Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 433, from James Nicol,
Strichen.
| 1 |
Oh I will tell a tale of woe,
Which makes my heart richt sair;
The Clerk's two sons of Oxenfoord
Are too soon gone to lair. |
| 2 |
They thought their father's service mean,
Their mother's no great affair;
But they would go to fair Berwick,
To learn [some] unco lair. |
| 3 |
They had not been in fair Berwick
A twelve month and a day,
Till the clerk's two sons of Oxenfoord
With the mayor's two daughters lay. |
| 4 |
This word came to the mighty mayor,
As he hunted the rae,
That the clerks two sons of Oxenfoord
With his two daughters lay. |
| 5 |
'If they have lain with my daughters,
The heirs of all my land,
I make a vow, and will keep it true,
To hang them with my hand.' |
| 6 |
When he was certain of the fact,
An angry man was he,
And he has taken these two brothers,
And hanged them on the tree. |
| 7 |
Word it has come to Oxenfoord's clerk,
Ere it was many day,
That his two sons sometime ago
With the mayor's two daughters lay. |
| 8 |
'O saddle a horse to me,' he cried,
'O do it quick and soon,
That I may ride to fair Berwick,
And see what can be done.' |
| 9 |
But when he came to fair Berwick
A grieved man was he,
When that he saw his two bonnie sons
Both hanging on the tree. |
| 10 |
'O woe is me,' the clerk cried out,
'This dismal sight to see,
All the whole comfort of my life
Dead hanging on the tree!' |
| 11 |
He turned his horse's head about,
Making a piteous moan,
And all the way to Oxenfoord
Did sad and grievously groan. |
| 12 |
His wife did hastily cry out,
'You only do I see;
What have you done with my two sons,
You should have brought to me?' |
| 13 |
'I put them to some higher lair,
And to a deeper scule;
You will not see your bonnie sons
Till the haly days of Yule. |
| 14 |
'And I will spend my days in grief,
Will never laugh nor sing;
There's never a man in Oxenfoord
Shall hear my bridle ring.' |
