Surely the word should be 'roguey': a 'rougey' would be a man who wore rouge [as George V was said to have done at his Silver Jubilee celebrations; but that is a drift]. And I have never taken it to have the pejorative overtones of being a turncoat suggested in the last post by Jorrox, as this does not to my mind have the feel of that sort of song -- tho now such an interpretation has been suggested, I am turning such a putative meaning over in my mind. But I have always thought of 'roguey' as implying that he was a sort of merry devil, intent on involving everybody in a merry occasion.

≈M≈