The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 4 (of 5)
General
The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 4 (of 5)
Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts
2
‘O here is your Johnie just by your side;
What have ye to say to your Johnie?
O here is my hand, but anither has my heart,
So ye’ll never get more o your Johnie.’
3
‘O ye may go down to yon ale-house,
And there do sit till the dawing;
And call for the wine that is very, very fine,
And I’ll come and clear up your lawing.’
4
So he’s gane down to yon ale-house,
And he has sat till the dawing;
And he’s calld for the wine that’s very, very fine,
But she neer cam to clear up his lawing.
5
Lang or the dawing he oure the window looks,
To see if his true-love was coming,
And there he spied twelve weel armd boys,
Coming over the plainstanes running.
6
‘O landlady, landlady, what shall I do?
For my life it’s not worth a farthing!’
‘O young man,’ said she, ‘tak counsel by me,
And I will be your undertaking.
7
‘I will clothe you in my own body-clothes
And I’ll send you like a girl to the baking:’
And loudly, loudly they rapped at the door,
And loudly, loudly they rappëd.
8
‘O had you any strangers here late last night?
Or were they lang gane or the dawing?
O had you any strangers here late last night?
We are now come to clear up his lawing.’
9
‘O I had a stranger here late last night,
But he was lang gane or the dawing;
He called for a pint, and he paid it as he went,
And ye’ve no more to do with his lawing.’
10
‘O show me the room that your stranger lay in,
If he was lang gane or the dawing:’
She showed them the room that her stranger lay in,
But he was lang gane or the dawing.
11
O they stabbed the feather-bed all round and round,
And the curtains they neer stood to tear them;
And they gade as they cam, and left a’ things undone,
And left the young squire by his baking.
* * * * *
D
Kinloch MSS, I, 337.
1
As I cam in by the Duke of Athole’s gate,
I heard a fair maid singing,
Wi a bonny baby on her knee,
And the bells o the court were ringing.
2
‘O it’s I am the Duke of Athole’s nurse,
And the place does well become me;
But I would gie a’ my half-year’s fee
Just for a sight o my Johnie.
* * * * * *
3
‘If ye’ll gae down to yon ale-house,
And stop till it be dawing,
And ca for a pint o the very, very best,
And I’ll come and clear up your lawing.’
4
O he’s gane down to yon ale-house,
And stopt till it was dawing;
He ca’d for a pint o the very, very best,
But she cam na to clear up his lawing.
5
He looked out at the chamber-window,
To see if she was coming;
And there he spied ten armed men,
Across the plain coming running.
6
‘O landlady, landlady, what shall I do?
For my life is not worth a farthing;
I paid you a guinea for my lodging last night,
But I fear I’ll never see sun shining.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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