Yonder Stands a Lovely Creature- Cranstone (Sus) 1907 Butterworth
[From; George Butterworth Manuscript Collection (GB/4/23). Text reprinted with new melody in Songs Collected from Sussex by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Cecil J. Sharp, G. S. K. Butterworth, Frank Kidson, A. G. Gilchrist and Lucy E. Broadwood from Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 4, No. 17 (Jan., 1913), pp. 279-324.
R. Matteson 2017]
"Yonder Stands a Lovely Creature"-- sung by Mrs. Cranstone of Billingshurst, Sussex about 1907, collected and transcribed by George Butterworth.
1. Yonder stands a lovely creature,
Who she is I do not know;
I'll go and court her for her beauty,
Let her answer yes or no.
2 Madam I am come to court you,
If your favour I should gain.
First your hand, love, then your welcome,
Perhaps that I'll not come again.
3 Welcome in, you're kindly welcome,
Welcome in, you're welcome wine.
I had a lovier, a false lovier,
He it was stole this heart of mine.
4 Madam, I have gold and silver,
Madam, I have house and land:
Madam, I have the world of pleasure,
All to be at your command."
5 What care I for your gold or silver,
What care I for house and land?
What care I for the world of pleasure,
So long as I've got a nice young man?
6 "Ripest apples soon gets rotten,
Hottest love it soon gets cold;
Young men's words are soon forgotten,
So I pray, young man, don't speak too bold."
7 I once laid my head on a young man's pillow,
Thinking it might be my own:
Now I'm left to wear the willow,
By experience it is well known.
8 After nettles then come roses,
After night then in comes day:
After a false love then comes a true love,
So we pass our time away.