This song is one of only a few found in the tradition that criticize the Jacobite revolution. Robert Burns found a similar song while collecting in Scotland, but he chose to write his own with a lean more toward a humanist anti-war viewpoint, rather that of the Whig party. This performance is from the great Eddi Reader.

Ye Jacobites by Name

Chorus

Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear, lend an ear
Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear
Ye Jacobites by name
Your faults I will proclaim
Your doctrines I maun blame, you will hear, you will hear
Your doctrines I maun blame, you will hear

What is right, what is wrong, by the law, by the law
What is right, and what is wrong, by the law
What is right, what is wrong
The weak arm and the strong
The short sword and the long, for to draw, for to draw
The short sword and the long, for to draw

Chorus

What makes heroic strife, famed afar, famed afar
What makes heroic strife, famed afar
What makes heroic strife
To whet th’ assassin’s knife
and haunt a Parent’s life, wi’ bloody war, wi’ bloody war
and haunt a parent’s life, wi’ bloody war

Chorus

So let your schemes alone, in the state, in the state
Let your schemes alone, in the state
Let your schemes alone
Adore the rising sun
And leave a man undone to his fate, to his fate
And leave a man undone to his fate

Chorus