Lyr/Chords Req: My Minnie Ment My Auld Breeks

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: My Minnie Ment My Auld Breeks
From: GUEST,Murray on Saltspring
Date: 07 Jan 11 - 05:57 PM

Here's my note in my Census of Scottish Songs about the original:


CORN-CLIPS, The (My mither men't my auld breeks)
    Anon.
    Bannatyne Garland, 1826.
    Titled Ane Merrie Conceited Geste verrie plesand to be red or sung [bastard title]; t.p. reads Ane plesand Garland, Being ane lytill and Merrie Conceited Geste callit Ye Coirne-clyppis. Schawing howe ane zoung clerke mett with ane maidene, and ye misaduenturis quhilk befell
unto yaime yairthrow. Being profitabill to be read, for ye mair sikker eschewing of ye lyke mischaunces in tymes to cum. Sanct Androis, Imprentit be Robert Lekpreuik. Pp. 3-4 are the "Prologus", 5-6 the "Argument", 7-10 the poem: "Heir begynneth Ane plesand lytill
Geste, callit Coirne-clyppis." Consists of 6 double quatrains; 1st 4 lines: "Mye mithir men't my auld brekis,/ An' vow bot yai wer duddy,/ An' sente mie out to wede ye coirne/ Upon ye bankis o' Logie." The 2nd ed. (n.d., but still 1826) has bastard title Ane Merie Conceitit
Geste, rycht iocund and ioyous. Title modifies 1st ed. very little (Being ~ Beand, etc.). The Prologus says the Geste "is nowe panefullie reformeit and correctit, conforme to ane mair auncient and auctentik uersioune yan yat heirtofoir deuulgat". The poem (pp. 9-12) is in 6 double stanzas as before, except for the last, which inserts 4 extra (repetitive) lines in the middle; the text differs little save in diction ("Mye moder cloutt' my auld brekis" etc.). Cf. Logan, Pedlar's Pack (1869), 365. The 2 editions of the poem reflect the original and the emendations in Kinloch's MS. Burlesque and Jocular Ballads and Songs (1827-9) at Harvard [no. 2524.12], p. 193, collected from John Meikle, Lesmahagow (begins "My mither mend't my auld breiks").
    Words to the air: ""Robin Tamson's Smiddy"; "The Beadle and the Sexton"; "My Mother Sent me to the Well" (Freeland); and to a variant, "The Forfar Sodger". A variant sung to "The Trooper and the Maid"; in Moffat & Kidson British Nursery Rhymes, set to "There was a Man in Thessaly".

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: My Minnie Ment My Auld Breeks
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 09:22 PM

There is a version in the DT called ROBBIE TAMPSON'S SMITTY collected in Nova Scotia in 1953, but it only has the first 2 verses of the above version.

Subject: Lyr Add; MY MINNIE MENT MY AULD BREEKS
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 09:11 PM

From A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs By William Hugh Logan (Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1869), page 365:


MY MINNIE MENT MY AULD BREEKS

This ballad is by Alexander Rodger, the author of "Behave yourself before folk," and other popular lyrics.

The air it is sung to is that of the "Corn-clips," an old Scotch song, the words of which are not quite suited to "ears polite." Two versions of the "Corn-clips" are to be found in the first volume of the Bannatyne Club Garlands, printed in 1826. The first stanza, which is the same in both, runs thus:—

"My mither ment my auld brekis,
An' vow but yai wer duddy;
An' sente me out to wede ye coirne
Upoune ye bankis o' Logie."

The hero of the song leans upon his corn-clips to view a damsel passing through a ford in his immediate vicinity, for which offence he is had up before the kirk-session and severely "rebukit."

My minnie ment my auld breeks,
And wow but they were duddy;
And sent me to get shod our mare
At Robin Tamson's smiddy.
The smiddy stands aside the burn
That wimples through the clachan;
I never yet gang by the door
But aye I fa' a lauchin'.

For Robin was a walthy carle,
And had ae bonny dochter;
But ne'er would let her tak a man,
Tho' mony lads had sought her.
But what think ye o' my exploit?
The time our mare was shoeing,
I slippet up beside the lass,
And briskly fell a-wooing.

And aye she e'ed my auld breeks
The time that we sat crackin';
Quo' I, "my lass, ne'er mind the clouts,
I've new anes for the makin'.
But gin ye'll just come hame wi' me,
And leave the carle, your father,
Ye'se get my claes to keep in trim,
Mysel' an' a' thegither."

"'Deed lad, quoth she, your offer's fair,
I really think I'll tak it;
Sae gang awa', get oot the mare,
We'll baith slip on the back o't;
For gin I bide my faither's time,
I'll wait till I am fifty;
But na—I'll marry in my prime,
An' mak a wife fu' thrifty."

Wow! Robin was an angry man,
At losing o' the dochter;
Thro' a' the kintra side he ran,
And far and near he sought her.
But when he came to our fire-end,
And fand us baith thegither,
Quo' I, "Gudeman, I've taen your bairn,
And ye may tak my mither."

Auld Robin girned and shook his pow,
"Guid faith," quo' he, "you're merry;
But I'll just tak ye at your word,
And end this hurry burry."
Sae, Robin and our auld gudewife,
Agreed to creep thegither;
Now, I hae Robin Tamson's pet,
And Robin has my mither.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: MY MOTHER MEN'D MY BREEKS ?!*
From: Dunc
Date: 15 Aug 01 - 02:27 AM

Well done - Thanks
Dunc

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: MY MOTHER MEN'D MY BREEKS ?!*
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 05:52 PM

On the Bodleian Ballads website it's found as "Robin Thompson's smiddy".

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: MY MOTHER MEN'D MY BREEKS ?!*
From: nutty
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 05:44 PM

Yes they are MMARIO....

Here,s a link
LYRICS

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: MY MOTHER MEN'D MY BREEKS ?!*
From: MMario
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 11:49 AM

I think they are here:http://ourworld-top.cs.com/tannahillweavers/Lyrics/1193ly12.htm

but I can't get to the bleedin' site!

Subject: MY MOTHER MEN'D MY BREEKS ?!*??
From: Dunc
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 11:39 AM

My father (88) was trying to remember a song his mother used to sing to him in rural Perthshire when he was a wee lad.
The only words he can recall are as follows:

My mother men't (mended)my breeks and sent me tae the smiddy, to get (somebodys name)horse shod.

A bit short on substance, but at 88 he is doing well to remember the song at all.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Dunc