Pleasant New Ballad to sing Evening and morn, / Of the Bloody murder of Sir John Barley-corn". The following two verses are from this 1624 version:Yestreen, I heard a pleasant greeting A pleasant toy and full of joy, two noblemen were meeting And as they walked for to sport, upon a summer's day, Then with another nobleman, they went to make affray Whose names was Sir John Barleycorn, he dwelt down in a dale, Who had a kinsman lived nearby, they called him Thomas Good Ale, Another named Richard Beer, was ready at that time, Another worthy knight was there, called Sir William White Wine. The final two verses of this 1624 version show Barleycorn's vengeance through intoxicating his killers:When Sir John Goodale he came with mickle might Then he took their tongues away, their legs or else their sight And thus Sir John in each respect, so paid them all their hire That some lay sleeping by the way, some tumbling in the mire Some lay groaning by the walls, some in the streets downright, The best of them did scarcely know, what they had done oernight All you good wives that brew good ale, God turn from you all teen But is you put too much liquor in, the Devil put out your een. Robert Burns (1782) Robert Burns published his own version in 1782, which adds a more mysterious undertone and became the model for most subsequent versions of the ballad. Burns's version begins:There was three kings unto the east, Three kings both great and high, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn should die. They took a plough and plough'd him down, Put clods upon his head, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn was dead.Unlike other versions, Robert Burns makes John Barleycorn into a saviour:And they hae taen his very heart's blood, And drank it round and round; And still the more and more they drank, Their joy did more abound. John Barleycorn was a hero bold, Of noble enterprise; For if you do but taste his blood, 'Twill make your courage rise. 'Twill make a man forget his woe; 'Twill heighten all his joy; 'Twill make the widow's heart to sing, Tho' the tear were in her eye. Then let us toast John Barleycorn, Each man a glass in hand; And may his great posterity Ne'er fail in old Scotland!