4 - The Jolly Beggar- Dixon (CA) 1929 (Child 279)
14 - THE JOLLY BEGGAR
(Child, No. 279)
Contributed by professor James Main Dixon of the University of Southern California, July, 1929.
1. There was a Jolly Beggar, and a begging he was bound,
And he took up his quarters into a landwart town.
And we'll gang nae mair a roving, sae late into the night,
And we'll gang nae mair a roving, let the noon shine ever sae bright,
And we'll gang nae mair a roving.
2. He wad ne'er lie in the barn, nor yet wad he in byre,
But in ahint the ha' door or else beyon' the fire.
And we'll gang etc.
3. The beggar's bed was made at e'n with guid clean straw and hay,
Just in ahint the ha' door, and there the beggar lay,
And we'll gang, etc.
4. Up raise the guidman's dochter, and for to bar the door,
And there she saw the beggar man, was standing on the floor.
And we'll gang etc.
5. He took the lassie in his arms, and to the bed he ran,
"Oh, hooly, hooly wi' me slr, ye'll wauken our guidman."
And we'll gang etc.
6. He took a horn frae his side, and blew baith loud and shrll,
And four-and-twenty belted knights came skippin' o'er the hill,
And we'll gang etc.
7 And he took out his little knife, loot a' his duddies far',
And he stood the brawest gentleman that was amang them a'.
And we'll gang etc.
The Editor has not seen any other text of this ballad found in America although Reed Smith lists it. It was contributed by Professor James Main Dixon of The University of Southern California, July, 1929, who writes: 'The Authorship of this humorous song, is attributed to King James V of Scotland, about the year 1654. James died on the 14th of December, 1542, "ln the thirty-first year of his ago." He refers the song to Lyric Gems of Sootland, with music, So, Fa Edition, Glasgow, John Cameron, 85 Dunlop Street. No date. Mr. Child gives the earliest date of its printing by Herd, "The Ancient and Modern Soots Songs," 1769, but says that it was omitted in the second edition of Percy's Reliques, 1767, II , 59, and was known before that by Horace Walpole. As to the tradition of James V being the author he says it "has no more plausibility than authority." In the second edition of Herd, 1776, the refrain is the same as here with the word boys added at the end of the second line.
The text printed very closely related to the group Child B. The first five stanzas are almost identical with the first five stanzas of Child B 8s except the latter has the Fa la la etc., refrain. Stanzas 6-11 of Child, more or less ribald and totaling of the play between the beggar and the goodman's daughter, are omitted. Stanzas 6, 7 are identical with Child 12, 15. The ballad ends as follows:
The beggar was a silver[1] Loon and he lap shoulder height:
"O ay for slaken[2] quarters as I gat yesternight! (Cox).
In Journal XXII, 79, Barry prints a tune from New Hampshire entitled "The Jolly Beggar," apparently one of the three variants of the ballad listed in Journal XXvii, 59, note 2 (Halpert).
1. cliver=clever
2. sicken