A Famous SEA-FIGHT,
BETWEEN
Captain Ward and the Rainbow.
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STRIKE up ye lusty gallants,
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With musicks sound of drum,
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For there is such a Rover,
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Upon the sea is come:
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His name is Captain Ward,
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Full well it doth appear,
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There has not been such a Rover
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Found out these thousand years.
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For he hath sent unto the King,
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The sixth of January,
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Desiring that he might come in
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With all his company:
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And if the King will let me come,
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Till I my tale have told,
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I will bestow for my ransom,
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Full thirty ton of Gold.
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O nay, O nay, then said the King,
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O nay, that must not be,
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To yield to such a Rover,
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Myself will not agree.
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He hath deceivd the Frenchmen,
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Likewise the King of Spain,
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Then how can he be true to me,
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Who has been false to twain.
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With that the King provided
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A ship of worthy fame,
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The Rainbow she is calld.
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If you would know her name.
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And now the gallant Rainbow
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She rolls upon the sea,
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Five hundred gallent seamen
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To keep her company:
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The Dutchmen and the Spaniards,
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She made them for to flee,
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Also the bonny Frenchmen,
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As she met on the seas.
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When as the gallant Rainbow.
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Did come where she did lie
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Where is the Captain of that ship,
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The Rainbow she did cry:
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O that I am, said Captain Ward,
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Theres no one bids me lie,
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And if thou art the Kings fair ship,
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Thourt welcome unto me.
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Ill tell thee what, said the Rainbow,
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Our King is in great grief,
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That thou shouldst lie upon the seas,
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And play the errant thief:
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You will not let your merchantmen
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Pass as they did before;
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Such tidings to our King is come,
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Which grieves his heart full sore.
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With that this gallant Rainbow,
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She shot out of her pride,
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Full fifty good brass pieces
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Charged on every side:
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And yet these galant shooters
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Prevailed not a pin,
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Though they were brass on the outside,
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Brave Ward was steel within.
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Shoot on, shoot on, said Captain Ward,
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Your sport well pleaseth me,
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And he that first gives over,
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Shall yield unto the sea.
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I never wrongd an English ship,
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But Turk and King of Spain,
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Likewise the blackguard Dutchmen,
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Which I met on the main:
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If I had known your King,
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But two or three days before,
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I would have savd Lord Essexs life,
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Whose death doth grieve me sore.
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Go tell the King of England,
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Go tell him thus from me,
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If he reigns King of all the land
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I will reign King at sea:
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With that the gallant Rainbow
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She shot and shot in vain;
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Then left the Rover company,
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And home returnd again.
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Our royal King of England,
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Your ships returnd again,
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For Captain Ward he is so strong,
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He never will be taen:
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O everlasting said the King,
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I have lost Jewels three,
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Which would have gone unto the seas,
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And brought proud Ward to me.
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The first was Lord Clifford,
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Great Earl of Cumberland,
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The second was Lord Mountjoy,
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As you shall understand:
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The third was brave Lord Essex,
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From field would never flee;
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Who would have gone unto the sea,
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And brought proud Ward to me.
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