The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #146186 Message #3384273
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
31-Jul-12 - 05:38 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: What does 'lying next to the wall' mean?
Subject: RE: Folklore: What does 'lying next to the wall' mean?
I thought the song Captain Wedderburn's Courtship. Child 46, (DT, Jean Redpath version) expressed the meaning clearly.
Last verse:
Oh little did that lady think that morning when she raise
That this was for tae be the last o' a' her maiden days,
But noo there's nae within the realm tae be found a blither twa
For noo she's Mistress Wedderburn and she lies at the wa'.
(She is now the Captain's lady; she is in the protected position near the wall. The version in Contemplator ends,
And now they lie in one bed,
And she lies next the wall.
Joe Heaney explains:
In the olden times, the men was so fond of the women, that they put them lying next to the wall out of danger. Now, I don't know did they put them lying next to the wall so they couldn't run away, or because they wanted to protect them. Have it your way! But, they tell me it's to protect them they did it. Some people still do it !
www.joeheaney.org/default.asp?contentID=741
Heaney's version, these verses explain it:
.............
'For my breakfast you must get for me a cherry without a stone;
A chicken when it's in the egg surely has no bone;
The dove is a gentle bird, it flies without a gall;
So you and I on the one bed lie, but you'll lie next the wall.'
............
'Ah, go your way, young man,' she said and do not me perplex.
Before you and I on the one bed lie, you must answer me questions six,
Six questions you must answer me, and I'll set forth them all;
Then you and I on the one bed lie, and I'll lie next the wall.
................
This couple they were married, as you may plainly see:
They live happily together, and children they have three.
She set forth the questions; he answered one and all.
He rolled her in his arms, while she lay next the wall.