Against my ain friends’ will.’
3.
‘Gif ye wull nevir wed a wife,
A wife wull neir wed yee’:
Sae he is hame to tell his mither,
And knelt upon his knee.
4.
4.1 ‘rede,’ advise.
4.3 ‘nut-browne’ here = dusky, not fair; cp.:—
‘In the old age black was not counted fair.’
—Shakespeare, Sonnet CXXVII.
‘O rede, O rede, mither,’ he says,