Gae Flit the Coo

DESCRIPTION: A wife comes in after moving the cow. Her husband insists she move it. She says "it is already done." He tells her again and "obedience is the woman's part." She complains that he is sour and sulky. He insists "obedience by nicht and day": move the cow!
AUTHOR: Alexander Smart (1798-1866) (source: Whistle-Binkie) but see Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast's note
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Whistle-Binkie)
KEYWORDS: dialog nonballad animal husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #71, p. 2, "Gae Flit the Coo" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1306, "Gae Flit the Coo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 376, "The Flittin' o' the Cow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Second Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 42-43, "The Flittin' o' the Cow"
Roud #6274
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tak' Your Auld Cloak About Ye" (tune, per Whistle-Binkie)
NOTES [54 words]: Greig, April 13, 1909: "We referred to this song a week or two ago as composed by Alexander Smart (1798-1866) and appearing originally in Whistle-Binkie, but as being now pretty much a traditional ditty." Greig's copy differs from Smart's in Whistle-Binkie only in some spelling ("coo" instead of "cow," for example). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71306

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