The Distress'd Maid- (Lon) Madden broadside c.1785
["A New Song Call'd the Distress'd Maid," London, (no imprint) in the Madden Collection Cambridge University Library (Slip Songs H-N no. 1337) c.1785.
The is the first extant version of "Brisk Young Sailor." This is not a version of the broadside "The Distressed Maid"-- part of the Lily-White Hand song group.
The penultimate stanza is the "Two hearts" stanza found in broadside "Early Early by the Break of Day," in UK versions of "Love Has Left Me in Despair," "She's Like the Swallow" and in some Died for Love songs (see mid-1800s broadsides of Rambling Boy).
R. Matteson 2017]
A New Song Call'd the Distress'd Maid
A brisk young Sailor courted me,
He stole away my liberty;
He stole my heart with a free good will,
He has it now, and he'll keep it still.
When first I kept my belly low,
He would follow me thro' frost and snow;
But now my apron is to my chin
He passes by and says nothing.
There is a ale-house in yonders town
My love goes in and sits him down.
He takes a stranger to his knee.
Which is a most sad grief to me.
In Cupid's chains I am fast bounwnd[1],
No one can loose me but my love
It's O come loose me and set me free
And set me at my liberty.
There is a man under yonder hill
A heart he has is hard as steel,
Two hearts he has instead of one
He will be a rogue when I am gone.
I wish my pretty babe was born,
And smiling in his Daddy's arms;
My soul to God my body to clay,
Then all my sorrows fled away.
1. bound