Butcher Boy- Caroline Hughes (Dor) 1968 Kennedy
[From Topic anthology I'm a Romany Rai (The Voice of the People Series Volume 22), 2012. Queen Caroline Hughes sang The Butcher Boy in a recording made by Peter Kennedy in her caravan near Blandford, Dorset.
The MacColl rendering is different in several places-- especially the last stanza- see footnotes.
R. Matteson 2017]
The Butcher Boy- sung by "Queen" Caroline Hughes of Blandford, Dorset in in April 1968.
Oh, at London town where[1] I did dwell,
Oh, the butcher boy I loved so deep.
He courted me my life away
And that same town where I could not stay.
"Oh, mother dear, you do not know
What pains and sorrows that I've had to bear.
You get me a chair and I'll set[2] down
And pen and ink I will write it down."
Now, her father come home late one night.
He found his house without of light.
Upstairs he goes in his daughter's room,
Found her hanging by her beside by a rope.
Oh, with a knife he cut her down
And in her left breast that note were found.
Oh, what a silly girl[3] she were
To hang herself for a butcher boy.
"Now, mother dear, you order my grave[4],
You order it neat and very long.
You'll put white lilies now head and foot,
And in the middle you placed a dove
To show this wide world I died for love."
1. where I come from, [MacColl]
2. sit [MacColl]
3. girl am I [MacColl, rest is 3rd person dialogue]
4. you did my grave [MacColl]/ Dig it deep and very wide/And in the centre place a dove/To show this world I died for love."