The Fairy Kings Courtship

C     F  C    F

[Verse]
       C                                    G
On the first day of May at the close of the day
     C                                       G
As I stood in the shade of a green spreading tree
        C                           F
A young lover a-courting a maiden I spied
                         G           C
I drew very near them to hear and to see

[Verse]
    Am                                 G
The dress that he wore was a velvet so green
    Am                            C             G
All trimmed with gold lace and as bright as the sea
       C                                       Am
And he said, “Love, I'll make you my own fairy queen
   F                   G           C
If you are but willing to go with me

[Verse]
                                      G
“Lisses and forts shall be at your command
    C                                       G
The mountains and valleys, the land and the sea
        C                              F
And the billows that roar along the seashore
                       G          C
If you are but willing to go with me

[Verse]
    Am                               G
“To make me a queen, my birth is too mean
    Am                     C        G
And you will get ladies of higher degree
  C                                      Am
I know not your name nor from whence you came
   F                G           C
So I am not willing to go with thee”

[Verse]
                                             G
“I will tell you my name, and I love you the same
      C                           G
As if you were a lady of higher degree

MacAnanty's my name and from Scrabo I came
        F                         G               C
And the queen of that country, my love, you shall be”

[Verse]
    Am                            G
“If I were to go with one I don't know
   Am                           C          G
My parents and friends would be angry with me
             C                               Am
They'd bring me back again with shame and disdain
   F                   G           C
So I am not willing to ramble with thee”

[Verse]
                                                     G
“From your friends we will sail in a ship that won't fail
       C                              G
With a silken topsail and a wonderful flight
         Am                 C
And from misty Coleraine, to France and to Spain
     F                  G         C
Then back home again in one short night

[Verse]
           Am                             G
“For there is not a fort from this to the north
          Am                      C         G
But we'll dance all around it and sing merrily
        C                                      Am
And the lads of Queen Anne shall be at your command
    F                      G              C
And they will all stand in great dread of thee

[Verse]
                                 G
“For it's many's the mile I have roamed in my time
   F                 C           G
By land and by sea a-looking for thee
      C                                    Am
For I ne'er could find rest nor peace to my mind
      F                       G           C
Until fortune proved kind and sent you to me”