Wha'll be King but Charlie?

"Wha'll be King but Charlie?" also known as The News from Moidart, is a song about Bonnie Prince Charlie, sung to the tune of 'Tidy Woman', a traditional Irish jig the date of which is unclear but the tune was well known by 1745.[1] The lyrics were written by Caroline Nairne (1766 – 1845).[2] Because Nairne published anonymously, the authorship of this and her other poems and lyrics was once unclear, however, late in her life Nairne identified herself and modern scholars accept that these lyrics are hers. Carolina, Baroness Nairne was a Jacobite from a Jacobite family living at a time when the last remnants of political Jacobitism were fading as Scotland entered a period of Romantic nationalism and literary romanticism.[2] Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed in the house where Caroline Nairne was born and reared when fleeing British capture after losing the Battle of Culloden.[2]

Wha'll be King but Charlie? was popular from the late 18th into the 20th century.[3][4][5][6][7][8] The tune was borrowed for use as an African-American spiritual, with an allusion in the hymn to " King Jesus " suggest(ing) that the name of the tune was known to its adaptor.[9] In the 1840s bestseller Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, describes a gathering of sailors with the French singing "La Marseillaise", the Germans singing "O du lieber Augustin", British sailors singing "Rule, Britannia!" and the Scots, "Wha'll be King but Charlie?".[10]

Notable usage of the song

In 1867 The San Jose Mercury campaigned for the election of Charles Maclay to the California State Senate with the song Wha'll be King but Charlie? [11]

The song is one of the dance tunes played in the final scene of the 1921 film Sentimental Tommy as dancers fill the screen.[12]

In his novel The starling: a Scotch story, Norman McLeod tells of a boy who taught his pet starling to whistle the tune of "Wha'll be King but Charlie?".[13]

The Corries, a late 20th century Scottish singing group, performed the song in concert and recorded it.[14][15]

Meaning

The song references Bonnie Prince Charlie, Stuart pretender to the crown.[16] Prince Charlie traveled to Scotland to lead the Jacobite rising of 1745, which would prove to be the last Jacobite military attempt to capture the throne. After losing the Battle of Culloden, Prince Charlie fled to the remote peninsula of Moidart, from which, with a handful of leading Jacobites, he fled to exile in France.

Lyrics[17]
The news fraw Moidart cam' yestreen
Will soon gar mony ferlie;
For ships o' war hae just come in,
And landit Royal Charlie?

Chorus

Come thro' the heather, around him gather,
Ye're a' the welcomer early;
Around him cling wi' a' your kin;
For wha'll be king but Charlie?
Come thro' the heather, around him gather,
Come Ronald, come Donald, come a' thegither,
And crown your rightfu' lawfu' king!
For wha'll be king but Charlie.
The Hieland clans, wi sword in hand,
Frae John o' Groats' to Airlie,
Hae to a man declared to stand
Or fa' wi' Royal Charlie.

Chorus

The Lowlands a', baith great an' sma,
Wi' mony a lord and laird, hae
Declar'd for Scotia's king an' law,
An' speir ye wha but Charlie.

Chorus

There's ne'er a lass in a' the lan',
But vows baith late an' early,
She'll ne'er to man gie heart nor han'
Wha wadna fecht for Charlie.

Chorus

Then here's a health to Charlie's cause,
And be't complete an' early;
His very name out heart's blood warms;
To arms for Royal Charlie!
Come thro' the heather, around him gather,
Ye're a' the welcomer early;
Around him cling wi' a' your kin;
For what'll be king but Charlie?
Come thro' the heather, around him gather,
Come Ronald, come Donald, come a' thegither,
And crown your richtfu' lawfu' king!
For wha'll be king but Charlie?

References
  1. Fraser, Simon (1816). Airs and Melodies peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles. Edinburgh.
  2. McGuirk, Carol. “Jacobite History to National Song: Robert Burns and Carolina Oliphant (Baroness Nairne).” The Eighteenth Century, vol. 47, no. 2/3, 2006, pp. 253–287. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41468002. Accessed 24 Jan. 2020.
  3. Rogers (editor), Charles (1872). Life and songs of the Baroness Nairne, with a memoir and poems of Caroline Oliphant the younger. J. Grant.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. Rogers, Charles (1871). The Scottish minstrel : the songs and song writers of Scotland subsequent to Burns. Lee and Shepherd. p. 62.
  5. Wells, Paul F. Ethnomusicology, vol. 37, no. 1, 1993, pp. 127–130. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/852255. Accessed 24 Jan. 2020.
  6. Bayard, Samuel P. The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 56, no. 219, 1943, pp. 81–84. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/535924. Accessed 24 Jan. 2020.
  7. Gilchrist, Anne G. Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol. 1, no. 2, 1933, pp. 107–110. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4521031. Accessed 24 Jan. 2020.
  8. Cohen, Norm. “The Forget-Me-Not Songsters and Their Role in the American Folksong Tradition.” American Music, vol. 23, no. 2, 2005, pp. 137–219. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4153032. Accessed 24 Jan. 2020.
  9. Gilchrist, Anne G. “The Folk Element in Early Revival Hymns and Tunes.” Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. 8, no. 32, 1928, pp. 61–95. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4434189. Accessed 24 Jan. 2020.
  10. Dana, Richard Henry (1840). Two Years Before the Mast.
  11. Hodges, Hugh T. “Charles Maclay: California Missionary, San Fernando Valley Pioneer: PART II.” Southern California Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 3, 1986, pp. 207–256. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41171225. Accessed 24 Jan. 2020.
  12. "Scotch Atmosphere For "Sentimental Tommy" Is Thick". New York Tribune. 27 March 1921.
  13. "The Starling by the late Norman McLeod, D.D. (book review, this is the year the Canadian edition of The Starling was published)". Daily American. 17 June 1877.
  14. Green, Ian (2011). Fuzz to Folk: Trax of My Life. Luath Press Ltd. p. 282. ISBN 1906817693.
  15. Gilchrist, Jim (18 October 2010). "The News from Moidart - CD Reviews: Pop, Classical, Folk". The Scotsman.
  16. Brown, John (1902). Rab and His Friends. Rand, McNally & Co. p. 136.
  17. "Poetry - Wha'll be King but Charlie?". electricscotland.com. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.