Digital Tradition Mirror

Maggie Lauder

Maggie Lauder
(attrib. FRANCIS SEMPILL 1616?-1682,  c.1642)

Wha wadna be in love wi' bonnie Maggie Lauder?    [who]
A piper met her gaun to Fife,
An' speir'd what was't they ca'd her.   [asked]
Right scornfully she answered him,
Begone ye hallanshaker,  [tramp]
Jog on your gait, ye blatherskate,      [prattler]
My name is Maggie Lauder!

"Maggie," quo' he," and by my bags
I'm fidgin' fain to see thee; [fidgetingly eager, ie "fucking glad"]
Sit down by me, my bonnie bird,
In troth I winna steer thee.  [won't; stir/molest]
For I'm a piper to mv trade,
My name is Rob the Ranter;
The lasses loup as they were daft  [leap/jump about; crazy]
When I blaw up my chanter."   [blow]

"Piper," quo' Meg, "ha'e you your bags?
Or is your drone in order ?
If ye be Rob, I've heard o' you,
Live you upon the border?
The lasses a', baith far and near,
Ha'e heard o' Rob the Ranter;
I'll shake my foot wi' right guid will, [I'll dance]
Gif you'll blaw up your chanter."

Then to his bags he flew wi' speed,
About the drone he twistet;
Meg up and wallop'd o'er the green,     [galloped]
For brawly could she frisk it.     [handsomely]
"Weel done," quo' he^W"play up," quo' she,
"Weel bobb'd," quo' Rob the Ranter;
" 'Tis worth my while to play indeed,
When I ha'e sic a dancer."    [such]

"Weel ha'e you play'd your part," quo' Meg,
"Your cheeks are like the crimson;
There's nane in Scotland plays sae weel,
Since we lost Habbie Simpson.*
I've liv'd in Fife, baith maid and wife,
These ten years and a quarter;
Gin ye should come to Anster fair, [If]
Spier ye for Maggie Lauder."  [Ask]


Recorded by many, including Jean Redpath on _Skipping Barefoot Through
the Heather_ & Ewan MacColl on _Scots Folk Songs_, Riverside & _Scottish
Popular Songs_, Folkways

*Sempill was the third of the Lairds of Beltrees in Renfrewshire to win
fame as a humorist.  His father, Robert Sempill, 1595?-1665? also was
noted as author of the elegy on the famous piper, Habbie Simpson, _The
Piper of Kilbarchan_, c1640.  Simpson's actual epitaph, c1600, read:
"quha on his drone bore bony flags, he maid his cheiks as reid as
crimson, and bobbit quhan he blew his bags."  (See verse 5.)
AJS
APR99

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!

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