7K. Love Is Teasing (Love Is Pleasing) Roud 1049
A. "Hey trollie lollie" stanza from Thomas Wood's MSS dated before 1620 by Child but probably c1540. From Stewart Style, 1513-1542: Essays on the Court of James V p. 175 by Janet Hadley Williams, 1996. [See Appendix]
B. Stanza from "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" from Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, the second volume, published before 1727; here from the Dublin edition of 1729, p. 176.
C. "Oh Johnie, Johnie, but love is bonnie" stanza from Motherwell c. 1824 from The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, by Francis J. Child, originally published in ten volumes from 1882-1898; Volume 7, published December of 1890.
D. "Love is Pleasing." Sung by Mrs Gulliver of Somerset in May of 1905, collected by H.E. Hammond.
E. "Love it is Pleasing," Single stanza from Alexander Robb of Aberdeenshire in 1906 (Greig-Duncan VI, No.1166, p. 252).
F. "Love is Teasing," sung by Mrs. Hopkins of Axford, Hampshire, October of 1907; view at VW online; collected by G. Gardiner.
G. "Love is Sweet," Single stanza from Sharp MS 1916 Carmen, NC
H. "Love It Is Easing" collected by Alfred Williams as sung by Mrs. Lucy Jane Lee, of South Marston, Wiltshire, no date given but published in 1916.
I. "Tis youth and Folly." Fragment sung by Mr. Dedalus from Cork from "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce, 1922.
J. Oh Love is Pleasing- Jean Ritchie 1947 in NYC collected from Peggy Stanton, who learned it in Co. Sligo, Eire.
K. "Keg Of Brandy" sung by Mike Molloy of St. Shott's Newfoundland , 1951 collected by MacEdward Leach.
L. "Love is Bonnie" Willie Mathieson, 1952 of Aberdeenshire collected by Hamish Henderson,
M. Love is Easing- Single stanza sung by Sarah Makem, 1955 County Armagh recorded Diane Hamilton on Musical Traditions Records-As I Roved Out (MTCD353-5)
N. "Love Is Lovely" Collected by Kenneth Peacock in 1958 from Isaac Freeman Bennett [1896-1981] of St Paul's, NL,
O. "Love is Teasin' " sung in December, 1959 by Lucy Stewart of Aberdeenshire
P. "Love is Easy," sung by Mrs. Frasier Ontario 1961 was collected in Ontario by Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke.
Q. "Love is Pleasing" Dubliners 1964
R. "Oh What Needs I Go Busk and Braw" Elizabeth Stewart 1966
S. "Love is Pleasin'," West Virginia Michael Bush 1967
T. "Love Is Teasing" sung by Dolly MacMahon, the wife of the late Ciarán Mac Mathúna. It was recorded at Kilrush Fleadh Cheoil, County Clare in the Summer of 1967.
U. "Love It's Pleasing," sung by Jim Dempsey in 1968, County Wexford, Hugh Shields; http://d232364.sitehosting.ie/data/imco/C32046b-LoveIt'sPleasing.htm
V. "Oh Love is Fair" sung by Obray Ramsey, Madison North Carolina c. 1970 learned from his grandmother.
W. "Love is Teasing" from Spinners, 1972 recording
X. "I Never Thought My Love Would Leave Me," sung by June Tabor on "Abyssinians" (1983) from Isabel Sutherland who collected this song from one of the Stewarts at Blairgowrie.
[Although "Love Is Teasing" (also titled "Love Is Pleasing[1]") has its own Roud number, 1049, the song will be inexorably linked to "Waly, Waly" because the "Love is Teasing" identifying stanza appears, although amended, as a central stanza in "Waly, Waly." Stanzas from "Waly Waly, are also held in common with Child 204, Jamie Douglas, linking "Love is Teasing" to an ancestry much different than the Died for Love songs. The ancestry is founded on four main broadsides and their relatives; the first, "Arthur's Seat," circa 1700 is closely tied with Waly, Waly; the second, "Wheel of Fortune" dates back to the early 1800s; the third "Unfortunate Swain" is dated circa 1750, and the last "I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober," is a broadside dated circa 1800. Added to stanzas from these main broadsides and Waly, Waly, are stanzas borrowed from the Died for Love songs. Here's the identifying stanza as found in Waly, Waly and also Jamie Douglas[2]:
"Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany.
3 Waly, waly! but love be bony
A little time, while it is new;
But when 't is auld, it waxeth cauld,
And fades away like morning dew.
"Jamie Douglas" from Motherwell's Manuscript.
2 Oh Johnie, Johnie, but love is bonnie
A little while, when it is new;
But when love grows aulder, it grows mair caulder,
And it fades awa like the mornin dew.
Two opening stanzas, similar to Motherwell's, were recovered in Antrim (published in 1897) and another titled "Oh Johnny, Johnny" was published by Sam Henry in his 1924 newspaper column (see 7Ka. Oh Johnny, Johnny for those texts). The remaining stanzas of those versions, however, have little to do with this study. A somewhat similar stanza with "Love is Bonnie" was sung by Willie Mathieson of Aberdeenshire in 1952 which should be given here:
Love is bonnie, bonnie, bonnie,
A little whilie when it is new;
As it grows older it aye grows colder,
Fades away like the morning dew.
Mathieson used his stanza as a chorus and it is an integral part in his version as well as providing an important link to the past. Here's a standard identifying stanza except freezin' should be pleasin'. It's taken from a stanza sung Lucy Stewart of Aberdeenshire[3]:
Love is Teasin'
Love it is teasin', love it is freezin'
A little while, when it is new,
But as it grows older, it grows the colder
And it fades awa' like the mornin' dew.
Just because the identifying stanza is present in a ballad or song does not mean that it is a version of "Love is Teasing." This misconception of categorization also is evident in other ballads and songs where one floating stanza becomes the title of the song. Examples of other single floating stanzas that name songs are "Deep in Love," or "Must I Go Bound?" In these single stanza cases, the stanza reverts to the name of its fundamental broadside or antecedent unless:
1. it is given that title by the informant
2. it is the first stanza
3. or, as in Mathieson's version-- it is the chorus.
The "Love is Teasing' stanza in different forms is found in a large number of related songs and ballads. Its closest antecedent is found as a stanza in early 1900s versions of "Wheel of Fortune," a broadside and song which dates back to the early 1700s. The identifying stanza for Love is Teasin' is much older. In his books, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads[4], Child points out that a "stanza closely resembling the third of this song occurs in a Yule medley in Wood's Manuscripts, about 1620." I've added a translation below in brackets:
Hey trollie lollie, love is jolly
A qhyll qhill it is new;
Qhen it is old, it grows full cold,
Woe worth the love untrew!
[Hey trollie lollie, love is jolly,
A while, while it is new,
When it is old, it grows full cold,
Woe befalls the love untrue.]
This stanza has been more recently dated back in the 1500s[5], showing that "Love is Teasing" has the oldest extant identifying stanza of the songs related to Died for Love. The role of this archaic stanza in "Died for Love" is usually secondary and stanzas found in versions of "Love Is Teasing" are usually floaters or filler stanzas. Conversely stanzas from Waly, Waly are rarely found in the Died for Love songs since Died for Love is influenced by different early broadsides: Nelly's Constancy and the similar "The Jealous Lover or, The Damosel's Complaint" with borrowing from the parallel broadside, "Constant Lady and the False-Hearted Squire." The "Died for Love" stanzas are the Brisk Young Lover's "Alehouse" stanzas, the suicide (Rambling Boy/Cruel Father/Maiden's Prayer) stanzas, The Foolish Girl stanzas, the "I Wish, I Wish" stanzas and the Died for Love ending (Dig my grave both wide. . .). Of these diverse elements, only the "I Wish, I Wish" stanzas seem to have kept a tie with Love is Teasing. In tradition many of the members of the Died for Love family have the "Go Dig a Grave" ending stanza. This is common in Sailor Boy, and happens at least once in Love is Teasing.
Perhaps this relationship with the Died For Love "I Wish" stanza is caused by a similar stanza found in Arthur's Seat, a broadside with stanzas in common with Waly, Waly[6]:
Oh, oh! if my young Babe were born,
and set upon the Nurses Knee,
And I my self were dead and gone,
for a Maid again I'le never be. [Arthur's Seat]
Arthur's Seat also has the "Should I be bound that may go free?/should I Love them that Loves not me?" found in other songs in the extended "Died for Love" family. The close relationship between "The Unfortunate Swain/Picking Lilies" broadsides which are the antecedent of both "Must I Go Bound" and "Deep in Love" as well as sharing with "Waly, Waly," creates a complex relationship that can only be understood by looking at stanzas of specific song texts.
In an unusual version of "Love is Teasing" sung by Lucy Stewart of Aberdeenshire, from the family of Fetterangus Stewarts, the Love is Teasing stanzas at the beginning seem to simply replace the "Died for Love" stanzas about the alehouse, infidelity and money, as if they were interchangeable-- the last three Died for Love stanzas are kept. It's easy to conceptualize how this could occur since both songs are about the lost of love and abandonment:
Love is Teasin' - sung in December, 1959 by Lucy Stewart of Aberdeenshire[7].
Oh whit needs I go busk an' braw
Oh whit needs I tae cam my hair
When my false lover has me forsaken
And he says he'll never love me [any] mair[8],
And he says he'll never love me [any] mair.
I leaned my back into an oak[9]
I thought it was a trusty tree
At first it stood till its branches grew
And shaded by false love tae me
And shaded by false love tae me
Love it is teasin', love it is freezin'
A little while, [when] it is new,
But as it grows older, it grows the colder
And it fades awa' like the mornin' dew.
And it fades awa' like the mornin dew.
Oh when my aperon was tae me shin,
My love he keepit my company,
But noo my aperon is tae my chin,
And he passes the door and he never looks in,
And he passes the door and he never looks in.
I wish my baby it was born,
And sit upon the nurse's knee,
And me in the grave now was laid
And the green, green grass waving over me
And the green, green grass waving over me.
I wish I wish in vain,
I wish I was a maid again,
But a maid again I ne'er can be
Till the orange grows on the apple tree
Till the orange grows on the apple tree.
The family title is "Oh What Needs I Go Busk and Braw" and a version is also sung by Elizabeth Stewart. The first stanza is from Waly, Waly as is the second which is also found in Unfortunate Swain. The 3rd stanza is the identifying stanza found in Waly, Waly although the first line is changed. Although the last three stanzas are all taken from Died for Love, the 5th stanza is also found in Arthur's Seat. Another version from an unknown Stewart was collected by Isabel Sutherland and later sung by June Tabor.
Besides the core stanzas from Waly, Waly and related broadsides, other floating stanzas are also found that depict a false lover who has left. By the late 1800s "Love is Teasing" became attached to another old broadside "Wheel of Fortune." The earliest song by that title was sung by bass singer Richard Leveridge (1670-1758) at the Theatre Royal in Lincolns Inn Fields[10] between 1714 and 1750. Whether Leveridge's song is the same "Wheel" is unknown. What is known is the text associated with Love is Teasing was published under the "Wheel of Fortune" title many times the 1800s. The "Wheel of Fortune" texts published in nine or ten stanza versions are available (see 7U. Wheel of Fortune for texts) and one broadside may be viewed online at Bodleian broadsides online[11]. Christie also published a version in 1876 from tradition, which was supplemented by stanzas from print, in his Traditional Ballad Airs. Here are the related four stanzas of "Wheel" that formed the standard UK version stanzas of "Love is Teasing" by the late 1800s:
Wheel of Fortune
When I was young I was much beloved
By all the young men in the country ;
When I was blooming all in my blossom,
A false young lover deceived me.
I did not think he was going to leave me,
Till the next morning when he came in;
Then he sat down and began a-talking,
Then all my sorrows did begin.
I left my father, I left my mother;
I left my sister and brothers too;
And all my friends and old aquaintance,
I left them all to go with you.
If I had known before I had courted,
That love had been so ill to win,
I wad locked my heart in a chest of gold,
And pon'd it with a silver pin.
The traditional UK versions of the late 1800s and 1900s have used the identifying stanza "Love is Teasing" as the chorus and the "Wheel of Fortune" stanzas as verses. A familiar "maid's warning" stanza, found similarly in other songs[12], appears at the end. Here's a version collected by Gardiner that was sung by Mrs. Hopkins of Axford, Hampshire in October, 1907:
Love is Teasing
1. Once I was young and well belov-ed
Lived in cottage down by the sea,
When I am old and in full blossom,
This false young man deceiv-ed me.
So love is teasing, love is pleasing,
Love is a pleasure while it's new;
But as it gets older it's sure to grow colder,
And dies away like the morning dew.
2. I left my father, I left my mother,
I left my brothers and sisters too;
I left my home and my kind relations,
And that was all for the love of you.
3. I did not know he was a-going to leave me,
Until next morning when he came in;
He sat him down and began to tell me,
And that was the time my sorrow did begin.
4. Now, all young maids by me take warning,
And not by false men be led astray
For they are like a star on a foggy morning
When they ought to be here they are far away.
The last stanza is well-known in the related "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies." The second stanza is also commonly found in "The Rambling Boy" which is Died for Love, C. The following popular version was collected by Jean Ritchie in NYC in 1947 from the singing of Peggy Stanton, who learned it in Co. Sligo, Eire[13]:
Love is Teasin'
Love is teasing, love is pleasing
Love is a jewel when first 'tis new
But love grows older then waxes colder
And fades away like morning dew.
I left my father, I left my mother
I left my brothers and sisters too
I left my home and kind relations
I left them all just to follow you.
O, if I'd known before I courted
That love had-a been such a killin' thing
I'd have locked my heart in a box of golden
And pinned it up with a silver pin.
I never thought when love was a-borning
That it would grow wings and fly away
How many a bright sunshiny morning
Turns out a dark and a dreary day.
So girls, beware of false true lovers
And never mind what they do or say
They're like the stars on a summer's morning
You think they're near and they're far away.
Love is teasing, love is pleasing
Love is a jewel when first 'tis new
But love grows older then waxes colder
And fades away like morning dew.
The Irish version collected and later performed by Ritchie adds a stanza and one variation to the basic Wheel of Fortune stanzas. Here's another standard English version titled "Love It Is Easing[sic]" collected by Alfred Williams in Wiltshire County[14]:
When I was young and well beloved,
'Twas by a man of this country,
He courted me both late and early,
While he gained his free will of me.
Oh, love it is easing, and love it is teasing,
Love is a pleasure while it is new;
But when it grows older it still grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
I never thought he was going to leave me,
Until one day as he came in;
He threw himself down and began to tell me,
And then my troubles they did begin.
I left my father, I left my mother,
I left my brothers and sisters too;
I left my home and my relations,
I left them all for the sake of you.
Adieu, adieu, to all false lovers,
Adieu, adieu unto my dear;
You’re like a star on a winter’s morning,
You’re far away when you ought to be near.
The last stanza is a different variant of the "maid's warning" stanza and it retains the "Wheel of Fortune" stanzas. One variant of Love is Teasin' recorded by the Spinners, a UK folk group, included a variant of the "Wheel of Fortune" identifying stanza[15]:
Oh turn around love, you wheel of fortune[16]
Oh turn around love, and smile at me
Oh surely there must be a place of torment
For this young girl who deceived me.
Another version collected by Mellinger Henry in Tennessee[17] titled "Come, Roll 'round the Wheel of Fortune" has the identifying stanza and two other stanzas used in Love is Teasing but lacks the Love is Teasing stanza. Two Irish variants, 'Ripest of apples" and "False Lover" (Sam Henry Collection), use stanzas from Wheel of Fortune but do not have the identifying stanza.
The identifying stanza for Love is Teasing changed in the early 1800s and was used in a variety of different songs and ballads. An example of this change is found in the c.1800 broadside, "I'm Often Drunk And Seldom Sober[18]":
If love is handsome, and love is pretty,
And love is charming while it's new,
But as love grows older it grows much colder
But fades away like the morning dew.
This broadside also has the identifying stanza for the Waly, Waly variant, "The Water is Wide." The Love is Teasing stanza with a slightly changed 1st line was also known about this date in America. In Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion (1845) came the following stanza, the only stanza given from an unknown song[19] called "The Legacy":
O love is charming, oh love is bonny,
Oh love is charming all when 'tis new;
But when 'tis older it waxes colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
The song "I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober" has been found in Newfoundland with the changed "Love is Pleasing" stanza. The Peacock version begins: "Oh love is lovely, oh love is charming," which is used as a chorus. The song is also known as "Keg of Bandy" from the opening line. Peacock titled the song, "Love is Lovely" which he collected in 1958 from Isaac Freeman Bennett [1896-1981] of St Paul's, Newfoundland. I give the text in full:
"Love is Lovely"
I laid my head on a keg of brandy,
It was my fancy I do declare;
But while I'm drinking I'm ofttimes thinking
'Bout who should gain this young lady fair.
Oh love is lovely, oh love is charming,
Oh love is lovely when it is new,
But when love grows old, sure it then grows colder,
And it fades away like the morning dew.
2. Oh ofttimes drunk and cast down lonely,
I rove around oh from town to town,
And when my frolicking days are over,
This fair young damsel will lay me down.
3. I wish to God I was never born,
Or in my cradle I would have died;
For such a youth to be ever born,
To a-love a maid and be denied.
4. The ocean is wide and I can't wade over,
Neither have I got wings to fly,
But if I had some old skipper boat-man,
I would ferry me over my love and I.
5. Oh, ofttimes drunk and seldom sober,
A rolling stone looks so black as ink;
I will place my coat for the want of money,
And I'll sing no more till I get a drink!
Notice that stanza 4 is the identifying stanza for "Water is Wide" also found in the "I'm Often Drunk" broadside and that stanza 3 is a reworked stanza from Died for Love. Stanza 1 is a chorus in the Irish "Keg of Brandy," which is similar to the Newfoundland text- both are variants of "I'm Always Drunk." "Love is Lovely" is listed as Roud 1049 although it's clearly a separate variant with text from "I'm Often Drunk." Many of the Newfoundland songs and ballads are quite old, dating back to the late 1700s and early to mid 1800s when they were brought over from the UK. Without the "Love is Lovely" repeating chorus, this is a North American variant of "Water is Wide" was also found in the UK. Another parallel ballad, Peggy Gordon (Also Maggie Gordon) was published as a broadside in NY as early as 1824. Peggy Gordon is also similar to, or based on, "I'm Always Drunk" and has the "Water is Wide" stanza. The US and Canada ballads missing the Love is Teasing stanza with the "water is wide" stanza are mainly derived from "Peggy Gordon." Since Peggy Gordon is missing stanzas from Unfortunate Swain it is not similar to the "Water is Wide" versions in the UK.
Cecil Sharp published the first version[20] with the "Water is Wide" stanza in 1906 under the title "Waly, Waly:
[The Water is Wide]
1 The water is wide I cannot get o'er
And neither have I wings to fly.
Give me a boat that will carry two
And both shall row, my Love and I.
2 O, down in the meadows the other day
A-gath'ring flow'rs both fine and gay,
A-gathering flowers, both red and blue,
I little thought what love can do.
3 I put my hand into one soft bush
Thinking the sweetest flower to find.
I pricked my finger right to the bone,
And left the sweetest flower alone.
4 I leaned my back up against some oak
Thinking that he was a trusty tree:
But first he bended and then he broke;
And so did my false Love to me.
5 A ship there is and she sails the sea,
She's loaded deep as deep can be,
But not so deep as the love I'm in:
I know not if I sink or swim.
6 O, love is handsome and love is fine,
And love's a jewel while it is new,
But when it is old, it groweth cold
And fades away like morning dew.
This is the first published version of "The Water is Wide." Notice that the last stanza is the changed "Love is Teasing" stanza. Sharp's version is a compilation of several versions with the first stanza (the identifying stanza from "I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober" see also stanza 4 of Love is Lovely) having two different last lines-- apparently recreated by Sharp[21]. Otherwise, Sharp's compilation is made up stanzas from "The Unfortunate Swain."
* * * *
From Hooley's Songster[22] (see cover above) and other songsters published in the UK came a song called "What Can't be Cured" called a "banjo song" in the London songsters. The song is dated circa 1863. Here's the first verse:
WHAT CAN’T BE CURED
Banjo Song.
Oh, youth and folly
Make young men marry—
So, far thee well, love, I must away-
What can’t be cured, love,
Must be endured, love—-
So, far thee well, love, I must away!
The last three lines are used as the chorus. This text appears in a song known as "Youth and Folly." A version was collected in West Virginia in 1916 by Cox with the "Love is Teasing variant" stanza. It is a relative of "Fair and Tender Ladies" also known as "Little Sparrow" which also have the "Love is Teasing variant" stanza. Versions can be considered part of the extended "Waly, Waly" family.
"Youth and Folly" - Communicated by Miss Lalah Lovett, Bulltown, Braxton County, West Virginia 1916; obtained from John N. Wine, who learned it from his father[23].
1 Youth and folly make youngsters marry,
And when they're married they must obey;
For many a bright and sunshiny morning
Has turned to a dark and rainy day.
2 O love is warming, O love is charming,
Love 's quite handsome while it 's new!
But as love grows older, love grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
3 It was all in the sweet month of April,
While summer flowers were in their bloom,
Trees were budding, sweet birds were singing:
Times ain't with me as they have been.
4 Great Jehovah, have mercy on me!
My comrades, come to set me free;
I never courted but one fair lady;
Her name was Polly, she told me.
5 Polly, O Polly, you are my darling!
Come set yourself down awhile by me,
And tell to me the very reason
Why I was slighted so by thee.
6 I am in love, I dare not own it,
The very pain lies on my breast;
I am in love, and the whole world knows it,
That a troubled mind can find no rest.
7 I wish to God I never had seen you,
Or in my cradle I had died;
To think as nice a young man as I am
Should be in love and be denied.
8 I wish I was on some stormy ocean,
As far from land as I could be;
And sailing for some better country
Where there no grief could trouble me.
The first stanza is "What Can't Be Cured," the second is a "Love is Teasing variant" stanza.The other stanzas are found in "I'm Often Drunk" or are floating love stanzas. The seventh is a variant of Died for Love found in "I'm Often Drunk." Now let's look at another text from Cox of the well-known folk song "Little Sparrow":
"Young Ladies." Communicated by Mr. J. H. Shaffer, Newburg, Preston County, who obtained it from Mrs. A. R. Fike, Terra Alta. West Virginia.
1 Come all ye fair and handsome ladies,
Take warning how you court young men;
For they 're like a bright star on a summer's morning,
They first appear and then they 're gone.
2 They'll tell to you some flattering story,
And swear to God that they love you well,
And away they'll go and court some other,
And leave you here in grief to dwell.
3 I wish to God I never had seen him,
Or in his cradle he had died;
For to think so fair and handsome lady,
Was one in love and be denied.
4 I wish I was in some tall mountain,
Where the ivy rock is black as ink;
I would write a letter to my false lover,
Whose cheeks are like the morning pink.
5 I wish I was some little sparrow,
And one of them that could fly so high;
I would fly away to my true love's dwelling,
And when he would speak I would be close by.
6 1 would flutter in his bosom
With my little [ex] tended wings;
I would ask him, I would ask him,
Whose tender heart he had tried to stain.
7 My troubles now are just beginning,
My troubles like some mountain tall;
O I 'll sit down in grief and sorrow,
And there I'll talk my troubles o'er.
8 Love is handsome, love is charming,
Love is beauty while it's new;
Love grows older, love grows colder,
Fades away like morning dew.
The first stanza and identifying stanza is a modification of the "warning" stanza found as the last stanza in "Love is Teasing" (see the UK versions earlier in this article). The last stanza is the "Love is Teasing variant" stanza. The 7th stanza is modified from Love is Teasing/Wheel of Fortune while the 3rd is from "I'm Often Drunk" which is a modified "Died for Love" stanza. The song is related to Love is Teasing and has the overall theme of Died for Love (especially stanza 2): a maid falls in love with a false lover who has abandoned her.
In the late 1800s and 1900s the Love is Teasing stanza was mixed with Died for Love stanzas, "I'm Often Drunk" stanzas and the "What Can't Be Cured" stanza. Additionally, later in the 1980s, "I'm Often Drunk" was refashioned in the UK (Ireland, arranged by Robbie O'Connell) using the "cask of brandy" stanza as a chorus and became a variant titled, "Keg of Brandy" which resembled the Newfoundland texts.
An important early Love is Teasing fragment with these various new influences was published in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce, in 1922 (as sung by Mr. Dedalus from Cork):
"'Tis youth and folly, makes young men marry,
So here, my love, I'll no longer stay.
What can't be cured, sure, must be injured[endured], sure,
So I'll go to Amerikay.
My love she's handsome, my love she's bonny:
She's like good whisky, when it is new;
But when 'tis old, and growing cold
It fades and dies like the mountain dew.
Joyce's 1st stanza, found in "What Can't Be Cured" of the 1860s, is similarly found the ending of several Irish songs, "O'Reilly From The County Kerry" and "When First I Came to the County Limerick" (see also: Young Reilly) while his second stanza is "Love is Teasing." Now let's look at the Dubliners' text as sung by Ronnie Drew and recorded in 1963:
I Wish (Till Apples Grow)- by the Dubliners 1964, sung solo by Ronnie Drew. Transcription R. Matteson 2017.
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish, I wish, I was a youth again
But a youth again I can never be
Till the apples grow on an ivy tree.
I left me father, I left me mother
I left all me sisters and brothers too
I left all me friends and me own relations
I left them all for to follow you.
But the sweetest apple is the soonest rotten
And the hottest love is the soonest cold
And what can't be cured love has to be endur-ed love
And now I am bound for Americ-ka.
Oh love is pleasin' and love is teasin'
And love is a pleasure when first it's new
But as it grows older sure the love grows colder
And it fades away like the morning dew.
And love and porter makes a young man bolder
And love and whiskey makes him old and grey
And what can't be cured love has to be endur-ed love
And now I am bound for Americ-ka.
The Dubliners released this on January 1, 1964 and later included it on recordings with the "Love is Pleasing" title. From their version we can see the various influences; stanza 1--Died for Love; stanza 2--Wheel of Fortune; stanza 3--Ripest Apple lines 1 and 2 then Effects of Love (Keg of Brandy); identifying stanza (Love is Pleasing); then James Joyce's 1st stanza (What Can't Be Cured) was modified to make two new floating stanzas. The last line is similarly found in "Two Hearts (Early, Early by the Break of Day)." The Dubliners stanzas appeared the next year in James Joyce Quarterly- Volumes 3, page 159. A similar version titled "Love Is Teasing" was recorded at Kilrush Fleadh Cheoil, County Clare in the Summer of 1967. The singer is a young Dolly MacMahon, the wife of the late Ciarán Mac Mathúna. Her recording is on youtube and is transcribed here:
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I were a maid again
But a maid again I can never be
Until apples grow on an ivy tree.
For love is pleasing[24] and love is teasing
And love is a treasure when first it's new
But as love grows older then love grows colder
And it fades away like the morning dew
Now there is an alehouse in the town
And there my love he sits him down
He takes a strange girl on his knee
And he tells her things that he once told me.
And love and porter make young men bolder,
And love and whiskey makes them old and grey
And what cannot be cured, love, must be endured, love
And now I am bound for Amerikay.
It's similar to the Dubliners but has the Alehouse stanza from Died for Love instead of the Wheel of Fortune stanza (I love my father). Almost identical and likely a cover song is the version from the Chieftains & Marianne Faithfull titled "Love is Teasing." A large number of similar versions have been recorded since the 1960s with similar texts that have shown influences of these variants.
Although the identifying stanza has been known in the US and Canada for many years, it has been part of other songs. The most influential version in the US with the Love is Teasing title was Jean Ritchie's version (see text earlier in this article) which she collected from an Irish servant girl in NYC in 1947. Ritchie recorded the song for an LP on the Electra label and it was released in 1952. "Love is Teasin'" was published as "Love Is Pleasin'," by Alan Lomax in his "Folk Songs of North America," No. 70, p. 136 with music. Lomax changed Ritchie's second verse by substituting a similar verse of Fair and Tender Ladies he collected in its place:
If I'd knowed before then before I courted,
That love would be such a killing crime,
I'd locked my heart in a box of gold,
And tied it up with a silver twine.
The "love is a killing thing" or "killing crime" has been varied and used in stanzas of folk songs in the US particularly in the African-American community. The first example is from Thomas Talley's 1922 book "Negro Folk Rhymes":
LOVE IS JUST A THING OF FANCY
Love is jes a thing o' fancy,
Beauty's jes a blossom;
If you wants to git yo' finger bit,
Stick it at a 'possum.
E.C. Perrow collected an earlier version from an African-American in Virginia in 1912:
Love it am a killin' thing,
Beauty am a blossom;
Ef yuh want tuh get yuh finger bit,
Poke it at a 'possum.
It also appears as a floating stanza in "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" and in the song "Mabel":
Love it is a an awful thing
And beauty is a blossum,
If you want your finger bit
Just poke it at a 'possum.
* * * *
Only three other fragments of Love is Teasing from the US have been found (two by Sharp see his MS; and one by Obray Ramsey) while a complete version was collected in Ontario by Fowke which is similar to Ritchie's Irish version. The Newfoundland versions mixed with "I'm Always Drunk" have already been covered earlier in this study.
"Died for Love" stanzas have been occasionally been added to songs with the "Love is Teasing" stanza. "Love is Teasing" is an archaic floating stanza which is used as a title usually when the "Love is Teasing" stanza is the first stanza or when it's the chorus. It is closely associated with and uses stanzas from "Waly, Waly," the "Wheel of Fortune," the "Unfortunate Swain" and "I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober." In the US is it sometimes used in the "Little Sparrow/Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" songs which are of British origin. In Canada it is found in "Keg Of Brandy" which uses stanzas from "I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober." Recent Irish versions have included lines from "What Can't Be Cured,""Ripest Apple" and other songs as well as the "I Wish I Wish" and "Alehouse" stanzas from Died for Love.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. Hereafter simply titled "Love is Teasing" unless of course the song discussed is named, "Love is Pleasing."
2. "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" from Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, the second volume, published before 1727; here from the Dublin edition of 1729, p. 176. "Jamie Douglas," Child 204- Version J; Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 299; from the recitation of Rebecca Dunse, a native of Galloway, May 4, 1825. "A song of her mother's, an old woman."
3. Taken from two recordings made by Stewart in 1959 and 1961. Both recordings are available online at School of Scottish Studies.
4. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, by Francis J. Child, originally published in ten volumes from 1882-1898. This quote appears in Volume 7, published December of 1890.
5. It's dated earlier in Stewart Style, 1513-1542: Essays on the Court of James V p. 175 by Janet Hadley Williams, 1996. Additional text is also supplied which is not applicable to this study. Aytoun, in "Ballads of Scotland," dates it prior to 1566. It's inclusion in Stewart Style, 1513-1542 dates it before 1542.
6. "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" from Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, the second volume, published before 1727; here from the Dublin edition of 1729, p. 176.
7. My transcription, uses both recordings. Steward stops in the middle of the 1959 recording.
8. Stewart sings this very quietly at the end, so the last words may not be accurate.
9. She sings "aik"
10. I do not have an accurate date yet. Reported in "The Prologues and Epilogues of the Restoration, 1660-1700" by Pierre Danchin; Presses universitaires de Nancy, Jan 1, 1988 and also Library of Congress: "The National union catalog, pre-1956 imprints." Leverage worked at the Theatre from 1714 although he could have sung there earlier.
11. To view- copy and paste: http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/20000/19042.gif
12. It is found with variation as the first and identifying stanza of "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (Little Sparrow), a widely known variant of this song family. "Fair and Tender Ladies" is covered later in this article. The antecedent is "The Lady's Address to the Fair Maidens" broadside printed by Angus of Newcastle c.1780 which has this warning stanza:
1. Come hither, all you pretty maidens,
Take Warning how you love a Man,
Like a bright star in a Summer's Morning
When day appears they are gone.
13. Details of when the informant learned the version were not supplied by Ritchie. She said, "I myself learned it from Peggy Staunton, a lovely Irishwoman who worked in the kitchen at the Henry Street Settlement where I had my first NYC job (I majored in social work and that's why I came to NY from KY in the first place...). Peggy was a beautiful singer, and we'd usually end up step-dancing round the big diningroom after all the important folks left."
14. From Mrs. Lucy Jane Lee, of South Marston, Wiltshire, no date given but published in 1916.
15. Identifying stanza:
But turn you round, you wheel of fortune,
It's turn you round and smile on me;
For young men's words they are quite uncertain,
Which sad experience teaches me.
16. A transcription online has "yield of fortune" probably a mishearing.
17. Mellinger Henry's "Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands" was published in 1938.
18. Four versions are found at Bodleian library online dating back to late 1700s. one of it's stanzas is the identifying stanza of Water is Wide. Several stanzas are used in Love is Teasing songs. It begins:
I'm often drunk and I'm seldom sober,
I'm a constant rover from town to town.
And when I'm dead and my days are gone,
Oh, lay me down, my Molly Bann.
19. The song "The Legacy" has not showed up in google searches.
20. Found in "Folk Songs from Somerset" Cecil Sharp, 1906.
21. I haven't examined Sharp's MSS online but this has been reported by Jurgen Klos. It seems unlikely that Sharp made up the lines but they were taken from a version and slightly modified.
22. The Hooley's Songster title is "Mick-A-Vick" and the text is very similar to the London songsters.
23. From "Folk Songs of the South," John Harrington Cox, 1925.
24. It seems odd that this is named "Love is Teasin' " when "love is pleasing" is first here.
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Appendix:
Item 1: Hey trollie lollie (additional stanzas) from MS of Thomas Wood, vicar of St. Andrews, in 1566. Stanzas from "Stewart Style, 1513-1542: Essays on the Court of James V," page 175 by Janet Hadley Williams- 1996:
Goe graith you in your glancing geir
To meet my ladie pair and pair.
With harps and lutts and guthorns gay
My ladie will come heir away.
Hey trollie lollie, love is jolly
A whyll whyll it is new;
When it is old it growis full cold:
Woe worth the love untrew.
Underneath the grein wood trie
Ther thy good love bidis thee, Frisca jollie.
Pulland the sloe so does she goe
Singing so mirrily.
I saw three ladies fair.
Singing hey and how
Upon yon layland-a:
I saw three marinells,
Singing rumbelow
Upon yon seastrand-a.
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Item 2: Keg of Brandy- Arranged from tradition by Robbie O'Connell, Liam Clancy's nephew, and recorded on his 1987 album Love Of The Land, on Green Linnet Records, Danbury, Connecticut. That tradition includes Newfoundland's "Keg of Brandy," 'I'm Always Drunk" and "What can't be Cured."
I'm always drunk and I'm seldom sober,
I'm constant rovin' from town to town;
Ah, but I'm old now, my sporting's over,
So, Molly, a stór, would you lay me down.
Just lay my head on a keg of brandy,
It is my fancy, I do declare;
For when I'm drinkin', I'm always thinkin',
On lovely Molly from the County Clare.
The ripest apple is the soonest rotten,
And the warmest love is the soonest cold;
And a young man's fancy is soon forgotten,
So beware, young maids, don't make so bold.
Just lay my head on a keg of brandy,
It is my fancy, I do declare;
For when I'm drinkin', I'm always thinkin',
On lovely Molly from the County Clare.
It's youth and folly make a young man wasting,
And it makes him tarry a long, long day;
What can't be cured, love, must be endured, love,
So farewell, darling, I'm going away.
Just lay my head on a keg of brandy,
It is my fancy, I do declare;
For when I'm drinkin', I'm always thinkin',
On lovely Molly from the County Clare.
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Item 3: Peggy Gordon (also, Maggie Gordon) broadside, a derivative of "I'm Always Drunk and Seldom Sober," a late 1700s broadside as well as it's relatives: "Waly, Waly;" "Arthur's Seat," circa 1700 is closely tied with Waly, Waly; "Wheel of Fortune" dates back to the early 1700s. It is significantly different from the UK "Water is Wide" versions that are aligned with the Unfortunate Swain.
From: New York Historical Society- "Peggy Gordon," "Cold winter is past," and "Farewell." The New York printer was Joseph C. M'Cleland [M'Clelland], who was active at 285 Water Street during the years 1824-1829.
Peggy Gordon
Sweet Peggy Gordon, you are my darling,
Come set you down upon my knee,
And tell to me the very reason,
Why I am slighted so by thee.
I am deep in love, but I dare not show it,
My heart is lock'd up in thy breast;
I will plainly let the whole world know it,
A troubled mind can take no rest.
I'll lean my head on a cask of brandy,
That is my fancy I do declare;
For when I'm drinking, I'm always thinking,
How shall I gain that young lady fair.
I wish my love was one red rose,
And planted down by yonder wall,
And I myself was one drop of dew,
That in her bosom I might fall.
I wish my love and I were sailing,
As far from land as one could see;
Yes, sailing over the deepest waters,
Where love and care would not trouble me.
For the seas are deep, and I cannot wade them,
And neither have I wings to fly;
I wish I had some jolly boatman,
To ferry over my love and I.
I wish I was in Caropage,
And my sweet girl along with me;
Sweet Peggy Gordon, you are my darling;
Sweet Peggy Gordon, I'd die for thee.
I wish I was in Covel's Castle,
Where the marble stones are as black as ink,
Where the pretty girls they all adore me—
I'll sing no more until I drink.
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Item 4: "I'm Often Drunk And Seldom Sober," a broadside, at least four were printed the earliest by "Evans Printer, Long-lane, London" (Harding B 17(136b)), dated from "between 1780 and 1812".
"I'm Often Drunk And Seldom Sober" from John Pitts, Printer (Johnson Ballads 868) at 6 Great St. Andrew Street, 7 Dials, London, between 1819 and 1844.
Many cold winters nights I've travell'd,
Until my locks were wet with dew,
And don't you think that I'm to blame,
For changing old love for new.
I'm often drunk and seldom sober,
I am a rover in every degree,
When I'm drinking I'm often thinking
How shall I gain my love's company.
The seas are deep and I cannot wade them,
Neither have I wings to fly,
I wish I had some little boat,
To carry over my love and I.
I lean'd my back against an oak,
Thinking it had been some trusty tree;
At first it bent and then it broke
And so my false lover proved to me.
In London City the girls are so pretty,
The streets are paved with marble stone,
And my love she is as clever a woman
As ever trod on English ground.
I wish I was in Dublin city,
As far as e'er my eyes could see,
Or else across the briny ocean,
Where no no false lover can follow me.
If love is handsome and love is pretty,
And love is charming while its new,
So as love grows older it grows colder,
But fades away like the morning dew.
I laid my head on a cask of brandy,
It was my fancy I declare;
For when I'm drinking I'm always thinking
How I shall gain my love's company.
There is two nags in my fathers stable,
They prick their ears when they hear the hound;
And my true love is as clever a women
As ever trod on England's ground
You silly sportsmen leave off your courting,
I'll say no more till I have drank,
For when I'm dead it will be all over,
I hope my friends will bury me.
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Item 5: "Wheel of Fortune," a broadside no imprint or date at Bodleian: http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/20000/19042.gif A song with that title was sung in early 1700s by bass singer Richard Leveridge (1670-1758) at the Theatre Royal In Lincolns Inn Fields probably between 1714 and 1750. This is the fundamental antecedent of Love is Teasing in the 1900s and later.
When I was young I was much beloved
By all the young men in the country;
When I was blooming all in my blossom,
A false young lover deceived me.
He has tried his whole endeavor,
He has tried all his power and skill,
He has spoiled all my good behaviour,
He has broken my fortune against my will.
I did not think he was going to leave me,
Till the next morning when he came in;
Then he sat down and began a-talking,
Then all my sorrows did begin.
I left my father, I left my mother;
I left my sister and brothers too;
And all my friends and old aquaintance,
I left them all to go with you.
But turn you round, you wheel of fortune,
It's turn you round and smile on me;
For young men's words they are quite uncertain,
Which sad experience teaches me.
If I had known before I had courted,
That love had been so ill to win,
I wad locked my heart in a chest of gold,
And pon'd it with a silver pin.
Then fare-ye-weel, ye false-hearted young man,
It's fare-ye-weel, since we must part;
If you are the man that has broke my fortune,
You're not the man that shall break my heart.
Of all the flowers that grow in the garden,
Be sure you pull the rose and thyme,
For all others are quite out of fashion,
A false young man he has stole my thyme.
But time will soon put an end to all things,
And love will soon put an end to me;
But surely there is a place of torment,
To punish my lover for slighting me.
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Item 6: from 1) "What Can't Be Cured" The Wide World Songster, 1863, p.222, London. from 2) "What Can't Be Cured" Maclagan's Musical Age Songster, Volume 1000, 1864 London. 3) "Mick-A-Vick" Hooley's Opera House Songster; published by Dick & Fitzgerald, New York, Circa 1863.
WHAT CAN’T BE CURED.
Banjo Song.
Oh, youth and folly
Make young men marry—
So, far thee well, love, I must away-
What can’t be cured, love,
Must be endured, love—-
So, far thee well, love, I must away!
What can’t be cured, &c.
She cried and sighed, oh!
When we parted;
Says I, ‘My dear, wipe those tears away,'
Says she to me, ‘John,
I’m broken hearted,
To think you’re going far across the sea.'
What can’t be cured, &c.
My heart is sad,
Lovely Johnny dear!
To think you’ll leave your sweet Sarah here;
And your auburn hair
Did my heart ensnare,
And your gimlet eyes have bored a hole through me!
What can’t be cured, &c.
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Item 7: "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" 3rd stanza is identifying stanza plus full text of Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, the second volume, published c. 1726; here from the Dublin edition of 1729, p. 176. Ramsay (1686-1758) resided in Edinburgh.
"Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany.
1 O Waly, waly up the bank!
And waly, waly, down the brae!
And waly, waly yon burn-side,
Where I and my love wont to gae!
2 I leand my back unto an aik,
I thought it was a trusty tree;
But first it bowd, and syne it brak,
Sae my true-love did lightly me.
3 Waly, waly! but love be bony
A little time, while it is new;
But when 't is auld, it waxeth cauld,
And fades away like morning dew.
4 O wherefore shoud I busk my head?
Or wherf ore shoud I kame my hair?
For my true-love has me forsook,
And says he'll never love me mair.
5 Now Arthur-Seat shall be my bed,
The sheets shall neer be fyl'd by me;
Saint Anton's well shall be my drink,
Since my true-love has forsaken me.
6 Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blaw,
And shake the green leaves off the tree?
gentle death, when wilt thou come?
For of my life I am weary.
7 'T is not the frost that freezes fell,
Nor blawing snaw's inclemency;
'T is not sic cauld that makes me cry,
But my love's heart grown cauld to me.
8 When we came in by Glasgow town,
We were a comely sight to see;
My love was cled in the black velvet,
And I my sell in cramasie.
9 But had I wist, before I kissd,
That love had been sae ill to win,
I'd lockd my heart in a case of gold,
And pin'd it with a silver pin.
10 Oh, oh, if my young babe were born,
And set upon the nurse's knee,
And I my sell were dead and gane!
For a maid again I'll never be.