The cautionary tale of Young Edwin
What can you do when the wind will not blow and the yachts cannot sail? Head to the inn, call for a measure of grog and sing, that's what. The ballad of "Young Edwin" was printed in England on numerous broadsides in the early 1800s. Copies of many of these can be found in the Bodleian Library. The name of the hero is variously Edwin, Edmund, Edward and Eamonn, and Emma is also known as Emily. The song was well-known in Ireland and Nova Scotia, and it was also collected in Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, New York and Kentucky.
Young EdwinCome, all you wild, young people
And listen to the song
That I will sing concerning gold,
Which guides so many wrong.
Young Emma was a servant-maid
And loved a sailor bold,
He ploughed the main much gold to gain,
For his Love, as we've been told.Young Emma she did daily mourn
Since Edwin first did roam;
When seven years were past and gone,
Then Edwin hailed his home.
He went unto young Emma's house
The store of gold to show,
Which he had gained upon the main
Above the Lowlands Low.Her father kept a public inn,
It stood down by the sea.
Says Emma, 'You can enter in
And there this night can be.
I'll meet you in the morning,
Don't let my parents know,
Your name it is young Edwin
That ploughed the Lowlands Low.'As Emma she lay sleeping
She had a frightful dream,
She dreamt her Love stood weeping,
His blood poured in a stream.
She rose up in the morning
And to her friends did go,
Because she loved him dearly;
That ploughed the Lowlands Low.'Oh, mother, where's the stranger lad,
Came here last night to stay?'
'Oh, he is dead, no tales can tell;'
Her father he did say.
'Then father, cruel father,
You will die a public show
For murdering my Edwin,
That ploughed the Lowlands Low.The fishes of the ocean
Swim o'er my lover's breast,
His body rolls in motion,
I hope his soul at rest,
How cruel were my parents
To prove his overthrow,
And take the gold from one so bold
That ploughed the Lowlands Low.'
Moral of story: love is blind, gold gleams and families (Windsors included) must be practical when their children are not.
