XI.

WALY WALY, LOVE BE BONNY.

A SCOTTISH SONG.

This is a very ancient song, but we could only give it from a modern copy. Some editions instead of the four last lines in the second stanza have these, which have too much merit to be wholly suppressed:

"Whan cockle shells turn siller bells, And muscles grow on every tree, When frost and snaw sall warm us aw', Than sall my love prove true to me."

See the _Orpheus Caledonius, &c._

Arthur's-seat mentioned in ver. 17, is a hill near Edinborough; near the bottom of which is St. Anthony's well.

* * * * *

[There has been considerable difference of opinion among ballad collectors relative to this beautiful song. Some suppose it to be a portion of the ballad entitled _Lord Jamie Douglas_, which relates to James Douglas, second Marquis of Douglas, who married Lady Barbara Erskine, eldest daughter of John, ninth Earl of Mar, on the seventh of September, 1670, and afterwards repudiated her on account of a false accusation of adultery made against her by Lowrie, laird of Blackwood. Prof. Aytoun, however, believes that certain verses of _Waly Waly_ have wrongly been mixed up with _Lord Jamie Douglas_. There is very little doubt that the song was in existence long before 1670, and it also appears to be the lamentation of a forsaken girl rather than of a wife. Mr. Stenhouse and others considered it to belong to the age of Queen Mary and to refer to some affair at Court. Aytoun writes, "there is also evidence that it was composed before 1566, for there is extant a MS. of that year in which some of the lines are transcribed," but Mr. Maidment gives the following opinion--"that the ballad is of ancient date is undoubted, but we are not quite prepared to admit that it goes back as far as 1566, the date of the manuscript transcribed by Thomas Wode from an ancient church music book compiled by Dean John Angus, Andrew Blackhall, and others, in which it said the first [second] stanza is thus parodied:--

Hey trollie lollie, love is jollie, A quhile, quhil itt is new Quhen it is old, it grows full cold, Wae worth the love untrue.

Never having had access to the MS., we may be permitted to remark that the phraseology of the burlesque is not exactly that of the reign of Queen Mary" (_Scottish Ballads and Songs_, 1868, vol. ii. p. 49.)

Allan Ramsay was the first to publish the song, and he marked it as ancient.

"When cockle shells turn silver bells, When wine drieps red frae ilka tree, When frost and snaw will warm us a' Then I'll cum down and dine wi' thee,"

is the fourth stanza of _Jamie Douglas_, printed by John Finlay, in his _Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads_ (vol. ii.)]

* * * * *

O waly[382] waly up the bank, And waly waly down the brae, And waly waly yon burn side, Where I and my love wer wont to gae. I leant my back unto an aik, 5 I thought it was a trusty tree; But first it bow'd, and syne it brak, Sae my true love did lichtly me.

O waly, waly, gin love be bonny, A little time while it is new; 10 But when its auld, it waxeth cauld, And fades awa' like morning dew. O wherfore shuld I busk my head? Or wherfore shuld I kame my hair? For my true love has me forsook, 15 And says he'll never loe me mair.

Now Arthur-seat sall be my bed, The sheets shall neir be fyl'd[383] by me: Saint Anton's well sall be my drink, Since my true love has forsaken me. 20 Marti'mas wind, when wilt thou blaw, And shake the green leaves aff the tree? O gentle death, whan wilt thou cum? For of my life I am wearìe.

Tis not the frost, that freezes fell, 25 Nor blawing snaws inclemencìe; 'Tis not sic cauld, that makes me cry, But my loves heart grown cauld to me. When we came in by Glasgowe town, We were a comely sight to see, 30 My love was cled in black velvet, And I my-sell in cramasie.[384]

But had I wist, before I kisst, That love had been sae ill to win; I had lockt my heart in a case of gowd, 35 And pinnd it with a siller pin. And, oh! if my young babe were born, And set upon the nurses knee, And I my sell were dead and gane! For a maid again Ise never be. 40

FOOTNOTES:

[382] [interjection of lamentation.]

[383] [defiled.]

[384] [crimson.]