Posthumous Poems/The Earl of Mar's Daughter

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

THE EARL OF MAR'S DAUGHTER

[It is doubtful whether this ballad has any right to be included among the original works of Swinburne, but it gives interesting evidence of the activity of his mind and of his attitude to the old poetry of the Border. The MS. was found with those of several other ballads, most of them published in the Third Series of Poems and Ballads (1889), and was probably written in 1862 or 1863. At first sight it seems like an attempt to re-compose from memory the well-known ballad of "Earl Mar's Daughter," which was originally published in 1828 by Peter Buchan in his Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland. The story is exactly identical, and the diction sometimes very close; for instance, the Allingham-Buchan version begins:—

"It was intill a pleasant time,
 Upon a simmers day,
The noble Earl Mar's daughter
 Went forth to sport and play.

And as she play'd and sported
 Below a green aik tree,
There she saw a sprightly doo
 Set on a branch sae hie,"

and so forth. But what a closer study of the MS. shows is that Swinburne, conscious of much that is vulgar and modern in Buchan's version, was setting himself the task of re-composing the ballad in language more severely archaic. This was actually done, to some extent, by William Allingham in the Ballad Book of 1864, and it is possible that Allingham's partial success induced Swinburne to lay aside his project. He was, however, far ahead of his time in perceiving that a loose roughness of texture was essential to the original form of every genuine Border ballad, and an examination of the MS. of the "Earl of Mar's Daughter" shows, by its innumerable alterations and reconsiderations of the text, that Swinburne laboured with the utmost courage and assiduity to recover the primitive diction and to remove what some one has called "the plague of marketable neatness" which disfigures the usual recast of a romantic ballad. Unfortunately, he did not in this case pursue his task to its conclusion.—E. G.]

It was intill a goodly time,
 The first morning in May,
The bonny Earl of Mar's daughter
 Went forth hersell to play.

She's tane her to the bonny birkenshaw
 Amang the fair green leaves;
There she saw a bonny doo
 Sat on the leaf o' the tree.

"O Coo-me-doo, my love sae true,
 Gin ye'll come down to me,
I'll gie ye a cage of good red gowd
 For a cage of greenshaw tree.

"Gowden hingers roun' your cage,
 And siller roun' your wa',
I'll gar ye shine as bonny a bird
 As the bonniest ower them a'."

She hadna weel these words spoken,
 Nor yet she hadna said,
Till Coo-me-doo flew frae the leaves
 And lighted on her head.

And she's tane hame this bonny bird,
 Brought him to bower and ha';
She's garred him shine the bonniest bird
 That was out ower them a'.

When day was gane and night was come
 In ae chamber they were that tide;
And there she saw a goodly young man
 Stood straight up at her side.

"How cam ye in my bower-chamber,
 For sair it marvels me,
For the bolts are made o' the good red gowd
 And the door-shafts of a good tree."

"O haud your tongue now, May Janet,
 And of your talking let me be;
Mind ye not on your turtle-doo
 That ye brought hame wi' ye?"

"O whatten a man are ye," she said,
 "Fu' sair this marvels me;
I doubt ye are some keen warlock
 That wons out ower the sea.

"O come ye here for ills?" she says,
 "Or come ye for my good?
I doubt ye are some strong warlock
 That wons out ower the flood."

"My mither is lady of strange landis
 Stand far out ower the sea;
She witched me to a birdie's shape
 For the love of your body.

"My mither is queen of the witch-landis
 Lie baith to north and south;
She witched me to a birdie's body
 For the love of your goodly mouth.

"She can well of witches' work,
 She maketh baith mirth and meen;
She witched me to a little bird's body
 For the love of your twa grey een.

"It was a' for your yellow hair
 That I cam ower the sea;
And it was a' for your bonny mouth
 I took sic weird on me."

"Coo-me-doo, my love sae true,
 Nae mair frae me ye'se gae.
The stanes shall fleet on the wan waters
 Before we twain be twey.

"O Coo-me-doo, my love sae true,
 It's time we were abed."
"O weel for you, my ain sweet thing,
 It's be as ye have said."

Then he's dwelt in her bower-chamber
 Fu' sax lang years and ane,
And seven fair sons she's borne to him,
 Fairer was there never nane.

The first bairn she's borne to him
 He's tane him ower the sea;
He's gien it to his auld mither,
 Bade well nourished it should be.

The seventh bairn she's borne to him,
 He's tane him frae his make;
He's gien it to his auld mither,
 Bade nourice it for his sake.

And he's dwelt in her bower-chamber
 Fu' six years thro' and three,
Till there is comen an auld grey knight
 Her wed-lord for to be;
She had nae will to his gowden gifts
 Nor wad she to his fee

*****

Out then spak the bonny bird,
 He heard what they did say;
Says: "Wae's be to you, ye auld grey man,
 For it's time I were away."

Then Coo-me-doo took flight and flew
 He flew out ower the sea;
He's lighted by his mither's castle-ha'
 On a tower of gold fu' hie.

*****