Hi,

This "pretty boy" Irish text is from 1848. It's included in the following complete text with notes from Joyce 1909 in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs. At the end Joyce also translates a stanza of the Gaelic version I posted earlier in the thread:

812. WHERE WERE YOU ALL THE DAY, MY OWN PRETTY BOY?

This ballad, in various forms, and song to different airs, is found all over Europe. In all cases the subject of the ballad is a victim to poison. In England it is "King Henry, my son," who comes home to his mother to die of poisoned food given him by his sweetheart. (Ballad recently published by Miss Lucy Broadwood in "English Traditional Songs and Carols.") In Scotland it is "Lord Ronald" (for which see "Wood's Songs of Scotland "). In Germany it is "Grandmother Adder-Cook"; and there are versions in Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Magyar, and Wendish.

We have it in Ireland also, and in two distinct versions; one in the Irish language, the other in P'nglish. The Irish ballad, as recently taken down in the Co. Roscommon by the Rev. Father John MacDermott from an old man named Rogers, has been published with an interesting notice by Dr. Douglas Hyde, in "Eriu," ii. 77.

As to the English version: — I took down both words and music about the year 1848 from Peggy Cudmore, a little peasant girl of twelve or thirteen years of age, endowed with extraordinary musical taste and talent. I gave both to Dr. Petrie; and a version of the air will be found with my name in the Stanford-Petrie collection (No. 330). My copies are still among the Petrie papers, which are inaccessible to me; but I remember the following four verses and the whole of the air, which I give here, and which differs somewhat from the setting in Stanford-Petrie. Dr. Hyde informs us that a version of the English-Irish ballad was taken down in 1881 from a woman named Ellen Healy, who learned it from a Kerry girl in 1868: and I find the three verses he gives (in "Eriu") are almost identical with Peggy Cudmore's version. This air was first rescued and written down by me, and words and air are now brought together for the first time. I should also remark that I find, by a brief reference on a stray leaf of the Pigot collection, that Mr. Pigot had a copy of the air in one of his books; but I have not seen it. Peggy Cudmore's version here.

"Where were you all the day, my own pretty boy?
Where were you all the day, my truelove and joy?"
"I was fishing and fowling: mother, dress my bed soon;
There's a pain in my heart, and I want to lie down."

"What did you get for dinner, my own pretty boy?
What did you get for dinner, my truelove and joy?"
"Bread, mutton, and poison : mother, dress my bed soon;
There's a pain in my heart, and I want to lie down."

"What will you leave your mother, my own pretty boy?
What will you leave your mother, my truelove and joy?"
"A coach and four horses : mother, dress my bed soon;
There's a pain in my heart, and I want to lie down."

(He goes on— as questioned by his mother— leaving various bequests to his relations, till, in the last verse, he comes to his wife, who had given him the poisoned mutton.)

" What will you leave your married wife, my own pretty boy?
What will you leave your married wife, my truelove and joy?"
"A long rope to hang her: mother, dress my bed soon;
There's a pain in my heart, and I want to lie down."

The translation of the first verse of the Irish version, as given by Dr. Hyde in "Eriu," is:—

"What was in the dinner you got, my fair-haired heart-pulse and my treasure?
What was in the dinner you got, thou flower of young men?"
"An eel that Nuala gave me with deadly poison in it;
Oh, my head! — it is paining me, and I want to lie down."

* * * *

Richie