Soldier and the Fair Maid (York) c.1838 broadside
[My date. No printer named; later Dickinson of York (Sold at Dalton's Public Library etc. white print on black background). This broadside of which there are at least two extant different printings is a 3rd specific form which is similar to the Seventeen Come Sunday Broadsides and perhaps predates them (I've dated them 1830s). It has a different ending and is missing one line (in brackets). It's an intermediate version between "Maid and Soldier" and "Seventeen Come Sunday." Soldier and the Fair Maid was mentioned in Cox's (Folk Songs of the South) notes.
R. Matteson 2018]
Soldier and the Fair Maid. (broadside text; later, Dickinson of York, dated late 1830s)
As I walked out one May morning,
Just as the day was dawning,
There I espied a pretty fair maid,
Just as the sun was rising,
With my row, dow, dow.
Where are you going my pretty maid,
Where are you going my honey?
She answered me right cheerfully,
An errand for my mammy.
Her shoes were black, her stockings white,
[Her buckles shined like silver,]
She had a black and rolling eye,
And her hair hung over her shoulder.
Will you marry me, my pretty fair maid,
Will you marry me, my honey?
She answered me right cheerfully,
I dare not for my mammy.
How old are you my pretty fair maid,
How old are you my honey,
She answered me right cheerfully,
I am seventeen come Sunday.
Will you come to my mammy's house,
When the moon shines bright and clearly,
I'll come down and let you in,
And my mammy shall not hear me.
I went down to her mammy's house,
When the moon shone bright and clearly,
And she came down and let me in,
And her mammy never heard me.
Come soldier will you marry me?
For now is your time or never,
For if you will not marry me,
I am undone for ever.
No lassie I will not marry,
For all thy father's treasure,
For every town I pass through,
I will have a fresh lass if I can gain her.