Whare will ye get a bonnie boy,
To rin your erran' cannie,
And gae awa' to Bervie's braes,
Wi' a letter to your Johnnie?
For ye're sair dung, Annie lass,
Ye're sair dung, Annie;
Ye're sair dung, Annie lass,
Ye're dung for likin' Johnnie.
Ye sit there on a creepy steel,
And sigh and sab for Johnnie;
But he likes you fu' unco' weel,
To leave you now for ony.
Sae be nae sair dung, dung,
Sae sair dung, Annie,
Sae be nae dung, Annie lass,
A' for the likin' Johnnie.
Ye think he will anither like,
And sigh and sab for Johnnie;
But he'll nae gi'e you the begeik,
And marry ane for monie. *
Sae be nae sae sair dung,
Sae sair dung, Annie,
For ye'll get your laddie yet,
Ye'll get your ain love Johnnie.
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Source: W Christie: Traditional Ballad Airs, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1881, vol II, 186-187.
Notes:
Christie notes:
* In Bourtrees' Braes, the Buchan set of this ballad, the line is, "And marry ane mair bonnie."
"The Editor's mother, in her young days, learnt this Air and song, in the end of the last century, when on a visit to her uncle, the late Dr Guthrie, Bervie. A copy of the Air and song, different from what is given above, was sent to Findlay Dun from Aberdeenshire; but, as Mr Farquhar Graham says, in his note in Wood's Songs of Scotland, the Air appears modern. It is composite, -part of it being the Air to a traditional song, apparently English, long a favourite in Buchan, He's a Royal Rose, which is given in a future page of this volume [234-235]. 'Doun,' in Woods Songs, is ugly and wrong. 'Dung,' given here, and as sung in Bervie, means 'disconsolate.' 'Begunk,' as far as the Editor has found, is not used in the Mearns, or in the three north eastern Counties. The word used in these districts is 'begeik' (Saxon begeck,) meaning 'jilted by a male or female.' 'Begunk' is used in the South of Scotland as 'a legerdemain trick.' See, for these words, Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.
Roud: 6773 (Search Roud index at VWML)
Laws:
Child:
Related Songs: I'm A' Doon For Lack of Johnnie (thematic)