I was singing this song -- in the shower, as usual -- and followed it up with 'Fyveo' for the shampoo, and it suddenly struck me that Peggy Gordon is Pretty Peggy-o!

I've taken to singing a combined version of interspersed (almost) verses : the narrative of the Irish Dragoons carries on until Peggy-o tells the captain that she'll never marry a soldier, and then he responds with his plaint about Peggy Gordon mistreating him. I have him asking for the 'very reason you are discourteous so to me', and bewailing the depth of his love.

The colonel then calls the troop to mount and the captain asks for more time, followed by a resprise of the first Peggy Gordon verse and the 'cask of brandy' verse. No wonder the troopers have their (drunken) captain to carry and then to bury! The end of the Fyveo tale calls for a final mournful/ghostly reprise of the first Peggy Gordon verse, and it seems to me a complete and effective picture.

What do you think of that?