The Nut-Brown Maid

Joseph Edward Southall - The Nut Brown Maid

"The Nut-Brown Maid" is a ballad that made its first printed appearance in The Customs of London, also known as Arnold's Chronicle, published in 1502 by the chronicler Richard Arnold.[1] The editor of the 1811 edition of the chronicle suggested it might be based on a German ballad.[2] An alternative explanation is that the poem may be based on the exploits of Henry Clifford (1454-1523), the tenth Baron Clifford, and his wife Anne St John. Like the knight in the ballad, Clifford was said to have spent part of his early life as an outlaw.[3]

The literary scholar, Walter Skeat suggested the ballad was "almost certainly written by a woman" based on internal references and the poem's vigorous defence of the constancy of women.[4] John Milton Berdan, described the ballad as the 'epitome of Medieval Latin influence'.[5] The poem must have been popular in the early sixteenth century, since there are references to it being sold separately by 1520 for one penny.[6] In 1537 John Scott published a religious song called 'The New Nut Brown Maid' which employed the same phraseology and the same stanza form of the original, in which the dialogue is now between the Virgin and Christ.[7] This presumably represented an attempt to utilise a popular piece for pious purposes.[8] The Nut-Brown Maid was apparently still popular enough in 1575 to have been performed for Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle in a show put on by the Queen's favourite, Robert Dudley.[9]

After falling into obscurity during the Stuart Period, 'The Nut-Brown Maid' became better known again in the eighteenth century and was reprinted many times.[10] The earliest version was that published in the 'Muse's Mercury' for June 1707.[11] Later versions included one by Thomas Percy in his popular and influential Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). Another widely-published version was that by the renowned nineteenth-century literary scholar William Hazlitt.[12] Later versions of the text employ more modern spelling and orthography.[13]

  1. ^ Douce, Francis (1811) [1502]. The customs of London, otherwise called Arnold's Chronicle. F. C. and J. Rivington. pp. viii.
  2. ^ Douce (1811) [1502]. The customs of London, otherwise called Arnold's Chronicle. pp. xi.
  3. ^ Elizabethanne Boran, 'The Nut Brown Maid', Edward Worth Library, Dublin (2014)
  4. ^ Walter W. Skeat, The Chaucer canon, with a discussion of the works associated with the name of Geoffrey Chaucer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900), p. 110.
  5. ^ John Milton Berdan, Early Tudor Poetry, 1485-1547 (New York, 1920), pp. 153-56.
  6. ^ Berdan,Early Tudor Poetry, 1485-1547 p. 154.
  7. ^ Berdan, Early Tudor Poetry, 1485-1547 p. 156
  8. ^ 'The New Notbrounde Mayd upon the Passion of Cryste' reprinted in William Hazlitt, Remains of the early popular poetry of England, Vol. 3 (London, 1866) pp.1-22.
  9. ^ J. C. Holt, Robin Hood, second edition, revised and enlarged, Thames & Hudson, 1989, p. 140
  10. ^ 'The Ancient Ballad of the Nut Brown Maid', Southern Literary Messenger Vol. 30, Issue 3, Mar 1860; pp. 161-169
  11. ^ 'The Nut-brown Maid: a poem, near 300 years old', The Muses Mercury, Vol. 1, Issue 6, (June 1707), pp.134-39
  12. ^ William Hazlitt, Remains of the early popular poetry of England, Vol. 2, 'The Notbrowne Mayde', pp. 271-94 (London, 1866)
  13. ^ Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. (1863–1944), 'The Nut-Brown Maid', The Oxford Book of Ballads (1910)