"Napoleon" is Peggy's title for a song known alternatively as "The Isle of St. Helena," "The Lament of Bonaparte," "Bonaparte's Lament," or by it's first line, "Boney has Gone From the Wars of All Fighting" (the first word,"Boney," is sometimes preceded by "Now"). In the United States, the best known version comes from the singing of C.K. "Tink" Tillett, who was recorded in 1922 at Wanchese on Roanoke Island, for the Frank C. Brown collection, North Carolina Folklore, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1957). It was collected again in 1940, from the same singer by Frank Warner (Anne Warner, Traditional Songs From the Anne and Frank Warner Collection, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1984). The song also appears in the American collections of Cecil Sharp, Henry Belden, and Gale Huntington and has been collected in Newfoundland, Ireland, and Sussex, England. Print versions appeared William Chappell's Folk Music of the Olden Time (London: 1859, 2 vols.), the Forget-Me-Not Songster, as well as various broadsides.
The song contrasts the loneliness of Boney's exile with his former grandeur, advising those with wealth to beware of ambition as fate is unpredictable. There is also a curious intimacy about the song and a focus on Bonaparte's family. As with most Bonaparte songs circulating in America and the British Isles, implicit sympathy is expressed for the emperor Napoleon. Boney was a symbol of hope for Irish nationalists and others for whom a French dictatorship seemed more attractive than the home-grown variety. This was, after all, a period in which brutal conditions were experienced by the impressed British sailors who served for years without leave while enforcing the embargoes of the Napoleonic Wars.
Peggy's tune has shifted from those found in other collected versions- her second phrase repeats the first rather than the third phrase (AABA). She says the tune she sings most closely resembles that found in Mary O. Eddy's Ballads and Songs from Ohio (Hatboro, Folklore Associates, 1964, orig. ed. 1939), which indeed follows the AABA structure.
Some words, as in the first line, "Old Boney Is Away From His Warring and His Fighting," also depart from better-known versions. In once instance, Peggy heard an English singer draw out the last syllable of each verse's last line: "The Isle of St. Helen-eeeee." "Eee is a pure vowel," she says, "and you can hold it better than the closed 'uh' of Helena." Her other textual changes clarify or intensify rather than alter the meaning. This can be seen in her last verse:
Those of ye who have got wealth, pray beware of ambition
For but one degree in fate may reverse your condition
Be ye steadfast in fate for what is to come ye know not
For fear you'll be betrayed like him on St. Helena.
lyrics
NAPOLEON
words, music: traditional USA
arrangement, Peggy Seeger and Calum MacColl
(two guitars; backing guitar tuned to open G with strings tuned down a whole tone: C-F-C-F-A-C)
Old Boney is away from his warring and his fighting
He has gone to the place that he ne'er can take delight in
He may sit down and tell of the battles he has been in
While forlorn he does mourn on the Isle of St. Helene.
No more in St. Cloud is he seen in such splendour
Nor follow with the crowds like the great Alexander
For the prince of Rome and the young prince of Ghana
Say they'll bring their father home from the Isle of St. Helene.
The rude rushing waves all around the shores are washing
And the wild billows heave and the great rocks are dashing
He may look to the moon over great Mount Diana
With his eyes on the waves that surround St. Helene.
Ye Parliaments of England and your Holy Alliance
To the prisoner of war you may now bid defiance
For your base intrigues and your baser misdemeanours
Have caused him to die on the Isle of St. Helene.
Those of ye who have got wealth, pray beware of ambition
For but one degree in fate may reverse your condition
Be ye steadfast in faith for what is to come ye know not
For fear you be betrayed, like him on St. Helene.
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