A Famous SEA-FIGHT,
BETWEEN
Captain Ward and the Rainbow.
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STRIKE up you lusty gallants,
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With music beat of drum,
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For we have got a Rover
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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 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 may 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 b[e]stow 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 called,
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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 gallant 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 sea.
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When as the gallant Rainbow,
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Did come where he 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 am I, says Capt. Ward,
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Theres 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 our 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 fore.
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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 gallant shooters,
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Prevailed not a pin,
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Tho 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 this 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 Rovers 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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Oh! everlasting said the King,
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I have lost jewels three,
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Which would have gone unto the sea,
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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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