Dance Cold and Raw 1274

The tune “Cold and Raw”, also called “Stingo”, was published in John Playford’s The English Dancing Master, 1651. There was also a ballad called “Cold and Raw” as Sir John Hawkins (1719–1789), the English musicologist, pointed out in his General History of the Science and Practice of Music, published in 1776.

“The Queen” (Mary II) “having a mind one afternoon to be entertained with music sent Mr Gostling to Henry Purcell and Mrs Arabella Hunt, who had a very fine voice and an admirable hand on the lute, with a request to attend her; they obliged her command. Mr Gostling and Mrs Hunt sung several compositions of Purcell who accompanied them on the harpsichord. At length, the Queen beginning to grow tired asked Mrs Hunt if she could not sing the old Scots ballad of ‘Cold and Raw’? Mrs Hunt answered, Yes; and sung it to her lute. Purcell was all the while sitting at the harpsichord unemployed and not a little nettled at the Queen’s preference of a vulgar ballad to his music.”

Purcess used the tune to that “vulgar ballad”, note for note, as the bass for the queen’s birthday song of 1692 and in the same manner that John Hilton had used it in his 1652 version of “Northern Catch”. In 1728 “Cold and Raw” or “Up inthe Morning Early” was the basis for one of the songs of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera.

In that great age of plagiarism, whose spirit was that of “anything you can do I can do better”, an attitude certainly open to question, there are two versions of “Up in the Morning Early”.

John Hamilton (1761–1814) is generally credited with the authorship of the song to the ancient air “Cold and Raw”, printed in The Dancing Master as “Stingo”. Hamilton was a teacher of music, composer and music seller in Edinburgh.

Cauld blaws the wind frae north to south,
  The drift is driving sairly;
The sheep are cow’rin’ in the heuch,
  O, sirs, 'tis winter fairly.
Then up in the morning’s no for me,
  Up in the morning early.
I’d rather gae supperless to my bed
  Than rise in the morning early.

Loud roars the blast amang the woods,
  And tirls the branches barely;
On hill and house here how it thuds!
  The frost is nipping sairly.
Now up in the morning’s no for me,
  Up in the morning early;
To sit a’ nicht wad better agree
  Than rise in the morning early.

The sun peeps ower yon southland hills,
  Like ony timorous carlie;
Just blinks a wee, then sinks again,
  And that we find severely.
Now up in the morning’s no for me,
  Up in the morning early;
When snaw blaws in the chimley cheek
  Wha’d rise in the morning early?

Nae linties lilt on hedge or bush,
  Poor things, they suffer sairly;
In cauldrife quarters a’ the nicht,
  A’ day they feed but sparely.
Now up in the morning’s no for me,
  Up in the morning early;
A pennyless purse I wad rather dree
  Than rise in the morning early.

A cosie house and a cantie wife
  Aye keeps a body cheerly;
And pantries stow’d wi’ meat and drink
  The answer unco rarely.
But up in the morning – na, na, na!
  Up in the morning early;
The gowans maun glint on bank and brae
  When I rise in the morning early.

James Johnson included four of Hamilton’s songs in The Scots Musical Museum (Volue 6, 1803): “Go to Berwick, Johnny”, “Farewell Ye Fields” (“Miss Forbes’ Farewell to Banff”), “Nelly’s Dream” (“Bright the Moon aboon yon Mountain”), and “Tell Me, Jessy, Tell Me Why.”

Thus, it is indeed strange that Johnson should have selected the version of “Up in the Morning Early” by Robert Burns for Volume 2 of 1788, unless Burns just happened to have written his version earlier than did Hamilton. However, Burns himself stated that “the chorus is old; the two stanzas are mine.”

Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west,
  The drift is driving sairly.
Sae loud and shrill’s I hear the blast –
  I’m sure it’s winter fairly!
Chorus
Up in the morning’s no for me,
  Up in the morning early!
When a’ the hills are covered wi’ snaw,
  I’m sure it’s winter fairly!

The birds sit chittering in the thorn,
  A’ day they fare but sparely;
And lang’s the night frae e’en to morn –
  I’m sure it’s winter fairly.