Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish ballads

269
SWEET WILLIE AND FAIR ANNIE.
Sweet Willie and fair Annie
Sat a' day on a hill ;
And, though they had sitten seven yeir,
They ne'er had talked their fill.
Sweet Willie said a word in haste ;
Fair Annie took it ill :
" O, I will never wed a wife,*
Against my parents' will."
" Gif ye will never wed a wife,
A wife will ne'er wed ye !"
Sae he is hame to tell his mother,
As fast as he could hie.
" O sleep ye, wake ye, mother ?" he says,
" Or are the bouir within ?"
" I sleep richt aft, I wake richt aft ;f
What want ye wi' me, my son ?
Where hae ye been a' nicht, Willie ?
O wow ! ye've tarried lang I"
" I have been courtin fair Annie,
And she is frae me gane.
There are twa maidens in a bouir ;
Which o' them shall I bring ?
* '• I winna wed a tocherless may. '
Var. in Mr Burton's MS. '
t That is, my slumbers are short, broken, and interrupted ; a charac-
teristie of age :
Ma'Xa TO yri^at, Tii[XQV ailffvov,
Eurip. Sph. in Aul. 1. 4.
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