I Won't Be a Nun

What a pity that such pretty as I
SHould be sent to a nunnery to pine away and die!

cho: So I won't be a nun, I cannot be a nun!
I'm so fond of pleasure that I cannot be a nun.

I'm sure I cannot tell what's the mischief I have done,
But my mother oft tells me that I must be a nun.

But ...(etc.)

I could not bear confinement, it would not do for me.
I like to go a-shopping and to see what I can see.

So...etc.

I love to hear men flattering, love fashionable clothes,
I love music and dancing and chatting with the beaux.

So...(etc.)

O mother, don't be angry now, but let your daughter be,
For the nuns would not like to have a novice wild as me.

And..(etc.)

From Ballads and Songs, Belden
Collected from M. L. Greer; tune from G.C. Broadhead 1910
RG
oct96