The Jolly Beggar- Goose Hangs High Songster (PA) 1866
[Goose Hangs High Songster (PA) 1866 is unavailble to be viewed online and I have no copy. However Barry reprints the text in BBFM in 1929 and comments:
The following version of 'The Jolly Beggar,' attributed to King James V, without sufficient proof, was printed in the Goose Hangs High Songster, about the time of the civil war. The text is close to Child B a (from Herd's The Ancient and Modern Scot's songs). Stanzas 1 to 4, and 5 to 8 correspond, respectively, to stanzas 1 to 4, and 12 to 14 of Herd's text; the stanzas numbered 5 to 11 in Herd, were left out, no doubt intentionally, by the publisher of the songster. The refrain in the songster text, too, is different from the refrain in Herd's copy; it is found in two of Gavin Greig's texts of "The Jolly Beggar" (Last Leaves, pp. 222, 276).
No copy of "The Jolly Beggar" has been sought for, but the ballad may possibly be current in Maine. An old sailor song "The Maid of Amsterdam' is well known in Maine; it is in the same meter as "The Jolly Beggar," and has a refrain similar to the refrain in the Songster text of the latter ballad.
I have played and sung "Maid of Amsterdam" which is still currently popular both here and abroad. It appers that the Goose Hangs High Songster text is based on Johnson's 1790 version and not Templeton's arrangement published in Boston between 1844-1857.
R. Matteson 2013]
The Jolly Beggar- Goose Hangs High Songster (PA) 1866
1 There was a jolly beggar man, and a-beggin' he was boun';
And he took up his quarters into a land'art toun.
And we'll gang nae mair a-rovin', a rovin' in the nicht,
And we'll gang nae mair a-rovin', boys,
Let the moon shine ne'er sae bricht,
And we'll gang nae mair a-roving.
2 He wad neither lie in barn, nae yet would he in byre,
But in ahint the ha' door, or yet before the fire.
3 The beggar's bed was made at e'en, in gude clean straw an' hay:
And in a hint the ha' door, an' there the beggar lay.
4 Uprose the gudeman's dochter, and for to bar the door;
And then she saw the beggar man a-standing in the floor.
5. He took a horn from his side, and blew both long and shrill,
And four and twenty belted knights came skipping o'er the hill.
6. Then out he took his wee bit knife, let a' his duddies fa',
Ancl he stood forth a gentleman, the bravest of them a'.
7. The beggar was a clever loun, and he lap souther hicht,
And aye; for siccan quarters, as I gat yester nicht.