Jocky Said to Jeanie

DESCRIPTION: "Jocky said to Jeanie, wilt thou do't? Ne'er a fit, quo' Jeannie, for my tocher good." She says her dowry is too good for such as him. He says he has gold, gear, and land. She consents: "Ye're welcomer to tak me than to let me be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: love courting dowry
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 823, "Jocky's Proposal" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 22, "Jocky Said to Jinnie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 145, "Jocky Said to Jenny" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany (Edinburgh: Thomas Ruddiman, 1724 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 141-142, "For the Love of Jean" ("Jocky said to Jeany, Jeany, wilt thou do't?") (1 text)
ST CrNS022 (Full)
Roud #1792
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jocky Said to Jeany
NOTES [112 words]: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong: "This was an old song even in Ramsay's days, as it was marked with a Z in the first volume of his Miscellany. The title there given to it is 'For the love of Jean,' ...." The "Z, old songs" is in Ramsay's Table of Contents.
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia heard this song in Gaelic and French as well as English and always to the same tune. - BS
My feeling is that Creighton's version was a local adaption. Her tune (in 2/4 and with a range of only a fourth) bears no resemblance to that, e.g., in the Scots Musical Museum (in 3/2 and with a full octave range). My guess would be that a Gaelic drone went into French and English. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: CrNS022

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