For all of you that say that she "only left out a few verses," remember that one of these verses is the verse about Tim the Ostler...the verse that makes the appearance of the British make sense and amplifies the tragedy inherent in the poem by several orders of magnitude.
Here is the verse...it is the fourth verse in the original version, right before the stanza that starts out "one kiss, my bonny sweetheart." The emphasis is mine.
"And dark in the old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
BUT HE LOVED THE LANDLORD'S DAUGHTER,
THE LANDLORD'S RED-LIPPED DAUGHTER,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say..."
One is supposed to infer that Tim, who is just a touch mental, snitched to the redcoats so that the highwayman would be arrested and Tim would have Bess all to himself. This makes the poem that much more tragic, because in trying to win Bess, Tim ends up indirectly causing her death.
For all of you that say that she "only left out a few verses," remember that one of these verses is the verse about Tim the Ostler...the verse that makes the appearance of the British make sense and amplifies the tragedy inherent in the poem by several orders of magnitude.
Here is the verse...it is the fourth verse in the original version, right before the stanza that starts out "one kiss, my bonny sweetheart." The emphasis is mine.
"And dark in the old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked; His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay, BUT HE LOVED THE LANDLORD'S DAUGHTER, THE LANDLORD'S RED-LIPPED DAUGHTER, Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say..."
One is supposed to infer that Tim, who is just a touch mental, snitched to the redcoats so that the highwayman would be arrested and Tim would have Bess all to himself. This makes the poem that much more tragic, because in trying to win Bess, Tim ends up indirectly causing her death.