Hi,

I'm nearly done with "Must I Go Bound" here are the main headnotes: http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/7o-must-i-go-bound.aspx

I'm including the first part here. Comments and corrections welcome!

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[The archaic "Must I Go Bound?" stanza appears in a variety of songs and broadsides usually as a dramatic floating stanza. "Must I Go Bound?" also appears with slight modifications-- including:

1) Shall I Go Bound?
2) Must I Be Bound?
3) Shall I Be Bound?
4) Should I Be Bound?
5) O, am I bound? [Kidson "I Am a Rover"]

These variant titles will be hereafter called "Must I Go Bound" or "Must I Go Bound?" (since it is a question posed). As well as being a floating stanza found in the Died for Love songs and various other songs and broadsides, the "Must I Go Bound?" stanza has been added to several stanzas of a separate song published by Christie[1] called, "The Belt Wi' Colours Three," producing variant songs now titled: "Must I Go Bound?" Christie's song had three "gift" stanzas. The theme of gifts that prove to be a burden to the maid and are unwanted is similarly found the broadside "The Complaining Maid," c. 1710.

A version titled, "Must I Be Bound?" was collected by H. E. D. Hammond from Jacob Baker in Dorset in 1905 also has a "gift" stanza. Baker's traditional version is similar to the broadside,"The Complaining Lover- A New Song" (ca. 1795, Madden Ballads). The last mentioned songs have a "gift" stanza that is similar to the two Irish songs titled "Must I Go Bound" (a girl's version and a lad's version) that were published by Sam Henry in the late 1920s with no attribution[2]. All the "gift" stanzas will be covered in more detail later in this study.

The history of the "Must I Go Bound?" stanza is a long one-- dating back to at least the early 1600s. Here are some early broadsides that have the ubiquitous "Must I Go Bound?" stanza:

From "The Maiden's Complaint"[3], 1633-4,

Shall I be bound, that[4] may be free?
Shall I love them that love not me?
Why should I thus seeme to complaine?
I see that I cannot him obtain.

From Roxburghe VII, 104-5 (The Maid's Revenge upon Cupid and Venus, Laurence Price[5]):

Shall I be bound, that may be free?
Shall reason rule my raging mind?
Shall I love him that loves not me?
No, though I wink, I am not blind.

Here's another stanza from "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, or: Love in Despair" (ca. 1701):

Should I be bound that may go free?
should I Love them that Loves not me?
I'le rather travel into Spain,
where I'le get love for love again;

The question Must I be Bound? is posed in Exempla Moralia[6]:

    Must I be Bound? What then? Am I now free?

From this early hypothetical query, the "Must I be Bound" question is posed by the singer:

Must I be bound and you go free?
or,
Must I be bound while he goes free?
or,
Must I be bound or must I go free?

This bondage imposed is not with a rope but rather it's a bond of love or the results of love: a pregnancy. "Must I go Bound" is routinely been attached to the Died for Love songs which are about a maid who has fallen in love with a false lover then becomes pregnant and is abandoned. Whether bound by love or the results of love, the maid bewails her helpless situation.

The opening "Must I Be Bound?" line is expanded to two lines in a variety of ways:

Must I be bound and you go free,
Must I love one who never loved me,

Must I go bound or must I go free
To love a young man who never loved me?

Must I be bound and you go free,
Must I be bound while he goes free?

Must I go bound while he goes free,
Must I love a boy that don't love me?

These two lines are expanded into stanzas. Perhaps the most common example of "Must I Go Bound?" is a stanza found in the Unfortunate Swain/Picking Lilies broadsides dating back to at least 1750:

Must I be bound, must she be free,
Must I love one that loves not me;
If I should act such a childish part
To love a girl that will break my heart.

This stanza has been varied in a number of ways-- here's the standard stanza as sung by the maid:

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 is usually sung from the female perspective but is also sung from the male perspective:

Mus I be bound, or must I go free
To love a young maid who never loved me?
Why should I act such a childish part,
To love a young maiden with all my heart?

One early use of Must I Go Bound that is clearly related to the Died for Love songs is the broadside ballad titled "The Complaining Lover- A New Song" (ca. 1795, Madden Ballads). The first three stanzas are particularly relevant:

1. Must I be bound that can go free,
Must I love one that loves not me.
Let reason rule thy wretched mind,
Altho' I wink I am not blind.

2. He loves another one he loves not me,
No cares he for my company,
He loves another I'll tell you why
Because she has more gold than I.

3. Gold will wast and Silver will flys,
In time she may have as little as I,
Had I but gold and Silver in store,
He would like me as he has done before.

Stanzas 2 and 3 are found similarly in "Nelly's Constancy" of c1686 and are clearly related to the core stanzas of "Brisk Young Lover" and "Alehouse." "Must I Go Bound" is sometimes attached to Died for Love family member, Butcher Boy, found primarily in North America. An example of the common US stanza is found in Jane Hicks Gentry's "Butcher Boy" collected in 1916 by Cecil Sharp:

Must I go bound, must I go free,
Must I love a young man that won't love me?
O no, O no, that never shall be,
Till apples grow on an orange tree.

In Butcher Boy the popular extras stanza, "Must I go bound?" sometimes has this variation: "Shall I be young (bound), shall I be free." The ending is usually the same as the UK variants "Till an orange grows on an apple tree."

7F, "My Blue Eyed Boy," is a member of the extended Died for Love song family and most US versions have the added "Must I Go Bound?" stanza. The UK variants of the Blue Eyed Boy family, "My love he is but a sailor boy (Sailor Boy)" and "Willow Tree" do not have the "Must I Go Bound?" stanza. Here's a typical US "Blue Eyed Boy" version from Carl Sandburg's "American Song Bag":

Go Bring Back my Blue-Eyed Boy- sung by Frances Ries Batavia, Ohio, before 1927.

1. Go bring me back my blue-eyed boy,
Go bring my darling back to me,
Go bring me back the one I love,
And happy will I ever be.

2 Must I go bound while he goes free?
Must I love a man that don't love me?
Or must I act some childish part,
And die for the one that broke my heart?

The common "Must I Go Bound?" stanza in Blue Eyed Boy is the same as the one found in "The Unfortunate Swain," c. 1750. However, there are variations. Here the stanza as sung by Riley Puckett in 1929[7]:

Must I go bound and you go free?
Must I go bound and you go free?
No, no, no, that never shall be
That love like that shall conquer me.

In "The Blue Eyed Boy" the "Must I Go Bound?" stanza is usually present. Since the "Must I Go Bound?" stanza is held in common with The Unfortunate Swain, it therefore will be found in some derivatives of The Unfortunate Swain. These derivatives are titled after one of the floating stanzas (usually the first stanza) and usually include other stanzas from Unfortunate Swain. Examples of these ballads which may have the "Must I Go Bound?" stanza include the titles "Deep in Love," "Down In Yon Meadows," and "Prickly Rose." Since The Unfortunate Swain is also related to versions of "Waly, Waly" and "Water is Wide" they may also have the "Must I Go Bound" stanza. One rare US version with the "Must I Go Bound" stanza and "The Unfortunate Swain" opening was collected by Cecil Sharp in Virginia in 1918:

GATHERING FLOWERS. (Play Game) Sung by Fanny Coffey of white Rock Virginia on May 8, 1918. [Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/9/3045)]

As I walked out one morning in May,
Gathering flowers fresh and gay,
Gathering flowers pink and blue,
So little did I think what love would do.

The prettiest girl I ever did see
Come walking down by the side of me.
Must I go bound, must I go free,
Must I love a pretty girl that don't love me?

No, O no, it never can be,
Love can never conquer me.
I won't go bound. I will go free,
I won't love a pretty girl that don't love me.

My rambling days are over and passed,
And I've got a pretty little wife at last.
She was the one that once said No,
But now she says Yes, and it shall be so.

This version is corroborated by a fragment of the play-party song collected before the Civil War in the US South published in the article "The Gin-Around" in 1874[]:

All of them pretty girls a marching away;" and which was soon exchanged for one which ran thus:—

"As I walked out, one morning In May,
A gathering flowers (I looked so gay).
The prettiest little girl I ever did see
Come a-walking along by the side of me.

"Shall I go bound, or shall I go free?
Shall Hove a pretty girl that don't love met
No, no, no! it never shall be
That ever love shall conquer me!"

These are the only two extant US versions of 7S. Down in a Meadow (Unfortunate Swain). Two other Died for Love extended family members, 7P and 7R, also have the "Must I Go Bound?" stanza. My 7P, "I Am a Rover" has a broadside from around 1872 with this stanza[8]:

4. "O, am I bound or am I free?
Or am I bound to marry thee?
A married life you soon shall see,
A contented mind is no jealousy."

In 7R, Yon Green Valley a similar stanza is found in a version sung by Bruce Laurenson of Bressay, Shetland collected by Patrick Shuldham-Shaw in 1952 that was covered by Frankie Armstrong:

O if he's gone, then I wish him well
For to get married as I hear tell
My innocent babe I will tender care
Of his false promise let him beware

O am I married, or am I free
Or am I bound, love, to marry thee?
A single life is the best I see
A contented mind bears no slavery.

In the first stanza the maid bewails her pregnant condition and situation: her lover has left her and has promised marriage to another. She decides in the second stanza that she's better off without him!
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Richie