repute in the parish where he lives, and may possibly be already in print. At all events it is a genuine “old and antique” song, whose hero may have been one of the sea captains or rovers who continued their privateering in the Spanish Main and elsewhere, and upon all comers, long after all licence from the Crown had ceased. The Rainbow was the name of one of the ships which formed the English fleet when they defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, and she was re-commissioned, apparently about 1618. The two verses in brackets are from the version of another labourer in my parish, who also furnished some minor variæ lectiones, as “robber” for “rover,” “Blake” for “Wake,” &c.
Rector.
Come, all ye valiant soldiers
That march to follow the drum,
Let us go meet with Captain Ward
When on the sea he come.
He is as big a rover
As ever you did hear,
Yeou hain’t h’ard of such a rover
For many a hundred year.
There was three ships come sailing
From the Indies to the West,
Well loaded with silks and satins
And welwets of the best.
Who should they meet but Captain Ward,
It being a bad meeting,
He robbèd them of all their wealth,
Bid them go tell the King.
[“Go ye home, go ye home,” says Captain Ward,
“And tell your King from me,
If he reign King of the countrie,
I will be King at Sea.”]
Away went these three gallant ships,
Sailing down of the main,
Telling to the King the news
That Ward at sea would reign.
The King he did prepare a ship,
A ship of gallant fame,
She’s called the gallant Rainbow—
Din’t yeou niver hear her name?
She was as well purwīded
As e’er a ship could be,
She had three hundred men on board
To bear her company.