My lady ye shall be
THE WYLIE WIFE OF THE HIE TOUN HIE—A
[_]
“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No
72, Thomas Wilkie's MS., 1813-15, p. 74, Abbotsford;
taken down from the recitation of a female friend, who
sang it to a lively air.
1
It fell about the Martinmas,
When the gentlemen were drinking there wine,
And a' the discourse that they had
Was about the ladies they gude fine.
2
It's up an spake a tall young man,
The tallest o the companie;
‘The bonniest lass that I ken off
She lives into the hee toun hee.
3
‘O I would give a guinea of gold,
A guinea and a pint of wine,
I would give it to the hostler's wife,
For to wile that bonny lassie in.’
4
The hostler's wife gaed down the stair,
And she's looked hersell round near by,
And there she spied the bonny handsom girl,
Coming walking down the hee town high.
5
‘Come in, come in, my bonny handsom girl,
Come speak one word with me;
Come taste a little of our wine,
For it's new come out of Italie.’
6
So willillie she wil'd her up,
And so willillie she wil'd her in,
And so cunningly she's locked the door,
And she's comd down the stair again.
7
One of them took her by the milk-white hand,
And he's laid her body on the ground,
And aye she sightd, and said, Alass,
'Tis a sin to do me wrong!
8
‘But since ye hae done sae muckle to me,
And brought me to so muckle shame,
O wad ye be so kind to me
As to tell to me your name.’
9
‘O if I tell to you my name,
It's a thing I never did to none;
But I will tell to the, my dear;
I am the Earl of Beaton's son.’
10
When two years were past and gone,
This gentleman came walking by,
And there he spied the bonny handsome girl,
Coming walking down the hie town high.
11
‘To whom belongs that pretty child,
That blinks with its pretty eye?’
‘His father's from home and has left me alone,
And I have been at the fold milking my ky.’
12
‘You lie, you lie, my bonny handsome girl,
So loudlie I hear you lie;
O do not you mind that happie day
When ye was drinking the wine wi me?’
13
He's lighted off his milk-white steed,
He's kissd her both cheeck and chin;
He's made a' the servants in Beaton castle
To welcome this fair lady in.
