Synopsis
Fifteen English lords come to the king "To dance and win the victory." He gets the bonny lass to dance with them, offering her lands and either the fairest knight (of her choice), or the bravest, in his court. She wins. The fifteenth lord laid aside his sword but still had to admit defeat—in one variant, for exhaustion.
The Bonny Lass of AngleseyWORD has gane thro a’ this land,
And O well noticed it maun be! The English lords are coming down To dance and gain the victorie. The king has made a noble cry, And well attended it maun be: ‘Come saddle ye, and bring to me The bonny lass o Englessie.’ She started up, a’ dress’d in white, Between him and his companie; Said, What will ye gie, my royal liege, If I will dance this dance for thee? ‘Five good ploughs but and a mill I’ll give you till the day ye die; The bravest knight in all my court, I’ll give, your husband for to be.’ She’s taen the first lord by the hand, Says, ‘Ye’ll rise up and dance wi me;’ But she made a’ these lords fifeteen To gie it up right shamefullie. Then out it speaks a younger lord, Says, ‘Fye for shame! how can this be?’ He loosd his brand frae aff his side, Likewise his buckler frae his knee. He sware his feet should be his dead Before he lost the victorie; He danc’d full fast, but tired at last, And gae it up as shamefullie. 
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Annotating the Ballad
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References
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My study of the image above
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Highland Wedding at Blair Atholl, 1780, David Allan, National Galleries of Scotland.
Ayrshire illuminated manuscript
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Bit too modern clothing
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Right clothes now
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Originally below was the chosen thumbnail, however when it was time to make the page I felt I was missing the movement of this ballad about dancing.
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Here is when I started using the lightbox and tracing over a worked up sketch I've done on my iPad. This becomes the technique used to create the pages subsequently.
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Too sparse, a lot of empty space, type is too all over the place.
I like the chandelier but I'm not sure if it's doing much. Really flat, need more depth.
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I think the piper is awkwardly short.
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For the characters of this page I was inspired by Sara Ogilvie's mob in her book Dave the lonely monster, her character's clothes are influenced by medieval Europe however the characters are fun, colourful and diverse.
I wanted my character's for this page to reflect this interpretation rather than the gritty harsh time that medieval Scotland would have been. |
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The knight on this page of Jill Calder's book Robert the Bruce King of Scots, has been coloured digitally and a painterly texture clipping masked on top. I did this for my English lords in the foreground.
Adding this texture creates a relationship between the analogue line art and the stark digital colouring. |
Final illustration for the Bonny Lass of Anglesley spread
