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O there was a woman and she was a widow
Fair are the flowers in the valley
With a daughter as fair as a fresh sunny meadow
The Red, the Green and the Yellow
The Harp - The Lute - The Pipe, the Flute, the Cymbal,
Sweet goes the treble violin
The maid so rare, and the flowers so fair
Together they grew in the Valley

There came a Knight all clothed in red
Fair are the flowers in the valley
"I would thou wert my bride", he said,
The Red, the Green and the Yellow
The Harp - The Lute - The Pipe, the Flute, the Cymbal,
Sweet goes the treble violin
"I would", she sighed, "ne'er wins a bride!"
Fair are the flowers in the valley.

There came a Knight all clothed in green
Fair are the flowers in the valley
"This maid so sweet might be my queen",
The Red, the Green and the Yellow
The Harp - The Lute - The Pipe, the Flute, the Cymbal,
Sweet goes the treble violin
"Might be", sighed she, "will ne'er win me!"
Fair are the flowers in the valley.

There came a Knight in yellow was he
Fair are the flowers in the valley
"My bride, my queen, thou must with me!,
The Red, the Green and the Yellow
The Harp - The Lute - The Pipe, the Flute, the Cymbal,
Sweet goes the treble violin
With blushes red, "I come", she said
"Farewell to the flowers in the valley."










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Source: A Garland of Country Song, ISBN 1-86143 071 X

Notes:
Collected by S Baring-Gould from Mr Gilbert, The Falcon Inn, Mawgan, Pydar, Cornwall, about 1880.
Baring-Gould wrote:

This exquisite melody along with fragments only of the words were obtained from Mr Gilbert, the Falcon Inn, Mawgan in Pydar, Cornwall, as he recalled having heard it sung by Thomas Williams, a man of ninety, who died in 1881. His words, however, were relative to nine sons of the widow -
Three of them were seamen so brave,
Three of them were soldiers so bold,
Three of them - [rest forgotten]

Then the last verse was "There was an end of the nine brave boys." We have striven in vain to recover this ballad.
However, as I have had what is clearly the same melody with the same burden of "The Fowers in the Valley" and the enumeration of the instruments in connection with the "Three Knights, the Red, the Green and the Yellow" we have used these words.

The original song was noted by Frederick William Bussell and Sabine Baring-Gould from Mary Gilbert and her brother William, both of the Falcon Inn, rather than from William only as the Garland notes suggest. Both James Reeves (The Everlasting Circle, 1960) and Bronson (Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, vol.I p.190, 11:8) quote Mary Gilbert's set from Baring-Gould's original MSS, as follows:

There was a woman and she was a widow,
The flowers that were in the valley,
A daughter had she...
O the red, the green and the yellow,
The harp, the lute, the fife, the flute and the cymbal,
Sweet goes the treble violin,
The flowers that were in the valley.

No more remembered except these lines:

Three of them were seamen so brave,
The flowers that were in the valley,
Three of them were soldiers so bold,
O the red, the green and the yellow,
The harp...

and the end was:

There was an end of nine brave boys.

Miss Gilbert's brother William remembers another line:

"Nine brave boys of her body were born."

William Gilbert's verse appears in Cecil Sharp's MSS, and is also quoted by Bronson (vol.I p.190, 11:9):

There was a widow all forlorn
Nine brave boys of her body were borne [sic]
Flowers that were in the Valley
The harp the lute the fife the flute & the cymbal
Sweet goes the treble violin
Flowers that were in the Valley.

The tune is very slightly different; presumably Sharp noted it on a separate occasion.

The third example in Bronson is evidently that referred to by Baring-Gould when he said, "I have had what is clearly the same melody with the same burden of The Fowers in the Valley and the enumeration of the instruments in connection with the Three Knights". It is described as "Sung by Mr. Old, at the same time as the other variant".

There was a Knight all clothed in red
The flowers that were in the valley
O and wilt thou be my bride? he said
O the red, the green and the yellow.
The harp, the lute, &c.

There came a second all clothed in green
The flowers that were in the valley.
And he said, My Fair, wilt thou be my queen"
O the red, the green and the yellow.
The harp, the lute, &c.

There came a third, in yellow was he
The flowers that were in the valley,
And he said, My bride for sure thoul't be,
O the red, the green and the yellow.
The harp, the lute, &c.

Reeves commented, "[Baring-Gould] prints in the Garland a fanciful lyric of his own composition based on this fragment, and says he tried in vain to recover the original ballad. Subsequent research has proved no more successful".

This is a little unfair, as Baring-Gould's text is actually based fairly closely on the two sets he found; probably Reeves had not seen the other text. The vaguely homilectic tone of the second parts of each verse is entirely Baring-Gould's, of course.

The two published sets of The Cruel Brother named in Baring-Gould's notes are Child 11F (from Gilbert's Ancient Christmas Carols) and Child 11G (Herd's MSS).

Roud: 26 (Search Roud index at VWML) Take Six
Laws:
Child: 11



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