“Get dancers here to dance,” she said, “And minstrells for to play; For here’s my young son, Florentine, Come here wi me to stay.”
“Get nae dancers to dance, mither, Nor minstrells for to play, For the mither o my seven sons, The morn’s her wedding-day.”
“O tell me, tell me, Florentine, Tell me, and tell me true, Tell me this day without a flaw, What I will do for you.”
“Instead of dancers to dance, mither, Or minstrells for to play, Turn four-and-twenty wall-wight men Like storks in feathers gray;
“My seven sons in seven swans, Aboon their heads to flee; And I mysell a gay gos-hawk, A bird o high degree.”
Then sichin said the queen hersell, “That thing’s too high for me;” But she applied to an auld woman, Who had mair skill than she.
Instead o dancers to dance a dance, Or minstrells for to play, Four-and-twenty wall-wight men Turnd birds o feathers gray;
Her seven sons in seven swans, Aboon their heads to flee; And he himsell a gay gos-hawk, A bird o high degree.
This flock o birds took flight and flew Beyond the raging sea, And landed near the Earl Mar’s castle, Took shelter in every tree.
They were a flock o pretty birds, Right comely to be seen; The people viewd them wi surprise, As they dancd on the green.
These birds ascended frae the tree And lighted on the ha, And at the last wi force did flee Amang the nobles a’.
The storks there seized some o the men, They coud neither fight nor flee; The swans they bound the bride’s best man Below a green aik tree.
They lighted next on maidens fair, Then on the bride’s own head, And wi the twinkling o an ee The bride and them were fled.
There’s ancient men at weddings been For sixty years or more, But sic a curious wedding-day They never saw before.
For naething coud the companie do, Nor naething coud they say But they saw a flock o pretty birds That took their bride away.
When that Earl Mar he came to know Where his dochter did stay, He signd a bond o’ unity, And visits now they pay.
Her mother died when she was young, Which gave her cause to make great moan; Her father married the warst woman That ever lived in Christendom.
She served her with foot and hand, In every thing that she could dee, Till once, in an unlucky time, She threw her in ower Craigy’s sea.