I’ll go and enlist for a sailor

AKA I’ll go and list for a sailor
The Unfortunate Tailor
Oh List, Oh List, to My Sorrowful Lay
First published 1867
Lyrics Harry Clifton Music Harry Clifton Roud RN1614

Music Hall Performers Harry Clifton 
Folk performances Source Singers
Alfred Oliver, 1906, Hampshire, England
George Lovett, 1906, Hampshire, England
John Webley, ca 1900, Gloucestershire, England
Modern performances
Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, June Tabor		 

From the Hopwood and Crew sheet music (via the Artful Codger, see below)

I'LL GO AND ENLIST FOR A SAILOR.
Song of the Unfortunate Tailor.
Written and sung by Harry Clifton

List! oh list! to my sorrowful lay,
Attention give to my song I pray,
And when you've heard it all you'll say
   That I'm "an unfortunate tailor."
I once was as happy as a bird on a tree,
My Sarah was all the world to me,
But I'm cut out by a "son of the sea",
   She has left me here to bewail her.

Oh! why did my Sarah serve me so ?
No more will I stitch, no more will I sew,
My thimble and my needle to the winds I'll throw,
   And go and enlist for a sailor.

My Sarah was the daughter of a publican,
A gen'rous, kind, good sort of a man,
Who spoke very plain what he thought of a man,
   But he never look'd cross at the tailor;
My Sarah was as tall as a "poplar tree",
As "fair as a lily" and as "brisk as a bee",
And many were the smiles that she smil'd on me--
   Oh, why am I left to bewail her?

My days were happy, and my nights the same,
Till a man nam'd Cobb, from the ocean came,
With a "big black beard" and, a muskilar frame--
   A captain on board of a whaler,
He spent his money so frank and free,
With his "tales of the land" and his "songs of the sea",
He stole my Sarah's heart from me,
   And blighted the hopes of the tailor.

I went to plead, but she did refuse,
She lov'd another, so I must excuse
Her candour, but it was no use,
   She never could marry a tailor !
When telling my love in came that "Cobb",
Who cried, "Avast there, you lubberly swab!"
"If you don't belay, I'll scuttle your nob"--
   And Sarah smil'd at the sailor !

And so I'll cross the raging sea,
Since Sarah is untrue to me;
My heart's lock'd up and she's the key--
   A very unfeeling jailor.
Farewell, kind friends, a last a-doo,
No more my woes shall trouble you;
The world I'll wander thro' and thro'--
   I'll go and enlist for a sailor!

Harry Clifton wrote and performed this song, first published in 1867.

Mar. 31, 1867;  The Era

The sheet music received this snooty review from the Ladies Own Paper – a publication covering “Progress Taste and Art” for respectable middle-class ladies:

Lady’s Own Paper – Saturday 20 April 1867

Within 12 months of publication the song was widely reported in the repertoire of amateur singers, the earliest example I found was at a Penny Reading at York Barracks (York Herald, 01 Feb 1868).

The lyrics given here are those transcribed by the “Artful Codger” from the original Hopwood and Crew sheet music held in the Bodleian library, reproduced on the Mudcat website, where you will also find a midi file of the tune.

This song appears in a couple of English broadsides and several 19th century songbooks. It was collected from three different source singers by two collectors (Gardiner and Williams) at the turn of the century – it’s not clear whether they knew it was a 30 yr old tune from the Halls. The tune is a well-known Morris jig. In that context, Cecil Sharp collected a snatch of the words from a Norwich carpenter.

The song features in the repertoire of several modern folk performers including Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick. Here’s a live version from Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick:

Sources: