{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/child/ch292.htm","path":"neu/eng/child/ch292.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch292.htm","text":"292A.1 \u2018WHEN will your marry me, William,\nAnd make me your wedded wife?\nOr take you your keen bright sword\nAnd rid me out of my life.\u2019\n292A.2 \u2018Say no more so then, lady,\nSay you no more then so,\nFor you shall into the wild forrest,\nAnd amongst the buck and doe.\n292A.3 \u2018Where thou shalt eat of the hips and haws,\nAnd the roots that are so sweet,\nAnd thou shalt drink of the cold water,\nThat runs underneath [thy] feet.\u2019\n292A.4 Now she had not been in the wild forrest\nPassing three months and a day\nBut with hunger and cold she had her fill,\nTill she was quite worn away.\n292A.5 At last she saw a fair tyl\u2019d-house,\nAnd there she swore by the rood\nThat she would to that fair tyl\u2019d-house,\nThere for to get her some food.\n292A.6 But when she came unto the gates,\nAloud, aloud she cry\u2019d,\nAn alms, an alms, my own sister!\nI ask you for no pride.\n292A.7 Her sister calld up her merry men all,\nBy one, by two, and by three,\nAnd bid them hunt away that wild doe,\nAs far as ere they could see.\n292A.8 They hunted her ore hill and dale,\nAnd they hunted her so sore\nThat they hunted her into the forrest,\nWhere her sorrows grew more and more.\n292A.9 She laid a stone all at her head,\nAnd another all at her feet,\nAnd down she lay between these two,\nTill death had lulld her asleep.\n292A.10 When sweet Will came and stood at her head,\nAnd likewise stood at her feet,\nA thousand times he kist he[r] cold lips,\nHer body being fast asleep.\n292A.11 Yea, seaven times he stood at her feet,\nAnd seaven times at her head,\nA thousand times he shook her hand,\nAlthough her body was dead.\n292A.12 \u2018Ah wretched me!\u2019 he loudly cry\u2019d,\n\u2018What is it that I have done?\nO woud to the powers above I\u2019de dy\u2019d,\nWhen thus I left her alone!\n292A.13 \u2018Come, come, you gentle red-breast now,\nAnd prepare for us a tomb,\nWhilst unto cruel Death I bow,\nAnd sing like a swan my doom.\n292A.14 \u2018Why could I ever cruel be\nUnto so fair a creature?\nAlas! she dy\u2019d for love of me,\nThe loveliest she in nature!\n292A.15 \u2018For me she left her home so fair\nTo wander in ths wild grove,\nAnd there with sighs and pensive care\nShe ended her life for love.\n292A.16 \u2018O constancy, in her thou\u2019rt lost!\nNow let women boast no more;\nShe\u2019s fled unto the Elizium coast,\nAnd with her carryd the store.\n292A.17 \u2018O break, my heart, with sorrow filld,\nCome, swell, you strong tides of grief!\nYou that my dear love have killd,\nCome, yield in death to me relief.\n292A.18 \u2018Cruel her sister, was\u2019t for me\nThat to her she was unkind?\nHer hunband I will never be,\nBut with this my love be joynd.\n292A.19 \u2018Grim Death shall tye the marriage-bands,\nWhich jealousie shan\u2019t divide;\nTogether shall tye our cold hands,\nWhilst here we lye side by side.\n292A.20 \u2018Witness, ye groves, and chrystial streams,\nHow faithless I late have been,\nBut do repent with dying leaves\nOf that my ungrateful sin;\n292A.21 \u2018And wish a thousand times that I\nHad been but to her more kind,\nAnd not have let a virgin dye\nWhose equal there\u2019s none can find.\n292A.22 \u2018Now heaps of sorrow press my soul;\nNow, now \u2019tis she takes her way;\nI come, my love, without controule,\nNor from thee will longer stay.\u2019\n292A.23 With that he fetchd a heavy groar\nWhich rent his tender breast,\nAnd then by her he laid him down,\nWhen as death did give him rest.\n292A.24 Whilst mournful birds, with leavy boughs,\nTo them a kind burial gave,\nAnd warbled out their love-sick vows,\nWhilst they both slept in their grave.","title":"The Child Ballads: 292. The West-Country Damosel's Complaint","type":"page"}