University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads

Edited by Francis James Child.

expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVII. 
expand sectionVIII. 
collapse sectionIX. 
expand section266. 
expand section267. 
expand section268. 
expand section269. 
expand section270. 
expand section271. 
expand section272. 
expand section273. 
expand section274. 
expand section275. 
expand section276. 
expand section277. 
expand section278. 
expand section279. 
expand section280. 
expand section281. 
expand section282. 
expand section283. 
expand section284. 
expand section285. 
expand section286. 
expand section287. 
expand section288. 
expand section289. 
expand section290. 
expand section291. 
expand section292. 
expand section293. 
expand section294. 
collapse section295. 
  
  
expand section296. 
expand section297. 
expand section298. 
expand section299. 
expand section300. 
expand section301. 
expand section302. 
expand section303. 
expand section304. 
expand section305. 

The Rantin Laddie; or, Lord Aboyne

THE RANTIN LADDIE—A

[_]

a. Johnson's Musical Museum, No 462, p. 474, communicated by Robert Burns; 1797. b. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 66, 1828.

1

Aften hae I playd at the cards and the dice,
For the love of a bonie rantin laddie,
But now I maun sit in my father's kitchenneuk
And balow a bastard babie.

2

‘For my father he will not me own,
And my mother she neglects me,
And a' my friends hae lightlyed me,
And their servants they do slight me.

3

‘But had I a servant at my command,
As aft times I've had many,
That wad rin wi a letter to bonie Glenswood,
Wi a letter to my rantin laddie!’

4

‘O is he either a laird or a lord,
Or is he but a cadie,
That ye do him ca sae aften by name
Your bonie, bonie rantin laddie?’

5

‘Indeed he is baith a laird and a lord,
And he never was a cadie,
But he is the Earl o bonie Aboyne,
And he is my rantin laddie.’

6

‘O ye'se get a servant at your command,
As aft times ye've had many,
That sall rin wi a letter to bonie Glenswood,
A letter to your rantin laddie.’

7

When Lord Aboyne did the letter get,
O but he blinket bonie!
But or he had read three lines of it
I think his heart was sorry.

8

‘O wha is [this] daur be sae bauld
Sae cruelly to use my lassie?
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]

9

‘For her father he will not her know,
And her mother she does slight her,
And a' her friends hae lightlied her,
And their servants they neglect her.

352

10

‘Go raise to me my five hundred men,
Make haste and make them ready,
With a milk-white steed under every ane,
For to bring hame my lady.’

11

As they cam in thro Buchanshire,
They were a company bonie,
With a gude claymor in every hand,
And O but they shin'd bonie!