William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
Clerk ColvillAnonymous
C
Were walking in the garden green;
The belt around her stately waist
Cost Clerk Colvill of pounds fifteen.
Or it will cost ye muckle strife,
Ride never by the wells of Slane,
If ye wad live and brook your life.
Now speak nae mair of that to me;
Did I ne’er see a fair woman,
But I wad sin with her body?’
Nought minding what his lady said,
And he’s rode by the wells of Slane,
Where washing was a bonny maid.
That wash sae clean your sark of silk;’
‘And weel fa’ you, fair gentleman,
Your body whiter than the milk.’
‘O my head it pains me sair;’
‘Then take, then take,’ the maiden said,
‘And frae my sark you’ll cut a gare.’
And frae her sark he cut a share;
She’s ty’d it round his whey-white face,
But ay his head it aked mair.
‘O sairer, sairer akes my head;’
‘And sairer, sairer ever will,’
The maiden crys, ‘Till you be dead.’
Thinking to stick her where she stood,
But she was vanished to a fish,
And swam far off, a fair mermaid.
My lusty lady, make my bed;
O brother, take my sword and spear,
For I have seen the false mermaid.’