Sweet William- Tom Sprachlan (Som) 1903 Sharp MS
[From Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/10/28), text and music.
This is a version of type D.
R. Mateson 2017]
Sweet William- sung by Tom Sprachlan at Hambridge, Somerset in Sept., 1903.
A sailor's life is a merry life
They rob young girls of their heart's delight
They'll go and leave them to sigh and moan
No tongue can tell when they will return.
Four and twenty jolly sailors all in one row
And my Sweet William is the finest of all
He's proper tall and genteel withal
And if I don't have him I'll have none at all.
She had not sailed far on the deep
Before a Queen ship she chanced to meet
0 all you jolly sailors come tell me true
Is my Sweet William on board with you?
O no! fair lady he is not here
He is a-drownded greatly is my fear
On the Island's high when the wind blew high
There we lost sight of your sailor boy.
She sailed home and wrote a song
She wrote it wide and she wrote it long
And at every line O she shed a tear
And at the end I shall lose my dear.
0 father father, come dig my grave
Dig it wide both long and deep
And on my tomb stone put two turtle doves
So the world might see that I died for love.
She wrung her hands and tore her hair
Just like a lady in deep despair
She flung her body down in the deep
In her true love's arms she fell fast asleep.