Bold Deserter, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves a girl. "She first advised me for to list and afterwards desert" He is hiding, thinking of those he left behind, terrorized even by "the bird that flutters on each tree." He will return. If they "pardon me, I would desert no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(64))
KEYWORDS: courting soldier desertion
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "BOLD DESERTER, THE"
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 68, "The Bold Deserter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 8, "The Bold Deserter" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
DT, BOLDDSRT*
Roud #1655
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(64), "Bold Deserter" ("My parents rear'd me tenderly, I being their only son)," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth c.14(126), Harding B 26(66), 2806 c.15(183), Harding B 19(42), "[The] Bold Deserter"; Firth c.14(128), "The Bold Deserter" or "Why Did I Desert?"
File: OLoc068

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