A Bold Young Sailor- Anderson (Lon) 1905 V.Williams
[From: Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Volume 2 by Folk-Song Society (Great Britain) 1906 music with first verse, their notes follow-- see also Volume 1, p. 252. Reprinted in Recorded Sound, Issues 1-56, British Institute of Recorded Sound, 1971.
R. Matteson 2017]
For the rest of the words see Folk-Song Journal, Vol. i, p. 252.—R. V-. W. For other airs to this ballad see Kidson’s Traditional Tunes, p. 44. Other versions commence “A brisk young cropper” and “A rich young farmer,” according to district. A cropper is an obsolete term for a workman formerly employed in cloth finishing—F. K.
A Bold Young Sailor- obtained by Vaughan Williams from an old man named Mr. Anderson in St. James's workhouse in that town on January 10, 1905.
A bold young sailor courted me
And stole away my liberty.
He stole my heart with a free good will:
I must confess I love him still
There is a ale-house in yonder town
Where my love goes and sits him down.
He takes a strange one on his knee,
And is not that a grief to me?
A grief to me and I'll tell you for why
Because she has more gold than I.
Her gold will waste, her beauty blast;
Poor girl, she'll come like me at last.
I wish, I wish but it's all in vain,
I wish I were in love again.
But free again I never shall be
Till apples grow on an orange tree.