ee boy, and still he stude._

2.
'What is that upon your back?'
'Atweel it is my bukes.'

3.
'What's that ye've got in your arm?'
'Atweel it is my peit.'

4.
'Wha's aucht they sheep?'
'They're mine and my mither's.'

5.
'How monie o' them are mine?'
'A' they that hae blue tails.'

6.
'I wiss ye were on yon tree:'
'And a gude ladder under me.'

7.
'And the ladder for to break:'
'And you for to fa' down.'

8.
'I wiss ye were in yon sie:'
'And a gude bottom under me.'

9.
'And the bottom for to break:'
'And ye to be drowned.'

[Annotations:
2.2: 'Atweel,' = I wot well, truly.
3.2: 'peit,' peat, carried to school to contribute to the fire.
4.1: 'Wha's aucht,' who owns.]

THE LORD OF LEARNE

+The Text+ is from the Percy Folio MS., with the spelling modernised,
except in two or three instances for the sake of the rhyme (13.4) or
metre (102.2). Other alterations, as suggested by Child, are noted.
Apart from the irregularities of metre, this ballad is remarkable for
the large proportion of 'e' rhymes, which are found in 71 stanzas, or
two-thirds of the whole. The redundant 'that,' which is a feature of the
Percy Folio, also occurs frequently--in eleven places, three of which
are in optative sentences (8.2, 14.4, 91.4).

The ballad is more commonly known as _The Lord of Lorne_, under which
title we find it registered in the Stationers' Company on October 6,
1580. Guilpin refers to it in his _Skialethia_ (1598), Satire 1, ll.
107-108:--

'... the old ballad of the Lord of Lorne
Whose last line in King Harry's day was born.'

Probably this implies little more than that the ballad was known in
Henry VIII.'s day. Three broadsides are known, two in the Roxburghe and
one in the Pepys collection. Both the Roxburghe ballads are later than
the Folio version.

+The Story+ is derived from that of _Roswall and Lillian_. Roswall, the
king's son, of Naples, overhearing three lords bewailing their long
imprisonment, promised to set them free, and did so by stealing the keys
from under the king's pillow at night. The king, on hearing of their
escape, vowed to slay at sight the man who had set them free. The queen,
however, interceding for her son, Roswall was banished under charge of a
steward. From this point our ballad follows the romance fairly closely.
Roswall and the steward, after changing places, entered the kingdom of
Bealm.