FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43  
44   45   >>  
der a large amount of ablution essential to health, comfort, or agreeableness to others. If any of your readers should feel curious about the characters of the wearers of these several skins, they must inquire of Lavater and his disciples. D.V.S. Home, April 1. 1850. * * * * * BALLAD OF DICK AND THE DEVIL. Looking over some of your back numbers, I find (No. 11. p. 172.) an inquiry concerning a ballad with this title. I have never met with it in print, but remember some lines picked up in nursery days from an old nurse who was a native of "the dales." These I think have probably formed a part of this composition. The woman's name was curiously enough Martha Kendal; and, in all probability, her forebears had migrated from that place into Yorkshire:-- "Robin a devil he sware a vow. He swore by the _sticks_[2] in hell-- By the _yelding_ that crackles to mak the _low_[3], That warms his _namsack_[4] weel. "He _leaped_ on his beast, and he rode with heaste, To _mak_ his black oath good; 'Twas the Lord's Day, and the folk did pray And the priest in _can_cel stood. "The door was wide, and in does he ride, In his clanking _gear_ so gay; A long keen brand he held in his hand, Our Dickon for to slay. "But Dickon goodhap he was not there, And Robin he rode in vain, And the men got up that were kneeling in prayer, To take him by might and main. "Rob swung his sword, his steed he spurred, He plunged right through the thr_a_ng. But the stout smith Jock, with his old mother's _crutch_[5], He gave him a _woundy_ bang. "So hard he smote the iron pot, It came down plume and all; Then with bare head away Robin sped, And himself was _fit_ to fall. "Robin a devil he _way'd_[6] him home, And if for his foes he seek, I think that again he will not come To _late_[7] them in Kendal kirk."[8] Y.A.C. [2] The unlettered bard has probably confused "styx" with the kindling, "yelding," of hell-fire. [3] Flame. [4] I have often wondered what namsac (so pronounced) could be, but since I have seen the story as told by "H.J.M." it is evidently "namesake." [5] Probably crook in the original, to rhyme with Jock. [6] "I way'd me" is yet used in parts of Yorkshire for "I went." [7] "To late" is "to seek;" from _lateo_, as if by a confusion of hiding a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43  
44   45   >>  



Top keywords:

Yorkshire

 

Dickon

 

yelding

 

Kendal

 

original

 

spurred

 
plunged
 

mother

 

crutch

 
evidently

Probably

 

namesake

 

confusion

 

hiding

 
goodhap
 

prayer

 
kneeling
 

woundy

 

wondered

 

pronounced


namsac
 

unlettered

 

kindling

 

confused

 

inquiry

 
ballad
 

numbers

 

agreeableness

 

nursery

 

native


comfort

 

picked

 

remember

 

Looking

 

Lavater

 
inquire
 

wearers

 
curious
 

readers

 

characters


disciples

 
BALLAD
 

heaste

 

namsack

 

leaped

 

clanking

 
priest
 

probability

 
Martha
 
forebears