Brisk Young Sailor- W. Spearman, also Spearing (Som) 1904 Sharp MS
[Fragment with music from Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/10/145); full text Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/9/219). The first two lines of stanza 5 are from "Constant lady" broadside, who dies because her heart is broke.
R. Matteson 2017]
A Brisk Young Sailor- sung by William Spearman, (also Spearing; see Sharp MS) of Ile Brewers, Somerset on April 6, 1904 Sharp MS.
1.A brisk young sailor came a-courting me
He courted me my heart away,
He took it away with a free good will,
He has got it now but I love him still.
2. When I could tie my apron low,
My love would follow me through frost and snow,
Now that my apron's string to my chin
My love passed by and says nothing.
3. There is a place in yonder vale
where my love goes and sits himself down
He takes some strange girl all on his knee
And he tells her what he didn't tell me.
4. It's a grief I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I,
but her gold will waste and her color will fly
And in time of need she'll be as poor as I.
5. And down she fell and never more spoke
Because poor girl her heart was broke,
And on her breast plates two white turtle-doves,
To shew the world that she died for love.