Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth Part 23

+The Story+ of the ballad is given in the two above-mentioned books from tradition as follows. Fair Helen, of the clan of Irving or Bell, favoured Adam Fleming (Fleeming) with her love; another suitor, whose name is said to have been Bell, was the choice of the lady's family and friends. The latter lover becoming jealous, concealed himself in the bushes of the banks of the Kirtle, which flows by the kirkyard of Kirconnell, where the true lovers were accustomed to walk. Being discovered lurking there by Helen, he levelled his carbine at Adam Fleming. Helen, however, threw herself into her lover's arms, and received the bullet intended for him: whereupon he slew his rival. He went abroad to Spain and fought against the infidels, but being still inconsolable, returned to Kirconnell, perished on Helen's grave, and was buried beside her. The tombstone, bearing a sword and a cross, with _Hic jacet Adamus Fleming_, is still (says Scott) shown in the churchyard of Kirconnell.

The Flemings were a family belonging to Kirkpatrick-Fleming, a parish in Dumfries which includes Kirconnell.

Wordsworth's version of the story includes the famous rhyme:--

'Proud Gordon cannot bear the thoughts That through his brain are travelling,-- And, starting up, to Bruce's heart He launch'd a deadly javelin!'

FAIR HELEN OF KIRCONNELL

1.

I wish I were where Helen lies, Night and day on me she cries, O that I were where Helen lies, On fair Kirconnell Lee!

2.

Curst be the heart that thought the thought, And curst the hand that fired the shot, When in my arms burd Helen dropt, And died to succour me.

3.

O think na ye my heart was sair, When my love dropt down and spak nae mair, There did she swoon wi' meikle care, On fair Kirconnell Lee.

4.

As I went down the water side, None but my foe to be my guide, None but my foe to be my guide, On fair Kirconnell Lee.

5.

I lighted down, my sword did draw, I hacked him in pieces sma', I hacked him in pieces sma', For her sake that died for me.

6.

O Helen fair, beyond compare, I'll make a garland of thy hair, Shall bind my heart for evermair, Untill the day I die.

7.

O that I were where Helen lies, Night and day on me she cries, Out of my bed she bids me rise, Says, 'Haste, and come to me!'

8.

O Helen fair! O Helen chaste!

If I were with thee I were blest, Where thou lies low, and takes thy rest On fair Kirconnell Lee.

9.

I wish my grave were growing green, A winding-sheet drawn ower my e'en And I in Helen's arms lying On fair Kirconnell Lee.

10.

I wish I were where Helen lies, Night and day on me she cries, And I am weary of the skies, For her sake that died for me.

SIR HUGH, OR THE JEW'S DAUGHTER

+The Text+ is given from Jamieson's _Popular Ballads_, as taken down by him from Mrs. Brown's recitation.

+The Story+ of the ballad is told at length in at least two ancient monastic records; in the _Annals of the Monastery of Waverley_, the first Cistercian house in England, near Farnham, Surrey (edited by Luard, vol. ii. p. 346, etc., from MS. Cotton Vesp, A. xvi. fol. 150, etc.); more fully in the _Annals of the Monastery at Burton-on-Trent_, Staffords.h.i.+re (edited by Luard, vol. i. pp. 340, etc., from MS. Cotton Vesp. E. iii. fol. 53, etc.). Both of these give the date as 1255, the latter adding July 31. Matthew Paris also tells the tale as a contemporary event. The details may be condensed as follows.

All the princ.i.p.al Jews in England being collected at the end of July 1255 at Lincoln, Hugh, a schoolboy, while playing with his companions (_jocis ac ch.o.r.eis_) was by them kidnapped, tortured, and finally crucified. His body was then thrown into a stream, but the water, _tantam sui Creatoris injuriam non ferens_, threw the corpse back on to the land. The Jews then buried it; but it was found next morning above-ground. Finally it was thrown into a well, which at once was lit up with so brilliant a light and so sweet an odour, that word went forth of a miracle. Christians came to see, discovered the body floating on the surface, and drew it up. Finding the hands and feet to be pierced, the head ringed with bleeding scratches, and the body otherwise wounded, it was at once clear to all _tanti sceleris auctores detestandos fuisse Judaeos_, eighteen of whom were subsequently hanged.

Other details may be gleaned from various accounts. The name of the Jew into whose house the boy was taken is given as Copin or Jopin. Hugh was eight or nine years old. Matthew Paris adds the circ.u.mstance of Hugh's mother (Beatrice by name) seeking and finding him.

The original story has obviously become contaminated with others (such as Chaucer's _Prioresses Tale_) in the course of six hundred and fifty years. But the central theme, the murder of a child by the Jews, is itself of great antiquity; and similar charges are on record in Europe even in the nineteenth century. Further material for the study of this ballad may be found in Francisque Michel's _Hugh de Lincoln_ (1839), and J. O. Halliwell [-Phillipps]'s _Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln_ (1849).

Percy in the _Reliques_ (1765), vol. i. p. 32, says:-- 'If we consider, on the one hand, the ignorance and superst.i.tion of the times when such stories took their rise, the virulent prejudices of the monks who record them, and the eagerness with which they would be catched up by the barbarous populace as a pretence for plunder; on the other hand, the great danger incurred by the perpetrators, and the inadequate motives they could have to excite them to a crime of so much horror, we may reasonably conclude the whole charge to be groundless and malicious.'

The tune 'as sung by the late Mrs. Sheridan' may be found in John Stafford Smith's _Musica Antiqua_ (1812), vol. i. p. 65, and Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, tune No. 7.

SIR HUGH, OR THE JEW'S DAUGHTER

1.

Four and twenty bonny boys Were playing at the ba', And by it came him sweet Sir Hugh, And he play'd o'er them a'.

2.

He kick'd the ba' with his right foot, And catch'd it wi' his knee, And throuch-and-thro' the Jew's window He gard the bonny ba' flee.

3.

He's doen him to the Jew's castell, And walk'd it round about; And there he saw the Jew's daughter, At the window looking out.

4.

'Throw down the ba', ye Jew's daughter, Throw down the ba' to me!'

'Never a bit,' says the Jew's daughter, 'Till up to me come ye.'

5.

'How will I come up? How can I come up?

How can I come to thee?

For as ye did to my auld father, The same ye'll do to me.'

6.

She's gane till her father's garden, And pu'd an apple red and green; 'Twas a' to wyle him sweet Sir Hugh, And to entice him in.

7.

She's led him in through ae dark door, And sae has she thro' nine; She's laid him on a dressing-table, And stickit him like a swine.

8.

And first came out the thick, thick blood, And syne came out the thin, And syne came out the bonny heart's blood; There was nae mair within.

9.

She's row'd him in a cake o' lead, Bade him lie still and sleep; She's thrown him in Our Lady's draw-well, Was fifty fathom deep.

10.

When bells were rung, and ma.s.s was sung, And a' the bairns came hame, When every lady gat hame her son, The Lady Maisry gat nane.