The Lyke-wake Dirge Poem Rhyme Scheme

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The Text is given verbatim et literatim from John Aubrey's MS of his Remains of Gentilisme Judaisme in the Lansdowne MSS No folio recto and verso This text has often been printed before but always with errors The only change made here is the placing of Aubrey's marginal notes among the footnotes the spelling is Aubrey's spelling The present version was obtained by Aubrey in from an informant whose father had heard it sung sixty years previously	A
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Sir Walter Scott's text better known than Aubrey's presents very few variations the chief being 'sleete' for 'fleet' in see below This would seem to point to the fact that Scott obtained his version from a manuscript and confused the antique ' s ' s with 'f ' A collation incomplete and inexact of the two texts is given by T F Henderson in his edition of the Minstrelsy vol iii pp	B
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The Story This dirge of course is not a ballad in the true sense of the word But it is concerned with myths so widespread and ancient that as much could be written about the dirge as almost any one of the ballads proper I have added an Appendix at the end of this volume to which those interested in the subject may refer For the present the following account may suffice	C
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Ritson found an illustration of this dirge in a manuscript letter written by one signing himself 'H Tr ' to Sir Thomas Chaloner in the Cotton MSS Julius F vi fols The date approximately is the end of the sixteenth century Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder the younger The letter is concerned with antiquities in Durham and Yorkshire especially near Guisborough an estate of the Chaloner family The sentence referring to the Lyke Wake Dirge was printed by Scott to whom it was communicated by Ritson's executor after his death It is here given as re transcribed from the manuscript f verso	C
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'When any dieth certaine women singe a songe to the dead body recytinge the iorney that the partie deceased must goe and they are of beleife such is their fondnesse that once in their liues yt is good to giue a payre of newe shoes to a poore man forasmuch as after this life they are to pass barefoote through a greate launde full of thornes furzen excepte by the meryte of the Almes aforesaid they have redeemed their forfeyte for at the edge of the launde an aulde man shall meete them with the same shoes that were giuen by the partie when he was liuinge and after he hath shodde them he dismisseth them to goe through thicke and thin without scratch or scalle '	-
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The myth of Hell shoon Norse helsko appears under various guises in many folklores	C
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Sir Walter Scott in printing 'sleete' in said 'The word sleet in the chorus seems to be corrupted from selt or salt a quantity of which in compliance with a popular superstition is frequently placed on the breast of a corpse ' It is true that a superstition to this effect does exist but 'fleet' is doubtless the right reading Aubrey glosses it as 'water' but Murray has shown New English Dictionary s v by three quotations from wills dated between and that 'fire and flet' is an expression meaning simply 'fire and house room ' 'Flet ' in short is our modern 'flat' in an unspecialised and uncorrupted form	D
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Footnote Scott repeats the first stanza at the end of his version	E
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THE LYKE WAKE DIRGE	F
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Lansdowne MS fol recto	G
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This ean night this ean night	G
eve r y night and awle	A
Fire and Fleet and Candle light	G
and Christ recieve thy Sawle	A
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When thou from hence doest pass away	H
every night and awle	A
To Whinny moor thou comest at last	G
and Christ recieve thy thy silly poor Sawle	A
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If ever thou gave either hosen or shun	E
every night and awle	A
Sitt thee downe and putt them on	I
and Christ recieve thy Sawle	A
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But if hosen nor shoon thou never gave nean	I
every night c	A
The Whinnes shall prick thee to the bare beane	I
and Christ recieve thy Sawle	A
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From Whinny moor that thou mayst pass	C
every night c	A
To Brig o' Dread thou comest at last	G
and Christ c	A
fol verso	C
no brader than a thread	G
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From Brig of Dread that thou mayst pass	C
every night c	A
To Purgatory fire thou com'st at last	G
and Christ c	A
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If ever thou gave either Milke or drinke	A
every night c	A
The fire shall never make thee shrink	A
and Christ c	A
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But if milk nor drink thou never gave nean	I
every night c	A
The Fire shall burn thee to the bare bane	I
and Christ recive thy Sawle	A

Frank Sidgwick

The Lyke-wake Dirge Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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