Cripple Kirsty

DESCRIPTION: A porter meets Cripple Kirsty and asks if she's thirsty. She offers to pay half and they stop at a tavern. When she asks for another round he refuses. She says the drink she had was good and tells him to call on her the next time he would share a round.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "It's wha amang ye hisna heard o' weel-kent Cripple Kirsty." When a porter asks her if she were thirsty she offers to add her two-pence to his and "we'll hae a wee drap whiskie." He agrees and they go to Shirra's for a pint. She deftly drinks hers. He praises her but when she says "'lat us hae some mair o't' 'Na! na!' quo he 'ye greedy jade I think ye've got yer share o't.'" Says she, "'I maun be contentit ... it's done me muckle gweed ....' An noo I hope ye'se gies a ca' some mornin' fin yer thirsty An as ye gae by Fiddler's Close cry in for Cripple Kirsty"
KEYWORDS: drink parody
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #170, p. 2, "Cripple Kirsty" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 556, "Cripple Kirsty" (1 text)
Roud #6030
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maggie Lauder" (tune, form and text basis for parody)
NOTES [206 words]: Greig: "'Cripple Kirsty' I owe to Mr Wm Walker, Aberdeen who says it used to be sung by a fiddling neighbour about the middle of last century. He never saw it in print. Being a parody, and an exceedingly happy one, of 'Maggie Lauder,' it is of course sung to the same tune." That's as may be but, if there are hints of sexual symbolism in the original they seem lost in the parody.
For comparison's sake here's a Maggie Lauder Long Description: "Wha wadna be in love Wi' bonny Maggie Lauder." When a piper asks her "what was't they ca'd her," she tells him but "right scornfully" and tells him to begone. He, Rob the ranter, won't leave and claims "the lasses loup as they were daft When I blaw upon my chanter." She has heard of him as have "the lasses far and near." She says, "I'll shake my foot wi' right good will Gif you'll blaw up your chanter." When he played "Meg up and wallop'd o'er the green." He praises her dancing and she his playing. Says she, "There's none in Scotland plays so weel ... I've lived at Fife baith maid and wife These ten years and a quarter Gin you shall come to Anster fair Spier [ask] you for Maggie Lauder."
Greig/Duncan3: "As sung by Hugh Gallanders, a fiddling neighbour of ours 1846-1850 ...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3556

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