US & Canada Versions: 106. Famous Flower of Serving-Men
[This ballad has been found rarely in New England, once in Canada and once in Oklahoma. It was published twice in New England songsters: The Black-Bird Songster in 1845 and The Humming Bird Songster in 1858 under the title "Fair Eleanor." Barry reprinted the Black-Bird Songster version in BBM, 1929 and he states the songster text "must have been derived from tradition." The nearly identical Humming Bird Songster version can be viewed through Google Books. Apparently, both US printings are based on the Glasgow 1840 printing of "The Black-Bird Songster."
Coffin (see his notes, Ancient Ballads III, 1963) concludes the ballad has had some currency in New England and that, "All five texts given (there are really four versions) and the two in Phillips Barry's British Ballads from Maine, 227 (the entire recovered American canon), are from print or close to it."
There are 7 versions in my collection (I'm missing only the WPA version). Since "Fair Eleanor" in the Hummingbird Songster is virtually the same as the Black-Bird Songster version, I'm giving the text of the 1845 version only. "Fair Eleanor" is from print and "Lament of a Border Widow," although collected in Oklahoma, is taken from Sir Walter Scott's Border Minstrelsy III (from James Hogg), 1803.
R. Matteson 2015]
The Black-Bird Songster Illustration - 1845
CONTENTS: (To access individual versions click on the blue highlighted title below or on the title attached to this page on the left hand column)
1) Fair Eleanor- Blackbird Songster (NY) 1845 Cozans -- From: The Blackbird Songster. New York; P. J. Cozans publisher, 107 Nassan St., 1845. Reprinted in British Ballad from Maine, 1929; Version B.
2) Famous Flower- Delorme (NY-VT) c1877 Flanders C -- From Ancient Ballads III, 1963 by Flanders. As sung by Mrs. Lily M. Delorme of Cadyville, New York. Mrs. Delorme was born in Schuyler Falls, New York in 1869.
3) Fair Ellen- Welch (ME) 1907 Barry A
4) Lament of a Border Widow- Atkins (OK) 1913 Moores
5) Famous Flower- Duncan (NS) c.1937 Creighton
6) Famous Flower- Sullivan (VT) 1940 Flanders D1, D2
7) Sweet William- Richards (NH) 1942 Olney/Flanders
_____________________________________
Flander's Ancient Ballads, notes (Coffin);
The Famous Flower of Servingmen
(Child 106)
The tradition of "The Famous Flower of Servingmen" has died out in England. It is still known in the northeastern United States but not to the rest of the country. Its New England survival can probably be laid to its inclusion in The Blackbird Songster (New York, c. 1845) and its circulation about the region in other printed forms, such as the one in The Charms of Melody. All five texts given below and the two in Phillips Barry's British Ballads from Maine, 227 (the entire recovered American canon), are from print or close to it.
On page 280 of British Ballads from Maine one will find a reprint of The Blackbird, songster text, which Barry feels the printer must have taken from oral tradition. It is related to the fragment sent to Percy in 1776 by the Dean of Derry (See Child, II, 429). In it the stepmother rather than the mother is the villain, and most of the analogous stanzas are markedly different in phrasing and even detail. The text Barry got from the Irish woman in Brunswick and the Flanders B-D2 series below are somewhat closer than this to the Derry fragment. Although all of these also blame a step-mother rather than a true mother, Barry's text and Flanders B include the sweet William pseudonym, and Flanders C, D1, and D2 have at least a single exactly corresponding stanza. One is safe in saying that the Derry fragment, the Songster text, and the five pieces recovered from Northeastern oral tradition are of the same general sort. However, Flanders A, the version from print, is close to Child's full text, a seventeenth-century broadside in which the heroine is Elise and not Ellen or Eleanor. The Charms of Melody text is somewhat longer than the Child broadside, thirty-four stanzas against twenty-eight, but the similarities are striking line after line. See also Greig and Keith, 85-86.
_____________________________________
Barry, BBM, 1929, notes: Child's text is based on three copies of an English broadside, the oldest dating to 1660-75, which "may reasonably be believed to be formed upon a predecessor in the popular style" (II, 430). Our texts are independent of the broadside, which names the lady "Elise," and is more prolix, but are closer to a fragmentary text sent to Percy in 1776 by the Dean of Derry, reprinted by Child, II, 429. This text, which names the lady "Eleanor," and agrees with our texts against the broadside in making the mother (i.e., stepmother) send the robbers as agents of her spite, was regarded by Percy as a "fragment of an older copy than that printed of "The Lady turnd Serving-Man" (Child, II, 429, note).
Our B-text must have been derived from tradition; a printer's ignorance may account for the misspelled words, but not for the absurdity of the second line of stanza 12, which corresponds to A7 line 2.
THE FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING-MEN
(Child 106)
Recited by Mrs. A. Welch, native of County Clare, Ireland, at Brunswick, September 4, 1907. MS collection of Phillips Barry, in Harvard University Library.
1. My father married me unto a knight,
My stepmother owed me a woful spite--
She sent five robbers to me one night,
To rob my court, and slay my knight.
2. I cut my hair and changed my name,
From Ellen fair unto Sir William,
And horse and saddle I did ride,
With a sword and scarf down by my side.
3 I rode along to the King's hall,
And loud for service I did call,--
I gave the butler a diamond ring,
To deliver my message up to the King.
4 When the King came down, he made a bower,
Saying,--"Put on your hat, my girl and flower,
Put on your hat,--my girl and true,
And tell to me what you can do."
5 "I can be your stable-groom,
Or I can be your kitchen cook,
Or I can stand in your grandest hall,
To wait on your nobles when they do call."
6 "You'll not be my kitchen cook,
Nor you'll not be my stable groom,
But you may stand in my grandest hall,
To wait on nobles when they do call.
7 The King went out one day to hunt,
She got it'" flute, and played a tune,--
Saying,--"I was once at my father's hall,
And twenty servants was at my call."
8 When the King came home from being at the hunt,
"What news, what news, my good old man?"
"Good news, good news, kind sir," said he,
"Your serving boy is a fine lady."
9 "If that be true you are telling me,
Lord of manor I'll make of thee,--
If that be a lie you are telling me,
That tree yonder is your dying tree.
10 "Come bring me down that suit above,
And dress this lady to be my love."
"Oh, no, no, no, kind Sir," said she,
"Pay me my wages and set me free."
11. "Come bring me down that suit of white,
And I'll dress this fair maid to be my bride."
"Oh, yes, oh yes, kind Sir," said she,
"In marriage bonds I do agree."
To this may be added the following emendations. Miss M. M. Welch recalled an additional stanza, forgotten by her grandmother, which should follow stanza 1:
She could do me no worse harm,--
She killed my baby, lay on my arm,--
She left me nothing to roll it on,
But the Holland sheets my love lay on.
Three weeks after first having sung the song, Mrs. A. Welch made the following changes, Stanza 4:
When the king came down he made a bow,
Saying, "Put on your hat, my gallant flower,
Put on your hat, my gallant youth,
And tell me what you can do.',
Stanza 12 (additional) :
"Go bring me down that suit of green,
And I'll dress this fair maid to be my queen,"--
"Oh yes, oh yes, kind sir," said she,
"In marriage bonds I do agree."
____________________________________
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.
______________________________
Missing version:
LADY TURNED SERVING MAN, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.378
Performer Waters, Mrs. Mary
Place collected USA : Virginia : Haymarket
Collector Morton, Susan R.