Child has 2 (A-B) versions of Lady Alice

[ A | B ]

Version A

Name: Lady Alice

Note: a. Bell's Ancient Poems, Ballads,
and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 127.
b. Notes and Queries, Second Series, 1, 418. 
c. Notes and Queries, Second Series, I, 354.

1 LADY ALICE was sitting in her bower-window,
Mending her midnight quoif,
And there she saw as fine a corpse
As ever she saw in her life.

2 'What bear ye, what bear ye, ye six men tall?
What hear ye on your shoulders?'
'We bear the corpse of Giles Collins,
An old and true lover of yours.'

3  '0 lay him down gently, ye six men tall,
All on the grass so green,
And tomorrow, when the sun goes down,
Lady Alice a corpse shall be seen.

4 'And bury me in Saint Mary's church,
All for my love so true,
And make me a garland of marjoram,
And of lemon-thyme, and rue.'

5 Giles Collins was buried all in the east,
Lady Alice all in the west,
And the roses that grew on Giles Collins's grave,
They reached Lady Alice's breast.

6 The priest of the parish he chanced to pass,
And he severed those roses in twain;
Sure never were seen such true lovers before,
Nor eer will there be again.


 Version B

Name: Giles Collins and Proud Lady Anna

Note: Gammer Gurton's Garland, p. 38, ed. 1810.

1 GILES COLLINS he said to his old mother,
Mother, come bind up my head,
And send to the parson of our parish,
For tomorrow I shall be dead. dead,
For tomorrow I shall be dead.

2 His mother she made him some water-gruel,
And stirrd it round with a spoon;
Giles Collins he ate np his water-gruel,
And died before 't was noon.

3 Lady Anna was sitting at her window,
Mending her night-robe and coif;
She saw the very prettiest corpse
She'd seen in all her life.

4 'What bear ye there, ye six strong men,
Upon your shoulders so high?'
'We bear the body of Giles Collins,
Who for love of you did die.'

5 'Set him down, set him down,' Lady Anna she cry'd,
'On the grass that grows so green;
Tomorrow, before the clock strikes ten,
My body shall lye by hisn.'

6 Lady Anna was buried in the east,
Giles Collins was buried in the west;
There grew a lilly from Giles Collins
That touchd Lady Anna's breast.

7 There blew a cold north-easterly wind,
And cut this lilly in twain,
Which never there was seen before,
And it never will again.