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 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS 
 
 BY 
 
 GEOEGE CLINTON DENSMOKE ODELL, A.M. 
 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 1890 '^ 
 
 DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIRE- 
 MENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN 
 THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1892
 
 PEEFATOET NOTE. 
 
 The edition of the ballads used in the preparation of this 
 essay is the well-known collection of Professor Francis J. Child, 
 of Harvard University. This collection, entitled " English and 
 Scottish Popular Ballads," was published in Boston in 1857-58, 
 and contains in its eight generous volumes all the material 
 needed for a paper of the present scope. The early edition of 
 Professor Child, for various reasons, was used in preference to 
 the new and somewhat larger edition which is just completed 
 and which will surely become the abiding monument of bal- 
 lad literature. In the first place, the new edition was unfin- 
 ished until the bulk of the essay was in final form, and, more 
 important still, that edition with its complicated system of in- 
 cluding all ballads of the same nature under one general head 
 paved the way to certain difiiculties which, in the matter of 
 reference, would inevitably lead to confusion. In view of this 
 fact, it seemed permissible to use the older yet by no means 
 unsatisfactory edition of 1857-58. The ballads in this early 
 collection taken from Percy's Reliques, I have carefully col- 
 lated with the reprint of the Percy Folio MS., and none of the 
 learned bishop's interpolations have been allowed to stand 
 among the figures quoted in the essay. The titles of the bal- 
 lads mentioned in the text that follows, except in the few cases 
 where specific reference is made to the Percy Folio MS., are 
 given as they occur in the older Child edition, and the figures 
 appended to the title in each instance refer, respectively, to the 
 line of the poem, and tlie volume and the page of that edition. 
 
 The various ballad collections of Percy, Ritson, Scott, Moth- 
 erwell, Aytoun, etc., as well as the numerous magazine articles 
 on this favourite topic have been examined, and whatever could
 
 4 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 throw light on puzzling questions has been freely borrowed 
 from such sources. The indebtedness will be so very apparent 
 to all lovers of poetry that it may pass with the acknowledg- 
 ment here given ; for without the labours of these patient col- 
 lectors, English literature would still lack what has proved to 
 be one of its most interesting and fruitful branches.
 
 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 
 
 THE PUEPOSE OF THE ESSAY. 
 
 The amount of criticism that has been bestowed on the Eng- 
 hsh and Scotch popular songs is already so great that some 
 apology seems necessary by way of prelude to a new essay. 
 These songs have been treated in many ways and from many 
 points of view. Critics have disputed concerning their origin, 
 and antiquarians have battled over the question of their age ; 
 students of language have broken lances over the authenticity 
 of particular ballads, and riming dilettanti have blandly de- 
 ceived the world with the product of their own brains. All 
 these questions, however, have now been settled as definitely 
 as the somewhat uncertain nature of the evidence will allow,. 
 and it remains for the future writer to glean his harvest from 
 new or half -neglected fields. The ballads are always fresh, but 
 much of the ballad discussion is already dry to the taste. 
 
 While various attempts have been made to define the true 
 ballad style, it has occurred to no one, apparently, to appeal to 
 the trial by figure. In other words, no effort has been put 
 forth to show what figures are most common in the popular 
 verse and what figures, therefore, were, and are, most intelligi- 
 ble to the popular mind and most beloved of the popular heart. 
 This question seems to throw open a most fruitful field of in- 
 quiry, and to it the following pages owe their origin. The re- 
 sults of such an investigation, far from being meagre, as might 
 be surmised, are singularly rich and convincing, and they are
 
 6 . SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 given here in the hope that thej may stimulate further study 
 in tlie same direction. 
 
 The object in so dealing with ballad literature must be evi^ 
 dent to all ; for if the figures found in these songs are suffi- 
 ciently alike to be placed in one general group, two things will 
 be proved most conclusively. In the first place we shall see by 
 what means the British mind, unaided, perhaps, or it may be 
 from inherited Indo-Gerraanic tradition, has worked its way to 
 the utilising of resemblances as helps to thought ; and in the 
 second place, we will have a clue to the authenticity of any 
 ballad, intangible to the novice, yet to the student unanswerable 
 as any proof that may be brought forward. For if the popular 
 mind uses one kind of figure, and an alleged popular song one 
 that is radically different, we shall have reason to doubt the 
 genuineness of the song. It is the object of this essay, by sup- 
 plying a firm and substantial groundwork for such study, to 
 farther investigation on similar lines in the English, and thence 
 perhaps in the ballad literature of other nations. 
 
 THE OEIGIN AND NATUEE OF BALLAD LITERATUEE. 
 
 The reason for the foregoing statements will appear after a 
 brief outline of the history of the ballad. It will be seen that 
 this essay, dealing with only one branch — and that a limited 
 one — of the ballad question, is but remotely concerned with 
 the origin of the songs ; yet some idea of the ballads themselves 
 seems not only desirable, but essential, for a complete under- 
 standing of the subject. From the time when in 1765, Percy 
 published his "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," the amount 
 of writing on the characteristics of these homely productions 
 has been enormous, and in many cases, highly instructive. At 
 any rate, it has been edifying to the writers themselves, and 
 has served to arouse and hold public interest to a degree little 
 short of phenomenal. 
 
 The ballads of a country may be described, briefly, as the 
 unpremeditated outpouring of the national heart. They put 
 into convenient phrase the popular idea of life in its various
 
 IZSr THE EISTGLISH A'NB SCOTTISH BAJ.LADS. 7 
 
 relations. For the sake of emphasis, the idea is moulded in 
 the form of a story ; as in all true poetry, it is the concrete ex- 
 pression of what in the abstract would be unintelligible to the 
 popular mind. Hence, instead of inculcating lessons in virtue, 
 the ballad relates a harrowing tale of the consequences of vice. 
 This much at least may be confidently afiirmed : a ballad, who- 
 ever its author may be, must reflect the life and thought of the 
 time and place ; otherwise, it ceases to be a ballad, and, what- 
 ever its merits, is but the work of an individual, striving to 
 express his own views on the world about him. The true bal- 
 ladist, in other words, merges his identity in the mass of the 
 people, and becomes, as it were, but the mouthpiece of his 
 generation. The authorship of a ballad is, in this sense, as 
 completely national as if it were a mosaic in words, every ele- 
 ment of which has come from a different source in what we are 
 pleased to call, collectively, the popular intelligence. 
 
 Concerning the origin of the ballads, various theories are 
 maintained. Percy in his admirable essay prefixed to the 
 Reliques, gives the minstrels as the authors of the popular 
 song. " The minstrels," he affirms, " were an order of men in 
 the middle ages, who subsisted by the arts of poetry and music 
 and sang to the harp verses composed by themselves. They 
 also appear to have accompanied their songs with mimicry and 
 action ; and to have practised such various means of diverting 
 as were much admired in those rude times, and supplied the 
 want of more refined entertainment." This passage was vio- 
 lently criticised by Ritson, who sought to degrade the minstrel 
 profession as much as Percy had laboured to elevate it ; and 
 Percy, " wedded to no hypothesis," changed, in the fourth edi- 
 tion of his work, the disputed sentence to " composed by them- 
 selves or othersP 
 
 Whatever may have been the authorship of the old ballads, 
 they seem certainly to have been sung in very early times by 
 the gleemen — afterwards minstrels. Anglo-Saxon poetry, to 
 which Percy and Ritson seem to have made no recourse, proves 
 the existence of minstrels from the beginning of what may be 
 called English liistory in England. At any rate, Mr. Aytoun, 
 one of the latest and best critics in this field, regards the bal-
 
 8 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 lads as the work of Ritson's despised minstrels. Speaking of 
 the ballads, " their number," he says, " as we have them now, 
 without attempting to estimate the many which must have dis- 
 appeared in the course of time, is a clear proof that they were 
 not composed casually or from the caprice of writers, but were 
 the production of minstrels, who in remoter times, followed their 
 craft as a regular profession or means of livelihood. . . . 
 At the courts of our earlier Scottish kings, and at the mansions 
 of the principal nobility . . . minstrelsy was a favourite 
 pastime. . . . And the minstrel, wherever he went, be it to 
 castle or cottage, received a ready or most hospitable wel- 
 come." ^ His song, besides, paid for food and lodging. 
 
 And again : 
 
 " I tender them [the foregoing remarks] as an explanation of 
 the origin of the ballads, which I do not regard as mere casual 
 compositions, dictated by the fancy of individuals who had a 
 natural taste for poetry, or an ambition for making themselves 
 known as men of superior capacity in a small or obscure circle^ 
 but as j)rofessio7ial works, undertaken both for livelihood and 
 fame, which must ever have some connection." * 
 
 After the degradation of the minstrels from their high posi- 
 tion, which happened, no doubt, toward tlie close of the age of 
 chivalry, these guardians of the ancient song travelled from 
 place to place, each probably having his own circuit, singing 
 and amusing the common people with their lays. Mr. Dixon, 
 in his valuable prefaces, writes of the last of these minstrels 
 still lingering (1845-1846) in the north of England and in 
 Scotland. Their songs were handed down from age to age and 
 ])ecame the most precious possession of the people. Sung in 
 these times to the rude and wondering peasantry, it was by the 
 peasantry, after the race of minstrels became almost extinct, 
 that the songs were preserved for many years, and it is, in fact, 
 due to the labours of antiquarians like Scott and Motherwell, 
 in gathering these remains of minstrelsy from the recitation of 
 often ignorant peasants, that we owe the imposing array of 
 ballad poetry that to-day enriches English literature. The bal- 
 lads taken down from the recitation of Mrs. Brown of Falk- 
 * Introduction to The Ballads of Scotland.
 
 11!^ THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 9 
 
 land are among the finest specimens of popular song extant in 
 any language ; not that this lady, however, is to be classed 
 among the ignorant reciters above mentioned. 
 
 So much may be said for the origin of the ballads. They 
 have been preserved by oral tradition, and such changes as have 
 occurred are verbal, and consist of the substitution of modern 
 for archaic phraseology. Maintaining such a fight against 
 oblivion, never printed, indeed regarded, frequently, as the 
 property of individual minstrels,* it is not strange that the 
 handling of illiterate bards and the crooning of old women on 
 the hillside and by the fireside have tended to mutilate the 
 original form of the poems. Hence arise the different versions 
 of particular songs, the best possible proof of their authenticity. 
 
 The day of popular song, however, is past ; the printing 
 press sounded its death-knell. "The process of national ballad 
 growing and ballad preserving can only go on while those con- 
 cerned in the process are unconscious of the presence of an 
 outer world with an eye fixed upon it. The moment it is dis- 
 covered, and public attention drawn to it, it stops. . . . 
 The time will shortly be, if it has not yet come, when the oldest 
 woman in the country will only be able to repeat to you ' Gil 
 Morice ' or ' Sir Patrick Spens ' from some printed version." f 
 
 And yet, though the authorship is national, if the phrase 
 may be allowed, although, as the same learned critic f asserts, 
 " it knows no authorship but that of the country at large," 
 and is " truly autochthonous," the stories will often be found 
 to be of almost Indo-Germanic currency. To cite one instance 
 alone, Professor Child traces the well-known ballad M'hose 
 numerous versions he classes under the title of " Lad}' Isabel 
 and the Elf-Knight," to English, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, 
 jSTorwegian, German, Polish, French, Italian, Spanish, Portu- 
 guese, and Magyar relationship : surely, a sufficiently imposing 
 array of connexions for any ballad. 
 
 Enouo-h has been said to shew that these songs arose from 
 the people, for the people, and were preserved lovingly and 
 carefully, by the people. 
 
 * Aytoun, Introduction to The Ballads of Scotland, 4th Ed. , p. xliii. 
 I Blackwood, page 405, Oct., 1858.
 
 10 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 Of the nature of the ballads, one mav write with more 
 certainty. They may be divided roughly under four heads : 
 
 (1.) Historical Ballads — dealing with national warfare or 
 
 private feud ; 
 (2.) Ballads of the Affections — including poems of love and 
 
 sorrow ; 
 (3.) Ballads of Superstition — including those that deal with 
 
 ghosts and fairy-lore ; and 
 (4.) Humorous Ballads — on particular political crises, and 
 
 also including a number of popular riddles. 
 
 The ballads that are unquestionably genuine show the same 
 traits of simplicity and directness. They begin immediately 
 on the story, without a word of introduction, as in " Sir Patrick 
 Spens," 
 
 " The King sits in Dunfermline toun, 
 Drinking the blude-red wine ; 
 ' whaur shall I get a skeely skipper, 
 To sail this ship of mine ? ' " 
 
 The language is plain and to the point, but full of homely 
 strength and pathos ; as Motherwell says, " there is no pause 
 made on the way for beautiful images or appropriate illustra- 
 tions. If these come naturally and unavoidably, good and 
 well, but there is no loitering and winding about, as if unwill- 
 ing to move on till these should suggest themselves . . . 
 and rhetorical embellishments are equally unknown." The 
 truth or falsehood of this statement will, it is hoped, appear in 
 the forthcoming discussion. 
 
 The pathos of " The Douglas Tragedy " is, for the mo- 
 ment, a sufficient verification. As is usual in the ballads, the 
 knight and lady, in this particular song, elope, pursued by the 
 damsel's father and seven brothers. The knight kills all, like 
 a doughty lover of old. 
 
 O she's ta'en out her handkerchief, 
 
 It was o' the hoUand sae fine, 
 And aye she dighted her father's bloody wounds, 
 
 That were redder than the wine.
 
 IlSr THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS, 11 
 
 " chuse, O chuse, Lady Marg'ret," he said, 
 
 " O whether will ye gang or bide ? " 
 " I'll gang, 111 gang, Lord William," she said, 
 
 " For ye have left me no other guide." 
 
 they rade on and on they rade, 
 
 And a' by the light of the moon. 
 Until they came to you wan water. 
 
 And there they lighted down. 
 
 They lighted down to tak a drink 
 
 Of the water that ran so clear ; 
 And down the stream ran his gude heart's blood, 
 
 And sair she gan to fear. 
 
 " Hold up, hold up, Lord William," she says, 
 
 " For I fear that you are slain ! " 
 " 'Tis nothing but the shadow of my scarlet cloak, 
 
 That shines in the water so plain." 
 
 And so on. The same quality runs through all. 
 
 As might be expected from their origin, the poems are fre- 
 quently full of metrical anomalies ; but of the charm of the 
 style there can be no question. As they are of popular pro- 
 duction, we will look in them for no elaborate finish of diction, 
 and no such exalted flights of sentiment as distinguish the verse 
 of schooled poets ; but by way of compensation, we will find 
 in these " barbarous productions of unpolished ages,'' * a 
 strength and vigour that more " polished " performances often 
 lack. 
 
 One thing more must be noted in the discussion of the char- 
 acter of these poems. The formulaic or commonplace lines are 
 remarkably numerous throughout the ballad literature, and seem 
 to have been the common property of the bards. Whether 
 used as helps to memory, or as stimulant of pleasure for the 
 auditor, they are uniquely prevalent in the popular song. 
 Readers of Ilomer know the charm that comes from the recur- 
 rence of his formulaic lines, and the more limited body of 
 Anglo-Saxon students will remember the formulaic epithets and 
 lines in the Beowulf and the poems of Cj^newulf, a model to 
 which Tennyson may have gone for the beautiful repetitions 
 that accent the loveliness of the " Idylls." 
 
 * See Percy, Dedication to first edition of the Keliques.
 
 12 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 These repetitions in the ballads are found in the use of stock 
 epithets for certain things. Thus nearly every horse is " milk- 
 white," a quality pertaining, likewise, to every lady's hand that 
 is not " lily " or " lilly " or " lillye," as the case may be. The 
 sword is " berry-brown," and the greenwood is ever " merry." 
 
 In addition, whole stanzas are repeated by different poets, 
 with more freedom, even, than Greek commonplaces by the 
 Attic orators. Mr. Motherwell notes the commonplace of the 
 burial of two lovers : 
 
 Lord William was buried in St. Marie's Kirk, 
 
 Lady Mai-g'ret in the quire ; 
 Out of the lady's grave grew a bonny red rose, 
 
 And out o' the Knight's a brier. 
 
 And they twa met, and they twa plat, 
 
 And fain they wad be near ; 
 And a' the warld might ken right weel, 
 
 They were twa lovers dear. 
 
 The little boy that runs errands is also invariably described 
 
 in one way : 
 
 And when he came to the broken brigg, 
 
 He bent his bow and swam ; 
 And when he came to the grass growing, 
 Set down his feet and ran, etc. 
 
 Another remarkable case is that of the man in haste : 
 
 " Go saddle to me the black, 
 Go saddle to me the brown. 
 Go saddle to me the swiftest steed 
 That e'er rade frae the town." 
 
 The ballads charm by their simplicity ; compared with the 
 artificial poetry of the age of Percy — the remains of the Pope 
 school — they are marvels of poetic spirit, and it is not to be 
 wondered at that in revolt against that artificiality, the Peliques 
 should have been taken up with an eagerness that may strike 
 some to-day as marvellous. They brought back the true song, 
 and have had an effect on our latter-day poetry. The danger 
 seems to be in estimating them above their value ; poetic beau- 
 ties they have of high order, but poetic grace and finish they
 
 IlSr THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 13 
 
 lack in large degree. A sure insight will enable ns to place 
 these ballads in true perspective in English literature, and en- 
 joy them none the less because the}^ are overshadowed by the 
 productions of " clerkly writers," singing for fame as well as 
 for money. 
 
 ON FIGURES IN GENEEAL IN THE BALLADS. 
 
 The ballads, then, being the artless expression of national 
 popular feeling, we will scarcely look in them for the figures 
 that corae from deep observation of men and the world. Such 
 figures as occur are generally of the most obvious kind, and are 
 used rather for description than for ornament. They spring 
 naturally and inevitably from the subject, as Motherwell says, 
 and are seldom elaborated beyond the physical limit of a single 
 line. The descriptive epithets milk-iohite, coal-Maclc, grass- 
 green^ etc., occur more frequently than any other figure, though 
 it is doubtless true that these expressions had lost tlien, as now, 
 all suggestion of comparison by simile, and were probably re- 
 garded simply as adjectives of colour. Such as they are they 
 are found with amazing frequency in the ballads, onilk-iohite 
 alone being used more than sixty times in the eight volumes of 
 Professor Child's Collection of Ballads. The longer similes and 
 metaphors are equally on the surface. As hlythe as bird on 
 tree, as swift as the %oind, etc., similes to-day in common use, 
 are the most usual of those in the ballads, and no better proof 
 of the popular origin of these poems could be urged, than the 
 ver}' frequency in them of such hackneyed expressions. Of 
 course these are the simplest figures found. 
 
 In addition, personification plays an important part, and the 
 raging sea, fortune^ s smiles, a,i\d dame fortune unkind, a.ve as 
 frequently in evidence in these songs, as in the writings of a 
 penny-a-liner. Metonymy, too, is common. The merry green- 
 wood, dizzy crag, etc., will be noted in tlieir proper places. 
 
 Beyond these more ordinary figures of thought — tropes, to 
 keep the old word — it is not the purpose of this essay to go. 
 The more usual forms of rhetorical figures of style and ar- 
 rangement — balance, antithesis, chiasmus, etc. — are occasion-
 
 14 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 ally met with, more or less perfect in form, but from the very 
 nature of the origin of these songs, it will readily be seen how 
 impossible it was for the finer beauties of style to abound in 
 them or even to be cultivated beyond the merest chance or the 
 most naive endeavour. 
 
 But this is not all, though it must be confessed that it is the 
 greater part. Figures of the foregoing simplicity are, indeed, 
 the rule in the ballads, but occasionally the reader meets with 
 flashes of imagination that surprise him by their brilliancy. 
 These figures generally spring from resemblances to nature. 
 A striking simile in " The Marriage of Sir Gawaine " is 
 
 I am glad as grasse wold be of raine, 
 
 and in " Andrew Lammie," 
 
 Her iloom was like the springing flower, 
 That salutes the rosy morning. 
 
 Again, a strong bit from the " Gay Goshawk " is worth repeat- 
 ing for its unusual length : 
 
 The thing of my love's face that's white 
 
 Is that of dove or maw ; 
 The thing of my love's face that's red, 
 
 Is like blood shed on snaw. 
 
 Figures drawn from the contemplation of man as a moral 
 and intellectual agent are rare. We find the adjectives j9/*mc^Z?/, 
 royal, etc., but we do not get into the heart of man. Such 
 similes as Coleridge's (in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner") 
 
 Like one that on a lonesome road 
 Doth walk in fear and dread, etc. 
 
 are never found in the ballads, and the employment of such a 
 comparison by Coleridge marks his departure from the true bal- 
 lad style, which he successfully hits in red as a rose is she, and 
 in other places. The simile beginning liJce one that on a lone- 
 some road, is singularly beautiful, too beautiful by far for the
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 
 
 15 
 
 apprehension or production of a popular poet. It may be good 
 art, but it is not good ballad writing. 
 
 Enouo;h has been said to shew the ojeneral nature of the bal- 
 lad figures ; they will now be taken up in detail. 
 
 We may well close this preliminary discussion by bringing 
 up a parallel from two poems on the same subject — one the 
 ballad from Percy known as " King Arthur's Death," the 
 other, Tennyson's noble " Passing of Arthur." l^o amount of 
 critical writing could so aptly prove the difference between un- 
 trained art and the art that springs from the highest poetical 
 gifts. In citing these instances, however, it must be remem- 
 bered that " King Arthur's Death " is not one of the best of 
 the ballads, being inferior in every way to such pieces as " Cos- 
 patrick," " Gil Morice," or many others that could be men- 
 tioned ; it must be remembered, also, that Tennyson is not a 
 representative poet, since he is too great, too striking to be 
 compared with any but himself. If, therefore, we bear these 
 facts in mind, we will not be misled by the parallel. The 
 scene is that nis-ht-vision of Arthur's before the last irreat bat- 
 tie with Modred. The ballad is quoted from the Percy Folio 
 MS., without Percy's emendations, and there and in Tennyson, 
 it reads as follows : 
 
 King Arthur's Death. 
 
 But vpon Sunday in the eueningthen, 
 when the King in his bedd did Lye, 
 
 he thought Sir Gawaine to him came, 
 & thus to him did say : 
 
 " Now as you are my vnkle deere, 
 I pray you be ruled by mee, 
 
 do not fight as to-morrow day 
 
 but put the battelle of if you may ; 
 
 for Sir Lancelott is now in franco, 
 & many Knights with him full har- 
 <iye, 
 
 & with-in this Month here hee wilbe 
 great aide wilbe to thee." 
 
 The Passing of Arthur. 
 
 Then ere that last weird battle in the 
 
 west, 
 There came on Arthur sleeping, Ga- 
 
 wain kill'd 
 In Lancelot's war, the ghost of Gawain 
 
 blown 
 Along a wandering wind, and past his 
 
 ear 
 Went shrilling : ' ' Hollow, hollow all 
 
 delight. 
 Hail, King ! To-morrow thou shalt 
 
 pass away. 
 Farewell ! there is an isle of rest for 
 
 thee : 
 And I am blown along a wandering 
 
 wind,
 
 16 
 
 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 he wakened forth of his dreemes : And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight." 
 
 to his nobles that told hee, And fainter onward, like wild birds 
 
 how he thought Sir Gawaiue to him that change 
 
 came, Their season in the night and wail 
 
 & these words sayd Certainly. their way 
 
 From cloud to cloud, down the long 
 
 wind the dream 
 Shrill'd ; but in going mingled with 
 
 dim cries 
 Far in the moonlit haze among the 
 
 hills, 
 As of some lonely city sack'd by night, 
 When all is lost, and wife and child 
 
 with wail 
 Pass to new lords ; and Arthur woke 
 
 and call'd 
 " Who spake ? A dream. O light upon 
 
 the wind, 
 Thine, Gawain, was the voice — are 
 
 these dim cries 
 Thine? or doth all that haunts the 
 
 waste and wild 
 Mourn, knowing it will go along with 
 me?" 
 
 There, in brief, is the difference, as respects figure and every 
 poetical grace, except, at times, " high seriousness," between 
 ballads and the " productions of clerks in closet." 
 
 Writing like this of Tennyson's is apt to lift you from your 
 critical feet in a high gale of enthusiasm ; the ballad literature 
 at its best leaves the ear sensitive to metrical faults, even while 
 it moves the heart with unexpected feeling. 
 
 THE DWISION OF THE SUBJECT, 
 
 For practical purposes the following division of the subject 
 may be made : 
 
 Simile and Metaphor — subdivided into three classes: 
 A. Figures of Resemblance drawn from the Domain of 
 
 Kature. 
 Jj. Fissures of Resemblance drawn from Animals and their 
 
 Characteristics.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 17 
 
 C. Figures of Resemblance drawn from Man and his 
 Habits. 
 Metonymy and Personification — briefly considered. 
 
 A. 
 
 Simile and Metaphor Drawn feom the Domain of 
 
 Nature. 
 
 As in the case of all true poets, the main source of inspira- 
 tion for the balladists is in the Koa^io'^ or ordered creation 
 about them. Man in his various relations to the world and to 
 his destiny is their theme ; but man cannot be viewed apart 
 from his environment, especially his physical environment. 
 Hence the repeated allusion, though never so brief, to the 
 scene of the ballad-story ; and hence the source of the greater 
 number of the figures that explain, not adorn, the ballad 
 narratives. The old minstrels saw the world, that it was fair ; 
 that on happy days the sky was clear, that the sun shed a 
 golden haze, that the grass was green, and that in the spread- 
 ing trees, birds sang the morning hours away. Little more 
 than this appealed to these crude poets. Doubtless the sun 
 sometimes failed to appear and the grass was sodden with 
 rain, but for all poetical purposes, the minstrels chose as far as 
 possible to ignore the fact. Therefore, though the rain falls, 
 we are for the most part conscious from our ballad-reading, 
 that the sun shines more than half the year. In the Robin 
 Hood stories, for instance, storm seldom comes to the merry 
 greenwood, and the outlaw and his band stand out against a 
 background of perfect weather. 
 
 Brilliancy of imagery and wealth of colour, in fact, every- 
 where abound in the ballads. This brightness is one of the 
 most conspicuous features even of the saddest history. A large 
 number, then, of the similes and metaphors in the popular song 
 is suggested by this aspect of the English landscape, clad in its 
 summer garb of green boughs and green fields under dazzling 
 skies. And yet the figures drawn therefrom admit of division 
 into various groups, according as they arise from one or 
 2
 
 18 SIMILE AND METAPIIOK 
 
 another aspect of tliis glad world. It is permissible, therefore, 
 to employ the following arrangement of the figures of re- 
 semblance drawn from nature. 
 
 I. Figures drawn from the Physical World of the Wind, 
 Rocks, Water, the Heavens, etc. 
 
 II. Figures drawn from the Plant World. 
 
 III. Figures involving Colour. 
 
 IV. Figures drawn from the Mineral Kingdom. 
 
 Y. Figures drawn from the Characteristics of Fire. 
 These divisions will naturally encroach on one another, and 
 blend together, but care will be taken to keep them as distinct 
 as possible. 
 
 I. 
 
 Similes and Metaphors from the Physical Aspect of Nature. 
 
 Though the bright sun and the fair sky are most prominent 
 in the poems, yet the irresistible forces of nature seem, under 
 this head, to have been a great source of imaginative compa- 
 rison to the popular poet. Chief among these forces is that of 
 tlie invisible but mighty wind. This is a fruitful theme for 
 the untrained, as for the trained imagination. Let us instance 
 the figures thence derived, to be found throughout the ballads : 
 
 In Thomas the Pliymer, 32 (Yol. i, page 110) we find 
 
 The steed flew swifter than the wind ; 
 
 and again, 34, 
 
 The steed gaed swifter than the wind. 
 Many similar cases occur elsewhere : 
 
 They passed as swift as any wind. 
 
 —The Suffolk Miracle, 50 (i, 280) ; 
 
 He amblit like the wind. 
 
 — Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, 62 (ii, 128) ; 
 
 The horse zoung Waters rade npon 
 Was fleeter than the wind. 
 
 — Tou7ig Waters, 15-16 (iii, 89) ;
 
 ITf THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 19 
 
 As swift as the wind to ride they were seen. 
 — The Blind Beggars Daughter of Bednall Oreen, 93 (iv, 16G) ; 
 
 Y schall her sende a wheyt palfPrey, 
 Het hambellet as the weynde. 
 
 —Robin Hood and the Potter, 287-288 (v, 31). 
 
 A more extended simile is found in 
 
 " Sweevens are swift, master," quoth John, 
 " As the wind that blowes ore a hill ; 
 For if it be never so loud this night, 
 To-morrow it may be still." 
 
 —Robin Hood and Guy of Qishorne, 17-20 (v, 160). 
 
 There can be no reasonable doubt that this simile, at least, 
 belongs by right of inheritance to the English ballad. Then, 
 again, the man is compared once, morally, to variable winds or 
 " kittle-flaws " in 
 
 The Gordons they are kittle-flaws. 
 
 —Huntley's Retreat, 105 (vii, 273). 
 
 The wind " hambellet " and is, therefore, a symbol of swift- 
 ness or of change and instability, but the stones and the 
 rocks and mountains remain forever the same, teaching their 
 lesson to men. The cruelty of rocks — their unflinching oppo- 
 sition to human strength — is a common inheritance of man, 
 at least in a literary sense. This aspect of nature is fully 
 recorded by the minstrels, and hence they draw one of their 
 most numerous classes of figures. 
 
 And first as to the stillness of the rocks, we find : 
 
 Thomas still als stane he stude. 
 
 — Thomas of JSrsseldoune, 179 (i, 105) ; 
 
 Wei stille I stod als did the stane. 
 
 — Als I Tod on Ay Mounday, 33 (i, 274) ; 
 
 He stood as still as rock of stane. 
 
 —Kinmont Willie, 178 (vi, 6G); 
 
 Some fell in swonyng as thai were dede, 
 And lay still as ony stone. 
 
 —Robin Hood and tJie Monk, 121-123 (v, G).
 
 20 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 A new epithet for stone is in the following solitary instance : 
 
 The young men anawer'd never a word, 
 They were dumb as a stane. 
 
 —Robin Hood and the Beggar, 215-216 (v, 202). 
 
 And rocks and mountains are high, though scarcely noted 
 as such in the ballads, the two succeeding examples exhausting 
 the subject ; perhaps owing to the physical conditions of the 
 Scotch and English birth-place of the ballad : 
 
 To lift him as high as a rock. 
 
 —The Dragon of WantUy, 132 (viii, 133) ; 
 
 and 
 
 The swelling seas ran mountain-high. 
 
 — Fair Margaret of Graignargat, 103 (viii, 253). 
 
 The same idea may be in 
 
 he will to honour climb. 
 
 — The Seven Champions^ 32 (i, 84) ; 
 
 or is the traditional ladder signified here ? 
 
 But, after all, the most apparent attribute of rock is im- 
 penetrability, and the comparison of this quality with 
 human cruelty is one of the most obvious thoughts, and has so 
 obtained since the dawn of literature that to-day " a stony 
 heart " is a term perfectly understood, and not easily to be 
 translated into less figurative language. The ballad-writers, of 
 course, are not slow to realise this truth. Some mstances are 
 these that follow : 
 
 And hee tooke up the Eldryge sworde, 
 As hard as any fflynt.* 
 
 —Sir Cauline, 145-146 (iii, 180) ; 
 
 O spare, if in your bluidy breast, 
 Abides not heart of stane. 
 
 — Lammikin, 85-86 (iii, 310) ; 
 
 Her heart's hard as marble. 
 
 — WilloiD, Willow, Willow, 19 (iv, 235) ; 
 
 and 
 
 her hart as hard as stone. 
 
 — Queen Dido, 50 (viii, 209). 
 * Corrected from the Percy MS.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 21 
 
 Two similar comparisons are these isolated ones, both imply- 
 ing the irresistible force of rock : 
 
 His strength of stane. 
 
 —Auld Maitland, 56 (vi, 222) ; 
 
 and 
 
 Ant al hem to-dryven ase ston doth the glae. 
 
 — The Flemish Insurrection, 39 (vi, 270). 
 
 Another obvious attribute of stone is coldness. Here 
 again, the ballads lead the way. And similarly, in this con- 
 nection the coldness of clay may be cited. 
 
 And clay-cold were her rosy lips. 
 
 — The Lass of Lochroyan, 143 (ii, 112) ; 
 
 O wan and cold as clay, 
 
 — Sweet Willie and Fair Annie, 158 (ii, 139) ; 
 
 and in the same poem, " clay-cold lip " again occurs. 
 And once more : 
 
 Till she fell down at Willie's feet, 
 As cauld as ony stone. 
 —Sweet Willie and Fair Maisry^ 127-128 (ii, 337) ; 
 
 and 
 
 He kissed her cold lips, which were colder than stane. 
 
 — Lord Saltan and AuchanarcMe, 55 (ii, 170). 
 
 In the famous " Children in the Wood," 53 (iii, 131), we 
 also find 
 
 With lippes as cold as any stone. 
 
 Here is the chill of fear in " The Nut-browne Maide," 141- 
 142 (iv, 149). 
 
 it makith myn herte 
 As cold as ony ston ; 
 
 and, 
 
 With a heart more cold than any stone. 
 
 — 77ie Famous Flower of Servingmen, 20 (iv, 175).
 
 22 SIMILE AND METAPHOE 
 
 The harmless stone again takes another aspect in this soli- 
 tary instance : 
 
 Wha sits into the Troughend Tower, 
 Wi' heart as black as any stone. 
 
 —The Death of Farcy Beed, 57-58 (vi, 146). 
 
 Another element of the physical world made to stand in op- 
 position to man and his desires is the overwhelming force of 
 water courses and of the sea. We have already noted 
 the personification of the sea, by applying to it such epithets as 
 o'aging, angry, etc. ; we shall also find occasional similes drawn 
 from the same source in the ballad literature. And indeed, 
 readers of Cynewulf and the early Saxon poets do not need to 
 be reminded of the antiquity of these comparisons in English 
 literature. 
 
 Take this from the ballads : 
 
 or this : 
 
 or, 
 
 and 
 
 How can ze strive against the stream ? 
 For I sail be obeyd. 
 
 — Gil Morice, 21-33 (ii, 33) ; 
 
 The shallowest water makes maist din, 
 The deadest pool the deepest linn ; 
 The richest man least truth within, 
 Though he preferred be. 
 
 —Fair Helen, 9-13 (ii, 209) ; 
 
 Nor rinning ance sae like a sea. 
 
 —Jack o' the Side, 112 (vi, 86) ; 
 
 It was flowing like the sea. 
 
 —Archie of Ca' field, 93 (vi, 93) ; 
 
 Now have they taken the wan water, 
 Though it was roaring like the sea. 
 
 —Billie Archie, 61-63 (vi, 96),. 
 
 and in the same poem (line 46), 
 
 It now was rumbling like the sea. 
 
 And again we have the gentler aspect of fountains, etc., in 
 
 Her eyes like fountains running. 
 
 —The King of France's Daughter, 98 (iv, 219),
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 23 
 
 or in 
 
 While crystal tears, like fountains ran. 
 
 — Fair Margaret of Craignargat, 107 (viii, 253), 
 
 a style of figure very frequent in the sentimental school of bal- 
 lads to which the first of these quotations is to be referred. 
 "With these it is interesting to compare Percy's own graft on the 
 defenceless " Child of Elle," 
 
 The tears that fell from her fair eyes, 
 Ranne like the fountayne free. 
 
 —Child of EUe, 95-96 (iii, 228), 
 
 a figure no better and no worse than its models. Finally we 
 may note 
 
 Which made it look just like a brook, 
 Running with burning brandy. 
 
 — Tlie Dragon of Wantley, 47-43 (viii, 130). 
 
 We will not leave the adverse aspects of nature without cit- 
 ing the storms and elemental disturbances, which go so far to 
 afflict man when in direct contact with uncultivated nature. 
 We shall find these aspects of the heavens serving in the ballads 
 as sources of figures, and the similes and metaphors drawn from 
 the phenomena of rain, hail, thunder, frost, and the snow 
 (except colour-similes), are here grouped under one head, in the 
 belief that they are sufficiently alike to warrant such treatment. 
 
 The comparisons from the rain are as numerous as any in 
 this group, and yet not frequent. They are as simple as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Till the bloode from the bassonetts ranne, 
 
 As the roke * doth in the rayne. 
 
 —The Battle of Otterhourne, 89-90 (vii, 15); 
 
 And the blood ran down like rain. 
 
 —Battle of Otterboume, B, 84 (vii, 23) ; 
 
 Till the bloode owte off thear basnets sprente, 
 As ever dyd heal or rayne. 
 
 — The Hunting of the CJieviot, 31 (vii, 36) ; 
 
 and again. 
 
 But yt was marvele and the red blude ronne not, 
 As the reane doys in the stret. 
 
 —The Hunting of the Cheviot, 175-176 (vii, 42) ; 
 
 * Roke — reek or smoke.
 
 24 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 and finally, 
 
 Until the blood, like drops of rain. 
 
 —Chevy Chace, 127 (vii, 48). 
 
 It will be noted that these similes are all alike. A curious 
 fact is that they are found only in two poems of great similar- 
 ity. The reader can draw his own conclusion. Once again : 
 
 As e'er you saw the rain down fa', 
 
 Or yet the arrow frae the bow, 
 
 Sae our Scottish lads fell even down. 
 
 —The Battle of Loudon Rill, 41-43 (vii, 151) ; 
 
 and 
 
 Quhair bulletis, dartia, and arrowes flew, 
 Als thick as haill or raine. 
 
 —The Battle of Balnnnes, 229-230 (vii, 226). 
 
 A different point of view is that of the following : 
 
 And brothers Balf ours they stood the first showWa [of arrows] . 
 
 —The Battle of Sheriff-Muir, 59 (vii, 160) ; 
 
 and in this : 
 
 Led Camerons on in donds, man. 
 
 —The Battle of Tranent-Muir, 10 (vii, 168) ; 
 
 and again, 
 
 And the clouds of arrows flew. 
 —Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight, 229-230 (v, 891). 
 
 "We have at least one good simile drawn from the sting of 
 the hail: 
 
 The blows fell thick as bickering hail. 
 
 —Jamie Telfer, 134 (vi, 112). 
 
 The thunder fares better and receives due consideration in 
 these four figures : 
 
 For a cannon's roar, in a summer's night, 
 Is like thunder in the air. 
 
 —Bonny Jo7m Seton, 59-60 (vii, 234). 
 
 And similarly, 
 
 For their cannons roar like thunder. 
 
 — Undaunted Londonderry, 5 (vii, 248) ;
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 25 
 
 and 
 
 Thundering stones they laid on the walls. 
 
 —Ibid., 25 (vii, 249). 
 
 Once more, 
 
 Golden (!) fame did thunder. 
 
 —The King of France's BaugTiter, 176 (iv, 223). 
 
 The frost is recognised twice, independently. 
 
 Sen ze by me will nae be warned 
 
 In it ze sail find frost. 
 
 — Gil Morice, 41-42 (ii, 32) ; 
 
 which reminds one of Persius' " chilling threshold," 
 
 Vide sis, ne maiorum tibi forte 
 limiaa f rigescant. 
 
 —Sat. I, 108-109. 
 
 And in this good moral reflection : 
 
 Fals waes here foreward so forst is in May, 
 That Sonne from the southward wypeth away. 
 
 —T/ie Execution of Sir Simon Fraser, 42-43 (vi, 276). 
 
 The s n o w, except for the expression " snow-white," which 
 will be treated under colour-similes, is sparingly drawn on for 
 figurative illustration. Joined with the frost it is found in the 
 following concealed simile : 
 
 'T is not the frost that freezes fell, 
 
 Nor blawing snaw's inclemency ; 
 'T is not sic cauld that makes me cry, 
 
 But my love's heart grown cauld to me. 
 
 — Waly Waly, but Love be Bonny, 25-28 (iv, 134). 
 
 The night is used once as a simile for darkness : 
 
 Whare it was dirk as mydnyght myrke. 
 
 — Thomas of Ersseldoune, 117 (i, 103). 
 
 In other poems coal and pitch and tar are the similes for 
 darkness ; terms whiph will be treated in their proper places 
 under colour-similes. 
 
 We have purposely exhausted the gloomy side of nature 
 before turning to the brighter world of sun and passing shower. 
 Here we find tlie beauty and freshness of the spring where, 
 though the rain may fall, it is turned into jewel-drops by the
 
 26 ■ SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 peeping sun. These figures are less varied in the ballads, and 
 may be dismissed with fewer words than those which preceded. 
 To take np the sun similes first, we find 
 
 Als dose the sonne on someres daye, 
 That faire lady hir selfe scho schone. 
 
 — Thomm of Ersseldoune, 20 (i, 98). 
 
 And again, 
 
 How art thu fadyde thus in the face 
 
 That schaue byf ore als the sonne so bryght ? 
 
 —Ibid., 101-102 (i, 102). 
 
 In another poem, 
 
 She cast an eye on little Musgrave, 
 
 As bright as the summer sun. 
 — Little Musgrave and the Lady Bernard, 13-14 (ii, 16) ; 
 
 and once more, 
 
 And when she cam into the kirk, 
 She shimmer' d like the sun. 
 
 — Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, 77-78 (ii, 128). 
 
 The moon is noticed twice, once favourably, and once 
 unfavourably : 
 
 this worldis blisse 
 That chaungeth as the mone. 
 
 —The Nulbrowne Maide, 61-63 (iv, 146). 
 
 This beautiful solitary instance occurs in Lord John, 20 (i, 
 135): 
 
 Gaed as licht as a glint o' the moon. 
 
 Once we find 
 
 She is neither white nor brown, 
 But as the heavens fair. 
 
 — As I Came from Walsingham, 9-10 (iv, 192). 
 
 The morning dew and the passing ^ h o w e r next claim 
 our attention. Twice, and in different versions of the same 
 ballad occurs the line 
 
 And fades away like the morning dew. 
 
 . K —Waly, Waly, but Love be Bonny, 13 (iv, 133). 
 ( — Lord Jamie Douglas, 8 (iv. 136) ;
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 27 
 
 and again we find the beautiful simile 
 
 They ley likes na the summer shower, 
 
 Nor girse the momin dew, 
 Better, dear Lady Maisry, 
 
 Than Chil Ether loves you, 
 
 — CM Ether, 5-8 (iv, 299), 
 
 and once more in a later ballad, 
 
 And from her cleare and cristall eyes 
 
 The tears gusht out apace, 
 Which, like the silver-pearled deaw, etc. 
 
 —Fair Bosamond, 69-71 (vii, 286). 
 
 The cbangeableness of summer days, finally, is witnessed by 
 this from " The Nutbrowne Maide," 61-64 (iv, 146) : 
 
 O Lorde, what is this worldis blisse 
 
 That chaungeth as the mone; 
 My somers day in lusty May 
 
 Is derked before the none ; 
 
 and in this striking phrase, 
 
 Hii maden kyng of somer. 
 
 — Execution of Sir Simon Fraser, 66 (vi, 277). 
 
 Summary. — The figures, then, in this subdivision of the sub- 
 ject, are frequent exactly in proportion to the obviousness of 
 the relationship expressed ; and the figures most common in 
 the ballads are those heard oftenest in colloquial speech. 
 " Swift as the wind," " cold " or " hard " as stone, " bright as 
 the sun," " loud as thunder " (at least by implication) are most 
 in ballad use, and just so far as a ballad abounds in these sim- 
 ple similes may we with more authority vouch for its genuine- 
 ness. 
 
 II. 
 
 Similes arid Metaphors drawn from Plant Life. 
 
 Ilere the same remarks are applicable that were in force in 
 the preceding section. There is nothing elaborate, nothing but 
 what is before the eyes. The bird on the tree, the rustling
 
 28 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 foliage, the springing flower, are much in evidence, and the com- 
 monest metaphor is the bestowing of the term " flower " on 
 persons of either sex, distinguished for beauty or virtue. We 
 shall take up the figures in detail, in order of their logical 
 development. 
 
 The object most apparent in the first view of the world of 
 growth is the grass at our feet, seen everywhere and become a 
 part of our thought. The simile " grass-green," then, is nat- 
 ural, and in the ballads it is frequent. Later we shall see how 
 strong was the love of colour in these poems and how reasonable 
 it is to find in them " grass-green " and " milk-white," used to- 
 gether for purposes of contrast. Formulaic as any are these 
 
 lines. 
 
 He took her by the milk-white hand, 
 And by the grass-green sleeve ; 
 
 but this belongs more properly to the chapter on colour-similes 
 and to that we leave it. 
 
 Once occurs the striking simile 
 
 I am glad as grasse wold be of raine. 
 
 — TJie Marriage of Sir Oawaine, 200 (i, 38), 
 
 in a ballad of the Percy folio, and therefore authentic. 
 
 But it is ever the exception that attracts most attention. 
 We see many sunny days, but it is the lowering heaven that 
 lifts our eyes — mostly in doubt — to the sky. The grass, too, is 
 much commoner that the flower, yet it is the flower that re- 
 ceives most frequent mention in popular literature. These 
 flower-similes are, in fact, the most plentiful crop that the bal- 
 ladist gathers on his imaginative journey through the world. 
 It would be impossible to quote all the instances, and we must, 
 therefore, content ourselves with citing the most remarkable. 
 
 The metaphor by which a person of striking qualities, phys- 
 ical or moral, is called a flower is perpetuated to-day in collo- 
 quial English as it was in colloquial Greek, and undoubtedly in 
 the popular speech of all nations. Instances in the ballads are 
 the following : 
 
 I dreamt that Annie of Lochroyan, 
 The flower o' a' her kin. 
 
 — Annie of Lochroyan, 97-98 (ii, 103).
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 29 
 
 The fairest flower's cut down by love, 
 That e'er sprung up in Fyvie. 
 
 —Andreio Lammie, 187-188 (ii, 199). 
 
 The flower of my affected heart, 
 Whose sweetness doth excell. 
 
 — Fair Rosamond, 53-54 (vii, 286). 
 
 Of all fairheid scho bur the flour. 
 
 The Bloody Sark, 9 (viii, 148). 
 
 More striking is the expression 
 
 Untimely crop some virgin flowr. 
 
 — St. George and the Dragon, 50 (i, 74). 
 
 That courtesy was not everywhere in evidence in these 
 poems of the age of chivalry is shown by the line, 
 
 O hold your tongue, my sprightly flower. 
 
 — James Herries, 61 (i, 2C7). 
 
 The particular kind of flower is sometimes specified ; occa- 
 sionally it is a rose, more frequently a lily. Note the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 Come ben,* come ben, my lily flower. 
 
 — Young Akin, 207 (i, 188), 
 
 and, 
 
 Gang to your bouirs, ye lilye flouirs. 
 
 —The Clerk's I'wa Sons o' Owsenford, 77 (ii, 67). 
 
 A formulaic line, this last, met sometimes in the singular : 
 
 Gang to your bower, my lily flower. 
 
 — Blanchejlour aiul Jellyflorice, 81 (iv, 298). 
 
 A more original bit is this : 
 
 A fairer rose did never bloom 
 
 Than now lies cropped on Yarrow. 
 
 — 2he Bowie Bens of Yarrow, 07-68 (iii, 68). 
 
 Once more, 
 
 The fairest rose in all the world. 
 
 — Fair Rosamond, 51 (vii, 286). 
 
 * Ben— quickly.
 
 30 SIMILE AND METAPHOE 
 
 Compare in Shakspere, Laertes' impassioned 
 
 rose of May ! 
 Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia. 
 
 — Hamlet, iv, 5, 140, 
 and the well-known 
 
 Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat. 
 
 Mixed metaphor is rare ; the following, however, is certainly- 
 susceptible to that charge : 
 
 For the i&ix flower of England will never sJiine more. 
 
 — Queen Jeanie, 36 (vii, 76). 
 
 The radical metaphor in the verb fiouiisJi occurs, and is 
 submitted here with the reservation that, as the balladists 
 probably knew nothing of the figure in question, they used it 
 simply, without premeditation. The instances are these : 
 
 The London dames, in Spanish pride, 
 Didi flourish everywhere. 
 
 — Queen Eleanor's Fall, 21-22 (vii, 293). 
 
 Or, 
 
 There he flourisJit many a day. 
 
 —Thomas Stukeley, 58 (vii, 309). 
 
 Who on the throne does flourish and reign. 
 
 — Undaunted Londonderry, 62 (vii, 250). 
 
 Another verbal metaphor is the solitary use of flower as a 
 verb in the threat to the offender, 
 
 Thou shalt be the first man 
 Shall flower this gallows tree. 
 —Robin Rood and the Old Man, 64-65 (v, 260). 
 
 Once more, there is a metaphor concealed in the term " the 
 drooping king." (" The Seven Champions," 102, i, 87.) 
 
 Passing from metaphor to simile, we find the lily and the 
 rose contending for mastership as in one of the similes to be 
 adduced in another connexion ; and sometimes again, the spe- 
 cies of flower is left to the imagination. Instance the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 Her bloom was like the springing flower 
 That salutes the rosy morning. 
 
 — Andrew Lammie, 5-6 (ii, 191).
 
 Or, 
 
 Again, 
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 31 
 
 For the flower that springs in May morning, 
 Was not sae sweet as she. 
 
 —The Gay Goss-EawTc, 47-48 (iii, 279). 
 
 She brightened like the lily-flower. 
 
 —Ibid., 137 (iii, 283). 
 
 Earl Richard had but ae daughter, 
 Fair as a lily-flower. 
 
 —Birth of Robin Hood, 5-6 (v, 170). 
 
 Till she wallow't * like a lily. 
 
 — Geordie{k), 12 (viii, 93). 
 
 To whicli we may compare, 
 
 She's wallowed like a weed. 
 
 —The Jolly Gos7iawk, 114 (iii, 290). 
 Finally, we may cite. 
 
 But like the rose among the throng 
 Was the lady and her maries fair. 
 
 —The Hireman Chid, 214-215 (viii, 241). 
 
 The sweetness of flowers, too, is probably the source of the 
 expression, " my sweet love," etc. This is proved by the verse 
 already quoted, 
 
 The flower of my affected heart, 
 Whose sweetness doth excell ; 
 
 again, we have, 
 
 To hang ihefloicer o' Scottish land, 
 Sae sweet and fair a boy. 
 
 — Gilderoy, 85-86 (vi, 201), 
 
 and 
 
 My sweet, bonnie Lady. 
 
 — Geordie (A), 60 (viii, 95). 
 
 More materially, 
 
 A breath as sweet as rose. 
 
 — Gilderoy, 10 (vi, 198). 
 
 After flowers, the trees. To the popular poet, the joyous- 
 ness and lightness of the summer foliage was the salient feature 
 of tree life. This is evidenced by the following large group : 
 
 Kobene on his wayis went. 
 As licht as Icif of tre. 
 
 —Robene and Makyne, 65-66 (iv, 248). 
 * Withered.
 
 32 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 And Robyn was in mery Scherwode 
 As lizt as lef on lynde. 
 
 —Ilohin Hood and tlie Monk, 300-301 (v, 14). 
 
 Thus be these good yemen gone to the wood 
 As lyght as lefe on lynde. 
 —Adam Bel, Clym of the ClougTie, etc., 171-173 (v, 145), 
 
 And once, the following, 
 
 She's as jimp in the middle, 
 As ony willow-wand. 
 
 —The Laird of Waristoun, 7-8 (iii, 107). 
 
 This idea of the lightness of leaves is given a distinctly 
 humorous turn in the clever ballad of the " Wanton Wife of 
 Bath," 77-78 (viii, 155) where 
 
 " They say," quoth Thomas, " women's tongues 
 Of aspen leaves are made." 
 
 The birds and their song are so important a part of the visi- 
 ble landscape that it is with difficulty we refrain from introduc- 
 ing the bird-similes in this place ; but on reflection it seems 
 perhaps better to relegate these figures, " blythe as bird on tree," 
 etc., to the second great division of the subject — Figures drawn 
 from Animals and their Characteristics. 
 
 The strength of trees tempts the popular bard to a com- 
 parison with stiffness of moral purpose. 
 
 I leaned my back unto an aik, 
 
 I thought it was a tru£?ty tree ; 
 But first it bow'd, and syne it brak, 
 
 Sae my true love did lightly me ! 
 
 — Waly, Waly, but Love be Bonny, 5-8 (iv, 133). 
 
 Again 
 
 Once more, 
 
 But yet we will not slander them all. 
 
 For there is of them good enow ; 
 It is a sore consumed tree, 
 
 That on it bears not one fresh bough. 
 
 —Bookhope Ryde, 9-13 (vi, 123). 
 
 Thir Weardale men, they have good hearts, 
 They are as stiff as any tree. 
 
 —Lbid., 137-138 (vi, 129).
 
 IK THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 33 
 
 Similar enough to be quoted is this : 
 
 There's nane may lean on a rotten staff, 
 
 But him that risks to get a fa' ; 
 There's nane may in a traitor tmst, 
 
 And traitors black were every Ha'. 
 
 — 'Die Death of Parcy Reed, 49-52 (vi, 142). 
 
 A "Qse of h e d g e for strength or defence is familiar to students 
 of Anglo-Saxon literature and of Beowulf in particular. In the 
 ballads we find 
 
 He was a hedge nnto his friends, 
 A heckle* to his foes, lady. 
 
 —Sob Boy, 53-54 (vi, 206). 
 
 The greenness and pit h — in other words, the strength 
 and rigour of plant-life are instanced here : 
 
 (1) Thy thoughts are greene. 
 
 — Gentle Herdsman, Tell to Me, 14 (iv, 188), 
 
 (2) — and Glangary's pith, too. 
 
 —The Battle of Shenff-Muir, 31 (vii, 159); 
 
 and their opposites in the following: 
 
 (1) Love liketh not the fallen fruit, 
 
 Xor the withered tree. 
 
 — As I Came fromWalsingham, 27-28 (iv, 192). 
 
 (2) The beggar answered cankerdly. 
 
 — BoUn Hood and the Beggar, 51 (v, 190). 
 
 (3) But with crosse-grain^d, words they did him thwart. 
 
 — Bobin Hood's Progress, Introd. 3 (v, 290). 
 
 ' The fruit of the tree is seldom noted. We find once 
 
 Ilka ee intil her head 
 Was like a rotten ploom. 
 
 —Kempy-Kaye, 41-42 (viii, 141) ; 
 
 but this, like the Icaily lij>s, {cahhage-liJce lips) of the same 
 poem, is a special comparison applied to a particular case, and 
 deserves no notice, not having a bearing on figures in general 
 — those that occur with comparative frequency throughout the 
 ballads. 
 
 * Heckle — hatchel, flax-comb.
 
 34 SIMILE AND METAPIIOE 
 
 " Smells not like balsam " * is another solitary instance, 
 proving nothing. Once, too, we find 
 
 I was once as f ow of Gill Morice, 
 As the hip f is o' the stean. 
 
 — Gil Morice, 143-144 (ii, 371). 
 
 She burned like hoUin-green. 
 
 —Earl Richard 120 (iii, 9), 
 
 is a comparison found once, and good to that extent. And " as 
 fair's a cypress queen " (John o' Ilazelgreen, 120, iv, 88) used 
 also but once, will end the list of sporadic illustrations drawn 
 from plant life. 
 
 Summary. — Figures of resemblance, then, in the plant world, 
 drawn from the green grass, the fiowers, particularly the rose 
 and the lily, from the foliage and strength of trees, are com- 
 mon enough ; those drawn from such sources, accordingly, 
 would be good evidence, other things being equal, of the pop- 
 ular origin of a ballad. Tlarer use is made of the hedge 
 (familiar, as we saw, in Anglo-Saxon), the canker of trees, etc., 
 and the ballad that employs figures drawn therefrom, is on 
 that account less liable to complete acceptance. It is, as will 
 have been observed, in this province of the natural world, that 
 some of the greatest numbers of repetitions of simile and meta- 
 phor occur ; the result is put forward without further com- 
 ment, as only one conclusion may be reached from it. 
 
 III. 
 
 Similes and Metaj^Jiors of Colour. 
 
 Colour is the one thing everywhere prominent in the bal- 
 lads. Everything sparkles ; the lawn is green, the sky is fair ; 
 the lady's hand is milk-white, her dress is green as grass ; her 
 cheek is rosy, her lip cherry and sometimes ruby ; her hair is 
 like the " mowten " gold. Every colour has its characteristic 
 epithet, and the epithet is employed again and again. 
 
 As we began, in describing the similes drawn from nature, 
 
 * The Dragon of Wantley, 110 (viii, 132). 
 f Hip = berry.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH. BALLADS. 35 
 
 with the darker or aflverse phenomena, so in colour-similes we 
 will begin with the expressions denoting white and black, the 
 absence, if you please, of all colour. And jBrst, the natural 
 similes implying whiteness demand our attention. It has 
 already been said that the epithet " milk-white " occurs more 
 than sixty times in the ballads ; indeed, as the diminutives 
 in -let have been burlesqued by modern bards, so the stately 
 " milk-white " has lost for more sophisticated readers its for- 
 mer aptness, in the play of humour that to-day is sure to put it 
 in solution. In the ballads the simile is used to describe 
 various things. In Thomas the Khymer, 29 (i, 110), 
 
 She mounted on her milk-white steed ; 
 
 and in young Tamlane, 149 (i, 121), 
 
 For I will ride on the milk-white steed. 
 
 Again, 
 
 O where were ye, my milk-white steed? 
 
 —The Broomfleld Hill, 33 (i, 133). 
 
 Many instances of " milk-white " steed occur throughout 
 these songs. 
 
 The expression is applied likewise to hands : 
 
 She took me up in her milk-white hands. 
 
 —Alison Gross, 49 (i, 170). 
 
 And in the formulaic line : 
 
 He's taen her by the milk-white hand, 
 
 which occurs among other places in Tam-a-Line, 25 (i, 259). 
 
 Again 
 
 O laith, laith were our guid lords' sons 
 To weet their milk-white hands. 
 
 — Sir Patrick Spens, 94 (iii, 341). 
 
 But other things are also milk-white. In Clerk Tamas 58, 
 (iii, 351), 
 
 Sae did she till her milk-white chin. 
 
 In Young Beichan and Susie Pye, 73 (iv, 13) : 
 Ye set your milk-wliite foot on board.
 
 36 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 In King Lear and his Three Daughters, 137 (vii, 281) : 
 
 Which made him rend his milk-white locks. 
 
 As to tlie dress of man 
 
 And he wore a milk-white weed, 0. 
 
 — Sweet Willie and Lady Margerie, 3 (ii, 63) ; 
 
 and in a variation of the same poem : 
 
 And milk-white was his weed. 
 
 — Willie and Lady Maisry, 13 (ii, 57). 
 
 The epithet is also applied to other living creatures. A few 
 
 are the following 
 
 Again, 
 
 and, 
 
 Tour bower was full o' milk-white swans. 
 
 — Lord Livingston, 81 (iii, 346). 
 
 There's either a mer-maid or a milk-white swan, 
 
 —The Cruel Sister, 63 (ii, 235). 
 
 Then up and crew the milk-white cock. 
 
 — Clerk Saunders, 65 (ii, 53). 
 
 And four and twenty milk-white dows. 
 
 — Lo7'd Wa' Yates and Old Ingram, 91 (ii, 339). 
 
 Till by it came, the milk-white hynde. 
 
 — Leesome Brand, 67 (ii, 344) 
 
 I have four and twenty milk-white cows 
 
 —Earl Richard B, 39 (iii, 367). 
 
 The comparison of white objects to m ilk is also found often 
 in the more direct simile form, " white as milk," or " whiter 
 than milk." 
 
 Your body's whiter than milk. 
 
 — Clerk Colvill, 30 (i, 193). 
 
 On his bodye as white as mUke. 
 
 — Child Waters, 160 (iii, 313). 
 
 And on the block he laid his neck, 
 Was whiter than the milk. 
 
 — Toung Waters, 147-148 (iii, 306). 
 
 Thy pumps as white as was the milk. 
 
 — Greensleeves, 31 (iv, 243).
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 37 
 
 Once, too, we have the same idea in 
 
 She's ty'd it round his whey-white face. 
 
 —Clerk Cohill, 28 (i, 193). 
 
 But other things beside milk are white. Milk-white, it 
 will be observed, has passed, in modern usage, into snow- 
 white. This comparison is not so common in the ballads, yet 
 it occurs several times. In The Daemon Lover, 71 (i, 204), we 
 find 
 
 waesome wail'd the snaw-white sprites. 
 
 Other examples are these : 
 
 O I will hae the snaw-white boy, 
 
 —The Cruel Brother, 25 (ii, 264). 
 
 When the raven shall be white as snow. 
 
 —The Youth of Rosengord, 43 (ii, 348). 
 
 He lifted up the snaw-white sheets. 
 
 — Sir Hugh le Blond, 51 (iii, 256). 
 
 ann I were as white 
 As e'er the snaw lay on the dyke. 
 
 —The Qaherlunzie Man, 21-22 (viii, 99). 
 
 The Dinlay snaw was ne'er mair white, 
 Nor the lyart * locks of Harden's hair. 
 
 —Jamie Telfer, 143-144 (vi, 112). 
 
 Hair black as sloe, skin white as snow. 
 
 —The Dragon of Wantley, 69 (viii, 181). 
 
 With her feet as white as sleet. 
 
 — Sweet Willie and Lady Margerie, 29 (ii. 54). 
 
 Similarly, 
 
 The comparison with 1 i 1 i e s is, perhaps, even more frequent 
 than the comparison with snow. 
 
 She stretched out her lily-white hand. 
 
 — Sweet William's Qhost, 37 (il 147). 
 
 AVith which compare Percy's interpolated line : 
 
 Then she held forthe her liley-white hand. 
 
 —Sir Cauline, 173 (iii, 181). 
 
 "Lily-white hand," indeed, almost divides the honours in the 
 ballads with " milk-white hand." 
 * Lyart — hoary.
 
 38 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 In the f olio win o; the simile is more concealed : 
 
 ■ O hold your tongue, my lily leesome thing. 
 
 — James Herriea, 73 (i, 308). 
 
 She's ta'en her by the lily hand. 
 
 —The Cruel Sister, 21 (ii, 233). 
 
 Then he cut off her head 
 Era' her lily breast bane. 
 
 — Lambert Liiikin, 87-88 (iii, 105). 
 
 The swan also serves, in the popular songs, as a simile for 
 
 whiteness. 
 
 His heved was wyte als ony swan. 
 
 — Als I Tod on Ay Mounday, 21 (i. 274). 
 
 There's twa smocks in your coffer, 
 As white as a swan. 
 
 — Lambert Linkin, 61-62 (iii, 104). 
 
 Similarly, in the two versions of The Gay Goshawk, we find : 
 
 The white that is on her breast bare, 
 Like the down o' the white sea-maw. 
 
 —The Gay Goshawk, 27-28 (iii, 278), 
 
 and 
 
 The thing of my love's face that's white 
 Is that of dove or maw. 
 
 —The Jolly Goss-IIawk, 9-10 (iii, 285), 
 
 a simile whose genuineness is vouched for by existing in two 
 versions. 
 Once occurs 
 
 white, white war his wounds washen, 
 As white as a linen clout. 
 
 — Young Eedin, 85-86 (iii, 17), 
 
 and once only, 
 
 His beard was all on a white, a. 
 As white as whale's bone. 
 
 —By Landsdale Hey Bo, 33-34 (v, 432). 
 
 With this latter compare Shakspere's 
 
 His teeth as white as whale's bone. 
 
 — Love's Labours Lost, v, 2.
 
 IlSr THE ENGLISH ATSTD SCOTTISH BALLADS. 39 
 
 Three similes for paleness are these : 
 
 And straiglit againe as pale as lead. 
 
 — King KopJietua and the Beggar Maid, 78 (iv, 198) ; 
 
 Sometimes her cheek is rosy red 
 And sometimes deadly wan. 
 
 —Burd Ellen, 89-90 (iii, 217) ; 
 
 More pale she was, when she sought my grace, 
 Than prymrose pale and wan. 
 
 —Jellon Grame, 73-74 (ii, 289). 
 
 The similes of bl ackn ess and darkness are less com- 
 mon, perhaps from the desire, previously mentioned, on the 
 part of these poets, to represent the bright side of nature in 
 their similes. " Coal-black " is the most frequently used, as in 
 colloquial speech to-day. 
 
 He mounted on his coal-black steed. 
 — Willie and May Margaret, 5 and 61 (ii, 172 and 174). 
 
 He's set his twa sons on coal-black steeds. 
 
 —Jamie TeJfer, 81 (vi, 1C9). 
 
 laith, laith were our Scots lords' sons 
 To weet their coal-black shoon. 
 
 —Sir Patrick Spens, 97-98 (iii, 341). 
 
 "Black as a crow" (opposed to "white as a swan"), 
 black as pitch or tar, or sable, or night, are common expres- 
 sions to-day. They occur but rarely in the ballads. 
 
 When the swan is black as night. 
 
 —The Youth of Bosengood, 38 (ii, 348). 
 
 With consciences black as a craw, man. 
 
 —ITie Battle of SJieriff-Muir, 4G (vii, 161). 
 
 Wi' their horses black as ony craw. 
 
 —The Battle of Pentland Hills, 2 (vii, 241). 
 
 Note how these war ballads repeat the same figures, which 
 are found nowhere else. With this compare the blood which 
 " ran like rain " in division I, found only in the battle songs.
 
 40 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 Once, again, occur the following : 
 
 (1) Though dark the night as pick and tar. 
 
 —Hobie JSToble, 45 (vi, 100). 
 
 (2) The night is mirk, and it's very pit * mirk. 
 
 —ArcJde of Ca' field, 39 (vi, 90). 
 Only once, too : 
 
 Her riding suit was of sable hew black. 
 
 — Robin Hood and the Stranger, 37 (v, 411). 
 
 Likewise, once occurs the well-known simile, 
 
 Hair black as sloe. 
 
 —The Dragon of Wantley, 69 (viii, 131) ; 
 and this peculiar one 
 
 Ann ye were as black 
 As e'er the crown of my dady's hat. 
 
 — The Oaberlunzie Man, 17-18 (viii, 99). 
 
 A different figure is the following, yet cited here for complete- 
 ness ; 
 
 Yes, I will gae zour black errand. 
 
 — Gil Morice, 39 (ii, 33). 
 
 After the white and black, green and red attract our 
 attention. Green, in the expression " grass-green," is very com- 
 mon in the ballads ; it does not occur with any object of com- 
 parison except grass. 
 
 Her shirt was o' the grass-green silk. 
 
 — Thomas the Rhymer, 5 (i, 109). 
 And by the grass-green sleeve. 
 
 —Tam-a-Line, 26 (i, 259). 
 
 For thou hast sent her a mantle of greene, 
 As greene as any grasse. 
 
 — Child Maurice, 51-52 (ii, 315). 
 
 Thy gown was of the grassie green. 
 
 — Oreensleeves, 33 (iv, 242). 
 And thrice she blew on a grass-green horn. 
 
 —Alison Gross, 30 (i, 169). 
 And once, peculiarly, 
 
 And out there came the fair Janet, 
 As green as any grass. 
 
 —The Young Tamlane, 59-60 (i, 117). 
 
 * Pit-mirk — dark as a pit or as pitch ? Probably, for phonetic reasons, the 
 former.
 
 « 
 
 IN THE E]!q-GLISH AIS^D SCOTTISH BALLADS. 41 
 
 Kedness is compared indifferently to the rose, the cherry, 
 the ruby, and to blood. As for the r o s e , we find ; 
 
 And clay-cold were her rosy lips. 
 
 — The Lass of Lockroyan, 143 (ii, 112). 
 
 The lady blush'd a rosy red. 
 
 —The Cruel Brother, 21 (ii, 252). 
 
 And redder than rose her ruddy heart's blood. 
 
 — Jellon Grame, 75 (ii, 289). 
 
 He's put it to his red rosy lips. 
 
 —Earl Robert, 15 (iii, 27). 
 
 Sometimes her cheek is rosy red. 
 
 —Burd Ellen, 90 (iii, 217). 
 
 And drap it on her rose-red lips. 
 
 —Tlie Gay Goshaick, 71 (iii, 288). 
 
 And red and rosy was the blood, 
 Ran down the lily braes. 
 
 — Katharine Janfarie^ 67-68 (iv, 32). 
 
 And, somewhat differently, we find " rosy morning," Andrew 
 Lammie, 6 (ii, 191). 
 
 Another figure is the following : ^ 
 
 The blood within her cristall cheeks 
 
 Did such a cuUour drive, 
 As though the lilly and the rose 
 
 For mastership did strive. 
 * —Fair Rosamond, 13-16 (vii, 284). 
 
 The last, however, is from a ballad of the worst period, 
 when little spontaneity distinguished the productions in this 
 line, llei-e, for instance, from a ballad standpoint we could 
 wish for more matter with less art. Compare, however, 
 Shakspere's description of Lucrece's beauty : 
 
 This silent war of lilies and of roses 
 Which Tarquin viewed in her fair face's field. 
 
 A mixture of personification tinges the last comparison under 
 
 this head, 
 
 And brings a blushing rose. 
 
 — TJie Seven Champions, 116 (i, 88).
 
 42 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 As for the c li e r r j comparisons, they all refer to the colour- 
 ing of the human face : 
 
 O first he kist her cherry cheek. 
 
 — Fair Annie of Lochroyan, 139 (ii, 104). 
 
 cherry, cherry was her cheek. 
 
 — Tfie Lass of Lockroyan, 141 (ii, 112). 
 
 She hath lost her cherry-red. 
 — Fair Margaret and Sweet William, 48 (ii, 143). 
 
 He's put it to his cherry lip. 
 
 —Prince Robert, 19 (iii, 23). 
 
 And chirry were her cheiks. 
 
 —Edom o' Gordon, 74 (vi, 157). 
 
 The ruby comparison is interchangeable with rose and 
 cherrv similes, but is not so common. 
 
 And sair he kist her ruby lips. 
 
 — Fair Annie of Lochroyan, 131 (ii, 104). 
 
 With rosy cheek and ruby lip. 
 
 — Vie Gay Gosliawk, 139 (iii, 283). 
 
 Once only occurs the epithet " coral-red," in a poem, how- 
 ever, whose origin is not popular in the strict sense of the 
 word. 
 
 Her lippes like to a corrall red. 
 
 — Fair Rosamond, 73 (vii, 287). 
 
 From these examples it will be seen that the descriptions of 
 heroines in modern fiction of a certain rank are builded. better 
 than perhaps their authors knew — directly by descent on the 
 firm foundation of popular tradition. 
 
 The epithet blood-red is limited to wine, in the ballad 
 literature. 
 
 "VVe find in the first lines of Sir Patrick Spence (iii, 149) : 
 
 Again, 
 
 The king sits in Dumferling town, 
 Drinking the blude-reid wine. 
 
 And eneugh of the blood-red wine. 
 
 — Johnie of Breadislee, 10 (vi, 12). 
 
 Conversely, in The Douglas Tragedy, 
 
 And aye she dighted her father's bloody wounds, 
 That were redder than the wine.
 
 IlSr THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 43 
 
 And in The Gay Goshawk (the two versions) the redness of 
 blood is used as a simile as follows : 
 
 The red that's on my true love's cheek 
 Is like blood-drops in the snaw. 
 
 —The Oay Goshawk, 25-26 (iii, 278), 
 
 and again, 
 
 The thing of my love's face that's red 
 Is like blood shed on snaw. 
 
 —T/ie Jolly Oos-Hawk, 11-12 (iii, 285), 
 
 which is striking and picturesque, if not a very pretty idea. To 
 conclude, Robin Hood and the Stranger, 1-i (v, 405) has the 
 expression. 
 
 His stockings like scarlet shone. 
 
 The next colour to receive marked attention is the modest 
 brown. The adjectives nut-brown and berry-brown 
 must be familiar to all. 
 
 It's ye do kill your berry-brown steed. 
 
 —King Eenry, 29 (i, 148). 
 
 He's luppen on his berry-brown steed. 
 
 —The Water d Wearies Well, 9 (i, 199). 
 
 And now he drew his berry-brown sword. 
 
 —The Laidly Worm of Spindleston-Heugh, 101 (i, 285), 
 
 as peculiar an epithet to apply to a sword, as oiut-hrown, which 
 follows. 
 
 The epithet nut-brown is well known from the famous 
 Nutbrowne Maide. A few ballad instances may be cited : 
 
 sail I tak the nut-browne bride ? 
 
 — Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, 15 (ii, 136). 
 
 Nut-browne is used eight times in this one poem. 
 
 Young Johnstone had a nut-brown sword. 
 
 — Young Johnston, 13 (ii, 292). 
 
 And Robin had a nut-brown sword. 
 
 —Bobln Rood and the Beggar, 46 (v, 253). 
 
 A solitary instance: 
 
 But fair fa' that bonnie apple-gray. 
 
 —Lady Marjorie, 57 (ii, 340).
 
 44 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 Tlie yellow gold and the white silver are every- 
 where recognised in the ballads, and it is perhaps as well to close 
 the discussion of colour-similes Avith those drawn from these 
 sources. This plan has been snggested by the fact that it is 
 ever the brilliancy and external showing of these minerals that 
 received most attention from the balladists, and on that account 
 the similes derived therefrom exact classification nnder the 
 present rather than under the following division of the subject. 
 "With this word of explanation, we may proceed to the discus- 
 sion of the gold and silver similes. 
 
 The greater number of the figures suggested by resem- 
 blances to gold are used of the hair of individuals. 
 
 The very hair o' my love's head 
 Was like the threads o' gold. 
 
 —James Eerries, 99-100 (i, 209). 
 
 And gowden was her hair. 
 
 — The Lass of Locliroyan, 142 (ii, 112). 
 
 The hair that hung owre Johnie's neck shined 
 Like the links o' yellow gold. 
 
 —Jolinie Scot, 75-76 (iv, 54). 
 
 His hair was like the threads o' gowd. 
 
 — Lord Tliomas of Winesberry, etc. , 45 (iv, 307), 
 
 How gowden yellow is your hair. 
 
 — Lady Elspat, 2 (iv, 308). 
 
 Her crisped locks like threedes of gold. 
 
 — Fair Rosamond, 9 (vii, 284). 
 
 And yet we find it in other connexions. " Glistering like 
 gold " occurs (The Boy and the Mantle, 128, i, 13), and 
 
 And als clere golde her brydill it schone. 
 
 — Thomas of Ersseldoune, 35 (1, 99). 
 
 The masts that were like the beaten gold. 
 
 — The Daemon Lover, 45 (i, 203). 
 
 And after him a finikin lass 
 
 Did shine like the glistering gold. 
 
 —Robin Hood and Ailin a Dale, 71-72 (v, 281). 
 
 Whose person was better than gold. 
 
 —Robin Hood and Maid Marian, 36 (v, 373).
 
 i:?^ THE ETs^GLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 45 
 
 Gold and silver are combined in the following instances : 
 
 And the topmast and the mainmast, 
 Shone like the silver free. 
 
 —Fair Annie, 37-38 (iii, 193); 
 
 and in the same poem (11. 41-42), 
 
 And the topmast and the mainmast 
 They shone just like the gold. 
 
 In Lord Livingston, 23, 25 (iii, 344), we find 
 
 The kipples * were like the gude red gowd, 
 And the roof -tree like the siller white. 
 
 Summary. — Milk-white, snow-white, lilj-white, white as a 
 swan (perhaps), grass-green, rosy, ruby, cherry, berry-brown, 
 nut-brown, golden, glistering like gold, etc., are figures of colour 
 that may pass unquestioned in the ballads ; no figures are used 
 oftener and none are more genuine. Other similes from colour 
 there are none, purple, orange, and violet not being represented, 
 and the use of the few mentioned, over and over again, shows 
 how averse the popular poetry must have been to receiving any- 
 thing novel or sensational in descriptive epithet. The same- 
 ness may have palled at times, but it certainly had the effect 
 that old friends have, and on this ground was given a hearty 
 welcome. 
 
 lY. 
 
 Similes and Metajphors drawn from The Mineral Kingdom. 
 
 It has been remarked before, and we shall probably have oc- 
 casion to remark again, that no division of our subject can be 
 exhaustive. The subdivisions will be found to overlap, and no 
 nice discrimination will entirely satisfy the mind as to which 
 section particular figures should be assigned to. There is no 
 reason, for example, why the figures drawn from gold and sil- 
 ver should not be included in the present instead of the last 
 chapter, and indeed their position at the head of the mineral 
 world seemed to exact such an allotment; the idea of colour 
 is, however, so strong in these similes, that no treatment but 
 
 * Kipples — rafters.
 
 46 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 the one followed seemed either desirable or possible. Strong 
 though the temptation may be to place these figures under any 
 other division of the subject, it is hoped that in the main the 
 distribution here used will not be found unsatisfactory. 
 
 The subdivisions in this chapter, which is itself a subdi- 
 vision, if we exclude the bulk of gold and silver similes, are 
 twofold : 
 
 (a). Figures from Crystal and Precious Stones (except the 
 ruby) ; 
 
 {13). Miscellaneous, including a few figures from gold. 
 
 (a). Figures drawn from crystal are not rare. We will 
 quote a few : 
 
 Witness, ye groves and chrystal streams. 
 
 — The Damosel's Complaint, 77 (ii, 387). 
 
 The crystal tears ran down her face. 
 
 —The Gruel Black, 81 (iii, 373). 
 
 With chrystal water all in her bright eyes. 
 —The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green, 66 (iv, 171). 
 
 His eyes like crystal clear. 
 
 — Lord TJwinas of Winesberry, 46 (iv, 307). 
 
 His eyes they were as cleare 
 As christall stone, hey ho. 
 
 —By Landsdale Hey Ho, 85-36 (v, 432). 
 
 The blood within her cristall cheeks. 
 
 — Fair Rosamond, 13 (vii, 284). 
 
 " Cristall " as an epithet for cheeks, seems hardly good. In 
 the same poem occurs the silver-j)earled dew, adversely noted, 
 and which is found nowhere else. It does not lighten the 
 general doubt as to the worth of this ballad. 
 
 And from her cleare and cristall eyes 
 
 The tears gusht out apace, 
 Which, like the silver-pearled deaw, etc. 
 
 —Fair Rosamond, 69-71 (vii, 286). 
 
 It will be seen that all, or nearly all, of these examples are 
 taken from the ballads of a certain period, when ballad-writing 
 was descending into ballad-mongering. The authors of Gil 
 Morice and Fair Annet had no time to waste on such puerilities.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 47 
 
 Expressions from jewels are not common in the ballads, 
 except for the metaphor " jewel " applied affectionately to 
 people. 
 
 Ye've taken the timber out of my ain wood, 
 And burnt my ain dear jewel. 
 
 — Lady Marjorie, 77-78 (ii, 341). 
 
 Te're welcome, jewel, to your own. 
 
 — Yoxing Beiclian and Susie Pye, 164 (iv, 9). 
 
 Ye are my jewel. 
 — Blancheflour and Jelly florice, 85 (iv, 298). 
 
 Cum well, cum wae, my jewels fair. 
 
 —Edam o' Gordon, 63 (vi, 157). 
 Somewhat differently, 
 
 Her comely eyes, like orient pearles. 
 
 — Fair Eosamond, 11 (vii, 284). 
 
 Compare also the expression " silver-pearled deaw " already 
 quoted. 
 
 And this good metaphor, once used : 
 
 Seeking still for that pretious stone, 
 The worde of trueth, so rare to find. 
 —The Duchess of Suffolk's Calamity, 33-34 (vii, 300). 
 
 (/S). We cannot better begin in this division than by intro- 
 ducing the reader to a pun, the first and perhaps the last he 
 will meet in the course of the present investigation. The word 
 " mettled " in the following quotation is originally metaphori- 
 cal, mettle in the sense of spirit being the same word as 
 " metal," temper of metal, etc. 
 
 In manhood he's a mettled man, 
 And a mettle-man by trade. 
 
 —Robin Hood and the Tinker, 157-158 (v, 237). 
 
 Two figures from gold that do not seem to have an idea of 
 colour are the following : 
 
 Golden fame did thunder, 
 —Tlie King of France's Daughter, 176 (iv, 223) ; 
 
 and this rather better one : 
 
 That he thought it to be but a meer golden dream. 
 
 — The Frolicsome Duke, 56 (viii, 58).
 
 48 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 Other solitary instances of comparisons with the mineral 
 world are these : 
 
 His skin more hard than brass was found. 
 
 — St. George and the Dragon, 29 (i, 73). 
 
 And all hir body lyke the lede. 
 
 —Thomas of Ersseldmme, 96 (i, 103). 
 
 It is your lady's heart's blood ; 
 'Tis as clear as the lamer (amber). 
 
 —Lamkin, 87-88 (iii, 98). 
 
 Suminary. — The only figures of frequent occurrence under 
 this head are the application of the word crystal to water and 
 tears, and the metaphor jewel in addressing or speaking of 
 beloved persons. Others, although they are not striking, are 
 used too seldom to prove anything. 
 
 V. 
 
 Similes and Metaphors drawn from Fire and its Character- 
 istics. 
 
 The qualities of fire have long been celebrated in popular 
 simile. " Hot as fire," " red as fire," are customary expressions. 
 In addition to this the brightness of fire is apparent to all. 
 AVith obvious figures drawn from this last source, we will begin 
 the discussion of fire similes. 
 
 For the eyes that beene in his head 
 They glister as doth the gleed. * 
 
 — King Arthur and Cornwall^ 110-111 (i, 236). 
 As bright as fyre and brent 
 
 —Sir Cauline, 148 (iii, 180). 
 
 (Percy's emendation of the folio line " harder than ffyer, and 
 brent ") ; 
 
 His armor glytteryde as dyd a glede. 
 
 — The Uunting of the Cheviot, 57 (vii, 32). 
 The moon shone like the gleed. 
 
 — Glenkindie, 76 (ii, 12). 
 When Thomas came before the king 
 He glanced like the fire. 
 
 — Lord Thomas of Winesberry, 43-44 (iv, 307). 
 * Gleed— A. S. Gled— a burning coal.
 
 IN THE EN-GLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 49 
 
 The rapidity of movement in fire, and particularly in 
 sparks, serves also for the fomidation of several figures in 
 the ballads. 
 
 And then he will spring forth of his hand, 
 As sparks dothe out of gleede. 
 
 — King Arthur and Cornwall, 261-262 (i, 243). 
 The Lindsays flew like fire about. 
 
 —The Battle of Otterbourne, B, 115 (vii. 24). 
 
 The similarity of rumour to a raging flame is a common 
 basis for simile and metaphor. In the ballads, this idea is ap- 
 parent in the following : 
 
 But lords and ladies blazed the fame. 
 
 —The Seven Champions, 237 (i, 93). 
 
 And conversely, 
 
 Whos prais sould not be smored (smothered). 
 
 —The Battle of Balrinnes, 222 (vii, 226). 
 
 The spark, with its brilliant, short-lived existence, serves 
 here as elsewhere for a figurative illustration of life itself. 
 
 Nay spark o' life was there. 
 
 — The Lass of Lochroyan, 144 (ii, 112). 
 
 The flame of love and the flame of anger are ideas 
 known to all. They are used as follows in the popular poetry : 
 
 Which set the lord's heart on fire. 
 
 — Patient Grissell, 8 (Iv, 208). 
 
 The noble marquess in his heart felt such flame. 
 
 —Ibid., 19 (iv, 209). 
 
 Till his heart was set on fire. 
 
 —The King of France's Daughter, 151 (iv, 221). 
 
 Long was his heart inflamed. 
 
 —Ibid., 158 (iv, 222). 
 
 How oft she tried to drown the flame. 
 
 —Tlie Hireman Chiel, 69 (viii, 235). 
 
 Save only Dido's boyling brest. 
 
 — Queen Dido, 36 (viii, 209).
 
 50 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 In the last, however, the idea is transferred from fire to its 
 
 [ect. 
 theme : 
 
 effect. More at length is the following variation of the same 
 
 But love is a durable fire, 
 
 In the mind ever burning ; 
 Never sick, never dead, never cold. 
 
 From itself never turning. 
 
 — As I came from Walsing7iam, 41-44 (iv, 194). 
 
 Perhaps the fore-runner, at all events the prototype, of 
 Romeo's 
 
 Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs, 
 Cold fire, sick health, etc. 
 
 The flame of anger and of high courage, often akin to 
 
 anger : 
 
 Then Seaton started till his foot, 
 The fierce flame in his e'e. 
 
 — Lord Livingston, 39-40 (iii, 344). 
 
 Whose grisly looks and eyes like brands. 
 
 — Robin Hood and the Stranger, 57 (v, 412). 
 
 His een glittering for anger like a fiery gleed. 
 
 —Tlte Fray of Suport, 22 (vi, 117). 
 
 But he was haU and het as fire. 
 
 —The Raid of Reidswire, 38 (vi, 133). 
 
 With wrath as hot as fire. 
 
 —The Wanton Wife of Bath, 104 (viii, 15G). 
 
 These two last similes are the only instances, so far as 
 known, of the use in the ballads of the colloquial " hot as fire." 
 The contrary " cold as ice " does not occur. Once more : 
 
 But now as the knight in choler did burn. 
 
 —Sir Eglamore 21 (viii, 197). 
 
 The idea of heat in wrath is too common to need further ex- 
 ploiting here. By way of contrast the cold of fear or depres- 
 sion may be introduced : 
 
 « 
 
 Their hearts within them waxed cold. 
 
 —Samson, 62 (viii, 203).
 
 IN" THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 51 
 
 The value of the record demands the introduction at this point 
 of the following bit of laboured verse, too puerile to be a pro- 
 duction of the best ballad school : 
 
 All which incens'd his lady so, 
 
 She burnt with wrath extreame ; 
 At length the fire that long did glow^ 
 
 Burst forth into a flame. 
 
 —The Spanish Virgin, 41-44 (iii, 362). 
 
 The accumulation of epithets here is worthy of a better cause. 
 
 The smoke of wrath is also expressed in the following hint of 
 personification : 
 
 Thoult see my sword with furie smoke. 
 — Eobin Hood and the Farmer's Daughter, 79 (v, 338). 
 
 Unclassified forms are these solitary instances : 
 
 The battle grows hot on every side. 
 
 —Fragment, 17 (v, 409). 
 
 Joy shone within his face. 
 
 —Eobin Hood and the Stranger, 102 (v, 413). 
 
 [Shone like fire ?] 
 
 At every stroke he made him to smoke, 
 As if he had been all on fire. 
 
 —Robin Hood and Little -John, 71-72 (v, 219). 
 
 The comparison of gold to a hui'ning mass is also used, and for 
 that reason is introduced here instead of under the chapter on 
 colour-similes. 
 
 Twa heads. . . . 
 
 Lady Maisry's like the mo'ten goud. 
 
 — Lord TF«' Yates and Ai.i I Ingram, 111 (ii, 330). 
 
 And mantel of the burning goud. 
 
 — Young Waters, 11 (iii, 89). 
 
 And, finally, there may be a suggestion of simile in the 
 epithet red-hoi in the following, although it is probable the 
 author had no such intent : 
 
 A red-hot gad o' aim. 
 
 — The Young Tamlane, 16G (i, 122).
 
 52 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 Summary. — The figures, then, from the domain of fire, tliat 
 seem to belong indisputably to the British popular mind, are 
 snch as arise from the brightness and rapidity of flame and 
 sparks — " glittering like the gleed," " flies as doth the spark," 
 etc. ; and by metaphor, the flame of nature is transferred to 
 the fla;ne of love or the passion of anger. These figures are 
 surely one indication of the popular origin of any poem, and 
 as such are offered here without reserve. 
 
 B. 
 
 Simile and Metaphor dkawn fkom Animals and their 
 
 Characteristics. 
 
 The figures in this domain Mall be found, for all practical 
 purposes, to fall under the same general description as those in 
 the preceding division of the subject. They are obvious and 
 such as would appeal to one who looked at nature objectively. 
 There is no severe attempt, as in the great poets, to fit pheno- 
 mena into a definition and scheme of life. For the balladists, 
 the animals exist with certain strong appetites and habits, and 
 from mere surface traits the fiofures are drawn. There is no 
 subjection of animal life to man ; in other words, no evidence 
 in the ballads of Man Thinking. The similes shew the sti-onger, 
 less attractive side of what may be called the animal charac- 
 ter; to cite one case in several, " dog" is used throughout only 
 in a contemptuous sense, with no recognition, apparently, of 
 the animal's nobler qualities. 
 
 Having acknowledged this fact, there is no difficulty in classi- 
 fying the figures. For the purposes of the present paper, the 
 similes and metaphors derived from animals and their charac- 
 teristics may be divided as follows : 
 
 I. Similes and Metaphors drawn from Quadruped Life. 
 IT. Similes and Metaphors drawn from Bird Life. 
 
 III. Similes and Metaphors drawn from Creeping Things 
 
 and Things that Live in the Water. 
 
 IV. Similes and Metaphors drawn from Insect Life.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 53 
 
 The first of these divisions will be found to yield the most 
 fruitful results, and the fourth the most meagre ; hut this is, 
 perhaps, from the nature of the subject, inevitable. 
 
 Shniles and MetajpKors drawn from Quadrujjed Life. 
 
 The figures in this subdivision represent 
 
 (a) The better qualities of strength and courage, and of 
 lightness and grace ; 
 
 (/9) The meaner qualities that excite the contempt of man, 
 
 (7) Miscellaneous qualities. 
 
 All will be found to fall under these heads, and under these 
 heads they will now be taken up in order. It may be remarked 
 once more, that there is no effort from first to last, on the part 
 of the balladists, to pourtray sympathetically and with under- 
 standing the motives of animal life. 
 
 (a) The great examples of strength seem always to have been 
 the boar, the lion, and the tiger; and the English 
 bards, true to tradition, although they knew nothing of some of 
 the animals in question, have preserved the similes derived there- 
 from, in their works. The following group needs no comment : 
 
 They buckled then together so, 
 Like two wild boars rashing. 
 
 — Sir Lancelot du Lake, 109-110 (i, 60). 
 
 Then Robin raged like a wild boar. 
 
 — BoUn Hood and the Tanner, 69 (v, 226;. 
 
 And about and about and about they went 
 Like two wild boars in a chase. 
 
 —Ibid., 73-74 (v, 226). 
 
 Like two wild boars so fierce. 
 
 —The Dragon of Wantley, 123 (viii, 133). 
 
 Like lions mov'd they laid on load. 
 
 —Chevy CJiace, 123 (vii, 48). 
 
 As lyounes does poore lambes devoure, 
 With bloodie teethe and naillis. 
 
 —The Battle of Balrinnes, 101-102 (vii, 222).
 
 54 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 The M'Gregors fought like lyons bold. 
 
 — Bonny John Seton, 45 (vii, 237). 
 
 And with her husband thus they past, 
 Like lambs beset with tygers wild. 
 
 — Thomas Stukeley, 129-130 (vii, 303). 
 
 And rid up as fierce as tygers. 
 
 — The Reading Skirmish, 45 (vii, 245). 
 
 The following solitary instances occur : 
 
 But Ethert Lunn, a baited bear, 
 Had many battles seen. 
 
 —Auld Maitland, 193-194 (vi, 228). 
 
 Like to a wolf to worried be. 
 
 — Macjyherson' s Bant, 11 (vi, 267). 
 
 The lightness and grace of deer , etc., are the next subject for 
 discussion ; and here we find many ballad examples in proof. 
 
 Lyk hartes, up howes and hillis thei ranne. 
 
 —The Battle of Balrines, 289 (vii, 229). 
 
 For she is wel shapyn, as lizt as a ra. 
 
 — The Turnament of Tottenham, 129 (viii, 110). 
 
 Like wounded harts chas'd all the day. 
 ^ — Armstrong and Musgrave, 62 (viii, 244). 
 
 The deer that ye hae hunted lang, 
 Then Hobie Noble is that deer ! 
 
 —Hobie NohU, 55-57 (vi, 101). 
 
 This Frenshe com to Flaundres so liht so the hare. 
 
 — The Flemish Insurrection, 81 (vi, 272). 
 
 In this connexion perhaps we may introduce : 
 
 Herof habbeth the Flemyishe suithe god game. 
 
 —Bid., 125. 
 
 (yS) The meaner qualities of animals are generally summed 
 up, in the ballads, in the words swine, dog, and ass. The 
 first of these is very frequently found to express drunkenness, 
 and suggests the antiquitj- of the salient slang usage of to-day. 
 
 Until they were a' deadly drunk 
 As any wild-wood swine. 
 
 —Fause Goodrage, 03-64 (iii, 43).
 
 IlSr THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 55 
 
 Till she got him as deadly drunk 
 As ony unhallowed swine. 
 
 — Young Hunting, 39-40 (iii, 29G). 
 
 Another familiar use is the following : 
 
 Then sleep and snore like ony sow. 
 
 —Earl Richard (B) 180 (iii, 273). 
 
 Observe, too, this group of similes : 
 
 She's laid him on a dressing-table 
 And stickit him like a swine. 
 
 —Hugh of Lincoln, 27-28 (iii, 139). 
 
 And in a similar expression in a different version of the same 
 
 ballad : 
 
 And dress'd him like a swine. 
 
 —Sir Hugh, 33 (iii, 143). 
 
 Again, 
 
 Hue leyyen y the stretes, ystyked ase sywn. 
 
 — The Flemish Insurrection, 43 (vi, 271). 
 
 The impression derived from the ballad similes and meta- 
 phors from d o g s is similar. The showing, besides, is large. 
 
 That ye drew up wi' an English dog. 
 
 — Lady Maisry, 55 (ii, 83). 
 
 That have trepan'd our kind Scotchman, 
 Like dogs to ding them down. 
 
 —The Enchanted Ring, 27-28 (iii, 54). 
 
 This dog's death I'm to die. 
 
 —The Queen's Marie, 96 (iii, 119). 
 
 'Mong Noroway dogs no more. 
 
 —Sir Patrick Spens, 68 (iii, 340). 
 
 Hunted and drove before 'um like dogs. 
 
 — The Reading Skirmish, 58 (vii, 240). 
 
 Have you any more of your English dogs 
 You want for to have slain ? 
 
 —Johnie Scot, 177-178 (iv, 59). 
 
 The English dogs were cunning rogues. 
 
 — Lang Johnny Moir, 33 (iv, 273). 
 
 He'll loose yon bluidhound Borderers. 
 
 — TJie Outlaw Murray, 255 (vi, 34).
 
 S6 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 The last is a better usage, however, and carries no idea of 
 contempt. As much cannot be said for the following : 
 
 It shall never be said we were hang'd like dogs. 
 
 — Johnie Armstrong, 59 (vi, 43). 
 
 I'm but like a forfoughen hound, 
 Has been fighting in a syke [ditch]. 
 
 —Hobie Noble, 111-112 (vi, 104). 
 
 Some Highland rogues, like hungry dogs. 
 
 —The Battle of Tranent Muir, 97 (vii, 172). 
 
 We'll pay thee at the nearest tree. 
 Where we will hang thee like a hound. 
 
 —The Death of Parcy Beed, 114 (vi, 145). 
 
 Like unto dogs he'll cause you die. 
 
 —Billie Archie, 28 (vi, 95). 
 
 The black Baillie, that auld dog. 
 
 —The Battle of Alford, 5 (vii, 238), 
 
 and frequently dog is contemptuously used. Compare in " As 
 You Like It," Adam's " Is old dog my reward ? Most true, I 
 have lost my teeth in your service," and Shylock's 
 
 You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog. 
 
 —M. of v., i, 3. 
 
 Once, at least, in the ballads, the fighting qualities of a dog 
 are specified in contradistinction to the mass of evidence above : 
 
 But it was now too late to fear, 
 
 For now it was come to fight dog, fight bear. 
 
 —Sir Eglamore, 17-18 (viii, 197). 
 
 As often in modern English, moreover, so in the popular 
 song, the term a s s is applied with a contemptuous, though not 
 necessarily unkind, signification. The former feeling, how- 
 ev^er, often predominates, to the exclusion of anything else. 
 
 • Quoth bold Robbin Hood, " Thou dost prate like an ass." 
 
 — Robin Ilood and Little John, 33 (v, 218). 
 
 And Robbin was, methinks, an asse. 
 
 —A True Tale of Robin Hood, 383 (v, 368). 
 
 Why, then, thou drunken ass. 
 
 —The Wanton Wife of Bath, 35 (viii, 154).
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 57 
 
 (7) To conclude, beasts are referred to in various scattered 
 instances in a variety of ways. Collectively, they are used in 
 these two similes : 
 
 And now they renne away fro me 
 As bastes on a row. 
 
 —A Little Geste of Bob in Hood, 237-338 (v, 55). 
 
 Chessit lyke deirs * into their dens. 
 
 —T7ie Battle of Harlaw, 183 (vii, 188). 
 
 The characteristic of beasts is also referred to, without doubt, 
 in the following personification : 
 
 For a cannon's roar, etc. 
 
 — Bonny John Seton, 59 (vii. 334), 
 
 and in 
 
 The rest, they did quack and roar. 
 
 — Willie Wallace, 72 (vi. 235). 
 
 The fox, too, once serves as an illustration for cunning : 
 
 The friar was as glad as a fox in his nest. 
 
 —The Friar in the Well, 12 (viu, 123) ; 
 
 while in one poem for a special case we find 
 
 You would have thought him for to be 
 Some Egyptian porcupig. 
 
 —T?ie Dragon of Wantley, 83-84 (viii, 131) ; 
 
 and on the same page (11. 87-88), 
 
 they took him to be 
 Some strange outlandish hedgehog. 
 
 The enumeration may be finished with these figures : 
 
 But bring me, like a wand'ring sheep. 
 Into thy fold again. 
 
 —The Wanton Wife of Bath, 123-124 (viii, 157), 
 
 which, from its obvious origin, perhaps needs no introduction 
 here ; the concealed metaphor in 
 
 But in all haste up to us ihey flocked. 
 
 —The Beading Skirmish, 50 (vii, 246) ; 
 
 * A. S. deor, animal. Cf. King Lear— Mice and rats and such small deer.
 
 nS SIMILE AND METAPIIOE 
 
 and, finally, the " yoke " of Cupid seems to apply to the re- 
 ceiver as to an animal in 
 
 Yet fancy bids thee not to fear 
 
 Which fetter'd thee in Cupid's yoke. 
 
 —Sir Eglamore, 63-64 (viii, 310). 
 
 Such figures as the following hardly count in a general esti- 
 mate of ballad figures. They are special instances, used only 
 once ; j^et they are interesting as showing the sources from 
 which ballad similes are drawn. These to be quoted are all 
 common enough as sources of figure, except, odd as it may 
 appear, the bull : 
 
 His head is like unto a bull, 
 His nose is like a boar. 
 
 — Qnceii Eleanor's Confession, 69-70 (vi, 213). 
 
 He's headed like a buck, she said, 
 And backed like a boar. 
 
 -Ibid., 11. 73-74. 
 
 The same remarks apply to the following 
 
 His life was like a barrow-hogge 
 Or like a filthy heap of dung. 
 
 — Gernutvs the Jew of Venice, 9, 13 (viii, 471). 
 
 Summary. — The figures most frequent in this first division 
 of B, I, are those that refer to the resemblance between the war- 
 like qualities of men and the rage of boars, lions, and tigers, in 
 the order named ; and those that found similes on the lightness 
 and agility of deer. In the second division the epithets swine, 
 dog, and ass are contemptuously applied to men. "With these 
 exceptions (themselves common enough) the figures are spo- 
 radic and of such a nature as to preclude classification. 
 
 11. 
 
 Similes and Metaphors drawn from Bird Life, 
 
 This division will be found to contain some of the happiest 
 figures in the ballads. As was remarked somewhat earlier, the 
 bright life of the country and tlie woodland finds frequent 
 chronicle in the English and Scotch popular songs ; and no
 
 IN" THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 59 
 
 feature of that life is more noticeable than the flight and song 
 of birds. This feature, then, is often mentioned, and usually in 
 a way to rivet the attention. " As blythe as bird on tree " is a 
 common simile in our poems ; and the allusion shows a careful 
 study of nature in its gayest moods. " The gay goss-hawk " is 
 also much in evidence. These figures will now be taken up in 
 detail. 
 
 As for the song and " b 1 i t h e n e s s " of birds we find the 
 following group of figures in the ballads : 
 
 As blythe as ony bird on tree. 
 
 — The Laird of Waristoun, 16 (iii, 319). 
 
 As blythe's a bird on tree, 
 
 — Blancheflour and Jellyflorice, 10 (iv, 295). 
 
 Nae bird on the brier e'er sang sae clear 
 As the young knight and his ladie. 
 
 —Geordie (B), 31-32 (viii, 97). 
 
 The bird never sang naair sweet on the bush 
 Nor the Icnight sung at the baking. 
 
 —The Duke of AthoVs Nurse, 55-56 (viii, 230). 
 
 The bird in the bush sung not so sweet 
 As sung this bonny lady. 
 
 —The Bantin- Laddie, 95-96 (iv, 101). 
 
 The swiftness of birds is attested by some very good 
 
 similes. 
 
 And he's gone skipping down the stair, 
 Swift as the bird that flaw. 
 
 —The Eireman Chiel, 31-32 (viii, 234). 
 
 He has gone whistling o'er the knowe, 
 Swift as the bird that flaw. 
 
 — The Hireman Chiel, 193-193 (viii, 240). 
 
 Once, at least, the " swift " bird is specified : 
 
 When the Italian, like a swallow swift 
 Owre Johnie's head did flee. 
 
 —Johnie Scot, 101-162 (iv, 58). • 
 
 The flight of birds in fear, again, is the foundation of at 
 least one simile : 
 
 And dinna flee like a frighted bird 
 
 That's chased frae its nest i' the morning. 
 
 —Johnie Cope, 11-12 (vii, 274),
 
 60 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 where there is evidence, in the Last line, of the individual poet 
 working in iields not common to the general halladist. 
 
 The " gay " gos s -h awk also serves its turn in popular 
 poetry ; frequently it has the added idea of wildness. 
 
 The boy stared wild, like a gray goss-hawk. 
 
 — Fause Ooodrage, 131 (iii, 45). 
 
 And in the same poem the father addresses his son by the title 
 in question : 
 
 And ye must learn, my gay goss-hawk. 
 
 —Ibid., 1. 89. 
 
 Differently, 
 
 He mewde hir up as men mew hawkes. 
 
 —The Taming of a Shrew, 87 (viii, 185). 
 
 Once, too, a father speaks of his son as a cock : 
 
 My gude house-cock, my only son. 
 
 — Willie and Maisry, 46 (ii, 59). 
 
 The gentleness of the dove is proverbial and was a common 
 illustration with the ballad writers. It is usual to call a person 
 of such character a " turtle-dove." One example will suffice : 
 
 And sae has he the turtle- do w 
 With the truth o' his wild hand. 
 
 —Fause Goodrage, 139-140 (iii, 46). 
 
 Again in the same poem we find " your turtle-dow " (your 
 daughter.) 
 
 Coming to more direct similes under this head, two shinins: 
 instances arrest the attention : 
 
 In vain in humble sort she strove 
 
 Her fury to disarm ; 
 As well the weakness of the dove, 
 , The bloody hawke might charm. 
 
 —The Spanish Virgin, 39-33 (iii, 361). 
 
 The bonny dew likes na its mate 
 
 Better, my dearest Cliil Ether, 
 Than Maisry loves her brither. 
 
 — Chil Ether, 9-13 (iv, 299).
 
 ITT THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 61 
 
 There is a distinctly subjective tone to these similes ; a tone 
 that is quite apparent in the following extract : 
 
 The linnet is a bonnie bird, 
 
 And aften flees far frae its nest ; 
 So all the world may plainly see, 
 
 They're far awa that I love best. 
 
 — Lord Jamie Douglas, 125-128 (iv, 142). 
 
 The grim humour of the next quotation is not bad : 
 
 The egg is chipp'd, the bird is flown, 
 Ye'll see na mair o' young Logie. 
 
 —The Laird d Logie, 67-68 (iv, 113). 
 
 But most beautiful of all — somewhat too beautiful — is the 
 solitary reference to the habit of the swan : 
 
 And sing, like a swan, my doom. 
 
 — The BamoseVs Complaint, 52 (ii, 386) ; 
 
 with which we may compare Shakspere's 
 
 He makes a swan-like end, fading in music. 
 
 —M. of V. iii, 2, 44-45, 
 and Tennyson's 
 
 Like some full-breasted swan 
 That fluting a wild carol ere her death. 
 
 Solitary instances that lack corroboration in other ballads are 
 
 such as the following : 
 
 His herd was syde ay large span 
 
 And glided als the f ether of pae (peacock). 
 
 —AU I Tod on Ay Mounday, 19-20 (i, 274). 
 
 Similarly, from the habits of the same bird, 
 
 I spread my plumes, as wantons do. 
 
 —Jane Shore, 21 (vii, 195). 
 
 The flight of birds is undoubtedly the foundation of 
 
 And they loot off a flight of arrows. 
 
 —The Raid of Beidswire, 72 (vi, 136) ; 
 
 and in the following, the joining of a certain useful fowl with 
 beasts of magnitude is funny : 
 
 5The rest they did quack an' roar. 
 
 _- wane Wallace, 72 (vi, 235).
 
 62 SIMILE AND METAPHOE 
 
 The next is decidedly humorous : 
 
 For houses and churches were to him geese and turkies. 
 
 —The Dragon of Wantley (viii, 129). 
 
 Finally, 
 
 Hue were laht * by the net, so bryd is in snare. 
 
 — The Flemish Insurrection, 83 (vi, 272). 
 
 The birds, once more, are the basis of the metaphor 
 
 This in our hearts we freely did hatch. 
 
 — The Beading Skirmish, 27 (vii, 245) ; 
 
 and once, to twilight or dawn, is applied the striking metaphor. 
 
 The dun feather and gray. 
 
 — Reedisdale and Wise WiUiam, 32 (viii, 89). 
 
 Summary. — The commonest similes, then, drawn from bird 
 life are those that refer to the bird's joyousness, song, and 
 flight. These occur again and again, and are surely proofs of 
 the popular origin of any ballad. Less frequent allusion is 
 made to the goss-hawk and turtle-dove (mostly as metaphors). 
 Other figures are too rare to be classified, and three, at least, 
 show a subjective force and a beauty that are indisputable 
 evidence of their authors' individuality. Altogether, the bird 
 similes are perhaps the best and happiest in the ballads. 
 
 III. 
 
 Similes and Metaphors drawn from Creeping Things and 
 Things that Line in the Water. 
 
 These figures are not numerous, and may be summed up in 
 a few words. They lack originality and are such as suggest 
 themselves to the dullest intellect. They occupy but a mini- 
 mum space in the aggregate of the figures in the ballads, and 
 with few exceptions are used in particular cases where nothing 
 else would do. 
 
 * Laht — caught.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 63 
 
 One very fair instance that recalls Yirgil's famous latet 
 anguis in herba is the following : 
 
 Thy fair words make me suspect thee, 
 Serpents are where flowers grow. 
 
 —The Spanish Lady's Love, 27-28 (iv, 203). 
 
 Reference is likewise made to the serpent in the metaphor 
 
 " I have a secret to reveale," 
 
 She said, " my heart doth sting." 
 
 — TJie Qentlemanin Thracia, 51-52 (viii, 160). 
 
 And again, three times : 
 
 Where fear and sting of conscience. 
 
 — George Barnwell, 163 (viii, 226). 
 
 Which did his heart with sorrow sting. 
 
 — St. George and the Dragon, 57 (1, 75). 
 
 Was f orc'd the sting of death to feel. 
 
 Ihid., 204, 80. 
 
 Two other figures in this department are : 
 
 Auld Ingram's [head] like a toad. 
 
 —Lord Wa' Yates, etc. 112 (ii, 330). 
 
 He stert up as a snayle. 
 
 — The Turnament of Tottenham, 177 (viii, 112). 
 
 Regarding creatures that live in the water, we find 
 
 When I come to a deep water, 
 I can swim thro' like ony otter. 
 
 —Earl Richard (B), 99-100 (iii, 270) ; 
 and on the same page, 
 
 I can swim thro' like ony eel. 
 
 In a variant version of the same poem occur the lines : 
 
 That I can soum this wan water 
 Like a fish in a flude — 
 
 • • • • • 
 
 As though I was an otter. 
 
 —Earl RicJiard (B), 29, 34 (iii, 39G). 
 
 Summary. — The figures, then, in this subdivision will be 
 seen to be too rare to admit of classification under a formula
 
 64 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 for ballad conduct. With tlie possible exception of the meta- 
 phorical use of sting, there is nothing that invites attention or 
 sngo-ests a settled usage on the part of the bards. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Similes drawn from Insect Life. 
 
 Coming to the final heading of animal life, we find two sim- 
 iles to support us in making such a division. They are as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 I count him lighter than a flee. 
 
 —Jock o' the Side, 92 (vi, 85) ; 
 
 to which may be compared Chaucer's " I count him not a flee," 
 and the ballad 
 
 They counted us not worth a louse. 
 
 — The Raid of the Eeidswire, 36 (vi, 133). 
 
 The second and better simile : 
 
 And so they fled, wi' a' their main, 
 
 Down ower the brae, like clogged bees. 
 
 —Haid of Eeidswire, 119-120. 
 
 To conclude, on this line, it will be seen how much less fre- 
 quent in the ballads are figures drawn from animal life than 
 those drawn from inanimate nature. With the exception of 
 the bird-similes, again, they are less striking and less interest- 
 ing than those under the first great division of the subject. 
 
 C. 
 
 Simile aihd Metaphor dbawn feom Man and his Habits. 
 
 The figures in this division will be found to be much more 
 numerous than in the preceding division of the subject, though 
 not so numerous as the figures from the domain of nature. 
 The general characteristics of these figures are again homeli- 
 ness and simplicity. This aspect of the ballad figures cannot
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 65 
 
 be insisted on too often. The similes and metaphors drawn 
 from man and his habits are such as would most naturally ap- 
 peal to an untrained intelligence seeking for resemblances be- 
 tween man and the w'orkings of that intelligence. Of the 
 subjective resemblance, however, there is little trace. The 
 external characteristics of man, his form and bearinsr, the 
 members of his body, etc., are used as bases for figures ; his 
 moral attributes are sparingly treated. Again, the products of 
 man's ingenuity and inventive power serve as sources for fig- 
 ure, but they are mentioned by the way, with no working out 
 of detail in the resemblances. 
 
 To put it more plainly, a man, in the ballads, is, perhaps, 
 compared, from external traits only, to a king, or an angel, or 
 a palmer ; but seldom, if ever, is there a figure arising from a 
 knowledge of man's moral nature. ISTever, for instance, do we 
 find a figure such as the one already quoted from Coleridge, 
 beo-inning 
 
 Like one that on a lonesome road, etc. , 
 
 where the simile springs from a moral or intellectual, rather 
 than a physical resemblance. A good example of ballad-simile 
 under this head would be 
 
 Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed, 
 Most like a baron bold. 
 
 — Chevy Chace, G5-C6 (vii, 4G), 
 
 where the resemblance is moral to a certain extent, but tinct- 
 ured deeply by external showing. 
 
 For the sake of convenience, the figures in this section will 
 be divided under four great heads: 
 
 I. Simile and Metaphor drawn from the Human Body. 
 
 II. Simile and Metaphor drawn from Man as Man, in Vari- 
 ous Relations of Life. 
 
 III. Simile and Metaphor drawn from Man as a Moral and 
 Intellectual Being. 
 
 IV. Simile and Metaphor drawn from the Life and "Works 
 of Man. 
 
 5
 
 66 SIMILE AND METAPHOE 
 
 I. 
 
 Similes and Metajpliors draion from the Human Body. 
 
 The resemblances employed in this division are not many or 
 striking, and may be summed up in a few words. 
 
 In Sir Andrew Barton 48 (vii, 58) we find the epithet head 
 twice used as a term for high rank. 
 
 Of a hundred gunners to be the head. 
 
 This line occurs again, and a variation, likewise, in 
 
 To be the head I have chosen thee. 
 
 —Ibid., 60 (vii, 59). 
 
 Once, too, the familiar epithet of the sun : 
 
 But the all-seeing eye of heaven. 
 
 — The Oentleman in Thracia, 37 (viii, 159). 
 
 A similar figure : 
 
 Wi' that he vanish' d frae her sight, 
 Wi' the twinkling o' an eye. 
 
 —The Courteous Knight, 131-132 (viii, 277). 
 
 Once occurs the beautiful metaphor : 
 
 Until they came to a broad river, 
 An arm of a lonesome sea. 
 
 —May Golvin, 19-20 (ii, 274). 
 
 For completeness, we include 
 
 The Protestants of Drogheda 
 
 They being but a handful. 
 
 —The Boyne Water, 49, 52 (vii, 255). 
 
 Figures derived from the senses of man are the following : 
 
 We's be a motte into his sight, 
 Or he paa hame againe. 
 
 —The Battle of Balrinnes, 55-56 (vii, 220). 
 
 To counsel this lady was deaf, 
 To judgement she was blind. 
 — Fair Margaret of Craignargat, 69-70 (vii, 252).
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 67 
 
 Another sense is called upon here : 
 
 " Thou smells of a coward," said Robin Hood. 
 
 — Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow, 41 (v, 385). 
 
 Compare Shakspere's 
 
 O my ofEence is rank ; it smells to heaven. 
 
 —Hamlet, iii, 3, 37. 
 
 The sense of t a s t e is more fully represented : 
 
 And after sought her lip to taste. 
 — Eohin Hood and the Farmer's Daughter., 15 (v, 335). 
 
 And, of a sound drubbing : 
 
 He smil'd to see his merry young men 
 Had gotten a taste of the tree. 
 
 — BaUn Hood and the Beggar, 253-254 (v, 203). 
 
 Again, with a change from a physical to a moral standpoint, 
 
 To tast of that extremity. 
 
 —King of Scots, etc., 63 (vii, lOG). 
 
 Taste, once more, may be the foundation of 
 
 Widdowes sweete comfort found. 
 
 — Whittington^s Advancement, 114 (viii. 171), 
 
 although we referred the epithet sweet in most cases to B, 
 II, the discussion of figures from the plant world. Yet taste is, 
 conversely, the source of 
 
 Into a bitter passion he presently fell. 
 
 — Catskin's Garland, 16 (viii, 173), 
 
 and undoubtedly of the familiar 
 
 The cream of the jest. 
 
 —Ibid., 33. 
 The sense of t o u c h is called upon for 
 
 To feel his coyne, his hands did itch. 
 
 —A True Ballad of Robin Hood, 207 (v, 362), 
 
 to which we may compare Shakspere's 
 
 you yourself 
 Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm. 
 
 —Julius Ccesar, iv, 3, 10.
 
 68 SIMILE AND METAPHOE 
 
 The kindred muscular sense is also the inspiration of the 
 following group of figures : 
 
 Of comforte that was not colde. 
 
 — TJie Battle of Otterbourne, 18 (vii, 7). 
 
 " This is cold comfort," sais my lord. 
 
 — Sir Andrew Barton, 117 (vii, 61). 
 
 Then home rode the abbot of comfort so cold. 
 
 — King John and the Abbot of Canterbury, 45 (viii, 8). 
 
 I trow, quoth she, your courage is cooled. 
 
 — The Friar in the Well, 47 (viii, 124). 
 
 The figure by which the heart in sorrow is likened to a 
 wounded person, or a person that can be wounded, is represented 
 several times in the ballads. These figures will be included 
 here, although, very possibly, a better disposition of them could 
 be suggested. They are as follows : 
 
 And for his master's sad perille 
 His very heart did bleed. 
 
 —Old Robin of Portingale, 27-28 (iii, 35). 
 
 If the damsel's eyes have pierc'd your heart. 
 
 — Bobin Hood and the Stranger, 87 (v, 413). 
 
 But 'tis the poor distress'd princess 
 That wounds me to the heart. 
 
 —Ibid., 91-92. 
 
 When death had pierced the tender heart. 
 
 —Queen Bido, 67, (viii, 210). 
 
 Similarly, 
 
 For hym ther hartes were sore. 
 
 —The Battle of Otterbourne, 142 (vii, 17). 
 
 Similarly, too, perhaps. 
 
 Come, death, quoth she, resolve my smart. 
 
 — Queen Bido, 65 (viii, 210) ; 
 
 and 
 
 Their hearts were clogg'd with care. 
 
 — Armstrong and Musgrave, 76 (viii, 246). 
 
 [Clogged, " surrounded by a mass or impediment. The sub- 
 stantive from the verb, not vice versa." Skeat.']
 
 I5T THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 69 
 
 Compare 
 
 Thus were the knights both pricked in love. 
 
 —Ibid., 57 (viii, 245). 
 Applied to the mind : 
 
 But nowe behold what wounded most my mind. 
 
 — Titus Andronicus, 49 (viii, 191). 
 
 For in his mind 
 He bore the wounds of woe. 
 — King Lear and his Three Daughters, 135-136 (vii, 281). 
 
 The two metaphors that follow may close the discussion. 
 Of a lover occurs the line, 
 
 Here lyes my sweete hart-roote. 
 
 — Old Bobin of Portingale, 104 (iii, 39) ; 
 
 and similarly, of the beloved : 
 
 Wherefore, adew, my owne hert true. 
 
 — TJie Nutbrowne Maide, 57 (iv, 146). 
 
 Summary, — It will be readily seen that it is impossible to 
 lay down a positive rule for figures under this division. Sim- 
 iles and metaphors drawn from the sense of taste and from the 
 muscular sense (" cold comfort "), are commoner than the 
 others, and seem to have passed into a circulation real, though 
 limited. The use of the " wounded heart " is almost common- 
 place ; but this seems to be somewhat aside from the subject. 
 One thing, however, may be said with certainty ; the balladists 
 frequently drew on the human body by way of illustration, but 
 individual preference is more strongly marked here than in any 
 preceding part of the subject, and consequently, within certain 
 bounds, the evidences of the author's personality are moi-e 
 apparent than in the ballad commonplaces we are trying to 
 prove. These evidences result in a freshness and a novelty 
 found in no other department of the ballad figures.
 
 70 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 II. 
 
 Similes and Metajyhors drawn from Man as Man, in Various 
 
 Relations of Life. 
 
 The figures under this head will, of course, admit of great 
 variety. The callings of men are so numerous, that the field 
 for illustration is almost unlimited. Hence, we shall see in the 
 ballad figures resemblances drawn from man as king, as noble, as 
 leader of armies and of men, as commoner, etc. ; even, if you 
 please, from what faith conceives man to be in another world. 
 For the sake of convenience, then, man may be classified under 
 the heavenly, the royal, the noble, and the common man, and 
 under these four heads will be found the figures descriptive of 
 his habits. 
 
 a. Man in his Celestial Aspect. 
 
 The figures here are of a uniform character, and extremely 
 simple. A woman, for instance, is called an " angel," or some 
 one is " heavenly ; " the illustration goes no further. 
 
 His bride followed after, an angel most bryght. 
 — The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green^ 18 (iv, 168). 
 
 And passing by, like an angel hright. 
 
 — The Fair Flower of Northumberland, 13 (iv, 181). 
 
 With angel-like face. 
 
 — As I came from Walsingham, 14 (iv, 192). 
 
 And as she, like an angel bright. 
 
 — Armstrong and Musgrave, 113 (viii, 247). 
 
 Beheld her heavenly face. 
 
 — Fair Rosamond, 146 (vii, 289). 
 
 Somewhat differently, 
 
 She much like a goddess drest in great array. 
 
 — Catskin'a Garland, 183 (viii, 180). 
 
 She seemed so divine. 
 
 — George Barnwell, 56 (viii, 215). 
 
 One solitary figure, though it can hardly be included here.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 71 
 
 will be put among these, the supernatural figures, because it is 
 too much alone to be formed into a separate class : 
 
 And said it was the fairy court 
 To see him in array. 
 
 —Katharine Janfarie, 35-36 (iv, 31). 
 
 And, quite conversely, 
 
 He stamped and stared , and awaye lie ranne, 
 As the devill liad him borne. 
 
 —Edward IV. and the Tanner, 127-128 (viii, 29) ; 
 
 and, 
 
 And I kan nae thing she 'pear'd to be, 
 But the fiend that wens in hell. 
 
 —King Henry, 23-24 (i, 148.) 
 
 /3. Man as King. 
 
 The figures here are more numerous than in the preceding 
 
 subdivision, although still of a uniform character. It need 
 
 scarcely be said that man is used generically throughout tliis 
 
 essay. 
 
 Was fine as ony queen. 
 
 — Tam-a-Line, 43 (i, 259). 
 
 But the youngest look'd like beauty's queen. 
 
 —The Cruel Brother, 11 (ii, 252). 
 
 Who like a queen did appear, 
 In her gait, in her pace. 
 — As I Came from Walsingham, 15-16 (iv, 192). 
 
 The bride lookt like a queen. 
 
 — liobin Hood and Allin a Dale, 106 (v, 283). 
 
 Similar use is made of the simile-adjective royal: 
 
 For all his ryall chere. 
 
 — A Little Oeste of Robin Hood, 162 (v, 66). 
 
 There rydeth no bysshop in this londe 
 
 So ryally I understond. 
 
 — ite?., 47-48 (V, 82). 
 
 There the king royally, in princely majestic. 
 
 —The King and the Miller of Mansfield, 79 (viii, 42). 
 
 Full royally hee welcomed them home. * 
 
 —Sir Andrew Barton, 294 (Folio, iii, 417). 
 
 * Percy Rel. King Henry's grace, with royall cheere 
 
 Welcomed the noble Howard Home, 157-158 (vii, 69).
 
 72 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 Princely is also used in the later ballads : 
 
 With princely power and peace. 
 
 —King Lear, 2 (vii, 276). 
 
 So princely seeming beautiful. 
 
 —Ibid., 7 (vii, 277). 
 
 A f aire and princely dame. 
 
 — Fair Rosamond, 4 (vii, 284). 
 
 Full oft betweene his princely armea. 
 
 — /5id,79. 
 7. Man as Xoble, etc. 
 
 In the division of man as ennobled and occupying positions 
 
 of trust we find figures of the same simplicity and directness. 
 
 Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed, 
 Most like a baron bold. 
 
 — Chevy CJiaee, 65-66 (vii, 46). 
 
 At last these two stout earls did meet, 
 Like captains of great might. 
 
 —Ibid., 121-122. 
 
 And, corresponding to princely, the adjective lordly : 
 
 The king replied fu' lordly. 
 
 —Oeordie, 38 (viii, 95). 
 
 h. Man in Yarious Conditions of Life. 
 
 In this subdivision will be found, very naturally, a number 
 of comparisons drawn from varied sources. No attempt will 
 be made to classify them, as in many cases they occur but once 
 in the ballads. Some of these are the following : 
 
 And like a palmer dyed I. 
 
 —Legend of Sir Ouy, 131 (i, 68). 
 
 Like to a fryer, bold Robin Hood, 
 Was accoutred in his array. 
 
 —Robin Hood's Golden Prize, 9-10 (v, 304). 
 
 All cladd in gray, in pilgrim sort. 
 
 — Legend of Sir Ouy, 65 (i, 66). 
 
 Sporadic examples are these : 
 
 And like a soldier buried gallantly. 
 
 —Thomas Stukeley, 185 (vii, 312). 
 
 Had entertainment like to gentlemen. 
 
 —Ibid., 75-
 
 IN" THE E1S"GLISH AKD SCOTTISH BALLADS. 73 
 
 Nay rather let me, like a page. 
 Your sword and target beare. 
 
 —Fair Rosamond, 93-94 (vii, 287). 
 
 Nor be abusit lyk a slaif. 
 
 —The Battle of Earlaw, 39 (vii, 183). 
 
 Two rather more extended conceptions should be quoted : 
 
 No greater thief lies hidden under skies, 
 Than beauty closely lodgde in womens eyes. 
 — In Sherwood Livde Stout Bohin Hood, 14-15 (v, 433). 
 
 And as oftentimes he greets you well, 
 
 as any harte can thinke, 
 or schoolemasters in any schoole, 
 
 wryting with pen & Lake. 
 
 — Child Maurice, Folio, 47-50 (ii, 503). 
 
 The images drawn from the appearance of women are not 
 
 numerous : 
 
 In troth ye sit like ony bride. 
 
 —Jock 0' the Side, 100 (vi, 86). 
 
 So like an old witch looks she. 
 
 — Bobin Hood and the Bishop, 48 (v, 300). 
 
 His wife, like Maid Marian, did mince at that tide. 
 
 — TJie King and the Miller of Mansfield, 60 (viii, 41) ; 
 
 and this peculiar one : 
 
 like to the queen of spades 
 
 The millers wife did soe orderly stand, 
 
 A milk-maids courtesye at every word. 
 
 —Ibid., 75-77. 
 
 Summary. — Man as man, in various relations, serves, then, 
 as the basis for many common figures. "Like an angel," 
 " heavenly," " royal," " princely," " like a queen " (nowhere 
 " like a king "), are very frequently used. Other comparisons 
 from varied sources appear, and of uniform simplicity, but 
 they do not admit of satisfactory classification.
 
 74 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 III. 
 
 Similes and Metajyhors draion from Man as a Moral and 
 
 Intellectual Being. 
 
 The most frequent figures in this division are, naturally 
 enough, those that arise from man's fighting qualities ; for, the 
 balladist flourishing when chivalry was at its height,* and later, 
 when border warfare was rife, would be most of all impressed 
 with these qualities of virility and strength. The gentler vir- 
 tues of man are never called upon to supply resemblances in 
 thought. As might be expected, these qualities would not ap- 
 peal to a rude minstrel, and it is only the " clerkly " poet that 
 could leap to such a lofty sentiment as Emilia's 
 
 Thou hast not half that power to do me harm 
 As I have to be hurt. 
 
 An essentially feminine mind such as Bulwer's might see the 
 superiority of the pen over the sword, or, in fact, of any gentle 
 art over the martial spirit, but the true balladist, like his north- 
 ern prototype, the Skald, delights in blood and the clang of 
 arms. In these things he revels and he draws thence, as from 
 the chief source of his inspiration, the figures based on the 
 moral and intellectual character of man. 
 
 Let us, then, begin with this aspect of the case. The mad- 
 ness of true and transcendent courage is familiar to all ; it is 
 likewise, in the ballads, the most frequent sign of valour. To 
 quote : 
 
 Up then sterte good Robyn 
 As a man that had be wode.f 
 —A Little Oeste of Robin Hood, 93-94 (v, 103). 
 
 And raved like one that's mad, 
 
 So we'll leave him chafing in his grease. 
 — Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow, 128-129 (v, 388). 
 
 Then they fought on like mad men all. 
 
 — Johnie Armstrong, 73 (vi, 44). 
 
 * See Percy. Essay on the Ancient Minstrels in England, prefixed to the 
 Reliques. 
 
 f Wode. A. S. wud, mad.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 75 
 
 Then like a mad man Jonne laide about, 
 And like a mad man then fought hee. 
 
 — Johnie Armstrong, 57-58 (vi, 253) ; 
 and, 
 
 The Camerons scow'r'd, as they were mad. 
 
 — Will Lickladle, etc., 89 (vii, 263). 
 
 It may be as well, perhaps, to include in this list of the sim- 
 iles of madness, the few cases where there is no idea of cour- 
 age, in which, possibly, there may be just the contrary notion : 
 
 When shee had taken the mantle, 
 She stoode as shee had beene madd. 
 
 — The Boy and the Mantle, (i, 9). 
 
 They ran as thay wer wode. 
 
 —Robin Hood and the Potter, 260 (v, 29). 
 
 But, after all, the great manifestation or promise of courage 
 is manliness ; and it is exclusively of this quality of courage 
 that the expression m a n 1 y (manlic — manlike) is used in the 
 
 ballads. 
 
 We will fight it out most manfully. 
 
 — Johnie Armstrong, 60 (vi, 43). 
 
 Withstood the Greekes in manfull wise. 
 
 —Queen Dido, 2 (viii, 207). 
 
 But Gardner brave did still behave 
 Like to a hero bright, man. 
 —Tlie Battle of Tranent-Muir, 57-58 (vii, 171). 
 
 The same idea is apparent in 
 
 When we attack like Highland trews. 
 
 — The Battle of Sheriff- Muir, 72 (vii, 262), 
 
 and in 
 
 But More of More Hall 
 Like a valiant son of Mars. 
 —The Dragon of Wantley, 133-184 (viii, 133). 
 
 And underlying the following metaphor is the same notion 
 of martial spirit : 
 
 I hold my life a mortal f o. 
 
 —The Merchant's DaughUr, etc., 24 (iv, 329).
 
 76 SIMILE AND METAPIIOE 
 
 III contradistinction to the conception of courage we have 
 tliat of cowardice. " Thou smells of a coward " has alreadj^ 
 been noted. Compare 
 
 Thou talk'st like a coward. 
 
 — Robin Hood and Little Jdhn^ 37 (v, 218). 
 
 The master with the buUie's face, 
 
 And with the coward's heart, man. 
 
 —Huntley's Retreat, 36 (vii, 270) ; 
 and, slightly different, 
 
 To act a traitor's part, man. 
 
 —Ibid., 36. 
 
 Next to valour, in the age of chivalry, came the domestic af- 
 fections. These affections are the source, in the ballads, of a 
 few similes which will here be noted. The most frequent is that 
 of fraternal love. 
 
 And thus the night they a' hae spent, 
 
 Just as they had been brither and brither. 
 
 —Jock o' the Side, 147-148 (vi, 88). 
 They sat them down upon one seat, 
 Like loving brethren dear. 
 
 —Armstrong and Musgrave, 17-18 (viii, 244) ; 
 
 and in this satirical line of a desertion : 
 
 He, brother-like, did quit his ground. 
 
 — Huntley's Retreat, 71 (vii, 271). 
 
 There is little else in this field of inspiration, so fruitful to 
 the modern poet. The pathos of the ballads comes from story 
 and situation ; never from the allusion to domestic ties and 
 tender associations that poets like Burns and Longfellow have 
 used so extensively. The few touches that remain will now be 
 taken up in order. The following are the references to the 
 life of childhood : 
 
 For love is a careless child 
 
 And forgets promise past ; 
 He is blind, he is deaf, when he list, 
 
 And in faith never fast. 
 
 He is won with a word of despair 
 And is lost with a toy. 
 
 —As I Came from Walsingham, 29-36 (iv, 193) ;
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 77 
 
 and in the same description we have woman's love 
 
 Under which many childish desires. 
 
 Again : 
 
 For bonny doo loves na its mate, 
 If or babe at breast its mither. 
 Better, my dearest Chil Ether, 
 Than Maisry loves her brither. 
 
 — Chil Ether, 9-12 (iv, 299). 
 
 Friendship is once called upon to supply a figure, in the fol- 
 lowing, where the peddler's pack partially saved him from the 
 
 arrow : 
 
 Though the packe did stand his friend. 
 
 — Robin Hood and the Peddlers, 52 (v, 245). 
 
 Scattered instances are these : 
 
 He pressede to ptdl frowte with his hande, 
 Als man for fude that was nere faynt. 
 
 — Thomas of Ersseldoune, 131-132 (i, 103). 
 
 And at one sup he eat them up, 
 As one would eat an apple. 
 
 — The Dragon of Wantley, 23-24 (viii, 129). 
 
 " Robm," said he, " I'll now tell thee 
 The very naked truth." 
 
 —The King's Disguise, 119-120 (v, 380), 
 
 where truth is compared to a naked man or child, since truth 
 
 is as defenceless against investigation as a naked man against 
 
 attack. Opposed to this, man's clothing furnishes the following 
 
 figure : 
 
 The lift * was clothed with cloudis gray, 
 And owermasJcit was the moone. 
 
 —Ihe Battle of Balrinnes, 5-6 (vii, 218). 
 
 Also, 
 
 And clohe no cause for ill nor good. 
 
 ^—The Raid of the Reidswire, 60 (vii, 134). 
 
 The household shelter is, likewise, the basis of the figure in 
 lodged in 
 
 Than beauty closely lodgde in woraens eyes. 
 
 —In Sherwood Livde Stout Robin Hood, 15 (v, 433). 
 
 * Air. Icelandic, lopt ; German, luft.
 
 78 SIMILE AND METAPHOE 
 
 Similarly, the metaphor " quarter : " 
 
 The three that remain'd call'd to Robin for quarter. 
 
 —EoMn Hood's Birth, etc., 169 (v, 350). 
 
 Habits of men are instanced in several scattered examples : 
 
 And thus, as one being in a trance. 
 
 — Queen Dido, 133 (vlii, 212). 
 
 And is not to be given away 
 
 But as jewels are bought and sold. 
 
 —The Northern Lord, 10-11 (viii, 378). 
 
 Farewell, my dear, and chiefest treasure of my heart. 
 
 — The Merchant's Daughter, etc., 18 (iv, 329). 
 
 There is probably a radical metaphor here : 
 
 In merry Shirwood he spends his dayes. 
 
 — Robin Hood and His Huntes-Men, 11 (v, 435), 
 and in 
 
 Thus spending of her time away. 
 
 — The Gentleman in Thracia, 83 (viii, 159). 
 
 To conclude, the following may be cited of a fight : 
 
 sayes, I will ordain them such a hreake-fast 
 as was not in the North this 1000 yeere. 
 
 —Rising in the North, 143-144 (Folio ii, 215). 
 
 Man's religious habits are, perhaps, the foundation of the 
 following, although such idea may have left the word " sacri- 
 fice" before it was used here: 
 
 Who fell a bleeding sacrifice 
 To this fierce giant's rage. 
 
 —The Seven Champions, 159-160 (i, 89). 
 
 Pathos, finally, is not lacking in 
 
 Left to the warld thair last gude-nicht. 
 
 —The Battle of Harlaw, 333 (vii, 189). 
 
 SumTTiary. — Under the moral aspect of man, the figures as- 
 suredly admit of classification. The madness of courage or 
 anger is common enough in the ballads to pass unquestioned. 
 Fraternal affection and the life of children are less frequently 
 in evidence, but both occur more than once. Under the head
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 79 
 
 of man's habits we find several references to liis commercial 
 life. '-'' Sj>ending one's time," " as jewels are bought and sold." 
 The other facts of daily life are more sparingly' used, but the 
 few mentioned here are certainly common enough to pass 
 unchallenged. 
 
 lY. 
 
 Similes and Metajphors drawn from the Life and Works of 
 
 Man. 
 
 The fisnres will again be found, in this division, to be of the 
 simplest description, derived from the homely, everyday pur- 
 suits of men. There are references to agriculture, to naviga- 
 tion, and other prosaic occupations, and also allusions to the 
 more primitive inventions of our fathers. There are, as well, 
 explicit references to the lighter avocations and sports of life, 
 and these will be included under this head. For convenience, 
 the subject will be divided into 
 
 (a.) Simile and Metaphor drawn from Man's Yocation ; 
 (/3.) Simile and Metaphor drawn from Man's Invention ; 
 (7.) Simile and Metaphor drawn from Man's Avocation. 
 
 (a.) Simile and Metaphor drawn from Man's Vocation, 
 The figures here are such as would be expected from an early 
 people before the introduction of machinery and its accompany- 
 ing refinements. These figures are drawn from many sources, 
 and none is so common as to degenerate into a class. 
 
 The three following comparisons to agricultural pursuits of 
 a man laying blows about him may be classed together: 
 
 Then to it each goes, and follow'd their blows, 
 As if they had been threshing of corn. 
 
 — EoMn Hood and Little John, 63-64 (v, 219). 
 
 Then Bland was in hast, he laid on so fast, 
 As though he had been cleaving of wood. 
 
 —Robin Hood and The Tanner, 71-72 (v, 226). 
 
 They brittened tham [the roes] als they were wode. 
 
 — Thomas of Ersseldoune, 201 (i, 106),
 
 80 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 although it is possible that this brittening or carving was clone 
 as if they were " mad," not as if the victims were " wood." 
 
 In Kobin Hood and The Tanner, the latter's calling is made 
 to do service for several bits of slangy metaphor. 
 
 I will tan thy hide for nought. 
 
 —Robin Hood and The Tanner, 96 (v, 227). 
 
 He is a bonny blade, and master of his trade, 
 For soundly he hath tan'd my hide. 
 
 —Ibid., 122-123. 
 And he shall tan my hide, too. 
 
 —Ibid., 127. 
 
 And it may be remarked, in passing, that the balladist, like 
 the poet, if he says a thing that pleases him, is apt to repeat it 
 as often as possible. All poetry is filled M'itli instances of 
 novel metres, phrases, and ideas repeated as soon as decorum 
 will allow, by their apparently delighted authors. 
 
 Another useful pursuit is typified in the following naive de- 
 scription of a fight : 
 
 Ane bloodie broust * there was brouine. 
 
 —The Battle of Balrinnes, 14 (vii, 218). 
 
 Cooking is called upon in 
 
 They hew'd him when they had him got, 
 As small as flesh into the pot. 
 
 — Armstrong and Musgrave, 149-150 (viii, 248). 
 
 She would meal you with millering, 
 
 That she gathers at the mill, 
 And mak you thick as any daigh (dough). 
 
 —Earl Richard, 173-175 (iii, 273) ; 
 
 and, 
 
 While others took flight, being raw, man. 
 
 —The Battle of Sheriff- Muir, 10 (vii, 157). 
 
 Agriculture is the source of 
 
 Yet reapt disgrace at my returning home. 
 
 — Titus Andronicus, 4 (viii, 189), 
 and navigation of the next two : 
 
 His weary course he steers 
 
 Till fortune blessed him with a smile. 
 
 - The Seven Champions, 174-175 (i, 90). 
 * Broust — brewing.
 
 IN- THE ENGLISH A^B SCOTTISH BALLADS. 81 
 
 Looke that your brydle be wight, my lord. 
 And your horse goe swift as shipp at sea.* 
 
 —Northumberland Betrayed, 209-310 (vii, 102). 
 
 A series of metaphors from the transferred meaning of scour 
 may be introduced here, although the balladist, beyond doubt, 
 had no idea of figure when he used them. 
 
 In less than an hour, we [are] forced to secure. 
 
 — Tlie Reading Skirmish, 31 (vii, 245). 
 
 While Papists did scour from Protestant power. 
 
 — Undaunted Londonderry, 55 (vii, 250). 
 
 The Camerons scow'r'd as they were mad. 
 
 —The Battle of Sheriff-Muir, 89 (vii, 263). 
 And similarly, 
 
 With borderers pricking hither and thither. 
 
 —RookJiope Byde, 23 (vi, 123). 
 
 This branch of the subject may be left with pointing out 
 that the last body of figures is again from a particular related 
 group of ballads ; a result that has been noted in other in- 
 stances. 
 
 (/8.) Simile and Metaphor drawn from Man's Invention. 
 Here we find reference to many useful, if not ornamental, 
 devices of man. Once, of self-remorse, we find 
 
 And alace my ain wand dings me now. 
 
 — Lord Jamie Douglas, IG (iv, 137). 
 Similarly, 
 
 Thou shalt be the staff of my age. 
 
 —Robin Hood's Birth, etc., 86 (v, 346). 
 
 With a sting in his tayl as long as a flayl. 
 
 — The Dragon of Wantley, 11 (viii, 128). 
 
 Again, of magical machinations : 
 
 fairly freed 
 From the enchanted heavy yoke. 
 
 —The Seven Champions, 118-119 (i, 88). 
 
 " I am a poor fisherman," said he then, 
 " This day intrapped all in care." 
 
 —T/ie Noble Fisherman, 23-24 (v, 330). 
 
 * Percy's wording. The Folio MS. reads (ii, 325, 200) : 
 That you may go as a shipp at sea.
 
 82 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 [Jealousy] is the devil's snare. 
 
 — 'The Spanish Virgin, 128 (iii, 365). 
 I would hae loclct my hert ^oi' a hey o' gowd, 
 And pinned it wV a siller pin. 
 
 — Lord Jamie Douglas, 23-24 (iv, 137). 
 I've lost my hopes, I've lost my joy, 
 
 I've lost the key but and the lock (i.e. my son). 
 
 — Graeme and Bewick, 167-168 (iii, 85). 
 
 Another group is interesting as showing the lesser, more 
 domestic life of man : 
 
 It was from the top to the toe, 
 As sheeres had itt shread. 
 
 —TJie Boy and the Mantle, 39-40 (i, 9). 
 And shin'd like candles bright. 
 
 — Lord Livingston, 26 (iii, 344). 
 
 Delay not time, thy glass is run. 
 
 —Queen Dido, 113 (viii, 211), 
 
 where life is compared to the hour-glass. 
 
 And her skin was as smooth as glass." 
 
 —EoMn Rood's Birth, etc., 114 (v, 347). 
 
 On four-half to honge, huere myrour to be. 
 
 — The Execution of Sir Simon Fraser, 27 (vi, 275). 
 
 When he these lines full fraught with gall, 
 Perused had and wayed them right. 
 
 ;; —Queen Dido, 97-98 (viii, 211). 
 
 And this humorous description of a scold : 
 
 But still her tongue on pattens ran. 
 
 — The laming of a Shrew, 79 (viii, 185). 
 
 The bell — one of the most familiar of local sounds — is used 
 a few times in comparisons : 
 
 The wodewale beryde als a belle. 
 
 — Thomas of Ersseldoune, 7 (i, 98). 
 
 The birds sang sweet as ony bell. 
 
 ; — Sir Hugh Le Blond, 1 (iii, 254), 
 
 and once with its doleful signification : 
 
 Into my stomack it struck a knell. 
 
 — The Baid of the Beidswire, 92 (vi, 135).
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 83 
 
 . Once, too, this odd metaphor in a contest, 
 
 And try who bears the bell away. 
 
 — The Duel of Wharton and Stuart, 36 (viii, 261), 
 
 and this, where years are compared to chimes : 
 
 And sexty yeiris cowth ring. 
 
 —The Bloody Sark, 6 (viii, 148). 
 A solitary instance is 
 
 Full many daies they measure. 
 
 —Thomas StuMey, 26 (vii, 308). 
 
 Twice in Barbara Allen's Cruelty do we find 
 
 death is printed on his face. 
 
 —11. 13 and 17 (ii, 159). 
 Compare 
 
 And with my teares writ in the dust my woe. 
 
 — Titus Andronicus, 94 (viii, 192.) 
 
 While with their blood, the cause they have seald. 
 
 — Undaunted Londonderry., 49 (vii, 250). 
 
 Other products of man's ingenuity' are noted once, as follows : 
 
 His nailis wes lyk ane hellis-cruk. * 
 
 —The Bloody Sark, 27 (viii, 148). 
 
 Spots o' his dear lady's bluid, 
 Shining like a lance. 
 
 —Lammikin, 123-124 (iii, 311). 
 
 Once, of the product of man's skill : 
 
 But he lay by his napkin fine, 
 Was saft as ony silk. 
 
 -Young Waters, 145-146 (iii, 300). 
 
 The following belong here (both again from the same poem) : 
 
 For thon must poxt to Nottingham. 
 
 —Robin Ilood and Queen Katherine, 15 (v, 313). 
 
 She bids you post to fair London Court. 
 
 —Ibid., 45. 
 
 And, somewhat similarly : 
 
 And he lugged her along like a pedlar's pack. 
 
 —The Farmer's Old Wife, 10 (viii, 258). 
 
 * Hellis-crook, a hook to hang pots over the fire.
 
 84 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 A group of figures by which a bold, saucy fellow is called a 
 " blade," a "jolly blade," etc., perhaps demands mention in this 
 connexion, although the derivation may be disputed. Compare 
 the two meanings from the A. S. yiaed (M. E. blade). 
 
 " This is a mad blade," the butchers then said. 
 
 — Robin Hood and the Butcher, 73 (v, 36). 
 
 A jolly brisk blade, right fit for the trade. 
 
 — Robin Ilood and Little John, 3 (v, 216). 
 
 Thou'rt a jolly bold blade. 
 
 — The Frolicksome Duke, 59 (viii, 58). 
 
 The following are inserted for completeness of record, though 
 they are of that special kind of extravagant simile, found only in 
 describing some extraordinary thing, and in no other connexion. 
 They are, therefore, of little use in proving the general ballad 
 commonplaces. 
 
 Her teeth was a' like teather stakes, 
 Her nose like club or mell. 
 
 —King Henry, 21-22 (i, 148). 
 
 His teeth they were like tether sticks. 
 
 — Kempy Kaye, 17 (viii, 140). 
 
 Sae they scrapt her and they scartit her, 
 Like the face of an assy pan. 
 
 — Kempy Kaye, 13-14 (viii, 140). 
 
 Again, 
 
 She had a neis upon her face, 
 Was like an auld pat-fit. 
 
 —Ibid. (B), 31-32 (viii, 142). 
 
 (y.) Simile and Metaphor from Man's Avocation. 
 
 Play and music and the dance are the chief sources of fig- 
 ures under this head, as might be expected from a rude people, 
 as yet untrammelled by convention. Under these groupings we 
 will draw up the figures in order. There are several instances 
 in which a spirited contest is spoken of as a game or play, and 
 this figure comes as near to being formulaic as any in the sim- 
 iles and metaphors derived from man and his habits. 
 
 M'Intosh play'd a bonny game 
 Upon the^haws of Cromdale. 
 
 —The Haws of Cromdale, 43-44 (vii, 236).
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 85 
 
 But long owre a' the play wer playd. 
 
 — Sir Patrick Spence, 31 (iii, 151), 
 
 and, with variations, several times again, in the same poem. 
 
 And left the tinker in tJie lurcli^ 
 For the great shot to pay. 
 
 —Robin Hood and The Tinker, 71-72 (v, 233). 
 
 [Lurch (2), the name of a game (F. L. ?). The phrase " to leave in the 
 lurch " was derived from the old game ; to lurch is still used in playing crib- 
 bage. . . . The game is mentioned in Cottgrave. = F. Jourclie, the 
 game called Lurche or a Lurch in game ; il demoura lourche, he was left in 
 the lurch. Cot. . . . Skeat. 
 
 Shot = reckoning, share, contribution, . . . A. S. sceotan, to shoot = 
 that which is " shot " into the general contribution. Du. schot + Icel. skot, 
 a shot, contribution + Germ, schoss, a shot, a scot. Cf. scot-free. Skeat.] 
 
 Whence the figures " in the hn-ch " and "shot'' fairly belong 
 to this section. For shot, compare Shakspere : " I'll to the 
 ale-house with you presently, where for one shot of five pence, 
 thou shalt have five thousand welcomes," (T. Gr. of Y., ii, v,) 
 and Hamlet's question concerning the players, " Who main- 
 tains 'em ? How are they escoted? " (Ham. ii, ii) ; likewise, 
 Falstaif's pun : " Though I could scape sJiot free at London, I 
 fear the shot here." (Hen. lY, v, iii, 31). 
 
 Music serves once or twice for figure in the ballads : 
 
 Where we will make our bow-strings twang, 
 Musick for us most sweet. 
 — Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutley, 151-153 (v, 289). 
 
 And lay my bent bow at my side, 
 Which was my music sweet. 
 — Robin Mood's Death and Burial, 69-70 (v, 311), 
 
 The fiddle and fleet play'd ne'er sae sweet, 
 As she behind her Geordie. 
 
 — Gight's Lady, 137-138 (viii, 290) ; 
 
 With humming strong liquor likewise. 
 
 — Robin llood and Little John, 118 (v, 221) ; 
 
 That echo made a dulefull sang, 
 Thairto resounding frae the rocks. 
 
 —The Battle of Ilarlaw, 151-152 (vii, 187). 
 
 and (perhaps), 
 and. 
 
 •j
 
 80 SIMILE AND METAPIIOE 
 
 Of the dance, we find : 
 
 The Grahams they made their heads to dance. 
 
 —The Haws of Cromdale, 55 (vii, 237) ; 
 
 and, satirically, of a man worsted in fight : 
 
 He had such a chauce, with a new morrice-dance, 
 He never went home again. 
 
 —Flodden Field, 47-48 (vii, 74). 
 
 Summary. — The figures drawn from man's life and works 
 are again shown to be simple, but scattered. As was to be ex- 
 pected, the greater number of references are to agricultural 
 pursuits and instruments, and to simple household utensils ; 
 and, from the very nature of the case, the objects referred to 
 are as various as the poets' thoughts. No classification is pos- 
 sible, therefore, under this head. Under man's lighter work or 
 avocation, we find many references to his play, and this use of 
 " play " for battle is more nearly formulaic than anything in 
 the present division of the subject. To conclude, we may say 
 that in the domain of nature, and even of animal life, the fig- 
 ures of ballad literature run in certain grooves, which produce 
 similar results ; in the life of man the figures run in the same 
 grooves, if you please, but the results are different. The field 
 is wider and the figures are more " infinite in variety." All 
 this may be but another instance of the superiority of man "to 
 his surroundings in the world, and in relation to the animal 
 life about him. 
 
 METONYItlY AND PEESONIFICATION IN THE BALLADS. 
 
 From the nature of the case, it will be seen that this essay, 
 dealing with simile and metaphor in the ballads, is not inti- 
 mately concerned with the other rhetorical figures found in the 
 same branch of literature. Yet some idea of the old writers' 
 uses in this respect might not, perhaps, be amiss ; and it has 
 seemed desirable to incorporate a few words on the subject of 
 metonymy and personification, although no such care will be 
 taken to give completeness to the list, as was attempted in the 
 case of simile and metaphor.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 87 
 
 It will be enough to indicate the general usage in this re- 
 spect, without aiming at exactness in giving all the examples 
 under any one head. All the important instances, however, 
 will receive due attention. 
 
 Metonymy. 
 
 The most frequent form of this figure in the popular song 
 
 is that of the use of the sign for the thing signified. We have 
 
 " crown " used for kingdom ; the bishop's cloak for the bishop 
 
 himself, etc. 
 
 Some instances are the following : 
 
 Had oppressed the crowne, 
 
 — Legend of King ArtJiur, 63 (i, 53). 
 
 For it never shall be said, 
 
 That a shepherd's hook, at thy sturdy look, 
 Will one jot be dismaied. 
 
 — Robin Hood and the Shepherd, 82-84 (v, 241). 
 
 For it becomes not your lordship's coat. 
 To take so many lives away. 
 
 — Robin Hood and the Bishop, etc., 35-30 (v, 295). 
 
 And the warst cloak * of this companie. 
 
 —HoUe Noble, 79 (vi, 102). 
 
 When we attack like Highland trews, 
 
 —The Battle of Shenff-Muir, 72 (vii, 262). 
 
 [Trews — breeches ; here — men, Scots army.] 
 
 I will there fight doublet alane. 
 
 —OigJiVs Lady, 115 (viii, 289). 
 
 When he these lines, full fraught with gall. 
 
 —Queen Dido, 97 (viii, 211), 
 
 Gall is used in several other places, in the same sense. 
 
 Next in frequency is the use of the abstract term for the con- 
 crete : 
 
 There cam a schrewde arwe out of the west, 
 
 That felde Roberts pryde. 
 
 —Bobyn and Oandelyn, 25-26 (v, 40). 
 
 His hounds they laid her pride. 
 
 —Johnie of Breadislee, 24 (vi, 13). 
 
 * Man.
 
 88 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 He laid the dun deei^ s jyride. 
 
 — Johnie of Cocklesmuir, 28 (vi, 18). 
 With all thair poioer at thair side. 
 
 —TJie Battle of Earlaw, 132 (vii, 18G). 
 
 When' wars were done, I conquest home did bring. 
 And did present my prisoners to the king. 
 
 — Titus Andronicus, 17-18 (viii, 189). 
 
 His lofty courage then did fall. 
 
 — Queen Dido, 99 (viii, 211). 
 
 I was not made their scorne. 
 — Robin Hood and the Farmer^s Daugliter, 30 (v, 335). 
 
 Fear not the strength and frown of Rome. 
 
 — Undaunted Londonderry, 2 (vii, 248). 
 
 Another frequent usage is that of the place for its inhabitants, 
 or of a scene for the event that took place there. 
 
 The countre up to rout. 
 
 —A Little Geste, etc., 6 (v, 99). 
 As England it did often say. 
 
 —Eohie NoMe, 6 (vi, 98), 
 (also personification). 
 
 Yet that unluckie country still. 
 
 — King of Scots and Aiidrew Browne, 13 (vii, 104) ; 
 
 and again, in the same poem, 
 
 " Alas," he said, " unhappie realme." 
 
 —Ibid., 68 (vii, 106). 
 Till ane of them the field sould bruik. 
 
 —The Battle of Harlaw, 140 (vii, 186). 
 
 A slight variation of this form of metonymy is that where 
 an epithet is transferred from the inhabitants of a place to the 
 place itself, or where the epithet descriptive of the effect of the 
 place on its inhabitants is put back upon the place itself. This 
 is especially noted in " the merry greenwood," " merry Eng- 
 land," etc. 
 
 Until they came to the merry greenwood. 
 
 — Robin Hood and Ouy of Oisborne, 29 (v, 161). 
 
 For all the golde in Mery Englond, 
 
 —A Little Qeste, etc., 103 (v, 97). 
 
 The provost of braif Aberdeen. 
 
 —Tlie Battle of Harlaw, 118 (vii, 185), 
 
 and various other instances.
 
 IN THE EIs^GLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 89 
 
 Yet another variation is that of the epithet transferred from 
 
 the effect to the cause. 
 
 The dizzy crag. 
 
 — Kempion, 41 (i, 140). 
 
 The weary warld to wander up and down. 
 
 —Son Davie, 43 (ii, 230). 
 
 And after many wearie steps. 
 
 — Ihe Merchant' a Daughter of Bristow, 145 (iv, 334). 
 
 The tabuU dormounte. 
 
 —The Horn of King Arthur, 53 (i, 19). 
 
 He heard the blows that baiddly rmg. 
 
 —The Outlaw Murray, 63 (vi, 25). 
 
 The use of the part for the whole (synecdoche), is thus repre- 
 
 ented : 
 
 Whose notes made sad the listening ear. 
 
 —The Cruel Sister, 91 (ii, 236). 
 
 " Thou art ever in my herde" sayd the Abbot. 
 
 —A Lytell Geste of Rohyn Eode, 37 (v, 60). 
 
 The use, finally, of the material for the thing made there- 
 from, is particularly to be observed in the frequent employment 
 of " tree " (in the sense of wood), for staff or spear. 
 
 But there dyed Sir Mordred 
 Presently vpon that tree. 
 
 —King Arthur' a Death. Folio, 193 (i, 505), 
 
 or, as Percy has emended the passage, 
 
 Then grimmlye dyed Sir Mordered. 
 
 In " Robin Hood and the Beggar " (v, 190, ff.) tree is used 
 
 several times for staff. 
 
 Similarly, 
 
 But Inglond suld haif found me rceil and malt. 
 
 — Johnie Armstrong (B), 79 (vi, 48). 
 
 (Meil and malt = meat and drink.) 
 
 Personification. 
 
 In personification we find, in the ballads, much the usage of 
 common life to-day. There is the assigning of reason to the 
 elements and to the works of nature, and the picturesque pres-
 
 90 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 entation of abstractions like death or fortune, as concrete real- 
 ities, in most cases as possessed of human form. 
 
 In the first of these two groups we find no personification so 
 common as that of the sea. 
 
 Beyond the raging sea. 
 
 —The Earl of Mar's Daughter, 134 (i, 176). 
 And raging grew the sea. 
 
 — Fragment of the Daemon Lover, 32 (i, 303). 
 
 The raging waves did rout. 
 
 — TJie Lowlands of Holland, 30 (ii, 214). 
 
 Personifications of natural objects and of objects of vision 
 are these : 
 
 It made John sing to hear the gold ring, 
 Which against the walls cryed twang. 
 — Little John and the Four Beggars, 55-56 (v, 327). 
 
 Thou'lt see my sword withfurie smoke. 
 — Robin Hood and the Farmer's Daughter, 79 (v, 338). 
 
 Wae be to my cursed gowd, 
 TJiis road to me invented. 
 
 -Rob Roy, 35-36 (vi, 205). 
 
 Her bloom was like tlie springing flower 
 That salutes the rosy morning. 
 
 — Andrew Lammie, 5-6 (ii, 191). 
 
 When the lilly leafe and the eglantine, 
 Doth bud and spring with a merry cheere. 
 
 — The Noble Fislierman, 5-6 (v, 329). 
 
 Of a ship, finally, for the customary modern " she " we find 
 
 Hee is brasse within and Steele without. 
 
 — Sir Ayidrew Barton, 105 (vii, 61). 
 
 In the second division, the personification of abstract ideas, 
 
 the lively representation of fortune in human form is most 
 
 common. 
 
 Till fortune blessed him with a smile, 
 And shook ofif all his fears. 
 
 —The Seven Champions, 175-176 (i, 90). 
 
 In search of fortune's smiles. 
 
 —Lbid., 224; 
 
 where the poet, as in former instances, repeats his figure. 
 
 If fortune once doth smile on mee. 
 
 — TJie Merchant's Daughter, etc., 131 (iv, 333).
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 91 
 
 He blamed Dame Fortune unkind. 
 
 —Robin Hood's Chase, 84 (v, 324). 
 Fortune was pleased to give us a frown. 
 
 —The Reading Skirmish, 14 (vii, 244). 
 
 And (again in the same poem) : 
 
 Fortune is pleased on us to frown. 
 
 —Ibid., 78. 
 
 But fortune that doth often frowne, 
 Where she before did smile. 
 
 —Fair Rosamond, 37-38 (vii, 285). 
 The skies likewise began to scowle. 
 
 —The Duchess of Suffolk, 73 (vii, 301). 
 Heaven upon their actions dAA frown. 
 
 — Undaunted Londonderry, 50 (vii, 250). 
 
 Death is also personified : 
 
 Pale Death draws near to me. 
 
 — Macpherson^s Rant, G (vi, 266). 
 
 When death had •pierced the tender hart. 
 
 — Queen Dido, 67 (viii, 210). 
 
 Solitary instances are : 
 
 Yet fancy bids thee not to fear. 
 
 —Queen Dido, 63 (viii, 210). 
 
 And did the pleasures of a lady feed. 
 
 —TJiomas Stukeley, 60 (vii, 309). 
 
 In honour''s bed he lay, man. 
 
 —TJie Battle of Tranent Muir, 62 (vii, 171). 
 
 And his lost honor must stiU lye in the dust. 
 
 — Sir John Suckling's Campaign, 39 (vii, 131). 
 
 " The wounds of woe " {King Lear, 136, vii, 281) ; " her fury to disarm " 
 {Tlie Spanish Virgin, 30, iii, 361). 
 
 The personification of sorrow is also common. 
 
 Thus was their sorrow put to flight. 
 
 —The King of France's Daughter, 220 (iv, 224), 
 
 Similarly, 
 
 Sorrowe wyll me sloo. 
 
 —A Little Geste, etc., 84 (v, 120). 
 
 Hang care, the town's our own. 
 
 —The King's Disguise, 148 (v, 381).
 
 92 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 The following are the personifications of day and night, the 
 
 sun, etc. : 
 
 This done, the night drove on apace. * 
 
 — Cliild Waters, 135 (iii, 211). 
 
 The day it runs full fast. 
 
 — Robin Hood and the Stranger, 6 (v, 410). 
 
 Till Phcebus sunk into the deep. 
 
 —Ibid., 30. 
 The day began to sprynge. 
 
 — Mobin Hood and tJie Monk, 287, (v, 13). 
 
 The general nature of the metonymy and personification in 
 the English and Scotch popular ballads will be apparent from 
 the instances quoted. They are simple as the similes and met- 
 aphors are, yet they have a vivid picturesqueness that is all 
 their own, and that the other figures mentioned often lack. 
 Many of the particular cases of metonymy and personification 
 occur several times, and acquire thereby a certain ballad pro- 
 priety and authority. ISTo attempt, however, will be made to 
 classify them, as they are obviously somewhat out of the scope 
 of this essay. 
 
 SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 If the object in writing this essay has been attained, there 
 will no longer be any doubt as to the number and character of 
 the figures used in the English and Scotch popular songs. 
 Throughout the progress of the present argument, special stress 
 has been laid on the simplicity and naturalness of the figures ; 
 they are used almost always for descriptive purposes, rather 
 than for ornament, and are, besides, such as occur in the pop- 
 ular speech of all countries. It is doubtful, then, if to the pop- 
 ular mind such similes as stoifi as the wind., like glistering gold., 
 and inilh-wJiite, had any significance other than that which 
 belongs to all epithets of description. If a horse gallops fast, 
 the ballad-writer says so ; if he gallops very fast, he goes as 
 
 ""Percy's, from the Folio MS. which reads : 
 
 thiss, & itt droue now afterward 
 
 till itt was neere the day. 
 (Folio, 129-130, ii, 276.)
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 93 
 
 "swift as the wind," and that is all there is to be said on the 
 subject. We have already quoted from Motherwell to the ef- 
 fect that " there is no pause [in the ballads] made on the way 
 for beautiful images or appropriate illustrations. If these 
 come naturally and unavoidably, good and well, but there is 
 no loiterins: and windino; about till these should suscgest them- 
 selves, . . . and rhetorical embellishments are unknown." 
 To these remarks it may be well to add a few from another critic : 
 " [They] throw themselves headlong into their subject, trust- 
 ins: to nature for that lano-uage which is at once the shortest 
 and the most appropriate to the occasion ; sjpurning all far- 
 fetched Tnetaphors^'' etc.* 
 
 Bearing this fact in mind, it will not be unprofitable, per- 
 haps, to gather together the results of our inquiry, and tabulate 
 the figures that seem, by their frequent use, to belong indispu- 
 tably to the ballad in its purest state. 
 
 A. Under the similes and metaphors drawn from elemental 
 nature, we find reference to the swiftness of the wind used too 
 often to leave a doubt of its genuineness. The similes still as 
 a stone, hard as flint or stone, cold as stone, are likewise very 
 common ; and the similes drawn from the rain and the clouds 
 are quite numerous, particularly in the battle-songs.f The fig- 
 ures drawn from other elemental forces, such as thunder, hail, 
 frost, etc., are comparatively frequent, though hardly to be 
 classified, since no two are just the same. In the brighter as- 
 pect of nature, we find several allusions to the sunlight, that 
 schane hyfore als the sonne so hryrjht,X cis bright as the summer 
 Sim, etc. 
 
 The figures drawn from plant life are more common. The 
 metaphor by which a person is called a flovjer or a lily or a 
 rose is known to all. Similes drawn from fiowers are also com- 
 mon. From the life of trees no figure is so frequent as light 
 as leaf on lynde, or on tree. The stiffness of trees as a charac- 
 teristic comparison for human strength, moral or physical, is 
 
 * Ancient and Modem Ballad Poetry. Blackwood, 61, 622. 
 t Cf. Chevy Chace, The Hunting of the Cheviot, The Battle of Sheriff- 
 Muir, etc., vol. vii. 
 
 X Thomas of Ersseldoune, i, 98.
 
 94 SIMILE AND METAPHOE 
 
 also found. Other similes from tree-life are met with, but not 
 so frequently, such as GhMiga,ry^s j)ith, caiikerdly^ cross-grained 
 words, etc. 
 
 In similes and metaphors of colour, nothing could be more 
 common than milk-white, white as snow, white as a lily, white 
 as a swan, etc., 7'ed as roses, cherries, ruhies, etc., black as a 
 crow, and especially, shining like gold, and sometimes like sil- 
 ver. Other colour-similes occur, but with the exception of 
 herry-hrown and nut-hrown, tliey are not frequent. 
 
 Figures drawn from the mineral kingdom are rarer. Degen- 
 erate ballads like The DamoseVs Convplaint, Fair Rosam,ond, 
 etc., abound in allusions to crystal — " his eyes like crystal 
 clear,* etc. The best ballads are comparatively free from this 
 simile. Tlie metaphor y^i^eZ applied to persons is very common. 
 
 Figures drawn from the domain of fire are bright as jire, 
 glittering like the glede, etc. The flame of anger and of love 
 may also be frequently seen in the ballads. " The noble mar- 
 quess in his heart felt such flame, f and many other similar in- 
 stances. 
 
 B. Figures taken from animals and their characteristics are 
 the similes that compare brave men to hoars, lions, and tigers, 
 and the metaphors and similes by which the terms dog, swine, 
 and ass are contemptuously applied to human beings. Tiie 
 similes drawn from the lightness and agility of deer are also 
 used somewhat frequently. 
 
 The figures drawn from bird-life are of one class. Swift as 
 a bird, and songs as sweet as a bird's, are the great types of 
 comparison. The metaphor goss-hawk frequently applies to 
 man. 
 
 C. Figures from man are not so susceptible of classification. 
 We find with comparative frequency references to the head and 
 eye and to the five senses — " sought her lip to taste," etc., but 
 the rules are not absolute. 
 
 Under the head of man in various relations of life we find 
 the simile-adjectives royal, princely, etc. ; sometimes expanded 
 into " fine as a queen " and similar expressions. 
 
 * Lord Thomas of Winesberry, iv, 307. 
 f Patient Grissell, iv, 209.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 95 
 
 Fio-nres from man as a moral and intellectual asfent refer, as 
 we have seen, to the madness of courage, the manliness of 
 courage, etc. There are also references to fraternal love, child- 
 hood, and other facts of life, but not so often as to degenerate 
 into a class. 
 
 Under the works of man, the figures are too varied for 
 classification, but all have a bearing upon navigation, agricult- 
 ure, trade, and the occupations of daily life. In regard to 
 man's sports we find the comparison of warfare to a ganie, and 
 allusions to the dance and to music, but with this exception 
 there is little to attract the notice of the reader. 
 
 It may be remarked in passing that several ideas arise in con- 
 nexion with this study of ballad literature with special 
 reference to its figures. 
 
 (a.) In the first place it should be noted that simile is much 
 more frequent than metaphor, and that the similes are gener- 
 ally more elaborate and more novel than the metaphors. With 
 the exception of the trite vaQi2i^\\0Y& flower, jewel^ dog, ass, etc., 
 applied to human beings, there is little comparison of this sort. 
 Such a result is, it will be observed, the opposite of the Anglo- 
 Saxon usage, where metaphor largely predominates over the 
 sister-figure of simile. 
 
 (/3.) In the second place it should be pointed out that the 
 figures vary according to the nature of the ballad. The figures 
 in the poems of love and sorrow, such as Gil Morice, Fair 
 Annet, and the rest are quite distinct from those used in the 
 Robin Hood cycle, or from those of the Arthurian legends, and 
 all three again are radically different in figure habit from the 
 celebrated war-songs, such as Chevy Chace and the large body 
 of kindred poems. What does this indicate? A difterent 
 origin for the poems, either in time or place or both ? There 
 is a field of inquiry thrown open here that may lead to fruitful 
 results. 
 
 (7.) Again, closely related to the preceding suggestion is the 
 fact that ballads of the artificial type— the masterpieces of the 
 mongers— have a style of figure detestable in general, and 
 easily detected, wliich sprang from the same sources as the
 
 96 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 figures in the better and simpler ballads, but which are, never- 
 theless, thrown in so abruptly as to take away all semblance of 
 spontaneity from the production. A comparison of Queen 
 Dido or Fair Rosamond or The Cruel Black with The Ilunt- 
 ino; of the Cheviot or Gil Morice or the most of the Robin 
 Hood ballads will prove this fact beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 Returning to the classification of baHad figures made a mo- 
 ment ago, we may apply the test to one or two of the ballads 
 and note the result. If it be objected that all the ballads 
 studied have contributed to the sum of these figures, and that 
 we are, therefore, but arguing in a circle to apply to a ballad a 
 standard that it has itself helped to form, there seems to be no 
 counter-argument beyond the fact that each ballad is in itself 
 so short as to make but a small proportion of the ballad litera- 
 ture, and its effect on that literature is therefore infinitesimal 
 in arriving at a just conclusion on the subject ; whereas, on the 
 other hand, the sum total of these songs is sufliciently impos- 
 ing to make a standard irrespective of any one or two songs 
 that may be subjected to the proposed test. Admitting this 
 conclusion, then, we may proceed with the investigation. 
 
 The ballad Thomas of Ersseldoune, unquestionably a popu- 
 lar production, has figures as follows : 
 
 Als dose the sonne on someres daye 
 That f aire lady hir selfe scho schone. 
 
 And als clere golde her brydill it schone. 
 
 the face 
 That schane byfore als the sonne so bryght. 
 
 Thomas still als stane he stude. 
 
 They brittened them als they were wode. 
 
 The wodewale beryde als a belle, 
 
 which are good ballad-similes, approved by more or less fre- 
 quent nsage. The individuality of the poet appears in these 
 other figures : 
 
 Als man for fade that was nere faynt ; 
 
 And all hir body lyke the lede. 
 Where it was dirk as mydnyght myrke.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 97 
 
 From our hypothesis, then, other things being eqnal, this 
 proportion is sufficiently just to warrant tlie popular origin of 
 the ballad. 
 
 The individuality of the poet, again, is seen in the song 
 known as " As I Came from Walsingham," where we find 
 angel-liJce face, and like a queen did a/pj)ear, but where also 
 we find 
 
 Love liketh not the fallen fruit, 
 Nor the withered tree. 
 
 and 
 
 For lovs is a careless child, etc. ; 
 
 But love is a durable fire, 
 
 In the mind ever burning ; 
 Never sick, never dead, never cold, 
 
 From itself never turning. 
 
 The subjective element in these quotations is rare in the bal- 
 lads. Figures of such length are extremely uncommon. From 
 the standpoint of figure, then, this poem does not leave the 
 mind free from doubt. 
 
 Bishop Percy, with his passion for " polishing " the ballads, 
 furnishes a good instance for modern criticism to deal with. 
 Since the publication of the Folio MS. (London, 1867), we are 
 able to tell just how far this polishing process went on, and by 
 looking at the ballads of King Arthti7'''s Death and Sir Cau- 
 line in the Reliques and in the Folio, we can see how much is 
 Percy's own, and also, by applying our standard, can see how 
 far he was justified in using the figures found in the edition of 
 the Reliques. In Percy's published King Arthur's Death, the 
 following figures occur : 
 
 Oft have I reap'd the bloody feelde ; 
 
 and 
 
 Before the breakinge of the day, 
 
 which appear, so far as discovered, in no other place. 
 
 The personification, however, in the following is vouched for 
 by other ballads : 
 
 Nothing, my liege, save that the winds 
 Now with the angry waters fought.
 
 98 SIMILE Al^D METAPHOR 
 
 In " Sir Canline " we find 
 
 and, 
 
 Home then pricked Syr Cauline 
 As light as leafe on tree ; 
 
 Two goggling eyen like fire farden ; 
 Then shee held forthe her liley-white hand ; 
 
 all good ballad figures, as the learned bishop knew. The 
 next, however, somewhat oversteps the mark : 
 
 But ever she droopeth in her minds 
 As, nipt by an ungentle winde, 
 Doth some faire lillye-flower. 
 
 All these figures are Percy's, as there is no trace of them in 
 the folio manuscript ; on the whole, however, he preserved a 
 laudable restraint in this matter, and in this as in many other 
 cases, seems to have merited less censure than he has received. 
 
 " Fair Rosamond," the wretched production of Thomas 
 Deloney, is full of figures that are drawn from legitimate bal- 
 lad sources, yet are expressed in a style far from the true ballad 
 style. Compare 
 
 And from her cleare and cristall eyes 
 
 The tears gusht out apace. 
 Which like the silver pearled deaw 
 
 Ran downe her comely face, 
 
 with this from " Fair Annet," 
 
 " O open, open, mother," he says, 
 
 " O open and let me in ; 
 For the rain rams on my yellow hair, 
 
 And the dew drops o'er my chin. 
 And I hae my young son in my arms, 
 
 I fear that his days are dune." 
 
 Here is the difference — easily seen, yet hard to define — be- 
 tween genuine poetr}^ and the effusion of a versifier. It is the 
 difference — without disparagement to the Roman be it said — 
 between Homer and Yirgil, between an original and a copyist ; 
 for, as in Germany the Minnesinger degenerated into the 
 Meistersinger, so in England the balladist degenerated into the 
 ballad-monger.
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 99 
 
 "We will carry this investigation one step further. Percy, in 
 his introduction to the beautiful ballad of Gil Morice, tells us 
 that it ran through two editions in Scotland — the second printed 
 iu 1755. " Prefixed to them both [he adds] is an advertisement 
 setting forth that the preservation of this poem was owing to a 
 lady, who favoured the printers with a copy, as it was carefully 
 collected from the mouths of old women and nurses ; " and 
 " any reader that can render it more correct or complete is de- 
 sired to oblige the public with such improvements." In conse- 
 quence sixteen additional verses were produced. We will now 
 compare twelve of these with twelve of the original poem, feel- 
 ing assured that no amount of criticism could better prove what 
 the ballad style is and what decidedly it is not. The spurious 
 verses run as follows : 
 
 His hair was like the threads of gold, 
 
 Drawne from Minerva's loome ; 
 His lippes like roses dropping dew, 
 
 His breath was a' perfume. 
 
 His brow was like the mountain snae, 
 
 Gilt by the morning beam ; 
 His cheeks like living roses glow ; 
 
 His een like azure stream. 
 
 The boy was clad in robes of grene, 
 
 Sweete as the infant spring ; 
 And like the mavis on the bush, 
 
 He gart the vallies ring. 
 
 Such a string of figures, it may be authoritatively stated, 
 occurs not once in any ballad that is known. This fact proves 
 the difficulty of writing in the old ballad stjde; for where a 
 modern poet with his elegant imagery would think himself 
 most successful, he would actually fall farthest from the true 
 ballad custom. In an article in Blackwood, LXXXVI, 24, on 
 Modern Ballad Writers, occur the words : " It is much easier 
 to fail in all modes of ballad composition than to succeed, and 
 apparently most so here, where the consideration of the sim- 
 plicity of the language of sorrow is apt to produce images and 
 associations whimsical and really exaggerated."
 
 100 SIMILE AND METAPHOE 
 
 Compare Avitli the stilted lines quoted above the equal num- 
 ber from the genuine poem, and note the difference : 
 
 The baron came to the grene wode 
 
 Wi' mickle dule and care ; 
 And there he first spied Gill Morice, 
 
 Kameing his zellow hair. 
 
 " Nae wonder, nae wonder, Gill Morice, 
 My lady loed thee weel ; 
 The fairest part of my bodie 
 Is blacker than thy heel. 
 
 " Zet neir the less, now, Gill Morice, 
 For a' thy great beautie, 
 Ze's rew the day ze eir was born, 
 That head sail gae wi' me." 
 
 Tlie true balladist, then, must be simple in his use of figures; 
 indeed, he may omit them altogether, many of the finest bal- 
 lads being wholly free from such adornment. Note Gil Mo- 
 rice, Fair Amiet, Sir Patrick Spens, Cosjxitrick, and others, 
 where imagery is most sparingly used, and which are yet the 
 best and strongest of the popular songs. Figure is, in fact, an 
 outcome of the culture of the world, and is, therefore, met 
 with but rarely in earlj'- literatures. To come to English litera- 
 ture, we can see its development from the earliest times ; and 
 a short synopsis of its progression may not be amiss at this 
 point, as helping, perhaps, to fix the time of the ballad writers. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon epic of Beowulf contains less than twelve 
 similes, and those of the simplest character. AVe will quote a 
 few : 
 
 Gewat tha ofer waeg-holm winde gefysed 
 flota famig-heals fugle gellcost. 
 
 —Beoioulf, 217-218. 
 
 him of eagum stud 
 llge gellcost, leoht unf iiger. 
 
 —Ibid., 727-728, 
 
 and, 
 
 that hit eal gemealt ise gelicost. 
 
 —Ibid., 1609. 
 
 Coming to Cynewulf, we note in the trained poet a vast im- 
 provement in length and force of the similes, with a marked
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 101 
 
 advance in subjective beauty. The similes are still rare, but 
 they are sometimes elaborate. One must suffice : 
 
 . . . Feoh ffighwara bith 
 Isene under lyfte, landes freetwe 
 gewitath under wolcnum icinde gelieost 
 thonne he for haslethum, hlQd astlgeth 
 wfetheth be wolcnum, wCdende fasretli 
 end eft semninga swige gewyrtheth 
 in nedcleofan nearwe geheathrod, 
 thream f orthrycced. Swa theos world eall gewltetli 
 end eac Bwa some, the hire on wurdon. 
 
 —Elene, 1270 fe. 
 
 In the Crista likewise, is a very long simile, comparing life to 
 
 an ocean voyage ; but for practical purposes it is here omitted. 
 
 Generally, however, Cynewulfs similes are shorter, and some 
 
 even are as concise as those of the Beowulf ; note this from the 
 
 Juliana, 
 
 Wedde on gewitte swa wilde deor. 
 
 These are better similes than we find in anything till the time 
 of Chaucer, and, in fact, more sustained than those Chaucer 
 himself gives us. In the barren period between the jSTorman 
 Conquest and Chaucer, we glean the following similes. In the 
 Orm (about 1200 A.D.) we find comparisons drawn from the 
 sacrifices of the Jews, but little spontaneous imagery : 
 
 & forrthi seghghth thatt Latin boc, 
 thatt thwer — utt nohht ne leghhethth, 
 
 thatt ure Laf errd, Jesu Crist, 
 inn ure menisscnesse 
 
 Toe thildiligh withthutenn brace 
 
 thatt mann himm band withth wogbhe, 
 
 Rihht all ewa summ the shep onnfoth 
 
 Meocligh thatt mann itt clippethth. 
 
 — Orm, 1183-1189. 
 
 There are many such similes in this unutterably dreary work, 
 which will not profit in the repetition; they are preacliing 
 figures, not the natural outburst of a true poet. 
 
 Layaraon's Brut, the production of a much finer poet (about 
 1205 A.D.) is almost free from comparisons. In the Ilengist
 
 102 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 and Horsa episode (" Morris' Specimens of Early English ") we 
 find : 
 
 tha wif fareth mid childe 
 swa tbe deor wilde. 
 
 —Brut, 85-86 ; 
 
 and, 
 
 nes the thwong noht swithe braed ; 
 buten swulc a twines thraed. 
 
 —Ibid., 435-436. 
 
 In the poem The Owl and the Nightingale, attributed to 
 Nicholas de Guildford (about 1250 A.D.), we meet with a few 
 striking similes : 
 
 s 
 
 Bet thughte tbe drem tbat be were 
 Of barpe and pipe, than he nere 
 Bet tbugbte tbat he were i-sbote 
 Of barpe and pipe than of tbrote. 
 
 — The Owl and the Nightingale, 21-24. 
 
 In King Horn (before 1300 A.D.) we find a collection of 
 similes that might have come from the ballads : 
 
 Fairer bis none thane he was, 
 
 He was bright so tbe glas, 
 
 He was whit so tbe flur, 
 
 Rose-red was his colur. 
 • —King Horn, 13-16. 
 
 Finally, in the beautiful lyric Spring-Time (about 1300) 
 occurs one striking simile that gives promise for the future : 
 
 Ase strem that striketb stille, 
 Mody meneth, so doth mo, 
 Ichot ycbam on of tbo 
 For love tbat likes ille. 
 
 "With Chaucer we come upon the beginning of the modern 
 art. The figures in his works, by reason of their simplicity, 
 seem less numerous than they really are ; but simile in his 
 writings has begun to be the adornment that later poets have 
 made it. In Chaucer, therefore, the figures are still sharp and 
 direct, somethiug like the ballad figures; they are, however, 
 modern in spirit. From this point of view we will examine
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 103 
 
 them, and compare them with later productions. In the first 
 five hundred lines of the Prologue, then, we will find such 
 similes as 
 
 Of his port as meke as is a mayde ; 
 
 — Prologue^ 69. 
 
 Embrowded was he, as it were a mede 
 Al ful of fresshe tioures, white and rede ; 
 
 and. 
 
 He was as fressh as is the moneth of May. 
 
 —Ibid., 89-92 ; 
 
 men might his bridel heere 
 Gyngle in a whistlying wynd so cleere, 
 And eek as lowde as doth the chapel belle. 
 
 —Ibid., 169-171. 
 
 There is nothing more elaborate than these few instances. 
 The general character is not unlike that of the ballads, and 
 there is just as little of the subjective element as in the popular 
 song. 
 
 Three instances must suffice between Chaucer and Spenser. 
 
 William Dunbar, The Thrissell and the Rois, Stanza 8, 
 
 The purpour sone, with tendir bemys reid. 
 In orient bricht as angell did appeir, 
 Throw goldin skyis putting up his heid, 
 Quhois gilt tressis schone so wondir cleir. « 
 
 Surrey, in The Faithful Lover : 
 
 Then as the stricken deer withdraws himself alone, 
 
 So do I seek some secret place, where I may make my moan ; 
 
 and Wyatt makes the following simile a complete poem : 
 
 From these hie hillea as when a spring doth fall, 
 
 It trilleth downe with stiU and suttle course. 
 
 Of this and that it gathers ay, and shall 
 
 Till it have iust downflowed to stream and force, 
 
 Then at the fote it rageth over all, 
 
 So fareth loue, when he has tane a sourse, 
 
 Rage is his raiae, resistance vayleth none. 
 
 The first eschue is remedy alone. 
 
 Coming to Spenser we note the steady advance, though even 
 here the similes and metaphors are comparatively simple.
 
 104 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 From the last stanzas of Book IT, Canto xii, of The Faerie 
 Queene, we pluck the following flowers of fancy : 
 
 Of the vines (Stanza 54) : 
 
 Some deepe empurpled as the Hyacine, 
 Some as the Rubine laughing sweetly red, 
 Some like faire Emeraudes, not yet well ripened. 
 
 A good trio of similes, bj the way, in line with the ballad 
 colour-similes. 
 
 The whiles their snowy limbes, as through a vele, etc. 
 
 We also find dewy face, alabaster sldn,, angelicall soft voices, 
 etc. But above all note the exquisite simile in this same canto 
 where mortal life is compared to the rose, in seventeen as lovely 
 verses as the English language has ever produced. This is the 
 culmination of figure in Spenser, and with this bare notice, we 
 leave it, to pass on to Shakspere, in whom simile reached the 
 highest development it attained until Shelley and Tennyson 
 made the language young again. 
 
 In Shakspere's Venus and Adonis (chosen for its wealth of 
 figure) we still find no very elaborate similes, although the 
 imagery is characterised by great freshness and beauty. 
 
 A sudden pale, 
 Like lawn being spread upon the blushing rose, 
 Usurps her cheek. 
 
 His lowering brows o'erwhelming his fair sight, 
 Like misty vapours, when they blot the sky. 
 
 Shakspere, indeed, seldom goes to great length in his similes 
 and metaphors. Compare Hamlefs 
 
 this world 
 Fie on't ! fie ! 't is an unweeded garden, 
 That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature 
 Possess it merely, etc. ; 
 
 and Capulet's 
 
 Death lies upon her like an untimely frost 
 Upon the fairest flower in all the field. 
 
 The famous verses of Othello (iii, 3, 440), however, are cited 
 on the other side, as an instance of elaborate simile. The lines
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 105 
 
 beginning Like to the Pontic Sea are too well-known to need 
 repetition here. 
 
 Length in simile is, generally speaking, reserved for Milton, 
 from whom we may quote one case in point : 
 
 As when the potent rod 
 Of Amram's son, in Aegypt's evil day, 
 Wav'd 'round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud 
 Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 
 That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung, 
 Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile : 
 So numberless were these bad angels seen, etc. 
 
 —Paradise Lost, i, 338-344. 
 
 This, as has been said, is the best until we reach Shelley. 
 In Shelley, indeed, we find the perfection of figure, and the 
 temptation is great to bring up all the noble passages from his 
 works. Let us cite two : 
 
 She rose like an autumnal Night that springs 
 
 Out of the east and follows wild and drear 
 The golden Day, which on eternal wings 
 
 Even as a ghost abandoning a bier, 
 Had left the Earth a corpse. 
 
 — Adonais, xsiii. 
 
 A pard-like spirit, beautiful and swift. 
 
 It is a dying lamp, a falling shower, 
 
 A breaking billow ; even whilst we speak 
 Is it not broken ? On the withering flower 
 
 The killing sun smiles brightly ; on a cheek 
 The life can burn in blood even while the heart may break. 
 
 — Ibid., xxxii. 
 
 In Tennyson, however, we find imagery become thought as 
 
 never before, although a grain of the supernatural seems to 
 
 tincture his best figures. Kote these from The Passing of 
 
 Arthur : 
 
 an agony 
 Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills 
 All night in a waste land, where no one comes 
 Or hath come since the making of the world. 
 
 And aijain 
 
 o"- 
 
 Then from the dawn it seemed there came, but faint 
 As from beyond the limit of the world.
 
 106 SIMILE AND METAPHOR 
 
 Like the last echo born of a great cry, 
 Sounds as if some fair city were one voice 
 Around a king returning from his wars. 
 
 There will be little difficulty in seeing in these examples the 
 progression of English simile and metaphor toward nobility and 
 grandeur of thought and language. The ballads, perhaps, were 
 in many cases composed before the full dawn of simile and 
 metaphor, and tradition may have preserved the old figures in 
 them without change or innovation. This is, possibly, a plea 
 for the antiquity of the ballads, which it is left for future 
 essayists to prove. 
 
 It may be well to close this paper with a comparison of one 
 or two modern ballads, in their choice of figure, with the stand- 
 ard we have found in the old ballads. 
 
 Coleridge, for instance, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner^ 
 uses many similes that have warrant in the models of popular 
 song. Some of these are And listens like a three years' child, 
 Red as a rose is she, the snowy clifts, Her lochs were yellow as 
 gold, Like April hoar-frost spread, golden fire. The harhour 
 hay was clear as glass, etc. But the greater number are too 
 fine for ballad writing. One — and that of the best — will suf- 
 fice for comparative quotation : 
 
 And see those sails, 
 How thin they are and sere. 
 I never saw aught like to them 
 Unless perchance it were 
 
 Brown skeletons of leaves that lag 
 My forest brook along ; 
 When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow, 
 And the owlet whoops to the wolf below, 
 That eats the she-wolf's young. 
 
 Scott, on the other hand, the best of all the modern ballad 
 writers, in his Eve of St. John, uses but two similes : 
 
 Then changed, I trow, was that bold Baron's brow, 
 From the dark to the Uood-red high, 
 
 and 
 
 For it scorched like a fiery brand ;
 
 IN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS. 107 
 
 both good ballad figures. Such restraint is remarkable, and 
 shows how deep must have been Scott's appreciation and under- 
 standing of the ballad style. In The Battle of Beal ''an Dtdne, 
 likewise, Scott uses certain variations of true ballad figures that 
 are neat and extremely ingenious. Further investigation in this 
 field, however, seems unnecessary, as the subject has been ex- 
 hausted by many critics and poets of note from Percy down to 
 Al2;ernon Charles Swinburne. 
 
 The ballad, notwithstanding, is dead ; the story paper has 
 taken its place. Those songs that we have may serve to quicken 
 and inspire many poets yet to come ; but the wise bard will not 
 force imitation of them to too great length. The ballad-writer 
 has lived and had his day, and the ballad-monger is no substi- 
 tute for him. Poetry has many notes, and that of the ballad 
 carries far, and wakens chords in many hearts ; but the note 
 is faint and dying, and cannot be reproduced by future writers. 
 The old balladists exhausted the field, and the modern poet 
 must deal with the facts of life as he sees them about him. 
 
 So perish the old Gods ! 
 [But out of the Sea of Time 
 Rises a new Land of Song, 
 Fairer than the Old. 
 Over the meadows green 
 Walk the young Bards and sing.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Educational Institutions Attended by the Author. 
 
 1874-1879. Grammar School, Newburgh, N. Y. 
 
 1879-1883. The Newburgh Academ3^ 
 
 1884-1885. Siglar Preparatory School, ISTewburgh. 
 
 1885-1892. Columbia College, New York City. 
 
 Degrees and Honours Conferred upon the Author. 
 
 1889. A.B., Columbia College. 
 
 Honours in Greek, Latin, English, and Philosophy, 
 Columbia College. 
 1889-1891. Prize Fellow in Letters, Assistant in Latin; 
 Columbia College. 
 
 1890. A.M., Columbia College. 
 
 1891-1892. , University Fellow in English, Columbia College.
 
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