The Butcher Boy (Harry Hibbs) with lyrics, MIDI and video See also: The Butcher Boy (Ryan's Fancy) And also: The Butcher Boy (Sons Of Erin) And also: The Butcher Boy (Collected by Kenneth Peacock) And also: She Died In Love (Collected by Kenneth Peacock)
Oh, in Moore Street where I did dwell,
Lived a butcher boy who loved right well;
He courted her her life away,
And then with her he would not stay.
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish I was a child again;
But a child again I ne'er shall be,
Till the cherry grows on an ivy tree.
I wish the baby it was born,
And smiling on its daddy's knee;
And me, poor boy, to be dead and gone,
With the long green grass growing over me.
She went upstairs to go to bed,
And calling to her mother said:
Give me a chair while I sit down,
And a pen and ink while I write down.
He went upstairs and the door he broke,
He found her hanging from a rope;
He got his knife and he cut her down,
And in her pocket these words he found:
Oh, dig my grave large, wide, and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet;
And in the middle a turtle dove,
To show the world that I died for love.
To show the world that I died for love.
####.... Author unknown. Variant of a 19th century British broadside ballad, The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] American Balladry From British Broadsides (G. Malcolm Laws, 1957). Also a variant of the broadside ballad, The Butcher Boy, published by H. De Marsan (New York, N.Y.) circa 1860, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, shelfmark: Harding B 18(72) ....####
This variant was recorded by Harry Hibbs (The All New Harry Hibbs With Shrimp Cocktail, trk#12, 1972, Arc Sound, Ltd., Toronto, Ontario).
A similar variant was recorded as trk#4, The Butcher Boy by Sons of Erin, featuring bandleader Ralph O'Brien, Johnnie Lynn, "Wee" John Cameron, and Denis Ryan on their self-titled album, Sons Of Erin, ca.1970.
A variant was collected in 1959 as The Butcher Boy from Mrs. Wallace Kinslow of Isle aux Morts, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.707-708, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
A variant was also collected in 1959 from Mrs. Thomas (Annie) Walters of Rocky Harbour, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published as She Died In Love in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.705-706, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Kenneth Peacock noted that some of the most beautiful lyric verse in the English language is to be found in this traditional ballad and its relations. The relationships and cross-influences among all these songs is so complex that it is doubtful if the "original" will ever be discovered.
