Who cares as to the origins of such a melody, it can stand on its own. (And can be smaltzy on its own, it has had that same fate as the melody of Danny Boy/Londonderry Air in that it can be played with intrinsic melodic beauty, or can be played to the groundlings). Who cares is too strong, one should always care about finding a source if it is available. But when something becomes generally known there is always a tendency to assign it to some source, and most of those assignments are apochyphal. Personally I think it was a Ukranian folk tune, as brought from the far east by Tamurlane and built upon, that was stolen by the pervidious Britons (whom we all know never could make original music).
Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
