Ch. 10: The Mystery of Lord Bateman - Page 2

characteristics of the proud young porter, are of unknown antiquity, and are not due to Mr. Thackeray--a scholar too conscientious to 'decorate ' an ancient text. Bishop Percy did such things, and Scott is not beyond suspicion; but Mr. Thackeray, like Joseph Ritson, preferred the authentic voice of tradition. Thus, in the text of the Biographical Edition, he does not imitate the Cockney twang, phonetically rendered in the version of Cruikshank. The second verse, for example, runs thus:

Cruikshank:

He sail-ed east, he sail-ed vest, Until he came to famed Tur-key, Vere he vos taken and put to prisin, Until his life was quite wea-ry.

Thackeray:

He sailed East, and he sailed West, Until he came to proud Turkey, Where he was taken and put to prison, Until his life was almost weary.

There are discrepancies in the arrangement of the verses, and a most important various reading.

Cruikshank:

Now sevin long years is gone and past, And fourteen days vell known to me; She packed up all her gay clouthing, And swore Lord Bateman she would go see.

To this verse, in Cruikshank's book, a note (not by Cruikshank) is added:

'"Now sevin long years is gone and past, And fourteen days well known to me.

In this may be recognised, though in a minor degree, the same gifted hand that portrayed the Mussulman, the pirate, the father, and the bigot, in two words ("This Turk").

'"The time is gone, the historian knows it, and that is enough for the reader. This is the dignity of history very strikingly exemplified."'

That note to Cruikshank's text is, like all the delightful notes, if style is evidence, not by Dickens, but by Thackeray. Yet, in his own text, with an exemplary fidelity, he reads: 'And fourteen days well known to THEE.' To whom? We are left in ignorance; and conjecture, though tempting, is unsafe. The reading of Cruikshank, 'vell known to ME'--that is, to the poet--is confirmed by the hitherto unprinted 'Lord Bedmin.' This version, collected by Miss Wyatt Edgell in 1899, as recited by a blind old woman in a workhouse, who had learned it in her youth, now lies before the present writer. He owes this invaluable document to the kindness of Miss Wyatt Edgell and Lady Rosalind Northcote. Invaluable it is, because it proves that Lord Bateman (or Bedmin) is really a volkslied, a popular and current version of the ancient ballad. 'Famed Turkey' becomes 'Torquay' in this text, probably by a misapprehension on the part of the collector or reciter. The speech of the bride's mother is here omitted, though it occurs in older texts; but, on the whole, the blind old woman's memory has proved itself excellent. In one place she gives Thackeray's reading in preference to that of Cruikshank, thus:

Cruikshank:

Ven he vent down on his bended knee.

Thackeray:

Down on his bended knees fell he.