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IRISH SONGS AND LYRICS 123 |
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THE WOMAN OF THREE COWS1
From the Irish.
O WOMAN of Three Cows, agra ! don't let your tongue thus rattle! Oh, don't be saucy, don't be stiff, because you may have cattle. I have seen—and, here's my hand to you, I only say
what's true — A many a one with twice your stock not half so proud as you. |
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Good luck to you, don't scorn the poor, and don't be
their despiser; For worldly wealth soon melts away, and cheats the
very miser; And death soon strips the proudest wreath from
haughty human brows — Then don't be stiff, and don't be proud, good Woman
of Three Cows.
1 First published by O'Curry in the Irish Penny Journal (Gunn & Cameron's), No. 9, 29th August, 1840, with an introductory note, and Mangan's famous metrical version (pp. 68, 69).
This ballad, which is of homely cast, was intended as a rebuke to the saucy pride of a woman in humble life who had airs of consequence, being the owner of three cows. Its author's name is unknown, but its age can be determined from the language, as belonging to the early part of the seventeenth century. That it was formerly very popular m Munster may be concluded from the fact that the phrase " Easy, O woman of three cows!" has become a saying in that province on any occasion upon which it is desirable to lower the pretensions of a boastful or consequential person.—Louise Imogene Guiney. |
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