YOUNG HUNTING
1.
‘O Lady, rock never your young son young
One hour longer for me,
For I have a sweetheart in Garlick’s Wells
I love thrice better than thee.
2.
‘The very sols of my love’s feet
Is whiter then thy face:’
‘But nevertheless na, Young Hunting,
Ye’l stay wi’ me all night.’
3.
3.1 ‘birl’d,’ poured; ‘him,’ i.e. for him.
She has birl’d in him Young Hunting
The good ale and the beer,
Till he was as fou drunken
As any wild-wood steer.
4.
4.4 See First Series, Brown Robin, 7.4; Fause Footrage, 16.4; and Introduction, p. li.
She has birl’d in him Young Hunting
The good ale and the wine,
Till he was as fou drunken
As any wild-wood swine.
5.
Up she has tain him Young Hunting,
And she has had him to her bed,
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.....
6.
6.2 ‘gare,’ part of the dress. See First Series, Introduction, p. 1.
And she has minded her on a little penknife,
That hangs low down by her gare,
And she has gin him Young Hunting
A deep wound and a sare.
7.
Out an’ spake the bonny bird,
That flew abon her head:
‘Lady, keep well thy green clothing
Fra that good lord’s blood.’
8.
8.3 ‘flattering,’ wagging.
‘O better I’ll keep my green clothing
Fra that good lord’s blood,
Nor thou can keep thy flattering toung,
That flatters in thy head.
9.
9.4 ‘wand,’ wood, wicker.
‘Light down, light down, my bonny bird,
Light down upon my hand,
And ye sail hae a cage o’ the gowd
Where ye hae but the wand.
10.
‘O siller, O siller shall be thy hire,
An’ goud shall be thy fee,
An’ every month into the year
Thy cage shall changed be.’
11.
‘I winna light down, I shanna light down,
I winna light on thy hand;
For soon, soon wad ye do to me
As ye done to Young Hunting.’
12.
She has booted and spir’d him Young Hunting
As he had been gan to ride,
A hunting-horn about his neck,
An’ the sharp sourd by his side;
And she has had him to yon wan water,
For a’ man calls it Clyde.
13.
13.1 ‘pot,’ pot-hole: a hole scooped by the action of the stream in the rock-bed of a river.
13.3 ‘truff’ = turf.
The deepest pot intill it a’
She has puten Young Hunting in;
A green truff upon his breast,
To hold that good lord down.
14.
It fell once upon a day
The king was going to ride,
And he sent for him Young Hunting,
To ride on his right side.
15.
She has turn’d her right and round about,
She sware now by the corn:
‘I saw na thy son, Young Hunting,
Sen yesterday at morn.’
16.
She has turn’d her right and round about,
She sware now by the moon:
‘I saw na thy son, Young Hunting,
Sen yesterday at noon.
17.
17.3 ‘duckers,’ divers.
‘It fears me sair in Clyde Water
That he is drown’d therein:’
O they ha’ sent for the king’s duckers
To duck for Young Hunting.
18.
They ducked in at the tae water-bank,
They ducked out at the tither:
‘We’ll duck no more for Young Hunting
All tho’ he wear our brother.’
19.
Out an’ spake the bonny bird,
That flew abon their heads:
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20.
‘O he’s na drown’d in Clyde Water,
He is slain and put therein;
The lady that lives in yon castil
Slew him and put him in.
21.
21.3 ‘sakeless,’ innocent.
‘Leave aff your ducking on the day,
And duck upon the night;
Whear ever that sakeless knight lys slain,
The candels will shine bright.’
22.
Thay left off their ducking o’ the day,
And ducked upon the night,
And where that sakeless knight lay slain,
The candles shone full bright.
23.
The deepest pot intill it a’
Thay got Young Hunting in;
A green turff upon his brest,
To hold that good lord down.
24.
24.5 ‘wyte,’ blame.
24.6 ‘May,’ maid.
O thay hae sent aff men to the wood
To hew down baith thorn an’ fern,
That they might get a great bonefire
To burn that lady in.
‘Put na the wyte on me,’ she says,
‘It was her May Catheren.’
25.
Whan thay had tane her May Catheren,
In the bonefire set her in,
It wad na take upon her cheeks,
Nor take upon her chin,
Nor yet upon her yallow hair,
To healle the deadly sin.
26.
26.6 ‘hoky-gren’; ‘gren’ is a bough or twig; ‘hoakie,’ according to Jamieson, is a fire that has been covered up with cinders. ‘Hoky-gren,’ therefore, is perhaps a kind of charcoal. Scott substitutes ‘hollin green,’ green holly.
Out they hae tain her May Catheren
And they hay put that lady in;
O it took upon her cheek, her cheek,
An’ it took upon her chin,
An’ it took on her fair body,
She burnt like hoky-gren.
THE THREE RAVENS
and
THE TWA CORBIES
The Texts of these two variations on the same theme are taken from T. Ravenscroft’s Melismata, 1611, and Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1803, respectively. There are several other versions of the Scots ballad, while Motherwell prints The Three Ravens, changing only the burden.
Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time) says of the English version that he has been ‘favored with a variety of copies of it, written down from memory; and all differing in some respects, both as to words and tune, but with sufficient resemblance to prove a similar origin.’ Consciously or not, the ballad, as set by him to its traditional tune, is to be sung without the threefold repetition shown by Ravenscroft, thus compressing two verses of the ballad into each repetition of the tune, and halving the length of the song.
THE THREE RAVENS
1.
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
Downe a downe, hay down, hay downe
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
With a downe
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
They were as blacke as they might be.
With a downe derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe.
2.
The one of them said to his mate,
‘Where shall we our breakefast take?’
3.
‘Downe in yonder greene field,
There lies a knight slain vnder his shield.
4.
‘His hounds they lie downe at his feete,
So well they can their master keepe,
5.
‘His haukes they flie so eagerly,
There’s no fowle dare him come nie.’
6.
Downe there comes a fallow doe,
As great with yong as she might goe.
7.
She lift vp his bloudy hed,
And kist his wounds that were so red.
8.
She got him vp vpon her backe,
And carried him to earthen lake.
9.
9.1 ‘prime,’ the first hour of the day.
She buried him before the prime,
She was dead her selfe ere euen-song time.
10.
God send euery gentleman
Such haukes, such hounds, and such a leman.
THE TWA CORBIES
1.
As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies making a mane,
The tane unto the t’other say,
‘Where sall we gang and dine to-day?’
2.
2.1 ‘fail dyke,’ turf wall.
‘In behint yon auld fail dyke,
I wot there lies a new slain knight;
And nae body kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.
3.
‘His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame,
His lady’s ta’en another mate,
So we may mak’ our dinner sweet.
4.1 ‘hause-bane,’ neck-bone.
4.4 ‘theek,’ thatch.
‘Ye’ll sit on his white hause bane,
And I’ll pike out his bonny blue een:
Wi’ ae lock o’ his gowden hair,
We’ll theek our nest when it grows bare.
5.
‘Mony a one for him makes mane,
But nane sall ken whare he is gane:
O’er his white banes, when they are bare,
The wind sall blaw for evermair.’