Butcher's Boy- Sam Harmon (TN) 1930 Henry A
[From Mellinger Henry, Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands (New York: J. J. Augustin, 1938). His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
57 THE BUTCHER BOY
While versions, C, D, E, and F of this song were not from the Southern Highlands, they were recalled by the reading of versions A and B, and are included for the sake of comparison. See W. Roy Mackenzie's "The Quest of the Ballad," p. 9; Cox, No. 145; Pound, No. 24; Lomax, p. 397; Sandburg, p. 3 24 (title is "London City"); Spaeth, "Weep Some More, My Lady," p. 128 (title is "In Jersey City"); Journal, XXIX, 169; XXXI, 73;XXXV, 360; XXXIX, 122; Phillips Barry, Ancient British Ballads, etc. (A privately printed list), No. 41; Arthur Palmer Hudson's "Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore," p. 31; Bradley Kincaid's My Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old-Time Songs, Chicago, 1928, p. 43 ; Flanders and Brown, p. 15.
A. Butcher's Boy. Obtained from Miss Rachel Tucker, Varnell, Georgia, who had it from her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Harmon, of Cade's Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, October, 1930.
1. In yonder city where I once dwell,
A Butcher's boy I loved so well;
He courted me my life away
And then with me he would not stay.
2. There was a house in this same town;
My love would go and he would sit down;
He would take another girl upon his knee,
And tell her what he wouldn't tell me.
3. "Oh, mama, mama, can't you see,
How this boy has treated me?
His gold may scatter; his silver may fly;
I hope some day he be poor as I.
4. "Give me a cheer, and I will sit down,
A pen and ink to write it down.
I will write it down as you plainly see:
'I once loved a boy that didn't love me.'"
5. After a while her father came home
Inquiring where his daughter had gone
Upstairs he went; the door he broke;
He found her hanging by a rope.
6. He tuk his knife; he cut her down
And on her breast these he found:
"I will write it down so you can plainly see,
'I once loved a boy that didn't love me.'
7. "Go, dig a grave both wide and deep
And a marble stone at my head and feet;
And on my breast put a little dove
To tell the world that I died for love."