High Germany

"Oh, Molly, lovely Molly, the rout it is begun,
I'm asked away tomorrow by the beating of the drum;
Come dress yourself up in the best and gang along with me,
We will go and see the wars that's in High Germany."

"Oh, Willie, lovely Willie, best mind now what you say,
My feet they are too tender, love, to gang along with thee;
Besides, my lovely Willie, I am with child by thee,
I'm not fittin' for the wars that's in High Germany."

"I will hire a horse for you, my love, and on it we will ride,
And all my delight will be in riding by your side;
We'll call into Damsel's Tavern and drink as we pass by,
Oh, sweetheart, now we'll get married on yonder mountain-side."

"Oh, cursèd be the war and the hour that it began,
It has robbed old England of many a clever man;
Has took from me my Willie, my own dear brothers three,
And they're slain in the wars that's in High Germany.

"In losing of my brothers three it grieved my heart full sore,
In losing of my Willie it grieved me ten times more;
So when my babe it is now born I will diddle it on my knee,
And I curse the bloody wars that's in High Germany."

####.... Author unknown. Variant of a 19th century British broadside ballad, High Germany. published by J. Catnach (London) sometime between 1813 and 1838, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, shelfmark: Harding B 11(1536) ....####

Collected in 1958 from Jim Bennett of St. Paul's NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.679-680, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.