+The Text+ is given from Scott's _Minstrelsy_ (1803), vol. iii. pp.
83-4. His introduction states that it was obtained from recitation in
the Forest of Ettrick, and that it relates to the execution of a Border
freebooter, named Cokburne, by James V., in 1529.
+The Story+ referred to above may have once existed in the ballad, but
the lyrical dirge as it now stands is obviously corrupted with a
broadside-ballad, _The Lady turned Serving-man_, given with
'improvements' by Percy (_Reliques_, 1765, vol. iii. p. 87, etc.).
Compare the first three stanzas of the _Lament_ with stanzas 3, 4, and 5
of the broadside:--
3.
And then my love built me a bower,
Bedeckt with many a fragrant flower;
A braver bower you never did see
Than my true-love did build for me.
4.
But there came thieves late in the night,
They rob'd my bower, and slew my knight,
And after that my knight was slain,
I could no longer there remain.
5.
My servants all from me did flye,
In the midst of my extremity,
And left me by my self alone,
With a heart more cold then any stone.
It is of course impossible to compare the bald style of the broadside
with the beautiful Scottish dirge; and the difficulty of clothing a
bower with lilies, which offends Professor Child, may be disregarded.