English & Other Versions 108. Christopher White
CONTENTS:
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From: Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript By John W. Hales, Thomas Percy
Christop[h]er White
We know of no other copy of this ballad.
A wealthy merchant—a burgess of four towns, one of them Edinburgh—-makes love to the sweetheart of Christopher White, during Christopher’s banishment. She hesitates; she has found Christopher White good company; she warns the man of business that, if she is false to her old love, she cannot be true to him. But he still urges his suit, and at last
The Lady she took ‘his’ gold in her hand,
The tears they fell fast from her eyes;
Says, ‘Silver & gold makes my heart to turn,
And makes me leave good company.’
The honey-moon, and two or three other moons over, “ the merchants are ordered to sea” to serve against Spain (see vv. 40, 68). Such an employment of mercantile-navy was not unfrequent in the later middle ages, and if discontinued, may not have been forgotten at the time this ballad was written (see Pictures of English Life, Chaucer, p. 233). Or possibly “ that all the merchants must to the sea ” may mean only that the convoy was ready to accompany them, and they must at once put themselves under its protection. In any case, whether by his own business, or that of the State, the merchant was called away from his bride. When he returns, he finds her gone off to England with the companionable Christopher (who has managed to get pardoned) and his own spoons and plate and silver and gold. The excellent man protests he cares nothing for the missing goods and chattels; but for his “likesome lady” he mourns; yet confesses ingenuously that she warned him when he wooed her, that
If he were false to Christopher White,
She would never be true to me.
And so aptly follows the moral:
All young women, a warning take,
A warning, look, you take by me;
Look that you love your old loves best,
For in faith they are best company.