A Pretty Maiden- Mrs. Simms (Dor) 1906 Hammond
[From Henry Hammond Manuscript Collection (HAM/3/19/5). This version starts with the a first line resembling Broken Token/Sweetheart in the Army/Fair Maid in the Garden. The last stanza (False Young Man) is found in the Roxburghe version of Madam titled "The Handsom' Woman." Cf. John Greening version.
R. Matteson 2017]
"A Pretty Maiden" sung by Mrs. Elizabeth Simms of Uploders, Dorset in May, 1906. Collected by Henry Hammond.
A pretty fair maid walking in her garden,
But her name I do not know,
I'll go and court her for her beauty,
Let her answer be "Yes" or No."
Madam, Madam, I'm come a-courting,
That my favor I may gain,
Sit you down you're kindly welcome,
Then perhaps you may call again.
"Madam I have gold and silver,
Madam I have house and land
Madam I have a world of pleasure,
I leave it all at your command."
Don't tell me of your gold and treasure,
Don't tell me of your house and land
Don't tell me of your world of pleasure,
All I want is a handsome man.
Handsome men are out of fashion,
Maiden's beauties soon decay.
You pick a flower of a summer's morning,
Before the evening it will fade away.
First comes the oxslip and then the cruel[1],
Then the pink and then the may,
Then comes a new love, then comes a truelove
And so we pass our time away.
Once I lay on a young man's pillow,
Which I thought it was my own,
Now I do so lie under the willow,
All for the sake of a false young man.
1. a smaller form of cowslip