False Lamkin- Robinson (AR) 1957 Parler
[Ozark Collection - Coll. by M.C. Parler, Reel 350, Item 5. See also Max Hunter Collection:
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=0303; As sung by Jane Robinson, Fayettville, Arkansas on December 17, 1958.
R. Matteson 2015]
False Lamkin - Sung Jane Robinson Fayetteville, Ark. March 1957
Said the Lord to his Lady,
As he rode away from home,
Beware of false Lamkin
Or he'll do you much harm.
I care not for false Lamkin
Nor none of his kin,
When the doors are all bolted
And the windows close[1] pinned.
At the back kitchen window
False Lamkin crept in,
And he prick-ed one of the other babes
With a bright silver pin.
Oh nursemaid, oh nursemaid,
How soundly you sleep,
Can't you hear one of the other babes
A-tryin' to weep?
How durst I go down
In the dead of the night,
Where there's no fire a-kindled,
No candle alight?
As she was a-goin' down,
Thinkin' of no harm,
False Lamkin he caught her
Right tight in his arm.
Oh spare my life, oh spare my life,
My life that's so sweet,
You shall have as many guineas
As stones in the street.
Oh spare my life, oh spare my life,
Till one of the clock,
You shall have my daughter Betsy,
The fairest of the flock.
Fetch me your daughter Betsy,
She'll do me some good,
She shall hold a silver basin
To catch her own heart's blood.
Pretty Betsy bein' up
At the window so high,
Saw her own dearest Father
Come ridin' close by.
Oh Father, dearest Father,
Oh blame not of me,
For it was false Lamkin
Killed baby and me[1].
There's blood in the kitchen,
There's blood in the hail,
There's blood in the parlor
Where the lady did fall.
False Lankin shall be hung
From the gallows so high,
While his bones they are burned
In the fire close by.
1. she's not a ghost so it should be, "your lady" or "mommy"