By the margin of the ocean,
One pleasant evening in the month of June,
The pleasant-signing blackbird
His charming notes did tune,
Was there I spied a woman
All in great grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonaparte
Concerning the Bonnie Bunch of Roses-O.

And then up and spoke the young Napoleon
And he took hold of his mother's hand,
"Oh Mother dear, be patient
And soon I will take command.
I'll raise a terrible army
And through tremendous danger go.
And in spite of all the universe
I'll conquered the Bonnie Bunch of Roses-O."

And When first you saw the great Napoleon,
You fell down on your bended knee
And you asked your father's life of him
And he granted it most manfully.
'Twas then he took an army
And o'er the frozen Alps did go;
And he said, "I'll conquer Moscow
And come back for the Bonnie Bunch of Roses-O.

And so he's took three hundred thousand men
And kings likewise for to join his throng.
He was as well provided for
Enough to take the whole world alone.
But when he came to Moscow
All o'erpowered by driving snow
And Moscow was a-blazing,
He lost the Bonnie Bunch of Roses-O.

"Oh my son, don't speak so venture-some,
For England she has a heart of oak,
And England, and Ireland, and Scotland,
Their unity has never been broke.
And so my son, think on, your father
In Saint Helena his body it lies low,
And you will follow after,
Beware of the Bonnie Bunch of Roses-O."

And it's goodbye to my mother forever,
For I am on my dying bed.
Had I lived I might have been clever,
But now I bow my youthful head.
And while our bodies do moulder
And weeping willows o'er us do grow,
The deeds of brave Napoleon
Will sting the Bonnie Bunch of Roses-O."

By the margin of the ocean,
One pleasant evening in the month of June,
The pleasant-signing blackbird
His charming notes did tune,
Was there I spied a female
All in great grief and woe,
Conversing with young Bonaparte
Concerning the Bonnie Bunch of Roses-O.

The 'young Napoleon' of this ballad is the son of Napoleon Bonaparte by his second wife Maria Louise. Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles Bonaparte (Napoleon II), the titular King of Rome, was born in March 1811. He was thus a babe in arms when the elder Napoleon invaded Russia; only three at the time of Bonaparte's exile to Elba; four at the time of the Emperor's return, the Hundred Days, and the Battle of Waterloo; and just past his tenth birthday when his father died on Saint Helena in 1821.

This song may well reflect the younger Napoleon's character; at the very least it is certain that he died young. After several years of illness, he passed away on July 22, 1832, at the age of 21, evidently of tuberculosis. Although the young Napoleon's ancestry is perhaps uncertain (before the elder Bonaparte's death Maria Louisa has borne two children by another man), those who knew him reported that he shared his father's traits of tenacity and intelligence. Fear, however, caused his Austrian tutors to conceal as much of his history as possible, and to try to suppress the boy's vague memories of his father. Small wonder if he developed a burning desire to avenge the family's disgrace!

The reference in verse 3 to Napoleon sparing his wife's father's life refers to Francis I, the Austrian Emperor, whose nation suffered severely at Napoleon's hands.

The fourth verse is an understandable exaggeration. Napoleon did not take a million troops to Moscow; in fact he never put that many troops under arms. But hundreds of thousands did start out on the Russian campaign. Badly hurt at Borodino, the French took Moscow largely intact, but empty, and had to face the bitter Russian winter with little in the way of supplies. Few of the French would ever return.

But Britain (the 'Bonny Bunch of Roses,' a title of uncertain origin) was clearly Napoleon's greatest enemy. It was England that financed and fought the Peninsular campaign that so frustrated Napoleon's generals. It was English money and influence that held so many coalitions together. And, ultimately, it was England and Wellington that provided the largest share of the might that defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Napoleon hated England, and knew he could not have peace until she was defeated. But Napoleon could not invade England without naval superiority, and Napoleon's navy had been ruined by Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805. On paper, Trafalgar was a relatively minor defeat. But it lead to Napoleon's downfall.

The rather flowery language of this ballad clearly reveals its broadside origin. At least two American version has been collected. One is found in this collection; the other, from Newfoundland, is printed in Elisabeth B. Greenleaf and Grace Y. Mansfield's 'Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland' and reprinted on pp. 105-107 of John Anthony Scott's 'The Ballad of America.' RW

DT #392, Laws J5, @history @Napoleon, RW