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THE BORDER WIDOW'S LAMENT (2) (Oh ono chrio - Border Widow's Lament) On the murder of Glencoe Febr 1692 Was not I a weary May, ohon ochie ho ohno ochie ho A widow on my bridle day, ohon etc. That on that dark and fatal night ('ohon--' interlaced throughout) They brake my bower and slew my Knight Just in my soft and Longing arms Where I believ'd him safe from harms They perced his senser[?] gentle breast And Left me with sad grief opprest And was but I a Weary wight A Maid, wife, widow all in a night And after that my knight was slain I could no longer there remain With a fair suit of his yellow hair Which bound my heart for ever mare I cut my hair and chang'd my name From fair Alice to sweet William No soft tongued youth nor flattering swain Shall e're unloose that knot again But through this wood or world I'le roam To seek the joyes I lost at home O hon etc.. This earliest (unpublished) text here is from NLS MS 23.3.24. The manuscript, c 1715, is entitled "A Choice Collection of Several Scots Miscellanie POEMS and songs," and appears to be a manuscript for a work never published. The whole manuscript was carefully printed by hand, but there as are still letters here and there that are difficult to decipher. F. J. Child, < No.106, prints three later versions of our song here, including < Famous Flower of Serving Men." The latter is Laurence Price's ballad entered in the Stationers' Register on July 14, 1656. (Euing, No. 111, is original issue with Price's initials.) Price's ballad was undoubtably based on an even earlier tale, but not, as has been speculated, on that above. The heading of the text here confirms the note by Robert Burns (in the interleaved Scots Musical Museum) of the statement by Dr. Blacklock that the song was on the Glencoe massacre (James Dick, < The tune in the SMM was given earlier as "Oh Onochie O", in J. Oswald's <>, No.19, Edinburgh, 1740. Same, "Oh Onochie O," is in J. Oswald's < verse of the song was set to music was in Vol. I, page 22, of D. Corri's <Scots Songs>>, Edinburgh, n.d. (1783). The tune and the single verse given there is here annexed. Corri's statement is that his tune is Irish. The tune "Glencoe" in < Cf. also SMM No.498, "The Highland widow's lament" WBO Child #106 Roud-199 @Scottish @war @death filename[ BRDRWDO TUNE FILE: BRDRWDO.1 CLICK TO PLAY TUNE FILE: BRDRWDO.2 CLICK TO PLAY WBO Apr98 |
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