| |
| YOUNG BEN he was a nice young man, | |
| A carpenter by trade; | |
| And he fell in love with Sally Brown, | |
| That was a lady’s maid. | |
| |
| But as they fetched a walk one day, | 5 |
| They met a press-gang crew; | |
| And Sally she did faint away, | |
| Whilst Ben he was brought to. | |
| |
| The boatswain swore with wicked words | |
| Enough to shock a saint, | 10 |
| That, though she did seem in a fit, | |
| ’T was nothing but a feint. | |
| |
| “Come, girl,” said he, “hold up your head, | |
| He ’ll be as good as me; | |
| For when your swain is in our boat | 15 |
| A boatswain he will be.” | |
| |
| So when they ’d made their game of her, | |
| And taken off her elf, | |
| She roused, and found she only was | |
| A coming to herself. | 20 |
| |
| “And is he gone, and is he gone?” | |
| She cried and wept outright; | |
| “Then I will to the water-side, | |
| And see him out of sight.” | |
| |
| A waterman came up to her; | 25 |
| “Now, young woman,” said he, | |
| “If you weep on so, you will make | |
| Eye-water in the sea.” | |
| |
| “Alas! they ’ve taken my beau, Ben, | |
| To sail with old Benbow;” | 30 |
| And her woe began to run afresh, | |
| As if she ’d said, Gee woe! | |
| |
| Says he, “They ’ve only taken him | |
| To the tender-ship, you see.” | |
| “The tender-ship,” cried Sally Brown, | 35 |
| “What a hard-ship that must be!” | |
| |
| “O, would I were a mermaid now, | |
| For then I ’d follow him! | |
| But O, I ’m not a fish-woman, | |
| And so I cannot swim. | 40 |
| |
| “Alas! I was not born beneath | |
| The Virgin and the Scales, | |
| So I must curse my cruel stars, | |
| And walk about in Wales.” | |
| |
| Now Ben had sailed to many a place | 45 |
| That ’s underneath the world; | |
| But in two years the ship came home, | |
| And all her sails were furled. | |
| |
| But when he called on Sally Brown, | |
| To see how she got on, | 50 |
| He found she ’d got another Ben, | |
| Whose Christian-name was John. | |
| |
| “O Sally Brown! O Sally Brown! | |
| How could you serve me so? | |
| I ’ve met with many a breeze before, | 55 |
| But never such a blow!” | |
| |
| Then, reading on his ’bacco box, | |
| He heaved a heavy sigh, | |
| And then began to eye his pipe, | |
| And then to pipe his eye. | 60 |
| |
| And then he tried to sing, “All ’s Well!” | |
| But could not, though he tried; | |
| His head was turned,—and so he chewed | |
| His pigtail till he died. | |
| |
| His death, which happened in his berth, | 65 |
| At forty-odd befell; | |
| They went and told the sexton, and | |
| The sexton tolled the bell. | |
| |
