And now, back to the song.
A look at Scott's Minstrelsy reveals that the MS quote I gave above was found by Joseph Ritson (1752-1803) at the Cotton Library, and was part of an account of Cleveland (Yorkshire) "in the reign of Queen Elizabeth" (Julius, F. vi. 459).
The Minstrelsy contains extensive background notes, mainly dealing with analogues in other cultures of the Brig o' Dread. Scott also prints a passage from Sir Owain, in which the hero, a Northumbrian knight, passes unscathed over a narrow, razor-sharp bridge between Heaven and Hell. He also quotes Aubrey's comments (1686/7):
"The beliefe in Yorkeshire was amongst the vulgar (perhaps is in part still) that after a person's death the soule went over Whinny-moore, and till about 1616/1624 at the funerale a woman came (like a Præfica), and sang the following song."
Scott's introduction begins:
"This is a sort of charm sung by the lower ranks of Roman Catholics in the north of England, while watching a dead body, previous to interment. The tune is doleful and monotonous, and, joined to the mysterious import of the words, has a solemn effect. The word sleet, in the chorus, seems to be corrupted from selt, or salt; a quantity of which, in compliance with a popular superstition, is frequently placed on the breast of a corpse."
He adds: "In the Aubrey version the word is fleet, which means water." It is quite possible that the difference could have arisen from a confusion between f and the old-style initial S, which closely resembled it.
It should be noted that this is an English, not Scottish, song; there seems to be no evidence that it was known at all in Scotland. Though Scott mentions a melody, he doesn't print it; the text was later published in A.C. MacLeod and Harold Boulton's Songs of the North (1895), with a melody composed by Boulton (who wrote the words for the Skye Boat Song) and arranged for piano and four voices. It is this melody which was eventually used by Revival performers like the Young Tradition and Pentangle. (The latter based their arrangement quite closely on that of the former, though they softened the harmonies). It has been changed noticeably from Boulton's original, becoming more stark in the process; I have no idea whether the YT made these changes themselves or whether they learnt it from an intermediate source.
For purposes of comparison, here are some midis; firstly, one at the Mudcat Midi Pages made by Barbara from -I think- the Young Tradition arrangement:
Next, three made from Boulton's original score. These will find their way in due course to the Mudcat Midi Pages, but until then may be heard via the South Riding Folk Network site:
Lyke Wake Dirge Melody line only.
Lyke Wake Dirge Four-part voice arrangement.
Lyke Wake Dirge Four-part voice arrangement with piano accompaniment.
The tune comprises two strains. Revival performers sing them thus: verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9: first strain. Verses 3 and 7: second strain. Boulton, however, indicated verse one as a chorus, sung to the first strain, and verse 2 (and presumably verses 5 and 6) also to the first strain; verses 7 and 8 (and presumably verses 3 and 4) to the second strain, together with the final chorus (verse 9 above). For convenience, therefore, the midis Barbara and I have made should be treated as belonging to the lyrics of verses 2 and 3 in the texts I gave above.
Malcolm