Cecil Sharp's Note 19 (1916)

No. 19. Blow away the Morning Dew

This is a shortened form of “The Baffled Knight, or Lady’s Policy” (Percy’s Reliques). The words beginning “Yonder comes a courteous knight” are preserved in Deuteromelia, 1609, and in Pills to Purge Melancholy (volume iii, p. 37, ed. 1719). A tune to which this ballad was once sung is to be found in Rimbault’s Music to Reliques of Ancient Poetry. See also “Blow the winds I ho!” in Bell’s Ballads of the English Peasantry, and “Blow away ye mountain breezes,” in Baring-Gould’s Songs of the West (No. 25, 2d ed.).

A Scottish version of the words, “Jock Sheep,” is given in The Ballad Book (Kinloch and Goldsmid, p. 10); and another, “The Abashed Knight,” in Buchan’s Ancient Ballads and Songs (volume ii, p. 131). For other versions, see Child’s collection. I have secured thirteen variants, one of which was used as a Capstan Chantey.