The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127524   Message #3421134
Posted By: Steve Gardham
17-Oct-12 - 04:51 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Who wrote The Night Visiting Song
Subject: RE: Origins: Who wrote The Night Visiting Song
The next longest version I have with 8 sts and as many choruses (The previous one had 9 sts) is again explicit rather than euphemistic.
The equivalent stanza is however closer to the first one given. It dates from 1869 and was printed in Glasgow.

The lassie rose and let him in,
No thinkin' on ocht ill bein' dune;
He kissed her rosy cheeks and chin,
And then he gained her fair,
   Oh! her sorrows began that ae nicht
   That ae, ae, ae nicht
   Her sorrows began that ae nicht,
   That she let him in, O.

The subsequent sts make it very plain what has gone on when the bottom fell out of the bed, nuirse's fees etc.