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
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