A century of children's books

by Florence V. Barry

The pirate song of “Sir Andrew Barton”[15] is a sailor’s variant of this. Lord Howard defies Sir Andrew upon the high seas much as Erle Percy, in despite of the Douglas, takes his pleasure in the Scottish woods. There was never a better fight on shore, and when at last the pirate falls to an English bowman, he repeats the border cry:

“‘Fight on, my men!’ says Sir Andrew Barton,

‘I am hurt, but I am not slain;

I’le lay mee downe and bleed awhile,

And then I’le rise and fight again’.”

Sir Andrew stands out from his fellows, though the portrait is not to be compared with Robin Hood’s; and the king himself speaks his epitaph:

“‘I wo’ld give a hundred pound,’ says King Henrye

‘The man were alive as he is dead!’”

Another of these narrative ballads, “Adam Bell”,[16] has a forest background that suggests Robin Hood:

“Merry it was in grene forest