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The Ballad of The Bitter Withy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Extract

It is so unusual a circumstance at this late day for an entirely new English ballad to come to light that we are justified in hailing its appearance as an event of general interest to the world of English scholarship. From the completion of Professor Child's magnificent work up to the present no ballad has been discovered, which would merit insertion under a new title in that corpus. Variants of ballads already known continue to be unearthed with gratifying frequency, but so well did the great collector glean the field that it can seldom fall to the lot of any follower to bring to light a new specimen. The honor due for such a discovery belongs, however, to Mr. Frank Sidgwick, who printed in 1905 a ballad called The Withies, or The Bitter Withy in Notes and Queries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1907

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References

page 141 note 1 H. Hecht in his survey of recent ballad literature, Engl. Stud., xxxvi, 371, says: “Was seitdem noch ergänzend gefunden wurde, ist geringfügig und betrifft in keinem falle etwa ein bei Child nicht vertretenes stück.” Add to the literature mentioned, Beiden, Mod. Phil., ii, 301-305; F. Sidgwick, Popular Ballads of the Olden Time.

page 141 note 2 Series 10, iv, 84 f, July, 1905. This version was reprinted by Gummere, The Popular Ballad, 1907, pp. 228, 229.

page 143 note 1 Series 4, i, 53.

page 144 note 1 Mr. Sidgwick has had communicated to him a fifth text from Bidford, near Stratford-on-Avon. I have not seen this but am informed that it reads “ lance ” instead of “ bridge ” and “ jordans ” instead of “ jerdins.”

No. 8, 1906, ii, 205, 206.

page 145 note 1 ii, 302. Noted by Miss Broadwood.

page 147 note 1 See The Popular Ballad, 1907, p. 227.

page 147 note 2 Notes and Queries, place cited.

page 148 note 1 Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii, 302.

page 149 note 1 Graece A, cap. ix, Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, 1853, p. 142; Graece B, cap. viii, Tischendorf, p. 153; Latinum, cap. vii, Tischendorf, pp. 164 f.

page 149 note 2 Cap. xxxii, Tischendorf, pp. 96 f.

page 149 note 3 Cap. xliv, Tischendorf, p. 197.

page 149 note 4 Budge, The History of the Blessed Virgin Mary—The Syriac Texts edited with English Translations, 1899, pp. 81 f. of Translations.

page 149 note 5 Die Pseudo-Evangelien von Jesu und Maria's Kindheit in der romanischen und germanischen Literatur, 1879, p. 4.

page 149 note 6 See Reinsch, p. 6.

page 149 note 7 Budge, p. x.

page 149 note 8 Tischendorf, pp. 96 f. Found without essential changes in Evangelium Thomas, Graece A, Tischendorf, p. 142; Graece B, Tischendorf, p. 153; Latinum, Tischendorf, pp. 164-165; Evangelium Infantiae Arabicum, Tischendorf, p. 197.

page 150 note 1 Cap. xxxiii, Tischendorf, p. 97.

page 150 note 2 Evangelium Thomae, Graece A, cap. xi, Tischendorf, p. 143; Graece B, cap. x, Tischendorf, p. 154; Latinum, cap. ix, Tischendorf, p. 165; Evangelium Infantiae Arabicum, cap. xlv, Tischendorf, p. 197; Budge, p. 75.

page 151 note 1 Inserted in cap. xxxvii. Printed by Tischendorf in a note on p. 100.

page 151 note 2 The editor prints “solus (sic, nisi fallor),” but the emendation is, of course, necessary, as Reinsch notes, p. 128.

page 151 note 3 See Reinsch, p. 7. He dates but one, ms. Bib. Nat. lat. 11867, which he ascribes to the thirteenth century, mss. Harl. 3185 and Harl. 3199, in the British Museum, are of the fourteenth.

page 152 note 1 See Reinsch, p. 9.

page 152 note 2 See Reinsch, p. 10.

page 152 note 3 Quoted by Reinsch. pp. 11 f.

page 152 note 4 Reinsch, p. 12.

page 153 note 1 Not improbably the story finds its ultimate suggestion in the Song of Songs 2. 8; “ ecce iste venit saliens in montibus, transiliens colles.” This passage was interpreted as applying to Christ at least as early as the time of Ambrose. See Cook, Philologische Studien, Festgabe für Eduard Sievers, 1896, pp. 27-29, and The Christ of Cynewulf, 1900, p. 143, for examples of this mystical use.

page 153 note 2 Ed. O. Schade, Narrationes—ex codici Gissensi, 1870.

page 153 note 3 Schade, p. 3, dates the manuscript from the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century.

page 153 note 4 Cap. xlii, Schade, p. 20.

page 153 note 5 Cap. xliii, Schade, p. 21.

page 154 note 1 Ed. A. Vögtlin, Vita Beata Virginis Marie et Salvatoris Rhythmica (Bibl. des litt. Vereins in Stuttgart, 180), 1888.

page 154 note 2 P. 3.

page 154 note 3 See Reinsch, p. 13.

page 154 note 4 Ed. F. Holthausen, Infantia Salvatoris, 1891. It is without date.

page 154 note 5 Cap. xx.

page 154 note 6 Cap. xxii.

page 154 note 7 Cap. xxix.

page 155 note 1 Ed. A. von Keller, 1849-1855.

page 155 note 2 Ed. J. Feifalik, 1859, and K. Kochendörffer, Quellen und Forschungen, 43 (1881). Konrad wrote early in the thirteenth century, says Kochendörffer, p. 1.

page 155 note 3 Denkmäler der provenzalischen Litteratur, 1856 (Bibl. des litt. Vereins in Stuttgart, 39). The mss. are of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, according to Suchier, Zts. f. rom. Phil., viii, 523.

page 155 note 4 Bartsch, pp. 279-281.

page 155 note 5 Bartsch, pp. 287-291.

page 155 note 6 Zts. f. rom. Phil., viii, 534.

page 155 note 7 See Reinsch, p. 42, for date and mss.

page 156 note 1 Reinsch, pp. 71-73.

page 156 note 2 See P. Meyer, Romania, xviii, 128 ff. The mss. of (1) are Grenoble 1137 and Didot; of (2) Oxford Seiden supra 38 and Cambridge Gg i. 1.

page 156 note 3 Ed. Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, 1875, pp. 3-61.

page 156 note 4 Horstmann, p. xli.

page 156 note 5 P. xlii.

page 156 note 6 The analysis of ms. Grenoble given by Bonnard, Les traductions de la bible en vers français, 1884, pp. 181-193, leaves out (3) and (5), but apparently the latter is merely illegible in the ms. (See p. 187), while the latter may have been passed over in the summary.

page 156 note 7 Meyer's belief that the redaction of mss. Grenoble and Didot rather than of mss. Seiden and Cambridge is the original of the Middle English is open to some doubt for two reasons. The English ms. is at least as early as the French and perhaps older; in several places (vv. 77-80, 159-162, 233-236, etc.) it shows traces of rhymes “ quatre à quatre,” which Meyer tells us is the form of the second French redaction. The translation is rather clumsily, though vigorously, made. In a great number of instances (see Horstmann, pp. xlii ff.) the rhymes are faulty.

page 157 note 1 The appearance of this here in conjunction with the other two makes me more inclined to give credence to the ascription of it to De Infantia by the compiler of the Narrationes. See p. 153 above.

page 157 note 2 Ed. Horstmann, Archiv f. d. Stud. d. n. Sprachen, LXXIV, 327-339. Northern dialect, fifteenth century.

page 157 note 3 Ed. Horstmann, Sammlung altenglischer Legenden, 1878, pp. 111-123. Midland dialect, fifteenth century.

page 157 note 4 Ed. Horstmann, Work cited, pp. 101-110. Midland dialect, fourteenth century.

page 158 note 1 H. Landshoff, Kindheit Jesu, ein englisches Gedicht aus dem 14. Jahrhundert. I. Verhaltnis der Handschriften, 1889, p. 15.

page 158 note 2 Certain rhymes like Late: mate: sate: satte (vv. 66-72 of ms. Add.), which are perfect in the Northern dialect, are bungled hopelessly in the Harleian copies. Furthermore, the completer form of the Northern version inclines one to the belief that it better represents the original. Landshoff's summary (pp. 17-33) of places where the Northern version is textually in the right makes the matter clearer.

page 158 note 3 The stories occur in the texts as follows: (1) The leap, Add. vv. 280-327; Harl. 2399, vv. 277-324; Harl, 3954, vv. 381-486. (2) The jug repaired, Add. vv. 328-341; Harl. 2399, vv. 325-339; Harl. 3954, vv, 345-357. (3) The jug suspended, Add. vv. 342-363; Harl. 2399, vv. 340-360; Harl. 3954, vv. 358-380. (4) Sits on sunbeam, Add. vv. 472-520; Harl. 2399, vv. 453-496. (5) Zeno, Add. vv. 521-572. (6) Collects spilled water, Add. vv. 834-845; Harl. 2399. vv. 755-766.

page 159 note 1 P. 151.

page 159 note 2 See p. 152.

page 159 note 3 See the author's articles, Publications of the Mod. Lang. Ass., xix, 335-448 and xx, 529-545.

page 159 note 4 Eng. Stud., ii, 115.

page 160 note 1 A complete set of the three parts is owned by the Harvard College Library.

page 160 note 2 Early Popular Poetry of England, 1866, ii, 180. Reprinted also by Ritson, Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry, 1791, and by Halliwell, The Metrical History of Tom Thumb the Little, 1860. The story is retold in prose by Halliwell, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, 1849, pp. 95-100.

page 160 note 3 Archiv f. d. Stud. d. n. Sprachen, lviii, 296, note.

page 161 note 1 Ed. Derenbourg, pp. 24 f.

page 161 note 2 The translation by Simeon Seth was made towards 1080. See Hervieux, Les fabulistes latins, v, 75.

page 162 note 1 Vv. 672, 673.

page 162 note 2 Vv. 599, 600.

page 162 note 3 Printed from W. Sandys, Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern, 1833, pp. 149-152. Sandys says that he took it from a “ popular broadside carol.” Other versions in William Howitt, Rural Life in England, 1838, ii, 214, 215 (from “a volume of Christmas Carols as sung in the neighborhood of Manchester,” collected by “the late Mrs. Fletcher [Miss Jewsbury]; ” Joshua Sylvester,“ A Garland of Christmas Carols, 1861, pp. 32-35 (from a broadside printed at Gravesend in the eighteenth century, reprinted in Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii, 303, and with changes in Ancient Carols [Shakespeare Head Press Booklets, No. I], 1905, pp. 17-19); and W. H. Husk, Songs of the Nativity, pp. 91-94 (from a Gravesend broadside). These versions differ from that of Sandys and from one another in a good many lines.

page 165 note 1 Place cited.

page 165 note 2 Third Series, iii, 324 f.

page 165 note 3 Rev. A. Vicary, Notes of a Residence at Rome in 1846, by a Protestant Clergyman.

page 165 note 4 As the cathedral of Lucca is dedicated to St. Martin, it seems certain that the traveler was mistaken in the name of the church.

page 165 note 5 Ed. Paris and Robert, 1876, i, 49, 50 (Société des anciens textes.)

page 166 note 1 Work cited, vi, 249. Both references I owe to the kindness of Dr. Donald C. Stuart, of Princeton.

page 166 note 2 I give this list as being of possible use, though it is neither complete nor in every respect accurate. Many of the references, culled largely from Benfey and Oesterley, I have been unable to verify.