Lord Banyard- blind woman (AR) 1947 Fletcher
[From: Arkansas by John Gould Fletcher Page 275; 1947.
R. Matteson 2014]
Lord Banyard- taken down by Fletcher from an "old blind and illiterate woman dressed in flour-sack clothes"
"Light down, light down, Lord Banyard," she said.
"And stay all night with me;
And the fairest lady in old Scotland
Will look this night for thee."
"I caint light down, I caint light down,
Nor stay all night with thee;
For the fairest lady in old Scotland
Is waiting this night for me."
Alas, he stooped from his leather-pummell saddle
All for to take a sweet kiss;
She had a knife both keen and sharp;
And she pierced him to his heart.
"Is there a physician in this town?
I pray you bring him to me;
For the fairest lady in old Scotland
Is waiting this night for me."
"There is no physician in this town,
Nor no one close around;
And the fairest lady in old Scotland
Will always weep alone."
Away about the break of day,
She called on her true housemaid:
"Here lies a dead man in my hall,
I pray you take him away."
One tuck him by his lily-white hands,
The other by his feet;
They throwed him in a three-story well,
Just thirty furlongs deep
"Lie there, lie there, you false-hearted man,
Till the flesh rots off your bones;
And the fairest lady in old Scotland
Will always weep alone."
"Hush up, hush up, my pretty little parrot
Don't you tell no tales on me;
And I'll have your cage made of yellow-beaten gold,
And hung in yonder tree."
"I caint hush up, I caint hush up,
Nor neither do I want that tree;
For you have killed your true love,
I'm afeared you may kill me.
"If I had my bow all in my hand,
And an arrow on its string,
I'd let it fly at your golden-yellow breast,
All among the leaves so green."
"If you had your bow all in your hand,
And an arrow on its string,
I'd fly so high above the sky,
That I'd nevermore be seen