The Unfortunate Lad

It has been suggested that this article be merged with The Unfortunate Rake. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2023.

"The Unfortunate Lad" is the correct title of a song printed without a tune on a number of 19th century ballad sheets by Such of London and Carrots and possibly others.

It is number 2 in the Roud Folk Song Index, and it is Laws number Q26. ^[1]

Sometimes incorrectly ^[2] termed The Unfortunate Rake, it is believed to be the ancestor of many variants collected in England and elsewhere, as well as of the American songs The Cowboy’s Lament, Streets of Laredo, and, more controversially, St James’ Infirmary. ^[3]

It is seen as "one of the most versatile songs in the Anglo-American tradition, as it seems able to adapt itself to any group or situation." Telling of someone dying or actually dead, it has been sung about a soldier, a young sailor, a cowboy, a lumberman, or just a young man or girl. In all cases a military-style funeral is called for. Some versions, including Herbert Prince's version given in the "New English Book of Folk Songs" are clear that the "hero" is dying of a venereal disease; some provide what Bishop and Roud call "explicit clues" such as "treatment with mercury"; others use euphemisms "such as being 'disordered' by a partner; yet others leave the cause of the illness unspecified. ^[4]

Folklorists have sometimes seen this as a good example of the way a song evolves. For example, Lodewick commented that the “story” connecting variants "...provides a good example of environmental changes that take place in a song.” ^[5]

In the 2018 Katharine Briggs Memorial Lecture, Professor Richard Jenkins discusses several aspects of what he calls the "folkloristic narrative" relating to these songs. He asserts that several aspects of this narrative may be shown to be "dubious, if not incorrect", and suggests that the way in which a "misleading tale" became accepted as "conventional knowledge" has implications for those engaged in the study of folklore.^[6]