Bluegrass Messengers

Miller's Apprentice- William Spearing [also Spearman] (Som) 1904 Sharp MS

[Sharp's title. Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/9/220)

R. Natteson 2016]


Miller's Apprentice- Sung by William Spearing, [also Spearman] of Ile Brewers, Somerset 6 April, 1904. Collector: Cecil J. Sharp

1. My parents educated me
With learning they gave to me
They bound me to a 'prentice
A millard[1] for to be.

2. Till I fell in love with a pretty girl
With a dark and rolling eye
I promised her that I would marry her
If she would with me lie.

3. I courted her for six long months
A little now and then
Till I thought it a shame to marry her
My being as young a man.

4. I went into her father's house
The hour if it were night
I asked him that we might walk
And sit and talk about her wedding day

5. I caught her by her curly locks
And I dragged her through the green;
Until I came to the river side,
And I throwed her body in.

6. I went into my masters' house,
The hour of twelve that night;
My master run and let me in,
By the striking of a light.

7.  He asked me, he questioned me,
What stained my hands and clothes?
The only answer I thought fit,
Was the bleeding of my nose.

8. I got into bed that night,
But there no rest could take,
For the drowning of my own true love,
A-hang-ed I shall be.

9. [It was] so many days after,
I was down a William Jones' house.
And her body it came floating,
Down by the tide.

1. for "miller"