voiceCollected by Mrs. Laura Willie
For Mary C. Parler
Transcribed by Frances Majors
Sung by Mrs. Maxine Hite
Prairie Grove , Arkansas
January 9, 1959
Reel 264, Item 19
The Jealous Lover
'Twas on one summer's evening,
When the grass was wet with dew,
When to a lonely cottage
A jealous lover drew.
Said he to fair Ellen,
In a kind and loving way,
Let's go walk and talk together
About our wedding day.
Oh, Edward, I am weary,
And I do not like to roam.
My footsteps have grown weary;
Oh, Edward, take me home.
You are a cruel villain,
Don't draw that knife on me;
You know not half the danger
That act impels on thee.
He heeded not her warning;
He cared not for her life.
But in her snow white bosom
He plunged that fatal knife.
Oh, Edward, I forgive thee
With my last dying breath.
I never have deceived thee,
And she closed her eyes in death.
Down by the flowing river,
Where the darkling willows wave,
Where the leafy branches quiver,
There lies fair Ellen's grave.
Each morn a lonely stranger
Comes and lingers many hours.
It is fair Ellen's lover,
And he strews her grave with flowers.Funding for digitization provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Happy Hollow Foundation
