Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonnie_Lass_o'_Fyvie

 

The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie (Roud # 545) is a Scottish folk song about a thwarted romance between a soldier and a girl. Like many folk songs, the authorship is unattributed, there is no strict version of the lyrics, and it is often referred to by its opening line There once was a troop o' Irish dragoons. The song is also known by a variety of other names, the most common of them being "Peggy-O."

 

Meaning

 

The song is about the unrequited love of a captain of Irish dragoons for a beautiful Scottish girl in Fyvie. The narration is in the third person, through the voice of one of the captain's soldiers. The captain promises the girl material comfort and happiness, but the girl refuses the captain's advances saying she would not marry a foreigner or a soldier. The captain subsequently leaves Fyvie. In two different variations of the song, he threatens to burn the town(s) if his offer is rejected, or alternately save the town if his offer is accepted. He later dies of a broken heart, or battle wounds, or possibly both.

Several variations on this theme exist. The soldier also proposes marriage in some versions. Some versions have the girl declare her love for the soldier, but only to be stopped short by a reluctant mother.

You're the one that I adore, Sweet Willy-o,
You're the one that I adore, Sweet Willy-o,
But your fortune is too low,
And I fear my mother would be angry-o.

 

Geographical and historical allusions

 

The song is set in Fyvie, a small town with a historic castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Some sources claim that the original song suggests the region of Fife (as the Fair Maid of Fife), but the references to the River Ythan, Aberdeen and other locations near Fyvie like Gight, confirm that the original song was set in Fyvie, Scotland.

It is probably better not to read strong historical associations into the song, although it is just possible that the song refers to the capture of theFyvie Castle by Montrose's Royalist army in 1644. (A large part of this army was Irish, but they were not dragoons.) [1]

 

Variants across time and space

 

The oldest known version of the Scottish ballad is called "The Bonnie Lass O' Fyvie".[2] Another early transcribed version is given under the titleBonnie Barbara-O.[3] An early English version Handsome Polly-O is also present, though in slightly different settings. Another English version is called Pretty Peggy of Derby. The song probably travelled with Scottish immigrants to America.[4] It is recorded in the classic English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians by Cecil Sharp.[5] Variants of the song refer to the War of 1812 and the American Civil War. A Dixie version of the song makes the final resting place of the captain to be Louisiana.

The last two stanzas from the Bob Dylan version is typical of such Americanized forms, and goes as follows:

The lieutenant he has gone
The lieutenant he has gone
The lieutenant he has gone, Pretty Peggy-O
The lieutenant he has gone
Long gone
He's a-riding down in Texas with the rodeo.

Well, our captain he is dead
Our captain he is dead
Our captain he is dead, Pretty Peggy-O
Well, our captain he is dead
Died for a maid
He's buried somewheres in Louisiana-O.

Over time, the name of Fyvie also got corrupted, and often nonsense words like "Fennario", "Fernario", "Finario", "Fidio", "Ivory" or "Ireo" were placed in its stead to fit the metre and rhyme.[3] As a result, the song is commonly referred to as Fennario. The 1960s folk music movement sawPeggy-O become a common song in many concerts owing to its clear melody and lilting rhyme.

 

Linguistics

 

The song was originally composed and sung in Scots. It then made its way into mainstream English, but retains its Scottish flavour. Words like birk(for birch), lass and bonnie are typically Scots as are words like brae (hill) and braw (splendid). As is typical of such cases, quite a few of the less familiar words degenerated into nonsense words as the song travelled over cultures, the most interesting ones probably being Ethanside forYthanside (banks of the River Ythan), and brasselgeicht for braes o' Gight (hills of Gight).