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> Eliza Carthy > Songs > Bonaparte’s Lament

Bonaparte’s Lament / The Isle of St Helena

[ Roud 349 ; Ballad Index E096 ; SaintHelena at Old Songs ; VWML CJS2/9/2691 ; DT BNYSTHEL ; Mudcat 104076 ; trad.]

Cecil Sharp collected Boney’s Defeat in May 1917 from from Mrs. Townsley and Mrs. Wilson in Kentucky. He published it in English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians.

Steve Turner sang The Isle of St Helena in 1979 on his Fellside album Out Stack and in 2008 on his Tradition Bearers CD Rim of the Wheel. He commented in the latter’s liner notes:

I unearthed this song in the John Rylands Library in Manchester circa 1970 and this is a reassessment of a version that I sang on my first album in 1979. Since when I’ve learnt to play the concertina accompaniment in a key to suit my vocal range!

The tune is among the most magnificent of all the great Napoleonic ballad airs. Here he is seen lamenting his fate on Mount Diana, the highest point of St Helena.

Mary Black learned Isle of St Helena from Steve Turner and sang it on General Humbert’s 1982 album General Humbert II. This track was also included in 1984 on her album Collected.

The New Scorpion Band sang Bony on St Helena in 2000 on their CD The Plains of Waterloo. They noted:

The Island of St Helena, Napoleon’s second and final place of exile, is the subject of this beautiful elegy. The exploits of Napoleon, and in particular the pan-European scope of his activities, made him the subject of admiration and envy in equal measure; and his rise and downfall provided the opportunity for street ballad singers to moralise about fate and ambition. Oral tradition has whittled this song down to a moving lament.

Frank Harte sang The Isle of St Helena in 2001 on his album My Name Is Napoleon Bonaparte.

Craig Morgan Robson sang Boney on the Isle of St Helena on their 2009 CD Hummingbird’s Feather. They noted:

We are not quite sure how or where we learned this song, but were certainly inspired by Steve Turner’s masterly version, which he found in the John Rylands library in Manchester. It may have originated as a broadside, as the rather elaborate language suggests. Examples of it can be found in the Bodleian Library, and it also crops up in the USA (Frank and Anne Warner recorded Charles Tillett singing it in North Carolina in 1940). As far as we know, far from being inconsolable, Louisa refused to go into exile with Napoleon to Elba, let alone St. Helena, and even before he went to Elba, she is reported to have taken General Adam Adelbert Neipperg as a lover. By time Napoleon died, Louisa had borne two children to other fathers.

Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson recorded Bonaparte’s Lament, “from the EFDSS Appalachian compilation Dear Companion”, in 2010 for their Topic CD Gift.

Kathryn Roberts sang Boney’s Defeat on her and Sean Lakeman’s 2018 CD Personae.

Jeff Warner sang Bony on the Isle of St Helena in 2018 on his WildGoose CD Roam the Country Through. He noted:

Anne and Frank Warner met the Tilletts in 1940, on an early song-collecting trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Charles [Tillett], known as ‘Tink’, and his wife Eleazar gave the Warners many great songs over the years, including Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still. Tink learned this song about the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, in oral tradition, “perhaps from a shipwrecked sailor”. Years after noting down the song, the Warners discovered that Tink’s “Be’est it best in time” in the last verse of the song was a mis-hearing of “Be ye steadfast in time”.

John Doyle sang of St Helena on Dermot Byrne, Éamonn Coyne and his 2019 CD Liag. They noted:

John heard this song from the 1980s LP, General Humbert II, featuring Mary Black. When visiting, he used to sing it in the sessions that took place in Kilcar back then. Napoleon’s last exile was in St Helena, part of the Ascension Islands in the far South Atlantic Ocean. That was about as far away from France as they could get him.

Jim Moray sang The Isle of St Helena on his 2019 CD The Outlander. He noted:

Learned from Steve Turner’s album Out Stack. This was collected by Cecil Sharp from Mrs Townsley in Pineville, Kentucky, on 4 May 1917 [VWML CJS2/9/2691] and included in his book English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians.

Peter and Barbara Snape sang The Isle of St Helena in 2019 on their CD All in the Song. Barbara Snape noted:

A broadside found in the Harkness Collection (Preston). It is thought that the words were written by James Watt from Scotland.

Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise (Louisiana in this version), had already found consolation in another man’s arms when he was sent to St Helena. She refused to go into exile with him and by the time of his death had had two children by two different men—fickle eh!

James Watt was born in Greenock in 1736 and the earliest date for the song is 1830.

George Sansome sang Bonaparte’s Departure for St Helena in 2020 on his eponymous album George Sansome. He noted:

I first heard this sung by Nic Jones on a live recording from an unidentified folk club in 1972 [YouTube]. I then learned these words from a Glasgow ballad sheet via Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Online. The sheet gives the words as being written by James Watt of Paisley, however the authenticity of authorship on ballad sheets is usually sketchy at best.

The “Louisa” in the song is Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise, whom he married in 1810.

After his escape from Elba in February 1815 and subsequent loss of Hundred Days War, Napoleon was again sentenced to exile. On 15 October 1815, he arrived on the island of St Helena, 1200 miles off the West Coast of Africa (the nearest landmass). He remained there in exile until his death on 5 May 1821.

Andy Turner got to know The Isle of St Helena from Chris Wood who learned it from Mary Black singing with De Dannan live in around 1983 or 1984. He sang it as the 25 July 2020 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Lyrics

Steve Turner sings The Isle of St Helena

Boney’s away from his warring and fighting
He is gone to a place where nobody can delight him.
He may sit now and tell on the sights that he’s seen-oh
While forlorn he does mourn on the Isle of St Helena

No more in St Cloud will he appear in great splendour,
Nor come forth from the crowds like our great Alexander
He may look to the east, while he thinks of Lucana
With his heart full of woe on the Isle of St Helena

The wild rushing waves on our shores they’re a-washing,
And the white billows heave, over our rocks they’re a-dashing.
He may look o’er the main, while he dreams on Diana,
With his eyes on the waves that surround St Helena

Louisa she mourns, from her husband is parted
And she dreams as she sleeps and she awakes broken-hearted.
There’s none to console her, though there’s plenty would be with her,
Now alone she does mourn when she thinks on St Helena.

All you that have great wealth, beware of ambition.
For there’s some twist of fate that will change your condition.
Be steadfast in time, what’s to come change you canna
And maybe your race will end on the Isle of St Helena

Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson sing Bonaparte’s Lament

O, Boney has gone to the wars of old fighting,
Gone to the place where he takes no delight in.
There he may sit down, and tell scenes of sinners
Whilst forlorn he does mourn on the Isle of St Helena.

Louisa does weep for her husband’s departed
And she dreams when she sleeps and she wakes broken-hearted.
Not a friend to console or even those who might be with her,
Still she mourns when she thinks on the Isle of St Helena.

The rude rushing waves all around the shores are washing,
Great billows heave and the wild rocks are dashing.
You may look to the moon and to the great Mount Diana,
With his eyes on the waves that surround St Helena.

No more in St Cloud he will be seen in such splendour
Or go on with the crowd at the great Alexander
For the young King of Rome and for the Prince of Guyana
Says he’ll bring his father home from the Isle of St Helena.

Kathryn Roberts sings Boney’s Defeat

Oh, Boney has gone from the wars and the fighting,
He has gone to a place where he takes no delight in.
And there he will sit down and tell the scenes of sinners
Whilst forlorn he does mourn on the Isle of St Helena.

Oh, the rude rushing waves all around the shores are washing,
And the great bellows heave and the wild rocks are dashing.
He may look to the moon o’er the great Mount Diana,
With his eyes on the waves that surround St Helena.

No more in St Cloud will he be seen in such splendour,
Or go on with the crowd like the great Alexander
The young King of Rome and the Prince of Guyana
Says he’ll bring his father home from the Isle of St Helena.

All you who have wealth, beware of ambition.
For a small twist of fate can change your condition.
Be steadfast in time for you don’t know what is coming,
Or like him your days might end on the Isle of St Helena