Sweet Pretty Maiden Sat Under a Tree, A

DESCRIPTION: "A sweet pretty maiden sat under a tree, She sighed and said, 'Oh! that I married might be.'" Johnny hears and offers to marry. She is not sure she wants to wed him. Although she has run from mother and father, she is not interested in Johnny
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: mother father hardtimes marriage rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #36, "A Sweet Pretty Maiden Sat Under a Tree" (1 text, 1 tune, the text not being traditional)
NOTES [83 words]: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd collected both text and tune of this, but declared that "The words... did not fit the tune." I don't believe that this was because they were unmetrical; it was because they were impolite. It appears, from the fragment printed, that they came from "Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron)," or at least something related to Roud #899. Rather than print the whole song, Baring-Gould came up with another of his vapid courting pieces. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW036

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