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قراءة كتاب English and Scottish Ballads, Volume 4 (of 8)
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class="i0">And I will be the steerer o't,75
To row you o'er the sea."
As fast as she could gang;
And she's ta'en twa o' her mither's marys,
To haud her unthocht lang.80
Her marys i' the dainty green;
And they've put girdles about their middle
Would buy an earldome.
And down by yon sea-strand;
And sae bonny as the Hollans boats
Come rowin' till their hand.
Cried, "Hail ye, Domine!"90
And the Billy Blin was the steerer o't,
To row her o'er the sea.
She heard the music play;
And her mind misgae by a' she heard,95
That 'twas his wedding day.
Gi'en the porter markis three;
"Hae, take ye that, ye proud porter,
Bid your master speake to me."100
He fell low down on his knee:
He hail'd the king, and he hail'd the queen,
And he hail'd him, young Bekie.
This thirty years and three;
But there are three ladies at them now,
Their like I did never see.
And twa in dainty green;110
And they hae girdles about their middles
Would buy an earldome."
"Was a' goud to the chin;
"Gin she be fine without," she says,115
"We's be as fine within."
And the tear was in his e'e:
"I'll lay my life it's Burd Isbel,
Come o'er the sea to me."120
And whan he saw 'twas she,
He kindly took her in his arms,
And kist her tenderlie.
The vow ye made to me,
When I took you out of prison strang,
When ye was condemned to die?
And a saddle o' royal bane;130
A leash o' hounds o' ae litter;
And Hector called ane."
That it was nae a lie;
For at the first word the lady spak,135
The hound fell at her knee.
A blessing gang her wi';
For I maun marry my Burd Isbel,
That's come o'er the sea to me."140
Or the fashion o' your land,
To marry a maid in a May morning,
Send her back a maid at e'en?"
3. Court o' France. "And first, here to omit the programe of him and his mother, named Rose, whom Polyd. Virgilius falsely nameth to be a Saracen, when indeed she came out of the parts bordering neere to Normandy." Fox, Acts and Monuments, cited by Motherwell, p. xvi.
HYND HORN.
Those metrical romances, which in the chivalrous ages, constituted the most refined pastime of a rude nobility, are known in many cases to have been adapted for the entertainment of humbler hearers, by abridgment in the form of ballads. Such was the case with the ancient gest of King Horn. Preserved in several MSS., both French and English, in something of its original proportions, an epitome of it has also descended to us through the mouths of the people.
An imperfect copy of the following piece was inserted by Cromek in his Select Scottish Songs, (London, 1810, vol. ii. p. 204-210.) Better editions have since been furnished by Kinloch, Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 138; Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p. 95; and Buchan, Ballads of the North of Scotland, ii. 268. Of these, we reprint the last two.
All the poems relating to Horn, in French and English, including the Scottish ballads above mentioned, are collected by Michel in a beautiful volume of the Bannatyne Club, Horn et Rimenhild, Paris, 1845.
From Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 35.