"Lay down, lay down, lovin' Henry," she said,
"An' stay all night with me;
There's a cheer for you, an' a cheer for me,
An' a candle burnin' free."

"I cain't lay down, Lady Margaret," he said,
"An' stay all night with thee;
For my old parents in Scotland
Thinks long of my comin' home."

He stood leanin' over his saddle side
A-kissin' of her so sweet;
She took a pen-knife in her hand
An' pierced him short an' deep.

"Ride on, ride on, lovin' Henry," she said,
"ride on beneath the sun,
Till you find some physician
Can cure your deadly wounds."

"I cain't ride on, Lady Margaret," he said,
"Nor ride beneath the sun;
There's no physician beneath the sky
Can cure my deadly wounds."

"Here lies a dead man in my room,
Somebody come take him away."
Some took him by the long yaller hair,
An' some took him by the feet.

Some took him by the long yaller hair,
Some took him by the feet,
An' throwed him in the deep dry well
A fifteen fathers deep.

"Lay there, lay there, lovin' Henry," she said,
"Till the flesh rots off your bones;
For your old parents in Scotland
Thinks long of your comin' home."

She turned unto her pretty parrot,
"An' keep all secret for me;
Your cage shall be made of the costliest gold
An' swung on a green willow tree."

"I cain't keep secret an' I won't keep secret,
An' keep all secret for thee;
I seen you murder your own true love,
An' soon might murder me."

"I wisht I had my bow an' arrer,
My bow an' arrer an' string;
I'd shoot me a hole through your pretty breast
That shines so bright an' green."

"Oh, if you had your bow an' arrer,
Your bow an' arrer an' string,
I'd fly so high up in the air
You'd never see me again."



abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Randolph, V, 1982. Ozark Folksongs, Illinois Press, Urbana

Notes:
Randolph wrote:

Sung by Judy Jane Whittaker, Anderson, Mo, May 12, 1928

The song which Ozark people know as "Lord Henry and Lady Margaret" or "Lord Henry and Lydia Margaret" is a fairly good version of "Young Hunting" (Child 68). For other American texts see Kittredge (1907) and (1917); Campbell and Sharp; Cox (1925); Sandberg (1927); R Smith (1928); A. K. Davis (1929); L Chappell; Treat; Belden (1940); G Anderson (1942); Morris 91944_. As "loving Henry", "Lord Bonnie", etc, this ballad appears in the Brown Collection.

This otherwise excellent ballad story may bewilder the reader who is unaware that in most variants Henry had told Magaret that it is his fairest lady in old Scotland - not his old parents - who is awaiting his return. Otherwise her motive for murder seems weak indeed. In some versions the dramatic intensity is heightened by Henry's informing Margaret as he is dying that he really loved only her. The sequence of stanzas about the parrot seems to be a borrowing from from another ballad, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight."

Roud: 47 (Search Roud index at VWML)
Laws:
Child: 68