The False Bride
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English
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
The week before Easter, the day being fair
The sun shining brightly, cold frost in the air
I went into the forest some flowers to find there
And there I did pick my love a posy.
O I loved a lass and I loved her so well
I hated all others who spoke of her ill
But now she's rewarded me well for my love
For she's gone and she's married another.
When I saw my love to the church go
With bridesmen and bridesmaids she made a fine show
And I followed on with my heart full of woe
To see my love wed to another.
The parson who married them aloud he did cry
All that forbid it I'd have you draw nigh
Thought I to myself I'd have a good reason why
Though I had not the heart to forbid it.
And when I saw my love sit down to meat
I sat down beside her but nothing could eat
I thought her sweet company better than meat
Although she was tied to another.
And when the bridesmaidens had dressed her for bed
I stepped in amongst them and kissed the bride
And wished that I could have been laid by her side
And by that means I'd got me the favour.
The men in yon forest they are asking me
How many wild strawberries grow in the salt-sea
And I answer them back with a tear in my eye
How many ships sail in the forest.
Go dig me a grave that is long, wide and deep
And cover it over with flowers so sweet
That I may lay down there and take a long sleep
And that's the best way to forget her.
So they've dug him a grave and they've dug it so deep
And they've covered it over with flowers so sweet
And he has lain down there to take a long sleep
And maybe by now he's forgotten.
"The False Bride" also known as "I Once Loved a Lass" or "A Week Before<br> Easter" is a British folk song. The age of the song is uncertain, but<br> versions of it date at least as far back as the 1680s. Although widely<br> believed to be a Scottish song, the earliest record of it is from<br> Newcastle upon Tyne.<br> The song's theme is of unrequited love.<br> Ewan MacColl wrote in the notes to his 1956 album Classic Scots Ballads:<br> "Songs of jilted and forsaken lovers are common enough in Scotland but,<br> for the most part, they tend to be ironical rather than pathetic in feeling.<br> 'There are plenty more fish in the sea' is the philosophy of our jilted<br> heroes and heroines. In this curious little song, however, the jilted lover,<br> after attending his ex-sweetheart's nuptials, just lies down and dies."<br> A. L. Lloyd's album notes state:<br> "A version of this sad, tender song was printed on a Newcastle broadsheet<br> in the 1680s, but it may be more than three hundred years old. A feeble<br> prettied version, called The False Nymph, was current in concert halls<br> in the eighteenth century. But as often happens, the common people<br> preserved the song in much finer form than fashionable folk had it.<br> It seems to have lasted best in the South, for several sets have turned<br> up in Somerset, Devon and Sussex."<br> It appears in the Roud Index of Folk Songs as #154. It was printed in<br> The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.<br> Cecil Sharp collected "The False Bride" in 1904 in Hambridge, Somerset.<br> It was recorded by Ewan McColl, A.L. Lloyd, Bob Copper, Archie Fisher,<br> Louis Killen, Pentangle and others.<br> The tune was used for "Dancing at Whitsun" by Austin John Marshall and <br> "Birmimgham Sunday" by Richard Fariņa.<br> I usually play this as a dulcimer medley with "Derwentwater's Farewell".<br>
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