Charlie is my darling

Charlie is my darling

{md giving time, spoken:} fog–horn, I said, leg–horn

’twas on a monday morning
right early in the year
that Charlie came to our town
the young chevalier

o Charlie is my darling
my darling, my darling
Charlie is my darling
the young chevalier

as he was walking doon the street
the city for to view
o there he spied a bonie lass
the windae peekin’ through

o Charlie is my darling
my darling, my darling
Charlie is my darling
the young chevalier

so light he jumped up the stairs
a tirl’d at the pin
and wha’s sae ready but herself
to let the laddie in?

o Charlie is my darling
my darling, my darling
Charlie is my darling
the young chevalier

he set his Jenny on his knee
all in his highland dress
for brawly weel he kent the way
to please a highland lass

o Charlie is my darling
my darling, my darling
Charlie is my darling
the young chevalier

it’s up yon heathery mountain
and down yon scroggie glen
we daur nae gang a-milking
for Charlie and all of his men...

o Charlie is my darling
my darling, my darling
Charlie is my darling
the young chevalier

Charlie, Charlie
{Charlie is my darling
my darling, my darling
Charlie is my darling}
the young chevalier

Charlie is my darling
my darling, my darling
Charlie is my darling
the young chevalier

Charlie
{Charlie is my darling
my darling, my darling}
Charlie is my darling...
the young chevalier

This lyric was originally a long romantic street ballad, probably descended from nationalist songs of the ’45 (Bonnie Prince Charlie’s revolt). A broadside from about 1775 was collected in 1903 (Ritter, Neue Quellenfunde). Burns’s version was first published in the 1796 volume of The Scots musical museum (editor James Johnson) and the following text is from the Hastie manuscript (British Library Add. MS. 22307, a collection of material for the SMM).

Charlie is my darling

’Twas on a monday morning,
  Right early in the year,
That Charlie cam to our town,
  The young Chevalier.

An’ Charlie he’s my darling, my darling, my darling,
Charlie he’s my darling, the young Chevalier.

As he was walking up the street,
  The city for to view,
O there he spied a bonie lass
  the window looking thro’.

An’ Charlie...

Sae light’s he jimped up the stair,
  And tirled at the pin;
And wha sae ready as hersel
  To let the laddie in.

An’ Charlie...

He set his Jenny on his knee,
  All in his Highland dress;
For brawlie weel he ken’d the way
  To please a bonie lass.

An’ Charlie...

It’s up yon hethery mountain,
  And down yon scroggy glen,
We daur na gang a milking,
  For Charlie and his men.

An’ Charlie...

source : No. 562 in Poems and songs of Robert Burns / edited by James Kinsley. – Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1968