I remember, way back in the 1960s, when the character of Edmund in King Lear was being discussed in an English lesson, the English master commented that, in Shakespeare's time, illegitimate people were thought of as complete bastards. I think this applies in a lot of folk songs. Also in Shaw's St. Joan, Joan of Arc asks of the army commander, "Be you bastard?" Deleting all the words Green Wellies finds objectionable from English literature would to out-Bowdlerize Bowdler.