Giles Collins- Miller 1854 Child
Child: Lt- Col. Prideaux has sent me this copy, from Fly-Leaves, London, John Miller, 1854, Second Series, p. 98.
Giles Collins
1 Lady Annis she sat in her bay-window,
A-mending of her night-coif;
As she sat, she saw the handsomest corpse
That ever she saw in her life.
2 'Who bear ye there, ye four tall men?
Who bear ye on your shouldyers?'
'It is the body of Giles Collins,
An old true lovyer of yours.'
3 'Set 'n down, set 'n down,' Lady Annis she said,
'Set 'n down on the grass so trim;
Before the clock it strikes twelve this night,
My body shall lie beside him.'
4 Lady Annis then fitted on her night-coif,
Which fitted her wondrous well;
She then pierced her throat with a sharp-edgd knife,
As the four pall-bearers can tell.
5 Lady Annis was buried in the east church-yard,
Giles Collins was laid in the west,
And a lily grew out from Giles Collins's grave
Which touched Lady Annis's breast.
6 There blew a cold north-westerly wind,
And cut this lily in twain;
Which never there was seen before,
And it never will again.
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From Bizarre: for fireside and wayside, Volume 5 By Joseph M. Church 1854
GILES COLLINS.
[Mr. Halliwell has lately given us a Copy of this Ballad among his "Nursery Rhymes of England," and characterizes it as taking a little higher flight than most of its kind: but "many a time and oft the doleful burthen (he says) has found wandering sympathy in the memory better than clear intelligence any where else."
The "ancient" transcript here written shows some differences from Mr. Halliwell's copy.]
I. Lady Annis she sat in her bay window
A-mending of her night-coif;
As she sat she saw the handsomest corpse
That ever she saw in her life.
II. "Who bear ye there, ye four tall men?
Who hear ye on your shouldyers?"
"It is the body of Giles Collins
An old true lovyer of yours.'*
III. "Set'n down, set'n down!" Lady Annis, she said,
"Set'n down on the grass so trim;
Before the clock it strikes Twelve this night.
My body shall lie beside him."
IV. Lady Annis then fitted on her night-coif,
Which fitted her wond'rous well;
She then piere'd her throat with a sharp-edg'd knife,
As the four pall-bearers can tell.
V. Lady Annis was buried in the East Church-yard,
Giles Collins was laid in the West:
And a lily grew out from Giles Collin's grave,
Which touch'd Lady Annis's breast.
VI. There blew a cold north-westerly wind,
And cut this lily in twain:
Which never there was seen before,
And it never will again.