Butcher's Boy- May Kennedy McCord (MO) 1939 Owens
[From Texas Folk Songs by William Owens, 1950 edition. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
THE BUTCHER'S BOY
when I was a child "The Butcher's Boy" was a favorite Song at school and at musical entertainments in homes. Even in our community there were slight variations in words and tune. The location was sometimes London City, sometimes Jersey City, The ending stanza 'however' rarely showed variation. This song appeared as a broadside[1] in England and as a penny song sheet in America. It is known throughout the United States.
"The Butcher's Boy." Sung by May Kennedy McCord, of springfreid, Missouri, 1939.
In London city where I did dwell,
Live a butcher's boy that I loved so well;
He courted me my heart away--
And now with me he will not stay.
There is a house in London town
where my true love dares sit down;
He takes a strange girl on his knee
And tells to her what he won't tell me.
"Oh, mother, mother, I'll tell you why,
It's because she has more gold than I;
But her gold will melt and her silver fly,
And she will be as poor as I."
Her father come home from a far off town,
Saying, "Where, oh, where is my daughter gone?"
Saying, "Where, oh, where is my pride and joy?
Oh, has she gone with the butcher's boy?"
He went upstairs, the door he broke,
And found her hanging by a rope;
He took a knife and cut her down,
And on her bosom these lines he found:
Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast place a turtle dove
To show to the world that I died for love.
"Must I go bound while he goes free?
Must I love a man who don't love me?
Oh, I have played a maiden's part
And died for the man who broke my heart."
1. Although variants of the Died for Love family have been printed as broadsides in England, the Butcher Boy broadsides were first printed in the US about 1960 and reprinted in England from the US prints.