Young Willie- Snow (NL) 1929 Karpeles B
[My title. From Folk Songs from Newfoundland; 1934 version A;
R. Matteson 2015]
B. Young Willie (WILLIE o' WINSBURY) - sung by Miss Florrie Snow at North River, Conception Bay, 16th October, 1929
There lived a girl in a far country,
And she dresses all in green;
As she was sitting at her father's castle door,
She saw a ship sail in. [bis]
O daughter, O daughter, the father cries,
Why do you look so pale?
Have you had some heavy sickness,
Or are you in love with some young man?
O father, O father, the daughter cries,
Why I am looking pale,
I have had no heavy sickness,
But I'm in love with some young man.
Is it a duke or a wealthy squire,
Or a man of a high degree,
Or is it one of my seven sailors bold
That ploughs the raging sea?
He's not a duke, nor a squire, she says,
Nor a man of a high degree,
But he is one of your seven sailors bold
That ploughs the raging sea.
O daughter, O daughter, the father cries,
If it's true what you're telling me,
Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock
It's hung your love shall be.
O father, O father, the daughter cries,
If it's true what you're telling me,
If my love is to be hung tomorrow morning
You'll get no good of me.
The king called down his seven sailors bold,
By one, by two, by three,
Where Willie was always the first on deck,
The last came down was he.
Young Willie came down step by step,
All dressed in a suit of silk,
with his two rosy cheeks and his curly bright hair
And his skin as white as milk.
O daughter, O daughter, the father cries,
I'll lay no blame to thee,
For if I was a woman instead of a man,
I'd die today for he.
Will you marry my daughter, he said,
And take her by the hand?
Then will you come and dine with me
And be head over all my land?
Yes, I will marry your daughter, he says,
And I'll take her by the hand,
Then I will go and dine with you,
But I do not want your land.
For where you can give her one guinea,
Why I can give her three,
Although I was one of your seven sailors bold
That ploughed o'er the raging sea.