The Bold Soldier- (MA) 1810 Coverly Broadside [text unavailable]
[From the broadside--The Bold Soldier: Together with Sweet Pig of Richmond Hill, printed by Nathaniel Coverly, corner of Theater Alley, Boston; 1810. The text is nearly identical to the 1809 text from Minot Baker's favourite collection of ancient and modern songs" Boston.
Greene in his JAFL article, "The Lady and the Dragoon": A Broadside Ballad in Oral Tradition, somehow fails to give the text. The first two lines however are printed by the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts:
I'll tell you of a soldier, who lately came from war,
Who courted a lady of honor rich and fair;
Following is an excerpt from "The Lady and the Dragoon": A Broadside Ballad in Oral Tradition by David Mason Greene; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 70, No. 277 (Jul. - Sep., 1957), pp. 221-230.
R. Matteson 2014]
At that time Nathaniel Coverly, Jr., of Boston, who was in business from 1806 to 1819, published a broad-sheet containing a humorous song called "Sweet Pig of Richmond Hill" and a ballad entitled "The Bold Soldier," the unique remaining copy of which is now in the Isaiah Thomas Collection in the Library of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. The story told by Coverly's ballad is patently the same as that of the seventeenth-century broadsides. The details, with one exception,[4] and as much of the language as the altered verse form will allow, are, however, those of "The Master-Piece" rather than those of "The Seaman's Renown," but the form of presentation is much modified. The text now consists of nine stanzas of four-stress verse, each made up of a pair of closed couplets, in conformity with common eighteenth-century poetic practice. The opening stanza again supplies the exposition, tough somewhat differently from those of its forebears. Nothing remains of the long dialogue on social equality and noble parentage. The motivation for the father's expected wrath is no longer that he is of high rank, but simply that he is "cruel." The hero, as is suggested by the title, has now become a soldier. As in the earlier texts, the couple elope, and meet the father on their return from church; somewhere in the course of a century or so he has picked up an extra retainer, his henchmen now numbering seven. In this new version, his taunts and threats are directed at his daughter, not her spouse. The latter, like his seventeenth-century ancestors, voices his resentment and dismounts from his horse, leaving that animal in the lady's charge (a fact which is not noted in "The Seaman's Renown"). In a stanza which is only implied in "The Master-Piece," he puts the retainers to rout; then, as before, he agrees to the father's surrender on condition that the marriage be recognized and that all the old man's property be bestowed upon the lady. The two final stanzas are new; their main business is to extol soldiers in general for their many virtues, and especially for their willingness to fight for both love and liberty.
The Bold Soldier- Coverly 1810 Boston
1. I'll tell you of a soldier, who lately came from war,
who courted a lady of honor, rich and fair;
Her fortune was so great, that it scarcely could be told,
But yet she lov'd the soldier, because he was so bold.
2. She said, my dearest jewel, I would fain be your wife,
But my dadda is so cruel, I fear he'll end my life.
He took his swords and pistol, and hung them by his side,
And swore that he would marry her, Whatever might betide.
3. When they had been to church, and returning home again,
Her old dadda met them, with seven armed men.
O dear, said the lady, I fear we shall be slain.
Fear nothing, my charmer, the soldier said again.
4. The old man to his daughter, with a great frown did say,
Is this your behavior? Is this your merry day?
Since you have been so silly, as to be a soldier's wife,
Here in this lonesome valley, I'll end you[r] pleasant life.
5. And then spake up the soldier, I do not like this prattle,
Although I am a bridegroom, and unprepar'd for battle;
He snatch'd his sword and pistols, and made them all to rattle,
And the lady held the horse, while the soldier fought the battle.
6. The first man he came to, he quickly had him slain,
The next man he came to, he ran him through amain,
Let's flee, cry'd the rest, for we soon shall all be slain,
To fight with this brave soldier, is altogether vain.
7. Pray, stay your hand, the old man cry'd, you make my blood run cold,
I'll give you with my daughter, five thousand pounds in gold;
Fight on, says the lady, my portion is too small,
O, stay your hand, dear soldier, and you shall have it all.
8. He took the soldier home, acknowledged him his heir,
'T was not because he loved him, But 'twas for dread and fear.
There never is a soldier, who's fit to carry a gun,
Will ever flinch, or start an inch, till the battle he has won.
9. Despise not a soldier because that he is poor,
He's happy in the field as at the barrack door,
Is bold, brisk, and airy, brave, sociable, and free,
As willing to fight for love, as for his Liberty.