Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Abby Sale
Date: 07 Feb 00 - 09:56 PM

I didn't realize this was an old thread...thanks Patla6. Bruce, just to pick the nit, My Merry Muses does cite the episode. It's by Legman and when it comes to bawdy, Legman knows everything and writes about even more. He gives a brief account of the encounter and detailed citations for it. He gives the earlies printing of the song as Herd II. "Leeze" is poorly glossed. I've heard 'lay' often but that barely makes sense. Chambers Scots Dictionary doesn't give it and, sadly, Herd's own glossary doesn't either. MacColl gives 'dear is to me' but I have a feeling he's going by context, not other knowledge. Legman agrees with Cuilionn & gives 'my blessing on,' which does make contextual sense. No etymology though. All agree on 'head' for 'pow'.

It''s a good tune, too.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: MudGuard
Date: 07 Feb 00 - 09:27 AM

The lyrics are in the database under Dainty Davie. Click here.
MudGuard

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From:
Date: 07 Feb 00 - 08:26 AM

I see that this thread is about a year old, but in looking it over I couldn't find the lyrics to "Dainty Davy." My friends and I think we have them pretty correct off a Jean Redpath recording, but aren't sure of some of the words and from what I'm reading there may be other verses that would be fun to sing, maybe a bit randier than some of Jean's. Can somebody help me with as many verses (with translations, where necessary) as you know? I really enjoyed the discussion over "what's a curly pow" and other lyrics, some of which I hadn't heard. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 28 Mar 99 - 11:56 AM

I ran across a verse in "The Cardinal's Coach Couped" reprinted from a broadside of 1711 in James Maidment's 'A New Book of Old Ballads', where the last one goes:

You need not think I'm speaking lies,
Bear witness house of Cherry-trees,
Where Dainty Davy strove to please
My lady's daughter;
And boldly crept beneath her thighs,
For fear of slaughter.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Alistair
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 09:33 AM

Thanks

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 10 Mar 99 - 02:40 PM

I recently ran across an early reference to the tale of Dainty Davie in 'Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence', 1692. It appears that many knew about it except the editors of works containing primary copies of the song.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Mar 99 - 12:01 PM

Yes, thanks. The copy I saw was the 2nd. ed., 1693.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From:
Date: 02 Mar 99 - 03:02 AM

Bruce - is this what you forgot to copy?

[1692:] A party of King Charles II, his guards being sent to apprehend Mr David Williamson (one of the most eminent of their ministers now in Edenburgh) for the frequent rebellion and treason he preached then at field meetings; and the party having surrounded the house where he was, a zealous lady, mistress of the house, being very solicitous to conceal him, rose in all haste from her bed, where she left her daughter of about eighteen years of age; and having dressed up the holy man's head with some of her own night cloaths, she wittily advis'd him to take her place in the warm bed with her girl; to which he modestly and readily consented; and knowing well how to employ his time, especially upon such an extraordinary call, to propagate the image of the party, while the mother, to divert the troopers' enquiry, was treating them with strong drink in the parlour, he, to express his gratitude, applies himself with extraordinary kindness to the daughter; who finding him like to prove a very useful man in his generation, told her mother she would have him for her husband; to which the mother, though otherwise unwilling, yet, for concealing the scandal, out of love to the cause consented, when the mystery of the iniquity was wholly disclosed to her. ('Jacob Curate', "The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence", quoted by Hamish Henderson in his article 'The Ballad, the Folk and the Oral Tradition', from Edward J. Cowan (Ed.), The People's Past. Scottish Folk - Scottish History, p 83f)
Henderson gives the year as 1692, so it must have been in the earlier edition.

After giving the note in Herd's 'Scots Songs' that Bruce quotes, Henderson adds:
[1980:] The story goes that when Charles II heard of this exploit of Dainty Davie's, he exclaimed: "Odd's fish! that beats me and the oak! Find me that man and I'll make him a bishop!" (Hamish Henderson in Cowan 84f - cf there for other versions)

About the author of Andreas' song:
[1968:] Robert Burns included in his 'Merry Muses' a song called Dainty Davy, which had a remarkable mixture of fortrightness and symbolism. For his collection of 'Songs' for polite consumption he emasculated the song completely under the title Now Rosey May Comes In Wi' Flowers, but also gave the tune to his Rantin' Rovin' Robin song. Eddie Furey has retained the 'Merry Muses' chorus and has reconstructed a song around it. (Bill Leader, notes 'Finbar and Eddie Furey')

Really interesting thread! Thanks to you all, Susanne

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 16 Feb 99 - 04:28 PM

I hear what Barry hears. In the chorus, however, I hear the Fureys singing "curly brow" each time when it appears for the first time and "curly pow" the other times.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: MudGuard
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 07:34 AM

I don't know who wrote down the lyrics. It was in the booklet of the CD, but there were lots of typos in the lyrics, but most I could find out...
I'm going to listen to the song again for a few times tonight and see whether "briny" or "cried he" could be possible.
Thanks so far
Andreas

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 12 Feb 99 - 03:14 PM

What I've heard is:

"My love, my love, my love cried he
I have a longing for the sea
To go & protect my own country
Say goodbye to dainty Davie

Barry

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Barbara
Date: 12 Feb 99 - 12:37 PM

Andreas, was this translation done or the words created by a speaker-of-some-language-other-than-English?
I think maybe the verse should be something like "Oh my love, my love briny.." which would match the longing for the sea. (briny=salty) In the rhyme scheme of your version, the first and third lines rhyme, so the first line should rhyme with "country".
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: MudGuard
Date: 12 Feb 99 - 08:03 AM

No hints on the "brine he" part???
Might it be "bright head"???
Or is it (to speak with the Monthy Pythons) something completely different?

Andreas

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 11 Feb 99 - 10:35 PM

Hi Allen, I didn't mean Arthur (& Warren the bluegrass banjo player from the Northwest would be to young), I should've mentioned Argo was part of Decca Records & Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger recorded a series, each LP having a particular theme. Some in he series besides the "Amorous Muse" were the "Wanton Muse", the "Angry Muse", the "Female Frolic" & a few other. The series was put out around 20 years ago. Barry

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: allan S.
Date: 11 Feb 99 - 09:28 PM

Barry Finn you mention "Amorous Muse" by Arthur Argo. Was that book or a record that he did?? I have his "A wee thread of Blue" recording what is the other one and is it avalable. I met him 40 or so years ago when he was in the states. Allan

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 11 Feb 99 - 07:29 PM

Whoops! I made an error in my first note above. Rev. Williamson died in 1706, not 1701.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 11 Feb 99 - 02:27 PM

I saw the version of the tale of Rev. David Williamson and Lady Cherrytrees' daughter on p. 4 in the 2nd. ed., 1693, of 'Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence', and do not know for certain that it is in the original 1692 edition (there was at least one later edition also). I regret now that I didn't copy the anecdote. At the time I didn't realize it was the earliest account. I was after the comments on 'allowable' and not 'allowable' Scots popular songs of the time that appear later in the book (this I did copy).

According to Hans Hecht, 'Songs from David Herd's Manuscripts', the sole original source for the tale was the Memoirs of a Captain Cheichton published by Sir Walter Scott in vol. 12 of 'The Works of Johnathan Swift'. Hecht- "He [Creichton] is the sole authority for the anecdote". I haven't seen this, and don't know when the 1st edition of Scott's work was published, probably about 1820. The 2nd edition was in 1824. Neither Herd nor Burns could not have gotten his version from Scott's publication, and I doubt that either had seen any manuscript of Chreichton's 'Memoirs'.

Herd's footnote to the title 'Dainty Davie' in 'Scots Songs', II, 1776 is:

The following song was made upon Mess David Williamson, on his getting with child the Lady Cherrytrees' daughter, while the soldiers were searching the house to apprehend him for a rebel.

The note in Herd's manuscipts (reprinted by Hecht) is the same except the spelling of one word.

Davidson Cook's article 'Annotation of Scottish Song by Burns', reprinted with Dick's 'Songs of Robert Burns' and 'Notes on Scottish Songs' by Folklore Associates, 1962, quotes Burns directly from a Edinburgh University Library MS [MS Laing II] as follows:

This song, tradition says, and this composition itself confirms it, was composed on the Rev. David Williamson's begetting the daughter of Lady Cherrytrees with child, while a party of dragoons were searching her house to apprehend him for being an adherent to the Solemn League and Covenant. The pious woman had put a lady's night-cap on him, and had laid him a-bed with her own daughter, and passed him to the soldiery as a lady, her daughter's bedfellow. A mutilated stanza or two are to be found in Herd's Collection, but the song consists of five or six stanzas, and has merit in its way. The first stanza is:-

Being pursed by the dragoons, .....

.....

We can see that this is somewhat embelished from Herd's account, and I've seen somewhere an account stating that Lord Cherrytrees was away from home at the time. I've also seen an account (maybe the same one) that Lady Cherrytrees had hidden Rev. Williamson under her daughter's bed, then left the room to confront the dragoons.

There are probably as many variant accounts now as there are versions of the song, but the only two 18th century versions known are those on my website.

Subject: Lyr Add: DAINTY DAVIE (from Robert Burns)
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 11 Feb 99 - 05:55 AM

G'day,
From "Bawdy Verse And Folksongs" written and collected by Robert Burns, in a footnote to "Nine Inch Will Please A Lady":-

Leeze me on; untranslatable expression denoting great pleasure in or affection for a person or thing.

I also have a different version of the David Williamson connection, source unknown:- In 1715 a rebel called David Williamson escaped Hanover forces and stayed in a house where he met the daughter.

This book has the second version given in the DT in a section called "Old songs used by Burns for polite versions".

And in a section called "By or attributed to Burns - from printed sources" (Read on at your peril):-

Dainty Davie

Being pursu'd by the dragoons,
Within my bed he was laid down
And weel I wat he was worth his room,
My ain dear dainty Davie.



O leeze me on his curly pow,
Bonie Davie, dainty Davie
O leeze me on his curly pow,
He was my dainty Davie



My minnie laid him at my back,
I trow he lay na lang at that,
But turn'd, and in a verra crack
Produc'd a dainty Davie.

Then in the field amang the pease,
Behin' the house o' Cherrytrees,
Again he wan atweesh my thies,
And, splash! gaed out his gravy.

But had I goud, or had I land,
It should be a' at his command;
I'll ne'er forget what he pat i' my hand,
It was a dainty Davie

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: Lyr Add: DAINTY DAVIE (from Finbar & Eddie Furey)
From: MudGuard
Date: 11 Feb 99 - 02:40 AM

Thanks for all the answers I got (although it took me some time to understand the posting by Cuilionn, as my native tongue is German, English is only a second language for me, and "braid scots" is very hard to understand for me - I noticed on my bike trip thru Scotland last Summer)

I looked Dainty Davie (or Davy or Davey) up in the database and noticed that "my" version is not there, so here it comes (see below).

When typing it in I found another spot where I don't know what it means (or even how it should be spelled...). It is marked in red (html is very nice) below. If anyone has any idea about it, please help me out once again.

I corrected "ragade" to "brigade" as Barbara suggested (it seems to make sense).

cu, Andreas

Dainty Davie
as recorded by Finbar and Eddie Furey

In yonder town there lived a maid
Ah, she was the keeper of her trade
She fell in love with a light brigade
And his name was Dainty Davie

Chorus [after each verse]:
So, leeze me on your curly pow
Dainty Davie, Dainty Davie,
Oh, leeze me on your curly pow,
You are my Dainty Davie.

My love, my love, my love, brine he
I have the longing for the sea
I'll go defend my country
Say farewell to Dainty Davie

Three days and seven years were gone
When she saw this figure came striding on
Oh she knew it was her own true one
Saying, come kiss me, Dainty Davie

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 11:12 PM

There is a version that goes:

It was in & through the window broads
And all the tirliewirlies (intricacies) o'd
The sweetest kiss that e'er I got
Was from my dainty Davie

Ch: O leeze (expression of pleasure) me on your curly pow(head)
Dainty Davie, bonnie Davie
Leeze me on your curly pow
Mine ain dear dainty Davie

It was down amang my daddy's pease
And underneath the Cherrytrees (not plant life)
O there he kissed me as he pleas'd
For he was my dainty Davie

When he was chas'd by a dragoon
Into my bed he was laid down
I thought him worthy o' his room
And he's my dainty Davie^^^

The Rev. David helps Lady Cherrytree's daughter get pregnant (I guess he couldn't stick to preaching & had to be sticking to elsewhere), then he's to be apprended, for his dastardly deed, (while someone composes the song & she sings it) in her house by soldiers. This fragment is supposed to have been reworked by Burns into the longer song & is also sung to the air of the "Gardener's March".
Bruce O, I think you knew the dirt here from Herd (I got this from MacColl, it's on the "Amorous Muse" by Argo), we don't want to be spared the details, when there's juice to the background we all want the down & dirty lowdown we want the smut, we'll also take any good gore too. Thanks, Barry

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bert
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 04:56 PM

Wasn't it the poll tax that started the peasant's revolt in 1380-something?

Bert.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 04:51 PM

No editor of 'The Merry Muses of Caledonia' (Barke/ Smith/ Ferguson, G. Legman, Duncan McNaughton) or editor of Burns' songs (James Dick, James Kinsley) that I know of, or Hans Hecht in 'Songs from David Herd's Mansucripts', seem to be aware of the early (1692) account of Rev. David (Dainty Davey) Williamson's seduction of the daughter of Lady Cherrytrees that I cited, along with the 'Merry Muses' and earlier Herd versions of the song, in Scarce Songs 2 on my website.

According to an account related by James Dick, (Songs of Robert Burns, p. 474) the seduced daughter who supposedly sings our song here was later one the 7 wives of the Rev. David Williamson (d. 1701).

'doty poll' (crazy in the head) was a 16th century slang term for a chronic alcoholic.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 03:58 PM

Och, aye... I'm sae prood o' ye; an' they're guid guesses a'. Ye are richt on th' mark wi' "pow" meanin' heid, aye, but I'll gie ye a loof (a hand) wi' th' ithers.

"Leeze me on", accordin' tae ma sources, comes frae th' aulder "leis me" meanin' "dear is tae me". Th' phrase can be translatit, dependin' on context, intae sic variations as "how weel I love", "blessings on", "commend me tae", an' sae forth. In 'tither sang, "John Anderson, ma Jo", I've seen th' line "leeze me on yir frosty pow" rendered intae th' wairds "blessings on yir frosty pow". In this case, I'd be sayin' th' maist likely translation is "Fondly dae I think upon..." wi' th' caveat that Barbara's translation is entirely plausable as weel.

Regardin' th' spellin' o' terms, there wis nae standardized spellin' for Braid Scots altho' some scholars are ettlin' (tryin') tae set rules doon th' noo. Ye can jist wricht things oot as it pleases ye tae dae, an' auld Rabbie Burns is as guilty as ony o' us. If ye survey his wairks, ye can find a progression o' favoured spellings, subject tae ilka whim an' dram that cam alang.

Finally, ain last bit: I'm inclined tae echo th' sentiment that "light ragade" is mair properly renderit as "light brigade."

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bert
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 12:27 PM

Barbara, That's just what it says in "The American College Dictionary"

pow n, Scot & N Eng. the poll; the head.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Barbara
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 12:02 PM

Perhaps "pow" is just dialect for "poll". The version in the database is written out in braid scots, as Cuillion would say.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 11:42 AM

"poll" in the sense of "head"?

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 10:35 AM

I think that Barbara's right. I seem to recall that there's a line in Burns' poem JOHN ANDERSON in which either pow or po' is used clearly to refer to head. Unfortunately I can't remember the line or in which version of the poem it occurs (there are several), and I don't have the time this morning to run it down. If some other 'cat doesn't clear it up, I'll get to it as soon as I can.

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: Barbara
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 09:30 AM

That's interestin'. In all the versions I knew, the word was "pow" though the meaning is the same -- head or forhead, and I learned "leeze", meaning "lay". So the line is asking Dainty Davey to "lay on me your curly head".
I don't know the version you're doing, Andreas, and that sounds a bit like a generic first verse.(Maybe borrowed from "I'll go no more a-roving").
The version I am familiar with is in DT under [Dainty Davie].
The third line makes me wonder if Davey was IN the "light brigade".
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: GEORGE HENDERSON
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 09:06 AM

ANDREAS

The word is PROW and means forehead I think

George

Subject: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow?
From: MudGuard
Date: 10 Feb 99 - 04:12 AM

Can someone here please tell me what a curly pow is?

It is mentioned in the chorus of the song Dainty Davy

So, lease/leeze me on your curly pow
Dainty Davy, Dainty Davy,
Oh, lease/leeze me on your curly pow,
You are my Dainty Davy.

All I could find in all the dictionaries known to me is
POW - prisoner of war
which I can't believe to be the meaning here.

And while we are at it - is it lease or leeze?
I have seen both words in different prints, I can't find leeze in any dictionary, and for lease I only found a meaning similar to "rent". So what is it supposed to mean?

And another one from the song's first verse:

In yonder town there lived a maid
Ah, she was the keeper of her trade
She fell in love with a light ragade
And his name was Dainty Davy

What's a ragade???

I have all these words printed out, so it cannot be a mishearing by me - but I would not exclude typos.

Thanks in advance
cu,
Andreas