Bonnie Dundee (I)

DESCRIPTION: "To the Lords of Convention 'twas Claverhouse spoke, Ere the King's crown go down there are crowns to be broke." The Jacobite army gathers and prepares to fight for James II and VII
AUTHOR: unknown (adapted by Sir Walter Scott)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Cameron's Selection of Scottish Songs); believed to date to at least the eighteenth century
KEYWORDS: soldier drink political Jacobite
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 27, 1689 - Battle of Killiecrankie, at which Jacobites under Claverhouse/Dundee are victorious but their commander killed, resulting in the failure of their cause
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 10, "The Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 80-81, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 124-134, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text plus many related, or unrelated, ancestral pieces)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 55, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text)
JennieEngelsDearLittleShamrockSongster, pp. 53-54, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text)
Bryants-Put-Me-In-My-Little-Bed-Songster, p. 7, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 179, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text)
ST MBra179 (Partial)
Roud #8513
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riding a Raid" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Riding a Raid (File: SCWF082)
Bonnie Dundee (II) (O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock) (FIle: Gath058)
Scalp Song ("To the base churls of Congress 'twas Brooksy who spoke," referring to the attack on Senator Sumner by congressman Brooks, and attributed to Maria Jane Peytoun Middletonne Fitz-Fysshe, believed to be a pseudonym for George Templeton Strong) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 333)
Dan Ragg ("My name ii is Ragg, sir! Dan Ragg, if you please; My eyes have grown dim and I'm weak in the knees") (by Robert E. Rich) (Foner, p. 250)
NOTES [517 words]: The setting of this is the Glorious Revolutiion of 1688/1689. William of Orange had invaded England and caused James II to flee the country. But England and Scotland were still separate countries, and even the English government did not immediately know how to treat William's invasion from a constitutional standpoint; the Scots had to make their own decision in the matter. The "Convention" was the Scottish parliament that had to make that decision (Kishlansky, p. 298). They eventually decided to depose James and accept William and his wife Mary as monarchs, though with conditions.
James Graham of Claverhouse, later to become Viscount Dundee, was opposed to this. Ironically, he had fought with William in the Europe and even rescued him (Kishlansky, pp. 299-300). But when William made the Duke of Hamilton his commissioner to the Convention, Claverhouse was offended (Kishlansky, p. 299).
Claverhouse for a while played both sides in the war, but he had accepted a commission from James to fight on his behalf. He failed to bring the Convention around to his viewpoint (Kishlansky, p. 300), but he could and did raise the army that was victorious at Killiecrankie in 1689. Unfortunately (for Claverhouse at least), he was killed in that battle, and the victory went for naught.
For more background on these events, see the notes to "Killy Kranky"; also "Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog" [Child 205] and "Bothwell Bridge" [Child 206].
The common version of this is by Sir Walter Scott, who published it in the 1830 play "The Doom of Devorgoil" (so, e.g., Carroll/Gardner, p. 260, n. 13; Carroll/Green, p. 270; Williams/Maden/Green/Crutch, p. 313 say it is from Act II, scene ii), but there is enough variation in the publications that I am not entirely convinced that Scott originated it. Ford-SongHistories, lists an amazing collection of ancestors, by-blows, influences, and rewrites; among other things, pointing out "Crookit Bawbee" as a sort of not-even-fraternal twin, with both having links to a verse,
O, whar gat ye that haver-meal bannock?
Silly, blind body, O! dinna ye see
I gat it frae a brisk sodger laddie,
Atween St. Johnston and Bonnie Dundee.
The relationship of that to "Crookit Bawbee" is pretty obvious. Its relationship to "Bonnie Dundee" appears to me to consist of... just those two words. It is cited in the Index as "Bonnie Dundee (II) (O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock)." It is very likely older than this piece, though they apparently share a tune; see also the entry for that song.
It is certain that Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll rewrote this for Through the Looking Glass, Chapter IX, "Queen Alice," where it becomes a poem that begins
To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said
"I've a sceptre in hand, I've a crown on my head.
Let the Looking-Glass creatures, whatever they be
Come dine with the Red Queen, the White Queen and Me!"
What is less obvious is why Dodgson picked this particular item to parody. It is not one of his more subversive pieces, and he uses only a few bits of the original lyric. Perhaps he just liked the poem and its form. - RBW
Bibliography

Carroll/Gardner: The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Lewis Carroll with Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner, W. W. Norton, 2000
Carroll/Green: Lewis Carroll, Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, edited with an introduction and notes by Roger Lancelyn Green, 1971 (I use the 2008 Oxford University Press paperback edition)
Kishlansky: Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603-1714, Penguin, 1996
Williams/Maden/Green/Crutch: Sidney Herbert Williams and Falconer Madan, revised and augmented by Roger Lancelyn Green, further revised by Denis Crutch, The Lewis Carroll Handbook (earlier editions titled A Handbook of the Literature of the Rev. C. L. Dodgson, 1932, 1961, 1970); Dawson Books, 1979

Last updated in version 7.1
File: MBra179

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography