Padraic Colum in his book "Our Friend James Joyce" speaks of a song Joyce used to sing. Colum says he never found it in any collection.

It sounds like a "lost ballad." It's proper to be suspicious of any such thing. However, though Joyce could burlesque ballad style, this does not sound like his work. Could it be a real traditional song?

I thought I might be able to trace it in the Sam Henry collection, but no luck. Has anyone come across traces of anything like it? Or any folktale or story that resembles this plot?

Colum gives no title. It might be called "The Brown and the Yellow Ale," or something else. Colum writes:

"It is about a man who has given his wife to a stranger -- he may be from fairyland, he may be Death himself:

I was going the road one fine day,
   Oh, the brown and the yellow ale,
And I met with a man who was no right man,
   Oh, love of my heart!
And he said to me, Will you lend me your love,
For a year and a day, for a year and a day?
   Oh, the brown and the yellow ale,
   The brown and the yellow ale.