No. 268: The Twa Knights
[There are no known US or Canadian traditional versions of this ballad. Under Roud 303 (Twa Knights) are listed three US versions of a different ballad with a related plot, Northern Lord and Cruel Jew, also from Buchan (Gleanings) in 1825. The titles from Roud are Knight in Green (Night in Green), one in Flanders (Ballads Migrant) and two in A Pioneer Songster (Night in Green; Hog's Heart) from the mid-1800s. The Roud Index groups these ballads together as No. 303. For now put the text of Northern Lord under US & Canadian versions.
There are no recordings listed in the Child Collection Index.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (The footnotes for this ballad are found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 268. The Twa Knights
A. Roud No. 303: The Twa Knights (7 Listings)
B. Two English Ballads and Their Greek Counterparts by Paul G. Brewster and Georgia Tarsouli
2. Sheet Music: 268. The Twa Knights (Bronson gives no music examples and texts)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A)
4. US & Canada Versions
Child's Narrative: 268. The Twa Knights
A. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 271.
A knight and a squire, sworn brothers, have a talk about fair women. 'There's nae gude women but nine,' says the squire. 'My luck is the better,' replies the knight, 'that one of them is mine.' The squire undertakes to win the knight's wife within six months, if the husband will go over seas for that time; the knight is willing to give him nine months. The knight's lands are wagered (21) against the squire's life (23). As soon as the knight is at sea, the squire comes to the lady with an offer of money. If you were not my lord's brother, says the lady, I would hang you on a pin before my door. The squire betakes himself to his foster-mother, sets forth his case, and offers her a heavy bribe for her aid. The false carline goes to the lady and opens her business; the lady will never wrong her lord. The carline (who is the wife's foster-mother as well) now pretends concern about the lady's health, which is in danger for want of sleep. She turns all the people out of the castle, lulls the dame to sleep, and introduces the squire. He wakes the lady, and tells her that she is in his power. The lady has presence of mind; it would, she says, be a sin to defile her husband's bed, but she will come to the squire's bed at night. She then offers her niece five hundred pounds to go to the squire in her place. The young woman was never so much disposed to say nay, but goes, notwithstanding. When the squire has had his will, he cuts off 'her ring but and her ring-finger.' The maids come from the hay, the young men from the corn, and the lady tells them all that has passed. She will tie her finger in the dark, and hopes to loose it in the light. The knight returns, and is greeted by the squire as a landless lord. The ring and ring-finger are exhibited in proof. Thereupon the knight gives a dinner, to which he asks the squire and his wife's parents. He throws his charters across the table and bids his wife farewell forever. It is now time for the lady to loose in the light the finger which she had tied in the dark. Come here, my lord, she says. No smith can join a finger. My niece 'beguiled the squire for me.' They lay before the niece a sword and a ring, and she is to have her choice, to stick the squire with the sword, or to wed him with the ring. Thrice she puts out her hand as if to take the sword, but she ends with taking up the ring.
This ballad can have had no currency in Scotland, and perhaps was known only through print. A similar one is strictly traditional in Greece, and widely dispersed, both on the mainland and among the islands.
Romaic. A. Νεοελληνικὰ Ανάλεκτα, I, 80, No 16, 75 vv., Melos. B. 'Τὸ στοίχημα τοῦ βασιλιᾶ καὶ τοῦ Μαυριανοῦ,' Jeannaraki, p. 231, No 294, 76 w., Crete. C. 'Ὁ Μαυριανὸς καὶ ὁ βασιλεύς,' Zampelios, p. 719, No 6, 61 vv., Corcyra (?); repeated in Passow, p. 355, No 474, Kind's Anthologie, p. 56. D. 'Τοῦ Μαυριανοπούλου,' Manousos, II, 56, 51 vv., Corcyra (?). E. 'Ὁ Μαυριανὸς κ’ ὁ βασιλεῦς,' Pappadopoulos in Πανδώρα, XV, 417, 23 vv., Cargese, Corsica; repeated in Legrand, p. 302, No 136. F. Δελτίον τῆς ἱστορικῆς καὶ ἐθνολογικῆς ἑταιρίας τῆς Ἑλλάδος, I, 551, No 5, 35 vv., Peloponnesus. G. 'Ὁ Στραυριανὸς καὶ ὁ βασιλιᾶς,' Melandrakes, in the same, III, 345, 54 vv., Patmos. H. 'Τὸ Στοίχημα,' Kanellakes, Χιακὰ ἀνάλεκτα, p. 8, No 5, 50 w., Chios. I a. Bartholdy, Bruchstücke zur nähern Kenntniss des heutigen Griechenlands, 1805, p. 434, 78 vv., translation without text. b. 'Maurogène,' Lemercier, I, 167, translation without text, neighborhood of Arta. J. 'Στοίχημα Διονῦ καὶ Χαντσαρλῆ,' Chasiotes, p. 142, No 14, 26 vv., Epirus.
The personages are #924; αυριανός, B-E, Μαυγιανός, A, Mavrogeni, I, Σταυριανός, G, Γιάννος, F, #922;ωσταντῆς, H; his sister, A-I, #7944;ρετή, D, #924;άρω, F, #923;ιερή, G, and in I b (unless the name is supplied by the editor), Cymodore; a king, anonymous except in J, #916; ιωνύς, in which also the other two parties are husband (#8001; χαντσιαπλῆς, the chancellor) and wife.
At the king's table there is talk of women fair or foul. Maurianos extols his sister (the chancellor his wife, I), whom gifts cannot seduce. What shall be your forfeit, asks the king, if I seduce her? Maurianos stakes his head, A-I, and the girl is to be the king's slave, H; the king, his kingdom and crown, A, B, his property, C, F. There is a mutual wager of nine towers of silver, J. The young man is to be a prisoner till the morning, I. The king begins, in A, B, by engaging the services of witches eighteen, witches fifteen, or bawds eighteen, witches fifteen. They ply their magic early and late: forty days to get up her stair, other four-and-forty to get sight of the girl, A. They address her with flatteries, but are rebuffed, A, B. The king sends rich presents, A, C-I; beasts laden with silver and money, nine, twelve, twenty and again ten. The girl receives them with professions of pleasure; her brother will return the compliment to the giver. It is explained that no return is looked for; the presents are from the king, who desires to pass the night with her. (In J the king goes straight to the wife, and says that he has her husband's permission.) The lady affects to put herself at the king's disposition. She appeals to her maid-servants, A, B; first her "nurses," then her maids, C; one servant, and then another, H. Which of them will enable her to keep her word, change clothes with her, and pass the night with the king? Only Maria, the youngest of all (of forty, B), is willing to stead her mistress in this strait, A-C. In D-G, I, J, there is but one nurse or servant, and she assents, or follows her mistress's directions as a matter of course. The servant is to have the king's present in D. The substitute is elaborately combed and dressed, with a gold band round her hair, and a beautiful ring on her finger. At midnight, or before dawn, the king cuts off the finger that has the ring, A, I, her finger, B, F, G, H (fingers, B, v. 43), little finger, D, E; takes the ring from her finger, C, all the rings from her fingers, J. He also cuts off her hair (braid), with its golden band, B (braids, v. 43), C, I, her hair (braid), with the golden flowers, A, with the pearl, H, right braid, D, braid, F, G, I, extremity of her braid, B. These are to serve as tokens; he puts them in his handkerchief, A, D. He takes his trophies to the assembly. Maurianos has lost his wager, and is to be hanged. Where is Maurianos, the braggart, and where his precious sister, whom no gifts could seduce? Word comes to the sister. She dresses herself beautifully, and makes her way into the assembly; she would fain know why they are to hang Maurianos. 'I have seduced his sister,' says the king, 'and I will hang Maurianos.' The girl demands tokens. 'I cut off her finger, with the golden sapphire; I cut off her hair, with the golden flowers (band).' She extends her hand; the earth is filled with sapphires. 'See, lords! are fingers of mine wanting?' She flings out her hair; the earth is filled with flowers. 'See, lords! is a braid of mine wanting?' (A, B, and the rest to the same effect.) Then she turns to the king. 'It fits you no more to play the king,' A, B. 'You have slept with my slave, and my slave you shall be,' C-I. 'Take my mule and go fetch wood.' In A, B, the king has to marry Maria. In F, John becomes king (as a consequence of winning the wager). In I, the people depose the king and make Maurianos's sister queen.
There are numerous tales in which a man wagers heavily upon a woman's (generally his wife's) constancy, and, upon plausible evidence, which in the end proves to be nugatory, is adjudged to have lost.[1] We are concerned only with a small section of these stories, characterized by the circumstances that the woman whose virtue is questioned puts another woman in her place in the encounter with the assailant, and that the proofs of success offered are a finger, finger-ring, and head, or braid, of hair [2] (one of these, or more).
A rhymed tale of the thirteenth century, 'Von zwein Kaufmannen,' by Ruprecht von Würzburg,[3] has the following story, evidently French by origin. Bertram, a merchant of Verdun, who has been happily married for ten years, is required in the course of business to go to a fair at Provins. While he is sitting at table in an inn with other merchants, Hogier, the host, sets his guests to talking of their wives, and three of them give a very bad account of their domestic experiences. Bertram, when urged to take his turn, professes himself the most fortunate of men, for his wife (Irmengard) is, for beauty, sense, modesty, manners, the flower of womankind. The host declares that the man is mad, and offers to stake all his goods against Bertram's that he will seduce this peerless wife within six months. The wager is accepted, and Bertram, to afford an opportunity, sends his wife word that he shall be gone from home longer than he had intended. Hogier goes to Verdun and takes a lodging opposite to Bertram's house. He begins with presents and messages to Irmengard; she treats these with contempt, and threatens to make a complaint to her friends. He gives bounties to the servants, who sing his praises to their mistress till they are told that they will be thrashed if they continue. He then gives a pound to Irmengard's favorite maid, Amelin, and commissions her to offer a hundred mark if he may have his will; and the wife proving to be both firm and indignant, he raises his offer to two hundred mark, and finally to a thousand for one night. Not only the maid, but Irmengard's own father and her husband's father, to whom she successively appeals, urge her to take this large sum, and assure her that she will incur her husband's resentment if she does not. A way out of her difficulties now occurs to her (which the author of the poem represents as an express suggestion from God). She asks the maid if she will give Hogier a night for the consideration of a hundred mark; Amelin is ready so to do for half the money. Hogier is told to pay in his thousand, and an appointment is made. Irmengard receives him in Amelin's garb, and Amelin in Irmengard's. In the morning Hogier asks for some jewel as a keepsake, and the maid having nothing to give him, he cuts off one of her fingers. He now calls upon Bertram to pay his forfeit. Bertram has some doubt whether he has not been tricked. It is mutually agreed that the matter shall be settled at a banquet which Bertram is to give at Verdun. Bertram, upon his return home, cannot conceal a deep depression. His wife asks him the cause, and he opens his mind to her; she bids him be of good cheer, for all Hogier's goods are theirs. At the banquet Hogier states his case, and produces the finger in confirmation of his claim. Irmengard, asked what answer she has to make, humorously replies that she is sorry for her misbehavior, but all her friends, there present, had advised her to commit it. She then shows her hands, both unmarred. Amelin comes in and complains of the treatment she has received. Hogier owns that he has lost, and desires to become Bertram's 'poor man.' Amelin is given him as wife, with her hundred mark for a dowry. Here we have wager, substitution, finger cut off, as in the Scottish ballad and most of the Romaic versions, and the loser marries the maid, as in the Scottish ballad and Romaic A, B.
The Mabinogi of Taliesin, "in its present form not older than the thirteenth century," has the incidents of the substitution of the maid-servant, the finger and finger-ring, with the modification that the wife's general high character, and not simply her continence, is impugned and vindicated.
At a Christmas feast in the palace of King Maelgwn, the company were discoursing of the unequalled felicity of the king, upon whom heaven had bestowed, with every other good gift, a queen whose virtues exceeded those of all the noble ladies in the kingdom. Elphin, Maelgwn's nephew, said, None but a king may vie with a king; otherwise he would say that his own wife was as virtuous as any lady in the kingdom. Maelgwn was not there to hear this boast, but it was duly reported to him, and he ordered Elphin to be thrown into prison, pending a test of Elphin's wife which he deputed his graceless son, Rhun, to make. Taliesin, Elphin's bard, warned the lady that Rhun would try to put some disgrace upon her, and advised that one of the servants should personate her mistress when Rhun came to the house. Accordingly, a kitchen-maid was dressed up in her mistress's clothes, and was seated at the supper-table, her hands loaded with rings. Rhun made his appearance and was welcomed by the disguised menial. He fell to jesting with her, put a powder into her drink, which cast her into a sound sleep, and cut off her little finger, on which was Elphin's signet-ring. The king assembled his councillors, had Elphin brought in from prison, and showed him the finger, which (so Rhun had averred) had been cut from his wife's hand the preceding night, while she was sunk in a drunken sleep. Elphin could not deny that the ring was his, but he gave three incontrovertible reasons why the finger could not be his wife's, one of these being that the ring was too large to stay on his wife's thumb, yet too small to go over the joint of the little finger of the hand from which it had been cut; and the fact was put beyond question by Taliesin's afterwards bringing in Elphin's wife at a state-dinner, and displaying her unmutilated hand.[4]
A lively play of Jakob Ayrer's (about 1600) has the wager, the substitution, the ring offered in evidence (as in Romaic C, G), the marriage with the maid.
Claudius, master of the hunt to the Prince of Calabria, on the eve of his departure on a voyage, is heard by two courtiers, Leipolt and Seübolt, soliloquizing on the excellences of his wife, Frigia, her housekeeping, virtue, and love for him. They wager all their goods against his that they will bring the woman to do their will. One undertakes to present her wedding-ring, the other her necklace, in proof of the achievement. Leipolt and Seübolt, always acting severally, attempt to buy the services of Jahn Türck, a quick-witted and loyal servant of Claudius. He tells everything to his mistress, and by his advice she dresses two of her maids in her clothes and lets them meet the men, warning them to keep within bounds. Leipolt and Seübolt, each finding the supposed lady coy, are content to secure the means of winning their wager, and, by Frigia's connivance (who, it seems, had come to knowledge of the wager through Jahn), one of them receives her ring, the other her necklace, as pretended love-tokens. Claudius comes home. Leipolt informs the prince of the wager, and asks Claudius whether he knows the ring and will pay; Seübolt brings out the necklace. Claudius gives all for lost. The prince sends for Frigia. She challenges the courtiers to say that she has misbehaved with them. They own that they have never laid eyes on her, but they recognize the maids when they are brought in, still in their mistress's clothes. Frigia explains in detail. The prince addresses his councillors (for such they are) in terms of exemplary severity, and adjudges them to marry the maids, making over one third of their property to these and another to Claudius, or to lose their heads. (Compare the Scottish ballad at the end.) They prefer to keep their heads.[5]
A Danish ballad, very popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, has the wager (only on the part of the assailant), but the story takes a different turn from the foregoing, for the irresistible knight has simply a conversation with the lady, in which he meets with a definitive repulse.
'Væddemaalet,' 'Herr Lave og Herr Iver Blaa,' Grundtvig, IV, 302, No 224, A-L, Kristensen, I, 319, No 118, X, 137, No 36; Prior, III, 28, No 104. Lange (Lave) and Peder (Iver) sit at the board talking of wives and fair maids. Peder asserts that the maid lives not in the world whom he cannot cajole with a word. Lange knows the maid so virtuous that neither words nor gold can beguile. Peder wagers life (gold, goods, house, land) and neck (halsbane) that she shall be his by the morrow. He rides straightway to Ingelil, Thorlof's daughter, and makes love to her in honorable phrase. Ingelil reminds him of two ladies who have received the same professions from him and been betrayed. If she will be his dear, every finger shall wear the red gold: her father has nine gold rings, and would give them all to her if she wished. If she will be his, she shall have a train of servants, out and in: she is not halt or blind, and can go out and in by herself. If he cannot have his will with her, it will cost him his white halsbane: much better so than that he should cheat her, or any honorable maid. Peder rides away sorrowful, for lost is gold and his white halsbane besides.[6] We have already had the Scottish counterpart of this ballad, with variations for better or worse, in 'Redesdale and Wise William,' IV, 383, No 246, A-C.
Footnotes:
1. The cutting off the hair from a woman substituted occurs in the fabliau 'Des Tresces,' Barbazan et Méon, IV, 393, Montaiglon et Kaynaud, IV, 67, and Méon, Nouveau Recueil, I, 343, Montaiglon et Raynaud, V, 132 (a different version); Boccaccio, Decameron, VII, 8; 'Der verkêrte Wirt,' von der Hagen's Gesammtabenteuer, II, 337, No 43: all varieties of one story. See also 'Der Reiger,' p. 157 of the same volume of von der Hagen, No 31, and the literary history of No 43, at p. XLII. — Bédier, Les Fabliaux, p. 149 ff., refers to several other examples.
2. The more important of the stories which lack the distinctive traits of the Scottish and Romaic ballads are: Roman de la Violette, thirteenth century (ed. Michel, 1834); Roman du Comte de Poitiers, thirteenth century (ed. Michel, 1831); Li Contes du Roi Flore et de la bielle Jehane, thirteenth century, Moland et d'Héricault, 1856, p. 85, and Monmerqué et Michel, Théatre Français au Moyen Age, 1842, p. 417; Miracle de Nostre Dame, Conment Ostes, roy d'Espaingne, perdi sa terre par gagier centre Berengier, etc., Monmerqué et Michel, as before, p. 431, and Miracles de Nostre Dame, G. Paris et U. Robert, IV, 319; an episode in Perceforest, vol. iv, cc. 16, 17, retold by Bandello, Part I, Nov. 21 (R. Köhler, in Jahrbuch für Rom. u. Eng. Lit., VIII, 51 ff. ); the story of Bernabò da Geneva da Ambruoginolo ingannato, Boccaccio, Decameron, II, 9, repeated in Shakspere's Cymbeline and many other pieces. Popular tales with the wager are: Campbell, West Highlands, II, 1, No 18; J.W. Wolf's Deutsche Hausmärchen, p. 355; Simrock, Deutsche Märchen, p. 235 (ed. 1864), No 51; Pröhle, Kinder- und Volksmärchen, No 61, p. 179 (see also p. XLII); Das Ausland, 1856, p. 1053, Roumanian; Miklosich, Märchen u. Lieder der Zigeuner der Bukowina, p. 49, No 14; Bernoni, Fiabe veneziane, p. 1, No 1; Gonzenbach, I, 38, No 7; Pitrè, Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti siciliani, II, 142, 165, Nos 73, 75; Imbriani, Novellaja fiorentina, p. 483. (Some of these have been cited by Köhler, some by Landau.) See, in general, the Grimms, Altdeutsche Wälder, I, 35 ff., II, 181 f.; von der Hagen's Gesammtabenteuer, introduction to No LXVIII, especially III, xci-cix; R. Köhler, as above, and in Orient u. Occident, II, 315; Landau, Quellen des Dekameron, 1884, p. 135 ff.; R. Ohle, Shakespeares Cymbeline und seine romanischen Vorläufer, Berlin, 1890.
3. Altdeutsche Walder, I, 35; von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, III, 357.
4. Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, Part VII, pp. 364-83, or p. 477 ff. of the edition of 1877; an abstract in E. Jones's Bardic Museum, p. 19.
5. Ayrers Dramen, herausgegeben von A. von Keller, IV, 2279, No 30; Comedia von zweyen fürstlichen räthen die alle beede umb ernes gewetts willen umb ein weib bulten, u.s.w.
6. There is another Danish ballad in which two knights wager on a maid's fidelity, but it is of entirely different tenor, the maid being lured by a magical horn: 'Ridderens Runeslag,' Grundtvig, II, 285, No 73, A-B, 'Ridder Oles Lud,' Kristensen, II, 108, 353, No 34, A-C; Prior, III, 34, No 105.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
This ballad can have had no currency in Scotland, and perhaps was known only through print. A similar one is strictly traditional in Greece, and widely dispersed, both on the mainland and among' the islands. There are numerous tales in which a man wagers heavily upon a woman's (generally his wife's) constancy, and, upon plausible evidence, which in the end proves to be nugatory, is adjudged to have lost. Such are the Old French Roman de la Violette and Flore et Jehane; Decameron, ii, 9 (repeated in Shakspere's Cymbeline), etc. Only a small section of these stories, however, has the distinctive traits of the Scottish and Romaic ballads. Examples are the thirteenth - century rhymed tale 'Von zwein Kaufmannen' (von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, in, 357) and the Welsh tale of 'Taliesin' in the so-called Mabinogian.
Child's Ballad Text
'The Twa Knights'- Version A; Child 268 The Twa Knights
Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 271.
1 There were twa knights in fair Scotland,
And they were brothers sworn;
They made a vow to be as true
As if they'd been brothers born.
2 The one he was a wealthy knight,
Had lands and buildings free;
The other was a young hynde squire,
In rank of lower degree.
3 But it fell ance upon a day
These squires they walkd alone,
And to each other they did talk
About the fair women.
4 'O wed a may,' the knight did say,
'For your credit and fame;
Lay never your love on lemanry,
Bring nae gude woman to shame.'
5 'There's nae gude women,' the squire did say,
'Into this place but nine;'
'O well falls me,' the knight replied,
'For ane o them is mine.'
6 'Ye say your lady's a gude woman,
But I say she is nane;
I think that I could gain her love
Ere six months they are gane.
7 'If ye will gang six months away,
And sail upon the faem,
Then I will gain your lady's love
Before that ye come hame.'
8 'O I'll gang till a far countrie,
And far beyond the faem,
And ye winna gain my lady's love
Whan nine lang months are gane.'
9 When the evening sun did set,
And day came to an end,
In then came the lady's gude lord,
Just in at yon town's end.
10 'O comely are ye, my lady gay,
Sae fair and rare to see;
I wish whan I am gane away
Ye keep your mind to me.'
11 She gae 'm a bason to wash in,
It shin'd thro a' the ha;
But aye as she gaed but and ben
She loot the saut tears fa.
12 'I wonder what ails my gude lord
He has sic jealousie;
Never when we parted before,
He spak sic words to me.'
13 When cocks did craw, and day did daw,
This knight was fair at sea;
Then in it came the young hynde squire,
To work him villanie.
14 'I hae a coffer o gude red gowd,
Another o white monie;
I woud gie you 't a', my gay lady,
To lye this night wi me.'
15 'If ye warna my lord's brother,
And him sae far frae hame,
Even before my ain bower-door
I'd gar hang you on a pin.'
16 He's gane frae the lady's bower,
Wi the saut tear in his ee,
And he is to his foster-mother
As fast as gang coud he.
17 'There is a fancy in my head
That I'll reveal to thee,
And your assistance I will crave
If ye will grant it me.
18 'I've fifty guineas in my pocket,
I've fifty o them and three,
And if ye'll grant what I request
Ye'se hae them for your fee.'
19 'Speak on, speak on, ye gude hynde squire,
What may your asking be?
I kenna wha woud be sae base
As nae serve for sic a fee.'
20 'O I hae wagerd wi my brother,
When he went to the faem,
That I woud gain his lady's love
Ere six months they were gane.
21 'To me he laid his lands at stake
Tho he were on the faem,
I wudna gain his lady's love
Whan nine lang months were gane.
22 'Now I hae tried to gain her love,
But finds it winna do;
And here I'm come, as ye her know,
To seek some help frae you.
23 'For I did lay my life at stake,
Whan my brother went frae hame,
That I woud gain his lady's love
Whan he was on the faem.'
24 But when the evening sun was set,
And day came to an end,
In it came that fause carline,
Just in at yon town's end.
25 'O comely are ye, my gay lady,
Your lord is on the faem;
Yon unco squire will gain your love,
Before that he come hame.'
26 'Forbid it,' said the lady fair,
'That eer the like shoud be,
That I woud wrang my ain gude lord,
And him sae far at sea.'
27 'O comely are ye, my gay lady,
Stately is your fair bodie;
Your lovely visage is far chang'd,
That is best known to me.
28 'You're sair dune out for want o sleep
Sin your lord went to sea;
Unless that ye do cease your grief,
It will your ruin be.
29 'You'll send your maids unto the hay,
Your young men unto the corn;
I'll gar ye sleep as soun a sleep
As the night that ye were born.'
30 She sent her maids to ted the hay,
Her men to shear the corn,
And she gard her sleep as soun a sleep
As the night that she was born.
31 She rowd that lady in the silk,
Laid her on holland sheets;
Wi fine enchanting melodie,
She lulld her fast asleep.
32 She lockd the yetts o that castle
Wi thirty locks and three,
Then went to meet the young hynde squire
To him the keys gae she.
33 s opend the locks o that castle,
Were thirty and were three,
And he's gane where that lady lay,
And thus to her said he.
34 'O wake, O wake, ye gay lady,
O wake and speak to me;
I hae it fully in my power
To come to bed to thee.'
35 'For to defile my husband's bed,
I woud think that a sin;
As soon as this lang day is gane,
Then I shall come to thine.'
36 Then she has calld her niece Maisry,
Says, An asking ye'll grant me,
For to gang to yon unco squire
And sleep this night for me.
37 'The gude red gowd shall be your hire,
And siller's be your fee;
Five hundred pounds o pennies round,
Your tocher it shall be.'
38 She turnd her right and round about,
And thus to her did say;
O there was never a time on earth
So fain's I woud say nay.
39 But when the evening sun was set,
And day drawn to an end,
Then Lady Maisry she is gane,
Fair out at yon town-end.
40 Then she is to yon hynde squire's yates,
And tirled at the pin;
Wha was sae busy as the hynde squire
To lat that lady in!
41 He's taen her in his arms twa,
He was a joyfu man;
He neither bade her meat nor drink,
But to the bed he ran.
42 When he had got his will o her,
His will as he lang sought,
Her ring but and her ring-finger
Away frae her he brought.
43 With discontent straight home she went,
And thus lamented she;
Says, Wae be to yon young hynde squire!
Sae ill as he's used me.
44 When the maids came frae the hay,
The young men frae the corn,
Ben it came that lady gay,
Who thought lang for their return.
45 'Where hae ye been, my maidens a',
Sae far awa frae me?
My foster-mother and lord's brother
Thought to hae beguiled me.
46 'Had not she been my foster-mother,
I suckd at her breast-bane,
Even before my ain bower-door,
She in a gleed shoud burn.
47 'The squire he thought to gain my love,
He's got but Lady Maisry;
He's cutted her ring and her ring-finger,
A love-token for to be.
48 'I'll tie my finger in the dark,
Where nae ane shall me see;
I hope to loose it in the light,
Amang gude companie.'
49 When night was gane, and birds did sing,
And day began to peep,
The hynde squire walkd alang the shore,
His brother for to meet.
50 'Ye are welcome, welcome, landless lord,
To my ha's and my bowers;
Ye are welcome hame, ye landless lord,
To my lady white like flowers.'
51 'Ye say I am a landless lord,
But I think I am nane,
Without ye show some love-token
Awa frae her ye've tane.'
52 He drew the strings then o his purse,
And they were a' bludie;
The ring but and the ring-finger
Sae soon as he lat him see.
53 'O wae be to you, fause hynde squire,
Ane ill death mat ye dee!
It was too sair a love-token
To take frae my ladie.
54 'But ae asking of you, hynde squire,
In your won bowers to dine;'
'With a' my heart, my brother dear,
Tho ye had asked nine.'
55 Then he is to his lady's father,
And a sorrow man was he:
'O judge, O judge, my father dear,
This judgment pass for me.
56 'What is the thing that shoud be done
Unto that gay lady
Who woud gar her lord gae landless,
And children bastards to be?'
57 'She shoud be brunt upon a hill,
Or hangd upon a tree,
That woud gar her lord gang landless,
And children bastards be.'
58 'Your judgment is too rash, father;
Your ain daughter is she
That this day has made me landless;
Your squire gaind it frae me.'
59 'Yet nevertheless, my parents dear,
Ae favour ye'll grant me,
And gang alang to my lost ha's,
And take your dine wi me.'
60 He threw the charters ower the table,
And kissd the yates o tree;
Says 'Fare ye well, my lady gay,
Your face I'll never see.'
61 Then his lady calld out to him,
Come here, my lord, and dine;
There's nae a smith in a' the land
That can ae finger join.
62 'I tied my finger in the dark,
Whan nae ane did me see;
But now I'll loose it in the light,
Amang gude companie.
63 'Even my niece, Lady Maisry,
The same woman was she;
The gude red gowd shall be her hire,
And likeways white monie.
64 'Five hundred pounds o pennies round
Her tocher then shall be,
Because she did my wills obey,
Beguild the squire for me.'
65 Then they did call this young hynde squire
To come right speedilie,
Likeways they calld young Lady Maisry.
To pay her down her fee.
66 Then they laid down to Lady Maisry
The brand but and the ring;
It was to stick him wi the brand,
Or wed him wi the ring.
67 Thrice she minted to the brand,
But she took up the ring;
And a' the ladies who heard o it
Said she was a wise woman.