The False Lover- Margaret Combs (KY) 1931 Henry
[From: Mellinger Henry's "Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands," 1938. This is a hybrid version.
R. Matteson 2016]
"The False Lover." Obtained from Miss Margaret Combs, Guerrant, Breathitt County, Kentucky, September, 1931. Stanzas 4, 5 and 6 are from "The Drowsy Sleeper." See Cox, No. 108.
1. Come, all you young and handsome ladies;
Be careful how you court young men;
They're like a star in a bright summer morning
That first appears and then they're gone.
2. They'll tell to you great fairy stories;
They'll prove to you their love is true;
They'll go straightway and court some other;
That shows the love they've got for you.
3. If I had of known before I'd courted
That love would have been such a charming thing,
I'd a-locked my heart in a golden box
And pinned it down with silver pin.
4. I dare to go and ask my papa,
Who's lying on his couch to rest,
For in his hands he holds a dagger
To kill the one that I love best.
5. Wake up, wake up, you drowsy sleeper,
It's almost day.
How can you sleep and slumber
When your own true-love is taken away?
6. Come back, come back, you distant lover,
Come back, come back, she cried,
For the sake of my home and my parents,
I'll go with you and I'll be your bride.
7. If I had wings of a birdie,
Had wings, and I could fly,
I'd fly away to my true-lover
And as he talked I would deny.
8. But I have no wings of no birdie,
No wings, nor I can't fly;
So I'll just sit down in grief and sorrow
And try to pass my troubles by.