Lauchie

DESCRIPTION: Lauchie comes from the Highlands looking for work and enlists. "She always wore her ruffled shirt and clean was shaved" and made a fine impression on the Major. She becomes a drill sergeant. She leaves the army when the war ends.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 530, "Lauchie" (2 texts)
Roud #6009
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tullochgorum" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
cf. "The Soldier Maid" (plot)
cf. "The Banks o' Skene" (plot)
cf. "The Drum Major (The Female Drummer)" (plot)
NOTES [126 words]: Greig/Duncan3 530A mixes 12 sung verses and three spoken lines by the recruiter or master sergeant and responses, primarily by the heroine. All the actors are made out to be fools. For example, having made drill sergeant, she says, "O Neil, Neil, if I was known you for a leer, I was believe you, but you was in the bad habit of crying 'Amashew,' ['Here'] whether you was hear or not, for that I will mark you down absent."
While the recruiter recognizes Lauchie from home, "a soldier she was made," and others think "she's a braw lad."
Greig/Duncan3 530B is a fragment of one-and-a-half verses with no spoken lines. - BS
For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3520

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