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O, Brignall
banks are wild and fair,
And Greta woods are green,
And you may gather garlands there,
Would grace a
summer queen:
And as I rode by Dalton Hall,
Beneath the turrets high,
A Maiden on the castle
wall
Was singing merrily:—
'O, Brignall
banks are fresh and fair,
And Greta woods are green!
I'd rather rove with Edmund there
Than reign our
English Queen.'
'If, Maiden, thou wouldst wend
with me
To leave both tower and town,
Thou first
must guess what life lead we,
That dwell by dale and
down:
And if thou canst that riddle read,
As
read full well you may,
Then to the green-wood shalt
thou speed
As blithe as Queen of May.'
Yet
sung she, 'Brignall banks are fair,
And Greta woods
are green!
I'd rather rove with Edmund there
Than reign our English Queen.
'I read you by
your bugle horn
And by your palfrey good,
I read
you for a Ranger sworn
To keep the King's
green-wood.'
'A Ranger, Lady, winds his horn,
And 'tis at peep of light;
His blast is heard at
merry morn,
And mine at dead of night.'
Yet
sung she, 'Brignall banks are fair,
And Greta woods
are gay!
I would I were with Edmund there,
To
reign his Queen of May!
'With burnish'd brand
and musketoon
So gallantly you come,
I read you
for a bold Dragoon,
That lists the tuck of drum.'
'I list no more the tuck of drum,
No more the
trumpet hear;
But when the beetle sounds his hum,
My comrades take the spear.
'And O! though
Brignall banks be fair,
And Greta woods be gay,
Yet mickle must the maiden dare,
Would reign my
Queen of May!
'Maiden! a nameless life I lead,
A nameless death I'll die;
The fiend whose
lantern lights the mead
Were better mate than I!
And when I'm with my comrades met
Beneath the
green-wood bough,
What once we were we all forget,
Nor think what we are now.'
Chorus
Yet Brignall banks are fresh and fair,
And Greta
woods are green,
And you may gather flowers there
Would grace a summer queen.
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