The Famous Sea-Fight between Captain Ward
and the Rain-bow.
To the Tune of Captain Ward.
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STrike up you lusty Gallants,
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with Musick and sound of Drum,
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For we have a Rower,
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upon the Sea is come.
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His name is Captain Ward,
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right well it doth appear:
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There has not been such a Rower
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found out this thousand years.
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For he has sent unto our 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 your King will let me come,
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till I my tale have told,
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I will bestow for my ransome,
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full thirty Tun of Gold.
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O nay, O nay, then sayes our King,
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O nay this may not be,
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To yield to such a Rower,
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my self will not agree.
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He has deceived the Frenchman,
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likewise the King of Spain:
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And how can he be true to me
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that hath been false to twain.
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With that our King provided,
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a Ship of worthy fame,
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Rainbow she is so called,
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if you would know her name.
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Now the gallant Rainbow,
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she Rowes up on the Sea,
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Five hundred gallant Seamen
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do bear her company.
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The Dutch man, and the Spaniard,
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she made them for to flye,
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Also the bony Frenchman,
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as she met them on the Sea.
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WHen as this Gallant Rainbow,
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did come where Ward did lie,
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Where is the Captain of this Ship,
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this gallant Rainbow did cry.
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O that am I sayes Captain Ward,
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theres no man bids me lye,
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And if thou art the Kings fair Ship,
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thou art welcome unto me.
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Ile tell thee what sayes Rainbow,
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our King is in great grief,
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That thou shouldst lye upon the Sea
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and play the Arrant thief.
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And will not let our Merchant Ships
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passe 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 gallant brasse pieces
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charged on every side.
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Although these gallant shooters,
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prevailed not a pin,
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Though they were brass on the outside
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yet Ward was steel within.
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shoot on, shoot on, sayes Captain Ward,
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your sport well pleaseth me,
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And he that first give over,
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shall yield unto the Sea.
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I never wronged an English ship,
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but the Turk and King of Spain,
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For and the Jovial Dutchman,
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as I met on the main.
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If I had known your King,
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but one two years before,
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I would have saved brave Essex life,
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whose death did 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 Raign King of all the Land,
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I will raign King at Sea.
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With that the Royal Rainbow shot,
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and shot, and shot in vain,
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And left the Rovers company,
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and returned home again.
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Our Royal King of England,
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your Ships returnd again,
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For Wards ship is so strong,
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she never will be tane.
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O everlasting sayes our King,
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I have lost Jewels three,
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Which would agone to 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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Earle of Cumberland,
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The second was the Lord Mountjoy,
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as you shall understand.
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The third was brave 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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