3 'If you will go along with me
Unto my father's hall, sir,
You shall enjoy my maidenhead,
And my estate and all, sir.'
4 So he mounted her on a milk-white steed,
Himself upon another,
And then they rid upon the road,
Like sister and like brother.
5 And when she came to her father's house,
Which was moated round about, sir,
She stepped streight within the gate,
And shut this young knight out, sir.
6 'Here is a purse of gold,' she said,
'Take it for your pains, sir;
And I will send my father's man
To go home with you again, sir.
7 'And if you meet a lady fair,
As you go thro the next town, sir,
You must not fear the dew of the grass,
Nor the rumpling of her gown, sir.
8 'And if you meet a lady gay,
As you go by the hill, sir,
If you will not when you may,
You shall not when you will, sir.'
C
a. A Collection of Old Ballads, III, 178, 1725. b. Pepys Ballads, V, 169ff, Nos 162-164, end of the 17th century, the first fifty stanzas. c. Douce Ballads, III, fol. 52b, Durham: Printed and sold by I. Lane. d. Roxburghe Ballads, III, 674, 1750 (?).
1 There was a knight was drunk with wine
A riding along the way, sir,
And there he did meet with a lady fine,
And among the cocks of hay, sir.
2 One favour he did crave of her,
And askd her to lay her down, sir,
But he had neither cloth nor sheet,
To keep her from the ground, sir.