Origins: Gilderoy

Subject: LYRICS for Gilderoy
From:
Date: 01 Aug 97 - 06:28 AM

I'm searching for lyrics to the Scottish ballad "Gilderoy", also known by its alternate title "I Blowed Her with My Horn." Thanks for your help.

Subject: Lyr Add: GILDEROY (from Roy Palmer)
From: Wolfgang Hell
Date: 14 Aug 97 - 06:33 AM

I am not sure whether this is what you want, since there is no indication that "I blowed her with my horn" is a possible alternative title for this song, but here you go:

GILDEROY
(Source: R. Palmer, ed., Book of English Country Songs, 1979)

1. Now Gilderoy was a bonny boy and he would not the ribbons wear;
he pulled off his scarlet coat, he gartered below his knee.
He was beloved by the ladies so fair, he was such a rakish boy;
he was my sovereign, my heart's delight, my charming young Gilderoy.

2. Young Gilderoy and I were born all in one town together,
and at the age of sixteen years we courted one another.
Our dads and mothers both did agree and crowned with mirth and joy,
to think upon our wedding day, with me and my Gilderoy.

3. Now Gilderoy and I walked out all in the fields together,
he took me round the waist so small, and down we went together;
and after he done all a man could do he rose and kissed his joy,
he was my sovereign, my heart's delight, my charming young Gilderoy.

4. What a pity it is that a man should be hanged for stealing woman,
where he neither robbed house or land, he stole neither horse nor mare.
He was beloved by the old and young, he was such a rakish boy,
he was my sovereign, my heart's delight, my charming young Gilderoy.

5. Now Gilderoy for some time has been dead and a funeral we must have,
with a brace of pistols by his side to guard him to the grave;
for he was beloved by the old and the young, he was such a rakish boy,
he was my sovereign, my heart's delight, my charming young Gilderoy.

from the notes: "freebooters such as Gilderoy were heartily disliked by the common people because of their ruthlessness and rapacity...in July, 1636, he was executed in Edinburgh...some similarities between 'Gilderoy' and ['Geordie'] will be seen."

Wolfgang

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_y-2wAvR4A - recording by Shirley & Dolly Collins

Subject: RE: LYRICS for Gilderoy
From:
Date: 18 Aug 97 - 04:39 PM

Thanks for your help! Please also see my note on Mondegreen above.

Claire K.

I've sounded out my particular version of Gilderoy (sung by Sandra Kerr) and think it's fairly satisfactory, except for one word in the penultimate verse. Here's the version I've come up with, and the spot where the Mondegreen will be committed.

GILDEROY

Now Gilderoy was as bonny a boy as Scotland ever bred
He'd knots of ribbons on his shoes and a scarlet cloak so red
He was beloved by the ladies all; he was such a rakish boy
But he was my sovereign heart's delight, my handsome Gilderoy

Now Gilderoy and I was born both in one town together
And not past seven years of age that we did love each other
Our dads and mothers did agree and crowned with mirth and joy
To think upon the bridal day 'twixt me and Gilderoy

Now Gilderoy and I walked out when we were both fifteen
And gently he did lay me down among the leaves so green
When he had done what he could do he rose and went away
He was my sovereign heart's delight, my handsome Gilderoy

Now what a pity, a man be hanged for stealing a woman there
For he stole neither house nor land, nor stole neither horse nor mare
Yet none dare meet him face to face, he was such a rakish boy
At length with numbers he was taken, my handsome Gilderoy

Now Gilderoy is in Edinburgh Town; it's long ere I was there
They hanged him on the gallows high and he wagged in the air
His ??? they were more esteemed than Hector's were at Troy
I never loved to see the face that gazed on Gilderoy

Now Gilderoy is dead and gone, and how then shall I live?
With a brace of pistols at my side, I'll guard his lonely grave
They hanged him on the gallows high for being such a rakish boy
But he was my sovereign heart's delight, my handsome Gilderoy

At the point of ???, I'm hearing "rallies", but don't know if this makes sense or not.

Claire K.

Subject: RE: LYRICS for Gilderoy
From: Bruce
Date: 18 Aug 97 - 09:40 PM

Gilderoy: which lyrics? There is evidence that some version was known by 1663, but the earliest extant version is one on a broadside of c 1685 - 1695. With a different 7th verse this is in Pills to Purge Melancholy. A later broadside version, c 1700, is in the Crawford collection of braodsides, and a version of it is in Orpheus Caledonius, 1733.

Subject: RE: LYRICS for Gilderoy
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Aug 97 - 03:59 AM

Hi Claire,

what a nice version yours is (in the mondegreen thread). It is fun to compare these different versions.

Wolfgang

Subject: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Mar 00 - 02:57 AM

The lyrics in the Digital Tradition are from Roy Palmer's Book of English Country Songs, 1979, and they are a correct transcription. Here is the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:

Gilderoy

DESCRIPTION: "Gilderoy was as bonny a boy as e'er cam tae the glen." The singer describes his charms and how lovingly he once cared for her. He taken as an outlaw. He is convicted (falsely, in her mind) and hanged because the laws were so strict
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (an isolated stanza appears in "Westminster Drollery," 1671)
KEYWORDS: love outlaw trial execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1636? - execution of "Gilderoy," aka Patrick McGregour, in Edinburgh
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain(England(South),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "GILDEROY"
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 318-323, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XVIII, p. 59, "Gilderoy" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 27-31, "Gilderoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 560-562, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 482, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #43, "Gilderoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 63, "Gilderoy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 40-41, "Gilderoy" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, connected with the Scottish ballad more by the tune than the text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 187-189, "Gilder Roy" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN955, "Gilderoy was a bonny boy"; ZN1821, "My love he was as brave a man"
MidwestFolklore, Ed Cray, "Some Rarities from Arkansas"," Volume 9, Number 1 (Spring 1959) pp. 26-28, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
DT, GILDROY
ADDITIONAL: William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp.215-219, "Gilderoy" (1 text interspersed with commentary)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #87, "My Handsome Gilderoy" (1 text)
Roud #1486
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, S.302b.2(020), "Gilderoy," unknown, after 1700
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salisbury Plain" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The People's Song ("We long to see the season come When we can vote for Harrison") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 50)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Blowed Her with My Horn
NOTES [455 words]: Claude Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, pp. 252 ff., [notes that Gilderoy] seems to have been so glorified that he appears in historical legends not long after [his execution]. Simpson cites a broadside ballad printed "in the 1690s..." "probably written much earlier," entitled "The Scotch Lover's Lamentation: or, Gilderoy's Last Farewell... To an excellent new Tune, much in request." That ballad begins, "Gilderoy was a bonny boy." It is to be found in Pepys, Craford, Bagford and A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723-1725. - EC
William Rose Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia has this to say:
"Gilderoy. A famous cattle-stealer and highwayman of Perthshire, who is said to have robbed Cardinal Richelieu [died 1642] in the presence of the King, picked Oliver Cromwell's pocket [Cromwell, however, was not of any note in 1636, and had not yet led his armies into Scotland], and hanged a judge. He was hanged in 1636.... Some authorities say there were two robbers by this name."
David Brandon's Stand and Deliver: A History of Highway Robbery (p. 76) gives another version of this, but with a twist: the robber is named "Gilders Roy." Brandon reports that "when he stopped a judge... his gang stripped his two footmen, tied them up and threw them into a pond, whereupon they drowned. Roy himself smashed the judge's carriage, shot the horses, and then hanged his hapless victim." Right. Shoot valuable horses?
Much of this seems to be derived from Percy, but Wheatley adds a much less flattering commentary: "The subject of this ballad was a ruffian totally unworthy of the poetic honours given him.... [H]e was betrayed by his mistress Peg Cunningham, and captured after killing eight of the men sent against him, and stabbing the woman...
"He was one of the proscribed Clan Gregor, and a notorious lifter of cattle in the Highlands of Pethshire for some time before 1636. In February of that year seven of his accomplices were taken, tried, condemned, and executed at Edinburgh.... [I]n July, 1636, [he] was hanged with five accomplices at the Gallowlee."
The National Library of Scotland site, however, lists his death year as 1638.
Ford lists certain others of his exploits; he too is cautious about their veracity.
Sam Hinton notes the most likely source for the robber's name (cf. Ford): "Gilderoy" could be a corruption of Gaelic "Giolla Ruadh" ("Gillie Roy") -- "red-haired boy."
There is another piece called "Gilderoy" in the Scots Musical Museum (#66); this is probably a rewrite based on the traditional tune. I strongly doubt it ever went into tradition itself; it begins "Ah! Chloris, cou'd I now but sit As unconcern'd as when Your infant beauty could beget No happiness, nor pain!" - RBW
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Subject: Lyr Add: GILDEROY (Alexander Halket)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Jan 09 - 10:20 PM

From Scotish Songs by Joseph Ritson (London: J. Johnson & J. Egerton, 1794), where it can be seen with musical notation:
^^
GILDEROY*
(Sir Alexander Halket)

Gilderoy was a bonny boy,
Had roses tull his shoone,
His stockings were of silken soy,
Wi' garters hanging doune:
It was, I weene, a comelie sight
To see sae trim a boy;
He was my jo and heart's delight,
My handsome Gilderoy.

Oh! sik twa charming een he had,
A breath as sweet as rose,
He never ware a Highland plaid,
But costly silken clothes:
He gain'd the luve of ladies gay,
Nane eir tul him was coy:
Ah! wae is me! I mourn the day,
For my dear Gilderoy.

My Gilderoy and I were born
Baith in one toun together,
We scant were seven years beforn
We gan to luve each other;
Our dadies and our mammies thay
Were fill'd wi' mickle joy
To think upon the bridal day
'Twixt me and Gilderoy.

For Gilderoy that luve of mine
Gude faith I freely bought
A wedding sark of holland fine,
Wi' silken flowers wrought;
And he gied me a wadding ring,
Which I receiv'd wi' joy:
Nae lad nor lassie eir could sing,
Like me and Gilderoy.

Wi' mickle joy we spent our prime,
Till we were baith sixteen,
And aft we past the langsome time
Amang the leaves sae green;
Aft on the banks we'd sit us thair,
And sweetly kiss and toy,
Wi' garlands gay wad deck my hair
My handsome Gilderoy.

Oh! that he still had been content
Wi' me to lead his life!
But ah! his manfu' heart was bent
To stir in feates of strife;
And he in many a venturous deed,
His courage bauld wad try,
And now this gars mine heart to bleed
For my dear Gilderoy.

And whan of me his leave he tuik,
The tears they wat mine ee,
I gave tull him a parting luik,
"My benison gang wi' thee!
God speid thee weil, mine ain dear heart,
For gane is all my joy;
My heart is rent sith we maun part,
My handsome Gilderoy."

My Gilderoy baith far and near
Was fear'd in every toun,
And bauldly bare away the gear
Of many a lawland loun:
Nane eir durst meet him man to man,
He was sae brave a boy,
At length wi' numbers he was tane,
My winsome Gilderoy.

The Queen of Scots possesséd nought
That my love let me want;
For cow and ew he to me brought,
And een whan they were skant:
All these did honestly possess
He never did annoy,
Who never fail'd to pay their cess
To my love Gilderoy.

Wae worth the loun that made the laws
To hang a man for gear!
To reave of life for ox or ass,
For sheep, or horse, or mare!
Had not their laws been made sae strick,
I neir had lost my joy,
Wi' sorrow neir had wat my cheek
For my dear Gilderoy.

Giff Gilderoy had done amisse,
He mought hae banisht been,
Ah! what sair cruelty is this,
To hang sik handsome men!
To hang the flower o' Scottish land,
Sae sweet and fair a boy!
Nae lady had sae white a hand
As thee, my Gilderoy.

Of Gilderoy sae 'fraid they were,
They bound him mickle strong,
Tull Edenburrow they led him thair,
And on a gallows hung;
They hung him high aboon the rest,
He was sae trim a boy,
Thair dyed the youth whom I lued best.
My handsome Gilderoy.

Thus having yielded up his breath,
I bare his corpse away,
Wi' tears that trickled for his death
I washt his comelye clay;
And siker in a grave sae deep
I laid the dear-loed boy;
And now for evir maun I weep
My winsome Gilderoy.


* A hero of whom this elegant lamentation is the only authentic memorial. He hence appears to have been a celebrated Highland freebooter, and to have been executed at Edinburgh in the time of queen Mary. The author's name is prefixed on the authority of Johnston's Scots Musical Museum. [editor's note]

[Note the rhyme scheme (ababcdcd) which is followed throughout in this version, but mostly lost in the folk-processed versions found elsewhere. –JD]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: Joybell
Date: 30 Jan 09 - 10:36 PM

true-love here: Ewen MacColl, on his c1960 albm "bad lads and hard cases", finishes the ballad with this verse:

now gilderoy is dead and gone, and how then shall i live?
with sword and pistol by my side, i'll guard his lonely grave.
to think that they should hang a lad for being such a rakish boy!
he was my sov'reign heart's delight, my handsome gilderoy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: Jim McLean
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 05:16 AM

The tune to Gildroy is interesting. It belongs to a tune family which I once looked into, the earliest example being an 11th century Gregorian chant. 'Modern' singers will know it as The Star of the County Down'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: Jack Campin
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 02:32 PM

Which chant?

I can see a very vague resemblance to the "Pange lingua" but not enough to say they were in the same clade.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: Jim McLean
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 04:06 PM

I'm talking about 'En Gaudeat': A. Gastoue, Revue du Chant Greorien. There are no bar lines or key signature but compare it to the later 'Congaudeat Piae Cantiones' of 1582 and then 'Goddesses' from Playford 1650. One can go on via 'True Thomas (Walter Scott), Lazarus' (Lucy Broadwood) or 'Geordie' Cecil Sharpe, 1840 ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 03:02 PM

Jim-
The tune is also The red-Haired Boy (Johnny Dhu) in a different modality. A very popular fife-and-drum air in the US.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: Jim McLean
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 03:11 PM

Dick,Gilderoy means the red haired boy and Johnny Dhu means Black (haired) Johnny. However the tune does exist in different modes as you say.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 06:26 PM

For the examples Jim quotes, and others, see Bronson, 'Habits of the Ballad as Song'. Is that where you got the references, Jim? Since Bronson observed of the tune-family 'so far as I know there is no family name', he presumably intended here a larger family of which the 'Dives and Lazarus'/'Gilderoy' type was but a sub-group, unless he meant that students of the family hadn't agreed on a 'master title' for it. My ear isn't equal to recognising any great resemblance between 'Goddesses' and the typical 'Lazarus' types, let alone the earlier music Bronson quotes, but specialised approaches to analysis are often required for such things. I would be interested to hear further comment on all that from Jim and Jack.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jun 09 - 05:21 PM

Wow, talk about late to the party, sorry - Claire, the word is "relics" :~)

A bit grim actually.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Jun 09 - 06:43 PM

That must be one of the last messages Malcolm posted.

Anybody who even read all the way through the Ritson version (or the others of similar length that circulated during the 18th century, I haven't checked to see how similar they all are), let alone tried to sing it, will come away feeling "be careful what you wish for because you might get it".

It's a very late example of mediaeval prolixity. That extended elegiac genre survived much longer in Gaelic than English, and I suspect it may well be a translation or reconstruction from Gaelic.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: GUEST,Squog
Date: 15 Nov 24 - 12:35 AM

What year is this tune from?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gilderoy
From: rich-joy
Date: 15 Nov 24 - 07:03 PM

I was looking for the Nick Caffrey version of this, but came across this rather good one by Granny's Attic in 2019 with George Sansome on lead vocals :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAtqpqLE3is

Enjoy!!

R-J