False Lover- Mary J. Shriver (IL) 1935 Brewster B
[From Brewster: Ballads and Songs of Indiana; Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series 1940. His notes follow.
Brewster failed to identify the antecedent broadside, "Constant Lady and the False-Hearted Squire." The title compares to the two versions collected by Vaughan Williams in Essex.
Stanza three is similar to the chorus of "My Blue-Eyed Boy." Stanza five is from the Unfortunate Swain/Picking Lilies.
R. Matteson 2017]
58. LOVE HAS BROUGHT ME TO DESPAIR
This is an abbreviated and considerably changed version of the English "A Brisk Young Sailor." It shows some points of resemblance also to "Sheffield Park," to the seventeenth century broadside "An Excellent New Song, called Nelly's Constancy; or, Her Unkind Lover" (Pepys, V, 217; Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 791), and to another seventeenth century broadside, "The Forlorn Lover."
For English texts and references, see Broadwood, English Traditional Songs and Carols, p. 92; Butterworth, Folk Songs from Sussex, p. 14; JFSSf I, 252; II, 155, 158, 168; III, 188; V, 181, 183, 184, 188; Kidson, Traditional Tunes, p. 44, 46; Kidson and Neal, English Folk-Song and Dance, p. 57; Leather, The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, p. 205; Sharp, One Hundred English Folk-Songs, No. 94; R. Vaughan Williams, Folk-Songs from the Eastern Counties, p. 9; Roxbarghe Ballads, IX, 635 ("The Constant Lady and the False-Hearted Squire"); Chappell, Old English Popular Music, p. 153 (fragment and air). See also Journal, XXIX, 170.
B. "False Lover." Contributed by Mrs. T. M. Bryant. Obtained from her aunt, Mrs. Mary J. Shriver, of East St. Louis, Illinois. November 15, 1935.
1. In Oxford Town in Halifax fair
As I walked out to take the air,
I viewed the hills and valleys round;
At length I heard a doleful sound.
2. "My father is a wealthy man;
My mother she is a lady fair,
And me their child, their only heir;
False lover has brought me to despair.
3. "I wish I was and I know where,
And I know who would be with me there.
In my truelove's arms who once loved me
Then happy, happy I would be."
4. O yonder she goes the meadow through,
Picking the flowers just as they grew;
It's first the pink and then the blue
Until she gathers the meadow through.
5. Out of those flowers she made her a bed,
A flowery pillow to ease her head;
And as she lay down, 't was low she spoke,
Saying, "O false lover, my heart is broke!
6. "Go dig my grave both wide and deep;
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast a turtle dove
To let this world know that I died for love."