“The Next Market Day”

Description

Woman going to the market meets a man. He gives her three guineas to pay for the yarn, that he might play her a new tune.She goes home with the tune in her head. She will seek him "by land or by sea/Till he larns me that tune called the next market day"

Long description

Young woman going to the market at Comber, with three hanks of yarn to sell for her mother, meets a young man (apparently a musician), and dallies. He gives her three guineas to pay her mother for the yarn, that he might play her a new tune. They sit together; they gaze lovingly into each other's eyes, and she goes home with the tune in her head. She vows to seek him "by land or by sea/Till he larns me that tune called the next market day"

Cross references

• cf. "The Stonecutter Boy" (plot)
• cf. "The Haselbury Girl (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)" (plot)
• cf. "The Mower" (plot)
• cf. "The Wanton Seed"

Recordings

• Seamus O'Doherty, "The Next Market Day" (Columbia 33289-F, n.d.)

References

1. Hayward-Ulster, p. 45, "The Comber Ballad" (1 text)
2. Silber-FSWB, p. 158 "The Next Market Day" (1 text)
3. Roud #6547
4. BI, FSWB158B