7J. I Know My Love (by His Way of Walking)
[This Irish song, titled "I Know My Love" (abbreviated from its opening line) or titled "I Know My Love by His Way of Walking" from its complete opening line, is related to the Died for Love songs by its theme and by three similar stanzas. The last stanza ("There is a dance house in Maradyke") in particular was adapted from a core stanza found in various Died for Love songs including "Alehouse," "Brisk Young Lover" and "Butcher Boy."
The opening stanza which identifies "I Know My Love" appears:
I know my love by his way of walking,
And I know my love by his way of talking,
And I know my love drest in a suit of blue;
And if my love leaves me what will I do?[1]
A ballad/song from the larger "Died for Love" song family-- the Scottish song, Will Ye Gang Love-- has a somewhat similar construction and sentiment to the "I Know My Love" chorus[2]:
"I Know My Love" Chorus: And still she cried, I love him the best,
And a-troubled mind, sure, can know no rest.
But still she cried, Bonnie boys are few.
And if my love l'aves me, what will I do?[3]
"Will Ye Gang Love" Chorus: "Will you go and leave me now?
"Will you go and leave me now?
Will you forsake you're own true love
And go with a lass you never knew?"
Both choruses end with a question and share the theme with Died for Love songs; A maid falls in love and is abandoned, or in this case, fears abandonment, by a false lover. The chorus of "I Know My Love" is similar to the opening stanza and ends with a similar question. The 3rd line of the chorus is found similarly in the Died for Love songs but with a different ending:
But still she cried, Bonnie boys are few,
Don't trade the old one for the new.
"Don't trade the old one for the new" the modern UK variant of Butcher Boy titled Maiden's Prayer as well as in other songs from the extended family including, "Blue-Eyed Boy." Three stanzas associated with the "Died for Love" songs are found in "I Know My Love"-- the most common is the standard "alehouse" stanza. It appears in "I Know My Love" as the last stanza:
There is a dancehouse in Mar-(a)-dyke[4],
And ‘tis there my dear love goes every night;
And he takes a strange one all on his knee,
And don't you think but it troubles me?[5]
Another stanza, much less common, is the "card and spin" stanza:
If my love knew I could wash and wring,
And if my love knew I could weave and spin,
I could make a suit all of the finest kind.
But the want of money it l'aves me behind.[6]
The "card and spin" stanza appears in the early Died for Love broadsides and is associated with Foolish Young Girl (Irish Boy). Here's the stanza as it appears in The Maid's Tragedy, a broadside dated c1790, from St. Bride's Printing Library, London.
My love knows I can wash and wring
My love knows I can card and spin
All for to keep his clothing fine
Why did he go and leave me behind.
The tradition of "I Know My Love" stems from a single Irish version of the same title as sung about 1904 by Donat Nono. It was collected and published with music by Helen Laird in the Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, London, Volume 2, 1905. Nono's song is four stanzas with a chorus that resembles the 1st stanza. The first stanza and chorus are unique; the "alehouse" stanza common to the Died for Love songs and the "card and spin" is a floating stanza sometimes found in early versions of Died for Love. The penultimate stanza of "I Know My Love" is found in the similar but unrelated ballad "My Bonnie Irish Boy" and also as the opening stanza of a Died For Love broadside, "Queen of Hearts":
1. O my poor heart my poor heart is breaking
For a false young man I'm quite mistaken
He is gone to Ireland long time to tarry,
Some Irish girl I am afraid he will marry. [Pitts broadside "Queen of Hearts' c. 1820s]
"I Know my Love" is a different ballad/song[7] than Roud 60 but is related through a common stanza and two floating ones. Helen Laird's first version of two stanzas and a chorus was collected from her brother and published by Laird with tune in Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, London, Volume 1 in April 1904. According to Laird[8]: "I got this song very indirectly. I learned it from my brother, who got it from a friend who, I believe, heard one of his men sing it in his tan-yard in Limerick; but I believe it is known through Clare and Galway. Dr. Douglas Hyde told me he heard it at the Galway Feis with alternate verses in Irish."
Laird's first version was reprinted in Herbert Hughes' Irish Country Songs (Volume 1 - page 70) in 1909; the second version was included in Anthology of Irish Verse edited by Padraic Colum, 1922 and in other publications[9]. It's this longer version that is the source for most of the revival recordings by The Dubliners, The Corrs, The Clancy Brothers, The Chieftains, Jimmy Crowley and Stokers Lodge and others[10]. Here is Dono's 1904 text:
"I Know My Love" from Donat Nono of Ennis, collected in Clare.
I know my love by his way of walking,
And I know my love by his way of talking,
And I know my love drest in a suit of blue;
And if my love l'aves me what will I do?
Chorus: And still she cried, I love him the best,
And a-troubled mind, sure, can know no rest.
But still she cried, Bonnie boys are few.
And if my love l'aves me, what will I do?
If my love knew I could wash and wring,
And if my love knew I could weave and spin,
I could make a suit all of the finest kind.
But the want of money it l'aves me behind.
Chorus.
Alas, my love he's an errant rover.
And, sure, he'll travel the wide world over,
For in dear old Ireland he'll no longer tarry,
For an English damsel[11] he'll surely marry.
Chorus.
There is a dance house in Mar-(a)-dyke,
And 'tis there my dear love goes every night;
And he takes a strange one all on his knee,
And don't you think but it troubles me?
Chorus.
Dono's version entered tradition and it was taken from an already established tradition. Subsequent minor changes from recent versions include a variation on the last line,
There is a dance house in Maradyke
Where my true love goes almost every night
And he takes a strange girl upon his knee
And he does to her what he won't do to me.
which resembles the types of stanzas and variations found in the Died for Love songs (Alehouse; Brisk Young Lover; Butcher Boy).
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. From an early Irish version "I Know My Love" as sung by Donat Nono, 1904. Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, London, Volume 2 by Irish Folk Song Society by Helen Laird.
2. This is a translation of the Scottish version which originally appeared:
Will ye gang love and leave me noo
Will ye gang love and leave me noo?
Will ye forsake your own true love
And gang wi' a lass that you never knew?
3. Taken from "I Know My Love" as sung by Donat Nono, 1904- IFSS.
4. Mardyke is an area by the river Lee in Cork.
5. Taken from "I Know My Love" as sung by Donat Nono, 1904- IFSS.
6. Ibid.
7. There may be some that include "I Know My Love" as a version of Roud 60 but it has a very different form with a chorus and it's opening stanza is unique. Two of the stanzas in common are not usually considered standard Died for Love stanzas. Only one stanza is definitely in common: "There is a dance house in Maradyke,"
8. From the Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, London, Volume 1 By Irish Folk Song Society by Helen Laird, 1904.
9. Two such Dublin revival publications in the 60s were "Folk magazine vol. 1, no. 8" Dublin: Folk Enterprises Ltd., 1969 and
"Odds and ends song book," Dublin: Nugent and Co., [n.d.].
10. A large number of recordings have been made internationally. Another important Irish recording is The McPeak family in 1963.
11. Footnote from Helen Laird in IFFS: I have substituted "damsel" for a courser word [whore] which I got in the original; it is more usually sung as above.