Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25]

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl telling of the grief her false love has left her. She seeks a flower in the meadow to ease her mind; none meet her needs. She makes a bed of flowers, asks for a marble stone on her grave and a turtle dove at her breast, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: death separation flowers grief
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So) Britain(England(Lond,North,South),(Scotland(Aber,Bord)))
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws P25, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair"
Greig/Duncan6 1170, "In Halifax Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #73, p. 246-248, "I Wish, I Wish (Love Has Brought Me to Despair (Laws P25)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 43, "Slighted Love" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 34, "Died of Love" (2 texts)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 92-95, "Died of Love or A brisk young lad he courted me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 52, "There Is an Alehouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #42, "A Brisk Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 58, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 116, p. 176, "The Auxville Love" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 144, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #28, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 7, "The Sailor's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, rather short, and with elements of "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24}, "Tavern in the Town," and perhaps even "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25]; if I had to file it with one, it would probably be "The Butcher Boy," but I'm not sure; Roud lists it as #60, which is both "Tavern in the Town" and "Love Has Brought Me to Despair")
MidwestFolklore, Ed Cray, "Some Rarities from Arkansas"," Volume 9, Number 1 (Spring 1959) p. 23, "Through the Meadow She Ran" (1 text)
DT 824, LOVDISPR*
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "I Wish My Baby Was Born" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
Geoff Ling, "Died for Love" (on Voice10)
Dellie Norton, "When I Wore My Apron Low" (on DarkHoll)
Berzilla Wallin, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (on OldLove, DarkHoll)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24]
cf. "Tavern in the Town"
NOTES [126 words]: This song has close ties with "Tavern in the Town," often sharing stanzas and, of course, a similarity of plot. Roud, in fact, lumps them (which seems a bit excessive to me). This may help explain why Laws failed to note either the Combs or the Cox version. - RBW
The floating verses "Once I wore my apron low," etc., provide connections to "Careless Love" (R793). - DGE
And Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 190-192, has a piece, "The Oxfordshire Tragedy," beginning "Near Woodstock Town, in Oxfordhire, As I walked forth to take the air," lyrics which occur in some versions of this. The plot in Chappell's text resembles this, but is extremely long; I wonder if this might have been influenced by a boiled-down version of Chappel's broadside. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: LP25

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