The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54793   Message #850075
Posted By: Richie
18-Dec-02 - 11:46 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Molly Put the Kettle On
Subject: RE: Lyr. req: Molly Put the kettle on
Here's a bit more info:

Molly Put the Kettle or JENNY'S BAWBEE
A bawbee is a coin, equal to a half penny in modern currency

Your plack an my plack,
Your plack an my plack,
Your plack an my plack an Jennie's bawbee,
We'll pit them i' the pint stoup, pint stoup, pint
stoup,
We'll pit them i' the pint stoup,
An join a' three.

Gregor (1881), 19; SC (1948), 86 (no.124).
A fragment of the old song found in Herd (1776), II.204, and
with music in SMM V (1796), 512 (no.496), whence Chambers SSPB
(1862), 245 (+ music), Moffat (1933), 6, and many other
places:

And a' that e'er my Jenny had,
My Jenny had, my Jenny had;
A' that e'er my Jenny had,
Was ae bawbie.

There's your plack, and my plack,
And your plack, and my plack,
And my plack and your plack,
And Jenny's bawbie.
And a' that e'er, &c.

We'll put it a' in the pint-stoup,
The pint-stoup, the pint-stoup,
We'll put in the pint-stoup,
And birle't a' three.
And a' that e'er, &c.

It will be noticed that the chorus is missing from Gregor's version. As for the tune, the English nationalist William Chappell claimed it as English because it appeared 3 years before the Museum, in a set of variations for the pianoforte published by Dale, under the title Polly Put the Kettle On (still its best-known title, in England at least; see PMOT 795). John Glen however showed it had appeared in
Scottish collections back to 1778 (SDM I.iv). The air has other ramifications; cf. the convivial song "The more we are together", and its parent, the German "Ach, du lieber Augustin", a pop song of the mid-eighteenth century, quoted by Mozart.

-Richie