Hi,

If anyone has a version of "Waukrife Mammy" that we missed, please post it or any information about it.

The second form of "Seventeen Come Sunday" which dates to the late 1700s and early 1800s is usually titled, "Lady and Soldier" or "Maid and Soldier." These revisions pre-date the popular "Seventeen Come Sunday" titles of the mid-1800s.

The earliest extant date, circa 1800, was a chapbook printed by J. Morren (Edinburgh) "Three Songs:
LODGINGS for Single GENTLEMEN,
Young Man's Frolic,
The Lady and Soldier.

Here is the text:

The Lady and Soldier.

1. AS I did walk along the street,
I was my father's darling,
There I spied a pretty maid,
Just as the sun was rising.
      With my rulal, la.

2. Where are you going my pretty maid,
Where are you going my honey?
She answer?d me right modestly,
Of an errand for my mammy.

3. Will you marry me, my bonny lass?
Will you marry me, my honey?
With all my heart kind sir, said she,
But dare not for my mammy.

4. Come ye but to my father's house.
When the moon shines bright and clearly,
And I will rise and let you in,
And my mammy she won't hear me.

5. I have a wife, she is my own,
And how can I disdain her.
And every town that I go through,
A girl if I can find her.

6. I?ll go to-bed quite late at night,
Rise early the next morning,
The buglehorn is my delight,
And the hautboy [oboe] is my darling.

7. Of sketches I have got enough,
And money in my pocket,
And what care I for any one,
It's of the girls I've got it.
    With my rulal, la.

FINIS

This version is missing stanzas, the "How old are you" stanza and also stanzas after 4 but shows the modern form (no wakeful mother), albeit a confused story line. Memorable is the line:

And the hautboy [oboe] is my darling.

Also unusual is the use of the word "sketches" in the last stanza which appears to be slang for "plans" but its use is sketchy. Anyone?

An affinity to Trooper and the Maid appears:

Come ye but to my father's house,
When the moon shines bright and clearly,

They are different songs and this seems to be the only common text. The "moon shines bright and clearly" appears in both suggesting the possibility of an unknown association or common ancestry. This text persists in many "Seventeen Come Sunday" versions. I'm not suggesting that the two songs are the same and suggestions that they are have caused confusion. The "soldier" seems to have been added to the "Seventeen Come Sunday" text in the 1800s. At least the early Scottish versions do have the soldier stanza. This version is missing the soldier stanza.

Richie