Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies- anon (NC) c.1921 Sutton/ Brown C
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume III, 1954. Brown notes follow. The last partial stanza a Brown editor refers to as from Seeds of Love is taken from Wheel of Fortune:
Of all the flowers that grow in the garden,
Be sure you pull the rose and thyme,
For all others are quite out of fashion,
A false young man he has stole my thyme.
See headnotes for info, stanza 1-3 are from "Lady's Address" and stanzas 5-6 from "Wheel."
R. Mateson 2017]
254. Little Sparrow
This lyric of the lovelorn is a favorite in the Southern mountains. See BSM 477 and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 80-1). Florida (SFLQ viii 172-3), Missouri (OFS I 315-17), and Indiana (SFLQ in 205, BSI 328). It is often called 'Come all you fair and tender ladies,' from its opening line. It is distinguished from other songs of a like spirit, such as 'The Inconstant Lover,' by the image of the bird and, generally, by the likening of love to a fair dawn that turns into bad weather. One of the following texts is marked by a trace — rare in American tradition — of the old English 'Seeds of Love' songs.
C. 'Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies.' Another text contributed by Mrs. Sutton, obtained probably several years later than B. It seems to be incomplete, but is interesting by reason of its variations from B, especially its last two lines, which hark back to the old English love song 'Seeds of Love.'
1 Come all you fair and tender ladies.
Be careful how you court young men.
They are like bright stars of a summer's morning;
They first are here and then they're gone.
2 They'll tell to you some lovin' story,
Declare to you that they are true,
And then they'll go and court another
And that's the love they have for you.
3 I wish I was a little sparrow,
Had wings and could fly oh, so high.
I'd fly into my true love's dwellin'
And as he called I'd he close by.
4 But as it is I am no sparrow.
Neither have wings can fly so high,
I'll sit me down in grief and sorrow
And try to pass my trouble by.
5 If I had a known before I courted
That love would a been so hard to gain
I'd a put my heart in golden boxes
And a locked it with a silver chain.
6 Of all the herbs that grow in the garden
Be sure to get the rue and thyme. . . .