Butcher Boy- Lily Green (Tris) 1938 Munch
[Text with music from: The Song Tradition of Tristan da Cunha; 1970 by Peter Munch.
This version of the ballad has been found in a remote island in the south Atlantic Ocean named Tristan da Cunha. It was written down during the Norwegian scientific expedition to the island in 1938-9, by Peter Munch, who was the sociologist. Some of Munch's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
Cf. "I Wish in Vain" (Korson, 1949, p. 48f.); "The Butcher Boy" (Linscott, 1939, p. 179 ff.; Leach, 1955, p. 737 f.); Laws, 1957, p. 260; Mackenzie. 1963, p. 157 ff. For the tune, cf. "Henry Dear" (p. 49)
The Butcher Boy- text (written down by Agnes Rogers) from Lily Green, a native of Tristan da Cunha c. 1938. Tune from Alice Swain (Glass).
[music]
1. In London City, where I did dwell,
A butcher boy, and I knew him well,
He courted me by night and day,
And now with me he will not stay.
2. He takes another girl upon his knee,
And he tells to her what he don't tell me;
He takes another girl upon his knee,
Now, don't you think that it's grief to me.
3. It's grief to me, and I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I;
Her gold will melt and her silver fly,
In time of need she be as poor as I.
4. When her father came home from work.
He asked his wife where his daughter was;
He rushed upstairs and the door he broke,
And he found her hanging onto a rope.
5. He took a knife and he cut her down,
And in her bosom these few lines he found:
"Oh, what a foolish young maid was I
To hang myself for a butcher boy.
6. "Dig my grave, dig it wide and deep,
Put a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast put a turtle dove,
That the world may know that I died for love.
7. "I died for love, as you plainly see,
I died for love, as you plainly see,
For loving of a butcher boy
That never loved me."