When the drums do beat, And the cannons rattle, When the vanquished foe O DEAR! MINNIE, WHAT SHALL I DO? TUNE-O dear! mother, what shall I do? "Oh dear! minnie, what shall I do? "If I be black, I canna be lo'ed; If I be lordly, the lads will look by me; Oh dear! minnie, what shall I do? *Could the poet here mean the celebrated tavern called "The Shades," near London Bridge? From Johnson's Musical Museum, Part III. 1790. Stupid, with imbecility. This amusing old thing is printed in Johnson's Musical Museum, (Part III. 1790,) as the ancient verses for an air which is there given with a song beginning, "Oh dear Peggy, love's beguiling." KILLIECRANKIE. TUNE The braes o' Killiecrankie. WHERE hae ye been sae braw, lad? An ye had been where I hae been, I've faught at land, I've faught at sea; The bauld Pitcur fell in a fur, On the braes o' Killiecrankie, O.* The superstitious notions which the girl entertains regarding the fates attached to particular complexions, are by no means discountenanced by the old oral poetry and proverbs of Scotland. The following, for instance, is a rhyme which one sometimes hears quoted by the country people, as a law upon the subject: Lang and lazy, Black and proud. *From Johnson's Musical Museum, Part III. 1790; where it is marked with the letter Z, signifying that it was an old song, corrected and enlarged for that publication. DONALD COUPER. TUNE-Donald Couper and his man. Hey Donald, howe Donald, O Donald Couper and his man At length he got a carline gray, LITTLE WAT YE WHA'S COMING! TUNE-Little wat ye wha's coming! LITTLE wat ye wha's coming, Duncan's coming, Donald's coming, *From Johnson's Musical Museum, Part IV. 1792. Little wat ye wha's coming, Borland and his men's coming, Little wat ye wha's coming, Winton's coming, Nithsdale's coming, Little wat ye wha's coming, The Laird o' Macintosh is coming, Little wat ye wha's coming, They gloom, they glowr, they look sae big, *Lowland and English partisans. † A gentleman of Dumfries-shire. They'll fright the fuds of the Pockpuds; Little wat ye wha's coming, WIDOW, ARE YE WAUKIN? ALLAN RAMSAY. TUNE-Widow, are ye waukin? O WHA's that at my chamber-door? * From Johnson's Musical Museum, vol. VI. 1803. The following anecdote is humbly submitted as an illustration of the allusion to the Highland dress in the last line. Bare-faced Rebellion. For some time after the suppression of the insurrection of 1745, it was customary in miscellaneous parties to argue whether the term "rebellion" was or was not applicable to that affair; the Whigs asserting that it was, and the Jacobites that it was not. One night, at a tea-drinking in the Old Town of Edinburgh, where this question was agitated, a Whig lady affirmed it to have been as "bare-faced"-that is, as unequivocal or certain, a rebellion as ever happened within the memory of man. In the heat of argument, she repeated this assertion several times: "It was a most bare-faced rebellion-as bare-faced a rebellion as could have happened-there never was a mair bare-faced rebellion!" The Honourable Andrew Erskine happened to be present; a gentleman who derived his predilections in favour of the House of Stewart at once from his father the Earl of Kelly, who had been "out in the Forty-five," and from his maternal grandfather, the famous Dr Pitcairn, than whom a more zealous cavalier never lived. When he heard this ludicrous re-iteration of the phrase "bare-faced rebellion," his mind was impressed with a grotesque idea which, though indelicate, he found it utterly impossible to keep to himself. Edging his chair towards the lady-disputant, he thus addressed her sideways, with the soft and sly expression peculiar to him:-" I'm no just clear, madam, that it could be ca'd a bare-faced rebellion; but weel I wat, there's naebody can dispute but it was a bare-bottomed ane." It is unnecessary to describe the convulsive roar of transport, which instantaneously burst from all quarters of the room, and beneath which the unhappy disputant was immediately obliged to retire. |
