Annotation:Peggie is over ye sie wi' ye souldier

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PEGGIE IS OVER YE SIE WI’ YE SOULDIER. Scottish, Air (3/8 time). The melody appears in the Skene Manuscript (c. 1615), for the mandora or lute. The title is "Peggy is over the sea with a soldier." Bayard finds a modern American variant of the song and tune in the Lomax’s Our Singing Country (1941) under the title “Lame Soldier (The),” recorded in Indiana in 1938. In the song Peggy leaves her husband to follow a soldier overseas, but afterwards is mistreated by him. Bayard says the second line of the Lomax tune is nearly identical with the first and second lines of the Skene MS air, and feels the Indiana song must be a derivative in both tune and words.

Some see the Skene tune as a precursor to a very popular folksong and ballad air, perhaps most famous as the vehicle for the song "Villikins and His Dinah." Others, like James Fuld, decline to remark on the connection.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Dauney (Ancient Scottish Melodies), 1838.

Recorded sources: Dorian Dor 90314, Baltimore Consort - "Adew Dundee: Early Music of Scotland" (2013).

See also listing at:
See/hear the tune played on lute at youtube.com [1]

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