Digital Tradition Mirror

Knight and Shepherd's Daughter

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Knight and Shepherd's Daughter

'Tis of a shepherd's daughter, kept sheep upon the hill
A noble lord come a riding by and he swore he'd have his will

  With your roses all in bloom
  Go no more a roving so late in the afternoon

And when he'd had his will of her and everything was done
She picked up her apron, at the horse's side she run

And when she came to the river wide she lay on her breast and swum
And when she's come to the other side she took to her heels and run

And when she came to the King's castle, she tingled at the pin
There was none so ready as the King himself to rise and let her in

Oh, it's King, oh King, oh noble King, it's noble King, cried she
You have a lord in this castle, this day has robbed me
Did he robe you of your purple robe, did he rob you of your pall
Did he rob you of your gay gold ring you had on your finger small

He neither robbed my purple robe, nor robbed me of my pall
He robbed me of my virgin bloom, and that's the worst of all

Well if he is a married man, high hanged he shall be
And if he is a single man, then his body belongs to thee

If I call down my merry men, what would you know him by?
I'd know him by his curly locks and the rolling of his eye

Then he's called down his merry men, by one, by two, by three
Knight William was the foremost man, the very same man was he

Why should I drink the water, when I can get the wine?
If you was but a beggar's brat, why did ye be wanting mine?

If I was but a beggar's brat, as ye make me out to be
When I was out a roving, why didn't ye let me be?
O God forbid, oh God forbid, oh God forbid, cried he
Oh little did I think that the beggar's brat would have to make
  a wife for me


Child #110
     In some versions, it turns out that she is really
noble and he is not.  Sung by John and Tony on Spencer the Rover
SOF

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!