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,

5

HE.

Why dost thou plein? I thee maintein; 25
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

Of 'his fathers nevir' wan; gear

He gart the poor stand frae the door:

Sae tell nae mair of thy auld goodman.

SHE.

My heart, alake! is liken to break,

Whan I think on my winsome John, His blinkan ee, and gait sae free,

In armes into a well-made bed:

But now I sigh and may be sad,

30

35

Was naithing like thee, thou dosend drone ;
Wi' his rosie face, and flaxen hair,
And skin as white as ony swan,

Then coming was the night sae dark,
And gane was a' the light of day:
The carle was fear'd to miss his mark,
And therefore wad nae longer stay:
Then up he gat, and ran his way,

I trowe, the wife the day she wan;
And aye the owreword of the fray

Was, Evir alake! mine auld goodman.

45

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 The lines preserved in the play are this informed that this is only given from a mo- distich,

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, Margarèt,
Than any of thy kin;

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

They grew till they grew unto the church top, | Then came the clerk of the parish,

And then they could grow no higher; And there they tyed in a true lovers knot,

As you the truth shall hear,
And by misfortune cut them down,

Or they had now been there.

V.

Barbara Allen's Cruelty.

GIVEN, with some corrections, from an old | I cannot keep you from your death;

black-letter copy, entitled, “Barbary Allen's

Farewell, sayd Barbara Allen.

She, on her death-bed as she laye,
Beg'd to be buried by him;
25 And sore repented of the daye,

That she did ere denye him.

Farewell, she sayd, ye virgins all,
And shun the fault I fell in:
Henceforth take warning by the fall
Of cruel Barbara Allen.

35

40

45

50

55

60

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

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.

35

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 5
That he did love her soe,

Noe nor at any time would she

Any countenance to him showe.