Annotation:O as I was kiss'd yestreen (1)
X:1 T:Kiss'd Yestereen T:Oh, as I was Kiss'd Yestreen [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:David Young – Drummond Castle/Duke of Perth Manuscript (1734, No. 27) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amin B|ABA ABd|efg A2A|BAG GAG|BAB G2B| cBc dcd|ede a2g|edB ABd|eAA A2:| |:a|aAA ABA|aAA A2g|gGG GAG|gGG G2B| cBc dcd|ede a2g|edB ABd|eAA A2:|]
O AS I WAS KISS'D YESTREEN [1]. AKA and see "As I was Kissed Yestreen," "Kissed Yestreen," "Yesterday's Kisses." Scottish, Jig. A Minor (most versions): A Dorian (Bremner, Gow): A Mixolydian (Gunn). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Kerr): AABB (most versions). The melody appears (as "Kiss'd Yestereven") in the Drummond Castle Manuscript (in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle), inscribed "A Collection of Country Dances written for the use of his Grave the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734." Edinburgh fiddler and writing master Young also included the melody in his later MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1741, No. 98, p. 143). John Glen (1891) did not find an appearance of the tune in a published collection prior to Robert Bremner's 1757 collection. Bayard (1981) identifies this as the signature melody of a group of tunes that belongs to a very large extended family of tunes, which he likens to a language and its dialects (see note for "Annotation:Lannigan's Ball"). Other signature tunes in this family are "Lan(n)igan's Ball," "Muirland Willie," "Bung Your Eye," "Kitty Alone," and "Lumps of Puddings (2)." "O As I Was Kiss'd Yestreen (1)" variants are close to the "Bung Your Eye" group and include "Sae Braley as I Was," "House o' Duncan," "My Love is Lost to Me," and others. However, some modern researchers question the connection with "Lumps of Puddings (2)" (as printed by John Playford in The Dancing Master, 1659).
See also Francis O'Neill's version under the ideosyncratic title "Yesterday's Kisses," and the Irish family of tunes of the "Old Man Dillon" family.
The lyric printed in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 4 (1792) goes:
O, as I was kist yestreen,
O, as I was kist yestree!
I'll never forget till the day that I die,
Sae mony braw kisses his Grace gae me.
My father was sleeping, my mither was out,
And I was my lane, and in came the Duke;
I'll never forget till the day that I die,
Sae mony braw kisses his Grace gae me.
Kist the streen, kist the streen,
Up the Gallowgate, down the Green:
I'll never forget till the day that I die,
Sae mony braw kisses his Grace gae me.
