Nobleman's Wedding, The (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31]

DESCRIPTION: A man disguises himself to attend the wedding of the girl he loved before he went away. He sings a song that reminds her of her unfaithfulness and promises to return her love token. She swoons and returns to her mother's home. She dies before morning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: disguise wedding infidelity death grief hardheartedness jealousy love marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Laws P31, "The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 165-166, "The Faultless Bride" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 105, "The Awful Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 59, "The Famous Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #20, "The Bride's Death" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H60a, pp. 400-401, "An Old Lover's Wedding"; H60b, p. 401, "The Laird's Wedding" (2 texts, 2 tune, the second mixed with "All Around My Hat")
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 56, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #24, pp. 1-2, "The Orange and Blue" (1 text); #88, p. 2, ("Oh, how could you sit at another man's table?") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1199, "Down in Yon Valley" (24 texts, 14 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 132-133, "The Unconstant Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 21, "The Penitent Bride"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, pp. 235-236, "The Wedding" (2 texts)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 124-125, "Late Last Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 164, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 31, "Down in My Garden" (1 text)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 4, "All Around My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 3, "All Round My Hat" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 201, "Broken Hearted Bride" (1 text)
Purslow-MarrowBones, pp. 61-62, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 1, "Another Man's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 158-159, "Green Willow" (1 text, probably this piece though not so listed by Laws)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 75, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 691-697, "Nobleman's Wedding" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 30, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 142-143, "To Wear a Green Willow" (1 text)
DT 509, NOBLEWED
ST LP31 (Partial)
Roud #567
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Another Man's Wedding" (on Voice06, IREButcher01)
Daisy Chapman, "Down in the Valley" (on SCDChapman01)
Sara Cleveland, "To Wear a Green Willow" (on SCleveland01)
Joe Heaney, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (on FSBFTX15)
Bride Power, "The Fatal Wedding" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jim Rice, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
F. Sutton, "Gay Wedding" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Maude Thacker, "The Famous Wedding" (on FolkVisions1 -- a very confused version)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel" ("change the green and yellow for the orange and blue") and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Green Willow Tree
The Forsaken Lover
The Inconstant Lover
The False Bride
NOTES [75 words]: According to Hazlitt's Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore, to wear the willow meant that one had been forsaken by a lover. For more in this theme, see the notes to "All Around My Hat (I)."
Roud lumps this with "All Around My Hat." That's *really* a stretch, even though some versions of this use that title. - RBW
The "Awful Wedding" subgroup ("I'll tell you of an awful wedding"), despite the similarity in titles, is *not* "The Fatal Wedding." - PJS, RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: LP31

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