Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Narrative

The Rantin Laddie

    1. 'The Rantin Laddie,' Johnson's Museum, No 462, p. 474.
    2. 'Lord Aboyne,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 66.
    Version A
  2. 'The Rantin Laddie,' Skene Manuscript, p. 55. Version B
  3. 'The Rantin Laddie,' Laing's Thistle of Scotland, p. 7. Version C
  4. 'Bonnie Rantin Laddie,' Murison Manuscript, p. 74. Version D

'Lord Aboyne,' in Smith's Scotish Minstrel, IV, 6, is mostly A a; a few verses are from A b.

A young woman (Maggie in B) has played cards and dice with a rantin laddie till she has won a bastard baby. Slighted now by all her friends, she sends a letter to the rantin laddie, who is the Earl of Aboyne, to inform him of her uncomfortable circumstances. The Earl of Aboyne, struck with pity and indignation, sets out at once with five hundred men, A, C, or a select company of gentlemen and ladies, B, D, and brings her home as his wife.

C 24 is perhaps derived from 'Geordie,' but may be regarded as a commonplace.

This page most recently updated on 26-May-2011, 19:14:02.
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