No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3]

DESCRIPTION: The girl says she has been waiting long enough for marriage. Her sweetheart, who thinks marriage too "confining," suggests she find someone else. She does, and invites him to her wedding. He tries to talk her out of the marriage, but it is too late
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding infidelity rejection
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws P3, "No Sign of a Marriage"
Greig/Duncan4 895, "The Tardy Wooer" (15 texts, 10 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 83-84, "The Tardy Wooer" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 233, "Down in the North Country" (1 text)
Randolph 111, "Polly and Willie" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 149, "Indeed Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 203, "No Sign of a Marriage" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 203, "No Sign of a Marriage" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 542-544, "A Lad and a Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 233-235, "A Lad and a Lass (No Sign of Marriage)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 725, NOSIGN
Roud #582
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "A Lad and a Lass" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Polly
In London There Lived a Man and a Maiden
Down in Yon Meadow
In London of Late
When a Man's Married
NOTES [97 words]: This is another of the pieces that Laws assigns to Britain on little evidence (there is a mention of a promise of "five hundred pounds"). The only versions known to Laws or the editors of the Brown collection are the two North Carolina texts in Brown.
It may be, however, that this was an error in the printed edition of Laws, because there *is* a British equivalent in "The Tardy Wooer." I initially split these following Laws -- but in fact they even share lyrics, and so are now lumped. - RBW
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Gillespie: "Learned from mother fifty years ago. Noted 1905." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LP03

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