Annotation:Then you shall be a truelover of mine
X:1 T:Then you shall be a truelover of mine M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air S:Joyce – Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D Dorian Add d2e|fed A2G|Add efd|cde d3| dAG F>GA/B/|cAG A2 f/e/|dAG F2G|EDD D3||
THEN YOU SHALL BE A TRUELOVER OF MINE. AKA - "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme." Irish, Air ( 6/8 time). D Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "When I was a child I often heard this song sung by our servant Biddy Hickey. A young man pays his addresses to a lady much above him; and she, in her pride, imposes a number of hard or impossible conditions before she will consent to marry him. I remember the air, and just two verses of Biddy's song. This same idea is found also in English folksongs: and with a similar burden: but their air is different from mine" (Joyce). The first verse goes:
Choose when you can an acre of land—
As every plant grows merry in time—
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
And then you shall be a truelover of mine.
Students of folk song will easily recognize this as one of the variants of “Riddles Wisely Expounded,” a Child ballad. The theme is a common one in British and Scandinavian folklore. See also related themes in the songs “Three Dishes and Six Questions” (American), “The Black Bull of Norroway” (British), “Juniper Gentle” (Child Ballad), and “I Gave My Love a Cherry,” among others.
