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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,Doxy Scottish song - Bogie's Bonnie Belle (53* d) RE: Looking for name of trad.(?) Irish song 06 Apr 11


Hiya,
Hope this helps.
"Bogie's Bonnie Belle" (Watching the Dark)

Recorded by Richard Thomson

The narrator, a farm laborer, agrees to work for Bogie O'Kearney (spell it as you see fit), then gets his employer's daughter Belle pregnant. When the baby is born, the narrator is sent for, "to see what could be done." His offer to do the right thing is rejected because of his status:
I said that I might marry her
but, no, that would not do
You're no match for Isabelle
and she's no match for you
Ironically, Belle, who is now damaged goods and has therefore lost her status, ends up marrying a tinker, that is, someone even lower on the social ladder than the laborer. Some of the other versions of the ballad are quite vindictive about this; but here the bitterness, if it's there, its largely left unsaid:
Maybe she has a better match
Oh Bogie can not tell
So farewell you lads of Huntley Town
and Bogie's Bonnie Belle
In the end, everybody loses: the laborer loses both his love and his job (as well as, presumably, his child), Belle winds up saddled to a tinker, and Bogie loses his daughter.


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