Annotation:Come Hap Me with Thy Petticoat

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X:1 T:Hap me with thy Pettycoat M:C L:1/8 B:Alexander Stuart – “Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection” (Edinburgh, c. 1724, p. 60-61) F: https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/rbc/id/3000 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D V:1 c/>B/|Ad F/A/d/F/ E>DEF|Ad F/A/d/F/ A>B Ac/B/|A/d/A/d/ F/d/F/d/ E>DEF| B>d B/d/B/A/ B>c B::c/B/ |Ad A/B/d/e/ f>a f/e/d/c/|dF A/B/d/F/ A>B Aa/g/| f/e/d/f/ g/f/e/g/ a/g/f/a/ g/f/e/g/|f/g/f/d/ d/e/f/F/ (B>c B/)g/f/g/|a/f/b/f/ a/f/g/d/ e/c/a/e/ f/d/e/c/| d/e/f/a/ A/d/F/d/ (B>c) Ad/c/|B/A/G/B/ A/G/F/A/ G/F/E/F/ F/E/D/F/|BB, (B/c/4d/4)B/A/ B2B:| V:2 clef = bass C,|D,2D,,2A,2A,,2|F,F,, D,F, A,E, A,,2|D,,A,, D,D,, A,2A,,2| D,B,, F,F,, B,2B,,::z|D,2D,,2 DF, A,A,,|F,D D,F, A,E, A,,2| D,2E,2 F,D, E,C,|D,E, F,F,, B,/F,/D,/F,/ B,,2|DD, E,D, C,A,, D,A,| E,A, DD, A,E,A,,2|G,G,, F,D, E,C, D,F,|D,/B,/F,/B,/ F,F,, B,,3:|



COME HAP ME WITH THY PETTICOAT. AKA - "Hap me with thy pettycoat." AKA and see "I'll Hap Ye in My Plaidie," "Leith Wynd," "Munlochy Bridge." Scottish, English; Air or Reel. England, Yorkshire. G Major (Aird, McGibbon, McGlashan): D Major (Stuart). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The first printings of this old Scottish song (which resolves to the minor at the cadence) appears to be in Alexander Stuart's Musick for Allan Ramsay's Collection Part 3[1] (Edinburgh, c. 1724), and in William Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius (London, 1725). Stenhouse, in notes to the Scots Musical Museum, where "Come Hap Me with Thy Petticoat" appears as Air CXXXIX (No. 139), criticizes versions that "are so modernized as scarce to have a trace of (the tune's) ancient simplicity"; it was originally a lullaby, he notes, The song was written by Ramsay to an older tune called "O Bell, thy looks have kill'd my heart", and Stenhouse says "it is certainly the most stupid song Ramsay ever wrote. To work the silly burden of a nurse's lullaby to her infant, into a grave song for a full-grown lover, seems really too absurd..." The lullaby goes:

I'll hap ye wi' my petticoat,
My ain kind dow,
I'll hap ye wi' my petticoat
My ain kind dow.
The wind blaws cauld, my claithing's thin,
O dearie, on me rue,
And hap me wi' my petticoat,
My ain kind dow.

While Allan Ramsay's song[2] begins:

O Bell thy looks have kill’d my Heart,
I pass the Day in Pain,
When Night returns I feel the Smart,
And wish for thee in vain.
I’m starving cold, while thou art warm,
Have Pity and incline,
And grant me for a Hap that Charming
Peticoat of thine.


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - a MS collection by fiddler Lawrence Leadley, 1827–1897 (Helperby, Yorkshire) [Merryweather & Seattle].

Printed sources : - Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 187, p. 65. McGibbon (Scots Tunes, book II), c. 1746; p. 42. McGlashan (Collection of Scots Measures), 177?; p. 9. Merryweather & Seattle (The Fiddler of Helperby), 1994; No. 121, p. 64. Alexander Stuart (Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection part 3), Edinburgh, c. 1724; p. 60-61. William Thomson (Orpheus Caledonius), 1725; p. 11.






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  1. Some of Stuart's arrangements have been criticized as "un-singable", and this is surely one of them.
  2. Allan Ramsay, The Tea Table Miscellany, c. 1724, p. 324[1].