Butcher Boy (OT2003-3012-006)
Dublin Core
Title
Butcher Boy (OT2003-3012-006)
Description
Song excerpted from audio recording OT2003-3012, part of VFC2003-0007 Margaret MacArthur Collection.
Creator
Source
Margaret MacArthur Collection -- VFC2003-0007. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Date Created
1964-07-15
Contributor
Is Part Of
Language
en
Type
Identifier
VFC2003-0007 OT2003-3012-006
Rights Holder
Vermont Folklife Center
Song Item Type Metadata
Local Title
Butcher Boy
Standard Title
The Butcher/Butcher's Boy
Standard Title Reference
Folk Music Index (http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex)
Transcription
In Jersey City, where I did dwell
There lived a butcher boy, I loved so well
He courted me, my heart away
And now with me he will not stay
There is an inn in the same town
Where my love goes and sits them down
And he takes a strange girl on his knee
And he tells to her what he won't tell me
It's a grief to me, I'll tell you why
Because she has more gold than I
But her gold will melt and her silver fly
And of time of need, she'll be poor as I
She went upstairs to make her bed
And nothing to her mother said
Her mother came upstairs to me
Saying "What's the matter, daughter dear"
"Oh mother, mother you do not know
What a grief and pain and sorrow woe
Go get a chair and set me down
And a pen and ink for to write it down"
On every line she dropped a tear
While calling home her Willie dear
And when her father did come home
He said "Where has my daughter gone"
He went upstairs to give her hope
and found her hanging by a rope
He took his knife and he cut her down
And in her breast these lines he found
"Oh what a silly maid am I
For to hang myself for the butcher boy
Go dig my grave both long and deep
Place a marble stone at my head and feet
And on my breast place a turtle dove
To show this world I died for love"
I wish I wish but all in vain
I wish that I were a maid again
But a maid again I never shall be
Til an orange grows on a willow tree [Atwood also suggests, "til a peach grows on an apple tree"]
References:
There lived a butcher boy, I loved so well
He courted me, my heart away
And now with me he will not stay
There is an inn in the same town
Where my love goes and sits them down
And he takes a strange girl on his knee
And he tells to her what he won't tell me
It's a grief to me, I'll tell you why
Because she has more gold than I
But her gold will melt and her silver fly
And of time of need, she'll be poor as I
She went upstairs to make her bed
And nothing to her mother said
Her mother came upstairs to me
Saying "What's the matter, daughter dear"
"Oh mother, mother you do not know
What a grief and pain and sorrow woe
Go get a chair and set me down
And a pen and ink for to write it down"
On every line she dropped a tear
While calling home her Willie dear
And when her father did come home
He said "Where has my daughter gone"
He went upstairs to give her hope
and found her hanging by a rope
He took his knife and he cut her down
And in her breast these lines he found
"Oh what a silly maid am I
For to hang myself for the butcher boy
Go dig my grave both long and deep
Place a marble stone at my head and feet
And on my breast place a turtle dove
To show this world I died for love"
I wish I wish but all in vain
I wish that I were a maid again
But a maid again I never shall be
Til an orange grows on a willow tree [Atwood also suggests, "til a peach grows on an apple tree"]
References:
- Wehman, Henry. "The Butcher Boy". Undated, New York City. Accessed via Duke University Libraries. http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/songsheets_bsvg401563/
- Leisey, James. "The Folk Song Abecedary". Bonanza Books, 1966. 47-8.
Location
Duration
4:30
Files
Collection
Citation
Atwood, Fred, “Butcher Boy (OT2003-3012-006),” Vermont Folklife Center Digital Collections, accessed November 21, 2024, https://vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/items/show/1125.
Position: 1036 (307 views)