Line #11 Literature/TheFamousFlowerOfServingMen

Context Literature / TheFamousFlowerOfServingMen

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1	"The Famous Flower of Serving Men" is Literature/{{Child Ballad\|s}} #106, with two sharply divergent stories.
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3	In both variants, the heroine's mother sent knights to murder the heroine's husband and sometimes baby. The heroine dresses herself as a man and goes to court, where she works for the king.
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5	In Francis Child's version, and many others, one day when the king is hunting, she laments her fate, and a servant who overhears her tell the king.
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7	In others, the king goes hunting, chases a milk-white hind, and is led to the grave. There, the husband's ghost laments his wife's fate, and so the king hears of it.
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9	In both variants, the king then executes her mother and marries her.
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11	Child's variant [[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch106.htm here]]. One of the other type is [[http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiFLRSERV2;ttFLRSERV2;ttFLWSERV2.html here]].
12	----
13	!!Tropes included
14	* BlueBlood: The heroine, which underscores her fall
15	* DeathOfAChild: In some variants, the heroine's baby is killed along with her husband.
16	* DueToTheDead: She buries the husband and baby by herself
17	-->''They left me nought to dig his grave but the bloody sword that slew my babe\
18	All alone the grave I made, and all alone the tears I shed\
19	And all alone the bell I rang, and all alone the psalm I sang''
20	* EvilMatriarch
21	** WickedStepmother: Some variants try the alteration. Given that the meter doesn't take it, it's a bit obvious.
22	* ExactEavesdropping: The king himself doesn't overhear her lament, but it's very convenient what she complains of.
23	* FallenOnHardTimesJob: As a chamberlain
24	** Important to note that "chamberlain" has two distinct meanings, one of them being basically the male equivalent of chamber''maid'' and one of them being "high government official." The two meanings are not ''entirely'' unrelated, but it's specifically the first that's intended here.
25	* FollowTheWhiteRabbit: Chasing a deer brings him to the grave.
26	* ImportantHaircut: Part of the SweetPollyOliver
27	* TheMarvelousDeer: The guide in one version -- he starts to fear it will harm him before he finds the grave.
28	* MeaningfulRename
29	-->''Wherefore in hast I chang'd my name\
30	From Fair Elise to Sweet William.''
31	* OurGhostsAreDifferent
32	* RagsToRoyalty: The heroine.
33	* SecondLove: The king, to the heroine.
34	* SweetPollyOliver

Context Literature / TheFamousFlowerOfServingMen