The Unfortunate Swain. A New Song- (Lon) 1780 Madden
[Broadside Harding B22(312); Madden Ballads, Reel 3, Frame 1936 copy at google dated 1780 (Baring-Gould MS, dates 1766). 1 sheet; 1/8" 1010506 Reel 5379 N0. 072 The unfortunate swain. A new song. [London? 1760?]
R. Matteson 2017]
"The Unfortunate Swain. A new Song"
Down in a meadow fair and gay
Plucking a Rose the other day,
Plucking a Rose both red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
Where love is planted there it grows,
It buds and blossoms like a rose,
And has so sweet and pleasant smell,
No power on earth can it excel.
Must I be bound that can go free?
Must I love one that loves not me?
Why should I act such a childish part
To love a girl that will break my heart.
If there's a thousand in the room,
My true love has the highest bloom,
Sure she is some chosen one,
I will have her or, I'll have none.
I spy'd a ship sailing in the deep
She sailed as deep as she could swim,
But not deep as in love I am,
I care not whether I sink or swim.
I set my foot against an oak
I thought it had been a trusty tree,
But first it bent and then it broke
And so did my true love to me.
I put my band into a bush,
Thinking the sweetest rose to find,
l prick'd my finger to the bone,
I wish I'd left that rose behind.
If roses are such prickly flowers,
They should be gathered while they are green,
And he that loves an unkind maid,
I'm sure he strives against the stream.
When my love is dead and at her rest
I'll think of her whom I love best
To wrap her up in linen strong
I'll think of her when dead and gone.