[93]. said men.
THE FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING-MEN
OR,
THE LADY TURNED SERVING-MAN.
From A Collection of Old Ballads, i. 216. Percy's edition, (iii. 126,) was from a written copy, "containing some improvements, (perhaps modern ones.") Mr. Kinloch has printed a fragment of this piece in its Scottish dress, as taken down from the recitation of an old woman in Lanark,—Sweet Willie, p. 96. Several of the verses in the following are found also in The Lament of the Border Widow; see ante, iii. 86.
A similar story is found in Swedish and Danish: Liten Kerstin, or Stolts Botelid, Stalldräng, Svenska Folk-Visor, ii. 15, 20, Arwidsson, ii. 179: Stolt Ingeborgs Forklædning, Danske Viser, No. 184.
You beauteous ladies, great and small,
I write unto you one and all,
Whereby that you may understand
What I have suffer'd in this land.
I was by birth a lady fair,5
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,
Bedeck'd with many a fragrant flower;10
A braver bower you ne'er did see,
Than my true love did build for me.