Oh No Not I
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1952.01.A3
Original Tape ID
Summary
Song about a man whose advances are rebuffed because of his social class. The man asks the woman to marry him but she refuses, saying her family would be ashamed because of his "low degree". The couple have an encounter nonetheless, and the woman falls pregnant. She then asks him to marry her but he turns her down, reminding her of her earlier refusal.
Learned from Jimmy May, Mains of Coldwells, when Willie Mathieson was about fifteen.
Item Notes
Text and music transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 8 verses. Variant of an 18th century broadside, 'No, My Love, Not I', published by J. Evans (London) sometime between 1780 and 1812, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads collection. Several variants are also popular in Newfoundland.
See:
Willie Mathieson's MSS I:18
Recording Location
County - Aberdeenshire
Parish - Ellon
Village/Place - Ellon
Language
English, Scots
Genre
Collection
Classification
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good