Glossary of Ballad Commonplaces
There survive in ballads a few conventional phrases, some of which appear to have been preserved by tradition beyond an understanding of their import. I give here short notes on a few of the more interesting phrases and words which appear in the present volume, the explanations being too cumbrous for footnotes.
Bow
‘bent his bow and swam,’ Lady Maisry, 21.2; Johney Scot, 10.2; Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet, 12.2; etc.
‘set his bent bow to his breast,’ Lady Maisry, 22.3; Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet, 13.3; Fause Footrage, 33.1; etc.
Child attempts no explanation of this striking phrase, which, I believe, all editors have either openly or silently neglected. Perhaps ‘bent’ may mean un-bent, i.e. with the string of the bow slacked. If so, for what reason was it done before swimming? We can understand that it would be of advantage to keep the string dry, but how is it better protected when unstrung? Or, again, was it carried unstrung, and literally ‘bent’ before swimming? Or was the bow solid enough to be of support in the water?
Some one of these explanations may satisfy the first phrase (as regards swimming); but why does the messenger ‘set his bent bow to his breast’ before leaping the castle wall? It seems to me that the two expressions must stand or fall together; therefore the entire lack of suggestions to explain the latter phrase drives me to distrust of any of the explanations given for the former.
A suggestion recently made to me appears to dispose of all difficulties; and, once made, is convincing in its very obviousness. It is, that ‘bow’ means ‘elbow,’ or simply ‘arm.’ The first phrase then exhibits the commonest form of ballad-conventionalities, picturesque redundancy: the parallel phrase is ‘he slacked his shoon and ran.’ In the second phrase it is, indeed, necessary to suppose the wall to be breast-high; the messenger places one elbow on the wall, pulls himself up, and vaults across.
Lexicographers distinguish between the Old English bōg or bōh (O.H.G. buog = arm; Sanskrit, bahu-s = arm), which means arm, arch, bough, or bow of a ship; and the Old English boga (O.H.G. bogo), which means the archer’s bow. The distinction is continued in Middle English, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Instances of the use of the word as equivalent to ‘arm’ may be found in Old English in King Alfred’s Translation of Gregory’s Pastoral Care (E.E.T.S., 1871, ed. H. Sweet) written in West Saxon dialect of the ninth century.
It is true that the word does not survive elsewhere in this meaning, but I give the suggestion for what it is worth.
Briar
‘briar and rose,’ Douglas Tragedy, 18, 19, 20; Fair Margaret and Sweet William, 18, 19, 20; Lord Lovel, 9, 10; etc.
‘briar and birk,’ Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, 29, 30; Fair Janet, 30; etc.
‘roses,’ Lady Alice, 5, 6. (See introductory note to Lord Lovel, p. 67.)
The ballads which exhibit this pleasant conception that, after death, the spirits of unfortunate lovers pass into plants, trees, or flowers springing from their graves, are not confined to European folklore. Besides appearing in English, Gaelic, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, French, Roumanian, Romaic, Portuguese, Servian, Wendish, Breton, Italian, Albanian, Russian, etc., we find it occurring in Afghanistan and Persia. As a rule, the branches of the trees intertwine; but in some cases they only bend towards each other, and kiss when the wind blows.
In an Armenian tale a curious addition is made. A young man, separated by her father from his sweetheart because he was of a different religion, perished with her, and the two were buried by their friends in one grave. Roses grew from the grave, and sought to intertwine, but a thorn-bush sprang up between them and prevented it. The thorn here is symbolical of religious belief.
Pin
‘thrilled upon a pin,’ Glasgerion, 10.2.
‘knocked at the ring,’ Fair Margaret and Sweet William, 11.2.
(Cp. ‘lifted up the pin,’ Fair Janet, 14.2.)
Throughout the Scottish ballads the expression is ‘tirl’d at the pin,’ i.e. rattled or twisted the pin.
The pin appears to have been the external part of the door-latch, attached by day thereto by means of a leathern thong, which at night was disconnected with the latch to prevent any unbidden guest from entering. Thus any one ‘tirling at the pin’ does not attempt to open the door, but signifies his presence to those within.
The ring was merely part of an ordinary knocker, and had nothing to do with the latching of the door.
Sword
‘bright brown sword,’ Glasgerion, 22.1; Old Robin of Portingale, 22.1; Child Maurice, 26.1, 27.1; ‘good browne sword,’ Marriage of Sir Gawaine, 24.3; etc.
‘dried it on his sleeve,’ Glasgerion, 22.2; Child Maurice, 27.2 (‘on the grasse,’ 26.2); ‘straiked it o’er a strae,’ Bonny Birdy, 15.2; ‘struck it across the plain,’ Johney Scot, 32.2; etc.
In Anglo-Saxon, the epithet ‘brún’ as applied to a sword has been held to signify either that the sword was of bronze, or that the sword gleamed. It has further been suggested that sword-blades may have been artificially bronzed, like modern gun-barrels.
‘Striped it thro’ the straw’ and many similar expressions all refer to the whetting of a sword, generally just before using it. Straw (unless ‘strae’ and ‘straw’ mean something else) would appear to be very poor stuff on which to sharpen swords, but Glasgerion’s sleeve would be even less effective; perhaps, however, ‘dried’ should be ‘tried.’ Johney Scot sharpened his sword on the ground.
Miscellaneous
‘gare’ = gore, part of a woman’s dress; Brown Robin, 10.4; cp. Glasgerion, 19.4.
Generally of a knife, apparently on a chatelaine. But in Lamkin 12.2, of a man’s dress.
‘Linne,’ ‘Lin,’ Young Bekie, 5.4; Old Robin of Portingale, 2.1.
A stock ballad-locality, castle or town. Perhaps to be identified with the city of Lincoln, perhaps with Lynn, or King’s Lynn, in Norfolk, where pilgrims of the fourteenth century visited the Rood Chapel of Our Lady of Lynn, on their way to Walsingham; with equal probability it is not to be identified at all with any known town.
‘shot-window,’ Gay Goshawk, 8.3; Brown Robin, 3.3; Lamkin, 7.3; etc.
This commonplace phrase seems to vary in meaning. It may be ‘a shutter of timber with a few inches of glass above it’ (Wodrow’s History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1721-2, 2 vols., in vol. ii. p. 286); it may be simply ‘a window to open and shut,’ as Ritson explains it; or again, as is implied in Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, an out-shot window, or bow-window. The last certainly seems to be intended in certain instances.
‘thought lang’ Young Bekie, 16.4; Brown Adam, 5.2; Johney Scot, 6.2; Fause Footrage, 25.2; etc.
This simply means ‘thought it long,’ or ‘thought it slow,’ as we should say in modern slang; in short, ‘was bored,’ or ‘weary.’
‘wild-wood swine,’ a simile for drunkenness, Brown Robin, 7.4; Fause Footrage, 16.4.
Cp. Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well, Act IV. 3, 286: ‘Drunkenness is his best virtue; for he will be swine-drunk.’ It seems to be nothing more than a popular comparison.