Willie’s Lyke-Wake
No: 25; variant: 25A
- 'WILLIE, Willie, I'll learn you a wile,'
And the sun shines over the valleys and a'
'How this pretty fair maid ye may beguile.'
Amang the blue flowrs and the yellow and a'
- 'Ye maun lie doun just as ye were dead,
And tak your winding-sheet around your head.
- 'Ye maun gie the bellman his bell-groat,
To ring your dead-bell at your lover's yett.'
- He lay doun just as he war dead,
And took his winding-sheet round his head.
- He gied the bellman his bell-groat,
To ring his dead-bell at his lover's yett.
- 'O wha is this that is dead, I hear?'
'O wha but Willie that loed ye sae dear.'
- She is to her father's chamber gone,
And on her knees she's fallen down.
- 'O father, O father, ye maun grant me this;
I hope that ye will na tak it amiss.
- 'That I to Willie's burial should go;
For he is dead, full well I do know.'
- 'Ye'll tak your seven bauld brethren wi thee,
And to Willie's burial straucht go ye.'
- It's whan she cam to the outmost yett,
She made the silver fly round for his sake.
- It's whan she cam to the inmost yett,
She made the red gowd fly round for his sake.
- As she walked frae the court to the parlour there,
The pretty corpse syne began for to steer.
- He took her by the waist sae neat and sae sma,
And threw her atween him and the wa.
- 'O Willie, O Willie, let me alane this nicht,
O let me alane till we're wedded richt.'
- 'Ye cam unto me baith sae meek and mild,
But I'll mak ye gae hame a wedded wife wi child.'