Upon this particular ballad, I have found no variations, but for the ballad beginning, "As I went to Walsingham,' I have several variants. In the Pepys Collection (I, 226) and in Percy's Reliques (I, 312) we have practically the same words, as follows: "As I went to Walsingham, Met I with a jolly palmer In a pilgrimes weede. Now God save you, you jolly palmer; Oft have I sued to thee for love'; Oft have I said you nay." These two stanzas of the ballad and the tune are used in Act I of "Mr. Attowell's Jigge" (Atwell, d. 1621): betweene Francis, a gentleman; Richard, a farmer; and their wives. In this jig, the first stanza quoted above is sung by Francis, who has come to woo Richard's wife. The first line of the second stanza is sung by the Farmer's wife, Bess. Francis is given the next two lines of the stanza and Bess, the last. The farce proceeds, and Francis arranges a secret meeting with Bess, who deceives him by substituting Francis' own wife. In the end Francis discovers how he has been duped, but the matter is cleared up to the mutual satisfaction of the two families. The jig is interesting as containing the substitute motive employed by Shakespeare in Measure for Measure and All's 62 Folio MS. (1868) III, 526; in Edwin and Emma, Goldsmith paraphrases three stanzas of this ballad. Shirburn Ballads, (ed. Clarke) p. 244. Well That Ends Well; and, also, as showing how a more or less religious tune is turned to purposes of farce. Quite as interesting is a variation of the words in a ballad entitled the Maid of Tottenham. The first stanza runs: "As I went to Tottenham Upon a Market-day, There met I with a faire maid This ballad continues for nine stanzas and relates a coarse incident. There is also a series of ballads, beginning "As you came from Walsingham." One of these occurs in the works of Thos. Deloney; the first stanza runs: "As you came from the holy land of Walsingham, Met you not with my true love, by the way as you came? How should I know your true love, As I came from the holy land, that This ballad, with slight variations, is given by Bishop Percy. (Folio MS, 1868, III, 471 ff). The first two lines are varied in Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, as follows: "As you came from Walsingham From the holy land, There met you my true love By the way as you came?" It also occurs in Hans Beerpot, his invisible comedy (1618), and is parodied as follows in Randalls, a Welshman's Watch at Midnight: Ebsworth, Drolleries. Deloney, Works, (ed. Mann, 1912) p. 365. Cf. also Percy Society XXX, 111 ff. "Did hur not see hur true loves 67 Shakespeare has Ophelia sing part of one of the Walsingham ballads of this type. In the Black Man, a jig, occurs the following interesting variation of the first stanza: (Enter Thumpkin) Thump. "As ye came from Walsingham, Gent. (Aside) Truly, aged Father, No. (11.46-49.) 68 In The Weakest Goeth to the Wall (1600), is a stanza which has a variant of the Walsingham ballads. The first two lines are: "King Richard's gone to Walsingham to the Holy Land, To kill Turk and Saracen, that the truth do withstand, etc." The tune of Walsingham was evidently very popular, and was even taught to singing birds: In Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune, a servant says, "When he brings in a prize, unless it be cockles, or callis sand to scoure with, Ile renounce my five mark a year, and all the hidden art I have in carving to teach young birds to whistle Walsingham." A character in Dryden's Limberham, says, "And her father, the famous cobbler, who taught Walsingham to the Blackbirds." Cf. Deloney, Works, p. 580. this ballad in the Percy Folio. There is an interesting imitation of Came yee not from Newcastle, Met yee not my true love ryding on a bony bay? (I, 253-4.) Hamlet IV, V, 23-6— quoted above; Cf. D. G. Rossetti, An Old Song Ended, in which he completes the pilgrim song begun by Ophelia. Die Singspiele der englischen Komoedianten, etc., von Johannes Bolte. (Hamburg and Leipzig, 1893.) p. 87 ff. Chappell, Old Eng. Popular Music, p. 70. Don Quixote (Tr. Phillips, 1687, p. 278), is the following reference, "An infinite number of little birds, with painted wings of various colors-all naturally singing Walsingham. 1970 One of the "Psalmes and Songs of Sion," turned into the language, and set to the tunes of a strange land (1642) is to the tune of Walsingham. Osborne, (Traditional Memoirs, etc. 1653), referring to the Earl of Salisbury, says, "Many a hornpipe he tuned to his Phillis, And sweetly sung Walsingham to 's Amaryllis." The following stanza from an Elizabethan ballad entitled "A Lament to Walsingham" forms an appropriate conclusion to this study: "Sinne is where our Lady sate, Heaven turned is to helle; Sathan sit where our Lord did swaye Walsingham, Oh, farewell." TQ'td from Chappell, Old Eng. Popular Music, I, 70ff. NOTES ON TRANSLATING HEINE* BY LEONARD DOUGHTY Part II (Concluded) I have given way (once at least!) to the literal rendering, to reproduce the identical fancy of the poem, though a better English stanza than I have retained can be made by the slightest paraphrase,-in the last-stanza-but-one of the poem I name, "I Dreamed a False Sweet Dream," making it begin, Beside us grew a lovely lily blossom Gently I plucked and laid it on her breast. But the original is, Ich glaub', am Ende brach ich eine Lillie, (I think-at last I plucked a lily blossom, "I think"-with what pathos and heart-touching meaning the sad and fatal dying out of the dream is here in a phrase exhibited; and so on to the stark and deathly ending --Denn ich erwachte jahlings (And then-I was awake!) The same fancy, "I think,"-is used at the end of "The Lorelei," with what different application! In the last stanza of the poem, "The Riddle," which is *This is the concluding portion of the article, the first part of which appeared in the April Review. The conclusion of the series of verses referred to in the article appears in another part of this number. (Editor Texas Review.) |