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Bonnie Dundee

[ Roud 8513 ; Ballad Index MBra179 ; Folkinfo 616 ; DT DUNDEBON , DUNDEBN2 ; Mudcat 157663 ; Sir Walter Scott]

Max Dunbar sang Bonnie Dundee in 1959 on his Folkways album Songs and Ballads of the Scottish Wars 1290-1745. He noted:

The revolution that unseated James II in both Scotland and England occurred in 1688; the two countries were by no means united during most of the 17^th century, but the Romanizing practice of James II brought them together. In Scotland, the Convention Parliament deposed James in 1689 and chose William of Orange and Mary, sister of James and Charles as successors. The action of the Scottish Parliament was disputed by the Royalist extremists led by Claverhouse, who organized a last-minute Highland resistance to the abandoning of the Stuart line. The Highlands were loyal to the Stuarts, and their loyalty was to be intensified a few years after the events recorded by this song by the notorious massacre of the Macdonalds at Glencoe by the Campbells (1692). This Highland attitude was to make possible the risings of 1715 and 1745, both of them, for various reasons, unsuccessful.

The song is not old, nor contemporary with the time of the events it records. The verses, eleven of them in the original, are by Sir Walter Scott; the tune was published in 1854, in London. Claverhouse and his Highlanders met the Parliamentary army at Kllliecrankie, and won; but Claverhouse himself was killed, and with him the Stuart cause was lost. Nobody else could, at the time, unite the Highland clans; nobody else could combine military leadership with the diplomatic sense to avoid hurting the sensitive Highland feelings. A few weeks after Killiecrankie the supporters of James II were decisively defeated at Dunkeld, mainly by the toughness of the Cameronians, fighting for the Covenant. That was that.

Srideag sang Bonnie Dundee on their before-2000 album Spit on the Fire.

Note: The Scot’s Callan o’ Bonnie Dundee is a quite different song about love and separation, though sung to the same tune and with the same Roud number as this song.

Lyrics

Max Dunbar sings Bonnie Dundee

To the lords o’ Convention ’twas Claverhouse spoke:
“Ere the King’s crown go down there are crowns to be broke;
Then each Cavnlier who loves honour and me,
Let him follow the bonnets o’ Bonnie Dundee.”

Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,
Come saddle my horses and call out my men;
Unhook the west port and let us gae free,
For it’s up wi’ the bonnets o’ Bonnie Dundee!

Dundee he is mounted, he rides up the street,
The bells they ring backward and drums they are beat,
But the provost (douce man) said, “Just e’en let it be,
For the town is weel rid o’ that deil o’ Dundee.”

There are hills beyond Pentland and lands beyond Forth,
Be there lords in the south, there are chiefs in the north;
There are brave Duinne-wassels, three thousand times three
Will cry “Hie for the bonnets o’ Bonnie Dundee.”

Then awa’ to the hills, to the lea, to the rocks,
Ere I own a usurper I’ll crouch wi’ the fox;
And tremble, fause Whigs, in the midst o’ your glee,
Ye hae nae seen the last o’ my bonnets and me!