Rambling Boy- (Manch) broadside, c.1830
[From Manchester Reference Library, No imprint, Ballads Vol. 5, page 392, FSJ9.P292.--PL. See also Gardham 5A.
R. Matteson 2017]
The Rambling Boy- from Manchester Reference Library c. 1830
1. I am a rake and a rambling boy,
My lodging hard for to ease my cloy,
A wild and a rambling boy I be,
I'll forsake them all and follow thee.
2. O Billy! Billy! I love you well,
I love you better than tongue can tell
I love you well but dare I not shew it,
I do my dear but let no one know it.
3. I wish I was a blackbird or thrush,
A chanting of notes from bush to bush,
That all the world might plainly see,
I lov'd the man that never lov'd me,
4. I wish I was some silly fly,
That in my love's bosom I might lie.
And when all the people are fast asleep,
Unto my lover's arms I would creep.
5. My father being out late at night
He called for his own heart's delight.
He went up stairs, and the door he broke,
And he found her hanging by a rope.
6. Straightway he went and cut her down,
And in her bosom a note was found:
It was in this note to certify,
That she died in love for an Irish Boy
7. Dig me a grave large, wide, and deep,
And a marble stone for to cover it.
And in the middle, a turtle dove,
To shew sincerely I die for love.
That all the world might plainly see,
I lov'd the man that never lov'd me.