The Book of Scottish Song/Somebody 1

by Allan Ramsay

For works with similar titles, see Somebody.

Somebody.

[The following are the old verses to the now popular tune of "Somebody." They appear in the Tea Table Miscellany without signature, and are probably by Ramsay himself.]

For the sake of somebody,
For the sake of somebody,
I could wake a winter nicht,
For the sake of somebody.
I am gaun to seek a wife,
I am gaun to buy a plaidy;
I have three stane o' woo';
Carline, is thy daughter ready?
For the sake of somebody, &c.

Betty, lassie, say't thysell,
Though thy dame be ill to shoe:
First we'll buckle, then we'll tell;
Let her flyte, and syne come to.
What signifies a mother's gloom,
When love and kisses come in play?
Should we wither in our bloom,
And in simmer mak' nae hay?

Bonny lad, I carena by,
Though I try my luck wi' thee,
Since ye are content to tie
The half-mark bridal-band wi' me.
I'll slip hame and wash my feet,
And steal on linens fair and clean;
Syne at the trysting-place we'll meet,
To do but what my dame has done.

Now my lovely Betty gives
Consent in sic a heartsome gate,
It me frae a' my care relieves,
And doubts that gart me aft look blate.
Then let us gang and get the grace;
For they that have an appetite
Should eat; and lovers should embrace:
If these be faults, 'tis nature's wyte.

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