+The Texts+ of these two variations on the same theme are taken from
T. Ravenscroft's _Melismata_, 1611, and Scott's _Minstrelsy_, 1803,
respectively. There are several other versions of the Scots ballad,
while Motherwell prints _The Three Ravens_, changing only the burden.
Chappell (_Popular Music of the Olden Time_) says of the English version
that he has been 'favored with a variety of copies of it, written down
from memory; and all differing in some respects, both as to words and
tune, but with sufficient resemblance to prove a similar origin.'
Consciously or not, the ballad, as set by him to its traditional tune,
is to be sung without the threefold repetition shown by Ravenscroft,
thus compressing two verses of the ballad into each repetition of the
tune, and halving the length of the song.