Recordings & Info 213A. Sir James the Ross
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Traditional Ballad Index: Sir James the Ross
DESCRIPTION: Matilda's father wants her to marry John Graham rather than James Ross. James kills John's brother and hides with Matilda while she sends her page to raise John's men. The page betrays James to John Graham. James is killed and Matilda commits suicide.
AUTHOR: Michael Bruce?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1825 (Buchan)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: "Of all the Scottish northern chiefs... The bravest was Sir James the Rose." He leads 500 warriors. He loves Matilda, daughter of "Buchan's cruel lord," who prefers that she wed Sir John the Graham. John's brother Donald spies on James and Matilda and hears her say "the grave shall be my bridal bed If Graham my husband be." Donald confronts James and is killed. He tells Matilda he has killed Donald and must hide because his own men are "far far distant." He plans to go to raise his men but she convinces him to hide and send a page to raise his men. The page meets Graham and twenty of his men and tells where James is hiding. James fights bravely. Matilda pleas for his life but he is mortally wounded. She kills herself on James's sword. With his dying effort James kills Graham.
KEYWORDS: love death suicide betrayal revenge hiding brother father
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Greig #39, pp. 1-3, "Sir James the Rose" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
GreigDuncan2 235, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "Sir James the Rose" (16 texts, many very short, 14 tunes) {A=Bronson's #7, C=#4, D=#3, E=#5, F=#11, G=#12, I=#1, J=#13, K=#10, L=#8, M=#20, N=#19; most of these have no text or only a few lines}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 284-291, "Sir James the Ross" (1 text from manuscript)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 147-154, "Sir James, the Rose" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 239-254, "Sir James the Ross" (3 texts, 1 tune; of the three texts, "C" is short, while "A" is based on penciled changed George Edwards wrote in the margin of BarryEckstormSmyth) {Bronson's #25}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 75-79, "Sir James the Ross" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #27, 26}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 23-25, "Sir James the Ross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 7, "Sir James the Ross" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 715-719, "Sir James the Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 18, "Sir James the Ross" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Mackenzie 11, "Sir James the Rose" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
DT 213, JAMEROSE
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads (London, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 11-18, "Sir James the Rose (Modern Way)"
Roud #2274
RECORDINGS:
Peter Ryan, "Sir James the Rose" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(50), "Tragedy of Sir James the Rose," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1869; also RB.m.143(157), "Sir James the Ross"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Child Maurice" [Child 83] (tune)
cf. "Sir James the Rose" [Child 213] (general plot)
NOTES: Child has only one version of 213 ("O heard ye of Sir James the Rose") but acknowledges a different ballad: "'Sir James the Ross, A Historical Ballad' (sometimes called 'The Buchanshire Tragedy'), was composed by the youthful Michael Bruce (1767) upon the story of the popular ballad, and has perhaps enjoyed more favor with 'the general' than the original." Coffin, _The British Traditional Ballad in North America_ (Philadelphia, 1950), pp. 128-129: "The Child 'Sir James the Rose' ballad is not in America. The American texts [including Pound's from Nebraska] are highly sophisticated and based on 'Sir James the Ross,' a song Child, IV, 156 thought to have been composed by Michael Bruce [disputed by Coffin citing Barry citing Keith 'that Michael Bruce is mistakenly considered the composer....']." Mackenzie regarding his two versions: "[They] represent 'Sir James the Ross,' an unacknowledged adaptation by Michael Bruce, of the old Scottish ballad 'Sir James the Rose' (Child, No. 213)." Confirming Coffin's observation, Karpeles-Newfoundland, Peacock, Creighton-SNewBrunswick, and Creighton-Maritime all are derived from the same text as MacKenzie's.
Greig: "The version now generally known and sung is the one we give. Its composition is credited to Michael Bruce (1746-1767), the author of the well-known 'Ode to the Cuckoo.'"
GreigDuncan2: "Greig does not give his source for the 53-stanza text he prints and, as it may have been a collated text rather than a version from tradition, it is not included here; it resembles A and B."
Greig's text follows Buchan with a few word and punctuation changes. Buchan's text is twenty-six and a half 8-line verses; Greig's is 53 4-line verses. - BS
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Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads- Peter Buchan 1825: with explanatory notes: [Buchan's text is Bruce's original version published in 1774.]
Sir James the Rose, (modern way.)
This is one of the most beautiful ballads that I know. It is also called the Buchanshire Tragedy, and said to have been written by Michael Bruce, a young man of great poetical abilities, who died in a consumption in the 21st year of his age. A copy of this ballad appeared in the Annual Register in the year 1776, which, with the copy in his own poems, differ considerably from every other that I have seen, and some even prior to the earliest edition of his works. In an old collection of ballads, I have found one called Elfrida and Sir James of Perth, which resemble it very much; and, I have every reason to think it is the older of the two, although they both include in their historical part, some of the circumstances that befall the heroes of the poems at the memorable battle of Flodden-field, where Scotland lost her king and the flower of her nobility.
At the Abbey of Deer, about ten miles from Peterhead, is still pointed out to the curious, the trysting thorn; or, in other words, the blooming saugh-tree on the bank of the burn, where these youthful lovers, the brave Sir James the Rose, and and Matilda, lord Buchan's beautiful daughter, were wont to meet to tell their tender tales.
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