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122 THE FRIAR IN THE WELL. |
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THE FRIAR IN THE WELL.
An old story, often referred to, e. g. in Skelton's Colyn Cloute, v. 879. The ballad is found in various collections in the British Museum, and is cited in part from one of these, in Dyce's note to the passage in Skel-ton. There is a Scottish version in Kinloch's Ballad Book, p. 25. The following is from Durfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, iii. 325 (The Fryer and the Maid), but as that copy is abridged, we have supplied the omitted stanzas from Chappell's Popular Music, p. 278.
As I lay musing all alone,
A merry tale I thought upon ;
Now listen a while, and I will you tell
Of a fryer that loved a bonny lass well.
He came to her when she was going to bed, s
Desiring to have her maidenhead ;
But she denyed his desire,
And said that she did fear hell-fire.
" Tush, tush," quotb the fryer, " thou needst not
doubt, If thou wert in hell, I could sing thee out:" w "Why then," quoth the maid, "thou shalt have
thy request; " The fryer was as glad as a fox in his nest. |
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