Mollie Charane

________________________________________________
Title:     Mollie Charane
Author: George Borrow [More Titles by Borrow]

MOLLIE CHARANE {1}

"O, Mollie Charane, where got you your gold?"
Lone, lone you have left me here.
"O not in the curragh, deep under the mould."
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

"O, Mollie Charane, where got you your stock?"
Lone, lone you have left me here.
"O not in the curragh from under a block."
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

"O, Mollie Charane, where got you your goods?"
Lone, lone you have left me here.
"O not in the curragh from under two sods."
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

Two pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes--
Lone, lone you have left me here--
For twenty-six years old Mollie did use.
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

His stockings were white, but his sandals, alack!--
Lone, lone you have left me here--
Were not of one colour, one white, t'other black.
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

One sandal was white and t'other dark brown--
Lone, lone you have left me here;--
But he'd two of one colour for kirk and for town.
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

"O, father, I really can't walk by your side"--
Lone, lone you have left me here--
"If you go to the church in those sandals of hide."
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

"O, daughter, my dear, if my brogues give you pain"--
Lone, lone you have left me here--
"There's that in the coffer will make you look fain."
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

A million of curses on Mollie Charane--
Lone, lone you have left me here--
The first who gave tocher to daughter in Man.
Lone, lone, and void of cheer.

Footnote:

{1} This ballad is founded on a real character--a miser--who by various means acquired a considerable property, and was the first person who ever left "tocher," that is fortune, to daughter in Man. His name was Mollie Charane, which words interpreted are "Praise the Lord." He lived and possessed an estate on the curragh, a tract of boggy ground, formerly a forest, on the northern side of the island, between the mighty mountains of the Snefell range and the sea.

[The end]
George Borrow's poem: Mollie Charane

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN