Play me up, “Sweet Marie,” I cry'd, And loud the piper blew, And down his bow be threw, Fair dame o' the stranger land! For never a pair o' e'en before Could mar my good bow-hand." Her lips were a cloven hinney-cherrie, Sae tempting to the sight; Fell like the morning light; As through the dance she flew, And dwalt on her comely mou'. O maid unbar the siller bolt, To my chamber let me win, I daur na let ye in, "10 And take, quo she, 'this kame o' gowd, Wi' my lock o' yellow hair, I never maun meet ye mair.' How green the fields, the flowers so fair, How bright the sun, that o'er us passes, How useless these if that there were Nae honest men, nor bonny lasses. Honest men and bonny lasses, * The gentleman who transmitted this song states, “ that he is informed it is the production of Patie Birnie, fiddler, Kinghorn, but as to the truth of the cannot be certain." • b . : .,. God's noblest work's an honest man, A bonny lass by far's the fairest, Honest men, &c. How happy, and how blest the man, His days or nights can ne'er be dreary, Honest men and bonny lasses, They lighted a taper at the dead hour of night, And chaunted their holiest hymn, But her brow and her bosom was damp'd with afright, Her eye was all cheerless and dim: The lady of Ellerslie wept for her lord, And the death-watch beat in her lonely room, For the curtains had shook of their own accord, And the raven flapp'd at her window board, To tell of her warrior's doom. Now sing ye the death-song, and loudly pray For the soul of my knight so dear, Since the warning of God is near, The lord of my bosom is doom'd to die, For William of Ellerslie. Yet knew not his country that ominous hour, Ere the loud matin bell had rung, Had the dirge of her champion sung, On the high-born blood of a martyr slain, No anthem was sung at his holy death-bed, No weeping there was when his bosom bled, And his heart was rent in twain. Oh ! it was not thus when his oaken spear, Was true to the knight forlorn, When hosts of a thousand, were scatter'd like deer, At the blast of the hunter's horn. When he strode o'er the wreck of each well fought field, With the yellow-hair’d chiefs of his native land, His spear was not shiver'd on helmet or shield, And the sword that seem'd fit for archangel to wield, Was light in his terrible hand. Yet bleeding and bound, though the Wallace wight For his much lov'd country die, Than William of Ellerslie, His heart unentomb'd shall with glory be palmid, A nobler was never embalm'd. AND HAS SHE THEN FAIL'D IN HER TRUTH'. And has she then fail'd in her truth, The beautiful maid I adore,' . Nor see her lov’d form any more, * From the Persian tale of Selima and Azor; also introduced 10 Farce of “ Love in a Village," |