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The Bonny Bunch of Roses
The Bonny Bunch of Roses O
[
Roud 664
/ Song Subject MAS208
; Master title: The Bonny Bunch of Roses O
; Laws J5
; G/D 1:155
; Ballad Index LJ05
; VWML GG/1/8/440
; Bodleian
Roud 664
; Wiltshire
735
, 1078
; Folkinfo 35
, 39
; DT BONBUNCH
; Mudcat 168727
; George Brown]
Sabine Baring-Gould: Songs of the West Norman Buchan and Peter Hall: The Scottish Folksinger Bob Copper: Songs & Southern Breezes Karl Dallas: The Cruel Wars Alan Helsdon: Vaughan Williams in Norfolk Volume 2 Maud Karpeles: Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs William Henry Long: A Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect Ewan MacColl: Scotland Sings Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger: Travellers’ Songs From England and Scotland John Morrish: The Folk Handbook Colm O Lochlainn: Irish Street Ballads John Ord: Bothy Songs and Ballads Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones James Reeves: The Everlasting Circle Steve Roud, Eddie Upton, Malcolm Taylor: Still Growing Steve Roud, Julia Bishop: New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl: The Singing Island
This song of history is a dramatic dialogue between Napoleon Bonaparte’s ailing son, the Duke of Reichstadt (1811-1832), and his widow, the Empress Mary Louise after Napoleon’s death. The son promises his mother that he will attack Britain and avenge his father’s defeat. His mother warns him that if he does attack Britain it will go badly for him (not least because the unity of the United Kingdom ‘has ne’er been broke’). He sickens and dies before he can do anything, saying that at least Britain will be haunted by the memory of Napoleon’s deeds. [Phil Edwards on the Tradsong mailing list]
Harry Cox of Catfield, Norfolk, sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in two BBC recordings, one made on 18 December 1945 (BBC 17230), the other recorded at the Windmill, Sutton, Norfolk, on 27 October 1947 (BBC 13865). One of these recordings was included in 1965 on Cox’s eponymous EFDSS album Harry Cox. The second BBC recording was included in 2000 on Cox’s Topic anthology The Bonny Labouring Boy and in 2012 on the Snatch’d From Oblivion CD East Anglia Sings. Steve Roud noted:
Another very popular song, noted frequently by the Edwardian collectors such as Sharp, Grainger, Gardiner, and Greig, and others since, across England and Scotland, but less often in Ireland. Several Canadian versions have also been noted, but only one or two in the USA. The song was equally popular on broadsides, and virtually all the major 19th century printers included it, the earliest known being Pitts and Catnach, which dates it to before 1830, but it cannot have been written before Napoleon I died in 1821. His son, François Charles Joseph, who features in the song, died in 1832. The widespread availability on broadsides presumably explains the textual stability of the song from version to version. Napoleon certainly caught the popular imagination, and The Bonny Bunch of Roses is simply the best known of numerous songs which feature him and his exploits. It is often stated that this one is of Irish origin, but with little evidence to support the idea. For a perceptive overview of Napoleon songs, see Vic Gammon, The Grand Conversation: Napoleon and British Popular Balladry, RSA Journal (September 1989).
Phil Tanner sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses on a BBC recording made on 22 April 1949 at Penmaen. It was included in 1968 on his eponymous EFDSS album, Phil Tanner, in 2003 on his Veteran anthology CD The Gower Nightingale, and in 2012 on the Topic anthology Good People, Take Warning (The Voice of the People Volume 23). Roy Palmer noted on the Veteran CD:
Napoleon died in 1821, still exiled on the distant South Atlantic island of St Helena. Among the many books which perpetuated his memory was Sir Walter Scott’s Life of 1827. In 1833 Napoleon’s statue was restored to the top of its column in Paris’s Place Vendome, and seven years later François, the son of King Louis-Philippe, was sent off in a warship to St Helena to bring Napoleon’s remains home. After a lavish funeral in December 1840 his body was consigned to an elaborate tomb in Les Invalides. His son, proclaimed Napoleon II in 1815 at the age of four, had died in 1832. His nephew, having seized power in 1851, had himself crowned as Napoleon III the following year, and reigned until 1870. All these events helped to keep ‘la legende napoleonienne’.
While Napoleon I was a threat to Britain, patriotic song writers and balladeers poured out defiant and derogatory broadsides such as these:
Though the world bow the neck to the Corsican Chief,
We Britons will ever resist hand and heart,
And die, e’er we’ll barter our English Roast Beef
For Soup Maigre, and Frogs, or a d_mn’d Bony-part!
(John Bull to his countrymen)Bonaparte, the bully, resolv’d to come over,
With flat-bottom’d wherries, from Calais to Dover;
No perils to him in the billows are found –
For if born to be hang’d he can never be drown’d.
(A New Song of Old Sayings)Napoleon’s disastrous defeat in Russia in 1813 received a rapturous welcomea:
O, Bonaparte, thou greatest scourge
That Europe’s nation ever saw!
Thy wicked reign seems nigh an end,
A reign that spurn’d at ev’ry law!
The waste of human life thou’st made,
The widows and the orphans too,
The mem’ry’s bloody stain shall stand,
A stain time cannot blot from view!(Chorus:)i
Now let us pray that soon we’ll see
Of meek-ey’d Peace the cheering ray,
And that the direful strife of war
May cease, till earth disolves away.
(Bonaparte’s Retreat from Moscow)In complete contrast, when Napoleon had ceased to be a danger, and even more when he was dead, the pathos of his epic fall inspired a series of street ballads with titles such as The Ashes of Napoleon, Dream of Napoleon, Grand Conversation on Napoleon, The Isle of St Helena, Napoleon’s Farewell and Young Napoleon or The Bunch of Roses. It is possible that the last of these was produced in 1832 on the news of the death of Napoleon’s son, François-Charles-Joseph Bonaparte, at the age of only twenty-one. (His mother—familiarly styled as Lucy in one English ballad—was Marie-Louise of Hapsburg–Lorraine, daughter of the German emperor, Francis II, who married Napoleon I in 1810).
One ballad printer, W.S. Fortey of London, gives the tune as The Bonny Bunch of Rushes. A rare version of this was noted in Dorset by Hammond in 1905. It should not be confused with the traditional song adapted by Robert Burns in the 1780s as:
Green grow the rashes (rushes), O,
Green grow the rashes, O;
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O.This, incidentally, was the tune prescribed for Bonaparte’s Retreat from Moscow.
Two far-fetched (and mutually contradictory) theories about The Bonny Bunch of Roses must be dismissed as groundless: the views of early collectors that it is “almost certainly an anti-Jacobite production, adapted to Napoleon” (Sabine Baring-Gould) and that “before the time of Napoleon the song had a Jacobite significance” (Anne Gilchrist).
Phil Tanner shares with many other singers the phrase, “dangers of the ocean”, in the first line of the song, which should surely be “margins of the ocean”. This in turn follows the wording adopted by many printers. Other recorded versions include Harry Cox on TSCD512D The Bonny Labouring Boy, and Cyril Poacher on TSCD658 A Story I’m Just About to Tell.
Louise Holmes of Dinedor, Herefordshire, sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses on 14 October 1952 in a BBC recording made by Peter Kennedy. This recording was included in the anthology A Soldier’s Life for Me (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 8; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970). The album’s booklet noted:
This imaginary conversation between Napoleon’s young son and his mother condenses history to such a degree that the result is somewhat confusing. Both Baring-Gould and Anne Gilchrist feel that the original model of this anti-Napoleonic song was an anti-Jacobite piece set to the tune of The Bonnie Bunch of Rushes. There is a ballad of that title describing an erotic encounter between a young man and a girl in a pleasant country setting.
Baring-Gould, Songs of the West.
Anne Gilchrist, The Journal of the Folk Song Society, 1906.
Laws, 131.
Bob Scarce sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses at The Ship in Blaxhall near Woodbridge, Suffolk, on 10 October 1953. This BBC recording made by Peter Kennedy was included in ca 2000 on the Helions Bumpstead Gramophone CD Songs From the Idiom of the People of Blaxhall (Voice of Suffolk Vol. 10) and in 2013 on the Alan Lomax Archive album Singing at The Ship Inn.
Hastings fisherman Noah Gillette sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses on 14 November 1954 to Bob Copper for the BBC. This recording was included in Bob Copper’s Book (1973) and Topic album (1977) of country singers from Hampshire and Sussex, Songs and Southern Breezes, and in 1998 on the Topic anthology You Never Heard So Sweet (The Voice of the People Volume 21). The latter album’s booklet noted:
Noah Gillett, born in September 1885, was yet another Hastings fisherman, and Bob Copper said that it was through Noah that he got to know some of the Old Town fishing fraternity. Noah was 69 years old and illiterate, and Bob felt that Noah’s singing of this fine Napoleonic ballad was a remarkable feat of memory. In Songs and Southern Breezes he writes: “Noah Gillette closed his eyes and started to sing The Bonny Bunch of Roses. His voice was clear and slightly wavering and had the elusive quality of natural, unaffected sweetness that lends to a song of this nature the final touch of authenticity. He remembered his grandmother singing it, although he actually learnt it from his parents.”
The song was written by George Brown, a broadside hack writer, in the mid-1830s.
A.L. Lloyd recorded The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1956 for his Riverside LP English Street Songs. This track was also included in 2008 on his Fellside compilation of English and Australian folk songs, Ten Thousand Miles Away. He noted on the original album:
This ballad was an extremely popular broadside in the earlier days of the 19th century all over England, Scotland and Ireland. Note the unmistakable air of sympathy for the downfall of the “bold Corsican.” Perhaps this ballad began its life in Ireland; be that as it may, it certainly was an important item in the repertoire of native English street singers, and the back-street audiences found nothing amiss in the singers’ attitude to the enemy of their country. Perhaps, like Beethoven, the English commoners had once regarded Napoleon as a possible liberator from oppression and misery, and were sad rather than angry when this turned out to be an error. Some say the bunch of roses symbolises England, Scotland and Ireland; others that it is a metaphor for the red-coated British Army.
Ewan MacColl sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1956 on his Riverside album Scots Street Songs and in 1972 on his Argo album Solo Flight. He noted on the first album:
The several ballads about Napoleon which are still sung in the British Isles have an air of grandiloquency not found in other broadside ballads. And all display a sympathy which indicates the regard in which Napoleon was held by the simple folk of Britain who viewed a possible liberator from misery. I learned this from the singing of Isabell Henry of Auchterarder. (For an interesting comparison, hear English Street Songs.)
Sam Larner of Winterton, Norfolk sang Bonny Bunch of Roses on 7 March 1958 to Philip Donnellan (BBC recording 26075). This recording was included in 1974 on Larner’s Topic album A Garland for Sam. Another recording of Sam Larner singing Bonny Bunch of Roses made by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in 1958-60 was included in 2014 on his Musical Traditions anthology Cruising Round Yarmouth. Rod Stradling noted:
Another big ballad (with 310 Roud entries), though obviously of fairly recent origin—i.e. after 1832, since it concerns Napoleon II, and mentions his death—though its central character is clearly his father Bonaparte.
Napoleon Bonaparte was unquestionably a hero—or potential liberator—to sections of the English working classes. This may be attributed to the social and economic conditions of the time; Combination Acts, Transportation, inhuman floggings, the Peterloo massacre… everything in fact that Shelley had in his sights when he wrote The Mask of Anarchy.
The times were extremely oppressive: ideals of freedom and democracy for the lower orders were anathema to the ruling class; and aspirations of liberty and equality had filtered down to the lower orders from a then undemocratised emergent bourgeoisie. Revolutions never happen in vacuums, and the conditions which gave rise to the French and American Revolutions, and indeed the abortive Irish one, were at work all over Europe. Also, the success of the first two was fed into the consciousness of oppressed peoples everywhere.
It is likely that many Napoleonic songs are Irish in origin, yet we now know that this one was written by an English broadside printer’s hack, George Brown, who also wrote The Grand Conversation…, and that Ireland has but 22 Roud entries compared with 108 for England. In this context it’s worth remembering that the working poor of both Ireland and England suffered very similar oppressions, for much the same reasons, from much the same people … and sometimes from exactly the same people!
If Napoleon provided the basis for many broadside ballads, none has survived so well as this supposed conversation between Marie Louise of Austria, Bonaparte’s second wife and her son Napoleon II (1811-1832). Following Bonaparte’s abdication in 1814, the Allies refused to recognise Napoleon II, who was left alone in Vienna. Like his father before him, the young Napoleon’s dreams of power were dashed—in his case, by an early death from tuberculosis.
The melody, basically the same as the one Cyril Poacher used to sing, derives from the Irish slow air, An Beinsín Luachra (The Little Bunch of Rushes), which is the tune George Brown suggested should be used.
Stan Steggles of Rattlesden sang a fragment of Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1958 to Desmond and Shelagh Herring. This recording was included on the 1993 Veteran cassette and 2009 Veteran CD of traditional music making from mid-Suffolk, Many a Good Horseman. John Howson noted:
Another 19th century broadside ballad that was published by all of the major broadside houses: the earliest dating from before 1830. While Napoleon was a threat to Britain, patriotic songwriters poured out defiant and derogatory broadsides, and on his disastrous 1813 defeat in Russia, a flood of street ballads appeared with titles like The Ashes of Napoleon, Grand Conversation With Napoleon, Napoleon’s Farewell and Young Napoleon or The Bonny Bunch of Roses. In East Anglia it was collected by Cecil Sharp in Ely from Robert Grimditch in 1911 and by George Butterworth in Wroxham from James Landamore in 1910. It was a popular song at the Blaxhall Ship in Suffolk and Cyril Poacher can heard singing it on TSCD658 A Story I’m Just About to Tell as can George Ling on VT154CD Good Hearted Fellows.
Bill Porter sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1965 at The Three Cups in Punnets Town. This recording by Brian Matthews was included in 2001 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs from Sussex country pubs, Just Another Saturday Night.
Fairport Convention recorded The Bonny Bunch of Roses for the first time in May 1970 at Gold Star Studios, Hollywood. This recording was not put on the original release of their album Full House but was included as a bonus track on the album’s 2001 CD reissue. It was also included in 1999 on their compilation Meet on the Ledge: The Classic Years (1967-1975) and in 2017 on their anthology Come All Ye: The First Ten Years. A BBC Radio “Folk on One” broadcast from 25 July 1970 was included in 2007 on Fairport’s 4 CD set Live at the BBC. Fairport’s best know version of this song is the title track of their first LP for the Vertigo label, the 1977 The Bonny Bunch of Roses. Another live version, from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia on 23 June 1977 was included in 2002 on their 4 CD Free Reed anthology Fairport UnConventional and in 2012 on their CD 4 Play.
Bob Davenport sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1971 on the Trailer album Bob Davenport and the Marsden Rattlers.
Nic Jones sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1971 on his eponymous second album, Nic Jones, just after the track Napoleon’s Lamentation. He noted:
The text of this ballad appears to have caused some confusion among folk-song enthusiasts, according to Frank Purslow in his note to the song (Marrow Bones, p. 103). He mentions James Reeves particularly as having commented on it. He goes on to say that the song is an imaginary conversation between Napoleon’s young son and Marie Louise, second wife of Napoleon. This idea makes the song much clearer. The son threatens to “raise a terrible army” and to assert his power. They talk of Napoleon’s Moscow campaign and Marie Louise warns her son that he’ll follow Napoleon to the grave. Then, in the last verse, the son states that he is dying. This last verse becomes plainer if we understand that the son died at twenty-one of a weakness in the chest aggravated by severe, self-imposed physical exercise.
The tune in Marrow Bones is a version of The Rose Tree, although I have used the more common tune, a variant of The Bonny Bunch of Roses.
People have suggested that “roses” is a corruption of “rushes”, but either way Cecil Sharp says, “Surely our country has never been called by a prettier name then the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
John Wesley Harding also sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1999 on his Nic Jones tribute album, Trad Arr Jones.
Bernard Wrigley sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1971 on his Topic album The Phenomenal B. Wrigley. A.L. Lloyd noted:
Some Irishmen hoped Napoleon would liberate them, and when he was brought down they made many songs tinged with regret. The Bonny Bunch is one of the best, and it spread widely among English singers to a number of tunes, some curly and elaborate, others plain like this one, collected by George Gardiner in Hampshire and printed in the compilation called Marrow Bones (E.F.D.S.S. 1965).
Tony Capstick sang Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1974 on his Rubber album Punch & Judy Man.
Fred Jordan of Aston Munslow, Shropshire, sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1974 to Tony Foxworthy. This recording was included in the same year on his Topic album When the Frost Is on the Pumpkin and in 2003 on his Veteran anthology A Shropshire Lad. Mike Yates noted:
No matter what the history books tell us about Napoleon Bonaparte’s envious eyeing of Britain, we know that the labouring classes saw him in a vastly different light; not as a tyrant, but as a possible liberator who would free them from the sufferings which were imposed upon them by the then current social and economic structures. Indeed, such was the enthusiasm for the man, that even today fiddlers in North America remember him with a tune, hopefully entitled, Bonaparte Crossing the Rockies. The present song records a supposed conversation between Marie Louise of Austria, Bonaparte’s second wife, and her son Napoleon II. Following Bonaparte’s abdication in 1814, the Allies refused to recognise the status of Napoleon II who became a virtual prisoner in Vienna. Like his father before him, the young Napoleon’s dreams of power were dashed, in this case by his early death from tuberculosis. At the end of the last century the Reverend Baring-Gould was able to record that the song’s popularity was such that a new public house in Wakefield had been so named. It is another song which Fred has picked up in recent years.
Cyril Poacher of Blaxhall, Sussex sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses at home in September 1974 to Tony Engle and Keith Summers. This recording was included in the following year on Poacher’s Topic album The Broomfield Wager, in 1998 on the Topic anthology A Story I’m Just About to Tell (The Voice of the People Volume 8), and in 1999 on his Musical Traditions anthology Plenty of Thyme. Mike Yates and Keith Summers noted on the first album:
History may have divided opinions about Napoleon Bonaparte. Not so the English labouring classes who saw him, not as a tyrant, but rather as a possible liberator who would improve their lot. Napoleon provided the basis for many broadside ballads, though none has survived so well as this supposed conversation between Marie Louise of Austria, Bonaparte’s second wife, and her son Napoleon II. Following Bonaparte’s abdication in 1814, the Allies refused to recognise Napoleon II who was left alone in Vienna. Like his father before him, the young Napoleon’s dreams of power were dashed, in his case by an early death from tuberculosis. It is another song that Cyril Poacher had from Bob Scarce.
George Ling sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1974 or 1975 to Keith Summers. This recording was included in 1977 on the Ling family’s Topic album, Singing Traditions of a Suffolk Family, and in 2005 on the Veteran anthology of traditional folk songs, music hall songs, and tunes from Suffolk collected by Keith Summers, Good Hearted Fellows. Mike Yates noted:
Terry Moylan author of The Age of Revolution in the Irish Song Tradition 1776 to 1815 (Dublin. 2000) calls this “the quintessential Irish ballad of Napoleon”, adding that; “it supposedly consists of a dialogue between Napoleon’s son, Napoleon II, and his mother, the Empress Marie Louise. Although very widespread, it is always found associated with the same Irish air, that of An Beinnsín Luachra. The words likewise have an Irish origin. In the 1860s in Tipperary it was reportedly a treasonable offence to be heard singing the song.”
The song was collected frequently in England and Scotland by Edwardian collectors such as Sharp, Grainger, Gardiner, Greig and others. Harry Cox (Topic TSCD512D) and Walter Pardon (Musical Traditions MTCD 305-6), both of Norfolk, knew the song, as did Cyril Poacher of Suffolk (Topic TSCD 658). Several Canadian versions have surfaced, though there are only one or two sets from the USA. Most, if not all, of the major broadside printers listed the song in their respective catalogues, the earliest being Pitts and Catnach, which dates it to before 1830. For an overview on a number of songs concerning Napoleon, see The Grand Conversation: Napoleon and British Popular Balladry, by Vic Gammon, RSA Journal (September 1989).
Walter Pardon learnt Bonny Bunch of Roses-O from his uncle Tom Gee. He sang it on 24 June 1978 to Mike Yates. This recording was included in 2000 on his posthumous Musical Traditions anthology, Put a Bit of Powder on It, Father. Rod Stradling and Mike Yates noted:
Walter learned this from Uncle Tom Gee—another big ballad, though obviously of fairly recent origin, i.e. after 1832, since it concerns Napoleon II, and mentions his death—though its central character is clearly his father Bonaparte.
Napoleon Bonaparte was unquestionably a hero—or potential liberator—to sections of the English working classes (we may presume that this attitude extended to oppressed classes throughout Europe). This may be attributed to the social and economic conditions of the time; Combination Acts, Transportation, inhuman floggings, the Peterloo massacre … everything in fact that Shelley had in his sights when he wrote The Mask of Anarchy.
The times were extremely oppressive: ideals of freedom and democracy for the lower orders were anathema to the ruling class; and aspirations of liberty and equality had filtered down to the lower orders from a then undemocratised emergent bourgeoisie. Revolutions never happen in vacuums, and the conditions which gave rise to the French and American Revolutions, and indeed the abortive Irish one, were at work all over Europe. Also, the success of the first two was fed into the consciousness of oppressed peoples everywhere. The French Revolution had acted as a beacon to the contemporary English working class in just the same way that the Russian Revolution mobilised left wing labour a century or so later. Thus, Napoleon was viewed as the emblem of liberty and the saviour of the working classes in the same way as Lenin and Stalin eventually were.
It is likely that many Napoleonic songs are Irish in origin, yet it would seem that they had a common currency throughout these islands. For instance, Robert Cinnamond’s Napoleon Bonaparte was learnt by him from someone who’d picked it up in England. Henry Burstow’s repertoire included seven Napoleonic songs and Holloway & Black in Later English Broadside Ballads list about a dozen, all from English printers. In this context it’s worth remembering that the working poor of both Ireland and England suffered very similar oppressions, for much the same reasons, from much the same people … and sometimes from exactly the same people! Whatever the case, it’s interesting to note that of the literally dozens of Napoleon ballads printed in England at the time (mostly jingoistically opposed to ‘The Little Corsican’), almost all those remaining in the country singers’ repertoires a century later were either ambivalent or actually pro-Bonaparte.
If Napoleon provided the basis for many broadside ballads, none has survived so well as this supposed conversation between Marie Louise of Austria, Bonaparte’s second wife and her son Napoleon II (1811-1832). Following Bonaparte’s abdication in 1814, the Allies refused to recognise Napoleon II who was left alone in Vienna. Like his father before him, the young Napoleon’s dreams of power were dashed—in his case, by an early death from tuberculosis.
The ‘Bonny Bunch of Roses’ refers to the Act of Union, passed in 1800 and enacted in 1801, and was seen by the Irish as a reaction to Napoleon’s intervention in Ireland on behalf of the United Irishmen. Hence, Irish singers tend to sing “The deeds of bold Napoleon will enshrine the bonny bunch…” The point being that Napoleon’s attempts at liberation ended up having the opposite effect of that which was intended. That point was naturally lost on English singers (like Harry Cox and Phil Tanner) who took the Bonny Bunch to simply mean the three nations, and tended to sing ‘sting’ instead.
The melody, basically the same as the one Cox, Tanner and Poacher used to sing, derives from the Irish slow air, An Beinsín Luachra (The Little Bunch of Rushes). Curiously enough, the text seems to be derived from an English language translation of this song, a version of which was published by Donal O’Sullivan in Songs of the Irish. A text of The Bonny Bunch of Roses, printed by Haly of Cork and republished in Zimmermann Songs of Irish Rebellion has “the bonny bunch of loughero” (corruption of luachra—rushes). It also has the opening line “By the Danube as I wandered” (Danube becomes ‘Dangers’ perhaps?). The text is undated, but Zimmermann estimates it to be circa 1830.
Cyril Poacher sings a splendidly terse version on Plenty of Thyme. (MT CD 303). Walter uses an almost identical text, but has included elements of Black-Eyed Susan into the first and third lines of his tune.
Strawhead sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses and Grand Conversation on Napoleon in 1977 on their Traditional Sound album Farewell Musket, Pipe & Drum. They noted:
Two Anglo-Irish songs reflecting the affection felt for Napoleon among the poor and the Celtic fringe, who reasoned that virtually any change in the established order must be for the better. Napoleon certainly seems to have possessed the charisma for inspiring the masses and his passing naturally gave rise to this mode of comment. “The Bonny Bunch of Roses” referred to in both songs was the union of England, Ireland and Scotland; a title which shows scant regard for the shamrock and the thistle.
Words: widely printed as a street ballad, notably by Harkness sheet 106, (1842)
Tune: Irish Street Ballads, compiled by Colm O Lochlainn, Corinth Books
Charlotte Renals sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses to Pete Coe in 1978. This recording was included in 2003 on the extended CD reissue of her family’s Veteran album of songs from Cornish Travellers, Catch Me If You Can. Mike Yates noted:
The French Wars, 1793 to 1815, affected British life in many ways. The spectre of Napoleon Bonaparte, liberator or tyrant (depending on one’s viewpoint) fell across all classes of society and spawned many songs and ballads. The Bonny Bunch of Roses, one such song, is almost certainly of Irish origin, although it has remained highly popular outside Ireland. It is based on a supposed conversation between Marie Louise of Austria, Bonaparte’s second wife, and her son Napoleon II, and refers to the 1800 Act of Union. According to historian Vic Gammon, “The song certainly is cast in the form of a warning against ambition but it is not a celebration of English military prowess.” Charlotte, in common with most other English singers, sings the song to the Irish tune An Beinsin Luachra, which means The Little Bunch of Rushes.
Shirley and Dolly Collins sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses at the Sidmouth Folk Festival 1979. This track was included in 2006 on their compilation of demo and live recordings, Snapshots.
Crows sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses on their 1986 album No Bones or Grease. They noted:
The Bonny Bunch of Roses presents a conversation between Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise, and their son. Our version is substantially the one printed by Frank Purslow in Marrow Bones and was collected by Gardiner in Hampshire in 1906. Mick first heard it sung by Ted Poole of Swindon, and it goes to the tune, unusual for this song, of The Rose Tree.
Martin Simpson played the tune of The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1991 on his Shanachie CD When I Was on Horseback.
Louis Killen learned The Bonny Bunch of Roses from Joe Heaney and sang it as the title track of his 1993 CD A Bonny Bunch. He noted:
Heroes serve as an inspiration to the rest of their community, be it region, country or ideals. In recounting their exploits, as in the previous song, they grow to mythic proportions. These last three songs also fall into this category. General Wolfe (Bert Lloyd) for the man who died capturing the city of Quebec; The Death of Nelson (Bert Lloyd) for England’s greatest Admiral; and The Bonny Bunch of Roses (Joe Heaney) for the man who raised the hopes of Jacobins throughout Europe, and left his mark upon us all—Napoleon Bonaparte.
Barry Dransfield sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 1994 on his CD Be Your Own Man. He noted:
The most sung folksong in Britain and Ireland. I had given up hope of singing it until after a couple of years doing it with the fiddle in pub sessions I found myself trying it with the Appalachian dulcimer. It is my absolute love for this instrument that encouraged me to try this classic. The title refers to the crowned heads of Europe and the song is an imaginary conversation between Napoleon’s son “Little Eagle” and his mother Maria of Austria.
Graham and Eileen Pratt sang Bonny Bunch of Roses on their 1997 album Borders of the Ocean. They noted:
Not all nations were as jubilant as the English over the passing of Napoleon. This haunting variant came from a book called The Ballad of America.
Frank Harte sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 2001 on his album My Name Is Napoleon Bonaparte.
Terry Yarnell sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 2001 on his Tradition Bearers CD A Bonny Bunch. He noted:
The pro-Napoleonic sympathies of many of the working people of these islands, is made fairly obvious when the number of songs referring to him in the tradition is considered. How many songs have been collected concerning Wellington for example? The title of the song in this case is symbolic of England, Ireland and Scotland, although in some other Napoleonic songs, the term refers to the Redcoats. This is an English version, although the song is probably Irish in origin, and is a conversation between Napoleon’s only son, and his mother, the Empress Marie-Louise.
Bob Copper sang an English version of The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O and Martyn Wyndham-Read sang an Australian variant of The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O in 2003 on the Fellside anthology celebrating English traditional songs and their Australian variants, Songlinks. The albums booklet commented:
This is a song which seems to be very often sung to some version of the same fine tune. A.L. Lloyd observes that in the earlier part of the nineteenth century it was popular all over the British Isles. Curiously, in the English tradition Napoleon crops up numerous times, but the victor of the Battle of Waterloo almost never. The Sussex singer, Henry Burstow had several Napoleonic songs in his repertoire. Lloyd also notes that it shows considerable sympathy for Napoleon, and suggests that it may have begun life in Ireland. But most texts, even some Irish texts, suggest that the unity of England, Scotland and Ireland has never been broken, or never will be broken. Perhaps it is, after all, originally an English song, patriotic in its way, but remembering a time when the French Revolution was thought of by many English and Scots to perhaps leading the way to a revolution in the British Isles. Some believe the “bonny bunch of roses” is the British Army (a reference to their red coat uniform); other people disagree.
Bob Copper says that he learnt the song from a neighbour, Noah Gillette, when Gillette was nearly seventy, and that Gillette had learnt the song from his blind grandmother: “it can be said, then, that this is a genuine example of those rare songs that have come down to us purely by the oral tradition.”
[The Australian] version of the song was recorded from the singing of Mrs Catherine Peatey by Bob Mitchell and Norm O’Connor in 1959. Martyn Wyndham-Read learnt the song from a transcription of the song printed in the now defunct folk song journal, Tradition. Mrs Peatey grew up in farming country in southern Victoria, and learnt many of her songs from her father. She was born into a family named Braun, and it is obvious that this family, of German origin, had become thoroughly Australianised.
Brian Peters sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O in 2003 on his CD Different Tongues. He noted:
The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O is based on the version recorded in 1974 from the redoubtable Cyril Poacher, a major figure in the legendary singing sessions at the Ship Inn, Blaxhall, Suffolk Songs celebrating Napoleon abound in the English tradition and are sometimes said to be an indication of popular sympathy for revolutionary France, but The Bonny Bunch (in which the conversant is the short-lived Bonaparte Jr., not the diminutive megalomaniac himself) stresses Napoleon’s ultimate failure and could hardly be described as subversive. Mr. Poacher scattered his songs with lyrical idiosyncrasies: I’ve retained his “bones lie smouldering”, but felt that his “converted by young Bonaparte” in the last line of verse 1 suggested some kind of filial evangelism that wouldn’t assist the listener’s comprehension.
Danny Stradling sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses for a recording of songs sung at the Golden Fleece in Stroud in the early 2000s. It was published in 2005 on the Musical Traditions anthology Songs From the Golden Fleece. She noted:
Norma Waterson gave me the bones of this song. It was collected by Bob Davenport in Suffolk in the 1960s, thouigh he does not remember from whom—perhaps somebody out there knows? I put what I had together with words from other versons of this most widespread of Napoleon ballads. I note that the other tunes are normally majestic and dignified, and perhaps that is why I find this one irresistable—being, like me, neither.
Most of the songs I sing I have learned from the ‘source’, at least in essence. This is a rare instance where this is not the case.
Barry Lister sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 2006 on his WildGoose CD Ghosts & Greasepaint. He noted:
I learned this for Folk South West’s production of As I Walked Out to celebrate Cecil Sharp’s centenary of collecting his first folk song in Hambridge, Somerset. To sing this in the village and meet some of the descendants of the source singers was very moving.
Mary Humphreys sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O! in 2009 on English Rebellion’s WildGoose CD Four Across. Nick Barber noted:
The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O! was found by Mary Humphreys in Marrow Bones, a collection of songs edited by Frank Purslow and published by the EFDSS in 1965. It uses the Bampton Morris tune The Rose Tree. The song is in the G. Gardiner collection, the source being Chas Windebank of Lyndhurst, Hampshire [VWML GG/1/8/440] .
Duck Soup sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 2010 on their Hebe album Open on Sundays. Nick Barber noted:
Danny Stradling got the first verse of The Bonny Bunch of Roses from Norma Waterson and concocted the rest; thanks, Danny. We reckon this has the feel of a B-movie version of a classic film, probably directed by Ed Wood.
Jon Boden learnt The Bonny Bunch of Roses from Barry Dransfield’s CD and sang it as the 5 May 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He also sang it in 2024 on his Hudson album with the Remnant Kings, Parlour Ballads. This video shows Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings singing Hounds of Love (by Kate Bush) and Bonny Bunch of Roses at Cheltenham Folk Festival on 11 February 2011:
June Tabor and Oysterband sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 2011 on their Topic album Ragged Kingdom. This song won the “Best Traditional Track” award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2012.
Tom and Barbara Brown sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses O in 2014 on their WildGoose CD Just Another Day, which comprises songs collected by Cecil Sharp from Captains Lewis and Vickery in Minehead, Somerset, between August 1904 and May 1909. They noted:
A song from the aftermath of another of Britain’s wars. This dialogue between Bonaparte’s son and the boy’s mother was a very widespread and popular song of its time. By the bicentennial year of the battle of Waterloo, the Scottish populace may yet have achieved what Boney failed to do, and struck a fatal blow to the Bonny Bunch of Roses—the Union! This version is from Robert Lewis.
Pete Coe and Alice Jones sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses O in 2014 on their album of songs collected by Frank Kidson, The Search for Five Finger Frank. They noted:
(Roud 664, Folk Song Society Journal 9)
The tune is from Charles Lolley and the lyrics from Frank Kidson’s broadside collection. In New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs Steve Roud notes that the song was written by George Brown, “a prolific songwriter for the London broadside trade”.
Sam Lee learnt The Bonny Bunch of Roses from Freda Black and sang it in 2015 on his CD The Fade in Time.
Hannah Sanders sang Bonny Bunch of Roses in 2015 on her CD Charms Against Sorrow.
Andy Turner learnt The Bonny Bunch of Roses from Frank Purslow’s book and from Noah Gillette’s singing, and sang it as the 26 June 2015 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.
Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses in 2016 on their Fellside album Night Hours. They noted:
Versions of this very well travelled ballad were collected from, among others, Harry Cox in 1945 and from Sam Larner in 1958, both from our native Norfolk. The song imagines a conversation between Napoleon Bonaparte’s young son, and Napoleon I’s second wife. Marie Louise is warning her son against emulating his father and chasing glory in war. Many singers see the bonny bunch of roses as symbolising England, Scotland and Ireland or as a metaphor for the red-coated British Army. We’ve always thought they represent the spoils of war and that the young Napoleon’s mother fears he will seek to capture them at his peril.
Cooper and Toller sang The Bonny Bunch of Roses on their 2023 album A Number of Work. They noted:
Roud 664. Napoleon Bonaparte was a popular hero in 19th century English folk song, perhaps because the oppressed English working classes saw a Napoleonic victory as a sure-fire route to the sunlit uplands of health, happiness and economic prosperity. The song’s words were written by broadside ballad author George Brown. Brown worked in Seven Dials in London, a rough slum area which was a centre for broadside printing. Some authors unable to make a living from their loftier literary endeavours were forced to write broadsides to sell to printers for a shilling each. J.&R.M. Wood’s Typographic Advertiser of 1863 describes the broadside authors thus: “characteristically drunken bards who had to be locked in a room to elicit sober work from them, and who got round their masters by supping strong drink from a straw through the keyhole.” This song is a conversation between Napoleon’s ailing son François and his mother, Napoleon’s second wife Marie Louise. It’s a lamentation on living life in the shadow of the reputation of a high-achieving father. The tune comes largely from the New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, where the source is Percy Grainger’s 1906 transcription of George Wray from Brigg, Lincolnshire.
Lyrics
Harry Cox sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the dangers of the ocean, one morning in the month of June,
The feathered warbling songsters their charming notes so sweet did tune.
There I espied a female, a-seeming in grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonaparte concerning the bonny bunch of roses-o.
Then up spoke bold Napoleon as he took his mother by the hand,
“Now, mother, pray have patience until I’m able to command.
I will raise a terrible army and through tremendous dangers go;
In spite of all the universe, I will gain the bonny bunch of roses-o.
“Now when you saw great Bonaparte you fell upon your bending knee.
You begged your father’s life of him; He granted it right manfully.
’Twas then he took an army and o’er the frozen realms did go.
He said, ‘I’ll conquer Moscow, then go my bonny bunch of roses-o.’
“He took three hundred thousand men likewise kings to join his throng.
He was so well provided enough to sweep the world along,
And when he came near Moscow nearly overpowered by driven snow
All Moscow was a-blazing; then he lost his bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“Now son, thou speaks so vengesome, Old England is the hearts of oak.
England, Ireland and Scotland their unity has ne’er been broke.
Now son, look at your father in St. Helens; his body now lays low,
And you’ll soon follow after, so beware of the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“O mother, adieu for ever, now I am on my dying bed.
If I’d lived, I should have been clever, now I droop down my youthful head.
And while our bones do moulder and the weeping willows o’er us grow,
Brave deeds of bold Napoleon will sting the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
Phil Tanner sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the dangers of the ocean, one morning in the month of June,
The feathered warbling songster their charming notes so sweet did tune,
There I espied a female, seemingly in grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonaparte, concerning the bonny bunch of roses O.
Concerning the bonny bunch of roses O.
When first you saw great Bonaparte, you fell upon your bended knees,
And asked your father’s life of him, he granted it most manfully.
‘Twas then he took an army, and o’er the frozen realms did go.
He said, “I’ll conquer Moscow, then go to the bonny bunch of roses O.
Then go to the bonny bunch of roses O.”
“Oh son thy speaks so vengesome, for England is the heart of oak.
England, Ireland and Scotland, their unity can never be broke.
And son, think of your father, in St Helena his body lies low.
And you may follow after, so beware of the bonny bunch of roses O.
So beware of the bonny bunch of roses O.”
He took five hundred thousand men, and likewise kings to join his throng,
He was so well provided, enough to sweep this world along,
But when he came near Moscow, near overpowered by driven snow.
All Moscow was a-blazing, then he left the bonny bunch of roses O.
He left the bonny bunch of roses O.
“Oh mother adieu forever, now I am on my dying bed.
If I’d have lived I should have been clever, but now I droop my youthful head.
And while our bones doth moulder, and the weeping willow o’ver us grow,
The deeds of bold Napoleon will sting the bonny bunch of roses O.
Will sting the bonny bunch of roses O.”
Louise Holmes sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the margins of the ocean
one morning in the month of June
When the feathered warbling songsters
their charming notes so sweet did tune
There I espied a female
who seemed in grief and woe
Conversing with young Napoleon Buonaparte
concerning the bonny bunch of roses O
O then, said young Napoleon
as he grasped his mother by the hand
O, mother, do have patience
till I’m able to command
I will raise a terrible army
and through tremendous dangers go
And in spite of all the universe
I will gain the bonny bunch of roses O
Now when you saw great Buonieparte
you fell upon your bended knee
And begged your father’s life of him
he granted it right manfully
It was then he raised an army
and o’er the frozen Alps did go
He said I’ll conquer Moscow
then go and buy a bonny bunch of roses O
He took three hundred thousand men
and kings to join his throng
He was so well provided
he’d enough to sweep the world along
But when he came to Moscow
over-powered by driven snow
Moscow was a-blazing
and he lost the bonny bunch of roses O
Now son, ne’er speak so venturesome
old England is the heart of oak
England, Ireland and Scotland
their unity has ne’er been broke
Now, son, look at your father
in St. Helen’s his body now lays low
And you’ll soon follow after
so beware of the bonny bunch of roses O
O mother, adieu for ever
now I am on my dying bed
If I’d lived I should have been clever
but now I’ve dropped my youthful head
And while our bones do moulder
and weeping willows o’er us grow
The deeds of bold Napoleon
will sting the bonny bunch of roses O
Noah Gillette sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the dangers of the ocean, one morning in the month of June,
A famous warbling songster there chimed a note sound sweetly tuned.
There I espied a female seemly in grief and woe,
And conversing with young Bonyparte concerning the bonny bunch of roses-o.
O, then said young Napoleon, as he shook his mother by the hand,
“Do, mother, pray have patience until I am able to command.
I’ll raise a terrible army and through tremendous danger go
And, in spite of all of the universe, I’ll conquer the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
It was then he took an army and over the frozen Alps did go,
And he says, “I’ll conquer Moscow, then go for the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“For he took three hundred thousand men, and likewise kings for to join his throne.
For he was so well provided, he’d enough to sweep the world around.
But when he came near Moscow he was overpowered by drifting snow,
And all Moscow was a-blazing when he lost all the bonny bunch of roses-o.“
“Oh, son, thou speak so venturesome, for England is the hearts of oak.
There is England, Ireland, and Scotland, their unity has never been broke.
And, son, look at your father, for in St Helena, his body lies low,
And you may follow after, so beware of the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“Oh, mother, lay for ever now I am on my dying bed.
If I’d lived I should have been clever, but now I droop my youthful head.”
“But while your bones do moulder and the weeping willow o’er you grow,
For the deeds of bold Napoleon will never conquer the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
Sam Larner sings Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the dangers of the ocean
one morning in the month of June
When the sweetest warbsters
oh their charming notes did sing.
There I beheld a female
full of sorrow, grief and woe
Conversing with young Bonaparte
concerning the bonny bunch of roses-o
“Now I’ll raise a terrible army
and through tremendous dangers go
And in spite of all the universe
I’ll win the bonny bunch of roses-o
And throughout all the universe
I’ll win the bonny bunch of roses-o”
“Now, Son, don’t talk so venturous
For England is the heart of oak,
its unity shall ne’er be broke
For there’s England, Ireland, Scotland,
their unity shall ne’er be broke.
“Son, look at your father
in St Helena his body lay low
And soon you’ll follow after
So beware of the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
Now he took ten hundred thousand men,
likewise dukes to join his throng
He was so well provided
he’d enough to sweep the world along.
And when he came near Moscow
overwhelmed by driven snow
And all Moscow was a-blazing
and he lost the bonny bunch of roses-o.
Stan Steggles sings Bonny Bunch of Roses
??? was Napoleon.
A name was feared (and line boy O?).
He said, “I’ll raise an army and through tremendous danger go.
In spite of all the unity I’ll sting the bonny bunch of roses O”
He raised a terrible army, six hundred thousand strong.
He was so well provided. He’d enough to sweep the world along.
He took some squires and princesses to swell that mighty throng.
On the road to march to Russia to conquer and as bold he go.
When he came in sight of Moscow, nearly over powered by the driven snow.
All of Moscow laid in blazing so he lost his bonny bunch of roses O.
Nic Jones sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the margin of the ocean,
one pleasant evening in the month of June,
The pleasant-singing blackbird
his charming notes did tune.
Was there I spied a woman
all in great grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonaparte
concerning the bonny bunch of roses-o.
And then up and spoke the young Napoleon
and he took hold of his mother’s hand,
“Oh mother dear, be patient
and soon I will take command.
I’ll raise a terrible army
and through tremendous danger go.
And in spite of all of the universe
I’ll conquer the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“And when first you saw the Great Napoleon,
you fell down on your bended knee
And you asked your father’s life of him
and he’s granted it most manfully.”
’Twas then he took an army
and o’er the frozen alps did go;
And he said, “I’ll conquer Moscow
and come back for the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“And so he’s took three hundred thousand fighting men,
and kings likewise for to join his throng.
He was as well provided for
enough to take the whole world alone.
But when he came to Moscow
all o’erpowered by driving snow
And Moscow was a-blazing,
he lost the bonny bunch of roses-o.“
“Oh my son, don’t speak so venturesome,
for England she has a heart of oak,
And England, and Ireland, and Scotland,
their unity has never been broke.
And so my son, think on, your father
in St Helena, his body it lies low,
And you will follow after,
beware of the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“And it’s goodbye to my mother forever,
for I am on my dying bed.
Had I lived I might have been clever,
but now I bow my youthful head.
And while our bodies do moulder
and weeping willows over us do grow,
The deeds of brave Napoleon
will sting the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
(repeat first verse)
Fred Jordan sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
Against the margin of the ocean,
one summer’s evening in the month of June,
When all those small bird songsters
their melodies so sweetly tuned,
It was there I saw a fair maiden
and on her face all was grief and woe,
Conversing with young Napoleon
concerning the bonnie bunch of roses-o.
Then up spoke young Napoleon
and he took his mother by the hand,
“Have patience, dearest mother
until I’m able to take command.
And I’ll rise a mighty army
and through tremendous danger go.
And in spite of all the universe
I’ll conquer the bonnie bunch of roses-o.”
“O, son, be not too venturesome,
for the English they are hearts of oak,
And England, Ireland, Scotland,
oh their unity has never been broke.
Remember your father in Saint Helena
where his body lies now mouldering low,
Oh he swore he’d conquer Europe
and return with the bonnie bunch of roses-o.”
“When you first saw Napoleon,
you knelt down before him on your bended knee
And the requests of your father
oh he granted them quite readily.
’And he raised a mighty army
and o’er the frozen Alps did go;
But when he came to Moscow
he lost the bonnie bunch of roses-o.
“He took three hundred thousand men,
kings and princes for to bear his train.
He was so well provided for
enough to sweep the world for gain.
But when he came to Moscow
he was overcome by the frost and snow
And with Moscow all a-blazing,
he lost the bonnie bunch of roses-o.
“Adieu then, dearest mother,
for now I lie on my dying bed.
But I had lived that Bonaparte,
the fate of Europe I did change,” he said.
“But when my bones lie mouldering
and all them weeping willows grow,
Oh the name of young Napoleon
shall enshrine the bonnie bunch of roses-o.”
Cyril Poacher sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
In the dangers of the ocean
All in the middle of the month of June,
Our feathering ones do falter
See him lie in grief and woe
Converted by young Bonaparte
Concerned in the bonny bunch o’ roses-o.
“How, now?” said young Napoleon,
As he clasped his mother by the hand.
“Oh, Mother, do have patience.
Whilst I’ve got life 1 will give command.”
“I will raise a terrible army;
Through tremendous dangers go,
And, in spite of all of that unity,
I’ll gain the bonny bunch o’ roses-o.”
He took five thousand men;
Likewise horses to ride thereon,
He was so well provided,
He was enough to sweep this world along.
And when he came near Moscow
He was overpowered by the driven snow,
And Moscow was a-blazing
We lost the bonny bunch o’ roses-o.
“O Son, look at your father.
In St. Helena his body lays low,
And you must follow after.
Be aware of the bonny bunch o’ roses-o!”
“Oh, Mother, adieu for ever,
As I lay on my dying bed.
If I’d a-lived I might have been clever
And now I have lost my youthful head.”
“And when my bones lay smouldering
Weeping willows o’er me grow
In the deeds of old Napoleon
We will sink that bonny bunch o’ roses-o.”
George Ling sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the margin of the ocean,
one morning, was in the month of June,
How the feathered freckling songsters,
their tunes did gaily sing.
And was there I spied a female,
standing there in grief and woe,
Conversing with young Boneyparte
concerning the bonny bunch of roses-o.
Then up stepped bold Napoleon
and he took his mother by the hand,
Saying “Mother, dear, have patience
until I am able to take command.”
So he got five hundred thousand men
and likewise kings to take the strain,
And he was so well provided for
that could sweep the world and gain.
But when he came to Moscow,
he was overpowered by the frost and snow,
And Moscow was a-blazing,
so he lost the bonny bunch of roses-o.
Now, son, locate your father,
in St Helena his body lay low.
And you must follow after,
but beware of the bonny bunch of roses-o.
And as our bones lay smouldering,
and weeping willows over us grow.
For the deeds of bold Napoleon
that sting the bonny bunch of roses-o.
Walter Pardon sings Bonny Bunch of Roses-O
The dangers of the ocean,
one morning in the month of June
The feathery warbling songsters
their charming notes so sweet did tune
There I espied a female,
seemingly in grief and woe
Conversing with Young Bonaparte,
concerning the bonny bunch of roses-O
Then up steps young Napoleon
and takes his mother by the hand
“O Mother, pray have patience
until I’m able to take command.
I’ll raise a terrible army
and through tremendous dangers go
In spite of all the universe
I’ll gain the bonny bunch of roses-O”
”Now son, don’t speak so venturesome,
old England is the heart of oak
England, Ireland and Scotland -
their unity never has been broke
Now Son, look at your Father
on Saint Helena his body lies low
Soon you may follow after,
so beware of the bonny bunch of roses-O
“The first time you saw great Bonaparte
you went down on your bended knee
And asked your father’s life of him –
which he did grant most manfully
He said ’I’ll take an army
and over the frozen Alps we’ll go
Then I will conquer Moscow
and return to the bonny bunch of roses-O”
He took five hundred thousand men
likewise kings to join his throng
He was so well provided
enough to sweep this world along
But when they came near Moscow
they were overtaken by driven snow
All Moscow was a-blazing
so they lost the bonny bunch of roses-O
“O Mother, adieu for ever
now I’m on my dying bed
If I had lived I should a-been clever
but now I must drop my youthful head
And as my bones do moulder
the weeping willow o’er me grow
The deeds of bold Napoleon
shall sting the bonny bunch of roses-O”
Charlotte Renals sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
One morning on the middle ocean,
in the merry month of June;
I heard a damsel talking,
her sorrows it was grief and woe.
She was consulting with young Bonyparte,
saying beware of the bonny bunch of rosies o.
Now when we got into Moscow,
our army was covered in drifts and snow;
And Moscow was a-blazing,
so we turned back broken hearted,
We had lost to the bonny bunch of rosies o.
Up stepped the son to his mother,
he catched her all by the lily white hand;
Saying Mother dear have patience,
you’ll wait until I do grow a man.
I will gain you a terrible army,
of fifteen hundred thousand men;
And kings and princes shall join me,
I will gain you the bonny bunch of rosies o.
My son don’t you talk so venturesly,
for England is the heart of oak;
There is England, Ireland and Scotland,
their thrones they never have been broke.
And Bonyparte was your father,
in St Helena his body lies low;
You may soon follow after him,
so beware of the bonny bunch of rosies o.
Now when I am dead and buried,
and the weeping willow growing over my head;
And the song of the throne shall be singed,
beware of the bonny bunch of rosies o.
Barry Dransfield sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the margin of the ocean,
one pleasant evening in the month of June,
The sweet pleasant songsters
their liquid notes did sing in tune.
It was there I spied a female
seemingly in grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonaparte
concerning the bonny bunch of roses-o
“Oh mother,” cried young Napoleon
as he gripped her by the hand,
“Oh mother please be patient
until I’m able to command.
I’ll raise a mighty army
and over the frozen waste I’ll go,
And in spite of all of the universe
I’ll bring back the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“Oh son don’t be so venturesome,
Old England she has a heart of oak,
And England, Ireland, and Scotland,
their unity can ne’er be broke.
Oh son think of your father,
on St Helena his body lies low,
And you may follow after,
so forget about the bonny bunch of roses-o.
“For he took three hundred thousand men,
likewise some kings to join his throng.
He was so well provided,
enough to drive the world along.
But when he came to Moscow
he was overpowered by the driving snow
And Moscow was a-blazing,
and they lost the bonny bunch of roses-o.“
“Oh mother, adieu for ever now,
for now I’m on my dying bed.
If I’d lived I might have been clever,
but now I droop my youthful head.
And when my bones do moulder
and weeping willows round me do grow,
The deeds of old Napoleon
will sting the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
Graham and Eileen Pratt sing Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the borders of the ocean, one morning in the month of June,
The finely feathered songsters their charming notes did sweetly tune.
There I overheard a female, all overcome with grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonaparte about the bonny bunch of roses-o.
Then up spoke young Napoleon and takes his mother by the hand;
“Oh, mother dear, have patience ‘til I am able to command.
I’ll raise a dreadful army and through tremendous dangers go;
And I never shall return again till I’ve conquered the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“Oh son don’t be so venturesome for England has a heart of oak;
And England, Ireland, Scotland—their unity may never be broke.
Remember your great father, in St Helena he lies low;
And he never shall return again, beware the bonny bunch of roses-o.
“When first you saw brave Bonaparte you fell down on your bended knee;
You asked your father’s blessing, he granted it most manfully.
Dear son, says he, I’ll take an army and o’er the frozen Alps I’ll go;
And I will conquer Moscow and return for the bonny bunch of roses-o.
“Your father raised great armies and likewise kings to bear his train.
He was so well provided, he could sweep the whole world for his gain.
Ah but when he came to Moscow, nigh overpowered by driving snow,
Moscow was a-blazing and he lost the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“Oh do believe me mother, for I’m upon my dying bed.
If I’d’ve lived I’d’ve been so brave, but now I droop my youthful head.
Ah and while our bones lie mouldering and weeping willows o’er us grow,
The fame of great Napoleon shall shame the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
Danny Stradling sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the margin of the ocean
one morning in the month of June,
When the feathered warbling songsters
do change their note, and they change their tune,
I overheard a female
complain with bitter tears of woe,
Conversing with Napoleon Bonaparte
concerning the Bonny Bunch of Roses-o.
Then up spoke young Napoleon,
and he took his mother by the hand,
“Oh, mother dear have patience,
I’ll face the world and make my stand,
And I’ll raise a mighty army,
and through pain and peril I will go,
And a branch I’ll break for your sweet sake,
a branch of the Bonny Bunch of Roses-o.”
Then sadly sighed his mother,
as true as toughest hearts of oak,
“The stem that bears the rose is
not easy bent, nor easy broke.
Your famous father tried it,
and now in France his head lies low,
For the sharpest thorn that was ever borne,
is borne by the Bonny Bunch of Roses-o.”
For he took three hundred thousand men,
and kings alike to join his throng,
And with pipes and banners flying,
enough to sweep the world along.
But when he come to Moscow
they was overcome with sleet and snow,
And with Moscow burning to the ground no gain he found,
but lost the Bonny Bunch of Roses-o.”
“Oh mother, dearest mother,
as I lie upon my dying bed,
And, like my noble father,
I now must hang my humble head.
There is none alive can take the rose,
that rose so red and full of woe.”
And with bleeding heart and bleeding hand, he left the land,
The land where the Bonny Bunch of Roses grows.
Bob Copper sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the margins of the ocean, one morning in the month of June,
Those feathered warbling songsters their notes they chimed out sweetly in tune.
I overheard a female seemingly in grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonyparte concerning the bonny bunch of roses-o.
Then up spake young Napoleon, as he took his mother by the hand,
“Dear mother, pray have patience until I’m able to command.
I’ll take a terrible army and through tremendous danger go.
And in spite of all of the universe I’ll conquer the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“Oh son, don’t speak so venturesome, for England is the hearts of oak.
There’s England, Ireland, and Scotland, their unity shall never be broke.
And, son, think of father, in St Helena, his body lies low,
And you might follow after, so beware of the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
He took three hundred thousand men, and likewise kings for to serve his throne.
He was so well provided, he’d enough to sweep the whole world alone.
But when he came to Moscow he was overpowered by drifting snow,
And Moscow was all a-blazing when he lost the bonny bunch of roses-o.
“Adieu sweet mother forever for I am on my dying bed.
If I’d lived I would’ve been clever but now I droop my weary head.”
“And when our bones do moulder and the weeping willow over us do grow,
Oh the deeds of young Napoleon will never conquer the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
Martyn Wyndham-Read sings The Bonny Bunch of Roses
By the dangers of the ocean one evening in the month of June,
The feathered warbling songsters their charming notes they sweetly tuned.
I overheard a fair one, she was overpowered with grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonyparte concerning the bonny bunch of roses-o.
Then up stood the young Napoleon and he took his mother by the hand,
Saying, “Mother dear, have patience till I am able to command.
Then I’ll raise a powerful army and through dangers I will go.
And in spite of all the universe I’ll gain the bonny bunch of roses-o.
“Had I lived to take command and I’d make St Helen’s rock to shake
It’s castle walls and battlements all for my poor father’s sake.
And with courage all undaunted I would raise him from his daring foe,
And in spite of all the universe I’d gain the bonny bunch of roses-o.
“He had thousands of men and likewise kings to join him in his throng.
He was well enough empowered to sweep the universe along,
Until he went to Russia, he was overpowered with grief and woe
Where Moscow was a-burning and he lost the bonny bunch of roses-o.
“Oh mother, he was always good, he was always kind and true to you
Until that fatal morning all on the plains of Waterloo.
Where thousands there lay dying and the blood in fountains it did flow,
And Grouchy he proves a traitor and lost the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“Oh son, don’t talk of Bonyparte, for England is the heart of oak.
England, Ireland and Scotland, their unity was ne’er yet broke.
Then think of your aged father, in St Helena he lies low,
And soon you’ll follow after so beware the bonny bunch of roses-o.”
“Then adieu, adieu to one and all upon my dying bed;
Adieu to all that I adore,” and then he dropped his youthful lead.
And when our bones are mouldering and the willow on our graves do grow,
The deeds of famed Napoleon will stain the bonny bunch of roses-o.