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The Bold Privateer
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Bold Privateer
The Bold Privateer
[
Roud 1000
; Master title: The Bold Privateer
; Laws O32
; Henry H514
; Ballad Index LO32
; MusTrad EN88
; Bodleian
Roud 1000
; Wiltshire
731
; Mudcat 76196
; trad.]
Peter Bellamy sang The Bold Privateer song on his 1975 LP Tell It Like It Was, accompanying himself on concertina. Another version from Paul Adams' collection of miscellaneous Peter Bellamy tapes was included in 2018 on the Fellside CD reissue of The Maritime Suite. Peter Bellamy noted:
The 1914 anthology The Book of Sussex Verse concluded with a short section of “old Sussex songs”, whence came this short (Napoleonic War?) piece, sans tune, so I provided one.
Eliza Carthy sang Bold Privateer on her 2002 CD, Anglicana. She accompanied herself on fiddle and Tim van Eyken played guitar. She commented in the album notes:
My Dad said he has been meaning to give me this song for about five years. I eventually held him in a savage stranglehold until he gave it up. It comes from a collection by John Broadwood, relative of Lucy. All the songs in the collection come from Surrey and Sussex, and Broadwood swears that they were obtained from genuine country people and peasants.
Jeff Warner sang The Bold Privateer on his 2005 album Jolly Tinker. He commented in his liner notes:
The song has a British beginning, but may well have gone through American minstrelsy before lodging in the southern mountains, where English song collector Cecil Sharp found it in Peaks of Otter, Bedford County, Virginia, in 1918. Jeff Davis found this in Sharp's collection and passed it on to me.
Peter and Barbara Snape sang Bold Privateer on their 2008 CD Take to the Green Fields. Barbara Snape noted:
A traditional song from the Cuala Press Broadside Collection, published in October 1911. A version of this song appears on John McCusker's Goodnight Ginger album with a tune written by Phil Cunningham. We have based our version on, and around, that tune.
Lyrics
Peter Bellamy sings The Bold Privateer | Eliza Carthy sings Bold Privateer |
---|---|
Our boat, it's on a drift |
Our boat, she's on a drift |
Our ship, she lies awaiting |
𝄆 Our ship, she lies awaiting |
Well there's no-one there can tell |
There's no-one there can tell you |
And such bloody engagements |
𝄆 Such bloody engagements |
So grieve not, my dearest jewel |
Grieve not, my dearest jewel |
We will cut down the pride |
𝄆 We'll beat down the pride |
Well since you are going |
Then since you are a-going |
May kind heaven protect you |
𝄆 May kind heaven protect you |
Well the prizes we have taken |
The prizes we have taken |
When the wars they are are over |
𝄆 And when the wars are over |
Oh, when the wars are over |
Notes
“Monaseer” is late 18th / early
19th-century slang
for a Frenchman, from “monsieur”. The Dutch were similarly known
as “Monheers” (or “butterboxes”!). The English have
a habit of genially mangling the pronunciation of their enemies' names -
the Indian Prince Sirauj-ad Daula was known to the troops as
“Sir Roger Dowler” for example.
[Kim Birley]
Acknowledgements and Links
Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke with help from Kira White and Kim Birley. Thank you!