The Berkshire Lady, in Four Parts. To which is added, A New Song.

A new song

Glasgow: Printed by J. & M. Robertson

1802

8 pages

15 cm

An unusual tale of courtship and gender reversal. This ballad in four parts tells the tale of an heiress who is beautiful and rich and pursued by many, but desired none. She eventually falls in love, in spite of herself, with a young lawyer, and she resolves to marry him, but also to first punish him a little for making her languish in love with him. She sends him an anonymous challenge to duel in a grove. When he arrives, she is masked and tells him he must fight her or marry her, without knowing who she is (she even has her rapier ready). On the advice of a friend, he decides to marry her and she takes him to the church, still masked, where they are married. Then she brings him home to her castle and leaves him to sit in the parlor for hours before she finally comes down, unmasked and beautifully attired, and demands to know who he is and why he is sitting in her parlor. He admits he was brought here by a young lady, and she in turn admits that it was herself. They spend the rest of their life blessed by love and wealth. This fascinating ballad is followed by a single verse song describing the misery of the singer, presumably male, who had been beguiled into marriage by the youthful charms of his mate, but now must be cursed with a life spent with a cruel spouse.

Courtship and Marriage

Ballads and songs

Chapbooks - Scotland - Glasgow

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

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 higher 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