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Our version of Child #4, in which a murderous seducer receives his lethal comeuppance. The tune and text are from Bronson, with a bit of editing. "La Rotta" is a 14th century Italian tune.

lyrics

False Sir John a wooing went to a lady young and fair
May Colvin was this lady's name, her father's only heir

It's "Give me some of your father's gold and some of your mother's fee
And I'll take thee to a far-off land and there I'll marry thee."

She's mounted on a milk-white steed and he on a dapple grey
And they rode till they came to a lonesome spot, a cliff by the side of the sea

"Light down, light down," said false Sir John, "thy bridal bed to see,
It's seven women have I drowned here, and the eighth one you shall be.

"Have off, have off thy gown of silk with borders all around,
For it's far too costly to lay down here and rot on the cold, cold ground."

"Turn around, turn around, thou false Sir John, and look at the leaves on the tree,
For it don't become a gentleman a naked maid to see."

Now false Sir John has turned around to look at the leaves on the tree
And she's made a dash with her arms so strong and pushed him into the sea

"Lie there, lie there, thou false-hearted wretch, lie there instead of me,
It's seven women have you drowned here and the eighth has drowned thee."

credits

from Black​-​edged Visiting Card, released December 1, 1992
Including La Rotta

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Broadside Electric Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Broadside Electric is a five-piece electric folk band from Philadelphia, PA (US). They have earned a reputation for thoroughly original arrangements and painstaking research into traditional English, Celtic and Eastern European music. Broadside Electric has been at turns called “Pennsylvania’s answer to Steeleye Span” and “folk music’s answer to death metal.” ... more

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