English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV

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

"O never, never, Susie Pye,
      For surely this can never be;                                150
    Nor ever shall I wed but her
      That's done and dree'd so much for me."

    Then out and spak the forenoon bride,--
      "My lord, your love it changeth soon;
    This morning I was made your bride,                            155
      And another chose ere it be noon."

    "O hold thy tongue, thou forenoon bride;
      Ye're ne'er a whit the worse for me;
    And whan ye return to your own countrie,
      A double dower I'll send with thee."                         160

    He's taen Susie Pye by the white hand,
      And gently led her up and down;
    And ay as he kist her red rosy lips,
      "Ye're welcome, jewel, to your own."

    He's taen her by the milk-white hand,                          165
      And led her to yon fountain stane;
    He's changed her name from Susie Pye,
      And he's call'd her his bonny love, Lady Jane.

109-112.

    But when he came Lord Jockey before,
      He kneeled lowly on his knee:
    "What news, what news, thou Tommy Pots,
      Thou art so full of courtesie?"

  _The Lovers' Quarrel_, v. 133-136.




YOUNG BEKIE.


    Young Bekie was as brave a knight
      As ever sail'd the sea;
    And he's doen him to the court o' France,[L3]
      To serve for meat and fee.

    He hadna been in the court o' France                             5
      A twelvemonth nor sae lang,
    Till he fell in love wi' the king's daughter,
      And was thrown in prison strang.

    The king he had but ae daughter,
      Burd Isbel was her name;                                      10
    And she has to the prison gane,
      To hear the prisoner's mane.

    "O gin a lady wad borrow me,
      At her stirrup I wad rin;
    Or gin a widow wad borrow me,                                   15
      I wad swear to be her son.

    "Or gin a virgin wad borrow me,
      I wad wed her wi' a ring;
    I'd gi'e her ha's, I'd gi'e her bowers,
      The bonny towers o' Linne."                                   20

    O barefoot barefoot gaed she but,
      And barefoot cam she ben;
    It wasna for want o' hose and shoon,
      Nor time to put them on;

    But a' for fear that her father                                 25
      Had heard her makin' din;
    For she's stown the keys of the prison,
      And gane the dungeon within.

    And when she saw him, young Bekie,
      Wow, but her heart was sair!                                  30
    For the mice, but and the bald rattons,
      Had eaten his yellow hair.

    She's gotten him a shaver for his beard,
      A comber till his hair;
    Five hundred pound in his pocket,                               35
      To spend, and nae to spare.

    She's gi'en him a steed was good in need,
      And a saddle o' royal bane;
    A leash o' hounds o' ae litter,
      And Hector called ane.                                        40

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

English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV

No reviews yet