FREEDOM

Come all who love freedom, my maxim pursue,
Don't set your affections on a girl that scorns you,
For they are as full of notions as the skies full of stars,
Or the seas full of motions, the world's full of air;
I beg you take warning, and sit down by me,
For I will despise those that do despise me.

This world is a compound of freedom and ease,
I'll go where I choose and come when I please;
Sometimes I am high, sometimes I am low,
Sometimes I am fast, sometimes I am slow,
'Tis nobody's business, I am single and free,
And why should I love those that do not love me?

If I love a lady, and she sets by me,
Her conduct will show it wherever we be;
But if she should alter, and treat me with scorn,
Our friendship would break, and union be gone;
But thanks be to heaven I am single and free
And I will not love a person that does not love me.

My mind is too noble, my heart is too stout,
Such things are all folly, I cast them all out,
Love comes by embraces, as I have been told,
'Tis easily bought and as easily sold;
I never stop to buy it, I am single and free,
And why should I love those that do not love me?

I will dress in my laces and single I will be,
Not all their fair faces shall ne'er entrap me;
I'll vary my colours, the highest and best,
I'll fiddle and dance, and sometimes will rest.
'Tis nobody's business, I am single and free,
And why should I love those that do not love me?

Some choose for to marry, and some to live free,
But I am resolved to live as I be;
Sometimes I will labour, sometimes I will lay by,
No wife for to scold, no children to cry;
And thanks be to heaven I am single and free,
And I will not love a person that does not love me.

Songsheet at American Memory. No date, no author, 19th c., published L. Deming, Boston, Mass.
Spelling suggests English origin. The lyrics seem familiar- author?