Page:Bonny Gilderoy.pdf/5

 Who never fail’d to pay their cess

to my love Gilderoy.

Waeworth the loun that made the laws,

to hang a man for gear;

To reave of life for ox or ass,

for sheep, or horse, or mare:

Had not their laws been made sae strick

I ne’er had lost my joy;

Wi’ sorrow near had wat my cheek

for my dear Gilderoy.

Giff Gilderoy had done amiss,

he might hae banish’d been;

Ah! what fair cruelty is this,

to hang sic handsome men!

To hang the flow’r o’ Scottish land,

sae sweet and fair a boy;

Nae lady had sae white a hand

as thee, my Gilderoy.

Of Gilderoy sae ’fraid they were,

they bound bim very slrong;

Tull Edinburgh they led him there,

and on a gallows hung;

They hung him high aboon the rest,

he was sae trim a boy;