Deluded Lover, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer greets his love; but she reproaches him for deluding her. He says he's free of obligation to her. She points out that he broke his vows to her. He says *he* was deluded, and that he still thinks of his true-love. He wishes all wars were over
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets his true love; he greets her, but she reproaches him for deluding her. He denies it, saying he's free of obligation to her, and so is she. He admits giving her diamond rings; she points out that he broke his vows to her, and married "the lassie with the land." He admits that too, but says *he* was deluded, and that he still thinks of his true-love. He wishes all wars were over (, that the soldiers may be called home from their war-brides,) and that they might meet again
KEYWORDS: love marriage accusation promise abandonment betrayal lover wife
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #175, pp. 2-3, "My He'rt It Is Sair"; #119, p. 3, ("The slower that the fire burns the sweeter is the maut"); #166, p. 2, ("Begone, young man, you deceived me") (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan6 1165, "My He'rt It Is Sair" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 150, "The Deluded Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 78-79, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 1, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3479 and 6289
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Deluded Lover" (on IRTunneyFamily01, FSBFTX15)
Paddy Tunney, "As I Roved Out" (on IRPTunney02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sarah Scott" (theme: girl deserted by man who marries for money or land)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Briar and the Rose
NOTES [618 words]: Schmuck. - PJS
The final verse of this song wishes that "the Queen would call home her armies From England, Ireland, from Amerikay and Spain." This strongly implies a date in the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714) and the War of the Spanish Succession; Elizabeth I had no armies in America (though she did fight Spain), and Victoria, though she had armies in North America if you count Canada as British, was no longer involved in Spain.
The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713) did keep British troops on the continent (mostly in the Low Countries) far longer than previous wars, and there were also troops stationed in Ireland for long periods for fear of Jacobite activities. So foreign marriages did become a possibility. - RBW
While Michael Gallagher's recording has the title "The Deluded Lover" he himself introduces the song as "As I Roved Out."
Tunney-StoneFiddle calls this "'As I Roved Out' or 'The False Bride'." This doesn't seem in any way related to "The False Bride." Tunney's melody is the one used by Planxty for "As I Roved Out" on Planxty -- The Well Below the Valley on LP Shanachie 79010 (1979). Perhaps "The False Bride" is a typo for a title mentioned on p. 137, viz., "The Forsaken Bride."
Peter Boyle's notes to IRPTunney02: "The song sung here has been equated, rightly or wrongly, with the English ballad 'The False Bride' (BBC Recorded Programmes Library), but to me it seems rather to be a mixture of two or three themes taken over from Provencal folk poetry, and one really Irish theme -- that of land hunger. Easily recognizable in the verses are (1) the love debate, (2) chanson de jeune fille, and (3) a folk-memory of amour courtois." In Tunney's own comment on IRPTunney02 considers land hunger one issue but speculates that the outcome might be blamed on a matchmaker making the best deal.
From "As I Roved Out on a Bright May Morning" for Scottish Songs--Lyrics and Melodies at Glasgow Guide site: "A copy of this song was recently found in Russia, by Dr. Urbanov, folded into the diary of a Captain Dougal Frazer who presumably died at Balaclava in the Crimean war around 1853, as a member of the 93rd Highland Regiment, under Sir Colin Campbell, one time Aide de Camp to the Duke of Wellington." [For Colin Campbell, commander of the Highland Brigade at Alma, see e.g. "The Kilties in the Crimea," "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)," and "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10] - RBW]
O Boyle writes .".. in part it is the voice of land-hungry Ireland -- but where does the word 'lassie' come from?" It seems to me that the Irish ballad may just be an abbreviated Scottish ballad. That would explain "lassie" and may mean that the land issue, which is central to the Irish versions, is preserved because of Irish land hunger of the 19th Century. The singer's complaint that his friends "conveyed me to yon church" and his "lips said Yes at their request" does not survive in the Irish versions we have because the land itself is sufficient motivation, well understood by all Irish listeners.
The last verse, so seemingly out of place in the Irish versions, is made clear by the Scottish versions:
But O gin the king wid gie command
Through Italy, through France, and Spain
To every married man to forsake his own wife
And return back to his own sweetheart again.
The singer is not asking for an end of war but for the king's command (to war again?) that every married man would have to leave his wife.
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's view (p. 373) is that "the Queen will not only recall her soldiers but, in so doing, will also call them away from women they have married while abroad." I don't think that resolves the marriage for land issue. - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K150

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