Of this piece there is a broadside version of 1810 (not here printed). All other copies that have been recovered date from about 1825. The device of a lover's feigning death as a means of winning a shy mistress enjoys considerable popularity in European ballads. Even more favorite is a ballad in which the woman adopts this expedient, in order to escape from the control of her relations. See the 'Gay Goshawk' (No. 96). A Danish ballad answering to our Feigned Lyke-Wake is preserved in many manuscripts, some of them of the 16th century, and is still living in tradition. The corresponding south-European ballad, which is very gay and pretty, is well represented by the Italian 'Il Genovese' (Ferraro, Canti popolari monferrini, No. 40).
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