fe,
The best that ever I knew.
Be merry and glad, be no more sad,
The case is changed new;
For it were ruth, that, for your truth,
Ye should have cause to rue.
Be not dismayed; whatsoever I said
To you when I began;
I will not to the green-wood go; I am no banished man.

_She_. These tidings be more glad to me,
Than to be made a queen,
If I were sure they should endure;
But it is often seen,
When men will break promise, they speak
The wordis on the spleen.
Ye shape some wile me to beguile,
And steal from me, I ween:
Then were the case worse than it was,
And I more wobegone;
For, in my mind, of all mankind
I love but you alone.

_He_. Ye shall not need further to dread;
I will not disparage
You (God defend), sith ye descend
Of so great lineage.
Now understand; to Westmoreland,
Which is my heritage,
I will you bring; and with a ring,
By way of marriage
I will you take, and lady make,
As shortly as I can.
Thus have you won an Erle's son,
And not a banished man.

_Here may ye see, that woman be
In love, meek, kind, and stable:
Let never man reprove them than,
Or call them variable;
But rather pray God that we may
To them be comfortable;
Which sometimes proveth such, as He loveth,
If they be charitable.
For sith men would that women should
Be meek to them each one;
Much more ought they to God obey,
And serve but Him alone._

SIR HUGH OF LINCOLN

FOUR and twenty bonny boys
Were playing at the ba';
Then up and started sweet Sir Hugh,
The flower amang them a'.

He hit the ba' a kick wi's fit,
And kept it wi' his knee,
That up into the Jew's window
He gart the bonny ba' flee.

'Cast doun the ba' to me, fair maid,
Cast doun the ba' to me ';
'O ne'er a bit o' the ba' ye get
Till ye cum up to me.

'Cum up, sweet Hugh, cum up, dear Hugh,
Cum up and get the ba'';
'I canna cum, I darna cum,
Without my playferes twa.'

'Cum up, sweet Hugh, cum up, dear Hugh,
Cum up and play wi' me';
I canna cum, I darna cum,
Without my playferes three.'

She's gane into the Jew's garden,
Where the grass grew lang and green;
She pow'd an apple red and white,
To wyle the young thing in.

She wyl'd him into ae chamber,
She wyl'd him into twa;
She wyl'd him to her ain chamber,
The fairest o' them a'.

She laid him on a dressing-board
Where she did sometimes dine;
She put a penknife in his heart
And dressed him like a swine.

Then out and cam the thick, thick blude,
Then out and cam the thin;
Then ou