Hi,

I finally put all the Grig-Duncan versions on my site. Version V is by the same informant as version P so there are 21 versions. I have two questions maybe someone could help:

1) Footnote 1- is that right for "couthie"?
2) Who is James M. Taylor- I guessed but I don't like to presume anything :)

From: The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection - Volume 4; edited by Patrick N. Shuldham-Shaw, Emily B. Lyle - 1981. Collected in North Scotland in early 1900s by Gavin Greig (1856–1914), and the minister James Bruce Duncan 1848-1917).

I'm guessing that this is James M. Taylor (1872-1944), a poet, of Alford, Aberdeenshire.

A James M. Taylor wrote this in the WFP, "18 April 1914, p 12 [warm appreciation of work of Gavin Greig and the way it is changing the popular perception of folk song]. Greig, of course, ran the most famous folk-song column of all, in the Buchan Observer, . . ."


T. "I Will Put My Ship" - Sung by James M. Taylor (1872-1944) of Alford, Aberdeenshire. Collected by Gavin Greig.

1.   I will put my ship all in good order,
And I will sail far across the sea,
I will sail on to my true love's window,
And see if my love minds on me.

2. I sail-ed east, sae did I west,
I sail-ed up, sae did I down,
Until I came to my true love's window,
I knock-ed loudly and fain would be in.

3. "Who is that at my bedroom window,
That speaks sae couthie[1] unto me?"
It's the voice of my true love Johnnie,
But I'm afraid that it is not he.

4.   It's you'll arise, love, go and ask your mother
And see if she be willing you my bride to be,
And if she refuse you, come back and tell me,
It'll be the last time I'll visit thee.

5. My mother's in her bedroom sleeping,
And talks of love, cannot reach her ear
She bids you to go love and court another,
And whisper softly in her[2] ear.

6. It's you'll arise, love, go and ask your father
And see if he be willing you my bride to be,
And if he refuse you, come back and tell me,
It'll be the last time I'll visit thee.

7. My father's in his count room counting,
He's counting o'er his merchandise;
And he has a letter into his pocket,
Which bears note to your dispraise.

8. To my dispraise love, to my dispraise,
To my dispraise love, how can it be?
For I never denied you nor never slighted you,
Until this night ye have slighted me.

9. It's she 'rose, putting on her clothes,
It was a' to let her ain true love in,
But before she got the door unbolted,
The ship was sailing across the main.

10. "Come back, come back, come back my Johnnie,
Come back and speak one word to me,"
It's "How could I come back to you love,
When the ship she's sailing across the sea?"

11. The fish may fly, the seas gang dry,
And a' the rocks melt wi' the sun,
Husbandmen may give over their labour,
Before that I return again.

12. She turned herself right 'round about,
And she's flang herself into the sea
Saying, "Ye may come back again when ye think proper,
But ye'll never hae to come back to me."

1. uncouthly; i.e boisterously or loudly
2. originally "my"

Richie