Bolender Martin- Langille (NS) pre1928 Mackenzie
[From Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia; Mackenzie, 1928. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013]
HENRY MARTYN
(Child, No. 250)
One of the songs that Little Ned Langille sang for me before he left this world was "Bolender Martin," and the only excuse that I can offer for my shameful inability to reconstruct more than the following fragment is that of extreme youth and unawareness at the time of the singing. when I began my work of collecting (after Ned's death) I made special efforts to recover some version of this ballad, and, failing in these effort's, I present the bit that I can recollect with certainty as a remnant and reminder of an old Nova Scotia tradition. The tune I remember clearly enough, and I shall set it down in the Appendix. As for the title "Bolender Martin"; it is, pretty obviously, a corruption (introduced by Little Ned himself or by some of his singing predecessors) of "Bold Andrew Martin." The ballad, which was probably derived from the older "Sir Andrew Barton," was current both as Henry Martyn; and as "Andrew Bartin," and the process of fusion and corruption which resulted in Little Ned's title will be readily imagined by the student of such matters.
1 There lived three brothers in fair Scotland,
In Scotland there lived brothers three.
And they drew lots to see which would go,
A robbing all on the salt sea.
2 The lot it fell on Bolender Martin,
The youngest of the three,
That he should turn robber all on the salt sea
To maintain his two brothers and he.
3. . . .
. . . .
"I am the rich merchant from fair Engeland,
And I pray you to let me pass by."
4 "Oh no, oh no," says Bolender Martin,
"That thing can never be,
For I have turned robber all on the salt sea,
To maintain my two brothers and me."