[COPYRIGHT
DEC
10
1872]
"Fairest of the Fair[!]" [10 Dec 1872]
Song & Dance
Written Expressly for
Fox and Ward
of
Duprez and Benedicts
Minstrels,
by
Mrs. Lew[is]. Benedict.
Music by W. S. Milton.
Philadelphia, PA: J. L. Carncross & Co., No. 6 Nth. 8th. St.
[Lithographer:] Gillingham.
Plate No. J.L.C.& Co. 183-3.
[Source: 1872-12977@LoC]

1. One lovely day last summer,
I stray’d down by the river,
To cull the snowy lillies,
That near it’s margin bloom’d,
I there beheld a maiden,
Of such seraphic beauty,
Of sense she near bereft me,
I thought my faite was doom’d,
Beneath a tree reclining,
I saw this girl devine,
The moment I beheld her,
I wish’d that she were mine.

CHORUS [sung after each VERSE]
For O she was the fairest of the fair,
Violet eyes and sheeny golden hair,
Her smile it was the sweetest,
That ever I have seen,
A darling royal beauty,
Is she my Woodland Queen.

2. I stood and gazed enraptur’d,
upon her form so beautious,
Her face suffus’d with blushes,
She rais’d her eyes to mine,
Such eyes! so soft and tender,
And fring’d wth golden lashes,
I murmur’d lovely creature,
My heart is wholly thine,
I pluck’d the fairest lilly,
With smile so soft and bland,
I gave it to my charmer,
who smil’d and kiss’d her hand.

3. I taught her soon to love me, as time kept onward rolling;
When her I ask’d to wed me, she answer’d with a kiss:
Our troth we quickly plighted, and soon we were united;
Since then the world seems dearer, than one sweet dream of bliss,
I love my darling dearer, than all the world beside;
And bless the day I met her, down by the river side.