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When I Was Young

[ Roud 2593 ; Ballad Index VWL102 ; Mudcat 22881 ; trad.]

Martin Carthy sang When I Was Young on his 1994 BBC album The Kershaw Sessions and on Brass Monkey’s 1998 album Sound and Rumour. He also played dulcimer on Jez Lowe’s version of this song on A Selection from The Penguin Book of English Folk Song. The latter album’s sleeve notes said:

From Mrs Moore, High Haworth, County Durham; noted in 1920 by W.G. Whittaker. A very widespread song whose persistence was possibly helped by its inclusion in a popular songster, Sam Cowell’s 120 Comic Songs (c. 1850).

Lyrics

Martin Carthy sings When I Was Young

When I was young I lived in a hall,
But now that I am married I have no home at all.

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
Oh, what a life, what a weary, weary life,
Better be a maid than a poor man’s wife.
You’d better be a maid all the days of your life,
Better be a maid than a poor man’s wife.

When I was young I wore my slippers thin,
Now that I am married the water it runs in.

When I was young I used to sport and play,
Now that I am married the cradle’s in the way.

When I was young I lived in a hall,
But now that I am married I have no home at all.

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from Sound and Rumour by Garry Gillard.