Arthur's Seat

DESCRIPTION: The singer is poor and forsaken. She fantasizes: "I will to some other land Till I see my love will on me rue" She wishes she had never been born or died young. She wishes her baby were born and she were dead. She waits for Death to end her weariness.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1701 (broadside, NLScotland Ry.III.a.10(056))
KEYWORDS: poverty courting pregnancy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 204 Appendix, "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, etc., or, Love in Despair" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1167, "Arthur's Seat" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 92-93, "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, or Love in Despair" (1 text)
Roud #6851
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(056), "Arthur's Seat Shall be my Bed, &c." or "Love in Despair," unknown, c.1701
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (lyrics: two verses)
cf. "Jamie Douglas" [Child 204] (lyrics: one verse)
NOTES [99 words]: The two verses shared with Child's text of "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" are neither common floaters nor verses shared with "Jamie Douglas": one is the title verse ("Now Arthur-Seat shall be my bed ....") and the other the Martinmas wind reference ("Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow ...).One verse ("Oh, oh, if my young babe were born, And set upon the nurse's knee, And I myself were dead and gone! For a maid again I'le never be") is shared with Child 204 A, C and E. - BS
It is interesting to find this in Aberdeenshire. The best known Arthur's Seat is in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD51167

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