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The folk from the folk songs
Oct. 23rd, 2020 08:28 amPretty Fair Maid in the Garden lyrics
Tim O'Brien performs Pretty Fair Maid in the Garden
So a lad falls in love with a pretty fair maid, and then he goes for a soldier, and they're separated for seven years. And by our standards these people are (1) practically children and (2) practically strangers, but she's pretty and she's pleasant and so he trades rings with her and he goes off to war.
So the soldier lads talk, late at night around the fire, and soon all of them know about Ned's pretty fair maid, and they have an agreement that if something happens to Ned, someone else will take the ring back to her. And something does happen to Ned, because they're soldiers, after all, but Robin takes the ring and carries it. And when Robin is killed, Will takes it. And when Will peacefully musters out to marry a farmer's daughter, he passes the ring to Gilbert, and so on.
Meanwhile the original pretty fair maid -- let's say her name is Nancy -- waits there in the cottage with a garden. Let's say she's gazing upon a badly painted miniature of a generic lad; there's no miniature in the song, but my plot requires it. Anyway, she waits, like a faithful true love, until she dies of smallpox, and then her sister Molly moves in. Molly eventually marries a house carpenter, but she passes the miniature on to Jennie, who passes it to Mary, who gives it to another Mary, and so on.
And eventually a lad who has never set foot in this village shows a ring to a woman who's never met a soldier, and she shows him a miniature, and the two of them get married and live happily ever after, because that's true love.
Tim O'Brien performs Pretty Fair Maid in the Garden
So a lad falls in love with a pretty fair maid, and then he goes for a soldier, and they're separated for seven years. And by our standards these people are (1) practically children and (2) practically strangers, but she's pretty and she's pleasant and so he trades rings with her and he goes off to war.
So the soldier lads talk, late at night around the fire, and soon all of them know about Ned's pretty fair maid, and they have an agreement that if something happens to Ned, someone else will take the ring back to her. And something does happen to Ned, because they're soldiers, after all, but Robin takes the ring and carries it. And when Robin is killed, Will takes it. And when Will peacefully musters out to marry a farmer's daughter, he passes the ring to Gilbert, and so on.
Meanwhile the original pretty fair maid -- let's say her name is Nancy -- waits there in the cottage with a garden. Let's say she's gazing upon a badly painted miniature of a generic lad; there's no miniature in the song, but my plot requires it. Anyway, she waits, like a faithful true love, until she dies of smallpox, and then her sister Molly moves in. Molly eventually marries a house carpenter, but she passes the miniature on to Jennie, who passes it to Mary, who gives it to another Mary, and so on.
And eventually a lad who has never set foot in this village shows a ring to a woman who's never met a soldier, and she shows him a miniature, and the two of them get married and live happily ever after, because that's true love.