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Poor Boney / The Eighteenth of June

This ballad recalls Napoleon Bonaparte's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815. It comes from Henry Burstow of Horsham, Sussex, from whom Vaughan Williams collected it in 1905. It was published in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society 2 (1906) p. 193. Norma Waterson sang Poor Boney on April 2, 2001 at Newcastle Live Theatre. This recording was included in 2004 on the Watersons' 4 CD anthology Mighty River of Song.

Martin Carthy sang this song as The Eighteenth of June on February 2, 2006 as part of the “Folk Britannia: Which Side Ere You On?” concert at the London Barbican. It was first broadcast in the UK on BBC4 on February 24, 2006:

He also sang The Eighteenth of June in the 1983 BBC production of Keith Dewhurst's "Battle of Waterloo", which was transmitted live from BBC Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham on February 13, 1983:

See also the similar-titled but different song The Eighteenth Day of June (Roud 1132).

Lyrics

Norma Waterson sings Poor Boney

All you people who live at home easy
And free from the trials of war
Never knowing the dangers of battle
But safe with your family secure
Know you the long scythe of destruction
Has been sweeping the nation all round
And it never yet cut with the keenness
That it did on the Eighteenth of June

Chorus (after each verse):: And what a sad heart had poor Boney
To take up instead of a crown
A canter from Brussels to Paris
Lamenting the Eighteenth of June

It was just half past five in the morning
It lasted till seven at night
All the people stood round in amazement
They never had seen such a sight
For the thunder of five hundred cannons
Proclaimed that the battle was won
And the moon and the stars overshone all
Proclaiming the Eighteenth of June

All you widows and sweethearts out yonder
Go gaily and buy a black gown
Ten thousand to one I will lay you
That he fell on the Eighteenth of June
Sixty thousand brave hearted strong mortals
Who died made an awful poltroon
And many's the sad heart will remember
In sorrow the Eighteenth of June

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke with help from Wolfgang Hell and Steve Burton. Thank you!

Thanks to Kev Boyd of Carthy Online who gave me details about both video clips.