Cam Ye O'er Frae France

Traditional
(Steeleye Span)


Am               Dm      Am             G
Cam ye o'er frae France? Cam ye down by Lunnon?
F              Am     G
Saw ye Geordie Whelps and his bonny woman?
Am             Dm    Am
Were ye at the place ca'd the Kittle Housie?
                 G                 E        F
Saw ye Geordie's grace riding on a goosie?


Geordie he's a man, there is little doubt o't;
He's done a' he can, wha can do without it?
Down there came a blade linkin' like my lordie;
He wad drive a trade at the loom o' Geordie.

Though the claith were bad, blythly may we niffer;
Gin we get a wab, it makes little differ.
We hae tint our plaid, bannet, belt and swordie,
Ha's and mailins braid -- but we hae a Geordie!

Jocky's gane to France and Montgomery's lady;
There they'll learn to dance: Madam, are ye ready?
They'll be back belyve belted, brisk and lordly;
Brawly may they thrive to dance a jig wi' Geordie!

Hey for Sandy Don! Hey for Cockolorum!
Hey for Bobbing John and his Highland Quorum!
Mony a sword and lance swings at Highland hurdie;
How they'll skip and dance o'er the bum o' Geordie!


belyve=quickly
blade=a person of weak, soft constitution from rapid overgrowth
braid=broad
brawly=wall
claith=cloth
gane=gone
gin=if, whether
ha's and mailins=houses and farmlands
hurdie=buttock
kittle housie=brothel
linkin=tripping along
Lunnon=London
niffer=haggle or exchange
tint=lost
wab=web (or length) of cloth
[Vocabulary from "Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland"]

From Hogg's "Jacobite Reliques"                                  Cam Ye O'er Frae France, page 2


George I, being a protestant German king, was viewed with
ridicule and hatred by the Jacobite rebels. This is a scurrilous
attack upon him and his court.

When George I imported his seraglio of impoverished gentlewomen
from Germany, he provided the Jacobite songwriters with material
for some of their most ribald verses. Madame Kilmansegge,
Countess of Platen, is referred to exclusively as "The Sow" in
the songs, while the King's favorite mistress, the lean and
haggard Madame Schulemburg (afterwards named Duchess of Kendall)
was given the name of "The Goose." She is the "goosie" referred
to in this song. The "blade" is the Count Koningsmark. "Bobbing
John" refers to John, Earl of Mar, who was at the time recruiting
Highlanders for the Hanoverian cause. "Geordie Whelps" is, of
course, George I himself.




























         On Parcel Of Rogues album by Steeleye Span, 1973

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/steeleye.span/songs/
camyeoerfraefrance.html