Famous Flower of Serving-Men- Duncan (NS) c.1937 Creighton
[No local title. From Traditional Folk Songs from Nova Scotia, 1950, Creighton and Senior. A recording was made for the LOC in 1943: AFS 07167 B01.
R. Matteson 2015]
FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING MEN- Mrs. R. W. Duncan of Dartmouth, NS; c.1937 Creighton
1. 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
2. Although I got married to this knight
Although my mother owed me great spite
She could not done me a greater harm
Then to slay the knight that lay on my arm.
3. She sent nine robbers that very same night,
She sent nine robbers to rob my knight,
She could not done me a greater harm
Than to slay the knight that hung on my arm.
4. I dressed his wounds all alone alone
I laid him out all alone, alone,
They never left a thing for to lay him on
But the bloody sheets that they slew him on.
5. I dug his grave all alone, alone,
And buried him there all alone, alone,
I went unto the king one day
And there for services I did call.
6. "Oh can I be your kitchen cook,
Or can I be your stable boy,
Or can I be at your service all
For to wait on nobles when they shall call?"
7. "No you shan't be my kitchen cook,
No you shan't be my stable boy --
But-you shall be at my service all
To wait on noblemen when they do call. "
8. . . . .
. . . .
" The very same words I heard him say,
Once I was a rich lady gay."
9. " If this be the lie you have told to me
You shall be hung on the gallows tree,
But if it be the truth you've told me
I will pay you your wages and set you free."
10. Then he gave to me a gay gold ring
For Willie to be crowned a king,
For it don't look fit and it ain't a fit thing
For a servant man to be crowned a queen.