Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs ...

III.

The Auld Good-Man.

A SCOTTISH SONG.

Thou'lt nevir be like mine auld goodman.

I HAVE not been able to meet with a more | He was large and tall, and comely withall; ancient copy of this humorous old song, than that printed in the Tea-Table Miscellany, &c., which seems to have admitted some corruptions.

LATE in an evening forth I went

A little before the sun gade down,

And there I chanc't, by accident,

To light on a battle new begun:
A man and his wife wer fawn in a strife,
I canna weel tell ye how it began;

But aye she wail'd her wretched life,

Cryeng, Evir alake, mine auld goodman!

HE.

Thy auld goodman, that thou tells of,

HE.

Why dost thou plein? I thee maintein;
For meal and mawt thou disna want;
But thy wild bees I canna please,

Now whan our gear gins to grow scant.
Of houshold stuff thou hast enough;
Thou wants for neither pot nor pan;

Of sicklike ware he left thee bare;
Sae tell nae mair of thy auld goodman.

SHE.

Yes I may tell, and fret my sell,
To think on those blyth days I had,

The country kens where he was born, 10 Whan I and he together ley

Was but a silly poor vagabond,

And ilka ane leugh him to scorn:

For he did spend and make an end

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In armes into a well-made bed:

But now I sigh and may be sad,

Thy courage is cauld, thy colour wan,
Thou falds thy feet, and fa's asleep;

IV.

Fair Margaret and Sweet William.

THIS seems to be the old song quoted in | dern printed copy picked up on a stall. Its Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle," full title is, "Fair Margaret's Misfortunes; Acts 2d and 3d; although the six lines there or Sweet William's frightful dreams on his preserved are somewhat different from those wedding night, with the sudden death and in the ballad, as it stands at present. The burial of those noble lovers."— reader will not wonder at this, when he is informed that this is only given from a mo

The lines preserved in the play are this distich,

"You are no love for me, Margaret, I am no love for you."

And the following stanza,

"When it was grown to dark midnight,
And all were fast asleep,
In came Margarets grimly ghost,
And stood at Williams feet.

These lines have acquired an importance by giving birth to one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any other language. See the song entitled "Margaret's Ghost," at the end of this volume.

Since the first edition some improvements have been inserted, which were communicated by a lady of the first distinction, as she had heard this song repeated in her infancy.

As it fell out on a long summer's day,
Two lovers they sat on a hill;
They sat together that long summer's day,
And could not talk their fill.

I see no harm by you, Margarèt,
And you see none by mee;
Before to-morrow at eight o' the clock
A rich wedding you shall see.

Fair Margaret sat in her bower-window,
Combing her yellow hair;

Then he turned up the covering-sheet,
Pray let me see the dead:
Methinks she looks all pale and wan,
She hath lost her cherry red.

I'll do more for thee, Margaret,
Than any of thy kin;

5 For I will kiss thy pale wan lips,
Though a smile I cannot win.

With that bespake the seven brethren, Making most piteous mone:

You may go kiss your jolly brown bride, 55 And let our sister alone.

If I do kiss my jolly brown bride,

I do but what is right;

I neer made a vow to yonder poor corpse
By day, nor yet by night.

Deal on, deal on, my merry men all,
Deal on your cake and your wine:*
For whatever is dealt at her funeral to-day,
Shall be dealt to-morrow at mine.

Fair Margaret dyed to-day, to-day,

Are you awake, sweet William? shee said;
Or, sweet William, are you asleep?
God give you joy of your gay bride-bed,
And me of my winding-sheet.

When day was come, and night was gone, 25

And all men wak'd from sleep, Sweet William to his lady sayd, My dear, I have cause to weep.

Sweet William dyed the morrow:
Fair Margaret dyed for pure true love,
Sweet William dyed for sorrow.

Margaret was buryed in the lower chancèl,
And William in the higher:
Out of her brest there sprang a rose.
And out of his a briar.

Ver. 31, 35, swine, PCC.

*Alluding to the dole anciently given at funerals.

They grew till they grew unto the church top,
And then they could grow no higher;
And there they tyed in a true lovers knot,
Which made all the people admire.

Then came the clerk of the parish,
As you the truth shall hear,
And by misfortune cut them down,
Or they had now been there.

Barbara Allen's Cruelty.

Farewell, sayd Barbara Allen.

GIVEN, with some corrections, from an old ' I cannot keep you from your death; black-letter copy, entitled, "Barbary Allen's cruelty, or the Young Man's Tragedy."

VII.

Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allan.

A SCOTTISH BALLAD.

PRINTED, with a few conjectural emenda- | Remember ye nat in the tavern, sir, tions, from a written copy.

Whan ye the cups wer fillan:

How ye made the healths gae round and

round,

And slighted Barbara Allan?

He turn'd his face unto the wa',

And death was with him dealan ;
Adiew! adiew! my dear friends a',
Be kind to Barbara Allan.

Then hooly, hooly raise she up,

And hooly, hooly left him;
And sighan said, she could not stay,
Since death of life had reft him.

She had not gane a mile but twa,
Whan she heard the deid-bell knellan; 30
And everye jow the deid-bell gied,

Cried, Wae to Barbara Allan !

O mither, mither, mak my bed,
O mak it saft and narrow: -
15 Since my love died for me to day,
Ise die for him to morrowe.

VIII.

The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington.

And he was a squires son:
He loved the bayliffes daughter deare,
That lived in Islington.

FROM an ancient black-letter copy in the | THERE was a youthe, and a well-beloved youthe, Pepys Collection, with some improvements communicated by a lady as she had heard the same recited in her youth. The full title is, "True love requited: Or, the Bailiff's daughter of Islington."

Islington in Norfolk is probably the place here meant.

*An ingenious friend thinks the rhymes Dyand and Lyand ought to be transposed: as the taunt, Young man, I think ye're lyand, would be very characteristical.

Yet she was coye, and would not believe
That he did love her soe,

Noe nor at any time would she
Any countenance to him showe.

But when his friendes did understand
His fond and foolish minde,
They sent him up to faire London
An apprentice for to binde.

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