BLANCHEFLOUR, AND JELLYFLORICE.
From Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, i. 125.
A fragment of the ancient English romance of Florice and Blancheflour is printed in Hartshorne's Metrical Tales, p. 81. For the complete story (hardly a trace of which is retained in the following ballad) see Ellis's Early English Metrical Romances.
There was a maid, richly array'd,
In robes were rare to see;
For seven years and something mair,
She serv'd a gay ladie.
But being fond o' a higher place,5
In service she thought lang;
She took her mantle her about,
Her coffer by the band.
And as she walk'd by the shore side,
As blythe's a bird on tree,10
Yet still she gaz'd her round about,
To see what she could see.
At last she spied a little castle,
That stood near by the sea;
She spied it far, and drew it near,15
To that castle went she.
And when she came to that castle,
She tirled at the pin;
And ready stood a little wee boy
To lat this fair maid in.20