76 - Lady Emma Hamilton

Words: Lt George Samuel Parsons / George Tudor-Hart
Tune: Lt George Samuel Parsons / George Tudor-Hart

This is a song we learned from the Colliers Wood Shanty singers, which recounts the true story of how Dame Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Horatio Nelson, used to intercede with him on behalf of sailors to reduce their punishments.

A midshipman in Napoli
She sang, she sang, for thee
A midshipman, and fancy free
She sang to set you free
Soon for to fight the Battle Nile
You wished immediately
A hero of the fleet I’d be
And she sang, she sang for thee

My lady sang, my lady sang
She sang, she sang for me

A fool I was, and easy led
And led most easily
I left my watch to share a bed
You left it furtively
At crack of dawn they looked for me
Was nowhere they could see
And Nelson ordered fifty strokes
It was deservedly

My lady sang…

But I was just a skinny lad
As skinny as could be
And fifty strokes with a cat o’ nine
Would be the death of thee
My lady shed a tear for me
And with sincerity
She begged my Lord to let me live
She sang, she sang for thee

My lady sang, my lady sang
She sang, she sang for me

So nine times, (nine!), it was to be
Granted so generously
And so I lived to tell this tale
Fortuitously for thee
And how I fought at Battle Nile
To England’s great glory
And still I see my lady’s smile
At Nelson’s courtesy

My lady sang, my lady sang,
And by God, she sang for me