Bonny House o' Airlie- Clapp (NY) 1917 Sharp; Bronson 2
[From Sharp MSS., 4161/3001; Bronson No. 2, TTCB. Sharp's diary entry follows.
R. Matteson 2015]
Sharp diary 1917 page 365. Sunday 23 December 1917 - New York
Worked all the morning but didn’t do much — an fairly stuck in that beastly Introduction. If I write it many times more I shall be as bad as Plato and deserve Butler’s strictures!1 Lunched with Glenn and had a nice time, singing a couple of songs afterwards and discussing English politics with him. Mrs Glenn very nicely asked us to use her house for lunch every day the school is on which touched me very much. I shall take her at her word. Mrs Clapp came to tea — Maud made it in my room — and sang the Bonnie House of Airlie — not a very remarkable tune. Then Maud and I dined at the Brevoort Hotel and went to the neighbouring theatre — the Lewisohn’s having given us tickets. We arrived rather late having lost ourselves on the way! The play was Pippa Passes.1 It came off better on the stage than I had expected. The scenes were pretty and the acting good. But I shall never get used to stage elocution. The perpetual sing-song, the voice wandering aimlessly up & down the scale irritates me — I suppose because it is meaningless — a mere trick, like the [....?] "rubato".
"Bonnie House o' Airlie" Sung by Mrs. Margaret Clapp, New York, December 23, 1917.
1. It fell on a day, a bonny summer['s] [d]ay,
When the leaves were green and yellow,
That there fell oot a great dispute
Between Argyle and Airlie.
2 Argyle he has ta'en a hunder o' his men,
A hunder men and fifty,
And he's awa' on yon green strand-
To plunder the bonny house o' Airlie.
3 The lady looked over the high castle wa',
And O she sighes sairly
When she saw Argyle-and a' his men
Come to plunder the bonny house o' Airlie.
4 Come doon to me, said Proud Argyle,
Come doon to me, Lady Airlie,
Or I swear by the swerd I haud in my hand
I winna' leave a standin' stane in Airlie.
5. I'll no come doon, ye Proud Argyle,
Until that ye speak mair fairly,
Though ye sear by the swerd that ye haud in ye're hand
That ye winna leave a standin' stane in Airlie.
6. Had my ain lord been at his hame
As he's awa' wi' Charlie,
There's no a Campbell in a' Argyle
Daured hae trod on the bonny green o' Airlie.
7. But since we can haud oot nae mair,
My hand I offer fairly,
O lead me doon to yonder glen
That I may na' see the burnin 'o' Airlie.
8. He's ta'en her by the trembling hand,
But he's no ta'en her fairly,
For he's led her up to a high hill tap
Where she saw the burnin' o' Airlie.
9. Clouds o' smoke and flames sae high
Soon left the wa's but barely,
And she laid doon on that hill to die
When she saw the burnin' o' Airlie.