+The Text+ is from the Percy Folio, given _literatim_, with two rearrangements of the lines (in stt. 4 and 22) and a few obvious corrections, as suggested by Hales, and Furnivall, and Child. The Folio version was printed by Jamieson in his _Popular Ballads and Songs_. The Scotch version, _Gil Morrice_, was printed by Percy in the _Reliques_ in preference to the version of his Folio. He notes that the ballad ‘has lately run through two editions in Scotland: the second was printed at Glasgow in 1755.’ Thanks to an advertisement prefixed to these Scottish editions, sixteen additional verses were obtained and added by Percy, who thought that they were ‘perhaps after all only an ingenious interpolation.’ _Gil Morrice_ introduces ‘Lord Barnard’ in place of ‘John Steward,’ adopted, perhaps, from _Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard_. Motherwell’s versions were variously called _Child Noryce_, _Bob Norice_, _Gill Morice_, _Chield Morice_. Certainly the Folio ballad is unsurpassed for its vigorous, objective style, and forcible, vivid pictures. +The Story+ of this ballad gave rise to Home’s _Douglas_, a tragedy, produced in the Concert Hall, Canongate, Edinburgh, 1756 (on which occasion the heroine’s name was given as ‘Lady Barnard’), and transferred to Covent Garden Theatre, in London, in 1757, the heroine’s name being altered to ‘Lady Randolph.’ Perhaps in the same year in which the play was produced in London, the poet Gray wrote from Cambridge:-- ‘I have got the old Scotch ballad on which _Douglas_ was founded; it is divine, and as long as from hence to Aston. Aristotle’s best rules are observed in it in a manner which shows the author never had heard of Aristotle. It begins in the fifth act of the play. You may read it two-thirds through without guessing what it is about; and yet, when you come to the end, it is impossible not to understand the whole story.’ CHILD MAURICE 1. Child Maurice hunted ithe siluer wood, He hunted itt round about, And noebodye that he ffound therin, Nor none there was with-out. 2. ... ... ... ... ... ... And he tooke his siluer combe in his hand, To kembe his yellow lockes. 3. He sayes, ‘Come hither, thou litle ffoot-page, That runneth lowlye by my knee, Ffor thou shalt goe to Iohn Stewards wiffe And pray her speake with mee. 4. ... ... ... ... ... ... I, and greete thou doe that ladye well, Euer soe well ffroe mee. 5. ‘And, as itt ffalls, as many times As knotts beene knitt on a kell, Or marchant men gone to leeue London Either to buy ware or sell; 6. ‘And, as itt ffalles, as many times As any hart can thinke, Or schoole-masters are in any schoole-house Writting with pen and inke: Ffor if I might, as well as shee may, This night I wold with her speake. 7. ‘And heere I send her a mantle of greene, As greene as any grasse, And bid her come to the siluer wood, To hunt with Child Maurice.