The Yellow Handkerchief
Traditional
- Written by
- [Traditional]
- Publication date
- 1906
- Language
- English
- Comments
- A British folk song that has been collected in Hampshire, Surrey, Herefordshire and Limerick but which has mainly survived in East Anglia. It seems to have been assembled from floating verses in which the main narrative involves the singer asking a loved one to wear a yellow handkerchief in remembrance since they are now ruined and destitute after keeping "flash company". The publication date above refers to the collection by Dr George Gardiner, which is the earliest known, although an undated broadside in the Bodleian Library is likely to be much older. The song is #954 in the Roud Folksong Index.
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