Cam Ye O'er Frae France
Cam Ye O'er Frae France? (in German “Are you coming over from France?”) is a Scottish folk song written in Scots , which is one of the mocking songs from the time of the Jacobite uprisings in the first half of the 18th century. Satirical songs ( English mocking songs ) were a form in which the non-aristocratic strata or - as in this case - populations that their religious and political rights found themselves deprived of expressing their criticism of the power elites. This song was directed specifically against the British King George I , when Elector Georg Ludwig ruler in Braunschweig-Lüneburg , who succeeded Queen Anne Stuart, who had recently died in 1714 and who had left no descendants.
Lyricist and composer are unknown, as is the exact year of composition. If one assumes that the text version quoted below was the original and does not contain any poetic freedoms that deviate from the actual events , the period can be narrowed down relatively precisely. Then it would be between September 1715 (beginning of the first Jacobite revolt) and May 1718 (death of the mother of the Stuart pretender Jacob ).
Cam Ye O'er Frae France? found in a collection of songs recording that James Hogg 1819/1821 in the two-volume work The Jacobite relics of Scotland: Being the songs, airs, and legends, of the adherents to the house of Stuart published, often abbreviated as Jacobite Relics / Reliques referred . It was by no means the only mockery that George I had to endure; his role as a cuckold and his own promiscuity made him a popular target of ridicule from his subjects, for example in The wee wee German lairdie or The sow's tail to Geordie . However, there is also the thesis that some of the songs Hogg compiled did not have their roots in the early 18th century, but were composed by himself.
This song has been repeatedly re-released on records , especially since the 1970s , for example in a folk-rock version by Steeleye Span , but also in more traditional instrumentation by Tannahill Weavers and Ewan MacColl .
Historical background
With the Act of Settlement on June 22, 1701 , the English Parliament passed the basis for the Protestant succession to the throne in the Kingdom of England. At that time the Kingdom of Scotland was de jure independent, but linked to England through a personal union. Bypassing the line of succession valid up to then and without the participation of the Scottish Parliament (Estates of Scotland) , the law excluded a total of 56 Catholics from the line of succession and recognized the claim to inheritance of Sophies of the Palatinate - a daughter of Elisabeth Stuart , Elector George Ludwig's mother and the next living Protestant relatives of the English royal family - and their descendants to the English crown. The exclusion from the line of succession also affected the exiled widow of ex-King James II , Mary of Modena , and her son James Francis Edward Stuart , who was protected by the French King Louis XIV and who was living in exile at Castle Saint-Germain-en-Laye was regarded in Scotland as a legitimate contender to both the Scottish and English thrones. The Scots then threatened to stop collecting taxes and to withdraw the Scottish army from the War of the Spanish Succession . The English Parliament responded in 1705 with the Alien Act , which imposed numerous restrictions on the Scottish economy. Finally, in 1707, the Scottish Parliament approved the Act of Union , which united England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. After the death of the childless Wilhelm III. Queen Anne followed him to the throne in 1702, who herself had no surviving descendants, which is why Sophie von der Pfalz became the heiress presumptive of her cousin.
With the death of his 83-year-old mother on June 8, 1714 and Queen Anne's death on August 1, 1714, the royal dignity fell to Georg Ludwig, the closest Protestant relative of the late monarch, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Settlement . This ended the rule of the House of Stuart and passed to the newly established House of Hanover ( House of Hanover or The Hanoverians ). The 54-year-old Georg Ludwig traveled with a large retinue to The Hague in September , where he embarked. In addition to his son Georg August , almost the entire Hanoverian court belonged to the entourage. Among them were his mistress Melusine von der Schulenburg , who was soon raised to the rank of Duchess of Kendal , along with her three presumably common daughters, as well as his half-sister Sophia Charlotte von Platen-Hallermund , who came from an illegitimate relationship between his father Ernst August and Clara Elisabeth von Platen , Baroness von Kielmannsegg and later Countess von Leinster and Darlington , whom British courtiers soon regarded as another mistress of the king. On the other hand, Georg's ex-wife Sophie Dorothea was not part of the party; Ever since her love affair with Philipp Christoph von Königsmarck became known, she has been under house arrest at Ahlden Castle . In Greenwich , Georg Ludwig and his entourage set foot on English soil and, accompanied by numerous notables there , moved on to London . There he stayed at St James's Palace and was crowned at Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of October 1714 .
Ten months after his enthronement , the first great Jacobite revolt ( "The Fifteen" ) broke out in Braemar in the Scottish Highlands . The hoped-for support of the Scottish cause by the French king failed to materialize because Louis XIV ended the conflict with the English crown in the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, and so did Philippe II de Bourbon, duc d'Orléans , Louis after his death succeeded as regent on September 1, 1715, adhering to the alliance with Great Britain, the United Netherlands and Habsburg Austria .
text
According to James Prescott, the pictorial descriptions of specific people in the song were used on the one hand to avoid being accused of high treason or lese majesty if the song was sung or brought to the people in writing. But they also corresponded to a "love of satire and ridicule that was widespread in Great Britain at the time ".
People mentioned in the song
The explanations below follow James Prescott's analysis of this song.
Mocking names for the king and his entourage
- Geordie Whelps: pet form of George, complemented by a play on Guelph , the high noble family, which come from the Hanoverians, and puppies , which was also used for a wayward child
- Lordie: diminutive of Lord, also for George I.
- The goose , diminutive form goosie : The goose - the word also means prostitute in a figurative sense - stands for George's beloved Melusine
- The loom: literally the loom, also a metaphor for the female genital organs ( vagina ) and here referring to George's now divorced wife Sophia Dorothea
- The blade: literally the knife blade, also translated The tall weakling, by which Philipp Christoph von Königsmarck , Sophia Dorothea's lover, was meant
- Claith , English cloth : fabric, cloth, clothing, here refers to George's son Georg August
- (Not in this song) The sow : The sow, that means George's half-sister Sophia Charlotte
People from Great Britain
- Jocky: generally a Scot, here specifically James Francis Edward Stuart , who was named Jacob III by the Jacobites. of England and James VIII of Scotland designated pretender to the throne ("The Old Pretender") from the House of Stuart
- Plaid: refers to textiles woven in a tartan pattern and also stands for James Francis Edward Stuart
- Montgomery: Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin , temporarily chamberlain to the ex-Queen Maria Beatrice d'Este (Montgomery's lady) , wife of James II of England and mother of James Francis Edward Stuart
- Sandy Don: Sandy is the diminutive of Alexander, Don that of Gordon, here for Alexander Gordon of Auchintoul , a general who fought for the Scottish cause in the 1st Jacobite Rising (1715)
- Bobbing John , from to bob (jumping back and forth): John Erskine, 23rd Earl of Mar , who had changed sides several times in his life between supporting and opposing Jacob's claim to the throne
- Cockalorum: from Latin , actually cockfight , in the figurative sense also a young rooster or a man who is very convinced of himself (“Gockel” or “Geck”); here the word stands for Alexander Gordon, 2nd Duke of Gordon , because the respective leader of the Gordon clan was traditionally called Cock o 'the North
song lyrics
The text integrates the people mentioned above in a mockingly and roughly drawn description of the conditions at the court of the new King George, which is like a brothel . However, this situation is presented as a temporary one, because in Scotland and France forces are already being gathered for a revolt against the foreign usurper who is apparently incapable of ruling , at the end of which the installation of Jacob, - from the Scottish Catholic point of view - the only rightful aspirant to the throne , stand.
In the left column you can find the literal rendering of the lyrics from Scots. Its translation into German on the right is not a literal translation , but rather is intended to convey the graphic and sometimes drastic language of the original. In the section below this text there is also a glossary for numerous expressions used in the original.
|
Cam ye o'er frae France? Cam ye down by Lunnon? |
Are you coming over from france Are you coming over london |
(followed by repetition of the first stanza)
Glossary (Scots – English)
|
a, a '= all |
frae = from |
Lunnon = London |
melody
The following notation comes from James Hogg's print of the song from 1819. Here the song is in G minor , in the first bar the melody consists only of the notes of the G minor triad . At the end the root note is avoided, the melody leads directly into the next stanza. It has an unusually large range of almost two octaves . The time signature is odd, in press a 3 / 2 - clock .
The question of the authenticity of the song
In a book published in 2014, but mainly dealing with Robert Burns , Carol McGuirk states that "editorial and antiquarian evidence in the 18th and 19th centuries are unreliable". Regarding James Hogg (1770–1835), she claims that some of the best pieces in the Jacobite relics - including Cam Ye O'er Frae France - were "almost certainly written by Hogg himself." In doing so, it relies on a corresponding fundamental statement by David Charles Johnson (1942–2009), who wrote a study of music and society in the Scottish Lowlands of the 18th century and even said that “most [sic!] recorded songs of the Jacobites “came into being much later. McGuirk does not hide the fact that his thesis was contradicted by Murray Pittock (born 1962, literature professor at Glasgow University ), among others . The subject has been occupying British social and cultural anthropology for a long time; As early as the late 1980s, William Donaldson pointed out that Jacobite songs should be assessed “in the area of tension between political myth and national identity ”.
Whoever can ultimately claim the authorship for himself: Cam Ye O'er Frae France is counted among the “most blasphemous, filthy mockery songs” of this time.
Later publication on phonograms
Steeleye Span first released the 2:45 minute long song in 1973 on the LP Parcel Of Rogues , which made it into the UK's top 30; In 1977 the traditional found its way onto their best-of compilation Original Masters . The Tannahill Weavers also published a version by Cam Ye O'er Frae France ; there is also another version sung by Ewan MacColl and published posthumously in 1993. The question mark in the song title has been omitted for these recordings.
In contrast to many other folk performers, Steeleye Span did not use traditional acoustic musical instruments to accompany the often early modern songs except for the drums and other percussions - the Tannahill Weavers in the photo opposite use, for example, the fiddle , (transverse) flute, 6-string Guitar, mandolin and bagpipes - but electronic organ , electric bass and electric guitar . This idea of combining folk and rock music is said to have originated in particular from Ashley Hutchings , who therefore parted ways with Fairport Convention in 1969 . The contrast resulting from this contemporary instrumentation and Maddy Prior's cutting voice made Steeleye Span and her songs particularly popular in the 1970s.
literature
- Harold J. Schultz: History of England. Barnes and Noble, New York / Cambridge / London 1981, 3rd edition, ISBN 0-06-460188-9 .
Web links
- Cam Ye O'er Frae France (Steeleye Span Version)
- Cam Ye O'er Frae France (Tannahill Weavers version)
Evidence and Notes
- ↑ This assumption is based on the fact that the song speaks on the one hand of a concrete event (John Erskine's Highland Quorum) from this uprising and on the other hand Maria Beatrice, the mother of the Old Pretender , is still alive.
- ^ A b James Hogg: The Jacobite relics of Scotland: Being the songs, airs, and legends, of the adherents to the house of Stuart . Edinburgh 1819, pp. 87 f.
- ↑ Daniel Szechi: The Jacobites. Britain and Europe 1688-1788. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1994, ISBN 978-0-7190-3774-0 , p. 35 ( excerpt )
- ↑ These two songs can be found in a later edition of the Hoggschen Liedersammlung ( Jacobite Melodies , 1825) as number XXXIII or XXXVIII (p. 46 f. And 53 f.): “The very little German gentleman”, whereby wee-wee to this day also has the meaning of urinating, and "The pig's tail for Geordie" with the additional playful aspect that the sow was also used as a swear word for Georg's half-sister.
- ↑ Harold J. Schultz: History of England . 1981, p. 142
- ↑ Günter Barudio: The Age of Absolutism and the Enlightenment 1648-1779. Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 1981, ISBN 3-596-60025-1 , p. 356; With this union, Scotland also lost its national flag : the St. Andrew's Cross was incorporated into the Union Flag together with the English Cross of St. George .
- ↑ Harold J. Schultz: History of England . 1981, p. 150
- ^ Anne Somerset: What did he see in her? in The Spectator on June 2, 2012
- ↑ Harold J. Schultz: History of England . 1981, p. 154
- ↑ Pierre Bezbakh: Petit Larousse de l'histoire de France. Larousse, Paris 2003, ISBN 978-2-0350-5369-5 , p. 221
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q " James Prescott: Unriddling Cam Ye O'er Frae France? “From 1985/1988, reproduced on telusplanet.net
- ↑ 1825 edition of the Hoggschen Liedersammlung , p. 48
- ↑ The Montgomery were like Godolphin's a noble family that already during the reign of William the Conqueror from the (1066-1087) Normandy had immigrated to England.
- ↑ after Kokolores on the website of the Society for German Language
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Scots-English English-Scots Dictionary . Lomond Books, New Lanark ML 1998, ISBN 0-947782-26-5 .
- ↑ a b c d e Ewan MacColl: Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland. Music Sales Co., London 1992 (first 1965), ISBN 0-8256-0057-X
- ^ John Lockhart: The works of Robert Burns: containing his life, by John Lockhart, esq .; the poetry and correspondence of Dr. Currie's edition; biographical sketches of the poet by himself, Gilbert Burns, Professor Stewart, and others; Essay on Scottish Poetry, including The Poetry of Burns, by Dr. Currie; Burns's Songs, from Johnson's "Musical Museum," and "Thompsons's Select Melodies;" select Scottish Songs of the other Poets, from the best collections, with Burns's Remarks. Pearson, New York 1835, pp. 182 f. ( Excerpt )
- ↑ James Prescott: Unriddling Came Ye o'er frae France? . First published in Canadian Folk Music Bulletin , vol. 23, no. 1, p. 5. Here after the revised and expanded online version .
- ^ Carol McGuirk: Reading Robert Burns: Texts, Contexts, Transformations. Routledge, London / New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-84893-519-8 ( excerpt )
- ^ So the book title by William Donaldson: The Jacobite song: political myth and national identity. Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen 1988, ISBN 0-08-036576-0
- ↑ "most ribald verses" - according to the notes on the song at lyricsfreak.com
- ↑ see the video under web links
- ↑ Tracklist of the album The Real MacColl at allmusic.com
- ↑ after written by John Tobler text in the booklet for 1996 in the UK on the Beat Goes On - label released CD of Original Masters , page 1
