant the first of the Andersons of Tushielaw, who
succeeded the old lairds, the Scotts.) "She was said to hae been
another or a guid ane, and there are many queer stories about
hersel', but O, she had been a grand singer o' auld songs an'
ballads." (Hogg's DOMESTIC MANNERS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, p. 61,
1834.)
"Maitland upon auld beird gray" is mentioned by Gawain Douglas, in
his PALICE OF HONOUR, which the Shepherd can hardly have read, and
Scott identified this Maitland with the ancestor of Lethington; his
date was 1250-1296. On the whole, even the astute Shepherd, in his
early days of authorship, could hardly have laid a plot so
insidious, and the question of the authenticity and origin of the
ballad (obvious interpolations apart) remains a mystery. Who could
have forged it? It is, as an exercise in imitation, far beyond
HARDYKNUTE, and at least on a level with SIR ROLAND. The
possibility of such forgeries is now very slight indeed, but
vitiates early collections.
If we suspect Leyden, who alone had the necessary knowledge of
antiquities, we are still met by the improbability of old Mrs. Hogg
being engaged in the hoax. Moreover, Leyden was probably too keen
an antiquary to take part in one of the deceptions which Ritson
wished to punish so severely. Mr. Child expresses his strong and
natural suspicions of the authenticity of the ballad, and Hogg is,
certainly, a dubious source. He took in Jeffrey with the song of
"Donald Macgillavray," and instantly boasted of his triumph. He
could not have kept his secret, after the death of Scott. These
considerations must not be neglected, however suspicious "Auld,
Maitland" may appear.
THE BROOMFIELD HILL
From Buchan's BALLADS OF THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND. There are
Elizabethan references to the poem, and a twelfth century romance
turns on the main idea of sleep magically induced. The lover
therein is more fortunate than the hero of the ballad, and,
finally, overcomes the spell. The idea recurs in the Norse poetry.
WILLIE'S LADYE
Scott took this ballad from Mrs. Brown's celebrated Manuscript.
The kind of spell indicated was practised by Hera upon Alcmena,
before the birth of Heracles. Analogous is the spell by binding
witch-knots, practised by Simaetha on her lover, in the second
Idyll of Theocritus. Montaigne has some curious remarks on these
enchantments, explaining their power by what is now called
"suggestion." There is a Danish parallel to "Willie's Ladye,"
translated by Jamieson.
ROBIN HOOD BALLADS
There is plentiful "learning" about Robin Hood, but no real
knowledge. He is first mentioned in literature, as the subject of
"rhymes," in PIERS PLOWMAN (CIRC. 1377). As a topic of ballads he
must be much older than that date. In 1439 his name was a synonym
for a bandit. Wyntoun, the Scots chronicler, dates the outlaw in
the time of Edward I. Major, the Scots philosopher and master of
John Knox, makes a guess (taken up by Scott in IVANHOE) as the
period of Richard I. Kuhn seeks to show that Hood is a survival of
Woden, or of his WOODEN, "wooden horse" or hobby horse. The Robin
Hood play was parallel with the May games, which, as Mr. Frazer
shows in his GOLDEN BOUGH, were really survivals of a world-wide
religious practice. But Robin Hood need not be confused with the
legendary May King. Mr. Child judiciously rejects these
mythological conjectures, based, as they are, on far-fetched
etymologies and analogies. Robin is an idealized bandit, reiver,
or Klepht, as in modern Romaic ballads, and his adventures are
precisely such as popular fancy everywhere attaches to such popular
heroes. An historical Robin there may have been, but PREMIT NOX
ALTA.
ROBIN HOOD AND THE MONK
This copy follows in Mr. Child's early edition, "from the second
edition of Ritson's ROBIN HOOD, as collated by Sir Frederic
Madden." It is conjectured to be "possibly as old as the reign of
Edward II." That the murder of a monk should be pardoned in the
facile way described is manifestlyimprobable. Even in the lawless
Galloway of 1508, McGhie of Phumpton was fined six merks for
"throwing William Schankis, monk, from his horse." (History of
Dumfries and Galloway, by Sir Herbert Maxwell, p. 155.)
ROBIN HOOD AND THE POTTER
Published by Ritson, from a Cambridge MS., probably of the reign of
Henry VII.
ROBIN HOOD AND THE BUTCHER
Published by Ritson, from a Black Letter copy in the collection of
Anthony Wood, the Oxford antiquary.
Footnotes:
(1) See Pitcairn, Case of Alison Pearson, 1586.
(2) Translated in BALLADS AND LYRICS OF OLD FRANCE. - A. L.
(3) "Kinnen," rabbits.
(4) "Nicher," neigh.
(5) "Gilt," gold.
(6) "Dow," are able to.
(7) "Ganging," going.
(8) "Targats", tassels.
(9) "Blink sae brawly," glance so bravely.
(10) "Fechting," fighting.
(11) "Kirsty," Christopher.
(12) "Hald," hold.
(13) "Reek," smoke.
(14) "Freits," omens.
(15) "Wighty," valiant.
(16) "Wroken," revenged.
(17) "Mudie," bold.
End
amplification of the original popular "wild growth" which first
appears (in literary form) as CUPID AND PSYCHE, in Apuleius.
Except for the metamorphosis, however, there is little analogy in
this case. The friendly act of the Fairy Queen is without parallel
in British Folklore, but Mr. Child points out that the Nereid
Queen, in Greece, is still as kind as Thetis of old, not a
sepulchral siren, the shadow of the pagan "Fairy Queen Proserpina,"
as Campion calls her.
THE HEIR OF LYNNE
From Percy's Folio Manuscript. There is a cognate Greek epigram -
[Greek text which cannot be reproduced]
GORDON OF BRACKLEY
This, though probably not the most authentic, is decidedly the most
pleasing version; it is from Mackay's collection, perhaps from his
pen.
EDWARD
Percy got this piece from Lord Hailes, with pseudo-antiquated
spelling. Mr. Swinburne has published a parallelballad "From the
Finnish." There are a number of parallelballads on Cruel
Brothers, and Cruel Sisters, such as SON DAVIE, which may be
compared. Fratricides and unconscious incests were motives dear to
popular poetry.
YOUNG BENJIE
From the BORDER MINSTRELSY. That corpses MIGHT begin to "thraw,"
if carelessly watched, was a prevalentsuperstition. Scott gives
an example: the following may be added, as less well known. The
watchers had left the corpse alone, and were dining in the
adjoining room, when a terrible noise was heard in the chamber of
death. None dared enter; the minister was sent for, and passed
into the room. He emerged, asked for a pair of tongs, and
returned, bearing in the tongs A BLOODY GLOVE, and the noise
ceased. He always declined to say what he had witnessed.
Ministers were exorcists in the last century, and the father of
James Thomson, the poet, died suddenly in an interview with a
guest, in a haunted house. The house was pulled down, as being
uninhabitable.
AULD MAITLAND
From THE BORDER MINSTRELSY. This ballad is inserted, not for its
merit, still less for its authenticity, but for the problem of its
puzzling history. Scott certainly got it from the mother of the
Ettrick Shepherd, in 1801. The Shepherd's father had been a grown-
up man in 1745, and his mother was also of a great age, and
unlikely to be able to learn a new-forged ballad by heart. The
Shepherd himself (then a most unsophisticated person) said, in a
letter of June 30, 1801, that he was "surprized to hear this song
is suspected by some to be a modern forgery; the contrary will be
best proved by most of the old people, here about, having a great
part of it by heart." The two last lines of verse seven were,
confessedly, added by Hogg, to fill a LACUNA. They are especially
modern in style. Now thus to fill up sham LACUNAE in sham ballads
of his own, with lines manifestly modern, was a favourite trick of
Surtees of Mainsforth. He used the device in "Barthram's Dirge,"
which entirely took in Sir Walter, and was guilty of many other
SUPERCHERIES, especially of the "Fray of Suport Mill." Could the
unlettered Shepherd, fond of hoaxes as he was, have invented this
stratagem, sixteen years before he joined the BLACKWOOD set? And
is it conceivable that his old mother, entering into the joke,
would commit her son's fraudulent verses to memory, and recite them
to Sir Walter as genuinetradition? She said to Scott, that the
ballad "never was printed i' the world, for my brothers and me
learned it and many mae frae auld Andrew Moore, and he learned it
frae auld Baby Mettlin" (Maitland?) "wha was housekeeper to the
first laird o' Tushilaw." (On Ettrick, near Thirlestane. She
doubtless meant the first of the Andersons of Tushielaw, who
succeeded the old lairds, the Scotts.) "She was said to hae been
another or a guid ane, and there are many queer stories about
hersel', but O, she had been a grand singer o' auld songs an'
ballads." (Hogg's DOMESTIC MANNERS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, p. 61,
1834.)
"Maitland upon auld beird gray" is mentioned by Gawain Douglas, in
his PALICE OF HONOUR, which the Shepherd can hardly have read, and
Scott identified this Maitland with the ancestor of Lethington; his
date was 1250-1296. On the whole, even the astute Shepherd, in his
early days of authorship, could hardly have laid a plot so
insidious, and the question of the authenticity and origin of the
ballad (obvious interpolations apart) remains a mystery. Who could
have forged it? It is, as an exercise in imitation, far beyond
HARDYKNUTE, and at least on a level with SIR ROLAND. The
possibility of such forgeries is now very slight indeed, but
vitiates early collections.
If we suspect Leyden, who alone had the necessary knowledge of
antiquities, we are still met by the improbability of old Mrs. Hogg
being engaged in the hoax. Moreover, Leyden was probably too keen
an antiquary to take part in one of the deceptions which Ritson
wished to punish so severely. Mr. Child expresses his strong and
natural suspicions of the authenticity of the ballad, and Hogg is,
certainly, a dubious source. He took in Jeffrey with the song of
"Donald Macgillavray," and instantly boasted of his triumph. He
could not have kept his secret, after the death of Scott. These
considerations must not be neglected, however suspicious "Auld,
Maitland" may appear.
THE BROOMFIELD HILL
From Buchan's BALLADS OF THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND. There are
Elizabethan references to the poem, and a twelfth century romance
turns on the main idea of sleep magically induced. The lover
therein is more fortunate than the hero of the ballad, and,
finally, overcomes the spell. The idea recurs in the Norse poetry.
WILLIE'S LADYE
Scott took this ballad from Mrs. Brown's celebrated Manuscript.
The kind of spell indicated was practised by Hera upon Alcmena,
before the birth of Heracles. Analogous is the spell by binding
witch-knots, practised by Simaetha on her lover, in the second
Idyll of Theocritus. Montaigne has some curious remarks on these
enchantments, explaining their power by what is now called
"suggestion." There is a Danish parallel to "Willie's Ladye,"
translated by Jamieson.
ROBIN HOOD BALLADS
There is plentiful "learning" about Robin Hood, but no real
knowledge. He is first mentioned in literature, as the subject of
"rhymes," in PIERS PLOWMAN (CIRC. 1377). As a topic of ballads he
must be much older than that date. In 1439 his name was a synonym
for a bandit. Wyntoun, the Scots chronicler, dates the outlaw in
the time of Edward I. Major, the Scots philosopher and master of
John Knox, makes a guess (taken up by Scott in IVANHOE) as the
period of Richard I. Kuhn seeks to show that Hood is a survival of
Woden, or of his WOODEN, "wooden horse" or hobby horse. The Robin
Hood play was parallel with the May games, which, as Mr. Frazer
shows in his GOLDEN BOUGH, were really survivals of a world-wide
religious practice. But Robin Hood need not be confused with the
legendary May King. Mr. Child judiciously rejects these
mythological conjectures, based, as they are, on far-fetched
etymologies and analogies. Robin is an idealized bandit, reiver,
or Klepht, as in modern Romaic ballads, and his adventures are
precisely such as popular fancy everywhere attaches to such popular
heroes. An historical Robin there may have been, but PREMIT NOX
ALTA.
ROBIN HOOD AND THE MONK
This copy follows in Mr. Child's early edition, "from the second
edition of Ritson's ROBIN HOOD, as collated by Sir Frederic
Madden." It is conjectured to be "possibly as old as the reign of
Edward II." That the murder of a monk should be pardoned in the
facile way described is manifestlyimprobable. Even in the lawless
Galloway of 1508, McGhie of Phumpton was fined six merks for
"throwing William Schankis, monk, from his horse." (History of
Dumfries and Galloway, by Sir Herbert Maxwell, p. 155.)
ROBIN HOOD AND THE POTTER
Published by Ritson, from a Cambridge MS., probably of the reign of
Henry VII.
ROBIN HOOD AND THE BUTCHER
Published by Ritson, from a Black Letter copy in the collection of
Anthony Wood, the Oxford antiquary.
Footnotes:
(1) See Pitcairn, Case of Alison Pearson, 1586.
(2) Translated in BALLADS AND LYRICS OF OLD FRANCE. - A. L.
(3) "Kinnen," rabbits.
(4) "Nicher," neigh.
(5) "Gilt," gold.
(6) "Dow," are able to.
(7) "Ganging," going.
(8) "Targats", tassels.
(9) "Blink sae brawly," glance so bravely.
(10) "Fechting," fighting.
(11) "Kirsty," Christopher.
(12) "Hald," hold.
(13) "Reek," smoke.
(14) "Freits," omens.
(15) "Wighty," valiant.
(16) "Wroken," revenged.
(17) "Mudie," bold.
End
- literary [´litərəri]
a.文学(上)的 (初中英语单词) - greece [gri:s] n.希腊 (初中英语单词)
- collection [kə´lekʃən] n.收集；征收；募捐 (初中英语单词)
- parallel [´pærəlel] a.平行的 n.平行线 (初中英语单词)
- minister [´ministə] n.部长；大臣 v.伺候 (初中英语单词)
- bloody [´blʌdi] a.(流)血的；血腥的 (初中英语单词)
- interview [´intəvju:] n.&vt.接见；会见；交谈 (初中英语单词)
- haunted [´hɔ:tid] a.常出现鬼的，闹鬼的 (初中英语单词)
- shepherd [´ʃepəd] n.牧羊人 vt.带领 (初中英语单词)
- contrary [´kɔntrəri] a.相反的 n.相反 (初中英语单词)
- device [di´vais] n.装置；器具；策略 (初中英语单词)
- guilty [´gilti] a.有罪的；心虚的 (初中英语单词)
- commit [kə´mit] vt.犯(罪)；把...判处 (初中英语单词)
- recite [ri´sait] v.背诵；叙述 (初中英语单词)
- tradition [trə´diʃən] n.传统；惯例；传说 (初中英语单词)
- singer [´siŋə] n.歌手，演唱者 (初中英语单词)
- domestic [də´mestik] a.家庭的；本国的 (初中英语单词)
- ancestor [´ænsəstə] n.祖宗，祖先 (初中英语单词)
- origin [´ɔridʒin] n.起源；由来；出身 (初中英语单词)
- mystery [´mistəri] n.神秘；秘密；故弄玄虚 (初中英语单词)
- suspect [´sʌspekt, sə´spekt] v.怀疑；觉得 n.嫌疑犯 (初中英语单词)
- moreover [mɔ:´rəuvə] ad.再者，此外，而且 (初中英语单词)
- punish [´pʌniʃ] vt.(惩)罚；痛击；折磨 (初中英语单词)
- instantly [´instəntli] ad.立即，立刻 (初中英语单词)
- triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- fortunate [´fɔ:tʃənət] a.幸运的，侥幸的 (初中英语单词)
- celebrated [´selibreitid] a.著名的 (初中英语单词)
- literature [´litərətʃə] n.文学；文献；著作 (初中英语单词)
- wooden [´wudn] a.木制的；呆板的 (初中英语单词)
- manuscript [´mænjuskript] a.手抄的 n.手稿 (高中英语单词)
- decidedly [di´saididli] ad.坚决地，果断地 (高中英语单词)
- ballad [´bæləd] n.民歌，民谣 (高中英语单词)
- unconscious [ʌn´kɔnʃəs] a.无意识的；不觉察的 (高中英语单词)
- carelessly [´kɛəlisli] ad.粗心地；疏忽地 (高中英语单词)
- superstition [,su:pə´stiʃən, ,sju:-] n.迷信(行为) (高中英语单词)
- chamber [´tʃeimbə] n.房间；议院；会议室 (高中英语单词)
- bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
- genuine [´dʒenjuin] a.真正的；真诚的 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- housekeeper [´haus,ki:pə] n.主妇，女管家 (高中英语单词)
- imitation [,imi´teiʃən] n.模仿；仿制品；赝品 (高中英语单词)
- severely [si´viəli] ad.剧烈地；严格地 (高中英语单词)
- suspicious [sə´spiʃəs] a.可疑的，多疑的 (高中英语单词)
- plentiful [´plentifəl] a.丰富的；多的 (高中英语单词)
- philosopher [fi´lɔsəfə] n.哲学家；思想家；哲人 (高中英语单词)
- historical [his´tɔrikəl] a.历史(上)的 (高中英语单词)
- edition [i´diʃən] n.版本；很相似的 (高中英语单词)
- cambridge [´keimbridʒ] n.剑桥 (高中英语单词)
- oxford [´ɔksfəd] n.牛津 (高中英语单词)
- adaptation [ædæp´teiʃən] n.适应；改写(本) (英语四级单词)
- authentic [ɔ:´θentik] a.真实的；可靠的 (英语四级单词)
- version [´və:ʃən, ´və:rʒən] n.翻译；说明；译本 (英语四级单词)
- prevalent [´prevələnt] a.流行的；普遍的 (英语四级单词)
- corpse [kɔ:ps] n.尸体 (英语四级单词)
- conceivable [kən´si:vəbəl] a.可想象得出的 (英语四级单词)
- danish [´deiniʃ] a.&n.丹麦人(语)(的) (英语四级单词)
- bandit [´bændit] n.土匪，强盗 (英语四级单词)
- outlaw [´autlɔ:] n.歹徒 vt.将...放逐 (英语四级单词)
- psyche [´saiki] n.心灵；灵魂；精神 (英语六级单词)
- metamorphosis [,metə´mɔ:fəsis] n.变形；变质；变态 (英语六级单词)
- analogy [ə´nælədʒi] n.类似；类推；比拟 (英语六级单词)
- manifestly [´mænifestli] ad.明显的 (英语六级单词)
- dubious [´dju:biəs] a.怀疑的；可疑的 (英语六级单词)
- improbable [im´prɔbəbəl] a.未必有的 (英语六级单词)
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