Lyr Add: Hooly and Fairly

Subject: Lyr Add: HOOLY AND FAIRLY
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Feb 22 - 11:31 AM

From Thirty Scots Songs for a Voice & Harpsichord. The music taken from the most genuine sets extant. The words from Allan Ramsay. (Edinburgh: R. Bremmer, 1757), page 10f.


HOOLY AND FAIRLY

1. Oh! what had I ado for to marry!
My wife she drinks naithing but sack and canary.
I to her friends complained right airly:

CHORUS: O gin my wife wad drink hooly and fairly,
Hooly and fairly, hooly and fairly.
O gin my wife wad drink hooly and fairly.

2. First she drank Crummie, and syne she drank Garie.
Now she has drunken my bonny grey mairie
That carried me thro’ the dub and the lairie.

3. If she’d drink but her ain things, I wad na much care.
She drinks my claiths I canna well spare.
To the kirk and the market I gang fu’ barely.

4. If there’s ony siller, she maun keep the purse.
If I seek but a baubee, she’ll scauld and she’ll curse.
She gangs like a queen; I scrimper and sparely.

5. I never was given to wrangling nor strife,
Nor e’er did refuse her the comforts of life.
Ere it come to a war, I’m ay for a parley.

6. A pint wi’ the cummers I wad her allow,
But when she sits down she fills herself fow,
And when she is fow she’s unco campsterie.

7. And when she comes hame, she lays on the lads.
She ca’s the lasses baith limmers and jades,
And I my ain sell, an auld cockel carlie.

Subject: Lyr Add: HOOLY AND FAIRLY (Joanna Baille)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Feb 22 - 12:04 PM

Joanna Baille, Fugitive Verses (London: Edward Moxon, 1813), page 281:


HOOLY AND FAIRLY.
(FOUNDED ON AN OLD SCOTCH SONG.)

1. O, neighbours! what had I a-do for to marry!
My wife she drinks possets and wine o' Canary,
And ca's me a niggardly, thraw-gabbit cairly,
  O, gin my wife wad drink hooly and fairly,
    Hooly and fairly, hooly and fairly,
  O, gin my wife wad drink hooly and fairly!

2. She sups wi' her kimmers on dainties enow,
Aye bowing and sminning and wiping her mou',
While I sit aside, and am helpit but sparely,
  O, gin my wife wad feast hooly and fairly!
    Hooly and fairly, hooly and fairly,
  O, gin my wife wad feast hooly and'fairly!

3. To fairs and to bridals and preachings and a',
She gangs sae light headed and buskit sae braw,
In ribbons and mantuas that gar me gae barely:
  O, gin my wife wad spend hooly and fairly!
    Hooly and fairly, hooly and fairly,
  O, gin my wife wad spend hooly and fairly!

4. I' the kirk sic commotion last Sabbath she made,
Wi' babs o' red roses and breast-knots o'erlaid!
The Dominie stickit the psalm very nearly:
  O, gin my wife wad dress hooly and fairly!
    Hooly and fairly, hooly and fairly,
  O, gin my wife wad dress hooly and fairly!

5. She's warring and flyting frae morning till e’en,
And if ye gainsay her, her een glowr sae keen,
Then tongue, kneeve, and cudgel she'll lay on ye sairly:
  O, gin my wife wad strike hooly and fairly!
    Hooly and fairly, hooly and fairly,
  O, gin my wife wad strike hooly and fairly!

6. When tired wi' her cantrips, she lies in her bed,
The wark a' negleckit, the chaumer unred,
While a' our guid neighbours are stirring sae early:
  O, gin my wife wad wurk timely and fairly!
    Timely and fairly, timely and fairly,
  O, gin my wife wad wurk timely and fairly!

7. A word o' guid counsel or grace she'll hear none;
She bandies the Ellers, and mocks at Mess John,
While back in his teeth his own text she flings rarely:
  O, gin my wife wad speak hooly and fairly!
    Hooly and fairly, hooly and fairly,
  O, gin my wife wad speak hooly and fairly!

8. I wish I were single, I wish I were freed;
I wish I were doited, I wish I were dead,
Or she in the mouls, to dement me nae mair, lay!
  What does it ’vail to cry hooly and fairly!
    Hooly and fairly, hooly and fairly,
  Wasting my breath to cry hooly and fairly!