Recordings & Info 106. The Famous Flower of Serving-Men
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
5) Wiki
6) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 199: The Famous Flower of Serving-Men (86 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Sweet William
My Father Built Me
The Stepmother
The Border Widow's Lament
My Father Built Me a Pretty Tower
Famous Flower of Serving-Men, The [Child 106]
DESCRIPTION: Fair (Elise) has lost father, then husband. She disguises herself as a man and seeks service at the king's court, becoming chamberlain. When only an old man is about, she reveals herself in song. The old man tells the king she is female; he marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Percy); title found in the Stationer's Register in 1656
KEYWORDS: death family royalty servant disguise cross-dressing marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Child 106, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 106, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (7 versions+5 in addenda)
Greig #118, pp. 1-2, "The Cruel Stepmother" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 163, "The Famous Flower of Serving Men" (4 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 227-232, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 traditional text plus assorted variants and a songster version)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 86-90, "The Lady Turned Serving-Man" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 127-129, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 77-88, "The Famous Flower of Servingmen" (4 texts plus a fragment, the "A" text being from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition; 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
MacSeegTrav 13, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 62-63, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
OBB 153, "The Lament of the Border Widow"; 166, "The Lady Turned Serving-Man" (2 texts)
PBB 29, "The Lament of the Border Widow" (1 text)
BBI, ZN2994, "You beauteous Ladies great and small"
DT 106, FLRSERV1* FLRSERV2* BRDRWDO*
ADDITIONAL: John S. Roberts, The Legendary Ballads of England and Scotland (n.d.), pp. 248-249, "The Border Widow's Lament"
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #425, "The Bonnie Bower (The Lament of the Border Widow)" (1 text)
Roud #199
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower" (on IRTravellers01)
Caroline Hughes, "The Famous Flower of Servantmen" (on FSBBAL1) {Bronson's #3.3 in addenda}
Jasper Smith, "The Small Birds Whistle" (on Voice11)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet William
My Father Built Me
The Stepmother
NOTES: "The Border Widow's Lament" is given in Child's introduction to "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men," and has been described as "a self-sufficient fragment" of the longer ballad. - KK, RBW
Bronson has extensive notes about the complicated history of this ballad, where both text and tune seem to have suffered from editorial activity. James Reed, e.g., suggests (in "The Border Ballad," p. 26, printed in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980; I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition) that Walter Scott rewrote "The Border Widow's Lament." and I incline to agree; it's a little too orderly and neat to be the pure result of tradition. - RBW
The title of Jasper Smith's version on Voice11 is from a verse lifted from "The Croppy Boy." The notes for the ballad make it a version of "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" [Child 106]. At best it is an abridgement and corruption of the first verse of the Percy fragment in Child's headnote to "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" added to the lily-bower verse of Child/Border Widow [shamrock-bower here to go with "Old Ireland free"]; here is Percy: "My mother showed me a deadly spight; She sent three thieves at darksome night; They put my servants all to flight, They robbed my bower, and they slew my knight." Here is a description of Jasper Smith's "The Small Birds Whistle": A girl runs away with a man who leaves her with a baby; her father builds her a bower but "Then my father he owed me a dreadful spite. He sent nine robbers all in one night To take my baby and to do me harm" and that ends the story.
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Border Widow's Lament" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Child Collection- Child Ballad 106: The Famous Flower of Serving Men
Child No.-- Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
106 Belle Luther Richards Famous Flower of Serving Men The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
106 Belle Stewart The Silly Auld Man The Ball O'Killiecranky - The Travellers Campfire 3 1979 No
106 Bill Shute & Lisa Null The Border Widow's Lament The Feathered Maiden and Other Ballads 1977 4:12 Yes
106 Bob Davenport & Jack Armstrong The Border Widow's Lament Northumbrian Minstrelsy 1964 4:29 >Yes
106 Carolyn Robson The Border Widow's Lament All the Fine Young Men 2000 No
106 Caroline Hughes My Father He Built Me a Shady Bower The Voice of the People, Vol. 22: I'm a Romany Ray - Songs by Southern English Gypsy Traditional Singers 2012 No
106 Carolyne Hughes The Famous Flower of Servantmen Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 1 2000 3:28 Yes
106 Carolyne Hughes The Flower of Servantmen Blackdog & Sheepcrook 1975 No
106 Carolyne Hughes + Belle Stewart The Famous Flower of Servant Men The Baffled Knight - The Classic Ballads 2 1976 No
106 Chris Foster The Flower of Serving Men Traces 1999 3:46 Yes
106 Chris Foster The Flower of Serving Men Layers 2002 3:21 Yes
106 Chris Foster The Famous Flower of Serving Men BBC Session 22 June 1977 1977 3:38 Yes
106 Cloudstreet The Famous Flower of Serving Men Violet Sarah and Muckle John 2002 5:33 Yes
106 Crossroads The Border Widow's Lament De Partir ... C'est Mon Plaisir! 2000 4:48 Yes
106 Ewan MacColl Sweet William - The Famous Flower of Serving-Men The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Child Ballads) - Vol. 3 1964 6:30 Yes
106 Frederick Worlock & C.R.M. Brookes The Lament of the Border Widow Poetry of Robert Burns & Scottish Border Ballads 1959 No
106 Gordeanna McCulloch Border Widow's Lament Scotland Musical Travelogue - Écosse Voyage Musical 1995 4:02 Yes
106 Hermes Nye My Love Built Me a Bonnie Bower Ballads Reliques - Early English Ballads from the Percy and Child Collections 1957 2:57 Yes
106 Jasper Smith The Small Birds Whistle The Voice of the People, Vol. 11: My Father's the King of the Gypsies - Music of English and Welsh Travellers and Gypsies 1998 1:59 Yes
106 Jasper Smith The Small Birds Whistle The Travelling Songster - An Anthology from Gypsy Singers 1976 1:57 Yes
106 John Ross My Father Built Me a Pretty Tower (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
106 John Ross My Father Built Me a Pretty Tower (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
106 June Tabor The Border Widow's Lament An Echo of Hooves 2003 5:58 Yes
106 Katherine Campbell Sweet William The Songs of Amelia and Jane Harris - Scots Songs and Ballads from Perthshire Tradition 2004 4:49 Yes
106 Kathryn Tickell & Ensemble Mystical Border Widow's Lament Kathryn Tickell & Ensemble Mystical 2001 4:28 Yes
106 Kevin & Ellen Mitchell Border Widow's Lament Have a Drop Mair 2001 3:23 Yes
106 Laura Berlage Sweet William Legends of the Troubadours 2006 5:48 Yes
106 Linda Adams Lament of the Border Widow Fyre and Sworde - Songs of the Border Reivers 2000 2:56 Yes
106 Lorna Anderson & Haydn Trio Eisenstadt Scottish Songs for George Thomson VI – The Border Widow's Lament Haydn Edition 2008 4:44 Yes
106 Mark T. & The Brickbats Sweet William Johnny There 1986 No
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Waiting for Angels 2004 10:16 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Homegrown 1998 No
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Troubadours of British Folk, Vol. 1: Unearthing the Tradition 1995 9:22 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Shearwater 1972 9:22 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Folk Heritage I 1991 9:20 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2005 2005 10:18 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Individually and Collectively 2000 9:18 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men The Carthy Chronicles 2001 9:22 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Folk Heartbeat - 16 Original Folk Classics 1999 9:23 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Beginner's Guide to English Folk 2008 10:15 >Yes
106 Martin Carthy The Famous Flower of Serving Men The Kershaw Sessions 1994 9:13 Yes
106 Martin Carthy The Famous Flower of Serving Men Martin Carthy at Ruskin Mill - Richard Valentine Benefit Concert 2005 10:09 Yes
106 Martin Carthy The Famous Flower of Serving Men Heart of England: The Legends of English Folk - A Celebration 1999 9:21 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men The All New Electric Muse - The Story of Folk Into Rock 2008 9:21 Yes
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Guitar Maestros 2006 No
106 Martin Carthy Famous Flower of Serving Men Essential 2011 10:11 Yes
106 Mary Delaney My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower From Puck to Appleby - Songs of Irish Travellers in England 2003 3:01 Yes
106 Moira Craig The Border Widow's Lament On Ae Bonny Day 2001 3:10 Yes
106 Mrs. R.W. Duncan Famous Flower of Serving Men (1) The Helen Creighton Collection No
106 Mrs. R.W. Duncan Famous Flower of Serving Men (2) The Helen Creighton Collection No
106 Paul & Linda Adams The Lament of the Border Widow Far Over the Fell - Songs and Ballads of Cumbria 1975 1:58 Yes
106 Ray Cooper Border Widow's Lament Tales of Love War & Death By Hanging 2010 4:19 Yes
106 Scold's Bridle Sweet William Circumstances 2004 No
106 Sue Brown & Lorraine Irwing Sweet William The 13th Bedroom 2012 No
106 The Clutha The Border Widow's Lament Scotia! 1971 3:16 Yes
106 The Clutha The Border Widow's Lament The World of Folk 1971 3:13 Yes
106 The Demon Barbers The Famous Flower of Serving Men + En Passant La Rivière + Kost Ar C'Hoat Waxed 2005 No
106 The High Level Ranters The Border Widow's Lament A Mile to Ride 1973 5:30 Yes
106 Tim Radford The Flower of Serving Men Folk Songs from Hampshire and Dorset 2005 No
106 William Ross My Father Built Me a Pretty Tower The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
106. THE FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVINGMEN
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids 'Me, 227 / Blackbird Songster (Cozzans, N.Y., c. 1845).
Local Titles: None given.
Story Types: A: A noble girl marries a knight who builds her a home. The place is attacked by robbers (sent by the stepmother); the knight, slain; the others, routed. The girl escapes, dresses herself as a man, and goes to the King's court where she becomes a chamberlain. One day, when the King is out hunting, she takes a harp and sings her own true story to an old man. He later tells the tale to the King, who then marries the girl and rewards the old man.
Examples: Barry.
Discussion: Child's text, without the stepmother, is based on English seventeenth century broadsides. The American texts follow the Percy text, Child, II, 429 (headnote), more closely. In this song the spite of the step-mother is mentioned.
The Famous Flower of Serving-Men From Wikipedia
The Famous Flower of Serving-Men or The Lady turned Serving-Man is Child ballad number 106[1] and a murder ballad. Child considered it as closely related to the ballad The Lament Of The Border Widow or The Border Widow's Lament.[2]
Synopsis
A woman's husband and child are killed by agents of her mother (or, sometimes, stepmother). The woman buries them, cuts her hair, changes her name from "Fair Elise" or "Fair Elinor" to "Sweet William", and goes to the king's court to become his servant. She serves him well enough to become his chamberlain.
The song variants split, sharply, at this point. The common variant has the king going to hunt and being led into the forest by a white hind. The king reaches a clearing and the hind vanishes. A bird, the personification of the woman's dead husband, then appears and laments what has happened to his love. The king asks, and the bird tells the story. The king returns and kisses his chamberlain, still dressed as a man, to the shock of the assembled court. In many versions the woman's mother/stepmother is then executed, possibly by burning, and usually the king marries the woman.
In some versions the king goes hunting, and the woman laments her fate, but is overheard; when the king is told it, he marries her. In The Border Widow's Lament, the woman laments, in very similar verses, the murder of her husband by the king; she buries him and declares she will never love another.
Versions
For his 1972 album Shearwater, Martin Carthy took the fragments and reworked the ballad, drawing on lines from other ballads. He set it to a tune used by Hedy West for the Maid of Colchester. The song was featured twice on the BBC Radio 1 John Peel show - first on 14 August 1973 and again on 28 April 1975.[3] In 2005, he won the award for Best Traditional Track for 'Famous Flower of Serving Men' in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
Ellen Kushner's novel Thomas the Rhymer includes elements not only of that ballad but also The Famous Flower of Serving-Men.
References
1.^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "The Famous Flower of Serving Men"
2.^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 429, Dover Publications, New York 1965
3.^ "On Air : 1970s" at carthyonline.wordpress.com
External links
The Famous Flower of Serving Men
The Famous Flower of Serving Men
The Lady turned Serving-Man
Steeleye Span version
Folk Index: Border Widow's Lament [Ch 106]
Rt - Famous Flower of Serving Men
Atkins, Mrs. A. E.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 83/# 30 [1930s] (Lament of a Border Widow)
Shute, Bill; and Lisa Null. Feathered Maiden and Other Ballads, Green Linnet SIF 1006, LP (1977), trk# B.02
Tabor, June. Echo of Hooves, Topic TSCD 543, CD (2003), trk# 6
Mainly Norfolk: Famous Flower of Serving Men/ The Lament of the Border Widow
[Roud 199; Child 106 ; Ballad Index C106 ; trad.]
This intriguing ballad was sung by Martin Carthy on his 1972 album Shearwater and reissued on the 4CD anthology The Carthy Chronicles. A slightly different live version of this song is on the BBC recording The Kershaw Sessions. Martin Carthy recorded it again in 2004 for his album Waiting for Angels with verses very similar to the BBC recording. and sang it live at Ruskin Mill in December 2004 and live in studio in July 2006 for the DVD Guitar Maestros.
Martin Carthy wrote in the original album's sleeve notes:
There is a whole group of songs and stories in which the heroine, seeking to hide some shame, takes on a disguise. In Fairy stories, this has come out in, among others, the German tale Catskin, and the English Cap O'Rushes (more properly Cap O'Ashes?). In song, one of the forms it has taken is the one known on broadsides as The Lady Turned Serving Man, and [known] in drastically curtailed form to Bishop Percy, Sir Walter Scott and Johnson as The Famous Flower of Serving Men or The Lament of the Border Widow. Having first read The Famous Flower and been fired with enthusiasm, I was sobered by reading the rather pedestrian text of the broadside, which immediately followed, and gave the story an ending, because it simply did not match—either in intensity or elegance—the considerably older, shortened version, and decided to try and tell it in my own way. The tune came from Hedy West, who sings it to an American song called The Maid of Colchester.
and Maggie Holland and John Tobler commented in the sleeve notes of the Mooncrest reissue of Shearwater:
By common consent, the finest piece on the album is Famous Flower of Serving Men. The plot (brace yourself!): a mother sends violent thugs to her daughter's house to kill her husband and baby. The young woman digs their graves, buries them, dries her tears, cuts off her hair and dresses herself as a man. She goes to work at the King's court, where the King falls in love with her although he thinks she is a man, so he makes her his chamberlain. The King goes hunting one day and is led deep into the forest, to the site of the graves, by a magical white hind. He is visited by a white dove who is the spirit of the murdered husband and tells him the whole story, whereupon the King rides home, swearing vengeance on the mother, and sweeps the Famous Flower of Serving Men into his arms, and has the mother taken prisoner and burned at the stake. No mention of happy ever afters. The song is utterly compelling, with its complex but hypnotic rhythm and the vivid images it inspires: “They left me naught to dig his grave but the bloody sword that slew my babe”—it could easily be the substance of a full length opera, a film, a classical ballet, and Shakespeare could have made a major play out of it. Carthy manages to convey all this immense drama and emotion in under ten minutes. A. L. “Bert” Lloyd (one of the doyens of English folk music) apparently once said something about this: one shouldn't be surprised at such a song being so many verses long, but that it should be so many verses short.
Martin Carthy also wrote in the sleeve notes of Waiting for Angels:
[...] The last song is The Famous Flower of Serving Men—which is very close to my heart. I first recorded it on a now unavailable album called Shearwater and felt that it was time to have another shot at it. Over time these big songs have a habit of revealing more of themselves to you and over the space of thirty years or more this is no exception. The Famous Flower is another name for the May flower which is a symbol of ill luck and mischief. This song is about terminal bullying, child killing, abject humiliation and shame, redemption and terrible revenge. And all in the name of justice. There's a fury in those first five verses which sends the same shiver through me as when I first read them in 1970. The parson who sent them to Sir Walter Scott never sent the rest (!) so I glued some bits together and made up chunks to tell a story which is clear and terrifying. How people do things like this to each other and survive such episodes is beyond me but they do, don't they?
The Shearwater track was re-released a lot of times: on two compilations by Steeleye Span & Co, Individually and Collectively and Time Span, on the Rhino anthology Troubadours of British Folk Vol. 1: Unearthing the Tradition and on a bunch of cheap compilations of tracks from the Mooncrest label, e.g. Folk Heartbeat: 16 Original Folk Classics, Folk Heritage, and Heart of England: The Legends of English Folk.
Linda Adams sang The Lament of the Border Widow in 1975 on her and Paul Adams' album Far Over the Fell and in 1998 on the Fellside anthology Fyre & Sworde: Songs of the Border Reivers. Paul Adams commented in the latter album's notes:
It is no coincidence that the Reivers gave the word bereave to the English language. The personal strength of the woman in the midst of crisis makes this a very moving song. There are many theories surrounding the historical context of this song. Scott maintained that it concerned “the execution of Cockburn of Henderland, a Border freebooter, hanged over the gate of his own Tower by James V in the course of the memorable expedition of 1529 which was fatal to Johnnie Armstrong, Adam Scott of Tushielaw and many other marauders.” Sadly William Cockburn was not hanged “over the gate” but was tried and beheaded in Edinburgh. However, we'll allow Marjorie Cockburn her grief and supreme nobility in this hauntingly beautiful ballad. Linda originally learnt it from the singing of Gordeanna McCulloch over twenty-five years ago and it has remained in her repertoire ever since. A version was collected in Oklahoma, USA, published in Ballads and Folk Songs of the South West which appeared on an LP complete with remarkably similar melody. In the note to the songs it says “an Oklahoma frontier wife and a Scots Border widow are, in many ways, sisters of circumstance.”
June Tabor sang The Border Widow's Lament in 2003 on her Topic album of Border ballads, An Echo of Hooves.
Lyrics
Martin Carthy sings Famous Flower of Serving Men on Shearwater
My mother did me deadly spite
For she sent thieves in the dark of night
Put my servants all to flight
They robbed my bower they slew my knight
They couldn't do to me no harm
So they slew my baby in my arm
Left me naught to wrap him in
But the bloody sheet that he lay in
They left me naught to dig his grave
But the bloody sword that slew my babe
All alone the grave I made
And all alone the tears I shed
And all alone the bell I rang
And all alone the psalm I sang
I leaned my head all against a block
And there I cut my lovely locks
I cut my locks and I changed my name
From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William
Went to court to serve my king
As the famous flower of serving men
So well I served my lord, the king
That he made me his chamberlain
He loved me as his son
The famous flower of serving men
Oh oft time he'd look at me and smile
So swift his heart I did beguile
And he blessed the day that I became
The famous flower of serving men
But all alone in my bed at e'en
Oh there I dreamed a dreadful dream
I saw my bed swim with blood
And I saw the thieves all around my head
Our king has to the hunting gone
He's ta'en no lords nor gentlemen
He's left me there to guard his home
The famous flower of serving men
Our king he rode the wood all around
He stayed all day but nothing found
And as he rode himself alone
It's there he saw the milk white hind
Oh the hind she broke, the hind she flew
The hind she trampled the brambles through
First she'd mount, then she'd sound
Sometimes before, sometimes behind
Oh what is this, how can it be?
Such a hind as this I ne'er did see
Such a hind as this was never born
I fear she'll do me deadly harm
And long, long did the great horse turn
For to save his lord from branch and thorn
And but long e'er the day was o'er
It tangled all in his yellow hair
All in the glade the hind drew nigh
And the sun grew bright all in their eye
And he sprang down, sword drew
She vanished there all from his view
And all around the grass was green
And all around where a grave was seen
And he sat himself all on the stone
Great weariness it seized him on
Great silence hung from tree to sky
The woods grew still, the sun on fire
As through the woods the dove he came
As through the wood he made his moan
Oh, the dove, he sat down on a stone
So sweet he looked, so soft he sang
“Alas the day my love became
The famous flower of serving men”
The bloody tears they fell as rain
As still he sat and still he sang
“Alas the day my love became
The famous flower of serving men”
Our king cried out, and he wept full sore
So loud unto the dove he did call
“Oh pretty bird, come sing it plain”
“Oh it was her mother's deadly spite
For she sent thieves in the dark of the night
They come to rob, they come to slay
They made their sport, they went their way
“And don't you think that her heart was sore
As she laid the mould on his yellow hair
And don't you think her heart was woe
As she turned her back away to go
“And how she wept as she changed her name
From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William
Went to court to serve her king
As the famous flower of serving men”
Oh the bloody tears they lay all around
He's mounted up and away he's gone
And one thought come to his mind
The thought of her that was a man
And as he rode himself alone
A dreadful oath he there has sworn
And that he would hunt her mother down
As he would hunt the wildwood swine
For there's four and twenty ladies all
And they're all playing at the ball
But fairer than all of them
Is the famous flower of serving men
Oh he's rode him into his hall
And he's rode in among them all
He's lifted her to his saddle brim
And there he's kissed her cheek and chin
His nobles stood and they stretched their eyes
The ladies took to their fans and smiled
For such a strange homecoming
No gentleman had ever seen
And he has sent his nobles all
Unto her mother they have gone
They've ta'en her that's did such wrong
They've laid her down in prison strong
And he's brought men up from the corn
And he's sent men down to the thorn
All for to build the bonfire high
All for to set her mother by
All bonny sang the morning thrush
All where he sat in yonder bush
But louder did her mother cry
In the bonfire where she burned close by
For there she stood all among the thorn
And there she sang her deadly song
“Alas the day that she became
The famous flower of serving men”
For the fire took first all on her cheek
And then it took all on her chin
It spat and rang in her yellow hair
And soon there was no life left in
Martin Carthy sings Famous Flower of Serving Men on The Kershaw Sessions
My mother did me deadly spite
For she sent thieves in the dark of night
Put my servants all to flight
They robbed my bower, they slew my knight
They couldn't do to me no harm
So they slew my baby in my arm
Left me naught to wrap him in
But the bloody sheet that he lay in
They left me naught to dig his grave
But the bloody sword that slew my babe
All alone the grave I made
And all alone the tears I shed
And all alone the bell I rang
And all alone the psalm I sang
I leaned my head all against a block
And there I cut my lovely locks
I cut my locks and I changed my name
From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William
I went to court to serve my king
As the famous flower of serving men
So well I served my lord, the king
That he made me his chamberlain
He loved me as his son
The famous flower of serving men
And oft time he'd look at me and smile
So swift his heart I did beguile
And he blessed the day that I became
The famous flower of serving men
Oh but all alone in my bed at e'en
There I dreamed a dreadful dream
I saw my bed swim with blood
I saw the thieves all around my head
Our king has to the hunting gone
He's ta'en no lords nor gentlemen
He's left me there to guard his home
The famous flower of serving men
Our king he rode the wood all around
He stayed all day but nothing found
And as he rode himself alone
It's there he spied the milk white hind
Oh the hind she broke, the hind she flew
The hind she trampled the bramble through
First she'd melt and then she'd sound
Sometimes before, sometimes behind
Oh what is this, how can it be?
Such a hind as this I ne'er did see
Such a hind as this was never born
I fear she'll do me deadly harm
And long, long did the great horse turn
For to save his lord from branch and thorn
But long e'er the day was o'er
They tangled all in his yellow hair
And all in the glade the king drew nigh
Where the hind stood bright all in his eye
And he sprang down, sword [he] drew
She vanished there all from his view
And all around the grass was green
All around where a grave was seen
He sat himself down on the stone
Great weariness it seized him on
Great silence hung from tree to sky
The woods grew still, the sun on fire
As through the wood the dove he came
As through the woods he made his moan
Oh the dove, he sat down on a stone
So sweet he looked, so soft he sang,
“Alas the day my love became
The famous flower of serving men.”
Oh the bloody tears they fell as rain
As still he sat and still he sang,
“Alas the day my love became
The famous flower of serving men.”
Our king cried out, and he wept full sore
So loud unto the dove he did call
“O pretty bird, come sing it plain.”
“Oh it was her mother's deadly spite
For she sent thieves in the dark of the night
They come to rob, they come to slay
They made their sport, they went their way
“And don't you think that her heart was sore
As she laid the mould on his yellow hair
And don't you think her heart was woe
As she turned about, all away to go
“And how she wept as she changed her name
From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William,
Went to court to serve her king
As the famous flower of serving men.”
Oh the bloody tears they lay all around
He's mounted up and away he's gone
One thought come to his mind
The thought of her that was a man
And as he's rode himself alone
A dreadful oath he there has sworn
That he would hunt her mother down
Like he would hunt the wildwood swine
There's four and twenty ladies all
And they're all playing at the ball
Fairer than all of them
Is the famous flower of serving men
Our king rode him into his hall
And he's rode in among them all
Lifted her to his saddle brim
He's kissed her there both cheek and chin
Oh, the lords all stood and they stretched their eyes
The ladies took to their fans and smiled
For a stranger homecoming
No gentleman had ever seen
And he has sent his nobles all
Unto her mother they have gone
Ta'en her that did such wrong
They've laid her down in a prison strong
And he's brought men up from the corn
And he's sent men down to the thorn
All for to build the bonfire high
All for to set her mother by
O bonnie sang the morning thrush
All where he sat in yonder bush
But louder did her mother cry
In the bonfire where she burned close by
Oh, for there she stood all among the thorn
And there she sang her deadly song,
“Alas the day that she became
The famous flower of serving men.”
For the fire took first all on her cheek
And then it took all on her chin
Spat and it rang in her yellow hair
As there she burnt like hokey green
Linda Adams sings The Lament of the Border Widow
My love built me a bonnie bower
And clad it all with lily flower
A brawer bower I ne'er did see
Than my true love he built for me
There came a man by middle day
He spied his sport and went away
He brought the King at that very night
Who broke my bower and slew my knight
He slew the knight tae me sae dear
He slew my knight and poin'ed his gear
My servants all for life did flee
And left me in extremity
I sewed his sheets, making my moan
I watched his corpse, myself alone
I watched his body, night and day
Nae living creature came that way
I took his body on my back
And times I gaed and times I sat
I digged a grave and I laid him in
And happ'd him with the sod sae green
And think you not my heart was sore
As I laid the mold on his yellow hair
And think you not my heart was woe
As I turned about, away to go
Nae living man I'll love again
Since that my lovely knight is slain
With a lock of his yellow hair
I'll chain my heart for evermair
Notes
Notes by Greer Gilman
There is a live performance of this song on The Kershaw Sessions, with slight variations in the lyrics and a new last line, which Carthy now sings:
For the fire took first all on her cheek
And then it took all on her chin
It spat and it rang in her yellow hair
As there she burnt like hokey green
“Hokey green,” says Martin Carthy, is hawthorn, “the flower of mischief and magic”. In folklore, the whitethorn is an unchancy flower, the token of unwedded love, green gowns and May games; it is death to bring it in the house. Among its many names are: Whitethorn, Quickthorn, Hag Tree, and Scrog. Its leaves are Bread-and-Cheese; its fruits are Cat-Haws, Heg-Pegs, Arzy-garzies; and its blossom is called May (for its month of blooming) and—most aptly—Mother-Die.
There are good entries on hawthorn in:
Grigson, Geoffrey. The Englishman's Flora (London : J.M. Dent, 1987).
Mabey, Richard. Flora Britannica (London : Sinclair-Stevenson, 1996).
Vickery, Roy. A Dictionary of Plant Lore (Oxford University Press, 1985).
A philological note: In none of these, however, is it called “hokey green”; nor in Joseph Wright's great English Dialect Dictionary, though “by hokey!” is a petty oath. I'd love to know where that name came from.
A note from Jane Barrett
“Hokey Green” is in the glossary of the Child Ballads, and is there spelled “hoky-gren”, and is in the last four lines of the Scottish version “A” of Ballad #68, called Young Hunting. (These lines are almost the same as those used in the Kershaw version of Famous Flower of Serving Men):
And they hay put that lady in;
O it took upon her cheek, her cheek,
An it took upon her chin,
An it took on her fair body,
She burnt like hoky-gren.
In that story, the fire refused to burn the innocent woman, but consumed the real murderer of Young Hunting!
In the Child Ballads glossary, the entry for “hoky-gren” cites Jamieson as saying a hoakie is “a fire that has been covered up with cinders, when all the fuel has become red.” He also adds possible suggestions, with question marks, which leads me to believe that Professor Child was also a bit bamboozled by this strange term!
Acknowledgements
Transcription of Famous Flower of Serving Men (with a couple of small corrections by Garry Gillard) and notes by Greer Gilman and Jane Barrett
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Songster publisher
Cozans [Phillip J. Cozans. publisher]. Forget- Me-Not Songster [a compilation of four sections with continuous pagination, comprising: i. Select Songs. ii. The Deck & Port Songster, iii. Brother Jonathan, or the American Boy's Songster, and iv.
Ruth Webb Lee quotes Phillip J. Cozans, a major New York valentine publisher, as saying that over three million valentines were published in 1847, with sales nearly equally divided between the two types (Lee 1952, 89). “Vinegar valentines