{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/child/ch105.htm","path":"neu/eng/child/ch105.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch105.htm","text":"105.1 THERE was a youth, and a well belovd youth,\nAnd he was a esquire\u2019s son,\nHe loved the bayliff\u2019s daughter dear,\nThat lived in Islington.\n105.2 She was coy, and she would not believe\nThat he did love her so,\nNo, nor at any time she would\nAny countenance to him show.\n105.3 But when his friends did understand\nHis fond and foolish mind,\nThey sent him up to fair London,\nAn apprentice for to bind.\n105.4 And when he had been seven long years,\nAnd his love he had not seen,\n\u2018Many a tear have I shed for her sake\nWhen she little thought of me.\u2019\n105.5 All the maids of Islington\nWent forth to sport and play;\nAll but the bayliff\u2019s daughter dear;\nShe secretly stole away.\n105.6 She put off her gown of gray,\nAnd put on her puggish attire;\nShe\u2019s up to fair London gone,\nHer true-love to require.\n105.7 As she went along the road,\nThe weather being hot and dry,\nThere was she aware of her true-love,\nAt length came riding by.\n105.8 She stept to him, as red as any rose,\nAnd took him by the bridle-ring:\n\u2018I pray you, kind sir, give me one penny,\nTo ease my weary limb.\u2019\n105.9 \u2018I prithee, sweetheart, canst thou tell me\nWhere that thou wast born?\u2019\n\u2018At Islington, kind sir,\u2019 said she,\nWhere I have had many a scorn.\u2019\n105.10 \u2018I prithee, sweetheart, canst thou tell me\nWhether thou dost know\nThe bailiff\u2019s daughter of Islington?\u2019\n\u2018She\u2019s dead, sir, long ago.\u2019\n105.11 \u2018Then will I sell my goodly steed,\nMy saddle and my bow;\nI will into some far countrey,\nWhere no man doth me know.\u2019\n105.12 \u2018O stay, O stay, thou goodly youth!\nShe\u2019s alive, she is not dead;\nHere she standeth by thy side,\nAnd is ready to be thy bride.\u2019\n105.13 \u2018O farewel grief, and welcome joy,\nTen thousand times and more!\nFor now I have seen my own true-love,\nThat I thought I should have seen no more.\u2019","title":"The Child Ballads: 105. The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington","type":"page"}