OK, Steve G, I know about the renaissance/baroque fashion for writing "Scotch" songs. Pills To Purge is a mixture of pre-existing material and new songs. My Scots is virtually non-existent, so I can't tell good from bad, authentic from fake. But I'd still like to know what the song's getting at! Below I have reproduced the words with the bits that puzzle me in CAPITALS. Bonny Peggy Ramsey that any Man may see, And bonny was her Face, with a fair freckel'd Eye, Neat is her Body made, and she hath good Skill, And square is her WETHERGIG made like a Mill: With a hey trolodel, hey trolodel, hey trolodel lill, Bonny Peggy Ramsey she gives weel her Mill. Peggy to the Mill is gone to grind a Bowl of Mault, The Mill it wanted Water, and was not that a fault; Up she pull'd her Petticoats and piss'd into the Dam, For six Days and seven Nights she made the Mill to gang; With a hey, &c. Some call her Peggy, and some call her Jean, But some calls her MIDSUMMER [WHY MIDSUMMER?], but they all are mista'en; For Peggy is a bonny Lass, and grinds well her Mill, For she will be Occupied when others they lay still: With a hey, &c. Peg, thee and Ise GRIN A POKE, and we to WAR WILL LEANES, Ise lay thee flat upon thy Back and then lay to the steanes; Ise make HOPPER TITTER TOTTER, haud the Mouth as still, When twa sit, and eane stand, merrily grind the Mill: With a hey, &c. Up goes the CLAP [WHAT IS A CLAP ON A MILL?], and in goes the Corn, Betwixt twa rough steans Peggy NOT TO LEARN [MEANING?]; With a Dam full of Water that she holdeth still, To pour upon the Clap for BURNING [WHY BURNING?] of the Mill: With a hey, &c. Up she pull'd the Dam sure and let the Water in, The Wheel went about, and the Mill began to grind: The spindle it was hardy, and the steanes were they well pickt, And the Meal fell in the Mill Trough, and ye may all come LICK [= LIKE?]: With a hey trolodel, hey trolodel, hey trolodel lill, Bonny Peggy Ramsey she gives weel her Mill.
|