The Whore's Lament


	"The Cowboy's Lament" is a familiar American folk song, celebrated for its perfect melding of text and tune.  The distaff version, "The Whore's Lament," is not so well known.
[ A ]

As I walked down by King James' Hospital,
King James' Hospital, one morning in May,
There I espied a handsome young hooker
All wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay.
"Come sit down beside me, my own dear sister,
Come sit down and don't mind if I cry.
For the bubos are aching and my poor heart is breaking
And with sad meditations I am going to die.

Chorus:
The beat the drums lowly and play the fife slowly.
Play the dead march as I'm carried along.
Take me to the churchyard and lay the sod o'er me
For I am a young whore and know I've done wrong.

Go send for the minister to pray o'er me.
Go send for the doctor to heal up my wound
And send for the young man that first did seduce me
So I may see him before I go home.
So cruel was the man that first did seduce me
That he did not tell me in time
That I might applied to the pills of white mercury.
Now I am a young whore cut down in my prime.

Once in the street I dressed to the fashion.
Once in the street I dressed so gay.
But it was first to the dance house and then to the ale house
And then to the whorehouse and now to the clay.
Let six jolly gamblers go carry my coffin.
Let six flaming whores go sing a song,
And in their hands carry a bunch of wild roses
So they can't smell me as they carry me along.

	An unidentified contributor sent this member of "The Unfortunate Rake" cycle to the Gordon collection, relying apparently on a newspaper clipping from the Colorado Springs Sunday Gazette and Telegraph of January 27, 1924, reporting "Colorado Springs Man Claims Authorship of Famous Old Cowboy Ballad."  It is number 3920 in the Gordon Inferno in the Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress.
	For references to the far-flung "The Unfortunate Rake" cycle, see Laws Native American Balladry, p. 131; and his American Balladry from British Broadsides, pp. 285-286, where it is numbered Q26; Kenneth Lodewick, "'The Unfortunate Rake' and His Descendants," Western Folklore XIV (1955) pp. 98-109; Wayland D. Hand, "The Cowboy's Lament," Western Folklore XVII (1968), pp. 200-205; and D.K. Wilgus, "The Aisling and the Cowboy," Western Folklore XXX TK XXX.  
	G. Legman provides additional cites and the only other plain-spoken text of this cycle in Vance Randolph, Blow the Candle Out: "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs and Folklore, Volume II (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1992), pp. 604-608.

[ B ]

The Dying Whore
   
This is one of a number of occupational adaptions of a classic British broadside ballad known as "The Unfortunate Rake."  While it has been fitted to a number of diverse occupations, including that of a telephone lineman, its most famous setting is undoubtedly "The Cowboy's Lament."
"The Dying Whore" offers the distaff version.

[ B ]

For 'twas first to the alehouse
And then to the dance house
And then to the whorehouse
And then to my grave.

Chorus:
Oh, play the fife slowly and beat the drum lowly,
And play the whore's march as they carry me on.
And let six jolly sportsmen carry a bunch of red roses
So they will not smell me as they cary me on.

	As "The Dying Whore," this text was sent to Alan Steyne, from New York City on March 30, 1926, to Hubert Canfield, and is included in the Canfield Collection.