TUNES 53

tains some association of detail which is not found in the words;
it may, for instance, be found in a particular part of the original
country, or arise at some specified date. Were all collections of
ballad tunes as ample as those of Germany, it is probable that we
should be able to notice more migrations of melodies than at
present appear.

A simple instance of migration (because of its relatively recent
date) is Marlbrough s'en va en guerre. The tune may come from a
seventeenth-century hunting song, but it suddenly sprang into
popularity in 1781 through being sung by the Dauphin's nurse
and taken up by Marie Antoinette. It spread abroad so rapidly
that Goethe heard it almost everywhere on the road to Naples.
The melody has the curves indicated by the formulas 4!^ in
France (Doncieux), B3A in Germany (Erk und Bohme), and
9621A in Catalonia (Pelay Briz). The French and German tunes
are identical in all but the first interval, and a detailed transcription
would show that this affects only one note. The Catalan differs in
the first interval, and takes the third in two stages; it also differs in
time and key, and in the arrangement of the lines. In an older song
traditional variations would be more numerous, as in The poisoned
Marchioness. This also is a French song, referring to the hapless
Gabrielle d'Estrees, who died in 1599, under the usual Renais-
sance suspicion of poisoning. The tune occurs in France in the
variants 6625C, B225BBA, 522, EiABB22, and in Germany in the
variants BB22, BB223C, BBC73C. In the course of four centuries
considerable changes have occurred in the melody, but one can still
discern the group BB22, or its mathematical equivalents, in most
of the versions. The Shipman (El Marinero) is a ballad of French
origin, and its passage from Catalonia to Castile is evidenced by
the formulas 52266 and 522BBE. In the same way we may trace
La Porcheronne from France to Catalonia, and Lord Randal from
England to Italy. In really old cases of migration the evidence
is often obscure. The migrating tune may have died out in its
original land, or it may have been changed out of all recognition.
So the famous Herr Ribbolt, which is our Douglas Tragedy, has
one Danish tune (^52148221) which might be connected with
a Swedish tune (IC2I2C243B); another two (535A35C and
SE5E522iA) which seem related to the Norse (5E54BG) and also
to a simpler Danish tune (52202) which resembles one in Norway
(522iAB2iA). These last two tunes are the nearest one can bring