The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #8867   Message #2476194
Posted By: Jim Dixon
25-Oct-08 - 09:50 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Maid Who Sold Her Barley
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAID THAT SOLD HER BARLEY (Bodleian)
From the Bodleian Library Ballads Catalogue: Harding B 11(2300):

THE MAID THAT SOLD HER BARLEY.

1. Cold and raw the north wind blows,
    bleak in the morning early.
When all the hills are covered in snow,
    then comes winter fairly;
And as I then rode over the moor,
    I met with a farmer's daughter.
Her two red cheeks and her rolling black eyes
    did cause my mouth to water.

2. I lowered my hat then very low,
    to let her know my breeding.
She answered me with a courteous smile.
    Her looks they were so engaging.
"Where are you going, my pretty fair maid?
    It's now in the morning early."
The answer that she gave to me:
    "Kind sir, to sell my barley."

3. "'Tis twenty guineas I have in my purse,
    and twenty more lies yearly.
You need not go to the market town,
    for I will buy all your barley;
And if twenty pounds would gain the delights
    of a maid that I love dearly,
To tarry with me then all the night
    and go home in the morning early."

4. "If I would tarry with you all night
    and get a young babe together,
It's when nine months would be past and gone,
    where would I go look for its father?
It's first you would bring me to shame and disgrace
    before I would say nay, sir.
If it's me you want to embrace,
    first marry and then you may, sir."

5. He says, "I am a married man
    this nine long months and better,
And I never meet a pretty young lass
    but I love her all the faster."
"Then if you are a married man
    and joined in wedlock fairly,
I pray, kind sir, pass on your way,
    for another will buy my barley."

6. And as I then rode over the moor
    a couple of hours after,
It was my fortune for to meet
    the farmer's only daughter.
Although the night was cold and raw,
    I wanted awhile to parley,
But the answer that she gave to me:
    "Kind sir, I sold my barley."

7. So all the money that I had got
    to her I did deliver,
And then we rode a long way
    till we came to a river.
The river it being large and wide,
    the like I ne'er saw in any,
For she skipt her horse to the other side
    and left me not a penny.

8. "Come back; come back, my pretty fair maiden.
    Indeed I did but lend it."
But the answer that she gave to me:
    "Kind sir, I never intend it;
For all the money that I have got,
    it's not at your disposing,
Then all the money that I have got
    will help to enlarge my fortune."