False, False Hae Ye Been To Me, My Love

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that her love is false, ans says "I'm afraid that you're ne'er mair mine." She compares her fate to climbing a tree too high, or rowing against a stream. She says she will yet climb a still taller tree and come down to a true love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Christina MacAllister)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 60, "False, False Hae Ye Been To Me, My Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, FALSTOME*
Roud #8276
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)"
NOTES [85 words]: MacColl and Seeger note that this is a member of the large class of betrayal songs combined with a demand for, or a curse of, the impossible; "The False Young Man" is another song with this sort of thing. They note that the final stanza, about climbing a higher tree, floats (though it doesn't always show up in the songs they list). But they also regard this as a separate song.
I incline to agree. While it is a typical item of this type, the lyrics are unusual enough to warrant separate classification. - RBW
File: McCST060

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