Annotation:For the Love of Gean
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FOR THE LOVE OF GEAN. AKA - "For the Love of Jean." Scottish, Air (3/2 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDDEE (Young): AABBCCDDEEFF (Oswald). The song, as "For the Love of Jean," appears in poet and writer Alan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany (1724), with the letter 'Z' attached to it, indicating that it was old and the author was unknown. However, the 19th century antiquarian William Stenhouse could find no earlier occurance of the music, other than in Music for the Scots Songs in the Tea-Table Miscellany. Scottish musician and dancing master included the melody with a few variation sets in his MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1740, No. 41, pp. 82-83), "Written for the use of Walter Mcfarlan of that ilk." Later versions of the song were published as "Jocky and Jenny" or "Jockey Said to Jenny (1)." Several writers have pointed out that Ramsay's title seems to bear no relation to the words printed in the Miscellany, and there are suggestions there might have been another (lost) song set to the air. Ramsay's song goes:
Jocky said to Jeany, "Jeany, wilt thou do't?"
"Ne'er a fit," quo' Jeany, "for my tocher-good,
For my tocher-good, I winna marry thee."
"E'en's ye like," quo' Johnny, "ye may let it be."
"I hae gowd and gear, I hae land enough,
I hae seven good owsen ganging in a pleugh,
Ganging in a pleugh, and linking o'er the lea,
And gin ye winna tak' me, I can let ye be."
"I hae a good ha' house, a barn and a byre,
A stack afore the door, I'll make a rantin' fire,
I'll make a rantin' fire, and merry shall we be:
And gin ye winna tak' me, I can let ye be."
Jeany said to Jocky: "Gin ye winna tell,
Ye shall be the lad, I'll be the lass mysell.
Ye're a bonny lad, and I'm a lassie free,
Ye're welcomer to tak' me than to let me be."
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 8), 1760; p. 15.
Recorded sources:
See also listing at:
See a standard notation transcription of the melody from David Young's MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1740) [1]