Tam Lin
No: 39; variant: 39F
- SHE'S taen her petticoat by the band,
Her mantle owre her arm,
And she's awa to Chester wood,
As fast as she could run.
- She scarsely pulled a rose, a rose,
She scarse pulled two or three,
Till up there starts Thomas
On the Lady Margaret's knee.
- She's taen her petticoat by the band,
Her mantle owre her arm,
And Lady Margaret's gane hame agen,
As fast as she could run.
- Up starts Lady Margaret's sister,
An angry woman was she:
'If there ever was a woman wi child,
Margaret, you are wi!'
- Up starts Lady Margaret's mother,
An angry woman was she:
'There grows ane herb in yon kirk-yard
That will scathe the babe away.'
- She took her petticoats by the band,
Her mantle owre her arm,
And she's gane to yon kirk-yard
As fast as she could run.
- She scarcely pulled an herb, an herb,
She scarse pulled two or three,
Till up starts there Thomas
Upon this Lady Margret's knee.
- 'How dare ye pull a rose?' he says,
'How dare ye break the tree?
How dare ye pull this herb,' he says,
'To scathe my babe away?
- 'This night is Halloweve,' he said,
'Our court is going to waste,
And them that loves their true-love best
At Chester bridge they'll meet.
- 'First let pass the black,' he says,
'And then let pass the brown,
But when ye meet the milk-white steed,
Pull ye the rider down.
- 'They'll turn me to an eagle,' he says,
'And then into an ass;
Come, hold me fast, and fear me not,
The man that you love best.
- 'They'll turn me to a flash of fire,
And then to a naked man;
Come, wrap you your mantle me about,
And then you'll have me won.'
- She took her petticoats by the band,
Her mantle owre her arm,
And she's awa to Chester bridge,
As fast as she could run.
- And first she did let pass the black,
And then let pass the brown,
But when she met the milk-white steed,
She pulled the rider down.
- They turned him in her arms an eagle,
And then into an ass;
But she held him fast, and feared him not,
The man that she loved best.
- They turned him into a flash of fire,
And then into a naked man;
But she wrapped her mantle him about,
And then she had him won.
- 'O wae be to ye, Lady Margaret,
And an ill death may you die,
For you've robbed me of the bravest knight
That eer rode in our company.'