Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Lyrics

Child 212
The Duke of Athole's Nurse
Version A

Cromek's Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 196, 194; sent, with other fragments, by Robert Burns to William Tytler, August, 1790; stanzas 2-6.

Narrative

1   'Where shall I gang, my ain true love?
Where shall I gang to hide me?
For weel ye ken i yere father's bowr
It wad be death to find me.'
2   'O go you to yon tavern-house,
An there count owre your lawin,
An, if I be a woman true,
I'll meet you in the dawin.'
3   O he's gone to yon tavern-house,
An ay he counted his lawin,
An ay he drank to her guid health
Was to meet him in the dawin.
4   O he's gone to yon tavern-house,
An counted owre his lawin,
When in there cam three armed men,
To meet him in the dawin.
5   'O woe be unto woman's wit!
It has beguiled many;
She promised to come hersel,
But she sent three men to slay me.'

This page most recently updated on 06-Mar-2011, 16:47:44.
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