Wheel of Fortune- old woman (Banf) 1866 Christie
[From William Christie's "Traditional Ballad Airs," Volume 1 (1876) taken from the singing of an old woman in Buckie, (Enzie, Banffshire) before 1866 with added text from print. Christie's tune came from the old woman from "whose singing he arranged a great number of old Airs and Ballads. She died in the year 1866 at the age of nearly 80 years."
Christie's version seems to have been edited (in stanzas 3 and 6) the loss of virginity that is found in the broadside. The version also has an unusual ordering of stanzas.
R. Matteson 2017]
The Wheel of Fortune.
WHEN I was young I was well beloved
In many gentle company:
And when thus blooming, just in my blossom,
A gay young man prov'd fause to me.
I did not think he was going to leave me,
Until one morning that he came in,
Till he came in and sat down and told me,
Then all my sorrows did begin.
"Oh, since it's so that you are to leave me!
And you and I must for ever part;
Though you have tried to spoil my fortune[1],
You're not the man that can break my heart.
But had I known, before I saw you,
That love was something so ill to win,
I'd have lock'd my heart in a golden casket,
And pinn'd it up with a silver pin."
Oh, how can I be blithe and glad now,
Or in my mind contented be!
Since the bonny lad, that I lo'ed so dearly,
Has now gone far awa' from me!
Of all the flowers that grow in the garden,
Be sure to pu' the rue in time[2]!
For other flowers soon get out of fashion,
I pu'd rue late, and now it's mine.
Oh, turn ye round, ye wheel of fortune!
Oh, turn ye round and smile on me!
For young men's words are so deceiving,
As sad experience teaches me.
But after evening there comes the morning,
And after dawn there comes the day;
And after a fause love may come a true love;
He's ill to hold that will not stay.