The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #60181   Message #2581019
Posted By: GUEST,Guest, DaveM
04-Mar-09 - 09:32 AM
Thread Name: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrew's Soiree
Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrews Soiree
Thanks for the info about Betsy Snook(s): it makes sense that a well-to-do person would have a bigger ballroom than an inn, even if her name and actions don't sound terribly upper-class.

As for the "you/ye" bit, I was too hasty. You're probably right that this is an older form lingering on, but it's not that simple, either. In older English people used "ye" as the plural subject (as in your example, or in "Come all ye moonshine drinkers") and "you" as the plural object ("Let me tell you...," "I saw you yesterday"). BUT, as the OED points out, by 1500, people got them confused, so that "ye" could turn up instead of "you", and vice versa; they cite such an example from Dickens, so I stand corrected, it could have been "ye" (rhyming with "me"). It could also have been a way of indicating "ya" (as in "See ya!" or "So long, it's been good to know ya!"). Depends on how you accent "the devil haul ye".