FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING MEN



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



And then my love built me a bower

Bedecked with many a fragrant flower

A braver bower you never did see

Than my true love did build for me



Although I got married to this knight

My stepmother did me deadly spite

For she sent thieves in the dark of night

To rob my bower and slay my knight



They couldn't do to me no harm

So they slew my knight in my arms

Left me naught to wrap him then

But the bloody sheet that he lay in



My servants all from me did flee

In the midst of my extremity

And left me by myself alone

With a heart more cold than any stone



Twas all alone I dug his grave

And all alone in it him I laid

While Christ was priest and I was clerk

I laid my love in the cold clay earth



And all alone the bell I rang

And all alone this song I sang

I leaned my head all against a block

And there I cut my lovely locks



No 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 ever more



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



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 the lords, the 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 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 dreadful 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

It tangled off 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 he drew

She vanished there all from his view



And all around the grass was green

And all around there 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



The dove, he sat down on the stone

So sweet he looked, so sweet he sang

"Alas the day my love became

The famous flower of serving men"



The bloody tears they fell like 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, then he wept full sore

He beat his breast and tore his hair

So loud unto the dove he did call

"Oh pretty bird, come sing it plain"



"Oh it was her stepmother's deadly spite

For she sent thieves in the dark of night

They came to rob, they came to slay

They made their sport, they went their way



"And don't you think that her heart was sore

As she laid the mold on his yellow head

And don't you think that her hear 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 came to his mind

He'd thought the servant was a man



And as he rode himself alone

A dreadful oath he there has sworn

That he would hunt her stepmother 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 done such wrong

They've laid her down in prison strong



And he's brought men out 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 bonnie sang the morning thrush

All there he sat in yonder bush

But louder did her mother cry

In the bonfire where she was 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



And then for fear of any strife

He took Sweet William for his wife

The like before was never seen

A servant man became a queen



Child #106

@murder @family @love @transvestite @royalty @England

compiled from several sources, mainly Carthy's as printed in

Singout, supplemented with Child and Bronson

versions recorded by Martin Carty and Lisa Null

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