A New Love Song- (Newcastle) c.1750 broadside J. White
[Version of "The Unfortunate Swain." From: broadside titled Two excellent New songs. I. A new Love Song. II. Newcastle Ale, [1750? (British Library Roxburghe Ballads III.421, dated c.1782 at Roxburghe Slip Songs, available at the English Broadside Ballad Archive, EBBA; possibly published in Newcastle by John White, ESTC T52067 ) view: http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/31114/xml
R. Matteson 2017]
"A New Love Song"
Down in yon Meadow fresh and gay,
Picking of Flowers the other day,
Picking of Lillies red and blue:
I little thought what Love could do.
Where Love is planted there it grows,
It buds and blossoms much like a Rose;
And has a sweet and pleasant smell,
No Flower on earth can it excel.
Must I be bound, must she be free,
Must I love one that loves not me;
If I should act such a childish Part
To love a Girl that will break my Heart.
If there are thousands, thousands in a Room,
My true love she carries the brightest Bloom,
Sure she is some chosen one,
I will have her or I'll have none.
I saw a Ship sailing on the Deep,
She sail'd as deep as she could swim;
But not so deep as in Love I am,
I care not whether it sink or swim.
I set my Back against an oak,
I thought it was a trusty tree,
But first it bent and then it broke
So did my false Love to me.
I put my Hand into the Bush,
Thinking the sweetest Rose to find,
l prick'd my Fingers to the Bone,
And left the sweetest Rose behind.
If Roses be such prickly Flowers,
They should be gather'd while they're green,
And he that loves an unkind Lover,
I'm sure he strives against the stream.
When my love is dead and at an end,
I'll think of her whom I love best
I'll wrap her up Linning strong,
And think on her when she's dead and gone.