The “Love Unfortunate” category of Volume 1 contains twenty ballads that treat the tragedies of those who are foolish enough to set themselves up to be humiliated by love. Although the category is relatively small (especially when compared to “Love Pleasant”), the ballads that comprise it cover a wide array of topics that range from protecting a woman’s virginity to dying for love. Despite the variety of content, the ballads in this category share a concern with expressing equilibrium in the universe: people’s actions have consequences and no one is immune to those consequences. These ballads especially caution people against committing acts that will result in tragedy.  

A common tragic trope in the “Love Unfortunate” ballads is that of the abandoned lover. The ballads that contain an abandoned lover use the device of a narrator who happens upon the lover lamenting. The story that the narrator tells of the abandoned lover often depends on whether that lover is a man or a woman. The abandoned woman is usually the victim of a man’s false promises. For example, women are warned of the false promises of men in “A Love-sick maids song, lately beguild, / By a run-away Lover that left her with Childe” (1.371). The “love-sick maid” laments her abandonment by the father of her child both through the language of courtly love—“Alas and well away”—and through the imagery of courtly love—“There is nothing that I eat” (1.371). The tragic stories that comprise this category are often meant as warnings. The “love-sick maid” concludes the song with a warning to all women: “I wish you all beware, / And of the flattering tongue, / To have a speciall care” (1.371). According to these ballads, it is a woman’s responsibility to guard her own virginity, and if she does not guard it well, the consequences are severe.

Men are also abandoned by their false lovers, but they are just as often left behind by a deceased loved one. Contrary to the abandoned women, the abandoned men do not bear the burden of their actions. If a false woman abandons a man, then that woman will be punished. But even when she is not the guilty one—when she is the one abandoned—she often suffers in that she must live to take care of the child with whom a false man has left her. The abandoned man, however, will usually simply die after he has told his tale to the narrator. “The wofull complaint and lamentable death of a forsaken lover” (1.354-355), for example, tells the story of a man who was deceived and deserted by the woman he loved. For her deception, the woman earned an unhappy marriage. Once the lamenting lover shares his story with the narrator, he dies. The lover’s physical position in lamenting is determined by the way in which his beloved departed. If she has left him, as is the case in “The wofull complaint,” the narrator usually finds him stationary and crying. Despair due to betrayal renders its victim incapable of moving. However, if the loved woman has simply died, the narrator finds the lamenting partner wandering and lost. Love is an anchor that holds one in place; once lost, the sorrowful are doomed to wander.

The “Love Unfortunate” ballads reveal death as the ultimate equalizer. Some romances, according to these ballads, are destined to result in death. However, this death is not necessarily a punishment of the lovers; sometimes it is a punishment of those who would stand in the way of their love. Lovers who try to meet illicitly often come to tragic end: for example, Hero and Leander in 1.344-345 and “The two Nottinghamshire Lovers” of 1.356-357. “The two Nottinghamshire Lovers” tells the story of two lovers who meet illicitly because the young woman’s friends and family are opposed to the match. One night the young man is late to one of their secret trysts. The woman, convinced he is not coming and that her friends and family were right all along, kills herself. When the man arrives to find his lover dead, he kills himself too. “The two Nottinghamshire Lovers” warns: “Let other Parents now, / Not seeke to break a vow. . . / Lest . . .  / . . . They worke their lives decay” (1.356-357). The parents are punished with the loss of their children for meddling. 

The ballads that Pepys categorized as “Love Unfortunate” in Volume 1 of his collection cover a myriad of topics, but they share a preoccupation with the achievement of balance in the universe. Lovers scorned will often die and those who have injured them will receive a punishment for their crimes that is often in the form of an unhappy life. Women who believe the lies of men stand as examples to help other women avoid the perils of the “flattering tongue.” Love that requires illicit meetings often leads to the death of both lovers, and this death is a punishment of those people who would keep them apart. The ballads in “Love Unfortunate” warn their readers to be cautious when it comes to love and use tragic examples to illustrate this warning.

~Jessica C. Murphy