YOUNG BEARWELL.
"A fragment, and now printed in the hope that the remainder of it may hereafter be recovered. From circumstances, one would almost be inclined to trace it to a Danish source; or it may be an episode of some forgotten Metrical Romance: but this cannot satisfactorily be ascertained, from its catastrophe being unfortunately wanting." Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 345.
The same is in Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, ii. 75.
When two lovers love each other weel,
Great sin it were them to twinn;
And this I speak from young Bearwell;
He loved a lady ying,
The Mayor's daughter of Birktoun-brae,5
That lovely leesome thing.
One day when she was looking out,
When washing her milk-white hands,
[Then] she beheld him young Bearwell,
Says,—"Wae 's me for you, young Bearwell,
Such tales of you are tauld;
They 'll cause you sail the salt sea so far
As beyond Yorkisfauld."
"O shall I bide in good green wood,15
Or stay in bower with thee?"
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
"The leaves are thick in good green wood,
Would hold you from the rain;
And if you stay in bower with me,
You will be taken and slain.20