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CLERK SAUNDERS. |
319 |
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concluding stanzas (v. 107-130) have a strong resemblance to the beginning and end of Proud Lady Margaret (vol. viii. 83, 278), which ballad is itself in a corrupt condition. It may also be doubted whether the fragments Jamieson speaks of did not belong to a ballad resembling Lady Maisry, p. 78 of this volume.
Accepting the ballad as it stands here, there is certainly likeness enough in the first part to suggest a community of origin with the Swedish ballad Den Grymma Brodern, Soenska Folk-Visor, No. 86 (translated in Lit. and Rom. of Northern Europe, p. 261). W. Grimm mentions (Altdcin. Heldenl., p. 519) a Spanish ballad, De la Blanca Nina, in the Romancero de Amberes, in which the similarity to Den Grymma Brodern is very striking. The series of questions (v. 30-62) sometimes appears apart from the story, and with a comic turn, as in Del Hurtige Svar, Danske V., No. 204, or Thore och hans Syster, Arwidsson, i. 358. In this shape they closely resemble the familiar old song, Our gudeman came hame at e'en, Herd, Scottish Songs, ii. 74. |
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Clerk Saunders was an earl's son,
He liv'd upon sea-sand; May Margaret was a king's daughter,
She liv'd in upper land.
Clerk Saunders was an earl's son, «
Weel learned at the scheel; May Margaret was a king's daughter j
They baith lo'ed ither weel. |
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