{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/child/ch295.htm","path":"neu/eng/child/ch295.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch295.htm","text":"295A.1 \u2018I am as brown as brown can be,\nMy eyes as black as a sloe;\nI am as brisk as a nightingale,\nAnd as wilde as any doe.\n295A.2 \u2018My love has sent me a love-letter,\nNot far from yonder town,\nThat he could not fancy me,\nBecause I was so brown.\n295A.3 \u2018I sent him his letter back again,\nFor his love I valu\u2019d not,\nWhether that he could fancy me\nOr whether he could not.\n295A.4 \u2018He sent me his letter back again,\nThat he lay dangerous sick,\nThat I might then go speedily\nTo give him up his faith.\u2019\n295A.5 Now you shall hear what love she had\nThen for this love-sick man;\nShe was a whole long summer\u2019s day\nIn a mile a going on.\n295A.6 When she came to her love\u2019s bed-side,\nWhere he lay dangerous sick,\nShe could not for laughing stand\nUpright upon her feet.\n295A.7 She had a white wand all in her hand,\nAnd smoothd it all on his breast;\n\u2018In faith and troth come pardon me,\nI hope your soul\u2019s at rest.\n295A.8 \u2018I\u2019ll do as much for my true-love\nAs other maidens may;\nI\u2019ll dance and sing on my love\u2019s grave\nA whole twelvemonth and a day.\u2019\n295B: The Brown Girl\n295B.1 \u2018I am as brown as brown can be,\nAnd my eyes as black as sloe;\nI am as brisk as brisk can be,\nAnd wild as forest doe.\n295B.2 \u2018My love he was so high and proud,\nHis fortune too so high,\nHe for another fair pretty maid\nMe left and passed me by.\n295B.3 \u2018Me did he send a love-letter,\nHe sent it from the town,\nSaying no more he loved me,\nFor that I was so brown.\n295B.4 \u2018I sent his letter back again,\nSaying his love I valued not,\nWhether that he would fancy me,\nWhether that he would not.\n295B.5 \u2018When that six months were overpassd,\nWere overpassd and gone,\nThen did my lover, once so bold,\nLie on his bed and groan.\n295B.6 \u2018When that six months were overpassd,\nWere gone and overpassd,\nO then my lover, once so bold,\nWith love was sick at last.\n295B.7 \u2018First sent he for the doctor-man:\n\u2018You, doctor, me must cure;\nThe pains that now do torture me\nI can not long endure.\u2019\n295B.8 \u2018Next did he send from out the town,\nO next did send for me;\nHe sent for me, the brown, brown girl\nWho once his wife should be.\n295B.9 \u2018O neer a bit the doctor-man\nHis sufferings could relieve;\nO never an one but the brown, brown girl\nWho could his life reprieve.\u2019\n295B.10 Now you shall hear what love she had\nFor this poor love-sick man,\nHow all one day, a summer\u2019s day,\nShe walked and never ran.\n295B.11 When that she came to his bedside,\nWhere he lay sick and weak,\nO then for laughing she could not stand\nUpright upon her feet.\n295B.12 \u2018You flouted me, you scouted me,\nAnd many another one;\nNow the reward is come at last,\nFor all that you have done.\u2019\n295B.13 The rings she took from off her hands,\nThe rings by two and three:\n\u2018O take, O take these golden rings,\nBy them remember me.\u2019\n295B.14 She had a white wand in her hand,\nShe strake him on the breast:\n\u2018My faith and troth I give back to thee,\nSo may thy soul have rest.\u2019\n295B.15 \u2018Prithee,\u2019 said he, \u2019Forget, forget,\nPrithee forget, forgive;\nO grant me yet a little space,\nThat I may be well and live.\u2019\n295B.16 \u2018O never will I forget, forgive,\nSo long as I have breath;\nI\u2019ll dance above your green, green grave\nWhere you do lie beneath.\u2019","title":"The Child Ballads: 295. The Brown Girl","type":"page"}