{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/boeb/boeb27.htm","path":"neu/eng/boeb/boeb27.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/boeb/boeb27.htm","text":"FOUR and twenty bonny boys\n \u00a0\u00a0Were playing at the ba',\n And up it stands him sweet Sir Hugh,\n \u00a0\u00a0The flower among them a'.\nHe kicked the ba' there wi' his foot,\n \u00a0\u00a0And keppit it wi' his knee,\n Till even in at the Jew's window\n \u00a0\u00a0He gart the bonny ba' flee.\n\"Cast out the ba' to me, fair maid,\n \u00a0\u00a0Cast out the ba' to me.\"\n \"Never a bit,\" says the Jew's daughter,\n \u00a0\u00a0Till ye come up to me.\"\n\"Come up, sweet Hugh, come up, dear Hugh,\n \u00a0\u00a0Come up and get the ba'.\"\n \"I winna come, I mayna come,\n \u00a0\u00a0Without my bonny boys a'.\"\nShe's ta'en her to the Jew's garden,\n \u00a0\u00a0Where the grass grew lang and green,\n She's pu'd an apple red and white,\n \u00a0\u00a0To wyle the bonny boy in.\nShe's wyled him in through ae chamber,\n \u00a0\u00a0She's wyled him in through twa,\n She's wyled him into the third chamber,\n \u00a0\u00a0And that was the warst o' a'.\nShe's tied the little boy, hands and feet,\n \u00a0\u00a0She's pierced him wi' a knife,\n She's caught his heart's blood in a golden cup,\n \u00a0\u00a0And twinn'd him o' his life.\nShe row'd him in a cake o' lead,\n \u00a0\u00a0Bade him lie still and sleep,\n She cast him in a deep draw-well\n \u00a0\u00a0Was fifty fathom deep.\nWhen bells were rung, and mass was sung,\n \u00a0\u00a0And every bairn went hame,\n Then ilka lady had her young son,\n \u00a0\u00a0But Lady Helen had nane.\nShe row'd her mantle her about,\n \u00a0\u00a0And sair, sair 'gan she weep;\n And she ran unto the Jew's house,\n \u00a0\u00a0When they were all asleep.\n\"My bonny Sir Hugh, my pretty Sir Hugh,\n \u00a0\u00a0I pray thee to me speak!\"\n \"Lady Helen, come to the deep draw-well\n \u00a0\u00a0'Gin ye your son wad seek.\"\nLady Helen ran to the deep draw-well,\n \u00a0\u00a0And knelt upon her knee:\n \"My bonny Sir Hugh, an ye be here,\n \u00a0\u00a0I pray thee speak to me!\"\n\"The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,\n \u00a0\u00a0The well is wondrous deep;\n A keen penknife sticks in my heart,\n \u00a0\u00a0It is hard for me to speak.\n\"Gae hame, gae hame, my mither dear,\n \u00a0\u00a0Fetch me my winding-sheet;\n And at the back o' merry Lincoln,\n \u00a0\u00a0It's there we twa sall meet.\"\nNow Lady Helen she's gane hame,\n \u00a0\u00a0Made him a winding-sheet;\n And at the back o' merry Lincoln,\n \u00a0\u00a0The dead corpse did her meet.\nAnd a' the bells o' merry Lincoln\n \u00a0\u00a0Without men's hands were rung;\n And a' the books o' merry Lincoln\n \u00a0\u00a0Were read without men's tongue:\n Never was such a burial\n \u00a0\u00a0Sin' Adam's days begun.","title":"A Book of Old English Ballads: Hugh of Lincoln","type":"page"}