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The Saucy Sailor (Collected by Maud Karpeles)

"Come my own one, come my fair one,
Come now unto me;
Could you fancy a poor sailor lad,
Who has just come from sea?"

"You are ragged, love, you are dirty, love,
And your clothes smell much of tar;
So be gone you saucy sailor lad,
So be gone you jack tar."

"If I am ragged, love, and I am dirty, love,
And my clothes smell much of tar;
I have silver in my pocket, love,
And gold in great store."

And then when she heard him say so,
On her bended knees she fell;
"I will marry my dear Henry,
For I love a sailor lad so well."

"Do you think that I am foolish, love,
Do you think that I am mad,
For to wed a poor country girl,
Where no fortune's to be had?

I will cross the briny ocean,
I will whistle and sing;
And since you have refused the offer, love,
Some other girl shall wear the ring.

I am frolicsome, I am easy,
Good tempered and free;
And I don't give a single pin, my boys,
What the world thinks of me."

####.... Author unknown. Variant of a British broadside ballad, Saucy Sailor Boy [Laws K38] American Balladry From British Broadsides (G. Malcolm Laws, 1957). Also a variant of an early 19th century British broadside ballad, Saucy Sailor Boy, published by E.M.A. Hodges (London) sometime between 1846 and 1854, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, shelfmark: Firth C.12(333) ....####

This variant from Poets' Corner, one of the largest and oldest text resources on the Internet.

A variant was collected by Maud Karpeles [1885-1976] and published as #62, The Saucy Sailor, in Folk Songs From Newfoundland (Faber & Faber, London, 1971; also Oxford, 1934).

The YouTube video above features a performance of a variant by the Sirens of Sterling at the 2009 New York Renaissance Faire, Sterling Forest, Tuxedo, New York.

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