Boodie Bo

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts a girl unsuccessfully. He dresses his friend Boodie Bo in white one night. They meet his girl. She is frightened and goes to the singer's chamber "for fear of Boodie Bo." They have sex. When she rues her action he marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1689 (see note)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage seduction disguise trick ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1496, "Boodie Bo" (1 text)
DT, BOGLEBO
Roud #7163
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)" [Laws O3] (theme and many lines)
NOTES [355 words]: Greig/Duncan7 quoting Bell Robertson: "This was mother's and Mr Greig said it [was] the only version that had point as the foggy dew ["The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)" [Laws O3]] seemd so senseless."
That the effect is intended is shown by "when she meant to go away again came Boodie Bo."
The only difference between this song and Laws O3 is that the bugaboo, or foggy dew, is an apparently frightening person named Boodie Bo.
Jno Pauraig's Drinking Songs & Barroom-lore site has a copy of a 1689 broadside "from vol. 5 page 250 of the Pepys Ballad collection": "The Fright'ned York-shire Damosel, or, Fears Dispersed by Pleasure." The broadside and Greig/Duncan7 texts share line fragments. The only difference in plots is that the broadside ghost -- Bogulmaroo, a grinning sprite -- may be real.
According to the Online Scots Dictionary, "bogle" is "spectre, a hobgoblin."
A similar trick is used in "The Bogle-Bo." Hab marries Bessie, who turns out to be a shrew ("frae nicht till the dawin they battled" and she gets the better of it). Tailor Tam comes to Hab's rescue by appearing at the couple's bedside dressed in an ox hide with horns and tail, threatening to take Bessie away. See, said Hab, "whare your tantrums wad en'." Bessie surrenders: "'O dear, dear Habby, my jewel! Keep me frae the Bogle-bo." Moral : "Now, lasses ... when [the men] their services tender, And ye wad say yes, say na no; Wi' frankness and caution surrender, For fear o' the Bogle-Bo" (Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions (Edinburgh, 1806 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 292-300, "The Bogle-Bo" (1 text)).
For "The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3]" see the discussion of EngBdsdBA Pepys 5.250. The main difference between Pepys and "Boodie Boo" is that in Pepys the "spright" is real. There are some shared lines, as there are between Pepys and other "Foggy Dew" texts. One feature that both Pepys and "Boodoe Bo" lack is the common "Foggy Dew" verse "All through the first part of the night We did sport and play And through the latter part of that night She in my arms did lay." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71496

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