Annotation:Cuddle Me Cuddy
Back to Cuddle Me Cuddy
CUDDLE ME, CUDDY. AKA and see "Peacock Followed the Hen (The)/Peacock Follows the Hen (The)." English, Air and Slip Jig (9/8 time). England, Northumberland. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune (manifesting the "strong influence of the Hypolydian mode") can be found in Ireland, England and Scotland in various forms, under such titles as "Brose and Butter" (Scot.), "Mad Moll" (Eng.), "Up and Down Again" (Ire.), "Virgin Queen," "Yellow Stockings." "Cummilum," "Here We Go Up (Up, Up)," "Mad Moll (1)," Stanford (1902) notes this melody is called "Mad Moll" in the 1721 (17th) edition of Playford's Dancing Master, although it also appears in the 1698 edition. However, Northumbrian musicians have laid claim to it and it is a core piece in the repertoire of the region. The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes, which he published c. 1800. It also appears in the 1770 music manuscript collection of Northumbrian musician William Vickers, about whom unfortunately little is known.
A lyric called "Cuddle Me, Cuddy" was collected by Northumbrian musican John Bell (1783-1864, Rhymes of Northern Bards, 1812, 322):
Won't you come cuddle me cuddy,
O won't you come cuddle me right?
O won't you come cuddle me cuddy,
Like we did yesterday night?
which seems innocent enough, although 'cuddle my cuddie' has been euphemism for copulation dating back to at least Stuart times (see Gordon Williams, Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature, 1994). In lowland Scots 'cuddie' referred to the female organ (although it was also used for 'donkey' and, from that, a simpleton), however, the sexual meaning seems most common. Williams cites Wandering Whore IV (1660), wherein we find:
Thats she that says she has a fiddle in her arse, which caused an old lawyer
to give her six pounds to sing and play the tune called 'Cuddle Me Cuddy'
and hath has as many P___'s in her C___ than hairs upon it.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources:
Recorded sources: