The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

From Brig o’ Dread when thou may’st pass,
—Every nighte and alle,
To Purgatory fire thou com’st at last;
And Christe receive thy saule.
If ever thou gavest meat or drink,
—Every nighte and alle,
The fire sall never make thee shrink
And Christe receive thy saule.
‘Lyke-Wake Dirge’
When captains courageous whom death could not daunt,
Did march to the siege of the city of Gaunt,
They mustered their soldiers by two and by three,
And the foremost in battle was Mary Ambree.
‘Mary Ambree’
For in my mind, of all mankind
I love but you alone.
‘The Nut Brown Maid’
For I must to the greenwood go
Alone, a banished man.
‘The Nut Brown Maid’
Marie Hamilton’s to the kirk gane
Wi’ ribbons on her breast;
The King thought mair o’ Marie Hamilton
Than he listen’d to the priest.
‘The Queen’s Maries’
Yestreen the Queen had four Maries,
The night she’ll hae but three;
There was Marie Seaton, and Marie Beaton,
And Marie Carmichael, and me.
‘The Queen’s Maries’
‘O what is longer than the wave?
And what is deeper than the sea?
What is greener than the grass?
And what is more wicked than a woman once was?...’
‘Love is longer than the wave,
And hell is deeper than the sea.
Envy’s greener than the grass,
And the de’il more wicked than a woman e’er was.’
As soon as she the fiend did name,