Butcher's Boy- Andrew Robbie (Aber) 1960 Goldstein
[From Edinburgh; School of Scottish Studies; SA1960.151.A1
Listen:
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/play/77116;jsessionid=A72066268B0CEA9DCABE5E5685F8FA3D
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/77116/1
R. Matteson 2016]
The Butcher's Boy- sung by Andrew Robbie of Strichen, Aberdeenshire. Recorded in 1960 by Prof. Kenneth Goldstein
1. My parents gave me learning,
Good learning gave to me
And they sent me to a butcher boy,
A butcher's boy to be.
2 I fell in love with a nice young girl,
With a dark and a rolling eye;
And she promised for to marry me
In the month of sweet July.
3 I then went to her[1] mother's house,
'Tween the hours of eight and nine,
And I ask-ed her to a walk with me
Down by yon river side.
4. Down by yon river side, she said
Down by yon river side,
It's there we'll walk and sweetly talk
Down by yon river side.
5. We walk-ed east and we walked down
And we walk-ed all along,
Till he drew a knife from out his belt,
And he stabbed her to the ground.
6 She fell upon her bending knees,
And for mercy she did cry;
"O Willie dear, don't stab me here,
For I'm not prepared to die."
7 He took her by the lily-white hand,
And by the golden hair
And he dragged to the river side,
And he plunged her body there.
8 He then went up to his mother's house,
'Tween the hours of twelve and one,
But little did that mother think,
What her only son had done.
9 She asked him why so late at night,
With blood upon his clothes
But the only answer he would give was,
"A bleeding from the nose."
11. He asked her a candle light,
To let him see to bed.
And also for a handkerchief,
To bind around his head.
12. No sleep, no rest could this young man get,
No sleep, no rest could he find,
For he dreamed he saw the flames of hell,
Approaching his bedside.
12. Now when his being found out,
The gallows was his doom,
For the murdering of sweet Rosie Ann
When the roses were in bloom.
1. originally "his"