Butcher Boy- Mrs. Gilley (TN) 1947 McDowell C
[From Memory Melodies- A Collection of Folk-Songs from Middle Tennessee- McDowell; 1947. The editor's partial notes follow. This is a compilation of three versions and it's unclear exactly how it was constructed. The informants were Mrs. Walter Gilley, Mrs. T. L. Lassiter and Miss Ruby L. Robinson, all of Smithville, Tennessee. there are additional notes which eventually I'll find.
R. Matteson 2017]
This song was furnished by Mrs. Walter Gilley, Mrs. T. L. Lassiter and Miss Ruby L. Robinson, all of Smithville, Tennessee.
THE BUTCHER BOY
In London Town where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well
He courted me, my life away,
And then with me, he will not stay.
There is a strange house in this town,
My love walks up and sits right down,
He takes another girl on his knee
And tells her things he won't tell me.
It's grief to me, and I'll tell you why;
Because she has, more gold than I,
But, her gold will melt and her silver fly,
I hope some day she'll be poor as I.
She went in home to go to bed,
And nothing to her mother said.
"O daughter, dear, what troubles thee?
You seem so very strange to me."
"O mother, dear, you need not know;
It's worry, trouble, grief and woe.
Get ink and pen, I'll sit me down,
That I may write some words down."
Must I go bound while he goes free,
Must I love a boy that don't love me?
Oh no ! Oh no ! that never must be
Till oranges grow on an apple tree.
When night came on her father came home,
And wondered where from daughter had sons.
He went upstairs, the door he broke,
And found her hanging by a rope.
Ho took his knife and cut her down,
And in her buxom these words he found:
"A silly girl in love know,
To hang myself for the butcher's boy."
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast a snow-white dove
To show the world I died for love."