Jealousy is a terrible thing & this dreadful ballad wrapped in a pretty tune is a testament to the evil in some of us. This song was originally a broadside ballad before taking on a life of it’s own, travelling all over the world. Versions have been collected all over England & from Scotland, Ireland, North America & Tristan da Cunha. I had to look up where Tristan da Cunha is: it’s the South Atlantic.

The moral of the song is that Jealousy kills.

This version was from a George Gardiner collection in 1908. He got it from a James Hiscock at Bartley in Hampshire.