Annotation:Maggy Lawder

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MAGGIE LAUDER. AKA and see "Maggie Laidir," "Moggy Lawther." Scottish, Irish, English; Polka or Highland Schottische. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Miller & Perron, Raven): AABB (Aird): AABBCCDDEE (O'Farrell): AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH (Colclough). The Scottish dialect title (which goes by a number of variant spellings, including 'Maggie', 'Maggy', 'Moggy', 'Lauder','Lauther', 'Lawder, 'Laidir' etc.) means "strong Maggie" and dates from the mid-17th century when new words were adapted to the tune by John O'Neachtan about the year 1676. Grattan Flood (1906) traces reports of the tune back to 1696 when it was sung by Irish actor Thomas Dogget in his comedy called A Country Wake (who must have liked it for he used it again in 1711 for another play, Hob, or the Country Wake, a variant which appeared in Drury Lane that year) [Ed.: Flood, it must be said, is renowned for his inaccuracies and his scholarship must always be taken with a grain of salt]. Having found a home in the ballad opera genre, the melody was utilized again in the Quaker's Opera in 1728, by Charles Coffey, and in 1729 in his Beggar's Wedding (both under the title "Moggy Lawther"). As mentioned, it was employed by Allan Ramsay in his ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd in 1725, and it is Air IX in Theophilus Cibber's Scotch ballad opera Patie and Peggy (1730).

Instrumental versions of the widespread tune can be found in a number of printed and manuscript volumes dating to around the 1730's, and show a wide variety of iterations and variants. A Scottish version appeared in 1729 in Adam Craig's Collection of the Choicest Scots Tunes (Edinburgh), and a country dance form was printed by Benjamin Cooke in London in 1738. A rare, late text of Forbes of Disblair's "Maggie Lauder" variations appears in Perthshireman James Gillespie's 1768 MS. (where it is listed as "Moggie Lawther"). "Maggie Lauder" has also long been known in the north of Britain, where it is popular in piping as well as fiddle repertoire. Manuscript versions appear in the copybooks of James Winder (c. 1835-41)

The nation of Ireland has often been portrayed euphemistically, personified similar to Uncle Sam for America or John Bull for England. "Strong Maggie" is a euphemism for Ireland, states Hardiman, who published the air in 1831 based on an unknown 1706 transcription. The evidence, however, points to a Scottish provenance, with the 17th century lyric (which Chappell (1859) and Emmerson {1972} attribute to Francis Sempill or Semple of Beltrees) tells of a Scottish piper and his serendipitous meeting with a merry dancer in Fife, and may be enjoyed at face value:

For I'm a piper by my trade
My name is Rob the Ranter,
The lasses loup as they were daft
When I blaw my chanter.

Later:

Then to his bags he flew wi'speed,
About the drone he twisted;
Meg up and wallop'd o'er the green,
For brawly could she frisk it.
Weel done, quoth he, play up, quoth she,
Weel bob'd, quoth Rob the Ranter,
'Tis worth my while to play indeed,
When I hae sic a dancer.

The song was also mentioned in Allan Ramsay's ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd (1725, just before "Sang X"):

Jenny sings saft the "Broom o' Cowden-Knowes",
An' Rosie lilts the "Milking of the Ewes";
There's nane like Nancy, "Jenny Nettles" sings;
At turns in "Maggy Lauder", Marion dings:
But when my Peggy sings, wi' sweeter skill,
"The Boatman", or the "Lass o' Patie's Mill",
It is a thousand times mair sweet to me;
Tho' they sing weel, they canna sing like thee.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. II), 1785; No. 128, p. 47. Colclough (Tutor for the Irish Union Pipes), c. 1830; p. 18 (appears as "Maggie Lawder with Var."). Cooke (Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1738), London, 1738. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 3), c. 1880's; No. 201, p. 23. McGibbon (Scots Tunes, Book 1), c. 1762; pp. 16-17 (appears as "Magie Lawder"). Miller & Perron (101 Polkas), 1978; No. 31. O'Farrell (National Irish Music for the Union Pipes), 1804; pp. 42-43 (appears as "Maggie Lawder with New Variations).

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]

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