they had been sister and brother.

7.
When she came to her father's hall,
It was well walled round about;
She yode in at the wicket-gate,
And shut the foure-ear'd foole without.

8.
'You had me,' quoth she, 'abroad in the field,
Among the corne, amidst the hay,
Where you might had your will of mee,
For, in good faith, sir, I never said nay.

9.
'Ye had me also amid the field,
Among the rushes that were so browne,
Where you might had your will of me,
But you had not the face to lay me downe.'

10.
He pulled out his nut-browne sword,
And wipt the rust off with his sleeve,
And said, 'Jove's curse come to his heart,
That any woman would beleeve!'

11.
When you have your own true-love
A mile or twaine out of the towne,
Spare not for her gay clothing,
But lay her body flat on the ground.

[Annotations:
1.2: 'lay' = lea, meadow-land.
4.4: 'divel's mouth.' Skeat has suggested that this metaphor is
derived from the devil's mouth always being wide open in painted
windows.
7.3: 'yode,' went.
7.4: 'foure-ear'd.' Child suggests, 'as denoting a double ass?'
10.1,2: See First Series, Introduction, p. xlix.]

OUR GOODMAN

+The Text+ is from Herd's MSS., as given by Professor Child to form a
regular sequence. The ballad also exists in an English broadside form.

+The Story+ of the ballad has a close counterpart in Flemish Belgium,
and in southern France. The German variants, however, have a curious
history. The English broadside ballad was translated into German by
F. W. Meyer in 1789, and in this form gained such popularity that it was
circulated not only as a broadside, but actually in oral
tradition,--with the usual result of alteration. Its vogue was not
confined to Germany, but spread to Hungary and Scandinavia, a Swedish
broadside appearing within ten years of Meyer's translation.

OUR GOODMAN

1.
Hame came our goodman,
And hame came he,
And then he saw a saddle-horse,
Where nae horse should be.

2.
'What's this now, goodwife?
What's this I see?
How came this horse here,
Without the leave o' me?'
_Recitative_.
'A horse?' quo' she.
'Ay, a horse,' quo' he.

3.
'Shame fa' your cuckold face,
Ill mat ye see!
'Tis naething but a broad sow,
My minnie sent to me.'
'A broad sow?' quo' he.
'Ay, a sow,' quo'