登陆注册
19453900000070

第70章 NOTES(6)

From Herd's MS.Versions occur in Polish,German,Magyar,Portuguese,Scandinavian,and in French.The ballad is here localised on the Carrick coast,near Girvan.The lady is called a Kennedy of Culzean.Prof.Bugge regards this widely diffused ballad as based on the Apocryphal legend of Judith and Holofernes.

If so,the legend is DIABLEMENT CHANGE EN ROUTE.More probably the origin is a MARCHEN of a kind of RAKSHASA fatal to women.Mr.

Child has collected a vast mass of erudition on the subject,and by no means acquiesces in Prof.Bugge's ingenious hypothesis.

JOHNIE FAA

From Pinkerton's Scottish Ballads.The event narrated is a legend of the house of Cassilis (Kennedy),but is wholly unhistorical.

"Sir John Faa,"in the fable,is aided by Gypsies,but,apparently,is not one of the Earls of Egypt,on whom Mr.Crockett's novel,THERAIDERS,may be consulted.The ballad was first printed,as far as is known,in Ramsay's TEA TABLE MISCELLANY.

HOBBIE NOBLE

The hero recurs in JOCK O'THE SIDE,and Jock o'the Mains is an historical character,that is,finds mention in authentic records,as Scott points out.The Armstrongs were deported in great numbers,as "an ill colony,"to Ulster,by James I.Sir Herbert Maxwell's HISTORY OF DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY may be consulted for these and similar reivers.

THE TWA SISTERS

A version of "Binnorie."The ballad here ends abruptly;doubtless the fiddler made fiddle-strings of the lady's hair,and a fiddle of her breast-bone,while the instrument probably revealed the cruelty of the sister.Other extant versions are composite or interpolated,so this fragment (Sharpe's)has been preferred in this place.

MARY AMBREE

Taken by Percy from a piece in the Pepys Collection.The girl warrior is a favourite figure in popular romance.Often she slays a treacherous lover,as in BILLY TAYLOR.Nothing is known of Mary Ambree as an historical personage;she may be as legendary as fair maiden Lilias,of Liliarid's Edge,who "fought upon her stumps."

In that case the local name is demonstrably earlier than the mythical Lilias,who fought with such tenacity.

ALISON GROSS

Jamieson gave this ballad from a manu,altering the spelling in conformity with Scots orthography.Mr.Child prints the manu;here Jamieson's more familiar spelling is retained.

The idea of the romance occurs in a Romaic MARCHEN,but,in place of the Queen of Faery,a more beautiful girl than the sorceress (Nereid in Romaic),restores the youth to his true shape.Mr.

Child regarded the tale as "one of the numerous wild growths"from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.It would be more correct to say that BEAUTYAND 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 Manu.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 parallel ballad "From the Finnish."There are a number of parallel ballads 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 prevalent superstition.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.

同类推荐
  • 寓意草

    寓意草

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm

    Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 火门

    火门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Shelley

    Shelley

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 仁王般若经陀罗尼念诵轨仪

    仁王般若经陀罗尼念诵轨仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 樱桃宝宝的爱情故事

    樱桃宝宝的爱情故事

    一份单纯的校园爱情,单纯呆萌的女主,敢爱敢恨,或许樱桃并不是最好的,可她所需要的是把她当做唯一的人,一群好友,一个他,正是青春
  • 笔情之笔中情

    笔情之笔中情

    上古三大神笔,血笔夺命,嗜血夺命,灵笔心念,满足愿望,情笔牵绊,轮回姻缘...三大神笔将会见证怎样的人间真情?又会发生怎样的故事?神降之物,亦是灾难之物...
  • 张畹香医案

    张畹香医案

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 星舞异界

    星舞异界

    是命运的安排?是天神的作弄?来到新的世界,面对一切未知,我将坚守本心。“我虽弱小,但我必将凌驾于你。”观看磐辰的异界成长之路。
  • 主宰乾元

    主宰乾元

    一位蔚蓝星球的大三少年因为一次意外,穿越到了万族共存的乾元大陆,一场万族之战即将展开,一场血雨腥风即将到来,是人类成功延续,还是走向破灭。ps:尽管现在玄幻小说很多,但是我相信我可以写出自己的特色来,还有就是更新的问题,每晚大概10点左右。
  • 诸神游戏之法师之路

    诸神游戏之法师之路

    诸神为寻找隐藏在诸神试炼场内问鼎真神的命运之珠,从宇宙各地随即抽取试炼者进入诸神试炼场,为他们寻找命运之珠。身为刺客的王宇,一次意外中死亡,却莫名其妙被选中,进入诸神的游戏中……
  • 狂冷后宫:弃后要爬墙

    狂冷后宫:弃后要爬墙

    被好友和未婚夫背叛,公孙瑶车祸穿越,成了央玥国被废的皇后,皇帝冷漠害她全家,妃子狠辣栽赃陷害,她私逃出宫,而他却步步紧逼,当各种阴谋诡计接踵而来,且看她如何翻手为云覆手为雨,这一世,她誓不为后!【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 穿越之奇女子

    穿越之奇女子

    她执著于回到本属的地方,却也在这个时空点燃了朵朵绚丽的烟花!混得风生水起的她能回去吗?国恨家仇,可让人红了眼,冰了心?王位之争,可让人冷了血,毒了魂?身边又有谁陪她到最后?情节虚构,请勿模仿!
  • 奸商养成记

    奸商养成记

    什么叫寸土寸金?什么叫寸金难买寸土地?万丈高楼平地起,左看右看买不起。存折上几个零算什么,比不上房产证上一个名。原本欢欢喜喜去看房,谁知天上掉下一块天花板,吧唧一声,人穿了……人世间最悲哀的事是什么?答:房到手了,人却穿了……既然上帝给了我穿越的机会,我就用它来捣腾房、地、产!
  • 收入倍增理财学:做自己和家人的理财达人

    收入倍增理财学:做自己和家人的理财达人

    本书是一本家庭投资理财指南,从基础理财概念、积累财富技巧、财富运用风险、金融投资方法、收藏投资理论等五个方面,简洁、全面阐述理财的方法和诀窍,对理财过程中可能出现的风险进行了适当的分析,同时贯穿金融投资、收藏投资等方面的方法和技巧,帮助读者读懂理财学,掌握积累财富的技巧,规避投资风险,是家庭投资理财必备宝典。