The passage 5-7 is a commonplace that may be expected to recur under the same or analogous circumstances, as it does in '[Tam Lin,' D], 'The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter,' 'The Maid and the Magpie,' and in one version of 'The Broom of Cowdenknows.' These are much less serious ballads, and the tone of stanza 5, which so ill befits the distressful situation, is perhaps owing to that stanza's having been transferred from some copy of one of these. It might well change places with this, from 'The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter,' A:
Sith you have had your will of me,
And put me to open shame,
Now, if you are a courteous knight,
Tell me what is your name.
Much better with the solemn adjuration in the Färöe 'Margaret,' or even this in 'Ebbe Galt,' Danske Viser, No 63, 8:
Now you have had your will of me,
To both of us small gain,
By the God that is above all things,
I beg you tell your name.
Herd's MSS, II, fol. 65. "Copied from the mouth of a milkmaid, by W. L. in 1771."
1
O may she comes, and may she goes,
Down by yon gardens green,
And there she spied a gallant squire
As squire had ever been.
2
And may she comes, and may she goes,
Down by yon hollin tree,
And there she spied a brisk young squire,
And a brisk young squire was he.
3
'Give me your green manteel, fair maid,
Give me your maidenhead;
Gif ye winna gie me your green manteel,
Gi me your maidenhead.'
4
He has taen her by the milk-white hand,
And softly laid her down,
And when he's lifted her up again
Given her a silver kaim.