Annotation:When she cam ben
X:1 T:When she came ben she bobbed M:6/4 L:1/8 B:Alexander Stuart – “Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection part 4” B:(Edinburgh, c. 1724, pp. 96-97) F: https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/rbc/id/3036 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Gmin V:1 D2|G4 G2 B3c d2|A2F2F2 F4 F2|G4 G2 g3 (aga)|^f2d2d2 d4 de| f2B2f2 f3ed2|c2f2c2 A3Bc2|d4 d2 d3edc|B2 (AG) G2 G4:| |:d2|g4 g2 g3a b2|a2 f2f2 f4 =e^f|g2B2d2 g3aga|^f2 d2d2 d4 e2| f2B2f2 f3e d2|c3f c2 A2B2c2|d4 d2|d3 ecd|B2AG G2 G6:| V:2 clef = bass z2|G,6G,,6|F,4A,,2 F,,4A,,2|B,,4G,,2 B,4G,2|D,4 z2 D,,4z2| B,,4D,2 B,4B,,2|F,4 A,,2F,,4A,,2|B,,4 D,2 G,4 C,2|D,4 D,,2 G,,4:| |:z2|G,4 D,2 B,,4F,,2|F,2C,2A,,2D,,4z2|G,,4G,,2 G,4B,2|D2A,2^F,2 D,4 z2| B,4D,2B,,4B,2|F,4C,2 F,,4A,,2|B,,4G,2 B,4C2|D4D,2 G,4G,,2:|
WHEN SHE CAM BEN (SHE BOBBIT). AKA and see "Laird o' Cockpen," "My Mother-in-Law.” Scottish, Air (6/8 or 6/4 time, "andante con moto" or "brisk"). D Minor (Carolan): G Minor (Johnson): G Dorian (Johnson): A Dorian (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Carolan): ABCDEF (Johnson): AABBCCDD (Johnson). The title in English means "When she came through to the parlour, she curtseyed.” Johnson (1984) says the tune is related (through its alternating 6/4 and 3/2 rhythms) to the 16th century English coranto, and was composed in passamezzo antico form, which was an imported style of accompaniment chord progression borrowed from 16th century Italy.
The original words set to the tune were bawdy or risqué, but in 1792 the Scots national poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) revised the old verses, a song of seduction. His song was printed in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum Vol. IV (Song 353, pp. 364-365) goes:
O when she cam' ben she bobbed fu' law, (x2)
And when she cam' ben, she kiss'd Cockpen,
And syne denied she did it at a'.
And was na Cockpen right saucy witha'? (x2)
In leaving the daughter of a lord,
And kissin' a collier lassie an' a'!
O never look down, my lassie, at a', (x2)
Thy lips are as sweet, and thy figure complete,
As the finest dame in castle or ha'.
Tho' thou has nae silk, and holland sae sma', (x2)'
Thy coat and thy sark are thy ain handiwark,
And lady Jean was never sae braw.
Lady Nairne, Caroline Oliphant, penned a rather more egalitarian take on the Cockpen interaction around 1810 and since then it has often been known as "The Laird o' Cockpen.” Her song was requested by Queen Victoria to be included in a concert programme during her 1842 visit to Taymouth Castle; John Wilson, then a famous singer of Scots songs, gave the recital.
The Laird o’ Cockpen, he’s proud and he’s great
His mind is ta’en up wi’ things o’ the State:
He wanted a wife, his braw house to keep;
But favour wi’ wooin’ was fashious to seek.
Down by the dyke-side a lady did dwell;
At his table-head he thought she’d look well—
McClish’s ae daughter o’ Clavers-ha’ Lee,
A penniless lass wi’ a lang pedigree.
His wig was weel pouther’d and as gude as new;
His waistcoat was white, his coat it was blue;
He put on a ring, a sword, and cocked hat,—
And wha could refuse the Laird wi’ a’ that!
He took the grey mare, and rade cannily,
And rapped at the yett o’ Clavers-ha’ Lee:
'Gae tell Mistress Jean to come speedily ben,—
She’s wanted to speak to the Laird o’ Cockpen.'
Mistress Jean was makin’ the elder-flower wine:
'And what brings the Laird at sic a like time?'
She put aff her apron and on her silk goun,
Her mutch wi’ red ribbons and gaed awa doun.
And when she cam’ ben he bowed fu’ low;
And what was his errand he soon let her know.
Amazed was the Laird when the lady said ‘Na’;—
And wi’ a laigh and a curtsey she turn’d awa’.'
Dumfounder’d was he; but nae sigh did he gi’e,
He mounted his mare, and rade cannily;
And aften he thought as he gaed through the glen,
'She’s daft to refuse the Laird o’ Cockpen!’
And now that the Laird his exit had made,
Mistress Jean she reflected on what she had said;
'Oh, for ane I’ll get better its waur I’ll get ten,
I was daft to refuse the Laird o’ Cockpen.'
Next time that the Laird and the lady were seen,
They were gaun arm-in-arm to the kirk on the green;
Now she sits in the ha’ like a weel-tappit hen,
But as yet there’s nae chickens appeared at Cockpen.
"When she cam ben" appears in one of the earliest Scottish fiddlers MS repertory books, c. 1705, now in the private collection of Frances Collinson (1966), and in the John Leyden lyra viol MS. The melody was printed in Alexander Stuart's Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection part 4 (c. 1724, pp. 96-97), a companion to poet Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany (1724), in which "When she came ben she bobbed" is the indicated tune for a "Song" (p. 348), beginning "Come, fill me a bumper, my jolly brave boys". See also John Young's related "Buckingham House (3)." See also the similar Playford air "Woodicock."
