Folk Songs from the Eastern Counties - No. 10, The Saucy Bold Robber (Arr. for Voice & String Quartet by Roderick Williams) (东部郡县民歌集 - 第10首，大胆的强盗（罗德里克·威廉姆斯改编为声乐与弦乐四重奏）) (Voice and string quartet)

O come you good people that go out a-tripping,

I pray give attention and listen to my song.

I’ll sing you a ditty of a jolly bold robber,

Stood seven feet high, in proportion quite strong.

He robbèd a lord and he robbèd a lady,

Five hundred bright guineas from each one of them;

Till, as he was a-walking, he met a young sailor,

And bold as a lion he steppèd up to him.

‘Deliver your money, my jolly young sailor,

You’ve plenty of bulk in your pocket I see.’

‘Aye aye,’ says the sailor, ‘I’ve plenty of money,

But while I have life I have got none for thee.

I’ve just left my shipping and taken my money,

I’m bound for old England my friends for to see.

I’ve ninety bright guineas my friends to make merry,

So I pray jolly robber, don’t you take them from me.’

Then the saucy bold robber struck the jolly young sailor,

Such a blow on the head which brought him to the ground.

‘Aye aye,’ says the sailor, ‘You have struck me quite heavy,

But I must endeavour to return it again.’

O then they both strippèd, like lambkins they skippèd,

They went life for life like to soldiers in field;

And the ninety-eighth meeting it was a completement,

And this jolly young sailor the robber near killed.

Says the jolly young sailor to the saucy bold robber

‘I hope you won’t lay any blame unto me.

If I’d been a robber of ten hundred guineas,

I ne’er would have stopped a poor sailor like me.’