Hi,

Here's another use of Must I Go Bound? in the Butcher Boy. Frequently the last two lines of the standard stanza (Unfortunate Swain) are replaced. Also since most versions are sung from the female perspective, the stanza now appears:

Must I be bound and you go free?
Must I love one who ne'er loved me?
Why should I play such a childish part
To go after a boy who will break my heart?

This would be one way the standard stanza would be found in the Died for Love songs and their relatives. There are earlier broadsides with Must/Shall I Go Bound? but this is a standard stanza that has evolved from the mid-1700s.

Butcher Boy- sung by Spencer Moore of Chilhowie, Virginia with guitar; learned in 1925. Recorded by Gwilym Davies in 1997. Transcription R. Matteson, 2017.

[guitar intro]

In London City where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well,
He courted me, my life away,
And then with me he would not stay.

Must I go bound and you go free,
And love the boy who don't love me;
He takes another girl on his knee,
And he tells her things that he won't tell me.

[instrumental]

Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Place marble at my head and feet,
And on my breast a snow-white dove,
To show the world I died for love.

[instrumental]

Must I go bound and you go free,
And love the boy who don't love me
He takes another girl on his knee
And he tells her things that he won't tell me.

[instrumental]

Richie