When He Comes, He'll Come in Green

DESCRIPTION: "Don't cry, little baby, don't you cry. Your sweetheart will come by and by. When he comes, if he's dressed in green, Then you may know you'll be his queen." Similarly with other colors: "Dressed in blue, Then you may know his love is true," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: colors courting playparty lullaby
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #35, "Hallowe'en Rhyme" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 70, "Oh, Pretty Polly" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 70, "Oh, Pretty Polly" (1 text); 71, "Don't Cry" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 163, (no title) (1 fragment)
Roud #7870
NOTES [92 words]: The editors of Brown concede their two texts to be the same song, but split them anyway. They admit they don't know if the piece is a singing game of some kind, a lullaby, or something else. (Allsopp calls it a lullaby but has only one verse.) I've used both keywords because both look like they fit. It looks like a very good song for both purposes; I'm surprised it isn't more widely known.
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren obviously thought this a dress-up rhyme for Halloween. I really don't think that follows; the love element is strong. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3070

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