Tripped A Beauteous Maiden
Boyd Rice and Friends Lyrics

The song "Tripped A Beauteous Maiden" by Boyd Rice and Friends recounts the story of a beautiful woman in an old garden who has a cold heart. Despite her apparent lack of interest, a prince comes to woo her, professing his undying love, which she coldly rejects. Even a perfumed note from the prince fails to sway her, and she tells him that his love is dead. However, a dashing stranger appears and abducts her by force, stating his intention to make her love him, which she eventually does.

The lyrics of the song paint a bleak portrait of love as being something that can be taken rather than given freely. The beauteous maiden is depicted as a heartless woman who cannot be won over by any conventional means, forcing the prince to resort to using manipulative tactics to win her over. The stranger's abduction of the maiden suggests that love is a game of power and dominance, rather than a genuine emotion that can be freely expressed and given.

Interestingly, the song title itself, "Tripped A Beauteous Maiden," has an archaic feel to it, using the word "tripped" in a way that is not commonly used today. The lyrics also contain a number of archaic turns of phrase, such as "whimsed," which adds to the overall feeling of the song being steeped in old-fashioned ideas about love and courtship.