17 ‘O break, my heart, with sorrow filld, Come, swell, you strong tides of grief! You that my dear love have killd, Come, yield in death to me relief. 18 ‘Cruel her sister, was’t for me That to her she was unkind? Her husband I will never be, But with this my love be joynd. 19 ‘Grim Death shall tye the marriage-bands, Which jealousie shan’t divide; Together shall tye our cold hands, Whilst here we lye side by side. 20 ‘Witness, ye groves, and chrystial streams, How faithless I late have been, But do repent with dying leaves Of that my ungrateful sin; 21 ‘And wish a thousand times that I Had been but to her more kind, And not have let a virgin dye Whose equal there’s none can find. 22 ‘Now heaps of sorrow press my soul; Now, now’t is she takes her way; I come, my love, without controule, Nor from thee will longer stay.’ 23 With that he fetchd a heavy groar Which rent his tender breast, And then by her he laid him down, When as death did give him rest. 24 Whilst mournful birds, with leavy boughs, To them a kind burial gave, And warbled out their love-sick vows, Whilst they both slept in their grave. * * * * * The West-Country Damosels Complaint, or, The Faithful Lovers Last Farewel. Being the relation of a young maid who pined herself to death for the love of a young man, who, after he had notice of it, dyed likewise for grief. Careless young men, by this a warning take How you kind virgins, when they love, forsake; Least the same fate oretake you, and you dye For breach of vows and infidelity. Be kind, but swear not more then what you mean, Least comick jests become a trajeck scean. To the tune of Johnny Armstrong. * * * * * =a.= 20^3. leaves _(so in all) seems doubtful, but I can conjecture nothing better_. gleams _is just possible_. =b.= 2^3. thou shalt unto. 3^4. runs beneath thy. 11^2. times stood. 20^4. that _wanting_. 22^4. will no longer. 293 JOHN OF HAZELGREEN =A.= Elizabeth Cochrane’s MS., p. 126. =B.= ‘Jock o Hazelgreen,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 135; Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 206. =C.= ‘John o Hazelgreen,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 319. =D. a.= ‘John o Hazelgreen,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 253. =b.= ‘Jock of Hazelgreen,’ Chambers, Scottish Ballads, p. 319. =E. a.= Fragmentary verses obtained by Mr Pringle, Kinloch MSS, I, 321. =b.= Kinloch MSS, VII, 2, one stanza.