- Date: before 1700
- Composer:
Irish Traditional - Period: Renaissance (1450-1599)
Review
The original words from an old County Donegal ballad were collected and first printed in Herbert Hughes' Irish Country Songs (1909), and later published among 800 subscriber-submitted songs in Sam Henry's column "Songs of the People" (1924) in the local Northern Constitution newspaper, Coleraine, County Derry. The melody comes from a medieval-era fiddle tune from the same county.The printed words were supposedly "reworked" by Padraic Colum, but in fact they differ little from recorded versions by Francis McPeake of Belfast (Caedmon Records, 1953), Robert Cinnamond of Belfast (title changed to "The Comely Young Dame," BBC, 1955), Brigid Tunney of Belleek, County Fermanagh (title changed to "Out of the Window," 1952), and Paddy Tunney (1955). Another oft-used title for this song is "Our Wedding Day."
The ABBA-form tune proceeds scale-wise in the A sections and with lovely triplet melismas on words like "beguiled" in the B section.
Selected verses:
I loved a wee lassie
When I was but young
And I own she beguiled me
With her flattering tongue
I own she beguiled me
And that well I know
I lost my wee darling
By courting too slow.
Her eyes shone like the
Stars on a clear frosty night
And when I looked on her
My heart filled with delight
All day I dote on her
And at night I would dream
I was rolled in the arms
Of my comely young dame.
My young love said to me:
"My mother won't mind
Nor my father slight you
For your lack of kind"
As she went away from me,
This she did say:
"It will not be long, love,
till our wedding day."
[or:...to the next market day"]
As my young love stepped from me
And she moved through the fair
And (or: how) fondly I watched her
Move here and move there
And then she went homewards
With one star awake
Like the swan in the evening
Moves over the lake.
The people were saying,
No two e'er were wed
But one had a sorrow
That never was said
And I smiled as she passed
With her goods and her gear,
And that was the last
That I saw of my dear.
The Sam Henry collection adds:
At the foot of Benbradden
Clear waters do flow
There dwells a wee damsel
Her breast white as snow
Her cheeks are like roses,
Her neck's like the swan
She's the Star of Benbradden
I would she were mine.
Paddy Tunney adds:
She went away from me
And moved through the fair
Where hand-slapping dealers'
Loud shouts rent the air
The sunlight about her
Did sparkle and play
Saying: It will not be long, love,
Till our wedding day.
When dew falls on meadow
And moss fills the night
When glow off the Grecian hearth
Throws the half-light
I'll slip from the casement,
And we'll run away
And it will not be long, love
Till our wedding day. ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Music Guide
Albums with Complete Performances of the Work
Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work
| Title | Date |
| Chords & Thyme English Folksongs for Guitar | 1994 |
| Fiona | 1993 |
