A young man who has been attached to a girl sends her word by letter that he cannot fancy her because she is so brown (he has left her for another maid in B). She sends a disdainful reply. He writes again that he is dangerously ill (he is love-sick in B), and begs her come to him quickly and give him back his faith. She takes her time in going, and when she comes to the sick man's bedside, cannot stand for laughing. She has, however, brought a white wand with her, which she strokes on his breast, in sign that she gives him back the faith which he had given her. But as to forgetting and forgiving, that she will never do; she will dance upon his grave.
This little ballad recalls 'Lord Thomas and Fair Annet' ('Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor, with the downfall of the Brown Girl' ), 'Sweet William's Ghost,' 'Clerk Saunders,' 'The Unquiet Grave,' 'Bonny Barbara Allan,' and has something of all of them. Compare No 73; No 77, A 4, B 2, 9, C 6, 14, D 4, 13, E 6, 14; No 84 (for the laughing, B 12); No 69, A 20-22, D 11, 14, E 17-20, G 23-25; No (78, B 2, E 2, F 2. Still it is not deliberately and mechanically patched together (as are some pieces in Part VIII), and in the point of the proud and unrelenting character of the Brown Girl it is original.
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