The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Edited by Francis James Child. |
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The English and Scottish Popular Ballads | ||
YOUNG BEICHAN—I
[_]
Communicated by Mr David Louden, as recited by Mrs Dodds, Morham, Haddington, the reciter being above seventy in 1873.
1
In London was Young Bechin born,Foreign nations he longed to see;
He passed through many kingdoms great,
At length he came unto Turkie.
2
He viewed the fashions of that land,The ways of worship viewed he,
But unto any of their gods
He would not so much as bow the knee.
3
On every shoulder they made a bore,In every bore they put a tree,
Then they made him the winepress tread,
And all in spite of his fair bodie.
4
They put him into a deep dungeon,Where he could neither hear nor see,
And for seven years they kept him there,
Till for hunger he was like to die.
5
Stephen, their king, had a daughter fair,Yet never a man to her came nigh;
And every day she took the air,
Near to his prison she passed by.
6
One day she heard Young Bechin singA song that pleased her so well,
No rest she got till she came to him,
All in his lonely prison cell.
7
‘I have a hall in London town,With other buildings two or three,
And I'll give them all to the ladye fair
That from this dungeon shall set me free.’
8
She stole the keys from her dad's head,And if she oped one door ay she opened three,
Till she Young Bechin could find out,
He was locked up so curiouslie.
9
‘I've been a porter at your gateThis thirty years now, ay and three;
There stands a ladye at your gate,
The like of her I neer did see.
10
‘On every finger she has a ring,On the mid-finger she has three;
She's as much gold about her brow
As would an earldom buy to me.’
11
He's taen her by the milk-white hand,He gently led her through the green;
He changed her name from Susie Pie,
An he's called her lovely Ladye Jean.
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads | ||