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
5
‘Ohon and alake! if anither hae your heart,
These words hae fairly undone me;
But let us set a time, tryst to meet again,
Then in gude friends you will twine me.
6
‘Ye will do you down to yon tavern-house
And drink till the day be dawing,
And, as sure as I ance had a love for you,
I’ll come there and clear your lawing.
7
‘Ye’ll spare not the wine, altho it be fine,
Nae Malago, tho it be rarely,
But ye’ll aye drink the bonnie lassie’s health
That’s to clear your lawing fairly.’
8
Then he’s done him down to yon tavern-house
And drank till day was dawing,
And aye he drank the bonny lassie’s health
That was coming to clear his lawing.
9
And aye as he birled, and aye as he drank,
The gude beer and the brandy,
He spar’d not the wine, altho it was fine,
The sack nor the sugar candy.
10
‘It’s a wonder to me,’ the knight he did say,
‘My bonnie lassie’s sae delaying;
She promisd, as sure as she loved me ance,
She woud be here by the dawing.’
11
He’s done him to a shott-window,
A little before the dawing,
And there he spied her nine brothers bauld,
Were coming to betray him.
12
‘Where shall I rin? where shall I gang?
Or where shall I gang hide me?
She that was to meet me in friendship this day
Has sent nine men to slay me!’
13
He’s gane to the landlady o the house,
Says, ‘O can you supply me?
For she that was to meet me in friendship this day
Has sent nine men to slay me.’
14
She gae him a suit o her ain female claise
And set him to the baking;
The bird never sang mair sweet on the bush
Nor the knight sung at the baking.
15
As they came in at the ha-door,
Sae loudly as they rappit!
And when they came upon the floor,
Sae loudly as they chappit!
16
‘O had ye a stranger here last night,
Who drank till the day was dawing?
Come show us the chamber where he lyes in,
We’ll shortly clear his lawing.’
17
‘I had nae stranger here last night
That drank till the day was dawing;
But ane that took a pint, and paid it ere he went,
And there’s naething to clear o his lawing.’
18
A lad amang the rest, being o a merry mood,
To the young knight fell a-talking;
The wife took her foot and gae him a kick,
Says, Be busy, ye jilt, at your baking.
19
They stabbed the house baith but and ben,
The curtains they spared nae riving,
And for a’ that they did search and ca,
For a kiss o the knight they were striving.
#E. a.#
1^1. nurse _altered to_ nurice.
3^3. drink the bonnie out, _originally_.
4^1. drank _struck out for_ sang.
7^2. and _struck out before_ gin.
8^2. callit _changed in pencil to_ were calling.
#b.#
_The printed copy seems to have been made up from_ #a# _and
Kinloch’s other versions._
1. _Preceded by these two lines, taken from_ #D#:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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