The Auld Gudeman.
[Ramsay gives this in his Tea Table Miscellany as an old piece in his day. It is also be found, words and music, in the Orpheus Caledonius, 1725. "The auld gudeman" means here the first husband.]
Late in an evening forth I went,
A little before the sun gaed down
And there I chanced, by accident,
To light on a battle new begun.
A man and his wife were faun in strife;
I canna weel tell how it began;
But aye she wail'd her wretched life,
And cried ever, Alake, my auld gudeman!
He.
The auld gudeman that thou tells of,
The country kens where he was born,
Was but a puir silly vagabond,
And ilka ane leuch him to scorn;
For he did spend and mak' an end
Of gear that his forefathers wan:
He gart the puir stand frae the door:
Sae tell nae mair of thy auld gudeman.
She.
My heart, alake, is like to bre.ak,
When I think on my winsome John:
His blinking een, and gait sae free,
Was naething like thee, thou dozent drone.
His rosy face and flaxen hair,
And skin as white as ony swan,
Was large and tall, and comely withal:
And thoult never be like my auld gudeman.
He.
Why dost thou pleen? I thee mainteen;
For meal and maut thou disna want:
But thy wild bees I canna please,
Now when our gear 'gins to grow scant.
Of household stuff thou hast enough;
Thou wants for neither pot nor pan:
Of siclike ware he left thee bare:
Sae tell me nae mair of thy auld gudenan.
She.
Yes, I may tell, and fret mysel',
To think on the blythe days I had,
When he and I thegither lay
In arms, into a weel-made bed.
But now I sigh, and may be sad;
Thy courage is cauld, thy colour wan;
Thou foulds thy feet, and fa's asleep:
And thoul't never be like my auld gudeman.
Then coming was the nicht sae dark,
And gane was a' the licht of day;
The carle was fear'd to miss his mark,
And therefore wad nae langer stay.
Then up he gat, and he ran his way;
I trow the wife the day she wan
And aye the owerword o' the fray
Was ever, Alake, my auld gudeman!