Lady's Fall, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns listeners against sex before marriage. A lady becomes pregnant by her love, who deserts her. Once the babe is born, she dies, only to have her lover kill himself with sadness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy); probably from the early seventeenth century or earlier (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: love sex pregnancy childbirth family death infidelity burial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 246-252, "Ladyes Fall" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 139-145, "The Lady's Fall" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 244-248, "A Lamentable Ballad of the Lady's Fall" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 101-105, "Lady Mary" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1753, "Mark well my heavy doleful Tale"
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 268
Roud #22133
NOTES [99 words]: Hales believes this to be by the same author as "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34].
There are two seventeenth century references to a piece that is likely this in the Stationer's Register (see Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard)):
- Rollins #1394, p. 120, "The Ladies Fall," registered by William White June 11, 1603.
- Rollins #1395, p. 121, "Ladies Fall," registered December 14, 1624. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Perc3139

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