And Sae Will We Yet

DESCRIPTION: "Come sit down, me cronies, And gie us your crack, Let the win lift the cares o' this life from aff your back... For we've always been provided for, and sae will we yet." The singer and the nation have endured through troubles, "and sae will we yet."
AUTHOR: Walter Watson ? (died 1854)
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, Ulverston: G. Ashburner, 1812)
KEYWORDS: drink work party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 256-258, "Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129, p. 1, "We've Aye Been Provided For and Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 552, "Sae Will We Yet" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 371-372, "Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 267, "Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
DT, SAEWILL
ADDITIONAL: The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 184, "And Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
Roud #5611
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(42), "And sae will we yet," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824 (barely legible); Firth b.26(389), "We've aye been Provided For" ("Sit ye down here my cronies, and gie us your crack"), J. Scott (Pittenweem), 19C; Harding B 11(61)=Firth c 13(296), "And so will we yet," Hoggett (?), n.d.; Harding B 25(55), "And so will we yet"; Firth n.26(389); Firth b.26(289), "We've Aye Been Provided For"
NLScotland, RB.m.143(154), "We've Aye been Provided For" ("Sit ye down here, my cronies, and gie us your crack"), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1869
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Never lippen to chance" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth b.26(389))
NOTES [146 words]: Greig quotes a version sent to him by Ord as Watson's original version. It does not include three verses included by Whitelaw. "This inclines one to think that the addenda may have been written by the author [Watson] himself; but, inasmuch as in the final edition of Watson's works the song appears without the addenda, they must have either been withdrawn by the author or discarded as spurious." Greig's version also includes a verse not in Whitelaw. - BS
Ord lists this as being sung to "The Wearing of the Green." I can't for the life of me make it fit; I suspect he derived that from a broadsheet which indicated an incorrect tune.
The broadsides list various tunes: Bodleian Firth b.26(289) lists "Never lippen to chance"; another Bodleian text claims an original tune. The Ulverston Poetical Miscellany (which was pointed out to me by Jim Dixon) does not list a tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: FVS256

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