THE HEIR OF LYNNE
From Percy's Folio Manuscript. There is a cognate Greek epigram--
[Greek text which cannot be reproduced]
GORDON OF BRACKLEY
This, though probably not the most authentic, is decidedly the most
pleasing version; it is from Mackay's collection, perhaps from his
pen.
EDWARD
Percy got this piece from Lord Hailes, with pseudo-antiquated
spelling. Mr. Swinburne has published a parallel ballad "From the
Finnish." There are a number of parallel ballads on Cruel
Brothers, and Cruel Sisters, such as Son Davie, which may be
compared. Fratricides and unconscious incests were motives dear to
popular poetry.
YOUNG BENJIE
From the Border Minstrelsy. That corpses MIGHT begin to "thraw,"
if carelessly watched, was a prevalent superstition. Scott gives
an example: the following may be added, as less well known. The
watchers had left the corpse alone, and were dining in the
adjoining room, when a terrible noise was heard in the chamber of
death. None dared enter; the minister was sent for, and passed
into the room. He emerged, asked for a pair of tongs, and
returned, bearing in the tongs A BLOODY GLOVE, and the noise
ceased. He always declined to say what he had witnessed.
Ministers were exorcists in the last century, and the father of
James Thomson, the poet, died suddenly in an interview with a
guest, in a haunted house. The house was pulled down, as being
uninhabitable.
AULD MAITLAND
From The Border Minstrelsy.
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