The Earl of Errol
No: 231; variant: 231E
- O ERROL it's a bonny place,
It stands in yonder glen;
The lady lost the rights of it
The first night she gaed hame.
A waly and a waly!
According as ye ken,
The thing we ca the ranting o 't,
Our lady lies her lane, O.
- 'What need I wash my apron,
Or hing it on yon door?
What need I truce my petticoat?
It hangs even down before.'
- Errol's up to Edinburgh gaen,
That bonny burrows-town;
He has chusit the barber's daughter,
The top of a' that town.
- He has taen her by the milk-white hand,
He has led her through the room,
And twenty times he's kisst her,
Before his lady's een.
- 'Look up, look up now, Peggy,
Look up, and think nae shame,
For I'll gie thee five hundred pound,
To buy to thee a gown.
- 'Look up, look up, now, Peggy,
Look up, and think nae shame,
For I'll gie thee five hundred pound
To bear to me a son.
- 'As thou was Kate Carnegie,
And I Sir Gilbert Hay,
I'll gar your father sell his lands,
Your tocher-gude to pay.
- 'Now he may take her back again,
Do wi her what he can,
For Errol canna please her,
Nor ane o a' his men.'
- 'Go fetch to me a pint of wine,
Go fill it to the brim,
That I may drink my gude lord's health,
Tho Errol be his name.'
- She has taen the glass into her hand,
She has putten poison in,
She has signd it to her dorty lips,
But neer a drop went in.
- Up then spake a little page,
He was o Errol's kin;
'Now fie upon ye, lady gay,
There's poison there within.
- 'It's hold your hand now, Kate,' she says,
'Hold it back again,
For Errol winna drink on 't,
Nor none o a' his men.'
- She has taen the sheets into her arms,
She has thrown them oer the wa:
'Since I maun gae maiden hame again,
Awa, Errol, awa!'
- She's down the back o the garden,
And O as she did murne!
'How can a workman crave his wage,
When he never wrought a turn?'