Outlandish Knight- (Newcas) 1847 Sheldon
[From: "The Minstrelsy of the English Border: Being a Collection of Ballads, Ancient ..." by Frederick Sheldon, 1847. See the review of Sheldon's book (esp. Outlandish Knight) in Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine - Volume 61 - page 635, 1847.
Sheldon's notes follow,
R. Matteson 2018]
The Outlandish Knight.
A Border Ballad.
THIS Ballad I have copied from a broad sheet in the possession of a gentleman of Newcastle; it has also been published in "Richardson's Table Book." The verses with inverted commas I added at the suggestion of a friend, as it was thought the Knight was not rendered sufficiently odious without this new trait of his dishonour. There is in Monk Lewis's Tales of Wonder, a translation from a German Ballad, on the same subject or nearly so; for the Knight goes to church, and meeting with a lovely mayden,
Hejkipped o'er benches one or two,
"Oh lovely maid, I die for you;"
Hejkipped o'er benches two or three,
"Oh lovely maid, come walk with me.'1
The maiden complies; but it appears the Knight proves to be a " most persidious monster," as Trinculo says of Caliban, for he entices the pretty maid to cross the river in a boat, and when in the centre of the stream he sinks with his prey into the waves. Campbell's well known Ballad of " Lord Ullin's Daughter," is on the same subject.
Who the author of the " Outlandish Knight" was, I have no means of discovering, as it is one of those Ballads that pass down the stream of time unclaimed, and whose authorship is left for the antiquary to discover.
1. AN Outlandish Knight from the north lands came,
And he came a wooing to me;
He told me he'd take me to the north lands,
And I should his fair bride be.
A broad, broad shield did this stranger wield,
Whereon did the red cross shine;
Yet never, I ween, had that strange Knight been
In the fields of Palestine.
And out and spoke the stranger Knight,
This Knight of the strange countrie;
"O mayden fayr, with the raven hayre,
Thou shalt at my bidding be.
"Thy sire he is from home, ladye,
For he hath a journey gone;
And his shaggy blood-hound is sleeping sound
Beside the postern stone.
"Go bring me some of thy father's gold,
And some of thy mother's fee;
And steeds twain of the best, that in the stalls rest,
Where they stand thirty and three."
She mounted her on her milk white steed,
And he on a dapple grey,
And they forward did ride till they reached the sea side,
Three hours before it was day.
Then out and spoke this stranger Knight,
This Knight of the north countrie;
"O mayden fayr, with the raven hayre,
Do thou at my bidding be.
"Alight thee from thy mylk white steed,
And deliver it unto me;
Six maids have I drowned where the billows sound,
And the seventh one shalt thou be.
"But first pull off thy kirtle fine,
And deliver it unto me;
Thy kirtle of green Is too rich, I ween,
To rot in the salt, salt sea.
"Pull off, pull off, thy silken shoon,
And deliver them unto me;
Methinks they are too fine and gay,
To rot in'the salt, salt sea.
"Pull off, pull off thy bonny green plaid,
That floats in the breeze so free,
It is woven fine with the silver twine,
And comely it is to see."
"If I must pull off my bonny silk plaid,
O turn thy back to me,
And gaze on the sun, which has just begun
To peer owre the salt, salt sea."
"Thou art too shameful, fayr maid," he said,
"To wanton so with me;
I've seen thee in thy holland smock,
And all to pleasure me."
"If thou hast seen me in my smock,
The more shame thee betide;
It better beseem'd that tongue not tell,
But rather my sinne to hide.
"Who ever tempted weak woman
Unto a deede of evil;
To tempt the first and then to twit,
Beseemeth but the deyvil."
He turned his back on the fayr damselle,
And looked upon the beam;
She graspt him tight with her arms so white,
And plunged him in the streme.
The streme it rushed, and the Knight he roar'd,
And long with the waters strave;
The water kelpies laughed with joy,
As they sinoored him in the wave.
"Lie there, lie there, thou false hearted Knight,
Lie there instead of me;
Six damsels fayr thou hast drowned there,
But the seventh has drowned thee."
The ocean wave was the false one's grave,
For he sunk right haftily;
Tho' with bubbling voice he pray'd to his faint,
And utter'd an Ave Marie.
________________
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 61 - Page 635
1847
A review of Sheldon's Outlandish Knight:
We next come to a ballad entitled “The Outlandish Knight,” whereof Mr Sheldon gives us the following history. “This ballad I have copied from a broadsheet, in the possession of a gentleman of Newcastle; it has also been published in 'Richardson's Table Book.' The verses with inverted commas, I added at the suggestion of a friend, as it was thought that the IXnight was not rendered sufficiently odious, without this new trait of his dishonour.”
So far well; but Mr Sheldon ought, at the same time, to have had the candour to tell us the source from which he pilfered those verses. His belief in the ignorance and gullibility of the public must indeed be unbounded, if he expected to pass off without discovery a vamped version of “May Collean.” That fine ballad is to be found in the collections of Herd, Sharpe, Motherwell, and Chambers; and seldom, indeed, have we met with a case of more palpable cribbage, as the following specimen will demonstrate:
[gives a few stanzas of each]
MAY COLLEAN. OUTLANDISH KNIGHT
This, it must be acknowledged, is, to use the mildest phrase, an instance of remarkable coincidence.
Notwithstanding the glibness of his preface, and the scraps of antique information which he is constantly parading, Mr Sheldon absolutely knows less about ballad poetry than any writer who has yet approached the subject. As an editor, he was in duty bound to have looked over former collections, and to have ascertained the originality of the wares which he now proffers for our acceptance. He does not seem, however, to have read through any one compilation of the Scottish ballads, and is perpetually betraying his ignorance.