Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Traditional Ballads

12. The Three Ravens

THERE were three rauens sat on a tree,

Downe a downe, hay down, hay downe

There were three rauens sat on a tree,

With a downe

There were three rauens sat on a tree,

They were as blacke as they might be.

With a downe derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe.

The one of them said to his mate,

“Where shall we our breakefast take?”

“Downe in yonder greene field,

There lies a knight slain vnder his shield.

“His hounds they lie downe at his feete,

So well they can their master keepe.

“His haukes they flie so eagerly,

There’s no fowle dare him come nie.”

Downe there comes a fallow doe,

As great with yong as she might goe.

She lift vp his bloudy hed,

And kist his wounds that were so red.

She got him vp vpon her backe,

And carried him to earthen lake.

She buried him before the prime,

She was dead herselfe ere euen-song time.

God send euery gentleman,

Such haukes, such hounds, and such a leman.