[From Mona Miscellany second series Manx Soc vol 21]

MYLECHARAINE.

Translated from the Manx Song in Mona Miscellany, Part I., page 57, by Mr. J. Beale, Grantham.

I.

O Mylecharaine, where gott’st thou thy store?
Alonely didst leave thou me;
I got it not deeply beneath Curragh ground,
And alonely didst leave thou me.

II.

O Mylecharaine, where gott’st thou thy stock?
Alonely didst leave thou me;
I got it not just betwixt two Curragh blocks,
And alonely didst leave thou me.

III.

O Mylecharaine, where gott’st thou what’s thine?
Alonely didst leave thou me;
I got it not just between two Curragh sods,
And alonely didst leave thou me.

IV.

I gave my web of hemp, and I gave my web of flax,
Alonely didst leave thou me;
And I gave my cattle-ox for the daughter’s dower,
And alonely didst leave thou me.

V.

O father, O father, I feel quite ashamed
Alonely didst leave thou me
Thou art going to church in thy sandals white,
And alonely didst leave thou me.

VI.

O father, O father, look at my decent shoes,
Alonely didst leave thou me;
And thou going about in thy sandals of hide,
And lonely didst leave thou me.

VII.

Ay, one sandal black, and t’other one white,
Alonely didst leave thou me;
Fy, Mylecharaine, going to Douglas on Saturday,
And alonely didst leave thou me.

VIII.

Yea, two pairs of stockings, and one pair of shoes,
Alonely didst leave thou me;
Thou didst wear, Mylecharaine, full fourteen years,
Alonely didst leave thou me.

IX.

O damsel, O wench, thou needst not feel ashamed,
Alonely didst leave thou me;
For I have in my chest what will cause thee to laugh,
And alonely didst leave thou me.

X.

My seven curse of curses on thee,
O Mylecharaine, Alonely didst leave thou me;
For thou’st the first man who to women gave dower,
And alonely didst leave thou me.

Mr. Beale remarks that Mylecharaine, in verse i., slily answers that he did not get his treasure deep in the centre of a fathomless bog. In verse ii., that he did not get his stock betwixt two masses of solid matter in contact in the bog. In verse in. that he did not get his general goods between two bits of loose matter in the bog. In verse Iv. that he had dowered his daughter. In verses v.-viii. she gently upbraids him with irreverently and slovenly using sandals, while she takes pride in being shod decently ; and playfully, but respectfully, hints at the droll figure he will cut in Douglas, the largest town in the island, on Saturday, the market day ; concluding with a very telling allusion to his long-practised miserly habits. In verse ix. he consoles her with the prospect of the fortune in store for her. In verse x., for portioning her, he has a seven-double curse—" a regular fourteen pounder"— hurled at him by, we may suppose, a disappointed suitor, who had lost the hand of his daughter, and might be the questioner in the first three verses.