The Lyrics of Scarborough Faire - Eternal Love? or He's Just Not That Into You?

I recently went to a Renaissance Faire. Now, I know what you're thinking, the whole Medieval Faire thing is totally for geeks--but I really had a good time there, what with the costumes and acrobats and jugglers and musicians. It got me thinking about the medieval song Scarborough Faire, made famous in our age by Simon and Garfunkel. Anyone who doesn't know the song should get hold of their version--and also get hold of the lyrics. It's said to be a song about lost love, and contains a riddle wherein the singer asks his lady love to perform various impossible tasks to prove her love for him.

I see something else. I see a guy making it difficult for a woman to make a claim on him.

Scarborough was a town on the coast of England where a huge, 45-day trade festival was once held during medieval times. People from all over England and Europe came to trade at this festival, and it is likely all sorts of men and women intermingled there. The parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme part? Those were herbs from the Mediterranean that were brought to Europe and England in the medieval period. The herbs no doubt figured largely in the trade goods at the Faire, because they had just become popular for medicinal and cooking uses.

So what I'm picturing is this young Englishman who comes some distance to the Faire at Scarborough. He meets a young woman at the Faire, and they...well....let's say, enjoy a moment. Maybe several moments--it was a 45-day Faire. Unsurprisingly, he returns home--with his 'parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme' and resumes his life. Perhaps later, people returning from the Faire tell him the woman is looking for him. He has no intention of returning to her, or having her come to him--so what does he do? He makes up a riddle for her to solve. Do these impossible things, then we can be together. He probably already has a wife and growing family by this time. The very last thing he wants is this one-time fling showing up in his well-ordered life.

'Then she's be a true love of mine.' Not that she IS, mind you. She 'will be.' Hmmm.

Bards went from town to town playing this song with its haunting melody, adding verses as circumstances and inspiration led them to it. But the basis stayed the same. The riddle, the promise that never comes true, the sense of remembrance.

It's not a tale of regret over lost love--it's a song of a past fling and the message, 'Don't come here.'

That's what I make of it. Read the lyrics and background and see what you get.

Parsely, sage, rosemary, and thyme.