‘It’s true my love has listed, he wears a white cockade,
He is a handsome tall young man, besides a roving blade;
He is a handsome young man, and he’s gone to serve the king,
Oh! my very heart is breaking for the loss of him.
‘My love is tall and handsome, and comely for to see,
And by a sad misfortune a soldier now is he;
I hope the man that listed him may not prosper night nor day,
For I wish that the Hollànders may sink him in the sea.
‘Oh! may he never prosper, oh! may he never thrive,
Nor anything he takes in hand so long as he’s alive;
May the very grass he treads upon the ground refuse to grow,
Since he’s been the only cause of my sorrow, grief, and woe!’
Then he pulled out a handkerchief to wipe her flowing eyes,—
‘Leave off those lamentations, likewise those mournful cries;
Leave of your grief and sorrow, while I march o’er the plain,
We’ll be married when I return again.’
‘O now my love has listed, and I for him will rove,
I’ll write his name on every tree that grows in yonder grove,
Where the huntsman he does hollow, and the hounds do sweetly cry,
To remind me of my ploughboy until the day I die.’
OLD ADAM.
[We have had considerable trouble in procuring a copy of this old song, which used, in former days, to be very popular with aged people resident in the North of England. It has been long out of print, and handed down traditionally. By the kindness, however, of Mr. S. Swindells, printer, Manchester, we have been favoured with an ancient printed copy, which Mr. Swindells observes he had great difficulty in obtaining. Some improvements have been made in the present edition from the recital of Mr. Effingham Wilson, who was familiar with the song in his youth.]
Both sexes give ear to my fancy,
While in praise of dear woman I sing;
Confined not to Moll, Sue, or Nancy,
But mates from a beggar to king.
When old Adam first was created,
And lord of the universe crowned,
His happiness was not completed,
Until that an helpmate was found.
He’d all things in food that were wanting
To keep and support him through life;
He’d horses and foxes for hunting,
Which some men love better than wife.