flight, delaying the pursuer by her magic. In 'Lord Bateman'
another formula, almost as widely diffused, is preferred.

The old true love comes back just after her lover's wedding. He
returns to her. Now, as a rule, in popular tales, the lover's
fickleness is explained by a spell or by a breach of a taboo. The
old true love has great difficulty in getting access to him, and in
waking him from a sleep, drugged or magical.

The bloody shirt I wrang for thee,
The Hill o' Glass I clamb for thee,
And wilt thou no waken and speak to me?

He wakens at last, and all is well. In a Romaic ballad the deserted
girl, meeting her love on his wedding-day, merely reminds him of old
kindness. He answers--

Now he that will may scatter nuts,
And he may wed that will,
But she that was my old true love
Shall be my true love still.

This incident, the strange, often magically caused oblivion of the
lover, whose love returns to him, like Sophia, at, or after, his
marriage, is found in popular tales of Scotland, Norway, Iceland,
Germany, Italy, Greece, and the Gaelic Western Islands. It does not
occur in 'Lord Bateman,' where Mr. Thackeray suggests probable
reasons for Lord Bateman's fickleness. But the world-wide incidents
are found in older versions of 'Lord Bateman,' from which they have
been expelled by the English genius for the commonplace.