Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Illustrated book of Scottish songs from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century

SONGS OE THE APPECTIONS. 149
Behave yoursel' before folk,
Behave yoursel' before folk ;
I'll ne'er submit again to it —
So mind you that — before folk.
Ye tell me that my face is fair ;
It may be sae, I dinna care ;
But ne'er again gar't blush sae sair
As ye hae done before folk.
Behave yoursel' before folkj
Behave yoursel' before folk ;
Nor heat my cheeks wi' your mad freaks,
But aye be douce before folk.
Ye tell me that my lips are sweet ;
Sic tales I doubt are a' deceit ;
At ony rate, it's hardly meet
To pree their sweets before folk.
Behave yoursel' before folk,
Behave yoursel' before folk |
Gin that's the case there's time and place,
But surely no before folk.
But gin you really do insist
That I should suffer to be kiss'd,
Gae get a license frae the priest,
And mak' me yours before folk.
Behave yoursel' before folk,
Behave yoursel' before folk ;
And when we're ane baith flesh and bane,
Ye may tak' ten before folk.
From " Whistle Binkie, or the Piper of the Party ; a collection of songs for the
Social Circle" — a very interesting series of modern songs, edited hy Alexander
Rodger, and published by David Robertson of Glasgow, between the years 1832 and
1846. This work, from which we have copied, with the kind permission of Mr.
Robertson, the admirable songs of Rodger and others, contains some hundreds of
songs, mostly original, which present, in the words of the preface to the collected
edition published in 1846, ' ' a remarkable instance of the universality of that pecu-
liar talent for song-writing for which the natives of Scotland have always been dis-
tinguished, and is a favourable specimen of the national genius in that department
of literature."