| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | The Three Ravens | | Anonymous |
| | | THERE 1 were three ravens sat on a tree, | |
| Downe a downe, hay down, hay downe | |
| There were three ravens sat on a tree, | |
| With a downe | |
| There were three ravens sat on a tree, | 5 |
| They were as blacke as they might be. | |
| With a downe derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe. | |
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| The one of them said to his mate, | |
| ‘Where shall we our breakefast take?’ | |
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| ‘Downe in yonder greene field, | 10 |
| There lies a knight slain under his shield. | |
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| ‘His hounds they lie downe at his feete, | |
| So well they can their master keepe. | |
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| ‘His hawks they flie so eagerly, | |
| There’s no fowle dare him come nie.’ | 15 |
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| Downe there comes a fallow doe, | |
| As great with yong as she might goe. | |
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| She lift up his bloudy hed, | |
| And kist his wounds that were so red. | |
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| She got him up upon her backe, | 20 |
| And carried him to earthen lake. | |
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| She buried him before the prime, | |
| She was dead herselfe ere even-song time. | |
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| God send every gentleman, | |
| Such hawks, such hounds, and such a leman. | 25 |
| | | Note 1. First printed in Thomas Ravenscroft’s Melismata, 1611. [back] | | |
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