Hi,

I'm almost done with Child 6 and want to know if there's anything I should add or change to these simple notes (the versions and opening headnotes):

A. Willy's Lady, Mrs. Brown of Falkirk (Willie has taen him oer the fame,) 1783
   a. "Willy's Lady" Mrs. Brown of Falkirk, Fraser-Tytler Manuscript
   b1. "Sweet Willy," Mrs. Brown of Falkirk, Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, No 15, fol. 33.
   b2. "Willie's Ladye," Mrs. Brown of Falkirk, W. Scott based on Child Ab (Jamieson's MS) version, 1802
   b3. "Sweet Willy," Mrs. Brown of Falkirk, Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Appendix), 1806.
   c1. "Willy's Lady" recreation by Matthew Gregory Lewis in Tales of Wonder, 1801.
   c2. "Willy's Lady" an 1818 Dublin print issued in "Charms of Melody," a copy of Lewis, C1.
   d. "Sweet Willie of Liddesdale," recreation by Jamieson, 1806
   e1. "Sweet Willy" revival text of Child Aa by Ray Fisher of Scotland arranged in the early 1970s (recorded 1982) to the tune of the Breton "Son ar Chiste" (The Song of Cider, c. 1944).
   e2. "Sweet Willy" revival text of Child Ab by Martin Carthy, 1976, based on Ray Fisher's melody.

B. "Simon's Lady," fragment recited by Bell Robertson of New Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, by Greig, 1906
   a. "Simon's Lady," recitation by Bell Robertson in "Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads" (Keith, 1925)
   b. "Simon's Lady," recitation by Bell Robertson "Greig Duncan Collection" by Pat Shuldham-Shaw and Emily B Lyle.

[This ballad, about a curse of an evil mother on her pregnant daughter-in-law that prevents her from giving birth, was popular in Denmark. Child gives extensive details of the foreign analogues in his headnotes. The British traditional record is two Scottish ballads, both dating back to the 1700s[]. The two MSS from Mrs. Brown (Child Aa and Ab), which date dating back to 1783, are slightly different. Mrs. Brown ballad was reworked by Matthew Gregory Lewis in "Tales of Wonder" (1801), in 1802 Sir Walter Scott published an "ancient copy, never before published" version titled "Willie's Ladye" which was Child Ab with some minor changes, then in 1806 Robert Jamieson published a copy of his MS (Jamieson-Brown MS of 1783) and a reworked recreation by his own hand. In 1966 Helen Flanders published a version form the 1818 Dublin issued "Charms of Melody," which she failed to identify as a version Matthew Gregory Lewis' "Tales of Wonder."

The significantly shorter traditional fragment from Bell Roberston was collected by Grieg about 1906. It appears in "Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads" (Greig-Keith, 1925) and also the "Greig-Duncan Collection" by Pat Shuldham-Shaw and Emily B Lyle (1981-2002). Keith suggests the source is Bell Robertson's grandmother, Isobel Stephen of Strichen which would date the ballad back to the 1700s. Although the text is a fragment, there is at least one improvement which was probably a mis-hearing by Mrs Brown that occurs in stanza 37 and again in stanza 42. The "master-kid" for "kid" or "goat" appears in Robertson's version as "ted" or "tead" for "toad." Since "the master kid" also "ran beneath that ladie's bed" it would seem to have been discovered and removed whereas a "toad" could have stayed under the bed unnoticed.

In the early 1970s the ballad was revived in the UK through an arrangement by Ray Fisher of Scotland that was popularized by a 1976 recording by Martin Carthy[]. Her arrangement wed the text of Child Aa to the Breton tune, "Son ar Chiste" (The Song of Cider).

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Richie