When I Was Young (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments married life, saying when she was young she lived well and happily, but now she lives in poverty and misery. The chorus warns, "Ye'd better be a maiden as a poor man's wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850
KEYWORDS: poverty marriage warning
FOUND IN: Britain(North,West,South) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "WHEN I WAS A MAID"
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 102, "When I Was Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 156-157, "When I Was a Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BTTRSNGL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 27, #1 (1978), p, 15, "It's Better to be Single Than a Poor Man's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune, the Margaret Barry version)
Roud #894
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "It's Better to be Single Than a Poor Man's Wife" (on Barry-Gorman1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" (theme)
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)" (theme)
cf. "Do You Love an Apple?" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
NOTES [46 words]: Obviously, this is extremely close to the songs listed as cross-references, and they have either cross-fertilized or share a common ancestor, but it has a distinctly different chorus, emphasizing being a poor man's wife, and as such I think it deserves a separate listing. -PJS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: VWL102

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