The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5951   Message #1394239
Posted By: Jim Dixon
31-Jan-05 - 09:58 AM
Thread Name: ADD: I'll Be All Smiles Tonight (Carter Family)
Subject: Lyr Add: I'LL BE ALL SMILES TO-NIGHT (f. Bodleian)
From Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Harding B 11(1698).

I'LL BE ALL SMILES TO-NIGHT
H. Disley, Printer, 57, High street, St. Giles, London [between 1860 and 1883]

I'll deck my brow with flowers. The false one will be there.
The gems which others gave me shall shine amidst my hair.
Not even those that love me will deem my heart less light.
No one shall know how I suffer, for I'll be all smiles to-night.

I'll sing that song he taught me, without a trembling voice.
And when the dance commences, oh! how I will rejoice.
When the flatterers gather round me, I'll hail them with delight.
Tho' my heart may break to-morrow, I'll be all smiles to-night.

When in the room he enters, with his bride upon his arm,
Then I will gaze upon them, as tho' to me a charm;
And when he gazes on her, as he used to gaze on me,*
When with his tongue he flatters, he will find no change in me.

[*This line is mostly illegible in the broadside. I have attempted to reconstruct it based on the few letters I can recognize, and on comparisons with other versions. -JD]