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It's of a jolly sailor boy who plowed the ocean free,
He dressed himself in tidy clothes his true love to go see,
His pockets they were lined as good as any sailor's trade,
To try the heart of Mary Ann, that lovely lowland maid.
"Good morning to you, Mary Ann, I'm glad I met with you,
Have you forgot your old true love or changed the old for new?
What is your inclination? - come tell to me I pray."
"Begone from me," cried Mary Ann, that lovely lowland maid.
As Mary Ann one evening sat in her cottage door,
She frowned on her sailor because he looked so poor.
"Oh, what is your intention? - come tell to me I pray."
"I pray begone," cried Mary Ann, that lovely lowland maid.
At those feeling words the lady spoke, the sailor cried, "Behold!"
When from his pants pocket hauled out a purse of gold.
"Excuse me now," cried Mary Ann, "excuse me what I said,
You're welcome to my cottage and the lovely lowland maid."
"Begone deceitful Mary Ann, your way it is well paid,
Sure I can stay till morning in some lonely barn or shed,
Sure I can stay till morning in some lonely barn or shed."
And he wandered to a stable from that lovely lowland maid.
"'Twas at the hour of twelve o'clock false Mary Ann did say
Unto another suitor, "We will have him betrayed."
'Twas with their dark glances and daggers in their hand
They crossed that briny meadow till they reached that battle stand.
And when they reached the stable wherein the sailor lay,
"Oh slay him in his slumber!" cried the lovely lowland maid.
They plunged their fatal daggers within the sailor's breast,
They robbed him of his glittering gold and laid him there to rest.
A keeper he being watching all from the wood he strayed,
He swore against that villyan and the lovely lowland maid.
This villyan he was taken, those words I heard him say:
"I would not have killed the sailor, only for being persuade."
They both looked at each other upon their trial day,
This villyan was condemned to die with the lovely lowland maid.
Collected in 1961 from Patrick Rossiter of Fermeuse, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 2, pp.620-621, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Note: "... an added 'y' can enlarge or distort an existing vowel or diphthong: villyan, joynt (villain, giant)." Morath, Max (2004) Translating Mister Dooley: A New Examination of the Journalism of Finley Peter Dunne. (The Journal of American Culture Vol.27, Issue 2, page 147.)
