Dance Just as I was in the Morning 1624

The bairns gat out wi’ an unco shout: –
  “The deuks dang o’er my daddie, O!”
“The fien-ma-care,” quo’ the feirrie auld wife,
  “He was but a paidlin body, O!
He paidles out, he paidles in,
  And he paidles late and early, O!
This seven lang years I hae lien by his side,
  An’ he is but a fushionless carlie, O!”

“O, haud your tongue, my feirrie auld wife,
  O, haud your tongue, now Nansie, O!
I’ve seen the day, and sae hae ye,
  Ye wadna been sae donsie, O.
I’ve seen the day ye butter’d my brose,
  and cuddl’d me late and early, O;
But downa-do’s come o’er me now,
  And, och, I find it sairly, O!”

Stenhouse wrote: “This humorous ditty … was written by Burns for the Museum. The bard, however, had introduced two or three lines from the old words which it would have been better to have left out.”

Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe supplied the following verses from the original:

The nine pint bicker’s fa’n off the bink
And broken the ten pint cannie;
The wife and her kimmers sat down to drink,
But ne’er a drap gae the gudemannie.

The bairns they a’ set up the cry,
“The deuks hae dung o’er my daddy” –
“There’s no muckle matter,” quo the gudewife,
For he was but a daidling body.”

Continues Stenhouse: “This tune was probably introduced into England about the union of the crowns in1603; for it was well-known in the early days of old John Playford, who published it alongst with many other Scots tunes in his Dancing Master, in 1657, under the title of the ‘Buff Coat.’ The import of the old Scottish name of the tune could not be generally, if at all, understood in England.”

There one finds the key words, “could not be generally, if at all, understood in England.” This means today, “cannot be generally understood, if at all, in English”. The title is a mystery and many suggestions have been put forward. In Burns’ hands “The Deuks Dang O’er My Daddie” became a clever son and, perhaps, a masterful play upon words.

Another version is found in The Lyric Gems of Scotland in which the editors attribute the first two stanzas, with slightly different words, to Burns and the last two to a Dr Graham of Glasgow.

The bairns gat out wi’ an unco shout,
  The deuks dang o’er my daddie, O;
Quo’ our guidwife, e’en let him lie there,
  For he’s just a puir paidlin’ body, O.
He paidles out, and he paidles in,
  And he paidles late an dearly, O;
This thretty lang years I ha’e been his guidwife,
  And comfort comes but sparely, O.

Now haud your tongue, quo’ our guidman,
And dinna be sae saucy, O!
I’ve seen the day, and sae ha’e ye,
I was baith proud and gaucy, O.
I’ve seen the day ye buttered my brose,
and cuitered me late and early, O;
But auld age is on me now,
And wow but I find it richt sairly, O.

I care na through ye were i’ the mools,
Or dookit in a bogie, O;
I ken na the use o’ the crazy auld fool,
But just to toom a cogie, O.
Gin the wind were out o’ your whaisling hauses,
I’d marry again, and be vogie, O;
Some bonnie young lad wad be my lot,
Some rosy cheekit rogie, O.

Quo’ our guidman, g’ie me that rung
That’s hinging at the ingle, O;
I’se gar ye haud that sorrowfu’ tongue,
Or else your lugs will tingle, O.
Gang to your bed this blessed nicht,
Or I’ll be your undoing, O.
The cannie auld wife crap out o’ sicht, –
What think ye o’ sic wooing, O?

“Deuks” means “ducks” and the pronounciation is the same as “deuchs” meaning “drinks” or “draughts”. “Paidles”, which is to “walk with a short step” or “to wander aimlessly”, is identical with “paddle” which also means “to tramp about in mud and wet” as well as to “handle, feel lovingly”. Thus, through the double meaning of words and like sounds, the mother is answering the children with words that satisfy them, while as a wife she is imparting another, completely different, idea to her husband.

An interesting sidelight is found in Thomas Thomson’s A History of the Scottish People from Earliest Times, Volume 6. “In the country there was no scavenger making his daily round. Ashes and other refuse were simply thrown on a dunghill conveniently close to the house, at one side of the front door. The pile often rose very high before it was removed to make way for a new one. And usually just in front of the door there was a puddle of liquid refuse, which in due course swelled into a pool known as the deuk-dub.” A “deuk-dub” is a duck pond.