The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Edited by Francis James Child. |
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 | The English and Scottish Popular Ballads |  |
The Carpenter's Wife
JAMES HARRIS (THE DÆMON LOVER)—D
1
‘O whare hae ye been, my dearest dear,These seven lang years and more?’
‘O I am come to seek my former vows,
That ye promisd me before.’
2
‘Awa wi your former vows,’ she says,‘Or else ye will breed strife;
Awa wi your former vows,’ she says,
‘For I'm become a wife.
3
‘I am married to a ship-carpenter,A ship-carpenter he's bound;
I wadna he kend my mind this nicht
For twice five hundred pound.’
4
She has put her foot on gude ship-board,And on ship-board she's gane,
And the veil that hung oure her face
Was a' wi gowd begane.
5
She had na sailed a league, a league,A league but barely twa,
Till she did mind on the husband she left,
And her wee young son alsua.
6
‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear,Let all your follies abee;
I'll show whare the white lillies grow,
On the banks of Italie.’
7
She had na sailed a league, a league,A league but barely three,
Till grim, grim grew his countenance,
And gurly grew the sea.
8
‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear,Let all your follies abee;
I'll show whare the white lillies grow,
In the bottom of the sea.’
9
He's tane her by the milk-white hand,And he's thrown her in the main;
And full five-and-twenty hundred ships
Perishd all on the coast of Spain.
| The English and Scottish Popular Ballads | |