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BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL (From Motherwell's Minstrelsy, 1827. Date of

ballad uncertain)
Hie upon Hielands,

And low upon Tay,
Bonnie George Campbell

Rade out on a day.
Saddled and bridled

And gallant rade he;
Hame cam his gude horse,

But never cam he!
Out cam his auld mither
Greeting fu' sair,

10 And out cam his bonnie bride

Rivin' her hair.
Saddled and bridled

And booted rade he;
Toom' hame cam the saddle

But never cam he!
“My meadow lies green,

And my corn is unshorn;
My barn is to big,

And my babie's unborn."
Saddled and bridled

And booted rade he;
Toom hame cam the saddle,

But never cam he.

ShE. And I your will for to fulfil

In this will not refuse;
Trusting to show, in wordės few,

That men have an ill use
To their own shame-women to blame,

And causeless them accuse.
Therefore to you I answer now,

All women to excuse
Mine own heart dear, with you what

cheer?
I pray you, tell anone;
For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.

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THE NUT-BROWN MAID

(c. 1500) HE. Be it right or wrong, these men among

On women do complain;
Affirming this, how that it is

A labour spent in vain
To love them wele; for never a dele

They love a man again:
For let a man do what he can

Their favour to attain,
Yet if a new to them pursue,

Their first true lover than
Laboureth for naught; for from her

thought

He is a banished man.
ShE. I say not nay, but that all day

It is both written and said
That woman's faith is, as who saith, 15

All utterly decayed:
But nevertheless, right good witness

In this case might be laid
That they love true and continúe:

Record the Nut-brown Maid, 20
Which, when her love came her to prove,

To her to make his moan,
Would not depart; for in her heart

She loved but him alone.
He. Then between us let us discuss

What was all the manere
Between them two: we will also
Tell all the pain in fere!

1 Empty.
1 In company together.

НЕ.
. It standeth so: a deed is do

Whereof great harm shall grow:
My destiny is for to die

A shameful death, I trow;
Or else to flee. The t' one must be.

None other way I know
But to withdraw as an outlaw,

And take me to my bow.
Wherefore adieu, mine own heart true!

None other rede? I can.3
For I must to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.
ShE. O Lord, what is this worldis bliss,

That changeth as the moon!
My summer's day in lusty May

Is darked before the noon.
I hear you say, farewell: Nay, nay,

We départ not so soon.
Why say ye so? Whither will ye go?

Alas! what have ye done?
All my welfáre to sorrow and care
Should change, if ye were gone:

70 For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.
HE. I can believe it shall you grieve,

And somewhat you distrain;
But afterward, your painės hard 75

Within a day or twain
Shall soon aslake; and ye shall take

Comfort to you again.
Why should ye ought? for, to make

thought,
Your labour were in vain.
And thus I do; and pray you to,

As heartily as I can:
For I must to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.
SHE. Now, sith that ye have showed to me

The secret of your mind,
Counsel.

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170

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175

I shall be plain to you again,

Like as ye shall me find.
Sith it is so that ye will go,

I will not live behind.
Shall never be said the Nut-brown Maid

Was to her love unkind.
Make you ready, for so am I,

Although it were anone;
For, in my mind, of all mankind
I love but

you

alone.
HE. Yet I you rede to make good heed

What men will think and say:
Of young, of old, it shall be told

That ye be gone away
Your wanton will for to fulfil,

In green-wood you to play;
And that ye might for your delight

No longer make delay.
Rather than ye should thus for me

Be called an ill womán
Yet would I to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.
ShE. Though it be sung of old and young

That I should be to blame,
Theirs be the charge that speak so large

In hurting of my name:
For I will prove that faithful love

It is devoid of shame:
In your distress and heaviness 115

To part with you the same;
And sure all thoi that do not so

True lovers are they none:
For, in my mind, of all mankind
I love but you alone.

120 HE.

I counsel you, Remember how

It is no maiden's law
Nothing to doubt, but to run out

To wood with an outláw.
For ye must there in your hand bear 125

A bow ready to draw;
And as a thief thus must you live

Ever in dread and awe;
Whereby to you great har might grow:

Yet had I liever than
That I had to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.
ShE. I think not nay but as ye say;

It is no maiden's lore;
But love may make me for your sake,135

As I have said before,
To come on foot, to hunt and shoot,

To get us meat and store;
For so that I your company

May have, I ask no more.
From which to part it maketh my heart

As cold as any stone;
For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.
He. For an outláw this is the law, 145

That men him take and bind:
Without pitie, hangéd to be,

And waver with the wind.

If I had need (as God forbede!)

What socours could ye find?
Forsooth I trow, you and your bow

For fear would draw behind.
And no mervail; for little avail

Were in your counsel than:
Wherefore I'll to the green-wood go, 155

Alone, a banished man.
ShE. Right well know ye that women be

But feeble for to fight;
No womanhede it is, indeed,

To be bold as a knight;
Yet in such fear if that ye were

With enemies day and night,
I would withstand, with bow in hand,

To grieve them as I might,
And you to save; as women have

From death men many one:
For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.
НЕ. . Yet take good hede; for ever I drede

That

ye could not sustain
The thorny ways, the deep valléys,

The snow, the frost, the rain,
The cold, the heat; for dry or wete,

We must lodge on the plain;
And, us above, no other roof

But a brake bush or twain:
Which soon should grieve you, I believe;

And ye would gladly than
That I had to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.
ShE. Sith I have here been partynere

With you of joy and bliss,
I must also part of your woe

Endure, as reason is:
Yet I am sure of one pleasure,

And shortly it is this-
That where ye be, me seemeth, pardé,

I could not fare amiss.
Without more speech I you beseech
That we were shortly gone;

190 For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.
HE. If ye go thyder," ye must consider,

When ye have lust to dine,
There shall no meat be for to gete, 195

Neither beer, ale, nor wine,
No sheetes clean, to lie between,

Made of thread and twine;
None other house, but leaves and boughs
To cover your head and mine.

200 Lo, mine heart sweet, this ill diéte

Should make you pale and wan:
Wherefore I'll to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.

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SHE. Among the wild deer such an archére 205

As men say that ye be,
Ne may not fail of such vitayle
Where is so great plenté:

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And water clear of the rivere

Shall be full sweet to me;
With which in hele I shall right wele

Endure, as ye shall see;
And, or we go, a bed or two

I can provide anone;
For, in my mind, of all mankind 215

I love but you alone.
HE. Lo yet, before, ye must do more,

If ye will go with me:
As, cut your hair up by your ear,

Your kirtle by the knee;
With bow in hand for to withstand

Your enemies, if need be:
And this same night, before daylight,

To woodward will I flee.
If that ye will all this fulfil,

Do it shortly as ye can:
Else will I to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.
ShE. I shall as now do more for you

Than 'longeth to womanhede;
To short my hair, a bow to bear,

To shoot in time of need.
O my sweet mother! before all other

For you I have most drede!
But now, adieu! I must ensue 235

Where fortune doth me lead.
All this make ye: Now let us flee;

The day cometh fast upon:
For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.
НЕ. . Nay, nay, not so; ye shall not go,

And I shall tell you why-
Your appetite is to be light

Of love, I well espy:
For, right as ye have said to me,

In likewise hardily
Ye would answere whosoever it were,

In way of company;
It is said of old, Soon hot, soon cold;
And so is a womán:

250 Wherefore I to the wood will go,

Alone, a banished man.

230

Yet better were the poor squyere
Alone to forest yede?

270 Than ye shall say another day

That by my cursed rede
Ye were betrayed. Wherefore, good

maid,
The best rede that I can,
Is, that I to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.
ShE. Whatever befall, I never shall

Of this thing be upbraid:
But if ye go, and leave me so,

Then have ye me betrayed.
Remember you wele, how that ye dele;

For if ye, as ye said,
Be so unkind to leave behind

Your love, the Nut-brown Maid,
Trust me truly that I shall die
Soon after

уе.

be gone:
For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.
НЕ. . If that ye went, ye should repent;
For in the forest now

290 I have purveyed me of a maid

Whom I love more than you:
Another more fair than ever ye were
I dare it well avow;

294 And of you both each would be wroth

With other, as I trow:
It were mine ease to live in peace;

So will I, if I can:
Wherefore I to the wood will go,

Alone, a banished man.
ShE. Though in the wood I understood

Ye had a paramour,
All this may nought remove my thought,

But that I will be your':
And she shall find me soft and kind 305

And courteous every hour;
Glad to fulfil all that she will

Command me, to my power:
For had ye, lo, an hundred mo,
Yet would I be that one:

310 For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.
HE. Mine own dear love, I see the proves

That ye be kind and true;
Of maid, of wife, in all my life 315

The best that ever I knew;
Be merry and glad; be no more sad;

The case is changéd new;
For it were ruth that for your truth

Ye should have cause to rue.
Be not dismayed, whatsoever I said

To you when I began:
I will not to the green-wood go;

I am no banished man.
ShE. These tidings be more glad to me

Than to be made a queen,
If I were sure they should endure;

But it is often seen 7 Went.

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ShE. If ye take heed, it is no need
Such words to say to me;

254 For oft ye prayed, and long assayed,

Or I loved you, pardé:
And though that I of ancestry

A baron's daughter be,
Yet have you proved how I you loved,

A squire of low degree;
And ever shall, whatso befall,

To die therefore anone;
For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.
HE. A baron's child to be beguiled,

It were a cursed deed!
To be feláw with an outlaw-
Almighty God forbede!

Health.

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HELEN OF KIRCONNELL

PART SECOND
(From Scott's Border Minstrelsy, 1802-3)
I wish I were where Helen lies!
Night and day on me she cries;
() that I were where Helen lies,

On fair Kirconnell Lee!
Curst be the heart that thought the thought,
And curst the hand that fired the shot,
When in my arms burd Helen' dropt,

And died to succour me!
O think na ye my heart was sair,
When my love dropt down and spak nae mair!
There did she swoon wi' mickle care

On fair Kirconnell Lee.
As I went down the water-side,
None but my foe to be my guide,
None but my foe to be my guide,

On fair Kirconnell Lee!
I lighted down, my sword did draw,
I hacked him in pieces sma',
I hacked him in pieces sma',
For her sake that died for me.

If hosen and shoon thou gavest nane,

Every night and alle, The Whinnes shall prick thee to the bare bane, And Christ receive thy saule.

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The shepherd upon a hill was laid,
Unto his girdle his dog was tayed;3
He had not slept but a little brayd,
But “Gloria in excelsis" was to him said.

Ut hoy!
For in his pipe he made so much joy.

Can I not sing but hoy,

When the jolly shepherd made so much joy?
The shepherd on a hill he stode,
Round about him his sheep they yode;5
He put his hand under his hode,
He saw a star as red as blode:

Ut hoy!
For in his pipe he made so much joy,

Can I not sing but hoy,
When the jolly shepherd made so much joy?

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CAROL Make we merry in hall and bour. This lime was born our Saviour.

In this timė God hath sent His own Son, to be presént, To dwell with us in verament,

God that is our Saviour.

"Now farewell Mall, and also Will,
For my love go ye all still
Unto I come again you till,
And evermore, Will, ring thy bell."

Ut hoy!
For in his pipe he made so much joy,

Can I not sing but hoy,

When the jolly shepherd made so much joy? “Now must I go where Christ was born; Farewell, I come again at morn. Dog, keep my sheep well fro the corn, And warn well, Warrock, when I blow my

horn."

Ut hoy!
For in his pipe he made so much joy.

Can I not sing but hoy,
When the jolly shepherd made so much joy?

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In this time that is befall,
A child was born in an ox stall,
And after, He died for us all,

God that is our Saviour.

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5

The horses snort to be at the sport,

The dogs are running free, The woods rejoice at the merry noise

Of hey tantara tee ree!

THE JOLLY SHEPHERD
Can I not sing but hoy,
When the jolly shepherd made so much joy?
The shepherd upon a hill he sat,
He had on him his tabard' and hat,
His tar-box, his pipe, and his flagat;2
His name was callėd jolly, jolly Wat;
For he was a good herdės boy,

Ut hoy!
For in his pipe he made so much joy,
Can I not sing but hoy

10 When the jolly shepherd made so much joy? Bridge of Dread, a bar, or bridge of red-hot iron over which, according to the Mahometan belief, the dead must pens to judgment. The feet of the true believer will be protected by bis good works, when he comes to cross this bridge, but the wicked, without this protection, must fall into a bottomless abyss below. Rough cloak.

Bottle.