Old False Knight- Joseph J. MacSweeney (Dub) 1912
The Fause Knight upon the Road
by Joseph J. MacSweeney
The Modern Language Review, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Apr., 1917), pp. 203-205
THE FAUSE KNIGHT UPON THE ROAD
'The Fause Knight upon the Road' is the name of a ballad which was first printed by Motherwell in his Minstrelsy [1]. It was reprinted later by Child in his English and Scottish Ballads (Boston, 1864)[2], and in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston, 1882-98) [3].
Motherwell gave a version in the introduction to his Minstrelsy, and a fragment also was given in the appendix to the same work. In printing the ballad in his later collection Child added to these versions a fragment which he received from Mr Macmath, of Edinburgh[4]. The ballad, as we know it, is thus both scarce and incomplete; and it is interesting therefore that an Irish version should be found to exist. This version was probably known to an old woman of Irish birth who lived near Blarney in the County Cork. My immediate informant learnt it as a child some fifty years ago in that locality. The ballad is obviously fragmentary, and I try to offer in this note an explanation for the lack of the climax in the ballad as it is given. That it was otherwise known in Ireland is suggested by the fact that it possibly influenced a poem which was printed in Dublin in 1888, and which is called 'The False Baron of Bray .' The opening lines of this poem are:
'And where are we going ?' said the fair young child
To the false false Baron of Bray.
This poem which I quote seems to show the influence on it, of not only 'The Fause Knight upon the Road,' but also of the ballad of 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight [6].' The version of 'The Fause Knight upon the Road' which I record is, like all the known versions of this ballad, incomplete, for the last stanzas were not remembered, as is so very often the case. The traditional account of the climax is that the little child outwitted the false Knight, and forced him to reveal himself in his true character as the fiend. It is therefore possible that the latter was forced, on being known to the little child, to go away in a flame after the manner of his departure in some other cases. I here record the ballad as I heard it [7], though it would appear probable that the last two lines I quote belong to the fifth stanza, and that it is the last two lines of the latter stanza which should be left isolated.
1. 'Where are you going ?' says the old false knight,
To the pretty little child on the road;
'I am going to the school,' says the pretty little child
That was scarcely seven year old.
2. 'What have you on your back ?' says the old false knight,
To the pretty little child on the road;
'I have my books on my back,' says the pretty little child
That was scarcely seven year old.
3. 'What have you in your hand?' says the old false knight,
To the pretty little child on the road;
'A cut of bread and butter,' says the pretty little child
That was scarcely seven year old.
4. 'Will you give me a bite?' says the old false knight,
To the pretty little child on the road;
'No not a crumb,' says the pretty little child
That was scarcely seven year old.
5. 'Are you going down to Hell ?' said the old false knight,
To the pretty little child on the road;
'Who'll ring the bell ?' said the pretty little child
That was scarcely seven year old.
6. . . . .
. . . .
'You may go there yourself,' said the pretty little child
That was scarcely seven year old.
The absence of the climax in any of the recorded versions of this ballad is due to the fact that possibly the last stanzas refer to the fiend's departure when outwitted. There is precedent for the existence of such a climax, because the last lines of one of the versions of the ballad 'Riddles Wisely Expounded' [9] are as follows:
As sune as she the fiend did name,
He flew awa in a blazing flame.
'The Pause Knight upon the Road,' with such a climax, would have contained a 'naming' incident, which is of rare occurrence in English and Scottish ballad-lore[10].
The ballads 'Riddles Wisely Expounded,' 'The Elfin Knight,' 'The Fause Knight upon the Road,' and 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight[11],' all throw light on each other, and 'the fause Knight' has affinity with 'the Knight,' 'the Unco Knight,' 'the Elfin Knight,' and 'false Sir John' in these ballads. It would appear that in the ballad I quote 'the fause Knight' is the counterpart to Fin4 in 'Harpkin[12].' This latter would appear to be really a version of 'The Fause Knight upon the Road' which retains the influence of an early cycle of legend in which Fin is not yet displaced by the fiend.
Strands from this early type of ballad are interwoven into ballads of a later type such as 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship,' and 'Proud Lady Margaret.'
I do not desire to illustrate my version of 'the Fause Knight,' but merely to claim that it throws new light on the subject matter of the original ballad.
JOSEPH J. MACSWEENEY.
SUTTON, COUNTY DUBLIN.
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1 Motherwell, Minstrelsy, Introd. p. lxxiv ; Appendix, p. xxiv.
2 English and Scottish Ballads, Vol. vmII, p. 269 (Boston, 1864), ed. Child.
3 The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Vol. I, pp. 20-22 (5 Vols. Boston, 1882-
98), ed. Child.
4 lb., Vol. I, p. 485.
5 Poems and Ballads, p. 30 (Dublin, 1888, Gill and Son). Poem signed H. S
6. No. 4, in Child's later collection (Boston, 1882-98).
7 In 1912, from my immediate informant, my mother.
8 'bit' (also given).