English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV

Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts

"A priest, a priest," fair Johnie cried,
      "To wed my love and me;"
    "A clerk, a clerk," her father cried,
      "To sum her tocher free."                                    170

    "I'll hae none of your gold," fair Johnie cried,
      "Nor none of your other gear;
    But I will have my own fair bride,
      For this day I've won her dear."

    He's ta'en his true love by the hand,                          175
      He led her up the plain:
    "Have you any more of your English dogs
      You want for to have slain?"

    He put a little horn to his mouth,
      He blew 't baith loud and shill;                             180
    And honour is into Scotland gone,
      In spite of England's skill.

    He put his little horn to his mouth,
      He blew it owre again;
    And aye the sound the horn cryed                               185
      Was "Johnie and his men!"

137, 140, 143, Taillant.

161, 166 Taillant.




BROWN ADAM.


_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, iii. 159.

    "There is a copy of this ballad in Mrs. Brown's collection. The
    editor has seen one, printed on a single sheet. The epithet,
    "Smith," implies, probably, the sirname, not the profession, of
    the hero, who seems to have been an outlaw. There is, however, in
    Mrs. Brown's copy, a verse of little merit, here omitted, alluding
    to the implements of that occupation."

  SCOTT.


    O wha wad wish the wind to blaw,
      Or the green leaves fa' therewith?
    Or wha wad wish a lealer love
      Than Brown Adam the Smith?

    But they hae banished him, Brown Adam,                           5
      Frae father and frae mother;
    And they hae banish'd him, Brown Adam,
      Frae sister and frae brother.

    And they hae banish'd him, Brown Adam,
      The flower o' a' his kin;                                     10
    And he's bigged a bour in gude green-wood
      Atween his ladye and him.

    It fell upon a summer's day,
      Brown Adam he thought lang;
    And, for to hunt some venison,                                  15
      To green-wood he wald gang.

    He has ta'en his bow his arm o'er,
      His bolts and arrows lang;
    And he is to the gude green-wood
      As fast as he could gang.                                     20

    O he's shot up, and he's shot down,
      The bird upon the brier;
    And he sent it hame to his ladye,
      Bade her be of gude cheir.

    O he's shot up, and he's shot down,                             25
      The bird upon the thorn;
    And sent it hame to his ladye,
      Said he'd be hame the morn.

    When he cam to his lady's bour door
      He stude a little forbye,                                     30
    And there he heard a fou fause knight
      Tempting his gay ladye.

    For he's ta'en out a gay goud ring,
      Had cost him many a poun',
    "O grant me love for love, ladye,                               35
      And this sall be thy own."--

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV

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