O Rattlin, roarin Willie,
  O he held to the fair,
An' for to sell his fiddle
  And buy some other ware;
But parting wi' his fiddle,
  The saut tear blin't his e'e;
And Rattlin, roarin Willie,
  Ye're welcome hame to me.

O Willie, come sell your fiddle,
  O sell your fiddle sae fine;
O Willie, come sell your fiddle,
  And buy a pint o' wine;
If I should sell my fiddle,
  The [warl']1 would think I was mad,
For mony a rantin day
  My fiddle and I hae had.

As I cam by Crochallan
  I cannily keekit ben,
Rattlin, roarin Willie
  Was sitting at yon [boord-en']2,
Sitting at yon [boord-en']2,
  And amang guid companie;
Rattlin, roarin Willie,
  Ye're welcome hame to me!

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Scott: "warld"
² Scott: "board-en' "

Glossary
"blint" = blinded
"keekit ben" = peeped in
"boord-en'" = end of the table

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "Rattlin, Roarin Willie" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Francis George Scott (1880 - 1958), "Rattlin' Roarin' Willie", published 1939 [ low voice and piano ], from Scottish Lyrics, Book 5, no. 7, Bayley & Ferguson; confirmed with Songs of Francis George Scott, selected and edited by Neil Mackay, Roberton Publications, Aylesbury 1980, page 100. [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Wilhelm Christoph Leonhard Gerhard (1780 - 1858) , "Bänkelsänger Willie" ; composed by Ferdinand David, Robert Schumann.
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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 127