I Wish in Vain- F.P. Provance (PA) Bayard 1943
[From: Korson, Pennsylvania Songs & Legends pp.48-49. One of several rare versions that include text (two stanzas) from Constant Lady and the False-Hearted Squire, a broadside of 1686.
R. Matteson 2017]
I Wish in Vain- Sung by F.P. Provance of Fayette County, Pennsylvania in 1943. Collected by Samuel P. Bayard, with music.
1. I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish't I was a maiden again,
A maid I ain't nor I never will be,
Through all this world and eternity.
2. There is a tav'ren in yon town;
He rides up and he sits himself down,
He takes the strange girl on his knee,
Oh, don't you think it's a grief to me?
3. A grief, a grief, I'll tell you why:
Because she has more gold than I.
But gold may sink, and silver may fly,
But constant love will never die.
4. I would to God my babe was born,
Sat smiling in his papa's arms,
And I was dead and in my grave,
And green grass growing over me.
5. Through the meadow this fair maid ran,
Gathering flowers as they sprang.
She plucked and pulled of every kind
Until she got her apron full.
6. Then these garden flowers was her bed,
The heavens was her coverlid;
And there she lies no more to say,
Till wakened at the Judgment Day.