| Lyrics: | The House Carpenter
'Well met, well met, my own true love
And very well met,' said
he.
'I have just returned from the salt, salt sea,
And it's all for the sake of thee.
'
'I could have married a queen's daughter,
And she would have married me,
But
I refused a crown of gold,
And it's all for the sake of thee.'
'If you could have
married a queen's daughter,
Then she should have married thee,
For me, young man, you have
came too late,
For I've married a house carpenter.'
'If you will leave your house
carpenter
And go along with me,
I will take you down where the grass grows green
On
the banks of the River Dee.'
'If I were to leave my house carpenter
And go along
with thee,
What have you got to maintain a wife
Or to keep her from slavery
?'
'I have seven ships at sea
And seven more in port,
And a hundred and
twenty-four jolly, jolly boys,
And they all will wait on thee.'
She called then her
two pretty babes
And she kissed them most tenderly,
Saying, 'Stay at home, my two pretty
babes'
And bear your own father company.'
She had not sailed on sea two
weeks,
I'm sure not sailed on three,
Till here she sat in her new husband's
cabin,
Weeping most bitterly.
'Oh, do you weep for gold ?' he said,
'Or do you
weep for fear?
Or do you weep for your house carpenter
That you left when you came here
?'
'I do not weep for gold,' she said,
'Nor do I weep for fear,
But I do weep
for my two pretty babes
That I left when I came here.'
She had not sailed on sea
three weeks,
I'm sure not sailed on four,
Till overboard her fair body she threw
_
And her weeping was heard no more.
Her curse did attend a sea sailor's
life,
Her curse did attend a sailor's life,
For the robbing of a house carpenter,
And
stealing away his wife.
From Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs, Fowke
Child
#243
filename[ HOUSCRP2
play.exe HOUSCRP2
RG
===DOCUMENT BOUNDARY |
