"Johnnie My Man"

From the Bodleian Library Broadside Collection, Firth b.25(299), c1850.
Printer: John Gilbert (Newcastle),
Stewart (Carlisle)

O Jonnie, my man, do you no think on rising,
For the day is far spent and the night's coming on
Your siller's a' done, and the stoups toom before ye
So rise up, my Johnnie, and come awa' hame.

Do you no think on your bairns, they're at hame greeting
Nae meal in the barrel to fill up their wee wames,
And you'll sit here drinking, and us leave lamenting,
O rise up, my Johnnie, end come awa' hame.

O wha's at the door I hear speaking sae kind,
It's the voice of my wife, called Jenny by name,
O come in beside me and taste a wee drappie,
Then I'll rise up contented and gang awa' hame.

Do ye no mind the time when we first fell acquainted,
Nae drink hurt our heads, nor in hunger our wames.
We roved all the night amang sweet scented roses
And ne'er took a thought to gaun away hame.

O weel do I mind o' the time that ye speak o'
But those days are awa' and shall nae come again;
O think on the present time — try for to mend it,—
So rise up, my Johnnie, and come awa' hame.

Now Jenny, my dear, your advice shall be taken
I'll leave off the auld deeds and follow thee hame;
I'll live sober and wisely, and I'll be respected, —
Nae mair to the ale-house to make it my hame.

Now Johnnie he rose up and the doors he clashed open,
O wae to your tavern that ever I came!
Then fare-ye-weel whisky that makes me ay frisky
And fare-ye-weel bauchie, so I'll gaun awa hame.

Noo Johnnie can gae out on a fine simmer even'
Wi wife an' bairns, fu' trig, an' fu' braw,
An 'a wee while before that, in rags they were rinnin',
While Johnnie sat drinkin' in the ale house at een.



Temperance songs such as this one, printed around 1850, were popular in Scotland in the 1840s - 1870s , where inebriation was seen not only as an occupational danger, but also an insidious destroyer of men and their families.

The Scottish Temperance Movement began in 1929 by John Dunlop and became well established by the 1830s with the formation of more temperance societies.