The first eleven stanzas are in a fairly popular tone. It will be observed that the first and third verses rhyme in 12-24, but not in 1-11. The whole may be one man’s work, who may have thought that an elegy should properly be more artificial, both in form and in style, than a story, but I incline to think that the lament is a later attachment. 1 ‘When will you marry me, William, And make me your wedded wife? Or take you your keen bright sword And rid me out of my life.’ 2 ‘Say no more so then, lady, Say you no more then so, For you shall into the wild forrest, And amongst the buck and doe. 3 ‘Where thou shalt eat of the hips and haws, And the roots that are so sweet, And thou shalt drink of the cold water, That runs underneath [thy] feet.’ 4 Now she had not been in the wild forrest Passing three months and a day, But with hunger and cold she had her fill, Till she was quite worn away. 5 At last she saw a fair tyl’d-house, And there she swore by the rood That she would to that fair tyl’d-house, There for to get her some food. 6 But when she came unto the gates, Aloud, aloud she cry’d, An alms, an alms, my own sister! I ask you for no pride. 7 Her sister calld up her merry men all, By one, by two, and by three, And bid them hunt away that wild doe, As far as ere they could see. 8 They hunted her ore hill and dale, And they hunted her so sore That they hunted her into the forrest, Where her sorrows grew more and more. 9 She laid a stone all at her head, And another all at her feet, And down she lay between these two, Till death had lulld her asleep. 10 When sweet Will came and stood at her head, And likewise stood at her feet, A thousand times he kist he[r] cold lips, Her body being fast asleep. 11 Yea, seaven times he stood at her feet, And seaven times at her head, A thousand times he shook her hand, Although her body was dead. 12 ‘Ah wretched me!’ he loudly cry’d, ‘What is it that I have done? O woud to the powers above I’de dy’d, When thus I left her alone! 13 ‘Come, come, you gentle red-breast now, And prepare for us a tomb, Whilst unto cruel Death I bow, And sing like a swan my doom. 14 ‘Why could I ever cruel be Unto so fair a creature? Alas! she dy’d for love of me, The loveliest she in nature! 15 ‘For me she left her home so fair To wander in this wild grove, And there with sighs and pensive care She ended her life for love. 16 ‘O constancy, in her thou’rt lost! Now let women boast no more; She’s fled unto the Elizium coast, And with her carryd the store.