The English and Scottish Popular Ballads/Part 1/Chapter 16

by Francis James Child

16

Sheath and Knife

1. a. Motherwell's MS., p. 286. b. 'The broom blooms bonnie and says it is fair,' Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 189.
2. Sharpe's Ballad Book, ed. by D. Laing, p. 159.
3. 'The broom blooms bonie,' Johnson’s Museum, No 461.
4. Notes and Queries, First Series, V, 345, one stanza.

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The three stanzas of this ballad which are found in the Musical Museum (C) were furnished, it is said, by Burns. It was first printed in full (A b) in Motherwell's Minstrelsy. Motherwell retouched a verse here and there slightly, to regulate the metre. A a is here given as it stands in his manuscript. B consists of some scattered verses as remembered by Sir W. Scott.

The directions in 3, 4 receive light from a passage in 'Robin Hood's Death and Burial:'

'But give me my bent bow in my hand,
 And a broad arrow I'll let flee,
And where this arrow is taken up
 There shall my grave diggd be.

'Lay me a green sod under my head,' etc.

Other ballads with a like theme are 'The Bonny Hind,' further on in this volume, and the two which follow it.

Translated in Grundtvig's E. og s. Folkeviser, No 49, p. 308; Wolff's Halle der Volker, I, 64.

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A

a. Motherwell's MS., p. 286. From the recitation of Mrs King, Kilbarchan Parish, February 9, 1825. b. 'The broom blooms bonnie and says it is fair,' Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 189.

1 It is talked the warld all over,
 The brume blooms bonnie and says it is fair
That the king's dochter gaes wi child to her brither.
 And we ’ll never gang doun to the brume onie mair

2 He's taen his sister doun to her father’s deer park,
Wi his yew-tree bow and arrows fast slung to his back.

3 'Now when that ye hear me gie a loud cry,
Shoot frae thy bow an arrow and there let me lye.

4 'And when that ye see I am lying dead,
Then ye'll put me in a grave, wi a turf at my head.’

5 Now when he heard her gie a loud cry,
His silver arrow frae his bow he suddenly let fly.
 Now they'll never, etc.

6 He has made a grave that was lang and was deep,
And he has buried his sister, wi her babe at her feet.
 And they'll never, etc.

7 And when he came to his father's court hall,
There was music and minstrels and dancing and all.
 But they'll never, etc.

8 'O Willie. O Willie. what makes thee in pain?'
‘I have lost a sheath and knife that I'll never see again.'
 For we'll never, etc.

9 'There is ships o your father's sailing on the sea
That will bring as good a sheath and a knife unto thee.'

10 'There is ships o my father's sailing on the sea,
But sic a sheath and a knife they can never bring to me.'
 Now we'll never, etc.

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B

Sharpe's Ballad Book, ed. by D. Laing, p. 159: Sir Walter Scott, from his recollection of a nursery-maid's singing.

1 Ae lady has whispered the other,
 The broom grows bonnie, the broom grows fair
Lady Margaret's wi bairn to Sir Richard, her brother.
And we daur na gae doun to the broom nae mair

*****

2 'And when ye hear me loud, loud cry,
O bend your bow, let your arrow fly.
 And I daur na, etc.

3 'But when ye see me lying still,
O then you may come and greet your fill.'

*****

4 'It's I hae broken my little pen-knife
That I loed dearer than my life.'
 And I daur na, etc.

*****

5 'It's no for the knife that my tears doun run,
But it's a' for the case that my knife was kept in.'

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C

Johnson's Museum, No 461.

1 It's whispered in parlour, it's whispered in ha,
 The broom blooms bonie, the broom blooms fair
Lady Marget's wi child amang our ladies a'.
 And she dare na gae down to the broom nae mair

2 One lady whisperd unto another
Lady Marget's wi child to Sir Richard, her brother.

*****

3 'O when that you hear my loud loud cry,
Then bend your bow and let your arrows fly.
 For I dare na,' etc.

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D

Notes and Queries, 1st Series, V, 345, communicated by E. F. Rimbault.

1 Ae king's dochter said to anither,
 Broom blooms bonnie an grows sae fair
We'll gae ride like sister and brither.
 But we'll never gae down to the broom nae mair

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1. b. Motherwell's printed copy has these variations:
   • 1¹. It is talked, it is talked; a variation found in the MS.
   • 3¹. O when … loud, loud cry.
   • 3². an arrow frae thy bow.
   • 4¹, cauld and dead.
   • 5¹. loud, loud cry.
   • 6¹. has houkit.
   • 6². babie.
   • 7¹. came hame.
   • 7², dancing mang them a': this variation also in the MS.
   • 9¹, 10¹. There are.
2. "I have heard the 'Broom blooms bonnie' sung by our poor old nursery-maid as often as I have teeth in my head, but after cudgelling my memory I can make no more than the following stanzas." Scott, Sharpe's Ballad Book, 1880, p. 159.
   Scott makes Effie Deans, in The Heart of Mid-Lothian, vol. I, ch. 10, sing this stanza, probably of his own making:
   The elfin knight sat on the brae,
    The broom grows bonny, the broom grows fair
   And by there came lilting a lady so gay.
    And we daurna gang down to the broom nae mair