LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,107)
  • Text Authors (19,481)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

O saw ye Johny cumin, quo' she
Language: English 
[O saw]1 ye Johny [cumin]2, quo' she,
  Saw ye Johny [cumin]2:
Wi' his blew bonnet on his head,
  And his dogie [rinnin]3, quo' she,
  And his dogie [rinnin]3?

[O fee]4 him, father, fee him, quo' she,
  Fee him, father, fee him;
For he is a gallant lad, and a weil-doin, quo' she,
  And a' the wark about the [town]5
Gaes wi' me when I see him, quo'she,
Gaes wi' me when I see him.

[O what will I do wi' him, quo' he,
  What will I do wi' him?]6
He has ne'er a [coat]7 upon his back,
  And I hae nane to gie him.
I hae twa [coats into my kist]8,
  And ane of them I'll gie him:
And for a merk of mair fee,
  Dinna stand wi' him, [quo' she]9,
  Dinna stand wi' him.

For weel do I loe him, quo' she,
  Weel do I loe him;
O fee him, father, fee him, quo' she,
  Fee him, father, fee him;
He'll ha'd the pleugh, thrash in the barn,
  And crack wi' me at e'en, quo' she,
  And crack wi' me at e'en.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   J. Haydn •   F. Mendelssohn 

J. Haydn sets stanzas 1, 3-4

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Glossary:
Fee = hire
Kist = chest
Merk = silver coin
Ha'd the pleugh = hold the plough
Crack = converse

1 Haydn, Mendelssohn: "Saw"
2 Haydn: "coming"
3 Haydn: "running"
4 Mendelssohn: "Fee"
5 Mendelssohn: "house"
6 Mendelssohn: "What wad I do wi' him, hussy/ What wad I do wi' him?"
7 Mendelssohn: "sark"
8 Mendelssohn: "sarks in my kist neuk"
9 Mendelssohn: "Father"

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, "Fee him, father, fee him" [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 (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), "Fee him, father", JHW XXXII/3 no. 171, Hob. XXXIa no. 156, stanzas 1,3-4 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847), "Saw ye Johnnie comin', quo' she", 1839 [ duet for bass and soprano with piano ], from Six Scottish Folksongs (Sechs schottische Nationallieder), no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani

This text was added to the website: 2010-01-10
Line count: 27
Word count: 198

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris