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FAIR HELEN OF KIRCONNELL. 209 |
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a cross and sword are sculptured on the stone. The former is called by the country people, the gun with which Helen was murdered; and the latter the avenging sword of her lover. Sit Mis terra levis ! A heap of stones is raised on the spot where the murder was committed; a token of abhorrence common to most nations." Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 98.
Versions of the Second Part, (which alone deserves notice,) nearly agreeing with Scott's, are given in the Illustrations to the new edition of Johnson's Museum, p. 143, by Mr. Stenhouse, p. 210, by Mr. Sharpe. Inferior and fragmentary ones in Herd's Scottish Songs, i. 257; Johnson's Museum, 163 ; Bitson's Scottish Song, i. 145; Jamieson's Popular Ballads, i. 203.
FAIR HELEN.
PART F1BST.
0 ! sweetest sweet, and fairest fair, Of birth and worth beyond compare, Thou art the causer of my care, Since first I loved thee.
Yet God hath given to me a mind, a
The which to thee shall prove as kind As any one that thou shalt find, Of high or low degree.
The shallowest water makes maist din, The deadest pool the deepest linn; 10
The richest man least truth within, Though he preferred be. VOL. II. 14 |
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