LL-L: "Songs" LOWLANDS-L, 08.FEB.2000 (02) [E/S]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 08.FEB.2000 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Songs"

> From: john feather <johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk>
> Subject: Songs
>
> Sandy mentioned "Wap an Rowe" again. I previously suggested that
> these words
> might mean "warp and weft" and that the song depended on double entendre.
> Are both these ideas definitely wrong?

It's not wrong that the bawdy version depends on double entendre, mainly in
the introductory verse which seems to be full of it:

Ma daddie wis a fiddler fine,   [My father was a fiddler fine
Ma minnie she made mantie, O!   [My mother she made cloth
An A masel a thumpin quine,     [And I myself a buxom girl
An tried the rantie-tantie, O!  [An tried the rumpy-pumpy

You can gain some insight into the first line by comparing it with
"Greensleeves":

Green sleeves an tartan ties
Marks ma true luive whare she lies
A'll upsteir her or she rise
Ma fiddle an I thegither

Be it bi the milk-white thorn
Be it bi the cyrstal burn
A'll upsteir her in morn
Ma fiddle an I thegither

(By the way, the "I" here is just a self-conscious literary affectation
which would probably be more naturally sung as "Me an ma fiddle thegither",
or somesuch).

Anyway, having picked up on the contemporaneous use of "fiddle" as double
entendre, I imagine "made mantie" might be something akin to "makin'
whoopee". In this way the whole verse becomes coherent.

But in the chorus the phrase "wap (or _hap_) an rowe" refers to bandaging
the baby's feet. "Wap" means "wrap" an "rowe" means "roll" (often in the
sense of "wrap") - you can't just make them mean something else when they
make perfect literal sense in context. What on earth would the "feetie" have
to represent?

Nope, definitely not!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
http://www.fleimin.demon.co.uk

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