HOW BALLADS SPREAD 81

Mother, Hungarian Gipsy Wicked Mother-in-law, Serbian Stojan
and his Mother, Russian Two Lovers, English Lord Randal, and
Italian Poisoned man's will (Testamento deW Avvelenato). This last
is the more curious since, though the cycle is indigenous to Italy,
this piece has come from England. It has the form of Lord Randal^
and its tune is a variant.1

It seems also advisable to associate with Italy the motif of
soporific drugs and feigned death. The most interesting of such
stories is that of the girl who simulated death to escape a ravisher
or unwelcome lover. It exists in France, Italy, and Catalonia. In
Yugoslavia it is entitled Erceg Stepan (the name shows connexion
with the seaboard which was under Venetian influence). A notable
feature of this ballad is the severity of the tests to which the pre-
tended corpse is put; they belong more suitably to the haiduk
ballad of Little Radoica who, as a hero, is more fitted to stand the
trials of a snake in the bosom and nails driven into the quick,
though not of dancing-girls. Erceg Stepan is represented as a
Moslem creditor. In the Czech form the ballad is entitled The
Turk's Bride. Boccaccio's use of the Imogen theme is probably
older than any of the ballads of the cycle of Marianson, which may
be either French or Italian. The ingenuity behind the story is
rather Italian than French. In France it is called Marianson or
Innocence proved, in north Italy The Rings. It does not appear in
the Spanish peninsula. In Scotland it is Reedisdale and Wise
William and The Tzva Knights", and in the latter form it presents
the oddity of agreeing better with the Greek ballad of Maurianos
and his Sister than with its neighbours. (The point is that the girl
keeps her honour by sacrificing that of her handmaiden.) The
Rumanian form is called lancea Sabiencea. An unwelcome note of
ferocity is present in the Serbian Marko Kraljevic and the Royal

1 See Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, The Study of Polk Songs (Everyman's
Library), London, n.d., pp. 171-80. There is a tune to King Henry (Child 12)
which closely resembles one gathered in Lombardy by Cocchiara:
King Henry (52iABE4BB) U Avvelenato (521 A)

2 flats 68 U8 2 flats 68 US

dga(b.. a)g/gdfe. d/ d/g. gg. a/ba gg. a/bagbag/a. r

dga(b. . a)g/gddg. t'/^-aa.b/b...../b-ar (ist hemistich repeated)

(bc)/(dd)edca(a.b)lbaga. d/g. gg. a/ba gg. a/bagbag/a. r

(dd)/dga(o. . a)b/dgfg.. / d/e. SLa.bc/c.. b (3rd hemistich repeated)

a/g.gb.a/g.r (refrain)

The chief difference is in the arrangement of the lines, in which the Italian
version stands closer to what is usual in the Lord Randal series. There is also a
Donna Lombarda melody used in Romagna with the melodic contour 52iCi.
4615 M