| |
| CLERK COLVILL 1 and his lusty dame | |
| Were walking in the garden green; | |
| The belt around her stately waist | |
| Cost Clerk Colvill of pounds fifteen. | |
| |
| ‘O promise me now, Clerk Colvill, | 5 |
| Or it will cost ye muckle strife, | |
| Ride never by the wells of Slane, | |
| If ye wad live and brook your life. | |
| |
| ‘Now speak nae mair, my lusty dame, | |
| Now speak nae mair of that to me; | 10 |
| Did I ne’er see a fair woman, | |
| But I wad sin with her body?’ | |
| |
| He’s ta’en leave o’ his lady gay, | |
| Nought minding what his lady said, | |
| And he’s rode by the wells of Slane, | 15 |
| Where washing was a bonny maid. | |
| |
| ‘Wash on, wash on, my bonny maid, | |
| That wash sae clean your sark of silk;’ | |
| ‘And weel fa’ you, fair gentleman, | |
| Your body whiter than the milk.’ | 20 |
| |
| Then loud, loud cry’d the Clerk Colvill, | |
| ‘O my head it pains me sair;’ | |
| ‘Then take, then take,’ the maiden said, | |
| ‘And frae my sark you’ll cut a gare.’ | |
| |
| Then she’s gied him a little bane-knife, | 25 |
| And frae her sark he cut a share; | |
| She’s ty’d it round his whey-white face, | |
| But ay his head it aked mair. | |
| |
| Then louder cry’d the Clerk Colvill, | |
| ‘O sairer, sairer akes my head;’ | 30 |
| ‘And sairer, sairer ever will,’ | |
| The maiden crys, ‘Till you be dead.’ | |
| |
| Out then he drew his shining blade, | |
| Thinking to stick her where she stood, | |
| But she was vanished to a fish, | 35 |
| And swam far off, a fair mermaid. | |
| |
| ‘O mother, mother, braid my hair; | |
| My lusty lady, make my bed; | |
| O brother, take my sword and spear, | |
| For I have seen the false mermaid.’ | 40 |
