Annotation:Fy Gar Rub Her O'er Wi' Straw
Back to Fy Gar Rub Her O'er Wi' Straw
FY(E) GAR RUB HER O'ER WI' STRAE. Scottish, Reel or Air. A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Gatherer, Howe, Manson): AABBCCDD (Aird). The title means 'rub her over with straw'. This tune, found in manuscripts from c. 1610 on, was later used by Theophilus Cibber as an air to a song in his Scotch ballad opera Patie and Peggy (1730), and 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 appears to have 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. Orpheus Caledonius (1725).
Recorded sources: Flying Fish, Robin Williamson - "Legacy of the Scottish Harpers, vol. 2."