_Mary Hamilton_ has a very curious literary history. If, _pendente lite_, we may assume the facts to be as suggested, pp. 44-46, it illustrates admirably Professor Kittredge's warning, quoted above, that ballads already in circulation may be adapted to the circumstances of a recent occurrence. But the incidents--betrayal, child-murder, and consequent execution--cannot have been uncommon in courts, at least in days of old; and it is quite probable that an early story was adapted, first to the incident of 1563, and again to the Russian story of 1718. Perhaps we may remark in passing that it is a pity that so repugnant a story should be attached to a ballad containing such beautiful stanzas as the last four.
_Captain Car_ is an English ballad almost contemporary with the Scottish incident which it records; and, from the fact of its including a popular burden, we may presume it was adapted to the tune. _Bessy Bell and Mary Gray_, which records a piece of Scottish news of no importance whatever, has become an English nursery rhyme. In _Jamie Douglas_ an historical fact has been interwoven with a beautiful lyric. Indeed, the chances of corruption and contamination are infinite.
The long pathetic ballad of _Bewick and Grahame_ is a link between the romantic ballads and the ballads of the Border, _Sir Hugh in the Grime's Downfall_ connecting the Border ballads with the 'historical' ballads. The four splendid 'Armstrong ballads' also are mainly 'historical,' though _Dick o' the Cow_ requires further elucidation. _Kinmont Willie_ is under suspicion of being the work of Sir Walter Scott, who alone of all ballad-editors, perhaps, could have compiled a ballad good enough to deceive posterity. We cannot doubt the excellence of _Kinmont Willie_; but it would be tedious, as well as unprofitable, to collect the hundred details of manner, choice of words, and expression, which discredit the authenticity of the ballad.
_John o' the Side_ has not, I believe, been presented to readers in its present shape before. It is one of the few instances in which the English version of a ballad is better than the Scottish.
_The Braes o' Yarrow_ is a good example of the Scottish lyrical ballad, the continued rhyme being very effective. _The Twa Brothers_ has become a game, and _Lizie Lindsay_ a song. _The Outlyer Bold_ is a title I have been forced to give to a version of the ballad best known as _The Bonnie Banks o' Fordie_; this, it is true, might have come more aptly in the First Series. So also _Katharine Jaffray_, which enlarges the lesson taught in _The Cruel Brother_ (First Series, p. 76), and adds one of its own.