Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 255; Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p.
282. From the singing of Widow McCormick, Paisley, January 19, 1825.
Learned by her of an old woman in Dumbarton: Motherwell's Note Book, fol. 4.
| 1 |
Child Noryce is a clever young man,
He wavers wi the wind;
His horse was silver-shod before,
With the beaten gold behind. |
| 2 |
He called to his little man John,
Saying, You don't see what I see;
For O yonder I see the very first woman
That ever loved me. |
| 3 |
'Here is a glove, a glove,' he said,
'Lined with the silver grey;
You may tell her to come to the merry greenwood,
To speak to Child Nory. |
| 4 |
'Here is a ring, a ring,' he says,
'It's all gold but the stane;
You may tell her to come to the merry greenwood,
And ask the leave o nane.' |
| 5 |
'So well do I love your errand, my master,
But far better do I love my life;
O would ye have me go to Lord Barnard's castle,
To betray away his wife?' |
| 6 |
'O don't I give you meat,' he says,
'And don't I pay you fee?
How dare you stop my errand?' he says;
'My orders you must obey.' |
| 7 |
O when he came to Lord Bernard's castle,
He tinkled at the ring;
Who was as ready as Lord Barnard himself
To let this little boy in? |
| 8 |
'Here is a glove, a glove,' he says,
'Lined with the silver grey;
You are bidden to come to the merry greenwood,
To speak to Child Nory. |
| 9 |
'Here is a ring, a ring,' he says,
'It's all gold but the stane;
You are bidden to come to the merry greenwood,
And ask the leave o nane.' |
| 10 |
Lord Barnard he was standing by,
And an angry man was he:
'O little did I think there was a lord in the world
My lady loved but me!' |
| 11 |
O he dressed himself in the holland smock,
And garments that was gay,
And he is away to the merry green-wood,
To speak to Child Nory. |
| 12 |
Child Noryce sits on yonder tree,
He whistles and he sings:
'O wae be to me,' says Child Noryce,
'Yonder my mother comes!' |
| 13 |
Child Noryce he came off the tree,
His mother to take off the horse:
'Och alace, alace,' says Child Noryce,
'My mother was neer so gross!' |
| 14 |
Lord Barnard he had a little small sword,
That hung low down by his knee;
He cut the head off Child Noryce,
And put the body on a tree. |
| 15 |
And when he came home to his castell,
And to his ladie's hall,
He threw the head into her lap,
Saying, Lady, there's a ball! |
| 16 |
She turned up the bloody head,
She kissed it frae cheek to chin:
'Far better do I love this bloody head
Than all my royal kin. |
| 17 |
'When I was in my father's castel,
In my virginity,
There came a lord into the North,
Gat Child Noryce with me.' |
| 18 |
'O wae be to thee, Lady Margaret,' he sayd,
'And an ill death may you die;
For if you had told me he was your son,
He had neer been slain by me.' |
