DESCRIPTION:
My attempt at singing all 30 verses of version D of Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight. This version does not mention an Elf or anyone named Isabel, and is generally referred to as "False Sir John," "May Collin" or "May Colvin."
This was recorded for a blog I am writing about the Child Ballads. You can find my post on this song here: http://betterknowachildballad.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/child-4-lady-isabel-and-the-elf-knight-part-1/
O heard ye of a bloody knight,
Lived in the south country?
For he had betrayed eight ladies fair
And drowned them in the sea.

The next he went to May Collin,
She was her father's heir,
The greatest beauty in the land,
I solemnly declare.

I am a knight of wealth and might,
Of townlands twenty-three;
And you'll be lady of them all,
If you will go with me.

'Excuse me, then, Sir John,' she says;
'To wed I am too young;
And without my parents' leave,
With you I dare not go.'

'Your parents' leave you shall have soon,
In that they will agree;
For I have made a solemn vow
This night you'll go with me.'

From below his arm he pulled a charm,
And stuck it in her sleeve,
And he has made her go with him,
Without her parents' leave.

Of gold and silver she has got,
With her twelve hundred pounds,
And the swiftest steed her father had
She took to ride upon.

So quickly then they went along,
They made no stop or stay,
Until they came to the fatal place
That they call the Bunion Bay.

It being in a lonely place,
And no house there was nigh,
The fatal rocks were long and steep,
And none could here her cry.

'Light down,' he said, 'fair May Collin,
Light down and speak with me,
For here I've drowned eight ladies fair,
And the ninth one you shall be.'

'Is this your bowers and lofty towers,
So beautiful and gay?
Or is it for my gold,' she said
'You take my life away?"

'Strip off,' he said, 'they jewels fine,
So costly and so brave,
For they're too lovely and too fine
To throw in the sea wave.'

Take all I have my life to save,
O good Sir John I pray,
Let it neer be said you killed a maid,
Upon her wedding day.

'Strip off,' he said, 'thy Holland smock,
That's bordered with the lawn,
For it's too costly and too fine,
To rot in the sea sand,'
'O turn about, Sir John,' she said,
'Your back about to me,
For it never became a gentleman
A naked woman to see.'

But as he turned him round about,
She threw him in the sea,
Saying "Lie you there, you false Sir John,
Where you thought to put me.

'O lie you there, you traitor false,
Where you thought to put me,
For though you've stripped me to the skin,
Your clothes you've got with thee,'

Her jewels fine she did put on,
So costly and so brave,
And then with speed she mounted his steed,
So well did she behave.

That lady being void of fear,
Her steed being swift and free,
She has reached her father's gate,
Before the clock struck three.

Then first she called the stable groom,
He was her waiting man,
As soon as he heard his lady's voice,
He stood with cap in hand.

'Where have you been, fair May Collin?
Who owns this dapple grey?'
'It is a found one," she replied,
'That I got on the way."

Then up bespoke her pretty parrot,
Unto fair May Collin:
'What have you done with false Sir John,
That went with you riding?'

'O hold you tongue, my pretty parrot,
And talk no more to me,
And where you have had one meal a day,
O now you will have three.'

Then up bespoke her father dear,
From his chamber where he lay:
'What aileth thee, my pretty parrot,
That you chat so long all day?'

'The cat she came to my cage door,
And I feared she would have me
I was calling to May Collin,
To take the cat from me."

Then first May told her father dear,
The deed that she had done,
And next she told her mother dear
Concerning false Sir John.

'If this be true, fair May Collin,
That you have told to me,
Before I either eat or drink,
This false Sir John I'll see.

Away they went with one consent,
At the dawning of the day,
Until they came to the Carline sands,
And there his body lay.

His body tall by that great fall,
By the waves tossed two and fro,
The diamond ring that he had on,
Was broke in pieces two.

And they have taken up his corpse,
To yonder pleasant green,
And there they buried false Sir John,
For fear he should be seen.