A Collection of Ballads

PAGE INTRODUCTION ix SIR PATRICK SPENS 1 BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE 5 TAM LIN 10 THOMAS THE RHYMER 16 “SIR HUGH; OR THE JEW’S DAUGHTER” 19 SON DAVIE! SON DAVIE! 22 THE WIFE OF USHER’...

“Yield thee, now yield thee, Percy,” he said, “Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low!” “To whom must I yield,” quoth Earl Percy, “Now that I see it must be so?”

“O, cocks are crowing a merry midnight, I wot the wild fowls are boding day; Give me my faith and troth again, And let me fare me on my way.”

“O will ye let Telfer’s kye gae back, Or will ye do aught for regard o’ me? Or, by the faith o’ my body,” quo’ Willie Scott, “I se ware my dame’s cauf’s-skin on thee!”

I HEARD a cow low, a bonnie cow low, An’ a cow low down in yon glen; Lang, lang will my young son greet, Or his mither bid him come ben.

“Now, Jock, I wat,” quo Hobie Noble, “Part o the weight ye may lay on me,” “I wat weel no,” quo the Laird’s Jock “I count him lighter than a flee.”

“Yet she had twa as fu fair sons As ever the sun did see, An the tane of them lood my sister dear, An the tother said he lood me.”

Then Hobie has graith’d his body weel, I wat it was wi’ baith good iron and steel; And he has pull’d out his fringed grey, And there, brave Noble, he rade him weel.

“Your steed was auld, and ye’ve plenty mair, Edward, Edward; Your steed was auld, and ye’ve plenty mair; Some ither dule ye dree, O.” “O I hae killed my father dear, Mither, mit...

“I haue done the a gode turne,” said Litulle Johne, “For sothe as I you saie; I haue brouzt the vnder grene wode lyne; Fare wel, and haue gode day.”

“Pray God bless us all,” said jolly Robin, “And our meat within this place; A cup of sack so good will nourish our blood, And so do I end my grace.”

This curious poem is taken from the reprint of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s tiny _Ballad Book_, itself now almost _introuvable_. It does not, to the Editor’s knowledge, occur el...