Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws: Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Fourth SeriesSidgwick, Frank
General
Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws: Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Fourth Series
Sidgwick, Frank
Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Outlaws -- Poetry; Robin Hood (Legendary character) -- Poetry
35.
‘You must lend me six pieces, my lord,’ quoth he,
‘Into my ship, to sail the sea,
And to-morrow, by nine of the clock,
Your honour again then will I see.’
36.
And the hatch-board where Sir Andrew lay
Is hatched with gold dearly dight:
‘Now by my faith,’ says Charles, my lord Howard,
‘Then yonder Scot is a worthy wight!
37.
‘Take in your ancients and your standards,
Yea, that no man shall them see,
And put me forth a white willow wand.
As merchants use to sail the sea.’
38.
But they stirred neither top nor mast,
But Sir Andrew they passed by.
‘What English are yonder,’ said Sir Andrew,
‘That can so little courtesy?
39.
‘I have been admiral over the sea
More than these years three;
There is never an English dog, nor Portingale,
Can pass this way without leave of me.
40.
‘But now yonder pedlars they are past,
Which is no little grief to me;
Fetch them back,’ says Sir Andrew Barton,
‘They shall all hang at my mainmast tree.’
41.
With that the pinnace it shot off,
That my lord Howard might it well ken;
It struck down my lord’s foremast,
And killed fourteen of my lord his men.
42.
‘Come hither, Simon,’ says my lord Howard,
‘Look that thy words be true thou said;
I’ll hang thee at my mainmast tree
If thou miss thy mark past twelve pence bread.’
43.
Simon was old, but his heart it was bold;
He took down a piece, and laid it full low;
He put in chain yards nine,
Besides other great shot less and moe.
44.
With that he let his gunshot go;
So well he settled it with his eye,
The first sight that Sir Andrew saw,
He saw his pinnace sunk in the sea.
45.
When he saw his pinnace sunk,
Lord! in his heart he was not well.
‘Cut my ropes, it is time to be gone;
I’ll go fetch yond pedlars back myself!’
46.
When my lord Howard saw Sir Andrew loose,
Lord! in his heart that he was fain.
‘Strike on your drums, spread out your ancients;
Sound out your trumpets, sound out amain!’
47.
‘Fight on, my men,’ says Sir Andrew Barton,
‘Weet, howsoever this gear will sway,
It is my lord Admiral of England
Is come to seek me on the sea.’
48.
Simon had a son; with shot of a gun,
Well Sir Andrew might it ken,
He shot it at a privy place,
And killed sixty more of Sir Andrew’s men.
49.
Harry Hunt came in at the other side,
And at Sir Andrew he shot then;
He drove down his foremast tree,
And killed eighty more of Sir Andrew’s men.
50.
‘I have done a good turn,’ says Harry Hunt,
‘Sir Andrew is not our king’s friend;
He hoped to have undone me yesternight,
But I hope I have quit him well in the end.’
51.
‘Ever alas!’ said Sir Andrew Barton,
‘What should a man either think or say?
Yonder false thief is my strongest enemy,
Who was my prisoner but yesterday.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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