The False Lover- Parmer/Robbins (IO) 1931 Stout B
[Folklore from Iowa, collected and edited by Earl J. Stout, 1936. His notes follow. Practically all of the material in this collection was gathered during the fall and winter of 1931. His notes follow,
R. Matteson 2017]
THE BUTCHER BOY. For reference, see Cox, No. 145; Mackenzie, Quest of the Ballad, p. 9; Pound, No. 24; Sandburg, p. 324; Hudson, p. 31; Journal, XXIX, 169; XXXI, 73; XXXV, 360; XXXIX, 122; XLV, 72.
B. "The False Lover." Contributed by Paul Parmer, Maquoketa, as known by his aunts, Miss Belle Parmer and Mrs. Chas. Robbins.
1. In Jersey City where I did dwell
With a butcher's boy I loved him well.
He courted me both night and day,
But now he always stays away.
2. There was an inn in that same town,
Where my lover goes and sits him down;
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
And he tells her now what he once told me.
3. And it grieves my heart and I'll tell you why,
'Tis because she has more gold than I;
Her gold will melt in a silver fly,
She'll see the day when she's poor as I.
4. I went upstairs to make my bed,
And there I laid my aching head.
My mother came and asked me why,
"My darling daughter, what makes you cry?"
5. "Oh, get me a chair to set me down,
Get ink and pen, I'll write it down;"
And every word she dropped a tear,
And every line cried "William, dear."
6. That evening when her father came home,
He asked where had his darling gone;
He went upstairs, the door he broke,
And found her hanging by a rope.
7. He took out his knife and he cut her down,
And in her bosom this note was found;
"O dig my grave, dig it wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet.
8. "Upon my breast place a turtle dove,
To let the world know I died for love;
Place a turtle dove upon my breast,
To let the world know I'm now at rest."