Blythe, Blythe and Merry Was She

DESCRIPTION: "Blythe, blythe and merry was she Blythe was she butt and ben Blythe when she gaed to bed And blyther when she rose again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1799 (Thompson's "Scottish Aires"); reportedly written 1787
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Picture of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1828 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 166, ("Blythe, blythe, and merry was she")
Roud #6123
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Andro and His Cutty Gun" (tune)
cf. "Blythe Was She" (some lines) and references there
cf. "Greense's Bonny Lass" (half the chorus and the sense of the chorus)
NOTES [363 words]: Chambers: "It is, moreover, handed down by tradition, that a daughter of one of the early chiefs of Scots -- a young lady of great beauty -- was the heroine of the first song to the tune of 'Andro and his Cuttie Gun;" which commenced with the fiollowing stanza: [text in DESCRIPTION]"
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "Probably the song is the predecessor of Burns's and suggested it."
It is tempting to lump this with "Greense's Bonny Lass"; it could easily have been the chorus to that song instead of .".. Blithe when I gaed in the gate, And blithe to bid me come again."
The chorus to Burns's "Blythe Was She": "Blythe, blythe and merry was she, Blythe was she butt and ben; Blythe by the banks of Earn, And blythe in Glenturit glen." (Source: Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 216-217). Other songs to consider, in trying to place this song include:
The beginning of "Andro and his Cutty Gun": "Blyth, blyth, blyth was she, Blyth was she butt and ben; And we'el she loo'd a Hawick gill, And leugh to fee a tappit hen." (Source: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 18-19).
Lines from "The Lass That Made the Bed to Me": "Blythe and merry may she be, The lass that made the bed to me." (Source: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 243-244). Chambers says "There is an older and coarser song ...." - BS
That Burns set this to "Andro and his Cutty Gun" is confirmed by Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, pp. 250-251. This adds that the inspiration for Burns's song was one Euphemia Murray of Lintrose (born 1769). She "was known as 'The Flower of Strathmore.' She was eighteen when Burns stayed with [her cousin] Sir William [Murray] in 1787, and wrote the song 'Blythe, blythe and merry was she'...." She was visiting Ochtertyre when Burns visited, and he wrote that she "was a well-known toast, Miss Eupehenia Murray of Lintrose." Hoever, "The lady, according to tradition, did not appreciate the honour done her by Burns."
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RCBBMWS

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