Lyr. Add: TURKEY RHUBARB MAN

Kind friends, you see before you now,
One of a wretched clan,
Though I could boast not long ago,
Of being a happier man,
But I'm nearly broken-hearted,
For the loss of Mary-Ann.

But she swore she loved me true, and
She called me her "Dear Sammy,"
But now she's gone and left me, oh! deceitful Mary-Ann,
I've got some babes at home,
And they're crying for their mammy,
But she's gone to Abbyssina, with a Turkey Rhubarb Man.

When first this turkey rhubarb man
He came into the town,
The people they would glare at him,
as he went on his rounds, to hear her praise
It drove me crazed I often at her struck,
While she call'd him a good *'liver' & praised him for his pluck.
*lover?
When we were wed, to go to bed
At nine was my delight
But the bed has no attraction now,
And I am distracted quite,
To keep my body warm I must do the best I can,
With a bolster rolled up in my arms instead of Mary-Ann.

Now if I gain your kind applause,
It will my heart relieve,
And for the loss of Mary-Ann no longer will I grieve,
Why for the Turkey Rhubarb Man,
I hope he'll get a bullet from some Abysinian.

Firth b.27(509), no date, no data; 19th c. broadside printed with "The Fisherman's Daughter" and "Ikey Green."
Bodleian Library.
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ballads/ballads.htm

Sounds like a music hall recitation.