POSTHUMOUS POEMS
texture was essential to the original form of every genuine Border ballad, and an examination of the MS. of the "Earl of Mar's Daughter" shows, by its innumerable alterations and reconsiderations of the text, that Swinburne laboured with the utmost courage and assiduity to recover the primitive diction and to remove what some one has called "the plague of marketable neatness" which disfigures the usual recast of a romantic ballad. Unfortunately, he did not in this case pursue his task to its conclusion.—E. G.]
It was intill a goodly time,
The first morning in May,
The bonny Earl of Mar's daughter
Went forth hersell to play.
The first morning in May,
The bonny Earl of Mar's daughter
Went forth hersell to play.
She's tane her to the bonny birkenshaw
Amang the fair green leaves;
There she saw a bonny doo
Sat on the leaf o' the tree.
Amang the fair green leaves;
There she saw a bonny doo
Sat on the leaf o' the tree.
"O Coo-me-doo, my love sae true,
Gin ye'll come down to me,
I'll gie ye a cage of good red gowd
For a cage of greenshaw tree.
Gin ye'll come down to me,
I'll gie ye a cage of good red gowd
For a cage of greenshaw tree.
"Gowden hingers roun' your cage,
And siller roun' your wa',
I'll gar ye shine as bonny a bird
As the bonniest ower them a'."
And siller roun' your wa',
I'll gar ye shine as bonny a bird
As the bonniest ower them a'."
She hadna weel these words spoken,
Nor yet she hadna said,
Till Coo-me-doo flew frae the leaves
And lighted on her head.
Nor yet she hadna said,
Till Coo-me-doo flew frae the leaves
And lighted on her head.
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