Young Barbour- Walsh (NL) 1929 Greenleaf B
[One of three versions from Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland- Greenleaf and Mansfield 1933. Notes by Kittredge follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
This charming ballad is one of the most popular songs in Newfoundland. It is known and sung by the young people in all parts of the island. The English ballad is evidently the source, as the lover's name is invariably "Barbour" in Newfoundland, and not "Willie," as in most of the Scottish versions (Keith, No. 37, "Thomas"). It seems strange that a ballad so popular in Newfoundland should not be sung extensively in North America, but other collectors have not recorded it except for an imperfect text in Combs) pp. 140-141 (West Virginia); d. Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, pp. 224-225.
B. [Young Barbour] Sung by Dennis Walsh, Fleur de Lys, 1929.
[music]
1 There was a lady living in the east,
And she was clothed in green,
And she was sitting on her father's castle wall
When she saw a ship sailing in.
(Refrain: repeat the last line of each stanza)
2 "O daughter, O daughter," the father did say.
"What makes you look so pale?
And what is the trouble on your poor heart's mind?
Have your true love been long at sea?"
3 "O father, 0 father," the daughter did say,
"It's true what you're telling me,
And that's the trouble on my poor heart's mind
That my true love been long at sea."
4 "O, is he any lords or dukes or squires,
Or a man of high degree,
Or is be one of my seven sailor boys
That ploughs on the raging sea?"
5 "O, he's no lord nor duke nor squire,
Nor a man of high degree,
But he is one of the seven sailor boys
That ploughs on the raging sea."
6. "O daughter, 0 daughter," the father did say,
"Is it true what you 're telling me?
To-morrow morning at seven o'clock.
He'll be shot from the bands of me."
7 O, the king called down his seven sailor boys,
By one, by two, by three;
Young Barbour always used to be the first,
But the last came down was he.
8 O, downstairs, downstairs tumbled Young Barbour,
And he was clothed in silk,
With his dark-brown eyes and his coal-black hair,
And his skin faded white as milk.
9 "O, will you marry my daughter?" he said,
"And take her by the hand;
And I will will you over all my gold,
And go king over all my land."
10 "O, I will marry your daughter," he said,
I will take her by the hand;
But I don't want none of your gold,
Nor go king over all your land.
11 "Where you can give her one guinea," he said,
"I can give her thirty and three,
Although you calls me the young ploughboy
That ploughs the raging sea."
12 "O daughter, 0 daughter," the father said,
"So it's true what you're telling me.
"I was a woman instead of a man,
I would die for the love of he."