Wild Rover- Musical Companion (London) c.1765; Round 18830
[From: "The musical companion: Being a chosen collection of the new and favorite songs, sung at the theatres and public gardens" a collection of 18 songs which was printed in London, about 1765. The same text was reprinted a number of times in broadsides of the 1800s, probably first by J. Pitts of 14 Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, London about 1806. Baring-Gould in his notebooks copied the Pitts. Rambling Boy as printed by J. Catnach, at 7 Dials between 1813 and 1838 was "sold by T. Batchelar, 14, Hackney Road Crescent; Marshall, Bristol; Price, St. Clement's; Bennett, and Boyse, Brighton; J. Sharman, Cambridge; & J. Pierce, Southborough," showing the broadside was widely distributed.
In the second stanza, taken from Nelly's Constancy, the dialogue shifts to being sung by the maid. The dialogue shift in stanza 7 is inexplicable and shows a cobbling of two versions with a poor effect. Stanza 8 also suffers a poor edit.
R. Matteson 2016]
The Wild Rover (Rambling Boy)- from the Musical Companion (2nd song) of 1765.
1. I am a wild and a rambling boy,
My lodgings are in the Isle of Cloy[1],
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 not show,
To you my dear, let no one know.
3. I wish I was a blackbird or thrush,
Changing my notes from bush to bush,
That all the world might plainly see,
I lov'd a man that lov'd not me,
4. I wish I was a little fly,
That on his bosom I might lie.
And all the people fast asleep,
Into my lover's arms I'd softly creep.
5. I love my father I love my mother,
I love my sisters and my brothers
I love my friends and relations too,
I would forsake them all to go with you.
6. My father left me house and land,
Bid me use it at my command
But at my command they shall I never be;
I’ll forsake them all love and go with thee.
7. My father coming home late one night
And asking for his heart's delight.
He ran up stairs, the door he broke.
And found her hanging in a rope.
8. He took a knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom a note was found:
Dig me a grave both wide and deep.
And a marble stone to cover it.
1. Isle of Cloy is most likely derived from Auchnacloy, an archaic spelling (meaning "field of the stone") for the city Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, in Northern Ireland.