Page:Auld Robin Gray (1).pdf/4

 As ſoon as I beheld her this charming beauty bright,

I ſaid, if ſhe wou'd marry me, I hoped yet to live,

She kindly did encourage me, ſo I grew well again,

So of my bonny Jenny Bell I grew wondrous ſain.

I've cloth'd her like a lady, ſhe like a queen appears,

I'm younger like already by more than twenty years,

She uſes me ſo kindly, ſo well we do agree,

No mortal lives more friendly than Jenny Bell and me.

Raw near you young gallants, while I do enfold,

A tragical ſtory as ever was told,

It's of a young couple, whoſe hearts were linked faſt,

Till death broke aſunder their contract at laſt.

Near Exeter city this couple did dwell,

The laſs was ſo pretty, few could her excel,

Moſt comely in favour, moſt proper and tall,

And conſtant in heart, the beſt virtue of all.

But Cupid, who cunningly fixed his dart,

Had ſhot this fair maid, and wounded her heart,

With his cunning arrows had wounded her ſo,

For love it will creep where it cannot well go.

A briſk young ſhop-keeper who lived hard by,

Would oft on this damſel be caſting an eye,

She often with ſmiles upon him did the ſame,

They both were poſſeſs’d with a ſecret flame.

For love, which could then be no longer conceal’d,

By this loving couple was quickly reveal’d,

As they one evening did meet in a grove,

The young man began to diſcover his love.

Well met, my dear miſtreſs, the joy of my heart,

The height of perfection in every part,

The love which I long in my heart have conceal’d,

Shall here to my deareſt be quickly reveal’d.