>
Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court young men
They're like a bright star of a summer's morning
They first appear and then they're gone

They'll tell to you some pleasing story
Declare to you they love you true
Straight ways they'll go and court some other
And that’s the love they have for you

I once did meet a fair true lover
A true one too I took him to be
Then he went away and found him another
And that’s the love he had for me

I wish that I never had seen him
Or that I’d died when I was young
To think so fair and handsome lady
Was stricken by his lying tongue

Oh love is sweet and love is charming
And love is pleasant when it’s new
But love grows cold as it grows older
And fades away like the morning dew
If I’d a knowed before I courted
That love would be so hard on me
I’d a put my heart in a box of silver
And locked it up with a golden key

Oh that I were a pretty little sparrow
Or had I wings that I could fly
I’d light upon his breast and flutter
And tell him of a deceiving me

I hope there is a day a coming
When my false lover I shall see
I hope there is a place of torment
To contain my love for deceiving me

<<

[Transcribed 6March2023, caj]