“O Richard Malvine, O Richard Malvine!
Good husband, I’m like to die,
And medicine alone can me restore
As here on my bed I lie.
I would drink of the Well of Absalom,
Its water I fain would try,
And oh! for a bottle of ale!”
The husband departs in quest of the Well of Absalom, and the wife complacently says:—
“Pray God send him a hard journey,