In the ballad of ‘Cospatrick’ (the designation of the Earl of Dunbar in the days of Wallace and Bruce) we have:—
‘He gae to me a gay gowd ring,
And bade me keep it abune a’ thing.’
‘And what did you wi’ the gay gowd ring
I bade you keep abune a’ thing?’
‘I gae them to a ladye gay
I met in greenwood on a day.’
In the ballad of ‘Prince Robert,’
Prince Robert has wedded a gay ladye
He has wedded her with a ring,
Prince Robert has wedded a gay ladye,
But he darna bring her hame.
The Prince is poisoned, and his lady-love arrives just after the funeral, and is told:—
‘Ye’se get nane o’ his gowd, ye’se get nane o’ his gear,
Ye’se get nothing frae me.
Ye’se no get an inch o’ his good braid land,
Though your heart suld burst in three.’
‘I want nane o’ his gowd, I want nane o’ his gear,
I want nae land frae thee:
But I’ll hae the rings that’s on his finger,
For them he did promise to me.’
‘Ye’se no get the rings that’s on his finger,
Ye’se no get them frae me;
Ye’se no get the rings that’s on his finger,
An your heart suld burst in three.’
In the ballad of ‘Broomfield Hill’ a witch-woman says to ‘a lady bright:’
Take ye the rings off your fingers,
Put them on his right hand,
To let him know when he doth wake,
His love was at his command.
The Child of Elle receives from the page of his lady-love, the ‘fayre Emmeline,’ some tokens of her affection to him in her ‘woe-begone’ state:—
And here she sends thee a ring of golde,
The last boone thou mayst have,
And biddes thee weare it for her sake,
When she is layde in grave.