Auld Robin Gray (1)/The Captain of Love

by Anne Barnard

The CAPTAIN of LOVE.

THERE was a rich noble, as lately we hear,
He had but one daughter moſt charming & fair,
Whom he much admired, yet this beautiful child,
By fly Cupid’s arrow in love was beguil’d.

Her father being dead—One day for her eaſe,
To viſit her workmen ſhe rode in her chaiſe,
A handſome young plowman ſhe there did eſpy,
And in raptures upon him ſhe fixed her eye.

This flame in her boſom ſo ſtrongly did glow,
To gaze on his beauty to the fields ſhe would go:
He whiſtled ſo ſweetly made the vallies to ring,
He had cheeks like the roſes that bloom in the Spring.

Then home to her maidens this lady ſhe goes,
And reſolved to dreſs in gay regimental cloaths,
With broad ſword in hand, ſhe went to the grove,
And the plowman was preſs’d by the captain of love.

Unto the young Plowman this lady ſhe ſaid,
Come, come, jolly farmer, and join the parade,
No longer to toil at the plow and to ſow,
But abroad for a ſoldier with me you muſt go.

You’re handſome and proper well fitted to ſhine,
In a lac’d hat and feather, and ſcarlet ſo fine,
Then with me you muſt go and your captain I’ll be,
And a Lady ſhall court you of noble degree.

Within a cloſe room he was ſtraightway confin’d,
While ſhe changed her cloathes and then told him her mind,
In his arms he embrac’d her, & ſolemnly ſwore,
That the Captain of love he would ever adore.

Away then to church ſtraight this young couple went
And were joined in wedlock with mutual content,
How happy the plowman, now changed was he,
From a poor man’s eſtate a rich noble to be.

F I N I S.