|
|
|
- 390,531 lyrics
- 24,313 artists
|
|
|
Lyrics for Famous Flower Of Serving Men by Unknown:
| | | Artist: | Unknown |
| | Album: | Unknown | | Track: | Famous Flower Of Serving Men | | | | Date Added: | 18/10/2007 | | Views: | 336 | | | | Lyrics: | FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING MEN
I was by birth a lady fair
My father's chief and only
heir
But when my good old father died
Then I was made a young knight's
bride
And then my love built me a bower
Bedecked with many a fragrant flower
A
braver bower you never did see
Than my true love did build for me
Although I got
married to this knight
My stepmother did me deadly spite
For she sent thieves in the dark
of night
To rob my bower and slay my knight
They couldn't do to me no harm
So
they slew my knight in my arms
Left me naught to wrap him then
But the bloody sheet that
he lay in
My servants all from me did flee
In the midst of my extremity
And
left me by myself alone
With a heart more cold than any stone
Twas all alone I dug
his grave
And all alone in it him I laid
While Christ was priest and I was clerk
I
laid my love in the cold clay earth
And all alone the bell I rang
And all alone this
song I sang
I leaned my head all against a block
And there I cut my lovely
locks
No living man I'll love again
Since that my lovely knight is slain
With a
lock of his yellow hair
I'll chain my heart for ever more
I cut my locks and I
changed my name
From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William
I went to court to serve my
king
As the famous flower of serving men
So well I served my lord, the
king
That he made me his chamberlain
He loved me as his son
The famous flower of
serving men
Oh oft time he'd look at me and smile
So swift his heart I did
beguile
And he blessed the day that I became
The famous flower of serving
men
But all alone in my bed at e'en
Oh there I dreamed a dreadful dream
I saw
my bed swim with blood
And I saw the thieves all around my head
Our king has to the
hunting gone
He's ta'en the lords, the gentlemen
He's left me there to guard his
home
The famous flower of serving men
Our king he rode the wood all around
He
stayed all day but nothing found
And as he rode himself alone
It's there he saw the milk
white hind
Oh the hind she broke, the hind she flew
The hind she trampled the
brambles through
First she'd mount and then she'd sound
Sometimes before, sometimes
behind
Oh what is this, how can it be?
Such a hind as this I ne'er did see
Such
a hind as this was never born
I fear she'll do me dreadful harm
And long, long did
the great horse turn
For to save his lord from branch and thorn
But long e'er the day was
o'er
It tangled off in his yellow hair
All in the glade the hind drew nigh
And
the sun grew bright all in their eye
And he sprang down, sword he drew
She vanished there
all from his view
And all around the grass was green
And all around there a grave
was seen
And he sat himself all on the stone
Great weariness it seized him
on
Great silence hung from tree to sky
The woods grew still, the sun on fire
As
through the woods the dove he came
As through the wood he made his moan
The dove, he
sat down on the stone
So sweet he looked, so sweet he sang
"Alas the day my love
became
The famous flower of serving men"
The bloody tears they fell like
rain
As still he sat and still he sang
"Alas the day my love became
The famous flower
of serving men"
Our king cried out, then he wept full sore
He beat his breast and
tore his hair
So loud unto the dove he did call
"Oh pretty bird, come sing it
plain"
"Oh it was her stepmother's deadly spite
For she sent thieves in the dark of
night
They came to rob, they came to slay
They made their sport, they went their
way
"And don't you think that her heart was sore
As she laid the mold on his yellow
head
And don't you think that her hear was woe
As she turned her back away to
go
"And how she wept as she changed her name
From Fair Eleanor to Sweet
William
Went to court to serve her king
As the famous flower of serving men"
Oh
the bloody tears they lay all around
He's mounted up and away he's gone
And one thought
came to his mind
He'd thought the servant was a man
And as he rode himself
alone
A dreadful oath he there has sworn
That he would hunt her stepmother down
As he
would hunt the wildwood swine
For there's four and twenty ladies all
And they're all
playing at the ball
But fairer than all of them
Is the famous flower of serving
men
Oh he's rode him into his hall
And he's rode in among them all
He's lifted
her to his saddle brim
And there he's kissed her cheek and chin
His nobles stood and
they stretched their eyes
The ladies took to their fans and smiled
For such a strange
homecoming
No gentleman had ever seen
And he has sent his nobles all
Unto her
mother they have gone
They've ta'en her that 's done such wrong
They've laid her down in
prison strong
And he's brought men out from the corn
And he's sent men down to the
thorn
All for to build the bonfire high
All for to set her mother by
All bonnie
sang the morning thrush
All there he sat in yonder bush
But louder did her mother
cry
In the bonfire where she was burned close by
For there she stood all among the
thorn
And there she sang her deadly song
"Alas the day that she became
The famous
flower of serving men"
For the fire took first all on her cheek
And then it took all
on her chin
It spat and rang in her yellow hair
And soon there was no life left
in
And then for fear of any strife
He took Sweet William for his wife
The like
before was never seen
A servant man became a queen
Child #106
@murder @family
@love @transvestite @royalty @England
compiled from several sources, mainly Carthy's as printed
in
Singout, supplemented with Child and Bronson
versions recorded by Martin Carty and Lisa
Null
filename[ FLRSERV2
SF
===DOCUMENT BOUNDARY | | | |
 Reddit
|
|
More Unknown Lyrics:
|
|
|
