Butcher Boy- Roy Wrinkle (AR) 1969 Hunter G
[From Max Hunter Folk Song Collection- Cat. #0834 (MFH #37). Minor corrections made for spelling; punctuation.
Listen: https://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=0834
R. Matteson 2017]
Butcher Boy- As sung by Roy Wrinkle, Mountain View, Arkansas on August 26, 1969.
VERSE 1
In London city, where I once did dwell
A butcher boy, I loved so well
He courted me, my life away
An' then with me, he would not stay.
VERSE 2
I went upstairs to go to bed
An' nothing to my Mother said
But Mother said, you're actin' queer
What is the troubles, daughter dear.
VERSE 3
O Mother dear, you need not know
Of pain an' sorrow, the grief I know
Give me a chair an' set me down
With pen an' ink to write words down.
VERSE 4
Go dig my grave, both wide an' deep
An' place a marble at my feet;
And on my breast a snow white dove
To show the world I died for love.
VERSE 5
An' when her Father first come home
Where is my girl, where has she gone
He went upstairs, the door he broke
An' found her hangin' from a rope
VERSE 6
Then he took his knife an' cut her down
And in her bosom, these words he found
A foolish girl, I know I am
To hang yourself for the butcher boy.