Auld Maid's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer wonders why her cousin has her choice of men while she has none. She kissed Donald once and when they met again he turned his head. Fancy clothes do not help. Perhaps there's no lad "decreed for me"
AUTHOR: Robert Anderson (1770-1833) (source: Ellwood and Gilpin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Gilpin)
KEYWORDS: clothes oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #17, p. 1, "The Auld Maid's Lament"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 40-41, ("I've won'ert sin' I kent mysel'") (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan7 1375, "The Auld Maid's Lament" (4 texts plus a single verse on p. 515, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: T Ellwood, editor, Anderson's Cumberland Ballads and Songs Centenary Edition (Ulverston,1904 (("Digitized by Google")), pp. 20-21, "The Lass Abuin Thirty" (1 text)
Sidney Gilpin, editor, The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland (London, 1866 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 316-318, "The Lass Abuin Thirty" (1 text)
Roud #6283
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Little Jeanikie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "Jockey's Grey Breeks" (tune, per Ellwood and Gilpin)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Maid's Lament
NOTES [45 words]: In Anderson's text, Wully -- rather than Donald -- "was the only yen."
There is an attribution to the sister of Hugh Allan (he was "a weaver at Cumminston") (source: William Walker, The Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860 (Aberdeen, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 602). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71375

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