A popular song from 1870.
Words and music by George Leybourne.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- In a house, in a square, in a quadrant
In a street, in a lane, in a road
Turn to the left on the right hand
You see there my true love’s abode
I go there a-courting and cooing
To my love like a dove
And swearing on my bended knee
If ever I cease to love
May sheeps-heads grow on apple trees
If ever I cease to love
Chorus
If ever I cease to love
If ever I cease to love
May the moon be turn’d into green cheese
If ever I cease to love
- She can sing, she can play the piano
She can jump, she can dance, she can run
In fact she’s as sweet as a rosebud
And lily flow’r chang’d into one
And who would not love such a beauty
Like an Angel dropp’d from above
May I be stung to death with flies
If ever I cease to love
May I be stung to death with flies
If ever I cease to love
Chorus
If ever I cease to love
If ever I cease to love
May little dogs wag their tails in front
If ever I cease to love
- For all the money that’s in Wall street
All the stocks of a railroad line
I wouldn’t exchange te girl I love
She’s good as a silver mine
To see her dance so graceful
I could faint with radiant love
May the Custum house a hornpipe dance
If ever I cease to love
May we never have to pay the Income Tax
If ever I cease to love
Chorus
If ever I cease to love
If ever I cease to love
May we all turn into cats and dogs
If ever I cease to love
- May all the seas turn into ink
May black be turned to white
May the pumpkins grow on apple trees
May wrong be turned to right
May cows lay eggs, may fowls yield milk
May the hawk become a dove
May beggars refuse to eat cold meat
If ever I cease to love
May I be frozen to death with heat
If ever I cease to love
Chorus
If ever I cease to love
If ever I cease to love
May all the rivers run up hill
If ever I cease to love
Sung here by Vancha March: