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Come all young men and maidens attend unto my song,
While I relate concerning gold that's led so many wrong;
Young Emily was a servant girl, she loved a sailor bold,
It was all for gain he plowed the main so ofttimes l've been told,
It being long years and better since Edmond was at home,
Young Edmond came to Emily's house when she was all alone;
Young Edmond came to Emily's house his gold all for to show,
That he had gained upon the main above the lowlands low.
"My father keeps a public house down by the rolling main,
You go there and enter in and there all night remain;
I'll meet you in the morning, love, don't let my parents know,
That your name it is young Edmond that plowed the lowlands low."
Young Edmond he sat drinking till time to go to bed,
'Twas little did he think or know that sorrow crowned his head;
Said Emily's cruel father, "His gold will make a show,
We'll send his body a-floating down in the lowlands low."
Young Edmond he soon went to bed and there fell fast asleep,
When Emily's cruel father into the room did creep;
He stabbed and dragged young Edmond down to the beach below,
And sent his body sinking down in the lowlands low.
Young Emily in her bed-chamber she dreamt a restless dream,
She dreamt she saw her true-love's blood flowing in a stream;
She rose up in the morning, to her father's house did go,
Because she loved young Edmond who plowed the lowlands low.
"Oh, father, where is that stranger came here last night to dwell?"
"He's murdered," replied her father, and you no tales must tell.
"Oh, cruel-hearted father, you'll die a public show,
For the murdering of young Edmond who plowed the lowlands low."
A squire was living handy, her story she made known,
They took him to the justice, his trial it soon came on;
The jury brought against him, and hanged he was also,
For the murder of young Edmond who plowed the lowlands low.
I'll go down to yonder grove where the leaves they shade so green,
Where once my honoured true-love's blood went flowing in a stream;
The ships that sail the ocean, their sails go to and fro,
It reminds me of my Edmond who plowed the lowlands low.
Collected in 1952 from Mrs. Lucy Heaney of Stock Cove, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 2, pp.641-642, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Kenneth Peacock noted that this ballad of love and murder, once issued as a broadside by Jackson & Son of Birmingham, which achieved widespread popularity in Great Britain, has been noted many times in North America.
Another variant was collected from Mike Kent [b.1904] of Cape Broyle, NL, and published as Young Edmund In The Lowlands Low in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
