Sir James the rose, an old Scottish tragic song

Bruce, Michael, 1746-1767

Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers

1840-1850 per University of Glasgow Union Catalogue of Scottish Chapbooks

8 pages

14 cm

'11' is printed at the bottom of the title-page

ballads & songs

biography

A tragic love song about the romance between a highland chieftain, Sir James the Rose, and the fair Matilda, the daughter of the Lord Buchan. When Matilda’s father discovers her love for Sir James, he does not approve of the match and instead bids that she wed Sir John the Graeme. When she goes to tell her lover, they vow to wed anyway, which is overheard by Donald, Graeme’s brother, who then attacks James. In defending himself, James kills Donald. When he tries to flee to Skye to rouse the clan Rose, Matilda bids him to wait and sleep in the park instead where she can watch over him and sends a page instead to find his kin. The page is captured by the Graeme on his way where he discloses the plan and location of Sir James. Graeme attacks James with twenty men but James defends himself valiantly, slaying several of the knights as well as the Graeme himself, although he himself is mortally wounded in the process. As James dies, Matilda commits suicide by throwing herself on James’ sword as well.

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Chapbooks - Scotland - Glasgow

Courtship and Marriage

Highlands

War

Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario

University of Glasgow Union Catalogue of Scottish Chapbooks http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/chapbooks/search/

JPEGs and PDF derived from master file, which was scanned from the original book in 24-bit color at 600 dpi in TIFF format using an Epson Expression 10000XL scanner.

In the public domain; For high quality reproductions, contact Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph. libaspc@uoguelph.ca, 519-824-4120, Ext. 53413

Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario, Canada