Cecil Sharp's Note 20 (1916)
No. 20. The Two Magicians
This is, I believe, the only copy of this ballad that has as yet been collected in England. The tune, which, of course, is modern, is a variant of one which was used for a series of humorous songs of the “exaggeration” type that was very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, of which “The Crocodile” (English County Songs, p. 184) is an example.
The words were first printed, I believe, in 1828 in Buchan’s Ancient Ballads and Songs (volume i, p. 24), together with the following comment: “There is a novelty in this legendary ballad very amusing, and it must be very old. I never saw anything in print which had the smallest resemblance to it.” It has been necessary to make but one or two small alterations in the words.
Child (English and Scottish Ballads, volume i, p. 244) prints Buchan’s version and says: “This is a base born cousin of a pretty ballad known all over Southern Europe and elsewhere, and in especially graceful forms in France.”
“The French ballad generally begins with a young man’s announcing that he has won a mistress, and intends to pay her a visit on Sunday, or to give her an aubade. She declines his visit or his music. To avoid him she will turn, e.g. into a rose; then he will turn bee and kiss her. She will turn quail; he sportsman and bag her. She will turn carp; he angler, and catch her. She will turn hare; and he hound. She will turn nun; and he priest and confess her day and night. She will fall sick; he will watch with her or be her doctor. She will become a star; he a cloud and muffle her. She will die; he will turn earth into which they will put her, or into Saint Peter, and receive her into Paradise. In the end she says, ‘Since you are inevitable, you may as well have me as another;’ or more complaisantly, ‘Je me donnerai à toi, puisque tu m’aimes tant.’ ”
The ballad in varying forms is known in Spain, Italy, Romania, Greece, Moravia, Poland, and Serbia. See the chapter on “Magical Transformations and Magical Conflict,” in Clouston’s Popular Tales and Fiction. I believe there is a similar story in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment.