Annotation:There's my Thumb I’ll ne're beguile you
X:2 T:There’s my thumb &c. M:C L:1/8 Q:"Moderato" R:Country Dance B:James Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3 (Glasgow, 1788, No. 421, p. 162) N:”Humbly dedicated to the Volunteers and Defensive Bands of Great Britain and Ireland” Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G (GA)(Bc) d2 cB|A>Bcd e2 (e/f/g)|G2 Bc {e}d2 cB|e2 (e/f/g) {e}d2 TcB| c>Bcd (e>fg).B|A>Bcd .e2 (e/f/g)|G3E D3E|G3A B2 B/c/d:| |:g3a g3b|a3b afed|g3a g/a/b ag|gde=f edcB| c(eTdc) B(dTcB)|(A>Bc)d e2 (e/f/g)|G3E D3E|G3A B2 B/c/d:|
THERE’S MY THUMB, I’LL NE’RE BEGUILE YOU. Scottish, Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. "There's my thumb, etc." began as a one strain air, printed in Alan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. 1 (1724), Watts Musical Miscellany (1730), Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius (1733), and used as the vehicle for a song in the ballad opera Highland Fair (1731). In the mid-18th century it was elaborated with variation sets in William McGibbon's and James Oswald's publications, and retained its popularity through the end of the century, when an instrumental version was printed by James Aird, with song versions appearing in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 1 (1787), Sime'sEdinburgh Musical Miscellany(1793), and in Creech's opera William and Lucy (1780). A final appearance in print was in New York publisher Edward Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 2 (1817).
Alexander Whitelaw, in The Book of Scottish Song (1843) explains the meaning of the title:
The practice of two parties wetting respectively their right-hand thumbs with their tongues, and then pressing each thumb against the other, in confirmation of a bargain or engagement, was common to many ancient nations, and can still be traced among the Moors and other tribes. In Scotland, the custom is not yet altogether extinct, but it is chiefly confined to boys. The name of the Scottish air called, "There's my thumb, I'll ne'er beguile thee," has relation to the old rude ceremony of pressing thumbs, but the original words to the tune are supposed to be lost. We have, however, still two songs which now may be considered old, adapted to the tune. The first is by Ramsay, and appears in the Tea-Table Miscellany (vol. I. 1724.) The second appears in the Orpheus Caledonius, (1725,) and looks very like a production of Ramsay's too.]
The first two stanzas in Orpheus Caledonius go:
My sweetest May, let love incline thee
T' accept a heart which he designs thee;
And as your constant slave regard it,
Syne for its faithfulness reward it.
'Tis proof a-shot to birth or money,
But yields to what is sweet and bonnie;
Receive it, then, with a kiss and smily;
There's my thumb, it will ne'er beguile ye.
How tempting sweet these lips of thine are!
Thy bosom white, and legs sae fine are,
That, when in pools I see thee clean 'em,
They carry away my heart between 'em.
I wish, and I wish, while it gaes duntin',
O gin I had thee on a mountain!
Though kith and kin and a' should revile thee,
There's my thumb, I'll ne'er beguile thee.
