Cockie Bendie
1.
Cockie Bendie had a wife:
Wow! but she was canty!
She gaed in below the bed,
An' knockit ower the chanty.
Cockie Bendie's lyin sick,
What d'ye think will mend him?
Twenty kisses in a cloot,
An' Flora tae attend him.
2.
Cocky-Bendy's lyin' sick,
Guess ye what'll mend 'im?
Stap a gully doon 'is throat,
That'll sune end 'im.
3.
Half a pound o' green tea,
Half an ounce o' pepper;
Tak' ye that, my bonnie lad,
And ye'll sune be better.
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(1) Nicht at Eenie (1932), 31, whence Montgomerie SNR
(1946), 86 (No. 105) [1.3 ablow].
SND (s.v.) gives variants: Argyll 1936: "Cock-a-bendie and
his wife,/ O, but they were canty"; Edinb. 1930: "Cockie-
Bendie's lyin' seek,/ Guess ye what'll mend him?/ Twenty
kisses in a clout,/ Lassie, will ye send 'em?" [this latter
in Rymour Club Misc. I (1906-11), 239, to the tune Cawdor
Fair; Ritchie Singing Street (1964), 54, sung "when the
bairn's no weel"; and in Sc. Ethn. Archive, from Angus, c.
1890, line 2 "Wit ye fat 'ill mend 'im"]. Cf. "Early and
Fairly".
(2-3) "Cocky-Bendy Variants": Rymour Club Misc. I.223,
from Kirriemuir.
Opies Singing Game (1985), 160, note to their first version
of "Uncle John", cite "A New Song called Cockibendy", printed
c. 1820, embodying a version of (1) st.2 above. St. 1 of
"Uncle John" (from Shrewsbury) reads "Uncle John is ill in
bed,/ What shall I send him?/ Three good wishes and three
good kisses,/ And a race of ginger." [Burne, Shropshire Folk-
Lore, 1883, 511.] A Scots version of this (from Nairn, via
Gregor) is in Gomme II (1898), 322:
Uncle Tom is very sick,
What shall we send him?
A piece of cake, a piece of bread,
A piece of apple dumpling.
Who shall we send it with?
Mrs. So and So's daughter.
She is neither without,
She is neither within,
She is up in the parlour romping about.
She came downstairs dressed in silk,
A rose in her breast as white as milk.
She pulled off her glove,
She showed me her ring,
To-morrow, to-morrow the wedding shall begin.
The players stand in a row; they sing lines 1-5, then a
player is chosen, who chooses a second; the rest is sung, and
the two shake hands.
Note:In Brooklyn, in the 1930s, the kids sang:
Sally's mad, and I am glad
And I know what will please her;
A bottle of wine to make her fine (or shine)
And Jimmy Jones to squeeze her.
(with appropriate names inserted) RG
MS
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!