Annotation:Fy Gar Rub Her O'er Wi' Straw

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FY(E) GAR RUB HER O'ER WI' STRAE. Scottish, Reel or Air. A Minor (most versions): B Minor (Oswald). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Gatherer, Howe, Manson): AABBCCDD (Aird): AABBCCDDEEFFGG (Oswald). The title means 'rub her over with straw'. This tune, found in manuscripts from c. 1610 on, and an instrumental version was printed by Daniel Wright in his Aria di Camera (London, 1727). The melody was later used by Theophilus Cibber as an air to a song in his Scotch ballad opera Patie and Peggy (1730), by Munro (in 1732) for the last a movement of a variation sonata, and by Allan Ramsay in his ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd (1725). Williamson says all that is known of the old song is this chorus:

Gin ye meet a bonnie lassie
Gie her a kess and let her gae
But gin ye meet a dirty hizzie
Fye, gar rub her o'er wi' strae.

The word fy or fye has a few meanings; it can be an exclamation or surprise, shame or disgust, or it can mean 'come' or 'hurry'. Gar means to 'make'. Perhaps the best translation of the title, suggested by Ted Hastings is "Make her rub herself with straw"-a curious phrase, although in the context of the lines above one might surmise that it might refer to making a 'hizzie' (i.e. hussy) clean herself by rubbing herself with straw, as one might rub down a horse.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. II), 1785; No. 87, p. 32. Gatherer (Gatherer's Musical Museum), 1987; p. 26. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 152. Manson (Hamilton’s Universal Tune Book vol. 1), 1854; p. 112. McGibbon (Scots Tunes, book II), c. 1746; p. 58. James Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 1), 1760; p. 32. William Thomson (Orpheus Caledonius), 1725. Daniel Wright (Aria di Camera), London, 1727; No. 18.

Recorded sources: Flying Fish, Robin Williamson - "Legacy of the Scottish Harpers, vol. 2."