English Versions 57. Brown Robyn's Confession
Child states: "The only known version of 'Brown Robyn's Confession' is the one printed in Ballads of the North of Scotland, the copy in Motherwell's Manuscript having been derived from Buchan."
Notes from Buchan's Ancient Ballads of the North of Scotland:
BROWN ROBYN'S CONFESSION. Page 108
This ballad has probably been written by one of the Benedictine Monks, who settled in England in the year 596, in the dark ages of Roman Catholic superstition, to enforce upon his silly-minded hearers the real, or pretended advantages arising from auricular confession. Surely none of my readers are so grossly ignorant as to be made to believe, that the mere confession of a crime, particularly that of incest, and of such hideous magnitude as the one here narrated, would entitle any one to a pardon of the same.
CONTENTS:
1. Brown Robyn's Confession- Version A; Child 57; 1828 (see below)
_________________
Brown Robyn's Confession- Version A; Child 57
Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 110.
1 It fell upon a Wodensday
Brown Robyn's men went to sea,
But they saw neither moon nor sun,
Nor starlight wi their ee.
2 'We'll cast kevels us amang,
See wha the unhappy man may be;'
The kevel fell on Brown Robyn,
The master-man was he.
3 'It is nae wonder,' said Brown Robyn,
'Altho I dinna thrive,
For wi my mither I had twa bairns,
And wi my sister five.
4 'But tie me to a plank o wude,
And throw me in the sea;
And if I sink, ye may bid me sink,
But if I swim, just lat me bee.'
5 They've tyed him to a plank o wude,
And thrown him in the sea;
He didna sink, tho they bade him sink;
He swimd, and they bade lat him bee.
6 He hadna been into the sea
An hour but barely three,
Till by it came Our Blessed Lady,
Her dear young son her wi.
7 'Will ye gang to your men again,
Or will ye gang wi me?
Will ye gang to the high heavens,
Wi my dear son and me?'
8 'I winna gang to my men again,
For they would be feared at mee;
But I woud gang to the high heavens,
Wi thy dear son and thee.'
9 'It's for nae honour ye did to me, Brown Robyn,
It's for nae guid ye did to mee;
But a' is for your fair confession
You've made upon the sea.'
End-Notes:
4[4]. if I sink.