Charming Billy- Henderson (NC) 1914 Brown A
[From The Brown Collection of NC Folklore, 1952 collected before 1943.
R. Matteson 2011 2014]
Billy Boy-Brown Collection
Billy Boy- This old English nursery song is very widely known. See BSM 400, and add to the references there given Rimbault's Nursery rhymes, 2-3, and for this entry Virginia (FSV 193-5), Indiana (Wolford 24. a play-party song) , Arkansas (OFS I 392-3), and Missouri (OFS 1 391-2, 393). There are forty-seven texts of it in our collection, covering all parts of the state from Nag's Head on the Banks to the western mountains. The questions asked vary, though some of them, especially "Can she make a cherry pie?" are fairly persistent.
Instead of giving- all the texts it will be sufficient to print a few of the fuller versions; but a listing here of the (questions asked will give an idea of the range of interest involved. In all of the texts taken together twenty questions are asked. They all begin with "Where have you been?" Five of them concern the person of the "wife": How old is she? How tall is she? Are her eyes very bright? Is she worth anything? What is her name? A larger number deal with her housewifely qualities: Can she sweep up the floor? Can she make a feather bed? Can she make a loaf of bread? Can she make a cherry pie? Can she knit, can she sew? Can she make a cup of tea? Can she make a pudding well? Can she make a man a shirt? Others look to the wedding: Do you think she loves you well? Will her mother give her up? Is she fitten for a wife? Have you set the wedding day?
Still others constitute a sort of reverse of 'The Old Man's Courtship': Did she ask you in? Did she ask off your hat? Did she give you a seat (set for you a chair)? Did she bid you to come back? And one text (contributed by Mrs. Vaught from Alexander county) has a question reflecting an interest in her respectability: Does she often go to church? To which the answer is: Yes, she goes to church and wears a bonnet white as perch. The answers to the questions vary slightly from text to text but not significantly. To the question about her age the answer is always a nonsense rigmarole — perhaps implying that it is none of the questioner's business.
Here are three of the fuller versions. Most of the texts have only four or five stanzas.
A. 'Charming Billy.' Contributed by Miss Amy Henderson of Worry, Burke county, in 1914.
1. 'Where have you been. Billy boy, Billy boy,
Where have you been, charming Billy?'
"I've been seeking me a wife, she's the comfort of my life;
She's a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.'
2 'Did she ask you to come in, Billy boy, Billy boy.
Did she ask you to come in, charming Billy?'
'Yes, she asked me to come in; she's a dimple in her chin.
She's a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.'
3 'Did she bid you have a chair, Billy boy, Billy boy.
Did she bid you have a chair, charming Billy?'
'Yes, she bade me have a chair; she has ringlets in her hair.
She's a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.'
4. 'Can she make a cherry pie. Billy boy, Billy boy,
Can she make a cherry pie, charming Billy?'
'Yes, she can make a cherry pie quick as a cat can wink its eye.
She's a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.'
5. 'Can she make a pudding well, Billy boy, Billy boy.
Can she make a pudding well, charming Billy?'
'Yes, she can make a pudding well, you can tell it by the smell.
She's a voung thing, and cannot leave her mother.'
6. "Did she bid you to come back, Billy boy, Billy boy,
Did she bid you to come back, charming Billy?'
'Yes. she bade me to come back, after giving me a smack.
She's a young thing, and cannot leave her mother."
7 'How old is she. Billy boy, Billy boy.
How old is she, charming Billy?'
'She'll be forty-four next fall, and she's got no teeth at all.
She's a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.