And how like ye my fair lady, "Weel like I your bed, my lord, And weel like I your sheets; But ill like I your fair lady, "You got your wale o' se'en sisters, Sae tak ye mine, and I's tak thine, "O my woman's the best woman That ever brak world's bread; And your woman's the worst woman That ever drew coat o'er head. 70 75 80 85 “I hae twa swords in ae scabbert, They are baith sharp and clear; Take ye the best, and I the warst, And we'll end the matter here. "But up, and arm thee, young Musgrave, We'll try it han' to han' १ It's ne'er be said o' lord Barnaby, He strack at a naked man." The first straik that young Musgrave got, It was baith deep and sair; And down he fell at Barnaby's feet, And word spak never mair. * * * * * 90 “A grave, a grave!" lord Barnaby cried, "A grave to lay them in ; My lady shall lie on the sunny side, Because of her noble kin.” But oh, how sorry was that good lord, Whan he beheld his ain young son All welt'ring in his blood! 95 100 NOTE. [In v. 31] the term "braid bow" has been altered by the editor into "brent bow," i. e. straight, or unbent bow. In most of the old ballads, where a page is employed as the bearer of a message, we are told, that, And "When he came to wan water, He bent his bow and swam;" "He set his bent bow to his breast, The application of the term bent, in the latter instance, does not seem correct, and is probably substituted for brent. In the establishment of a feudal baron, every thing wore a military aspect; he was a warrior by profession; every man attached to him, particularly those employed about his person, was a soldier; and his little foot-page was very appropriately equipped in the light accoutrements of an archer. His bow, in the old ballad, seems as inseparable from his character as the bow of Cupid or of Apollo, or the caduceus of his celestial prototype Mercury. This bow, which he carried unbent, he seems to have bent when he had occasion to swim, in order that he might the more easily carry it in his teeth, to prevent the string from being injured by getting wet. At other times he availed himself of its length and elasticity in the brent, or straight state, and used it (as hunters do a leaping pole) in vaulting over the wall of the outer court of a castle, when his business would not admit of the tedious formality of blowing a horn, or ringing a bell, and holding a long parley with the porter at the gate, before he could gain admission. This, at least, appears to the editor to be the meaning of these passages in the old ballads. JAMIESON. CHILDE MAURICE. See p. 30. From Jamieson's Popular Ballads and Songs, i. 8. CHILDE MAURICE hunted i̇' the silver wood, He hunted it round about, And noebody yt he found theren, Nor noebody without. And tooke his silver combe in his hand He sayes, come hither, thou litle footpage, That runneth lowly by my knee; Ffor thou shalt goe to John Steward's wiffe, And pray her speake with mee. 1. MS. silven. See vv. 25, 53, 70, 72. “And as it ffalls out, many times 15 And grete thou doe that ladye well, Ever soe well ffroe mee. "And as it ffalls out, many times As any harte can thinke, As schoole masters are in any schoole house, Ffor if I might as well as shee may, “ And heere I send a mantle of greene, As greene as any grasse, 20 And bid her come to the silver wood, 25 “And there I send her a ring of gold, A ring of precyous stone; And bid her come to the silver wood, Let for no kind of man." One while this litle boy he yode, Another while he ran; 11. out out. 25. Sic in MS. 30 |