I have added this chapter to Sir Edgar MacCulloch’s book, as I thought it a good opportunity of preserving a few of the old ballads and songs which, for generations, amused and interested our forefathers, and which now, alas, are all too surely going or gone from among us,—swept away by the irrepressible tide of vulgarity and so-called “Progress,” by which everything of ours that was beautiful, picturesque, or individual, has been destroyed. As descendants of the Celtic trouvères, menestriers, and jongleurs, as well as of the Norse Skalds, the bards from whose early songs and chants, the literature of Europe has sprung, we, Normans, should specially treasure the old poems which have been handed down for so many successive generations, and which, in the rapid extinction of the old language in which Wace, Taillefer, Walter Map, and Chrestien de Troyes sang, are doomed to oblivion.
In most places the old ballads can be divided into two classes—the Religious and the Secular. The first of these classes, except in the form of the metrical version of the Psalms by Ronsard, does not seem to have existed over here. I can find no trace of any Noëls, or of any Easter songs. The Secular songs may be divided into the Historical and the Social.
The Historical deserve precedence. The Ballade des Aragousais of which a translation has already been given, and of which I append the original, is by far the oldest and most interesting. Then comes a ballad descriptive of the Destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588, which I found in a manuscript book compiled by a Job Mauger in 1722. In it he has copied the Dedicace des Eglises, and such poems which apparently were current in his day, and which he deemed worthy of preservation. Of his collection this is the most distinctive, and I have included it in this chapter, although it is evidently defective in parts, as these old ballads, handed down orally from generation to generation, are so apt to be. The Complaint of the dispossessed Roman Catholic Clergy, written in March, 1552, and copied into the Registers of St. Saviour’s parish in 1696 by Henry Blondel, is already in print, being included in Gustave Dupont’s Histoire du Cotentin et de ses Iles, Tome III., p. 311-313.
Job Mauger’s MSS. also comprise a long and monotonous ballad of twenty verses describing the destruction by lightning of the Tower of Castle Cornet in 1688, and various poems, conspicuous more by the loyalty of their sentiments than by the merits of their versification, on contemporary events in England, such as—“La mort du Roy Guillaume III.,” written in 1702; “Cantique Spirituel à la mémoire de la Royne Marie IIme., et sur l’oiseau qu’on voit sur son Mausolée;” “Sur la mort de son Altesse Royale Guillaume, Duc de Glocestre, decedé au Château de Windsor le 30me Juillet, 1700;” and “Vive le Roy George,” written in 1721. He also copies a “Chanson Nouvelle de l’Esclavage de Barbarie,” doggerel verses “composée par dix pauvres hommes, esclaves en Barbarie, où ils sont,” viz.: “Edouard Falla, Edouard Mauger, Phelipe le Marquand, Richard Viel, et ses camarades, Pierre le Gros et Jean Aspuine,” written in the reign of William III.
In the year 1736 the bells of the church of S. Peter Port, being no longer fit for service, were taken down for the purpose of being melted and re-cast. This circumstance gave rise to a piece of poetry composed by the Rev. Elie Dufresne, Rector of the Town parish, of which many manuscript copies are in existence.
But by far the most popular and widely known of all our local ballads is “Les vers de Catherine Deslandes,” by an unknown author, descriptive of the trial and execution for infanticide, of an unhappy woman called Catherine Deslandes in 1748. These verses have been repeatedly copied and printed, and are to be found in almost every old farm-house.
The Secular ballads were undoubtedly all, or nearly all, importations from the mainland. Of these I have made a selection, and have striven to record those which do not appear to have been already printed, or which, like “La Claire Fontaine,” vary considerably from the continental models. Thus “Malbrouck,” which is one of the most widely known of all our old ballads, appears in every French “Recueil de Chansons,” and the verses of “Le Juif Errant” and “Geneviève de Brabant” of which copies are also found in all our old farm houses, have also been repeatedly printed on the Continent, so are not included here.
“Surprise de l’Ile de Guernesey l’an 1370, sous le Règne d’Edouard III., Roy d’Angleterre, et de Charles V., Roy de France.”
Note.
This poem is copied from a version compiled by Mr. Métivier, and said by him to be the revised text of seven mutilated manuscript copies. I have also included most of his notes.
Fin.
[263] Lai—Chant, mélodie, complainte.
[264] Allure—pas continu, mesuré.
[265] Fort’ment rimée—dont la rime est riche, roulante.
[266] Sillant v. fr.: fendant, coupant.
[267] Mesgnée—guern’ mégnie,—maisonnée, troupe.
[268] Mis à mort—assassiné par le traître gallois John Lambe, soudoyé par Richard II.
[269] Aragousais—Chez les Gascons, nos compatriotes alors, Aragous, espagnol. L’Aragon était le royaume principal.
[270] Pilleuse—pirates.
[271] Ajournant—v. fr. ajornant, faire jor ou jour.
[272] Haquenée—cheval qui va l’amble, hobin.
[273] Guildin—Anglais gelding.
[274] Les Vazons—Marais, tourbières, aujourd’hui Vazon. Il y avait le Vazon d’Albecq et le Vazon du Marais.
[275] Alebarde—sans aspiration, comme l’Ital: alabarda.
[276] L’isle—les habitants de l’île.
[277] L’armée—la flotte étrangère.
[278] Le Lorreur—surnom d’une famille câtelaine dont les traces se retrouvent au commencement du dix-septième siècle. Le lourreur était un joueur de cornemuse, Normand lourre, Danois luur. C’est tout un alors pour nous autres Anglais, que Thoumin le Lorreur, et “Tommy the Piper.”
The first mention of a “Le Lorreur” in the Channel Islands I have found, occurs in the Calendar of Patent Rolls for 1316, where Philip L’Evesque, Bailiff of Jersey, witnesses (June 25th, 1311) a demise by Macie Le Lorreur, clerk, to Richard le Fessu, his brother, Viscount of Jersie, of the escheat of Pierres du Mouster, for twelve cabots of wheat rent yearly, for three virgates of land in the parish of Grouville. The Richard le Fessu mentioned above was also known as Richard de Jersey, he married Elizabeth de Burgo, described as the King’s kinswoman, and in 1317 the King gave, as a grant for life, to “John de Jereseye” his son, the Viscounty of Jersey, which his father had held during his life-time.
[279] Rouf Hollande—On August 26th 1338, a warrant was issued against a Richard de Holand, who had absconded with £40 delivered to John Godefelawe of Southampton, by John de Harleston, for payment of the wages of the garrison of Jersey. (Calendar of Patent Rolls).
[280] Quintaine—espèce de tournoi.
[281] Chéaient—tombaient guern: et norm: queyaient.
[282] Meurtrière—Catapulte, machine qui lançait des pierres et des dards.
[283] Avesprées—Commencement du soir.
[284] Voir—Vrai.
[285] Gaburon—Ce serait pêle-mêle, a la manière de goujats, des manants. Telle serait, osons le croire, l’origine du guernesiais “pêle-mêle gabouaret.”
[286] Bedots—étrangers, trompeurs. L’acceptation française de bedos, selon Roquefort, était autrefois “forain.”
[287] Espreindrent—serrèrent, assaillirent. Selon les annales du temps, le château ne fut pas pris.
[288] Tosts, pour tostes, soufflets, “good thrashings.”
[289] La Corbière—The point underneath “Village de Putron,” just north of Fermain Point, is called “La Corbière,” but this line probably refers to the Vale Castle, in the parish of St. Michel de l’Archange du Valle.
[290] Bec-à-la chièvre—Just underneath Fort George, the southern boundary of Petit Fort Bay.
[291] Estère—passage.
[292] Matelots—camarades, guern: matnots, mot franc-tudesque. Ici ce n’est pas un marinier exclusivement, c’est un mess-mate.
[293] Bredelle—morceau.
[294] Général—l’Amiral, celui qui commande la générale, angl: flag-ship.
[295] Repelle—rejette, oppose.
[296] Gente amée—gentille amie.
[297] Monceis—monceaux.
[298] Mines—Semblant de vouloir assaillir le Château (de Néel de St. Sauveur, aujourd’hui Château des Marais ou Ivy Castle).
[299] Brecart—The Brecarts, Bregearts, or Briards, were a comparatively influential family in the parishes of the Vale and St. Sampson’s up to the sixteenth century; they then bought land in the town, in the district of Vauvert, and became known as “Brégart alias Vauvert,” and finally as “Vauvert,” pur et simple, they seem to have become extinct in the eighteenth century.
[300] Aymon Rose—“Edmund de Ros ou Rous” était d’origine Normande.
“It appears that Edmund Rose, who defended Castle Cornet on this occasion was only Lieut.-Governor, as, in the previous year, Walter Huwet appears as governor of all the islands. There is a letter from the King to Edmund Rose, dated the 14th of August, 1372, as Constable of the Castle of Gorey in Jersey; so that within two months after Yvon had raised this siege of Castle Cornet, he, Edmund Rose, must have been sent to that of Gorey.”—(Some Remarks on the Constitution of Guernsey, by T. F. de H., p. 119.)
Champarts—The “Camparts”—or the eleventh part of the grain grown upon the land of the fief, is described by Warburton thus:—“The first dukes of Normandy granted several parcels of land in the island, to such as had served them in their wars, and granted likewise a very considerable part to some religious houses. These, whether soldiers or churchmen, not being themselves skilled in agriculture, let out these lands to tenants under them, reserving such rents and services as they thought most convenient; such was the “Campart,” and such were the “chef-rentes,” and these have been in use ever since Richard I., duke of Normandy, and possibly they may yet be of more ancient date.… In the Clos du Valle, out of extraordinary respect for the Abbot who resided among them, they paid both the tenth and the eleventh sheaf, both as tithe and campart.” Camparts were owed on many fiefs, if not on all. Many owners of land have redeemed them. Others have affranchis their land, which is done by Act of Court, on proof that the land has been under grass for forty years, and lasts as long as the land is tilled yearly.
[301] Compos—Composition.
[302] Here Mr. Métivier’s version ends, the remainder is from an old Guernsey Almanac dated 1828.
[303] Hoigne—Haine.
[304] Hantonne—Southampton.
[305] A chartez—En charrettes.
Fin.