The English and Scottish Popular Ballads/Part 3/Chapter 82

by Francis James Child

82

The Bonny Birdy

Jamieson-Brown MS., fol. 42; Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I. 162.

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Jamieson, in printing this ballad, gave the husband the name Lord Randal, made many changes, and introduced several stanzas, "to fill up chasms." But the chasms, such as they are, are easily leapt by the imagination, and Jamieson's interpolations are mere bridges of carpenter's work. The admirably effective burden is taken into the story at stanza 11. As Jamieson remoulds the ballad, it is no burden, but a part of the dialogue throughout.

The main part of the action is the same as in 'Little Musgrave.' The superior lyrical quality of the Scottish ballad makes up for its inferiority as a story, so that on the whole it cannot be prized much lower than the noble English ballad.

Cunningham has rewritten the ballad in his own style, pretending, as often, to have known another recited copy: 'Sir Hugh,' Songs of Scotland, II, 130.

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1 There was a knight, in a summer's night,
 Was riding oer the lee, diddle
An there he saw a bonny birdy,
 Was singing upon a tree. diddle
  O wow for day! diddle
  An dear gin it were day! diddle
  Gin it were day, an gin I were away!
  For I ha na lang time to stay. diddle

2 'Make hast, make hast, ye gentle knight,
 What keeps you here so late?
Gin ye kent what was doing at hame,
 I fear you woud look blate.'

3 'O what needs I toil day an night,
 My fair body to kill,
Whan I hae knights at my comman,
 An ladys at my will?'

4 'Ye lee, ye lee, ye gentle knight,
 Sa loud's I hear you lee;
Your lady's a knight in her arms twa
 That she lees far better nor the.'

5 'Ye lee, you lee, you bonny birdy,
 How you lee upo my sweet!
I will tak out my bonny bow,
 An in troth I will you sheet.'

6 'But afore ye hae your bow well bent,
 An a' your arrows yare,
I will flee till another tree,
 Whare I can better fare.'

7 'O whare was you gotten, and whare was ye clecked?
 My bonny birdy, tell me:'
'O I was clecked in good green wood,
 Intill a holly tree;
A gentleman my nest herryed,
 An ga me to his lady.

8 'Wi good white bread an farrow-cow milk
 He bade her feed me aft,
An ga her a little wee simmer-dale wanny,
 To ding me sindle and saft.

9. 'Wi good white bread an farrow-cow milk
 I wot she fed me nought,
But wi a little wee simmer-dale wanny
 She dang me sair an aft:
Gin she had deen as ye her bade,
 I woudna tell how she has wrought.'

10 The knight he rade, and the birdy flew,
 The live-lang simmer's night,
Till he came till his lady's bowr-door,
Then even down he did light:
The birdy sat on the crap of a tree,
 An I wot it sang fu dight.

11 'O wow for day! diddle
 An dear gin it were day! diddle
Gin it were day, an gin I were away!
 For I ha na lang time to stay.' diddle

12 'What needs ye lang for day, diddle
 An wish that you were away? diddle
Is no your hounds i my cellar,
 Eating white meal an gray?' diddle
  O wow, etc.

13 'Is nae your steed in my stable,
 Eating good corn an hay?
An is nae your hawk i my perch-tree,
 Just perching for his prey?
An is nae yoursel i my arms twa?
 Then how can ye lang for day?'

14 'O wow for day! diddle
 An dear gin it were day! diddle
For he that's in bed wi anither man's wife
 Has never lang time to stay.' diddle

15 Then out the knight has drawn his sword,
 An straiked it oer a strae,
An thro and thro the fa'se knight's waste
 He gard cauld iron gae:
An I hope ilk ane sal sae be servd
 That treats ane honest man sae.

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The burden stands thus in the manuscript after the first stanza:

O wow for day, diddle
An dear gin it were day, diddle
Gin it were day, diddle
I were away,
For I ha na lang time to stay. diddle

13¹. nae you. (?)