Lady Maisry- Lovingood (NC) pre1936 Scarborough
[From: A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains; Scarborough, 1937. The title is not a local title and no names are mentioned in this version collected by Rachel Slocumb from Mrs Charity Lovingood of Murphy, NC, who lived at the head of Owl Creek on the Hanging Dog Road. Sung to the tune of Barbara Allen.
Spelling kept as in the original MS.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
Lady Maisry- Lovingood (NC) pre1936 Scarborough
She called to her little page boy,
Who was her brother's son.
She told him as quick as he could go
To bring her lord safe home.
Now the very first mile he would walk,
And the second he would run,
And when he came to a [broken] bridge
He bent his breast and swum.
And when he came to the new castell
The lord was set at meat;
If you were to know as much as I,
How little you would eat!
O is my tower falling, falling down,
Or does my bower burn?
Or is my gay lady put to bed
With a daughter or a son?
O no, your tower is not falling down,
Nor does your bower burn,
But we are afraide ere you return
Your lady will be dead and gone.
Come saddle, come saddle my milk-white steed,
Come saddle my pony, too,
That I may neither eat nor drink
Tilt I come to the old castell.
Now when he came to the old castell
He heard the big bell toll,
And then he saw eight noble, noble men
A-bearing of a pall.
Lay down, lay down that gentle, gentle corpse
As it lay fast asleep,
That I may kiss her red, ruby lips
Which I used to kiss so sweet.
Six times he kissed her red ruby lips,
Nine times he kissed her chin,
Ten times he kissed her snowy, snowy breast
Where love did enter in.
The lady was burned that Sunday,
Before the prayer was done,
And the lord he died on the next Sunday
Before the prayer was begun.