THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL

THERE lived a wife at Usher's Well,
And a wealthy wife was she:

She had three stout and stalwart sons,
And sent them o'er the sea.

They had not been a week from her,
A week but barely ane,

When word came to the carline wife
That her three sons were gane.

They had not been a week from her,
A week but barely three,

When word came to the carline wife
That her sons she'd never see.

'I wish the wind may never cease,
'Nor fishes in the flood,

'Till my three sons come hame to me, 'In earthly flesh and blood!'

It fell about the Martinmas,

When nights are lang and mirk,
The carline wife's three sons came home,
And their hats were of the birk.

It neither grew in syke nor ditch,
Nor yet in ony sheugh;

But at the gates of Paradise

That birk grew fair eneugh.

'Blow up the fire, my maidens !

'Bring water from the well!

'For all my house shall feast this night,

'Since my three sons are well!'

7 carline, old peasant-wo nan

20 birk, birch

18 mirk, murky

21 syke, marsh

22 sheugh, trench

And she has made to them a bed,

She's made it large and wide;
And she's ta'en her mantle her about;
Sat down at the bed-side.

Up then crew the red, red cock,
And up and crew the gray :
The eldest to the youngest said,
"Tis time we were away!

'The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,

'The channerin' worm doth chide :

'If we be miss'd out of our place,
A sore pain we must bide.

'Fare ye well, my mother dear!
'Farewell to barn and byre!
'And fare ye well, the bonny lass,
'That kindles my mother's fire !'

MERRY it is in the good greenwood,

When the mavis and merle are singing, When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are in

cry,

And the hunter's horn is ringing.

'O Alice Brand, my native land

'Is lost for love of you;

'And we must hold by wood and wold,

'As outlaws wont to do!

37 daw, dawn

42 byre, cattle-house

7 hold, live

38 channerin', scolding; probably here, impatient 2 mavis, thrush: merle, blackbird 8 outlaws, persons driven into wild places

'O Alice, 'twas all for thy locks so bright,
' And 'twas all for thine eyes so blue,
'That on the night of our luckless flight,
'Thy brother bold I slew.

'Now must I teach to hew the beech,
'The hand that held the glaive,
'For leaves to spread our lowly bed,
'And stakes to fence our cave.

'And for vest of pall, thy fingers small,
'That wont on harp to stray,

'A cloak must shear from the slaughter'd deer, 'To keep the cold away.'-

-'O Richard! if my brother died, "Twas but a fatal chance :

‘For darkling was the battle tried, 'And fortune sped the lance.

'If pall and vair no more I wear,

'Nor thou the crimson sheen,

As warm, we'll say, is the russet gray; 'As gay the forest-green.

'And, Richard, if our lot be hard,

'And lost thy native land,

Still Alice has her own Richárd,

'And he his Alice Brand.'

II

'Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good greenwood, So blithe Lady Alice is singing;

On the beech's pride, and oak's brown side, Lord Richard's axe is ringing.

14 glaive, broad-sword

24 sped, directed 25 vair, fur

16 pall, fine cloth

35 the lofty beech

Up spoke the moody Elfin King,

Who wonn'd within the hill,

Like wind in the porch of a ruin'd church,
His voice was ghostly shrill.

'Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak,
'Our moonlight circle's screen?

'Or who comes here to chase the deer,
'Beloved of our Elfin Queen?
'Or who may dare on wold to wear
'The fairies' fatal green?

'Up, Urgan, up! to yon mortal hie,
'For thou wert christen'd man :
'For cross or sign thou wilt not fly,
'For mutter'd word or ban.

'Lay on him the curse of the wither'd heart,
'The curse of the sleepless eye;

'Till he wish and pray that his life would part, 'Nor yet find leave to die!'

III

'Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good greenwood, Though the birds have still'd their singing; The evening blaze doth Alice raise,

And Richard is fagots bringing.

Up Urgan starts, that hideous dwarf,
Before Lord Richard stands,

And as he cross'd and bless'd himself,
'I fear not sign,' quoth the grisly elf,

'That is made with bloody hands.' But out then spoke she, Alice Brand, That woman void of fear,'And if there's blood upon his hand, "Tis but the blood of deer.'

37 Elfin, fairy 38 wonn'd, dwelt 47 mortal, man 50 ban, curse

-Now loud thou liest, thou bold of mood!

'It cleaves unto his hand,

'The stain of thine own kindly blood,

'The blood of Ethert Brand.'

Then forward stepp'd she, Alice Brand,
And made the holy sign,--

'And if there's blood on Richard's hand,
'A spotless hand is mine.

'And I conjure thee, Demon elf,

6

By Him whom Demons fear,

'To show us whence thou art thyself, 'And what thine errand here?'

IV

"Tis merry, 'tis merry, in Fairy-land,

'When fairy birds are singing,

'When the court doth ride by their monarch's side, 'With bit and bridle ringing:

'And gaily shines the Fairy land—

'But all is glistening show,

'Like the idle gleam that December's beam

'Can dart on ice and snow.

'And fading, like that varied gleam,

'Is our inconstant shape,

'Who now like knight and lady seem,
'And now like dwarf and ape.

'It was between the night and day,
'When the Fairy King has power,
'That I sunk down in a sinful fray,
'And 'twixt life and death, was snatch'd away
'To the joyless Elfin bower.

76 conjure, order 89 inconstant, changeable 94 fray, quarrel