5112. Convict Maid (Traditional Australian) Stonnington U3A

Описание: A song from my presentation at Stonnington U3A - Australian History in Song Part 1: Songs of Transportation.

Nearly 25,000 women were transported to Australia as convicts, half of them from Ireland. This is one of the few songs about female convicts.

The tune is based on "The Croppy Boy", an Irish song from the 1788 rebellion,

Lyrics and chords:
........ E ............................... A
You lads and lasses all attend to me
......... B7 ........................... E
While I relate my tale of misery
B7 . E ........................... B7
By hopeless love was I once betrayed
........ E .............. B7 ... E
And now I am, alas, a Convict Maid

To please my lover did I try so sore
That I spent upon him all my master's store,
Who in his wrath did so loud upbraid,
And brought before the judge this Convict Maid

The judge his sentence then to me addressed
Which filled with agony my aching breast
"To Botany Bay you must be conveyed
For seven long years to be a Convict Maid."

For seven long years I toil in pain and grief
And curse the day when I became a thief.
Oh had I stuck by some honest trade
I ne'er had been alas a Convict Maid.

You can see a playlist of my Australian songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...

I am now posting lyrics to the information panels on all my videos. Any that are too long to post in full will be found on my website: https://raymondsfolkpage.wordpress.com