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The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter

No: 110; variant: 110J

  1. 'SOME ca'ss me James, some ca'as me John, I carena what they ca me, But when I [am] at hame in my ain country, It's Lispcock that they ca me.'
  2. The lassie being well beuk-learned, She spelled it ower again; Says, Lispcock in a Latin beuk Spells Erl Richard in plain.
  3. . . . . . . . . . . The lassie kilted up her green claithing, And fast, fast followed on.
  4. Till they cam till a wide water, . . . . . He's turned his hie horse head about, Says, Lassie will ye ride?
  5. 'I learned it in my mother's bower, I wish I'd learned it better, Whanever I cam to any wide water, To soum like ony otter.'
  6. The laird he chused the ford to ride, The ladie the pot to swim, And or the laird was half water, The ladie was on dry lan.
  7. O he rade on to yon hie castell, He rade it richt and roun about; The laird gaed in at ae back-door, But the ladie beet to knock.
  8. Out it cam the proud porter, Wi his hat into his han, . . . . . . . . . .
  9. She's pitten her hand in her pocket, Pulld out guineas three, And that she's given to the proud porter, To cause her to get entrance there.
  10. The proud porter ran up the stair, O fifteen steps he made but three: 'The prettiest lady stands at yer yetts That ever my een did see.'
  11. . . . . . . . . . . 'Goe doun, goe doun, you proud porter, Cause her to cum up to me.'
  12. When she gaed in before the queen, She fell low down on her knee: 'There is a man into your courts This day has robbed me.'
  13. 'Has he robbed you o your fine clothing, Or o your white monie? Or taen frae you your maidenhead, The flower o your bodie?'
  14. 'He hasna robbed me o my fine clothing, Nor o my white monie, But he's taen frae me my maidenhead, The flower o my bodie.'
  15. 'O gin he be a married man, High hanged sall he be; And gin he be a batchelere, Well wedded shall ye be.'
  16. O she has called in her merry young men, By thirties and by threes; Earl Richard should hae been the foremost man, But the hindmost man was he.
  17. He cam limpin on a staff, And blinkin on an ee, And sichand says that gay ladie, That samen man is he.