e; here figuratively for the thick-set
'nut-browne bride.'
17.3: 'yae tift,' [at] every puff.
19.2: 'stean,' stone.
19.3: 'cleading,' clothing.
19.4: 'skinkled,' glittered.
24.3,4: _i.e._ I was born fair.
26.4: 'wood-wroth,' raging mad.
29, 30: This conclusion to a tragic tale of true-love is common to
many ballads; see _Fair Margaret and Sweet William_ and especially
_Lord Lovel_.
30.1: 'threw,' intertwined.]

THE BROWN GIRL

+The Text+ of this ballad was taken down before the end of the
nineteenth century by the Rev. S. Baring Gould, from a blacksmith at
Thrushleton, Devon.

+The Story+ is a simple little tale which recalls _Barbara Allen_,
_Clerk Sanders_, _Lord Thomas and Fair Annet_, and others. I have placed
it here for contrast, and in illustration of the disdain of 'brown'
maids.

THE BROWN GIRL

1.
'I am as brown as brown can be,
And my eyes as black as sloe;
I am as brisk as brisk can be,
And wild as forest doe.

2.
'My love he was so high and proud,
His fortune too so high,
He for another fair pretty maid
Me left and passed me by.

3.
'Me did he send a love-letter,
He sent it from the town,
Saying no more he loved me,
For that I was so brown.

4.
'I sent his letter back again,
Saying his love I valued not,
Whether that he would fancy me,
Whether that he would not.

5.
'When that six months were overpass'd,
Were overpass'd and gone,
Then did my lover, once so bold,
Lie on his bed and groan.

6.
'When that six months were overpass'd,
Were gone and overpass'd,
O then my lover, once so bold,
With love was sick at last.

7.
'First sent he for the doctor-man:
"You, doctor, me must cure;
The pains that now do torture me
I can not long endure."

8.
'Next did he send from out the town,
O next did send for me;
He sent for me, the brown, brown girl
Who once his wife should be.

9.
'O ne'er a bit the doctor-man
His sufferings could relieve;
O never an one but the brown, brown girl
Who could his life reprieve.'

10.
Now you shall hear what love she had
For this poor love-sick man,
How all one day, a summer's day,
She walked and never ran.

11.
When that she came to his bedside,
Where he lay sick and weak,
O then for laughing she could not stand
Upright upon her feet.

12.
'Y