The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #124878   Message #2762200
Posted By: Mick Pearce (MCP)
08-Nov-09 - 01:27 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Feckless Willy? / Feckless Wully
Subject: Lyr Add: FECKLESS WULLY (Robert Anderson)
Here's the original version. (I gave the title of the book incorrectly above - it's Cumberland not Cumbrian).

Although tunes are specified for many of the ballads, there is none for this. There are no notes either.

(If anyone has problems with the dialect and want glosses for particular words let me know - as the book title says there is a glossary!).

Mick



BALLAD XXVIII
FECKLESS WULLY
(Robert Anderson)

Wee Wully wuns on yonder brow,
And Wully he has dowters twee;
But nought cud feckless Wully dui,
To get them sweethearts weel to see.

For Meg she luik'd baith reet and left,
Her een they bwor'd a body thro';
And Jen was deef, and dun, and daft,
And de'il a yen come there to woo.

The neybor's wink'd, the neybors jeer'd
The neybors flyr'd at them in scworn,
And monie a wicked trick they play'd
Peer Meg and Jen, beath neet and mworn,

As Wully went ae day to wark,
He kick'd a summet wid his shoe;
And Wully glowr'd, and Wully girn'd,
"Guide us!", quoth he, "what ha'e we now?"

And Wully cunn'd owre six scwore pun,
And back he ran wi' nimmle heel,
And aye he owre his shou'der glym'd,
And thought he'd dealins wi' the de'il.

And Wully's bought a reet snug house,
And Wully's bought a bit o' lan;
And Meg and Jen are trig and crouse,
Sin he the yellow pwokie fan.

Nae mair the neybors wink and jeer,
But aw shek hans wi' them, I trow;
And ilk yen talks o' William's gear,
For Wully's chang'd to William now.

And some come east, and some come west,
And some come monie a mile to woo;
And Meg luiks straight, and Jen has sense,
And we aw see what gear'll dui.

Ye rich fwok aw, ye'll aye dui reet;
Ye peer fwok aw, ye'll aye dui wrang;
Let wise men aw say what they will,
It's money meks the meer to gang.

July 3, 1803

Source: Ballads In The Cumberland Dialect chiefly by R.Anderson, with Notes and a Glossary. The remainder by various authors. 1870.