Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish ballads

202
THE GAY GOSS HAWK.
O waly, waly, my gay goss hawk,
Gin your feathering be sheen I"
" O will ye stay at hame, Ellen,
And sew your silver seam ?
Or will ye to the rank Highlands ?
For my lands lie far frae hame."
" I winna stay at hame. Lord Thomas,
And sew my silver seam ;
But I'll gae to the rank Highlands,
Though your lands lie far frae hame."
A much greater liberty has been taken in the final stanza. It is altered,
for the sake of an agreeable cadence at the conclusion, from the following
verse of Mr Buchan's copy :
" There is not here a woman living
But her, shall be my bride ;
And all is for the fair speeches
I got frae her at Clyde."
This violation of the original may appear somewhat daring. Yet it is sanc-
tioned by the respectable example of Mr Jamieson, who has added three
new stanzas to the conclusion of his copy, for the purpose of giving a tra-
gical turn to the loves of Lord John and Burd Ellen ; she dying in his arms,
immediately after he has broke into the stable. Since a former editor had
ventured upon adding three stanzas to alter the catastrophe, I judged that
I might, without much fear, alter one, to smooth away the abruptness of
the genuine conclusion. Mr Jamieson's addition is subjoined :
She heaved up her drcopin head ;
O but her face was wan !
And the smile upon her wallowed lip
Wad melted heart o' stane.
'• O blessings on thy couth. Lord John !
Weels me to see this day !
For muckle hae I done and dree'd ;
But weel does this repay !
And Oh, be to ray bairnie kind.
As I hae loved thee" —
Back in his trembling arms she sank.
And cauld death closed her ee.
I believe woman's love— that " lovely and fearful thing," as a great poet
finely terms it — has seldom found in man an appreciation or a reward
worthy of its unspeakable tenderness and infinite fidelity ; and I am dispo-
sed to think, with Mr Jamieson, that woe and death are, upon the whole,
its more probable issue than almost any other fate. Yet, in the present
case, as all the complete known editions of the ballad concurred in repre-
senting it as at length finding its merit recognised in Burd Helen, I have
thought it a preferable course to retain the usual conclusion; only taking
the small liberty above specified.