No. 172: Musselburgh Field
[There are no known US or Canadian versions of this ballad. See the article: A New Version of "Musselburgh Field" by Albert B. Friedman, attached to Rec & Info page.
R. Matteson 2012]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A
5. Endnotes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 172. Musselburgh Field
A. Roud No. 4003: Musselburgh Field (4 Listings)
B. A New Version of "Musselburgh Field" by Albert B. Friedman
2. Sheet Music: 172. Musselburgh Field (Bronson's gives no music examples)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child version A with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: 172. Musselburgh Field
A. 'Musleboorrowe ffeild,' Percy Manuscript, p. 54; Hales and Furnivall, I, 123.
The Protector Somerset, to overcome or to punish the opposition of the Scots to the marriage of Mary Stuart with Edward VI, invaded Scotland at the end of the summer of 1547 with eighteen thousand men, supported by a fleet. The Scots mustered at Musselburgh, a town on the water five or six miles east of Edinburgh, under the Earls of Arran, Angus, and Huntly, each of whom, according to Buchanan, had ten thousand men, and there the issue was tried on the 10th of September. The northern army abandoned an impregnable position, and their superior, but ill-managed, and partly ill-composed, force, after successfully resisting a cavalry charge, was put to flight by the English, who had an advantage in cannon and cavalry as well as generalship. A hideous slaughter followed; Leslie admits that, in the chase and battle, there were slain above ten thousand of his countrymen. Patten, a Londoner who saw and described the fight, says that the one anxiety of the Scots was lest the English should get away, and that they were so sure of victory that, the night before the battle, they fell "to playing at dice for certain of our noblemen and captains of fame" (cf. stanza 3), as the French diced for prisoners on the eve of Agincourt. The dates are wrong in 11,2, 51; Huntly is rightly said to have been made prisoner, 71.
6, 8. When the Scots were once turned, says Patten, "it was a wonder to see how soon and in how sundry sorts they were scattered; the place they stood on like a wood of staves, strewed on the ground as rushes in a chamber, unpassable, they lay so thick, for either horse or man." Some made their course along the sands by the Frith, towards Leith; some straight toward Edinburgh; "and the residue, and (as we noted then) the most, of them toward Dalkeith, which way, by means of the marsh, our horsemen were worst able to follow."[1]
The battle is known also by the name of Pinkie or Pinkie Clench, appellations of an estate, a burn and a hill ("a hill called Pinkincleuche," Leslie), near or within the field of operations.
Percy remarks upon 33: "It should seem from hence that there was somewhat of a uniform among our soldiers even then." There are jackets white and red in No 166, 293. Sir William Stanley has ten thousand red coats at his order in 'Lady Bessy,' vv 593, 809-11, 937 f, Percy Manuscript, III, 344, 352, 358; Sir John Savage has fifteen hundred white hoods in the same piece, v. 815.
Footnote:
1. W. Patten, The Expedition into Scotlande, etc., reprinted in Dalyell's Fragments of Scottish History, pp. 51, 66.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
The Protector Somerset, to overcome or to punish the opposition of the Scots to the marriage of Mary Stuart with Edward VI, invaded Scotland at the end of the summer of 1547 with eighteen thousand men, supported by a fleet. The Scots mustered at Musselburgh, a town on the water five or six miles east of Edinburgh. The northern army abandoned an impregnable position, and their superior, hut ill-managed and partly ill-composed force, after successfully resisting a cavalry charge, was put to flight by the English, who had an advantage in cannon and cavalry as well as generalship. A hideous slaughter followed; it is said that, in the chase and battle, there were slain above ten thousand Scots. The battle is known also by the name of Pinkie or Pinkie Cleuch, appellations of an estate, a burn and a hill, near or within the field of operations.
The ballad is perhaps quoted by Sir Toby, in Twelfth Night, act ii, scene 3: "O, the twelfth day of December!"
Child's Ballad Text
'Musleboorrowe ffeild'- Version A; Child 172 Musselburgh Field
'Musleboorrowe ffeild,' Percy Manuscript, p. 54; Hales and Furnivall, I, 123.
1 On the tenth day of December,
And the fourth yeere of King Edwards raigne,
Att Musleboorrowe, as I remember,
Two goodly hosts there mett on a plaine.
2 All that night they camped there,
Soe did the Scotts, both stout and stubborne;
But "[wellaway,"] it was their song,
For wee haue taken them in their owne turne.
3 Over night they carded for our English mens coates;
They fished before their netts were spunn;
A white for sixpence, a red for two groates;
Now wisdome wold haue stayed till they had been woone.
4 Wee feared not but that they wold fight,
Yett itt was turned vnto their owne paine;
Thoe against one of vs that they were eight,
Yett with their owne weapons wee did them beat.
5 On the twelfth day in the morne
The made a face as the wold fight,
But many a proud Scott there was downe borne,
And many a ranke coward was put to flight.
6 But when they heard our great gunnes cracke,
Then was their harts turned into their hose;
They cast down their weapons, and turned their backes,
They ran soe fast that the fell on their nose.
7 The Lord Huntley, wee had him there;
With him hee brought ten thousand men,
Yett, God bee thanked, wee made them such a banquett
That none of them returned againe.
8 Wee chased them to D[alkeith]
* * * * *
End-Notes
11. 10th.
12. 4th.
14. 2.
21. all night that.
24. horne may be the reading, instead of turne.
33. 6d: pro 2.
43. 8t.
51. 12th.
72. 10000.
81. Half a page gone.
Additions and Corrections
P. 378. Is this the song quoted by Sir Toby in Twelfth Night, II, 3 (and hitherto unidentified), "O, the twelfth day of December"? (G. L. K.)