No. 161: The Battle of Otterburn
["The Battle of Otterburn" is closely related Child No. 162 "The Hunting of the Cheviot." Both ballads describe a battle between Percy and Douglas in 1388. David C. Fowler believes (See his article attached to "The Hunting of the Cheviot" Recording & Info page) "The Battle of Otterburn" to be the more recent ballad and that it is based on "The Hunting of the Cheviot."
There are no known US or Canadian versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A-E (Two additonal versions are found in "Additions and Corrections" but are not lettered. Changes to make A b and B b found in End-notes)
5. Endnotes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 161. The Battle of Otterburn
A. Roud No. 3293: The Battle of Otterburn (31 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 161. The Battle of Otterburn (Bronson's gives no music examples)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A-E with additional versions and notes)
Child's Narrative: The Battle of Otterburn
A. a. Cotton Manuscript Cleopatra, C. iv, leaf 24, of about 1550.
b. Harleian Manuscript 293, leaf 52. Both in the British Museum.
B. a. Herd's Manuscripts, I, 149, II, 30; Herd's Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 153.
b. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802, I, 31.
C. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, I, 354.
D. Finlay's Scottish Ballads, I, xviii f., two stanzas.
E. Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. Ixxi, note 30, one stanza.
A a was first printed in the fourth edition of Percy's Reliques, 1794, I, 18, and A b in the first edition, 1765, I, 18.
By far the most circumstantial account of the battle of Otterburn is given by Froissart (Chroniques, Buchon, XI, 362 ff, chap. 115 ff), and his highly felicitous narrative may be briefly summarized as follows.
The quarrels of Richard II with his uncles and a consequent feud between the great northern families of Neville and Percy furnished the Scots an inviting opportunity for an invasion of England on a large scale. Under the pretext of a festive meeting, a preliminary conference of barons and knights was held at Aberdeen, and it was there agreed that they should muster, the middle of August, 1388, at a place on the border near Jedburgh, with such forces as they could command. In all this they took no counsel with the king, who was then past seventy, and was regarded as of no account for their purposes. The result was a larger gathering than had been seen for sixty years, quite twelve hundred lances and forty thousand ordinary fighting-men.
The Earl of Northumberland and his sons, the Seneschal of York, and the Captain of Berwick had heard of the intended meeting at Aberdeen, and had sent heralds and minstrels thither, to get further information. These agents reported that all Scotland was astir, and that there was to be another parley in the forest of Jedburgh. The barons and knights of Northumberland made due preparations, and, the better to keep these secret, remained quiet in their houses, ready to sally as soon as they learned that the Scots were in motion. Feeling themselves incapable of coping with so large a body as had been collected, they decided upon a simultaneous counter-raid, and that from the east or from, the west, according as the enemy should take the road from the west or the east. Of this plan of the English the Scots obtained knowledge from a spy whom they had captured, and to foil it they divided their army, directing the main body towards Carlisle, under command of Archibald Douglas, of the Earl of Fife, son of the king, and many other nobles, while a detachment of three or four hundred picked men-at-arms, supported by two thousand stout fellows, partly archers, all well mounted,[1] and commanded by James, Earl of Douglas, the Earl of March and Dunbar, and the Earl of Murray, were to strike for Newcastle, cross the river, and burn and ravage the bishopric of Durham.
The eastern division (with which alone we are concerned) carried out their program to the letter. They advanced at speed, stopping for nothing, and meeting with no resistance, and the burning and pillaging had begun in Durham before the Earl of Northumberland knew of their arrival. Fire and smoke soon showed what was going on. The earl dispatched his sons Henry and Ralph Percy to Newcastle, where the whole country rallied, gentle and simple; he himself remaining at Alnwick, in the hope of being able to enclose the Scots, when they should take the way north, between two bodies of English. The Scots attained to the very gates of Durham; then, having burned every unfortified town between there and Newcastle, they turned northward, with a large booty, repassed the Tyne, and halted at Newcastle. There was skirmishing for two days before the city, and in the course of a long combat between Douglas and Henry Percy the Scot got possession of the Englishman's pennon. This he told Percy he would raise on the highest point of his castle at Dalkeith; Percy answered that he should never accomplish that vaunt, nor should he carry the pennon out of Northumberland. 'Come then to-night and win it back,' said Douglas; 'I will plant it before my tent.' It was then late, and the fighting ceased; but the Scots kept good guard, looking for Percy to come that very night for his pennon. Percy, however, was constrained to let that night pass.
The Scots broke up their camp early the next morning and withdrew homewards. Taking and burning the tower and town of Ponteland on their way, they moved on to Otterburn, thirty miles northwest from Newcastle, where there was a strong castle or tower, in marshy ground, which they assailed for a day without success. At the end of the day they held a council, and the greater part were in favor of making for Carlisle in the morning, to rejoin their countrymen. But the Earl of Douglas would not hear of this; Henry Percy had said that he would challenge his pennon; they would stay two or three days more and assault the castle, and see if Percy would be as good as his word. So the Scots encamped at their ease, making themselves huts of trees, and availing themselves of the marshes to fortify their position. At the entrance of the marshes, which was on the Newcastle road, they put their servants and foragers, and they drove their cattle into the bogs.
Henry Percy was greatly vexed and mortified at the loss of his pennon, and in the evening he represented to the knights and squires of Northumberland how much it concerned his honor to make good what he had said to Douglas, that the pennon should never be carried out of England. But these gentlemen were all convinced that Douglas was backed by the whole power of Scotland, of which they had seen only the van, by forty thousand men who could handle them at their will; at any rate, it was better to lose a pennon than two or three hundred knights and squires, and expose the country to risk. As for the loss of the pennon, it was one of the chances of arms; Douglas had won it handsomely; another time Percy would get as much from him, or more.[2] To this the Percys were fain to yield. Later there came scouts with information that Douglas was encamped at Otterburn, that the main army was not acting in conjunction with him, and that his forces, all told, did not exceed three thousand. Henry Percy was overjoyed at the news, and cried, To horse! by the faith I owe to God and my father, I will go seek my pennon, and the Scots shall be ousted before this night is over. The evening of that same day the Bishop of Durham was expected to arrive with a great many men, but Henry Percy would not wait. Six hundred lances and eight thousand foot were enough, he said, to serve the Scots, who had but three hundred lances and two thousand other folk. The English set forth as soon as they could get together, by the road which the Scots had taken, but were not able to move very fast by reason of their infantry.
Some of the Scots knights were supping, and more were asleep (for they had had hard work at the assault on the tower, and were meaning to be up betimes to renew the attack), when the English were upon the camp, crying, Percy! Percy! There was naturally great alarm. The English made their attack at that part of the camp where, as before said, the servants and foragers were lodged. This was, however, strong, and the knights sent some of their men to hold it while they themselves were arming. Then the Scots formed, each under his own earl and captain. It was night, but the weather was fair and the moon shining. The Scots did not go straight for the English, but took their way along by the marshes and by a hill, according to a plan which they had previously arranged against the case that their camp should be attacked. The English made short work with the underlings, but, as they advanced, always found fresh people to keep up a skirmish. And now the Scots, having executed a flank movement, fell upon their assailants in a mass, from a quarter where nothing was looked for, shouting their battle-cries with one voice. The English were astounded, but closed up, and gave them Percy! for Douglas! Then began a fell battle. The English, being in excess and eager to win, beat back the Scots, who were at the point of being worsted. James Douglas, who was young, strong, and keen for glory, sent his banner to the front, with the cry, Douglas! Douglas! Henry and Ralph Percy, indignant against the earl for the loss of the pennon, turned in the direction of the cry, responding, Percy! Knights and squires had no thought but to fight as long as spears and axes would hold out. It was a hand-to-hand fight; the parties were so close together that the archers of neither could operate; neither side budged, but both stood firm. The Scots showed extraordinary valor, for the English were three to one; but be this said without disparagement of the English, who have always done their duty.
As has been said, the English were so strong that they were forcing their foes back, and this James Douglas saw. To regain the ground, he took a two-handed axe, plunged into the thickest, and opened a path before him; for there was none so well armed in helmet or plate as not to fear his strokes. So he made his way till he was hit by three spears, all at once, one in the shoulder, another in the chest, another in the thigh, and borne to the ground. The English did not know that it was Earl Douglas that had fallen; they would have been so much elated that the day would have been theirs. Neither did the Scots; if they had, they would have given up in despair. Douglas could not raise himself from the ground, for he was wounded to the death. The crush about him was great, but his people had kept as close to him as they could. His cousin, Sir James Lindsay, reached the spot where he was lying, and with Lindsay Sir John and Sir Walter Sinclair, and other knights and squires. Near him, and severely wounded, they found his chaplain, William of North Berwick, who had kept up with his master the whole night, axe in hand; also Sir Robert Hart, with five wounds from lances and other weapons. Sir John Sinclair asked the earl, Cousin, how fares it with you? 'Indifferently,' said the earl; 'praised be God, few of my ancestors have died in their beds. Avenge me, for I count myself dead. Walter and John Sinclair, up with my banner, and cry, Douglas! and let neither friend nor foe know of my state.' The two Sinclairs and Sir John Lindsay did as they were bidden, raised the banner, and shouted, Douglas! They were far to the front, but others, who were behind, hearing the shout loudly repeated, charged the English with such valor as to drive them beyond the place where Douglas now lay dead, and came up with the banner which Sir John Lindsay was bearing, begirt and supported by good Scots knights and squires. The Earl of Murray came up too, and the Earl of March and Dunbar as well, and they all, as it were, took new life when they saw that they were together and that the English were giving ground. Once more was the combat renewed. The English had the disadvantage of the fatigue of a rapid march from Newcastle, by reason whereof their will was better than their wind, whereas the Scots were fresh; and the effects appeared in this last charge, in which the Scots drove the English so far back that they could not recover their lost ground. Sir Ralph Percy had already been taken prisoner. Like Douglas, he had advanced so far as to be surrounded, and being so badly wounded that his hose and boots were full of blood, he surrendered to Sir John Maxwell. Henry Percy, after a valorous fight with the Lord Montgomery, became prisoner to the Scottish knight.
It was a hard battle and well fought, but such are the turns of fortune that, although the English were the greater number, and all bold men and practised in arms, and although they attacked the enemy valiantly, and at first drove them back a good distance, the Scots in the end won the day. The losses of the English were put by their antagonists at 1040 prisoners, 1860 killed in the fight and the pursuit, and more than 1000 wounded; those of the Scots were about 100 killed and 200 captured.[3] The Scots retired without molestation, taking the way to Melrose Abbey, where they caused the Earl of Douglas to be interred, and his obsequies to be reverently performed. Over his body a tomb of stone was built, and above this was raised the earl's banner.
Such is the story of the battle of Otterburn, fought on Wednesday, the 19th day of August,[4] in the year of grace 1388, as related by Froissart (with animated tributes to the hardihood and generosity of both parties) upon the authority of knights and squires actually present, both English and Scots, and also French.
Wyntoun, ix, 840-54, 900f (Laing, III, 36f) says that the alarm was given the Scots by a young man that came right fast riding (cf. A 20, 21, B 4, C 17), and that many of the Scots were able to arm but imperfectly; among these Earl James, who was occupied with getting his men into order and was "reckless of his arming," and the Earl of Murray, who forgot his basnet (cf. C 20). Earl James was slain no man knew in what way. Bower, Scotichronicon, II, 405, agrees with Wyntoun. English chroniclers, Knyghton, col. 2728, Walsingham (Riley, II, 176[5]), Malverne, the continuator of Higden (Polychronicon, Lumby, IX, 185), assert that Percy killed Douglas with his own hand, Knyghton adding that Percy also wounded the Earl of Murray to the point of death.
That a Scots ballad of Otterburn was popular in the sixteenth century appears from The Complaynte of Scotlande, 1549, where a line is cited, The Perssee and the Mongumrye met, p. 65, ed. Murray: cf. B 91, C 301.[6] In the following century Hume of Godscroft writes:[7] The Scots song made of Otterburn telleth the time, about Lammasse, and the occasion, to take preyes out of England; also the dividing of the armies betwixt the Earles of Fife and Douglas, and their severall journeys, almost as in the authentick history. It beginneth thus:
It fell about the Lammas tide,
When yeomen wonne their hay,
The doughtie Douglas gan to ride,
In England to take a prey.
Motherwell maintains that the ballad which passes as English is the Scots song altered to please the other party. His argument, however, is far from conclusive. "That The Battle of Otterbourne was thus dealt with by an English transcriber appears obvious, for it studiously omits dilating on Percy's capture, while it accurately details his combat with Douglas;" that is to say, the ballad as we have it is just what a real English ballad would have been, both as to what it enlarges on and what it slights. "Whereas it would appear that in the genuine Scottish version the capture of Percy formed a prominent incident, seeing it is the one by which the author of The Complaynt refers to the ballad [The Perssee and the Mongumrye met]:" from which Motherwell was at liberty to deduce that B and C represent the genuine Scottish version, several stanzas being given to the capture of Percy in these; but this he would not care to do, on account of the great inferiority of these forms. A Scotsman could alter an English ballad "to suit political feeling and flatter national vanity," as Motherwell says the Scots did with Chevy Chace. (See further on, p. 303.) There is no reason to doubt that a Scots ballad of Otterburn once existed, much better than the two inferior, and partly suspicious, things which were printed by Herd and Scott, and none to doubt that an English minstrel would deal freely with any Scots ballad which he could turn to his purpose; but then there is no evidence, positive or probable, that this particular ballad was "adapted" from the Scots song made of Otterburn; rather are we to infer that the few verses of B and C which repeat or resemble the text of A were borrowed from A, and, as likely as not, Hume's first stanza too.[8]
A, in the shape in which it has come down to us, must have a date long subsequent to the battle, as the grammatical forms show; still, what interested the borderers a hundred years or more after the event must have interested people of the time still more, and it would be against the nature of things that there should not have been a ballad as early as 1400. The ballad we have is likely to have been modernized from such a predecessor, but I am not aware that there is anything in the text to confirm such a supposition, unless one be pleased to make much of the Wednesday of the eighteenth stanza. The concluding stanza implies that Percy is dead, and he was killed at Shrewsbury, in 1403.
A. 3. Hoppertope hyll, says Percy, is a corruption for Ottercap Hill (now Ottercaps Hill) in the parish of Kirk Whelpington, Tynedale Ward, Northumberland. Rodclyffe Cragge (now Rothley Crags) is a cliff near Rodeley, a small village in the parish of Hartburn, in Morpeth Ward, south-east of Ottercap; and Green Ley ton, corruptly Green Lynton, is another small village, south-east of Rodeley, in the same parish. Reliques, 1794, I, 22.
8. Henry Percy seems to have been in his twenty-third year. As for his having been a march-man "all his days," he is said to have begun fighting ten years before, in 1378, and to have been appointed Governor of Berwick and Warden of the Marches in 1385: White, History of the Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 f. Walsingham calls both Percy and Douglas young men, and Froissart speaks at least twice of Douglas as young. Fraser, The Douglas Book, 1885, I, 292, says that Douglas was probably born in 1358. White, as above, p. 91, would make him somewhat older.
17. The chivalrous trait in this stanza, and that in the characteristic passage 36-44, are peculiar to this transcendently heroic ballad.
26, 27. The earldom of Menteith at the time of this battle, says Percy, following Douglas's Peerage, was possessed by Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, third son of King Robert II; but the Earl of Fife was in command of the main body and not present. (As Douglas married a daughter of King Robert II, the Earl of Fife was not his uncle, but his brother-in-law.) The mention of Huntley, says Percy, shows that the ballad was not composed before 1449; for in that year Alexander, Lord of Gordon and Huntley, was created Earl of Huntley by King James II. The Earl of Buchan at that time was Alexander Stewart, fourth son of the king. Reliques, 1794, I, 36.
352. 'The cronykle will not layne.' So in 'The Rose of England,' No 166, st. 22 4, 'The cronickles of this will not lye,' and also 172; and in 'Flodden Field,' appendix, p. 360, st. 1214.
43, 49. It will be remembered that the archers had no part in this fight.
45, 46. "The ancient arms of Douglas are pretty accurately emblazoned in the former stanza, and if the readings were, The crowned harte, and, Above stode starres thre, it would be minutely exact at this day. As for the Percy family, one of their ancient badges or cognizances was a white lyon statant, and the silver crescent continues to be used by them to this day. They also give three luces argent for one of their quarters." Percy, as above, p. 30.
48. So far as I know, St. George does not appear as Our Lady's knight in any legendary, though he is so denominated or described elsewhere in popular tradition. So in the spell for night-mare, which would naturally be of considerable antiquity,
S. George, S. George, Our Ladies knight,
He walkt by day, so did he by night, etc.:
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, as reprinted by Nicholson, p. 68, ed. 1665, p. 48; and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, iv. 6, Dyce, VII, 388. In Nicholas Udall's 'Roister Doister,' known to be as old as 1551, Matthew Merrygreek exclaims, "What then? sainct George to borow, Our Ladie's knight!" Ed. W.D. Cooper, p. 77, Shakespeare Society, 1847. The Danish ballad of St. George, 'St. Jørgen og Dragen,' Grundtvig, No 103, II, 559 ff, the oldest version of which is from a 16th century Manuscript, begins, "Knight St. George, thou art my man" (svend); and in the second version, George, declining the princess whom he has rescued, says he has vowed to Mary to be her servant.[9] In the corresponding Swedish ballad, of the same age as the Danish, George is called Mary's knight (Maria honom riddare gjorde, st. 2): Geijer and Afzelius, ed. Bergström, II, 402. This is also his relation in German ballads: Meinert, p. 254; Ditfurth, I, 55, No 68.[10]
B. 1, 9, 14 nearly resemble A 1, 50, 68, and must have the same origin. In B 9 Douglas is changed to Montgomery; in 14 Douglas is wrongly said to have been buried on the field, instead of at Melrose Abbey, where his tomb is still to be seen.
7 is founded upon a tradition reported by Hume of Godscroft: "There are that say that he was not slain by the enemy, but by one of his owne men, a groome of his chamber, whom he had struck the day before with a truncheon in the ordering of the battell, because hee saw him make somewhat slowly to; and they name this man John Bickerton of Luffenesse, who left a part of his armour behinde unfastned, and when hee was in the greatest conflict, this servant of his came behinde his back and slew him thereat." Ed. 1644, p. 105.
11. The summons to surrender to a brakenbush is not in the style of fighting-men or fighting-days, and would justify Hotspur's contempt of metre-ballad-mongers.
12, 13. B agrees with Froissart in making a Montgomery to be the captor of Henry Percy, whereas A represents that Montgomery was taken prisoner and exchanged for Percy. In The Hunting of the Cheviot Sir Hugh Montgomery kills Percy, and in return is shot by a Northumberland archer.
C. Scott does not give a distinct account of this version. He says that he had obtained two copies, since the publication of the earlier edition, "from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest, by which the story is brought out and completed in a manner much more correspondent to the true history." C is, in fact, a combination of four copies; the two from Ettrick Forest, B a, and the Manuscript copy used in B b to "correct" Herd.
8, it scarcely requires to be said, is spurious, modern in diction and in conception.
19. Perhaps derived from Hume of Godscroft rather than from tradition. When Douglas was dying, according to this historian, [11] he made these last requests of certain of his kinsmen: "First, that yee keep my death close both from our owne folke and from the enemy; then, that ye suffer not my standard to be lost or cast downe; and last, that ye avenge my death, and bury me at Melrosse with my father. If I could hope for these things," he added, "I should die with the greater contentment; for long since I heard a prophesie that a dead man should winne a field, and I hope in God it shall be I." Ed. 1644, p. 100.
22 must be derived from the English version. As the excellent editor of The Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland, Glasgow, 1871, remarks, "no Scottish minstrel would ever have dreamt of inventing such a termination to the combat between these two redoubted heroes ... as much at variance with history as it is repulsive to national feeling: " p. 431.
Genealogical matters, in this and the following ballad, are treated, not always to complete satisfaction, in Bishop Percy's notes, Reliques, 1794, I, 34 ff; Scott's Minstrelsy, 1833, I, 351, 363 ff: White's History of the Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 ff; The Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, I, 66 f.
A is translated by Doenniges, p. 87; C by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, No 12, p. 74, and by Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 537.
Footnotes:
1. "Froissart describes a Scottish host of the same period as consisting of '.iiii. M. of armes, knightis and squiers, mounted on good horses, and other .x. M. men of warre, armed after their gyse, right hardy and firse, mounted on lytle hackeneys, the whiche were never tyed nor kept at hard meate, but lette go to pasture in the feldis and busshes.' " Happily cited by Scott, in illustration of C 16: Lord Berners' translation, cap. xvii, Pynson, 1523, fol. viii.
2. A consolation as old as wise. So Paris, for himself: νική δ᾽ ἐπαμείβεται ἄνδρας, Iliad, vi, 339.
3. Buchanan has these numbers, with the exception of 1840, for 1860, killed: ed. 1582, fol. 101. "That there was a memorable slaughter in this affair, a slaughter far beyond the usual proportion to the numbers engaged, cannot be doubted; nor was there ever bloodshed more useless for the practical ends of war. It all came of the capture of the Percy's pennon. The Scots might have got clear off with all their booty; the English forgot all the precautions of war when they made a midnight rush on a fortified camp without knowledge of the ground or the arrangements of their enemy. It was for these specialties that Froissart admired it so. He saw in it a fight for fighting's sake, a great passage at arms in which no bow was drawn, but each man fought hand to hand; in fact, about the greatest and bloodiest tournament he had to record. Hence his narrative is ever interrupted with bursts of admiration as his fancy contemplates the delightful scene raised before it." Burton, History of Scotland, II, 364, ed. 1873 (who, perhaps by an error of the press, makes the losses of the English in killed eight hundred and forty, in place of Buchanan's eighteen hundred and forty).
4. Bower and Barry say St. Oswald's day, Wednesday, the 5th, Scotichronicon, II, 405, 407; Knyghton also; the con- tinuator of Higden's Polychronicon, August 12, Wednesday. The ballad, A 184, gives the day as Wednesday. There was a full moon August 20, which makes the 19th of itself far more probable, and Froissart says the moon was shining. See White, Battle of Otterburn, p. 133.
5. Walsingham writes in the vein of Froissart: "Erat ibidem cernere pulchrum spectaculum, duos tarn præclaros juvenes manus conserere et pro gloria decertare." Walsingham says that the English were few. Malverne puts the Scots at 30,000, and here, as in the ballad A 35, the cronykle does not layne (indeed, the ballad is all but accurate), if the main body of the Scots be included, which was at first supposed to be supporting Douglas.
6. 'The perssee and the mongumrye met, that day, that day, that gentil day,' which I suppose to be either a different reading from any that has come down, or a blending of a line from Otterburn with one from The Hunting of the Cheviot, A 241; indicating in either case the present ballad only, for The Hunttis of Cheuet had been cited before. Furnivall holds that the second line means another ballad: Captain Cox, p. clix.
7. The History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, 1644, p. 104.
8. For Motherwell's views, see his Minstrelsy, li, lii, and lxxi, note 30.
9. B 20.
Ingen iomfru maa ieg loffue,
huerchen lønlig eller aaben-bahre;
det haffuer ieg iomfru Maria loffuet
hindis tienere skall ieg verre.
10. The burden is 'kiennicheinn Maria' in the first, 'Hilf Maria' in the second; in both George declines the king's daughter, and orders a church to be huilt 'mit Mariabeild,' or to himself and Mary. This, and perhaps the hint for St. George's addiction to Mary altogether, is from the Golden Legend, where the king "in honorem beatæ Mariæ et beati Georgii ecclesiam miras magnitudinis construxit": Grässe, p. 261.
11. Following in part Buchanan, who, however, says nothing of Melrose, or of the prophecy, which is the point here. Ilia vero a vobis postrema peto: primum, vt mortem meam et nostros et hostes cœletis; deinde, ne vexillum meum dejectum sinatis; demum, vt meam cædem vlciscamini. Hæc si sperem ita fore, cætera æquo animo feram. Fol. 101, ed. 1582.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
The Battle of Otterburn was fought on August 19th, 1388. The most circumstantial account may be found in Froissart's Chronicles. His narrative is, as usual, highly felicitous, and is based on the authority of knights and squires actually present, both English and Scots, and also French. That a Scots ballad of Otterburn was popular in the sixteenth century appears from The Complaynte of Scotlande, 1549, where a line is cited, "The Perssee and the Mongumrye met" (p. 65, ed. Murray). Motherwell maintains that the ballad which passes as English (A) is the Scots song altered to please the other party; but his argument is far from conclusive. There is no reason to doubt that a Scots ballad once existed, much better than the two inferior, and partly suspicious, things which were printed by Herd and Scott; but there is no evidence, positive or probable, that A was adapted from the Scots song made of Otterburn. Rather are we to infer that the few verses of B and C which repeat or resemble the text of A were borrowed from A.
A, in the shape in which it has come down to us, must have a date long subsequent to the battle, but is likely to bave been modernized from a ballad current as early as 1400. Scott's version (C) of the Scottish ballad in the second edition of the Minstrelsy is put together, for the most part, from two copies sent him by James Hogg. These copies are here printed as C*, and Scott's text is given in the Notes.
Child's Ballad Texts
['Battelle at Otterburne']- Version A a; Child 161- The Battle of Otterburn
a. Cotton Manuscript Cleopatra, C. iv, leaf 64, of about 1550.
b. Harleian Manuscript 293, leaf 52.
1 Yt fell abowght the Lamasse tyde,
Whan husbondes wynnes ther haye,
The dowghtye Dowglasse bowynd hym to ryde,
In Ynglond to take a praye.
2 The yerlle of Fyffe, wythowghten stryffe,
He bowynd hym over Sulway;
The grete wolde ever to-gether ryde;
That raysse they may rewe for aye.
3 Over Hoppertope hyll they cam in,
And so down by Rodclyffe crage:
Vpon Grene Lynton they lyghted dowyn,
Styrande many a stage.
4 And boldely brente Northomberlond,
And haryed many a towyn;
They dyd owr Ynglyssh men grete wrange,
To batell that were not bowyn.
5 Than spake a berne vpon the bent,
Of comforte that was not colde,
And sayd, We haue brente Northomberlond,
We haue all welth in holde.
6 Now we haue haryed all Bamborowe schyre,
All the welth in the worlde haue wee,
I rede we ryde to Newe Castell,
So styll and stalworthlye.
7 Vpon the morowe, when it was day,
The standerds schone full bryght;
To the Newe Castell the toke the waye,
And thether they cam full ryght.
8 Syr Henry Perssy laye at the New Castell,
I tell yow wythowtten drede;
He had byn a march-man all hys dayes,
And kepte Barwyke vpon Twede.
9 To the Newe Castell when they cam,
The Skottes they cryde on hyght,
'Syr Hary Perssy, and thou byste within,
Com to the fylde, and fyght.
10 'For we haue brente Northomberlonde,
Thy erytage good and ryght,
And syne my logeyng I haue take
Wyth my brande dubbyd many a knyght.'
11 Syr Harry Perssy cam to the walles,
The Skottyssch oste for to se,
And sayd, And thou hast brente Northomberlond,
Full sore it rewyth me.
12 Yf thou hast haryed all Bamborowe schyre,
Thow hast done me grete envye;
For the trespasse thow hast me done,
The tone of vs schall dye.
13 'Where schall I byde the?' sayd the Dowglas,
'Or where wylte thow com to me?'
'At Otterborne, in the hygh way,
[T]her mast thow well logeed be.
14 '[T]he roo full rekeles ther sche rinnes,
[T]o make the game a[nd] glee;
'T]he fawken and the fesaunt both,
Among the holtes on hye.
15 'Ther mast thow haue thy welth at wyll,
Well looged ther mast be;
Yt schall not be long or I com the tyll,'
Sayd Syr Harry Perssye.
16 'Ther schall I byde the,' sayd the Dowglas,
'By the fayth of my bodye:'
'Thether schall I com,' sayd Syr Harry Perssy,
'My trowth I plyght to the.'
17 A pype of wyne he gaue them over the walles,
For soth as I yow saye;
Ther he mayd the Dowglasse drynke,
And all hys ost that daye.
18 The Dowglas turnyd hym homewarde agayne,
For soth withowghten naye;
He toke hys logeyng at Oterborne,
Vpon a Wedynsday.
19 And ther he pyght hys standerd dowyn,
Hys getting more and lesse,
And syne he warned hys men to goo
To chose ther geldynges gresse.
20 A Skottysshe knyght hoved vpon the bent,
A wache I dare well saye;
So was he ware on the noble Perssy,
In the dawnyng of the daye.
21 He prycked to hys pavyleon-dore,
As faste as he myght ronne;
'Awaken, Dowglas,' cryed the knyght,
'For hys love that syttes in trone.
22 'Awaken, Dowglas,' cryed the knyght,
'For thow maste waken wyth wynne;
Yender haue I spyed the prowde Perssye,
And seven stondardes wyth hym.'
23 'Nay by my trowth,' the Dowglas sayed,
'It ys but a fayned taylle;
He durst not loke on my brede banner
For all Ynglonde so haylle.
24 'Was I not yesterdaye at the Newe Castell,
That stondes so fayre on Tyne?
For all the men the Perssy had,
He coude not garre me ones to dyne.'
25 He stepped owt at his pavelyon-dore,
To loke and it were lesse:
'Araye yow, lordynges, one and all,
For here bygynnes no peysse.
26 'The yerle of Mentaye, thow arte my eme,
The fowarde I gyve to the:
The yerlle of Huntlay, cawte and kene,
He schall be wyth the.
27 'The lorde of Bowghan, in armure bryght,
On the other hand he schall be;
Lord Jhonstoune and Lorde Maxwell,
They to schall be wyth me.
28 'Swynton, fayre fylde vpon your pryde!
To batell make yow bowen
Syr Davy Skotte, Syr Water Stewarde,
Syr Jhon of Agurstone!'
29 The Perssy cam byfore hys oste,
Wych was ever a gentyll knyght;
Vpon the Dowglas lowde can he crye,
'I wyll holde that I haue hyght.
30 'For thou haste brente Northomberlonde,
And done me grete envye;
For thys trespasse thou hast me done,
The tone of vs schall dye.'
31 The Dowglas answerde hym agayne,
Wyth grett wurdes vpon hye,
And sayd, I haue twenty agaynst thy one,
Byholde, and thou maste see.
32 Wyth that the Perssy was grevyd sore,
For soth as I yow saye;
He lyghted dowyn vpon his foote,
And schoote hys horsse clene awaye.
33 Euery man sawe that he dyd soo,
That ryall was euer in rowght;
Euery man schoote hys horsse hym froo,
And lyght hym rowynde abowght.
34 Thus Syr Hary Perssye toke the fylde,
For soth as I yow saye;
Jhesu Cryste in hevyn on hyght
Dyd helpe hym well that daye.
35 But nyne thowzand, ther was no moo,
The cronykle wyll not layne;
Forty thowsande of Skottes and fowre
That day fowght them agayne.
36 But when the batell byganne to ioyne,
In hast ther cam a knyght;
The letters fayre furth hath he tayne,
And thus he sayd full ryght:
37 'My lorde your father he gretes yow well,
Wyth many a noble knyght;
He desyres yow to byde
That he may see thys fyght.
38 'The Baron of Grastoke ys com out of the west,
Wyth hym a noble companye;
All they loge at your fathers thys nyght,
And the batell fayne wolde they see.'
39 'For Jhesus love,' sayd Syr Harye Perssy,
'That dyed for yow and me,
Wende to my lorde my father agayne,
And saye thow sawe me not wyth yee.
40 'My trowth ys plyght to yonne Skottysh knyght,
It nedes me not to layne,
That I schulde byde hym vpon thys bent,
And I haue hys trowth agayne.
41 'And if that I w[e]ynde of thys growende,
For soth, onfowghten awaye,
He wolde me call but a kowarde knyght
In hys londe another daye.
42 'Yet had I lever to be rynde and rente,
By Mary, that mykkel maye,
Then ever my manhood schulde be reprovyd
Wyth a Skotte another day.
43 'Wherfore schote, archars, for my sake,
And let scharpe arowes flee;
Mynstrells, playe vp for your waryson,
And well quyt it schall bee.
44 'Euery man thynke on hystrewe-love,
And marke hym to the Trenite;
For to God I make myne avowe
Thys day wyll I not flee.'
45 The blodye harte in the Dowglas armes,
Hys standerde stode on hye,
That euery man myght full well knowe;
By syde stode starres thre.
46 The whyte lyon on the Ynglyssh perte,
For soth as I yow sayne,
The lucettes and the cressawntes both;
The Skottes favght them agayne.
47 Vpon Sent Androwe lowde can they crye,
And thrysse they schowte on hyght,
And syne merked them one owr Ynglysshe men,
As I haue tolde yow ryght.
48 Sent George the bryght, owr ladyes knyght,
To name they were full fayne;
Owr Ynglyssh men they cryde on hyght,
And thrysse the schowtte agayne.
49 Wyth that scharpe arowes bygan to flee,
I tell yow in sertayne;
Men of armes byganne to joyne,
Many a dowghty man was ther slayne.
50 The Perssy and the Dowglas mette,
That ether of other was fayne;
They swapped together whyll that the swette,
Wyth swordes of fyne collayne:
51 Tyll the bloode from ther bassonnettes ranne,
As the roke doth in the rayne;
'Yelde the to me,' sayd the Dowglas,
'Or elles thow schalt be slayne.
52 'For I see by thy bryght bassonet,
Thow arte sum man of myght;
And so I do by thy burnysshed brande;
Thow arte an yerle, or elles a knyght.'
53 'By my good faythe,' sayd the noble Perssye,
'Now haste thow rede full ryght;
Yet wyll I never yelde me to the,
Whyll I may stonde and fyght.'
54 They swapped together whyll that they swette,
Wyth sword s scharpe and long;
Ych on other so faste thee beette,
Tyll ther helmes cam in peyses dowyn.
55 The Perssy was a man of strenghth,
I tell yow in thys stounde;
He smote the Dowglas at the sword s length
That he felle to the growynde.
56 The sworde was scharpe, and sore can byte,
I tell yow in sertayne;
To the harte he cowde hym smyte,
Thus was the Dowglas slayne.
57 The stonderdes stode styll on eke a syde,
Wyth many a grevous grone;
Ther the fowght the day, and all the nyght,
And many a dowghty man was slayne.
58 Ther was no freke that ther wolde flye,
But styffely in stowre can stond,
Ychone hewyng on other whyll they myght drye,
Wyth many a bayllefull bronde.
59 Ther was slayne vpon the Skott s syde,
For soth and sertenly,
Syr James a Dowglas ther was slayne,
That day that he cowde dye.
60 The yerlle of Mentaye he was slayne,
Grysely groned vpon the growynd;
Syr Davy Skotte, Syr Water Stewarde,
Syr Jhon of Agurstoune.
61 Syr Charll s Morrey in that place,
That never a fote wold flee;
Syr Hewe Maxwell, a lorde he was,
Wyth the Dowglas dyd he dye.
62 Ther was slayne vpon the Skottes syde,
For soth as I yow saye,
Of fowre and forty thowsande Scottes
Went but eyghtene awaye.
63 Ther was slayne vpon the Ynglysshe syde,
For soth and sertenlye,
A gentell knight, Syr Jhon Fechewe,
Yt was the more pety.
64 Syr James Hardbotell ther was slayne,
For hym ther hartes were sore;
The gentyll Lovell ther was slayne,
That the Perssys standerd bore.
65 Ther was slayne vpon the Ynglyssh perte,
For soth as I yow saye,
Of nyne thowsand Ynglyssh men
Fyve hondert cam awaye.
66 The other were slayne in the fylde;
Cryste kepe ther sowlles from wo!
Seyng ther was so fewe fryndes
Agaynst so many a foo.
67 Then on the morne they mayde them beerys
Of byrch and haysell graye;
Many a wydowe, wyth wepyng teyres,
Ther makes they fette awaye.
68 Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne,
Bytwene the nyght and the day;
Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyffe,
And the Perssy was lede awaye.
69 Then was ther a Scottysh prisoner tayne,
Syr Hewe Mongomery was hys name;
For soth as I yow saye,
He borowed the Perssy home agayne.
70 Now let vs all for the Perssy praye
To Jhesu most of myght,
To bryng hys sowlle to the blysse of heven,
For he was a gentyll knyght.
-----------
'The Battle of Otterburn'- Version B a; Child 161- The Battle of Otterburn
a. Herd's Manuscript, I, 149, H, 30; Herd's Scottish Songs, 1776, 1, 153.
b. Scott's Minstrelsy, I, 31, 1802, "corrected" from Herd, 1776, "by a Manuscript copy."
1 It fell and about the Lammas time,
When husbandmen do win their hay,
Earl Douglass is to the English woods,
And a' with him to fetch a prey.
2 He has chosen the Lindsays light,
With them the gallant Gordons gay,
And the Earl of Fyfe, withouten strife,
And Sir Hugh Montgomery upon a grey.
3 They have taken Northumberland,
And sae hae they the north shire,
And the Otter Dale, they hae burnt it hale,
And set it a' into fire.
4 Out then spake a bonny boy,
That servd ane o Earl Douglass kin;
Methinks I see an English host,
A-coming branken us upon.
5 'If this be true, my little boy,
And it be troth that thou tells me,
The brawest bower in Otterburn
This day shall be thy morning-fee.
6 'But if it be fase, my little boy,
But and a lie that thou tells me,
On the highest tree that's in Otterburn
With my ain hands I'll hing thee high.'
7 The boy's taen out his little penknife,
That hanget low down by his gare,
And he gaed Earl Douglass a deadly wound,
Alack! a deep wound and a sare.
8 Earl Douglas said to Sir Hugh Montgomery,
Take thou the vanguard o the three,
And bury me at yon braken-bush,
That stands upon yon lilly lee.
9 Then Percy and Montgomery met,
And weel a wot they warna fain;
They swaped swords, and they twa swat,
And ay the blood ran down between.
10 'O yield thee, yield thee, Percy,' he said,
'Or else I vow I'll lay thee low;'
'Whom to shall I yield,' said Earl Percy,
'Now I see it maun be so?'
11 'O yield thee to yon braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilly lee;
. . . .
. . . .
12 'I winna yield to a braken-bush,
Nor yet will I unto a brier;
But I would yield to Earl Douglass,
Or Sir Hugh Montgomery, if he was here.'
13 As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,
He stuck his sword's point in the ground,
And Sir Hugh Montgomery was a courteous knight,
And he quickly broght him by the hand.
14 This deed was done at Otterburn,
About the breaking of the day;
Earl Douglass was buried at the braken-bush,
And Percy led captive away.
-----
'The Battle of Otterbourne'- Version C; Child 161 The Battle of Otterburn
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, 1, 345. B completed by two copies "obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest."
1 It fell about the Lammas tide,
When the muir-men win their hay,
The doughty Douglas bound him to ride
Into England, to drive a prey.
2 He chose the Gordons and the Graemes,
With them the Lindesays, light and gay;
But the Jardines wald not with him ride,
And they rue it to this day.
3 And he has burnd the dales of Tyne,
And part of Bambrough shire,
And three good towers on Reidswire fells,
He left them all on fire.
4 And he marchd up to Newcastle,
And rode it round about:
'O wha's the lord of this castle?
Or wha's the lady o't?'
5 But up spake proud Lord Percy then,
And O but he spake hie!
I am the lord of this castle,
My wife's the lady gay.
6 'If thou'rt the lord of this castle,
Sae weel it pleases me,
For, ere I cross the Border fells,
The tane of us shall die.'
7 He took a lang spear in his hand,
Shod with the metal free,
And for to meet the Douglas there
He rode right furiouslie.
8 But O how pale his lady lookd,
Frae aff the castle-wa,
When down before the Scottish spear
She saw proud Percy fa.
9 'Had we twa been upon the green,
And never an eye to see,
I wad hae had you, flesh and fell;
But your sword sall gae wi me.'
10 'But gae ye up to Otterbourne,
And, wait there dayis three,
And, if I come not ere three dayis end,
A fause knight ca ye me.'
11 'The Otterbourne's a bonnie burn;
'Tis pleasant there to be;
But there is nought at Otterbourne
To feed my men and me.
12 'The deer rins wild on hill and dale,
The birds fly wild from tree to tree;
But there is neither bread nor kale
To fend my men and me.
13 'Yet I will stay at Otterbourne,
Where you shall welcome be;
And, if ye come not at three dayis end,
A fause lord I'll ca thee.'
14 'Thither will I come,' proud Percy said,
'By the might of Our Ladye;'
'There will I bide thee,' said the Douglas,
'My troth I plight to thee.'
15 They lighted high on Otterbourne,
Upon the bent sae brown;
They lighted high on Otterbourne,
And threw their pallions down.
16 And he that had a bonnie boy,
Sent out his horse to grass;
And he that had not a bonnie boy,
His ain servant he was.
17 But up then spake a little page,
Before the peep of dawn:
'O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord,
For Percy's hard at hand.'
18 'Ye lie, ye lie, ye liar loud!
Sae loud I hear ye lie:
For Percy had not men yestreen
To dight my men and me.
19 'But I have dreamd a dreary dream,
Beyond the Isle of Sky;
I saw a dead man win a fight,
And I think that man was I.'
20 He belted on his guid braid sword,
And to the field he ran,
But he forgot the helmet good,
That should have kept his brain.
21 When Percy with the Douglas met,
I wat he was fu fain;
They swakked their swords, till sair they swat,
And the blood ran down like rain.
22 But Percy with his good broad sword,
That could so sharply wound,
Has wounded Douglas on the brow,
Till he fell to the ground.
23 Then he calld on his little foot-page,
And said, Run speedilie,
And fetch my ain dear sister's son,
Sir Hugh Montgomery.
24 'My nephew good,' the Douglas said,
'What recks the death of ane!
Last night I dreamd a dreary dream,
And I ken the day's thy ain.
25 'My wound is deep; I fain would sleep;
Take thou the vanguard of the three,
And hide me by the braken-bush,
That grows on yonder lilye lee.
26 'O bury me by the braken-bush,
Beneath the blooming brier;
Let never living mortal ken
That ere a kindly Scot lies here.'
27 He lifted up that noble lord,
Wi the saut tear in his ee;
He hid him in the braken-bush,
That his merrie men might not see.
28 The moon was clear, the day drew near,
The spears in flinders flew,
But mony a gallant Englishman
Ere day the Scotsmen slew.
29 The Gordons good, in English blood
They steepd their hose and shoon;
The Lindsays flew like fire about,
Till all the fray was done.
30 The Percy and Montgomery met,
That either of other were fain;
They swapped swords, and they twa swat,
And aye the blood ran down between.
31 'Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy,' he said,
'Or else I vow I'll lay thee low!'
'To whom must I yield,' quoth Earl Percy,
'Now that I see that it must be so?'
32 'Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,
Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;
But yield thee to the braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilye lee.'
33 'I will not yield to a braken-bush,
Nor yet will I yield to a brier;
But I would yield to Earl Douglas,
Or Sir Hugh the Montgomery, if he were here.'
34 As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,
He struck his sword's point in the gronde;
The Montgomery was a courteous knight,
And quickly took him by the honde.
35 This deed was done at the Otterbourne,
About the breaking of the day;
Earl Douglas was buried at the braken-bush,
And the Percy led captive away.
-----------
'The Battle of Otterburne'- Version D; Child 161- The Battle of Otterburn
Finlay's Scottish Ballads, I, xviii f; from recitation.
1 Then out an spak a little wee boy,
And he was near o Percy's kin:
Methinks I see the English host
A coming branking us upon.
2 Wi nine waggons scaling wide,
And seven banners bearing high;
It was do any living gude
To see their bonny colours fly.
-----------
'The Battle of Otterburn'- Version E; Child 161 The Battle of Otterburn
Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30; from a recited copy.
1 'O yield thee to yon braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilly lie;
For there lies aneth yon braken-bush
What aft has conquered mae than thee.'
End-Notes: The Battle of Otterburn
A. a. 34. many a styrande.
"The reading of the Manuscript is, I suspect, right; for stage, or staig, in Scotland means a young horse unshorn of its masculine attributes, and the obvious intention of the poet is merely to describe that the Scottish alighted from many a prancing steed, in order to prepare for action."
Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30, who would read accordingly, [Off] many a styrande stage. The fourth line, as amended by Motherwell, would be a superfluity, whereas Percy's reading, here adopted, adds a pleasing incident, the rousing of the deer as the troopers passed their haunts.
201. beste, corrected to bent.
221. repeated at the top of fol. 65 back.
313. the one; b, thy one.
342. soth soth.
411. b, weynde.
463. cressawttes.
503. schapped: cf. 541.
604. Syr James: cf. 284.
643. Covell.
Crossed final ll, in all, styll, Castell, schall, well, etc., has not been rendered lle.
b. A Songe made in R. 2. his tyme of the Battelle at Otterburne betweene the Lord Henry Percye, Earle of Northomberland, and the Earle Douglas of Scotland, Ano 1388.
Either b is a transcript of a, or both are from the same source.
32. Redclyffe.
34. Many a stirande.
44. bound.
74. they ranne.
111. Sr Henry came.
132. wille.
142. game and.
153. maiste thou.
154. Henrye.
201. houered vppon the beste bent.
244. gare me oute to.
284. Aguiston.
313. thy one.
351. no more.
352. cronicles.
373. abyde.
394. wth thie eye.
401. yonde Skotes.
411. Ffor yf I weynde.
443. my avowe.
462. I wanting.
491. arrowes gan vpe to.
503. schapped: swatte.
511. from the.
541. swotte.
571. stonderes; elke syde.
593. a wanting.
604. Sr James.
633. Ffitzhughe.
641. Harbotle.
643. Covelle.
664. a wanting.
671. the morowe.
701. Percyes.
A pencil note on the first leaf of b (signed F. M., Sir F. Madden) states that it is in Ralph Starkey's hand.
B. a. 23. Fuife in my transcript of Herd, I; Fyfe in II.
33. hae is omitted in II and the printed copy.
34. printed into a fire.
53. bravest in my transcript of Herd, I; brawest, II; printed brawest.
73. The second Manuscript has gae; printed gae.
83. bring me in my transcript of Herd, I; bury in the second Manuscript, and so printed.
122. II, into.
b. 11. and wanting.
24. Hugh the.
31. have harried.
32. they Bambroshire.
33. And wanting.
34. a' in a blaze o fire.
51. true, thou little foot-page.
53. If this be true thou tells to me.
54. This day wanting; morning's.
61. thou little.
62. lie thou tells to.
63. that's wanting.
64. hang.
71. boy has.
72. hung right low.
73. gave Lord.
74. I wot a.
81. Douglas to the Montgomery said.
83. me by the.
84. that grows.
91. The Percy.
92. That either of other were fain.
101. Yield thee, O yield.
104. it must.
11 Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,
Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;
But yield thee to the braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilye lee.
121. I will not.
122. I to.
124. Hugh the: he were.
131,3. And the Montgomery.
134. And quickly took him.
144. the Percy.
C. 341. In one copy: As soon as he knew it was Sir Hugh.
Additions and Corrections
P. 294. St. George our Lady's knight.
A nemnede sein Gorge our leuedi knijt:
Sir Beues of Hamtoun, ed. Kölbing, v. 2817, p. 129; Maitland Club ed., v. 2640. (G.L.K., who also gave me the case in Roister Doister.)
"Now holy St. George, myne only avower,
In whom I trust for my protection,
O very Chevalier of the stourished Flower,
By whose Hands thy Sword and Shield hast wone,
Be mediator, that she may to her Sone
Cause me to hear Rex splendens songen on hye,
Before the Trinitye, when that I shall dye."
Poem on the Willoughbies of Eresby, in the form of a prayer to St. George put into the mouth of one of the Willoughby family, Dugdale, Baronage of England, 1676, II, 85, 86. Dugdale does not date the Manuscript. The male line of the Willoughbies became extinct in 1525.
End-Notes (3. flourished? 4. thou thy?)
(G. L. K.)
Pp. 294, 520. St. George Our Lady's Knight. 'Swete Sainct George, our ladies knyght,' Skelton, 'Against the Scottes,' v. 141, Dyce, I, 186; 'Thankyd be Saynte Gorge our ladyes knythe,' in the 'Ballade of the Scot- tysche Kynge,' p. 95 of the fac-simile edition by J. Ashton, 1882 (where the passage is somewhat different). In his note, II, 220, to the poem 'Against the Scottes,' Dyce remarks that St. George is called Our Lady's Knight "in a song written about the same time as the present poem, Cott. Manuscript Domit. A. xviii. fol. 248." This appears to be the song quoted from the same Manuscript by Sir H. Ellis, Original Letters, First Series, I, 79:
'Swet Sent Jorge, our Ladyes knyte,
Save Kyng Hary bothe be day and nyȜth.'
In his Chorus de Dis, super triumphali victoria contra Gallos, etc., Skelton speaks of St. George as Gloria Cappadocis divæ milesque Mariæ, v. 13; Dyce, I, 191. See also John Anstis, The Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, London, 1724, 1, 122; II, 27, 48 f. (G.L.K.)
299. C. First published in the second edition of the Minstrelsy, 1803, I, 27. 13,4 there read The doughty earl of Douglas rode Into England, to catch a prey; 311, Yield thee, O yield thee, etc., and 313, Whom to shall I yield, said, etc.
For his later edition of 'The Battle of Otterburn,' Scott says he used "two copies ... obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest." James Hogg sent Scott, in a letter dated September 10 (1802?), twenty-nine stanzas "collected from two different people, a crazy old man and a woman deranged in her mind," and subsequently recovered, by "pumping" his "old friends' memory," other lines and half lines out of which (using the necessary cement, and not a little) he built up eleven stanzas more, and these he seems to have forwarded in the same letter. These two communications are what is described by Scott as two copies. They will be combined here according to Hogg's directions, and the second set of verses bracketed for distinction.
The materials out of which C was constructed can now easily be separated. We must bear in mind that Scott allowed himself a liberty of alteration; this he did not, however, carry very far in the present instance. 1-13, 15-19, 23 are taken, with slight change or none, from Hogg's first "copy" of verses; 24, 26-29 from the second; 30-35 are repeated from Scott's first edition. 14 is altered from A 16; 20 = Hogg 211,2 + Scott; 21 = Hogg 221 + Hogg 352-4; 22 = Hogg 231,3 + Scott; 25 = Hogg 281 + B 82-4. Scott did well to drop Hogg 9, and ought to have dropped Hogg 8.
"Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 132, Abbotsford, stanzas 1-24, 35-38, 40; the same, No 5, stanzas 25-34, 39. Communicated to Scott, in a letter, by James Hogg.
1 It fell about the Lammas time,
When the muir-men won their hay,
That the doughty Earl Douglas went
Into England to catch a prey.
2 He chose the Gordons and the Graemes,
With the Lindsays light and gay;
But the Jardines wadna wi him ride,
And they rued it to this day.
3 And he has burnt the dales o Tine
And part of Almonshire,
And three good towers on Roxburgh fells
He left them all on fire.
4 Then he marchd up to Newcastle,
And rode it round about:
'O whae's the lord of this castle,
Or whae's the lady o 't?'
5 But up spake proud Lord Piercy then,
And O but he spak hie!
I am the lord of this castle,
And my wife's the lady gaye.'
6 'If you are lord of this castle,
Sae weel it pleases me;
For ere I cross the border again
The ane of us shall die.'
7 He took a lang speir in his hand,
Was made of the metal free,
And for to meet the Douglas then
He rode most furiously.
8 But O how pale his lady lookd,
Frae off the castle wa,
When down before the Scottish spear
She saw brave Piercy fa!
9 How pale and wan his lady lookd,
Frae off the castle hieght,
When she beheld her Piercy yield
To doughty Douglas' might!
10 'Had we twa been upon the green,
And never an eye to see,
I should have had ye flesh and fell;
But your sword shall gae wi me.'
11 'But gae you up to Otterburn,
And there wait dayes three,
And if I come not ere three days' end
A fause lord ca ye me.'
12 The Otterburn's a bonny burn,
'T is pleasant there to be,
But there is naught at Otterburn
To feed my men and me.
13 'The deer rins wild owr hill and dale,
The birds fly wild frae tree to tree,
And there is neither bread nor kale
To fend my men and me.
14 'But I will stay at Otterburn,
Where you shall welcome be;
And if ye come not ere three days' end
A coward I'll ca thee.'
15 'Then gae your ways to Otterburn,
And there wait dayes three;
And if I come not ere three days' end
A coward ye's ca me.'
16 They lighted high on Otterburn,
Upon the bent so brown,
They lighted high on Otterburn,
And threw their pallions down.
17 And he that had a bonny boy
Sent his horses to grass,
And he that had not a bonny boy
His ain servant he was.
18 But up then spak a little page,
Before the peep of the dawn;
'O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord,
For Piercy's hard at hand!'
19 'Ye lie, ye lie, ye loud liar,
Sae loud I hear ye lie!
The Piercy hadna men yestreen
To dight my men and me.
20 'But I have seen a dreary dream,
Beyond the isle o Sky;
I saw a dead man won the fight,
And I think that man was I.'
21 He belted on his good broad-sword
And to the field he ran,
Where he met wi the proud Piercy,
And a' his goodly train.
22 When Piercy wi the Douglas met,
I wat he was right keen;
They swakked their swords till sair they swat,
And the blood ran them between.
23 But Piercy wi his good broad-sword,
Was made o the metal free,
Has wounded Douglas on the brow
Till backward he did flee.
24 Then he calld on his little page,
And said, Run speedily,
And bring my ain dear sister's son,
Sir Hugh Montgomery.
25 [Who, when he saw the Douglas bleed,
His heart was wonder wae:
1 Now, by my sword, that haughty lord
Shall rue before he gae.'
26 'My nephew bauld,' the Douglas said,
'What boots the death of ane?
Last night I dreamd a dreary dream,
And I ken the day's thy ain.
27 'I dreamd I saw a battle fought
Beyond the isle o Sky,
When lo, a dead man wan the field,
And I thought that man was I.
28 'My wound is deep, I fain wad sleep,
Nae mair I'll fighting see;
Gae lay me in the breaken bush
That grows on yonder lee.
29 'But tell na ane of my brave men
That I lye bleeding wan,
But let the name of Douglas still
Be shouted in the van.
30 'And bury me here on this lee,
Beneath the blooming brier,
And never let a mortal ken
A kindly Scot lyes here.'
31 He liftit up that noble lord,
Wi the saut tear in his ee,
And hid him in the breaken bush,
On yonder lily lee.
32 The moon was clear, the day drew near,
The spears hi flinters flew,
But mony gallant Englishman
Ere day the Scotsmen slew. "
33 Sir Hugh Montgomery he rode
Thro all the field in sight,
And loud the name of Douglas still
He urgd wi a' his might.
34 The Gordons good, in English blood
They steepd their hose and slioon,
The Lindsays flew like fire about,
Till a' the fray was doon.]
35 When stout Sir Hugh wi Piercy met,
I wat he was right fain;
They swakked their swords till sair they swat,
And the blood ran down like rain.
36 'O yield thee, Piercy,' said Sir Hugh,
'O yield, or ye shall die!'
'Fain wad I yield,' proud Piercy said,
'But neer to loun like thee.'
37 'Thou shalt not yield to knave nor loun,
Nor shalt thou yield to me;
But yield thee to the breaken bush
That grows on yonder lee.'
38 'I will not yield to bush or brier,
Nor will I yield to thee;
But I will yield to Lord Douglas,
Or Sir Hugh Montgomery.'
39 [When Piercy knew it was Sir Hugh,
He fell low on his knee,
But soon he raisd him up again,
Wi mickle courtesy.]
40 He left not an Englishman on the field
. . .
That he hadna either killd or taen
Ere his heart's blood was cauld.
352. swords still.
Hogg writes:
"As for the scraps of Otterburn which I have got, they seem to have been some confused jumble, made by some person who had learned both the songs which you have, and in time had been straitened to make one out of them both. But you shall have it as I had it, saving that, as usual, I have sometimes helped the measure, without altering one original word."
After 24: "This ballad, which I have collected from two different people, a crazy old man and a woman deranged in her mind, seems hitherto considerably entire; but now, when it becomes most interesting, they have both failed me, and I have been obliged to take much of it in plain prose. However, as none of them seemed to know anything of the history save what they had learned from the song, I took it the more kindly. Any few verses which follow are to me unintelligible.
"He told Sir Hugh that he was dying, and ordered him to conceal his body, and neither let his own men nor Piercy's know; which he did, and the battle went on headed by Sir Hugh Montgomery, and at length" (35, etc.).
After 38: "Piercy seems to have been fighting devilishly in the dark; indeed, my relaters added no more, but told me that Sir Hugh died on the field, but that" (40).
In the postscript, Hogg writes:
"Not being able to get the letter away to the post, I have taken the opportunity of again pumping my old friends' memory, and have recovered some more lines and half lines of Otterburn, of which I am become somewhat enamourd. These I have been obliged to arrange somewhat myself, as you will see below; but so mixed are they with original lines and sentences that I think, if you pleased, they might pass without any acknowledgment. Sure no man will like an old song the worse of being somewhat harmonious. After [24] you may read [25-34]. Then after [38] read [39]."
Of Almonshire [32] Hogg writes: "Almon shire may probably be a corruption of Banburghshire, but as both my relaters called it so, I thought proper to preserve it."
Andrew Livingston writes to Scott, Airds by Castle Douglas, 28th April, 1806, Letters, I, No 183: "My mother recollects seven or eight verses of the ballad of 'The Battle of Otterburn' different from any I have seen either in the first and second editions of the Minstrelsy or in Percy's Reliques... In several parts they bear a great resemblance to the copy in the first edition of the Minstrelsy."
P. 289, IV, 499. From C.K. Sharpe's "first collection," p. 21. Tradition in this copy, as in Herd's, B, ascribes the death of Douglas to an offended and treacherous page.
1 It was about the Lammes time
When moorland men do win their hay,
Brave Earl Douglass, in armer bright,
Marchd to the Border without delay.
2 He hes tean wi him the Lindseys light,
And sae hes he the Gordons gay,
And the Earl of Fife, without all strife,
And Sir Heugh Montgomery upon a day.
3 The hae brunt Northumberland,
And sae have [the] Northumbershire,
And fair Cluddendale they hae brunt it hale,
And he's left it all in fire fair.
4 Ay till the came to Earl Percy's castle,
Earl Percey's castle that stands sae high:
'Come dowen, come dowen, thou proud Percey,
Come down and talk one hour with me.
5 'Come down, come down, thou proud Percey,
Come down and talk one hour with me;
For I hae burnt thy heritage,
And sae will I thy building high.'
6 'If ye hae brunt my heritage,
O dule, O dule, and woe is me!
But will ye stay at the Otter burn
Untill I gather my men to me?'
7 'O I will stay at the Otter burn
The space of days two or three,
And if ye do not meet me there,
I will talk of thy coardie.'
8 O he hes staid at the Otter burn
The space of days two or three;
He sent his page unto his tent-door,
For to see what ferleys he could see.
9 'O yonder comes yon gallent knight,
With all bonny banners high;
It wad do ony living good
For to see the bonny coulers fly.'
10 'If the tale be true,' Earl Douglass says,
'The tidings ye have told to me,
The fairest maid in Otterburn
Thy bedfellow sure shall she be.
11 'If the tale be false,' Earl Douglass says,
'The tidings that ye tell to me,
The highest tree in Otterburn,
On it high hanged shall ye be.'
12 Earl Douglass went to his tent-door,
To see what ferleys he could see;
His little page came him behind,
And ran him through the fair body.
13 'If I had a little time,' he says,
'To set in order my matters high,
Ye Gordons gay, to you I say,
See that ye let not my men away.
14 'Ye Linseys light, both wise and wight,
Be sure ye carry my coulers high;
Ye Gordons gay, again I say,
See that ye let not my men away.
15 'Sir Heugh Montgomery, my sistir's son,
I give you the vangaurd over all;
Let it neer be said into old England
That so little made a true Scot fall.
16 'O lay me dowen by yon brecken-bush,
That grows upon yon liley lea;
Let it neer be said into old England
That so little made a true Scot die.'
17 At last those two stout knights did meet,
And O but they were wonderous keen!
The foght with so wards of the temperd steel,
Till the drops of blood ran them betwen.
18 'O yeald thee, Percie,' Montgomery crys,
'O yeald ye, or I'll lay the low;'
'To whome should I yeald? to whom should I yeald?
To whom should I yeald, since it most be so?'
19 'O yeald ye to yon breckan-bush,
That grows upon yon lilley lea;
And if ye will not yeald to this,
In truth, Earl Percey, I'll gar ye die.'
20 'I will not yeald to a breckan-bush,
Nor yet will I yeald to a brier;
But fain wad I yeald to Earl Douglass,
Or Sir Heugh Montgomery, if he were here.'
21 O then this lord begun to faint,
And let his soward drop to the ground;
Sir Heugh Montgomery, a courtious knight,
He bravely took him by the hand.
22 This deed was done at the Otter burn,
Betwen the sunshine and the day;
Brave Earl Douglass there was slain,
And they carried Percie captive away.
63, 71, 81, 221. Otterburn.
292 b, 2d paragraph, 9th line. C 203,4 may have been supplied by Scott; not in Hogg's copy. See IV, 500, st. 21.
294, 520 a, IV, 499. St. George, Our Lady's Knight.
O seynt George, oure lady knyght,
To that lady thow pray for me!
Lydgate, Kalendare, vv. 113, 114, ed. Horstmann, in Herrig's Archiv, LXXX, 121.
O blessyd Lady, Cristes moder dere,
And thou Seynt George, that called art her knyght!
Fabyan's Chronicles, ed. Ellis, 1811, p. 601. (G.L.K.)
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P. 294, 520 a, IV, 499, V, 244 b. St. George Our Lady's Knight. Add: Torrent of Portyngale, v. 1677: E. Flügel, Neuenglisches Lesebuch, I, 441.