The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #100972   Message #2035195
Posted By: Jim Dixon
25-Apr-07 - 07:31 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Cheapside / George Barnwell / Georgy...
Subject: Lyr Add: GEORGE BARNWELL / GEORGY BARNWELL
Google Book Search found this in "The Quaver: Or, Songster's Pocket Companion" by Quaver, London: Charles Jones, Aldermanbury, 1844, page 298.

The original was written in dialect (e.g. "vicked voman") but I figure no one would sing it that way today, would they? So I changed everything to modern standard spelling:

GEORGE BARNWELL

In Cheapside there lived a merchant.
A man he was of very great fame,
And he had a handsome 'prentice.
Georgy Barnwell was his name.
    Fol de riddle, &c.

This youth he was both good and pious,
Dutiful beyond all doubt,
And he always stayed within doors
'Cause his master wouldn't let him go out.

A wicked woman of the town, sir,
On him cast a wishful eye,
And she came in the shop one morning
A flannel petticoat to buy.

When she had paid him down the money,
She gave his hand a very hard squeeze,
Which so frightened Georgy Barnwell
That together knocked his knees.

Then she left her card whereon was written
"Mary Millwood does entreat
That Master Barnwell would call and see her
At No. 2 in Dyot Street."

Now as soon as he had shut the shop up,
He went to this naughty dickybird,
And when that he went home next morning,
Blow me if he could speak a word.

Now soon this woman did persuade him
With her fascinating pipes
To go down into the country
And let loose his uncle's tripes.

There he found his uncle in the grove, sir,
Studying hard at his good books,
And Georgy Barnwell went and stuck him
All among the crows and rooks.

When Millwood found he'd got no money,
Not so much as to buy a jewel,
She went that very day and peached him.
Now was not that hair (?) very cruel?

At her fate no one lamented,
But everybody pitied his'n
When out come the cruel hangman
To put the cord about his wizen.

The merchant's daughter died soon after.
Tears she shed but spoke no words;
So all young men, I pray take warning:
Don't go with the naughty dickybirds.

[As Malcolm Douglas pointed out, this is a parody of an older, much longer, and much more serious murder ballad.]