Bess the Gawkie

DESCRIPTION: Jean tells Bess that her boyfriend Jamie had been kissing Maggie and, between kisses, told Maggie "that Bess was but a gawkie [fool]." Bess tells Jamie she won't be just another of his many girls and leaves him "to rue That ever Maggie's face he knew"
AUTHOR: James Muirhead (1740-1808) (source: Rogers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity rejection rake shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1840, "Bess the Gawkie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 154-156, "The Gawkie"
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 35-37, "Bess, the Gawkie"
Charles Rogers, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (2006) of] The Modern Scottish Minstrel; or, The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century Vol II (Edinburgh, 1856), p. 82, "Bess, the Gawkie"
Roud #8416
File: GrD81840

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