“The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass)”
Description
The singer reports that the woman he once loved is going to be wed to another. He mopes around in various ways -- e.g. looking for flowers out of season. His friends fail to lift his spirits. He declares his intent to die in hopes of forgetting her
Notes
Some versions (for example, "I Loved A Lass" on SCMacCollSeeger01) include a verse close to Opie-Oxford2 318, "A man in the wilderness asked me": "A man in the wilderness asked me, How many strawberries grow in the sea? I answered him, as I thought good, As many as red herrings grow in the wood" (earliest date in Opie-Oxford2 is 1716). [Also in Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #142, p. 114. - RBW]
Is it significant that this verse is not in any of the printed versions that I consulted: Peacock, Karpeles-Newfoundland, Bodleian broadsides or Greig _Folk-Song of the North-East_ 24? - BS
Cross references
- cf. "My Bonny Brown Jane"
- cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating verses)
Broadsides
- Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(83a), "The Forlorn Lover" ("A week before Easter"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674; also Douce Ballads 3(32a), "The Forlorn Lover"
- NLScotland, R.B.m.143(128), "It Was Not My Fortune To Get Her," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
Recordings
- Harry Burgess, "A Week Before Easter" (on Voice15)
- Bob Copper, "The False Bride" (on FSB1)
- Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "I Loved a Lass" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
- Sarah Makem, "I Courted a Wee Girl" (on Voice01)
References
- Meredith/Anderson, pp. 187-188, "I Think by This Time He's Forgot Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Kennedy 152, "The False Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Ord, p. 175, "It Wasna My Fortune to Get Her" (1 text)
- OLochlainn 86, "The Lambs on the Green Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Peacock, pp. 441-442, "The False Maiden" (1 text, 2 tunes)
- Karpeles-Newfoundland 31, "The False Bride" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
- Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 37, "The False Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
- BBI, ZN2765, "A week before Easter"; ZN2766, "The week before Easter"
- DT 848, FLSEBRDE FLSEBRD2* FLSEBRD3* FLSEBRD4 FLSEBRD5* FLSEBRD6* FLSEBRD7* FLSEBRD8
- Roud #154
- BI, K152