Hi,

This will be the third installment of my headnotes and is solely about "The Rambling Boy" (Roud 18830), a ballad wildly popular in the UK in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Although the first stanza and tune were catchy (see Kittredge JAF 1916) the ballad as created by a broadside writer (or writers) was fatally flawed and died a quick death. As always the text may be read on my site: http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/7-died-for-love-brisk-young-sailorrambling-boy.aspx The fatal flaw? It was poorly assembled from another broadside, read on and you shall see, Richie.

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C, "The Rambling Boy" was printed in collections and chapbooks in England, Ireland and Scotland in the 1700s. The earliest record of it is in "The musical companion: Being a chosen collection of the new and favorite songs, sung at the theatres and public gardens." This collection of 18 songs was printed in London about 1765. In this collection the title is "The Wild Rover," a title not commonly used for the "Rambling Boy" songs. Today, "Wild Rover" is a title for a different song but there is a related family member titled, The Rover ("I am a rover who is quite well-known") with a vaguely similar first stanza. "Rambling Boy" was first printed under the "Rambling Boy" title in a chapbook "The Fencibles in the Suds: A New Song to which are Added, 2. the Rambling Boy. 3. the Irish Lassey. 4. the Roving Tinker" printed in Dublin in 1782. Another chapbook published by W. Goggin of Limerick has "Rambling Boy, To which is Added, The New Vagary O, Shepherds I Have Lost My Love, The Drop of Dram, Fight Your Cock in the Morning," BM 11622 c.14, dated 1790. A Scottish chapbook by J. & M. Robertson, has "Rambling Boy with the Answer" (the Answer is B) which was printed in Saltmarket, Glasgow in 1799.

The Rambling Boy usually begins, "I'm a wild and rambling boy" or "I'm a rake and rambling boy" both of which are found in a different ballad about a highway robber (Laws 12, Roud 490) similarly titled "Rich and Rambling Boy," or "Rambling Boy," and also "A Wild and Wicked Youth," "In Newry Town," "The Robber's Song," "The Roving Blade," or "The Flash Lad." Since the opening line and the titles are the sometimes the same, it's easy to confuse the two. The highway robber ballad which was probably fashioned on the opening line of A and/or B has remained popular throughout the 1900s especially in America while C, The Rambling Boy was never popular in America and only one fragment has been collected from NY in the 1820s. Only B with it's similar opening line ("I am a rowdy rambling boy") has been found in America, but usually in a corrupt state.

Our Rambling Boy (Round 18830) text from the Musical Companion (2nd song) of 1765, London, follows:

1. I am a wild and a rambling boy,
My lodgings are in the Isle of Cloy,
A wild and a rambling boy I be,
I'll forsake them all and follow thee.

2. O Billy! Billy! I love you well,
I love you better than tongue can tell
I love you well but dare not show,
To you my dear, let no one know.

3. I wish I was a blackbird or thrush,
Changing my notes from bush to bush,
That all the world might plainly see,
I lov'd a man that lov'd not me.

4. I wish I was a little fly,
That on his bosom I might lie.
And all the people fast asleep,
Into my lover's arms I'd softly creep.

5. I love my father I love my mother,
I love my sisters and my brothers
I love my friends and relations too,
I would forsake them all to go with you.

6. My father left me house and land,
Bid me use it at my command
But at my command they shall I never be;
I'll forsake them all love and go with thee.

7. My father coming home late one night
And asking for his heart's delight.
He ran up stairs, the door he broke.
And found her hanging in a rope.

8. He took a knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom a note was found:
Dig me a grave both wide and deep.
And a marble stone to cover it.

The text is a series of floaters and "I Wish" stanzas from older broadsides with stanzas 1, 7 and 8 being in common with B, The Cruel Father. Stanza 2 is taken directly from the 1686 broadside Nelly's Constancy which is found modified in a number of Died for Love ballads and is even the title of one-- I Love You Jamie, a Scottish variant. Stanzas 3 and 4 are from the tradition of Died for Love being "I wish I was" ballad stanzas (see: Pitman's Love Song). Stanza 5 is a floater found in many Died for Love songs and older broadsides while stanza 6 is unique but appears with considerable variation in later versions. Stanzas 2-6 are designed to show the maid's deep love for her Rambling Boy however, the abrupt and sudden suicide show the ending stanzas were tacked on and the connecting stanzas were missing. It's as if a broadside writer took B and removed the plot and filled it with floating love stanzas. With this fatal flaw in broadside construction, the suicide never made sense.

Ca also retains the name Billie/Willie as found in B an indication that the construction of C was made from B, or and earlier missing broadside. The same or similar Rambling Boy text was reprinted a number of times in broadsides of the 1800s, probably first by J. Pitts of 14 Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, London about 1806. About 1888 Baring-Gould, who has access to the British Museum(Library) broadsides, copied the opening stanzas of the Pitts broadside in his notebooks as version C. The broadside, "Rambling Boy" was printed by J. Catnach, at 7 Dials between 1813 and 1838 was "sold by T. Batchelar, 14, Hackney Road Crescent; Marshall, Bristol; Price, St. Clement's; Bennett, and Boyse, Brighton; J. Sharman, Cambridge; & J. Pierce, Southborough," showing that it was widely distributed.

As stated earlier, the difference between B and C is that the plot of B is missing and is replaced by random stanzas showing the maid's deep love for her rambling boy-- she is trying to prove her love for him but since he is a rambling boy it seems he's left her and she's broken-hearted. The problem is: the earlier stanzas of "Rambling Boy" 1-6 provide little or no justification for the suicide whereas in B the reason for the suicide is reasonable: she kills herself because her father sent her lover to sea where he's killed by a cannonball. In Cc, as in a corrupt version of B, it's the rambling boy who comes home and finds his lover:

My love he came late in the night,
Seeking for his sweet-heart's delight;
He ran up stairs, the door he broke,
And found his love all in a rope.

The Rambling Boy was very popular by the end of the 1700s and several versions of it were printed in plays of the early 1800s where it was known as a street ballad as demonstrated by this excerpt from the 1806 "Songster's Museum of Celebrated Modern English, Irish, and Scotch Songs" ("v" is written for "w" as in the old comic style):

(Spoken) — Come, good customers, here's an entire new song, call'd 'I am a vild and roving boy,'—
'Come you sir, strike up.' — Stop Doll, let's rosin first.
(To the tune sung by the Beggars in the streets)

She.-- I am a vild and a rambling boy,
He.-- My lodgings in the isle of Troy;
She.-- A rambling boy although I be,
He.-- I'd leave them all, and follow thee.

(That 'ere man vants a ballad, Doll, vy don't you look about.)

She.-- l vish I vas a little fly,
He.-- In my love's bosom all for to lie,
She.--That all the world might plainly see,
He.-- I loves the girl that loves not me.

(This is a bad halfpenny, your honor, I'd thank you for another.)

That the ballad in 1806 is now being sung by "the beggars in the streets" is an indication of its popularity. It's known primarily as an Irish ballad as the rambling boy is from Auchnacloy, although its real source is unknown. In Lady Morgan's 1833 work "Manor Sackville" which was published as the first of three drama plays in "Dramatic Scenes from Real Life" she depicts scenes from Irish life and includes part of the ballad "Rake and Rambling Boy":

[Denis O'Dowd is heard singing on the stairs]

I am a rake, and a rambling boy,
My lodging it's in Auchnacloy;
A rambling boy, dear, altho' I be,
I'll forsake my home, love, and follow thee.
Fal lal la, fal lal lal la.

I wish I was a little fly,
On my love's buzzom I would lie;
Then, all the wor-ald might plainly see,
That I loved a girl, and she loved not me.
Fal lal la, fal lal lal la.

My fader being out very late one night,
He called sorely for his heart's delight;
He went up stairs, and the door he broke,
And he found her hang-ging by a rope.
Fal lal la, fal lal lal la.

Another example is from Roderic Random, a comic opera (in three acts) by Samuel William Ryley, dated 1800. This version includes one stanza of Rambling Boy, the rest is similar to stanzas from the related older broadside ballads:

Joe and Bet, the Ballads Singers

I. Down by a Christian [crystal] River side,
Where little fishes they do glide;
A damsel there I chance to see
That cry'd out-- woe is me.

II. [Joe.]-- I wish I was a little fly,
[Bet.]--That on his bosom I might lie;
[Joe.]-Then all the world might plainly see
[Bet.]-I lov'd a man that lov'd not me.

III. [Joe.]--This Damsel now began for to complain,
[Bet.]--And her true love she called by his name;
Ah! wretched woman that I be,
[Joe.]--My true love's gone-Ah! woe is me.

IV. [Joe.]-- Come all true Loviers listen a while[],
[Bet.]-How a false man did me beguile,
With my poor heart he did make free,
[Joe.]--Which makes me cry, Ah! woe is me.

Notice the 1st stanza begins similarly to the Pitts' "Sailor Boy" broadside and also the form is modified from “A Forsaken Lover's Complaint” by Robert Johnson c. 1611 (3 lines with a chorus). Only the second stanza is directly related to Rambling Boy- still it's a curiosity! The last example that the ballad had already become popular in the early 1800s is found in the actor's skit found in "The Actor's Budget; Consisting of Monologues, Prologues, Epilogues, and Tales" by William Oxberry, 1811:

Vocal and Rhetorical Imitations of Ballad-Singer

There's Dolly and I, when ballads we cry,
On a couple of stools see us stand;
The people all crowd, while she bawls aloud,
And I takes my fiddle in hand —(Imitates.)
(Speaking in a squeaking tone of voice.) Come, neighbours and friends, here's a new song, entitled and call'd, I am a wild and roving boy, -Come, play up,
(Speaking in a gruff tone.) Stop, let's rosin first
(Singing with a squeaking voice.) "I am a wild and roving boy,"
(Singing in a gruff voice.) "And my lodging is in the island of Cloy;"
(Squeaking.) "A rambling boy altho' I be,"
(Gruff) "I'll forsake them all, and I'll follow thee." Speaking.) There's a man wants to buy a ballad there—
(Squeaking) "Were I a blackbird or a thrush,
(Gruff) "Hopping about from bush to bush."
(Speaking.) Sing, Moll—(Squeaking.) "Then all the world might plainly see,"
(Speaking) It's a bad halfpenny, Moll.—
(Singing.) "I love the girl that loves not me."

The two stanzas from the ballad singers skit (once removed from the dialogue) appear as:

I am a wild and roving boy,
And my lodging is in the island of Cloy;
A rambling boy altho' I be
I'll forsake them all, and I'll follow thee.

Were I a blackbird or a thrush,
Hopping about from bush to bush.
Then all the world might plainly see,
I love the girl that loves not me.

Since our ballads are usually about a girl or maid in deep despair the last line (above) usually appears, "I lov'd a man that lov'd not me" or similarly. Changing "girl" to "man" works equally as well; "I love the man that loves not me." Cc, "The Rambling Boy" was printed along with Bb, "Answer to Rambling Boy" in a Scottish chapbook by Robertson in 1799 under the title, "The Rambling Boy, with the answer." Four printings were also found in US chapbooks from 1805 until 1817. Cc has the suicide found in B and F and also the complete quatrain "Go dig my grave both wide and deep"-- not found in all versions of C-- most versions give only two lines:

Dig me a grave both wide and deep.
And a marble stone to cover it.

Cc has a slightly different first line identified with several "rake and rambling boy" broadsides and begins:

I am a rake and a rambling boy.
I'm lately come from Auchnacloy;
A rambling boy although I be,
I'll forsake them all and go with thee.

The location of his lodging in the 1811 Oxberry skit above-- the Island of Cloy-- has persisted in broadsides and become the title of a broadside and a traditional version. The location has appeared in this corrupt state in both B, and C. Both stanzas in the 1811 example above are found similarly in Cc, The Rambling Boy in the Scottish chapbook. The Isle of Cloy (Roud 23272) is also used in B, where her father sends her lover to sea and he dies when struck by a cannonball. After his death she hangs herself (as in Butcher Boy) leaving a note which blames her father. E.J. Moeran collected The Isle of Cloy in the 1930s in Suffolk from George Hill and Oliver Waspe. A.L. Lloyd sang this song in 1956 on his Tradition album The Foggy Dew and Other Traditional English Love Songs. It begins:

"It's of a lady in the Isle of Cloy"

It also appears in the Pitts Broadside "Rambling Boy" as (second line):

"My lodgings are in the Isle of Cloy,"

In Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths by Roger Dev Renwick he says, Isle of Cloy is "not found in any official British place names and hence may be a folk name" which shows he doesn't know the source. The source became apparent to me through a series of spellings as the place-name appears in the older prints. Notice the slight change in The Cruel Father or Deceived Maid-- Madden Collection,

"A squire's daughter near Aclecloy."

to the accurate place-name in a chapbook by J & M Robertson, Saltmarket, Glasgow (1799):

"I'm lately come from Auchnacloy;"

Auchnacloy is an archaic spelling (meaning "field of the stone") for Aughnacloy, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. So
Isle of Cloy= Aclecloy= Auchnacloy. The folk process!!