282. Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant
[There are no known US or Canadian traditional versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (There are no footnotes for this ballad)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A
5. End-Notes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 282. Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant
A. Roud No. 3856: Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant (14 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 282. Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant (Bronson's music examples and texts)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child version A)
Child's Narrative: 282. Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant
A. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 165.
Jock the Leg and a merchant (packman, pedlar) put up at the same tavern. Jock makes free to order a good supper at the merchant's expense; the packman gives notice that he will not pay a penny beyond his own shot. They go to bed in rooms separated by a locked door, but before the merchant is well asleep Jock appears at his feet and rouses him; it is more than time that they were on their road. The merchant will not stir a foot till daylight; he cannot go by Barnisdale or Coventry for fear that Jock the Leg should take his pack. His self-imposed comrade promises to see him safely through these places, but when they come to dangerous ground avows himself as Jock the Leg, and demands the pack. The merchant puts his pack under a tree, and says he will fight for it till daylight; they fight; the robber finds a more than equal match, cries Hold! and begs the boon of a blast on his horn, to which the merchant contemptuously accedes. Four-and-twenty bowmen come to Jock's help. The merchant offers to give up his pack if the six best of these, and Jock, the seventh, can drive him one foot from it. The seven make the attempt and fail. The merchant, holding his pack in one hand, slays five of the six with his broadsword, and knocks over the other.
Jock declares him to be the boldest swordsman he has ever fought with; if he were equally good with the bow, he should have service with Jock's master in the greenwood. The merchant would not join a robber-band. Jock proposes a barter of deerskins for fine linen. The merchant wants no stolen deerskins. 'Take your pack,' says Jock, 'and wherever we meet we shall be good comrades.' 'I'll take my pack,' says the uncompromising merchant, 'and wherever we meet I'll call thee a rank thief.'
This piece, but for names (and Jock the Leg is only a thin shrouding for Little John), might have gone with the Robin Hood ballads. It was composed, probably, in the last half of the eighteenth century, and for hawkers' purposes, but it is a better ballad, imitation as it is, than some of the seventeenth-century broadsides of the same class (which is indeed saying very little). The fight for the pack, 13, 14, 20, we have in 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood' (also a late ballad), No 132, 6, 7, 10; the "asking" of a blast on the horn and the scornful reply, 16, 17, in 'Robin Hood and the Shepherd,' No 135, 15, 16, with verbal similarity in the first case. (17 is all but a repetition of No 123, B 26, and No 140, B 25.)
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
This piece, but for names (and Jock the Leg is only a thin shrouding for Little John), might have gone with the Robin Hood ballads. It was composed, probably, in the last half of the eighteenth century, and for hawker's purposes, but it is a better ballad, imitation as it is, than some of the seventeenth-century broadsides of the same class (which is indeed saying very little). The fight for the pack we have in 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood' (No, 132); the "asking" of a blast on the horn and the scornful reply, in 'Robin Hood and the Shepherd' (No, 135).
Child's Ballad Text
'Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant'- Version A; Child 282 Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant
Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 165
1 As Jock the Leg and the merry merchant
Came from yon borrow's town,
They took their budgets on their backs,
And fieldert they were boun.
2 But they came to a tavern-house,
Where chapmen used to be:
'Provide, provide,' said Jock the Leg,
'A good supper for me
3 'For the merry merchant shall pay it a',
Tho it were good merks three;'
'But never a penny,' said the merry merchant,
'But shot, as it fa's me.
4 'A bed, a bed,' said the merry merchant,
'It's time to go to rest;'
'And that ye shall,' said the good goodwife,
'And your covrings o the best.'
5 Then Jock the Leg in one chamber was laid,
The merchant in another,
And lockfast door atween them twa,
That the one might not see the other.
6 But the merchant was not well lain down,
Nor yet well fa'en asleep,
Till up it starts him Jock the Leg,
Just at the merchant's feet.
7 'Win up, win up,' said Jock the Leg,
'We might hae been miles three;'
'But never a foot,' said the merry merchant,
'Till day that I do see.
8 'For I cannot go by Barnisdale,
Nor yet by Coventry;
For Jock the Leg, that common thief,
Would take my pack from me.'
9 'I'll hae you in by Barnisdale,
And down by Coventry,
And I'll guard you frae Jock the Leg
Till day that ye do see.'
10 When they were in by Barnisdale,
And in by Coventry,
'Repeat, repeat,' said Jock the Leg,
'The words ye ance tauld me.'
11 'I never said aught behind your back
But what I'll say to thee;
Are ye that robber, Jock the Leg,
Will take my pack frae me?'
12 'O by my sooth,' said Jock the Leg,
'You'll find that man I be;
Surrender that pack that's on your back,
Or then be slain by me.'
13 He's ta'en his pack down frae his back,
Set it below yon tree;
Says, I will fight for my good pack
Till day that I may see.
14 Then they fought there in good greenwood
Till they were bloody men;
The robber on his knees did fall,
Said, Merchant, hold your hand.
15 'An asking, asking,' said Jock the Leg,
'An asking ye'll grant me;'
'Ask on, ask on,' said the merry merchant,
'For men to asking are free.'
16 'I've dune little harm to you,' he said,
'More than you'd been my brother;
Give me a blast o my little wee horn,
And I'll give you another.'
17 'A blast o your little wee horn,' he said,
'Of this I take no doubt;
I hope you will take such a blast
Ere both your eyes fly out.'
18 He set his horn to his mouth,
And he blew loud and shrill,
And four-and-twenty bauld bowmen
Came Jock the Leg until.
19 'Ohon, alas!' said the merry merchant,
'Alas! and woe is me!
Sae many, a party o common theifs,
But nane to party me!
20 'Ye'll wile out six o your best bowmen,
Yourself the seventh to be,
And, put me one foot frae my pack,
My pack ye shall have free.'
21 He wiled six o his best bowmen,
Himslef the seventh to be,
But [him] frae his pack they couldna get,
For all that they could dee.
22 He's taen his pack into one hand,
His broadsword in the other,
And he slew five o the best bowmen,
And the sixth he has dung over.
23 Then all the rest they gae a shout,
As they stood by the tree;
Some said they would this merchant head,
Some said they'd let him be.
24 But Jock the Leg he then replied,
To this I'll not agree;
He is the boldest broadsword-man
That ever I fought wi.
25 'If ye could wield the bow, the bow
As ye can do the brand,
I would hae you to good greenwood,
To be my master's man.'
26 'Tho I could wield the bow, the bow
As I can do the brand,
I would not gang to good greenwood,
To join a robber-band.'
27 'O give me some of your fine linen,
To cleathe my men and me,
And ye'se hae some of my dun deers' skins,
Below yon greenwood-tree.'
28 'Ye'se hae nane o my fine linen,
To cleathe your men and thee,
And I'll hae nane o your stown deers' skins,
Below yon greenwood-tree.'
29 'Ye'll take your pack upon your back,
And travel by land or sea;
In brough or land, wherever we meet,
Good billies we shall be.'
30 'I'll take my pack upon my back,
And go by land or sea;
In brough or land, wherever we meet,
A rank theif I'll call thee.'