The Butcher Boy- Mrs. Gilley
[The Butcher's Boy is derived from British broadsides, including Brisk Young Lover, which is also sometimes called There Is an Alehouse in Yonder Town.
Frank Proffitt, of Beach Mountain NC, sang this song as "Morning Fair" on his 1962 Folk-Legacy album Traditional Songs and Ballads of Appalachia. It was also released in 1966 as the Topic album North Carolina Songs and Ballads. The booklet commented:
Not often found in this form, this ballad is widely popular in America as The Butcher Boy, perhaps because it was widely printed in the early songsters. Brown points out that it appeared as a stall ballad in both Boston and New York. Frank learned his splendid variant from his aunt, Nancy Prather. The ballad is usually found with the following as the final couplet:
And on my breast place a turtle dove
To show the world that I died for love.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE BUTCHER BOY
In London Town where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well
He courted me, my life away,
And then with me, he will not stay.
There is a strange house in this town,
My love walks up and sits right down,
He takes another girl on his knee
And tells her things he won't tell me.
It's grief to me, and I'll tell you why;
Because she has, more gold than I,
But, her gold will melt and her silver fly,
I hope some day she'll be poor as I.
She went in home to go to bed,
And nothing to her mother said.
"O daughter, dear, what troubles thee?
You seem so very strange to me."
"O mother, dear, you need not know;
It's worry, trouble, grief and woe.
Get ink and pen, I'll sit me down,
That I may write some words down."
Must I go bound while he goes free,
Must I love a boy that don't love me?
Oh no ! Oh no ! that never must be
Till oranges grow on an apple tree.
When night came on her father came home,
And wondered where from daughter had sons.
He went upstairs, the door he broke,
And found her hanging by a rope.
Ho took his knife and cut her down,
And in her buxom these words he found:
"A silly girl in love know,
To hang myself for the butcher's boy ."
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast a snow-white dove
To show the world I died for love."
This song was furnished by Mrs. Walter Gilley, Mrs. T. L. Lassiter and Miss Ruby L. Robinson, all of Smithville, Tennessee. The three versions had only minor word differences, are shown below. Mrs. Gilley had "clty" instead of "town" in the first verse, while Mrs. Lassiter had "Charles town," In the third line Mrs. Lassiter had "heart," instead of "life", and in the fourth line Mrs. Gilley had the present tense of the verb. In the second verse Mrs Robinson has "girl" instead of "house" in the first line, while Mrs. Gilley has "otlcaiot" instead of "won't tell." In the last line, the third stanza has the first two lines forgotten -ettt"y, who also has "aifx nay fly." Mrs. Robinson be poor girl. " In the fourth stanza Mrs. Robinson has "0 daughter dear, what makes you sigh?", and had forgotten the last line. The fifth stanza is omitted in the versions of both Mrs. Gllley and Mrs. Lassiter. Mrs. Gilley has " She went upstalrs and the door she locked, And hung herself all in a rope. When her father came home a note he found i - - He went upstairs two steps at a time, The door he broke and found her hanging on a rope." -- It's somewhat Jumbled paragraph is all she has betlsen the third and eighth stanzas, and she does not have the first two lines of the eighth line. i*"ltor had the first lines of the fifth stanza u;;lii"r she went her bed to make, still mourning, for her mother's sake." All three versions agree perfectly in the last stanza.
The tune is practically the same in the three versions, and is written above from the singing of Mrs. Lassiter.