Lyr Add: He Ye Seen Wor Cuddy?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: He Ye Seen Wor Cuddy?
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 23 Jun 04 - 07:48 AM

Yup!
What you need is Heslop's Book
Northumberland Words
I have only seen one copy and at that only one volume in the LOC
It would be nice to find one to zerox....

There are several parts of Heslop here and there on the web.

one is here
http://www.geordiepride.demon.co.uk/dictionary.htm
geordie dictionary

I believe there are others.....
Anyone with a copy of Heslop and a zerox machine let me kna!

Conrad

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: He Ye Seen Wor Cuddy?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 23 Jun 04 - 01:43 AM

All these "Cuddy"s sent me looking for answers. I found this:

CUDDY
Possibly derived from the Persian word ''gudda'' or the Hindustani ''ghudda'', a cuddy is a horse - not a thoroughbred racehorse, though, but a more workaday quadruped. A joiner's sawhorse was often referred to as a cuddy, and a gymnasium horse was also a cuddy to schoolchildren. To give a child a ''cuddy-back'' is to carry the child on your back. An old childhood rhyme used to go - ''Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, haud the cuddy till I get on!''

Though someone claimed in the "Kitty ALone" thread that a cuddy is a frog, I can't find any confirmation of that. The above is Scots, and presumably also Geordie. Other sites say that a cuddy can be a donkey, too.

Cuddy is also the diminutive for Cuthbert.

So this song is a play on words, right? Bess is looking for Cuddy (Cuthbert), the singer thinks she's looking for her cuddy (horse or donkey).

~ Becky in Tucson
(wading through the Geordie is rough going!)

Subject: Lyr Add: He Ye Seen Wor Cuddy?
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 22 Jun 04 - 10:33 AM

Heh Ye Seen Wor Cuddy?

Tune-"The King of the Cannibal Islands."

One neet, when gannin te the toon,
Aw met a wife called awd Bess Broon,
Wiv a raggy shawl an' durty goon,
Sayin' "Heh ye seen wor Cuddy?"
Her fyece was flush'd wi' pashun reed,
Her hair hung lowse aboot her heed;
Half flaid aw was when her aw seed,
Aw thowt it she was mad indeed.
She says, "Noo, Billy, ye mun gan
Wi'me, or else ye are ne man;
For find this beest aw niver can-
Aw've gyen an' lost wor Cuddy!"

Chorus
Fal the dal, the dal, the da,
Fal the dal, the dal, the da,
Fal the dal, the dal, the da,
O, heh ye seen wor Cuddy?

"What culler is yor Cuddy, Bess?
Aboot that beest aw heh ne guess,
Maw heed wwims roond in dizziness,
When aw think aboot yor cuddy!
Is he broon? or is he grey?
When did ye loss him, dye say?
Or, how d'ye knaaw he's cum'd this way?
Thor's uther roads the beest might stray.
What towl-gate did yor Cuddy pass?
Ye knaw doon her thor is ne grass;
It myeks ye luik a stupid lass,
Te cum here te seek yor Cuddy!"

Fal the dal, etc.

"He's ginger heckled, Bill, ye knaw,
An' weers his hair reet roond his jaw,
An' a greet big tuft his chin belaw,
Maw drunken ginger Cuddy!
He's been a trimmer mony a 'eer
An' a reg'lar wt 'un for his beer,
Ya knaw as wel as me it's here,
Cud Broon, the trimmer, Bill, aw feer.
They get thor munny paid th' neet,
Ye knaw yorsel it's owt but reet,
Aw cannot get a bit te eet
For that nasty, drunken Cuddy!"

Fal the dal, etc.

-George Guthrie, Allan's Collection, 1872