Young Benjie

A poem by Frank Sidgwick

The Text is given from Scott's Minstrelsy (1803). He remarks, 'The ballad is given from tradition.' No. 29 in the Abbotsford MS., 'Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,' is Young Benjie (or Boonjie as there written) in thirteen stanzas, headed 'From Jean Scott,' and written in William Laidlaw's hand. All of this except the first stanza is transferred, with or without changes, to Scott's ballad, which is nearly twice as long.


The Story of this ballad, simple in itself, introduces to us the elaborate question of the 'lyke-wake,' or the practice of watching through the night by the side of a corpse. More about this will be found under The Lyke-Wake Dirge, and in the Appendix at the end of this volume. Here it will suffice to quote Sir Walter Scott's introduction:--

'In this ballad the reader will find traces of a singular superstition, not yet altogether discredited in the wilder parts of Scotland. The lykewake, or watching a dead body, in itself a melancholy office, is rendered, in the idea of the assistants, more dismally awful, by the mysterious horrors of superstition. In the interval betwixt death and interment, the disembodied spirit is supposed to hover around its mortal habitation, and, if provoked by certain rites, retains the power of communicating, through its organs, the cause of its dissolution. Such enquiries, however, are always dangerous, and never to be resorted to unless the deceased is suspected to have suffered foul play, as it is called.... One of the most potent ceremonies in the charm, for causing the dead body to speak, is setting the door ajar, or half open. On this account, the peasants of Scotland sedulously avoid leaving the door ajar while a corpse lies in the house. The door must either be left wide open or quite shut; but the first is always preferred, on account of the exercise of hospitality usual on such occasions. The attendants must be likewise careful never to leave the corpse for a moment alone, or, if it is left alone, to avoid, with a degree of superstitious horror, the first sight of it.' --(Ed. 1803, vol. iii. pp. 251-2.)


YOUNG BENJIE

1.
Of a' the maids o' fair Scotland,
The fairest was Marjorie;
And young Benjie was her ae true love,
And a dear true-love was he.

2.
And wow! but they were lovers dear,
And loved fu' constantlie;
But ay the mair when they fell out,
The sairer was their plea.

3.
And they hae quarrelled on a day,
Till Marjorie's heart grew wae,
And she said she'd chuse another luve.
And let young Benjie gae.

4.
And he was stout, and proud hearted,
And thought o't bitterlie,
And he's gaen by the wan moon-light,
To meet his Marjorie.

5.
'O open, open, my true love!
O open, and let me in!'
'I dare na open, young Benjie,
My three brothers are within.

6.
'Ye lied, ye lied, my bonny burd,
Sae loud's I hear ye lie;
As I came by the Lowden banks,
They bade gude e'en to me.

7.
'But fare ye weel, my ae fause love,
That I hae loved sae lang!
It sets ye chuse another love,
And let young Benjie gang.'

8.
Then Marjorie turned her round about,
The tear blinding her ee,
'I darena, darena let thee in,
But I'll come down to thee.'

9.
Then saft she smiled, and said to him,
'O what ill hae I done?'
He took her in his armis twa,
And threw her o'er the linn.

10.
The stream was strang, the maid was stout,
And laith laith to be dang,
But, ere she wan the Lowden banks,
Her fair colour was wan.

11.
Then up bespak her eldest brother,
'O see na ye what I see?'
And out then spak her second brother,
'It's our sister Marjorie!'

12.
Out then spak her eldest brother,
'O how shall we her ken?'
And out then spak her youngest brother,
'There's a honey mark on her chin.'

13.
Then they've ta'en up the comely corpse,
And laid it on the grund:
'O wha has killed our ae sister,
And how can he be found?

14.
'The night it is her low lykewake,
The morn her burial day,
And we maun watch at mirk midnight,
And hear what she will say.'

15.
Wi' doors ajar, and candle-light,
And torches burning clear,
The streikit corpse, till still midnight,
They waked, but naething hear.

16.
About the middle o' the night,
The cocks began to craw,
And at the dead hour o' the night,
The corpse began to thraw.

17.
'O wha has done the wrang, sister,
Or dared the deadly sin?
Wha was sae stout, and feared nae dout,
As thraw ye o'er the linn?'

18.
'Young Benjie was the first ae man,
I laid my love upon;
He was sae stout and proud-hearted,
He threw me o'er the linn.'

19.
'Sall we young Benjie head, sister,
Sall we young Benjie hang,
Or sall we pike out his twa gray een,
And punish him ere he gang?'

20.
'Ye mauna Benjie head, brothers,
Ye mauna Benjie hang,
But ye maun pike out his twa gray een,
And punish him ere he gang.

21.
'Tie a green gravat round his neck,
And lead him out and in,
And the best ae servant about your house,
To wait young Benjie on.

22.
'And ay, at every seven years' end,
Ye'll tak him to the linn;
For that's the penance he maun drie,
To scug his deadly sin.'