Saying, Fight on, my merry men all, And see that none of you be taine; For rather then men shall say we were hange'd, Then, God wott, faire Eddenburrough rose, That fowerscore and tenn of Ionnës best men Then like a mad man Ionnë laide about, Saying, Fight on, my merry men all, And see that none of you be taine; Newes then was brought to young Ionnë Armestrong, Who vowed if ere he live'd for to be a man, 4 SIR PATRICK SPENCE1 The king sits in Dumferling toune,2 Up and spak an eldern knicht, The king has written a braid letter,3 And sent it to Sir Patrick Spence, The first line that Sir Patrick red, The next line that Sir Patrick red, "O wha is this has don this deid, This ill deid don to me, To send me out this time o' the yeir, 1. This ballad may or may not have a historical basis. In 1290 a deputation was sent to bring the Princess Margaret, heir to the crown of Scotland, from Norway to England to marry the eldest son of Edward I, but she died on the voyage. According to one account she perished in a storm. The ballad may be based upon this voyage. 2. Dumferling toune. Fifteen miles northwest of Edinburgh. 3. Braid letter. Either a letter on a broad sheet, or a long letter. "Mak hast, mak haste, my mirry men all, "Late late yestreen I saw the new moone, O our Scots nobles wer richt laith O lang, lang may their iadies sit, O lang, lang may the ladies stand, Wi thair gold kems in their hair, Haf owre, haf owre to Aberdour, It's fiftie fadom deip, And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence, Wi the Scots lords at his feit. 4. Thair hats they swam aboone. Floated on the water, the men being drowned. 5 YOUNG WATERS1 About Yule, when the wind blew cule, 3 A there is cum to our king's court The queen luikt owre the castle-wa, His footmen they did rin before, Gowden-graithed 5 his horse before, 6 The horse Young Waters rade upon 7. "I've sene lord, and I've sene laird, Bot a fairer face than Young Waters Out then spack the jealous king, "You're neither laird nor lord," she says, For a' that she coud do or say, Bot for the words which she had said, They hae taen Young Waters, "Aft I have ridden thro Stirling town & Bot I neir rade thro Stirling town "Aft I have ridden thro Stirling town Bot. But. 8. Stirling. Thirty-five miles northwest of Edinburgh. |