A Famous SEA-FIGHT
BETWEEN
Captain WARD and the RAINBOW.
To the Tune of, Captain Ward, etc.
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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 descryed 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 this thousand year:
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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 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 said our King,
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O nay, this may 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 deceiv'd the French man;
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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 has 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 called,
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if you would know her name;
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Now the gallant Rainbow
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she rows upon the Sea,
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Five hundred gallant Seamen
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to 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 bonny French man,
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as she met him on the Sea.
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When as this gallant Rainbow
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did come where Ward did lye,
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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, says Captain Ward,
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there's no man bids me lye;
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And if thou art the King's fair ship,
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thou art welcome unto me.
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I'll tell thee what, says 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 merchants ships
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pass as they did before;
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Such tydings 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 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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Though they were brass on the outside,
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brave Ward was steel within:
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Shoot on, shoot on, says 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 wrong'd an English ship,
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but Turk and King of Spain,
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And the jovial Dutch man
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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 sav'd 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 reign King of all the Land,
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I will reign King at Sea.
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With that the gallant Rainbow shot
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and shot and shot in vain,
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And left the Rover's company,
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and return'd home again:
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Our Royal King of England,
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your ship's return'd again,
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For Wards ship is so strong
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it never will be tane.
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O everlasting, says our 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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Earl 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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Which would a gone unto the Seas,
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and brought proud Ward to me.
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