{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/child/ch287.htm","path":"neu/eng/child/ch287.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch287.htm","text":"287A.1 STRIKE up, you lusty gallants, with musick and sound of drum,\nFor we have descryed a rover, upon the sea is come;\nHis name is Captain Ward, right well it doth appear,\nThere has not been such a rover found out this thousand year.\n287A.2 For he hath sent unto our king, the sixth of January,\nDesiring that he might come in, with all his company:\n\u2018And if your king will let me come till I my tale have told,\nI will bestow for my ransome full thirty tun of gold.\u2019\n287A.3 \u2018O nay! O nay!\u2019 then said our king, \u2018O nay! this may not be,\nTo yield to such a rover my self will not agree;\nHe hath deceivd the French-man, likewise the King of Spain,\nAnd how can he be true to me that hath been false to twain?\u2019\n287A.4 With that our king provided a ship of worthy fame,\nRainbow she is called, if you would know her name;\nNow the gallant Rainbow she rowes upon the sea,\nFive hundred gallant seamen to bear her company.\n287A.5 The Dutch-man and the Spaniard she made them for to flye,\nAlso the bonny French-man, as she met him on the sea:\nWhen as this gallant Rainbow did come where Ward did lye,\n\u2018Where is the captain of this ship?\u2019 this gallant Rainbow did cry.\n287A.6 \u2018O that am I,\u2019 says Captain Ward, \u2019There\u2019s no man bids me lye,\nAnd if thou art the king\u2019s fair ship, thou art welcome unto me:\u2019\n\u2018I\u2019le tell thee what,\u2019 says Rainbow, \u2019our king is in great grief\nThat thou shouldst lye upon the sea and play the arrant thief,\n287A.7 \u2018And will not let our merchants ships pass as they did before;\nSuch tydings to our king is come, which grieves his heart full sore.\u2019\nWith that this gallant Rainbow she shot, out of her pride,\nFull fifty gallant brass pieces, charged on every side.\n287A.8 And yet these gallant shooters prevailed not a pin,\nThough they were brass on the out-side, brave Ward was steel within;\n\u2018Shoot on, shoot on,\u2019 says Captain Ward, \u2019your sport well pleaseth me,\nAnd he that first gives over shall yield unto the sea.\n287A.9 \u2018I never wrongd an English ship, but Turk and King of Spain,\nFor and the jovial Dutch-man as I met on the main.\nIf I had known your king but one two years before,\nI would have savd brave Essex life, whose death did grieve me sore.\n287A.10 \u2018Go tell the King of England, go tell him thus from me,\nIf he reign king of all the land, I will reign king at sea.\u2019\nWith that the gallant Rainbow shot, and shot, and shot in vain,\nAnd left the rover\u2019s company, and returnd home again.\n287A.11 \u2018Our royal king of England, your ship\u2019s returned again,\nFor Ward\u2019s ship is so strong it never will be tane:\u2019\n\u2018O everlasting!\u2019 says our king, \u2018I have lost jewels three,\nWhich would have gone unto the seas and brought proud Ward to me.\n287A.12 \u2018The first was Lord Clifford, Earl of Cumberland;\nThe second was the lord Mountjoy, as you shall understand;\nThe third was brave Essex, from field would never flee;\nWhich would a gone unto the seas and brought proud Ward to me.\u2019","title":"The Child Ballads: 287. Captain Ward and the Rainbow","type":"page"}