'I had my music every day,
Harmonious lessons for to play;
I had my virgins fair and free
Continually to wait on me.
'But now, alas! my husband's dead,
And all my friends are from me fled;
My former joys are pass'd and gone,
For I am now a serving-man.'
At last the king from hunting came,
And presently, upon the same,
He called for this good old man,
And thus to speak the king began:
'What news, what news, old man?' quoth he;
'What news hast thou to tell to me?'
'Brave news,' the old man he did say.
'Sweet William is a lady gay.'
'If this be true thou tell'st to me,
I'll make thee lord of high degree;
But if thy words do prove a lie,
Thou shalt be hang'd up presently.'
But when the king the truth had found,
His joys did more and more abound:
According as the old man did say,
Sweet William was a lady gay.
Therefore the king without delay
Put on her glorious rich array,
And upon her head a crown of gold
Which was most famous to behold.
And then, for fear of further strife,
He took Sweet William for his wife;
The like before was never seen,
A serving-man to be a queen.
Old Ballad