Butcher Boy, The [Laws P24]

DESCRIPTION: The butcher boy has "courted [the girl's] life away," but now has left her (for a richer girl?). She writes a letter expressing her grief, then hangs herself. Her father finds her body and the note asking that her grave show that she died for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(72))
KEYWORDS: seduction suicide pregnancy betrayal abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Australia
REFERENCES (56 citations):
Laws P24, "The Butcher Boy"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 201-207, "The Butcher Boy" (3 texts plus excerpts from 2 more and references to 3 more, 3 tunes); see also pp. 478-480, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (4 texts, though "D" is a fragment, probably of "Tavern in the Town" or "The Butcher Boy" or some such)
Randolph 45, "The Butcher Boy" (4 texts plus 4 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 34-35, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 66-67, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 41, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 37, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 4 more, 2 tunes); also 25, "The Sailor Boy" (1 short text; the first 6 lines are "The Sailor Boy" [Laws K12]; the last twelve are perhaps "The Butcher Boy")
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 204, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 26, pp. 37-41, "The Butcher Boy" (4 texts pus 5 fragments)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 145-149, "The Butcher Boy" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 115-116, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 179-181, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 737-738, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 387-388, "The Butcher's Boy/In Jersey City" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 81, "The Butcher Boy" (6 texts plus 5 excerpts and mention of 3 others; although most are clearly Laws P24, Renwick believes the "M" text is "Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie)")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 254, "Little Sparrow" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and 1 fragment; the "F" text, however, is primarily "The Butcher Boy" or an "I Wish I Wish" piece of some sort)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 81, "The Butcher Boy" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 258, "A Railroad Boy" (1 text, short enough that it might be either "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24) or "Tavern in the Town")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #179, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 282-288, "The Butcher Boy" (8 texts, with local titles "The Butcher Boy" (a single stanza), "Butcher Boy," "The Butcher Boy," "Jersey City," (E has no title and is a single-sentence fragment about Polly Perkins), "In Johnson City" (this short might be "Tavern in the Town" or similar), "Butcher's Boy," "The Girl Who Died For Love" (this version too might be a simple "Died for Love" piece); 3 tunes on pp. 431-433)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 34, "The Butcher's Boy" (3 texts plus mention of 6 more)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 101, "The Brisk Young Lover" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #35, "The Brisk Young Lover (Butcher Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 121, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 66-68, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 59, "Rude and Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, much worn down but pretty clearly this piece)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 110, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 45, pp. 160-161, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text plus mention of 11 more)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 89-90, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 68, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #29, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 21, pp. 40-42, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 28, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 267-268, "The Maiden's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune, with an unusual introduction in which the false lover is a soldier)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 7, "The Sailor's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, rather short, and with elements of "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24}, "Tavern in the Town," and perhaps even "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25]; if I had to file it with one, it would probably be "The Butcher Boy," but I'm not sure; Roud lists it as #60, which is both "Tavern in the Town" and "Love Has Brought Me to Despair")
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 324, "Go Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" and "London City" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 230-231, "In Sheffield Park" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 339, "In Sheffield Park" (1 text)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 28 "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 160, "In Sheffield Park" (1 text plus a second in the notes, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 230-231, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 60-62, "Snow Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #229, p. 17, "The Butcher Boy" (1 reference)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 128-129, "In Jersey City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 77, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 24, pp.60-62, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text; the "B" text is "Tavern in the Town")
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 145, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 73, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 707-708, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 16, "Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 59, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 12-13, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 139-140, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text); also pp. 141-142, "Morning Fair" (a complex text, with all sorts of floating elements, but with the final stanzas of this song)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 178, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text)
DT 320, BUTCHBOY*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 207, "(The Butcher's Boy)" (1 fragment)
Roud #409
RECORDINGS:
Garrett & Norah Arwood, "The Butcher's Boy" (on FarMtns3)
Blue Sky Boys, "The Butcher's Boy" (Bluebird B-8482/Montgomery Ward M-8668, 1940)
Ben Butcher, "In Sheffield Park" (on FSBFTX15)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Butcher's Boy" (Perfect 12330, 1927)
Bert Fitzgerald, "The Butcher Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kelly Harrell, "Butcher's Boy" (Victor 19563, 1925; on KHarrell01) (Victor 20242, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Buell Kazee, "The Butcher's Boy" (Brunswick 213A, 1928; Brunswick 437, 1930; on AAFM1, KMM); "Butcher Boy" (on Kazee01)
Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson, "Go Dig My Grave (Railroad Boy)" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchieWatsonCD1)
Enos White, "In Sheffield Park" (on FSBFTX15)
Henry Whitter, "The Butcher Boy" (OKeh 40375, 1925)
Ephraim Woodie & the Henpecked Husbands, "The Fatal Courtship" [uses tune of "Banks of the Ohio"] (Columbia 15564-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on LostProv1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(72), "The Butcher Boy" ("In Jersey city where I did dwell"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(71), "The Butcher Boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (lyrics)
cf. "Betsy, My Darling Girl" (lyrics)
cf. "Died for Love (I)"
cf. "Died for Love (V)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Tavern in the Town"
cf. "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)"
cf. "Careless Love" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Ye Mariners All" (tune)
cf. "Dink's Song" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (lyrics, plot)
cf. "Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers, The Slighted Sweetheart)" (lyrics)
cf. "Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie)" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Lizzie Watson" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jersey City
The Wild Goose Grasses
NOTES [469 words]: Most scholars hold that this song is a combination of two others (Randolph follows Cox in claiming *four*). The primary evidence is the shift in narrative style: The first part of the ballad is in first person, the rest (affiliated with "There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town/Tavern in the Town") is in the third person. Leach, on the other hand, considers it to be a single song of American origin. Given the extreme variations in the form of this ballad (e.g. a significant number of versions omit the fact that the butcher boy left to marry a richer girl; some of the most poignant imply that the butcher boy rather than the father found her body) and the amount of floating material it contains, any theories of dependence must be examined carefully.
The two songs, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" and "Must I Go Bound," are clearly related (probably decayed offshoots of this song), now so damaged as to force separate listing. But there are, as so often, intermediate versions; one should check the references for those songs.
"Died for Love (I)" is perhaps a worn-down fragment of this piece, consisting of the lament without the suicide. Similarly the Brown collection's piece "My Little Dear, So Fare You Well."
MacColl and Seeger have classified related texts under fully seven heads:
* "Deep in Love," corresponding roughly to "Must I Go Bound" in the Ballad Index. Generally lyric.
* The Butcher Boy. Characterized by the story of betrayal and eventual suicide (informal translation: If the girl kills herself, file the song here no matter *what* the rest of it looks like. If she dies but doesn't kill herself, it's something else, perhaps "Died for Love (I)"). If there is a core to this family, this is it.
* Love Has Brought Me To Despair. (Laws P25). This shares lyrics with this family, notably those concerning the girl's burial, but has a slighly distinct plot.
* Waly Waly/The Water Is Wide. Related primarily by theme, it seems to me.
* The Tavern in the Town. Shares lyrics, but a distinct song (or at least recension) by our standards.
* Careless Love. Clearly distinct.
* Died for Love (I). This shares the stanzas of lamentation with "The Butcher Boy," but is distinct in that the girl is certainly pregnant (the girl in "The Butcher Boy" may be, but not all versions show this), she laments her folly, but she does *not* kill herself. It's much more lyric than "The Butcher Boy." - RBW
Kennedy has both the Enos White and Ben Butcher recordings as made by Bob Copper in 1955. On FSBFTX15 both singers have only two verses, and only one of White's is in the book; Kennedy 160 may be a composite.
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(72): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
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File: LP24

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