The False Lover Won Back

A woman with hands clasped pursues an angry-looking man in an illustration
An illustration by Arthur Rackham of "The False Lover Won Back" in Some British Ballads (1919).

"The False Lover Won Back" is a Scottish ballad, cataloged as Child Ballad 218 (Roud 201).

Origins

Francis James Child cataloged the song as Child Ballad 218, recovering two texts representing it.[1] It is also cataloged as Roud 201.[2] The song spread in some form from its origins in Scotland through England as far as the United States, although it is among the lesser-known ballads.[2][3][4][5]

The song has similarities to and may share an origin with other ballads, such as Child Waters.[1] It has sometimes also been called "Young John" or "The Fause Lover."[6][7][8]

Synopsis

In the ballad, a woman pursues her lover, who is leaving her for another who is more beautiful. He begs her to forsake him, plying her with gifts, but eventually buys her a wedding gown or a wedding ring and agrees to marry her.[1][3][9][10]

According to Walter Morris Hart, the ballad is somewhat unusual for its depicting a situation in which "it is the maiden who does the wooing."[11]

Legacy

Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger performed the song on their 1956 album Classic Scots Ballads.[2] The song was also included as a bonus track on a reissue of Martin Carthy's 1972 album Shearwater.[2]

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References

  1. ^ a b c Bronson, Bertrand Harris, ed. (2015-03-08), "218. The False Lover Won Back", The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads. (Abridgement), Princeton University Press, doi:10.1515/9781400872671, ISBN 978-1-4008-7267-1, retrieved 2024-06-10
  2. ^ a b c d "The False Lover Won Back / Honey for the Bee / Young John / The Sun Shines High (Roud 201; Child 218; G/D 5:974)". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  3. ^ a b Moore, John Robert (1921). "A Missouri Variant of "The False Lover Won Back"". The Journal of American Folklore. 34 (134): 395–397. doi:10.2307/534929. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 534929.
  4. ^ Greig, Gavin (1925). Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs. Buchan Club.
  5. ^ Lyle, Emily (2010-07-01). Scottish Ballads. Canongate Books. ISBN 978-1-84767-593-4.
  6. ^ Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas (1910). The Oxford book of ballads, chosen and edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch. Robarts – University of Toronto. Oxford Clarendon Press.
  7. ^ Shoolbraid, Murray (2010-04-02). The High-Kilted Muse: Peter Buchan and His Secret Songs of Silence. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-0115-9.
  8. ^ Smith, James Cruickshanks (1913). A Book of Ballads for Boys and Girls. Clarendon Press.
  9. ^ Coffin, Tristram Potter (1963). The British Traditional Ballad in North America. American Folklore Society. ISBN 978-0-292-70719-1.
  10. ^ García, Ana Belén Martínez (2017). "Formulaicity in Child Ballads as a Means to Express Assertiveness". Folklore. 128 (2): 175–188. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2016.1270612. ISSN 0015-587X. JSTOR 26445791.
  11. ^ Hart, Walter Morris (1907). Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature. Published under the direction of the Modern Language Depts. of Harvard University by Ginn & Company.