Young Man's Lamentation, The

DESCRIPTION: An unconstant lover is worse than a thief." The singer would have married her but "she's not constant to any." "Like a ship on the ocean I am tost too and fro." He hopes wine will make him jolly. "She is mistaken if she think that I'll mourn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(261b))
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1697, "Now My Love's Forsaken Me" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6823
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(261b)[a few verses are barely legible; see notes for legible copy], "The Young-Mans Lamentation" ("Meeting's a pleasure, but parting's a grief"), P. Brooksby (London), 1683-1696
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (theme) and references there
NOTES [957 words]: Greig/Duncan6 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(261b) is the basis for the description.
The Greig/Duncan6 fragment is "Now my love's forsaken me, for him he thinks I'll mourn. But he is quite mistaken, for I'll do my own turn. I'll go as saucy by him as he's fit to do by me, And I'll get another sweetheart, and that he soon shall see." In the few places I have found that, or similar verses, in the US it always goes with "The cuckoo she's a pretty bird ...." See, for example, Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Vol II, p. 177 [confirmed by Steve Gardham], both Hudson and Belden [confirmed by RBW and indexed here with "On Top of Old Smoky"], Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands [indexed here with "The Cuckoo"] and Thomas and Leeder, The Singin' Gatherin' (1939), p. 25. Most US versions of "The Cuckoo" do not have the Greig/Duncan6 verse. I posted a question to the Ballad List asking whether anyone had seen the pair of verses linked outside the US and where else the "Now my love's forsaken me" verse occurred. I have the following answer from Steve Gardham}
"The verse occurs in no British versions of the Cuckoo. British versions are pretty much based on the broadside 'The Forsaken Nymph'.
Oscar Brand's version in Reprints from Sing Out vol4 p42 has the stanza. Cox p425 has a whisper of it. Hudson has a Mississippi full stanza tagged onto the end of the standard 4-stanzas of the Cuckoo. As mentioned Sharp in EFSSA vol2 has the stanza only in the first version of the 13 given.
"Just checked and this stanza dates back to the 17th century. It is the last stanza in 'The Young-Man's Lamentation' , the first stanza being the 'Meeting is a Pleasure' stanza. It obviously is related to the early versions of 'Farewell He/She'. See Bodleian website Douce Ballads 2 (261b) although the image is very poor. (I have a full transcription courtesy of Mike Heaney of the Bodl)
Tho' I am forsaken yet she is forsworn,
Yet she is mistaken if she think that I'll mourn,
I'll set as slightly by her as e'er she did me,
And for ever will deny her, let her go, farewell she.
"Note the change of gender which is common in these lover's laments.
"Several possibilities present themselves as to the evolutions of American variants.
1)Some American variants must be based on variants older than the late 18th century standard broadside version.
2) The stanza has become attached to other songs like 'Farewell He' and become attached to 'The Cuckoo' in America.
"As I'm sure you are all aware, the numerous 'Lover's Laments' borrow stanzas from each other frequently and have done so from the earliest times, probably pre 17thc. Martin Parker occasionally uses them in his ballads of the 17thc."
Steve's Cox reference, Cox 143, "A Forsaken Lover," is a perfect US -- West Virginia, in this case -- example. The final two verses are "The cuckoo is a pretty bird ...." and "Forsaken, forsaken ....," respectively.
For another example see Arthur Palmer Hudson, "Ballads and Songs from Missippi" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXIX, No. 152 (Apr 1926 (available online by JSTOR)), #37 p. 149, "Jimmy."
For a counter-example see G.L. Kittredge, editor, "Ballads and Songs" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXX, No. 117 (Jul 1917 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 349-351, "An Inconstant Lover" which includes some American texts, including one without the cuckoo. My impression, though, is that in the case where the cuckoo is absent it has just been forgotten.
For a discussion of "The Young-man's Lamentation," including the complete text of broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(261b), see Steve Gardham, "The Young-Man's Lamentation," article 17 in the collection "A Veritable Dungheap" at the Musical Traditions site. The article includes comments on the travels of verses, and parts of verses, to other songs [like "The Cuckoo'].
The first verse is "Meeting's a pleasure But parting's a grief, An Unconstant Lover Is worse than a Thief; A Thief he can Rob me, And take what I have, But an Unconstant Lover Will bring me to the grave." Nevertheless, the remaining ten verses are not associated with "On Top of Old Smoky," unless you include Greig/Duncan6, "Lamentation"'s last verse. I could not see my way clear to lumping the Greig/Duncan6 verse with "The Cuckoo" since it has not been found that way outside the US, nor with "On Top of Old Smoky," since it seems almost always to have been found attached to "The cuckoo she's a pretty bird ...." as an add-on.
"The Fair Damsel" - from Ruth Ann Musick, "The Old Album of William A. Larkin" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. LX, No. 237 (Jul 1947 (available online by JSTOR)), #25 pp. 229-230 - floats "never place your affections on a green willow tree" and "if I am forsaken oh he is foresworn" onto the end of a ballad having nothing to do with either "The Cuckoo" or "Old Smokey": a young man abandons his sweetheart in favor of a rich widow and is turned away by his old sweetheart when he calls on her, saying "all though I am marryed I will visit you still."
Similarly, "Forsaken" - from E.C. Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXVIII, No. 108 (Apr 1915 (available online by JSTOR)), #25 pp. 169-170 - floats "never place your affections on a green willow tree" and "if I am forsaken oh he is foresworn" after a verse in which the singer's sweetheart is "out on the water, he'll sink or he'll swim" and she says "if he can live without me, I can live without him." That is similar to "Forsaken" from G.L. Kittredge (cited above), pp. 351-352 - but without either "never place your affections on a green willow tree" and "if I am forsaken oh he is foresworn." - BS
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File: GrD61144

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