Must I Be Bound- Jacob Baker (Dor) 1905 Hammond
[From H. E. D. Hammond Collection online. Baker's version is similar to the broadside, "The Complaining Lover- A New Song":
R. Matteson 2017]
"Must I Be Bound?" was collected by H. E. D. Hammond from Jacob Baker in Dorset in 1905.
Must I be bound, or must I go free?
To love a young man who never loved me?
Why should I act such a childish part
To love a young man with all my heart?
He loves another, he loves not me,
And he cares not for my company;
He loves another, I'll tell you why:
Because she's got more gold than I.
. . . .
. . . .
Her gold will waste her beauty blast,
And in time she'll come like me at last.
I put my back up against an oak.
Thinking it was some trusty tree,
But first it bent and then it broke;
And so did thy false love to me!
I put my hand into a bush,
Thinking some sweeter flower to find;
I pricked my finger to the bone,
Leaving that sweetest flower alone.
Since roses are such prickly flowers
They should be gathered when they're green;
And she did court such an unkind love,
I'm sure she's striving against the stream.
For against the stream I dare not go,
For fear that it should overflow;
And not so deep in love am I!
I care not whether he live or die!
He gave me honey all mixed with gold [gall]
He gave me words and bows withal;
He gave me a delicate gown to wear,
All stitched with sorrow and hemmed with fear.
Now if I ever gain my liberty,
And that I trust I soon will be,
I'll buy me a delicate gown to wear
Not hemmed with sorrow nor stitched with fear.
Now here's his health I mean to drink,
And from his arms I will not slink;
He hath my heart, go where he will
Although he is false I must love him still.