“Cupid the Plowboy”

Description

The singer sees a youth breaking up the soil. (She calls him "Cupid the plowboy,") imagines his farm tools to be Cupid's arrows, and confesses that seeing "Cupid" has driven her current love from her mind. The plowboy hears her lament and offers marriage

Cross references

• cf. "The Rich Lady Gay" (plot)

Broadsides

• Bodleian, Harding B 11(773), "Cupid, the Pretty Ploughboy" ("As I walk'd out one May morning"), J. Howe (Hull), 1835-1843; also Harding B 25(457), Firth c.18(231), "Cupid the Pretty Ploughboy"; Harding B 17(67a), "Cupid the Pretty Plough Boy"; Harding B 11(772), Firth c.18(169), "Cupid the Pretty Plough-boy"

References

1. Laws O7, "Cupid the Plowboy"
2. Greenleaf/Mansfield 79, "The Plowboy" (1 text)
3. Randolph 85, "Lone the Plow-Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
4. DT 472, LONEPLOW
5. Roud #986
6. BI, LO07