He's a Dark Man

DESCRIPTION: "He's a dark man, he's a black man He's nae match for me He'd scarcely be linin' To the lad that likes me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 751, "He's a Dark Man" (1 fragment)
Roud #3869
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mailin" (theme) and references there
NOTES [129 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Greig/Duncan4 suggests the fragment be compared to Crawford's "The Mailin," which. Roud lumps the two with Kinloch 22 "Court Her and Leave Her." In looking at the Kinloch item (#XXII), I was reminded of Cox's "Black Phyllis," which begins, "And then came black Phyllis, his charger astride, And took away Annie, his unwilling bride." And *that* is sounds like it could be linked in plot to this (this piece being Annie's words as she rejected the black man). If we took all these fragments, we could probably build a pretty good ballad. Which is not proof they belong together, however. Ballad links are not transitive; if A links with B, and B with C, there is no reason to think A has been mixed with C. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4751

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