1.
'My love has built a bony ship, and set her on the sea,
With seven score good mariners to bear her company;
There's three score is sunk, and three score dead at sea,
And the Lowlands of Holland has twin'd my love and me.
2.
'My love he built another ship, and set her on the main,
And nane but twenty mariners for to bring her hame;
But the weary wind began to rise, and the sea began to rout,
My love then and his bonny ship turn'd withershins about.
3.
'There shall neither coif come on my head nor comb come in my hair;
There shall neither coal nor candle-light shine in my bower mair;
Nor will I love another one until the day I die,
For I never lov'd a love but one, and he's drowned in the sea.'
4.
'O had your tongue, my daughter dear, be still and be content,
There are mair lads in Galloway, ye neen nae sair lament:'
'O there is none in Gallow, there's none at a' for me,
For I never lov'd a love but one, and he's drowned in the sea.'
[Annotations:
2.3: 'rout,' roar.
2.4: 'withershins,' backwards, the wrong way, the opposite of the
desired way. Often = contrary to the way of the sun, but not
necessarily. See note on etymology, Chambers, _Mediæval Stage_,
i. 129.
3.1: 'coif,' cap, head-dress.
4.1: 'had' = haud, hold.
4.2: 'neen nae' = need na, need not.]