The Butcher Boy (folk song)

"The Butcher's Boy"
A broadside print of the song published in New York City during the 1890s.
Song
Genre	Broadside ballad, folksong
Songwriter(s)	Unknown

"The Butcher’s Boy" or "The Butcher Boy" (Laws P24, Roud 409) is an American folk song derived from traditional English ballads. Folklorists of the early 20th century considered it to be a conglomeration of several English broadside ballads, tracing its stanzas to "Sheffield Park", "The Squire's Daughter", "A Brisk Young Soldier", "A Brisk Young Sailor" and "Sweet William (The Sailor Boy)".

Steve Roud describes it as

In the song, a butcher’s apprentice abandons his lover, or is unfaithful toward her. The lover hangs herself and is discovered by her father. She leaves a suicide note, which prescribes that she be buried with a turtle dove placed upon her breast, to show the world she died for love. This narrative use of the turtle dove is derived from Old World symbolism; it is analogous to the folksong interment motif of a rose, briar, or lily growing out of the neighboring graves of deceased lovers. In this respect, "Butcher's Boy" is related to the ballads "Earl Brand", "Fair Margaret and Sweet William", "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet", "Barbara Allen", and "Lord Lovel".

Commercial recordings have been made by Kelly Harrell, by Buell Kazee (frequently re-issued, notably in the Anthology of American Folk Music) and by The Blue Sky Boys.

In some versions of the story, the heroine is impregnated by her lover before being abandoned. In others, he leaves her for a woman who is wealthier than she.