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THE FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING-MEN
OK,
THE LADY TURNED SERVLNG-MAN.
From A Collection of Old Ballads, i. 216. Percy's edition, (iii. 126,) was from a written copy, "containing some improvements, (perhaps modern ones.") Mr. Kinloch has printed a fragment of this piece in its Scottish dress, as taken down from the recitation of an old woman in Lanark,—Sweet Willie, p. 96. Several of the verses in the following are found also in The Lament of the Border Widow; see ante, iii. 86.
A similar story is found in Swedish and Danish: Liten Kerstin, or Stalls Botelid, Stalldrang, Svenska Folk-Visor, ii. 15, 20, Arwidsson, ii. 179: Stolt lnge-borgs Forklmdning, Danske Viser, No. 184.
You beauteous ladies, great and small, I write unto you one and all, "Whereby that you may understand What I have suffer'd in this land. |
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